## Chapter 91: Larvitar, Who Eats and Takes
The encounter with Gurkinn was just a small interlude for Bai Feng.
After Gurkinn walked away, Bai Feng called out to his Pokémon: "Alright everyone, it's time to go!"
Hearing this, the Pokémon swarmed around Bai Feng.
At noon, Bai Feng took everyone to sample the local delicacies of Shalour City, and then they set off towards the Town where the Silver-Gold Stone Mine was located.
Upon arriving, Bai Feng found that there were quite a few Pokémon Trainers coming and going in the Town. Were they all here for Mining?
Bai Feng asked someone about the Mine Owner's Residence and only found out upon arriving that the Mine Owner did not actually live in the Town. Only a Steward was in charge of things here.
This Mine was now almost depleted, and selling Mining tickets wouldn't make much money at all. Its owner naturally wouldn't focus his attention on this.
Bai Feng promptly paid the money and then heard the Steward say: "Esteemed Pokémon Trainer sir, we have a Map of the entire Mine here. Would you like to buy one?"
Bai Feng thought for a moment and decided that having a Map would indeed be much more convenient, so he nodded: "Alright, I'll take one. How much is it?"
"Thank you for your patronage, 300 Pokémon Dollar." The Steward immediately grinned, his face full of wrinkles.
Bai Feng heard this and thought, Wow, the Map alone costs almost as much as the ticket money. They really know how to make money.
After paying the money, Bai Feng smoothly received the Map. He casually glanced over it and found that the Map's content was quite detailed. If he could really find ore, the Map wouldn't be considered expensive.
However, just as Bai Feng was about to leave, the Steward called out to him again.
"Esteemed Pokémon Trainer sir, we also have items for Mining here. Would you like to get a set? They are very complete, guaranteed to help you get twice the result with half the effort when Mining."
Saying this, he pulled out a bundle. After opening it, Bai Feng saw Safety Helmets, Shovels, Hoes, and other such items piled up inside. They were indeed quite complete.
"How much?" Bai Feng asked expressionlessly.
This is outrageous how much they make!
"Sir, 1000 Pokémon Dollar!" the Steward said with a smile.
You sly old fox
Bai Feng almost flared up and hit him. Black-hearted merchant! They weren't making money from selling tickets at all; they were clearly making money from selling Maps and tools.
However, Bai Feng ultimately bought a set.
To ensure his money wasn't wasted, Bai Feng also asked the Steward for some information, such as whether there were any Pokémon inhabiting the Mine and roughly how many people were here for Mining.
Bai Feng also received another piece of news, which was that rare Pokémon Eevee seemed to be appearing in the Mine, and there seemed to be more than one, which was why more and more Pokémon Trainers were flocking to the Town, trying to catch Eevee in the Mine.
Thanks to this news, the Steward made a lot of money selling Maps and tools.
Bai Feng expressed doubt about the truth of this news. He even suspected that this news was spread by the Steward himself with the purpose of attracting more Pokémon Trainers.
The more people who entered the Mine to explore, the more money he would make.
After paying the ticket money and buying the tools, Bai Feng was led to the Mine entrance by a Servant called by the Steward.
The Silver-Gold Stone Mine was located opposite a Cliff. The only way to reach the other side of the Cliff was a suspension bridge. The suspension bridge was guarded by people sent by the Steward, and those who hadn't paid the ticket money were not allowed to cross.
If you wanted to force your way through with violence, just wait for Officer Jenny to put out a warrant for your arrest, because the entire Mine was the Tycoon's private territory. If he didn't allow you to go, you couldn't go.
After crossing the suspension bridge, Bai Feng appeared at a Mine entrance.
Bai Feng took out the Map and found that the aerial view of the entire Mine looked like a bird's head. The Mine entrance where Bai Feng was located was the position of the bird's beak.
But in reality, the entire Mine did not have just one entrance. When the Mine was not yet depleted, mining workers successively dug out several entrances and exits for convenience, which were now marked with red dots on the Map.
Bai Feng counted, there were seven in total.
After changing into the special Mining clothes and putting on his Safety Helmet at the entrance, Bai Feng carried the Hoe on his shoulder and went in. He only brought Larvitar and Heliolisk with him. Larvitar was holding a mini Shovel in its hand.
When entering the Mine, Larvitar hummed a little tune, its mood visibly brightened.
Although the Mine was depleted, the facilities inside hadn't been dismantled yet. Mine lamps were hung in two rows along both sides of the Passage, illuminating the entire space brightly.
Bai Feng and his two Pokémon hadn't gone far when they encountered a Pokémon Trainer. He was wearing the same clothes as Bai Feng, carrying an identical Hoe on his shoulder, and was accompanied by a Houndour.
