After I got back home, and after talking with my family about how it was, I went to my room and laid on my bed.
I instantly pulled up the system to look at the rewards I got from the mission today.
[Rewards:
>1 B-grade random elixir
>1 Silver tier Lottery ticket
>15 Ace points]
I looked at the rewards with elation.
'Okay, let's get this started.' I thought. 'Max, use the B-grade random elixir and activate mute function.'
[Using B-grade random elixir]
[Activating mute function.]
I suddenly felt an intense pain from my legs and my core.
I instantly started curling up on my bed, clutching my legs and my stomach respectively.
I was screaming my lungs out, but no sound came out.
After about a minute, the pain completely subsided.
[Deactivating mute function.]
Weirdly though, I didn't feel any flush of energy or power coming from my muscles this time which confused me.
I got up from my bed and stood up.
That's when a felt it.
'Oh? I feel more solid on my feet.' I thought. 'Like I have better grip on floor. More stability.'
*DING*
The notification from the system broke my train of thought.
[User's Balance and Coordination stat has improved from C+ to B. Congratulations]
'Ahh, I see! So it was that stat!' I thought with joy.
'This is exactly what I need right now. It will help me level up my pitching and my batting considerably.'
'Lets have a look at my physical fitness stats now.'
I clicked on the screen for physical fitness and the screen popped up.
PHYSICAL FITNESS: (Avg. B)
Balance and Coordination: B
Agility: C-
Strength: B+
Stamina: B-
'Looking good.' I thought.
'Okay, next reward. Max, pull up the silver tier Lottery.'
Suddenly a huge wheel appeared in front of my face, and it was glistening with a silver hue.
I looked over the skills that were displayed on the wheel and was again feeling greedy, wanting every skill I saw.
'Some of these skills are insane. If this is the quality of the silver tier lottery, I wonder how good the skills from the Golden tier will be.' I thought.
'Max, use the silvery tier Lottery ticket.'
[Using silver tier Lottery ticket.]
I instantly closed my eyes and prayed for a good skill.
The wheel finished its rotation and finally stopped.
*DING*
[User has been rewarded with the skill: 'Hand-eye Coordination'.]
[Hand-eye Coordination: A batter's most trusted skill. A great batter needs good vision and a great swing but putting them together fully completes the skill.
Effect: User's vision is slightly enhanced in the batter's box and user's swing will naturally correlate to where user wants it to go. (This is a growing skill. The more User uses the skill, the better the effect the skill will have. Work hard to train the skill.)
I looked at the skill whilst clapping my hands.
'This skill is great. I'm planning on working on my batting over these next few months till I go to Seido so this help a lot.' I thought.
'Okay now I need to plan my training for the next few months. I want to keep improving my fitness, I want to keep improving my pitching whilst also adding another pitch to my arsenal and I want to improve my batting.' I thought whilst pacing round the room.
'Max, could you make me a training plan that factors in the things I want to improve on?' I asked.
[Of course, User, I can do that. However, to factor in everything you just listed, its going to be a very tough training plan which will push you beyond your limits. Does User still want me to make the plan.]
'Yes, make the plan. That sort of training is what I want.' I replied.
[This is the training plan I have come up with.]
When I saw the training plan, I slightly sighed.
'This is going to be the toughest next few months of my life. But let's fucking do it!!'
***
The next 3 months, I trained and trained.
Pushing myself to my limits almost every day, using Maz's training plan.
Throughout the first month, I had to train along side the final exams for school.
The exams on their own weren't too difficult and I managed to do quite well, but having to do them as well as training was tough, mentally.
I managed to graduate from Junior High without any problems, luckily.
For the next too months afterwards, all I did was train.
I did get to have a couple of days off every so often which I used to hang out with Sawamura's friends, I didn't want them to feel like I had cut them off now that I was going to a different school.
For the training, it was a struggle every day.
I had to do physical fitness training once every 2 days.
They were basically the same exercises as the daily missions, only twice the amount, and with e few more exercises added in the regime.
On the other days, they alternated between batting and pitching.
Luckily for the batting days, I just had to go the near by batting cages and just practise swinging against pitching machines.
At first it was tough, I was really bad to say the least.
But with help of the Had-eye Coordination skill and constant practise, I eventually began to hit every pitch quite easily on most speeds (Only the 90mph and the 100mph speed did I struggle on.)
I had to practise both swinging and bunting throughout the day.
