About half an hour later, Metagross and Gengar returned. Judging by Gengar's slow pace, it must have stuffed quite a lot of Combee honey inside.
The more Gengar carried in its extra-dimensional stomach, the slower it became.
"Slow~"
Slowking walked up to Gengar and gestured for it to take out a bit of the Combee honey to inspect.
So Gengar produced a small jar. Normal Combee honey was yellow, but this jar Gengar held was golden—likely because the Combee had collected it from these golden flowers.
Slowking confidently opened the lid and tasted it, showing a somewhat satisfied expression. Then, it placed the jar inside Gengar's mouth.
"Slow~"
Slowking: "How much of this you have?"
"Gen~"
Gengar held up five fingers—meaning five hundred pounds (roughly 250 kg).
Combined with the Combee honey obtained last time from the island, this stockpile would be enough for Slowking to use for several years.
Over on Julian's side, he had already packed everything up and recalled all his Pokémon into their Poké Balls—except when he tried with Arcanine, who dodged it.
"Arf~"
Arcanine: "Ride on me!"
"Alright."
Julian nodded, knowing this dog just wanted to run wild here. After all, Arcanine had always been energetic, and this golden plain was the perfect place for it to let loose.
"Don't you dare take off at full speed from the start—accelerate slowly, understand?"
Julian warned. Last time, Arcanine shot off like a rocket from a standstill, nearly breaking his neck.
"Arf~"
Arcanine nodded.
Once Julian climbed onto its back, Arcanine obediently began accelerating slowly. Thirty seconds later, Julian could only feel the wind roaring past his ears.
Using his psychic abilities to form a protective barrier, he could finally open his eyes and block out the wind.
Across the endless golden plain, Arcanine ran with full speed, its flowing mane appearing especially majestic and beautiful in the wind—like a spirit of the wind.
Arcanine's running form was hailed by the outside world as the most handsome running form—bar none.
Holding the Dowsing Machine and looking at the red dots lighting up one after another, Julian was already used to it. No matter where he went, the number of red dots never fell below ten—only in a few areas did it ever drop below that.
A few unlucky Diglett had just popped out, only to be stomped straight back in by Arcanine.
"Doggo, east—head east."
Julian looked at the red dot on the Dowsing Machine. Although it wasn't the kind that represented an Ultimate treasure, it was still a sub-Ultimate treasure.
Julian indeed couldn't be bothered with ordinary treasures, but he still checked sub-Ultimate treasures.
Hearing that, Arcanine pulled a sharp drift turn. Thankfully, Julian was holding tightly to its fur—otherwise, he would've been thrown off.
After about five minutes, Julian arrived at the location of the red dot.
Looking at the flower in front of him, it looked almost exactly like the surrounding golden flowers. The only difference was that the others all had six petals, while this one had ten.
Metagross had been the one to point this out to Julian.
[Ten-Sun Flower: Consolidates vitality and strengthens essence, fortifies the kidneys. If a man eats it, women can't handle it; if a woman eats it, men can't handle it; if both eat it, the bed can't handle it.]
[Note: Use one petal at a time. Brew in tea.]
Julian: '…What does this mean? What are you trying to say? Who do you think you're looking down on? Do I need something like this? I'm plenty strong already, okay?'
Looking at the Ten-Sun Flower, Julian took out a small shovel, intending to dig it up along with the soil around its roots. But just then, Arcanine's big dog head suddenly leaned in.
Smack!
He slapped the dog's head and said irritably, "Don't get so close! Your breathing might hurt it!"
Arcanine: ⊙ｏ⊙
'My breathing might hurt it? So now even my breathing is wrong?'
"Celebi, what are you trying to do? Get your hand away!"
Celebi had just reached out to see why this flower had ten petals when Julian's sharp shout made it instantly pull its hand back.
Julian tossed the shovel aside. At first, he had thought about planting the Ten-Sun Flower and letting it reproduce, but then it occurred to him: sub-Ultimate treasures probably weren't easy to raise.
Most likely he would end up killing it himself, and then he'd have nothing.
So he directly pulled it up, carefully handed it to Slowking, and said with a serious face, "Slowking, from now on, use this flower's petals to brew me a cup of tea every morning. This thing is good for my body."
Hearing that it was good for Julian's health, Slowking immediately nodded seriously, solemnly accepting the Ten-Sun Flower and placing it carefully inside its crown.
Julian looked at the Dowsing Machine again. Unfortunately, although there were still many red dots, none were the sub-Ultimate grade dots like before.
'Such a good thing… Surely there's more than just this one, right?'
Julian looked across the vast golden plain and figured there should still be more.
Julian stood up, his face full of fighting spirit.
The Pokémon around him were a bit confused—what was going on? He'd suddenly become so energized for no apparent reason. It was just a flower, after all. He was acting like he'd been injected with adrenaline.
Never mind whether a man was actually lacking in that department or not—if something that boosted vitality and strengthened the kidneys was placed right in front of him, he'd never say no. What man would reject the chance to become stronger in "that" regard?
The Ten-Sun Flower could actually be considered a mutated version of the golden flowers—only the number of petals was different. Without the Dowsing Machine, even if the flower was placed right in front of Julian, he might not have noticed the difference.
Riding on Arcanine, Julian spent three whole days exploring the entire Golden Lowlands. Although he didn't find any Ultimate treasures, he did manage to find two more Ten-Sun Flowers—which, in his opinion, were even better than some Ultimate treasures.
Arcanine, on the other hand, was practically run ragged over those three days. Running nonstop for three days while maintaining top speed—even its iron-clad dog legs couldn't handle that.
So by the fourth day, Arcanine had no intention of running anymore. Even when Julian sat on its back, the dog just lay down on the ground like a stubborn, immovable log.
"You lazy thing."
Julian patted Arcanine in some dissatisfaction. This guy was clearly pretending to be tired. It wasn't like it hadn't rested over the three days—it slept every night.
With its recovery speed, one night was more than enough.
The dog simply didn't want to run anymore, because over the past three days it had already had its fill. Every corner of the Golden Lowlands had been marked by it.
"Are you really not going to run anymore?"
Julian gently tugged Arcanine's ear, and the latter responded by licking his cheek with its tongue, grinning cheekily at him.
Wiping his face, Julian looked at the saliva on his hand with mild disgust, then washed it off with bottled water.
"Fine, no running then."
The dog had pretty much burned off all its excess energy these past few days—otherwise, it would've already taken off running with him on its back.
Sure enough, if you had a dog at home, you had to take it out for walks. Otherwise, with too much pent-up energy, it was no wonder they started tearing the house apart.
"Metagross, have you finished collecting data on the Golden Lowlands?"
"Meta~"
Metagross nodded. All the data had already been recorded in its supercomputer brain.
*****
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