Only I Am A Reader

Munch… Munch… Munch…

"Thanks for the meal. Hssp…"

Finishing his breakfast, Leo took one last sip from his milk coffee in preparation to start his day, before he knew it had already become a habit of his.

Starting with the usual quick shower, Leo got to the porch before Rain, spending an approximate amount of half an hour doing light exercise.

By the time he was done, Rain was already in his 'sunbathing' state, ready to observe his performance…

Swoosh! Swissh! Swishsh!

Having long dropped the occasional pleasantries, Leo immediately got into the next part of his routine, performing 'Universal Sword Breathing'!

'Let's see…'

Just in accord with his set schedule, Leo received the sensation of 'Breathing' ten minutes later. With a little excitement on his face, he called upon the 'Personal Book'.

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Personal Statistics:

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Physique: 0.92

Mind: 1.35 (+1.96)

Sword Breath: 2.98

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'As expected!'

Despite this being already the 7th day since Leo had started his 'Accumulation Phase', his enthusiasm didn't seem to fade even one bit as he glanced at his accumulation of Sword Breath!

After a minute of brief rest, he went ahead with the next set when he saw that Rain didn't have any particular notes to add.

Swissh! Swoosh! Swish!

As a result of his experimentation in the past few days, Leo had quickly determined his limit in regards to how many sets he could perform, allocating a total of 2 hours as his personal 'Breathing' time.

The 0.48 points of Sword Breath gained after 12 sets of 'Sword Calligraphy' didn't seem like much, but Leo still strictly adhered to his schedule, towards which Rain was very welcoming.

Not to mention the fact that any further physical exertion from his arms after those 2 hours would only prove harmful, the effects of an extra set were something that Leo was already aware of…

Even if one were to force his arms to 'perform', the 'Art' produced would be severely reduced in quality, the gains brought by it would naturally be affected. In fact, receiving nothing was something that occurred often as a result of overexertion!

However, even if the number of sets that Leo could perform was restricted, that didn't mean that his gains had to be fixed!

'It can be increased!'

Just like the decrease of quality had a great adverse effect, an increase in quality had the opposite effect in return!

Under the careful and direct teachings of Rain as well as the digestion of what he 'Read' before, the new panel on the 'Book 1' page finally had a change by the time Leo had finished his 'Breathing' just the day before.

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Personal Abilities:

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'Universal Sword Breathing' - Grade 1 - 8/10

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Without straying from the rules set by the author, Leo's first set of 'Sword Calligraphy' directly had an increase in it, achieving a sizable improvement from 0.04 points to 0.05 points and reaching an efficiency of 125% when compared to the original result!

'This way, a day's gain would reach 0.6 points!'

Since he still had no way to tell the particular amount required to reach grade 1, Leo had set small goals reaching up to a hundred, with this additional increase, it seemed like his first target of 10 points wasn't far from reach…

Thud!

Two hours later, Leo collapsed on the ground as his Sword Breath surpassed 3.5 points. His arms were lightly spasming, but Leo's sense of fulfillment made it so the pain felt faint.

Even with no clear goal in sight, Leo's 'Personal Book' still acted as a great tool for mental support. Thanks to the clear sense of 'touchable' progress, Leo's 'Accumulation Phase' lacked the desperation and mental weariness that most fledgling Swordsmen had to endure!

"Well done. It's been a mere week, yet I'm already having trouble finding faults in your performance…"

A few rare words of praise escaped Rain's mouth as it curled into a bitter smile. If things went on like this, he might get used to being such a 'lazy' teacher.

"That's thanks to your help, Teacher."

Despite having the undigested 'content' gained from his 'Ability Reading' as a base, Leo couldn't deny the preciousness of Rain's accurate advice. Contrary to what he told Rain to obtain the manual's 'Source', self-study wasn't specifically his forte.

After another ten minutes of simply lying on the ground, Leo sprung up to take another shower to combat the heat before walking up to the top floor.

In order to make use of the rest of his time, Leo had requested to go out in search of books to fill up the basic knowledge that the novel omitted. He also didn't give up on supplementing his swordsmanship even in its current apparent state of stagnation.

In response, Rain fulfilled his request by giving him the privilege of visiting his own library, saying that he could go out if he still didn't find anything that interested him.

'It was worth it.'

Choosing Rain as a teacher was the best choice he had made in Leo's opinion. Even though he risked waiting for 2 months in the worst-case scenario, the benefits obtained were worth more than the wait.

While the library similarly didn't have any advanced swordsmanship books as it lacked Rain's private collection, every basic book in it had something new to ponder upon. Despite the static '10/10' that the 'Personal Book' showed, Leo felt that he was advancing beyond that limit.

'The 'pages' required to fill a 'chapter' are probably the minimum requirement…'

Whenever Leo made his way into the library, he would only exit to prepare and eat lunch. Although Rain didn't want to burden him at the start, his palate which was already restructured to accept modern recipes coupled with Leo's cooking skill made it hard for him to refuse.

After an interlude for food, Leo would resume his stay in the library to let his stomach digest the food before proceeding with the last section of his new routine.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Under the fading sunlight, Leo found Rain waiting for him for the second time of the day to start the second segment of advised training!

Even though Leo's morning 'Sword Calligraphy' made it so he wasn't able to do any sort of practice that relied on his arms, including sword training, that didn't stop Leo from working out. The second book personally given to him by Rain was particularly helpful in that department!

'It was very timely.'

On the first day he started adapting to his new routine, Leo originally planned to work out the rest of his body aside from his arm. However, Rain seemed to have other plans as he handed him another book for him to 'self-study'.

Although the book had no title and seemed to be newly written by Rain, it surprisingly contained an advanced swordsmanship technique!

At first thought, Leo couldn't help but wonder why Rain gave him something like this despite knowing his condition the best, but he quickly came to an understanding after giving the book a deep read.

'There's no skipping leg day when every day is leg day, heh.'

As subtle as Rain's hints were, Leo's preliminary 'Reading' allowed him to notice the emphasis he placed on footwork!

While it was true that he couldn't practice this swordsmanship as a whole, training his footwork was still feasible. His inability to execute the whole technique didn't allow 'Skill Reading' to trigger just yet, but Rain's advice coupled with his initial 'Reading' was enough for him to see some progress in that department regardless of the whole technique.

"Your steps are too shallow! Increase the strength and don't make them this wide!"

"Understood!"

Just like this, Leo spent the last two hours of his day training under Rain before collapsing on his bed, surrendering himself to deep sleep in hope of getting enough rest in preparation for the following day's training…