Pokémon Court

“Terrance, remember to bring Kota’s evaluation report tomorrow,” Teacher Julian reminded Terrance one last time.

“Got it,” Terrance replied with a wave, sighing inwardly at the thought of another late night of work.

But before that, he looked at Gallade and said, “You just fought, so let’s postpone the battle with Altaria until tomorrow. How does that sound?”

“I’ll take Altaria to challenge the Tower of Despair. That will be your battlefield.”

“Gall~ade!” Gallade was silent for a moment before nodding.

“Oh? You’re going to challenge the Tower of Despair?” Teacher Julian looked surprised. “I thought you already applied for graduation this morning.”

“Yes…” Terrance replied with a smile. “But I suddenly thought, maybe I could earn some extra credits before graduation. Plus, I can also test my growth over the past year.”

Teacher Julian looked at Terrance suspiciously, then shook his head: “Suit yourself. In that case, I’ll take Gallade back to the Tower of Despair.”

“I’ll come along too,” Terrance said. “I’ll also apply to challenge the 1st floor of the Tower of Despair. I need to clear the 1st floor before I can battle Gallade, right?”

“That’s correct,” Teacher Julian replied, looking at Terrance: “Now that you mention it, I am curious to see how much you’ve improved in the past year.”

“Your Swablu, Misdreavus, and Growlithe have all evolved, and you’ve even caught a Castform… Are you aiming to challenge the Tower of Despair five times?”

“I’m going to challenge both the Tower of Confusion and Tower of Despair,” Terrance said. “Each of them now has the strength to stand on their own.”

Teacher Julian remained silent, knowing Terrance wasn’t one to boast. If he believed all five of his Pokémon could challenge the Tower of Despair, it meant Terrance was truly confident.

Still, he couldn’t resist trying to humble him.

“Don’t get complacent. Remember Cynthia? She’s already made it through the Champion League and successfully defeated the Elite Four.”

Terrance paused, then continued walking.

“I know,” he replied.

Seeing Terrance’s indifference, with barely any reaction, Teacher Julian was taken aback. Shouldn’t this news be exciting?

Or maybe when Terrance said, “I know,” he meant, “I already know.”

Teacher Julian couldn’t have guessed that from the moment Terrance first heard Cynthia’s name, he already knew she would become the Champion of Sinnoh, the youngest Champion ever.

“Did Cynthia become Elite Four Champion this year?” Terrance mused.

He was the same age as Brock, five years older than Ash, and Cynthia was five years older than him. Now, at thirteen, there were still two years before the main storyline began.

When Cynthia appeared in the anime, it seems she had been Champion for quite a while.

Now she was eighteen, so becoming Champion at this age wasn’t surprising.

“…” Never mind, Terrance stopped thinking about these useless things. He had started later than these geniuses, and he has been working hard for a shorter time. Right now, he just needs to focus on doing his best.

Tower of Despair.

After arriving, Terrance registered with the person in charge, and then released Altaria for the battle.

When it was still Swablu, he attempted to challenge Tower of Despair with it, but the 1st floor’s Guardian Pokémon was a Rhydon, and Swablu was unfortunately defeated. This loss taught Terrance that Swablu’s strength wasn’t yet good enough. Even if it could have passed the 1st floor by luck, it wouldn’t have been able to go further. So, he decided not to let the two little guys, Swablu and Misdreavus, attempt the challenge again. As for Growlithe, which he caught even later, it definitely didn’t have the strength to challenge the Tower of Despair.

Only Beautifly, using its skills, managed to reach the 2nd floor by luck but couldn’t progress further.

“Hmm… Isn’t it Beautifly?” The person in charge of Tower of Despair pulled up Terrance’s challenge record from the academy platform and asked: “Didn’t you have a Beautifly that once reached the 2nd floor?”

“No, I’m holding off on its challenge for later,” Terrance replied.

The current Beautifly… after grinding through Pokémon Contests and the Grand Festival, has made remarkable progress compared to a year ago.

It’s fair to say that it has reached the peak of its species’ potential. For it to break through even further, at least with Terrance’s current abilities, there doesn’t seem to be a good way forward, which was Terrance’s biggest frustration.

All his other Pokémon still had significant room to grow, but with Beautifly, after seeing its brilliance at the Grand Festival, he was unsure how to set its training goals for future.

In fact, after the Grand Festival, he even noticed a deep fatigue in Beautifly’s eyes as it played with the children.

This gave Terrance a greater sense of urgency and led him to reflect: if a Pokémon reaches its natural limit, only the Trainer can help it make further breakthrough… but he couldn’t yet shoulder that responsibility.

“If I were a Top-level Breeder or a Trainer on the level of an Elite Four Champion, would I be able to help Beautifly break through?” Terrance thought silently. That’s why he planned to establish a Bug-Type Gym and have Beautifly watch over it. He hoped this would allow it to gain more experience while he looked for further opportunities for Beautifly.

Terrance was confident that the current Beautifly could easily overpower its former self from a year ago—ruthlessly and effortlessly, as if toying with it.

With this level of strength, Terrance was confident of seeing Beautifly make it past the 10th floor of the Tower of Despair.

The guardians of the Tower of Despair are not fixed and changed frequently. Generally, the lower the floor, the more frequently their guardians change. Currently, the Guardian Pokémon on the 1st floor was neither from the academy nor a teacher; it was from a student in the Graduation Class.

1st Floor Guardian Pokémon: Grumpig. Trainer: Valor.

A familiar name.

Terrance paused, recalling that he knew this person. They hadn’t interacted much, but he is a new student who joined the Crown Academy in the same year as him.

The two first met during a challenge at the Tower of Confusion. Valor’s Murkrow stopped at the 2nd floor, while Terrance’s Swablu, with skills far surpassing those of a rookie Trainer, impressively reached the 3rd floor before it could go no further.

He didn’t expect to run into someone familiar. Valor was probably close to graduation, too.

Thinking about how all the new students from back then had now become capable Trainers, Terrance smiled and said, “I’m ready to challenge. Notify him.”

In one of the dormitories at the academy, Valor, who was reviewing Pokémon knowledge, stared at the notification in surprise and sighed, “Another challenger? I just got defeated by that weird Gallade the day before yesterday. Although I was lucky to return to the 1st floor yesterday, now there’s yet another challenge. The Tower of Despair really is a hassle…”

At this moment, Teacher Julian returned Gallade to the tower and looked at Terrance, who had finished registering. “How many floors do you expect Altaria to clear?”

Terrance thought for a moment, careful not to overstate, and replied, “Above the 10th floor, I’d say?”

He grinned. His Pokémon were all about slow and steady wins the race. Swablu, for example, took two years to evolve, but compared to the typical Trainer’s Starter Pokémon that evolves twice in less than a year, its foundation was rock-solid. This solid foundation exploded into crazy growth upon evolution.

The same went for Misdreavus and Growlithe; he allowed them to evolve only when he felt they had reached their near-perfect state for their current level.

These Pokémon, carefully trained to reach their full potential, might not have helped Terrance achieve outstanding results in the academy’s trial grounds in the past, but now he was ready to make a powerful comeback. No matter the opponent, Terrance was ready to leave an impressive mark in the trial ground records.

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