Pokemon: Reborn Rich Alternate Earth

Chapter 987: Chapter 1204: AllergyChapter 988: Chapter 1205: Regional Variant

Seeing Julian return, Celebi eagerly flew over, asking curiously as it approached, "Julian, what did Zeraora do to that Mightyena afterward?"

When Julian had taken Zeraora aside earlier, Celebi had secretly followed. Julian had known, but didn't stop it.

However, when he started recounting Zeraora's embarrassing stories, he quietly signaled for Celebi to leave. After all, Celebi was a notorious blabbermouth. If it found out, it would definitely tell Jirachi, Arcanine, and the others later.

And before long, every single one of Julian's Pokémon would know all of Zeraora's humiliating secrets. If that happened, Zeraora really might slit its own throat—though before doing so, it would most likely take Julian down with it.

"Don't be so nosy."

Julian lightly tapped Celebi on the forehead. He could feel Zeraora's Poké Ball at his waist shaking violently—if he actually told the story, Zeraora would definitely jump out immediately.

Julian: 'Could I really tell you that a drunk Zeraora knocked out the Mightyena and drank wolf milk together with several Poochyena, only to end up being allergic to it, breaking out in rashes all over its body that took more than a week to disappear?'

'And that it drank so greedily—even though it was already much larger than the Mightyena and she barely had any milk to begin with—that it finished every last drop?'

'Leaving those poor Poochyena pups with empty bellies for the next two or three days.'

'And that the female Mightyena went around asking everyone if they'd seen a bipedal yellow Pokémon, clearly intent on settling scores with Zeraora.'

But at the time, she hadn't gotten a clear look, because Zeraora had knocked her out cold right away. Otherwise, Zeraora's reputation would have been ruined long ago.

'Allergic to Mightyena milk!'

Just thinking about it made Julian burst out laughing.

Some humans were naturally sensitive to certain things, and consuming them would cause discomfort, or in severe cases, even death.

Pokémon were the same; some of them were also allergic to certain things.

But being allergic to Mightyena milk... just sounded way too funny.

Julian's sudden laughter made Celebi even more curious. It was itching to know, but didn't dare press Julian for answers.

Just then, the Poké Ball at his waist opened on its own.

Pop!

Zeraora materialized, staring fixedly at Julian with piercing eyes, as if demanding, 'What are you laughing at?'

Its fists were already clenched.

Julian took a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress his laughter—though his slightly trembling shoulders betrayed just how hard he was struggling to hold it in.

"Don't go too far!"

Zeraora glared furiously at Julian. 'This bastard! I already agreed to become your Pokémon—why are you still laughing at me? I never should have given in back then. I should have just fought you to the death.'

"Ahem… Lucario."

Julian masked his laughter with a cough and immediately called out for Lucario.

The ever perceptive Lucario placed a paw against Julian's back and channeled a wave of Aura into him, calming his emotions.

Looking at the still fuming Zeraora, Julian walked over and slung an arm around its shoulders. "Alright, alright. I wasn't doing it on purpose. Besides, from now on, we're partners who entrust our lives to each other."

'Partners who entrust our lives to each other'—those final words struck Zeraora deeply.

As a Mythical Pokémon, it had never known its parents. It had always been alone—no partners, no friends. Usually, it didn't even have another Pokémon to exchange a single word with.

And now Julian was saying that from here on out, they would be partners who entrusted their lives to one another. The feeling was truly strange… and completely new.

It could sense that Julian was sincere when he said those words.

That meant this human, whom it had only just met today, was willing to lay down his life for it.

This feeling of being trusted… it was experiencing it for the first time.

"Here, this is for you. Consider it a welcome gift."

Julian handed the Thunder Shoot to Zeraora. He had thought this Electric-type Ultimate treasure might be useless, and had even considered trading it for a treasure of a different Typing once he got out.

But now, unexpectedly, he had caught a Zeraora.

So naturally, this Thunder Shoot now belonged to it—and Zeraora also became Julian's first Electric-type Pokémon.

"For me?!"

Taking the Thunder Shoot and sensing the rich Electric-type energy surging within it, Zeraora looked at Julian in disbelief. Such a treasure was being given directly to it—a Pokémon that had just been captured, with hardly any emotional bond yet.

Was this really okay?

