Hearing this, Jace instantly got excited and quickly pressed, "Tell us, tell us! I can't wait!"
Auron ignored him and continued, "The rewards for this freshman battle tournament are great. Most importantly, there are point rewards. You could say this tournament is giving first-year students a channel to earn points."
"Although only the top thirty get points, which is a high bar, we're not bad either. Let's set a small goal—how about breaking into the top thirty?"
Tim looked excited. "Sounds good! At minimum we should get some points!"
Auron smiled. "We're at Skyspire, surrounded by the nation's top students everywhere. Just look at Peter—a very ordinary freshman, but in the battle a few days ago, Jace's Arcanine still couldn't beat his Drilbur."
"It was a draw, okay? A draw!"
Hearing this, Jace immediately protested, raising his hand toward Auron.
"Right, right, a draw. The problem I'm talking about is exactly this—Jace was among the best in Vantora, right? Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten into Skyspire. But now some random person shows up and fights him to a draw?"
"This is the level of students at Skyspire. And after everyone spent the summer break strengthening and training, we don't even know what our opponents' strength is like now."
"So the top thirty is just a small goal. Now let me ask you all a question—during summer break, how much did you actually train?"
After finishing, Auron's gaze swept across everyone's faces.
Sure enough, except for Serena, everyone else's expressions showed some degree of discomfort.
Seeing them like this, Auron smiled but didn't say much more.
"How about this—starting tomorrow, we begin training. Skyspire's training grounds require points, which we can't afford yet. Let's use the training rooms at the Pokémon Battle Center instead. After classes tomorrow, we'll head over. Sound good?"
"I'm fine with that."
"Me too."
"Yeah, my classes are in the morning. What about you guys?"
"Battle Department classes are also in the morning."
"Great, Breeding Department too. Then let's work hard! Tomorrow I'll find a battle arena. Let's all have one battle each first to see how you're doing. Let's do this!"
Auron extended his hand into the middle of the group.
"Let's do this!"
Everyone shouted together in unison. The lazy haze of summer vacation was completely shattered by Auron's words.
"Our last moments of leisure~" Jace stood up and stretched, turning to Tim and Peter. "Come on, there are so many pretty girls on the campus quad. Should we go check them out?"
"Let's go, let's go!"
Hearing this, the two immediately got excited and pushed Jace toward the exit.
Watching the three's retreating figures, Serena and Lena made no attempt to hide their disdain as they spat. Then Lena pulled Serena up.
"Come on, let's go shopping."
"Let's go~"
Serena's face lit up as she quickly followed Lena out, leaving only Auron and Simon staring at each other.
"Uh, want to... hang out here for a bit?"
Simon shook his head. "Um... I can go... go with Jace and them."
Auron's body shook. He gave Simon a respectful thumbs up.
I didn't expect you, with your thick eyebrows and honest face, to be so vulgar too! And aren't you afraid of Lena?
Seeing Auron's expression, Simon immediately understood he'd been misunderstood and quickly explained, "I... I'm not going to look at girls! I'm just following Peter so we can go back to the dorm together."
Hearing this, Auron put on a teasing expression. "I get it, I get it. No need to explain to me. Go on, go on."
Seeing Auron like this, Simon deflated. He knew that no matter how much he explained, Auron wouldn't believe him anymore.
"Alright, I'm leaving then."
"Mm-hmm, have fun~"
"You... ugh..."
Simon sighed helplessly. His image in Auron's eyes was ruined now. He could only hope Auron wouldn't tell anyone, because he really was just going to wait for Peter.
After everyone left, the house fell into silence.
Auron slumped on the sofa and let out a long sigh. School had started—a new busy period was beginning.
"Myu~"
Seeing Auron like this, Dratini immediately crawled onto him and licked his face.
"Haha, stop it! That tickles!"
Auron burst out laughing and quickly wrapped his arms around Dratini.
"Little dragon, you really helped me steal the spotlight these past few days. Now the whole internet is full of news about me."
While eating earlier, not only had Jace been on his phone, but Auron had been too—though he'd been looking at posts about himself, seeing how people online were praising him.
"Myu~"
After hearing Auron finish, Dratini excitedly called out, then flew up and happily danced through the air.
"Kyu!"
Just as Auron was admiring Dratini's graceful movements, Elekid suddenly tumbled down the stairs.
"Whoa, Elekid, what was that all about?"
Auron looked with a mixture of laughter and tears at Elekid, who sat on the ground looking confused after his tumble.
"Kyu!"
Elekid pointed up the stairs. Auron followed his gesture and saw Charizard's head quickly duck back out of sight.
"Did Charizard bully you?"
Auron picked up Elekid and asked with a smile.
"Kyu~"
Elekid shook his head, then began gesturing animatedly to Auron.
"Oh, you're saying you two were playing together, but he can fly so you couldn't keep up, and you accidentally fell down the stairs, right?"
Watching Elekid flap his two arms, combined with his other gestures, Auron immediately figured out the gist of it.
Elekid nodded, indicating Auron was right.
Auron suppressed his laughter and set Elekid on the ground, reminding him, "Mm-hmm, just be careful when you play, okay?"
"Kyu~"
After nodding to Auron, Elekid enthusiastically ran back upstairs.
After watching Elekid run back up, Auron turned to Dratini.
"Dratini, want to watch a movie together?"
"Myu~"
Dratini nodded quickly, indicating she wanted to.
"Great! I'll find a movie now. Can you go upstairs and get Snorlax for me?"
"Myu~"
After answering, Dratini flew upstairs.
Auron turned on the projector and searched for movies on his phone.
He'd only discovered this when the projector arrived—Snorlax absolutely loved watching movies, especially when there were endless snacks nearby. For Snorlax, this was the happiest thing.
As for Dratini, Auron felt she didn't really like watching movies that much, but whenever he suggested watching one together, she got really excited. She probably just wanted to stay by his side.