Nameless Island.
Underground River Tunnel.
Cain, holding a torch, advanced with his Pokémon.
However, his thoughts didn't stop.
After defeating the Dustox leader, Cain captured it in a Pokéball and then treated its wounds lightly to ensure it wouldn't die.
He also instructed the system to constantly monitor any changes in Dustox.
He found that the Leadership skill Dustox originally had as a leader was slowly fading.
Even inside the Pokéball, this ability couldn't help but fade away.
This showed that once a Pokémon with Leadership was captured, it was no longer considered the leader of its group, so that ability would gradually disappear.
When Dustox's Leadership ability completely vanished, its quality would likely revert to light green.
Then, aside from its level, its utility value wouldn't be as high.
In these past two days, Cain had eliminated so many Dustox that his four Grimer could hardly contain any more.
The two Grimer captured in Dugtrio's cave now had a dark yellow quality and a light green quality, both having improved once.
Not only had their quality changed, but their levels had also increased.
Originally, both Pokémon were between levels 10-15, but after devouring and absorbing so many bodies, both Grimer had reached level 23.
There was still much energy left in the larger Dustox bodies to absorb. If they absorbed it completely, their levels might increase even more, and they could even improve their quality.
The most important thing is that Dustox is also a Poison-type Pokémon, giving Grimer a greater benefit than other types of Pokémon.
As for the two Grimer purchased in Vermilion City, their bodies were also filled with Dustox remains.
The feeling of satisfaction was so intense that they barely wanted to move inside their Pokéballs; they only wanted to focus on breaking down the energy from those remains.
Even though Cain had extracted the energy crystals from the bodies, the original energy they contained hadn't diminished at all.
Moreover, under the system's constant supervision, Cain discovered that the higher the initial quality of a Pokémon, the faster it decomposed and absorbed the bodies.
While quality improvement still took longer for high-quality Pokémon compared to low-quality ones, the rapid energy breakdown meant their leveling speed would also increase.
The system predicted that if these Grimer fully decomposed and absorbed the Dustox bodies, their levels might also surpass 20.
The higher the quality of a Grimer, the greater its efficiency in using dispersed energy.
Once all these Grimer have grown, whether to assign them to his subordinates or to sell them, both would be good uses.
At the very least, after Grimer evolves into Muk, its combat capacity won't be weak.
Furthermore, if he formed a team with a line of Muk of such high quality, their combat power would be quite impressive.
Cain set those thoughts aside and focused on the present. After all, the wild Pokémon bodies didn't have much use for him, so he preferred to leave them as nutrients for his Grimer.
He had been walking for nearly two hours, but the path showed no change.
The underground river continued to flow endlessly.
Slowpoke had already left the river and was now slowly floating beside Cain, using its psychic powers.
Cain needed Slowpoke to use the previously established psychic markers to determine their current location.
Slowpoke informed Cain that they were now very close to the small lake in the center of the island. If they advanced five more minutes, they'd likely be directly below the island's central lake.
Of course, if there was such a thing as "below the lake."
Perhaps the small lake in the island's center was connected to this underground river.
With a slight feeling of unease, Cain and his group advanced five more minutes.
Then they witnessed a very strange scene.
They had indeed arrived just below the central lake. They could even see the scenery above the lake without any obstruction.
Because what Cain had in front of him was a central lake suspended in the air over the underground river, without any layer of soil or rock as he had imagined.
There was nothing, just a thin membrane holding the central lake in the air.
And in the center of the membrane, where the water was highest, there was a small hole, about the width of a finger.
Directly below the hole was a deep, bottomless black hole, from which the water of the underground river flowed slowly, endlessly.
Was the water flowing upward?
Looking closer, Cain realized that the water in the hole below the central lake wasn't flowing downward from the lake, but rather a jet of water was shooting from the black hole below, straight into the hole in the central lake.
Did the central lake's water also come from this black hole?
Cain was astonished. What was beneath this black hole?
He extended a hand and touched the membrane below the central lake, feeling its coolness and softness. With a gentle push, the membrane moved upward.
Was there really no soil beneath the central lake?
As Cain marveled, he saw some aquatic Pokémon living in the central lake. They were rare Pokémon, difficult to see under normal circumstances.
It seemed they couldn't see Cain, as they remained still on the other side of the membrane, feeding on small organisms within it. Cain also noticed that as they fed, these fish stirred up the mud in the water.
This meant that not only did the central lake have no visible bottom, but there was actually mud on top of the membrane, though it wasn't visible from below.
Cain was perplexed. What kind of phenomenon was this?
Who could have created something like this?
Suppressing his amazement, Cain directed his attention to the underground black hole.
It was unfathomable, completely dark, showing no signs of life.
Cain tried tossing a stone inside, only to find that it simply bounced off an invisible membrane, never falling in. Instead, it was carried away by the underground river's water.
Was there also a membrane over this black hole?
Could it be that he couldn't see what was below, but from below, they could clearly see what was above?
What was down there? Pokémon? Humans? Or something else? A legendary Pokémon?
Cain had no way of knowing.
However, with his current power, even if he knew, he probably couldn't obtain it.
If someone had the capability to create this, they wouldn't be an ordinary human, and if it were a Pokémon, it wouldn't be a common one, like Zapdos or Articuno, but a legendary Pokémon, a unique one with divine powers.
That was Cain's assumption, though probably not all legendary Pokémon would have this ability.
Or perhaps it could be the work of a human. Cain didn't rule out that possibility.
It seemed that, with his current strength, he was far from uncovering this small island's true secret.
Shaking his head, Cain decided to abandon his investigation of this underground river for now.
He would have to wait until he was strong enough to return and explore further.
At the very least, he should find out what phenomenon had created all this.
Just as Cain prepared to leave, Slowpoke tugged at his pant leg.
(End of Chapter)