Just as Cynthia and Red were both assuming the other party were grave robbers—
The true master of the ruins, one of the Pokémon worshipped as a god by the super-ancient people…
The super-ancient Gengar slowly opened its eyes.
Its scarlet ghostly eyes shimmered with a terrifying light.
Unlike the relatively calm super-ancient Alakazam, the super-ancient Gengar radiated a far denser aura of malice.
Clearly, this was not an easy Pokémon to get along with.
"Humans!"
"I can smell the scent of humans!"
"These damned humans actually created some ridiculous sealing artifact to imprison the great divine being that is me!"
"But how could such a pathetic cage possibly trap me forever?"
"Today shall be the glorious day of my escape!"
"And the humans outside…"
"Your blood shall become the very first sacrifice celebrating the liberation of the mighty Gengar God!"
Inside a strange hourglass-shaped seal, eerie ghostly energy continuously leaked out.
The dark aura relentlessly corroded the sealing artifact.
Honestly, the super-ancient Gengar's thousands of years of effort toward breaking free was rather admirable.
Unfortunately—
It had chosen the absolute worst day in several thousand years to escape.
Because it had no idea what kind of opponents were waiting outside.
"Larvitar, Marshtomp, Castform—you all come out too."
Facing an unknown intruder, Red decisively released all three of his Pokémon.
Well… technically four.
The moment Larvitar appeared, its eyes immediately lit up as it stared at a stone platform nearby.
"Larvi~!"
(Smells amazing. I wanna eat it.)
Seeing Larvitar about to bite into an ancient artifact, Shi Ze instantly exploded with strength far beyond normal human limits and tackled Larvitar in a panic.
"This is a cultural relic with thousands of years of history!"
"You can't eat it! Absolutely not!"
Hearing Shi Ze's words, Larvitar ignored him completely.
At that moment, Red finally spoke up.
"Alright, Larvitar."
"These stones have been sitting here for thousands of years already."
"When we get back, I'll find you some fresher rocks to eat."
Hearing Red's promise, Larvitar finally looked a little less unhappy.
(But rocks take millions of years to form… how is there such a thing as fresh rocks…)
Even so, it obediently returned to Red's side.
Though the drool continuously dripping from its mouth still made Shi Ze's heart tremble in fear.
Looking at the group before him—three… no, four Pokémon—Red instructed:
"None of you leave my side."
"And use your own methods to search for the intruder without damaging the ruins."
"Whoever finds them first gets extra dinner tonight."
"And an additional half hour of massage time."
The moment they heard that, all four Pokémon became visibly excited.
Especially Ninetales.
Its nine tails swayed wildly as drool nearly dripped from its mouth.
"Hehehe… hehehe…"
"An extra thirty minutes of Master's massage time… hehehe…"
For the first time ever, Red felt slightly frightened looking at Ninetales.
Meanwhile, Shi Ze was thoroughly confused.
They hadn't even seen the grave robber yet.
And none of these Pokémon seemed specialized in tracking.
Could they really find the intruder?
Soon, however, the four Pokémon began displaying their own unique methods.
Castform floated into the air.
Then, in the next instant, ice crystals rapidly condensed around its body.
Its form transformed into the snowy weather form, changing its typing into Ice.
Opening its mouth, Castform exhaled a freezing current deep into the ruins.
Seeing this, Shi Ze looked completely baffled.
"What is it doing?"
After thinking for a moment, Shinji answered:
"Master's Castform is probably using the ice crystals as temperature sensors."
"It's directly detecting temperature changes throughout the ruins."
"Ohhh… I see."
Though Shi Ze was an excellent archaeologist, when it came to advanced trainer techniques, he was completely clueless.
At this point, Shinji honestly understood more than he did.
"Then what about over there?"
Larvitar and Marshtomp stood side by side.
After briefly discussing something together—
The two Pokémon reached an agreement.
If they won the reward, the food would go to Larvitar, while the massage time would belong to Marshtomp.
Because in terms of tracking abilities, neither of them individually could compete with Castform's weather detection.
Marshtomp glanced at the ruins ahead.
Then, under Shi Ze's horrified gaze, it slowly raised both arms high into the air.
The bulging muscles and veins on Marshtomp's arms made Shi Ze's scalp tingle.
The next second—
Marshtomp slammed both fists into the ground.
A terrifying shockwave spread through the entire ruin like an earthquake.
"Be gentle!"
"There are artifacts everywhere!" Shi Ze cried painfully.
Marshtomp ignored him completely.
Of course, seismic waves alone weren't enough to locate a person.
But as the tremors spread, massive amounts of dust and sand billowed throughout the ruins.
And that was the true purpose of Marshtomp and Larvitar's strategy.
Larvitar immediately closed its eyes.
In an instant, through its connection with the sand and dust, it nearly grasped the layout of the entire ruin.
It even accidentally shattered Castform's ice crystals in the process.
Castform instantly became furious and accused Larvitar of cheating.
Using the airborne dust particles, Larvitar quickly locked onto a rapidly moving figure within the ruins.
But just as it was about to pinpoint the target—
Its connection to the surrounding sand was suddenly severed in an instant.
The figure vanished completely once more.
Larvitar immediately sensed danger and hurriedly tugged on Red's pant leg.
Meanwhile, Ninetales confidently declared:
"Hehe."
"When it comes to detection, is there any attribute in the world stronger than Psychic?"
"Little ones, Master's private time belongs to me!"
The next moment, immense psychic power erupted from Ninetales.
Although its physical condition remained poor, its psychic abilities could still barely maintain Champion-level strength.
That was precisely why Red had brought Ninetales along.
Ninetales' psychic power pierced through layers of walls and instantly locked onto Garchomp deep within the ruins.
"Master! Found them!"
"It's a Garchomp!"
"A Garchomp?"
Hearing what Pokémon the grave robber possessed, even Red froze momentarily.
Since when were grave robbers this powerful?
But before he could think further—
Ninetales' voice suddenly trembled.
Because the moment it tried using psychic power to restrain the target—
That Garchomp casually exerted a little force.
And Ninetales' psychic power shattered instantly.
Feeling the suffocating pressure emanating from Garchomp, Ninetales immediately realized just how terrifyingly deep the opponent's strength truly was.
"Master! This is bad!"
"The opponent is incredibly strong!"
"Very likely… a Champion-level trainer!"
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