[Post-match rewards ]
[ 3 crucial saves: +30-10 exp ]
[ One assist: +20-10 exp ]
[ Match rating: 7.9 ]
'Why are ten exps getting deducted from my rewards, Catherine?'
<It's just a little deduction from being on the losing side, anytime your team loses a match, you'll get your rewards but you'll lose ten exps from each of those exp rewards>
'I guess that makes sense.' The goalkeeper replied before opening the door and making his way straight toward the locker room.
The goalkeeper arrived at the locker room to see that his teammates didn't seem to be feeling what he was feeling as they seemed to be conversing happily with each other but they didn't seem as happy as they would have if they had won or drawn the match.
He made his way straight toward Mateo who was busy going through his phone with a smile on his face.
"What are you so smiley about? We just lost a match." He said after stopping in front of him.
Mateo didn't reply immediately and raised his gaze to look at him before turning it back to his phone.
"You know the news about you helping out a boy in the final game of the tennis ball tournament has gone viral." The winger said.
"Huh?"
"They're saying a lot of cool and funny things about you."
"Cool and funny things?" Dave said with a clueless expression on his face.
"Yeah, see for yourself," Mateo said before handing him the phone to see for himself. "Of course, the negative team is everywhere, just avoid reading the nonsense they wrote."
"I see." The goalkeeper said as he went through the phone.
"Hey, you said something earlier about me being all smiley and losing a match, don't tell me losing that match stepped on your mood. It was just a friendly match." The winger said.
"I know but if it was more than that." He said before giving his phone back to him. "What if it was a tournament final or Conference League qualifiers which will be playing soon?"
"Dave," Mateo said before getting up from his seat and placing his hand on his right shoulder. "If this was an important match, Alexander would not have started ahead of you and a few other players on the pitch wouldn't have started, I know we would have beaten them if the coach wanted us to, he seemed pretty satisfied with the result if you ask me.
"We're on a pre-season tour with a string of friendly matches to play, to give those who don't get many appearances in serious matches the chance to prove themselves, the main goal of this tour isn't to win matches, but to get better, very soon the matched will start getting congested and the coach will have to use a squad with none of the starting eleven in it except you, we'll try our best to win but don't get upset when we lose, we aren't giving it everything we've got after all."
After saying that, the winger removed his hand from his shoulder and began to make his way to the exit.
________ ________
After resting a bit in the locker room, the players changed into their outfits and got ready to start heading back to the hotel in Barcelona.
It took them an hour and close to forty minutes to return as usual.
All the players needed to do now that they were back was head upstairs and get themselves cleaned up before having their dinner.
After doing that, they could choose to rest or find anything fun to do as they were free tomorrow but the former seemed to be the better option and it was just what Mateo and Dave had chosen to do.
Right now, the two were lying on their bed having a conversation with each other and waiting for one of them to eventually fall asleep.
"So who are we going up against next?" Dave asked with his gaze on Mateo.
"Eibar," Mateo replied.
"Hmph, they just got relegated to Laliga Smart bank, I don't think they're going to be that tough." The goalkeeper asserted.
"If you look at it on paper only, you're right, but you should never underestimate your opponents no matter how weak their squad may look, that's the mistake Manchester United made when they played against us and they almost paid dearly for it." The winger expressed. "If a team like ours can give Manchester United a run for their money, then I'm pretty sure SD Eibar can do the same to us, so we have to approach this match with the mentality that we're facing a big team."
"Yeah, I get what you mean and I wasn't underestimating them, I don't think we're better than them, I just don't think they'll be as tough as the teams we've already faced and that is only factual." The goalkeeper said.
"Yeah, I guess you have a point."
"So, who are we going to be facing after Eibar?"
"After facing off against Eibar on Thursday, we'll play against Young Boys."
"Right after playing against Eibar?" Dave muttered.
"That's what I meant that the match will start getting congested soon, it's likely I won't be a part of that match if I play against Eibar although I would like to be a part of it." The winger said.
"So, coach will have to switch to a team with none of the starting players."
"That will be interesting to watch, don't you think?" Mateo asked.
"Yeah, I guess so." The goalkeeper said with a shrug.
After talking about football for a while before talking about a lot of other things, Mateo had finally fallen asleep and after staring at the ceiling for a while, the goalkeeper dozed off and joined.
Just five minutes after losing consciousness, he found himself in the endless white space with Catherine standing a little distance away from him as always.
"Hey, Cat." He said as soon as he spotted her.
"Let's get to it."
"No, no, no, wait, Cat." He stopped her before she could start the focus training.
"What?" Catherine asked.
"Can we put the focus training on hold? Just for tonight."
"Why?"
"I want to try out something."
"What?" She asked
"Long-range shots with high-level difficulty."
"Okay, then, should I?"
"Don't worry." The goalkeeper said with the wave of his hand, a goalpost appeared behind him before the full pitch began to appear until he could see the goalpost at the other side of the pitch but the goalpost didn't seem to be that far away from him as the pitch wasn't that large.
Just before taking care of the small size of the pitch, he made a couple of balls appear behind before he placed both of his hands toward the goalpost on the other side, and with his imagination, the pitch began to stretch moving the goalpost along with it.
He stretched the pitch until the goalpost was so far away from him that he couldn't see the net properly anymore.
"I don't think there's a pitch this long in the world," Catherine said. "What are you trying to do?"
"What do you think I meant when I said high difficulty?" The goalkeeper said before he pushed one of the balls forward with his right foot and sent it flying toward the goalpost.
****
New year mass release goals.
A magic castle= one extra chapter.
Two magic castles= two extra chapters.
Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on fre ew𝒆bnovel.com