The training grounds

Drip...

Drops of sweat dampened the floor as a shirtless boy worked up a sweat. Nearby, a Weedle was frantically circling a room that was a complete mess.

They were Giovanni and Weedle.

In just ten days, although his frail body had not undergone an earth-shattering transformation, it had finally reached the level of a normal boy's. He was no longer skin and bones.

Given a little more time, Giovanni would also grow rapidly in height.

As for Weedle, having passed his infancy, he had grown a little more, reaching 0.5 meters in height and 6 kilograms in weight.

That was roughly double his previous size, making him quite brawny for a Weedle.

These ten days had also raised his level considerably, bringing him to level 4, with a corresponding increase in strength.

His rapid improvement now was mainly because his level was low. Later on, this pace would grow slower and slower.

There was one other thing: through Giovanni's tireless efforts, Weedle's aptitude had recovered to green.

However, this was not yet Weedle's original aptitude. His aptitude should have been light green, or even dark green, though it was certainly far below that of legendary Pokémon.

The Pokémon Eggs plundered from Viridian Forest and Viridian Forest had not been specially bred, so their aptitude was generally not very high.

Thus, Weedle should have been among the better ones in this batch of Pokémon Eggs in terms of aptitude.

With Giovanni's Viridian Force as well, he would soon recover fully, then push into cyan, head straight for blue, rise to purple, and finally claim legendary gold!

He had gotten up a little early today, and the Team Rocket guy who delivered his meals had not arrived yet. This counted as fasted cardio.

Giovanni turned to look at the wall densely studded with Poison Stings, the various damaged small objects, and the chairs and sofa wrapped up like dumplings in String Shot. He felt a headache coming on.

Over these ten days, they had wrecked the room beyond recognition, and there were fewer and fewer things left that could help Weedle with targeted training.

With his clash against Mu Sen close at hand, he needed to grow stronger.

In short, it was a bit of a problem!

Beep.

Just then, the doorbell rang. The Team Rocket guy delivering his meal had arrived.

Giovanni hurried over with Weedle, opened the door, and took the food.

Only this time, Giovanni asked the guy a question. "Hey, do you know where I can train? Our Team Rocket should have dedicated training grounds, right?"

The Team Rocket delivery guy glanced at the room Giovanni and Weedle had thoroughly trashed and was left speechless. "Don't tell me you've been training in your room for these past ten days?"

Giovanni silently nodded. From the sound of it, there should indeed be training grounds.

The guy helplessly covered his face and told Giovanni:

"You're really something! Full members can rent private training grounds. There are free ones too, but they're a little crowded and don't have much equipment."

He looked Giovanni up and down. "If I'm not mistaken, you're one of the candidates in this selection, right? Lady Miyamoto specifically prepared five large training grounds for you nine days ago. Didn't you know?"

Giovanni froze. No one really had told him about that.

He was a little different from the others. Weedle had hatched ahead of time, while the others' Pokémon had all hatched after Miyamoto had prepared the training grounds.

So they had been informed when they went to collect Pokémon Food.

Giovanni had spectacularly missed out just like that, leaving him to train on his own for ten days.

With a clatter, a much-abused chair in the room let out a mournful creak and fell apart on the floor, as if protesting.

Giovanni scratched his head helplessly. "Then do you know where those training grounds are?"

The Team Rocket guy did not hold anything back and told Giovanni where all the training grounds were. Giovanni thanked him.

He ate a simple meal, rested for a while, and washed up.

Then Giovanni stepped out of the room he had stayed in for ten days, apologized to the sofa and chairs, and headed for the training grounds.

Two floors down from Giovanni's room was the floor where the training grounds were located.

Once he reached that floor, he saw the boys from before.

Giovanni might not have remembered their faces, but seeing some of them constantly walking around with incubators on their backs made it easy to figure out who they were.

It seemed he really had missed out.

Giovanni's appearance drew quite a few gazes.

"It's him."

"The one who hatched the first Pokémon!"

As the first boy to hatch a Pokémon, Giovanni was quite well known.

However, after seeing Giovanni appear, one boy immediately ran toward a training ground in a fluster.

There were so many people that Giovanni did not notice.

He simply picked a training ground that looked appealing and walked in.

As expected of Team Rocket, they were positively rolling in money.

Inside the spacious training ground, the first thing he saw was a track and field area. All sorts of fitness equipment stood in one section, with targets and similar things nearby.

The boys were mainly gathered on the track, running nonstop with incubators on their backs.

There were not many people around the fitness equipment and targets, but everyone there had a Pokémon with them.

There were also several full members of Team Rocket on duty inside, along with their Pokémon, presumably to prevent the boys from fighting without permission and Pokémon from injuring people.

With suitable training grounds at last, Giovanni felt full of energy.

He took out a Poké Ball and pressed the button. White light flashed, and Weedle appeared beside his feet.

Weedle was also delighted to see such a spacious area after coming out. Being stuck in a small room all the time really had been stifling.

Giovanni asked Weedle:

"Shall we run two laps first?"

Weedle nodded and immediately started running. Giovanni quickly followed.

For Giovanni and Weedle, whose current strength could not have been any weaker, there was no point in hiding their abilities.

Their training plan was only the crudest kind, and it was tailored to Weedle, so there was no need to fear someone else copying it.

They were all rookies. Any fight would be nothing more than a scuffle between amateurs.

The only thing Giovanni could keep hidden was his Viridian Force.

Once he had enough strength, he would no longer need to hide his Viridian Force either.

Compared with the boys wearing miserable expressions as they exhausted themselves carrying incubators, Giovanni and Weedle were decidedly eye-catching on the track.

Apart from Giovanni, there was another eye-catching figure on the track.

It was the brawny boy who had once taken on ten opponents alone. He ran very fast. There was just one problem: he still had an incubator on his back. It seemed his Pokémon had yet to hatch.

Time was getting a little tight. He would have to pick up the pace.

No one wanted to die.

While Giovanni was running freely around the track, a group of boys entered from outside.

Mu Sen led them, his head tilted so high it nearly pointed at the sky. He looked extremely arrogant.

His confidence mainly came from the Pokémon beside him, whose whole body was red and whose tail bore a flame.

One of the Starter Pokémon, Charmander.

This was also what gave him the right to be arrogant.