"Yeah. What, you think it's not good enough? Though honestly, the Thunder Shoot's attributes really are average. When we get out, I'll see if I can find you something better," Julian said.

The enhancement provided by the Thunder Shoot wasn't particularly strong—it could only be considered a mid-tier Ultimate treasure.

Julian remembered that the Walker family still had several Electric-type Ultimate treasures, and with the family's influence, obtaining a few more wouldn't be difficult.

There was even a top-tier Ultimate Electric-type treasure in Drakoria's treasury.

"No, no! Not at all!"

Zeraora quickly shook its head. This was an Ultimate treasure—how could it possibly look down on it? Back when it had obtained the Light Wing, a speed-oriented Ultimate treasure, it had gotten it through nothing but sheer dumb luck.

And even that story was tied to one of its past embarrassing incidents.

Now Julian was directly giving it an Ultimate treasure that matched its own Type—there was no way it wouldn't be overjoyed.

And from the sound of Julian's words, there would be even better treasures coming its way later.

'This human, no—wait. My Trainer is seriously amazing. As expected of someone who has subdued four First-class Legendaries—he probably has plenty of good stuff.'

"Alright, everyone, let me introduce you. This is Zeraora. From now on, he's one of our own. Let's give him a warm welcome!" Julian announced to his Pokémon.

The Pokémon all voiced their welcome.

The most enthusiastic was Arcanine. The big dog strode right up to Zeraora and said, "Stick with me from now on. Together, we'll take down that stupid bird!"

It then gestured toward Moltres, indicating that the stupid bird was that one.

"You dumb dog, are you looking for a beating?"

Moltres swooped over and swiped at Arcanine with a talon.

And just like that, the bird and the dog were at it again. Naturally, given the gap in strength, Arcanine was being thoroughly pummeled by Moltres.

Zeraora felt a bit unaccustomed to the scene, but just then, Lucario walked over and handed it a vegetable basket.

Zeraora reflexively took it.

"Slow~"

Seeing Zeraora's natural receptiveness and how its paws gripped the basket handles perfectly, Slowking—standing off to the side—couldn't help but nod with a satisfied expression.

It walked up to Zeraora and offered it a small bag of walnuts.

"I don't eat those."

Zeraora shook its head.

That very instant, every single Pokémon turned to look at Zeraora—even Moltres and Arcanine, who had been fighting, froze mid-action.

They all had the same thought: 'This guy actually refused the Great Steward Slowking... Truly, a newborn calf fears no tiger.'

*****

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Having caught Zeraora, this trip to the secret realm had already been worthwhile. As a staunch advocate of good looks, Zeraora's appearance also perfectly aligned with Julian's aesthetic preferences.

This guy could serve as the visual centerpiece of Julian's team alongside Lucario.

According to Zeraora, the areas near the forest were the Sand's Reach, Aipom Hill, and Firespit Island—a volcanic crater. It had been to those places and was quite familiar with them.

This clearly showed that it was the kind of Pokémon that wandered around all day.

Most Pokémon had limited activity ranges—even Champion-level Pokémon rarely left their own territory.

But Zeraora was different. Even the vast the forest wasn't enough to keep it in one place—it had also gone to three other areas.

Calling itself a wanderer wasn't wrong at all.

Fortunately, its strength was decent, and being a Mythical Pokémon, most Pokémon gave it some leeway. Otherwise, it wouldn't have had the freedom to roam everywhere like this.

Julian had already visited the Sand's Reach, spending about two and a half days exploring it and finding two sub-Ultimate treasures.

Now, he was at the Firespit Island.

The entire island area wasn't actually very large—only about half the size of Lake City. This made it one of the smallest area Julian had explored so far in the Primal Secret Realm.

Most of the Pokémon living here were naturally Fire-types.

"Arf~"

Seated atop Arcanine's back, Julian used his psychic powers to isolate the surrounding heat. The temperature here hovered around sixty to seventy degrees Celsius.

Without specialized heat-resistant gear, a human body wouldn't last long and would be prone to low-temperature burns.

For Fire-type Pokémon, though, this temperature was quite pleasant. At the same time, the power of Fire-type moves was slightly amplified here, while Water-type moves were conversely weakened.

"Arf~"

Arcanine greeted a few Magmar, though they completely ignored it.

As a social butterfly, Arcanine's motto was to greet everyone, even strangers—who knew, they might become acquaintances later.

