Only I Am A Reader

[ Plot change confirmed. Unique event occurrence has been detected. ]

'Eh?'

A shocked expression covered Leo's face as he stood in place. Unlike last time when he was trying something for the first time, he was simply doing nothing but waiting for Crane to come over and open the door which was actually shut this time. Despite that, Book didn't fail to startle him with its straight voice.

However, as Book's messages didn't stop there, things became a little bit clearer.

[ Side-Character 'Crane' has managed to learn a preliminary technique that's out of Book 1's setting under the Reader's influence. ]

Click!

"Your timing is great, I just finished what we planned yesterday! Come on in !"

Crane opened the door with a face full of smiles, urging Leo to get in with great excitement.

'This is… the cause of the message?'

The first thing that Leo's eyes laid on was none other than a sword that still had vapor emitting out of it. The blade was slim, double-edged, and had a rather short length of about 50 cm. Its handle was a simple black encasing covering its bottom, giving it an overall feel of being simple yet efficient.

Regardless of all of that, what caught Leo's eyes was none other than the sword's quality, the smooth surface, and the even edges were simply incomparable to the sword's 'brother' from yesterday. Just from looking at it, one could tell that Crane had got the hang of forging with alloy steel!

Naturally, this wasn't the ultimate result of forging with alloy steel, but it definitely deserved Bookie's evaluation of Crane having reached a preliminary understanding.

Based on this deduction, Leo was confident that Book's message was the result of Crane's finishing of this sword.

However, what he wasn't sure of was why did Book notify him of this change. Fortunately for him, this wasn't the end of the messages either.

[ Calculating the value of the plot change according to its impact… ]

[ Calculating the Reader's contribution to the plot change… ]

[ Calculation complete. You have received 10 Reading Points! ]

'Calculating… Reading Points?'

Reaching this point, the confusion in Leo's mind started to clear out as he connected the dots and remembered something he read earlier.

'To influence!'

Since he had confirmed that no one could see the personal book other than him with Annie's help, Leo didn't hesitate as he just called it out to reconfirm what he saw.

[ Note: The Reader is advised to observe and influence the events of the book. ]

'So this is what it meant by that?'

Having been thinking about this specific note that seemed to be more like an overall goal in comparison to the 'Main Quest', Leo was slightly excited to have finally found a clue!

Although he didn't know what Reading Points were supposed to be used for, it was easy to conclude that it was some sort of value. Even though he might not be able to use it yet, an option for using it might pop up at the right time just like 'Skill Reading' did.

What deserved contemplation was the criteria that identified a plot change. Leo couldn't help but wonder if saving a random person that was supposed to die in the novel would also be a plot-changing event or not. Was Book's emphasis on Crane being a 'Side-Character' supposed to be the dividing line?

Furthermore, despite not knowing the value of the Reading points, to Leo, 10 seemed like a small number in comparison to introducing modern concepts into a fantasy world.

'It's probably because it's Crane…'

Knowing that Crane was unlikely to spread what he learned in a way that would cause great change was one of the reasons Leo had chosen him as his money-making target, so it made sense that the plot change caused by Crane learning a modern technique wasn't of great value.

'I lack something to compare to anyway.'

Since this was his first time encountering this event, Leo could only shrug it off till he had another sample to compare with before making a final judgment.

'Let's focus on what I have to do for now.'

Considering that this event didn't have any direct impact on his overall situation, Leo didn't plan to waste time thinking about it. Instead, he moved his gaze from the sword as he turned to talk to the excited Crane just before the silence made it too awkward to talk.

"I must say I didn't expect such a fine result this soon even when I was thinking about it, my brother did say you were special… but you should start taking care of yourself."

Despite the fact that Crane's excited state made it hard to tell, Crane seemed too exhausted once one inspected him with careful eyes. Leo could tell that the dark circles around Crane's eyes had grown darker and his face looked slightly more haggard. It was likely that he had pulled an all-nighter to practice for the sake of making this sword in its current state!

"Are you serious? Do you think I could actually sleep even if I wanted to after what you had shared with me yesterday? Besides, that's none of your business. I only agreed to accept your forging orders, not orders regarding my health!"

Although seemingly impolite in the way he spoke, Leo knew that Crane was just spouting nonsense due to the excitement. The large grin on his face easily gave it out.

"Alright, alright, you can do what you want, but you better not mess up my stuff!"

Not willing to back out, Leo grinned as well as he spoke in a commanding tone. After all, it was true that Crane agreed that he would trade the favor he owed Leo by unconditionally accepting all of his forging requests as long as it wasn't something out of line. So Leo at least had the right to jokingly order him around!

"You brat! It seems like your genius isn't the only thing that surpasses your age, you are just as cheeky!"

Crane gave a heavy pat to Leo in response before he headed towards the table as Leo followed him. After all, they still had a lot of work to do....