When Silence Faced Silence

Morning training ended.

Ignoring the onlooking Sentrets and Ledybas, Heiduo silently went about his business.

He did not have a habit of cooking for every wild Pokémon, so after breakfast, he parted ways with them.

If he hurried today, he could reach the Pokémon Nature Preserve before dark. Then he could hopefully arrive at Mt. Silver sooner.

Honestly, Heiduo was already considering setting up a base on Mt. Silver. Although most of the Pokémon there were powerful and extremely violent, he definitely needed a fixed place to stay.

Either a tree hollow or a cave.

Between the two, Heiduo preferred the former.

Because aside from its outer region, Mt. Silver had another particularly famous location: Mt. Silver Cave.

In the games, Larvitar could only be caught in Mt. Silver Cave, not in the outer region, which fit its Pokédex entry perfectly.

—[Born deep underground, it will not emerge until it has eaten all the soil around it.]

Naturally, Heiduo did not believe that nonsense about a Larvitar needing to eat an entire mountain to grow up. Rock-type and Ground-type Pokémon obtained part of their bodily nutrition from minerals.

Like Donphan searching for agate.

Why did it search for agate? Why was it born knowing how to search for agate?

Was it not simply to eat that mineral?

Pokémon body structures were completely different from humans'. At the very least, human bodies did not need the elements found in minerals.

Rather than saying Larvitar ate dirt, it was more accurate to say it ate the elements in the soil that benefited its body.

By that logic, feeding it ores directly would work just as well. There was no need for it to eat so much dirt and produce all that extra poop.

Umbreon yawned as she lay on Heiduo's shoulder. "These