Hammerlocke Stadium.
A red-haired man lazily lay on the sofa, his fingers continuously swiping on the tablet.
As the Gym Leader of Hammerlocke Stadium, in the Galar region, actually very few people could successfully reach this Gym he was stationed at.
So Raihan was often bored for long periods and developed the habit of surfing the web and taking selfies.
"Hahaha, interesting!"
"This book 'Starting by Snatching the Garchomp' is too fun to read, right? A real man should read dragon-type trainer novels."
Just as Raihan silently clicked the recharge button, planning to give this novel a Grandmaster Certification, a pop-up suddenly appeared at the top of the screen.
"Duraludon rusting? That's interesting huh."
"Eh, so shiny, this Duraludon looks pretty good in quality, could be worth chatting."
"Maybe this little guy could be trained in the method I just thought of."
Raihan quickly sent a Grandmaster Certification, and decisively switched apps.
———
The power of netizens is very strong.
Not long after the post was published, a man with the ID [To Be the Strongest Dragon] replied to Axel's post.
[To Be the Strongest Dragon: The issue of Duraludon rusting is easy to solve, just buy some toxins at the Pokémon Center and apply it.]
[If you have a poison-type Pokémon nearby, you can also directly apply the poison from the poison-type Pokémon to the rusted spot.]
[Use more toxin, and it might even greatly speed up Duraludon's development!]
Axel glanced at this person's ID and avatar. It looked very much like the Dragon-type Gym Leader from the Galar region, probably a fan.
"Looks like this method is worth a try. After all, this guy even made his account look so realistic, must be a hardcore Raihan fan."
Even taking a step back, even if this method doesn't work, Duraludon is immune to poison-type damage, so he's not afraid of someone playing a prank.
"The Pokémon Center is too far... but if it's a poison-type Pokémon, there is one here."
Axel replied to the netizen with a [thanks].
His gaze locked onto a Familiar Snake that was carrying bricks, and he hooked his finger toward it from not far away.
"Arbok, come here for a sec!"
Arbok' body froze, and the brick coiled on his tail fell to the ground with a clack.
'Damn, why is this guy here again?'
'Coming for a third time huh!'
Arbok sighed and obediently slithered over in front of Axel, forcibly squeezing out a trace of a humanlike smile.
"Arbok~"
"You're pretty obedient today," Axel praised Arbok and got straight to the point.
"My Duraludon is rusting, help apply some venom to corrode it."
Arbok froze.
'What kind of beastly statement is that?'
'Which trainer would let another Pokémon apply poison to his own Pokémon?'
Arbok blinked rapidly, his mind running wildly.
Finally, a terrifying idea appeared in his not-so-developed mind.
'Could this be a scam setup?'
The more he thought about it, the more possible it seemed.
'That terrifying Ralts isn't around right now, she must be hiding somewhere nearby.'
As soon as he sprayed venom on this little metal dragon, she would definitely jump out and violently unleash magical flames.
'Yes, that must be it!'
Arbok rejoiced in his cleverness, a smug smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He quickly scraped across the ground and pulled out a few pieces of sandpaper from a box on the construction site.
The meaning was very obvious.
This thing can fix rust.
Axel: "..."
His psychic ability wasn't refined enough to precisely sense what the Pokémon were thinking.
But he could feel that this Arbok had a very dramatic internal monologue.
"You're overthinking it, right? The rust is inside Duraludon's mouth, how do you get sandpaper in there?"
"Hurry up and release your poison, don't make me get Pheromosa to beat you up."
"Huh?", Arbok only then realized that beside Axel, there was now another overwhelmingly strong Pokémon.
And that Pokémon had cold and proud eyes, as if no one in the world was worthy of her attention.
'Emmm...', Arbok felt like she looked like a killer.
Instantly cowardly, he sprayed venom.
After getting Arbok' venom, Axel experimentally applied some to Duraludon.
The little guy, who had been tightly clamping his mouth shut, immediately loosened up a bit, and the rust between the gaps visibly began to disappear.
"ROAR!"
After applying some more venom, the little guy finally opened his mouth and excitedly rubbed against the hem of Axel's clothes.
"Don't rush, let's apply a bit more, see if this venom can help you get stronger."
Seeing that the fake Raihan's method solved Duraludon's rust problem, Axel planned to test if the second part he mentioned was also true.
After applying venom all over his body, Duraludon's small eyes instantly squinted, letting out a young roar.
"Feels good?"
Little Duraludon nodded hard.
After the venom was applied to his body, he felt that a lot of invisible impurities had been corroded away.
He even felt that without those burdens, his strength slightly increased.
Seeing that this method really worked, Axel deliberately reopened the forum and gave a tip to the netizen who replied earlier.
Then he quickly closed his phone and continued applying venom to Duraludon.
A whole afternoon passed, and under the little loli's repeated exclamations of "It's getting bigger, it's getting bigger," Duraludon successfully reached level five.
To achieve such progress, besides the bunch of auxiliary tags on both Axel and Duraludon, this training method also contributed greatly.
Near evening, Axel told Arbok "see you tomorrow" and left in a hurry.
Watching Axel's departing back, Arbok looked up at the sky.
'What kind of sin is this, even have to see each other again tomorrow.'
If he had known he'd end up like this, he would never have come to the city to make a living.
'Day one of missing my hometown sweetheart!'
———
In the next few days, Axel's life returned to being monotonous.
During the day, he took Duraludon and Pheromosa out to train with the little loli, and at night, he did shameless combat training with Gardevoir, then grinded tags in his dreams.
Early this morning, Axel saw it was still early after waking up, so he pulled Gardevoir into another training session.
The two had just finished, and Axel was hugging Gardevoir, comforting her back, when he suddenly heard the little loli excitedly knocking on the door.
"Axel, open the door quick, the voluntary application method has been finalized!"
"It's already on the school website, this time we'll go to the Gym to fill out the application."
"According to the university each candidate wants to apply to, they'll match different strength Gym trainers, and then use battle results as the standard."
"Come out quick and see which school we're going to for college!"
Axel gently patted Gardevoir's back, smoothed her hair, and tenderly returned her to her Poké Ball.
Only then did he open the door and let the little loli inside.
"You're up really early..."
"Do you know who our Nenix province's chief examiner is this time?"
"The chief examiner is Metagross trainer Lord Reynor, and the honorary examiner for Nenix is Raihan, the Gym Leader from the Galar region!"
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