As for Larry, he casually summoned Gengar again, this time using it as his personal storage system. Ging watched with a twitch as Gengar opened its mouth wide and calmly swallowed several vanilla herbs without hesitation.
By now, Ging had seen so many ridiculous things that he felt numb. No matter what new ability Larry showed from here on out, he doubted he'd be truly shocked. Even when Larry casually used space-based telepathy to organize the storage, Ging didn't react much.
Pyon, who'd already seen Gengar's bizarre capabilities, wasn't surprised either. Unlike Larry and Ging, Pyon didn't have her own space-type storage method, so she simply asked Larry to hold onto his vanilla for now. She trusted him enough to know she could ask for it later without any worries.
After all the time they'd spent traveling together, Pyon was confident, Larry wasn't the type to take advantage of others. Even if the vanilla symbolized "hope," and stood as the rarest find of this expedition, the journey wasn't over yet.
After securing the most important prize, Larry, Ging, and Pyon decided to explore the rest of the ancient maze city once more, just to make sure they hadn't missed anything. Ging and Pyon, being hunters specialized in ancient texts and relics, believed there might still be records buried somewhere in the ruins, maybe stone carvings, old manuscripts, or some kind of written documentation.
For them, these kinds of artifacts were just as valuable as rare herbs or Pokémon materials. But after a thorough search, the results were disappointing.
Nothing turned up. No texts, no carvings, not even fragments of books. Maybe they had been destroyed during earlier battles. Or perhaps they had simply crumbled away with time, worn down by the elements after centuries of decay.
In the end, they left empty-handed on that front. The only thing left behind that felt significant was the mysterious divine script etched into certain walls, still undeciphered.
When the trio finally emerged from the cave, they immediately drew the attention of the V5 personnel stationed outside. "You actually made it out alive?" one of them blurted out.
It was the man in the suit, still standing guard at the checkpoint like before. His reaction was pure disbelief, like he'd just seen a ghost. With all the experiences gathered by those who came before, this cave had become known as a place of no return. A forbidden zone. No one who had entered it had ever come back alive.
Yet somehow, these three had done what others couldn't. At first, the suit man tried to rationalize it. Maybe they had just found a safe place to hide and waited until it was safe to exit? But the moment he thought of that, he shook his head.
Safe? Inside that cave? Where the air itself was saturated with death aura? That idea was laughable. There was nowhere safe in there.
And if the man had walked up to the entrance at that very moment and looked through the film surrounding the cave, he'd have noticed something shocking, the death aura inside had vanished.
"Surprised?" Ging said with a smirk, clearly enjoying the reaction.
He didn't offer any explanations though, and the man in the suit, a little flustered, hesitated before shifting his line of thought. Maybe they had learned something about the cave. Even if they hadn't uncovered the full truth, surely they found clues.
"What happened in there?" he asked, tone laced with suspicion.
Ging raised an eyebrow. Just as Pyon opened her mouth to speak, Ging held out a hand to stop him and replied slowly, "The death aura is gone. If you want answers, go look for yourself."
The man was clearly irritated by the vague response, but the moment Ging mentioned the disappearance of the death aura, his expression changed.
'Gone? That death aura?'
Before he could press them for more, the three had already walked off into the distance, leaving him standing at the entrance, stunned. Wasting no time, he turned back and began ordering the agents hidden nearby to investigate.
It didn't take long for the recon team to return. Just from standing at the entrance, they could confirm it, there was no longer any trace of the oppressive death aura that once made it impossible to enter. The film was clear now, no longer clouded or distorted.
Upon receiving confirmation, the V5 quickly dispatched another full team to conduct a deeper exploration. But what they found wasn't treasure, knowledge, or secrets. It was just an empty city, ancient and lifeless.
There was no longer any danger lurking inside. And there was no reward either. What the team saw instead were massive scorch marks scorched into the ground, deep craters scattered across the area, and ruins that clearly bore the scars of violent battles. The aftermath suggested several intense fights had taken place recently.
But the city had already been cleaned out.
The Gildrosia had been completely obliterated, reduced to ash by Larry's Arcanine for safety. Nothing was left of their bodies.
The once-precious vanilla plants on the stone wall had already been picked, and the remaining flora was mostly common vegetation, with only a few parasitic plants of minor interest.
Once the three had swept the entire place, they made sure nothing useful remained.
The V5 had pulled strings, spent resources, and planned this operation with care, hoping for a major breakthrough. But in the end, all they were left with was an empty shell, a stripped, hollow ruin with nothing to offer.
After comparing all the evidence they had gathered, the three came to a rough conclusion, this place was likely another variant of the so-called "ancient maze city." Beyond that, too many details were still unknown. No texts, no history, no records. Just ruins, battles, and whispers of something older and darker.
Not long after leaving the site, the trio split up. Ging and Pyon headed back toward the Hunter Association. Pyon's goal was to document the entire expedition and archive it in the Association's confidential files. He wanted to ensure their findings would be preserved, even if not made public.
Ging, on the other hand, planned to meet with Chairman Netero directly, to share what had happened face to face, and maybe just to catch up.
As for Larry, his destination was different, he was heading to Gourmet Paradise. Now that he had secured the legendary vanilla, the one said to "cure all diseases," only one person came to mind, Linne.
The image of Linne's frail body and the ever-present aura of death that clung to him had stuck with Larry. He couldn't forget it. Linne, once Menchi's mentor and a close friend of Netero, had always treated Larry kindly.