Bottom-tier trainers in the Pokémon world

It's just that it's a bit too much.

"Xia Yan, are the elves prepared enough? I brought some from home."

Lance took out a backpack containing more than a dozen Poké Balls.

Through the transparent glass of the Poké Ball, you can see that it is full of Dragon-type Pokémon.

Xia Yan patted Du on the shoulder.

"Have a heart."

It was clear that Wataru was worried that although Natsuhiko had opened a Dragon-type gym, the gym's Pokémon supplies were not adequate, so he brought some from home just in case.

As for the quality of the sprites, there's definitely no need to worry.

Furthermore, Wataru has great confidence in Natsuhiko's understanding of Pokémon and believes that he can command these Dragon-type Pokémon well.

"I brought some with me too."

Cynthia opened the small bag she was carrying, which contained several Poké Balls.

"no need."

Xia Yan smiled and waved his hand, declining their kind offer.

"Since I've chosen to open this venue, I've made all the necessary preparations. Rest assured, just watch my performance."

These Pokémon were borrowed. If they had been given to Xia Yan, he would have accepted them, but since they were borrowed, there was no need for them.

"Mr. Xia Yan, King Kikuno has arrived. We can begin."

Kikuna, holding the schedule, came to Natsuhiko's side and reminded him.

"it is good."

Xia Yan nodded to the crowd and then turned to walk towards the battlefield.

Many people greeted him along the way.

Besides these friends, other gyms in the Sinnoh region also sent people to express their support.

Regardless, Xia Yan will soon be one of the gym leaders of Sinnoh. In the absence of any obvious conflict, sending someone to offer support is the most basic courtesy.

The so-called opening ceremony was actually Xia Yan accepting the challenge from the first batch of challengers and conveying some initial impressions of the dojo to everyone.

The largest battleground in the dojo.

The stands were almost full.

Xia Yan stood on one side of the battlefield, with a shelf next to him neatly arranged with dozens of Poké Balls.

Matching the right opponent Pokémon to the challenger's different strength levels is an essential skill for any Gym Leader.

badge.

It's already been customized.

Very imposing.

It features a dragon head design, with purple and gold as the main colors.

"What kind of positioning do you think Xia Yan will choose for the dojo? Will he target more experienced trainers, newcomers, or both?"

In the first row of the audience, Daigo leaned against the railing and asked with a smile.

"Given Xia Yan's personality..."

“Then we’ll definitely choose to take care of everything,” Watari said, picking up where Konna left off.

Based on his understanding of Xia Yan, Du was very confident about this outcome.

“But this will inevitably lead to a poor performance evaluation for the dojo at the end of the year,” Cynthia said, leaning against the railing.

She knew more about the inner workings of these dojos than Wataru and Daigo did.

"As far as I know, out of all the gyms in Sinnoh last year, three of them failed the year-end review and were fined."

One of them was an underdog gym, which was understandable because it was a newly established gym.

The other two companies were penalized for distributing too many badges to challengers, resulting in less than 10% ultimately making it to the Suzuran Annual Conference, a significant drop from the target.

Dojos can't just issue badges whenever they want.

Issuing a badge signifies acceptance and entails taking on certain responsibilities.

One of the standards for measurement.

Whether or not someone who obtains the gym badge will ultimately qualify for the Lily of the Valley Annual Conference.

Let's put aside the rankings for now.

Whether or not you can get in is the basic criterion.

If a team achieves a high ranking, the league will also provide corresponding rewards and resource subsidies.

As for these intricacies, after Natsuhiko obtained the title of librarian from Kikuno, a large part of the librarian's book she gave him was about this.

The gym is actually an intermediate testing point set up by the League for trainers.

It is one of the standards for verifying the strength of trainers.

Therefore, it is very important.

"Is everything ready?" Kikuno asked as he approached the field.

"Mm." Xia Yan nodded.

Kikuno glanced at the corner of the audience seats, at the hunched figure with a cane hidden in the shadows.

"Don't think that just because you called your teacher here, you can get away with not giving her face if she doesn't meet my requirements." Kikuno's assessment of the dojo is really strict.

Xia Yan grinned. "Okay."

Seeing Xia Yan's confidence, Kikuno nodded slightly and gestured to the referee standing by the field.

For this opening ceremony, Xia Yan had a total of five challengers.

His goal is to give away two badges, which would be considered a success.

"Please welcome the first challenger!" the referee shouted as soon as Kikuno walked away.

One by one, excited boys, around fifteen or sixteen years old, hurriedly ran down from the audience seats.

Ryota.

A trainer who has already earned three badges.

Xia Yan's mind flashed through some basic information about this challenger.

“‘Tactical Master’ Natsuhiko, I’m your fan!” Ryota shouted excitedly to Natsuhiko as soon as he arrived at the battlefield.

"Alright, let me see what you're capable of."

Xia Yan's expression remained unchanged, calm and composed, fully demonstrating the temperament that a dojo master should have.

Then, with a casual grab, he took a Poké Ball from the shelf next to him.

Since it was the opening ceremony, the challenge rules were simply one-on-one.

As the gym leader, Xia Yan's responsibility is to prioritize sending out Pokémon.

As the red light flashed.

"Roar--!!"

Under the spotlight, it reflected a dazzling light.

Here comes the aluminum-steel dragon!

Upon its appearance, it became the focus of the entire battlefield.

This is the little aluminum steel dragon from the family of aluminum steel dragons that Xia Yan has tamed.

To express their gratitude to Xia Yan, the family, at his enthusiastic (and somewhat coercive) invitation, became members of his gym's Pokémon team.

This little aluminum steel dragon is at the beginner to senior level, and Xia Yan thinks it should be a good match for challengers with three to five badges.

But it seems that very few people in the entire venue recognized this Pokémon, Duraludon, which put Ryota in a dilemma.

Xia Yan said with a smile, "This Pokémon is called Duraludon, a Steel/Dragon type Pokémon."

Upon hearing this, Ryota quickly bowed gratefully and then took out a Poké Ball. "Steel-type Pokémon, I'll leave it to you, Infernape!"

"Cough!"

An orange-red elf appeared.

Infernape is the evolved form of Chimchar.

I know the basic attribute advantages and disadvantages, which shows that I didn't waste my time getting those three badges.

"The battle begins!" the referee immediately announced.

In the stands.

Everyone was surprised by this elf they had never seen before.

Wataru and Daigo, in particular, were staring intently at the aluminum steel dragon in the arena.

Wataru: Dragon type!

Daigo: Steel type!

Chapter Two: Encountering a Master in a Low-Rank Game

Infernape is a Fire/Fighting type Pokémon, but due to Duraludon's type combination, Fire-type moves are not effective against it.

However, Fighting-type is indeed one of Duraludon's weaknesses.

"Fire Monkey, Sonic Punch."

As a challenger, you not only have the advantage of summoning your Pokémon later, but also the advantage of striking first.

"Sonic Punch" is a Fighting-type move, and an extremely fast one at that, making it a great starting move.

All I saw was...