204. Petalburg City

After dawn, Professor Alden embedded four more gems into the stone pillars in the stone chamber.

They saw that the stone pillar also emitted a white light under the sunlight. This white light actually flowed from the stone pillar to the mural. Then the stone pillar moved forward, revealing a staircase that led them even further down.

"What is this?"

Seeing this scene, the three people's eyes suddenly lit up. Professor Alden's eyes flashed with heavy excitement, "Let's go down and take a look at it!"

Going further down the stairs, they entered a large underground cave with an underground river flowing through it. "There is a whole underground tiver in this place. I wonder where it flows to!" May comments.

The environment here is a bit like the underground cave inhabited by the Omanyte Clan that Ash had seen previously in Ruins of Alph, but this one is also slightly more different than that. The water here seems to be connected to some place where it is filled with the heavy smell of salt.

"It smells like salty sea water!" Ash smelled the salt and concluded that is must be connected to the ocean.

Suddenly, a big, not so good looking fish jumped out of the water. This was a Relicanth, known as a Pokémon that are able to live a long time by the Pokémon research community!

"The Oldale Ruins is indeed a door connecting ancient times to the modern times!" Professor Alden's eyes flashed with happiness. He had been studying the Oldale Ruins for a very long time now and now he was finally able to solve the mystery surrounding this place.

Ash quickly took out his Pokémon Pokédex and took a photo of the Relicanth while it was still up. He can send this photo to Professor Oak, and maybe he can get something from Professor because of this.

As night came and passed, Ash and everyone else recovered to their best state.

Ash took May and set off again. The next destination was the city where May came from, Petalburg City.

There is also a Pokémon Gym there, the Petalburg City Gym is a Normal-type Gym, and also Ash's first goal to beat in the Hoenn Region!

"Are you really going to challenge the Petalburg City Gym?"

After arriving in Petalburg City, May has arrived at her home, and Ash has also completed his task of accompanying May home safely, so now the two are about to say their goodbye.

"Of course, for me to participate in the Hoenn Regions Ever Grande Conference, I need to collect at least eight official Gym Badges. So now if I win the Petalburg City Gym, I can get the Badge of the Petalburg City Gym without having to come back here, right?" This is the main mission of Ash during his current journey.

"I guess you're right!" Ash's firm eyes seemed to have infected May in some shape or form.

Ash looked at May, "Have you not decided on your goal yet?"

Before May could answer, Ash chuckled and said, "There is no need to force yourself to decide your future goals so quickly! May, the meaning of travel lies in the experience you get from it. You will slowly understand what you want during your journey. At that time, you can decide which direction you would like to go towards!"

"Before that, all you have to do is take good care of and train your Pokémon, and create a stronger bond with your Pokémon!" This is the most important advice Ash gave to May as her senior.

Hearing this, May seemed less embarrassed about her situation and gradually relaxed in front of him, "Ash, thank you, I will remember your words!"

With that said, she took Ash to the Petalburg City Gym, "I have something else to do, so I'll take my leave now. See you later!"

"Yeah. Bye for now, May!" Ash also gave her a brief hug knowing that they will meet again in less than a hour.

The entrance to the Petalburg City Gum is cert low-key. If it weren't for the Hoenn Region Gym sign hanging at the door, Ash would have thought it was just a large but overall ordinary family house.

Fortunately, with May leading the way, Ash did not have to spend some time searching and wasting his time.

But after entering the door, he can feel the grandeur inside, "Hello, I am Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and I am here to challenge your Gym!"

After calling out for a few seconds, no one answered his voice. Ash subconsciously noticed a little boy looking over at him with a very annoyed expression on his face.

"It's so noisy. I was just finishing watching up the Silver Conference video for the 7th time, and now someone came to interrupt my good time!" This kid is about the same age as Molly, maybe a few moths older at max. He wore glasses and looks very 'intelligent'!

Ash has trained Molly to be a perfect girl who wouldn't look at boys, at least for now. In the future it can change but definitely not anytime soon.

But when the little boy saw Ash standing over here, he was immediately surprised. He pointed at Ash and his Pikachu and yelled out, "It's you, you are the champion of the Johto Region Silver Conference! Ash Ketchum!"

"Is this the super powerful Pikachu of you? It defeated two of Harrison's Pokémon at once without breaking a sweat. And you got off to an amazing start because of this!" The kid actually picked up Pikachu without permission and rubbed his cheek with it.

"My name is Max, nice to meet you !"

His movements were neither light nor fun, and Pikachu didn't like this very much so he began to get annoyed. Ash reached over and used a little force to free Pikachu from Max's clutches.

Max didn't care about this, and looked at Ash with pure admiration, "I have watched the live broadcast of your battles in the Silver Conference, and even recorded it so I can watch it several times! Ash, you are really amazing. None of those Trainers were your Rivals!"

"Also, in the final match of the tournament, you actually took out you Legendary Eon Pokémon Latios. That was really amazing. This is the first time I have ever seen a Legendary Pokémon!"

This kid started chatter around with an unusual look on his face.

To be honest, if this was a girl instead, Ash is willing to be patient for them, but this guy is very taxing on him.

Ash quickly waved his hand and interrupted him, "Max, I am traveling in the Hoenn Region now and want to challenge the Petalburg City Gym. You should be from here. Do you know where the Gym Leader is right now? "

Unexpectedly, the child suddenly turned around and said with a proud look, "That's me! I am the Gym Leader of the Petalburg City Gym!"

Ash's mouth twitched, "Kid, do you know how badly I beat up the last person who pretended to be a Gym Leader in front of me?"

"Uh..." Max's movements stopped for a moment and then a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

Ash was talking of course about the little girl from Olivine City Gym. Of course Ash would criticize her not only because she pretended to be a Gym Leader, but also because she cheated by applying waterproof wax on her Onix's body.

"Hey, Max, what are you making all this fuss about?" At this time, May stuck her head out of the window.

"May?"

Then May and Max's mom and dad, the real Gym Leader Norman, and his wife Caroline appeared next to May, "Welcome, Ash!"

Apparently May has already told Norman and Caroline about Ash and their time together.

Ash knew that May was the child of the Petalburg City Gym Leader so he wasn't all that surprised but still acted like he was because he wasn't supposed to know this at all.

May never thought of hiding it from Ash. The five of them sat down and she introduced everyone to him, "These are my parents, and this is my little brother, Max!"

"Our dad is the Gym Leader of the Petalburg City Gym!" It was obvious that Max heavily admired his father, and then he turned to look at his sister, "May, you are so awesome, you even got the Silver Conference Champion to give to come visit our home!"

"Silver Conference Champion?" May seemed to remember where she had met Ash, "I remembered, Max and I watched the live broadcast of the Silver Conference. Ash, you were the champion of Silver Conference, no wonder you are so awesome! I hadn't even noticed that you were him, haheha." She continued on with an awkward laugh.

"May, you are too slow!"

Caroline smiled and said, "Ash, thank you very much for escorting May back here safely! And you also don't have to worry about the bicycle!"

Norman also said, "Professor Birch has contacted me. The damage is not serious. He will repair it soon and send it over to us!"

It seems that May explained to them what happened in Littleroot Town beforehand.

She also told her parents about the advices Ash gave her, and got their approval. This is why the two them were so polite to Ash without even knowing him personally.

Hearing this, Ash breathed a sigh of relief, "That's great, I have to thank him the next time!"

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