Chapter 427 System Check



[ Attributes ]

[ Ball playing keeper ]

[ Status: locked ]

[ Attribute points required: 15 ]

[ Attribute points: 07 ]

'Judging by how slowly I'm getting each attribute point, it's going to take ages before I'll be able to unlock that attribute.'

<Yeah, I can see that happening>

'Hey, that's not helping.'

<What? I was just contributing to your pessimism>

'Yeah, right.'

It was a free day for all the players, and even though Dave planned to sleep in that morning, he got up early and couldn't find any reason to go back to his bed, so he decided to run a few laps around the house, and after that, he picked up a ball and went into his practice pitch.

Right now, he was sitting on the floor going through a couple of things in his system. It had been a while since he had seriously looked at anything there.

'I know shot-stopper will focus only on my strength as I level it and sweeper keeper on dexterity, what's ball playing going to do?'

<You'll have to unlock it to find out>

'I know, I wasn't asking you, I was just pondering in my mind. It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with endurance so it's definitely not that, I think it's more dexterity-inclined more than anything but still, I have a feeling that isn't right either, I have this feeling that it's going to be something completely unexpected. Maybe that's why I really want to unlock it despite the fact that I don't really need it with everything I already have, whatever it may be.'

<Well, your mind sure wonders a lot>

'What do you expect me to do when you refuse to give me answers to questions like this? Anyway, I'm just going to take a look at this other stuff.'

[ Player Profile ]

[ Name: Dave Richards ]

[ Player Level: 13 ]

[ 100/100 HP ]

[ 1255/2076 EXP ]

[ Position: Goalkeeper ]

[ Goalkeeping Skills ]

[ Thrust: level(05) ]

[ Ball magnet: level(03) ]

[ Focus: level (04) ]

?ℯ

[ Double stamina: level (02) ]

[ Goalkeeping attributes ]

[ Shot stopper: level(02) ]

[ 157/157 Energy ]

[ Unused stat points: 37 ]

[ Skill points: 18 ]

[ Skill upgrade points: 151 ]

[ Attribute points: 7 ]

[ Physical Status ]

[ Strength: 40 ]

[ Dexterity: 70 ]

[ Endurance: 46 ]

[ Career info ]

[ Name: Dave Richards ]

[ Age: 21 ]

[ Height: 187 cm ]

[ Position: Goalkeeper ]

[ Strong foot: right ]

[ Developed qualities: Shot stopper ]

[ Developing qualities: Sweeper Keeper, ball playing keeper. ]

[ Current Team: Unique FC ]

[ Status: Starter ]

[ Market value: €1.5M ]

[ Matches played: 104 ]

[ Goals: 5 ]

[ Assists: 9 ]

[ Shots faced: 335 ]

[ Goals conceded: 93 ]

[ Saves made: 247 ]

[ Penalties faced: 31 ]

[ Penalties saved: 07 ]

[ Clean sheets: 23 ]I think you should take a look at

[ Career average rating: 7.6 ]

[ Awards ]

[ Man of the Match awards: 10 ]

[ Trophies ]

[ Minor trophies: ×1 Bilbeth Charity cup ]

[ Major trophies: 0 ]

[ Records set/broken ]

[ Bilbeth Premier League record: First goalkeeper to score from 42 yards ]

[ Only goalkeeper to score twice and assist in a season ]

[ Goalkeeper with the most consecutive clean sheets (06) ]

[ First goalkeeper to ever score and assist in the same match ]

[ First goalkeeper to directly contribute to three goals in a match ]

'I should really make use of all those skill upgrade points.'

<Yes you should>

'I wonder how much pain focus will spare me if I level it up further.'

<Level it up further and find out>

[ Focus: level 04 ]

[ 5/50 SUP ]

[ -45 Skill upgrade points ]

[ Level up ]

[ Focus is now at level 05 ]

[ Skill upgrade points: 106 ]

'This skill upgrade points always look plenty until you start to use them, let me just get it to six.'

[ -60 skill upgrade points ]

[ 60/60 ]

[ Level up ]

[ Focus is now at level six ]

'I guess it's time to find out what changed.' He said subconsciously.

After going through the process of leveling his most painful skill to use, he got up from the floor and began to make his way to the gym to drag out his ball blaster which he hardly ever uses these days because there was no longer any challenge in doing so.

After dragging out the ball blaster to the pitch with the balls that fitted into it, he filled it up with all sixteen balls and set it up in front of the goalpost.

"Alright, let's see how this works." He muttered as he slid his hands into his gloves.

After that, he pushed the start button on the blaster and quickly made his way to his goal line.

[ Focus activated ]

His surrounding suddenly went dark as the blaster began to fire the balls toward him.

Keeping out the balls from one to fifteen was super easy for him, and right at the sixteenth one when he expected the dark surrounding to clear, it remained there until he saved the sixteenth shot, and it was after that did the dark surrounding clear.

'Okay, time for the pain.'

That thought was all it took to trigger the pain, but this time, he put quite an effort into trying to endure it as he placed his right hand on his forehead before placing his left hand on the post.

It took three minutes for the pain to completely disappear so there wasn't really any improvement there.

'Oh, the pain is still just as intense and the pain duration didn't even get any improvements, what did leveling this skill up really do?'

<Are you sure there wasn't any improvement at all?>

'If you're talking about the focus duration getting extended a bit, I don't really see that as an improvement, all I wanted was for the pain to get less intense or at least reduce the duration, three minutes is way too long for someone to keep his mind void especially in the heat of a match.'

<I don't know, five seconds of focus extension seems pretty big to me>

'That was five seconds? It would have been better to deduct five seconds from the drawback time instead, it will be pretty negligible but it's something.' He ranted subconsciously. 'I love this skill but the drawback mechanics is just something else.'

<Maybe you'll get what you're looking for if you keep leveling it>

'If you say that with certainty then maybe I'll believe you, that maybe at the start is a big turn-off.' He replied before crashing down to the floor.

<You're quite the character, Dave, but I'm sure you should know by now that there are some things you should just learn to live with it, some things don't have fixes, so you just adapt to them>

'Yeah, I know, that's the whole idea behind this skill I know, I'm starting to get used to the pain a little I guess, but I still don't like it.'

There was a little moment of silence both inside and outside of his mind as he slowly looked around the area.

'Thrust would have been such a neat skill to spam but then it has fifteen minutes of cool down between each usage which is sort of sad.'

<You really can't blame me, I didn't design the system, I'm only your guide>

'Alright, then, can you give me a straightforward answer for once as my guide?'

<As long as I can, I will>

'Hmmm. Will leveling up thrust reduce its cooldown?'

<Yes, by how much, I can't really tell you>

'Hmm, I see.'

*****

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that has been supporting the book so far, every bit of coin, power stones, GT etc, means a lot to me and I'm really grateful and hope you all keep on supporting me.