Chapter 18: The Final Growth Spurt
The training days were quite monotonous, consisting daily of basic endurance and power training.
According to Musaka Ginjirou, what Stardust Mirage lacked now were basic attributes. No matter how powerful her running style was, it required the support of basic physical qualities. So, the most important thing now was to improve her endurance and power.
Stardust Mirage agreed wholeheartedly with this view.
After looking at her attribute panel, she understood this very well. If her basic stats weren't up to par, it would be absolutely impossible to stand on the track for the Classic Triple Crown races.
But that being said, agreement was one thing; she was still being trained to exhaustion every day by Musaka Ginjirou.
Even though the training seemed utterly impossible to complete, with Oguri Cap – who completed more than twice her workload every time – right there as an example, even Stardust Mirage found it hard to refuse.
During these days of training, she also caught glimpses of Oguri Cap's strength.
After maintaining two joint running training sessions daily, Oguri Cap grasped the basics of Festive Mirage in just 3 days. After that, she displayed extraordinary late-speed spurts and other skills.
Even just running alongside her, Stardust Mirage benefited greatly. Or rather, towards the end, it simply became her unilaterally learning various techniques from Oguri Cap.
Apart from training, Stardust Mirage also needed to find time to learn various basic knowledge about horse racing. This was another issue Musaka Ginjirou discovered after spending time with her.
"If the race starts entering a turn immediately, and your position is the outside lane, how would you run?"
"I'd use the running style I'm most familiar with, cutting directly across from the outside lane, turning the curve into two straight sections to run!"
During one Q&A session, when Musaka heard Stardust Mirage answer like this, he felt like his vision went dark.
If this girl really ran a race like that, causing a major veering incident at the start, the consequences probably wouldn't be solvable by just a simple suspension.
You have to understand that Uma Musume can instantly accelerate to over 60 km/h at the start. In such a situation, if someone forcefully veers from the outside lane to cut inside, Uma Musume who can't avoid it in time could cause a chain collision and pile-up.
In the worst-case scenario, it could even cause irreversible injuries to some Uma Musume. By then, it would be too late for regrets.
Not only would Stardust Mirage pay the price, but even he, as her temporary trainer, would have to get on his knees and apologize to every other participant's trainer.
"You, go and properly study the Uma Musume race rules!"
Hearing Musaka Ginjirou yell at her angrily for the first time, Stardust Mirage couldn't help but feel afraid. She could only obediently follow his arrangements, using her rest time at night after training to cram all sorts of knowledge.
Speaking of which, although her initial request was for old man Musaka and Oguri Cap to be responsible for her training matters, Stardust Mirage found that old man Musaka had even taken care of her food and lodging, and even covered the costs for various training equipment – using Oguri Cap's terrifyingly large prize money.
Oguri Cap: I have no objections.
It should be said that apart from racing and eating, Stardust Mirage hadn't discovered anything else that Oguri Cap had opinions about regarding old man Roppei's arrangements.
During training, apart from the two fixed daily joint running sessions with Oguri Cap, the remaining exercises mainly consisted of short-distance runs and frog jumps, supplemented by tire drags, bounding drills, etc.
According to old man Musaka, these trainings not only improved basic physical qualities but also allowed Stardust Mirage's body, which had only been training for a month, to fully adapt to the state required for racing. This coordinated the condition of her feet, legs, hips, waist, body, shoulders, arms, and even the joints in her hands.
Many people think running only relies on a Uma Musume's powerful legs. But actually, to pursue the peak of speed, you must use the movement of your entire body to assist in running.
Even the arms need to swing in coordination with the body's rhythm. Only then can you truly mobilize the strength of your whole body and pour it into every step you take.
By the second week of training, Stardust Mirage had basically adapted to this rhythm. Coupled with eating and drinking plentifully after exercise to replenish energy, her physical fitness had improved.
In short-distance sprint training, she could already consistently keep her time gap with Oguri Cap within 1 second.
After another ten days, totaling over two weeks of this intensity, Stardust Mirage's sense of bodily control during training had also risen to a new level.
Looking at the data panel provided by the system now, she was no longer the second-rate Uma Musume she was before:
[Time until Year 2, January 27th, G3 Race Kyoto Himba Stake: 37 days remaining.
Participation Requirements: Complete debut, accumulate prize money over 10 million.
Goal: Participate in the Kyoto Himba Stake and place in the top two.
Stardust Mirage Base Data:
Speed 428
Stamina 250
Power 184
Guts 181
Wit 170
Growth Rate: Speed 30%, Others 0%.]
All values had increased, with Stamina and Power showing the most improvement (excluding Wit). This was also the main reason she could sustain the entire training later on.
If we include the Wit gained from learning racing knowledge, she actually gained a total of 70 attribute points in these 17 days.
In the time equivalent to just one operation in the Uma Musume game, she had completely transformed into a qualified runner capable of competing in current races.
This was the chemical reaction formed by Musaka Ginjirou, the dedicated trainer of a legendary Uma Musume, cooperating with her, a newcomer who had just started racing.
However, Stardust Mirage was also well aware that this was only because she had hardly received any proper training like this before.
So, apart from the rapid attribute growth at the beginning, she gradually noticed later that the improvement in the five attributes had slowed down considerably – the only one unaffected, steadily rising, was her Intelligence from studying the rules.
This improvement in attributes also brought other changes to Stardust Mirage.
First, her overall figure seemed a bit taller than before, and streamlined muscles appeared on her arms and legs, adding a sense of healthy beauty.
Moreover, her weight had increased by over twenty pounds. However, this weight had been converted into core power stored within her body, ready to assist Starlight Mirage whenever she needed to burst forth.
According to old man Musaka, this was likely the successful triggering of the final stage of her growth spurt, which was also one of the reasons for the attribute explosion.
However, what Old Man Musaka admired most wasn't any of that.
During these 17 days of training, Stardust Mirage never once gave up because she couldn't endure the hardship. No matter how much Musaka increased the training load, she would grit her teeth and persevere.
If it were just a desire to win, that would be one thing. But every night, no matter how utterly exhausted and bedraggled she was, she would always recover fully by the next day, to the point where even physical strains seemed nonexistent. This was what Musaka Ginjirou found most unbelievable.
"This Stardust Mirage... she's practically a natural-born candidate for the Hall of Fame."
Seeing Stardust Mirage in such robust health, Musaka Ginjirou could only sigh in admiration.
Note: I'm new to translating so please be kind and tell me any mistakes you all find, I will try to release a chapter a day but don't expect much
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