Young Examinees

Breeder Headquarters, Building One, second floor, Room 303-

This was where Terrance and Jun would take their exam.

By now, Terrance and Jun had spent another night resting at the inn, and their energy had recovered reasonably well.

Master Katsumune had also booked a lavish meal in advance, and Terrance had benefited from it. It was the first time he had eaten so well since leaving home.

The exam was scheduled for eight in the morning. There was still half an hour to go, but people were already beginning to file in.

Most people taking the junior breeder exam were teenagers, though there were exceptions. Walk past a few more rooms, and one might even see elderly people taking the exam.

That did not mean they were slow learners; they had simply started studying the relevant subjects at different times.

Terrance had a considerable advantage. He had a mature mind and had been exposed to breeders' knowledge since childhood, giving him a head start.

Even so, with a child's capacity for thinking and understanding, mastering all that dry, complicated knowledge was truly difficult.

That was also why adults found certain things easier to understand than children did.

Terrance's circumstances were hard to replicate. Even Jun, who came from a good background and had an excellent teacher, was only taking the exam at the same age as Terrance.

"203-"

Terrance glanced up at the room number, then he and Jun went inside with their exam information.

Only examinees were allowed inside, so after seeing Terrance and Jun to the building, Master Katsumune had gone back to wait on his own. Naturally, though, he was completely confident they would pass. What remained to be seen was how their scores would rank among the other examinees.

Quite a few people were already seated in the classroom, a little over ten in all. After a calm glance around, Terrance and Jun found their seats and sat down.

As time passed, the classroom gradually filled with examinees. By the last ten minutes before the exam, almost every seat was occupied.

At the front of the classroom, a woman who looked to be in her early twenties was writing the exam time, "8:00-9:30," on the blackboard. She was the proctor for this exam room.

"My name is Nurse Joy Rin, and I'll be your proctor."

Terrance was a little surprised. He had not expected the proctor to be a Nurse Joy, a member of the same family as Jun. The Joy family was widespread, though, so the two were not necessarily related.

During those last ten minutes, Nurse Joy Rin quieted the classroom and explained the exam rules to them in detail.

The rules were ordinary, and everyone taking the exam understood them to some extent.

Besides, since this was the junior breeder exam, both its difficulty and its procedures were relatively simple.

This was the first part of the exam: the written test.

As soon as the exam began, the papers were handed out. Terrance picked his up and glanced over it, immediately finding it a little elementary. None of it would give him trouble.

The test had three pages and three main sections: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and written arguments.

The test was worth a total of 100 points. The multiple-choice section was worth 30 points, with ten questions in all. The fill-in-the-blank section was also worth 30 points, with ten questions. The written section had only two questions, each worth 20 points.

Anyone who scored at least 60 points on the first exam could proceed to the next one. Anyone who scored less had failed.

"Just the basics."

After looking over the paper carefully this time, Terrance began answering the questions.

The first question, for example, was about the Pokémon Poochyena.

The question tested knowledge of Poochyena's temperament and was practically free points. It had four options: A, "stubborn"; B, "aggressive"; C, "keen"; and D, "timid."

Without hesitation, Terrance put pen to paper and chose A.

All four options had some basis, but A was the most appropriate here.

Poochyena often bared its fangs and fiercely intimidated opponents, but it would also tuck its tail and flee if they fought back. It also had an exceptionally keen sense of smell. Unless an examinee knew it very well, they could easily get confused on the very first question.

In fact, Poochyena's most prominent temperamental trait was stubbornness.

They immediately bit anything that moved and would keep chasing prey until it was exhausted. They also stubbornly pursued fleeing opponents. Once they set their sights on prey, they chased it until it was worn out.

Compared with its other temperamental traits, this one stood out. To answer the first question correctly, one needed not only a thorough understanding of Poochyena, but also the ability to distinguish its primary traits from its secondary ones.

Question 2 [illustration attached]: What is Gyarados's secondary type?

A: "Water," B: "Dragon," C: "Dark," D: "Flying"

Terrance finished the multiple-choice questions very quickly, almost without pausing.

Meanwhile, Nurse Joy Rin, who was proctoring the exam, was looking around the room. She had been quite surprised when she saw Terrance and Jun's information. Ten-year-old examinees, and one apparently a member of her own family-truly impressive.

So she decided to pay particular attention to these two young examinees' results after the exam.

Meanwhile, Terrance turned his attention straight to the fill-in-the-blank questions. If the multiple-choice questions could be answered correctly by guessing, the fill-in-the-blank questions tested the depth of one's knowledge even more.

Question 1: Beldum primarily controls its movements using (-).

At first glance, this might seem like a very simple question. Someone might be pleased and confidently write "Take Down" or "psychic powers," but answers that seemed obvious like these were often imprecise or wrong.

Beldum's body was magnetized, and it used magnetic force to move, communicate, and control its attacks. It was said to be related to Magnemite, but Beldum's magnetic force was mainly concentrated in Psychic-type moves rather than Steel-type moves. Beldum's abilities in battle were very limited; without move tutoring, it could only use Take Down.

Someone might have seen a rare Beldum and carefully observed how it fought. It would not be hard to notice that Take Down was the only move it used, and they would naturally and confidently fill in "Take Down" for this question.

Another approach was to start with Beldum's types: Steel and Psychic. Steel was hard to use as an explanation, but psychic powers naturally came to mind as the basic means by which they controlled their own movements.

So very few people would correctly answer "magnetic force." These questions were meant to weed out examinees hoping to muddle through.

After writing "magnetic force," Terrance continued answering the questions-

One, two, three... His everyday accumulation of knowledge was now fully reflected in the exam, and Terrance answered quickly and easily.