This Pokémon Trainer's first reaction upon seeing Bai Feng was vigilance. The Houndour beside him also immediately sent out a warning signal towards Bai Feng and his group.
Bai Feng had no intention of interacting with others and silently led the two Pokémon away.
After walking for a while longer, Bai Feng suddenly saw Larvitar walk into a corner, scoop up a clump of dirt with the mini Shovel in its hand, and stuff it into its mouth.
"Hey, hey, hey... Larvitar, what are you doing? Why are you eating?" Bai Feng exclaimed.
"Munch munch..." Larvitar's mouth bulged, and in a moment, it swallowed the clump of dirt into its belly.
"Yo~~" Delicious!
It turned out that although the Mine was depleted, the soil in the Mine still contained a large amount of minerals similar in composition to Silver-Gold Stone. These minerals were the things that attracted Larvitar.
After figuring out the reason, Bai Feng felt very complicated. It felt as if he hadn't been feeding Larvitar enough; the poor kid was so hungry it was eating dirt.
"Alright, eat if you want to."
Bai Feng led Larvitar and Heliolisk deeper into the Mine bit by bit. Along the way, they didn't find a single piece of Silver-Gold Stone. However, Larvitar dug a little here and dug a little there, eventually eating until its little belly was round and bulging.
When it really couldn't eat anymore, it asked Bai Feng to take out a bag to help it store them, to eat when they got Home.
In short, anyone who came here would lose money, except for Larvitar.
Larvitar seemed to be born with the ability to distinguish which soil contained rich minerals and which soil was barren. All the soil it chose was high-quality soil.
You ask how Bai Feng knew? Larvitar said so itself. It even said it was worried that Bai Feng couldn't carry too much, so it had already discarded the slightly inferior ones.
Bai Feng almost rolled his eyes after hearing its words. Thank you very much.
In the end, half the space in Bai Feng's originally relatively empty Space Backpack was used by Larvitar to store its "tasty little snacks".
Along the way, Bai Feng and his group successively encountered several Pokémon Trainers, but they didn't interact with each other. They just exchanged glances and went their separate ways, didn't even say a word.
When they reached a fork in the Passage, Bai Feng suddenly noticed that all the Mine lamps ahead were broken. It was completely dark around them, and they couldn't see the situation ahead at all.
Bai Feng took out a flashlight from his person. This was also one of the items bought from the Steward.
It has to be said, although that Steward was obsessed with money, he really did prepare all the necessary things.
The light was naturally not as good as the Mine lamps, but it was enough to see the way.
However, at this moment, a whooshing sound suddenly echoed in the Mine. An Arbok had appeared at Bai Feng's right side without him knowing when, and it was raising its Tail and using Poison Tail to fiercely lash out at Heliolisk.
Heliolisk was the most threatening presence in their group. If they wanted to ambush, it was natural to ambush it first.
A flash of blue light suddenly flickered in Bai Feng's eyes, directly acting upon Arbok and causing Arbok's attack movement to pause for an instant.
Bai Feng's current psychic power was still relatively weak; it was impossible to completely restrain a Pokémon. But as long as its movement could be momentarily halted, that was already enough.
Heliolisk's speed was extremely fast. It disappeared from its original spot in the blink of an eye and immediately appeared behind Arbok.
At the same time, Arbok's Poison Tail also lashed down. Unfortunately, it hit nothing.
Before Arbok could prepare its next wave of attack, Bai Feng's psychic power fell upon it again. At the same time, Heliolisk's attack also arrived.
Its entire body burst forth with strong, dazzling golden electric current, illuminating the entire Passage.
Because it was suppressed by Bai Feng's psychic power, Arbok's movement was halted again, and it had no time to dodge Heliolisk's Parabolic Charge.
"Hiss~"
As a miserable cry rang out, Arbok fell to the ground in response and convulsed all over.
Heliolisk was now an AA grade Pokémon! Its power was only slightly less than Bai Ye's. Coupled with its extremely skilled use of its moves, how could Arbok possibly withstand its full-power attack?
However, Bai Feng's attention wasn't on Arbok. Using the light generated by Heliolisk's golden electric current just now, Bai Feng seemed to have noticed that something seemed to be hidden in the darkness not far away.
Sure enough, as soon as Bai Feng shone the flashlight beam over there, a black shadow suddenly darted out from the darkness and lunged directly at Bai Feng.
Fortunately, Bai Feng was prepared. He spread his psychic power outwards completely, fully intercepting the unknown creature charging towards him.
At this moment, Larvitar also reacted.
