The fishing vessel cruised along the coastline, moving steadily toward the Pokémon Domain.
When they reached the estuary where the Fair River met the ocean, the fishing boat came to a halt. Aven planned to travel on foot with his Pokémon, following the river upstream toward the Safari Zone.
The expansion of the Fair River had not yet been completed. At the moment, its depth and width were still insufficient to support the passage of large fishing vessels.
Once they returned to the Safari Zone, he immediately carried the Fire Stones and headed to the rocky hills, where he found Rhydon in the middle of intense training.
"Rhyy!"
Rhydon's entire body was blackened and scorched.
It was clear it had just endured high temperatures and brutal pressure training. When it came to pushing itself to the limit, Rhydon was a true professional.
Over this period of rigorous training, Rhydon's physical fitness had improved tremendously once again, to the point that it had even mastered the move Flamethrower.
When Aven arrived, he happened to see Rhydon training its tribe. With its mouth open, it unleashed a powerful Flamethrower, blasting a Rhyhorn full force in the chest.
Facing the attack of its leader, the Rhyhorn did not move a muscle. It stubbornly endured the surging flames, using the scorching pain to temper its body.
Seeing Aven approach, Rhydon halted the training of its tribe and hurried over.
"Rhyyyy~!
Finally the suffering was over—Rhyhorn's eyes were already tearing up.
"Rhydon, I brought you something good." Aven stepped forward and patted Rhydon on the shoulder.
At that moment, the Bibarel had already brought the iron chest filled with Fire Stones up the mountain. Not liking the harsh environment here, they quickly left again.
"Rhyy!"
The moment it heard the words 'something good,' Rhydon's eyes lit up.
Having followed Aven for so long, it knew—anything Aven called 'good stuff' would definitely be useful to it.
Letting out an excited rumble, it strode to the chest. Even before opening it, it could feel an extremely rich surge of fire-type energy radiating from within.
Rubbing its hands together in expectation, it forcefully opened the chest—and instantly saw the heap of Fire Stones inside. The fire-type energy in the surroundings immediately grew restless.
"These are all Fire Stones, crystallizations of fire energy."
"In a moment, I'll bury these Fire Stones around the hill. They'll greatly increase the concentration of fire-type energy in this area."
Upon hearing this, Rhydon took a deep breath. No one knew where it pulled a clean white headband from, but it tied it tightly around its head, as if its whole body had ignited with fighting spirit.
"Rhyy!"
To repay Lord Aven, it had to train even harder—no excuses!
"Besides the Fire Stones, I also have this."
Aven then took out the strange rock containing pure natural fire energy.
The moment Rhydon saw the stone, its eyes widened. It could feel an intense attraction emanating from it.
Dense fire-type and ground-type energy coexisted within this stone—perfectly fused into one another.
Taking the stone from Aven, Rhydon immediately felt something inside its own body responding—some energy trembling with resonance. Without meaning to, it activated Heat Crash, flames surging across its whole body.
"Hm? You're saying this stone contains both fire-type and ground-type energy?" Aven was startled.
He examined the rock again from top to bottom. If that was the case, then this stone was even more mysterious than he originally thought.
"Rhy~!"
Rhydon pointed at the stone in its hand, signaling that it wanted it.
"Of course, the stone is meant to be yours."
"Based on your description, we'll call it a Volcano Stone."
He wasn't sure whether the stone had a real name, but this one felt fitting.
Fire plus earth was essentially magma—and volcanoes were where magma dwelled. Perhaps this stone truly came from a volcano.
"Rhyyy!"
Rhydon nodded vigorously, then opened its huge mouth and swallowed the Volcano Stone whole in one gulp.
Patting its belly, it let out a satisfied burp—where a gout of flame shot out from its mouth. Rhydon quickly clamped its jaw shut, causing smoke to pour out of both its nostrils and ears instead.
"Rhydon! Are you alright?" Aven hadn't expected it to swallow the stone directly and asked quickly in concern.
"Rhyy!"
Rhydon patted its stomach, expressing that it felt wonderful.
