"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
Inside the Dragon's Den, muffled thuds echoed intermittently. The Elder stood outside the Den, holding a cloth sack and waiting.
A short while later, Ace emerged from the Dragon's Den, looking somewhat disheveled.
"Grandma."
Ace was about to greet her, but the Elder completely ignored Ace, tossing the tied sack towards him before turning and leaving.
Ace was already used to it. He reached out, caught the cloth sack, untied the rope, pulled out a piece of dried meat, chewed it, and swallowed.
"Growth Quest (Dragon Hunter) activated. Completed: (9/50). Physical Strength: +1."
"Another new one? Lucky me."
Ace had the system scan the contents. This time, the entire bag was filled with Dragonair jerky.
"Just one more new type, and I'll reach 10, with a certain chance of getting the 'Dragon Hunter' title."
Ace thought gleefully, simultaneously feeling grateful that he had truly come to the Ryuusei no Sato (Meteor Village) this time.
If Ace had to hunt Dragon-type Pokémon by himself, just finding them would take an enormous amount of time, let alone consuming each one.
After preparing dinner for his Pokémon, Ace sat on the back of a Bagon, chewing on jerky and contemplating.
Bagon glanced at Ace, then continued to lie down. Ace had been challenging the Dragon's Den for a week now and had already become familiar with these outer Dragon-type Pokémon, so Bagon didn't mind Ace sitting on its back at all.
"The Dragon-type Pokémon inside the Dragon's Den are very high-leveled, and they're all of the same type. They spar with each other, so their battle experience is extremely rich."
Ace said with a headache, "If it weren't for their territorial instincts, where I basically only face one at a time, if they swarmed me like on Mt. Silver, I probably wouldn't even be able to fight my way in."
This was the fundamental difference between the Dragon's Den and Mt. Silver: one trained Ace's group battle ability, the other trained his one-on-one skills.
The Dragon-type Pokémon inside the Dragon's Den were extremely powerful, and they were basically always in a state of battle, vying for each other's territory.
If defeated, those Dragon-type Pokémon would be expelled from the Dragon's Den, ending up in its outer regions.
Once the Dragon-type Pokémon on the outside felt they were strong enough, they would also enter the Dragon's Den and claim a territory.
This was a virtuous cycle, causing the Pokémon inside the Dragon's Den to grow stronger and more battle-hardened.
"Full now, let's continue."
Ace tied up the remaining jerky, stuffed it into his backpack, then recalled his Pokémon and once again stepped into the Dragon's Den.
After only a few steps, Ace encountered a Druddigon. However, Druddigon ignored Ace because Ace had already defeated it, and it wouldn't provoke Ace again.
As Ace walked further in, most of the Dragon-type Pokémon he had defeated, provided they acknowledged Ace's strength, would no longer attack him.
Of course, there were always some stubborn hotheads who refused to give up, attacking Ace every time they saw him, with no intention of stopping.
"Boom!"
A dark shadow burst out, slamming a fist towards Ace. After Ace dodged, an explosive sound rang out, and scattered rocks flew, hitting the surrounding rock walls with a series of crackling sounds.
"Still going?"
Ace was a bit helpless. This guy attacked him every time he entered, showing no sign of backing down.
The dark shadow pulled its fist out of the ground, then beckoned to Ace. Ace was instantly speechless, but a Poké Ball appeared in his hand. The Poké Ball opened, and Chansey surged out.
The dark shadow also charged out. By the moonlight, it could be seen that the assailant was a Hakamo-o.
"Roar!"
With a battle cry to invigorate itself, Hakamo-o struck with a Drain Punch while Chansey launched a Mega Punch.
"Thud!"
With a muffled thud, Chansey showed no apparent reaction, but Hakamo-o was sent flying backward like a cannonball, violently crashing into the wall. It slowly slid down the shattered wall after a long moment.
"You should have learned your lesson by now."
Ace was somewhat helpless, looking at the five... no, including this one, now six indentations on the wall. Ace was utterly resigned to this Hakamo-o's stubbornness.
Hakamo-o recovered some stamina, panting as it slowly stood up.
As for its right hand, which had clashed with Chansey's punch, many scales had fallen off, and threads of fresh blood dripped down its claws.
But Hakamo-o didn't care. Or rather, scars were its medals. Faced with such a powerful enemy, what Hakamo-o thought of was not evasion or surrender, but how to defeat its opponent!
"I can definitely win!"
Hakamo-o thought silently to itself, then walked into the shadows and began to lick its wounds.
On the other side, Ace recalled Chansey. The rest of the journey was smooth, and soon he arrived once again at a pool within the Dragon's Den.
Sensing Ace's approach, a figure leaped out of the small pool. A Kingdra quickly shot several bullet-like Water Guns towards Ace!
"Lapras!"
A Poké Ball flew out of Ace's hand, and Lapras blocked Ace. The Water Guns hit Lapras, but Lapras was unharmed. With its Water Absorb ability, Lapras was completely immune to the opponent's Water Guns.
As for the impact force of the Water Guns, any damage they might have caused to Lapras was also restored by the absorbed energy from Water Absorb.
Seeing Ace's Lapras, Kingdra also felt a headache. Although it didn't know about the Water Absorb ability, it understood that it couldn't attack Lapras with Water-type moves.
Using Dragon Dance to float, an enhanced Dragon Pulse quickly rushed towards Lapras.
Lapras submerged, quickly dodging Kingdra's attack. Following Ace's command, after surfacing, an Ice Beam shot towards Kingdra.
Kingdra's body moved, instantly manifesting numerous clones. The Ice Beam swept across, destroying several clones, but missing Kingdra's true body.
"Behind you!"
Ace's eyes darted around, quickly locating the true body, but its speed was a bit slow. Kingdra quickly spun, forming a tornado that pulled water from the pool, creating a water spout. The powerful suction dragged Lapras towards the water spout.
"Blizzard, disperse!"
As Ace's words fell, Lapras opened its mouth, and a Blizzard roared forth, then was sucked into the water spout.
The extreme cold quickly froze the water. In just three seconds, the water spout stopped, and Kingdra was frozen within a block of ice.
"Hydro Pump!"
Lapras opened its mouth, and a Hydro Pump, as thick as a Water Gun, shot out, directly penetrating the ice block and fiercely striking Kingdra!
"Crack!"
The ice shattered, and Kingdra was directly propelled out of the ice by the Hydro Pump, violently crashing into the rock wall.
As the Hydro Pump ended, Kingdra weakly dropped into the pool. When it floated to the surface, it had already lost its ability to battle.
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