Only I Am A Reader

502 Promising Advancement

'Good expectations only.'

It hadn't been that long since Leo's fourth life had started, but it didn't seem like it would be a peaceful one.

Although he didn't have to undergo the grueling training of the Heavenly Furnace, he was also thrown into the middle of the story with quite a large responsibility.

He didn't have to start from zero, but he couldn't let the story flow as it pleased. If anything, the City of Villains' burden was similar to that of Murim Supremacy. Still, there was one large difference.

'I'm on my own.'

Was the overpowered ability he received enough to compensate for the lack of assistance? Was Leo supposed to be the tall back that held the falling sky? Perhaps.

Honestly, Leo didn't find his ability to be the least bit lacking, it was just that he had too much to correct as a single person. There was no one to mentally lean on.

'And I need to get back to it.'

Leo wondered if the relaxation that he was trying to find in reality had crossed over. He felt like he needed to reignite his desire for action instead.

The waiting chance that he had allowed Leo to go over the after-effects of the consecutive challenges.

When life started getting boring, he wanted action, and when he had too much action, he desired rest, but now that he had his fill of both, he was lost as to what he needed.

Everything was just too confusing. As such, Leo decided to stop digging deep and switch to the simplest form of emotions. Excitement.

He could only be expectant as he put the Enigma Stone into his mouth, especially after he felt the booming reaction inside his body!

It was barely a beep compared to what he felt when he ingested the Darkness Stone, but its existence confirmed Leo's suspicions. There was something to gain!

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- Enigma: 1,000/1,000

- Physique: 3.03

- Mind: 2.68 (+2.76)

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While Enigma and Mind showed no movement when he checked the Personal Book, his Physique had visibly increased by 0.01 points. Advancement was indeed possible.

'This is all for Leo.'

From an efficient point of view, Cassian's current body did just fine. His abilities could easily compensate for the lack of explosive physical strength.

Shadow Armament specifically was getting wilder and wilder. Aside from just creating weapons and empowering them, Leo could also use it to substitute muscle mass up to a certain point.

Within short distances, Shadow Movement also allowed Leo to move in a manner akin to teleportation. So unlike Baekho, Cassian had no need for an overly strong physical body.

However, Book 0's Leo needed all the help he could get to move forward. In a world with an even more complicated power system than the one he was currently in, nothing could truly be enough.

Currently, Leo only visited the gym to maintain physical activity, building more muscles was virtually impossible. Thankfully, he could always rely on True Reading's bonus to push his limits before achieving Transcendence.

'Let's keep going.'

Before his excitement could die down, Leo went ahead and consumed another Enigma Stone. The Personal Book didn't show a direct change this time, but he didn't stop.

3rd stone, another increase of 0.01… 6th stone, another increase of 0.01…

10th stone… 16th stone… 24th stone… 36th stone… 50th stone… 75th stone… 150th stone… 299th stone…

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Personal Statistics:

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- Enigma: 1,000/1,000

- Physique: 3.14

- Mind: 2.68 (+2.76)

_________________

He still had a few hundred more, but Leo stopped once he perceived one more change after ingesting almost 600 Enigma Stones.

Just as was the case for Cassian who consumed Enigma Stones like crazy, the early increases were quick to achieve, but it quickly turned into a grinding game.

If Leo wanted to increase his physique by more than 0.12 points, he had to find better-quality stones. In this case, quantity wasn't everything.

'I need a better Gate.'

As crucial as this special Gate was, its monsters were quite lousy. Even if he accumulated another 600 stones through the following challenges, Leo wasn't sure whether consuming them would make any difference.

Just when Leo started to recall parts of the novel that could help him with that path of development, he felt a sudden tick in his mind.

'That didn't take long.'

The lucky Shadow Nightmare had already reached its target. Without any hesitation, Leo let go of the Enigma it needed to go back to him and show him the right path!

Over an hour had passed since Leo took his time with the consumption task, but that was still considered a very short period compared to the time that Aurora took to go through this challenge.

Now that its path was uniform, the Shadow Nightmare would take even less time to go back. In fact, it could take minutes if Leo gave it enough Enigma. However…

'It's really convenient, but only when it's under a limit.' 𝘣𝑒𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝑒𝘭．𝑜𝘳𝘨

Once a Shadow Nightmare had all the Enigma it could need, it was likely to go berserk. The basic command that it received from the very beginning would still be acting as its guideline, but the specifics would go out of the window.

Killing a group of monsters? Sure, it could do so by taking its time with every single monster, tearing it piece by piece, and enjoying the taste of live prey.

The Enigma's limits might have further constrained its convenience, but it also kept the wild beasts from going off the road.

'That might change with time though.'

While the initial evolution of Shadow Mastery didn't directly allow Leo to control these unstable elements, it was an ongoing process.

Even without training them, Leo could tell that just time was allowing them to advance in different directions. Now that he was pouring his focus on handling these tricky abilities, that process could go even faster.

'Better.'

With a sense of ease settling in Leo's heart, he easily calmed down the intrusive thoughts until the Shadow Nightmare came back.

It was time to clear this challenge with a breeze!