Only I Am A Reader

[ Book 2 ]

Name: Cheon Baek-Ho (Leo Lock)

Age: 21 (18)

Role: Reader

Reading Points: 6761

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Personal Statistics:

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'It has already been that long?'

He was only a few months away from hitting 21 before he entered seclusion, but Leo was still surprised by how time passed in the state that he was in.

Compared to how he expected it to be, the absorption process didn't feel particularly slow. On the contrary, it felt like he was refining an energy source at a normal pace. However…

He had now realized that what he was experiencing had no ties to reality whatsoever!

It was unknown to Leo if this was something specifically engineered in the succession process by the former Heavenly demons so that it wouldn't take a toll on either side's minds, but it seemed like he was perceiving time much faster than it was.

'I'm not exactly sure, but just this took one to two months?'

Similar to most refinement experiences, Leo couldn't afford to lose concentration or distract himself. Otherwise, the burden on Yeon's side might grow too heavy, causing the whole process to fail. As such, he could only take a few peaks at his personal book to denote time in an inaccurate manner.

He still felt that things were going relatively quickly as the process approached its end. Unfortunately, that was only true for the first one, they had barely touched the Demon Lord's core!

'Not that I'm complaining, but…'

Although he had changed a lot, Leo was sure the protagonist wouldn't deviate too much from his final plan. After all, this was something that he buried the seeds for far too early.

Aside from the pre-arrangements that Leo pulled off before the war, running around to ruin Geochin's final touches would only be a waste of time.

Let alone the fact that a Transcendent Geochin wasn't something they as juniors could face unscathed, the moral and reputation dilemma that he involved in his quest stun-locked anyone from approaching him.

If Leo was ready to lose his reputation like that, he wouldn't have put that much effort into increasing it, to begin with.

In this case, the only answer was to get stronger in the few months left before the final confrontation. So figuring out that time was quickly slipping away blocked out Leo's hope of having a head start.

'Am I rushing it? Is it that only a true antagonist like Yeon can power up in this situation? Or…' pan(da-n0vel.c)om

Despite absorbing all of that energy that contained some of the martial enlightenment of the Heavenly Demon himself as well as a kind of foreign element imprinted within it, Leo didn't feel that he was inching toward the Unrestrained Stage…

On the bright side, however, Leo did experience something different that could be considered miraculous for once.

With a full Dantian like his, he simply couldn't absorb everything by just relying on his natural expansion rate, but for some reason, anything he took in stayed within the confines of his body without dissipating!

'Is it waiting for the right moment?'

At first, that only appeared normal for Leo who thought that less than a day had passed. Now, realizing how abnormal his situation was, several lines of thought started forming in his head.

His new accumulation had to be lacking since he didn't touch the gap, yet it still held on… As if trying to grow stronger and take the long stride that it failed to take so far!

This was purely based on theory, but Leo could feel the thoughtfulness of the person behind the creation of the process' mechanics. Whether it was the past Heavenly Demons or someone else, they seemed to take everything to mind.

After all, who could truly guarantee the usefulness of a process that could be as urgent or abrupt as this?

Was fate meant to make it so that the successor was just at the right point where he can take a step forward with the help of the energy he received?

Leo didn't know how such a thing was possible, but the extra stable characteristic of the energy made all sense to him, especially in a situation like his.

How else would both he and Yeon 'share' the two energy sources if one was bound to disappear with time as usual?

Since this event was only mentioned briefly in the novel, Leo thought that they would absorb energy from both sources simultaneously so that an advancement would be made eventually, but everything was clear now that he realized the bug in his perception of time.

'That was tense…'

_{𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢}

The unfamiliar sensation of having his body heat up from worry quickly disappeared. His concentration had almost been broken down by anxiety once he envisioned the possibility that his greed could have ruined Yeon's confirmed advancement.

If that was truly the case, it would have been no different from shooting himself in the leg after seeing the race's finish line in the distance…

'You should do the trick, right?'

The Heavenly Demon's crystal clear Dantian was now almost empty, so Leo could only hang his hopes on the crystallization of the Demon Lord's existence.

Repulsion towards both monsters and the Demon Lord was something that every member of the Heavenly Strength Society even if not as strong as Yeon did, but for some reason…

Leo felt no such thing when it came to the Demon Lord's core rather than the Demon Lord himself. If anything, he felt a very slight temptation to devour it whole as if it was a delicious meal.

'This is definitely new!'

The object had previously given him no negative or positive feelings before, but now that a string of energy had extended from the enclosed Dantian and slipped into the Demon Lord's core, his perspective changed once more.

'This… really deserves to be called an Inheritance Core more than anything.'

Only one thought came to Leo's mind, the creator of this method… His thoughtfulness was truly boundless.