บท 57: Pewter City

I threw a couple of berries towards the Graveler as the Ducklett crashed on the ground, effectively halting any attacks while she recovered.

'Hmm! Good, it seems Nia didn't see me throwing berries,' I noted seeing Ducklett take to the air again, with a fierce quack.

'It is supposed to be fierce, I guess.' Her cry made the Graveler who was eating the berries with a goofy face finish them and it tossed another chunk of homing rock at Nia, its game face back on.

'The Graveler is using the move SmackDown for sure. Now I wonder if Nia can counter it.' I felt guilt gnawing at the back of my mind for interfering with the match, but I shook it off as no harm was done.

The move, SmackDown, effectively grounds a flying Pokemon for some time, depending upon the power difference.

Nia met my expectations by blasting homing rock apart, instead of dodging it.

She gained altitude and started peppering the Graveler with water guns before changing to bubble beams as the water guns were doing little damage due to the distance she was at.

It's not like Bubble Beam was doing maximum damage but it is better when compared to Water Gun.

The reduction in the damage is why most flying-type trainers don't just spam moves from great heights.

This went on for quite some time.

This was not how I envisioned the battle to go. Nia seems to be fearful of the Graveler even if she masks it with anger.

Her earlier bravado failed after the Graveler easily grounded her, making her maintain a big distance between them.

"Nia! Get down," I yelled, before changing my hiding spot.

'This world is making me more cautious than the Overly Cautious hero.' I muttered climbing another tree.

Nia listened to me and flew down to confront her fears, the battle started in earnest.

'That deserves a reward,' I decided before watching the match.

Rock and water-type moves flew on the battlefield.

The Graveler slammed its legs on the ground causing quakes and fissures in my direction, dust flew abundantly in the battlefield.

'Good thing I am on a huge tree,' I muttered seeing the Graveler spin like a wheel in one place, gathering all the dust towards itself.

A big dust cloud formed masking the Graveler.

'Oo! Clever, but too bad Nia is equipped to deal with things like this.'

Just when I was missing having Popcorn for this battle, a thunderous sound was moving down the hill, coming towards us.

'Damn! I forgot about the Golem; it looks like it's coming for a second round.'

"Nia close your eyes and use Brine. Make it count!"

Now I know Nia doesn't understand whole sentences, but she was trained to do certain actions on recognising Keywords.

In this case, they are Nia, close, eyes, and Brine.

The silly Ducklett really closed her eyes, fully trusting in me. I thought some instinct would prevent her from closing her eyes in the middle of a battle, but I was wrong.

'Good for me. The thing I am going to do isn't pretty' I murmured before tossing berries into the dust cloud very near to each other.

Nia opened her eyes and used the move. The water beam cleared the dust cloud hitting a surprised Graveler.

"Grav."

The munching Graveler crashed onto the ground, most likely questioning the unfairness of the world.

"Awesome! Nia come here," I shouted and started running like there was no tomorrow.

I don't want an Apex after me. I think I more than fulfilled my quota of 'courting death' this week.

'Either I court death or it courts me. I think I would have died in a minute if I transmigrated to a Xinxia world,' I muttered hugging the jubilant Ducklett.

I threw the berries towards the Graveler because the action accomplishes many things like not letting the Graveler run, preventing it from taking a shot at Nia when it is concentrating on Brine but mainly to keep it stationary.

I only wanted to let Nia face a Graveler to shore up her damaged confidence, not for training. There will be many trainers with Geodude and Graveler to train in Pewter.

I wanted the Ducklett to defeat a wild Graveler to shore up her confidence and, me valuing time or some might say impatient(lies!) I climbed the hill yesterday instead of waiting on the route. But who knew I would face another deadly scenario?

'Next time I will wait near the bottom hill like a normal trainer does.' I promised myself.

My promise sounded hollow even to me, but I did escape from an Apex which was tumbling towards us with the speed of a race car instead of prolonging Nia's battle.

So, it seems I can make decisions that will let me avoid courting death.

I mean how bad my luck must be to climb a mountain just when a Snorlax was on it.

I didn't face an apex Golem again so with the clever use of berries, Nia thinks she beat the Graveler, the Graveler gets to eat more exotic berries than any other of its brethren and I get to run away from Lady Death Aka the Apex Golem.

'Huhu! I know… I am smart and meticulous.' I snickered and promptly stumbled on a tree's root.

'Damn! Someday I will come after the one who is giving me these reality checks.' I muttered angrily.

It took two days of walking to reach Pewter City.

Nia forgot about her defeat at the hands of the Graveler, but now she shivers whenever the Golbat yawns.

Nothing I can do about it though. Cet for his part didn't try to swallow Nia after the first time.

Pewter City is nestled on the bottom of a mountain range, with mountains covering two cardinal directions of the city.

As I was travelling towards the city's entrance, my dex pinged.

"Message me! When you are ready for the Gravity Nexus facility and are in any city's PokeCenter."

It was from Amanda.

"Great timing," I muttered, entering the Pewter.

Compared to the ever-present greenery of Celadon, Pewter City as a whole leaned towards the colour brown.

Most of the backyards are full of rocks and boulders with at least one rocky slide connecting the top of the house to their backyard.

Shops are different beasts entirely.

Colourful rocks are used as decorations on the walls of commercial buildings and even the footpath.

Hmm! The Gyms have a great influence on their respective towns.

One peculiar shop caught my eye.

The walls of the whole building were stuffed with a variety of rocks not leaving an inch gap.

"Lapidary Lottery."

The shop's sign read.

'Let's check it out.' I decided and entered.

