CH165 (779), Huh

Golurk and his fellow leaders were very happy when they heard the ideas I had on how to utilize their ghost parade, even if it was only from time to time and often just for a part of their members. In fact, they mentioned that that was even better since they could use it as a motivation for their underlings by utilizing that just a portion of them got to be part of the action. I gave them an approving nod since it was a good idea, before turning the conversation to another topic I wanted to address. This one was not related to the parade as a whole, but only concerned the leaders.

It had been a while since they had joined Utopia and I had given them some time to get used to Utopia's conditions so that they would fall in love with their new living environment to ensure that they would not want to lose them. From what Golurk and the other four revealed that had worked out perfectly, and the way the ghost parade had responded to my orders affirmed that this was not simply empty talk. Hence, I felt it was a good time to start utilizing the platinum ghosts in a fashion that they might not have appreciated or agreed to before since they could have felt it beneath them to act as "mere" sparring partners.

Indeed, what I wanted the platinum ghosts to do was to periodically battle against Mothra/Butterfree and the others to give my team the chance to fight against Pokemon surpassing them stage- and, in nearly all cases, strength-wise as well. When I shared my request with Golurk I made sure to add that what I wanted from them was not just a simple spar where they had to hold back and let themselves get beat up since that would be beneath them, on that I could agree.

No, what I expected them to do was to go all out during each battle and aim to take their opponents down without showing any mercy. Since I was only going to let those that had reached the (high) dark gold stage challenge them, there was no need to worry about anyone dying to a single hit by the platinum ghosts regardless of how much they charged the move, so the only thing they were prohibited from doing was actually trying to finish off their opponents.

Other than that they were free to do whatever they wanted since Utopia would heal up both parties as long as they were alive. This included any crippling or mortal injuries, so there was really no need to worry about causing any permanent injuries or having to endure long recovery periods. As long as no one died, any physical injuries could be healed in a short period of time. The only thing Utopia could not heal would be mental fatigue or scars, but I did not believe that any of my more experienced Pokemon would suffer any lasting psychological damage due to their battles.

Golurk, Cofagrigus, and Runerigus were actually excited at the prospect of being able to fight as many times as they wanted without having to hold back and without having to worry about their subsequent recovery. They happily shared that they would love to go along with my request and that they were sure that the other would feel the same. They frankly said that they would have battled/trained like that between themselves if they were not worried about having to heal afterward which usually took time that left them vulnerable, or at least semi-vulnerable, since they knew that training like that would speed up their progress.

It was well known in the ghost dimension that serious battles could speed up one's progress; It was just the consequences of said battles that held everyone back from abusing that fact, but that was a nonfactor for us thanks to Utopia. We naturally knew that as well and utilized it from time to time in the wild. The only reason my Pokemon did not have periodic pseudo-death battles between them was that despite knowing that Utopia would heal them up, they could not bear to truly go all-out against each other. Oh, they fought seriously whenever they sparred, but they never went to the extent where they were willing to pull all stops. Hence, why the platinum ghosts were the perfect training/battle partners.

While they were now Utopians, neither side was close enough that they would hesitate to go all out against each other. Well, the ghosts might have held back since they were aware of the status difference between them and my main group, but since the request/order to go all out came from me they would not hesitate to follow through. Mothra actually cheered when she heard that and Seb/Nidoking did a fist pump at that, while Gaia/Nidoqueen chuckled at the two, though I could feel that she was excited as well. The only one who felt different was Hades/Gengar, who was actually disappointed since he was too weak to battle the platinum group.

All I could tell him was that he and the others who did not qualify could battle against the minions of the ghost parade instead. That did make him feel a bit better, but he only perked up when Golurk promised to select the best battlers for him to battle. After that matter was settled, we began to talk about other stuff, and just as Mothra had asked Golurk to tell us about all the other ghosts they had seen in the ghost dimension, one of the dark gold stage Golurk came to us. It saluted and after the boss gave it a nod, Golurk reported that it had found something it thought might interest me.

When I asked what that was, it took out a rock from its shadow, which it then handed to me, but not before warning me that it was heavy. I naturally took the stone without any problem, though I still thanked Golurk for the warning. I had a suspicion about what kind of stone this was when Golurk brought it out, but I was proven wrong after I used Observe on it.

