The voice was closer to that of a man, but it didn't have a tone to make it seem human, empty but heavy were the only ways to describe it.
Upon hearing it, Leo was woken up from the trance brought over by his 'Sword Cleansing' experience. His initial reaction wasn't to focus on what the voice announced, rather, Leo's focus was all directed to the difference he felt in his body.
"Heup!"
Taking one big breath, Leo jumped on the spot, he could feel that his body had grown lighter in a tremendous manner. Although there was a slight increase in his agility, the ability that changed the most was his flexibility. Compared to the current him, Leo couldn't help but feel that his movements were quite sluggish in the past.
"Uh…"
After the wondrous moment of experiencing the visible change in his body passed, Leo was shocked by a concentrated smell of sweat. However, the shock quickly faded away, wasn't it normal for a 'Cleansing' to throw out the impurities of the body?
Even Ray himself experienced something similar, so it only made sense for Leo who had 'Blocked Meridians' to do so. After all, the increase of his flexibility was just a reflection of how much 'Blockage' he had. While this whole 'disease' of his wasn't exactly scientific, Leo knew that it was as 'real' as this world.
Moreover, even Leo himself didn't know how much time had passed during his state of 'Cleansing'. The sun had already set by the time he consumed the 'Cleansing Sword', the hidden canyon barely illuminated by moonlight didn't make it easier to guess.
"Let's clean up first…"
Although Leo wanted to quickly open the 'Personal Book' to see the quantified changes to his body as well as the voice's messages, he started with scooping water with his wooden bowl to remove the grayish sweat on his body. This was the kind of discipline he developed while trying to resist reading, giving up in favor of his desires wasn't advised.
"Haaa… Much better."
After having a rough shower, Leo was finally able to relax. Thankfully, he had expected the situation so he brought along spare clothes in preparation, it was only that he was so excited about consuming the 'Cleansing Sword' that he forgot to take off his clothes in advance.
Only when Leo sealed the 'deathly' clothes he took off in the now empty pouch did the smell of the place return slightly fresh once again.
'Now is the moment of truth.'
Leo's heartbeat rose quickly as he called out for the 'Personal Book', warming up his body that had just cooled down. Although he had already experienced positive changes, Leo wasn't sure if his problem was completely solved. It wasn't like this was one of the novels where people had 'inner sight'.
However, Leo splashed some water into his face. No matter the result, his effort wasn't a loss, just the bodily changes he felt were more than worth the month-long journey. Only when his head cooled down did Leo open his eyes to check the result.
[ Book 1 ]
Name: Arthur (Leo Lock)
Age: 12 (18)
Role: Reader
Reading Points: 176
________________________
Personal Statistics:
----------------
Physique: 0.9
Mind: 1.34 (+1.95)
Sword Breath: 0.01
________________________
Personal Skills:
---------------
'Basic Swordsmanship' - Chapter 1 - page 6/10
'Horsemanship' - Prologue - page 8/10
________________________
Events:
-------
- Teaching Crane - Unique
- Change of Destiny - Unique
- Counter Elimination - Impossible
________________________
'It worked?'
Despite believing that he already calmed down, Leo's heart threatened to jump out of his body as soon as his eyes laid on the new addition to his 'Personal Statistics'!
Even though the number of his new statistic was almost negligible, its existence meant that he was no longer incapable of storing more in his body! In summarization, he was no longer a 'cripple'!
He had originally thought that the one to reveal whether he succeeded or not would be the 'messages', but it seemed some of the residues of the 'Cleansing Sword' remained within him.
Before he flipped the pages to check the voice's messages, Leo quickly scanned through the page, discovering several more changes…
The most noticeable of them was the addition to the first segment, the 'Reading Points' that he could only count through the recorded messages were now viewable, the numbers didn't add up, but that made sense considering that he hadn't checked the following pages yet.
'So I needed to reach a certain amount for it to appear?'
Guessing the reason for this addition's late appearance, Leo switched his attention to the other changes. The change in his Physique was perhaps the most understandable. Since it was the statistic that encompassed all of his body's functions, it only made sense for it to increase by much as an indication of his agility and flexibility boost.
On the other hand, the 'Basic Swordsmanship' which had been stuck for a while suddenly had an increase. Despite not being that obvious, the miraculous flower seemed to have a positive effect even on his techniques.
"I did feel more familiar with the sword during the 'Cleansing'."
Since familiarity was an important aspect when it came to 'skills', getting flooded with Sword Breath would definitely have an effect. As for the last change in the event tab…
[ Plot change confirmed. Unique event occurrence has been detected. ]
[ The Reader's character has managed to escape his character setting under his influence, carving out a new but unknown route to himself. ]
[ You have received 40 Reading Points. ]
Leo directly flipped the pages to check the identity of the event added to the tab. However, he was slightly confused by what he read. If this change had such a big effect as 'escaping the character setting', shouldn't it have a higher rating? Rather, if it's just a unique event then why did it give so many points?
The only conclusion that Leo could come to was that the Book's assessment of the changes occurring to his 'Character' was especially lowered to match his influence. Otherwise, every step he took differently would cause events to occur on an endless loop.
Nonetheless, even a repressed assessment still gave him this many points, proving how critical the change was. Although the event's description was vague and didn't precisely mention the confirmation Leo was after, he was 99% sure that his attempt was a success.
Unfortunately, Leo didn't have a 'practice method' yet, so he couldn't completely confirm his state. Even if he read the novel before, 'techniques' were often omitted and left to the reader's imagination.
"Well, I guess my next destination is already confirmed."
Feeling thankful deep within his heart, Leo scratched off the routes he planned in case the 'Cleansing Sword' turned out to be a miss. Now that it turned out to be a success, his next target would be…
'To Swordkeep!'
The best set of 'practice methods' that he could get his hands on!