"{My treasures are great, right?}" Phantump, who had finally stopped adding to the pile, bragged bringing me out of my daze/surprised musing. "Great? They are incredible," I admitted which had Phantump puff up in pride. Taking another look at his treasure pile, I could not help but inquire where he got some of them from.
"Say Phantump," I began, attracting his attention. "Where'd you get that Sceptilite from?" I asked, but all I got in return was a confused look from Phantump. "{Sceptilite, what's that?}" He questioned with a tilt of his head. "This one," I replied while levitating the Sceptilite from the heap to my hand. "{Oh, my rainbow marble}," he said while nodding his head to show his understanding. "{It's beautiful, isn't it}," he said smugly. "{I found it in a forest quite far from here}," he added while stretching out his arms to underscore how far away the place he found the Scepilite was.
"How lucky," I let out with a sigh. "Did you just pick it up from the ground? These rainbow marbles usually have Pokemon that keep an eye on them," I inquired, and Phantump crossed his arms before he began to complain. "{I found the marble near the crown of a biiiig tree in the place the squinty-eyed green mean triangle heads live}," he answered, really accentuating the big while pouting when he colorfully referred to the Sceptile.
"{I found their place while I was traveling and decided to talk to them since I wanted to play with the Treecko, but those meanies attacked me as soon as I showed myself to them}," he explained and I had to marvel how Phantump could sound both elaborate as well as childish at once. "Oh, they didn't," I played along. Phantump raised his right arm and shook it angrily. "{They did, and they didn't even stop when I tried to tell them that I just wanted to play}," he complained before putting on a mischievous smirk.
"{So I decided to teach them a lesson. I hid again, and when they lost sight of me, I began to observe their place. I noticed that the largest tree at their place had a lot of protection, so I sneaked up there, and guess what}," he said the last part playfully. "{I found a lot of stuff up there, but the two rainbow marbles atop that big moss-covered rock caught my attention the most}," he continued and I was surprised to hear that the Sceptile had managed to get two Mega Stones. Well, and that they dragged a Moss Rock onto their tree.
"Did the two rainbow marbles look the same?" I could not help but ask, curious to hear whether both were Sceptilites or if they were different Mega Stones. "{They were the same, so I decided to take one of them away as a price for attacking me}," he said righteously before looking a bit shy, "{and because the rainbow marble is so beautiful}" he finished. "I understand," I said with a nod before asking something that might affect our travel plans.
"Say Phantump, how far away is the forest those Sceptile live in?" I asked, definitely interested in visiting the place. Phantump pondered for a while before he began to answer. "{It's been a long time, so I'm not completely sure, but probably 20 cycles}," he said, and if I was right in the assumption that cycles meant days, then that was way too much. "Do you mean 20 days?}" I asked to clarify, and Hades chimed in with an explanation of what a day was, before adding an explanation on seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, and years just to be on the safe side.
"{Yep, 20 days}," Phantump confirmed after listening to Hades' mini-lecture, and I nearly groaned before I thought of something rather obvious that nearly had me facepalm. "Phantump, could you tell me how much you traveled during each day, and how fast you were going?" I inquired and Phantump took a moment to think before replying.
"{I'm not sure how much I traveled each day since I stopped and continued whenever I felt like it, but maybe around 6 hours. I probably went a bit slower than the speed we used to come to my place}," Phantump replied and I began to calculate how far away the Sceptile tribe really was.
If we assumed that 6 hours per day was true, and multiplied that by 20 days, that gave us a travel time of 120 hours. Now, assuming that he traveled at around 30 km/h, that meant that the Sceptile tribe's territory was 3600 km away from our current position. Considering that the numbers used were a bit vague we could assume that anything from 3000 to 4000 km could probably be correct.
That was honestly quite a bit further away than I had thought/hoped, but still much closer than the other Sceptile territory I vaguely knew about, which was in the Petalburg Woods. Actually, considering that Phantump did not travel with a proper goal, it was likely that he did not head to the Sceptile territory in a straight line, so there was a good chance that the distance was shorter than in my estimation.
"Phantump, I have two more questions. Did you travel in a straight line during your journey, and could you find that place again if you wanted to?" I asked, and Phantump replied without any hesitation; "{Nope, I traveled in whatever direction I felt like going, but I can definitely find the place again if I want to}".
"{I remember all the forests I visited}," he added proudly, and I praised him while thinking that it would certainly be useful if that was true. "Would you be able to lead us there if I had Hera fly us while you point in the right direction?" I asked before adding that Hera was a Pidgeot. "{I think so}," Phantump replied, though he did not sound absolutely sure, but that was good enough for me. We could definitely give it a try after our stop in Brightwick City.
