Chapter 17 - First Attribute Unlocked - ‘Skill Reading’!

[ The First ‘Reading’ Attribute has been invoked. Updating conditions have been met… ]

[ ‘Personal Book’ has been updated. ]

Thud!

Suddenly hearing the voice that has been silent for a while speak out of nowhere, Leo was immediately taken by surprise that his sword swing ended with a plunge to the ground.

Despite trying his best, his body was just too small at this moment to handle a sword of this length and weight, not to mention being inexperienced with holding one, so the startle was enough to make him lose his balance.

Pat...pat…

“Great timing…”

Patting away the dust after getting up and lifting the sword from the ground, Leo complained to the voice that never spoke back as he thought of the personal book.

Nonetheless, he was greatly intrigued by the sudden change. Although he quickly came up with a few theories, Leo was interested in knowing the real reason a mere sword swing would invoke the lazy voice.

‘Let’s see…’

Although no light filled his vision this time, the floating book still appeared before Leo’s eyes before he poked it open.

[ Book 1 ]

Name: Arthur (Leo Lock)

Age: 12 (18)

Role: Reader

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Personal Statistics:

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Physique: 0.8

Mind: 1.3 (+1.9)

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Personal Skills:

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‘Swordsmanship’ - Prologue - page 2/10

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Quests:

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Main Quest: Reach the epilogue

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‘So this time it’s skills… and another page?’

Having thought of this possibility thanks to his plentiful knowledge of novels, Leo wasn’t too surprised to see some sort of a skill panel added to the ‘Personal Book’, it was just that the content of this skill panel was a bit strange…

‘Don’t skills usually get rated by levels or tiers?’

As if to fit Leo’s current identity and role to the limit, the ‘level’ of the skills seemed to be determined by ‘pages’, making it feel out of place.

‘Is this ‘prologue’ supposed to be like a ‘level 0’ of some sort?’

Judging from a book’s normal progress, the prologue usually worked as a ‘Chapter 0’ of sorts, so it made sense once one thought deeply about it.

Moreover, that wasn’t the only change that has taken place in the book, it now had an additional page! It was mostly empty but what he heard the voice speak of was now recorded on it.

‘I guess I will figure it out with time.’

Knowing that he wouldn’t get an answer about either change even if he asked, Leo simply kept his theories to himself. In any case, as this ‘Swordsmanship’ progressed, the logic behind the ‘Personal Skill’ panel would reveal itself on its own.

Regardless, Leo knew that standing in his place thinking about it wouldn’t get him anywhere, so he assumed a basic stance once more and started recalling what he ‘learned’ from the swordsmanship books he read. After all, training was more likely to produce visible results than plain guessing. It was just that…

He didn’t expect it to be that fast!

[ The attribute, ‘Skill Reading’, has been activated! ]

As he received another sudden message from the mysterious voice less than a minute away from the last one, Leo was even more surprised than last time. Luckily, he managed to react correctly this time so he didn’t greet the ground with his head this time.

‘Skill reading?’

Not even being given a chance to think about the nature of the change this time, something else other than the voice abruptly invaded his mind!

‘This is…’

Although his head hurt, Leo felt comfortable deep inside as he felt incredibly familiar with what was taking place in his mind, this was none other than the effect of his ‘Reading’!

The intensity was increased to another level, but Leo was absolutely sure that this was none other than an amplified version of his special ‘Reading’, this was exactly how it felt when he obtained skills or knowledge after reading a book!

Naturally, just as the intensity was increased, the gain of such a ‘Reading’ was more than the norm. While Leo was still inexperienced with handling the sword, he already knew all he needed to know to get familiar with it within a short period of time. The basic sword moves were already solidified in his mind! All that was left to realize most of what he received was a short time of practice!

‘Is the true effect of my ‘Reading’...?’

Feeling excited to have discovered more about the one thing that made him special in this world, Leo stabbed the sword into the ground as his mind started going wild…

Everything was kind of disjointed at first due to the timing, but as he called the ‘Personal Book’ out once again and checked the new pages with the messages in order, things started becoming clear.

‘So the reason for the change was the activation that was enabled after the invoking of the attribute?’

Although it was still cloudy overall, Leo understood that his ability was evolving since he entered this novel’s world. In fact, his entrance to this world was due to this strangely triggered evolution.

As for the specifics, it seemed that using a sort of skill he learned from reading was the prerequisite to evolving the ability to obtain skills specifically, after which, it seemed that any similar skill-learning through ‘Reading’ would be enhanced by the attribute called ‘Skill Reading’.

As for the degree of this enhancement…

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Personal Skills:

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‘Swordsmanship’ - Prologue - page 6/10

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‘It isn’t that visible since I haven't actually practiced what I obtained yet, but this increase…!’

Even if one were to disregard the possibility that higher page numbers required more effort, compared to the progress of 2 pages that he already had thanks to what he obtained from ‘Reading’ on Earth, the enhancement of ‘Skill Reading’ could be said to have made it three times more effective!

‘It seems like I didn’t feel that instinctive excitement from nothing…’

Looking at the floating book once more, Leo took out the sword from the ground as he clenched the handle with both hands. As a reader, there was indeed more to look forward to in a book!

Feeling slightly less fearful of the coming event, Leo resumed swinging his sword with more enthusiasm, looking forward to further progress...