"Where am I?" Alex wondered as he opened his eyes, only to find himself in a void of absolute darkness. It was so pitch-black that he couldn't even see his own hands, leaving him disoriented and uneasy.
"Am I under so kind of illusion?" Alex thought, a creeping sense of dread washing over him.
Closing his eyes again, Alex concentrated, trying to convince himself that this was all a trick of the mind, so illusion cast by an enemy to confuse him. But when he opened his eyes, the darkness remained unchanged, surrounding him like a thick, inescapable fog.
Before panic could fully set in, a voice echoed in his mind, one that was both familiar and unsettlingly foreign.
"You're too slow," the voice declared, dripping with a strange mixture of impatience and disappointnt. "Painfully slow," it added the following instant.
"Who are you?" Alex asked cautiously, his voice betraying his wariness. However, the only response was the voice repeating its earlier statent, louder this ti, the words echoing through the void with an almost deafening intensity.
As the minutes dragged on, Alex tried repeatedly to engage with the mysterious voice, to understand who or what was speaking to him. But each ti, the voice only grew louder, repeating over and over, "You're too slow!"
The volu increased with each repetition until it felt like a relentless hamr pounding in his skull. The sound grew so intense that it drowned out his thoughts, a searing headache gripping his temples and spreading through his entire being, leaving him teetering on the edge of agony.
"YOU ARE TOO SLOW!"
"Ah!" Alex yelped as he suddenly sat up, his wary eyes sweeping his surroundings. Smoke began to seep from his skin, surrounding him with its usual srizing purple color, though it now glowed ominously.
After a mont, Alex recognized the familiar design of Alia's plant chamber and visibly relaxed. He had requested this chamber for the night, worried that he might not be able to maintain the structure of the smoke carriage from collapsing while he slept. This chamber, which Alia had originally designed for their intimate monts, provided a stable environnt for him to rest in.
Once he confird that he was not under attack, Alex slumped onto the bed of leaves, his face covered with sweat.
'What was that?' he wondered, trying to recall the dream he had just experienced. The only detail that lingered in his mind was a repeated notion of being "slow."
He struggled for a few minutes to grasp the specifics of the dream but eventually gave up.
As he focused on how he felt, Alex realized that he was in perfect condition. In fact, his mind felt unusually refreshed, and he noticed an enhancent in his ntal faculties.
It wasn't that Alex mind had been enhanced by sleep, no. Rather, it was because his body, mind, and soul had been enhanced by the black heart. This was the first ti he had truly slept without worry, allowing his mind to experience a profound state of rest and clarity.
Usually, at night, Alex was either occupied having sex with Alia, training his smoke manipulation, or reading the nurous books Lilia had provided him. Since his ntal enhancent, the only rest he had gotten besides last night was after his fight against the dungeon boss, and even then, he hadn't slept nearly as much as his body needed at that ti.
Thankfully, the hot water of the lake in the dungeon's treasure room had alleviated so of his tiredness.
After they left the dungeon, Alex began increasing his stats and as he stamina stat grew, his tiredness gradually faded away, though after last night sleep, Alex realized that it wasn't the case.
With his current stamina, he could potentially go for days without needing rest if he avoided taxing efforts. However, as he had learned just now, not needing rest didn't an he shouldn't rest. Skipping rest could degrade both his physical and ntal performance.
After confirming that he had fully recovered and his mana reserves were replenished, Alex lay on the bed of leaves for a few minutes before standing up.
Wrapping his purple smoke around himself, Alex stepped outside of the plant chamber.
The first thing he noticed as he stepped outside was that the snow had resud, and a fresh layer had accumulated on the ground.
The second thing he observed was that they were in a dense forest where tall trees with broad, thick leaves blocked most of the weak morning sunlight from penetrating through.
Last night, he had been so out of it, struggling with the pain in his body, that he hadn't bothered to take in the surroundings where he had stopped the carriages.
"Awake?" Alia's voice called out, drawing his attention.
Turning his gaze to the right, Alex saw Alia looking back at him. She was holding a book and wore a wooden mask over her face.
Approaching her, Alex placed a hand on her head to pat her gently while asking how she was doing.
"I'm fine, though I'm a bit tired after healing so many people," Alia replied, glancing toward a certain direction.
Following her gaze, Alex's eyes fell on a group of people lying on the snow-covered ground, sheltered only by makeshift coverings of leaves that offered little protection from the cold, their occasional shivers evident even through the layers.
"I wonder what they went through to end up accepting sleeping on the ground like this," Alex mused to himself.
Most nobles were accustod to total comfort—spacious, well-decorated rooms, a host of servants at their beck and call, and wardrobes full of lavish clothing. In short, they were a pampered group. Alex was surprised to see this group of nobles enduring the harsh conditions of sleeping on the ground as if it were completely natural to them.
He himself being one of those pampered individuals, Alex knew how difficult it would be for him to sleep on the ground.
"It's not like they have much choice," Alia remarked. "It's either that or going without rest, and given their exhausted state, the choice was clear. In retrospect, that girl is the one who stands out," Alia added, pointing to another direction.
Looking in that direction, Alex saw a woman with cyan-colored hair sitting cross-legged in a ditative posture.
"Daisy?" Alex asked, fixing his gaze on her.
"Oh, she's the one you were talking to last night?" Alia raised an eyebrow. She had only heard Alex speaking to a woman but hadn't seen her face. That had changed now.
"Mm," Alex nodded as he continued to observe the young woman. "What is she doing, and how long has she been at it?"
"I have no idea what she's doing, but she hasn't slept all night," Alia revealed.
"Mm, I see," Alex nodded. "I guess I'll just ask her."
Before Alia could suggest leaving Daisy to her ditation, Alex had already started walking toward her, making her chuckle.
As Alex approached Daisy, his expression grew more perplexed. There was a noticeable distortion in the air around her, making her appear blurry.
'Heat?' Alex hypothesized.
He drew closer until he was directly behind her and asked in a deep, curious tone, "What are you doing?"
"Ah!"
Daisy's sudden startle made her yelp in surprise. At the sa ti, an intense wave of heat surged from her body, enveloping her surroundings.
"What the..." Alex exclaid as the heat slamd into his smoke armor.
In that instant, sothing that left Alex utterly shocked happened.
His armor rapidly heated up, and as the temperature soared, Alex noticed that the armor was becoming denser and more resilient. But that wasn't all. As the heat continued to intensify, the smoke armor began to glow with a brilliant orange hue, resembling steel forged in a blazing furnace.
As Alex's curiosity grew in response to the unfolding spectacle, he sensed sothing was amiss. A second later, he cursed loudly and sprinted off in a random direction.
A split second after Alex had disappeared, a deafening explosion erupted, shaking the very earth and rousing all of the forest's sleeping inhabitants.
BOOOMMM!!!
Alia, who had been observing the entire scene from a distance, imdiately dropped to her knees and raced toward the source of the explosion, her face etched with worry.
It didn't take her long to locate the epicenter of the blast and to her astonishnt, the explosion had created a crater so vast that its diater extended over twenty ters.
Without pausing, Alia plunged into the thick cloud of smoke that had been expelled by the blast, desperately searching for her brother.
Fortunately, she found Alex unscathed just monts later, much to her relief.
Alex, standing in the center of the explosion's crater, wore an expression of surprise, shock, and confusion when Alia found him.
Just as she was about to ask if he was alright, Alex drew a sharp breath and erupted into uproarious laughter.
Standing there butt naked, with laughter so loud it could be heard for kiloters around, Alex resembled nothing more than a madman.
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