Someone

'What the hell is that price?!' Alex wondered with a stunned expression.

Before him, floating in the air, a translucent blue screen hovered, displaying a string of words:

[Ability: Cell Master

Grade:???

Points needed to copy: 1,000,000,000 soul points]

Alex rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

'Surely it must be that I took a hit to my head and it's making me hallucinate,' Alex nodded his head, 'there's no way I'm seeing that I need one billion soul points to copy this ability.'

Unfortunately for Alex, no matter how much he rubbed his eyes, the billion soul points needed to copy the ability didn't decrease.

'Don't tell me it's the real price,' Alex thought in dread.

As a reminder, the ability to control the smoke element that he copied from Lilia cost 200 soul points, 200!

Using the difference in points needed to copy the two abilities, the system was basically telling him that next to Amelia's cell master ability, his smoke ability was utter trash!

Of course, if one were to take into account his sovereignty, then the cost to copy his ability would skyrocket. But, Alex doubted that one could copy a sovereignty in the first place; after all, one needed to link their soul to that of the spirit of the element they wielded to become a sovereign.

Still, even in the highly improbable case that one could copy a sovereignty, Alex doubted that it would cost a billion.

He didn't have in mind to copy Amelia's cell master ability right now, mostly because he didn't know how effective it was and how it worked, only having an inkling, but even then he felt utter dread at the thought of how much time it would take before he could copy that ability.

'Probably hundreds if not thousands of years,' Alex remarked, 'no, it might take less time,' he thought a moment later.

To quickly gather points, he just needed to do actions that earned him additional points.

At that moment, the exquisite face and sinuous body of a woman with gray eyes and hair flashed in Alex's mind.

He had already shed his inhibitions about a romantic relationship with Grace. If he managed to make her his, there was no doubt that he would obtain a massive amount of points. Besides her, there were also some other women in his family that he had his eyes on. If he managed to win their hearts, saving one billion points wouldn't be impossible.

This realization was like a beacon of hope in the overwhelming darkness that was the cost for copying Amelia's cell master ability.

'Plus, I'm certain that not every ability is this expensive,' Alex noted.

To confirm his thoughts, Alex decided to ask the system.

'Is Amelia's cell master ability the most expensive ability among those I could copy?'

A second later, the monotone voice of the system resounded in Alex's mind, and its answer could only be described as stunning.

[The cell master ability is the second most expensive ability you can copy.]

Alex froze, his eyes widening, his pupils flickering with shock.

The system's answer was just a single sentence, but this sentence was the most stunning thing Alex had heard in a long time.

Gathering one billion points was already enough to make him feel dread, but now he was hearing that there was another ability that cost more?!

Even if he had numerous wives who were all immensely powerful and who loved him dearly, wouldn't his dick fell off before he gathered enough soul points?!!

'But what about those question marks?' Alex wondered. 'Does that mean the system doesn't know the ability's grade?'

He asked the system about it, but as he expected, there was no response, hinting at the fact that the system indeed didn't know the cell master's grade. This realization struck Alex and made him understand that even now, both he and Amelia had no clue about the true potential of her ability.

He lingered for a moment, then with a shaky breath, he inquired, 'Who among my harem members has the most costly ability and what is that ability?'

[The most expensive ability to copy comes from "Lilia Eswald".]

'Figures,' Alex nodded.

The system's interface then changed from Amelia's cell master ability to a new string of words.

[Boundless Blade (Sealed): Create a blade that can cut anything apart.

Grade: ???

Soul points needed to unseal: 50

Soul points needed to copy: 2,000,000,000

Warning: This ability is currently missing a crucial part. Without that part, the ability won't activate even if the host were to copy it.]

'It's missing a part?' Alex wondered with a bewildered expression.

He merely cast a glance at the exorbitant price of the ability before shifting his focus to other things. He already expected the cost to copy this ability to be astronomical, so it didn't surprise him much. In fact, the price was slightly less than what he had expected; it's not to say that it was cheap, though.

