"This place looks so ancient, like a real ruin!"
Walking through the Underground Path, Willow looked at the murals and carvings lining both sides of the passage and couldn't help but comment.
Hearing her, David turned his gaze to the walls as well. She was right. Going by what his family had taught him, the decorative style on these walls had to be at least two or three hundred years old.
The automated door they had just passed through, along with the clearly modern ventilation and lighting systems nearby, must have been added much later.
"The history of this place goes back at least three hundred years. The structure itself is ancient, but the school renovated it with modern systems over the past few decades."
Dominic explained without turning around, leading the way at the front of the group.
The stretch of road wasn't long. After a few turns, with Dominic guiding them, they soon arrived at their destination.
A metal door stood before them. The group stopped alongside Dominic and waited quietly.
Once he entered the access code, the metal door slid open, revealing a wide chamber beyond.
At the sight inside, most of the school team members gasped in surprise, though David and a few others kept their composure, their expressions unchanged.
This must be the entrance to the special Secret Realm.
David studied the scene laid out in the hall before him.
A twisted, open vortex hovered in the middle of the underground chamber. This had to be the spatial gate leading into the Secret Realm.
Beside the gate stood a row of modern machines, almost certainly the equipment used to activate and stabilize it.
The reason David and the others weren't startled was that they had seen a spatial gate like this before. They had passed through one just like it on their way to the Myriad Dragons' Nest Secret Realm during the Dragon Festival, so this sight felt familiar rather than shocking.
A gate of this kind could only mean one thing: like the Myriad Dragons' Nest, this Secret Realm hadn't fully merged with their world.
Still, compared to the Myriad Dragons' Nest, this Secret Realm felt far less stable. If the Myriad Dragons' Nest was like a satellite settled into a steady orbit around the Blue Star, then this one felt more like a meteor still being dragged in by gravity, not yet pulled all the way in but no longer able to break free either.
The surrounding energy was likely being drawn into the gate to keep it from collapsing.
Dominic spoke briefly into the hall's communication system, and soon several staff members arrived carrying a case of Poké Balls and a stack of travel backpacks.
"Anyone without a Flying-type Pokémon to ride, grab one of these!"
Dominic gestured toward the case of Poké Balls in front of them.
Among the group, only David, who had his Salamence, and Luke, who had his Metagross, didn't need one. There was also one other trainer who already had a Braviary. Everyone else stepped forward to claim a Poké Ball. David took one from Emma's hand and looked it over.
Inside was a high-grade Pidgeot. Turning the ball over in his palm, David found himself thinking of the Lapras he had once rented back in Belon City.
"Take your supplies. If you've brought your own gear, you're welcome to bring that too. We'll be heading out shortly, and I'll be accompanying you into the realm this time."
At Dominic's words, David accepted a travel backpack from one of the staff members. It looked no different from the survival packs they'd used during the mid-term joint exam.
A basic spatial backpack like this couldn't hold much. Inside were only a sleeping bag, a fire starter, a communicator, and a few medical supplies like bandages and healing spray.
He noticed there was no food for himself or for his Pokémon. Were they expected to forage for their own meals again?
As if reading the confusion on everyone's faces, Dominic spoke up.
"Don't worry about Pokémon food. For this training session, the school is providing custom top-grade Energy Cubes for every one of your Pokémon. As for your own meals, the school will have prepared food delivered to your hotel each day. Your only job is to focus on training."
Pre-competition training and a wilderness survival exam meant to test all-around ability weren't meant to test the same things, and the school clearly understood that. If the trainers had to scavenge for food every single day the way they had during the mid-term assessment, two-thirds of their two-week training period would vanish into that single task. That wouldn't be training at all.
It made far more sense to provide everything up front, so the team could train without distraction.
Even so, First High was clearly spending a fortune this time. Top-grade Energy Cubes weren't something you could simply buy with money. Outside of families like David's, whose household could afford to feed a strong Pokémon this well every single day?
Take David's Zorua, for example. A single meal of top-grade Energy Cubes would run close to a thousand Poké Dollars at market price, and even then, you couldn't get your hands on them without the right connections. Top-grade Energy Cubes were always scarce on the open market. Most people would count themselves lucky just to afford high-grade Energy Cubes through legitimate means.
Several trainers from more ordinary backgrounds among the group lit up at hearing this. They knew all too well that, normally, they could only afford basic or intermediate Energy Cubes, with high-grade ones reserved for special occasions. Even that already strained their finances, and only the combined subsidies from the school and the League made it manageable at all. Raising a Pokémon properly was no different from feeding a bottomless pit.
The school must really be pulling out all the stops this time. It sounded as though they'd brought in a master-level breeder just to handle this.
"Alright. As long as you all perform well in the High School League, the school won't hold back on rewards. Let's move."
With that, the spatial gate behind him flared with light. Dominic stepped through first, and the rest of the group followed close behind.