Chapter 9 - Give up?

Now that Dante was assured about Pikachu's safety, he began to think about the previous dungeon experience. What he was most impressed about was when he passed through Tangela and floated from the ground.

Looking at his paws, Dante closed his eyes and once again controlled the energy from inside his body and let it scatter. Soon, he felt that feeling of freedom again. Opening his eyes, he found his paws were off the ground. 

Dante floated around in wonder, flying around the still sleeping Pikachu with a sense of excitement for being able to fly.

'This must be the innate ability of Ghost type Pokemon to be able to fly! And with how I pass through Tangela, this must also be the method how Ghost types can pass through walls and other Normal type attacks! If I can thoroughly control this power, it would make our dungeon adventures so much easier.'

In the Pokemon world, some Pokemon are able to fly or float off the ground even without being a flying type or having the Levitate ability. Most Ghost types, such as Chandelure, Dusknoir, Froslass, Aegislash, and Cofagrigus also possess that capability. 

Other than Ghosts, almost all Water types can also float when out of the water. Although Dante wasn't exactly sure of the reason, he guessed that it might be related to their typing.

Most Flying types are able to fly while only a few Ground types are capable of flying. Conversely, most Ground types can learn how to Dig and move underground while few Flying types can.

Ghost types should also have some flying properties in addition to permeability. Only Ghost type Pokemon are known to possess the capability to pass through walls. This makes Ghost types absolutely useful in Dungeon exploration, especially in this novice period. 

In the early stages, most Pokemon usually only learn Normal type moves like Scratch and Tackle. Constrict, which was used by Tangela, was also a Normal type move. 

In the PMD Explorers of Sky games, there was no type immunity. Electric moves can cause damage to Ground type Pokemon and Normal type moves can damage Ghost types.

This was also the reason why Dante didn't have much doubt regarding why Electrike was able to hit him with the Tackle and Tangela was able to Constrict him. 

However, if the rules of type advantages in this world works according to the main series Pokemon games, then Dante would have a very huge advantage in early dungeons as a Ghost type.

Dante continued floating around and familiarizing himself with manipulating the energy in his body until Pikachu woke up.

"H-huh, Dante?! You're okay!!!"

After waking up and seeing Dante, Pikachu bawled his eyes out and tried to hug him. However, Dante is still practicing the Ghost technique. This resulted in Pikachu passing through him and eating sand.

Pikachu rolled forward on the sand two times before he could stop his momentum. He looked at Dante with a horrified look in his eyes before bawling his eyes out once again.

"I-I'm sorry Dante. It's because I dragged you with me. I shouldn't have tried catching up h-hic. I'm a coward who can't even enter the Exploration Guild, w-why did I think I could even survive in a dungeon. Be-because of me, you, you, you wahhhh!!!"

Pikachu knelt on the ground, crying out loud and apologizing to Dante's 'spirit'.

Dante scratched his head with his tail, speechless about Pikachu's imagination. 

"Calm down, Pikachu. I'm not dead, I'm just practicing phasing through walls, see."

Dante canceled the spread of energy in his body and patted Pikachu's head to show that he was able to touch him.

Pikachu looked up, blankly staring at Dante. Feeling the touch on his head, he finally realized that Dante wasn't really dead and tackled him once again while crying.

Dante comforted Pikachu for a while before he finally calmed down. Releasing Dante, Pikachu let out an embarrassed laugh.

"Ehehe, sorry about that. I just thought that we'd be buried in the dungeon after we both fainted. Thank Arceus we were carried out of the cave."

"Oh, what usually happens if you faint in the dungeon?"

Pikachu squirmed uncomfortably after being asked that question. Looking at Dante, he spoke with a solemn expression.

"According to what I heard from other Explorers, there are usually three results from fainting in the dungeon. The most common is that all your items will be taken away and the other Pokemons will throw your body to an unknown corner of the dungeon."

"With no idea of their location and items, as well as still being weak from fainting, most Pokemons usually can't escape from the dungeon. Even worse is that, other dungeon Pokemons will continue to attack after they see you wandering around."

"Then next, there are those like us that were thrown outside of the dungeon. It usually doesn't happen unless you meet a kind-hearted dungeon Pokemon, so we were both lucky we met someone like that this time."

Hearing Pikachu's words, Dante knew that they didn't really meet a Pokemon like that. It was all thanks to his PMD system that they were transported out of the dungeon. Dante shuddered to think of the possibility where both he and Pikachu wake up in an unknown area of the dungeon, with both of them possibly having less than 10 HP.

In that scenario, either they repeatedly faint from being attacked by other dungeon Pokemon, or grow strong fast enough that they can handle every Pokemon that comes their way.

Noticing that Pikachu hasn't spoken for a while now, Dante prompted him.

"What about the third possibility?"

"T-the third result *gulp*. The third result is when you meet some special types of Pokemon. After fainting, they will not let your body go. Instead, they will e-e-eat your body!"

Speaking of this, Pikachu has a scared and nervous expression on his face. 

Meanwhile, Dante had an 'as expected' expression on his face. While most Pokemons are known to be 'good' creatures, there are also exceptions among them. 

The most notable among these are the Ghost types. Drifloon and Drifblim are known to kidnap human children. The Aegislash line steals the life force of its Trainer and is even rumored to control them. Banette, Chandelure, and even Gengar have dark stories about them killing their own trainers.

"A-anyway, now that I thought things through more carefully, I realize that I'm really not fit to become an explorer. Let Zubat and Koffing have it, it was just a useless piece of stone anyway. Sorry for wasting your time, Dante."

With a forced smile on his face, Pikachu said those words. Maybe the blow from failing his first dungeon exploration was too big, coupled with the fact that he thought that Dante died, Pikachu gave up on his dreams.