Julian held the Dowsing Machine in his hand. There were plenty of red dots on the screen, but none of them were what he was looking for. He had grown too lazy to seek out treasures below the sub-Ultimate tier.

For his Pokémon, such items no longer provided any meaningful enhancement. At best, they were just tasty little snacks.

"Arf~"

Arcanine's nose twitched, and its mood became slightly excited—but immediately afterward, that excitement turned a bit peculiar.

"What's wrong?"

Julian thought it had discovered something.

Arcanine: "I smell something like my kind… but it doesn't feel quite right."

As it said this, its dog-like face was full of confusion. It sniffed again, sensing something similar to its own kind, yet also feeling that something was off.

"Could it be that one of your kind is in heat?" Julian said with a grin.

When some female Pokémon went into heat, their scent changed. This scent was easily picked up by males, letting them know that the female was looking for a mate.

But of course, Arcanine would be able to tell that—so Julian was just joking.

"If you're curious, let's go take a look."

Julian was also quite curious. He had great confidence in Arcanine's nose.

His dog's sense of smell was definitely superior to most other Arcanine—not just because of strength, but because it had a natural talent in this area.

Now that it said the scent was both similar and different to its own, there had to be something unusual about it.

"Arf~"

Arcanine nodded and began sprinting in the direction the scent was coming from.

The smell was strong—there was no need to stop and confirm the direction. And it didn't belong to just one Pokémon; it seemed to come from at least a dozen.

After running for about ten minutes, Arcanine found the source of the scent—the one that felt familiar yet oddly strange.

"Arf?"

Arcanine: "Are these... my own kind?"

It stared at the dozen or so Pokémon not far away. They looked mostly similar to itself, yet there were some differences.

"Must be regional forms," Julian observed.

He looked at the three Arcanine and twelve Growlithe.

Their appearance was about eighty percent similar to the Arcanine and Growlithe from the outside world.

These Arcanine had grayish-black fur, making them look more like lions.

Moreover, these regional Growlithe and Arcanine were dual Fire- and Rock-type, whereas the normal ones were purely Fire-type.

"Arf~"

Arcanine's arrival naturally drew the attention of these regional variant Arcanine.

When they saw it, they were all taken aback.

'Is this one of our kind? It looks similar—but why does it look different too?'

Among the three Arcanine, two walked over and circled Julian's Arcanine a few times.

Arcanine No.1: "Were you disfigured? Why do you look so ugly?"

Arcanine No.2: "Bro, who beat you up like this? Let's go get revenge."

The simple-minded Arcanine had already concluded that Julian's Arcanine was one of their own kind, but had been beaten up by someone, which was why it looked different from them.

'Ugly?!'

The moment Arcanine heard that, it immediately got furious. By the standards of the outside world, its appearance was that of a famously handsome young fellow—and they dare call it ugly?

"You're the ugly ones! Your whole family is ugly!"

Arcanine didn't care whether they were the same species or not—if you called it ugly, then you weren't its kind. Even if you were, it wouldn't acknowledge it.

Julian patted Arcanine to calm the dog down.

"We come from the outside world. Arcanine out there all look like mine—and my Arcanine is among the most handsome ones even out there."

"Arf!"

Arcanine nodded, quite satisfied with what its trainer had said.

'Outside world?'

The two Arcanine clearly had no idea what the "outside world" meant. After all, they had never even left the volcanic crater.

So they naturally interpreted the "outside world" as somewhere beyond the crater.

"Oh, so you came from beyond the crater," Arcanine No.1 said in sudden realization.

"Something like that."

Julian didn't bother to explain further and simply nodded.

He used his Probing Eyes to examine the three Arcanine and twelve Growlithe, and suddenly noticed that one of the Growlithe had a very weak aura.

The Probing Eyes showed that it was currently sick, with a countdown of three days—if it didn't receive treatment in time, it would probably die within those three days.

"Arf?"

Arcanine: "Master, what are you looking at?"

Arcanine keenly noticed Julian's gaze lingering on the Growlithe, and alarm bells immediately went off in its mind.

'What now? You just caught Zeraora not long ago—has the 'new favorite' already gotten old? Are you thinking of finding another one?'

Arcanine had a decent understanding of what went on in its trainer's mind.

As Celebi would put it—he was a total playboy.

*****

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