Chapter 98: A Diamond Mine

The night was peaceful.

Ashborn slept comfortably, undisturbed by any Pokémon attacks.

While there were Pokémon nearby, he had asked Metagross to drive them away and had sprayed Max Repel around the tent.

Additionally, Metagross, Dragonair, and Lucario were guarding the tent.

With this triple protection, no wild Pokémon would dare to attack Ashborn during the night.

Early in the morning, Ashborn was awakened by Aron and Meltan, who were sleeping with him in the tent.

Shellder was well-behaved and didn't disturb Ashborn, even advising the others not to.

Imagine being forcibly woken up by a 300-kilogram Aron on your stomach in the morning.

If not for his Mega Pallet Town physique, Ashborn would have received a painful breakfast.

Aron had become a Totem-type Pokémon due to the Totem spirit, so even though it was less than half a month old, its size was much larger than normal Aron.

It was still in its developmental stage.

Ashborn sternly told Aron not to do that again.

He got up to wash, realizing that Aron's habit needed to be corrected.

If it evolved into an Aggron in the future, especially a Totem-level Aggron, jumping on his stomach would be dangerous.

Even with his Mega Pallet Town physique, he wasn't sure if he could handle it.

Ashborn prepared energy cubes for his Pokémon and ate hot breakfast and soy milk.

The system space could maintain the freshness of food, regardless of the outside condition.

The system space had provided Ashborn with great convenience.

This world hadn't yet researched space backpack technology.

Eighty percent of such technology was still in unborn relics or had appeared in relics that humans hadn't found yet.

"Okay, let's go," Ashborn said.

He packed the tent and barbecue grill into the system space. His Pokémon were already inside, except for Metagross and Dragonair.

Ashborn rode on Metagross and held the Dowsing Machine in his hand.

The Dowsing Machine quickly showed ten red dots, but they were relatively small, indicating that the treasures weren't valuable.

"Metagross, let's fly over this lake and keep going," Ashborn instructed.

The lake was vast, and the shore wasn't visible at first glance.

Ashborn wasn't interested in the ten red dots displayed on the Dowsing Machine.

He let Metagross fly forward, waiting for a new red dot to appear. If the red dot was bigger, he would change direction.

Metagross flew swiftly above the water surface, while Dragonair swam and followed below. Compared to soaring in the sky, Dragonair preferred to stay in the water.

Dragonair's swimming style wasn't as graceful as Milotic, known as the most beautiful Pokémon.

The lake was larger than Ashborn had imagined.

They had been flying for over an hour and still hadn't reached the shore. He found two large red dots along the way, both at the bottom of the lake.

One was a Deep Sea Tooth and the other a Shell Bell.

Both were Pokémon items.

The Deep Sea Tooth increased the attack power of teeth when carried, while the Shell Bell caused damage to opponent Pokémon and restored a small amount of HP.

Both were valuable Pokémon items, but Shell Bell was more expensive and had a wider range of uses.

"Roar!"

More than thirty meters away, a blue Gyarados suddenly burst out of the water, blocking Metagross's path. The roar was filled with aggression.

"Green Potential Gyarados," Ashborn muttered.

It wasn't surprising that such a large lake had a Gyarados. Even Wailord was estimated to have one.

This was Gyarados' territory. A strange Pokémon had suddenly intruded without even saying hello, angering the Gyarados.

Just as Ashborn was about to instruct Metagross to teach Gyarados a lesson, a Dragon Tail flashed green from below.

It struck Gyarados, sending its seven-eight-meter body soaring into the air.

"Puff!"

Gyarados fell back into the water. After a while, its swollen face emerged, with a confused expression.

"What attacked me just now? If you have the ability, don't attack me. Let's fight 300 rounds," Gyarados challenged.

"Now any pet can fight me for 300 rounds," Dragonair replied sarcastically.

After flying for another hour, Ashborn finally saw the shore. The opposite side of the lake was rocky land, while the side he had come from was a forest.

As soon as they stepped into the rocky area, several Geodude rushed out, waving their fists. After being glared at by Metagross, they ran away again.

As a geologist, Ashborn took out a stone pick and knocked down a rock. Inside, he found a greenish crystallization, which was a typical chlorite.

He continued to walk for about 500 meters and dug another piece of rock. It was still chlorite. After walking another thousand meters, he found more chlorite.

Looking at the rocky areas in front of him, Ashborn realized that these areas might be composed entirely of chlorite.

"If that's the case, there should be associated ore," Ashborn muttered.

Large chlorites were often accompanied by associated ore diamonds.

Ashborn took out his Dowsing Machine and found a huge red dot, occupying a quarter of the entire screen.

Even without the Dowsing Machine, Ashborn would have known there were diamonds here, but he wouldn't have known the exact location.

The Dowsing Machine's ability to pinpoint locations was invaluable.

Flying for about eight kilometers, Ashborn stopped with Metagross and Dragonair. The Dowsing Machine indicated that the diamond was right beneath them.

"Metagross, Bullet Punch and dig," Ashborn commanded.

Metagross transformed into a ruthless digging machine. With each Bullet Punch, the rock ground would dent by more than ten meters and tons.

Dragonair protected Ashborn from the flying rubble.

After about half an hour, a pit nearly 100 meters deep and more than 500 meters wide appeared. Metagross showed no signs of fatigue and faithfully executed Ashborn's instructions.

"What's that sound?" Ashborn asked, hearing a different sound from before.

"It's digging," Metagross replied.

Ashborn hurried over to the stone, took out his detector from the system space, and stuck it on the stone.

As the numbers on the detector flashed, the hardness was finally displayed as ten.

"That's right, this is a rough diamond," Ashborn nodded with satisfaction.

Rough diamonds weren't crystal clear before careful processing and polishing, and the whole rough stone appeared opaque.

"Metagross, continue digging. There should be quite a few here," Ashborn said.

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Ara ara ~~ Sayo nara~~