Pokemon: Reborn Rich Alternate Earth

Chapter 988: Chapter 1205: Regional Variant

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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