-- April 4th, 0AT --
Frustrated, Deimos swept a hand through his hair. They hadn't found anything in the past three days other than the usual rocks and brush that belong on a mountain. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing you were looking for a needle.
Deimos wasn't sure if whatever they were looking for was on his mountain. Maybe it didn't even exist. It had taken him three days to skim over the first side of the mountain. He wasn't interested in searching; he had many better things to do with his time.
Hopefully, one of his teammates would find what they were looking for. That was the best outcome, and the one Deimos was hoping for. It would save him a lot of time and effort.
-- Break --
"Roggenrola, we're done searching for a little bit; come over here and help me set up camp," Deimos called out to his partner, who had gone ahead to search. While waiting for Roggenrola to return from searching, Deimos pulled out his knife and cleared a few branches, sticks, and weeds to widen the clearing.
"Rola Rola!" Roggenrola called out in what Deimos thought was excitement, but he couldn't tell due to Roggenrola's voice being a little muffled. Glancing over, Deimos saw the cause for it. Somehow, Roggenrola had found what appeared to be an incredibly smooth rock.
Deimos took it from Roggenrola and quickly inspected it before raising his eyebrows slightly. Roggenrola had somehow managed to find a Smooth Rock. While it wasn't as impressive as an evolutionary item, it would still directly benefit Roggenrola's firepower.
Smooth Rock impacted the strength of ground-related moves, specifically those dealing with sand. Moves such as Sand Attack, Sandstorm, Sand Tomb, Scorching Sands, and others would have their power increased.
Still holding the rock in his hand, Deimos decided to put his plans to set up camp today on hold.
"Where did you find this rock, Roggenrola?" Deimos asked. He was curious to find out whether there was a whole deposit of Smooth Rock. If there were, then Roggenrola would have stumbled across a jackpot that could raise its abilities immensely.
However, Deimos hadn't had Roggenrola train Sand Attack yet, and oversight on his part is something he'd have to correct in the future.
"Rola Rola!" Roggenrola said before walking off towards the way it had entered the camp. Following closely behind Roggenrola, Deimos had to duck and, at points, crawl through the brush to keep up.
"Roggenrola, slow up; I'm not as small as you!" Deimos called out to his partner, who was slowly getting away from him.
Turning and pausing, Roggenrola waited for Deimos to catch up before it continued at a much slower pace through the brush on the mountainside. Finally, they arrived at the bottom of a cliff face.
In the cliff face glittered several smooth yellow rocks. Grinning, Deimos told Roggenrola,
"Roggenrola, you just earned yourself a nice power boost to your sand moves. Well done."
"Rola!" Roggenrola cheered, proud of itself for its discovery.
It took the duo a few hours to harvest the collection of Smooth Rock without damaging any. The final amount of Smooth Rock that they had found was seven. The first Smooth Rock that Roggenrola digested would raise the power of any sand move by 50%, the next by 25%, and the final by 5%.
An 80% boost in power to any moves that used sand was pretty good if Deimos had to say so himself. He'd set three aside for Roggenrola to eat, leaving him with four. His best option was to trade them into Cragspur for merit points.
That would allow him to hopefully have enough points for either an opportunity or a different item to boost Roggenrola's power. If that wasn't worth it, he could always trade with Captain Ujiteru, who would hopefully trade back something worthwhile.
"Here, eat this Roggenrola. It will increase the power of any move involving sand. You'll eat one a day until we hit three," Deimos said while tossing the Smooth Rock towards Roggenrola's core, which also acted as a mouth.
After watching Roggenrola's core "absorb" the Smooth Rock, Deimos was about to head back to the camp before he thought of something.
"Roggenrola, can you use Sand Attack for me real quick?" Deimos asked.
"Rola," Roggenrola said as it bobbed its head. It then turned and faced a tree and used Sand Attack. It took Roggenrola two seconds to build up the attack. Then, it attacked by sweeping its foot forward and launching sand at the tree. The sand impacted the tree and left tiny indents on its surface.
Blinking, Deimos turned back to Roggenrola and said, "Impressive, definitely stronger than the last time you used it. Your technique is wrong, though."
"Rola rola?" Roggenrola said, confused as to what was wrong with its technique.
"Instead of sweeping your foot forward, try to sense the ground-type energy in the sand particles. Launch them in the same manner you do with Smack Down." Deimos advised Roggenrola.
It took Roggenrola around an hour to break its habit of using Sand Attack with its foot. The rest was easy once it could sense the ground-type particles in the sand.
"Sand Attack, Roggenrola." Deimos intoned.
Tilting back slightly, sand swelled at the bottom of Roggenrola's feet before it leaned forward and directed it at the tree. The sand collided with the tree, causing slightly deeper indents this time.
"Nice job, Roggenrola. Your technique is perfect. Now we need to lower the time you take to use the move. We'll add that to your training schedule. Once you've mastered Sand Attack and Smack Down, we'll move on to new moves.
