Elf: Make the Rockets Great Again

In the center of the desert is a circular altar with a short pillar about one meter long on the edge of the altar.

On the short pillar is an ancient ochre-colored stone basin, which looks as if it was solidified from the yellow sand on the ground.

Speaking of which, this altar is the key that brought Lu Ming to this elf world.

In his previous life, he was an ordinary office worker. During a trip to a desert scenic area, he accidentally discovered this altar.

Then, after touching it out of curiosity, he was transported to the world of the two-dimensional work he had seen before.

Even the altar and the surrounding desert traveled with him, becoming a secret space he carried with him.

He was transported here by soul about half a year ago. At that time, the original owner of this body was forced to join the strongest underground organization in Kanto - Team Rocket due to life difficulties and became a member of its reserve team.

In this Pokémon world, if you want to become strong, you must first become a trainer.

But to cultivate powerful elves, massive resources and financial resources are needed.

His previous incarnation was an orphan and it was difficult for him to become a trainer, so he joined Team Rocket, hoping to make a comeback. However, he died unexpectedly before the assessment and was replaced by the current Lu Ming.

Faced with the sudden assessment, Lu Ming relied on the information he learned from animation and games in his previous life, as well as the basic education he had received, to stand out from a group of uneducated poor people and obtained a black-eyed crocodile with good talent!

Of course, even if the elves have good talents, it is difficult to quickly improve their strength without resources.

The reason why Lu Ming was able to cultivate the Gangster Crocodile to this level within half a year was precisely because of this magical desert space he brought with him!

At this point, Lu Ming's tense expression relaxed a little, and he released the gangster crocodile again.

The crocodile obviously already knew the secret of this desert space and was not surprised at all.

Instead, he sniffed Lu Ming with his nose, and then pointed his paw at Lu Ming's pocket without any hesitation.

Lu Ming rolled his eyes and said, "Why are you so anxious? I won't compete with you for energy!

How come compared to the two of us, you're more like a Team Rocket player."

As he spoke, Lu Ming rummaged through his pockets and took out a few banknotes and some yellow cubes.

He first picked out the energy cube and threw it to the gangster crocodile before counting the remaining banknotes.

"Oh my, this guy is quite something. He is indeed an old gangster who has been around for a few years. It seems that he has done a lot of bad things."

In addition to the energy cubes, I also have thousands of Alliance Coins on me, which is enough for me to spend for a while!"

But the next moment, Lu Ming looked at the crocodile who had swallowed several energy cubes in one gulp, and couldn't help but hold his forehead and thought to himself:

"Well, if I spend a thousand bucks on this 'Crocodile King', I'll probably only be able to eat a few bites!"

Fortunately, Scar's elf is also a ground-attribute Sandslash.

Although the energy blocks used in the game don't completely match the formula of the Crocodile, they are still quite helpful.

Thinking of this, Lu Ming also remembered the Sandslash in the Poké Ball, and then said to the Crocodile:

"Get ready. I'm going to release the Sandsand King."

"Skull~~"

The gangster crocodile immediately became serious. Although he would sometimes "manage upwards", he could be clear-headed and reliable at critical moments. This was also the reason why Lu Ming usually indulged him.

The Sandshrew did not receive any treatment, and although he regained some consciousness, his body remained weak.

Without any unnecessary words, the crocodile pounced on the Sandshrew and bit its most vulnerable abdomen to pieces, killing it instantly.

Then, he skillfully grabbed the Sandshrew's thigh and dragged it towards the altar.

"Boom~~"

The body of the Sandshrew was thrown onto the altar, and the blood quickly dyed the bricks and stones below red.

The next moment, the blood was like flames that ignited the grass and trees, causing the entire altar to move on its own, and strange ochre light patterns appeared on the ancient rock wall.

"Okay, let's wait for the feast!"

The man and the crocodile stared at the altar eagerly. As the Sandshrew's blood dried up, its flesh, leather armor, and even the hard stone spikes on its back were completely decomposed by the energy corrosion of the altar.

Soon, all the remaining energy in his body was transformed into light on the patterns on the altar, and finally flowed and gathered on the stone basin beside it.

When everything was over, there was no trace of the Sandshrew's existence on the altar, but on the originally empty stone basin, there was a gem with an ochre-colored glow.

"Huh~, this 'ground gem' has actually reached the intermediate quality level."

Lu Ming was extremely surprised and grabbed the gem in his hand to examine it.

This was the first time he had come into contact with a mid-level quality "ground gem" since he came to this elf world.

That’s right, the attribute gems mentioned by Scar Man before also came from this magical altar.

Ever since Lu Ming came to this world, he has been trying to explore the function of this desert space and the altar.

Later he discovered that he could obtain "ground gems" by sacrificing the bodies of dead ground-attributed elves.

Of course, this is only limited to elves with ground attributes. If they have other attributes, the effect cannot be triggered.

But fortunately, the Qingyuan Town where he is located is at the foot of Yuejian Mountain. As long as he is willing to take risks, he can still catch a lot of ground-attribute elves.

Before, Lu Ming had taken the unevolved Crocodile and ventured to the foot of the mountain several times, capturing a lot of weak Geodudes and Sandshrews, and obtaining some "ground gems" through sacrifice.

But because he only dared to attack weak elves before, sometimes several of them together could not make up a primary gem.

