Chapter 67: Hatching of Torchic

After purchasing the Revival Herb and Energy Root, Rex and Grandpa Mike chatted for a while before bidding farewell and leaving.

Later, at Flannery's enthusiastic invitation, Rex came to the Lavaridge Gym. It was already close to noon, and Flannery planned to personally cook lunch for him.

However, Rex found this meal a bit overwhelming. It's not that Flannery's cooking was bad; on the contrary, the appearance and taste of her dishes were good. It's just that the spiciness was a bit torturous.

Looking at the table full of red dishes, Rex didn't know how to comment. Besides the rice, each dish was seasoned with chili peppers, and of different varieties.

After this meal, Rex gained a lot of knowledge about chili pepper varieties and their spiciness.

Actually, he could tolerate spiciness, but his tolerance level was different from Flannery's.

As he ate the dishes with fewer chili peppers, supposedly adjusted to his taste, tears welled up in Rex's eyes. He resisted the urge to breathe fire from his throat and finally made it through this lunch.

After the meal, Rex took out a bottle of Moomoo Milk to soothe his protesting tongue.

Remembering the Torchic Pokémon Egg still in his backpack, Rex took it out to check. With only a few days left until the egg hatched, he planned to keep the egg outside as much as possible to avoid missing its hatching.

"Oh, I saw this Pokémon Egg of yours yesterday. I forgot to ask, what kind of Pokémon is it?"

At this moment, Flannery, who had finished washing the dishes, walked in and saw Rex inspecting the egg. She couldn't help but ask curiously.

"This is a Torchic Egg, which I obtained from Professor Birch in Littleroot Town."

Rex answered directly without keeping Flannery in suspense.

"Oh, it's a Torchic! That's great. Let me take you to a good place. The Fire-type Pokémon hatched there will have a considerable improvement in their aptitude!"

Seeing that Rex's Pokémon Egg was a Torchic, Flannery quickly recommended.

"Is there really such a magical place? Wouldn't it be too much trouble for you?"

Rex was tempted by the prospect of improving Torchic's aptitude, but he was also afraid it might be some kind of secret place. If Flannery took him there, her grandfather might blame her. So, he quickly asked.

"Don't worry, it's actually a naturally formed cave at the top of Mt. Chimney. People from our town can go there to hatch Fire-type Pokémon Eggs. Many Fire-type Pokémon trained at our Lavaridge Gym were hatched there. The place naturally gathers a lot of Fire-type energy, which is beneficial for hatching Fire-type Pokémon."

Flannery seemed to understand Rex's concerns and explained.

"Then, thank you, Flannery."

Rex breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that other people from Lavaridge Town could also hatch their Pokémon there.

However, he also knew that without Flannery's guidance, as an outsider, he wouldn't even know about this place, let alone hatch a Torchic there.

A bit about Mt. Chimney: It is a volcano over 1,500 meters high located in the central-northern part of the Hoenn region. Although it hasn't erupted in many years, it's still considered a dormant volcano based on the ash it occasionally emits.

"How do we get there?"

Rex asked.

"To save time, let's fly there on a Flying-type Pokémon. Come out, Charizard!"

After Flannery finished speaking, she released a sturdy Charizard.

Seeing the imposing Charizard in front of him, Rex felt that the Charizard he saw in Professor Birch's backyard before was just a junior compared to this one.

"This Charizard is my grandfather's Pokémon. He entrusted me to take care of it now. Do you want to ride with me on Charizard, or do you want to ride on your Swellow?"

Flannery asked.

"I'll ride my own Swellow."

Seeing the intense gaze from the Charizard, Rex decisively chose his own Swellow.

It's not that he was afraid, but the pressure from Charizard was too strong. He felt that if he chose to ride with Charizard, he might face a blast of flames. Rex felt he didn't have enough resistance to fire at the moment.

"Then let's go. Have your Swellow follow Charizard!"

After Flannery finished speaking, she mounted Charizard, and then Charizard flapped its wings, flying directly into the sky.

"Come out, Swellow. Let's catch up!"

Rex didn't waste any time and released his Swellow, urging it to chase after Charizard.

Ever since the flying competition with Winona last time, Swellow had developed a liking for this activity. As soon as Rex was seated properly, it sprang up and swiftly flew towards Charizard.

Seeing the Swellow flying at an extremely fast speed towards them, Charizard raised its flight speed instinctively, trying to outpace Swellow.

However, in terms of sheer speed, Swellow was not far behind Charizard. Now that Swellow had learned to control air currents, its speed was more than twice as fast as before.

Rex had Swellow keep pace with Charizard, watching as Charizard accelerated. No matter how fast Charizard flew, Swellow managed to stay close behind.

In this speed competition, the two soon arrived near the cave Flannery mentioned.

After landing, Charizard looked at Swellow with a strange expression. Just when Rex was afraid that Charizard might be unable to resist giving Swellow a blast of flames, Flannery recalled it into its Poké Ball.

After that, Rex also recalled Swellow into its Poké Ball and followed Flannery into the inconspicuous cave.

After entering, it didn't take long for Rex to feel a wave of heat. The temperature rose by more than ten degrees in an instant, and the air was filled with a dry heat. The deeper they went into the cave, the more pronounced this sensation became. By now, Rex was sweating profusely.

However, it seemed like nothing had happened to Flannery, who didn't even break a sweat. It was evident how high her resistance to fire was.

"Here we are. Take the Pokémon Egg out of the incubator and place it there!"

Following Flannery, Rex arrived at the deepest part of the cave. There was even a magma river flowing here. Flannery pointed to a platform built by humans and asked him to place the Pokémon Egg there.

Without hesitation, Rex placed the Torchic Pokémon Egg at the center of the platform as instructed.

As soon as he placed the Egg, he felt tiny sparks of fire being drawn to the Torchic Egg and converging into it.

As time passed, more and more fire energy gathered inside the Egg, and Rex even felt a slight cooling sensation in the air.

At this moment, it seemed like Rex could feel the excitement of the Torchic Egg and the slow rise of life energy inside.

"Your Pokémon Egg is quite extraordinary. None of the Pokémon I've hatched before absorbed as much Fire-type energy as it did. It will definitely grow into a powerful Pokémon in the future!"

Flannery exclaimed to Rex.

The longer a Pokémon Egg absorbed Fire-type energy, the better its aptitude. Rex's Torchic Egg had absorbed much more energy than any of the Pokémon she had hatched before.

Upon hearing Flannery's words, Rex realized that, on one hand, the Egg indeed had excellent aptitude, and on the other hand, he had once again used his abilities to enhance the Egg's potential, making the life energy inside the Egg exceptionally vigorous.

After a while, the Torchic Pokémon Egg finally stopped attracting firelight, and cracks appeared all over the Egg's surface. Rex knew that the Torchic was about to hatch.

"Your Torchic is about to hatch. I'll step back first!"

Flannery said and left without waiting for Rex's response.

This was because newly hatched Pokémon tended to have a favorable impression of the first person they saw. So, it was best not to have anyone else present during the hatching of the Egg to avoid affecting the bond between Trainer and Pokémon. As a Gym Leader, Flannery naturally wouldn't make such a mistake.

"Chick!"

A white light flashed, and a small chicken-like Pokémon appeared on the platform, which was Torchic.

Torchic had a body similar to a baby chick, mainly orange in color, with fluffy feathers covering its body and two small wings.

However, the three tufts of feathers on the top of Torchic's head displayed the color of flames, like burning flames. Normally, only after evolving into Combusken would its head feathers turn red.

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(End of this chapter)