Only I Am A Reader

'Thorough preparation is necessary, but let's not overdo it.'

It had already been 5 days since Leo had returned from the mystical world of Murim. If his past experience could be taken as an example, then he likely had less than a month before the time would come for the next journey.

However, unlike he did last time, Leo didn't plan to spend all of that obsessing over preparation for the inevitable.

To begin with, he might have understood more about his ability, but Leo still had no clue about what book he would be going to next. Specifically preparing for it was impossible.

'What I can do here is limited now after all.'

Now that he already possessed two weapon skills that were nearing the limits of the advanced level, what he could learn by drawing in more books was even more minimal.

Since raising Personal Skills was the only directly applicable method of preparation, it made less sense to get anxious over nothing.

'Rather...'

Compared to a decade, a month felt like nothing. Even if Leo had the help of modern technology and his basic reading ability, he could never catch up.

His reading ability already worked in books! However, that didn't mean that this month was worthless.

'I need to take a break properly so I can perform at my best.'

While Earth was no longer the realm of normalcy, the World Reservation Council did their best to make it seem this way, and Leo planned on utilizing that to the maximum.

He needed to enjoy some slice-of-life content before jumping into action!

Of course, It didn't mean that Leo was planning to completely stop reading. Reading was his very essence as a person. He just had to tone it down and learn to appreciate life more...

'Let's find some obscure book about halberds or staves.'

Having just woken up after deliberating what he would do with the limited time he had for the entire last night, Leo still chose to start his day with reading.

Instead of just randomly picking a book to obtain a new irrelevant skill and clutter his Personal Book, he still chose to supplement what he already had for now, even if it had little to no effect.

However, as Leo scrolled through the e-book he downloaded...

'Wait a sec...'

The very tiny increase of skill achieved by 'Skill Reading' was being enhanced to the maximum! This was something that he should have not been able to feel, yet he did!

The only reason Leo did was because this was something that he had been experiencing for years. He just had to feel the slightest discrepancy to be able to tell.

Although the Personal Book mentioned nothing, it was like 'Skill Reading' itself had leveled up to the next chapter.

As if the more liberated state that he used during True Reading was being slowly transferred to reality...

'It's becoming more effective now that I'm getting less and less dependent on it?'

It was undeniably weird. However, it made all the sense once Leo recalled one of the very first gains he obtained from his return, the advancement of 'True Reading'!

It was like his Role was some sort of skill tree that slowly blossomed with time, but once the most important roots received enough nutrients, it quickly supplied the branches with all kinds of enhancements.

'I look forward to how far it can go...'

That being said, the current change still wasn't enough to force Leo to make any changes to his plan.

After making quick work out of the book, Leo went into the Reading Space for his daily warm-up before taking a shower and heading to school like he did the day before.

The school day went by fairly quickly this time since Leo wasn't anticipating anything. Rather, he was going to try new things today.

"Oh, you are back in time, do you want to have something light first or..."

"No need, I will just rinse the sweat off and change my clothes and we can go."

The first new thing that Leo chose to attempt was accompanying his mother for a picnic at a nearby garden!

This was something that they already agreed upon after Leo won the chess match against Mia, a compensation prize which he didn't mind giving.

'This is actually...'

He had always viewed such acts to be extremely boring, but the weary Leo accepted it now as a form of mental cleansing.

Having a family wasn't just a thing of convenience, it was a relationship of many faces. Leo wanted to experience something other than the poker face for a change.

'Quite refreshing.'

Listening to his mother's occasional chit-chat, taking in the smell of fresh grass, eating a hearty and delicious meal... It was a form of entertainment on its own.

'It would have been even better if Yeon was here...'

Disregarding the unpleasant thoughts, Leo felt that repeating this every week or two was still very desirable!

"I'm glad we did this. Let's hope your father will be free to accompany us next time."

With the very first experiment being such a success, Leo had a long list of new activities that he wanted to test.

Just like that, he woke up early every day, spent some time reading, warmed up, showered, and went to school. Following his return home, he occasionally went out to try something new.

Finally, Leo spent the rest of his time performing absorption sessions one after the other. If there were any leftovers, he would spend some more time reading before going to bed...

As he slowly got used to this out-of-routine schedule of his, the dissonance caused by the recent supernatural meeting started to quickly fade away.

The only remnant that reminded Leo of that was his weekly visit to the Coffee Shops to check out the Mission Listing Section.

'You held on for too long.'

All that while, Yulia still kept her incognito acts of friendship. At this point, ignoring her quickly became more of a fun game for Leo.

Perhaps she believed herself to be capable of breaking the ice between them as much as she was confident in her Ice ability, but Yulia was starting to become more restless lately.

'Don't try too hard.'

A week after another quickly passed, and before he knew it, Leo found the month that he had in mind to have already gone by. Most importantly...

'Finally.'

What he had been waiting for was finally made available!

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝐞𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝐦