With Nidoking and Corviknight now handling most of the load, Nova realized he no longer needed to haul that large, heavy backpack himself.
The only thing he still needed to carry was Mudkip.
So Nova set aside the big mountaineering pack and switched to the smaller rocket pack he had taken from Team Origin. It was lighter and far more manageable.
Even so, the pack felt a little too empty with just Mudkip inside. Whenever the path got uneven, Mudkip would bounce around in there like it was riding a Gogoat.
After thinking it over, Nova decided to slide the egg incubator into the pack as well.
The Lapras egg had been resting in the incubator for over two weeks now. Going by the rough timeline Mr. Sherif had given him, the hatching date was probably getting close. Since Nova was heading out anyway, and still had room to carry a little more weight, it made sense to bring it along. That way, Nova would be the first thing the little one saw when it hatched.
As an added bonus, the incubator was bulky enough to fill the extra space in the pack, so Mudkip stopped rattling around. The only downside was that Mudkip could no longer curl up fully inside. It ended up sitting on top of the incubator with just its head poking out above the zipper.
It reminded Nova of something from the Alola region, where Ash always seemed to have a Rowlet tucked away in his bag.
At eight in the morning, Nova and his Pokemon finished their last breakfast in the house that had been their base for the past couple of months. He waved goodbye to the Purrloin that had been keeping watch over the place and officially set off toward the Norlandia Conference.
His first destination was the Layered Peaks Gym, run by Gilbert Armstrong, the junior disciple of old Mort and the current Ground-type Master.
The Layered Peaks Gym was located in Sand River City, northeast of Harmony City.
Harmony City sat in a fortunate spot geographically. Though it bordered the Tamar Desert, the moist air that rolled in from the Western Plateau each year was enough to keep the land green and livable. It was not quite as fertile as River Delta City down south, but by the standards of the northern Norlandia Alliance, Harmony City had one of the better natural environments around.
Sand River City was a different story entirely.
The two cities were neighbors, but Sand River City sat further north and caught the full brunt of the desert's dry influence. Rain there was rare. You could tell the difference just from the names alone.
Sand River City, meant exactly what it said. The riverbed was dry. There was nothing left but sand.
That said, for Rock-type and Ground-type Pokemon that thrive in arid conditions and sandstorms, Sand River City was practically ideal for living and breeding. So it came as no surprise that when the Norlandia Alliance was first established, the Layered Peaks Gym, which had always specialized in Ground-type and Rock-type Pokemon, chose to set up there.
Mort and Gilbert had both trained under the previous Layered Peaks Gym Leader. They were not just fellow disciples who had grown up side by side; they were also each other's greatest rivals.
The two had made a pact: whoever earned the title of Ground-type Master first would inherit their master's position as Gym Leader.
Mort was the first to break through in the Master Tournament, earning the title "Withered Earth." But when it came to the Elite Four selection, he fell short and was eliminated. The defeat hit the old man hard, and he never quite recovered from it. Meanwhile, Gilbert kept pushing forward, eventually claimed the title of Ground-type Master, and took a seat as one of the Elite Four.
He had held that position for over thirty years. At sixty-nine years old, he was still sharp and energetic, and was already planning to enter the Master Tournament again in two years.
As for why the defeated Mort had given up his right to inherit the Layered Peaks Gym, or what kind of relationship the two men shared these days, Mort had never told Nova the details. And Nova had not bothered to ask.
Nova had chosen the Layered Peaks Gym as his first stop purely for practical reasons. Sand River City was the nearest city with a Gym on his route, and heading there did not require any detours. It had nothing to do with settling old scores on Mort's behalf, and certainly nothing to do with any dramatic grudge against the Gym itself.
What did old men's rivalries have to do with him?
Mort, however, had been very enthusiastic when he heard Nova's plan and insisted that Nova put on a proper showing during the Gym battle.
Nova had some concerns about that.
The old man was not exactly known for keeping quiet. If he said something to his junior brother beforehand, there was a real chance that Gilbert himself would want to step onto the field to test Nova personally.
"Me, fighting Elite Four Member 'Armed Mountains' Gilbert? Seriously?"
Still, whether the Gym challenge went smoothly or not was a problem for later. For now, nothing was going to stop Nova from taking that first step.
Because parading a Nidoking of that size through the middle of the city was out of the question, Nova started from the outskirts. He looped around the edge of Harmony City, went from the southern suburbs where he lived all the way around to the northern side, and then took a small mountain trail to begin the climb up the northern peak.
Between Harmony City and Sand River City lay a stretch of overlapping ridges called the Cengluan Mountain Range. It was from these mountains that the Layered Peaks Gym had taken its name. The range acted like a wall, catching most of the moisture blowing in from the west before it could reach Sand River City, which was why that city stayed dry year-round.
On the other side of that equation, the mountains themselves got plenty of rain. The vegetation was thick and healthy, the kind of lush green that made the whole range feel alive.
And wherever the environment was rich, wild Pokemon tended to gather. The Cengluan Mountain Range had a sizable wild Pokemon population, and it was not unheard of for groups of them to descend into nearby settlements during certain seasons.
With that in mind, Nova had prepared himself for wild Pokemon encounters from the moment he set foot on the trail.
But an hour passed. He had almost finished climbing the first peak, and not a single Pokemon had jumped out of the tall grass to pick a fight.
That was strange.
Were there not supposed to be wild Rattata or Spearow lurking around, harassing travellers at every turn? That was how it always worked in the games and anime from his past life.
The wild Pokemon of the northern mountain, meanwhile, had thoughts of their own.
Strange? You think this is strange?
Take a look at what is walking behind you.
We are wild Pokemon, not mindless rocks. We have eyes. Why would any of us pick a fight with something like that for absolutely no reason?
As for the terrifying monster responsible for clearing the road ahead, Nidoking was currently panting heavily, tongue hanging out, looking rather sorry for itself.
The pack it was carrying was not the problem. For a Pokemon of Nidoking's raw strength, the weight was practically nothing. It could have carried two more packs without breaking a sweat.
The problem was the mountain.
Hauling an enormous body up a steep incline was a completely different kind of effort, and Nidoking was not exactly built for trail running.
"Stop complaining," Nova told it. "This counts as physical training. All you do at home is eat and sleep. You've been getting soft."