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Chapter 240: The Spatial Magnetic Field
🕑 Added 2025-10-04 12:20:19 +0000 UTCChapter 240: The Spatial Magnetic Field
"Huh?"
Watching the woman get closer, Basalt's eyes narrowed, and the feeling of disgust in his heart grew stronger.
He couldn't bring himself to just leave someone to die in the wild. But this was just a simulated exam. If he did nothing, there would be no major consequences for the female candidate; at most, she would have to retake the test. And retaking the test would be a good thing for her—far better than actually facing a life-threatening situation in the real wilderness.
But this act of hers, shifting her own danger onto someone else... Basalt truly couldn't stand it. It was too selfish.
He could imagine that if this woman encountered real danger in the wild, she would likely do the same thing. The principle was simple: better you than me.
Whoosh!
With a powerful leap, the Dodrio easily cleared the quicksand pit. But the moment it landed, countless roots shot out from the ground, binding it tightly and rendering it immobile.
The inner side of the quicksand pit was Lileep's root domain.
"Basalt, what are you doing?"
Seeing her immobilized Dodrio and the rapidly approaching Fearow, the female candidate's face changed.
She said coldly, "Basalt, you're a public figure. You can't just stand there and watch someone get eliminated, can you?"
The threat in her voice was palpable.
As the Rookie King of Centralis Province and the hotshot rookie of Metro City, Basalt could indeed be considered a public figure. If he dared to not save her, she would dare to expose his "inaction" to the public.
"Are you threatening me?" Basalt smiled, but his eyes grew even colder. This woman was completely unreasonable.
In a split second, he even considered helping her, just so he could pray that karma would catch up to her one day in the wild.
But in the end, he decided against it. He couldn't just swallow an insult like that.
Basalt stared coldly at the female candidate, saying nothing and making no move.
"Fear-ow!"
A moment later, the Fearow's attack arrived. The woman and her Dodrio were lambs to the slaughter.
But just as the Fearow's Drill Peck was about to hit the Dodrio, a translucent membrane of light suddenly appeared.
Inside the barrier, a yellow, bipedal, humanoid Pokémon with a long mustache and a spoon in each hand had appeared out of nowhere.
"An Alakazam!" Basalt recognized the Pokémon.
Clearly, in the nick of time, this Alakazam had used Teleport to appear on the battlefield and then used Protect.
But the appearance of this Alakazam also meant the end of the exam for the Dodrio's trainer.
"BASALT—" the female candidate's furious voice roared, filled with hatred.
But before she could spit out her venomous words, the Alakazam used Teleport again, taking her and her Dodrio away from the battlefield.
"I hope you don't go looking for trouble."
Staring at the spot where she had vanished, Basalt took out his Pokédex. The moment he had decided to do nothing, he had started recording, capturing the entire incident, including the ugly expression on the candidate's face.
"Fear-ow!"
"Meowth!"
With the Dodrio gone, the pursuing Fearow and Persian lost their target and turned their attention to Basalt.
"Have they formed an alliance?" Basalt raised an eyebrow.
Persian were extremely cunning Pokémon with high intelligence. In this secret realm, facing candidates who each had at least three Pokémon, they wouldn't just sit back and wait to be picked off. It was normal for Pokémon to form alliances.
He'd heard a story about a Pro-level exam where a powerful and charismatic Bisharp had organized a team of dozens of Pokémon and utterly routed the candidates. The pass rate for that exam had dropped to an appalling single-digit percentage, a classic example of the Pokémon turning the tables.
Watching the two Pokémon approach, ready to strike, Basalt said coldly, "Kill them."
"Broonz~"
"Dro-lisk~"
Bronzong and Excadrill exchanged a look and instantly erupted with power.
One "Meteor Crash" and the Fearow was sent packing. A follow-up Drill Run, and the Persian went down.
A few moments later, Basalt had two more tokens in his hand.
Seven kills.
With that business concluded, Basalt returned to the cave to rest.
