Challenging Gyms and obtaining badges.
The League officially registers this process.
In other words, there is a clear difference in status between a holder of one badge and a holder of eight badges.
The League does not have a specific standard for classifying strength.
At most, there are titles like Elite, Champion, or tournament winner.
But these are more of a title or status, rather than a rank.
To put it simply, the Elites and Champions of different regions cannot be treated the same.
Take the Alola Region, for example; even if they really selected an Elite Four and a Regional Champion, could their strength compare to Cynthia or Steven?
Obviously not.
Therefore, the League introduced the badge system.
Through the League Tournament, Trainers begin their Gym challenge journey and accept the trials of Gym Leaders.
Gym Leaders will increase the difficulty of the assessment based on the Trainer’s strength and the number of badges held.
Generally speaking, Trainers who can obtain 8 badges basically have the ability to stand on their own.
In Eric’s words, these are Superior Trainers.
Those like David, who can achieve good results in tournaments, belong to the Superior rank.
Such Superior Trainers account for only about 5% to 10% of the Trainer population.
And only by reaching that level can Trainers support themselves and their Pokémon through competitions and activities.
“My goal is to obtain six powerful partners, then choose a League to challenge and win the tournament championship.” “Pon-ny-ow!” “Victini~” Hearing that Eric wanted to assemble a team, Ogerpon and Victini immediately raised their hands.
Lilligant was a beat slow, but she chose to raise both hands.
Hmm, that made it a tie.
“Although you are very enthusiastic, and I’m quite happy about it,” Eric scratched his cheek and said awkwardly, “but setting aside Pon-Pon, Victini, it’s likely very difficult for you to enter battles.” “Victini?” “How should I put it?” Eric said: “The tournament’s promotional reach is too great.
If it were just normal times, if people saw you, they saw you.” But if Victini were to step onto the stage of the League Tournament and be broadcast on television, then the fact that Eric possessed the Victory Star would be known directly to evil organizations in other regions.
Victini is too special.
With infinite pure energy, no evil organization would let such a miracle go.
Therefore, until Eric possesses enough power to protect Victini, this child cannot make a public appearance.
“Victini…” Seeing Victini’s low spirits, Eric quickly comforted her: “It’s just the tournament.” For the current Eric, Lilligant’s combat power is already considered top-tier among ordinary Pokémon.
Adding the newly joined Pon-Pon, in one-on-one battles, Eric is even confident in sweeping the Elite teams of various regions.
But evil organizations don’t play by the rules.
They’ll attack with dozens or hundreds of people at once, even bypassing the Pokémon to attack the Trainer.
Eric can fend them off once or twice, but there will always be a time when he slips up.
As the old saying goes, don’t fear the thief who steals, fear the thief who keeps watching.
If that situation can be avoided, it should be avoided as much as possible.
“Currently, our team is still in the first stage.” “In this stage, our main principle is to develop low-key and quietly accumulate power.” Eric said: “I plan to assemble two teams; one will consist of Legendary Pokémon like you, Victini and Pon-Pon.” Hearing that they had a role, the two little ones immediately raised their heads excitedly, eager to try.
To be precise, Ogerpon and Victini belong to two different categories.
Victini is a Mythical Pokémon, while Pon-Pon…
her base stat total is only 550, which really isn’t high, and can’t even compare to many ordinary Pokémon.
Similar to her is the Urshifu from the Galar Region.
However, a Pokémon’s combat power cannot be judged solely by base stats.
Regarding this type of Pokémon, the official Pokémon organization has no specific classification, though in the fan-made works Eric has seen, there are terms like Tier 1 God and Tier 2 God.
In the real Pokémon world, Eric hasn’t heard of similar settings.
But referencing the energy level theory Eric previously proposed, the so-called Tier 2 God is an existence that is born with the ability to break limits and raise its level energy to 80.
Furthermore, the stamina and energy reserves of such mythical beasts far exceed that of ordinary Pokémon.
Endurance!
This is the only value not reflected in the game.
The HP value in the game is more like Life Points.
The more powerful the Mythical or Legendary Pokémon, the more unfathomable its stamina bar is.
Ogerpon was able to hunt down The Loyal Three, beat them to death with a few strikes of her club, and even left Pecharunt with psychological trauma.
This just goes to show how astonishing this child’s potential for battle is.
As long as she is trained properly, Ogerpon can definitely become a main force in Eric’s second team, no weaker than those Tier 1 Legendaries with strong stats but poor combat skills.
“Next is the other team.” “Lilligant.” Eric looked at Lilligant.
“Your job is to build a reputation and acquire resources before the second team is fully developed.” “Lilli~” Lilligant didn’t understand, but whatever Eric said, it would be.
“Very good, that’s the spirit.” Eric coughed lightly and continued, “For the first team’s construction, my idea is to find Pokémon with great potential and use Victini’s infinite energy to make them grow stronger quickly.” This kind of strengthening has no side effects and is even extremely beneficial to the Pokémon.
Just look at Lilligant and you’ll know.
An ordinary Petilil now has the hope of breaking through level 70 in the future, reaching heights unreachable for ordinary Pokémon.
“With the League’s official status, we can make a fortune.” To make a living, Eric had really racked his brains.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about buying a farm or ranch once he had money and developing it properly.
It’s just that in the Pokémon world, this sort of thing isn’t nearly as profitable as it is on Earth.
As mentioned before, only things related to Pokémon are luxury goods.
Ordinary crops simply don’t sell for much money.
And for resources produced by Pokémon like Moomoo Milk, the League has a very tight industrial chain; it’s very difficult for an outsider like Eric to get involved.
Even if he could occupy a link in the chain, the cost-effectiveness compared to the effort and time required is simply too low.
‘If only there were a rich woman willing to keep me.’ Of course, this is just wishful thinking.
Eric is confident in his looks, but unfortunately, the rich women in the Pokémon world almost never judge by appearance.
At the end of the day, he still has to demonstrate his own talent.
Thus, the problem returned to square one.
Building a powerful team, challenging the League, and making a name for himself—that way, whether in the League or going to any other region, Eric would be able to thrive.