Also, as he expected, this ability's grade was also unknown to the system.

What intrigued him most, though, was the system's warning and the ability's description.

'A blade that can cut anything apart?' Alex mused. This explanation seemed quite exaggerated, he thought. After all, a blade that could cut anything could potentially kill gods, but Alex doubted that such an ability existed.

'But why does this ability sound familiar?' Alex wondered, furrowing his brows. He was certain that Lilia had never spoken about this ability, but for some unknown reason, it felt as if he had always known about this ability.

'Weird,' Alex thought. Then he asked the system, 'What is the crucial part that is missing that you mentioned?'

Several seconds passed, but the system didn't reply, making Alex understand that it didn't know the answer to his question.

'I guess I will have to ask Lilia,' Alex concluded.

He finally focused on Amelia, about to ask her something, but closed his mouth upon seeing that she had returned to sleep.

'I should also do the same,' Alex thought as he closed his tired eyes.

****

An unknown amount of time later, Alex's eyes fluttered open, greeted by the stunningly beautiful face of Amelia.

Alex admired her face for a while before slowly sitting up. As he moved, he could feel his muscles protest. Amelia had healed his wounds, but it seemed he wouldn't escape the pain of having his overextended body.

'Well, it's better than being dead,' he told himself, slowly pushing himself up.

He staggered for a moment before managing to stand firm. Glancing down at the sleeping Amelia, Alex smiled lovingly and murmured, "I'm coming for you."

After that, he walked to the edge of the upper part of the boss's chamber and stared around.

'Damn, that's one hell of an explosion,' Alex thought as he finally took in the state of the room.

He couldn't help but glance at Amelia, wondering how such an adorable woman could cause so much destruction.

'Fortunately, I wasn't the one at the receiving end of this explosion,' he sighed in relief.

He stared at the chamber some more before taking a step downward.

Leaping over the rocks and debris that had fallen from the ceiling, Alex quickly descended to the center of the chamber where an extraordinarily large hole extended hundreds of meters downward, darkness swallowing the bottom.

Staring at the abyss the explosion caused, Alex shook his head and sighed, "A pity its body has been completely disintegrated."

If the boss's body was still there, he would have extracted its core, which would have earned him quite a massive amount of money if sold.

However, Alex understood that it was for the best. If the explosion hadn't been powerful enough to obliterate the boss's body, there was a chance that the creature might have survived. If that had happened, Alex and Amelia would likely be the ones dead right now.

Still, it didn't stop Alex from feeling bad about the lost money!

Just as he was sighing once again, something on the ground glinted, catching his attention.

When he glanced over, Alex was pleasantly surprised to find the double-headed scythe he had wielded during his fight against the boss.

Earlier, when the boss had charged at Amelia, Alex had been forced to act quickly, ignoring the weapon that had slipped from his hands as he collapsed to his knees.

'I didn't expect it would still be intact, given how close it was to the explosion,' Alex thought as he picked up the scythe.

He didn't know where the member of Night had found such a weapon, but Alex was certain that this double-headed scythe held many secrets that he wouldn't mind unearthing.

That would have to wait, though.

Storing the scythe away in his personal space ring this time, Alex took one last glance at the sizeable hole before leaping back up.

However, he didn't take the same path he had taken to descend, heading in the opposite direction instead.

Seconds later, he stood before a large wooden door, a wide grin on his face.

This wooden door had not been there when Alex and Amelia first stepped through the boss's chamber. The reason for that was that the this door only appeared after the boss was defeated.

The chamber beyond this door was none other than the fabled treasure room.

Imagining all the treasures waiting for him behind that door almost made Alex forget about the money he had lost due to not being able to collect the boss's core.

Almost!

What Alex hadn't anticipated, however, was that the moment he took a step toward the door, it would abruptly swing open and someone would step out of it.