Chapter 619: Exploring New Territories
Kazuya spent several minutes explaining to Floette.
Before the latter finally believed that the pink coral was indeed a Pokémon.
Suddenly, she felt the world was vast and full of wonders.
To think there was such a bizarrely shaped Pokémon.
Little did she know.
In the eyes of the Corsola.
A Pokémon like Floette was also very bizarre.
Kazuya took Floette playing all around the sea.
Entering the sea for the first time, Floette was curious about everything, asking about this and that.
Fortunately, Kazuya had been born into a fisherman's family in his fourth life.
And in his third life, he hadn't spent any less time hanging around with Tom and Corphish.
So he knew quite a bit about the various natural creations in the ocean.
He didn't exactly embarrass himself as the 'King of the Sea'.
It wasn't until Kazuya saw the sunlight shining down on the sea surface begin to dim that he broke through the surface with a reluctant Floette, flying back towards the Dragon Clan's heartland.
Today wasn't just about taking Floette out to play.
It also served as an exploration to see what Pokémon clans lived in this coastal sea.
After swimming two laps.
Kazuya had a rough idea in his heart.
The Pokémon underwater were mostly solitary, much like on land.
There were four Pokémon clans in the shallow coastal area.
Namely: Barbaracle, Carracosta, Crawdaunt, and Kingler.
In this small patch of sea.
Sea bugs, turtles, shrimp soldiers, and crab generals—they had it all.
Moreover.
These four clans, coincidentally.
Were all amphibious Pokémon.
This also meant they all had the capability to attack the Ludicolo clan.
Among them, the Carracosta clan was an ancient Pokémon species.
Kazuya had never seen this Pokémon in the League Era; perhaps there had simply been no successful resurrection cases.
He observed them a bit more for this reason.
Then.
[The probability of the Carracosta clan participating in the attack on the Ludicolo clan is relatively low.]
Kazuya arrived at this conclusion.
The latter wasn't on the former's menu.
Even their habitats didn't overlap at all.
There was no reason to go to war.
In the Ancient Era.
Troublemakers like the Charizard clan, and those who proactively picked fights to get stronger like the Dragon Clan.
Were ultimately in the minority.
Furthermore.
The Charizard clan only dared to act recklessly because they relied on their formidable strength.
Back when they were weak.
Would they dare to start wars with other Pokémon casually?
To put it bluntly.
That batch of Charizards at the volcano were mostly bullies who preyed on the weak and feared the strong.
When he had the chance to subjugate them later.
Kazuya would naturally properly discipline this group of disappointing kin.
At most.
The Ludicolo had moved into the Carracosta's hunting grounds.
That's right.
Hunting grounds.
Crawdaunt and Kingler couldn't stand the sight of each other, frequently fighting in the area where the Ludicolo originally lived.
And the Carracosta clan.
Specialized in eating such shelled creatures.
So the Ludicolo trespassing into their hunting grounds might have incited the Carracosta clan to drive them away.
This was the only reason the Ludicolo would be attacked by the Carracosta clan.
Kazuya still believed the probability of the other three clans attacking the Ludicolo clan was much higher.
The Ludicolo clan.
Was on the menu of Crawdaunt and Kingler.
As for Barbaracle.
This was a clan that extremely favored a quiet environment.
Having Pokémon like Ludicolo, who did nothing but sing and dance all day, living nearby, it was hard not to incur the Barbaracle's wrath.
Being driven away was normal.
"Flo-ette?"
"Don't pay attention to them, they can't interfere with us. When setting up the borderline, just stay further away from the coast, keep a distance from the ocean. Our clansmen can't fight underwater."
Kazuya's gaze looked towards the north.
The Dragon Clan's scale was expanding.
Their territory bordered the ocean, rocky mountains, and snowfields.
They had done a little exploration of the ocean side; places further away wouldn't affect the inland-dwelling Dragon Clan anyway, so they could ignore it for now.
Later, they would have to find an opportunity to make a trip to the rocky mountains and snowfields, stroll around, and conduct some reconnaissance and exploration.
"Flo-ette."
Floette nodded.
These matters were always planned by Kazuya; she only needed to be responsible for delegating the tasks.
In Kazuya's words.
She was his little secretary!
By the time Kazuya and Floette returned to the Dragon Clan's heartland, the night had grown late.
A round moon hung high in the night sky.
The dim yellow moonlight enveloped the entire grassland.
It was exactly feeding time.
Kazuya took Floette to the Rampardos' feeding grounds.
Looking at the bloody corpses scattered across the ground, Kazuya felt nothing.
After all, he had been watching this for six years.
Moreover.
He had quite a bit of blood on his own hands.
It was just that the Rampardos' preference for raw meat was something Kazuya still couldn't quite accept.
He personally preferred cooked food.
He liked roasting his prey before eating it.
Even though that would cause a massive loss of nutrients, he could easily accept it psychologically.
"Give it a try."
Kazuya pointed at a corpse on the ground and turned to look at Floette.
The latter floated over, hugging the Eternal Flower.
The Rampardos looked at their 'Big Sister' with curious expressions. Their pea-sized brains couldn't guess what Floette was about to do.
The intellectual Rampardos' eyes darted around.
Then he abruptly raised his head.