The battle had attracted some onlookers, but after seeing the strength of Excadrill and Bronzong, they all wisely retreated. Bullying the weak and fearing the strong was a law of survival. Pokémon wouldn't take on a fight that was too dangerous.
...
The night was as dark as water. Basalt rested against the rock wall. Lileep and Excadrill were exchanging energy again, while Super Bell was replaying the memory of the Probopass creating the magnetic field to open the spatial gate.
Outside the cave, the sounds of battle would occasionally erupt, the flashes of fire and electricity visible even from a distance. Fortunately, with his experience from the mining realm, Basalt was used to this.
"Broonz~"
After an unknown amount of time, Super Bell suddenly opened its eyes.
"How did it go?" Basalt raised an eyebrow.
"I can't say it went smoothly, but I can't say it didn't," Bronzong said, giving an ambiguous answer. "I followed the magnetic field configuration of that Probopass and used my psychic power to trace it. I was able to sense the distribution and flow of this secret realm's magnetic field."
"But when I tried just now, I found that my psychic power isn't strong enough to open a gate here. Then I thought, maybe tomorrow we can follow the flow of the magnetic field to find the weakest point in the entire realm—the spatial weak point. It should be easiest to open a gate there."
"Find the secret realm's spatial weak point?" Basalt was shocked. This topic was a bit over his head.
But from his "Common Knowledge" studies, he knew that every secret realm had at least one spatial weak point, and these points were the easiest places to construct a spatial gate. Some secret realms even had permanent gates at their weak points, like the cliff at the Cinnabar Sanctuary; its gate was always open. This was how some trainers in the real world would accidentally stumble into a secret realm.
But what Basalt hadn't expected was that after seeing it just once, Bronzong had already learned so much. He had originally planned to ask the Weather Bureau to help teach Bronzong how to open secret realms. Now, it seemed he could save himself the trouble of asking for a favor.
If Bronzong wanted to try, Basalt was all for it. He had already hunted seven Pokémon. He could easily take down a few more unlucky ones tomorrow to reach ten, which would guarantee his pass. He had time to spare for an experiment.
After getting Basalt's approval, Bronzong nodded. "Alright then. I'll study it some more tonight and try to master it."
With that, Super Bell closed its eyes again, its psychic power flowing as it carefully sensed the changes in the surrounding magnetic field.
...
The night passed without incident.
The next morning, Basalt set out again with his team. But unlike the first day, when they had wandered aimlessly like headless flies, today Basalt had a clear goal: find the weakest point in the spatial magnetic field.
"It's to the east."
After carefully sensing the direction of the magnetic field, Bronzong began to lead the team east.
Unfortunately, Basalt didn't dare to fly in the secret realm, so their progress was slow. They had only covered about twenty kilometers by the afternoon.
"I can feel it. The spatial weak point is very close. It should be just through that forest ahead."
Standing before a sparse patch of woods, the levitating Bronzong had a look of joy on its "face."
"In that case, let's go in," Basalt nodded, also filled with anticipation.
But what he didn't know was that in the monitoring room, the examiners who had been silently tracking his location were looking concerned.
"I remember those Shiftry and Nuzleaf chose that forest as their base after they entered, right?"
"Those two Shiftry and five Nuzleaf? Oh crap. Basalt is in danger. If he gets ambushed by seven Pokémon, even with his skill, it'll be tough to handle."
"But why was he heading in this direction in the first place? He seemed to have a clear objective, walking in a straight line the whole time."
Captain Wang and Examiner Jensen exchanged a look, also confused.
Although they didn't want Basalt to be eliminated, as examiners, they couldn't show favoritism. All they could do was pray that Basalt's reactions were fast enough to escape unscathed.
It was already 1 PM, and the assessment would end at 4 PM. As long as Basalt could escape the forest, even if he lost two Pokémon, he should be able to last until the end. It would be a real shame if a trainer with his talent was eliminated.
...
Entering the forest, Basalt didn't sense any danger. Bronzong and Excadrill were on high alert but had found nothing unusual.
But Lileep suddenly stopped. It waved its tentacles, sensing something.