Various sizes of rocks are displayed on the shelves of the shop, ranging from small fist-sized rocks to giant boulders.

'I think I know what type of shop it is.'

"Aww!" A small crowd was present in the middle of the shop. They exclaimed despondently after the vendor showed them a tray consisting of crushed rock.

Everyone was standing around a bulky figure who was swivelling his head between various rocks looking at the arrayed rocks. I could only see his back; he gave off the same feeling as the goofy Graveler Nia battled.

'Hmm! Since when I can notice and compare unsubstantial things such as presence.' I wondered.

The crowd surrounded him like a bulwark making me hesitate to approach him.

"Hrgh! I don't like crowds." I muttered.

"Ha!" The bulky man exclaimed, selecting a rock and motioning for the vendor to cut it.

A Graveler came from the back of the shop and took the medium-sized rock in its hands.

After some crunching sounds, the Graveler deposited the crushed rock before leaving, throwing a disdainful glance at the crowd.

The vendor quickly cleaned it and presented the findings to everyone.

"An Emerald of high quality. Your luck is marvellous young man." The vendor shouted.

The crowd cheered at that.

'I think he is an aura user, maybe a Rock Elemental.'

Gritting my teeth, I darted into the crowd making up my mind to talk to him.

After a lifetime of struggle and curses, I reached the maybe-aura user.

"Hello! Perchance does the word elemental mean anything to you?" I whispered from an uncomfortably close range.

'Damn! Crowds.' As I was cursing the sinful act of human gathering, the bulky youth turned around. Easily parting the crowd around me and clutched my shoulders.

'Don't.' He whispered with panic in his eyes before talking loudly for everyone to hear.

"That one!" he said pointing to a vibrant rock.

As the Graveler reentered from back, he continued.

"Whatever I find in that will be a gift for my friend here."

After the Graveler played with the rock like it was made of dough, we got to see the results.

"A moonstone Fragment."

A finger-sized rock twinkled in the tray.

A roar swept through the shop after the results were out.

"Shows over! Thank you, everyone." The boy shouted making the crowd disperse, before dragging me to the other side of the shop.

The vendor followed us.

"Would you like to sell us the moonstone fragment, dear customer? I assure you the price will be the best you can get from anywhere." The vendor asked the bulky youth, rubbing his hands.

"As I said before, the owner of the fragment is my friend here. You can ask him," he said before handing me the fragment.

I raised my eyebrow at him before sending the vendor away for some privacy, assuring him he would be my first choice if I decided to sell it.

After the vendor left, I turned towards the youth. He gestured me to follow him and we settled down in a cafe near the shop.

"I am Leon. You can call me Leo, are you serious about giving me this fragment" I asked.

I didn't know the exact worth of this fragment. But I can guess it is costly from the crowd's and the vendor's reaction. This world has Pokemon trainers as its top one per cent. The league's restrictions on exploring the wild, and the huge price of held items confirm it. So, I think the moonstone fragment is pretty costly.

I estimate it is worth at least as much as a same-sized diamond on Earth. The keywords being at least.

"Titus Rockhart, call me Titus and don't worry. I might not look much, but I am rich. The shop is just one of our many branches and it is not even geared towards money making."

A waiter approached us, halting our conversation, and making Titus order a huge variety of items.

I ordered the same causing him to raise an eyebrow at me.

"Shops like the Lapidary lottery serve another important purpose related to the elemental business."

A knowing look appeared on my face.

'I think they have these shops to spot rock elementals. I guess all rock elementals have some sort of rock sense even if they don't know it themselves. Like how my passive dark aura counters psychic or ghost energies.'

It's like an investment, sponsoring 5 likely rock elementals will turn over high profit if even one turns out to be an aura user.

"I can't confirm nor deny your assumptions but don't you know it is forbidden to discuss about Aura users around Uninitiated." He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms.

"Uninitiated?"

"Non-aura users, Normal people who don't know about the wonders of being a trainer. How come you know about Elementals but don't know about the initiated."

"Well! I know about aura users because of a Wild Elite."

"Impossible! Wild elites don't meddle in such important matters." He said taking out his dex.

"Well, me exhibiting all abilities of aura users made her inform me and my begging helped too. She only informed me only after confirming that I exhibited two different affinities."

"It's good then. I wouldn't want an aura user development to be stumped just because someone assumed they have only one affinity." He nodded with a smile and kept his dex aside.

"I am a rock elemental as you identified. If you don't mind me asking, what are you."

"An Elemental Anarch," I confessed. I was lucky that I met someone who knew about these things as the league seems to only inform trainers about these things after the third gym match.

And I don't want to wait for so long. After all, I am impat*cough* I like to utilise time properly.

This was the only aspect on which the league was not efficient or up to the speed. Which was very different from the way the league behaved in other things.

And I confirmed the law and order in this world is maintained properly, if something happens the Xatu will find me after some time, after all, I am her child's partner. so, I am not in any danger… I guess.. I hope.

I asked him why the league did not inform me about these things.

"Ahh! You must be very talented for you to slip through the cracks. Generally, families or clans like ours test a trainer aspirant for aura talent when they are 8 years old."

"The cost is exorbitant, mind you. And it won't even show a person's affinity. But the test is worth it. Unlike Psychic talent which a person can develop just after being born, the remaining types of auras don't agree with us humans that much."

"My father says the gift of sapience is worth sacrificing any aura talents. But let's come back to the question."

"Leaving Psychic every other type of affinity will only develop after the age of 9 and trainers start displaying small aura abilities at the age of 10."

"Here you are!" A girl exclaimed after entering the café, Titus smiled and motioned her towards our table.