Breathing Lv2

Back in the office, Holland was rummaging through the bookshelf against the wall behind him.

"There is a month left until the competition; just memorizing excerpts from the textbook won't be enough."

He pulled three books from the shelf and stacked them on the desk.

"These three are supplementary materials. Take one back to read."

Richard glanced at the spines.

The first was a complete annotated collection of Cicero's speeches, thick enough to be used as a brick;

The second was an introduction to rhetoric, covering the classical system of speech techniques, from breath control to standardized gestures;

The third book had a long title: From Temple to Podium: The Evolution of Religious Ritual Language in Classical Rhetoric.

Richard chose the third one immediately.

The evolution of religious ritual language—this topic spanned both religious studies and linguistics.

If the code system in Appendix C was not an isolated case, then this was the type of reference book he would need if he encountered similar steganographic texts in the future.

Reference books could help him trace the original meaning of terms through their etymological origins and determine whether a word was a common Latin term or specific sectarian jargon.

"I choose the third one."

Holland scratched his receding hairline.

Most students would choose the first or second—one for the sake of grades, the other for technique.

He had just grabbed the third one at random; it was a purely academic work, and it would provide the least direct help for the competition.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright then, suit yourself."

When Richard caught it, he felt it was heavy in his hands. The paper quality was excellent and the lead-type printing was crisp; it must have been quite an expensive book.

"Sir, this book wasn't cheap, was it?"

"It wasn't. I had to pull some strings with an old classmate to get it; you won't find this in a regular bookstore."

Holland pushed the other two books back onto the shelf and said without turning his head:

"The book is yours to keep. Take it back and flip through it until it falls apart—that would be for the best."

Richard's performance earlier had made him look good in front of his colleagues, and this could be considered a reward.

"Thank you, sir."

Richard stepped out and walked along the corridor toward the stairwell.

[Scholarship] Lv.1 EXP: 147/200

Between the trial lecture and the exchange with West, his experience had jumped several points.

High-density knowledge output and immediate feedback were indeed more efficient than passive listening.

He hitched his bag higher, his footsteps lighter than when he had arrived.

Wednesday morning, before the sky was fully bright.

Half-awake, Richard felt a burning sensation in his chest, as if someone had pressed a warmed copper kettle against his ribs.

As the air rushed in, he faintly heard a sound emanating from his chest cavity.

The panel flickered.

[Breathing] Lv.2 EXP: 0/500

After taking a few more deep breaths in bed, he tried to sense the changes.

The speed at which air entered his trachea seemed faster, and the resistance as it flowed through the bronchial bifurcation was lower.

To sum it up in one sentence: his breathing efficiency had improved.

Each breath could bring in more oxygen and expel more waste gas.

The result was that even lying in bed, he felt his mind was clearer than usual.

In the past, he would have a few minutes of grogginess every morning upon waking, much like waiting for a computer's hard drive to spin up.

Today, that period of grogginess was almost non-existent.

He reached out to check the detailed information on the panel.

Lv.2 did not pop up any new effect descriptions; only the experience bar had changed from a cap of 200 to 500.

The experience required for leveling up had more than doubled, but with higher breathing efficiency, the quality of each breath was also higher.

Although the experience bar had lengthened, the rate of experience gain shouldn't drop too much.

Richard threw off the quilt and sat up, pausing on the edge of the bed for a moment.

His sleep quality was poor; he would wake up once or twice in the middle of the night, sometimes jolted awake by his own coughing.

He slept soundly until dawn last night.

The [Sleep] skill had not been unlocked yet, but after the optimization of his breathing, oxygen supply during sleep had improved, likely increasing the efficiency of his body's nocturnal recovery.

There was an indirect synergy between his skills.

He picked up the notebook by his bedside and drew a simple relationship diagram on a blank page:

Breathing → Oxygen Supply → Sleep Quality → Energy → Learning Efficiency → Scholarship Experience

[Breathing] affected sleep quality, sleep quality affected daytime energy, daytime energy affected learning efficiency, and learning efficiency in turn affected the accumulation of [Scholarship] experience.

If the healing effect of Lv.3 [Breathing] could truly "gradually alleviate chronic ailments," its indirect impact would be immense.

For a body in a state of continuous self-repair, the upper limit of one's energy would be raised indefinitely.

The time and intensity he could dedicate to learning, training, and work each day would increase, and consequently, the upgrade speed of all his skills would rise accordingly.

When he went downstairs, his mother was already in the kitchen.

"You look energetic today." Margaret glanced at him.

"Yeah, I slept quite well last night."

"That's rare." His mother seemed surprised. "You used to cough for a long time in the middle of the night; it's been a bit better these past two weeks, but you'd still cough a few times."

"Maybe the weather has warmed up a bit."

In early autumn in Briston, the temperature had actually dropped over the last few days.

But his mother didn't press the issue, simply placing the bread and tea on the table.

His father hadn't come down yet, and the sound of rummaging through boxes and cabinets came from Evelyn's room; she was probably looking for something.

Richard sat at the dining table and took a sip from his teacup.

The numbers on the panel were still quietly ticking.

[Breathing] Lv.2 Experience: 1/500

[Scholarship] Lv.1 Experience: 150/200

Breathing was progressing, and Scholarship had only a quarter of its experience bar left.

Once Scholarship reached Lv.2, his absorption efficiency for knowledge would climb another notch.

By then, his preparations for the Cicero Cup, the books following Appendix C, and that copy of From Temple to Podium gifted by Mr. Holland would all enter a more efficient digestion cycle.

And there was also that Sphinx oil lamp.

With Warren covering lunch and Gray covering breakfast, now that these two expenses were wiped out, he could save all the pocket money he originally spent on food.

But the two-pound gap was too large; no matter how much pocket money he saved, it wouldn't be enough. He still had to rely on the Cicero Cup.

The sound of Evelyn's footsteps came from the stairs.

The girl plopped into her chair, her braids swinging behind her, and reached for the bread.

She caught a glimpse of Richard out of the corner of her eye, looking a bit curious.

"Brother, your complexion looks much better again today."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, there's color in your face."

She broke the bread open and spread orange jam on it with nimble movements.

"Could it be because..." she whispered, a subtle expression appearing on her face.

Richard immediately cut in: "Because I slept well last night."

"Oh, slept well, huh."

Evelyn took a large bite of the jam-smeared bread, chewed twice, and added vaguely:

"That's good, just... um, get some rest."

Richard was speechless and took a sip of his tea.

This little girl still hadn't moved past the misunderstanding from last time.

He decided not to offer any explanation; he had long since learned that the more you try to explain, the more things get muddled.

Time would wash everything away, including his sister's overly vivid imagination.

His mother poked her head out from the kitchen: "What are you two whispering about?"

"Nothing." The siblings spoke in unison.

Outside the window, the chimneys of Briston began to belch smoke, and the low-frequency vibrations of large machinery in the distance seeped in through the foundation.

A new day.

Richard finished his bread, drank the rest of his tea, and carried the dishes to the kitchen.

He left the house with Evelyn, who was hurriedly stuffing a slice of bread into her mouth, and headed toward the school bus stop.

Mr. Hutton had a history class today, and he had plenty of questions waiting for the old gentleman to answer.