60 Desire to Improve

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After the events of the sparring and practice match had been concluded, what's next in store for the regulars of Ravenville was their long-awaited first ever weekend of the new semester.

Even as top Tier-1 school's student athletes with the obligations to both study and practice, weekends were the periods when everyone could just relax and handle their time however they wished to.

For the ones with better awareness for time management, they would further divide this free time up and dedicate parts of it to at least catch up with their piled up assignments.

However, for the rest of the Arena student athletes, be it 1st strings or otherwise, this was the time for them to let themselves loose from their everyday merciless practice routine!

After all, almost all of them had deliberately chosen the more lax majors exactly so that they could spend less focus on the school side of things.

And in this aspect, both Derrick and Greg were not so different.

Just yesterday, right after their practice match had ended, the two had actually invited Irvine to hang out with them and a couple other friends from the 2nd string on Saturday.

However, Irvine had had no other choice but to reject such an opportunity with the consideration of his already planned schedule for the weekend.

Even for these final 2 days of the week, he had made sure that his own personal schedule was full to the brim. And unfortunately, this schedule of his did not even include going out of the school's premise in the slightest.

He could still remember the reaction of Greg when he had told the other party of his plans.

(Dear god... Next time don't tell me any of your activities anymore, I'm already getting stressed out by just listening to it.)

Beside him, Derrick had also shaken his head as if he'd already had an inkling prior to it but still felt somewhat speechless nonetheless.

He could already pretty much guess what Irvine's plan would be even before they'd asked the person.

This was because he himself had been a victim of it when the guy had asked for his help in developing his armor technique just last week.

One weekend morning, Irvine had suddenly asked for his help as a sparring partner in developing his [Impact Armor] right out of the blue.

In the end, the two had ended up wasting half of that precious day practicing!

At that time, Derrick had also been similarly surprised when he'd seen the figure of Irvine locking himself inside the Arena Facility even during his off-time.

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In the eyes of others, Irvine's schedules could be considered as one that was usually only employed by the so-called 'training freaks'.

Yes, just like last week, Irvine's daily routine for this weekend hadn't had much change done to it except for the evening portion where he had to finish the week's assignments and catch up with his classes' studies.

In the morning, he would start his day by finishing his daily exercise routine at least up until noon.

After a short break for lunch, he would then continue the rest of the afternoon by either polishing up or completing his new set of techniques, whichever ones could give the greatest improvements for his regionals debut the week after the next.

And lastly,

As had been mentioned before, his evening to night time would be solely dedicated for his studies and the assignments he had on his Sport Science classes.

Exercise & Sport Science.

When he had chosen this major, he was already prepared to learn everything that he could from it as one of his preparations for the future.

Irvine felt that the studies of this major could help strengthen his foundation as an athlete to an extent, in one way or another.

And even if that's not the case, the knowledge learnt from it could at least help him in becoming a licensed coach after graduation should he fail in his career this second time as well...

Not that he was actually planning to fail when he had already come this far.

'Actually, this is still just the beginning, isn't it?'

Thinking about it, in front of him still lied the various Crown Tournaments and the rest of the Tier-1 League's powerhouses that were spread all over Olympus.

Not to mention his own preparations for the still rather distant 'comeback' to the Pro League.

While keeping all of that in mind, Irvine's Saturday morning began with the breezy weather of late August that greeted the outer window of his borrowed room within the Arena Facility of Ravenville.

At 6:00 AM sharp, Irvine himself had already finished all of his morning rituals and were now getting ready to head towards the building's 2nd floor where the training room was located.

He must admit that ever since he'd started living here as a member of the 1st string, the time he'd saved just from cutting away the commute between his dorm room to this place had made just this accommodation alone worth his effort in getting into the team's regulars as early as possible.

Irvine was just about to enter through the glassdoor of the training room when he suddenly noticed another figure of a person already standing inside and stretching their limbs.

'Hm?'

He was rather pleasantly surprised at this since he didn't expect anyone else to have the same training schedule as him, at least for today.

He promptly opened the door to the room and cordially greeted the other party right across from him,

"Good morning."

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Ever since the conclusion of the team's sparring match on Friday, Medea's outlook regarding her place in the Battle Arena sport had once again been turned on its head.

She had noticed that she was lacking one more fundamental skill aside from the obvious lack of experience in commanding the team as a Ranger.

It was something that had not been so apparent for her to realize during the previous few daily practice matches she had experienced with the 1st string.

That was because the usual daily practices that they'd done were almost always based on some already well-established pre-planned formations.

In those kinds of environment, she could feel herself greatly contributing to the team's objective. Precisely and faithfully executing the pre-planned formations to the letter.

But the moment she had engaged herself in an actual real match with all its multitudes of variables, what she lacked as a player had suddenly become pretty clear;

'...I haven't adapted myself well enough with the current terrain. My responses towards unexpected developments are too slow.' She stated in frustration.

The match against Magnolia could be considered as a battle of wits between the top teams of two cities, each constantly trying to outsmart the other at any given chance.

But just like what the Head Coach, Lark, had critiqued her about with regards to her weak points, Medea's performance in the second half of that match could be said to be pretty mediocre.

Unlike Clint on the first half who had to run around everywhere adapting to various situations and building the foundation of their plans by finding the enemy's first two towers, Medea who had come on the second half could only stayed her ground in one or two posts and helped snipe any unassuming enemies she'd encountered on the way.