One of the problems I saw with the exercises was that I wasn't batting against any breaking balls, so I didn't get any variation to my batting, but it was fine as I was just solidifying my batting form which I had learned from Azuma.
I was making steady progress every time I went to the cages, and I could see that I was getting better, but I started to become bored as I kept having to do the same thing repeatedly.
I didn't stop or slack throughout though, so I kept pushing through the boredom with determination.
For the pitching days, however, thy were my favourite days of training.
One of the main reasons I loved it so much was because I could try out new pitches as well as continue to improve the pitches in my arsenal already.
The new pitches I was trying to gain were the Change up, two seam fastball and the splitter.
The change up did take long to start getting decent and I eventually gained the skill 'Sawamura's Change up' which made me celebrate for a while.
Sawamura's change up was a deadly off-speed pitch that made a lot of good batters fall in the manga.
The same happened with the two-seam fastball.
It also didn't take too long to get it under control, and I also gained the skill 'Two-seam Fastball'.
The splitter though, I just couldn't get full control of it.
The ball just wouldn't drop fully and just kept on going straight forward most of the time.
When it did drop, it just kept dropping too much and dropped before it would've crossed home plate.
I got a little frustrated at the lack of progression I had on the pitch, but I managed to calm myself down when I reminded myself that I could keep working on it after I made it to Siedo.
In the manga, the original Sawamura didn't even develop this pitch until halfway through his second year at Seido anyway.
Plus having someone like Miyuki to help develop the pitch later would be more beneficial.
Overall, I was satisfied, managing to add 2 more pitches to my arsenal was an amazing feat and would help me greatly at Siedo.
I kept up with this training regime right until it was the day to head off to Tokyo.
***
I stood looking at myself in the mirror.
I was honestly surprised with the transformation of my body throughout the last few months.
The Sawamura I was looking at in the mirror looked a whole lot different from the one from the manga.
I was taller, having reached 5 feet 11 inches, getting very close to 6 feet.
My face was more defined, my jawline razor sharp and my cheek bones more visible with less fat on my face.
My eyes were still the glowing golden brown, as usual.
I had a haircut recently as well, going for a two-block haircut that had the outsides of my sides and back shaved whilst keeping the top of my hair with some length, faded into the back and side. My fringe was just above my eyebrows.
My body was honestly like a temple, my arm muscles were well toned, and my shoulders were slightly bulky.
My core and chest muscles with completely chiselled, next to no fat was seen on my body as a whole.
My legs were also bulking and well defined.
Overall, my whole body was brimming with energy and now had a solid foundation of muscles that I could further develop in the future.
'Max, can you pull up the main menu?' I asked.
A screen popped up in front of me.
ACE SYSTEM
SYSTEM LEVEL: 1 (55/100 Ace points to level up)
AGE: 15
TALENT ASSESSMENT: B
POTENTIAL: (S+)
ACE POINTS: 55
'Oooh, my potential went up a grade, nice!! Okay, can you bring up my stats menu now, Max?'
Another screen popped up.
USER STATS:
>Physical Fitness: B+
>Pitching: A-
>Batting: C-
>Fielding: E
>Game Intelligence: C
>Mental: A+
Skills: 8
'Hmmm, my fielding stat is really bad. Hopefully I can improve through the training at Seido.' I thought with my hand on my ching. 'I also need to work on my batting and game intelligence more. Maybe I should get Miyuki to hold those pitcher/catcher meetings a year earlier than the manga. That should help improve that stat and my decision-making during games.'
I then clicked on the physical fitness option and another screen appeared.
PHYSICAL FITNESS: (Avg. B+)
Balance and Coordination: B+
Agility: C+
Strength: A-
Stamina: B+
'I also need to work on my agility more. I should do some shuttle runs when I get time.' I thought.
'I have made a whole load of progress this time. I'm now fully ready. Let's finally head to Seido.'
I got changed, grabbed my suitcase and headed out of my room and headed for the door. My family were waiting for me to take me to the station.
"You all ready, kid?" Grandad asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be." I replied with a smile.
"You've worked hard! Make sure to show those elite baseball kids what you've got!" Dad said.
"Don't worry Dad, I know what I need to do." I turned to him.
"Alright, lets get going. I don't want you to miss your train." Mum said.
"Yes!" I said walking out of door with them.
'Just wait Seido, I'll be with you soon.' I thought with absolute excitement.