"Exactly. Establish a gym using your name!"
"Gyms mainly have two functions. One of them is to select strong trainers and grant them badges, thereby giving them the possibility to participate in the Pokémon League. And the other is to accept gym apprentices, fulfilling a function similar to that of a Pokémon University."
Alex began explaining what exactly a gym was, and then changed his tone: "Your strength has already reached the Quasi-Elite level, so you fully have the qualifications necessary to become a Gym Leader."
"And your greatest advantage is your identity as a Pokémon Professor!"
"Although your title as Pokémon Professor is oriented toward the field of evolution, in Pokémon raising you are also at the highest level. I believe that with those advantages, obtaining the qualification to be a Gym Leader will not be a problem for you."
The more Alex spoke, the more excited he became. He even ended up taking out a detailed plan, in which the most visible point was the chosen location for the gym: precisely the land where the provisional laboratory was located, at the entrance of the town!
It was evident that, as long as Ethan obtained the Gym Leader qualification, Alex already had all the following steps prepared.
"As long as we manage to establish a gym in the town, all development can revolve around it. In a short time, the town could take off without problems, even surpassing district-level cities."
"And furthermore, once there is a gym in the town, the right to distribute starter Pokémon will also be obtained. With that advantage, we could directly establish a Grass-type Pokémon breeding farm in the town, and the benefit from that would be enormous."
As Alex continued explaining, a true strategic blueprint for the construction of Stonefield Town seemed to unfold little by little, and the outline of a great force began to slowly take shape.
"But I don't want to be a Gym Leader."
Suddenly, Ethan thought of a detail. If he became a Gym Leader, wouldn't he have to stay in the gym all the time waiting for challengers?
Naturally, he did not intend to spend his life shut inside Stonefield Town's gym.
"You don't have to worry about that. When the time comes, I'll take out the leader certificate, and I'll stay in charge of the gym!"
Hearing Ethan's concern, Alex sighed in relief; for him, that was not a problem at all.
"Eh... leader certificate?"
"You can do that too?"
Ethan did not react for a moment. If that was the case... then he could indeed consider it.
...
"Sigh... as expected, I can't resist temptation."
Back in his room, Ethan looked at the gym introduction manual in his hand and fell into thought.
Applying for a gym was not as simple as filling out a form.
Due to the cooperation reached between the Pokémon League and the League's Pokémon Club Guild, whoever wanted to establish a gym had to, first of all, establish a club.
And only under the name of that club could the gym application be submitted and compete for one of the available spots.
On this point, Ethan did not have to worry too much, because under the Baxter family's name, there was already a Pokémon club.
As part of the Baxter family's investment in Stonefield Town's tourism plan, that club would be transferred directly to Ethan.
"I already have the club. Next will be deciding the type of gym."
Ethan flipped through the gym manual. On that point, the truth was, he did not have too many options either.
Although he would have liked to build a Rock-type or Ground-type gym, following Alex's suggestion, a Grass-type gym fit better.
Right now, he already had a large number of Grass-type younglings, so he could also meet the requirements more easily.
Although those Pokémon had not yet finished growing, fast growth and ease of raising had always been one of the great advantages of Grass-type Pokémon.
As long as they were given enough time, Grass-type Pokémon could develop quickly with relative ease. Of course, if one wanted to raise them well, it was also necessary to invest quite a bit of effort.
After all, a gym required six Pokémon, and for now Ethan only had Cacturne as a candidate that truly met the conditions.
"Although also... it doesn't necessarily have to be a Grass-type gym."
Ethan tapped his fingers on the table and suddenly remembered the Charizard Gym.
In reality, in addition to creating a gym based on a type, it was also possible to build it around a specific theme.
For example, the Charizard Gym was centered precisely on Charizard as its main theme.
In addition, he remembered that some gyms combined two types, such as the Water and Ice gym, where the leader used both Water-type and Ice-type Pokémon.
"Then... what if I take Sunny Day as the core?"
"Could I directly build a Sunny Day Gym?"
"In that way, both my Fire-type Pokémon and Grass-type Pokémon could participate. That would let me avoid having to raise five additional Grass-type Pokémon from scratch. Charizard, Litwick, and Magmortar could also serve perfectly."
Ethan thought about it for a while and felt the idea was completely feasible, so he could not help praising himself for his ingenuity.
"The way to compete for a gym spot is going to be... the Ironvale City club tournament?"
Ethan continued reading the gym introduction, and when he reached the part about the club tournament, he froze for a moment.
The Ironvale City club tournament was naturally very familiar to him.
In the previous edition of that tournament, he himself had represented the Pokémon Nightstar Club against the Pokémon Island Adventure Club, and after battling, Cacturne had managed to chain together a streak of ten consecutive victories.
But this time, the Ironvale City club tournament was different.
The first change was that, thanks to the cooperation between the Pokémon League and the League's Pokémon Club Guild, the status of clubs had greatly improved.
In the past, within the League, Pokémon clubs were seen almost like simple internet cafés, something that the great forces did not even bother to take seriously. But with the appearance of gyms, the situation changed completely.
Now, practically every family or force of some importance had founded its own Pokémon club. It was easy to imagine how fierce this edition of the Ironvale City club tournament would be.
And the second change lay in the battle rules.
In the old tournament, each club sent ten people to compete.
This time, however, each club only needed to send the applicant for the Gym Leader spot, although the format remained "king of the hill."
Furthermore, the club participant had to be precisely the person who had submitted the official application to be the Gym Leader. Although the regulations required using the corresponding type, in Ethan's case, his participating Pokémon would naturally be Cacturne.
However, although the battle did impose restrictions regarding Pokémon type, there were no limitations related to age or strength.
It was easy to imagine that, in order to obtain one of those Gym Leader spots, each of the great families and factions would undoubtedly send their strongest members.
(End of chapter)