The two-day weekend break flew by quickly, and now it was Monday once again.
David walked toward the school with a tired expression on his face.
Ever since he had brought the Light Stone home that day, he had spent the entire weekend studying it. Under the system's guidance, he and Zorua had conducted their first experiment in absorbing energy.
According to the absorption method calculated by the system, David and Zorua needed to first enter Aura Link mode. After their intentions merged into one, the chaotic energy was filtered by his Aura, wearing away the impurities.
Only the purest negative emotions remained for Zorua to absorb, which prevented the energy from affecting its mental state negatively.
All in all, the effect had been excellent, and the experiment was a complete success.
However, there was one catch—this method had a single drawback.
The process of filtering impurities consumed a massive amount of David's Aura. If he pushed too hard, it would leave David extremely weakened. (There really wasn't a single drop of energy left.)
In order to test a reasonable limit, David's Aura had been completely drained two or three times over the weekend. The little fox had enjoyed its fill, but David was truly exhausted.
It was only because David was almost "superhuman" that he could manage it. Any other Aura user would probably have collapsed long ago.
"Phew... I'm finally back at school. This weekend was really too tiring. It actually makes me miss school life."
Standing at the school gate, David sighed. As usual, Monday morning consisted of a full half-day of training. After a week of this routine, everyone had already grown accustomed to their current schedule.
Without needing anyone to urge them, the students all arrived at the training ground early, one by one, and began warming up.
Surprisingly, this method of physical training alongside their Pokémon was really working. Many classmates who had never exercised with their Pokémon before reported that ever since they started training together, their Pokémon's enthusiasm had significantly increased. Their relationships with their Pokémon had also improved, as had their mutual understanding.
Because they could see real results, no one complained about training anymore. Everyone became more proactive.
The reasoning was quite simple: if you spent all day telling your Pokémon to train hard while you just stood on the sidelines watching, not even willing to run a few laps with them, how could that be convincing?
Now that their own Trainers were accompanying them, the Pokémon's enthusiasm for training naturally increased.
"Beep—"
"Everyone, stop for a moment and gather up. This morning, we'll be doing something new."
After a while, Dominic also arrived at the training ground. He looked at the students who had already started training on their own initiative and nodded with a hint of satisfaction before blowing his whistle to call everyone to a halt.
Hearing the whistle, everyone gathered together, reforming their lines.
"Today we have new training content. Class will not be held at school. Now, quickly get into formation and follow me!"
With that, Dominic turned around and led the way toward the main gate. Seeing this, David and the others immediately lined up and followed.
Not far from the school gate, two buses were parked quietly, likely their mode of transportation for the day.
After boarding the bus, David, who was already exhausted, could no longer resist his drowsiness. After telling Emma and the others next to him to "wake me up when we get there," he immediately drifted off to sleep.
After about half an hour, the bus stopped. David woke up and looked at the building outside, realizing that their destination was actually a Battle Center.
Although it was still early and not a holiday, there were already quite a few people at the Battle Center.
In this world, to encourage the comprehensive development of the Trainer profession, various regional Leagues had established relevant competitions—the nationwide Pokémon Ranking Matches.
A Battle Center like the one in front of them was similar to sports stadiums or public parks before the world changed.
The League attracted public participation by building numerous Battle Centers and holding ranking matches. The rules were straightforward: as long as you won a battle, you could improve your ranking tier. After reaching a certain tier, you could also receive rewards from the League.
First was the lowest tier, the Poké Ball tier, which had no entry requirements. Anyone with their own Pokémon could sign up to participate.
All participants, when first joining, were assigned to this tier (equivalent to Bronze or Iron rank in competitive games—a starting rank).
Then there was the Great Ball tier above it. Trainers in the Great Ball tier were promoted from the Poké Ball tier. The promotion conditions at this stage were fairly simple.
You only needed to achieve a ten-game winning streak in the Poké Ball tier, or accumulate fifty wins within one hundred matches, requiring a minimum win rate of fifty percent, to successfully advance.
So, getting promoted to Great Ball tier was quite easy if you were willing to invest the time.
The Poké Ball tier had a large number of participants and a low threshold, so there was no demotion system. However, after being promoted to Great Ball tier, a promotion and demotion mechanism would activate. If someone barely scraped by using the quantity of matches alone, they could easily fall back down. This ensured that promoted Trainers truly had the strength to maintain their rank, preventing situations where someone relied purely on grinding matches to climb higher.
The Poké Ball tier offered no rewards, but if you could be promoted to Great Ball tier, you could enjoy an eighty percent discount at the League's official stores and all sponsoring companies, among other benefits.
Above the Great Ball tier was the Ultra Ball tier. After reaching this level, the number of participants began to drop sharply, with only a few thousand people across the entire Cloudspire League.
Most who could enter this tier were Professional-level Trainers, or a very small number of "veteran experts" who were retired and had plenty of free time, as well as Pokémon Breeders and Researchers who didn't follow the path of Professional Trainers but were still exceptionally strong.
Matches at this stage even required advance booking, but this was still very far from David and his classmates' current level. Without the strength of a senior professional, it was basically impossible to enter the Ultra Ball tier.
As for the highest tier, the Master Ball tier, there were fewer than a hundred people total. Every Trainer in the Master Ball tier could be considered a well-known figure throughout Cloudspire.
Master Ball tier Trainers under thirty years old could directly participate in the Elite Challenge of the current year without additional conditions, which also attracted many talented young Trainers.
Many of the older veterans who were previously on the list had been pushed down by the newer generation for this very reason.
David wondered what Teacher Dominic wanted them to do by bringing them here.
"Today we will have new course content."
"All of you, after registering for the ranking match today, must achieve at least ten victories. Note that I don't need you to get a ten-game winning streak—you only need to win ten battles total."
"Today, I spoke with Teacher Vivian and adjusted the class schedule, so you have the entire day."
"Those who fail will have their training load doubled starting tomorrow. Don't think about cutting corners. Mutual win-trading is prohibited. I will be here watching you."
"Also, I'm not afraid to tell you in advance—regarding your final training class grades and participation score, I will refer to your ranking match tier. To pass, the minimum requirement is to maintain Great Ball tier before the end of the term."
After everyone got off the bus and gathered, Dominic began explaining today's course requirements. Incidentally, he also directly revealed part of the final exam requirements to them.
Upon hearing Dominic's demands, everyone involuntarily let out groans of despair. However, when Dominic's cold gaze swept over them, they all immediately fell silent like cicadas in winter.
"Alright, what are you all still standing there for? Are you waiting for me? Stop standing around like statues and hurry up!"
Hearing the command, everyone rushed toward the Battle Center as if fleeing for their lives, thinking to themselves, 'Whoever wants to stay near this guy can stay...'