After exchanging a few words, Wally and the others gained a preliminary understanding of Wallace’s personality.
Through Wallace, Wally also learned why he had come to take the Breeder examination.
Wallace had taken his friend’s advice and hoped that training as a Pokémon Breeder would help increase his own strength.
“My friend is an Intermediate Pokémon Breeder, but he has even greater talent as a Trainer.”
Wally understood.
It seemed that he wasn’t the only one who had realized it.
Many talented Trainers and Pokémon Coordinators had also recognized the importance of Breeder knowledge and were using it as a way to enrich their own abilities.
“Those who passed the first stage, please immediately assemble at the second-stage examination area.”
The announcement was repeated three times, along with the location of the second-stage examination.
The three exchanged glances, stopped their conversation, and began making their way there.
Wallace, Joy, and Wally walked together, drawing quite a bit of attention.
Three geniuses gathered in one place naturally attracted notice, and even the proctors observing them from the sidelines couldn’t help but look forward to seeing how the three would perform in the examination.
The second-stage examination area was a large courtyard behind Breeder Headquarters.
The proctors from the first written examination were still responsible for maintaining order.
Once everyone had gathered, a middle-aged man once again announced the subject of the second-stage examination.
“Emergency Rescue.
You have already learned about it, but as for the specific contents, take a look here.”
As soon as the man finished speaking, a group of small green Pokémon emerged into view.
“That’s…
Oddish…”
Someone let out a surprised cry upon seeing them.
“My goodness, there must be nearly a hundred Oddish!”
Someone counted the Oddish and found the number astonishing.
“Are they the subject of our second-stage examination?”
Seeing the scene before them, most of the examinees voiced the same question.
Their guess was almost correct.
The middle-aged man overseeing the entire examination nodded.
“That’s right.
The subject of your second-stage examination is precisely this group of Oddish.”
At this, Wally, Wallace, and Joy all turned their attention slightly and began observing the Oddish.
“They’re ordinary Oddish.”
After observing them for a while, the three reached the same conclusion.
Seeing the confusion on everyone’s faces, the man continued.
“There are eighty-eight Oddish here.
Each of you will be assigned one.
You will also receive a medicinal preparation specially formulated for this examination by a Master Breeder.”
“This medicine can simulate a burn caused by a move.
After applying it to your assigned Oddish, you will each have fifteen minutes to treat its injury using the materials we have provided.
Once twenty minutes have passed, the burn on the Oddish will become significantly more severe.
Therefore, you have only fifteen minutes to resolve the problem.
Anyone who fails to treat it within that time will be deemed to have failed.”
“At the same time, the proctors will score you based on the effectiveness of your treatment and the amount of time required to resolve the burn.
Anyone who scores eighty-five points or higher will pass this examination and receive a Junior Pokémon Breeder certificate—”
The entire courtyard erupted into an uproar.
No one had expected Emergency Rescue to be conducted in this manner.
In previous years, this format had never been used.
Eighty-eight Oddish and eighty-eight bottles of medicine specially prepared by a Master Breeder—the Breeder Headquarters had certainly spared no expense this time.
“Do you have any other questions?”
After a moment of silence, no one spoke.
Clearly, every examinee had already begun extracting the important information from the man’s explanation.
Oddish.
Burns.
None of these details escaped the attention of the examinees present.
Anyone capable of passing the first-stage examination was no ordinary person trying to muddle through by luck.
The passing rate for becoming a Junior Pokémon Breeder was lower than that for advancing to the Intermediate or even Master level.
This was fundamentally a matter of building a solid foundation.
As long as one’s foundation was strong, almost everything beyond the realm of a Master Breeder could be achieved through years of study and research.
And those who became Junior Pokémon Breeders had already been selected from among the best of the best.
Talent was an important factor.
At present, there were only a little over ten thousand registered Pokémon Breeders in the League.
The Hoenn Region alone, however, had a population of several million.
“So this is the subject of the examination…”
After listening to the middle-aged man, Wally felt eager to give it a try.
He also wanted to see how well he could perform under these circumstances.
“Looks like you two are both pretty confident.”
Joy smiled as she looked at Wally and Wallace.
Neither of them showed the slightest trace of nervousness.
“Of course.
As a Pokémon Coordinator, one must always maintain a calm state of mind and an elegant bearing,” Wallace said.
“Let’s go choose our Oddish and collect the medicine.”
Seeing that the other examinees had already begun moving, Wally spoke to the other two.
“All right!
Let’s go!” Joy shouted.
The eighty-eight Oddish were actually quite similar to one another.
They were probably raised by Breeder Headquarters itself.
After all, Oddish’s pollen, as well as the saliva of its evolved form Gloom, were both extremely valuable materials.
“Please take good care of me.”
After collecting the medicine, Wally took an Oddish with him.
The Oddish also seemed to understand its role in the examination.
Fortunately, the medicine had been specially prepared by a Master Breeder, so the simulated burn would not cause serious harm to the Oddish in a short period of time.
This also gave the examinees sufficient time to work.
After bringing the Oddish to his assigned station, Wally examined all the materials available for use.
There were roughly twenty different materials.
Naturally, it was impossible to use all of them.
As for how they should be combined and which combination would produce the best effect, that would depend on the choices made by each examinee.
Once everyone was ready, the middle-aged man repeated the rules once more.
He also warned the examinees that if they were not sufficiently confident, they should not recklessly mix medicines simply because of the time limit.
Doing so would result in a lifetime ban from taking the examination.
Finally, the examination began.
The large clock displaying the fifteen-minute countdown started ticking.
Tick, tick, tick.
Like all the other examinees, Wally first spoke to his Oddish.
After Oddish confirmed that it was ready, he quickly applied the medicinal preparation to its leaves.
Next, he would have to formulate the treatment based on Oddish’s condition.
Burns could have many different causes, and different types of burns required different treatments to achieve the best results.
That did not mean other burn medicines were ineffective, however.
The most famous was Burn Heal.
It was practically a universal medicine for burns.
Although its effects might not be optimal in every case, it could be used for all known types of burns.
First, Wally smelled the medicinal preparation he had been given.
Then he looked at Oddish.
“Oddish, how do you feel?”
Half a minute had passed when Wally paused and began asking Oddish about how it felt.
“Oddish…”
Although Oddish tried its best to cooperate with Wally, Wally had difficulty understanding what it was trying to communicate.
He could only rely on the slightest changes in its condition to make his observations.
First, there was Oddish’s expression.
Then there was the change in the color of its leaves.
Combined with the known principal ingredients of the medicinal preparation and the reaction time following the onset of the burn, Wally began recalling everything he knew about medicinal properties and methodically reasoning through the possibilities.