On a mountain road outside Rustboro City, at a massive rock shelf halfway up the mountain, skilled miners from different regions stood ready.
One pit every ten meters, one person per pit. No fighting over spots.
Beneath them, the organizers had already dug tunnels through the rock.
The contest was to see who could reach the mining stratum first and collect the most crystals.
The participants' Pokémon partners came in all varieties: Sandshrew, Diglett, Nidorino, Graveler, Swinub, Donphan. Almost all were Rock- or Ground-types.
There was no helping it. Pokémon of those two types were almost all expert diggers.
People like Steven-san, who used Metagross, were truly in the minority.
"Gary, look to your left," Paul suddenly reminded him.
Following Paul's direction, Young Master Mao looked up.
A Pokémon lay quietly there on all fours. Its head was covered in metal plating, and its red, orange, and gray body looked a little like a turtle without its shell.
Its Pokémon Trainer was a youth wearing a brown cloak, with long, wavy gray hair.
"Heatran?" Young Master Mao sucked in a breath. Was this thing even legal?
Because of their scarcity and shrinking habitat, Heatran had already become the sort of Pokémon that could earn someone a lifetime behind bars under Pokémon League rules.
It was also one of the Legendary Pokémon.
As a Legendary Pokémon with an established population, capturing one should have been strictly prohibited.
Anyone who could keep one at their side was either an outlaw or someone like Young Master Mao, with connections that reached all the way to the top.
As though sensing Young Master Mao's gaze, the other youth turned and gave Gary a sinister smile.
Young Master Mao immediately had the strange feeling that a venomous snake had fixed its eyes on him. At