One last test before departing

'I guess I'm also a pervert,' Grace shook her head.

As much as she wanted to deny it, the truth is that she had more than enjoyed the heated moment she shared with Alex, and perhaps if it were anyone other than her grandson, Grace might have even been inclined to let things progress further.

Though she would have never allowed another man beside him to approach her to begin with, so this situation could never have happened with someone else.

The only other men she would have allowed to approach her to the point of hugging her beside Alex were her late husband and her son. Both were dead, leaving only Alex as the only man she allowed to get close to her.

However, she never anticipated that Alex would use that to take advantage of her and kiss her.

Well, "Take advantage of her" was a strong phrase. At the end of the day, she is more powerful than him and could have forced him to stop. The reason she allowed it to get out of hand was because she herself was enjoying the moment.

The consequence is that now, her own grandson is lusting over her body, which is a little troubling to say the least.

Well, it was only troubling for Grace. Judged by his words and his relationship with Amelia, Grace understood that he had no qualms about engaging in a romantic relationship with a member of his family.

'Is it really wrong?'she wondered.

Judged from what she witnessed, Alex and Amelia really looked to be in love, and they were not hurting anyone by being together, so there was nothing wrong with their relationship.

Though, that was not why Grace was wondering; rather, she was pondering if an eventual relationship with Alex would be a bad thing.

Unbeknownst to her, a seed of a forbidden curiosity sprouted in Grace's mind and she started to wonder what a romantic relationship with Alex would be like. She didn't really think of engaging in one with him, but at least, she was thinking about it.

Soon, Grace had regrouped with the others. A few minutes later, the convoy of carriages set out, their destination: Zindal.

"We should also get going," Amelia remarked as she observed the disappearing carriages.

Alex nodded in agreement, "but before that," he glanced at Amelia and Maya, "wait for me here," he said.

The two women glanced at each other and nodded.

"I won't be long," Alex assured.

Before the girls could react, he had already vanished. The only remnants that he had been there a moment ago were the fissures in the earth, as if the ground itself couldn't contain his passage.

Hundreds of meters from the girls' position, Alex could be seen darting forward at an astonishing pace, his silhouette blurring into a mere blur as he streaked through the landscape leaving a trail of dust and in his wake.

'More, more, more,' Alex thought as he kept increasing his speed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A booming sound reverberated in the surroundings with each acceleration, accompanied by the emergence of deep cracks on the ground.

Seconds later, he finally came to a halt.

Looking back the way he came from, Alex assessed the distance he had traveled.

"It should be around four kilometers," he remarked, "four kilometers in about two minutes."

Quickly doing the math, he realized that he could cover one kilometer in thirty seconds, meaning that with each passing second, he traveled around thirty meters.

"It's a little... disappointing?"

He didn't think he was slow; he knew he was actually quite fast. With his speed, he could cover more than hundreds of kilometers in just one hour, so he was by no means slow.

However, Alex expected much more. Perhaps it was due to the enhancement he had received after the black heart penetrated his chest, but Alex was actually expecting to move at a much faster pace.

There was also the fact that right now, his stats were comparable, or even a bit higher than those of a mid-level 5. He didn't expect being at level 5 to be so slow.

Of course, he knew that even within the same level and tier, the strength of individuals could vastly vary, but ultimately, he could only compare his speed to that of the night group members and the level 5 beasts in the forest, and from his perspective, both were much too slow compared to him.

"Forget it, my current speed is good enough. Plus, I can always increase it if need be. Though I should avoid increasing it too much at once," Alex mused.

After what happened during his fight against Todd and Tobias, he understood that an exponential increase of his strength or agility stats all at once could be just as harmful as it could be beneficial.

That's why he decided that from now on, he would slowly increase his stats while also making sure to save some for emergencies that required a specific set of stats or to copy another ability.

"Next test," Alex thought and closed his eyes.

He focused on filtering out everything useless from his head and extended his senses to his surroundings, trying to gauge how far he could perceive right now.

To Alex's shock, the range at which he could sense things extended up to about five kilometers, and if he really pushed himself, he could even go up to seven kilometers, though things weren't as clear anymore if he pushed it that far.

He had expected his senses to travel far and wide after the heart had increased his overall stats, but not by this much!

Right now, if he truly concentrated, he was certain that he could even perceive what Amelia and Anna were chatting about.

"This is incredible!" Alex grinned as his eyes snapped open.

With such a wide range of perception, he could potentially pick up on anyone trying to ambush him even before they got inside his range.

