About twenty minutes after Frank finished speaking, the sound of notifications pinged across the room. Julian glanced at his phone—it was the details of his assigned task.
Almost simultaneously, all the students in the Special Recruitment Class looked at their phones, their faces a mix of anticipation and anxiety as they read their upcoming assignments.
"It's over! My task is to capture a mid pseudo-Elite Pokémon in the wild!" a student said bitterly.
"That's nothing. Capturing a mid pseudo-Elite Pokémon isn’t even a challenge. Look at mine!" Another student’s face had turned as sour as a bitter melon.
"Whoa, buddy, your task is something else. If you don’t make it back, I’ll understand," said a classmate, patting him on the shoulder. Though it was meant to be comforting, it felt more like sarcasm.
The unfortunate student’s task read: [Defeat ten freshmen from Shu University’s Special Recruitment Class.]
Given the tense relationship between Shu University and Imperial University, this task seemed practically life-threatening.
"I’d better start gathering intel on the bottom ten from Shu’s Special Recruitment Class," the student muttered.
“Luis, what’s your task?”
Dalton leaned in curiously.
"I have to participate in the Ice-Type Tournament hosted in Harbin City and make it to at least the Top 16. Fortunately, only trainers below Elite level are allowed," Luis replied, sounding slightly relieved.
"Pretty similar. I have to participate in the Fighting Tournament next week and also secure a Top 16 spot," Dalton said.
"Shen, what’s yours?"
"It’s the same as Dalton’s, but I only need to make it to the Top 32," Shen replied.
"And Ian, what's wrong with you, why do you look like your Salamence just died?"
Hugo tried to hold back his laughter as he said, "His task is to defeat Acacia."
Immediately, everyone turned their gaze toward Ian with sympathetic eyes. They all knew Ian and Acacia had been rivals since childhood, and Ian had never won a single match against her.
"Don’t worry. With your strength, even if you leave the Special Recruitment Class, you’ll climb back soon enough," Yanis said, barely containing his laughter.
Whoever had assigned this task clearly had a wicked sense of humor.
"Teacher, I’d like to know who came up with my task."
Ian asked, clenching his fists and standing up angrily.
"Your uncle assigned it. Do you have any objections?" Frank replied nonchalantly.
Originally, Ian’s task was different, but his uncle intervened, insisting, “How can a man of the Drake family lose to a woman?” And so, this mission was tailored for Ian.
Ian roared and sat down unwillingly.
"Brother Walker, what’s your task?" Luis asked curiously.
Many students perked up their ears. As the one hailed as the most talented of Drakoria’s younger generation, Julian’s task was bound to be anything but simple.
"I have to defeat a national level Gym," Julian replied.
With a calm expression, Julian spoke words that shocked everyone around him.
“I thought being asked to defeat a city-level Gym would already be a big challenge. A national-level Gym? I wouldn’t have even dared to imagine that,” a student exclaimed in disbelief.
Drakoria had a total of 18 national-level Gyms. Each Gym Leader was either at the peak of Elite level or a pseudo-Champion-level trainer.
National-level Gyms were entirely different from city-level Gyms. In city-level Gyms, the leaders had a duty to guide challengers, often holding back in battles.
Even if a challenger lost, the Gym Leader might still award them a badge out of consideration.
But in national-level Gyms, there was no such leniency. If you dared to challenge, they would fight you until you were on your knees.
The concept of guidance didn’t exist. For a national-level Gym Leader, losing to a challenger was considered a disgrace.
If a national-level Gym leader was defeated multiple times in a year, the Trainer Association would question the Gym Leader’s abilities.
Should the association decide to reevaluate them, failing the evaluation could result in the Gym Leader losing their title.
Thus, national-level Gym Leaders treated every challenger with their full strength—there was no such thing as holding back.
Earning eight badges from national-level Gyms qualified a trainer to participate in the Elite Challenge held once every four years in Drakoria.
These Gyms were the true test of Drakoria’s Elite trainers, and most challengers were in the late-Elite stage. Mid-Elite challengers were rare, let alone early-Elite trainers like Julian.
“Brother Walker, how can you be so calm?”
Luis asked, noticing his unruffled expression, as though the difficulty of his task didn’t concern him at all.
Could it be that Julian planned to challenge his family’s Steel-Type Gym? That wouldn’t be impossible since the task didn’t specify which national-level Gym to challenge.
“Even with Boss Walker’s strength, taking on a national-level Gym seems... challenging,” Dalton said hesitantly, uncertain whether Julian could succeed.
“Isn’t there a national-level Gym in a Province, near the capital?” Julian asked.
The capital itself had a national-level Dragon-Type Gym, led by a member of the Drake family. However, given Julian’s good relationship with the Drake family, he didn’t want to cause trouble there.
“Yes, there’s a Rock-Type Gym,” Luis nodded.
“Brother Walker, are you planning to challenge that Gym?”
“Yeah, isn't this one the closest?” Julian said, as if it were the most obvious choice.
Luis almost wanted to say that the Dragon-Type Gym was even closer, being right in the capital. But recalling Julian’s ties with the Drake family, he realized why Julian might prefer not to challenge it.
Julian had never challenged a Gym before. After all, he followed the academic path, focusing on training through theory and research.
Those who relied on Gym challenges and tournaments to improve their skills were considered part of the practical path.
The practical path looked down on the academic path, dismissing them as weaklings who couldn’t handle real challenges, with their heads full of theories and no grit.
Meanwhile, the academic path regarded the practical trainers as fools who hadn’t even mastered basic knowledge.
However, the two paths ultimately led to the same destination.
Academic trainers, after graduating, would eventually step into the practical realm.
Similarly, practical trainers often found their lack of theoretical knowledge a bottleneck and would seek out universities to fill in those gaps.
“The deadline for the tasks is one month. Any delays will count as a failure, so don’t drag your feet,” Frank warned before leaving the classroom.
With the teacher gone, the students gradually filed out, many heading back to their villas to pack and prepare for their assignments.
Yanis and Hugo lived in neighboring villas, so they walked back together.
“What’s your task?” Yanis asked.
“To kill a wanted criminal at the peak of pseud0-Elite level,” Hugo replied.
The mission actually required the criminal to be captured, but Hugo seemed set on eliminating them outright.
“Do you think Julian can pull off his task?”
National Gym Leaders were the cream of the crop among Elite trainers, capable of battling above their level and boasting a wealth of experience.
“Of course, he can. You guys still underestimate him.”
Hugo said with a faint smile.
Julian himself probably didn’t realize that the person most confident in his abilities wasn’t his close friends like Dalton or Luis but the usually cold Hugo.
“Looks like we underestimated you, too,” Yanis remarked.
“Oh? Did you notice? That’s odd—I thought I hid it well,” Hugo replied with a smirk.
Upto 30 chapters ahead on :-