Only I Am A Reader
chapter-173

Knock. Knock.

The young boy holding a small table of food knocked at the stone door in front of him, but no one came to answer, prompting him to leave the food in front of the door and leave. Although he thought about knocking once more to make sure that he didn't mess up his task, he still remembered being warned of distracting the person inside at any cost.

'Even if I didn't…'

Having watched the other children from afar while doing the work he was assigned, the boy regretted his early mistake. He believed that he would be growing like them, being served instead of serving, breaking away from the status of a helpless orphan. However, he soon realized that he wasn't cut for it when he caught a glimpse of the training and battle halls by chance… He wasn't the crazy one for giving up, they were for enduring all of this!

Since he was assigned to bring food for the only one who had escaped that hell, he had barely seen him come out of his room throughout the last week. Only then did he realize that there was no escape from this hell, he was extremely fortunate to be doing simple labor like this!

'Done!'

Thud!

Having finally depleted the pill's energy in his body, Leo rushed to the door, grabbing the food before closing the door back in. In his current mental state, the smell of food making its way through the small opening in the wall was quite the temptation to endure, making him almost waste the pill that he had just ingested.

Munch! Munch! Munch!

Although Leo ate ravenously like some starved beast, this was actually his second meal of the day. Ever since getting his new room, he was given three daily meals in place of the Elixir-like meal that other children provided, but even that felt lacking!

In contrast to what it seemed like, Leo had practically cut off physical training since he arrived here. He practically did nothing but sit down every day, his only other activity was eating and an occasional shower, but he was still extremely exhausted, always desiring food like he hadn't eaten for a whole month!

'This makes even more sense now.'

Contrary to Leo's original belief, Energy Channel Clearing wasn't only taxing on his mental state, his stamina similarly suffered from depletion. He knew that the first phase's wasteful nurturing was for the sake of the current phase's success, but he only discovered the details of that now. If he were to do what he did with his starter Physique, even the simple task of remaining alive would be hard.

The reason for all of this was simple… The Blood Rose Initiation Pill was simply too brutal!

Even though it boasted the characteristic of being easily controllable, its effect on the body was too aggressive. It didn't greatly injure a certain part of his body, but it left small injuries all over. Although his body's natural recovery could handle it, it simply took everything he had.

Thud!

"Did you already finish the bottle?"

Barging in unannounced, Instructor Han passively looked at Leo who was lying on bed like a corpse. His eyebrow rose as he stared at the little ceramic bottle on the ground. This was…

"Umm, there is only one pill left…"

'Crazy!'

Nothing appeared on his face, but Instructor Han was screaming deep inside. The one who he thought to be normal turned out to be the most abnormal!

Blood Rose Initiation Pills were well known for their extreme reaction to the body. Using them undeniably made Energy Channel Clearing several times faster, but they couldn't be consumed like candy. Every single clearing session required rest that lasted as long as the session!

This wasn't an issue of physical durability. After all, the body of someone who passed the first phase was clearly tough enough to recover from the damage in a single night of sleep. However, possessing the endurance needed to constantly consume this kind of pill for a straight 14 hours a day was nothing but insane!

'Gentle Han' had only come on the second day to check on Leo, but the pill bottle was already empty. The amount of pills that they expected to last half a week at the very least was consumed in a day and a half!

"You can have this in advance…"

Instructor Han put another ceramic bottle on the bed before walking out. Leo's behavior was a first for him, but this was exactly what the Heavenly Furnace's purpose for. Since the child wanted to wholeheartedly pursue greater height, what wrong was it to support him? If not for the sake of equality, the bottle that he just gave wouldn't have been full of just Blood Rose Initiation Pills.

'Is something wrong?'

Staring at the closed door, Leo slipped into thought. He was sure that something wasn't right with Instructor Han, but he couldn't tell what it was. In the end, he could only shrug it away as he threw the last pill into his mouth. Since he had already finished his meal, it was time to go back to it!

As the energy dispersed in his body once more, Leo skillfully guided it into his legs. The bloody stream that he guided no longer cleared anything in his arms, so he concluded that he had already opened their channels despite his inability to confirm it. He had finally moved into the downward channels today.

'At least it's effective.'

The blockage wasn't that small, nor was the stream of energy that big, but it slowly chipped away at the loose blockage no matter the case. Every session resulted in progress even if it was slow.

What 'Gentle Han' didn't know was that Leo was simply clueless to the fact that people usually rested in between sessions, such a spontaneous act didn't need to be mentioned in the technique book. On the other hand, Leo was someone that had grown used to muscle-melting pain, mental and physical exhaustion were merely strong side-effects from his point of view.

In order to finish the first task as soon as possible, Leo naturally wouldn't pick comfort over progress. If not for the limits of mental energy control, he wouldn't have even minded taking two pills at once!