My Goalkeeping System

His watch was showing twenty-four minutes thirteen seconds as he stopped running just before he could run into the highway.

He was breathing heavily now, running six kilometers under twenty-five minutes was really draining given the fact that he had run it like he was running a race to make sure that he completed it before his timer went past twenty-five minutes.

There was a bench by the side so he made his way toward it and sat down on it to catch his breath.

[ Quest completed ]

[ You have successfully completed six kilometers in not more than twenty-five minutes ]

[ Quest Rewards ]

[ +30 exp received ]

[ +2 stat points added to endurance ]

[ 40% stamina remaining ]

[ 60/105 Energy ]

<Your energy seems to be quite robust this morning, it seems to be dropping at a lower rate than before>

'Yeah, and all those stat upgrades on my dexterity are really paying off.' Dave replied with his gaze on his stamina bar.

<Yeah, but if you run back at the rate at which you ran to get here, your stamina will be exhausted before you get back so it's better if you just walk back while your stamina replenishes or you could jog lightly>

'That was an option until I unlocked double stamina.' Dave replied as he slowly got up from the bench.

[ Double stamina activated ]

[ Doubling current stamina ]

[ 80% stamina remaining ]

'Only eighty percent?'

<The name of the skill is clearly double stamina>

'Yeah, but I expected way more than what I am seeing now.'

<What the skill doubles are the stamina you have available when you activate it that's why your stamina bar went up from forty to eighty>

'Oh, I should have used it from the start.'

<It wouldn't have worked>

'Huh.'

<Double stamina only works when your stamina goes below fifty-one percent so the highest boost you can get from it is refilling your stamina back to a hundred percent once it hits fifty>

'So I can't get more than a hundred percent stamina?'

<No>

'That's okay, eighty percent stamina is more than enough to get me back home on time.' The goalkeeper replied before zooming off at full speed.

_____ _____

"What happened?" He muttered in between his panting as he quickly crashed down on the lawn.

[ 10% stamina remaining ]

<I tried to warn you but you had already activated the skill>

'Warn me about what, I can't even explain what just happened, I'm supposed to have more than twenty percent stamina remaining.'

<Yeah but Double stamina also means you lose two stamina percentages with each decrease that's why your stamina is that low now, you can't use double stamina for things like running six kilometers>

"You could have warned me before I took off, if you had told me, I would have just walked back home and this would have never happened," Dave muttered.

<Are you sure you would have listened? I think experience is the best teacher so I let you learn from it sometimes>

'Yeah, best teacher, it's not like it's a big deal anyway, all I have to do is relax here and in the next ten minutes, I will have enough stamina to walk properly and not get someone worried.'

<Uh....I don't think so>

'Huh?'

<You recover one stamina percentage per minute while you're properly resting in a lying position but while double stamina is active, you only recover one stamina percentage every five minutes under the same conditions>

'What?' Dave screamed inwardly.

<I tried to warn you>

'So, in the next ten minutes, I will have only two stamina percentages recovered.'

Dave didn't really believe it when Catherine first said it until he checked his stamina bar to see that his stamina had not increased since he was lying there and had just entered eleven percent now that he was looking at it.

'How long does this skill last?'

<Why don't you check for yourself?>

[ Double stamina ]

[ Status: Active ]

[ Duration left: 15 minutes ]

"I think I will just lay here for a while and wait for that time to run out." The goalkeeper said before slowly closing his eyes.

He didn't want to fall asleep but sleep was one force of nature that no one had any proper control over.

He found himself in the white space with Catherine there as Usual but she was standing quite a distance away from him.

"I fell asleep." He said with a sigh. "A few seconds of playing here would be nice though."

He was about to take a step forward when the whole place began to shake violently, knocking him off his feet in the process.

"Hey, wake up! Wake up!"

Those were the words he heard as his body began to disintegrate and once he was gone, he quickly shot his eyes open to see Emma standing over him with her hands on both of his shoulders.

"Hey." He said with a sore voice before slowly sitting up on the floor.

"So you find the lawn more comfortable now," Emma said with a questioning look on her face.

Dave could tell that she was ready for work given the fact that she was putting on a black skirt, and a white blouse with a pink jacket, she was putting on a pair of pink heels and the scent of her vanilla plus coconut perfume was stronger on her body now.

'How long have I been out?' He thought before checking his watch to see that the time was 8:34 AM now, he had slept off around 8:12 AM and for him, it felt like a few seconds until he was woken up by her.

"I thought you were still out on your run which you left super early for but it turns out you were having the time of her life out here." She said, crossing her arms.

<I think she wants answers>

"I was out running and when I returned I was so tired that I didn't know when I crashed down here and slept off," Dave explained.

"The door's only a few meters away from here, you could have clearly made it inside the house," Emma said, pointing back and forth between him and the door.

"I don't think so." He said, shaking his head.

Emma stared at him without saying anything as she stared back at her with a goofy smile on her face.

"You look really pretty today." He said after taking another look at her from head to toe.

"Thanks." She muttered with a smile before checking her watch. "I guess I'm going to arrive late at work today."

"Don't blame me, you would have already been at your workplace if you had just ignored me," Dave said, raising his hands in innocence.

"And then you'll wake up to find yourself underground surrounded by a trillion ants and ready to be used as ant food." She said before leaning closer to him to kiss him. "Bye babe."

Dave had a baffled look on his face as he watched her quickly make her way out of the area.

"Ant food?" He muttered. "There's no way ants can lift me right?"

<Given the fact that ans can lift two times their own weight, a large number of them can>

'Okay, let's just stop it there.' He replied before slowly getting up from the floor.

[ 27% stamina remaining ]

"What a way to start the day getting hit massively by a drawback from a skill I thought was going to be a game changer for me." He muttered as he slowly made his way to the door.

****

We've finally hit our mass-release goal, special thanks to Synocean, Azure Leapordking, and Mud104 for all the gifts and golden tickets and to everyone else who has been supporting the book.

Expect six chapters tomorrow.