After reporting in at the mission office, I received $50 for completing my first mission successfully. I took a magnet train back to the trainer district and quickly went to the Pokemart.

The Pokemart was divided into sections. There was one section that sold Pokémon food supplies, one section that sold food supplies for humans, and another section for sturdy clothes and other supplies for travelling and camping.

There were also three locked glass cases in the Pokemart. Two at the back, one case that kept medicine locked up and the other with different models of Pokedex. The last one, just behind the register, held different kinds of pokeballs.

Basic potion, $300, Basic Pokeball, $200. Cheapest mode of Pokedex, $200. It was no wonder these things were locked up and it was a good thing that they allowed us to keep the medicine and pokeballs that were left over from the Ordeal.

It did not take long for me to collect and pay for my supplies. One small bag of dry food, two small bags of dried fruit, and one pair of special sound attack nullifying earplugs. $5, $10, $20, all together, $35. It was good thing that trainers were exempt from taxes as that took more than half of my mission pay.

Ten minutes before 4PM, I headed to the cafeteria to wait for the others. I sat there alone for a couple of minutes before they turned up.

"We don't have many hours of daylight left," I told them. "Let's head over to the training grounds."

They all nodded and followed me out of the Centre. As we began searching for a suitable training ground, Caitlyn asked how my mission went.

"It was uneventful for the most part," I told them.

"For the most part?" Bradley asked.

I nodded. "About an hour before my shift ended a flock of wild Starlys showed up at the pack."

"What happened?" Caitlyn asked. "Did the Starlys injure anyone?"

"They attacked and injured a family," I replied. "We killed off most of the Starlys and the rest flew away. The family survived and were rushed to a hospital."

"Damn," Bradley said. "Your first mission and already you had to deal with wild Pokémon. At least you completed the mission easily."

"Not as easily as you think," I admitted. "Zatanna doesn't know any long-range attacks, and neither does Synin, except for Sand-Attack, but that relies more on the environment as without dirt or sand it is practically useless. If the supervising trainer hadn't knocked most of them to the ground, we wouldn't been able to do much to protect the civilians since the Starlys flew outside our reach."

As we kept walking, Bradley, Caitlyn, and Vivian asked me questions pertaining what long-range attacks I would be teaching them, which one would be the easiest to teach, am I going to be training both my Pokémon tonight, my plans for tomorrow etc, until I came to a stop.

"This looks good," I said, looking at a large mountain training ground. There was a small man-sized mountain with a large cave going from one side of the mountain to the other, with over a dozen practice dummies, some on top of the mountain and others spread out around it. There was even a small pond nearby. "Let's train here."

They agreed with me and we began setting up for training. I put down my pack and turned to Bradley.

"Keep your Whismur in his pokeball for now," I said. "He's going to need the most work so let's set up Zatanna, Caitlyn's Litleo and Vivian's Surskit first."

"Fine," he said. He stepped away from us and crossed his arms.

I released Zatanna from her pokeball, and upon materializing waited for orders.

"We're going to practice Feint Attack like last time." I told her. I pointed to one dummy at the edge of the training ground. "I want you to keep hitting that target with Feint Attack until I say stop. Keep trying to increase the Dark energy until you hit and release it all at once. Understood?"

She barked once and trotted over to stand a few feet in front of the dummy. We watched as she stood still for a moment before running towards it. Her body began to glow with a dark light as she was running towards it in a zigzag movement. Upon contact, the dummy shook a bit as the dark light flared dimly, disappearing.

"Keep at it," I told her.

She barked again and moved into position to repeat the process. I watched her try it one more time, this time attacking from the right side, before returning to the girls.

"Call out your Pokémon," I told them. "Vivian, best if you release yours in the pond."

They each pulled out their pokeball. Caitlyn was much more outspoken in her release than Vivian.

"Go, Nala!"

The pokeballs opened and a Litleo tumbled into plain view while Vivian's Surskit skidded across the pond gracefully.

"Nala?" Bradley laughed.

Caitlyn blushed. "What?" Caitlyn asked hotly. "It's a cute name!"

"A cute name for a vicious monster," Bradley remarked.

"I have her mostly tamed," she told him. "Do you see her trying to attack any of us?"

"They are good names," I interjected before the argument continued. "As long as they respond to the name, it doesn't matter."

"She responds to it," she said. "Watch."

She turned to her Pokémon and held out her hands. "Nala," she told her. "Come here."

The Litleo bounded towards her and rubbed against her affectionately, proving that she really did have her tamed. Unfortunately, Caitlyn had yet to teach her any attack commands, though by her descriptions, Nala already knew the moves Tackle and Ember.

"Tackle will be very easy since she already knows it" I said. "Just go over to one of the practice dummies and order her to Tackle it. Once she does, call her back to you and have her do it again. This way she gets used to attacking on command and she starts strengthening her Tackle attack at the same time. We can work on Ember after she has practiced Tackle for a while."

"That simple?" she asked me.

"You already did the hard work," I told her. "Once you actually get her to listen to you, it's mostly downhill from there. Getting her to try to learn an attack that she doesn't know yet is a little hard but can be done with time and practice."

I watched over her for a bit as she called out for Nala to Tackle the dummy. She rushed forward with increasing momentum until she rammed into it. The dummy shook but not as much as Zatanna's Feint Attack.

"Keep at it," I instructed. She nodded.