However, Alex's joy diminished slightly when he felt himself getting exhausted by the seconds. It wasn't physical fatigue, but mental.

Understanding that the cause of that was the fact that he had extended them, Alex retracted his senses while making sure to gauge the range within which he could sense things comfortably.

To his disappointment, that range was closer to him than he thought.

The range at which he could sense his surroundings without feeling exhausted was a mere three hundred meters. Even then, if he truly wanted to feel safe and avoid mental exhaustion, he would have to reduce that range to around two hundred meters.

'What a bummer,' Alex sighed in disappointment.

If he could enhance his senses like his attributes, he would have been just a little bit disappointed, but now? He was quite upset.

'Well, at least it's better than before,' he tried to cheer himself up.

Before the increase to his mind, Alex could perceive up to fifty meters. But just like now, where he had to reduce the range at which he could sense his surroundings from seven kilometers to two hundreds meters, he had to reduce the range from fifty meters to ten meters.

However, there was a difference with his current senses that wasn't there before, and that difference was that he could perfectly feel everything within the range of his senses.

Now, he could even count the grains of sand around him! Though he won't waste his time doing so.

All in all, although it wasn't as he expected and quite a bit of a letdown, he was pretty satisfied with his current senses, so he moved to the next and final test on his list: the range at which he could control smoke.

A few minutes later, this test was concluded.

Apparently, the range at which he could control smoke depended on how far his senses could travel. That was something he learned when he realized he could control smoke even when it was seven kilometers from him.

Fortunately, contrary to his senses, he could perfectly control smoke even if it was around seven kilometers away from him. Not only that; thanks to his control over smoke, he could discern things perfectly even if they were seven kilometers away, where his senses would otherwise be fuzzy, something he assumed to be due to his sovereignty.

"Well, that's it, let's return," Alex thought after he finished his tests.

He had no intention of testing his other stats, and quite frankly, he couldn't perfectly measure them right here.

He couldn't risk wounding himself just to see how sturdy he was right now, nor could he exhaust himself to understand just how much stamina he had.

As for his strength, he preferred to test it using a device like the one in Scarlett's room. It would allow him to get a better idea of his strength without destroying everything around him.

With a snap of his fingers, Alex appeared right in front of the girls.

His sudden appearance startled the girls, and Amelia swiftly took a fighting stance. But upon seeing who it was, she sighed in relief and relaxed.

"Did you finish what you had to do?" she wondered.

"Yes, we should get going," Alex replied.

"Umm, how are we going to travel if we don't have a carriage?" Maya inquired.

"Like this," Alex snapped his fingers, and under the girls' stunned eyes, a carriage made of purple smoke was created.

Alex had to train the whole night to be able to create this carriage.

It wasn't the carriage itself that was difficult; the challenging part was finding the perfect balance between heaviness and lightness. If the carriage was too light, they couldn't board it as the construct would crumble. If it was too heavy, on the other hand, once their own weight was added, the carriage wouldn't be able to stay airborne.

"No offense, but...this thing doesn't seem safe at all," Maya remarked hesitantly as she eyed the smoke carriage.

"I assure you that it is," Alex replied confidently, gesturing for them to board.

To prove his words, he boarded the carriage and tapped on it with his shoes. "See, it's safe," Alex said when a reassuring thud was heard.

"Now stop being a scaredy-cat and enter," Alex said.

Without a moment's delay, Amelia stepped into the carriage, settling beside Alex, and gently rested her head on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Maya hesitated, her gaze fixed on the smoke carriage, then reluctantly gave a nod.

Since Alex had reinforced the carriage to withstand friction with the wind and unexpected aerial encounters. As Maya's head connected with the carriage, rather than dissolving into smoke, a resounding thud reverberated through the air.

"...."

"...."

Alex and Amelia could only look toward the young heiress with baffled expressions.

"You would think not needing glasses to see would have made her less clumsy, but apparently not," Alex chuckled, observing Maya as she stood up, gently massaging her forehead.

"Ouch, that stings!" Maya cursed with her cute little voice, dusted her dress, and carefully boarded the carriage.

Thankfully, this time, she didn't stumble and fall.

'Why is she clinging to him like that?' Maya wondered as she sat across from the siblings.

'Now that everyone is on board, let's depart!' Alex exclaimed.

A moment later, the smoke carriage soared into the air, its destination: the Drazen auction location.

*****

Damn, this chapter is longer than usual!

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that this arc will come to an end tomorrow. Care to suggest a name for the arc?