In just a few days, news of the earthquake in Dragonlake City spread throughout the entire world.
Many details of the earthquake came to light, and at the same time, countless touching stories were reported.
Because of Ethan's outstanding performance in this rescue operation, there were actually journalists who wanted to interview him, but he politely declined all requests.
After participating in the internal recognition ceremony of the Pokémon Hunter Guild, Ethan left Dragonlake City. From that point on, only follow-up and cleanup tasks remained in the city—matters in which he could not intervene—so he did not stay any longer.
"Although I didn't appear on television, the rewards I received were surprisingly abundant."
Ethan lightly shook his backpack, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
To recognize his contribution this time, the League was quite generous and awarded him a large amount of training resources, refilling his backpack, which had previously been somewhat empty.
This time, it could be said that he had made a significant contribution to the rescue efforts, so in addition to material rewards, he also obtained a permit to apply for the capture of a disaster-type Pokémon, which was undoubtedly his greatest gain.
One must know that he had left an adult Tyranitar in the mobile Secret Kingdom of the desert, so that permit to capture a disaster-type Pokémon would undoubtedly be used on it.
That Tyranitar had grown up feeding on Smooth Rocks, and its control over sandstorms was extremely powerful; its strength was more than sufficient for it to become one of his main Pokémon.
Moreover, with Tyranitar joining the team, his sandstorm lineup would become even more complete and be able to unleash far greater combat power.
On the other hand, the competition for spots in the Pokémon World Championship was about to begin. During this period, what Ethan needed to do was to improve his strength as quickly as possible, since the number of spots for the world championship was limited and his opponents came from all across the Daleron League.
It was easy to imagine that, in competing for this world championship spot, Ethan would not only face those old university rivals; at that time, heirs of great families, successors of various traditions, and many others would also appear, all participating in this competition.
"The pressure is quite heavy. It seems that when I return, I'll have to carry out targeted training again based on the situation of each of my Pokémon."
Ethan slowly sighed and recalled the condition of his Pokémon. Based on the information Alex Baxter had sent him, he began to think things through.
While pondering during the journey, Ethan returned to Emberfall City riding on his Charizard.
It was especially worth mentioning that the gym leader of Emberfall City, Brandon Jones, had also performed outstandingly in the rescue operations, so he likewise received recognition and rewards from the League.
"Hello, are you Trainer Ethan?"
"Regarding your gym evaluation, the Pokémon Trainer Guild has already approved it. This is your Emberfall City Gym Badge—please keep it safe."
Upon arriving at the gym, Ethan unexpectedly received this response.
"Thank you."
Ethan was momentarily stunned, then politely accepted the badge.
At the same time, he felt a bit regretful inside.
The combination of the moves Fling and Focus Energy used by Leader Brandon's Magmar was, honestly speaking, something he envied quite a lot.
"Fling and Focus Energy..."
"Maybe I can try researching them myself."
Ethan pondered internally and decided that when he returned to the Pokémon Researcher Guild, he would look up information about those two moves.
After putting away the Emberfall City Gym Badge, Ethan mounted Charizard once again and headed toward Coral City, intending to obtain the final badge.
Unfortunately, the gym leader of Coral City was still not at the gym. It was said that he had gone together with Champion Leo to the Volcanic Mountain Range to investigate the earthquake.
However, the Pokémon Trainer Guild of Coral City also directly handed him the gym badge. Evidently, regarding Ethan—the trainer who had made contributions during the Dragonlake City earthquake—the Pokémon Trainer Guild had reached a consensus and decided to exempt him from the evaluation.
"What a pity. I heard that the gym leader of Coral City is a very powerful expert. I even wanted to see his exclusive Secret Kingdom."
Ethan sighed softly. For him now, winning or losing was no longer the most important thing; what truly mattered was being able to have evenly matched battles that would allow him to continuously accumulate combat experience.
In this way, Ethan officially gathered the eight gym badges of the southwestern region of the League, thereby obtaining the qualification to participate in the competition for world championship spots.
He had set out in March, and now it was already July; Ethan took a total of four months to complete the gym challenge—a speed that could already be considered quite good.
From the League's side, the time granted to obtain the eight badges was one year. The competition for world championship spots would be held in March of the following year, and the Pokémon World Championship would take place in June of next year.
In the remaining time, he still had eight months to prepare for the competition for world championship spots. If he managed to obtain a spot, he would still have three more months to prepare for the Pokémon World Championship. In terms of time, it could be said that he was quite well off.
"This journey can be considered a complete success. Next, I'll first return to the main headquarters of the guild and, after meeting up with Sandslash and the others, gradually prepare training plans for them."
With the decision made, Ethan opened the Poké Ball in his hand, and Charizard's figure appeared.
But just as Ethan was about to mount Charizard, he saw a girl in a black dress running toward him.
"Laura?"
Ethan looked somewhat confused.
"Huff... I finally found you."
Laura stopped in front of Ethan, panting heavily.
"Were you looking for me? Did you bring Litwick's food?"
Ethan's eyes lit up. Before parting ways, he had entrusted Laura with preparing Litwick's food for an entire year. This speed was really fast!
"Huff, why do you always have your phone turned off?"
Laura took a deep breath and said somewhat helplessly.
"Oh, oh, my battery ran out—I forgot to charge it."
Ethan scratched his head awkwardly, then looked back at Laura, waiting for her response.
"Yes, the food is already prepared."
Laura nodded, causing Ethan's face to fill with joy.
But suddenly, Laura changed her tone and said, "This time, bringing you Litwick's food is secondary; the most important thing is that I want to invite you to visit my family."
"Invite me to your family?" Ethan looked puzzled.
"That's right. Do you remember that you said before that your Litwick couldn't evolve?"
"Our family specializes in Ghost-type Pokémon. I believe the elders of my family will definitely be able to solve the evolution problem of your Litwick."
Laura smiled faintly.
"Litwick's evolution problem...?"
Ethan pondered silently. This was indeed a problem he had planned to resolve during this period.
In fact, Litwick's current strength was already quite good, but the limitations of its species restricted its potential.
If Litwick could successfully evolve into Lampent or even Chandelure, its power would increase explosively!
(End of chapter)