It didn’t seem fair to minimize the formerly majestic ability of Sword Breath into nothing but a buff for the strongest ability that Leo could currently muster as a Martial Artist. However…

Sword Breath being reduced into a convenient ability that he would likely only use when he wasn’t serious was far worse!

The fact that it could be incorporated at times when he had to show his best made it so Leo didn’t feel that his first journey was a waste.

‘My Internal Energy isn’t endless as well.’

Of course, in the end, it all boiled down to the situation at hand. At tip-top shape, Sword Breath might appear to be useless and redundant, but once Leo faced a situation where he used everything he got as Baekho, Arthur could swoop in and save the day as his trump card!

Having two different tanks of energy was more crucial than one could think.

As the superior power system, Leo’s main interest was still to complete his foundation as a Martial Artist in the best way possible.

Sword Breath was a brilliant ability in its own way, but it could never beat the all-round aspect of practicing Martial Arts even if he raised it all the way up to the ninth grade.

Even if Leo just obtained some better combat ability from another novel later on, the useful applications of Martial Arts and Internal Energy would remain useful, perhaps even necessary, unlike how it was with Sword Breath.

And that was specifically why he had to get every last ‘item’ that he exchanged for!

[ Talent – ‘Expanded Dantian’ ]

The page that he was aiming for this time had a zoomed-in illustration that only showed Beakho’s upper body with the highlighted shape of a growing Dantian around the lower part of his stomach.

In all honesty, Leo was surprised when he first saw ‘Expanded Dantian’ on the exchange list.

It was one thing to expect that exchanging a certain stage of ‘Scarlet Sky Breathing’ would automatically come with Dantian that fit that stage’s Volume of Internal Energy. However, for it to still be there as an individual talent…

‘This is like restarting practice but with cheats.’

Confirming that his Dantian had indeed grown in size after the light disappeared into his body, Leo found his current situation to be quite ironic.

With a Dantian of the same size, as it was when he was in the Unrestrained Stage, it was no different from using a plug-in to reduce the difficulty of advancement and energy accumulation.

As long as the energy source problem was solved, his second Martial Arts journey would be very smooth sailing!

‘Then…’

Leo had originally planned to keep the Internal Energy surplus to fill up his Dantian once he advanced to the next stage, but now that his Dantian was pretty airy and comfy.

‘Would it be possible to skip directly the Transcendence Stage?’

Disregarding his hypothetical string of thoughts, Leo got into action as he ripped apart the surplus energy page that was almost completely covered in crimson red. Rather than question the possibilities, trying it for himself was far more conclusive.

Leo’s heart was full of excitement as his Dantian started to fill up more and more.

Unfortunately, however, the smile on Leo’s face didn’t last for long…

‘Too optimistic?’

Although the energy that he obtained did count as a recovering surplus energy that could regenerate on its own just like the rest of his Basic Internal Energy, as was the case before he left Murim, it just didn’t register towards his advancement to the next stage.

‘Hard work and effort are still needed.’

In order to advance further, one needed to patiently refine their Internal Energy and train their Martial Skills every single day.

Already refined energy obviously didn’t count. If it was truly that simple, then Murim would have had more Martial Artists than normal people.

In any case, it was still more than worth the price to have a little extra in case of emergencies. This was one more additional layer of trump cards up Leo’s sleeve!

Unlike the Murim that he had already become greatly familiar with, Leo had no idea how the supernaturals of his reality fought, so more than one fail-safe was greatly appreciated.

[ Talent… ]

Following the pages that he was curious about, Leo moved on to the Talents that he was more or less sure of their effect.

The ‘Body of Accelerated Recovery’ didn’t show any direct effect once added to his body, but Leo knew that its fairly decent recovery ability would shine through at the right time.

On the other hand, the ‘Eternal Flame Enhancement’ was even more silent. The effect of this talent could only be displayed once he reached the Transcendent Stage. Without the ability to produce any actual flame, it was temporarily useless.

As for ‘Spatial Affinity’, this one was even more mysterious for Leo than everything he tested so far, but he had already tested it a dozen times back in Murim, and he still couldn’t do anything with it.

‘Perhaps… I also need to reach a higher stage to make use of this one.’

Being put in an unexpected comparison with the ‘Eternal Flame Enhancement’, Leo felt that he had reached the most plausible answer that he could find.

In a way, it was one of the few things that gave him hope regarding the little situation he had with Yeon…

[ Book 0 ]

Name: Leo Lock

Age: 18

Role: Reader

Reading Points: 0

Personal Statistics:

– Internal Energy: 932/968 (Scarlet Sky)

– True Sword Breath: 596/600

– Physique: 6.3

– Mind: 2.74

– Sword Breath: 601

Personal Skills:

– ‘Advanced Swordsmanship’ – Chapter 3 – page 9/10

– ‘Advanced Spearmanship’ – Chapter 3 – page 9/10

– ‘Advanced Footwork’ – Chapter 3 – page 7/10

– ‘Advanced Close Quarter Combat’ – Chapter 3 – page 5/10

– ‘Advanced Bowmanship’ – Chapter 3 – 0/10

– ‘Intermediate Halberdmanship’ – Chapter 2 – 9/10

– ‘Intermediate Smithing’ – Chapter 2 – page 5/10

– ‘Intermediate Horsemanship’ – Chapter 2 – page 3/10

– ‘Intermediate Staffmanship’ – Chapter 2 – page 4/10

– ‘Beginner Throwing’ – Chapter 1 – page 10/10

– ‘Cooking’ – Prologue – page 4/10

Personal Abilities:

– ‘Universal Sword Breathing’ – Grade 7 – 9/10

– ‘Scarlet Sky Breathing’ – Peak – 9/10

– ‘Internal Energy Channeling’ – 9/10

Personal Talents:

– ‘True Sword Body’ – 7/10

– ‘Cleared Energy Channels’ –

– ‘Body of Accelerated Recovery’ –

– ‘Eternal Flame Enhancement’ –

– ‘Spatial Affinity’ –

– ‘Expanded Dantian’ – 6/10

‘Now, for the moment of truth.’