10 The Rookie Tournament (Edited)

"Which Pokemon will you be using?"

"I will definitely go with my starter"

"I hope I can win this competition. I heard that there is a surprise reward if you do."

Axel went to these thrilled Pokemon trainers and asked what was going on.

"Hey, do you mind including me in your talk? Is there going to be some battle competition here?."

After hearing Nurse Joy addresses him as 'sir', his politeness leveled up a bit.

"Oh, the Rookie tournament will be held tomorrow. We are thinking of participating in it. Are you also a Rookie trainer too?", asked the blond guy who was around 2 inches taller than Axel.

Ahh.. the infamous 'Rookie tournament'. It was one of those tournaments which happened every 3 months in most of the big cities. The top three winners would get exciting prizes and money. The league decided that, since Rookie trainers don't have a good amount of resources, there should be some way for them to earn.

So, the winners would get a good amount of money and items. The judges analyze the battle and if the trainers were good enough they would get a certificate. This certificate just approves you being promoted from 'Rookie trainer' to 'Beginner trainer'. Every trainer must participate in the Rookie tournament and try unless they get the certificate. But more on that later.

"Yes, I am. What are the prizes that you guys are talking about? And hey I am Axel Blaze.", Axel replied.

"Hi, I am Lopez and this is Mariana. Well, you get 1 million Pokedollars and as for items, it has not been revealed. But they say, it is very good and is a surprise", Lopez said.

1 million Pokedollars may seem a lot but it actually was not for Pokemon trainers. Training a Pokemon to its final evolution may cost more than a Billion Pokedollars depending on how much you want to spend.

"Hey, that seems pretty good. I think I will give it a try then. Thanks, Lopez."

"Oh, don't worry about it, it is our pleasure. Besides, there are posters of it all over the place. But if you want to compete you must register in the next 2 hours.", replied Mariana surprisingly.

Mariana was a girl with a relatively normal height of 5 feet and 6 inches. She had brown hair with 2 small ponytails on the back. She was wearing black pump shoes with no heels, blue baggy jeans, and a red t-shirt with a brown jacket on top. She looked like the kind of girl who can't wait to talk … a lot. Axel made a mental note to avoid this girl.

"Thanks for the info, Mariana. I will go now to register. I will meet you guys tomorrow at the stage", saying that Axel went to register for the tournament.

Registration was easy and the tournament would start at 11 am tomorrow. The participant had to be ready 1 hour before the competition. He went to the Pokemon center to collect his Pokemon, then something interesting happened.

"Both of your Pokemons are in good health now. But there is something wrong with Nidoran. We can't figure out what it is though. Sorry about that." Nurse Joy replied apologetically.

"What do you mean? Is he okay or really sick?", Axel asked hurriedly.

"He is not sick. So, you don't need to worry about it now. But there is something that is hindering his potential. It may affect him in the future when he evolves. I have contacted Dr. Akihabara, and he would be happy to look further into this. He is in Matcha city which is in between Safari Zone and Cinnabar Island", nurse Joy replied.

"Thank you, nurse Joy. Would you please give me his contact info? I will meet him after some time", Axel said. After taking his contact info, he went upstairs.

He came near a phone booth to call his parents.

Tring..!! Tring.. !!

"Hello, who is this?"

"Hey, Agnes, it is me, Axel. How are you doing?", Axel replied. "Mom, Axel is on the phone.", she shouted running to her mother.

A few moments later.

"Axel, how are you? You said to call us in 10 days but you are calling in after a month. We were so worried...."

His mother kept babbling about it. In this world, Pokenav had not been invented yet. And there was no network in the forest even if you want to contact them. His initial plan was to cross the forest in 5-10 days but due to training, he took around 1 month to reach Gringey city.

They had some small talk… but the talk was very big. Axel's dad was in the office, not at home, and he also talked to his uncle.

After he talked to his parent, he went to the 2nd floor. He had booked the room for tonight and without any lunch, he slept in the bed. It had been a long time since he slept in the bed. When he hit the bed, he slept instantly.

###

In the evening, 6 pm,

"Ahhh.. Hhhhai" Axel said stretching his hands and legs. He woke up at 6 pm in the evening. The sun was already going down. He woke his Pokemon up and went to take a shower.

It had been a month since he had taken a satisfying shower. He also cleaned Nidoran and Shedinja. He went to the 1st Floor and ordered the same food. He had already made his homemade food for Nidoran. Shedinja didn't have to eat. Its body was hollow from the inside. It was a Bug/Ghost type Pokemon and lives up eating life energy in the surrounding or death energy.

Axel was very low on cash right now. Registration took 1000 Pokedollars and breakfast and the meal right now took 200 Pokedollars. So, he had only around 800 Pokedollars left which was extremely less as he also had to buy a bunch of potions and antidotes. Due to Nidoran's ability 'poison point', he started getting poisoned a lot and now he needed more antidotes.

"Today we don't need to do any training. We will stroll around the city." Axel declared to his Pokemons.

Nidoran had a sigh of relief on its face. They were strolling in the city, there were a lot of good restaurants, factories, hotels, and many more.

One thing Axel found interesting was about Pokemon Poachers. You could catch Pokemon in the wild and sell them to them and earn a lot of money. Some of the uncontrolled Pokemon who hurt Trainers a lot could be captured and sold to the league too. And Pokemon Poachers were completely legal.

Since, 80% of the Pokemon world was unexplored and most of the places were covered in forest, catching Pokemon in the wild and selling them doesn't seem to be bad. It had some rules to follow but they were pretty lax and they also had dealings with the league.

The next thing was about earning money from battle. If you have a Pokemon battle with the trainers and both of them have more than 1000 Pokedollars in their pocket then the winners get some of the money. The money was decided before the battle but they get at least 1000 Pokedollars.

"I can't believe that I got ripped off by Bruno. When I meet him again and I know I will, there will a hell to pay" Axel murmured to himself.

He knew about this rule but he forgot to ask money from Burno. The little money wouldn't have mattered to him if it was in a normal circumstance. But now he only had around 800 Poke dollars left.

Another interesting thing was about 'League Association'. It was like a 'guild' in various light novels. They had quests that you could complete and earn some money and benefits.

The quest was not only related to Pokemon and trainers. There were quests like cleaning, servicing as a waiter in high peak hours, catching wild pokemons, thieves and burglars, and many more.

The last interesting thing he found out was the auction. Every big city had an auction where they sell some valuable and rare items and even Pokemons at a high price.

He started making some plans of earning money. After some time they reached the Pokemon center and ate some food. Axel and the team went to sleep after eating.