"Right," I said as I turned to Vivian. "Your turn."

Her Surskit elegantly skated across the ponds surface and responded when Vivian called for him. Feeding was not a problem as small insects were not hard for Syrup to catch with the ripple-sensitive hairs on his legs. Currently, he knew the moves Bubble, Quick Attack and Sweet Scent.

"Surskits secrete sugary syrups from its antenna," I said. "Guess that's why you called it Syrup eh?" The redhead nodded shyly. "Sweet Scent shouldn't be a problem. Let's work on Bubble first and save physical attacks for later."

As with Caitlyn, I watched over her for a bit as Syrup sprayed countless bubbles at a nearby dummy, which didn't do much except from dampening it. I told her not to worry as I simply wanted her to focus on the range, accuracy, and intensity of her attacks. Highly pressurised water can cut through steel after all though I doubt Bubble would reach such a stage, it would provide the foundation of Syrup's ranged elemental attacks.

Finally, it was Bradley's turn. He had been watching silently while I helped the other two. I saw a flash of resentment, before it disappeared. Ignoring it, I moved over to my backpack and opened it, taking out the pair of earplugs and a bag of fruit I bought.

"Here," I told him, trying but failing to hand it over to him. He opted instead to stare at them for a moment before glaring angrily at me. "This is not charity.” I explained myself, before he could flare up again. “I owe you a can of Repel remember. These together don't cost as much as a small can, but the can wasn't full anyway. We can call it even with these, savvy?"

He continued to stare at me for a long moment, then stared at the items in my hand before eventually taking them away from me.

"Fine," he said begrudgingly. "We're even."

***

Bradley thought about that for a moment. "That is a really good idea," he admitted reluctantly.

"Don't be too surprised," I responded sarcastically.

He started laughing. "Alright," he said. "Let's give it a try." He put in the earplugs and stuck the opened bag in his pocket. He took out one piece of fruit while he held a pokeball in the other hand. By this time, I was already far away, and I wasn't worried about the others since they, still in sight, were even further away from Bradley.

I was glad for taking slight precautions because the little chit wailed so loudly that even I could hear it all the way here.

***

The Whismur froze once he felt Bradley petting him. He didn't make any movements as Bradley continued to pet him. After a moment, he continued to eat slowly. Once he was done. Bradley took out another piece and offered it to him. He turned to me when his Pokémon took that piece.

I gave him a thumbs-up and mouthed for Bradley to start talking to him.

He nodded to me and turned back to the Whismur. He began to pet him again and started talking to him.

I watched them for a moment before walking away to give them some privacy. I walked back to the others and saw Zatanna and Nala still working on their attacks. Caitlyn stood watching me instead of her Pokémon.

"Wow," she said once I reached her. "I saw the whole thing. I didn't think that he would make any progress with that thing. You're a really good teacher."

I shrugged. It was actually quite similar to training dogs and cats. Turning back to our Pokémon I decided to let Synin out as well. The tiny bird Pokémon flew a circle before finally perching on my outstretched arm.

"Train or rest?" I asked. "Your choice."

Synin cocked his head. "Right, obviously." I rolled my eyes. "Stupid question."

***

By sundown, I was quite pleased at our group's progress. Zatanna quickly picked up Snarl after cracking the dummy with Feint Attack and Synin had learnt the basics of cutting the air with his wings so I rewarded them with treats that I had brought earlier.

With some coaxing, Nala, Caitlyn's Litleo, was able to produce dark red flames a foot long, and as I was checking up on them, Syrup, Vivian's Surskit, managed to forcefully eject a spray of bubbles that was both of a longer range and intensity than Bubble, Bubblebeam.

As it was getting late, we recalled all our Pokémon, and moved to the spot where Bradley was working with his Whismur. We saw him sitting on the ground petting and talking to his Pokémon. When he saw us, I made a wrap it up motion and pointed to the sky. He looked up and nodded. He spoke to the Whismur for a moment before calling back into his pokeball. The Pokémon did not struggle as he was returned.

"I see you made a lot of progress today," I told him as he joined us.

"We came to an agreement," he said. "We're going to work on attack commands tomorrow."

"Good," I said.

"That means you won't be retaking your Ordeal," Caitlyn stated.

"Yeah", he said. "Deci and I are partners now."

"Deci?"

"That's his name," Bradley said.

Caitlyn started giggling. "And you were laughing at Nala's and Syrup's names," she said.

"It's a good name for him," he said defensively.

"Deci?" I mused. "Deci from decibel?"

"Yeah,"

"I'm surprised you even know what that is." I commented. "I'd thought you'd name him Screamer or something."

"Hey!" Bradley shouted, "I resent that."

I promptly increased my pace to the Pokémon Centre with Bradley hot on my tail, and the girls, still giggling, trailing behind us.

Although appreciative of the help and advice I gave, they declined my kind offer of group training tomorrow morning. Bradley wanted to focus on training the attacks himself so that he could prove to be a capable trainer.

I respected his wishes, so I let him be.

As for the girls, they decided to take the D-rank exam in the morning. Although I believed they would pass, I told them not to rush it, and to make sure they'd pass it the first time around. The sooner they start doing missions, the better.

Since I was going to use tomorrow to train and visit my family, I decided to look for a mission for the day after. I went through all the D-rank requests and once again chose a city state requested mission.