Chapter no.16

I was curious about his job, so I asked, "Are you a coordinator?" Since he had stopped moving himself, neither of us had any reason to continue exploring the cave, so I leaned against the wall behind me while keeping my torch trained on the space between us.

"Kind of," he admitted with a smirk on his face. "I've got a team that was specifically built for coordinating, with one specialist in each area like beauty, and then one jack-of-all-trades. I'm slowly getting all of my others to have at least a basic grasp over it."

I showed him that I was paying attention by nodding my head in agreement and having a lot more respect for him than I did before. After observing his Flygon, I had a good idea that he was strong; however, after hearing how difficult it was to advance to the position of coordinator, I realised that his strength was on an entirely different level.

I assured him that there was no reason to worry about my potential promotion to the position of coordinator just yet. "Wait, what was the one you said before that? 'Gymers' or something like that?"

He laughed as he repeated my words while shaking his head in response to each one. "Gym challengers," he corrected me, "are used as a status to show how strong you are; the more you have, the stronger a trainer you are." "All over the world there are special places called Pokémon Gyms," he continued, "and there are roughly about twenty in every region like Hoenn." "Each gym is run by a leader, who is typically one of the strongest people in the region. They have loads of Pokémon at all different levels, accommodating for trainers of all Once you have eight badges from a single region, you are eligible to compete in that region's annual league competition. In the league, each and every trainer that has qualified for that year competes against each other, aiming for the top spot. If you win, you get a million poké dollars, as well as the opportunity to challenge that region's Elite Four and reigning champion. As you can guess, these five trainers are the most powerful in the entire region; they are levels above everyone else, so only the

It seemed like a good option to go in that direction. If I needed to persuade other people, without a doubt I would require some level of respect and authority to employ in my efforts. My previous existence as a guard soldier was in the past; there was no way that I could make use of that now. However, if I improved my training skills and participated in this league challenge, I would have an advantage due to those improvements. Even if I only needed eight badges, I would still try to earn all twenty available in Hoenn, just in case I needed the additional respect.

My curiosity led me to inquire, "When will the next league be held?" It was my hope that it would take place before the deadline I had set. In the event that it occurred after the fact, I would have to devise an alternative plan.

Adryan shared this piece of information with me: "Roughly eleven months." "The last one just finished a month ago, and the new one's always a month later each year." "It works out well like that," Adryan explained, "otherwise every year people would be using grass and summer types to exploit the summer weather, or ice to exploit the winter weather."

I responded to him by saying, "I'll have to give that some thought." I was aware that eleven months was too long for me to continue doing this. On the other hand, I was confident that I could use the league as a last-ditch effort to change the course of events if it came to that. After what was supposed to be the last possible day, I was certain that the future could still be altered little by little. Even if I could only alter it in such a way that Kanto and Johto remained united and took over the entire world, at least it would hopefully be a suitable back up plan. "Once I register as a trainer, I'll decide."

Adryan's eyes widened behind his glasses, and he took a startled step towards me as he exclaimed in disbelief, "You're not registered as a trainer yet?" Adryan's voice reverberated brilliantly throughout the cave as he said this.

I shook my head. "Is that really such a terrible thing to do?"

He snorted and replied, "Yeah." He heaved a sigh and shook his head as he looked at the expression of confusion on my face. "If you're not registered, you're not going to be insured!" "You're well aware that you and your Pokémon are both going to get hurt and injured while travelling, right? Well, when you register as a trainer, all of your Pokémon health care becomes free, as well as any treatment you might need as a result of training or battling. You won't get treated for liver cancer for free as long as you're a trainer, but your Pokémon will. If they break an arm or a fin, it's healed for free, understand?" He shook his head once "If you are not registered, and either you or your Pokémon become injured, you are responsible for all of the medical fees. Even worse, if you battle another trainer, you are responsible for both your and their fees!"

I was immediately grateful that I hadn't engaged in combat with anyone or anything, with the exception of the stray Electrike, and I felt my stomach do a complete flip in my gut. It was imperative that I complete the registration process as quickly as possible.

He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair as he continued speaking. "There's also the fact that you won't be allowed to have Pokémon walking around in town outside of their balls. If you're not a trainer, you have to pay a few of at least ten grand, all to have one Pokémon walk outside its ball." "If you do not have a licence, you are only allowed to carry one Pokémon on you at any given time, and if you are discovered with more than one, you are subject to a fine that is significantly higher."

I blinked in sheer bewilderment. It was going to cost me a significant amount of money to settle that dispute. My own internal thoughts about signing up for the course multiplied by ten as time went on.