"Yo~"
Its tender voice echoed in the Mine. A white light lit up on Larvitar's head, and then it lowered its head and fiercely crashed into the black shadow.
"Bang!!!"
The black shadow was not small in size, but it was still sent flying by Larvitar's Iron Head and directly stuck to the wall not far away.
Larvitar was small in size, but its ability was not small.
Through the flashlight, Bai Feng finally saw its true face. It turned out to be a Sandshrew.
While Bai Feng was thinking about why Sandshrew and Arbok would ambush him, Heliolisk suddenly used Agility and darted out again.
A flash of electric current flickered in the darkness in the distance, immediately followed by another miserable cry.
"Someone?"
In an instant, Bai Feng understood that he had been ambushed by another Pokémon Trainer. The Mine lamps here were probably deliberately broken by the other party.
Before long, Bai Feng saw Heliolisk dragging a scruffy middle-aged Manager out of the darkness. His entire body was flashing with golden electric current and convulsing from time to time. He was clearly hit by Heliolisk's Thunder Wave.
This was the Pokémon Trainer of Arbok and Sandshrew.
Throwing the scruffy Manager aside, Heliolisk pointed to where the scruffy Manager had been hiding.
"You mean there are still people over there?" Bai Feng asked in surprise.
"Ay bo~"
Heliolisk nodded.
"This person's accomplice?" Bai Feng asked.
"Ay bo~ Ay bo~"
Heliolisk quickly shook its head.
Hearing this, Bai Feng held the flashlight and cautiously walked towards that direction. When he got there and looked, he saw three people lying scattered on the ground.
Clearly, Bai Feng wasn't the first person the scruffy Manager had ambushed. He had successfully ambushed the three people before him.
Bai Feng checked the condition of the three people. Fortunately, the scruffy Manager didn't have the guts to kill anyone. These three people had just fainted.
"Heliolisk, use your electric current to stimulate them a little."
"Ay bo~"
Heliolisk nodded, then walked up to the three unconscious people. A faint trace of electric current flickered at its fingertips.
As Heliolisk placed its finger on one of the people, that person's body twitched, then suddenly opened their eyes.
"Ahhh... What happened? What happened?"
That person suddenly sat up from the ground.
"Are you alright? Do you remember what happened?" Bai Feng asked,
The three people lying here were two women and one man. The first to receive Heliolisk's "electrotherapy" was naturally the male.
It was then that the male Pokémon Trainer noticed Bai Feng's presence.
"I... I think I was ambushed by someone," the man rubbed the back of his head, which was still faintly aching, "Could the person who ambushed me be you?"
Bai Feng: ...
Serves you right for being ambushed.
"What do you think?"
The man chuckled: "Hahaha... I was just joking, just joking."
Do you think you're quite humorous?
"You saved me, didn't you?"
The man finally caught on.
Bai Feng nodded and told the man what had happened.
Then Bai Feng used the same method to wake up the two girls.
Among the three, the male Pokémon Trainer was the oldest, probably upwards of 25 years old. The two girls were around fourteen or fifteen, and the other was around seventeen or eighteen.
The male Pokémon Trainer was named Qi Shu, the slightly older female Pokémon Trainer was named Mei Ling, and the younger one was named Mo Mo.
Learning that Bai Feng had saved them, the three were naturally extremely grateful.
From the scruffy Manager, the three retrieved their Poké Balls and Space Backpacks that had been taken.
"Are the three of you going to continue exploring, or leave here?" Bai Feng asked.
Qi Shu hesitated a little. He wanted to continue exploring. After all, they had paid the money and bought the equipment. Wouldn't it be too much of a loss to just go back like this?
The two girls, however, were decisive and immediately stated they wanted to leave here. Having experienced what just happened, both were quite frightened.
Hearing this, Bai Feng said: "Alright then, since you're going out, then take this person with you as well. Just take him directly to the Police Station." Saying this, Bai Feng pointed to the scruffy Manager who was still convulsing on the ground.
When the scruffy Manager heard he was going to be sent to the Police Station, his face immediately filled with terror. But because of Heliolisk's Thunder Wave, he couldn't even speak properly, let alone beg for mercy. He could only keep twisting his face.
But no one paid him any attention.
Hearing Bai Feng's words, Mei Ling said: "Leave this to me!" Saying this, she glared fiercely at the scruffy Manager.
Mo Mo also nodded along.
Seeing that Mei Ling and Mo Mo were both leaving, Qi Shu thought for a moment and said: "Then I'll go with you too. Letting you two girls escort a criminal, it's really a bit worrying."
Hearing this, Mei Ling immediately beamed with joy: "That's great, I feel much more at ease."
(End of this chapter)