The bucktoothed middle-aged man shook the meteorite back and forth.
Baimu wasn't fooled by this person, looking around he asked, "You said stone gambling... how does it work? I don't seem to see any machines for cutting stones."
"Cutting stones? What cutting stones?"
The other party was taken aback, seemingly not understanding, "You pick one to buy and take it to a professional to appraise. If it turns out to be valuable, you've won. That's the gamble!"
"..."
Baimu looked at the bucktoothed middle-aged man in disbelief.
After being torn inside several times, he cautiously asked, "Do you think I look like an idiot?"
"Pfft!"
A suppressed laugh suddenly came from the side, followed by a burst of loud laughter, the laughter from the vendors caught the attention of many passersby.
The middle-aged man's expression quickly turned awkward and unfriendly.
"Hey buddy, I'm running a business here! We don't entertain malicious troublemakers!"
"Who's causing trouble, I really want to buy. How do you sell these? By piece?"
Baimu waved his hand, glancing at Lei Gong's tail, seeing it twitch in several directions, poking twice, which seemed to indicate that there wasn't just one target, he couldn't help but feel a bit odd, are there really valuable stones here?
Could this person possibly not be a scammer?
And upon hearing Baimu starting to ask about the price, the middle-aged man once again put on a flattering expression, "Not expensive, not expensive, ten thousand per stone, size doesn't matter."
"Ten thousand?"
"No deception, young man. Even if you don't hit a Deoxys, what if you find an Evolution Stone inside?"
"I still think this price isn't right."
"Hey! Stone gambling is about sincerity, without sincerity, it's hard to hit the jackpot!"
"Then you can keep this sincerity to yourself—" Baimu started to push his cart away.
The middle-aged man, struggling to even make a sale in a day or two, hurriedly called after him, gritting his teeth, "Then you say! How much is appropriate!"
He turned his head and said, "Five thousand per stone, let me pick six, just like that, take it or leave it."
"Six!"
The middle-aged man didn't expect Baimu to buy a bunch at once, others usually try with one. No one so far has been that foolish, it's hard not to be stunned.
Then he excitedly rubbed his hands together, "Okay! Okay!"
The smiles on the faces of the surrounding vendors froze instantly, just now Baimu was saying he isn't a fool, yet he's buying six stones at once?
If you're not the fool, then who is!
These are just randomly picked up from the mountain!
He wished he could expose the middle-aged man's true nature on the spot, but as they're all mingling on the same turf, it's hard to say so openly.
He could only keep giving Baimu suggestive glances.
But the latter was busy picking stones, where did he have time to notice the "flirting" glances of a man.
The stones that Lei Gong pointed at with its tail were really hard to find, leaving him no choice but to buy all stones pointed at in that direction.
In the end.
Baimu left with six stones of varying sizes, seeing Lei Gong contently stop poking around and turn to leave, the middle-aged vendor laughed all the way to the bank, counting bills with Spoink, looking like he hit the jackpot.
Only the vendor beside him was shaking with anger.
Seeing someone cheat a fool out of money is even more painful than losing money himself!
"Ah! How can there be such a foolish person?"
Watching the bucktoothed middle-aged man hurry away with the rest of the stones to avoid Baimu coming back for a refund, he sighed.
——
Successfully boarded the cable car heading to the north side of Chimney Mountain.
Baimu uncovered the black cloth over Lei Gong and asked, "What are these stones?"
The latter jumped down from the cart, turned to look at those oddly shaped stones, and pushed three of them aside, leaving only three others.
"Roar~"
It directly smashed one of them, revealing a dusky orange-red crystal inside.
"Fire Stone!"
Baimu was slightly surprised, that middle-aged man said there could be Fire Stones inside, could he have been serious?
Then.
Lei Gong patted another slightly larger stone, with a bang, the huge stone cracked into three, revealing a shiny orange-red glow inside.
He took a look, "A gem? Or some ordinary mineral? It should be a gem."
Since getting those stones from Sableye, he went on to supplement his knowledge about gems—unfortunately, without systematic learning, it's really hard to recognize them.
Because many gems look so similar.
Baimu decided to seek outside help.
Luckily, the cute De Wen Company employee Laisa seemed not too busy, quickly saw his picture and message, first sending a string of ellipses.
Laisa: 『Given by Pokémon again?』
Baimu: 『...You could say that, is this a gem?』
Laisa: 『Of course, this is an Attribute Gem, a bit different from ordinary gems, as it contains various attribute energies, greatly amplifying Pokémon's attacks. This color in your hand... should be a Fire Gem.』
Baimu: 『How to use it, just have the Pokémon hold it?』
Laisa: 『Yes, but I suggest you cut it a bit before use, as the current shape can cause excessive energy amplification and harm your Pokémon... you can find a place to cut gems, right?』
Baimu: 『Ahem, of course. But are you interested in this Fire Stone?』
Click.
He snapped the Fire Stone over.
Laisa didn't reply for a long time, until he nervously looked up at Lei Gong's face filled with curiosity, only then receiving a helpless emoji from Laisa and:
『Send them all over, I don't know where you got such luck』