At the little secluded orphanage, the whole family had gathered together once again. With their big brother in their midst, the children had their appetite boosted as they enthusiastically dipped their white bread into their bowls. The yellow lentil soup was the product of his first attempt at cooking for the whole Orphanage. It was a recipe that he had specially learned to fight the cold.
Unlike the rest of her siblings, little Annie had already torn her loaf of bread into small bits and immersed it within the soup. After giving it a good mix, she used her spoon to scoop the bread bits, putting them into her mouth as her eyes sparkled.
"It's great! As expected of Big Brother!"
While Ria was against it at first, Leo had somehow managed to convince her that he learned to do some cooking in the time he was absent. The satisfaction that the children showed as they readily consumed it excellently proved his point!
"You are going out again today?"
As Leo used his last bit of bread to wipe the soup out of the bowl, Ria calmly looked at Leo with a hint of resignation.
"Yes. I…"
After he settled back at the Orphanage, Leo was originally worried that Ria would question him about his absence. However, other than asking if he had anything he wanted to tell her, she didn't persist in asking for an answer.
It wasn't that Leo wanted to conceal his experience, but there were simply too many details that he couldn't explain without revealing his identity, not to mention that information related to Rain were potential time bombs. He had no plans to isolate himself from his new 'family' as Ray did, but he had to keep his matters to himself for both his and their safety.
"It's okay, you don't need to explain. Just don't stay out too late."
Ria quietly shook her head, her lips curling into a gentle smile. Although Leo was hiding something, she could tell that the reason he left was probably to seek a 'strength' of some sort. While she couldn't help but be worried about him, she could only accept reality and try not to restrict him as the person who failed to protect their 'family', thus indirectly pushing him to take this role.
Even though she had pretended that nothing serious had happened back then, Ria was fully aware that the incident that caused Leo's injury a year ago was nothing simple. At this point, she could only hope that Leo knew what he was doing…
"...Thanks, I will be heading out then."
Feeling assured by Ria's tactful acceptance, Leo's heart felt lighter, giving his 'siblings' extra pats before he left in great spirit.
`~~~`~~~`~~~`
Swish!
Upon reaching the training spot, as usual, Leo proceeded with his sword training under the faint warmth of noon's sunlight.
Despite the difficulty of practicing Rain's sword technique, the physical excretion was far less exaggerated compared to performing 'Sword Calligraphy'. Under the temporary decrement of time invested into 'Breathing', Leo was able to realize more than one training session a day, reinvesting the time that he priorly used for footwork training to train the technique as a whole.
'I'm getting closer…'
Unlike Leo's original expectation of reaching his goal within two days, this was already the third since he started training back at the forest. Nonetheless, he still felt closer and closer after practicing each preceding set. Every set simply felt like it would be the last…
Swish! Swissh!
At this point, Leo had already reached his third set of this second training session of the day. Having gotten used to visualizing an enemy shadow, to Leo, each practice set he engaged in felt as intense as an actual battle.
Using the Fanged Wolves' thugs as a reference, both the thug's and Leo's 'live' hung by a thread, trading blow for blow!
Klang!
Although no actual sound could be heard, Leo's immersion into the battle allowed him to 'hear' his successful deflection of the thug's sword using the technique's 22nd form. It wasn't the first time he reached this point, nonetheless, Leo rejoiced as he followed with the 23rd form's attack…
However, all of the sudden, Leo's eyes widened as if he saw something, quickly interchanging the 23rd form into the 24th form, managing to dodge the follow up of the thug's feint and…
Sppst!
'This is it!'
Unlike the deflection that he was used to, he had finally done something different, he had pierced the 'heart' of the imaginary thug!
Leo's joy instantly intensified, disregarding that he had yet to hear anything. Even if this wasn't enough, he had at least made progress, in more time, he would eventually reach his goal.
'Wait…'
However, Leo's thoughts suddenly paused as he raised his eyebrows, or at least tried to do so. For some reason, both himself and the imaginary thug were frozen in place at the moment the sword got through to the thug's heart!
Just then, the frozen time that seemed like it would last for eternity suddenly resumed out of nowhere, but Leo soon realized that this wasn't the end of it. Time hadn't simply resumed but even accelerated!
Without intending to, Leo withdrew his sword out of the imaginary thug at an inconvincible speed as the imaginary started to turn surreal… The 'life' seemed to come back to the thug's body as he and Leo engaged in battle once more!
Under the effect of the apparent time acceleration, Leo's and the thug's swords clashed an uncountable time, every single set felt like it only lasted for a second, but the thug kept losing his life faster, even then, he would still come back to 'life' to trade blows with Leo one more time…
Before he knew it, Leo's mind had gradually reached an empty state that only focused on his sword, trapped in an unending battle where he sought to get rid of his enemy for real.
[ The First Chapter of the Reader's 'Swordsmanship' has ended. ]
[ 'Basic Swordsmanship' has been corrected to 'Intermediate Swordsmanship'. ]
[ The Second Chapter, 'Intermediate Swordsmanship', has started. ]
"Hm?"
Opening his eyes, Leo looked around in surprise as he immediately called out the 'Personal Book' to check what he had just heard. The situation was mystifying, but he quickly made sense of it due to an earlier experience…
[ Reading Attribute, 'Skill Reading', has been activated! ]
'Why?'
Spotting the one message that he hadn't heard a letter off, Leo was surprised due to the amplified effect. Although it was slightly less in intensity compared to what he experienced from 'Ability Reading', Leo was lost in thought regarding the reason behind the different amplitude.
Was it because he directly advanced into the second chapter? Did the difficulty of skill decide the effect of 'Skill Reading'? Or was this still related to the 'supernatural' element of this world and the skill itself?
After experiencing the true technique for himself, Leo could tell that it went slightly beyond something normal humans could execute. He could also feel the limitations of his body.
'That's just 'Intermediate'...?'
Even when counting all of the times his 'attributes' had activated, the degree of digestion was indisputably the worst. Surpassing what he had imagined the technique's required control and strength wasn't something that the current him could muster, his stature that barely reached 1.6 meters was specifically an obstacle.
Nevertheless, despite the severe indigestion, Leo's technique had finally turned from a set of practice and something that's usable in real battle. Most importantly, Leo's true target was perfectly achieved, his swordsmanship had finally surpassed the level of the Fanged Wolves' thugs!
________________________
Personal Skills:
---------------
'Intermediate Swordsmanship' - Chapter 2 - page 2/10
'Basic Horsemanship' - Chapter 1 - page 1/10
'Close Quarter Combat' - Prologue - page 6/10
________________________
For the moment, however, Leo didn't care about the details, he was beyond satisfied just by looking at his first 'Chapter 2' skill! Whether it was his body's limitation or the indigestion, both weren't real obstacles. In the following year, he only had to grind at his undigested gain as his body naturally grew!
Overjoyed by his latest achievement, Leo generously decided to end his training early for the day as he happily made his way out of the forest…
'Is it about time I go say hello?'
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