Chapter 42: Coming To Terms With Losing.

[Status]

[Name: Zoey]

[Sex: Female]

[Body: 2.5]

[Mental: 1.3]

[Magic: 0.6]

[Skills: 8]

[Boxing Lv4]

[Focus Lv5]

[Teaching Lv9]

[Abnormal Conditions Lv7]

[Endurance Lv4]

[Terrifying Aura Lv2]

[Gaming Lv6]

[Mahna Manipulation Lv1]

  When Zoey woke up, she was in her bed somehow instead of at the school. She quickly grabbed her phone to check for any new messages and saw quite a few from her mom, dad, friends, and Alexander and Lindsay. Going through and reading them, Zoey went ahead and answered them through text. It was about 5 am in the morning and today was Monday, meaning the YFTL tournament officially started today. She would have to skip track practice today to make it in time for her fight at 5 pm.

"I lost to Alexander and Lindsay..." Zoey suddenly remembered.

  It was the first time she's lost since she's gained the Box and Zoey wasn't exactly sure how she should feel about it. If she went all out from the start, she wouldn't have lost at all but since it was just training so this loss doesn't count right? No. Zoey's meager amount of pride wouldn't let her chalk up this loss as not a real loss. She lost to Alexander and Lindsay because of their teamwork and magic.

  She lost because she didn't fight smart. She lost because she looked down on Alexander and Lindsay. She lost because she didn't expect them to be stronger than what they've shown her. She lost because she hasn't trained hard enough! If she was just a bit faster, maybe she could've avoided Lindsay's blizzard spell. If she was just a bit stronger, she could've obliterated their combined magical spell. If she was just a bit more aware, she probably could've seen Lindsay before she released that blizzard spell and avoided it beforehand.

  Zoey's mind raced as she thought of everything she did wrong in the training and how to prevent it from happening again in the future. As all these ideas flowed through her mind, she began her morning training with envigored passion. Her regret over losing to two people she believed she could crush easily even if they worked together bothered her. The fact that she lost at all even with the Box of all things irritated her. But it also humbled her.

  It wasn't the first time that Zoey's overconfidence in the Box was shattered. There was that time she almost lost her life to that tongue daemon from before which led to that fight with her mom. It was now that Zoey truly understood that the Box wasn't all-powerful. The Box's prowess lied in giving her the potential to rise above others. Zoey wasn't invincible because she had the Box, far from it. If anything, her current lifestyle was only possible because of the Box.

  Zoey wasn't ashamed to admit that she was dependent and reliant on the Box but she knew that if someday the Box disappeared for whatever reason, she was helpless. Just as it came into her life without warning, it could someday disappear as well. This meant that all the skills that she relies on now had to be something that she truly understood and practiced daily.

  Mastering Boxing is something that could only take time, experience, training, and a lot of studying. There were several aspects of boxing that she has yet to experience because she wasn't even an official boxer yet. Less than an official boxer, she wasn't a licensed amateur boxer either! Most of her experience in boxing came from learning at the gym and fighting delinquents or daemons.

  Besides Boxing, Gaming, and Teaching were two other skills she could practice without the Box as well. Gaming improves a lot of things depending on what type of game Zoey is playing. FPS (First Person Shooter) games require her to have quick reaction skills, controlled and precise aiming and having good game sense. If she played an RTS (Real-time Strategy), her skills in micromanaging and strategy would improve the longer she played it. Fighting games were simpler to learn but at the same time not because every fighting game had different rules and mechanics one had to learn to truly master them. Repetition, memorization, experience, and practice were all needed to become a great gamer who excelled at fighting games. So, just like Boxing, if Zoey wanted to keep her gaming skills if the Box someday disappeared, she would need to remember and continue to practice all these things. Maybe even write them down in case the Box somehow tears out the knowledge she's learned with it.

  Zoey went over to her computer and ordered online a travel journal to carry around with her and write notes on for her skills just on the chance that one day her Box would disappear. It might feel awkward to get used to writing down everything she hears but eventually, it'll become a habit. Just like how she gets up at 5 am every morning to train and do homework. Maybe her Mental stat will even go up by doing this. Writing down new things you learn is another way of getting smarter, isn't it? Why else would teachers require students to write down notes? To torture them?

