As expected, it took Anthony, Mary and their companion to be able to make whole round of the entire lab and know their whole schedule, no, well, actually, that in itself only took until 3 in the afternoon as interns are not allowed to work with Dragon, Dark and Ghost type Pokemons as they were deemed too dangerous for individuals in training, specifically in their second day of training to be handling, what took them until 5 is the research ethics training given to all of the interns by Melissa as apparently, they were sure to distribute research instruments across Kanto at some point of their internship.
In the end, they got another certification of being honorary research members of every associate field researchers that will employ their aid and will be included as a co-author at the time of the publication of the rank-advancing or doctoral thesis.
That being said, the ethical seminar is just the basic stuff like don't force people to answer, be sure not to do that, or you will be in a heap of trouble, and absolutely, never force them under any circumstances... in short, it was repetitive, because ethics is just about not overstepping your boundaries.
As disrespectful as it may be, what Anthony did was to consolidate all of his learning in their tutorial day for the plethora of types they were allowed to handle, because again, it's all repetitive. What he might have remembered the most is the live demonstration of Melissa on how to handle Flying types, specifically large flying types like Pidgeot (Mostly because her Pidgeot waved its trainer around in the air to demonstrate), apparently, you have to be like an air traffic controller in a way that you have to put a hand up on the leg/direction you want to inspect and let the bird let you inspect it voluntarily.
The reason for this is that flying types are naturally twitchy and sensitive to all types of movements, and even though the flying types they will be taking care of are tame, they still need to be very careful because they don't want to become a barbecue with the claws of a creature designed to entertain children as the skewer.
The others are quite generic, weighing scales for fighting type, simple food stockpile inventory of Normal types, and, among others, that are not so impressive and can be inferred quite easily through common sense. Anthony even bet that to properly tend for ghost type, you need to put them in a place with depressed people present to eat negative emotion or some shit, but that's kind of not nice for his boy Gengar and its brethren, so Anthony went and disposed of those thoughts.
_That took forever for just saying don't force people to answer if they don't want to... I still have to train Miltank, one of its weaknesses is its muscular endurance, as evident from what I have observed from it..._
Anthony sighed as he was aware that the impending training regimen for Miltank would be rather grueling. He also knew that if he didn't balance the stamina with endurance or strength, then Miltank would be at a disadvantage as a supposed versatile, jack of all trades Normal type compared to its counterparts.
This is why Miltank is currently eating a lot of protein-bearing berries, pun intended, while the interns were resting, which made Mary look at Anthony strangely.
"You still plan to train Miltank after all that we have done? Is that even ethically allowed?"
Anthony nodded.
"According to the anecdotes of Ma'am Whitney, the current most reputable user of Miltank, this is how exactly she has trained her Miltank. Of course, apparently, the main question is whether or not Miltank will allow itself to be trained like that, so I will properly ask for Miltank's consent."
Right now, the place where the conversation between Mary and Anthony is happening is not very far away from where the Pokemons were eating, thus Zubat that's on top of Miltank's head and Miltank itself looked at them as they have this conversation, soon, Miltank made a gesture with its hands that resembles a thumbs up, which made the two intern's eyes to lit up.
Anthony also put up a thumbs-up and looked at Mary.
"See? By the way, where's Andrew?"
Anthony just noticed that their rather quiet companion, whose name he just learn in the unannounced ethics seminar, is not with Mary.
"Well, he went to the Grass-types biome with his Bulbasaur, so I guess he's just like you, training his Pokémon to the last stretch of its bones."
Anthony nodded slowly and ignored Mary's quip of Mary, biding farewell to her before going towards the place where Miltank and Zubat had just finished eating.
"Let's go."
Miltank, who had just been freshly rested, nodded; it quite enjoyed walking and draining its energy a lot, even though it would probably sleep like a log right when they went back to the dorm of its new trainer. After all, as Anthony has said, Battle-ready Miltanks are just ordinary Miltanks with a lot of pent-up energy and actively want to release it, so even not necessarily battles, just exhausting such energy is already fulfilling for the Pokemon.
Anthony, however, quite honestly doesn't know what he will do when the time comes, and Miltank becomes durable enough to become very efficient in using its energy; he can only hope that it will mature when that time comes.
As they entered the glass-doored Pokémon gym, Anthony saw... a quite disappointing scene as the gym for Pokemons are the same for humans, except the starting weights for a plethora of weight-based training is some times higher than those of humans.
_Apparently, there should be something like a gravity room in the academies and even over here, however it seems like its a forbidden place for humans and Pokemons that's trained by amateur humans like me as they might hurt the Pokemon and themselves if they became too reckless, after all, gravity is a very bad enemy of anyone and even a slight increase in it can crack bones and make air sink to the floor...._
_But still, this is not futuristic at all, given that there's a cannon in this world that's used to blast typhoons out of existence._
Anthony brushed his hands that were clad with wool gloves that had previously clad in rubber ones before gesturing his Pokemons to enter too. He then went and showed his credentials as an intern and gave instructions for targeted muscular strength and endurance training for Miltank.
It contained the usual human-centric and some advanced training specifically for Pokemons. Zubat also went and had some acrobatics with the rings from the ceiling, of course, the turns, ups, and downs setting is calibrated to the maximum.
