Chapter 24: The Arrival of a Legendary Pokémon!

Although Heath was very curious about what kind of Pokémon it was, he had no intention of rushing over to check it out. Although he had read some books about Pokémon tracking, his knowledge barely went beyond the introductions.

It was like studying advanced mathematics: at first glance, the blackboard seemed to show simple arithmetic problems; but after looking down to take notes or getting distracted by his phone for a moment, when he looked up again, it felt as if he hadn’t attended class for months.

Heath had always been self-aware; he knew he wasn’t a top student in terms of learning. When it came to tracking skills, he usually just went with the flow.

So, calling out to Zoroark, Heath began searching for the snow mushrooms together. But these mushrooms were indeed very hard to find, mostly buried under the snow. After a long while of busy searching, Heath finally found five mushrooms.

“The quantity is a bit low… but whatever, as long as they’re edible. But what does this note about the mushrooms mean?” Heath pondered, looking at the snow mushrooms he had brought back to the food cart.

He recalled that when he had just checked the ingredients with the scanner, one piece of information about the snow mushrooms caught his attention: dishes made with snow mushrooms would have a very low temperature. This was puzzling.

Most dishes were served hot, soups included, so seeing such a note made Heath wonder what kind of dish would suit these mushrooms. Soon, he found a very fitting recipe in Chinese cuisine where the snow mushroom could truly shine.

“If it can really lower the temperature of a dish, then this snow mushroom might just be incredibly useful.” Heath squeezed the snow mushroom in his hand; it was soft and fluffy, like a clump of snow, and so cold it made his hand ache.

He put down the snow mushroom, believing it might really be valuable, and started boiling water. This time, Heath was making meat jelly—a unique dish resembling jelly but actually a chilled broth.

The initial steps went smoothly. However, when it came time to add the snow mushrooms, Heath suddenly felt as if he’d transformed from a chef into an alchemist—an inexperienced one at that.

Watching the mushrooms quickly dissolve into the pot, Heath was quite satisfied. It seemed the snow mushrooms had the characteristic of dissolving instantly in water. But what happened next left him astounded.

A massive burst of steam shot out suddenly, and Heath barely dodged it. When the steam cleared, the large pot of boiling meat broth had turned into a crystal-clear meat jelly, which was unexpected.

Normally, because meat jelly is placed for a long time, the meat usually settles at the bottom while the broth remains on top. But now, the meat was scattered freely within the jelly, looking neat and visually appealing.

“This… is really amazing,” Heath clicked his tongue. He had only added three snow mushrooms but hadn’t anticipated such a remarkable effect.

Although the effect was excellent, the most important aspect of any ingredient was its taste. Heath took the meat jelly out of the pot, sliced it into strips, then picked one up and chewed it.

As soon as he bit into it, a chill spread through his mouth, followed by the rich aroma of mushroom broth and the flavor of small chunks of pork. The taste was excellent—much better than ordinary meat jelly.

The fresh and savory mushroom flavor was indescribable. Wild fungi are among the most exquisite delicacies of the mountains, and perhaps because it had frozen so quickly, a faint essence of meat broth lingered even when biting through it.

“The flavor is great. Scallion Duck! Zoroark! Come and eat!” Heath nodded approvingly. This meat jelly’s taste was indeed superb. He planned to search the forest a bit more later.

The meat jelly with snow mushrooms also earned unanimous praise from Zoroark and Scallion Duck, but Heath was somewhat disappointed that no special quest was triggered. He had been hoping to see what dishes interested Scallion Duck.

“This flavor is really good, but the snow mushrooms are too few and hard to find.” Heath yawned, with dozens of jelly strips still left on his plate—he had cooked extra.

“Trainer… hic… look, the snowman I built seems to have gotten bigger,” Zoroark said, lying on the counter, its belly full and letting out a satisfied burp.

“Oh? It got bigger? Maybe it’s just the snow,” Heath waved off the comment. After eating, he felt lazy as all his blood had been sent to his stomach.

But soon, Heath sensed something was off. Even if it were a blizzard, the snow couldn’t have piled up enough to cast a shadow that covered his face so suddenly.

He sat up sharply and saw a large, chubby hand reaching in, grabbing the meat jelly, and taking it outside. There, standing by the food cart, was a Snorlax, entirely white in color, munching on the jelly Heath had made.

“This… this is a Snorlax?!” Heath said in astonishment. He hadn’t expected to encounter a Snorlax, but this one’s color was completely different from a normal Snorlax.

At first, Heath thought it might be a shiny Snorlax, but the color didn’t match; shiny Snorlaxes don’t look like this. Moreover, this Snorlax seemed somewhat similar to the gigantic white figure Heath had seen earlier in the woods.

“Scallion!” Scallion Duck watched the Snorlax warily. Standing over two meters tall, the Snorlax was imposing.

This Snorlax’s entire body was an icy white. If not for the blood-colored mouth, Heath might have suspected it was a fake.

“What kind of Snorlax is this…” Heath marveled at the Snorlax still greedily eating. No, it was outright stealing the food.

Heath felt a little frustrated. Unfortunately, he had already used his ingredient scanner and couldn’t check the Snorlax’s basic information.

As Heath was lost in thought, the Snorlax’s large hand reached in again, but the plate was already empty. The Snorlax let out a disappointed cry.

“Do you want more, Snorlax?” Heath asked with a smile, looking at the Snorlax.

Earlier, Heath hadn’t been sure, but now he was certain: the legendary clues about white Pokémon must refer to this unique Snorlax population. What puzzled Heath, however, was why there had been no previous reports of this kind of Snorlax.