5 Partners, grades and talents

Kimi walked towards a pole then walked around it one whole time before turning to the right while Growlithe followed behind.

She stopped on a square and then stepped off it as she waited for Growlithe. "Stay here. 5..4..3..2…1..go."

She then turned around and then skipped over a pole between two cones lowered to the ground before stepping over another then another.

Growlithe leaped over each one with ease as she followed Kimi's movements then they both arrived at a tunnel which Kimi crawled into and then exited on the other side s little later. "Come in, it is safe."

Growlithe then slowly entered and kept the appropriate distance between them both.

Kimi then circled around another pole before turning right again as Growlithe copied her movements.

They jumped through a hoop one after another, they jumped over a higher up pole that was between two cones then they leapt through a tire jump.

They then made one more trip around a pole and turned right again as they appeared on the final part of the course.

There was another square which they had to wait on for a set time, then there was a seesaw which Kimi slowly walked over first until it tilted to the other side and allowed her to walk down safely.

As she stepped off, the seesaw went back to its original place and then Growlithe did the same.

Finally there was a final long jump over several laid out poles between several cones then a short walk to the finish line.

As Kimi completed the jump, Growlithe had just cane down from the seesaw and then ran over to jump over the long distance then finished along with Kimi.

The sight of the ten year old Kimi completing the obstacles followed by her Growlithe without any errors was something that caught the eyes of many whether it would be in a good or bad way but it did help to show off the cooperation between trainer and Pokémon.

Kimi revealed a pleasant smile as she knelt down and held out her hand with her palm facing upward as a berry lay in her hand. "Good job Growlithe!"

A nearby judge praised. "The bond you have with your Growlithe is admiral. Even if it is not the best right now, I am sure that your ur efforts will not go unnoticed."

Growlithe slowly approached and saw that there was no threat from Kimi and she was receiving a treat so she took it carefully from Kimi's hand.

Seeing the delight in her Growlithe's eyes after eating the berry, Kimi's eyes became much warmer. "Thank you."

The judge then added. "Although you were slower than the average group, you have done something that many trainers would not even consider during their first time with their Pokémon. I believe that the judges will reward you for this."

Kimi bowed a little before leaving. "Thank you. I will continue to work hard, this Growlithe is very important to me even if we have not been together for that long. I know that we will be great partners in the future."

As she left, the judge stood there in silence for a moment then let out a sigh. 'There are less and less like her these days. So many pursue power and status but forget about the importance of the bonds between Pokémon and humans.'

While Kimi was going back to her seat there was a time where she was sending her feelings of happiness and how proud she was to Growlithe through the use of her Aura.

She then sat in the corner and meditated in silence while she ignored the taunts around herself.

Growlithe lay nearby and kept a close watch over her like a guard dog which showed that the barrier between them had lessened to the point of Growlithe thinking of Kimi as someone that should at least receive her protection.

While she was capable of following orders or directions, she was not yet at the level of being in a close relationship but it was to be expected.

The scars needed to heal over a period of time and there would need to be a lot of care to assist that.

Kimi could faintly sense Growlithe nearby and let out a sigh. 'Do not get too comfortable laying around like that since there will be really difficult training in the future. Although I respect that you may wish to look out for my wellbeing in this position but you are much too weak right now. You need to regain your health, your potential and grow up strong. For now though, it would be best to let your mental state recover first before we start any of that.'

Her mind slowly went over several diet plans and ways to train Growlithe in the future. "I need to wait until much later and make her suppress her evolution until her potential has reached its limits. Then I will need a high grade Fire Stone.'

The various items in the world could be graded as low, medium or high for each one depending on certain aspects like their quality and their effectiveness for their intended use.

Among them was the evolutionary stones which could be graded by their overall use during the evolutionary process.

Low grade stones would allow the evolution to happen but there was no increase to the talent of the evolved Pokemon, medium grade would allow a slight increase which could help to raise their talent grade by one grade if it was enough to push it past that threshold while high grade stones would guarantee a complete increase to their talent grade.

The talents of each Pokémon could determine their growth potential but also their limitations in some cases unless high resources, lucky encounters and excellent training could help overcome it.

Red was the lowest talent then there was orange, yellow, green, blue and finally purple which was the highest.

If red talent was to be considered as a hopeless potential with little hope for the future growth then blue was considered as having potential to become a pseudo legendary grade Pokemon.

Purple was the grade that was usually only available to Legendary Pokémon which could reach the peak of strength and abilities with ease but it could be achieved if the talents were increased during the evolution with the help of the higher grade stones and the best conditions possible that had been prepared during the evolution process.

Most of the starter Pokémon that come from within the league along with some of the other favourites like Growlithe usually start out somewhere between green and blue grade which is why they are so popular and in high demand as a starter Pokémon.

Other more popular Pokémon with very high talents are placed in breeding farms so that the talents will be reproduced and the breeders would usually make a lot of money from such methods so breeders were always a popular profession so long as they performed their job well enough.

If purple was guaranteed an easy road to the peak, blue still required time and effort, green needed a little more than just a little time and effort and would require heavy funds and luck while orange and red would struggle to make it past the halfway line unless it was one of the Pokémon that had an exceptional growth rate like some bug Pokémon like Beedrill.

Even if they did do so, they may still be greatly outclassed in terms of combat ability and stats by those naturally more talented than them as those Pokémon would have had the best conditions to increase their stats and achieve the best evolution and growth possible.

Kimi's own Growlithe should have been a light blue or an ordinary blue talent but at its current condition, it had fallen down to a green or dark green talent but Kimi would never give up on it since she had her experience from her previous life and had a way to return her Growlithe to its former glory.

Kimi was a little upset that the claw shaped scar would still remain on her Growlithe but she then thought to herself. 'At least it will make her more unique than the other Growlithe.'