Pokémon Court

“Did you hear? A Breeder Class student actually made it to the 30th floor of the Tower of Despair!”

“What?! The 30th floor? Impossible! That’s the floor where the teachers put in their main Pokémon and it is normally just to fill space. A student actually managed to get that high?”

“What’s so impossible about that? I heard his Altaria stopped at the 30th floor. It probably thought the higher floors would be too tough, or maybe it’s planning to hold that position for a while. After all, not many students can reach that floor, unless they’re the kind of people who like to delay graduation until the last minute.”

“You’re not messing with me, right?”

“Why would I? You’re just out of the loop. Apparently, he’s going to try the Tower of Confusion today, and a bunch of students are going to check it out. Are you going to go?”

Crown Academy, where the Tower of Confusion is guarded by a team of Ditto.

Theoretically, the tower has no floor limit, making it a trial ground that students both love and hate.

The Ditto raised here—about several dozen—can sustain challenges up to a certain number of floors, but no student has ever managed to get past the tenth floor…

Even reaching the fifth or sixth floor is considered a stellar achievement.

The effect of training here, however, is exceptionally efficient; every Pokémon gains remarkable insights after each challenge, making the tower a popular spot among students.

Today, the Tower of Confusion was quite lively, all due to a single challenger.

This person is none other than Terrance, the one who managed to climb to the 30th floor of the Tower of Despair with his Altaria!

After the battle with Gallade, Terrance began to challenge quite frequently—three, even four times a day. He only slowed down after reaching the tenth, then the twentieth floor, but it left Old Man Takamatsu, the person in charge of Tower of Despair, deeply impressed by Altaria’s potential.

After the twentieth floor, Altaria could barely handle one battle per day. However, at this point, the use of Dragon Dance allowed Takamatsu to witness a miracle. Through the perfect coordination between Terrance and Altaria, the Guardian Pokémon, without a Trainer’s command, found themselves in a passive situation. Faced with the boosted Altaria, its opponents felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

After the twentieth floor, in just a week, using Dragon Dance as its main move, Altaria tore through the remaining floors to reach the 30th floor, setting a new record for the best performance by a student at the Crown Academy’s Tower of Despair in a decade

News of Terrance and Altaria’s feat of reaching the 30th floor quickly spread, reaching many students and teachers alike. All of them found it hard to believe. Those who knew Terrance were baffled, while those who didn’t were incredibly curious, wanting to meet this mysterious challenger.

“Akon, you know him, right?!”

“Come on, introduce me already!”

A student grabbed hold of Akon, pestering him endlessly. Unable to resist the shameless student, Akon sighed in exasperation and said, “You already know his name, and that he is a Breeder Class student. What more do you want to know?”

“Why is his Pokémon so strong? It’s absurd, right? The 30th floor of the Tower of Despair—that means he defeated the main Pokémon of many teachers, right?”

Akon glanced at him and replied, “Who says the teachers’ Pokémon have to be strong? Sometimes they’re just there to fill the gap.”

The student shook his head. “After I heard the news, I tried challenging the Tower of Despair again. My Torterra barely made it past the 1st floor, but… on the 2nd floor, it ran into a Gallade with terrifying strength. It didn’t stand a chance. The 30th floor… how did he do it?”

Gallade?

Akon looked at him with sympathy.

What a coincidence, this Gallade was practically raised by Terrance himself.

Outside the Tower of Confusion, many students were gathered. The old man in charge, Lucas, wiped the sweat from his brow, feeling exasperated by one particular student. Terrance had left a strong impression on him during his very first attempt at the Tower of Confusion. Despite being a Breeder Class rookie, he managed to have his Swablu reach the 2nd floor and his Beautifly the 3rd floor—a level far beyond what most freshmen or even students a year ahead could achieve.

And over the following two years, Terrance became a frequent visitor at the Tower of Confusion.

“A year ago, his Beautifly reached the 5th floor, and his Swablu nearly did too, only falling short due to insufficient stamina. Misdreavus barely made it to the 4th floor, while Growlithe made it to the third.”

“And now, a year later, that Swablu has grown enough to conquer the 30th floor of the Tower of Despair…”

Lucas fell silent. Though the Tower of Despair was officially said to have a hundred floors, in reality, it housed no more than fifty Pokémon.

Although some of the Battle Class instructors wouldn’t go so far as to place their ace Pokémon in the Tower of Despair, and the academy’s higher-ups were too indifferent to care, the floor Terrance had reached was nothing short of astonishing in the eyes of the students.

It had been nearly an hour since Terrance entered the Tower of Confusion.

While shouting at the students outside to keep it down, the old man Lucas kept his eyes fixed intently on Terrance’s progress.

Altaria…

It had already reached the 8th floor.

Facing off against eight Ditto transformed into Altaria, it hadn’t been defeated yet.

Starting from the 4th floor, Altaria charged through all the way to the 8th floor, causing Lucas to tremble. The advantage gained from Dragon Dance played a significant role in this feat. With the 4th floor posing little challenge, Altaria’s maxed Dragon Dance became the key to its powerful ascent. It wasn’t until after defeating nearly thirty Ditto on the 8th floor that Altaria finally ran out of stamina and was defeated.

The 8th floor…

“This kid…” Lucas shook his head, already anticipating the shock among the students and the academy’s higher-ups when they heard of this achievement. It had been a long time since anyone had set a record like this. Although Terrance and Altaria used a cheap trick on the 4th floor, reaching the 8th floor was still astonishing, almost defeating more than half the combat power of the Tower of Confusion.

Inside the tower.

Seeing the ground littered with Ditto reverting back to their usual forms, Terrance recalled his Altaria and muttered, “The 8th floor, is that our limit?”

Slightly disappointed, Terrance regretted not being able to keep pushing with his maxed Dragon Dance. While he could resume his challenge from the 8th floor in the future, facing eight opponents would make it nearly impossible to execute Dragon Dance again.

8th floor—it was likely that Altaria would be held back here for a few years without any major improvement.

But still, this was an incredible feat. No other student had reached this floor in recent years, breaking the decade-old academy record!

This meant that a hefty amount of credits had quietly entered Terrance’s bottomless pocket.

“What’s going on?”

As Terrance stepped out of the Tower of Confusion and saw the crowd of students gathered, he paused in surprise, a bit bewildered. There hadn’t been this many people when he’d gone in.

Just then, Akon appeared out of nowhere. Seizing the moment while others were not paying attention, he grabbed Terrance and whisked him away in a flash.

You can read ahead upto 25 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon.

Become a Patron!