Pokémon: Golett
Gender: Genderless
Type: Ground / Ghost
Ability: No Guard (Moves used by or against this Pokémon always hit.)
Quality: Red
Base Moves: Pound, Astonish
Egg Moves: None
After reading the egg's information, Auron suddenly turned to Simon and Lena. "What do you think about Golett?"
Lena looked at Simon. Simon pressed his hand against the Golett egg and a faint smile crossed his face.
"Mm. It suits me well."
Auron blinked. "You? You have a special ability too? Something like Aura?"
Simon shook his head. "No, it's not that."
"Ghost-type affinity—an ability passed down through the Greaves family." Catching the look of appeal in Simon's eyes, Lena smiled and explained to everyone.
"Ghost-type affinity?"
"Yeah. Haven't you heard of it? The Greaves family's special power. Same as the Vales—you never know who'll awaken it."
Tim groaned. "Why does my family only have money? I want superpowers too!"
Everyone rolled their eyes in unison. Then Lucas grabbed Tim and dragged him away.
"Ghost-type affinity? What can it do?"
"The ability is pretty much what it sounds like. You can sense the emotions of Ghost-type Pokémon, and communicate with them."
Auron paused, a spark of recognition hitting him. "Can it restore a Ghost-type's stamina or mental energy?"
Simon shook his head. "No, it can't."
"I see." Auron nodded. So it was basically a watered-down, single-type version of the Power of Viridian.
"By the way, is there any family out there with a special ability that can both heal Pokémon and communicate with them?"
Seeing that Simon had a special power too, Auron's curiosity was instantly piqued. He already had the power of Aura. He wondered whether the other abilities—Psychic power, the Power of Viridian, and the Power of Arceus—existed in this world as well.
Tim, who had already run back, shouted at Auron: "The Force of Nature! But it's not a family ability—it's a natural one."
"Hm? Force of Nature? Who has it? I've never heard of it."
Lucas explained: "Master, Master Wang Yi was from your grandfather's generation—probably even older than your grandfather. Of course you haven't heard of him."
"But 'the man closest to becoming Champion in the Dragon Kingdom'—you've heard that title, right?"
Auron started. He nodded quickly. "Alright, yeah. I've heard that one."
In this world, Trainer ranks were divided into: Novice Trainer, Junior Trainer, Intermediate Trainer, Senior Trainer, Pre-Elite, Elite, Master, and finally Champion.
Novice Trainer covered the period before university. You automatically received your Novice Trainer certification after completing the college entrance exams.
After the exams, you could also directly test for Junior or Intermediate certification, but you had to hold each preceding level first—no skipping allowed.
Then came Senior Trainer, Pre-Elite, and Elite—all requiring certification exams. Simon's father, for instance, had only recently passed the Elite Trainer exam, which was why he'd been transferred back.
Above Elite, there were no certifications. At that level, your face was your credential. The "Master" rank, for example, didn't originally have a formal name. It only emerged because the number of Elites across various countries kept growing.
Masters were simply the four strongest Elites in a nation—the national representatives. And there were only four slots. To become a Master, you had to challenge an existing one and defeat them.
As for Champion? The world hadn't seen one in a very long time. After all, the title of World Champion was singular.
To claim it, you'd have to defeat every Elite from every nation.
Of course, Pokémon bound to nations through Covenants couldn't be used. But if you'd formed a Covenant with a legendary through your own ability? That was perfectly fair game.
After all, earning a legendary's Covenant through personal charisma wasn't something only one person could do.
Pokémon power levels followed the same framework, though Pokémon were so heavily influenced by willpower and fighting spirit that the rankings were only rough approximations.
Take Auron's Crobat, for example—she was roughly at the Senior tier now. Munchlax was about the same level, with both Pokémon close in overall strength.
Charizard and Clawitzer were around Intermediate strength, though Charizard could reach Senior tier after Mega Evolving.
The top hundred in the freshman tournament all had Pokémon at Intermediate level, while those ranked lower were still at Junior level.
With improving conditions and growing experience in Pokémon training, the nation's top universities had been discussing for the past couple of years whether to raise graduation requirements.
After all, if Intermediate Trainer remained the graduation threshold, some freshmen were already at that level the moment they walked through the gates. Rare, but it happened.
And given that the top universities drew the strongest and most talented trainers and breeders from across the country, the current bar felt a bit low.
But years of discussion had produced no consensus. Both sides had their arguments, and every debate ended inconclusively.
Certification wasn't just about raw strength, after all. Even if your Pokémon were Senior-tier, if you gave zero commands during the exam and just let your Pokémon brute-force everything, you'd fail the tactical component—and probably wouldn't get certified.
Of course, if you weren't a combat-track trainer, that was simple enough. Go next door and take the Intermediate Breeder exam instead. No battle commands required.
Auron wasn't interested in Wang Yi specifically. What he cared about was the difference between the Force of Nature and the Power of Viridian. Masters were still a distant concern.
"So how does this Force of Nature work exactly?" Auron scratched his head.
"The Force of Nature is different from hereditary powers like your family's Aura or the Ghost-type affinity. It doesn't awaken through bloodline."
"It's not just Master Wang Yi who has it—there's someone in America with it too. The conditions for manifesting this ability are extremely unpredictable."