And now, for the first time, he used the "Excellent Grade" Sandshrew as a sacrifice, and actually directly obtained a mid-level "Ground Gem".

Of course, if it hadn't been for the hard work before, the Crocodile would definitely not have reached the threshold of evolution at this moment, let alone defeat the Sandshrew!

…………

Chapter 3 Mission

Feeling the pure energy emanating from the intermediate gemstone, Gangster Crocodile immediately reached out to ask for it.

But this time Lu Ming did not follow it, but shook his head and said:

"You forgot so quickly that we took the risk to go to Qingyuan Mall to exchange gems just to solve the problem of the imbalance between your two attributes.

If you absorb this mid-grade "ground gem" now, wouldn't it make your own attribute distribution even more extreme?"

Hearing this, the fiery look in Crocodile's eyes calmed down, and he scratched his head slightly embarrassedly.

Lu Ming smiled helplessly, reached his right hand into the lining of his shirt, and fumbled out a square box. When he opened it, he saw two gems emitting a dark light.

"Hmm~, it's because of these two 'Evil Gems' that I was targeted by a villain. I wonder if that person will have any follow-up measures."

The reason why Lu Ming sighed was that the strength of the Gangster Crocodile increased rapidly with the supply of "ground gems" produced by the desert altar, but problems were exposed after its recent evolution.

Because it has the dual attributes of ground and evil, but it has only focused on replenishing energy of ground attributes since childhood.

This causes energy imbalance in the body, requiring appropriate supplementation of some evil energy.

In a small town like Qingyuan Town with a population of about 100,000, the only place that sells elf-related supernatural items is the Qingyuan Mall, which is fully controlled by the Nibi Gym.

There is a gem exchange service in the mall. You only need to pay some handling fees to exchange gems with properties that you don’t need.

Of course, the gems exchanged must be of the same level, and if you encounter rare attributes such as ghost or dragon, you have to pay the difference.

In order to solve the problem of the gangster crocodile, Lu Ming tried to take out two "ground gems" to exchange for the "evil gems".

However, he didn't expect that because of his identity, people would still notice something wrong.

After all, even a primary-quality attribute gem would cost around 10,000 Alliance coins, which was not something a poor man like him could afford.

Thinking of this, Lu Ming also felt that the intermediate "ground gem" in his hand was a little hot.

You know, if the attribute gem can reach the intermediate grade, the value will almost increase tenfold, and nearly 100,000 Alliance Coins are enough to make countless people take risks.

"Forget it! Instead of worrying about gains and losses and being frightened, it's better to improve as soon as possible.

Since this miraculous altar allowed me to travel through this world and even granted me supernatural powers, if I still can't become stronger and protect myself, wouldn't I be wasting this opportunity? "

Lu Ming stopped thinking about it and took out the "Gem of Evil" from the brocade box and put the intermediate "Ground Gem" he had just obtained into it.

Although the manager of Qingyuan Mall had ill intentions, fortunately the brocade box he packed was genuine and could isolate the energy of the attribute gems.

Then, Lu Ming threw the "Evil Gem" he had exchanged into the mouth of the gangster crocodile, allowing it to absorb and refine it.

Unlike the previous energy blocks, even the primary quality attribute gems are enough for the Gangster Crocodile to digest for a while.

Lu Ming now has very limited time to stay in the desert space, and he is also worried that someone will come to his house to look for him.

So, he took back the crocodile who was concentrating on digesting the gem, closed his eyes, thought about something, and after the world spun around, he returned to his original home.

This is an old bungalow with not much decoration except the necessary furniture.

But Lu Ming did not seem worried at all, because he already had an "excellent-level" elf.

If he hadn't been concerned about other people's suspicion, he would have applied to become an official member of the Rockets.

What's more, with plug-ins like the desert space and the mysterious altar, as long as he can develop steadily, his future achievements will definitely far exceed those of ordinary people.

"The most urgent task is to improve our strength. Previously, due to the limited strength of the Black-Eyed Crocodile, we could only attack those isolated monsters.

Now that Gangster Crocodile has "excellent" strength, not only will the speed of catching operations be greatly improved in the future, but he can also try to accept bounty missions that he once dared not touch!

Okay! After Crocodile absorbs two "Evil Gems" tonight, we'll go to Yuejian Mountain tomorrow!"

.........

The next day,

The morning light shines in, warming the boy.

After Lu Ming got up, he looked at the already impatient Crocodile and smiled.

Last night, the Crocodile had already digested two "Evil Gems" and was now extremely energetic. When he saw Lu Ming get up, he eagerly urged him to hurry up.

"Got it! Got it! I'll go to the mission center first and see if I can take on some missions so I can earn some money to buy energy cubes for you!"

As the name suggests, the mission center is where civilian trainers in Qingyuan Town exchange information and accept missions.

When Lu Ming arrived here, the hall was already crowded with people.

"Oh my! I was wondering why more and more people are accepting quests these days. It wasn't like this before!"

A young man's voice sounded from behind Lu Ming, and then another person whispered:

"I heard that it's because the leader of Team Rocket disappeared a while ago, which caused internal turmoil, and naturally fewer people are taking private jobs.

This is why all tasks, big and small, are being moved to formal venues, and now all cities in Kanto are like this."