"I can keep you, but we have to make an agreement," Albus said to the Gengar.
After learning that what Gengar had said earlier was just meant to scare him, Albus suddenly found himself in a strange situation—his identity was exchanged with Gengar. Now, he no longer had to see Gengar's face, but instead, Gengar had to look at his.
Gengar seemed a little nervous. "What do you want me to do?"
Albus replied, "First, don't play pranks or tease others. Second, don't give me nightmares. Can you do that?"
Now living under someone else's roof, Gengar answered honestly, "I can do that."
Although Gengar was a curse in itself, it was still a subject of control, and it could choose whether or not to act on its nature.
Albus nodded. "Third, if you can stick to these two conditions, I might be able to help you fulfill your wish."
"Really?" Gengar looked surprised.
Albus asked, "So, what do you want me to do for you?"
Gengar was a little excited. "Take me back to that ruin!"
"Didn't you just come from there?" Albus was stunned for a moment.
Gengar hesitated before replying, "I don't know, but I can feel something there calling me. If you take me back, I can tell you where the treasure is hidden in that ruin."
Hearing this, Albus raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't lying to me?"
Gengar had never intended to deceive him in the first place. When it regained consciousness that day, it had already been bound to Albus. Before being sealed, it had been betrayed by humans, so it instinctively didn't trust them. That was why it had tried to threaten Albus into taking it back.
But it never expected to be exposed so soon.
"It's just that your current strength is not enough," Gengar murmured, looking at the bread-shaped Pokémon beside them. "That ruin is very dangerous for you."
Albus nodded, showing that he understood. After Gengar finished speaking, he stood up and started preparing the fish that Will Young had brought back.
He heated a pot, poured in oil, added onion, ginger, and garlic, and stir-fried them until fragrant before adding the prepared fish balls one by one. Soon, an irresistible aroma filled the room.
Will Young was already waiting nearby to be fed, while Mianbao, being a Grass-type Pokémon, wasn't interested in the meal, so Albus hadn't prepared anything for it.
Gengar, unable to touch the food but still able to smell it, hovered near the dish with an almost comical intensity.
Albus turned around and was startled to see the purple ghost Pokémon floating in the air, its eyes fixed on the fish balls.
Drool almost seemed to drip from Gengar's mouth as if the Milky Way itself was cascading down.
Albus sighed. "...You can't eat this."
Gengar, who hadn't eaten in thousands of years, looked devastated.
Seeing how much it wanted to eat, Albus thought seriously for a moment.
Gengar was currently in a spiritual state and couldn't form a physical body. To put it simply, it was a ghost.
How do ghosts eat?
Albus thought about the zombie movies he had seen in his past life, the ones where people burned paper money and other offerings for their ancestors.
Could it be…
He took out a piece of paper from the drawer and lit it with a lighter.
When the paper turned to ash and fell to the floor, Albus turned to Gengar. "Try and see if you can touch it."
Gengar hesitated but reached out a hand. The moment it touched the ash, its hand passed right through it.
Albus: "…"
Well, that didn't work.
Resigned, he turned around and continued feeding Will Young. Gengar, heartbroken, hid inside its orb and disappeared.
—
That night, Albus didn't have any nightmares.
Gengar had kept its promise, and now it was Albus's turn to fulfill his end of the deal. He started training Mianbao so they could eventually return to the ruin and retrieve whatever treasure was hidden there—mainly so he could sell it for money.
After class, he took Mianbao to the mountain behind the school. Will Young played in the river, while Albus and Mianbao practiced their moves on the riverbank.
Battles in real life weren't as simple as in games. Moves that had a "guaranteed hit" effect in the games could still miss in reality.
This made real battles much harder.
In real-life battles, Pokémon could dodge attacks, and trainers had to give real-time commands rather than just clicking a button.
Albus noticed that other trainers also focused on training their Pokémon in different areas, including speed and power.
Information about Mianbao's three known moves surfaced in Albus's mind: Absorb, Stun Spore, and Seed Bomb.
In this world, there were no technical machines (TMs) like in the games. Pokémon could only learn new moves in three ways:
Learning from other Pokémon.
Gaining new moves naturally through growth or evolution.
Developing moves with the help of a trainer.
Instead of trying to teach Mianbao a new move right away, Albus decided to focus on perfecting the three it already had.
"Stun Spore is a status move," Albus thought. "If an opponent inhales it and isn't resistant to it, they'll immediately become paralyzed."
He instructed Mianbao to release Stun Spore with full power.
"Ni!"
A thick cloud of pale yellow spores spread out from Mianbao's head, covering an area of about three meters in front of it.
The problem was clear—if the enemy stayed outside that three-meter range, the move would be useless.
Albus then told Mianbao to use Seed Bomb.
A large, brown seed—about the size of an adult's fist—shot out from Mianbao's bud. It glowed faintly green and looked solid enough to crack someone's skull.
But the move was called Seed Bomb, not just Seed.
"Bomb" implied that the seed should explode upon impact, not just hit the target.
Unlike moves like Bullet Seed, which fired multiple projectiles, Seed Bomb was a single powerful shot.
The speed of the Seed Bomb wasn't very fast, meaning it could easily be dodged by a quick opponent.
So, how could he ensure that it would hit?
Albus turned his attention back to Stun Spore.
Each move had weaknesses.
But what if he combined Seed Bomb and Stun Spore?
If Seed Bomb carried Stun Spore within it, then even if the projectile missed, the spores released upon explosion would still have a chance to paralyze the opponent.
This strategy could turn a missed attack into a secondary opportunity.
Albus grinned.
"Alright, Mianbao, let's start training on that combo move."
—
The training continued as Albus worked on refining the new technique. If they could master this, then their chances of surviving the ruin's dangers would greatly improve.
And with that, the path toward treasure—and potentially a fortune—lay ahead.