It could sense a blazing fire burning deep within its belly, continuously releasing energy—and it could steadily absorb the power contained inside the Volcano Stone.
"Rhyy!" "Rhyy!"
It let out two loud roars, overflowing with motivation, and planned to immediately return to training.
Seeing this, Aven followed Rhydon to the forge, wanting to observe its current training progress.
The Volcano Stone contained fire-type, rock-type, and ground-type energy. Truly, nothing could be more suitable for Rhydon.
Rhydon was a dual ground- and rock-type Pokémon to begin with, and it also possessed extremely high affinity for fire. With the Volcano Stone, it might indeed be able to learn how to fuse fire-type and ground-type energy.
The current Nidoking leader was walking a similar path, fusing poison-type and ground-type energy to create his own unique power.
If Rhydon succeeded in fusing fire and ground as well, then it might truly forge its own path—and break through to the King-level.
Furthermore, Heat Crash itself was already an extension of both fire and ground energy. The move shared a natural connection with the Volcano Stone. Through the stone, the power of Heat Crash might grow even stronger
After checking Rhydon's training for a while, Aven began burying Fire Stones all around the mountain.
Since the Garchomp tribe had migrated to the Coastal Mountains, the Rocky hill now almost a mountain had now become home to the Rhydons and the Rhyhorns.
These Rhyhorn had gathered from all across Aspiration City. When the Ironblood Fortress fell, a massive number of Rhyhorn came with it. They were the standard mounts of the city's knightly order, and held high status in Aspiration City.
In addition, many Onix had also chosen to stay, hoping to train under Rhydon's guidance and attempt evolution.
Ever since learning they could still evolve, the Onix had been extremely earnest in their training. Countless Onix now lived underground throughout the Rocky Hill pushing the ground and stone above making the hill taller.
"RHYYY!"
The mountain echoed incessantly with the roars of Rhydon and Rhyhorn.
After a short rest, Rhydon had resumed training its tribe, making the Rhyhorn both suffer and grow.
"Lord Aven, another batch of Poké Balls has been forged."
At this moment, Master Smith Makin approached.
Although the forge had already been fully built, Makin still frequently came to forge in the hill, training with Rhydon and the others to forge Poké Balls.
These Rhydon had mastered Fire Punch, and to a large degree could substitute for fire-type Pokémon. This was also because there were no fire-type Pokémon within Aspiration City.
In fact, not just Aspiration City, almost the entire Sinnoh continent had extremely few fire-type Pokémon. From what he knew, the only native fire-type line in Sinnoh was the Chimchar line.
As one of Sinnoh's starter Pokémon, Chimchar was extremely rare—leading to an overall shortage of fire-types across the region.
Even with all these Fire Stones he possessed, only Rhydon and its tribe could use them—an undeniable waste, since Fire Stones' greatest value came from evolving Pokémon that depended on them.
There were also Water Stones—all of which were buried around Bibarel Lake. Now that he had begun exploring the ocean, he no longer worried about running out of Water Stones.
With them, Bibarel Lake would certainly attract Pokémon that evolved through Water Stones to settle there. All he needed to do was wait.
In the future, he would also begin cultivating these Water Stone evolution Pokémon, gradually building the framework for the aquatic Pokémon breeding zone and expanding it over time.
"Mm. From here on, coordinate directly with the breeding house."
"Many trainers have recently passed the official exam. Poké Ball demand will rise sharply."
"And remember—the Poké Balls must be properly marked. Every produced ball needs a printed serial number so registration is easier."
Aven had emphasized this repeatedly. Poké Balls must be strictly controlled. He had already established a dedicated department to manage their usage.
If a trainer encountered issues while using a Poké Ball, they were required to report immediately. Failure to do so would result in punishment—minor offenses would revoke their trainer license, serious ones would trigger legal judgment under territorial law.
"Rest assured, Lord Aven. We've recorded everything carefully." Makin nodded seriously. He understood well what Poké Balls meant to the Pokémon Domain.
(End of Chapter)