Since Aoki could no longer access his psychic powers, he was unable to communicate with the six Unown. This made it impossible for him to open a portal to his personal alien space. Fortunately, his spatial equipment contained special camping gear for just such an occasion, a contingency for when accessing the separate dimension was not possible. He had initially assumed the failure was due to an issue with the local space, but now knew the limitation was entirely his own problem.

An additional complication was Aoki's severely limited mobility. His Pokemon could only eat food that had been prepared in advance, and some of the meat-based meals were temporarily unavailable. Aoki himself was forced to consume liquid nutrients with the help of his Florges. His body's recovery speed was agonizingly slow, and he had no idea how long it would take for him to fully heal.

He took the opportunity to scan the data of the three Skuntank. It was no wonder these three Poison-type Pokemon had become the local overlords. One reason was their solid unity, but the primary reason was that their strength was genuinely formidable. All three had reached level 53, making them quasi-Champion-level wild Pokemon, a relatively rare and powerful existence among wild Pokemon. He wondered just how many Pokemon of this caliber existed within this strange space.

Through the device given to him, Aoki could determine his current location was a relatively marginal area within the expansive space. By adding the distance they had walked before the incident to the distance they had moved on the map, he could roughly estimate the size of this dimension. It was enormous, at least comparable to the space where Celebi resided, though the terrain here was far more complex than Celebi's forested realm. Celebi's space was almost entirely ancient forest, but this place featured all kinds of varied terrain.

The place where he had been teleported was a grassland, but he was now situated within a dense forest. During the day, Aoki had briefly observed the situation around the space and combined it with the general terrain drawn on his map. At the very center of the entire space was a towering, massive mountain that was visible even from his remote location. It was an active volcano, though the source of its magma was a mystery. The mountain's height was immense, as the lower part of the crater was completely covered with snow, leading Aoki to guess its peak might be similar in altitude to Mount Chimney in the Hoenn region.

After determining his current location and gauging the approximate strength of the surrounding wild Pokemon, Aoki felt a little more at ease. With the help of his Slowking and Florges, he managed to clean the black, sweat-like residue that had seeped from his pores. Even after being washed away by water, the accumulated black substance left behind a foul, lingering smell. It seemed his Pokemon were thoroughly trained, as they remained completely unfazed in such a malodorous environment.

After changing into clean clothes, the wave of pain that followed was so intense Aoki almost fainted again. Only after everything was done could he finally get some proper rest. Fortunately, he had his Tyranitar as a large sofa-like chair; without it, Aoki would have been uncomfortable and in pain no matter what position he tried to rest in.

Night fell. An exhausted Aoki finally fell into a fitful sleep. His Pokemon stuck closely to his side for warmth and protection, while the three Skuntank gloriously took up the role of night watch. So, sometimes one shouldn't think that wild Pokemon are useless. Now that his Tyranitar had been defeated, the role of these three Skuntank was truly significant. They were also very conscientious in their guard duty, a testament to the simple, straightforward nature of wild Pokemon.

The night passed quickly. Daylight broke. Aoki woke up and found, to his relief, that all the muscles on his face except for those around his mouth could finally move again. He subconsciously twitched the muscles on his face; apart from a slight, dull pain, there was no major problem. However, he still could not eat any food that required chewing and swallowing, forced to subsist on a liquid diet.

"Let's go. We can explore the surrounding area today," Aoki said, his voice now able to form words normally, though this small effort represented the current limit of his physical capabilities. Today's goal and task were very simple: to map out the distribution and strength of all Pokemon within a twenty-kilometer radius centered on their small pond camp.

The three Skuntank continued to pull the cart, with the rest of his Pokemon following closely beside him. But one had to think, after seeing the three-meter-tall Tyranitar and the two-meter-tall Aggron, how many wild Pokemon would have the courage to charge at them on their own? Of course, there were always some reckless warriors. In the eyes of many wild Pokemon, a weakened human like Aoki simply looked too delicious to ignore. Furthermore, sometimes by walking blindly, they would inevitably intrude into the territory of wild Pokemon, and when cornered, even the most timid creature would fight desperately. Even clay figures had a third of their spirit left.

The first direction of exploration was towards the central volcano. According to the internal distribution theory of this space, the wild Pokemon closer to the volcano should be stronger, while their strength should weaken the further out one went. Although the source of the volcano's magma was unknown, the area around it definitely contained rich fire energy. Where energy becomes concentrated, the ambient energy concentration in the surrounding areas would also be high, barring the presence of an extreme counter-environment.

For the first five kilometers, they didn't encounter any particularly powerful Pokemon or any large, powerful tribes. However, after traveling more than five kilometers, the frequency of wild Pokemon appearances gradually increased, and the number and average level of the tribes also rose. This was likely because the overall energy concentration in this space was relatively high, leading to an elevated level among the wild Pokemon populations.

After ten kilometers, individual quasi-Champion-level Pokemon began to appear within the tribes, and they launched attacks shortly after Aoki's group entered their territory. However, for the time being, no Pokemon could break through the formidable protection offered by the two mountainous Pokemon, Aggron and Tyranitar. It was not until they reached a distance of roughly twenty kilometers that some Pokemon finally appeared which actually interested Tyranitar and Aggron.

Just as they were about to reach the twenty-kilometer goal, they entered a forest dominated by Slakoth. On the ancient, towering trees, lazy-looking Slakoth hung everywhere. The entry of Aoki and his companions did not initially attract the attention of these languid Pokemon. Aoki had originally thought they would soon reach the twenty-kilometer target line and could then begin exploring in other directions. But he had forgotten that Pokemon like Slakoth evolve from incredibly active creatures: Vigoroth. And the Vigoroth would not remain indifferent to the intrusion of Aoki and his team.

What surprised Aoki was that the leader of this particular Slakoth tribe was not a Slaking, but a particularly high-level Vigoroth. While evolving into a Slaking would grant a massive boost to physical fitness and raw power, the ability Truant was far too restrictive for a Pokemon meant to lead and fight. It was probable that a particularly intelligent and strong-willed Vigoroth within the tribe knew that evolving into a Slaking would severely limit its combat effectiveness and leadership. Therefore, it had chosen to forgo evolution, and not have the evolved body's stat bonuses than be shackled by a debilitating ability.