“You have all seen my strength.
Although I’m fairly average among Professional Trainers, teaching all of you is more than enough.” As she spoke, Elena Greenhill’s sharp gaze swept over every person in the class like a Swellow about to dive on its prey.
“I hope that over the next year, all of us can understand and cooperate with one another.
While earning good results at the state tournament, I also hope each of you can get into your ideal university.” After recalling Swellow into its Poké Ball, Elena continued, “The state tournament begins in three months.
Since each school only has five participant slots, the school team will be made up of the top five students.” “So don’t think that just because you’ve entered the elite class and are enjoying excellent resources, you can sit back and relax.
Your opponents are not only the regular class students watching from outside.
They are also everyone sitting in this room.” “Time is precious.
Today’s meeting ends here.
Evan Lane, come with me.” Elena finished cleanly and decisively, then walked out of the analysis room, leaving Evan sitting in the back row with a confused look on his face.
When Evan arrived in the hallway, before he could even ask anything, Elena’s first sentence nearly made him fail to react.
“Lucas Ember is missing.” “Mm…
huh?!
Didn’t he go to buy Berries?
He was only going to the outer edge of the black market.
There shouldn’t have been much risk there.” “That was originally the case.
But according to surveillance footage, Lucas headed toward the center of the black market.
He may have wanted to buy Water-type resources to repair Wartortle’s foundation.” At this point, even the usually calm Elena sighed.
Not only her, but all of Mapleford First Academy was worried about Lucas’s situation.
The matter had already been reported to the Trainer Association.
For now, there was no particularly good solution from the school’s side either.
The situation in the black market was already complicated, and it was very possible that there would be no result in the end.
Originally, with both Evan and Lucas here, completing the state tournament goal set by the Mapleford Trainer Association had seemed very hopeful.
Now that Lucas had suddenly gone missing, Evan would need to achieve even better results at the state tournament.
That gave even Elena, a Professional Trainer, tremendous pressure.
After all, for the school to invest this many resources into students this year, relying on Mapleford First Academy alone would have been impossible.
Most of the resources came from the Mapleford Trainer Association.
Even the treatment equipment on the second and fourth floors of the elite building could only be used because the Trainer Association had approved it.
As for the other elite class students, Elena would already be satisfied if they could make it into the preliminaries.
If they wanted to fight for a high ranking, they would still have to rely on Evan.
After hearing the news, Evan’s heart also felt bitter.
Not only was he worried about his friend’s safety, but he also cared about the fact that Snivy’s original training plan would have to change.
Without Lucas, there was not even half a person in all of Mapleford First Academy who could spar with Evan’s Snivy.
If things continued like this, and Snivy only trained moves without real battles, the efficiency would drop dramatically.
“It’s not like I can have Snivy fight that Swellow from earlier, right?” Thinking of that, Evan could not help shivering.
Snivy liked battling, but that did not mean she enjoyed getting beaten up.
A gap of two or three major ranks was something even a pseudo-Legendary hatchling definitely could not handle.
Only a Legendary’s offspring might possibly have the strength to put up a fight!
If he really tried something like that, Snivy would probably freeze for a moment and think, “Take that thing down?
Me?” Then she would cleanly and decisively use Wrap on him, her own Trainer.
“We also understand your situation.
You don’t need to worry about sparring partners.
We’ll give you an answer by tomorrow.” “Right now, the most important thing is Lucas’s mother.
Her health has always been poor, and she relies on medication to maintain it.
We’re afraid she may not be able to accept this all at once.
Since you are Lucas’s friend, we hope you can go and comfort her.” Evan pulled himself out of his thoughts and began considering whether Elena’s words were feasible.
Indeed, he and Lucas had the closest relationship.
He had also accompanied Lucas to buy Berries and visited his mother before.
Lucas’s mother had always been weak and constantly went back and forth between the hospital and home.
His father also worked out of town for long periods of time.
For something this unusual, someone really did need to comfort her.
Even if it had to be a kind lie, they could only hope Lucas’s mother would not become too emotional and do something harmful.
“All right.
After school today, I’ll apply for permission to leave campus.” Originally, the sooner he went to visit Lucas’s home, the better.
But Evan believed Lucas was someone with great luck.
Maybe he would return safely by the afternoon.
“That’s fine.
But you also need to accept this reality quickly.
Although the Trainer Association has already sent Officer Jennys to search, no one knows what can happen in the central black market.
That place is a lawless zone.” “I know you two are close, but even if there is no result in the end, don’t let it affect your condition for the state tournament.
That is a major event that will affect your future.” After giving him a few reminders, Elena turned and left.
Evan stood in the hallway for a while.
Thinking back on Elena’s words, which were so rational they felt a little cold, he was still somewhat dazed.
True, she and Lucas were neither relatives nor close friends.
They did not have much personal connection either.
Being able to do this much was already more than enough.
There was nothing to criticize.
After sorting out his thoughts, Evan went to the cafeteria on the second floor, preparing to let Snivy experience the Pokémon meals here.
Although he had been placed in the elite class, Evan had already been specially approved to skip the morning Pokémon knowledge lessons.
On one hand, Evan had already firmly mastered the high school Pokémon knowledge curriculum.
Aside from some obscure questions, he had memorized most of it.
He also had no intention of developing in the direction of a Breeder, so naturally, there was no need to dig too deeply into that field.
According to Evan’s plan, he would rope in…
cough, cough, invite a promising Breeder to travel with him.
After building enough trust, he would hand over the ideas in his head for that person to realize, then simply enjoy the results himself.
Evan had always believed that human energy had limits.
He did not think he was the kind of genius who could perfectly handle every field at once.
Professional matters should be left to professionals.
That was far more efficient than trying to split his attention everywhere.
On the other hand, even if Evan wanted to spend time studying theory now, Principal Marcus Greenhill and his mentor Elena Greenhill probably would not agree.
In their eyes, what Evan needed to do most right now was improve his strength with everything he had and obtain a good result at the state tournament.
Everything else had nothing to do with him.
Walking into the cafeteria hall, Evan saw a neat row of service windows in front of him.
He counted them briefly.
There were exactly eighteen windows, divided according to the eighteen Pokémon types.
However, the Dragon, Fairy, and Steel-type windows were not open.
Pokémon of those three types were generally rare, and none of the students in this year’s group had one.
Evan tossed out his Poké Ball and released Snivy, then brought her toward the window dedicated to Grass-type Pokémon.
When he arrived below the window and glanced at the prices on the menu, the corner of Evan’s mouth twitched.
He did not even know what to say.
There were only three meal tiers in total.
The basic tier was a Berry platter.
The middle tier included a portion of low-quality Moomoo Milk, plus a piece of roasted meat Evan could not identify.
Evan guessed that it was probably Pokémon meat.
In truth, Evan himself was very resistant to eating Pokémon.
But when it came to his own Pokémon eating it, he did not care quite as much.
After all, in the wild, relationships between Pokémon were also relationships within a food chain.
Besides, the training of many Poison-type moves required organs from Poison-type Pokémon.
That was simply something that could not be avoided.
As for the highest-tier meal, not only did it include high-quality Moomoo Milk, but even the seasoning on the Berry platter was a premium ingredient that helped promote Grass-type energy absorption.
However, the price was also ridiculously expensive.
One meal like this actually cost more than $30!
One had to know that over $30 was enough for an ordinary family to buy groceries for several days.
Yet here, it was only enough for Snivy to eat a single meal.
Fortunately, the menu description said that for Junior to Intermediate Pokémon, one meal set per day was enough to support growth.
“If it’s $30 a day, then it’s still within my budget.”