Before night fell, David finally made his way back to camp with all the materials he had gathered.
After a bit more work, he stood back and looked over the newly finished temporary residence with a satisfied smile. In less than a single day, a proper wilderness cabin had risen up out of nothing.
It was only thanks to Helping Hand from his Pokémon that this had even been possible. Even with a good supply of modern tools, David alone never could have finished the whole thing from start to finish before the training camp ended.
Beside him, Lucario, Kirlia, and Zorua were practically buzzing with excitement. None of them had ever built their own home out in the wild before, and this cabin stood as proof of what they and their Trainer had accomplished together. Spending a cold night in a house they'd built with their own hands, watching the firelight dance while a pot of soup simmered nearby—it really was something special.
Everyone filed inside with bright, happy faces.
Everyone, that is, except Salamence, who was stuck sulking inside its Poké Ball. It was a house they'd all built together, and yet it was the only one that had to stay obediently shut away while everyone else got to go in. No wonder it felt so miserable about it.
David could only manage a helpless smile. There was no getting around it—Salamence simply couldn't fit inside. If it tried, the whole day's work would likely be undone in an instant. Given Salamence's sheer size, building it a house of its own would be like raising a castle by hand out here in the wilderness. If David could actually manage that in this short a time, he probably shouldn't bother being a Trainer at all—he should go find some other world and become a grand Archmage instead. That path would probably suit him better.
After a while of comforting Salamence and promising to take it out camping and picnicking at least three times next month, the big dragon finally settled down.
"Phew... it's gotten so much bigger, so why does it act even more like a child than before?" David muttered, wiping sweat that wasn't really there from his brow.
Still, he knew Salamence only ever showed this side of itself around him and its fellow Pokémon. To anyone else, human or Pokémon, it was still that fearsome ruler of the skies.
As the last scattered light faded from the sky and darkness settled in, the rest of the school team trickled back into camp one by one after a long day's work. Looking at the spacious wooden cabin sitting in the middle of camp, its windows glowing faintly with firelight, everyone couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.
Aside from David, Luke had made the most progress on his own shelter, reaching about seventy percent completion. His cabin wasn't finished with the same care David had put into his own—David had even had Salamence use Flamethrower to lightly char the outer walls for a finished look. Still, Luke's shelter was mostly built, and while it lacked a bit of comfort, it would do just fine for a cold night. With a little more work tomorrow, he'd easily have it finished.
The less fortunate students, though, were in rough shape—some hadn't even reached forty percent completion. Those poor souls would likely have to grit their teeth and rough it for the next few days. Even an unfinished shelter could still cut the worst of the night wind and keep them from catching a chill, at least.
Still, not one of them thought to ask David for help—not even who were struggling the most.
The school wasn't about to leave that kind of loophole open. Building a temporary residence had to be done entirely on one's own; there was no help allowed from others. If a student wanted a comfortable place to sleep, they'd have to earn it themselves—otherwise, it was a sleeping bag and nothing more.
Even Willow, who had the advantage of her Sceptile's guidance, wasn't exempt from this rule. Once her special training with the old Sceptile ended each day, she still had to go build her own shelter like everyone else.
So the rest of the students had no choice but to grit their teeth and keep working, hoping that by the next night they'd finally have a proper roof over their heads.
Naturally, there was no phone signal anywhere in the Secret Realm. Worn out from the day's labor, everyone drifted off to sleep before long, bringing the first day of the training camp to a close.
Three weeks later—
Deep within the Secret Realm, past the mountains, a river came crashing down over a cliff face. Beneath the roar of the waterfall, a lone figure sat in quiet stillness.
Looking closer, that blue-black shape belonged to David's Lucario.
David watched with a faint smile as Lucario sat unmoved on its rock, seemingly unbothered by the crashing water around it.
For an entire week, Lucario had been locked in fierce battles with Pokémon throughout the Secret Realm—especially other Fighting-types—fighting what must have added up to hundreds of matches by now. Once ordinary Professional-level opponents stopped providing enough of a challenge, David had asked Dominic for a bit of Helping Hand, and Lucario ended up trading blows with several Gym-level Pokémon as well.
Through all that fighting, Lucario had all but mastered everything it had learned so far, and it was even beginning to blend those skills together naturally. It had grasped a deeper understanding of the teachings sealed within the two mysterious scrolls as well—it was just one step away from fully grasping the fundamentals of Aura Sphere and Water Shuriken.
This was, after all, still the Pokémon world. If this had been some kind of martial arts world instead, a talent like Lucario's would have made it a true prodigy.
It really said something about how special this Secret Realm was—finding this many worthy opponents to test yourself against wasn't easy anywhere else.
"Counting the days, Zorua and the others should be back soon. There's only a little bit left to gather now."
Lucario had more or less perfected everything it could learn through battle alone. These days its focus had shifted toward unlocking the secrets held in the scrolls, so it hadn't fought in the past two days at all. Instead, it had taken a page from the old masters described in the scrolls, meditating beneath the waterfall to absorb everything it had learned.
The waterfall itself was no ordinary one. David guessed that the two Secret Realms which had originally merged to form this place must have been a Water-type realm and a Fire-type realm. Despite being made of falling water, this particular waterfall carried a surprising undercurrent of Fire-type energy—something like a much gentler version of the move Scald.
For Lucario, it made for excellent training. That trace of Fire-type energy was uncomfortable, sure, but nowhere near strong enough to deal real super-effective damage the way an actual Fire-type move would. Getting used to it was proving to be a great way to build up resistance to Fire-type attacks, which was exactly why Lucario had chosen to settle in here to sort through its progress.
Meanwhile, the little fox and the others kept up their usual sparring matches against the Secret Realm's Pokémon.
Salamence was the exception. This particular Secret Realm held a stretch of terrain much like Thousand Winds Mountain, perfectly suited for training Flying-types, and Salamence had been staying out there the whole time.
No advanced Secret Realm was ever simple—each one held its own unique wonders, the kind of place old stories might call a blessed land or a hidden paradise. It was exactly why David, whose strength already far outstripped the rest of the school team, still bothered showing up to the training camp at all. There were real benefits to be had here, and it cost him nothing to come.
And while his Pokémon trained hard, David wasn't exactly sitting idle either.
While out gathering materials earlier, he'd noticed that this Secret Realm—likely because of whatever unusual conditions had shaped it—had produced a number of unique plants and minerals. They were unlike anything sold on the market, but to his surprise, some of them matched entries he'd come across in his own research on potion-making.
Thrilled by the discovery, David wasted no time asking Dominic for permission to gather plants and minerals from the Secret Realm for his own potion research.
Dominic looked at him, first startled and then more than a little puzzled. He already knew David's talent for Pokémon research and breeding was impressive, but he hadn't expected the boy to have advanced far enough to be developing his own Pokémon potions. Even most breeding majors at the top schools probably couldn't claim that level of skill.
What was more, while everyone else came to the Secret Realm to push their Pokémon's strength as far as it would go, this particular student wanted to spend his time on research instead.
After asking a few more questions to be sure, Dominic agreed to David's request. A genius, it seemed, really did get special treatment. Whatever came out of the Secret Realm counted as school resources anyway, so it could just as easily be considered David's reward.
Before granting his approval, though, Dominic had one request of his own for David.