Arcanine's sense of smell was temporarily useless, and even if it recovered later, it would no longer be reliable for tracking the poachers. Julian would have to come up with another idea.
'As for what to do...'
'Hmm...'
Julian's face took on a thoughtful expression, and he plopped down onto a fallen tree trunk.
Without prompting, a Poké Ball opened automatically, and Celebi popped out.
Seeing Julian deep in thought, Celebi floated over and asked: "Are you scheming up some wicked plan?"
Julian rolled his eyes, "Go play somewhere else."
Then, he turned to Dragonite.
"You think of a way to find them too. Don't just stand there looking clueless. Use your brain. Scientific studies show that five minutes of serious thinking is equivalent to half an hour of proper exercise. If you think for three hours every day, your belly will definitely shrink."
Dragonite: 'I knew you'd bring up my belly in the end...'
"Arf!"
Arcanine: "I'll help you think too!"
Julian glanced at Arcanine, meeting its expectant gaze. With a reluctant nod, he muttered:
"Alright, fine."
Arcanine didn't care about Julian's tone of voice.
If it were a girlfriend instead, saying "alright, fine" in that tone would definitely cause a fight.
Five minutes later, Julian gave up. No matter how hard he thought, he still couldn't figure out a way to track the poachers.
Unless he was lucky enough to randomly bump into them, he had nothing.
"Arf!"
Arcanine: "I've got an idea!"
Both Julian and Dragonite looked at Arcanine in surprise.
Julian blinked: 'Did this dog suddenly got enlightened? Am I not as good as a dog?'
Two thoughts popped into his head.
Arcanine: "Once my nose recovers, I can just sniff around again and pick up their scent!"
Looking into Arcanine's pure, innocent eyes, which were practically begging for praise, and watching its tail wag so hard it might as well be a ceiling fan, Julian felt his face twitch.
"Return, Arcanine."
Taking out its Poké Ball, Julian recalled it with a blank expression.
Sure enough, he should never have high expectations for a dog.
Seeing this, Celebi let out a snort of disapproval, "Heartless man."
Julian glanced at it, and said flatly: "I'll tell Slowking to feed you a healthy diet today."
Celebi: "Healthy diet? You mean like fried chicken legs?"
Julian shook his head: "No oil, no sugar, low salt, and terrible taste. That's a healthy diet."
Hearing this, Celebi's face fell in disbelief, "You're just petty!"
Julian: "Yup. What are you gonna do about it? If you dare resist, you'll be on a healthy diet tomorrow too."
Celebi instantly deflated, looking like it had just lost its soul.
"But... if you help me with one thing, I might reconsider what I just said."
Celebi, who had turned into a gray stone-like image, came back to life the moment Julian spoke.
"Help me ask the Pokémon around here if they've seen a group of guys who look like troublemakers, the kind that have 'I'm a bad guy' written all over their faces. And see if any of them have spotted a couple of Togekiss around."
Julian pulled out his phone, found a photo of Togekiss, and handed it to Celebi.
He knew what Togekiss looked like, but the wild Pokémon might not.
Celebi: "Here I go."
Grabbing the phone, Celebi zipped away.
Julian called after it, "When you are back, I'll get you a family bucket!"
He watched as Celebi suddenly sped up, flying even faster.
'Well, that's some motivation.'
Fortunately, thanks to his previous experience searching for Luis and the others in the White Mountain Range, Julian was somewhat used to this kind of situation. Whether it was finding friends or tracking down a poacher group, the method was the same.
This time, though, he had Celebi as a helpful assistant.
As a sort of goodwill ambassador of the Pokémon world—a walking, flying Face Fruit in a sense—Celebi had a way of getting wild Pokémon to cooperate. More often than not, they would give it some face.
Julian sat down on the fallen tree trunk, then pulled a family bucket out of his system storage. Since he had to wait for Celebi anyway, he figured he might as well eat a bit—he was starting to get hungry.
To ensure trainer safety, the Pokémon levels in the reserves were generally not very high.
Plus, the entry fee was expensive. This made the reserve popular among the children of noble families. They could enjoy a wild adventure without actually venturing into the true wilderness.
The environment was almost identical to the wild, except the Pokémon here were lower-leveled.
A pseudo-Elite trainer could practically walk through this place without breaking a sweat.
Of course, there were always exceptions. Some higher-level Pokémon might slip through the patrols or wander in from the real wild.
Every year, a few trainers still ended up dead in the reserve, though the number was far lower than in the true wilderness.
"Ugh, what's that awful smell? Dragonite, did you just fart?"
Julian was mid-bite into a drumstick when he was suddenly hit with a wave of foul stench. He nearly gagged, almost spitting out his food.
Dragonite shook its head innocently, then pointed to a spot about ten meters away.
"Gloom?"
Julian turned to see a Gloom drooling from the corner of its mouth, with wisps of grayish-white gas floating above its head, and its stomach let out a loud growl.
Frowning, Julian reached into his system space and pulled out a berry. Rather than walking over, he simply tossed it to the Gloom.
The stench was so bad that even from over ten meters away, it was almost unbearable. Getting any closer would probably knock him out cold.
"Leave immediately after eating."
The smell was just too much to handle.
Gloom's stench was infamous, but trainers who owned one would eventually become immune to the smell.
In some cities, there were even "Stink Challenges" held as events.
For example, three Gloom would stand together, and challengers would start from twenty meters away. The goal was to walk toward the Gloom, and whoever got closest before passing out from the stench would be crowned the champion.
Bizarre challenges like these had become quite popular in recent years.
Like enduring Jigglypuff's song without falling asleep, staring affectionately at Jynx for a full minute, or finding a transformed Ditto in a crowd.
Though Gloom reeked, its extracted stench could be refined into an expensive perfume.
The drastic transformation from unbearable odor to luxury fragrance was almost unbelievable.
After finishing the berry, Gloom obediently waddled away.
With its stench, few Pokémon dared to mess with it. Even stronger Pokémon would rather avoid it—its smell was just too overpowering for them.
Because of this unique ability, some trainers chose not to evolve their Gloom, preferring to keep its stench as a biochemical weapon.
The one who truly brought Gloom's stink into the spotlight was a former Grass-type Elite.
During one match, they sent out a Gloom at Elite-level, which completely overpowered the opponent's ace Pokémon—not with strength, but with pure, unrelenting stench.
Back then, protective shield technology hadn't been developed yet. As a result, the tens of thousands of spectators at the scene were also affected, and nearly half of the crowd fainted from the smell.
That battle opened a new door for Grass-type trainers.
People realized that Gloom could be weaponized in creative ways.
Afterward, most battle arenas without protective shields banned certain moves and Pokémon. Unsurprisingly, Gloom was on the blacklist.
But compared to Skuntank, Gloom's stench was practically mild—it didn't even come close.
*****
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