31. What A Beautiful Thing This Is!

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The Dewford Gym had been defeated, Flash had been upgraded to the elusive HM move, and the story could finally progress.

Chris took Ralts back into Granite Cave.

From the ground floor to the basement level, the screen suddenly went black, making it impossible to even see his own hand.

It was much tougher than in the standard Emerald version.

In the standard game, you could at least see the protagonist and a couple of surrounding tiles.

But where does the light come from underground?

Opening the Pokémon menu, Chris selected Kirlia and used Flash.

Immediately, Granite Cave lit up as bright as day! The game interface returned to normal.

Guiding the protagonist forward on the basement floor, Chris picked up various items while searching for the "staircase" to the next level.

It only took him ten minutes to find the entrance to the second basement floor. Along the way, he picked up a Poké Ball, an Escape Rope, and encountered several Pokémon.

The variety of Pokémon in the basement was much richer than those on the ground floor.

In just ten minutes, Chris encountered Zubat, Onix, Abra, Makuhita, Sableye, Whiscash, and Aron.

"Aron..." Chris muttered, clicking his tongue. "I should have leveled up down here earlier."

Aron's final evolution, Aggron, was an awesome Pokémon.

Its defense was incredible, its attack sky-high, and it looked like a walking Oreburgh fortress! But its Steel and Rock typing gave it a glaring four-times weakness to both Fighting and Ground types.

When faced with those types, Aggron was as fragile as paper.

However, once Aggron Mega Evolves, its defenses and attack stats get a boost, its typing changes to pure Steel, and with the "Filter" ability, its quadruple weaknesses vanish, making it nearly invincible—a true walking war machine.

Even Steven, the former Champion of Hoenn, had an Aggron as one of his main Pokémon!

If Chris could find a Shiny Aron, he'd definitely train it to be one of his core team members.

Chris took a sip of Coke from the table.

"If I can't beat the third gym and can't find a Pokémon I like nearby, I'll come back here and hunt for a Shiny Aron," Chris decided, giving himself a reason to return. "Roxanne's Pokémon know Rock Slide and Harden—it'd be a waste not to use them."

Along the way, Aron seemed to appear fairly often—at least 40% of wild encounters.

That's ten times more frequent than Ralts!

If it took seven days to find Ralts, this would only take seven hours, right?

He could also hunt for Abra while he was at it. Zubat, Sableye, and Whiscash wouldn't be bad either. Both Sableye and Whiscash could Mega Evolve, too. The former was a Dark and Ghost type, and the latter was Fairy and Steel. Their unique typings gave them impressive strengths and resistances—really nice.

No, the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to hunt for a Shiny Aron now!

After delivering the letter, he'd come back and spend a few days searching for a Shiny one!

Chris descended to the second basement level of Granite Cave.

The variety of Pokémon changed again, and he encountered Onix and Nosepass.

"I have a feeling Roxanne's Nosepass was caught here," Chris mused, rubbing his chin in a detective-like pose. "I'm not sure if it's in the anime or the manga, but Roxanne and Brawly are supposed to be a couple, aren't they?"

On the central platform of the second basement floor, Chris picked up an Everstone.

The effect of the Everstone is to prevent a Pokémon from evolving.

Trainers who use it generally do so for two main reasons. First, some Pokémon can only learn certain special moves before they evolve, so the Everstone is used to delay evolution until those moves are learned. Once the moves are mastered, the Everstone can be removed.

The second reason is more aesthetic—some female Trainers prefer not to let their Pokémon evolve because they don't like the appearance of their evolved forms, so they keep the Everstone on them.

The most common examples are Teddiursa and Litten.

Compared to Teddiursa and Litten, fewer girls seem to like Ursaring or Incineroar, despite Incineroar being one of the strongest pokemon in the world.

It had been half an hour since Chris found the stairs leading deeper into the second basement floor when he finally met Steven.

When Chris arrived, Steven was busy mining with his Aggron.

Steven had a passion for ore collecting so strong that he even passed the Hoenn Region Champion title to Wallace, just so he could mine in peace.

[Steven: Young man, do you enjoy mining too?]

Seeing Chris covered in dirt, Steven looked at him like a kindred spirit, visibly excited.

[Chris: No, no, I'm here to deliver a letter.]

[Steven: A letter?]

Steven took the letter from Chris, read it carefully, and after a long pause, looked up.

[Steven: Thank you for your help. I haven't been back in quite some time.]

After thanking Chris, Steven hurried off.

In return, Steven gave Chris a TM for Steel Wing.

Steel Wing: A Steel-type physical move with 70 power, 90% accuracy, and a 10% chance of increasing the user's defense by one stage.

A very nice move indeed.

Typical Steven—generous as always! He's the kind of guy who casually hands out Mega Stones, so gifting a TM for Steel Wing felt totally normal.

But seriously, Steven, next time we meet, how about throwing in a Mega Stone?

Even though Steel Wing is a Steel-type move, it's primarily used by Flying-type Pokémon.

Since Chris didn't have any Flying-types, Steel Wing would likely sit in his PC, just like Rock Tomb.

Watching Steven leave, Chris had Kirlia use Teleport.

In an instant, they returned to the Pokémon Center on Dewford Island from the cave.

After healing his team, Chris took Mr. Briney's boat back to Rustboro City. As a reward for delivering the letter, Steven's father, President Stone, gifted him an "Exp. Share."

Steven gave a gift, and now his father did too—two rewards for one task! That's a win!

Exp. Share allows the equipped Pokémon to share experience points with the battling Pokémon on the field.

At the moment, it wasn't all that useful for Chris. His three Pokémon were already strong and could handle their own battles without needing help from others to "share" the load.

However, if Chris had caught Abra instead of Ralts, getting Exp. Share now would have been perfect for leveling Abra.

That said, it could still come in handy later, perhaps when Chris catches a new Pokémon and wants to level it up quickly by battling stronger opponents.

For example, if he hunts for a Shiny Abra or Aron in Granite Cave, Exp. Share would make training them much easier.

What a great prospect!