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he knowes pokemon more than i know _Chapter_1061_en

Chapter 167

**Chapter 1051: Meteor Village**

2024-05-15 Author: Samsung Charmander (Author Name)

"You worked hard, Lapras."

After recalling Lapras, Ash and Pikachu continued forward on the cave floor, walking at a slow pace.

As for why he wasn't in a hurry at all...

"Uh, I've completely lost sight of that Swablu."

Ash scratched his head. When he first entered the waterfall, he could still vaguely see a cottony figure, but after flying all the way here, he had completely lost its trail.

There was no point in rushing.

Besides, he and Dr. Solace had only met by chance. And that meteorite seemed like something of little importance, so he wasn't particularly anxious.

Ash now faced several branching caves of various sizes. He couldn't see the end of any of them, as each appeared to lead to a different destination.

"What do you think, Pikachu? Can your nose pick up a scent?"

Ash looked at Pikachu on his shoulder.

The latter just gave him a helpless expression.

It hadn't even touched the meteorite; not even an Entei's nose could pick up its scent.

Ash frowned slightly. Five diverging cave entrances lay before him. If he were to pick one at random... He had lent the Shining Charm to Blue to ward off evil, so he wasn't too confident in his luck right now.

*Buzz! Buzz!*

Just then, the Dragon Scale fragment began to vibrate again.

Ash subconsciously grasped it. The fragment trembled as if it wanted to move. An idea struck Ash, and he quickly laid it flat in his palm.

*Buzz! Buzz!*

As the Dragon Scale fragment vibrated, its sharpest point slowly turned to point toward one of the branching caves.

"It seems this scale is really related to this cave...?"

Ash's eyes lit up, and he immediately followed the guidance of the Dragon Scale fragment, continuing forward.

One set of five forks led to another.

After walking for more than ten minutes, Ash had lost count of how many branching caves he had passed through; the layout was utterly complex and intricate.

However, the inside of the cave path remained quite bright, so Pikachu didn't need to use Flash to light the way.

And this Dragon Scale fragment, like a compass, always pointed firmly toward one of the paths.

*Clack, clack!*

Suddenly, Ash heard footsteps other than his own.

"Pika...!"

Pikachu's ears perked up, and it became alert.

By the time Ash reached the end of this branching path, a white-haired youth had appeared before him.

It seemed he had come from another fork.

"Yuki?!"

"Ash?!"

The two exclaimed at the same time, both recognizing the other.

The youth before him, wearing a hat that resembled short white hair, was indeed Yuki, whom he had met several times before.

At his feet was a long, brown-striped creature—it was Yuki's max-level Linoone.

Not only that, but they both soon noticed that they were each holding a Dragon Scale fragment.

"How do you have one of these too?!"

The two couldn't help but speak in unison.

Ash's had, of course, been obtained from Elite Four Drake. As for Yuki's...

"Oh, I went to challenge the Petalburg Gym in Petalburg City, and Norman gave it to me as a bonus," Yuki explained with a smile.

His journey didn't have as many side quests; it was simple and direct, so his progress was much faster than Ash's.

Furthermore, the information Yuki knew was far more detailed than the simple "trial token" that Elite Four Drake had mentioned.

Seeing Ash's utter confusion, and since they were both tired from walking, they decided to sit on a rock platform to rest and exchange information.

The token scales were sent out from within Meteor Falls by specific people—and it had been a very long time since they were last distributed.

Back when Elite Four Drake received his token, he didn't take the Meteor Falls Trial very seriously and had long since forgotten the information that came with it.

So when it was finally passed to Ash, it came with only the simple description, "a trial token."

But Norman, the Gym Leader of the Petalburg Gym, was a very meticulous man.

Although he also didn't pay much mind to such things—it seemed to be a Trial exclusively for Dragon-type trainers, which clashed with him as a Normal-type user—Norman had instinctively memorized the information from the person who delivered it that day.

"The location of the Trial is in Meteor Village, and it's set to begin in the next few days..."

Seeing that only a few days remained, and having just returned from vacation, Norman didn't have time to take a trip to Meteor Falls.

Just then, Yuki came to challenge him. Since his own daughter had recently been helped by Professor Birch, Norman decided to give the Dragon Scale fragment to Yuki as a return gift.

Hearing this, Ash was slightly stunned. Elite Four Drake hadn't told him anything about the Trial's timing; he had stumbled in completely by chance.

Could he really have stumbled upon it at just the right time?

"I really am the protagonist!"

Thinking this, Ash couldn't help but let out a huge sigh of relief.

Yuki: "?"

But he quickly composed himself and continued:

"That Meteor Village is probably at the end of these forks... As for the Trial's specific content, I don't know either."

Meteor Falls has more than one entrance; he hadn't entered from the same place as Ash and Brock.

Yuki felt a strong sense of rivalry toward Ash, who was the same age as him but had already become an Elite Four-level trainer.

Of course, Ash felt the same way.

He had already guessed that the other boy was an existence similar to his own. He had even started his journey and adventures more than a year earlier; there was no reason for him to lose to him.

It was just that, up to this point, the two had never had a proper battle.

But both of them, on their own Gym Challenge journeys, knew that at the upcoming Ever Grande League, they were destined to have a true battle...

"In that case, let's use today's Trial as a warm-up!"

"My thoughts exactly!"

Ash and Yuki stood up at the same time, their eyes blazing as they looked at each other.

Without further delay, they gripped the compass-like Dragon Scale fragments in their hands and continued toward the end of the branching paths.

After walking for another ten minutes, the countless forks finally came to an end.

Without the guidance of the Dragon Scale fragment, one would probably have to live here for decades to navigate in and out correctly from memory.

The small path suddenly widened.

"This is...?!" "Gasp...?!"

But what made Ash's and Yuki's eyes widen and gasp was the sight of a massive village before them.

It was a village of wooden houses encircled by the surrounding rock walls. The architectural style seemed ancient, with the buildings packed tightly together.

And this part of the cave... it couldn't even be called a cave anymore. It was a world of its own, incredibly vast.

At a glance, one couldn't see any rock walls that would mark its end.

High in the air, several sharp rock ceilings converged toward the center, yet they left a gap, revealing the normal sky and sun above.

"It's open-air?"

Ash rubbed his head, completely astonished.

Does that mean you can fly out of Meteor Falls from here?

Just then, a youth dressed in a long linen robe, who looked to be about their age, slowly walked up to them and said quite politely:

"Welcome, you two, to our Meteor Village."

(end of chapter)

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