The next morning, Ken woke up at 5am and walked out to the lounge dressed in his workout gear. His expression turned into a frown when he saw that Daichi and Rohan were not waiting for him like usual.
'Did they get lazy since I started postponing our morning runs?' Ken thought rubbing his chin.
A flash of mischief crept across his features. It had been far too long since someone had been brazen enough to stand him up on a workout.
"It seems they've forgotten my punishments…" he muttered with a grin.
However, just then two figures walked into the lounge, also dressed in active gear. Seeing Rohan and Daichi arrive, Ken's expression faltered.
"Why do you look so disappointed…" Rohan said suspiciously.
"It's nothing, are you ready to go?" Ken said, swallowing his disappointment.
Yet Daichi's gaze locked onto him and his eyes narrowed, "You were gonna mess with us if we were still sleeping right?" he said.
"Don't be ridiculous, let's go before I change my mind. It's getting much colder these days." Ken said walking past them.
The other two watched him warily before following behind. Once they got onto the road, the first part of the run was like normal with Ken setting the pace to warm up.
Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until the warm up ended. Both Daichi and Rohan found themselves losing ground at a fast pace.
"Damn it…" Daichi cursed, increasing his speed.
For a few minutes, the two others slowly caught up the gap between them and Ken in the lead. But just when they thought the worst was over, Ken began to pull away once more.
"H—Hey, you're too fast." Rohan called out, clearly struggling with the current pace.
However it seemed that Ken didn't hear them.
At the front of the pack Ken felt as if his body was working on its own. He had been stuck at the EX-grade for so long that feeling such an improvement in his muscles was revolutionary.
After taking the L-Grade Physicality Elixir and experiencing the worst pain he'd ever come across the night before, his body was completely changed.
It was as if a whole new world had opened in front of Ken.
Ken's mind was blank as he placed one foot in front of the other. He wanted to know what the limit of his newly ascended physical grades was.
The surroundings seemed to disappear and only the rhythm of his breathing and footfalls entered his ears. With each step forward he increased his pace until he was sprinting with all of his might.
He sustained the full sprint for over a minute before returning to 80% of his full pace. His breath was only labored for a few minutes before he recovered.
'This stamina and speed… It's like I've reached a whole new realm.' Ken thought in wonder.
All of his physical stats were now in the Legendary grade, something that he never thought would be possible before the system disappeared one way or another. Ken was almost lost in the ecstasy, feeling free as a bird who had left its cage.
Only after another 20 minutes of running was Ken finally satisfied that he'd glimpsed his new limits. He slowed down gradually and stopped, turning around for the first time since the start of the run.
"Hmm? Where did they go?"
Daichi and Rohan were nowhere to be seen, almost like they'd decided to leave halfway through the run. Ken frowned, deciding to give them an earful when he returned back to the apartment.
Thankfully, Ken was familiar with Detroit and the surroundings areas by now and he was able to get his bearings without asking for directions. He ran back along the path, intending on heading back home.
That's when he saw two figures bent over with their hands on their knees and gasping for breath. He recognized the two and ran over, "You guys done slacking off yet?"
However, the two sent a glare his way, "You bastard, why didn't you slow down when we called out to you?" Rohan said between heavy breaths.
Daichi on the other hand seemed surprised after examining Ken, his eyes showing his shock. "You're not tired after that? Just what the hell is wrong with you lately?"
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Ken replied, slightly taken aback.
"First its your batting that drastically improved overnight, now you're running like a damn gazelle." He said, closing the gap between the two.
"Tell me… did you take any performance enhancing drugs?" Daichi asked in a hushed tone so Rohan couldn't hear.
"Huh?" Ken blinked in confusion, not expecting such a question from his own brother.
But now that he thought about it, Ken had given him a miracle cure for his wrist just last week, it would make sense if one thought Ken had other elixirs with different effects.
The worst part was, he wasn't far off.
Ken had always debated the fairness of his Elixirs when it came to competition. Other athletes did not have the same resources as him, and these Elixirs acted similar to other performance enhancing drugs.
Of course there were no side effects for the Elixirs, besides the pain he experienced when initially taking it. But there was also no way of detecting the Elixirs either, which meant he was essentially cheating the doping system.
But the way Ken saw it, his system itself was almost like a cheat. If he had no qualms about using the system, why would he care about the Elixirs that the system provided?
"Don't be ridiculous." Ken scoffed, turning on his heel. "Let's head home, try to keep up."
On the run back, Ken purposefully kept himself just ahead of the two, forcing them to work hard in order to follow him. This was his way of punishing them for falling behind earlier.
Of course it wasn't their fault that they couldn't keep up with his new and improved physique, but that was beside the point.