Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 39: Arrival At Sword Fall
Splishshsh…
"Time sure flies fast."
Washing his face using freshwater from the river, Leo dried it with a makeshift towel, using his other hand to cross something in a small booklet.
As of today, Leo has been Arthur and Arthur has been Leo for two full months.
After getting absorbed into his daily routine, always being on the move, Leo hardly felt the days come by as he focused on bettering himself so that his traveling time wouldn't be wasted.
The break that was restricted to two hours, in the beginning, was gradually inflated to three. Whenever the horse appeared exhausted, he would give it extra resting time if possible, spending this time doing some light training.
Thankfully, all the hard work and exhaustion he suffered from weren't for nothing. The changes on the first page of the 'Personal Book' didn't stop.
________________
Personal Statistics:
Physique: 0.86
Mind: 1.34 (+1.95)
________________
Personal Skills:
'Basic Swordsmanship' - Chapter 1 - page 5/10
'Horsemanship' - Prologue - page 8/10
_______________
Other than the Mind statistic that had a dual increase thanks to his distance meeting with the protagonist, the three other items on the page had increased as a result of Leo's training for the past month.
Using the 'Impossible' event bonus, Leo was able to push his 'Basic Swordsmanship' half the way despite its rank-up. However, by this point, what he gained from the bonus had been already consolidated, any further increase either required more knowledge or experience.
On the other hand, his 'Horsemanship' was still seeing progress with time as Leo didn't fully consume his gains from the activation of 'Skill Reading'. Instead, it was much harder to practice it compared to the sword. After all, it was easier to wield an inanimate object than to control a living being.
As a change of routine, Leo had even tried collecting wild plants to cook, however, his attempts at mixing ration beef jerky and what he could find on the road to cook a proper meal all ended in failure. Giving up, Leo settled for using salt and black pepper to make his rations slightly more edible.
'It was starting to feel tedious, but…'
In the end, no matter how absorbed or determined Leo was, as the days went by, the passion for a new experience was starting to fade. By now, it wasn't hard to say that past 'serial homebody' Leo was starting to get tired from traveling endlessly.
Fortunately, before he reached the stage of lazily neglecting his training, Leo had finally managed to see the figure of his destination during today's daily scouting activity.
"If it's this close, then it's reachable before sunset."
Abandoning his early day horsemanship training, Leo quickly ate a light meal as he fed the horse before getting on the road once more.
As Leo drove forward, the shadows of the tall figures were already visible to him even without using his binoculars. However, despite seeing his target ahead of him, Leo didn't drive in its direction as his carriage went alongside the river's path.
'It would be hard to distinguish my target otherwise.'
The area that Leo was heading towards was an out-of-place assortment of mountains and rocky structures. It made one rub his eyes and wonder if he saw something wrong, unrelating to its bizarre shape or location, that abnormal rocky area held the grandiose name of Sword Fall!
According to the records of history written after the Sword of Epoch fell, this area was formed at the same time the Sky-Piercing Sword arrived. As if it's nature's way of balancing things, this area of rocky structure sprouted out of the ground at the same time the gigantic sword pierced itself in the ground. Thus earning its grand name.
Although the area gained some popularity at the start, with rumors spreading about the countless mysteries that it held as well as its relation to the Sky-Piercing Sword, the commotion surrounding it quickly died down after people discovered its unnatural normalcy.
Other than being a rough dry land amid the green patches spreading miles around, Sword Fall held nothing to be curious about. During the start of the great war where everyone was racing for a proper chance, the rumors were buried down, only to be used in children's tales as a base for legends.
'But 'he' found something...'
As Leo recalled the history of Sword Fall from his memories while advancing, Ray's confident face floated into his mind. Just per the rules of novels, identifying feats as impossible was only limited by which character tried to do it. Random NPC-like characters might find it truly impossible, but the protagonist or even his fellow side characters didn't conform to these definitions.
'...Thankfully, that is.'
However, Leo wasn't feeling jealous, rather, he was thankful that Ray had achieved this impossible feat, which could indirectly help him with his predicament.
Since he would only find nothing if he just directly walked into Sword Fall, searching for his objective, Leo decided his route so that he would make use of the way the protagonist found his way to his true destination.
"It should be around here."
After trodding along the river for a while, Leo's carriage was roughly opposite to Sword Fall, so he slowed down as he searched for his target.
Although this river flowed in one line, Leo had already spotted a few branches ever since he started traveling by its die. He was currently searching for something similar, however, the branch he sought wasn't a normal one.
'There it is!'
After a few minutes of slow driving, Leo finally managed to find the rough marks of what seemed to be a dried-up river branch.
'If it's according to the novel…'
Speeding up the horse as he followed what was left of the dry water branch, Leo drew closer and closer to Sword Fall. Before he knew it, he was met with a large rocky structure that forced the horse to stop.
Neighhhh!
'...Then I just need to dig.'
On his arrival at Sword Fall, the first thing Leo did was take out a shovel from his carriage, before proceeding to dig the sand where the marks of the dry water branch had ended at....