"Rola!" Roggenrola agreed. The duo then moved back through the brush toward where they had left their gear to start camping for the foreseeable future.
-- Break --
They had taken a 10-day break to master both Smack Down and Sand Attack. While they had managed to master Smack Down, Sand Attack still needed another two weeks of training before it could be considered mastered.
What was different about Deimos stopping their training session this time around was the message that he had woken up to this morning.
The message read,
'Objective found; rally at our location.'
Leka and Neldo had sent it while he was asleep. They didn't specify what they found, just that they had found the mission's objective. Sighing, Deimos shrugged and started to pack up the campsite.
There was nothing he could do. It had already been a month and a half since they started searching, and honestly, he was surprised that it hadn't been found sooner. It was only a matter of time before he had to stop his training grind.
Once Deimos had packed everything up, he released Roggenrola out of habit and began to make his way toward the coordinates the duo had given. It would be a mostly downhill and flat hike until he reached the mountain they were at.
One added benefit of being someone who transmigrated was that he had land navigation experience from his old life and in his new life. It would make the trip to the objective pretty easy for Deimos.
It took Deimos and Roggenrola a few hours to reach the base of the mountain. The trip was pretty quiet; they had seen a few rock, steel, and bug-type Pokemons lingering around, but none had given them issues.
They had traveled around a quarter of the way up the mountain, around half an hour from the location of the objective, when an ear-shattering roar sounded from higher up on the mountain. Deimos and Roggenrola both froze midstep when they heard it.
While it wasn't uncommon to hear Pokemon making noises, this one was far too convenient to ignore.
"Stay on your guard, Roggenrola; I have a horrible feeling about this," Deimos warned, unsure what they were walking into now. It was possible that the objective they were seeking could be a crystal onix or some other rare Pokemon.
Right after Deimos warned Roggenrola to stay alert, the ground started shaking for a few seconds before stopping. Furrowing his eyebrows, Deimos concluded that it was probably an earthquake.
That, however, was still a cause for worry. There were now two ways an earthquake could happen in the world he now lives in. The first was the usual way, through mother nature. The second was through a strong Pokemon or artificial objects, which Deimos didn't want to deal with yet.
What should have been a 30-minute walk turned into an hour-long sneak session. Both Deimos and Roggenrola were paranoid that something was going to happen.
Checking his map of the area, Deimos whispered to Roggenrola,
"We're almost there; keep your eye peeled for anything unusual."
The duo continued trekking up the mountain until the first sign of something unusual appeared. If it were anywhere else, but the Sacred Four Mountains, Deimos would've taken notice of it and been a little more cautious before moving on.
However, it was the Sacred Four Mountains. A group of trees having been pulverized by a rock just doesn't happen. All Pokemon are well aware that it is considered holy ground. Except for trainer-raised Pokemon.
Motioning to Roggenrola to stay somewhat hidden, the duo crept forward until they were able to see a small clearing leading up to a cave. Deimos's jaw dropped when he saw the sheer carnage that had happened.
Unlike when he woke up in the new world, he quickly got over the sight of dead bodies. The first pair he saw was Leka and Sandile.
Leka was hanging from a tree with a branch pierced through her chest, clearly dead from the impact. Her partner, Sandile, had been torn in half, one half on the left and the other on the right.
Neldo and his Shieldon didn't seem to have fared much better. Or at least what Deimos thought was Neldo. Deimos could identify the Shieldon due to its body still being intact, with the exception that it was completely mauled to death.
The body that Deimos assumed was Neldo was headless.
Whatever had happened had clearly taken Neldo off guard. The only signs of a struggle happening showed on Sandile, Shieldon, and Leka. However, this didn't really explain why it looked like a war had been fought in the clearing.
The siblings had clearly been overpowered quickly. They, without a doubt, had not survived long enough to put on a fight.
"Rola," Roggenrola let out a quiet, terrified squeak, clearly afraid of whatever human or Pokemon could've done this.
"Whatever, or whoever did this, Roggenrola clearly believes there is something worthwhile in that cave to keep the matter quiet," Deimos spoke quietly.
The next sentence he spoke confirmed Roggenrola's worst fears.
"We're going to go see what it they want to keep hidden so desperately that caused them to do this."
The duo then moved their gazes to the dark, ominous cave. The was half covered by vines and exuded an unsettling aura. Shivering slightly, the duo got up from their hiding place and slowly approached the cave, ready to face the unknown.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author Notice: I will be moving into college for the next several days, there may not be a new chapter on Monday, I'll try to get one out but I most likely won't. The next chapter will probably be on Wednesday. Enjoy the cliffhanger :).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Boldore Company, Squad 9, Team 6 --
Knight Tamora - Solrock
Squire Gideon - Lairon
Page Deimos - Roggenrola
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Roggenrola Move Progress --
Tackle - Mastered
Stealth Rock - 27 Seconds
Harden - Mastered
Sand Attack - .75 Seconds
Smack Down - Mastered
Headbutt - Mastered