Jack clutched the piece of black metal against his chest, his palm trembling slightly from the excessive force.
As he "looked" at the options surfacing in his mind, he drew a deep breath and quickly made up his mind. "Enhance my body."
As soon as the words left his mouth, that indifferent voice rang out in his mind again. "Beginning basic physical enhancement. Please remain conscious."
"What do you mean, remain conscious—" A sense of foreboding flashed through Jack's heart.
As a warm force flowed from his chest into his body, he immediately understood what that meant.
"Humph!"
It felt as though countless tiny needles were piercing inch by inch from his chest into his flesh, while countless small currents slowly crawled beneath his skin.
Worried that he might expose himself, Jack instinctively let out a muffled groan, barely managing to keep himself from screaming.
Then, he felt his body beginning to change.
At the same time, in the incomparably distant Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
Benjamin sat quietly in the laboratory, his consciousness descending through the newly widened mental-power channel into the black Medium.
Because the channel for sending power through was too narrow, he had no surplus strength to squander. Benjamin could only use a more ingenious method to complete the physical enhancement.
Benjamin spread out his mental power bit by bit, slowly sorting through the vitality lingering deep within Jack's bones, muscles, and even cells.
He squeezed out that vitality, rearranged it, and incidentally helped Jack sort through all the tissues and cells in his body.
Benjamin was exceedingly careful throughout the process, like using a blade of grass to slowly stir a pile of sand. With even a little too much force, the entire structure might collapse completely.
There was no helping it. At this stage, there was