'Name: Dense Stone

Type: Rock

Class: D

Uses: An energy-rich rock that used to be large but got compressed under tons of sand for millennia while absorbing energy from its surroundings. Its density rose as it shrank, and with its density the purity of the rock energy it contained increased as well. Long-time consumption of Dense Stone will speed up the progress of any rock-energy-related activity; It may also increase the quality of a rock-type Pokemon's rock energy. Caution is advised while using Dense Rocks in food for Pokemon. It is recommended to ensure correct proportions when fed to smaller or weaker Pokemon due to the possible impact of the material's density. The use for Pokemon without the rock, ground, or steel typing is not recommended; Improper use may lead to ingestion, poisoning, and/or internal injuries.'

I had thought that it was a Hard Stone, but it turned out to be a Dense Stone, which apparently was not the same thing. I knew that hardness and density were different things, but it appeared there were in fact items/materials with the distinction, and the difference was easy to spot in its description.

Unlike the Hard Stone, the Dense Stone did not provide a boost to the power of rock-type moves if used while in contact with it; Instead, it was more useful as a supplement. After thinking about the reason, I concluded that, unlike the Hard Stone, the Dense Stone likely did not release any of its energy outward after coming into contact with the rock energy utilized by a Pokemon, which was how the Hard Stone boosted the power of moves but still avoided passively losing all its energy to the environment.

Nonetheless, the Dense Stone was useful, and will definitely come in handy for Larvitar. Larvitar did eat a very large volume of food, and using the Dense Stone while preparing his food will allow me to fill Larvitar's stomach using a smaller volume of food. I had actually been planning to buy something along the lines of Dense Stone for this exact reason, but they were surprisingly hard to come by, so once I got a large enough number of them, I might be able to exchange it for some good stuff or just sell it if I want to.

Anyway, I shared that the stone was useful to me and thanked Golurk for bringing it over before putting it away. I handed Golurk a bag of ghost/ground pellets as a reward, which it happily placed inside its shadow before it saluted and returned to its search duty. Interestingly enough, that seemed to have served as some kind of signal since mere moments later a Cofagrigus showed up before us to report that it had found something it believed might interest me, which turned out to be a fossil, though it was not a Pokemon fossil but a "true" fossil.

The cactus fossil, I was talking about a regular cactus here and not a Cacnea or Cacturne or Maractus, was surprisingly not entirely useless aside from acting as a collector's item. According to its description, grass/rock and bug/rock type Pokemon would love the taste of the Cactus Fossil, and while it was not mentioned there, I was pretty sure that it would be helpful if one used it for the supplements during the grass resistance training of a rock type Pokemon. I thanked Cofagrigus for the fossil after putting said fossil away and handed it a bag of ghost pellets as a reward, which it cheerily placed inside its coffin.

I had seen it take the fossil out from there, but it still felt a bit bizarre to see it use its coffin/body like that. I mean, I knew that its body was not a real coffin and just looked like one, but it still looked weird. Nonetheless, I did not comment on it and just watched it happily close its coffin, but instead of leaving once it was done like I had expected it to, it stayed and looked me in the eyes for a moment before declaring that there were quite a few more rocks like that at the place where it found the fossil, which honestly took me off guard.

Not the idea that there were more Cactus Fossils since something like that was entirely possible, but the fact that Cofagrigus freely shared that information instead of making use of it for itself to get some more rewards for itself and/or favors by selling the information to its fellow ghosts. Actually, that seemed a bit prejudiced. It was good that I did not mention that aloud. Anyway, I did show that I was pleasantly surprised by the news and asked Cofagrigus to lead one of its bosses there so that they could transfer all of those fossils over after it admitted that there was too much for its internal storage.

We waited for them to come back, which took a few minutes, and they came with another two Cofagrigus in tow. They apparently recruited them to help carry everything, and after they brought out a little hill made up of fossils I could understand why they needed help. I naturally chose to Observe each fossil/rock first before placing them inside Utopia to confirm that they were fossils and to check if they were all of the same class or if there were better ones among them. Surprisingly, I ended up finding a real Pokemon Fossil among the many Cactus Fossils that the Cofagrigus brought over, and funnily enough, the fossil happened to be a Cacnea Fossil, though it was not just of any random fossilized Cacnea.

No, my Observe revealed that the Cacnea in question was an ancient Cacnea, and I could not help but wonder if the fossilized Cacnea was in a good enough condition for Utopia to restore the Cacnea. It certainly seemed big enough for me to suppose that the Cacnea could be whole which it would have to be for Utopia to restore it to life. It was with those expectations that I moved the Cacnea Fossil inside Utopia and monitored the log as Utopia began to analyze the fossil.

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