About half an hour after Julian left the millennium tree, three men with topknots walked over from the east side of the tree.
Judging by their hairstyles, they were likely three trainers from Babath.
Each of the three was accompanied respectively by a Bisharp, a Sawk, and the pseudo-legendary Dragon-type, Hydreigon.
The middle head of the Hydreigon was currently chewing on a Pokémon, with blood and bits of flesh dripping from its teeth. The violent aura emanating from its body sent the Pokémon in the millennium tree fleeing in panic.
Among the three, the one with the Hydreigon was clearly the leader.
"The one that got away is here."
Aso, Hydreigon's trainer, spotted the Oranguru standing on a branch of the millennium tree, staring at them with a face full of hatred.
The three of them had previously wiped out Oranguru's entire group, half were killed, half were captured, and only one escaped.
A few minutes later, Hydreigon's mouth had some more food in it.
"As expected, the item really was on it."
Aso held a Vanilla Seed in his hand.
Among Oranguru's tribe, the three had found a dead Vanilla Tree.
The Vanilla Tree has a special trait, it only ever produces one seed in its lifetime, and once it does, it dies.
Vanilla Trees bear fruit once every three years, usually producing three to five fruits. If the fruit isn't picked, it will stay on the tree indefinitely.
The only function of the Vanilla Tree fruit is to confuse a Pokémon. A five-year-old Vanilla Fruit can confuse a Pseudo-Elite-level Pokémon.
A ten-year-old one can even confuse an Elite-level Pokémon if they're not careful.
And if the fruit has aged for fifty years, even Champion-level Pokémon are likely to fall for it.
If a Pokémon is confused by a Vanilla Fruit, the chance of capture increases dramatically.
With such an overpowered effect, Vanilla Tree fruits can allow a trainer to capture Pokémon that are stronger than themselves. If the quantity is enough, they could even turn the Pokémon into their puppet.
As for whether the captured Pokémon would obey—well, that's not even a problem.
If it disobeys, just sell it for resources.
Currently, Vanilla Trees have only been found in Top-tier secret realms, and even there, they are extremely rare.
From Oranguru's group, they had also harvested ten Vanilla Fruits, all over ten years old.
"What is it, Ishida?"
Aso saw Ishida walk to the side, bend down, and seem to pick something up.
"Looks like someone else has been here."
Ishida turned back, holding a crushed Coke can in his hand.
Eguchi walked over and looked at the writing on the can, his expression changing slightly: "Drakorian script, could it be that trainers from Drakoria are also on this island?"
In just over a month, the three of them had already figured out the structure of this secret realm. They knew it was made up of five islands—four large and one small.
They had also encountered the guardian deity of this island, Tapu Lele, but all three were defeated by it. As a result, they had been unable to leave this island.
At this moment, Aso also walked over and took the crushed Coke can from Ishida.
"People from Drakoria really are here."
During this time, they had encountered quite a few trainers from other countries, and without exception, they had eliminated every single one of them.
Among them was a female trainer, and her fate needed no explanation.
The three of them were very cautious. They spent over half a month exploring the entire island and also sent Pokémon to secretly search for trainers from other nations.
As long as the trainers weren't from one of the five major nations, then with their strength, they had an overwhelming chance of winning.
These days, they had already killed trainers from no fewer than seven different countries. Six of those countries had only one slot for a trainer, while the seventh had two.
Neither the number of trainers nor their strength could compare to theirs.
A total of eight trainers from seven different countries were all killed by these three from Babath.
All their Pokémon, treasures, and anything of value were, of course, taken by the three.
Murder and robbery-pay the best.
And for over a month now, they hadn't encountered a single trainer from Drakoria or the other four major nations. Their Pokémon hadn't found any traces either.
If there really were no trainers from those five nations on this island, then the three of them would easily dominate it.
But now, the appearance of that Coke can had shattered their dream of dominating this island.
Thinking that there might be five Drakorian trainers on this island, their expressions instantly turned ugly.
As Babath, long known for provoking Drakoria, they were very aware of Drakoria's strength. If it wasn't for Celestria backing them, how would they dare act so arrogantly in front of them?
And now, great—looks like Celestria's trainers weren't here, but they themselves were stuck on the same island as Drakorian trainers.
Aso came from the biggest family in Babath, which had actually been propped up by Celestria.
As the most outstanding child in his family, his starter Pokémon was a Deino.
And since Deino was exclusive to Celestria, where Aso's Deino came from was obvious.
"Let's leave this island," Ishida said urgently.
It wasn't that he was a coward, it was that he had a brain. Unlike the guys who attacked Julian's group of five earlier, blinded purely by greed.
They had fewer people, less strength than Drakoria's five trainers, and the two countries were enemies, how could they possibly win?
What they didn't know was that only Julian had come to this island.
Otherwise, their expressions might have flipped completely.
"How do we leave? We're not strong enough to beat that Pokémon," Eguchi said.
Tapu Lele, at mid Pseudo-champion level, was simply not something they could defeat at their current strength.
The main Pokémon of the three couldn't even last two minutes before being taken down by it.
They originally thought they could play dirty, but were forcefully suppressed.
If it weren't for that guardian deity not having a bloodthirsty nature, the three of them might already be dead.
"Not necessarily. We might still have a trick up our sleeve."
Aso took out the ten Vanilla Tree Fruits.
As it was mentioned before that Vanilla Tree Fruit has the ability to confuse Pokémon, and those over ten years old can even confuse Elite-level ones.
The ten Vanilla Tree Fruits in his hand were all over ten years old.
"If we use these fruits all at once, maybe we can confuse that island guardian. We might even be able to capture it," Aso's eyes lit up with excitement.
A Pseudo-champion Pokémon, if he could capture it, even if it didn't listen to him, he could still shoot to the top back in his country.
"It's worth a try," Ishida nodded.
That guardian deity wasn't bloodthirsty, and such a personality gave them a chance to use the Vanilla Tree Fruits. If the plan actually worked—
Not only could they leave the island, but if they were lucky, they might even gain control of a Pseudo-champion-level Pokémon.
*****
Upto 30 chapters ahead on patreon :-
patreon.com/ReduxMagister