Miltank, that's lifting two dumbbells, and Anthony, that's counting for the Pokemon looked at Zubat with blank eyes.
_Who are you showing off for? There's only 3 of us here..._
The workout went on for an hour, where, quite evidently, the two Pokemons are exhausted, specifically Miltank, as it was the brunt of all the training prepared by Anthony, thus Miltank was allowed to sleep in the gym for 30 minutes to rest while Anthony became late for dinner before going back to their dorm.
Going back to the dorm, Anthony opted to take out his food and go to his room. He still has to sort his notes and make a soft copy version, which he did while eating the all-vegan food he's currently having, because who the hell will eat curry Miltank with a sleeping Miltank right beside them, right?
Anyway, Anthony was tired today, so he decided to multitask, one of the skill that he have mastered during his days as a college student, he actually was able to multitasks so good that he was still able to question himself what would he do when Miltank gets used to the load of this training, because he is sure as hell that he won't be able to make it more intense because just this intensity made him late for dinner, and he is raised to not be late for the 3 meals a day.
This is a point of concern, thus after he ate and finished making a soft copy of his notes, he phoned his mom and dad to tell them of the situation and was given a 'it's alright that way' comment.
Specifically, it was said to him to maintain such intensity while also making him remember the training of Zubat, where, at some point, it stopped being increasingly intense as the moves and the gains Zubat would get would not be so much unless the Pokémon were to be exposed in battles and other real-life and grueling scenarios. This made Anthony solidify his stance of just making it more intense until such a point where the gains are not that much anymore.
It's just like how humans have a limit in terms of just training as an intern, you have to be at the job for real to really learn the nook and cranny of the job. Just as Anthony was about to put the paper container of his meal in the trash beside his study table, he heard a knock and the voice of Mary saying:
"Hey, apparently, all of our activities are considered laboratory ones, meaning we have to submit a laboratory report every time we tend to the Pokemons. For this day, the notes we wrote will suffice. Be sure to copy them into a soft copy file and then print them for official submission. You have 30 minutes, good luck."
Anthony then heard the tip-tap of the shoes of Mary, who had a room on the next floor to his. Anthony sighed.
_She didn't even say who I should pass it to, but I reckon it should be Researcher Melissa._
Anthony sighed, got the charger for his phone, and transferred the file to his phone before going outside the public utility printers in the hallway. This is one of the perks of being an intern; all coupons and printing needs of the student would be accommodated by the lab. Actually, the field researchers who will teach the interns will be receiving this perk too.
At least, that's what Anthony learned right now as he's currently staring at his teacher, Melissa using one of the 5 all in one printers to print a large chunk of file, most probably about 60-70 pages, Anthony was quite confused about the reason why does a document needed a lot of pages, however, he suddenly remembered the title of Melissa 'Associate Field Researcher'.
_Is that perhaps a thesis? Must for something equivalent to a master's degree, mine's just about 120 pages long while being for undergraduates..._
Anthony slowly went and walked towards Melissa, who looked serious and quite nervous as she continued to stare at the continuously printing document, making Anthony wonder how long the thesis really is the thesis.
"Is that a thesis, ma'am?"
Anthony asked as he occupied the printer directly adjacent to his associate field researcher, who smiled, still nervously.
"No, it's a dissertation... well, it is a thesis with the scope of the whole Kanto Region, I have to propose it to Professor Oak and his other fellow Senior Professors this week, so I'm preparing for it."
Anthony had already jump-started the printer when he nodded at this and then remembered his knowledge about theses, apparently, a rule of thumb in his country is like this: Highschool Research is School level, Undergrad is City/Municipality level, Post Grad is Province level, and Doctorate is regional level in terms of respondents.
Which is to say, without Pokemons that can fly through the sky, it is expensive, which prompted Anthony to not pursue post-grad even after years of having a job. It's not just worth it at the time since he has a rather good company.
_I would, in this life, however, have to write several theses and dissertations to advance in ranks, this is besides accumulated experience that's naturally required._
Anthony then raised a question.
"How many research papers did you author and publish, if I may ask?"
Melissa shook her head suddenly, again spitting some saliva.
"This would be my first one... that's why I'm so jittery this evening."
Anthony tilted his head in confusion. This is another breach in his knowledge of basic standard operating procedure in the academic setting, which is, of course, noticed by Melissa.
"Associate Field Researchers are unlike normal pure academics like breeders and the like, if we pass as one, because we have a lot of credentials, the law that institutionalized us gave us the power to use this title as some sort of a master's degree and advance to either become a PhD like Prof. Oak or a senior breeder immediately."
"This law was fought for by Professor Oak teeth and nail against the whole education body of the senate, on one hand, it looks superficially unfair, but on the other, breeders can also advance in 'degrees', officially, they call them ranks by just having an exam which makes thesis optional, so he was able to make it look like this semi degree is making things difficult for us instead."
Anthony was again shocked by how lazy the original owner of the body is and how grueling it is to be a PhD in this world, specifically because formal education has been somewhat omitted, yet kids are allowed to create dissertations.
However, despite this, Anthony had an idea.
_Should I also use dissertations to become a Senior Breeder immediately?_