"Congratulations, you have successfully passed the second phase of the exam."
The examiner who had been waiting looked at Ethan in surprise. The exam had barely begun, and this participant had already found the exit of the Secret Kingdom?
One had to understand that the exit was extremely far from the forest where the candidates entered, so luck could practically be ruled out.
"Thank you, examiner."
Ethan replied with a smile and followed the examiner out of the Secret Kingdom.
"Your Pokémon must be pretty injured. Release them all, I'll heal them for you."
Once outside the Secret Kingdom, the examiner began fulfilling his duty.
Ethan immediately nodded and released Sandslash, Cacturne, Slowking, Meltan, Vibrava and Charmeleon.
"I see. It looks like this Cacturne spent a lot of energy due to the toxins, and it still has residual poison in its body."
"And this Meltan likely suffered excessive overheating, which is common for Steel-type Pokémon."
"The rest are more or less fine. Overall, they're low on energy and exhausted..."
After checking each one, the examiner gave his diagnosis and then threw his own Poké Balls, releasing a Vileplume, a Bellossom, a Clefairy and a Lapras, which began treating Ethan's Pokémon.
Ethan curiously watched the four Pokémon the examiner had called out. There was no doubt: all four had excellent healing capabilities.
But as he observed, he became increasingly surprised. Although they all used healing moves, the effects were completely different from one another.
Even Vileplume and Bellossom—both evolutions of Gloom—showed different healing effects when using Grassy Terrain.
Vileplume, being part Poison type, seemed especially effective in treating injuries caused by toxins. Meanwhile, Bellossom, being purely Grass type, was much better at restoring life energy. It was the same move, but trained with completely different focuses.
"So training healer Pokémon is also an art..."
"Maybe I should raise several healing Pokémon."
Ethan thought for a moment, but then shook his head. More efficient than raising many healer Pokémon would be finding a healing specialist who could work alongside him.
"The healer Pokémon on my team should focus on field first aid. I need to prioritize curing status conditions and restoring energy. For more specific treatments, it's better to go to the Pokémon Center and leave it to professionals."
With that thought in mind, Ethan decided to wait until he could also hear President Beckett's opinion once he returned.
A good while passed before the examiner finished healing the six Pokémon. He exhaled in relief and returned his four visibly tired Pokémon to their Poké Balls.
Ethan thanked him immediately and led his six Pokémon toward the shore, where other examiners were in charge of the procedures.
...
"Mr. Examiner, here are my score plates."
Once on the yacht, Ethan took all his score plates out of his backpack.
At once, a mountain of plates covered the table, leaving the examiner stunned. When he saw the plate of the Totem Drapion, his eyes widened.
That trainer who had completed the exam in just one day had not only done it with astonishing speed... but had also gathered an enormous number of plates! And especially the one of the Totem Drapion, whose strength he knew well.
"Congratulations, your score has been registered. And here are the backpack and Poké Balls you left for safekeeping."
Ethan thanked him and took back his belongings.
Now that he had finished the exam, all he needed to do was wait for the seven days to pass, after which the final results would be announced.
Although he possessed the plates of the Seviper group and the Totem Drapion, he had only spent one day collecting them, while other participants had the entire seven days. The final outcome was still unpredictable.
After that, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked along the coast toward a farther beach. Although he had finished early, he had to wait the full week until everyone else finished so they could leave together.
He planned to find a place to train his Pokémon, especially Cacturne, who had gained huge benefits inside the Secret Kingdom. It was the perfect time to consolidate that progress.
However, he hadn't gone far when he turned back. He clearly remembered that the ship had a Pokémon release machine. If he used it, he could release all ten of his Pokémon at once.
Some time later, on a beach, Ethan stood before his ten Pokémon.
Knowing it was time for special training, all of them were excited and attentive to orders.
Very soon, Ethan defined the training plans:
Sandslash: would continue its "steel body and bronze skin" training.
Cacturne: originally planned to train its ability Water Absorb to further develop the move Absorb. But now that its spines had become venomous spines, the first step would be mastering the move Poison Jab.
When Cacturne learned the move Toxic, Ethan had also exchanged training methods for the moves Venoshock and Poison Jab. Since it had already mastered Venoshock, now it was time for Poison Jab.
Slowking: he gave it books to study on its own. With Shellder's help, its learning ability was even greater.
Meltan: it had managed to fire the electromagnetic cannon in the Secret Kingdom, but the side effect was enormous. It could only use it once. That would be its new training objective.
Vibrava, Charmeleon, Absol and Kingdra: their routines would remain the same; they simply needed to continue with discipline.
Finally, Ethan's biggest headache: Riolu.
Although he had already defined Riolu's training path, implementing the concrete steps was still a major challenge.
(End of chapter)