'This is an enhancement, right? So why the hell does this hurt so much?!' Alex groaned in pain as he felt a hot energy spread throughout his whole body.
He could tell that this was an enhancement due to how similar it felt to when the system enhanced his stats. The sensation of his bodily strength being enhanced couldn't be mistaken. However, there was a problem.
'Why is it hot?!'
Usually, during the enhancement process, Alex felt a cool energy spreading through his body, accompanied by a hint of pleasure. However, this time, it was a fiery energy that surged through him, causing pain instead of pleasure.
In a matter of seconds, Alex's body heated up and his skin reddened as the hot energy traveled through his body, enhancing it.
It hurts, but the pain wasn't enough to cause Alex to thrash on the ground while screaming; after all, he had survived having his cells destructed then regenerated anyway.
Soon, after about thirty seconds of enduring the intense surge of energy, the enhancement came to an end, and the heat dissipated.
With a satisfied nod, Alex clenched his fists. "Just as I suspected, it did boost my strength, and it seems like it's not just my strength," he muttered to himself. Then, his expression soured. "My strength has been significantly improved, but considering all the chaos and pain caused by that energy, it feels somewhat... Lacking?!"
It was then that the second round of enhancement began, but this one didn't focus on his body.
"Arg..." Alex groaned in pain and collapsed on the ground, clutching his head as if it were about to explode.
At the same time, a wave of sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations flooded Alex's senses, momentarily overwhelming him with sensory information.
The sounds he made as he thrashed on the ground, the sensation of the dark mist touching his bare torso, the smell of his sweat—everything felt amplified and he could sense it all at once.
A moment ago, his perception was limited to what was happening in the room, and even then, it was only faint. But now, it seemed as though his senses had expanded exponentially. He could hear and smell things happening beyond the room—sounds of rustling and footsteps coming from the forest reached his ears!
Thankfully, after thirty seconds, the enhancement was over, yet, Alex's headache persisted, and he was still overwhelmed by the flood of sensory information.
Alex attempted to open his eyes, but had to quickly close them again. Everything seemed too bright, despite the fact that the room wasn't illuminated by anything!
'Shit, it's sickening,' Alex thought as the sensory information continued to bombard him.
It was then that the third round of enhancement began.
The first enhancement targeted Alex's body, the second his mind and sensory abilities; this third one targeted his soul.
Fortunately for Alex, the enhancement to his soul didn't hurt like the other two. Instead, it felt like a gentle flame, warming him up as if he was being embraced in comforting warmth after enduring months in the coldest place in the world.
It even alleviated the throbbing headache he was feeling, calming him while simultaneously empowering his soul.
This third enhancement lasted for about five minutes before ending, leaving behind an Alex with a peaceful expression on his face.
Slowly, Alex opened his eyes, which now appeared more silver than gray, having gained a metallic sheen.
Contrary to the last time he opened them and had to close them due to the brightness of his environment, now Alex could fully open his eyes without feeling uncomfortable.
Even before testing it, Alex immediately knew that his sight had greatly improved; everything in the normally dark room now appeared crystal clear to him.
"It isn't just my sight that improved," Alex thought when he heard a jiggling sound that could only come from the treasury room. He could also hear the sound of footsteps coming from the other chamber where the captives were held.
But that wasn't even the most stunning thing.
The absolutely shocking thing was that he felt he could extend his hearing even beyond that!
"Let's not do that, I'm already struggling with my current hearing," Alex decided as he stood up.
He glanced at the chest, now empty since its contents had disappeared, and frowned.
"Just what was that black heart?" Alex wondered once again.
He felt like a broken record, repeating the same question over and over, but the heart was too mysterious for him to ignore.
The first time he opened the door to this room, he collapsed due to the sheer evilness of the dark mist, which originated from the black heart. Then, merely glancing at the black heart caused his soul to ache, and finally, the heart invaded his body.
When things were laid out like that, this black heart sure sounded like an ominous and evil thing. Yet, when it entered his body, instead of transforming into a horrible creature or losing himself to some evil fate, Alex had become stronger!
The most bizarre thing here is that there wasn't even a trace of the thing that facilitated that enhancement left in his body.
'Even though I doubt they know anything about this black heart, I'll still question the two remaining members of Night about it.'
Alex was about to summon the system to check his increased stats when he stiffened.
The reason for his reaction was that he could feel the presence of the captives on the other side of the metallic door. Since he had just mentioned hearing their footsteps, feeling their presence wasn't surprising.
However, it wasn't the feeling of their presence that halted Alex in his tracks, but rather the way he could sense their presence.
Alex shook his head, 'it isn't their presence I'm feeling, but their souls.'
The current Alex knew how a soul feels, mainly because he was born from the fusion of two souls. So, he immediately understood that it was the souls of those people that he was feeling.
What was stunning Alex here was how the hell could he feel someone else's soul?!
It was then that Alex noticed that the concentration of mana inside his body was dwindling, and at a fast pace at that.
Alex's brows furrowed into a frown. He wasn't using any ability right now, not even the smoke mantle he had created for himself remained, and it was likely the same for Anita's smoke cape. So, how could it be that his mana reserves were being depleted?
The moment this question popped into his mind, it felt like a floodgate had opened in his head, with pieces of a puzzle falling into place to reveal the whole picture.
'It's my soul linkage ability!' Alex exclaimed in his head.
From the fact that he could sense others' souls to the fact that his mana was depleting, it was all tied to his ability.
During their first meeting, the spirit of smoke, Berra, had explained that there were abilities that were activated unconsciously. This was actually how Alex had linked his soul to Berra's. So, Alex deduced that it was probably what happened here – he had activated his ability unconsciously, and it was siphoning his mana.
Then, he remembered something and forced himself to calm down. "My ability allows me to link my soul with someone else's. Even if I've only consciously used it once, I know that much. It shouldn't be able to do that, right?" Alex scratched his head in confusion.
'Surely it's due to the enhancement of my soul that I can do something like that. Yeah, it's most likely that,' Alex nodded his head in approval of his analysis.
"Now that I think about it, can I sense my own soul?" Alex scratched his head in confusion. "How do I even do that anyway?"
Not having any idea how he was supposed to look at his own soul, Alex closed his eyes and concentrated on the feeling that allowed him to sense other souls. Then, he tried to direct that same feeling towards himself.
Surprisingly, it worked just fine, and Alex could sense his own soul—well, "sense" might be a strong word. Let's just say he had a vague idea of what his soul was like. For some reason, feeling his own soul seemed to be much more challenging than sensing others' souls, which was quite disconcerting.
Alex's eyes snapped open suddenly, his face turning pale.
"My soul...why is it fractured?!"