He hurriedly dragged a fresh lamb corpse over from nearby.
Floette cast a confused glance at him.
The intellectual Rampardos also tilted his head in confusion.
What?
Doesn't Big Sister want to eat?
Although he had never seen Big Sister eat meat before, this thing had no other use besides being eaten, right?
"You can try that one."
Kazuya glanced at the lamb and nodded to Floette.
How to put it...
This newly dead lamb was relatively fresh.
Perhaps the energy of death lingering on it was denser?
"Flo-ette."
Floette nodded reluctantly.
She held the Eternal Flower in her hands, aimed it at the lamb's corpse, and closed her eyes.
Something that amazed all the dragons happened.
The Eternal Flower held in Floette's arms was actually glowing!
Faint, starlike specks of light could be seen coalescing at the stamen.
What that was, he didn't know.
But Kazuya felt.
It should be a success.
Floette herself could absorb sunlight, but the Eternal Flower could not.
Yet it just so happened that the Eternal Flower needed to absorb energy to facilitate Floette's evolution.
During the day, they didn't know what to do.
But they figured it out at night.
A cause for celebration.
This thought had barely formed in Kazuya's mind.
When he saw Floette drop from the air as if suddenly drained of all strength.
Kazuya hurriedly reached out to catch her.
"What's wrong? Is absorbing energy very physically draining?"
"...Flo-ette."
Floette's expression was complex.
It wasn't like that.
She just couldn't accept it. Was the Eternal Flower truly the legendary flower of ill omen?
Otherwise, why would it need to absorb energy from a corpse?
Floette couldn't accept it.
She was a Pokémon who loved peace and life, yet the Eternal Flower turned out to be such a flower.
"Don't overthink it."
Kazuya gently blew a breath on Floette.
The hot wind made her sit up slightly uncomfortably.
"Flo-ette?"
"The Eternal Flower doesn't represent you. Rather, you are the one mastering the Eternal Flower."
Kazuya grinned.
"...Flo-ette!"
Right!
No matter what the Eternal Flower represents, does it affect me?
No.
As long as she strictly adhered to her true nature, what the Eternal Flower symbolized didn't matter at all. She was still the same Floette who loved peace and life.
"Flo-ette~"
Floette immediately cheered up, hugging Kazuya and kissing him.
"So, do you still want to try evolving?"
Kazuya asked curiously.
He was actually quite curious.
A Florges in the Eternal Flower form had never appeared in this world before.
It was even rarer than Legendary Pokémon.
After all, it was an existence that only existed in concepts and possibilities.
"Flo-ette."
Floette shook her head.
She didn't want to evolve for now. She had no necessary reason to evolve, nor could she think of any benefits to evolving.
"Mm, I understand."
The night passed.
The next day.
Kazuya first arranged the work.
Now that the territory had expanded, they had to divide the labor once more.
There were no changes on the grassland side.
Nothing more than expanding the scope of territory patrols.
The focus was the swamp.
Only the Goodra clan was adept at moving in the swamp.
So this area had to be entrusted to them to guard. They basically didn't need to care about the Poison-type Pokémon within the swamp.
The main task was to guard against the Pokémon from the rocky mountains and snowfields.
The Pokémon in the rocky mountains seemed rather restless.
And the situation in the snowfields was completely unknown.
After arranging everything.
Kazuya set off again with Floette and Charizard.
Still the three-person squad.
It was like this at the very beginning.
And it was still like this now.
Destination.
The rocky mountains and snowfields.
"Roar?"
Charizard turned his head to glance at his brother.
"Let's go to the snowfields first."
Kazuya adjusted their direction.
Flying over the swamp and heading northeast.
For them, the environment of the snowfields was harsher.
Precisely because of this.
They needed to start their reconnaissance from there.
If they scouted the rocky mountains first, they might not have the energy to stably explore the snowfields afterward.
Half an hour later.
After passing through a small buffer zone of woods between the swamp and the snowfields, they plunged completely into a vast, white world.
Howl~
Swoosh~
Just a kilometer behind them.
The weather wasn't this harsh; at most, it was a bit chilly.
But now.
The cold wind bit to the bone, and snow mixed with the gale.
Floette was even powerless to fly in this environment; she could only let Kazuya carry her forward.
"The environment here is harsher than I imagined."
Kazuya opened his mouth to speak.
The result was a large mouthful of snow blowing in.
But this wasn't a problem.
A casual puff of sparks instantly melted the snow in his mouth into water.
"Roar!"
At this moment, Charizard raised his hand and pointed diagonally below.
Kazuya looked down, his eyelids twitching as he saw a rather incredible sight.
Below them was a herd of Mamoswine.
The scale was massive.
At least seventy or eighty in number.
This was absolutely a large-scale clan in the wild.
Setting strength aside, on the entire grassland besides the Dragon Clan, probably only the Arcanine clan could compare in numbers.
Mamoswine, Piloswine, and Swinub huddled together.
Looking down from the sky, in this snowfield, it looked as if a patch of earth had been left uncovered by the snow.
The Alpha Mamoswine leading them was even more exaggerated.
A height of seventeen or eighteen meters.
Taller than Kazuya, whose height had already been boosted by his strength.
This Mamoswine clan.
Was absolutely one of the top clans in this snowfield.
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