"A treasure map?"
Arthur asked to confirm if the words he was hearing were right or not and Samurai vigorously nodded his head.
"Yeah, a real treasure map." He said and added, "I'm pretty sure it's more valuable than any money. Why don't you take it instead of the prize money and we can be done?"
The expression on his face was of confidence, but Arthur can see the desperation in his eyes. In the first place, he didn't fully believe in his words.
After all, there were quite a few questions in his mind.
'First of all, if the treasure map is even more valuable than money, then why is he even giving it to me? He can just retrieve the 'treasure' himself.'
Arthur thought quietly as he listened to Samurai's story about how he had gotten his hands on the treasure map.
It seems like he had retrieved the treasure map from the Butterfree queen's base while he was stealing away her egg. The treasure map was just randomly thrown there and he had picked it up while running.
Now, he was willing to give the map to Arthur as a prize for winning the battle between them.
"What is the treasure anyway?" Arthur asked with a raised eyebrow after Samurai's story was over.
"Well, I don't know that. After all, I was never able to retrieve the treasure." Samurai said while frowning.
It looked like he had tried to retrieve the treasure many times, but he had never been successful in it. There was a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"Is the treasure in some sort of dangerous place? Why weren't you able to retrieve the treasure?"
Arthur asked and Samurai just shook his head with a dejected face. Rather than replying, he brought out a piece of yellow parchment from his pocket, then he shoved it in Arthur's hands.
'It looks really weary…'
Arthur thought as he unfolded the parchment and looked at it.
The parchment looked really old and when Arthur moved his eyes over it, he noticed that it was an old map of Viridian forest.
There were several marks over it, indicating the path that would lead to the treasure.
'Isn't this leading to the core of the forest?'
Arthur's gaze followed the map and he noticed that the treasure was actually buried in the core area of the forest, probably in the outskirts of the Scyther territory.
"As you can see, the treasure is buried in the Scyther territory. I tried to go there and retrieve it, but the Pokemon just grew stronger and stronger as I got close to the treasure."
Samurai started speaking again as Arthur was reading the map. He paused for a sec and shook his head, thinking about the times he had nearly lost his life.
Although bug Pokemon are weak, they still have the potential to become really strong. Moreover, they can also use unusual tactics like sleep powder, stun spore, and poison powder.
This was also the reason why Samurai was never able to reach even close to the treasure.
"Is that the reason why you were trying to evolve your Metapod?" Arthur asked as he finally understood the whole story.
The anime has failed to give any background to Samurai and he was just one of the forgettable characters, but it seemed like it was different now.
"Yeah, the main reason I was trying so hard to evolve my Metapod was to get whatever treasure was buried in the Scyther territory."
Samurai agreed to Arthur's words and frowned, thinking that he had been seen through completely.
But it was not like he had a choice.
There was a chance of his trainer license getting revoked if he failed to provide any prize compensation to Arthur. That was the last thing he wanted.
It was better for him to give away a treasure map than to have his license get revoked.
'Well, it's not like whatever is buried in the Scyther territory is 100% a treasure. It can just be something insignificant.'
Samurai consoled himself while thinking that.
On the other hand, Arthur decided to take the treasure map instead of the money.
He felt like it was not a bad exchange, simply because he was planning to go to the Scyther territory from the start. He didn't need to change his plans and he can get his hands on whatever was buried there.
Although he wasn't sure about the validity of the map or the value of the thing buried in the Scyther territory, he still decided to take a chance.
It was because of his gut feeling.
'I have a feeling it won't be something too bad.'
Arthur thought and folded the map to how it was before.
"I will take this map then." He said, staring at Samurai who seemed to take a sigh of relief hearing his words.
"Then, let's battle again whenever we cross paths."
"Yeah, good luck on your journey!"
After that, both of them bid their farewell to each other and went in opposite directions. Samurai headed towards the Beedrill territory while Arthur started walking towards the core area of the Viridian forest.
As he walked forward, he noticed that the trees and bushes were getting denser and denser. He also felt like several Pokemon was staring at him, afraid to come out.
'It would be a lot of trouble to deal with the small groups living in these areas.'
Arthur frowned thinking about the troubles that he would face next.
In the area he was in, there weren't any big ethnic communities of Pokemon like Beedrill and Butterfree, but there were still small groups, containing rarer Pokemon.
Aside from their rarity, their strength was also something to fear.
It would certainly be easy for him to deal with all these Pokemon. Even Samurai with his variant Metapod wasn't able to go past them.
Thinking that Arthur became more careful.
Shhhhh!
At that moment, there was suddenly a hissing sound. Arthur stopped in his tracks, looked around, and noticed that one of the bushes was shaking weirdly.
Right then, an Ekans jumped at him!