Becoming a member of the region's Elite Four signified entry into the upper echelons of the League, wielding far more power than a mere Gym Leader.
The resources one could enjoy would be vastly greater! And the secrets one could learn, far more numerous!
"Master Bruno, when do you plan to leave?"
Now wasn't the time for idle thoughts, so Terrance simply asked directly.
"Possibly today. I need to arrive at Indigo Plateau before the Indigo Plateau Conference begins," Bruno replied.
"The Indigo Plateau Conference, huh…" Terrance hesitated for a moment.
Should he go see it in person?
"What's this? You're thinking of going to watch the Indigo Plateau Conference too? Battles of that level should already be boring for you," Bruno said with a smile, easily seeing through Terrance's thoughts.
"It's just that there's a promising junior," Terrance said, shaking his head.
"Oh? A promising junior? He's competing as well, I assume? What's his name?"
"Ash," Terrance replied casually. But Bruno suddenly rubbed his head, the name sounding familiar.
"Ash? The boy with the Pikachu?" he asked.
"That's him." Terrance nodded, unsurprised that Bruno knew of Ash.
"Hahaha! That boy came to me not long ago, asking to learn the secret to becoming stronger. I told him that it lies in becoming one with your Pokémon's heart. I wonder how he's interpreting that," Bruno said, laughing.
"He's a rookie, isn't he? What kind of result do you think he'll achieve?"
"What do you think, Master Bruno?" Terrance replied with a grin.
"Uh… maybe top thirty two," Bruno said after thinking for a moment. Ash seemed like a naive kid; he hadn't felt anything particularly special about him. A trainer that clueless reaching the top thirty two in his rookie year was already a generous estimate.
"My prediction is top eight," Terrance said seriously.
"Top eight?" Bruno was taken aback. He didn't quite understand. A Trainer who could consistently reach the top eight in a regional league was already an elite among Trainers. That silly rookie Trainer, reaching top eight?
"Master Bruno, how about we make a little bet?" Terrance said, smiling at the muscular Bruno, who clearly didn't believe him. "Let's bet on whether Ash can make it to the top eight."
"How do we bet?" Bruno asked, suddenly interested.
"If he does reach the top eight, you'll teach me some of your martial arts, like how you manage to leap so high. There must be some special training method for that, right?" Terrance said shamelessly.
"So that's what you're after!" Bruno laughed heartily. "Too bad, it requires training from childhood. But I can teach you a couple basic techniques to improve your physique based on your current foundation. But what if he doesn't make the top eight?"
Terrance had already planned for that. "Master Bruno, as a Fighting-type master, you probably aren't all that familiar with the Sandstorm move, right?"
"Compared to Fighting-type moves, that's true," Bruno nodded.
"I noticed Onix used Sandstorm earlier, but it probably hasn't had proper training. How about we bet on the special training method for the Sandstorm move?" Terrance smiled faintly and called out Castform.
Seeing the gray Pokémon, Bruno looked curious, wondering what Terrance was planning to do.
"Castform, Sandstorm," Terrance commanded.
In the next moment, fierce sand swirled, the ground trembled, and layers of sand gathered together, rapidly forming a massive hand that lifted both Terrance and Bruno into the air, carrying them upward.
As they looked down at the ground from nearly ten meters high, Terrance smiled and said, "How's that?"
"Impressive indeed," Master Bruno said. "If Onix could master this, it would surely grow much stronger."
"So it's settled, then?" Terrance asked.
"Alright, let's see how this Ash performs, hahaha." Bruno chuckled.
After all, neither of them would reveal the core parts of their martial arts or sandstorm training technique. This bet was more of a casual joke between them. At their level, it was nothing more than a small wager for fun.
Overall, between Bruno's complete martial arts technique and Terrance's complete sandstorm secret technique, the former was slightly more valuable, so Terrance had actually gained a small advantage.
"Will you be going to the Indigo Plateau?"
"Possibly."
"Then get in touch with me when you do. I'll bring you to enjoy a grand feast. The Elite Four treatment is quite something," Bruno said with a grin.
"Won't that interfere with your work?" Terrance asked in surprise.
"Relax. 'Work' just means keeping an eye on the place, nothing serious," Bruno replied casually.
"Alright then. If I go to Indigo Plateau, I'll definitely take you up on that free meal," Terrance said with a laugh.
The two chatted about everyday things for a while as time passed. Eventually, Bruno decided it was time to leave Mount Hideaway.
"Then I'll be off. You can keep waiting for your little apprentice," Bruno said, waving his hand.
"That guy's probably still wandering somewhere in the mountains, it'll be a while yet," Terrance said, waving back in farewell.
After watching Bruno depart, Terrance released the Carbink he had recalled earlier to review their recent battle.
"That victory just now was largely due to our advantage in strength," Terrance said. "There were mistakes in my commands, but they also helped me figure some things out."
"Car~bink?" Carbink was puzzled.
"A new move technique," Terrance said with a mysterious smile, using the Fairy Mark to convey his thoughts to Carbink.
…
…
A few hours later.
The sky was growing dark.
Troy and the Rotom Pokédex returned. Seeing Terrance and Carbink pause their training, they began reporting what they had found.
"You're back, good work," Terrance said, taking out two Poké Balls and recalling Altaria and Carbink. He turned to Troy and asked,
"So that means we're missing just one last ingredient, right?"
"Yeah, only the mixture of honey and saliva from a Gloom with the Stench ability."
"In that case, have you figured out how to collect it?"
"We encountered Gloom earlier, but we couldn't tell what their Ability was, and they weren't cooperative at all. So we haven't managed to collect that material yet…" Troy explained. "I don't really want to catch one, so I was thinking, maybe I can buy the ingredient instead."
"Buy it? If I recall, it's not exactly cheap," Terrance reminded him.
"It's fine. While gathering the other materials, I anticipated some would be hard to obtain, so I also collected plenty of useless herbs that can be sold," Troy said.
"Thinking ahead, I see. Since you've got a plan, let's get moving," Terrance said.
"Go where?" Troy asked, startled.
It was almost dark already.
"It gets cold up here at night, we'll head down the mountain to rest," Terrance said. "Then, early tomorrow morning, we'll set out for the Indigo Plateau together. You'll find the ingredients you want to buy there."
"And you'll also watch the entire Indigo Plateau Conference with your own eyes. After that, I'll send you to Hoenn's Fallarbor Town!"
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