Only I Am A Reader
chapter-176

"Right…"

Opening his eyes to see the familiar stone ceiling, Leo rose up as he lamented his forgetfulness. 'Ability Reading' did help him jump directly to the next step, but it also didn't give him any chance to rest.

The Scarlet Sky Breathing Technique had always been the fundamental technique practiced by core students, a fact that didn't change even when the Heavenly Demon Cult was rebuilt as the Heavenly Strength Society. Naturally, that wasn't the case for no reason.

Among the countless breathing techniques practiced by Martial Artists all across murim, the Scarlet Sky Internal Energy condensed through this technique was known to be the most tyrannical, prioritizing the attributes of invincibility and lethality. However, the price for being unrivaled against those of similar rank and Internal Energy amount didn't come cheap.

'All these resources were for a reason.'

While Leo had discovered another benefit to having a superior Physique in enduring the damaging process of Energy Channels Clearing, the main reason all of these resources were used to achieve this state was so that the students could endure the cost of using and training in the Scarlet Sky Breathing Technique. Just like it was tyrannical when pointed at the enemy, Scarlet Sky Internal Energy was also tyrannical towards its user, albeit being minimized to a certain degree.

Leo's current Physique naturally enabled him to be unscathed under this aggression, but that didn't apply when he was as severely exhausted as he was the day before, only fainting was already a great outcome.

'It's probably better not to…'

Growl…

The first thing that popped up in his mind was to circulate to do a minor cycle to get used to the Internal Energy flowing through his Energy Channels, but before Leo could even shoot the idea down for the sake of recovery, his stomach protested! It required the meal that was postponed due to fainting!

"I also need to report my progress!"

Leo still didn't know how many days had actually passed, but he understood that he might seem slow in the eyes of the instructors since he kind of overdid it. As such, he needed to report his success in opening the Dantian as soon as possible… he definitely wasn't hoping to receive some food rewards or anything!

Leaving the bed was easy, but Leo's body felt sluggish. If he was normal, Leo believed that it would take him a week or two to make a full recovery. However, consuming 'Elixirs' on a daily basis made him far from it. The effect of supernatural materials like these didn't stop at accelerated growth, the nature of his body was slowly altered to suit his diet.

'Should take a day or two at most.'

Leo wasn't starving for nothing, in fact, he could probably go without eating for a month or so just by relying on the remnant essence stored in his body, but if he wanted to achieve quick recovery, a direct source of energy was required.

"But first…"

[ Book 2 ]

Name: Baek-Ho (Leo Lock)

Age: 9 (18)

Role: Reader

Reading Points: 99

________________

Personal Statistics:

Internal Energy: 0.4/0.4 (Scarlet Sky)

Physique: 2.49 (-0.23)

Mind: 0.44 (+2.2)

________________

Personal Skills:

'Advanced Swordsmanship' - Chapter 3 - page 1/10

'Intermediate Smithing' - Chapter 2 - page 0/10

'Intermediate Close Quarter Combat' - Chapter 2 - page 7/10

'Intermediate Spearmanship' - Chapter 2 - page 8/10

'Basic Horsemanship' - Chapter 1 - page 9/10

________________

Personal Abilities:

- 'Scarlet Sky Breathing' - 3rd-Rate - 8/10

________________

Personal Talents:

- 'Cleared Energy Channels' -

- 'Body of Accelerated Recovery' -

________________

Events:

- Suffering Delayment - Unique

- A Star's Emergence - Unique

________________

Even after having delayed calling out the Personal Book to prepare himself mentally, the number of changes that the book opened up to was still slightly beyond Leo's expectations!

He had already expected the addition of an Internal Energy statistic, but even the basic ones had changed. Baekho's mentality had the biggest jump out of the lot!

'This definitely wasn't a waste.'

Perhaps due to the similarity in function, Energy Channel Clearing seemed to have a similar effect to Sword Cleansing. Leo didn't realize that at first due to the temporary debuff caused by exhaustion, but his agility and flexibility had positively increased even if by a little bit.

Still, the Mind statistic was still the biggest beneficiary of this process, which backed Leo's original assumption in regards to mental energy. The effect wasn't ground-breaking, but this was like obtaining a mental workout method!

Overall, the effort that he spent was worth it, getting to know his body more had even helped Close Quarter Combat advance a little. Of course, Leo only believed that to be the case as long as he hadn't spent too much time doing this.

"Wait…"

'Talents?'

As Leo's eyes fell past the nearly mastered basics of the Scarlet Sky Breathing Technique, the reappearance of a familiar segment startled him, especially since it didn't only contain one but two items this time!

'Is this the result of my stubbornness? Or…'

The origin of the first talent was very obvious. However, Leo couldn't help question its minimum requirement. Did he only get it because he meticulously cleared up everything? Or would he still have received it even if he did the basic framework?

Unfortunately, Leo didn't have the mental capacity to check the Personal Book in between, so getting a solid answer was impossible. Nonetheless, this simple addition that stated his body's state greatly elated Leo! This was basically laying the foundation for his future inheritance!

On the other hand, the emergence of the second talent was what confused Leo the most. This was already something that he possessed and was aware of, so why did the book only add it now?

'Also…'

The changed page was finally flipped away when Leo reached its end. He couldn't receive an answer to his talent gain, but couldn't he at least check the event that he caused while being away in seclusion?

Shhhhhhhik!

However, as the stone door parted from the wall, the small figure covered in an exquisite black robe that just happened to be passing by caught Leo's inquisitive eyes, perhaps… He no longer required an answer to his question.