"Mm?" Alex groaned as he slowly opened his eyes to stare at the unfamiliar ceiling of his room. He sat up on the bed and glanced at his side, only to see that Amelia was no longer on the bed. He couldn't hear the sound of running water either, so he assumed that she wasn't taking a bath. It was then that he noticed a folded piece of paper on the bed.
Taking the paper in his hand, he opened it up and recognized his sister's handwriting. Basically, she was informing him that she had left with Maya in the morning, though she didn't say where they were going.
'I must have been out of it if I didn't even notice her leaving,' Alex thought to himself as he glanced at the only window in the bedroom to try to determine around what time it was right now. However, he quickly abandoned the idea. The relentless snowfall obscured the sun entirely, making it impossible to discern the hour from inside his room.
'Lucky this city is near the mountain's peak and not at the very top,' he mused, 'with the way the snow never stops around here, life would've been unbearable otherwise.'
He closed his eyes and slumped back on his bed, wanting to go back to sleep. However, after a moment, he forced himself awake. But after a few moments, he forced himself upright. 'Don't fall into your old habits,' he reminded himself firmly.
The day ahead promised to be a busy one, and he couldn't afford to indulge in laziness.
With a resigned sigh, Alex swung his legs out of bed and stretched, feeling the tightness in his muscles loosen, and then went to take a bath—a quick one, though.
After he had dried himself, he tied his long silver hair into a ponytail that cascaded down his back. He scrutinized his reflection for a moment before flashing a grin. "Still as handsome as ever," he smirked, admiring his sharp features. "Though I should probably cut this hair soon—it's getting a bit too much to handle."
He thought about doing it now but dismissed the idea.
"Now," Alex took on a serious expression, "it's time to receive that blessing."
The goddess had already explained that he could accept her blessing whenever he wished. All it required was a simple command to the system.
'System, begin the blessing process,' Alex instructed.
[The blessing process will consume half of your soul points. Do you wish to proceed?]
Alex's brows furrowed in displeasure as the system's words echoed in his head. 'I wasn't informed that half of my soul points would be required,' he thought with irritation.
The loss of half of his soul points was going to stall his progress regarding the acquisition of another ability. He didn't like that idea. Thus, he had to ask himself whether the benefits he would enjoy after the blessing were worth the sacrifice.
After pondering the matter for several minutes, Alex was still hesitating.
'Before I make a choice, I should at least know how much soul points I currently possess,' he thought to himself.
'Status,' Alex called out in his mind. Immediately, a translucent blue screen appeared before him.
[Name: Alexandre Eswald
Age: 60
Level: 4
Strength: 640
Agility: 640
Stamina: 700
Defense: 500
Mana Points: 90
Harem: Lilia Eswald, Annaline Maxwell, Amelia Eswald;
Abilities: Soul Linkage, Smoke sovereign;
Soul Points: 824]
'Whoa,' Alex's eyes widened in amazement. 'I sure have gained a lot of points yesterday,' he thought. He had already known it after he interrogated the system when he had anal sex with Lilia, but it was still baffling to witness how much he had made just from having sex one night.
'Well, the massive gain likely comes from taking Amelia's anal virginity,' he concluded, a wry smile tugging at his lips.
'In any case, with the amount of soul points I currently possess, I can afford to lose half of them,' he reasoned, the numbers on his screen comforting him.
If the process of the blessing taking place would take half of his soul points no matter how many points he had, he judged that it might be better to take on the blessing now than at a later date.
'Plus, after the blessing, I will obtain a few useful skills, so I'm not really losing out. At least that's what she said,' he thought before he instructed the system to finally begin the process.
For some reason, the system didn't ask for confirmation of his decision, as it usually did.
[The blessing will commence in 3... 2... 1...]
[Blessing process initiated.]
The moment those words echoed in his mind, Alex's entire body convulsed violently, and he was thrown to the ground, writhing in pain.
"Damn it... I wasn't warned about the pain either!" he growled through gritted teeth.
The agony he endured was less severe than the excruciating experience of having his cells destroyed and reconstructed, but it was still nearly unbearable.
Alex's whole concentration went to trying to mitigate the pain and to not scream his lungs out, so he didn't notice that at this very moment, an energy—the same overwhelming energy that engulfed him last night and made him lose consciousness—had returned, this time in an even more intense state than before.
This energy began to concentrate around his body, becoming denser and denser to the point that it started to take on a pink hue. It covered his body before it descended and seeped inside his body. It didn't infiltrate a particular part of his body; instead, it entered through every pore of his body.
As it did so, the pain that Alex was subjected to more than doubled, and groans and low growls escaped his mouth as he wildly contorted and thrashed on the ground.
As more of this energy seeped into his body and the pain began to reach an overwhelming level, Alex literally became painfully aware that the ordeal he was going to pass wouldn't be a light one in the slightest.
Sinking back into the same state he was in when his cells were destroyed and then reconstructed, Alex arduously sat down in a meditative position. Closing his eyes, he told himself, 'I must endure.'
Meanwhile, more and more of the pink energy kept seeping into his body, then it began to merge with his bones and organs. As this happened, the pain Alex endured increased several fold, yet even the slightest whimper didn't come out of his mouth.
It was at that moment that the pink energy entered further and further into his body until it began to merge with his very cells.
The pain he suddenly subjected to increased a hundredfold, and Alex wavered before collapsing back on the ground, his mouth opening as he was about to release a guttural scream.
Yet, even after several seconds, nothing came out. Despite the pain experienced, Alex refused to scream or show the slightest hint of weakness.
It was precisely at that moment that he seemed to realize that the boost to his mind from the black heart went further than just giving him a good memory. His whole mental energy had been enhanced, and it was because of that enhancement that, though he was experiencing for the second time in his life the overwhelming pain of having his cells messed up with, he was strong enough to not succumb to this pain.
His whole body sweated profusely, and his eyes turned bloodshot as he resisted the pain, reminding himself for the umpteenth time not to succumb.
After a while, after the pink energy had infiltrated every one of his cells, Alex's body convulsed, and changes began to occur all over him.
For starters, his mental energy seemed to be enhanced, not by much, but it was substantial enough to help Alex resist the oncoming pain of the changes in his body.
After his mental energy had gotten its boost, it was the turn of his body. His muscles rippled and began to increase in size. Just like the increase of his mental energy, it wasn't much. However, his already defined muscles became even more pronounced to the point that they would be the only thing one would focus on if they witnessed his body.
The changes didn't stop there either.
Alex grew taller, surpassing two meters with ease, his presence becoming even more imposing. His eyes sharpened, glowing with a piercing intensity, while his nose, mouth, and jawline became more defined, giving him a refined, noble appearance. His already handsome features grew sharper, and his beauty took on an otherworldly quality—ethereal, almost as if he were no longer bound by the limits of mere mortal handsomeness.
After these changes took place, the process seemed to have ended. The pink energy dissipated, and the pain slowly receded, leaving an Alex dripping with sweat behind.
[Lust blessing process successfully finished]