Pokémon: Starting as a Farmer Instead of a Trainer

Chapter 79 should perhaps be called the Man-Eating Forest.

As night deepened, the mist enveloping the eternal forest swallowed everything, and a scream that shattered the silence echoed in every corner of the forest.

"!!!"

Lillie, who was surrounded by fog, was startled. Due to the thick fog and the dim environment without moonlight, she could not see her companions even with a flashlight.

"I told you not to come in..."

She crouched on the ground, covering her head with her hands, looking extremely panicked. There was no sound of her companions around her, even though they had just been nearby.

She seemed to be all alone, left here in solitude, and a wave of fear washed over her...

Meanwhile, Mizuki, who had been with her, was now all alone, searching for her companion in the mist with a Woody Owl.

"Where has everyone gone? Lillie! Mallow! Lana... and everyone else!"

She called out her companions' names, but heard no response. The temperature around her suddenly dropped, and the feathers of the Woodowl beside her bristled, too afraid to move.

"What... what's there?"

Mizuki watched warily as several dark blue flames slowly approached her through the mist.

Anxiety surged within her, and her body instinctively urged her to flee. But it was too late. An eerie attack struck, and a large blue hand suddenly reached out from the mist and grabbed her.

"ah!!!"

The screams echoed once more...

Upon hearing the screams, Candira, who was nearby, immediately rushed over, only to find a Woodrow incapacitated and a corpse hanging upside down from a tree...

"Am I too late...?"

Looking at Mizuki on the tree, Candila could hardly believe it. Although there were no wounds and her clothes were not disheveled, her expression was as if she had seen something extremely frightening.

She wasn't sure if the student was still alive, but she was certain that the forest was very strange. She had been following the students when she entered, but everything changed after the fog rolled in.

It seemed that the terrain of the entire forest had changed. She remembered that the landmark next to her was a rock, but it turned into a tree after the fog rolled in, so all the students had disappeared.

"Even clearing the fog isn't working, is it Team Rocket's doing...?"

She sent out Charizard to try it out, and then, with some doubt, she had Charizard rescue Mizuki from the tree. She then prepared to go and check other places, hoping that the attackers hadn't gone far.

Just as she made her decision, a chill swept over her, and the eerie blue flames reappeared, from which a red pupil shone...

On the other side, Mingyou, sitting on the horned deer, subconsciously looked in the direction from which the scream had come from, and murmured, "It's happening again, and that voice sounds kind of familiar?"

"It looks like Mizuki-san..."

Xiao Zhao wasn't quite sure either, but the next second she suddenly came to her senses.

She realized she was still being held by Mingyou, and her face flushed slightly. Her expression turned flustered, and she clenched her hands tightly, raising them to her chest as if to fling them away. Then she whispered, "Put me down!"

"well……"

Mingyou quickly let go of her, looking somewhat embarrassed, but still couldn't help but complain, "By the way, you're so heavy, almost as heavy as my Munchlax..."

"Who's heavy! I'm very light, okay!"

Xiao Zhao couldn't help but slap him lightly, then waved her hand, tossed her hair aside, and said with a resentful look, "I've realized you really are... never mind."

She didn't continue, not wanting to argue. Besides, she actually had a pretty good impression of the other person; it was just that he had a lot of flare-ups today, probably because he was too nervous.

Fortunately, Mingyou quickly realized her mistake and replied with an embarrassed look, "Sorry, I shouldn't have joked with you just now... otherwise you wouldn't have been caught by the Wood Demon."

"It's alright, it was my carelessness..."

Seeing that he took the initiative to apologize, Xiao Zhao didn't dwell on it anymore. Besides, she knew that he didn't want her to be involved in danger, which was why he wanted her to leave.

Just then, a roar suddenly came from the mist behind, accompanied by the sound of tree branches being uprooted and moved.

I'm hungry!

"Tsk... The Kuchiki Demons are here again. I don't want to cause too much of a commotion with this fight, but sorry, I'll have to take care of you guys first!"

