Chapter 57: Two Items

By the time Xia Yu returned to the Lin residence from the laboratory, it was already dinner time. Before leaving, Long Fan had mentioned that starting next weekend, Xia Yu could train together with Long Yangning during their weekend breaks. Since Long Yangning visited the Yuanquan River Laboratory every weekend to research her exclusive Z-Crystal, Xia Yu could come along as well, and the two of them could keep each other company.

The reason Long Fan said this was undoubtedly because he recognized Xia Yu's potential; otherwise, he would not have arranged for his own daughter to conduct special training with Xia Yu alone.

Xia Yu naturally expressed his gratitude repeatedly. Even though he might not be entirely enthusiastic about training with Long Yangning, since Long Fan had extended this favor, he had to put on a grateful posture.

Reflecting on his performance in the laboratory today, Xia Yu still felt he had been a bit impulsive. However, opportunities were hard to come by, and if he had missed this one, he had no idea when he might get another chance to enter the laboratory. Therefore, he had to seize the opportunity firmly.

Although Xia Yu had taken certain risks, the rewards were quite substantial. Not only did he secure the qualification to enter and leave the laboratory freely, but he also gained the status of primary author for the research topic on Z-move dance choreography.

Once this paper was published, Xia Yu would undoubtedly skyrocket to fame in the academic world. Following that, as long as he published another research paper on the exclusive Z-Crystal as the primary author, he would undoubtedly become an overnight sensation in the national academic circle, cementing his status as a Z-move expert second only to Elder Lin and Old Madam Qin.

If Elder Lin could be considered the pioneer of Z-moves in China, then Xia Yu himself was the core figure who perfected Z-moves. By then, Xia Yu would not only have accumulated sufficient fame, but he would also be able to forge good relationships with a group of powerful figures who possessed Z-crystals, such as Long Fan, Tan Yongsen, and others. This would be helpful for his future disclosures of Dynamax and Terastallization, at least serving as a deterrent to petty individuals, making them weigh their own strength before coveting the rare items in his hands.

After dinner, Xia Yu unswervingly accompanied his three Pokémon for four hours of training. While the system could help him acquire auxiliary items, move tutors, and even improve potential, a Pokémon's strength still had to be cultivated step by step.

It wasn't until 10:30 PM that Xia Yu finished washing up and lay down in bed, contemplating his future plans. Both academic research and personal strength had to be grasped firmly, with equal emphasis on both.

"First, regarding academics, I can publish a new research topic every three to five years. For instance, I'll announce Dynamax first, and three years later announce Gigantamax, keeping my reputation consistently heated and establishing my position as the undisputed leader in Pokémon academia."

"Second, regarding combat strength, my short-term goal is to break into the top two provincially this year and strive for a good ranking nationwide."

Xia Yu's expectations for winning the championship were not high; unless he used Mega Evolution, winning the championship was impossible. No matter how confident he was in his own strength, compared to those geniuses who had obtained quasi-legendary Pokémon since childhood, there was still a gap.

Speaking of combat power, Xia Yu remembered that he still had two system-rewarded items in his bag.

One was the [Rare Treasure Detector (Single-Use)] from the beginner's pack, which could explore undiscovered rarest treasures within a radius of one hundred kilometers.

The other was the reward for capturing three Dragon-type Pokémon under the [Dragon-Type Pokémon Master] achievement: the [Permanent TM - Dragon Pulse].

Both items were very important. First, the value of the [Permanent TM - Dragon Pulse] was immeasurable, especially for such a powerful Dragon-type move. However, precisely because it was too precious, Xia Yu could neither show it to others nor use it on his own Pokémon without being stealthy.

If he were to let all three of his Pokémon learn Dragon Pulse simultaneously and it were discovered by others, it might lead to numerous troubles. Because of this, he had only allowed Grovyle to learn Dragon Pulse so far.

Noibat and Charmander could wait a little longer; he would let them grow a bit before having them learn it.

As for the other item, the [Rare Treasure Detector (Single-Use)], which could explore undiscovered rarest treasures within a radius of one hundred kilometers:

When he received this item, Xia Yu had already realized its most crucial feature—that it explored the "rarest" undiscovered treasure within a hundred-kilometer radius.

This word "rarest" made Xia Yu realize that this item should be used only after choosing the right location. Since it discovered the rarest items, did it mean that if Xia Yu could know the general location of an Arceus Plate, he could find it using this item? Theoretically, that should be feasible. At the same time, there was another thing Xia Yu wasn't sure about: whether "undiscovered by anyone" referred to ownerless items or items yet to be unearthed. He simply didn't know.

He had held onto this item without using it in order to maximize its value. Now that he had arrived in the imperial capital—the most prosperous city in the entire country—it was naturally also the city with the most treasures. Using the detector here was undoubtedly the most appropriate choice.

Xia Yu's original plan was to visit the laboratory today and use the [Rare Treasure Detector (Single-Use)] tomorrow to go treasure hunting in the imperial capital. However, on one hand, Elder Lin had promised on his behalf that he would join Long Yangning for special training every weekend, which made it inconvenient for him to refuse. On the other hand, Xia Yu also needed to spend time writing the paper on the exclusive Z-crystal. Thus, the treasure-hunting plan had to be postponed.

Stashing the two items back into the system space, Xia Yu opened his forum thread for acquiring stones. Compared to the utter lack of response back in Starlight City, after arriving in the imperial capital, the number of replies to the thread surged dramatically, which also meant Xia Yu had a better chance of acquiring rare treasures.

Reading through the replies one by one, Xia Yu discovered that there were indeed quite a few rare stones in the imperial capital, ranging from various evolutionary stones to Everstones, with people replying and quoting their prices.

"Top-quality Light Stone, great condition, face-to-face transactions only."

"Top-tier item Eviolite, making your Chansey the ultimate tank."

"Rare stone, Pine Spring Stone; the pattern on the stone looks like green pines and clear springs, extremely high collectible value."

As Xia Yu continued browsing, he unexpectedly discovered yet another Mega Stone. From its appearance alone, it looked like a Gengarite, though he couldn't be entirely sure.

At the same time, Xia Yu also found an item resembling a Wishing Star, except that this Wishing Star did not emit any light and looked extremely dim.

The appearance of these two special stones pleasantly surprised Xia Yu, and he immediately wanted to buy them. However, perhaps due to the tale of a Z-Crystal windfall from a few years ago, the asking prices for these stones were generally quite high.

The story of the Z-Crystal windfall spoke of a stone collector who owned a Z-Crystal. Because Z-Crystals had not yet been made public at the time, he sold this Z-Crystal as ordinary jewelry for 8,000.

Back then, everyone regarded it as a pretty piece of jewelry crystal, so the price wasn't high.

A year after the lucky person bought the Z-Crystal, Z-moves were officially announced, and the price of a single Z-Crystal instantly skyrocketed into the hundreds of millions. That lucky person naturally consigned the Z-Crystal to an auction house, sold it for hundreds of millions, and made tens of millions in net profit.

Because of this incident, the premiums on these strange stones were generally quite high nowadays. Since Z-Crystals existed in this world, there might even be X-Crystals and Y-Crystals as well.

The item suspected to be a Gengarite was priced at 28,888, while the Wishing Star was slightly cheaper, yet still cost 8,000.

Though expensive, Xia Yu gritted his teeth and bought them anyway.

Looking at his depleted savings, Xia Yu pondered that while he had made plans for academic research and combat strength, perhaps the grand enterprise of making money should also be put on the agenda.