Then, the two continued deeper into the interior.
As they moved forward, the system completely lost connection with Porygon2.
That meant that at that moment, the Porygon2 on the island must have entered standby mode. Once Cain exited that space, the system and Porygon2 would reconnect, and he could resume operations.
But at this point, Cain had already transferred all his battle Pokémon to his side. As for those being raised on the island, they had enough food reserves; there wouldn't be any problems for at least three months.
If after three months...
It was possible that the island would once again become a place filled with wild Pokémon.
So Porygon2 couldn't remain inactive for that long.
In any case, Cain didn't believe that a single exploration of an alternate space would take three months.
As they advanced, the Unown on Cain's wrist began to emit a faint glow.
Drake didn't notice, but thanks to the development of his psychic abilities, Cain was no longer a complete novice when it came to perceiving spatial anomalies.
"Mr. Drake, we're almost there. Maybe once we cross that bend, we'll enter the other space," Cain warned.
Drake nodded. "Be careful."
With that, as the elder, Drake took the lead with his Haxorus and passed through the bend.
Cain remained still, not moving immediately, watching as Drake and his Haxorus suddenly vanished as they passed through the corridor: space shimmered slightly as they crossed.
Once he confirmed there was no danger, Cain entered alongside Slowking.
He was quite experienced in crossing these spatial barriers.
In the blink of an eye, without feeling any resistance, Cain appeared in another world.
He was in the middle of a dense jungle.
He quickly threw two Poké Balls, summoning Blaziken and Aggron.
Only then did he take a moment to observe his surroundings.
Cain was surrounded by enormous ancient trees. Each trunk would require at least three people to encircle with their arms, and the vegetation was so dense there was no visible end in any direction.
Behind him stood one of those ancient trees, but upon touching it again, he didn't feel any spatial fluctuation, indicating that the exit wasn't there.
There was also no trace of Drake or his Haxorus.
If they had arrived at the same point, Drake would undoubtedly have waited for him. That left only one explanation:
"What a pain... the most annoying thing happened: a spatial barrier with random teleportation," Cain muttered with a frown.
The worst part of these situations wasn't arriving at different locations, but that the exit point was often extremely hard to find.
Entry is random, but the exit is fixed.
With bad luck, he might need to explore the entire space to find it, and even then, without high spatial sensitivity or the help of a special Pokémon, he might never locate it.
"There's no choice but to take it step by step," Cain sighed in resignation.
Still, following Drake's method, he marked a unique symbol at the base of a tree.
Only he and Drake would understand what the symbol meant.
Then, with his three Pokémon, he began surveying the area.
In an unknown space like this, full of forests, wandering aimlessly would be reckless.
It was best to first find a relatively safe spot, establish it as a base, and then explore outward from there.
When it came to wilderness exploration, Cain considered himself at least as skilled as Drake—if not more.
Raising his hand toward a tree behind him, Cain gently tore the air and opened a spatial passage.
"Looks like this isn't a pure alternate space. If the Unown can use their mysterious power, then this place is relatively safe," Cain thought to himself.
He changed into more practical gear for outdoor survival and chose a direction to walk in with his three Pokémon.
In this place where the sky was hazy and there was no clear sense of direction, simply picking a direction was already a challenge.
Luckily, he had the psychic power of Slowking.
At the entry point, he established a psychic coordinate, and by using his perception to trace that coordinate, he could orient himself.
Every so often, he set new psychic coordinates according to his instructions.
This not only allowed him to teleport quickly in case of danger, but also helped him determine direction by drawing a line between two coordinates.
After all, two points form a straight line.
Following a direction that gave him a certain intuition, Cain moved forward with his Pokémon.
But he had barely walked a bit when he was attacked by a wild Pokémon.
A wild Yanmega.
And not just any—its level was 50.
Pokémon: Yanmega (Green)
Gender: Male
Level: 50
Types: Bug + Flying
Ability: Tinted Lens
Held Item: None
Egg Moves: Leech Life, Signal Beam, Silver Wind, Pursuit
Basic Moves: Bug Buzz, Air Slash, Night Slash, Tackle, Foresight, Quick Attack, Double Team, Sonic Boom, Detect, Supersonic, Ancient Power, Feint, Slash, Screech, U-turn
Learned Moves: Uproar, Bug Bite, Giga Drain, Snore, Laser Focus
TM Moves: None
He had just arrived, and the first wild Pokémon was already at a Quasi-Elite level.
"Are all the wild Pokémon here this strong?" Cain started to feel a bit concerned.
A Quasi-Elite level Pokémon wasn't a problem if it was just one.
The problem would be if there were whole packs of Pokémon at that level.
For now, he had to take care of that Yanmega before worrying about anything else.
"Aggron, Rock Tomb, immobilize it!"
"Blaziken, Blaze Kick!"
Cain commanded firmly.
While packs of Pokémon at that level would be a serious problem, they also represented excellent training grounds for Aggron and Blaziken.
"GRRAAAHH!" roared Aggron, crossing his arms in front of his chest with a loud metallic clang.
Three chains of rock shot out in different directions to trap the Yanmega.
"Blaazk!" Blaziken leapt high into the air at that instant.
Timing it just as Yanmega would be immobilized, he launched a flaming kick.
Complete trust in his partner.
And just as expected, right when the flame on his leg peaked, Yanmega was dragged into the predicted spot by Aggron.
BOOM!
CRACK!
The kick struck Yanmega directly on the head, shattering the rock chains and slamming it against a tree, embedding it with force.
Around the impact point, black burn marks spread.
A single kick had been enough to defeat this Quasi-Elite level wild Pokémon.
Blaziken was mastering his power more and more.
Although his raw strength hadn't increased much recently, the effectiveness of his moves was improving remarkably.
Cain's guidance had had a very clear impact.
(End of chapter)