Pokémon: Chronicles of Freedom

Name: Unknown Soil

Function: One of the materials for forming the Dusk Stone.

Cain stared in amazement at the black soil in his hands. To the touch, it felt slightly soft, not much different from regular mud, except that it was a bit wetter.

But was this soil truly one of the materials for creating a Dusk Stone?

In the space beneath that stone pillar, how much of this soil might be embedded in the walls?

Had this soil always been like this, or perhaps had the dense ghost-type energy present for so long transformed it?

Cain leaned towards the idea that the soil had absorbed the ghost-type energy over time, becoming what it was now.

This could also explain why in this Gastly cave, the ancient Gastly had been able to discover the Dusk Stone.

He squeezed the soil in his hand, which soon compacted into a single block.

"If I press this soil and place it in the opening of this stone pillar, would it turn into a Dusk Stone after some time?" Cain murmured curiously.

It seemed possible, but he had no idea how long it would take.

"The walls of that cave are covered with this soil. Could there already be some Dusk Stones formed?"

With this thought, Cain felt a surge of excitement. How many Dusk Stones might there be?

Would he become rich?

If it weren't for Slowpoke needing to recover energy, Cain would have rushed back down.

Controlling his excitement, Cain turned his gaze toward Haunter, who was absorbing energy.

Haunter, already quite sizable, now appeared even larger.

Cain slowly furrowed his brows. Sometimes, more energy isn't always a good thing.

How had Gengar absorbed the energy back then? And it seemed it hadn't been affected in the same way.

"Haunter, slow down the rate at which you're absorbing energy. Try to compress it as much as you can. Right now, all you're achieving is increasing your size without any other benefits," Cain told Haunter.

Upon hearing Cain's words, Haunter immediately opened his eyes. He looked at his current form and, indeed, his body had grown considerably.

Previously, Haunter had been fully immersed in the pleasure of the rapid energy increase, unaware of his physical changes.

With Cain's warning, Haunter stopped intentionally absorbing energy and began to compress it within his body.

At first, compressing the energy wasn't easy.

Slowly, he compressed the ghost-type energy within his body, as if trying to compress a gas into a liquid.

Although his current power didn't allow him to compress the energy to that extent, he managed to reduce the spaces between the energy particles.

Gradually, Haunter began to control the rate at which his body grew, and after half an hour, his size stabilized. Even as he absorbed more energy, he didn't continue growing.

After another half hour, Haunter's body began to shrink slightly.

The energy within him was now being compressed, and by absorbing more, it no longer caused his size to increase.

Cain closely observed the changes in Haunter. He noticed that Haunter's body, previously blurry due to its size, was now becoming more solid, as if it was transforming into something tangible.

"If he keeps up this pace of change, in a few months, Haunter might evolve into Gengar," Cain thought, watching Haunter's transformation.

He wasn't wrong; Haunter's body was starting to become more solid, showing signs of evolving into Gengar.

However, at this current pace, it would take several months of continuous absorption and compression for it to happen.

After an hour, Slowpoke opened his eyes, waking from his meditation.

"How are you feeling, Slowpoke? Have you regained enough energy?" Cain asked, seeing Slowpoke awaken.

"Yadon!"

"If so, let's go back down. This time, let's teleport directly to the wall," Cain said.

The first time they used Teleport, they aimed at a general area, but now they knew the place better and could move directly to the wall.

With a flash of psychic power, Cain and Slowpoke vanished next to the stone pillar.

Haunter, busy compressing his energy, watched them depart.

They appeared by the cave wall, and this time Cain didn't explore further. He pulled a shovel from his ring and started digging directly into the wall.

A pile of black soil slowly began to accumulate at his feet. However, after digging about five centimeters deep, the wall of soil started to harden, making it difficult to progress.

Sometimes, as he dug, he could only extract small fragments of rock.

Far from frustrated, Cain felt even more excited.

"This soil has already solidified! Which means the deeper layers are probably turning into Dusk Stones," Cain thought.

But due to the hardness of the wall, each strike of the shovel echoed louder.

Eventually, it sounded as if he was striking a stone.

"Ting!"

A clear, sharp sound came from the tip of the shovel, and Cain rejoiced.

He had found a rock!

Hopefully, it was a Dusk Stone!

He struck the shovel with all his strength, and this time the sound confirmed he had truly hit a rock.

"Yadon!" Slowpoke tugged at Cain's pants, having noticed something strange.

"Slowpoke, wait a bit longer. I just want to get a Dusk Stone to complete our goal," said Cain, unaware of the true reason behind Slowpoke's warning.

Slowpoke, to conserve energy, hadn't used telepathy, so Cain misinterpreted the situation.

"Crack, crack!"

With another strike of the shovel, a spark appeared, and a rock the size of his palm fell to the ground.

With quick reflexes, Cain caught it in his hand.

The rock wasn't very smooth, and even the broken part had sharp edges, giving Cain the sensation of holding a blade.

"Miiis!"

Suddenly, a sound arose behind Cain.

In an instant, Cain froze, feeling as if something had appeared directly behind him, as if it had passed through Slowpoke's psychic barrier without causing any change.

What was happening? Was this what Slowpoke had tried to warn him about?

Cain realized too late.

After waiting a few seconds, the attack he anticipated didn't come. Slowly, Cain turned around.

He saw two eyes.

They glowed with a soft red light, watching Cain with curiosity.

(End of Chapter)