I wanted to finish my business at Brightwick City first before dealing with other things, at least if they were that far away. I'd simply have Horus and Mothra teleport us back here once we were done with the Gym. Unless of course, the date I got assigned ended up being more than 5 days after my arrival. In that case, I could squeeze in a little adventure without a problem. Anyway, with the Sceptilite matter cleared I moved on to the next bit.
"Phantump, where did you manage to stumble upon an Odd Keystone, and was it already cracked when you found it?" I asked and he first looked confused, but I saw his understanding when I mentioned that the Odd Keystone was cracked.
"{Oh, you mean the cracked stone}," he said with a nod. "{I found the cracked stone, the lifeless wood ball, and the branch when I woke up for the first time.}," he said looking reminiscent. "{I don't know why but I felt attracted to them from the very first moment I saw them}," Phantump shared and I had a pretty good idea why he felt that way.
"How did the area look when you woke up?" I asked to confirm whether my idea had merit or not. "{Everything was destroyed. There were a lot of charred trees, along with a very big one where I woke up and I found the cracked stone as well as the wood ball there. That branch was the only part of the tree that was not charred}," Phantump shared, indirectly making me surer of the theory that formed in my head.
According to the description of the tree core, while it was now a useless object, it used to be the energy core of a decamillennial tree, and the cracked Odd Keystone used to be a Spiritomb, though the Spiritomb obviously died, which was noteworthy because ghosts very extremely hard to kill. I suspected that the Spiritomb got into a fight with another Pokemon, presumably an electric or fire type that was quite a bit stronger than it and that their battle reached the finale close to the Decamillennial tree, which like a part of the surrounding area got destroyed during the fight.
Spiritomb likely ended up dying at the end of the battle or shortly after the battle, and its death happened to be close to the charred Decamillennial tree. Somehow part of or maybe even Spiritomb's entire soul got drawn into the decamillennial tree's core, resulting in the formation of Phantump, leaving only the cracked Odd Keystone and the tree core's husk behind.
The age of the Decamillenial tree would explain how Phantump managed to get that blessing and talent, while the Spiritomb spirit would explain why Phantump seemed to be sapient from birth. Things could have gone differently than I believed, but I saw no reason why Phantump would feel a reaction to the two "dead" objects otherwise. I mean the branch could be explained away due to the rich grass energy it contained, but the core husk and cracked stone were essentially useless items without any real value, aside from the sentimental one Phantump seemed to have, which would be justified if I was right.
Keeping that to myself I moved on to the final point I was interested in, the Reaper Cloth. "Hmm, I'm sure the branch will be useful in the future," I began before mentioning the cloak. "Final question, where did you get that Reaper Cloth from," I asked directly pointing at the cloak to show Phantump what I was referring to. "{Oh, that one is from a cave a few days from here}," Phantump said cheerfully.
"{While not as great as the forest, that cave is a very comfortable place as well}," he enthusiastically shared. "{A lot of ghosts live there and I occasionally go there to play with them. I found that cloth deep in the cave in an empty room and took it because it felt great. I usually sleep on it}," Phantump explained and I understood why he liked to do that.
The Reaper Cloth, as an item capable of helping Dusclops evolve to Dusknoir contained a good amount of pure spectral/ghost energy which made it an attractive item to all ghost types not just the Dusclops-line. Still, I was curious how close that cave he mentioned really was. He said it was a few days away, so going by my previous calculations that probably meant anything between 200 and 500 km, which I could cover in a few hours even without teleporting and relying on Phantump as a guide.
One thing was clear, the cave was closer than Mt.Pyre and I had to admit that I was interested in checking out the place since it did not delay things too much. Otherwise, I could have checked it out after I got the Brightwick Gym Badge either before or after visiting the Sceptile tribe.
"I'm sure that's comfortable," I told Phantump before asking what I was really interested in. "Could you point in the direction of the cave and would you be able to guide us there if I asked you to do so?" I inquired and Phantump nodded before pointing to the southwest. "{The cave is in that direction and I can bring you there if you want}," he said happily and I was quite happy as well. It seemed that while we would need to do a slight detour to reach the cave, it did lay in the general direction of Brightwick City which was to the west of our current position.
"Alright, let me put away your treasures first and then you can take a seat on my shoulder. You can then simply point in the direction of the cave and I'll run there," I told him before moving the stuff to his territory inside Utopia. Phantump, who saw his treasures vanish before his eyes applauded, clearly impressed by my "magic trick" before jumping onto my shoulder.
He said hi to Mothra and gave her a friendly wave before pointing southwestward. "Hades, get inside my shadow," I told Hades, who jumped back in there after giving me a salute. "Thor just keep up with me," I followed up. "{No problem, go as fast as you want, boss}," Thor said nonchalantly in reply, which caused Mothra and Phantump to laugh.
Alternate Title(s): The Bandit King; The Raider King; The King Of Thieves
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