Aggronite

Steven kept digging tirelessly for stones until evening.

Chen Shi had never been particularly interested in this. He had only come here to see whether Steven could dig up a Mega Stone.

Although Mega Evolution had risen to prominence in Kalos, plenty of people in his previous life had said that Hoenn was its true birthplace.

Chen Shi had no idea why they said that.

Still, he had indeed seen Hoenn's three idiots fighting Team Flare over a giant energy rock in the anime in his previous life.

One theory claimed that the giant energy rock might have been the origin of Mega Evolution.

As for whether that was true, Chen Shi had no idea.

But the Hoenn Region certainly did have plenty of Mega Stones.

Chen Shi figured that if any place in Hoenn had the most Mega Stones, it could only be Meteor Falls.

However, after Steven dug up several pretty but useless stones, Chen Shi lost interest.

He took his Pokémon out to pick fights instead.

After all, whenever Steven dug up a stone, he would excitedly bring it over for Chen Shi to see.

So he would leave the hard work to Steven. He could always make it up to him later.

That night, the two of them settled down to rest in the cave Aggron had dug.

Once all the Pokémon had finished eating, Chen Shi asked Steven what he had found that day.

Steven immediately perked up and pulled out seven or eight stones for Chen Shi to examine.

"Meteor Falls really is full of stones! Before this, I couldn't always dig up this many even in half a month."

"Take a look at this one."

"It's simply a perfect masterpiece of nature."

Steven enthusiastically introduced the various stones he had dug up that day.

He also took out a purple, crystalline stone and showed it to Chen Shi.

But Chen Shi only gave it a cursory glance before losing interest.

It was useless, after all.

Instead, his gaze settled on a stone with silver and deep orange interwoven through it.

[Aggronite: a stone that seems capable of unlocking Aggron's hidden potential.]

"Where did you find this stone?"

Steven paused, looked where Chen Shi was pointing, then thought it over.

"Oh, that one? Aggron picked it up. I have quite a few like it at home, too. A bit of an unexpected find, I suppose."

"Look at this one instead. It's much better."

Then Steven took out a pitch-black stone that actually gave off a green glow under the flashlight.

The corner of Chen Shi's mouth twitched. You really don't care about the most important one at all, do you?

And what do you mean, you have quite a few at home?

I strongly suspect you're showing off.

But what he said was, "Actually, I'm pretty interested in that stone."

"If you dig any up, let me have a look!"

"Sure." Steven didn't give it much thought. Stones like that weren't particularly pretty, and he had plenty at home. He didn't care about them at all.

"If you're really interested in stones like that, come over to my house sometime. I'll show you."

Chen Shi thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe another time, when we get the chance."

"Let's keep looking tomorrow. If you find any stones like that, set them aside for me."

Naturally, Steven had no reason to refuse. He had a feeling that his haul today wasn't simply because Meteor Falls had so many stones.

Instead, he felt there was something a little mysterious about Chen Shi. His luck was especially good whenever they were together.

So Steven agreed to Chen Shi's request without a second thought.

If I can find this much every day, why bother watching an Elite King exhibition match?

Isn't digging up stones much better?

Seeing Steven agree, Chen Shi smiled.

As for that Aggronite, Chen Shi wasn't shameless enough to ask for it.

He had no use for it anyway, so he might as well leave it to Steven.

Besides, finding a Mega Stone here meant that Chen Shi's guess had been right.

There were definitely plenty more Mega Stones hidden in Meteor Falls, and they would all be priceless treasures in the future.

After all, these things were sometimes worth more than the Pokémon themselves.

Take the Tyranitar Mega Stone he was carrying, for example.

Once Mega Evolution became known to the world, it might be worth more than a Larvitar.

Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon were certainly rare and valuable, but they couldn't possibly be rarer than Mega Stones.

There might only be a handful of Mega Stones for Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon in the entire world.

For someone who needed one, trading a Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon for a Pseudo-Legendary Mega Stone would absolutely be worth it.

Chen Shi wanted to find Mega Stones so he could give them away or trade them for various resources in the future.

Of the Pokémon on his current team that could Mega Evolve, only his future Metagross still lacked a Mega Stone. He already had them for Swampert and Charizard.

But a Metagross Mega Stone wouldn't be easy to find. Chen Shi was prepared for that. He could only take his time searching.

"Steven, stop grinning to yourself and get some sleep. We're getting up early to work tomorrow."

"Let's have Swampert keep watch tonight."

At that, Steven reluctantly put down the stones in his hands and began looking forward to tomorrow.

"All right. Tomorrow, I'm really going all out."

Meanwhile, a visitor arrived at the Chen family's farm.

Upon learning that Chen Shi wasn't home and had gone to watch an Elite King exhibition match, the visitor hurried off again.

The two elderly people exchanged peculiar looks, then smiled knowingly at each other.

Togekiss