It all came down to her slow responses towards any developments beyond the original plan. It took her a long time to prepare when something didn't go the way it was supposed to.

When she had found the enemy Solver running together with their Second Fielder at that time, she had quickly reported it to all her teammates on the field, but in the end, she herself had taken too long a time to provide support covers as a Ranger.

Because of this situation, even her best weapon on hand, the sharp and accurate long-range sniping, could only barely compensate for her slower-than-usual firing rate yesterday.

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All this time, most of Medea's experience in Battle Arena had been developed on the flat fields of high school Arena.

Though what little time she'd spent on the Orthos Gym before college had helped her adaptation skill tremendously in this regard, when she was confronted with an advanced terrain landscape such as this one, aside from faithfully following the pre-made plans, the rest were still a tad too overwhelming for her personally.

'...I need to quickly do something about this!' Medea yelled out in her mind.

Because of her restlessness in pondering this matter, she had ended up not having a good enough time sleeping last night.

Before she knew it, the simulated artificial sun of Olympus had already slowly risen from beyond the horizon of the Northern Sector where she's at.

And for the same exact reason that had caused her initial lack of sleep, coupled with having nothing else to do for the day, When Medea had seen the blue sky outside her window, she stiffly plodded her way towards the 2nd floor training room.

Carrying a 'might as well' attitude upon her arrival, she slowly began to stretch her body on the matted floor, deciding to start the day with a very early exercise.

But before she could even hold long enough to finish a single position, the sound of the wind pushing through an opened glass door brought her attention back towards the entrance where she found a familiar figure that had just arrived.

"Good morning." the relatively light voice reached her ears.

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"...You're here too." Medea greeted the coming Irvine with slight reluctance in her tone.

"Yep. By the way, you look--"

"...What?"

"--Awful. Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Irvine voiced out his observation of her.

The current Medea had a little bag under her eyes.

Adding that together with her rather messy appearance and VERY apparent bed hair, he could only conclude that the girl in front of him had not experienced the greatest of morning today.

"...Yeah." Medea herself didn't really feel like retorting at the moment, so she simply gave a short affirmation to his question.

"Oh." Irvine gave a nod after noticing her mood,

"You should rest if you're not in good condition. It's really not worth us losing you to preventable training injury this close to the tournament just because you're not focused."

After giving that piece of advice, Irvine also started to move himself towards the other side to stretch and warm-up as well.

He's not the type to force someone to do something just because he thought he knew better.

Taking his spot in one corner, Irvine was about to begin his stretch and warm-up. But before he could even begin his process, Medea's voice had once again resounded in his ears,

"...Hey."

"Mm?"

"What do you think I should fix and improve upon first between now and the date of the tournament?" She asked straightforwardly.

"...I think you should ask the Head Coach that."

"The Head Coach is not here, I'm asking you."

"..." Noticing the other party's insistence on the matter, Irvine began to do his stretch first before speaking again midway through,

"...You'll get used to it naturally you know, the Head Coach knows it too, so you don't really need to rush everything."

"...What?"

"I'm just assuming you're concerned about the coach's take on your last play during the Magnolia's match?"

"No-- Well... Yeah, it's somewhat related." Medea had almost reflexively denied Irvine's guess before she realized that he's not really wrong.

"Going from high school flats to advanced terrain like this takes time. If anything you should feel lucky that you're experiencing this on your first college season. It'll make things easier going forward."

"!?" Medea immediately widened her eyes in surprise after hearing his next words,

"...How did you even know I'm having a hard time with the terrain?" She started looking at him weirdly.

As usual, it was like the man in front of him would know the solutions to everything.

"Coach said that you're late and slow with your positionings yesterday. I know you're not supposed to be, because you're you. So that only leaves the environmental factor." He answered casually.

"..." Medea had no words to reply to that, so she asked the next question,

"But you and the others had no trouble with it?"

"The others, have 1 year or more experience than you in the Tier-1 League. Plus these kinds of things affected Rangers more than any other positions." Irvine answered,

Even Derrick and Greg had more experience with standard terrain matches than her since they had competed in some Uncrowned Tournaments during their freshman year in the 2nd string.

"Don't get me wrong, you SHOULD fix that as soon as possible, but it's not worth you losing your sleep over it."

"...How do I fix it?"

"You-- Like I said you should consult the coach."

"The coach's not here."

"...Look, I'm not an expert in stuff like this. If you want my take, all I can say is that you should experience playing in the Ruined City Block as much as possible before the tournament begins." Irvine shrugged.

It's really not that he didn't want to help, but he truly didn't know any shortcuts to getting someone used to playing in complicated terrains quickly.

He himself thought that it was already a very good idea that Medea had started her adaptation process from flats matches to terrain matches with Orthos Gym's field.

The only bad luck was that before she could fully acclimatize herself to that forest field, she had suddenly been given this multi-leveled urban setting to play on.

"...Guess I'll ask the Head Coach later in the day then." Medea replied.

*nod*

"That would be for the best. He should be able to come up with a proper menu--"

"--In the meantime. Shall we go for a round in the stadium?"

"..." Irvine raised his head and looked through the impatience in the girl's eyes for a bit before eventually nodding,

"Sure. After my morning exercise and lunch."

He himself could really use a long-range training partner to perfect his [Impact Armor] with. Also, with this arrangement, he might be able to try out Baron's [Air Pistol] as well.

"Alright then." After getting his affirmation, Medea didn't bother him anymore and went back to doing her own thing.

The two people continued their morning exercise in relative silence inside the training room.