Only I Am A Reader

"You are going out this early?"

Having finally returned to the 'future', Leo took a long shower to appreciate the wonders of human inventions, only changing into his gym clothes half an hour later.

"Yeah, I will do a quick run to the gym."

Leo answered Mia as he filled his water bottle. Since he already spent an hour experimenting with the various parameters of his 'True Sword Body', it was time to do something normal for a change.

Click.

"Take care!"

Mia only expressed two words before Leo disappeared behind the door, going to the gym early wasn't as abnormal as what Leo had been doing starting the day before. In fact, it was the most normal thing he did so far.

'My stamina had undoubtedly increased…'

Taking light steps on the sidewalk, Leo jogged while consciously monitoring his body's performance. This was the first opportunity he got to test his upgraded Physique.

Although he had already experienced what it was like to grow beyond this point as Arthur, the experience was quite different from his current one. Arthur's body was still that of a growing child when he received his memories as Leo while Leo's body was nearing the end of its growth. If anything, the only part Leo could relate to was the sudden growth brought by his ascension in the sword path.

'But it's more than just different.'

The boost that Leo received wasn't an equal one, his stamina had increased, but his strength and flexibility had increased even more so. Moreover, Sword Breaker's buff was also more skewed towards durability and strength.

Leo naturally understood the reason behind this. What he received was a tenth of Arthur's Physique, but his old Physique wasn't balanced either. Overall, the limitation of the Physique statistic was quite obvious.

Unlike 'systems' or 'attribute panels' that some protagonists received, Leo didn't possess a clear indication of each separate attribute, all that he got was one collective figure. He already had a few ideas in mind to fix this problem, but this wasn't the time for this. Before he knew it, Leo had already arrived at the gym he had a subscription to.

'I definitely missed these.'

After drinking some water to quench his thirst, Leo swiped his card and put his bag in the locker before walking to the flat bench press equipment. There was no need to warm up after all that running.

Although he explored both conventional and unconventional ways to work out on the Sword Continent, Leo had never forgotten the convenience of the gym equipment that he took for granted. Now that he was here, he couldn't help but directly get to it.

Taking hold of the familiar barbell after adding the weight, Leo felt a sense of nostalgic comfort, this was about more than just convenience.

After all, working out wasn't the only hobby that persisted with Leo this far for nothing. His workout sessions didn't only represent progress, but they also represented escape most of all!

Whenever Leo's reading addiction went out of hand, this would be his only solution. The body couldn't resist the mind, but it could also overwhelm it in reverse. The pheromones released and the pain signals received could always lift Leo before he sank too deep.

'Very… light!'

As Leo had expected, bar benching the weight he was used to barely qualified as the warm-up set. The addition of a whole point of average Physique value that was concentrated on strength wasn't something to be underestimated!

Most importantly, as Leo kept increasing the weight, he understood the value of Sword Breaker's buff even more. The other main reason he had come was to test exactly that and it had greatly exceeded his expectations!

Any sword absorbed through his ability didn't actually merge with his muscles, rather it mainly strengthened his bones to support the muscles beyond their limit. In an exercise that depended on muscle destruction and recovery, a boost like this meant double the effect with double the weight!

'I will need more rest in between, but I can thoroughly accelerate the physical aspect as well.'

Trudging back home after finishing his usual session, Leo couldn't deny going a bit too hard on himself. However, this way, he wouldn't be dashing through just the sword path! He could keep progressing on both fronts!

Although Leo planned to relax and blend back into his regular life, he naturally wouldn't forget his worries. There was no knowing when he would encounter danger…

"I'm back."

Not waiting for an answer as he closed the door, Leo dragged his body to the shower, barely walking before crashing on his bed. The monthly break he took from the gym to pursue criminals also played a major role in his current state.

After lying down for a bit, Leo finally stretched his hand to pick up the book that his father bought him. This book obviously wasn't 'The Sword Master's Second Life' as he hallucinated it to be. Surprisingly, however, it was also a novel about swordsmen.

"It's not the same as usual."

Holding the book in his hands, Leo found it easy to resist the urge to open it and directly read through it. The urge had undeniably toned down after he experienced 'True Reading'!

If he ignored the other side effects that came with his 'reading', it could be said that Leo was on his road to recovery. To begin with, Leo had another goal in mind by picking up the book.

'Interesting…'

Unlike the average novel, 'The Way of The Sword' was actually quite an educational one. It's events were supposedly held in the age of the knights, there were no fantasy elements, just pure swordsmen against one another. The details about sword practice weren't gibberish that merely scratched the surface, but words written by a true sword expert.

"As expected…"

By the time Leo reached the end, his lips curled into a bitter smile. It was an enjoyable read, one that even contained some information that was new to him. However, none of his reading attributes triggered!

While Leo still planned to test it out by accumulating more new reads in case what he read was insufficient, he could already guess through what he felt from earlier. Other than his Reading Space, his abilities as a 'reader' were definitely suppressed on Earth…