Fifth day
When Drapion and Gengar managed to remove the large rock above, they finally saw the ore hidden below.
Because Aoki was the first to discover it here, and there are no powerful wild Pokemon, so there was no need to rush.
Aoki took a special look at the quality of these ores.
It was even better than expected, and was about the same quality as the ores taken from the Bastiodon and Krookodile that day.
However, the amount of mineral deposits here was much smaller than that there.
With the joint efforts of Drapion and Gengar, after half an hour, it was completely hollowed out.
It is worth mentioning that the little Larvitar was lazy the whole time.
When Drapion and Gengar moved out the ore, it sat obediently aside, holding a piece of ore bigger than itself in its hands, and gnawed it happily.
With that crunchy sound and expression of enjoyment, those who didn't know would think it was eating a piece of delicious chocolate.
Aoki didn't stop it either - it had worked hard today, so this could be its reward.
When the ore was finished, Larvitar also finished eating and clapped its little hands in satisfaction.
Although not full, it felt that should be enough for today.
This situation was typical of Aoki's day.
Along the sandstone area, Aoki with Drapion, Gengar and Larvitar searched for mineral deposits along the way.
The harvest was much bigger than Aoki imagined, and the amount of mineral deposits here was impressive.
Just searching a quarter of the sandstone area, Aoki's backpack was stuffed with ore.
Compared to the ore Steven had sold Aoki for 10 million Pokecoins before, the ore dug today might be worth 30 to 40 million Pokecoins.
After all, the quality was much higher than what Steven had sold.
But for some reason, Aoki didn't find any diamonds in these mines.
Perhaps the location was wrong, or maybe the previous find was just coincidence.
Additionally, since mining inevitably entered the territory of wild Pokemon - and these ores were precious to them too - battles occurred frequently.
As the main attacker, Slowking gained a level before returning to 44, reaching mid-elite tier.
Honchkrow and Gengar also broke through to level 42 after releasing their accumulated training energy.
But the biggest gainer today was Florette. Although a Fairy-type, it knew many Grass-type moves.
With Grass's advantage against Ground and Rock types, even against some lower-level Pokemon of those types, Florette performed as well as Honchkrow and Gengar.
By day's end, Florette reached level 33.
Although only being caught 3-4 days ago, gaining three levels this fast seemed unbelievable even to itself.
So in subsequent battles, it worked even harder.
As a wild Pokemon, it understood the importance of strength better than Drapion and the others.
Today they also encountered unbeatable opponents - wild Pokemon at pseudo-Champion level.
Only Slowking's Teleport gave them an advantage against these slower Pokemon.
Otherwise, Aoki wouldn't have dared provoke them.
Before nightfall, they returned to the grass.
Only a quarter of the sandstone area had been explored, with much more remaining.
Even if no diamonds were found, the ore alone would save Aoki much money and help Larvitar and Aron grow better.
The energy Larvitar and Aron absorbed from the ore helped them gain levels.
Aron reached level 19, while Larvitar gained two levels to 12.
The ore's energy was remarkably rich - without battling, just absorbing it provided significant growth.
And this was just surface-level - many minerals were subtly transforming their bodies.
When they fully evolved, this accumulated energy would fully manifest.
Now was their foundation-building time.
That just this overflow energy raised their levels showed how beneficial quality ore was for them.
With delicious ore daily, Larvitar and Aron ate crazily, played happily, and trained hard to burn the extra energy.
Today Altaria didn't approach Aoki again. After dinner, it just stayed aside, gazing at the stars.
Aoki knew not to disturb Altaria now, lest it think he had ulterior motives.
The two Swablu still played happily with the others.
Under their mother's care, they seemed like they'd never grow up.
Aoki knew if Altaria kept overprotecting them, it would only waste their excellent potential.
But he couldn't say this now - it would only breed resentment.
Unusually, Aoki didn't join the training, but sat cross-legged practicing his psychic powers.
Since reaching junior level, he'd slacked off somewhat.
But he decided to resume training. While reaching intermediate level would be difficult, even among junior psychics there were differences.
Aoki still had some Stones - absorbing them all might bring significant progress.
The second Stones absorption wasn't as intense as the first - it proceeded smoothly.
But the psychic power increase was smaller than the first time.
Still, for Aoki's "rare" psychic ability, this was substantial growth.
After absorbing one, he needed time to stabilize before using another.
With several Stones remaining, his goal was to absorb them quickly to maximize his psychic advantage when the time came.