  Mahna Manipulation was new... She could feel something moving inside her and somewhat control it. It was a pain to force it to move but if she tried hard enough it could move where she wanted. By trying to gather the force into focusing on her palm, she expected to see something form on top of it but all it did was focus the energy on inside her palm. Despite being able to use the energy required for magic, Zoey didn't understand anything at all. All she knew was that she could move this stuff around inside of her now.

  Focus, Abnormal Conditions and Terrifying Aura are all things that would disappear into the wind if the Box disappeared. Focus was just like adrenaline. Time slows down as her life is seemingly about to flash before her eyes. Only a handful of people could experience something like this during their lifetime and Zoey was sure she used it more times than a normal person could. To deal with the loss of this skill, all Zoey would have to do is work on her evasion and train her reaction speed somehow. Abnormal Conditions could also be trained but not anywhere near as reliably as Focus. Unless she wanted to dip herself in ice-cold waters, place herself in saunas while meditating, and slowly poison herself while ramping up the lethality. There was no way she could train this if the Box went away and she had a feeling that the results would be negligible against daemons and magjistars who could control lightning, ice, and all sorts of other things.

  Terrifying Aura is something that Zoey believes will come naturally. With enough strength, anyone can be scary. This skill is also something that Zoey believes she won't miss either. If she had a terrifying aura on every moment of her life, wouldn't it be harder to live a normal life and make friends? Was there a way to forget skills? While Zoey did enjoy fighting daemons and getting paid for it, she didn't plan to do it for the rest of her life. Boxing was fun too but if the Box didn't disappear anytime soon, Zoey was confident that she'll reach the peak of the boxing world eventually. At that point, she'll have to retire, wouldn't she? There would be no further challenges, no sources of experience, nothing more to learn. Becoming a coach wouldn't help give her experience either except in Teaching. So, where could she go after that?

"This is too much crap to think about!!!" Zoey could feel her brain overheating. If this was a cartoon, smoke would be rising from her head right now.

"Just focus on today's match and nothing else!" Zoey shut her brain down as she practiced her boxing combinations.

  Later at school, nothing of importance happened. Lindsay and Alexander were glad to see that she was in good health. Considering how they came up to her at her locker while everyone was in the hallway. Zoey figured the two of them thought of her as a friend. Because now, the top students at their school were happily chatting with this unknown girl with zero popularity.

"So, no more sparring?" Zoey was slightly saddened to hear this.

  Her skills rose so much from their training yesterday. She even got a new skill from it. Zoey also wanted her revenge against these two for beating her. Even if she lost this time, she was confident that they wouldn't get the upper hand against her this time. But if they didn't want to, she couldn't try and insist on it. That would kind of make her look like a sore loser.

"That's right. We're going to spend the next few days teaching you more about the world of magji." Lindsay said.

"We're also going to try and find you some magji tools to either complement your strong points or make up for your weaknesses." Alexander added.

"Do I need to do anything besides learn?" Zoey asked.

"Once we find some suitable magji tools, you might need to test them out to get a feel for them." Lindsay explained.

"Alright. I'm going to be kind of busy most of this week. So, I might not be able to give much time..." Zoey felt a little bit awkward.

  She had two important fighting events coming up back-to-back. The YFTL this week and the magjistar school battle thing with Alexander and Lindsay. Zoey wasn't sure exactly how the YFTL official tournament was run despite having a match today! Coach hasn't told her anything at all and she didn't even know if she was fighting today or who she was fighting against. Maybe Coach wasn't as good of a coach as she thought... Maybe she should search up how the YFTL tournaments work online later.

"Busy with what?" Alexander innocently asked. As far as he knew, Zoey didn't do anything besides go to school and practice boxing at a gym.

"I uhm..." Zoey wasn't sure if she wanted to share that she was a fighter with these two but when she thought about it, would a friend hide something like this from another friend? BUT! The two of them might refuse to take her to the magjistar fighting battle royale thing if she told them.

"I'll tell you next week." Zoey responded.

"Next week?" Alexander didn't know why he had to wait that long for his simple question.

"Yes. Next week." She nodded.

"Well, we'll see you in the student council room after school today. See you later Zoey." Lindsay grabbed Alexander by the shoulder before he could delve into Zoey's business.

"Bye." Zoey grabbed her books and got ready to head to class.