Mingyou tossed his hair back, his eyes instantly turning serious. Ponpon, holding the thorny vine club, stood guard in front of him, listening to the sound to pinpoint the location. He immediately waved his hand and shouted, "It's this direction! Use Hell Thrust!"

"Mmm!"

The thorns on the thorny vine in Ponpon's hand turned dark red in an instant, and then it charged forward with both hands holding the stick.

The moment the purple pupil lit up in the mist, it swung the staff with all its might!

A critical hit! Exceptionally effective!

"I'm so hungry..."

The strange-colored Wood Sprite clutched its eyes, collapsing to the ground in pain. Several other Wood Sprites around it rushed to check on their leader, but Mingyou clearly wasn't going to let such a good opportunity slip by: "Now's the time to unleash another Hell Thrust!"

"Mmm!"

Holding the thorny vine club, Ponpo struck the vital points of several rotten wood demons one by one, causing significant damage. They all collapsed in pain in an instant.

"Well done!"

"Mmm~"

Ponpo laughed and ran back to Mingyou's side. In this way, these rotten wood demons would not be able to launch an attack for a short period of time. After all, their main purpose here was not to fight, but to retrieve the mask.

Xiao Zhao observed the battle and couldn't help but ask curiously, "You seem to have a lot of talent for battle, so why don't you become a trainer?"

"It doesn't feel as comfortable as farming."

Mingyou turned to the side and smiled in response, but then he suddenly realized something and quickly looked around: "Oh no, where's Latias?"

"Zoroa is gone too..."

Seeing him searching for Pokémon, Xiao Zhao realized that her own little fox was also lost, and immediately became anxious, but it was only then that she realized what was going on.

"Wait? Latias?"

"Um... this..."

Mingyou was momentarily speechless, not daring to look the other person in the eye. Fortunately, she reacted quickly and hurriedly explained, "She's my sister. She really likes Red Water Latias, so I just call her that..."

"Really? But your eyes tell me you're lying to me. There's no one else here, and I won't keep making excuses for you."

"Forehead……"

"never mind."

Xiao Zhao shook her head. Compared to these things, she cared more about Zorua's safety. As her first Pokémon in this world, the little fox had already formed a deep bond with her, even though they had only spent less than half a year together.

"Indeed, finding them is the priority."

Mingyou agreed with her suggestion, and then had the Ghostly Horned Deer use its mental power to scan the surroundings to see if there were any traces of Latias and Zorua.

"Yo yo..."

Let's give it a try...

The monstrous antler deer released its spiritual power from the black beads at the base of its antlers and created a barrier to repel the mist, but it had little effect. The mist did not seem to be naturally formed and even had a strange quality to it.

Due to the fog, its spiritual power could only observe a range of less than thirty meters. Apart from a few rotten wood sprites still rolling on the ground, it seemed that only a tree in the distance was unusual.

"Is someone there?"

"Yo yo~"

"Alright, let's go take a look first."

Mingyou took a step forward and walked towards that direction with the Ghost Horned Deer. Xiaozhao followed closely behind, while Pengpeng immediately put on a ghost mask after hearing someone, and then quickly followed with her short legs.

Soon, they arrived at the tree, where they found a ghost mask on the ground. But when they looked up, the sight made their pupils shrink.

At that moment, a woman was hanging upside down in the tree, her life hanging in the shadows. She was dressed in the clothes of the Ghost Mask Group, her face filled with terror, and her eyes had lost their luster.

"This guy... isn't that Raikiri from the Oni-Masked Group? How did he end up hanging here? Is he still alive?"

The ghost mask had fallen off, and Mingyou recognized the woman; she was one of the ghost mask group members who had come to the manor to steal fruit and ended up getting a beating.

Xiao Zhao immediately recalled what she had heard at the community center: Rachel's current state was almost exactly the same as that of William Joe, the adventurer who had been found dead in the Everlasting Forest by the staff this morning!

"So she's probably already..."

Xiao Zhao's expression gradually turned serious. This wasn't some kind of permanent forest; it was more like a man-eating forest!

……

(End of this chapter)