Actually, Rope thinks Celadon University is really doing its best.
The students probably thought it was a wild woodland until now...
"Rope, this forest seems to be weird." Whitley tugged on the corner of Rope's shirt, then whispered in his ear.
"Emm, it should be a forest that Celadon University regularly clears for the purpose of providing students with a location for field teaching." Rope replied with admiration in his tone.
"How was that determined?" Whitley asked suspiciously, she'd been in quite a few forests, but to really ask her to say why... she couldn't really do it.
"The Pokémon attacks in the forest were also too measured. And there's a distinct lack of wildness, there's no killing intent towards the students, and this forest is a little too clean, I froze and didn't see a single Pokémon with poison attributes."
Rope casually stated a few suspicions. These doubts Rope could see at a casual glance. The Pokémon that came to attack were obviously nothing too dangerous, and there was even a gentle Heracross that came to attack... that's not funny...
But these kids were all freshmen as well, so I guess this forest was definitely not for students who were about to graduate and whose basic skills were already incredibly proficient and able to deal with real dangers.
I guess the real danger is that unexpected Haunter... That being said, Celadon University wouldn't have let Erika lead such twenty to thirty students in a field course by herself if they weren't sure about the safety of this forest.
Even if Erika was strong enough to protect twenty to thirty people by herself, if she encountered a swarm of Pokémon, it would be a big problem.
That's why the current situation here wasn't unexpected for Rope. It was estimated that if these students had a need for Pokémon, this would be their Pokémon acquisition place as well.
Whose forest would have a rare and powerful bug-type Pokémon with a gentle temperament like Heracross appear casually?
Don't undersetimate the value of Heracross!
"So what was the point of Gym Leader Erika asking us to follow her here?" Whitley asked, rather puzzled. Since this was already a 'trimmed' forest, what did Erika want them to help with?
"Just preventing accidents, I guess Erika was also surprised by that Haunter, so naturally she called us in for insurance."
A pruned forest didn't mean that no danger existed. Since this was an open forest, there was bound to be a portion of wild Pokémon entering. And obviously, that Haunter was the Pokémon that hadn't had time to 'prune' or escape from the pruning.
"Big deal!" Rope couldn't help but marvel once again. The amount of time and effort and money it would take to organize such a large forest was incalculable. And it was obvious that there was not just one such forest. From this, it was also clear that Celadon University's claim to be the 'number one school' in the Pokémon world was not unfounded.
With such software and hardware, if the students inside couldn't make it, then the odds were that it was the students themselves.
"Do you want to listen to classes here for a few days?" Rope asked, suddenly turning his head.
"I'm okay with that, as long as you're there too." Whitley didn't say no, mostly because he knew Rope was going to be here for a few days for a few days of classes as well.
"Then I'll ask Erika if she can arrange for you to sit in everywhere."
"Good."
Just as Rope and Whitley on this side of the room were discussing their itinerary and arrangements for the next two days, the student side of the group coaxed and exploded.
"Everyone disperse!" Erika's shout drew Rope's attention as well, and then Rope's face turned ugly.
The time went back to three minutes ago.
In the student line, Yutsuki was whispering to Eri, and no one could hear the two of them as the students around them were chattering away.
"Eri, why do I get the feeling that this place doesn't really feel like the real wilderness. My brother usually scares me all the time with the dangers of the wilderness. What with the Ekans that suddenly appear and the Sleep Powder that suddenly floats over, but it's so safe here in the wilderness."
Yutsuki asked with a puzzled look on her face.
Eri gave her a big blank stare at that.
"Tell that to Chiharu and see if she'll hit you."
Yutsuki smiled sarcastically at that, glancing quietly at Chiharu, who seemed to still be in shock, and having a look back towards Eri and spat her tongue out.
Eri also ignored her, frowned and said, "This indeed should not be a real sense of wilderness, I've been to the wilderness, and compared to this place is really too far. This should be a teaching woodland for school use."
"Ah~ wouldn't that be boring? I thought I was really in the wilderness. This way I can still go home and give my brother a good smack in the face for saying all day long that I probably wouldn't survive two days on my own if I were in the wild."
Yutsuki beamed, looking playful and cute. But Eri did know that Yutsuki's brother really wasn't joking. With Yutsuki's big personality, if she was really thrown into the wild, she probably wouldn't survive long without protection...
The world will always only show a smile to the strong ones.
"But this forest isn't as safe as one would think. that time in Chiharu was an absolute accident."
Eri wasn't hiding anything from Yutsuki. it was definitely an accident because the anxiety in Erika-sensei's eyes at the time couldn't be faked.
"Is that why you keep putting them on alert?" Yutsuki said as she glanced at the alert students on the outskirts of the crowd.
"There will still be accidents. We don't know if we'll be the next victim, so being vigilant to protect ourselves is the best thing we can do. The purpose of the school giving us a forest like this is to let us adapt to the dangers of the wild little by little. If we were really thrown into the wilderness all at once, it wouldn't be the academy's cultivation method. Rather, it's the traveling school's cultivation method."
Eri hit the nail on the head when she pointed out the fundamental purpose of the school.
Yutsuki heard the words academy school and traveling school in Eri's mouth and just opened her mouth intending to ask about it before she felt a cold wind pouring from her neck inside her clothes.
"There's a hostile attack, it's Yula!"
One of the boys on the outside shouted in a low voice as he looked at the cat-like Pokémon in front of him. His small fist stone blocked in front of him, ready to meet Yula.
However, in the next second, that boy only felt a moment in front of him, and he flew backwards along with his small fist stone.
Then it smashed heavily into the middle of the crowd. The students exploded at once, Eri shouting to no avail.
And Erika noticed the situation at that moment, and as she watched Yula charge in towards the crowd, she shouted, "Spread out, everyone!" Then Vileplume beside her used a Razor Leaf move to try and open Yula up.
But a sound of metal on metal rang out and Razor Leaf was blocked.