About twenty minutes after Frank finished speaking, the sound of notifications pinged across the room. Julian g his pho was the details of his assigask.

  Almost simultaneously, all the students in the Special Recruitment Css looked at their phoheir faces a mix of anticipation and ay as they read their uping assigs.

  "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!" Audent’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 uand," said a cssmate, patting him on the shoulder. Though it was meant to be f, it felt more like sarcasm.

  The unfortuudent’s task read: [Defeat ten freshmen from Shu Uy’s Special Recruitment Css.]

  Giveeionship between Shu Uy and Imperial Uy, this task seemed practically life-threatening.

  "I’d better start gathering intel otom ten from Shu’s Special Recruitment Css," the student muttered.

  “Luis, what’s your task?”

  Dalton leaned in curiously.

  "I have to participate in the Ice-Type Tour 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.

  “What about you?”

  "Pretty simir. I have to participate in the Fighting Tour week and also secure a Top 16 spot," Dalton said.

  "Shen, what’s yours?"

  "It’s the same as Dalton’s, but I only o make it to the Top 32," Shen replied.

  "And Ian, what's wrong with you, why do you look like your Samence just died?"

  Hugo tried to hold back his ughter as he said, "His task is to defeat Acacia."

  Immediately, everyourheir gaze toward Ian with sympathetic eyes. They all knew Ian and Acacia had been rivals since childhood, and Ian had never won a sich against her.

  "Don’t worry. With your strength, even if you leave the Special Recruitment Css, you’ll climb back soon enough," Yanis said, barely taining his ughter.

  Whoever had assighis task clearly had a wicked sense of humor.

  "Teacher, I’d like to know who came up with my task."

  Ian asked, g his fists and standing up angrily.

  "Your uncle assig. Do you have any objes?" Frank replied nontly.

  inally, Ian’s task was different, but his uervened, insisting, “How a man of the Drake family lose to a woman?” And so, this mission was tailored for Ian.

  "NO!!"

  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 geion, 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 imagihat,” a student excimed 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 ba battles.

  Even if a challenger lost, the Gym Leader might still award them a badge out of sideration.

  But in national-level Gyms, there was no such leniency. If you dared to challehey would fight you until you were on your knees.

  The cept of guidance did. For a national-level Gym Leader, losing to a challenger was sidered 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.

  Earni badges from national-level Gyms qualified a traio 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 ie-Elite stage. Mid-Elite challengers were rare, let alone early-Elite trainers like Julian.

  “Brother Walker, how you be so calm?”

  Luis asked, notig his unruffled expression, as though the difficulty of his task didn’t him at all.

  Could it be that Julian po challenge his family’s Steel-Type Gym? That wouldn’t be impossible sihe task didn’t specify whiational-level Gym to challenge.

  “Even with Boss Walker’s strength, taking on a national-level Gym seems... challenging,” Dalton said hesitantly, uaiher Julian could succeed.

  “Isn’t there a national-level Gym in a Provinear 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 retionship 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 pnning to challehat Gym?”

  “Yeah, isn't this ohe closest?” Julian said, as if it were the most obvious choice.

  Luis almost wao 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 challe.

  Julian had never challenged a Gym before. After all, he followed the academic path, fog on training through theory and research.

  Those who relied on Gym challenges and tours to improve their skills were sidered 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 basiowledge.

  However, the two paths ultimately led to the same destination.

  Academic trainers, after graduating, would eventually step into the practical realm.

  Simirly, practical trainers often found their ck of theoretical knowledge a bottlened would seek out uies to fill in those gaps.

  “The deadline for the tasks is one month. Any deys will t as a failure, so don’t drag your feet,” Frank warned before leaving the .

  With the teacher gohe students gradually filed out, many heading back to their vils to pad prepare for their assigs.

  Yanis and Hugo lived in neighb vils, 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 ht.

  “Do you think Julian pull off his task?”

  National Gym Leaders were the cream of the oe trainers, capable of battling above their level and boasting a wealth of experience.

  “Of course, he . You guys still uimate him.”

  Hugo said with a faint smile.

  Julian himself probably didn’t realize that the person most fident in his abilities wasn’t his close friends like Dalton or Luis but the usually cold Hugo.

  “Looks like we uimated you, too,” Yanis remarked.

  “Oh? Did you notice? That’s odd—I thought I hid it well,” Hugo replied with a smirk.

  *****

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