Early the next morning, after breakfast, the group replenished their water supplies, said goodbye to Towa and Miku, and headed toward the Forest of Mystery.
The entrance to the Forest of Mystery was quite interesting, too. It was an enormous tree that had grown for who knew how many years before falling, with a large hole hollowed through its center to form a long passage.
The passage was at least twenty-odd meters long. It was hard to imagine what a magnificent sight the tree had been before it fell.
The fallen trunk separated the village from the Forest of Mystery. Though the distance was only a few dozen steps, once they entered the forest, they seemed to sense that even the atmosphere around them had changed, though perhaps it was just their imagination.
Wild Pokémon were everywhere: Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and Butterfree flying overhead; Hoothoot, Spinarak, and Heracross in the trees; and Rattata, Sentret, and Nidoran♂ on the ground. They had barely taken a few steps into the forest and already seen so many wild Pokémon. They were incredibly densely packed!
Perhaps because outsiders had rarely disturbed them over the years, they showed no fear of these human intruders and merely tilted their heads, studying them.
"Aren't there way too many Pokémon here?"
Seeing several Weedle crawling along the ground as well, Misty shuddered and hurried over to Xia You.
"There are a lot, or rather, they're packed too closely together." Knowing Misty was afraid of Bug-type Pokémon, Xia You kept her protected at his side, then said to Erika and Ash, "Still, there are all kinds of Pokémon here. If there's anything you want to catch, now's the time."
Erika and Ash both shook their heads. They had already caught the Pokémon they wanted earlier, and there were none here