Chapter 190 : Enhancements

Chapter 190 : Enhancements

'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.

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?!"