When Terrance arrived in the Hoenn region, everything at the Old Green House and Fallarbor Gym was the same as always. Nothing unusual had happened.
However, because of the Acapulco incident, the companies that had previously worked with Terrance wanted to continue collaborating with him for advertisement shoots.
At the moment, Terrance was very much in the limelight, and they offered him an extremely high appearance fee. But Terrance still turned down these commercial activities.
This was certainly not the first time such a thing had happened. Ever since his outstanding performance at the festival, these kinds of commercial activities had been coming frequently.
This time, though, his refusal had a reason. Terrance was about to get busy. After returning to Hoenn, his mentor in the field of breeding, Master Victor, had contacted him.
At the Fallarbor Town Pokémon Center, holding the Poké Ball of the Pokémon that was transferred to him for raising, Terrance was filled with questions.
“This Pokémon has developed some physical defects for certain reasons. I have other matters to attend to, so I’m entrusting it to you to raise. Although it has some problems, it possesses top-tier talent that far surpasses even that of Swablu.”
Since Terrance passed the Senior Breeder exam, Master Victor had gone off to focus on his own work. Apart from giving Terrance a stack of genetics-related materials to study on his own, he had hardly ever contacted him.
This time, though, he suddenly reached out and sent over a Pokémon, telling him to raise it.
“A Ralts?” Terrance was surprised.“Yes, a Psychic and Fairy-type Ralts. This Ralts has formidable psychic power. Even without training, it’s comparable to an average Kirlia. More impressively, its calculating power is very astonishing. Combined with its psychic power, it’s on par with those Pokémon famous for their calculating power.”
“With such talent, why does it lack the ability to express emotions?” Terrance asked with a puzzled look.
On the other end of the video call, Master Victor shook his head and said, “I’m not sure. But since you have experience raising Ralts, I believe entrusting this one to you is a good choice.”
Holding the transmitted Poké Ball, Terrance nodded. Ralts has a Fairy type, which is indeed a very good choice for Terrance who wants to capture more Fairy type Pokémon.
Master Victor seemed reluctant to reveal Ralts’s specific origins, and Terrance, noticing this, didn’t press the matter. However, after their discussion ended, Terrance suddenly recalled the words Agatha had said to him.
“Elite Four Agatha?” Master Victor paused, deep in thought.
Terrance had originally planned to figure out what Agatha’s words meant on his own. But her warning could have multiple meanings, and he couldn’t determine which one she intended. This uncertainty was what troubled him the most.
He had hoped that through his battle with Diantha, he might gain some clarity. But now that Master Victor had contacted him, he decided to ask him about it.
Although Master Victor was not a traditional Trainer, he was a top-tier Breeder, and his understanding of Trainers was by no means lacking. Compared to Terrance, he had far more experience in breeding and had interacted with more Top Trainers. After asking the question, Terrance looked at him, waiting for Master Victor’s response.
“I remember your birthplace is Cerulean City in the Kanto Region, right?”
“Yes.” Terrance nodded. Tracing back three generations, his family had always been from Cerulean City.
Master Victor’s eyes flickered as he said, “What she meant by the ‘true top-tier’ is probably a kind of choice, something you must comprehend on your own. It’s more like a path you haven’t yet stepped on.”
Terrance’s expression froze for a moment. Combining it with his many speculations, he already had an idea when Master Victor said this.
“The difference between rule-based battles and life-and-death fights?” Terrance hesitated and then spoke slowly.
“Something like that. Generally speaking, Top Trainers within the League system mostly bear the responsibility of protecting the region’s safety. The Elite Four Challenge Competition and Champion challenge they experience are much harsher than performance-oriented Appeals Rounds, but they are still rule-based battles. They can hardly bring out the true strength of a Top Trainer, even in 6-on-6 battles—”
“For example, the Acapulco incident you handled. From the scale of the disaster, any Top Trainer could have resolved it. Although there were many attacking Pokémon, including that Giant Tentacruel, none of them were truly strong, right?”
Terrance nodded. Giant Tentacruel was powerful, but its strength came mainly from a mutation-based evolution that gave it brute strength. With a Pokémon like Castform, which has large-scale attack methods, he could have easily taken it down.
“When I was young, I was once kidnapped,” Master Victor recalled. “The opponent only sent out three Pokémon, each raised to a level similar to my own Pokémon at the time. But even with all six of mine on the field, I was completely defeated. Even a Gym Leader who came to my aid couldn’t pose a threat to them, and several Pokémon were easily crushed by those three.”
“And then?” Terrance was shocked; he hadn’t expected Master Victor to have experienced something like that.
“Later, I barely escaped, but several of my Pokémon still died at their hands.” When speaking of this, Master Victor’s expression darkened. “When I investigated their identity later on, I used my breeding results to hire a Top Trainer to take revenge. That’s how they and their organization was wiped out.”
“It was only after that experience that I truly understood what a Top Trainer really means,” Master Victor said, shaking his head.
“So, even though Elite Four Agatha mentioned the ‘true top-tier,’ that path is far harsher than you can imagine.”
Decades ago, Trainer resources were still tightly controlled by the many powerful families that formed the “League”. Grassroots Trainers suffered suppression unimaginable compared to now, and there were far more underground organizations opposing the Pokémon League back then.
The battles between the League and these underground organizations were all carried out by Trainers.
Trainers were like commanders; Pokémon were their armies. The fighting was always aimed at killing the opposing Trainer first and foremost. Those battles weren’t 1-on-1 or 6-on-6 fights where Pokemon go on stage one by one, but brutal, large-scale clashes.
“In the eyes of Elite Four Agatha and the older generation people, only those who have mastered the battle theories of that kind of large-scale battle can truly be called Top Trainers?”
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