Chapter 372: Poison Types In order to figure out the mystery behind the swamp, Julian set up camp nearby and stayed for ten days. For the first five days, the swamp expanded at a steady rate, corroding twenty meters per day. On the sixth day, the rate of expansion suddenly slowed down. By the ninth day, the corrosion stopped entirely. On the tenth day, there was still no further expansion, as if the swamp had truly stabilized. In these ten days, other than confirming this, Julian had no other findings despite all his observations. After staying here for another five days, the changes in the swamp began again, the thick, purple poison mist that had been lingering above the swamp started to sink—slowly getting absorbed into the swamp itself. In less than half a day, all the toxic gas was completely absorbed by the swamp. “What exactly is going on here?” The poisonous gas vanished, and the corrosion stopped. Julian stood at the edge of the swamp, racking his brain. This world was full of strange, mysterious, and unexplainable phenomena, and Julian was not an expert in this field, so solving this problem was definitely out of his comfort zone. Beside him, Celebi was munching on a drumstick, with a thoughtful expression on its face, for some reason… this scene felt familiar. Had it seen something like this before? Was it fifty years ago? Or maybe over a hundred? "Meta!" Just then, Metagross approached Julian with a serious expression. "What's wrong?" Metagross: "A large number of Pokémon are coming this way." "How many?" Metagross: "More than 100,000." Julian: (⊙_⊙)??? --- From high above, standing on Metagross' back, Julian looked down at the land below. At this moment, the entire ground was densely packed with Pokémon—all different species, different sizes… But they all had one thing in common. They were all Poison-types. "What's the count now?" Julian asked. Metagross: "One hundred and fifty thousand." With its four supercomputer brains, Metagross could instantly calculate their numbers, even though the Pokémon below looked like a massive, writhing sea of ants. And the number was still rising, it was just 100,000, three hours ago. Julian squinted at the distant horizon—where a dark line was moving toward them, more were coming. A normal Advanced-level secret realm housed nearly five to six hundred million Pokémon—some even had over a billion. And this particular Advanced secret realm No. 98 was dominated by Water and Grass-types, which were generally mild-tempered. Because of that, the realm had an insanely high Pokémon population, exceeding a billion. Right now, there were only 150,000, which was a drop in the bucket compared to a billion, even if all of them were Poison-types. But if Poison-types made up even just ten percent of the realm, that still meant at least one hundred million Poison-type Pokémon could be on their way. Many Grass-type Pokémon also had Poison-typing, and even some Water-types carried the Poison attribute. Although Water and Grass were the dominant types in this secret realm, the third most common type was Poison. Water-types and Grass-types each made up 30% of the total Pokémon population, while Poison-types accounted for 20%. The remaining 20% belonged to other types. That meant, in a realm of a billion Pokémon, there were at least two hundred million Poison-types. Right now, with only a hundred fifty thousand gathered, this wasn’t even the vanguard. And yet, despite their overwhelming numbers, the Poison-types didn’t make a sound. No fights. No chaos. They simply stood still, eyes locked on the swamp, as if something inside was calling them. This scene reminded Julian of something, back in Haitian City, when Manaphy was born, it had also attracted a massive number of Water-type Pokémon. Thinking of this possibility, Julian's eyes lit up and he said excitedly: "could it be that a Poison-type Mythical or Legendary Pokémon is about to be born?" Celebi: “I remember now!” Celebi suddenly shouted, yanking Julian’s hair in excitement. “It’s a treasure! The swamp is about to give birth to a treasure!” Before Julian could ask further, Celebi continued hurriedly— “I’ve seen this before! About a hundred and fifty years ago!” Julian paused, staring at Celebi: “So… what kind of treasure was born 'one hundred and fifty years' ago?” He deliberately emphasized the words “one hundred and fifty years”. Celebi: “…I forgot.” Julian: (¬_¬) "Meta!" Metagross: "Someone is coming." The Poké Ball was opened, and before Celebi could argue, Julian returned it to its Poké Ball. Following Metagross’ pointed claw, Julian saw a figure rapidly approaching, within a few seconds, the person had already closed the distance to a mere hundred meters. Looking at the familiar Pidgeot. Wasn’t this the same trainer he had encountered on his first day in this secret realm? Back then, the guy hadn’t even given his name before leaving. The other trainer simply nodded at Julian without speaking—then turned his gaze toward the Poison-type gathering below. There were definitely other trainers in the Secret Realm, but how many, Julian didn’t know. With an abnormal migration like this happening, anyone paying attention would notice something was off, and any trainer with a bit of curiosity would come to investigate. It's just that Julian had discovered it earlier, so he was the first to arrive. Now, a second trainer had arrived, and it wouldn’t be long before the third… the fourth… and more followed. If what Celebi said was true, and this strange behavior of Poison-types was because of a treasure forming inside the swamp, then this treasure was likely a Ultimate-tier Poison-type treasure. Any treasure that reached the level of an Ultimate treasure had the power to transform a Pokémon—elevating it to a whole new level, achieving a qualitative leap. "Mr. Walker, do you know what’s going on with these Poison-types?" Just as Julian was pondering how to secure the upcoming Poison-type treasure for himself—before the other trainers or the Pokémon below could claim it—a voice broke his thoughts. "If you're going to ask a question, at least introduce yourself first," Julian said. The other trainer was taken aback, clearly not expecting such a response, and then said: "The name’s Freddie. Just an ordinary wandering trainer." Drakoria had over five hundred Elite trainers—but in reality, only a handful were widely known. Most of the public only recognized those who competed in the Elite Challenge which took place every four years. And some Elite trainers preferred to stay in the shadows, some were so cautious and secretive that they mastered the art of concealment, hiding their true strength under layers of misdirection. A trainer might appear to only have an Advanced-level Pokémon, when in reality, they could be a peak Elite in disguise. Every year, there were countless cases of trainers getting caught off guard by these hidden Elites. Julian searched his memory but couldn’t recall hearing the name Freddie before. Of course, it was entirely possible that this wasn’t his real name at all. With just a Pidgeot, Julian couldn’t gauge his strength—and from what he saw, the Pidgeot wasn’t at an Elite. "It’s not a fake name." As if seeing Julian's suspicion, Freddie explained. Julian simply nodded. ***** Upto 30 chapters ahead on patreon :- /ReduxMagister