On the inside, Alex was on hundred percent focused on obtaining the Cursed Blade. If he could throw money at obstacles to make them give way, then he was more than willing to do so. At least, it was not like he was hurting anybody.
The venue had all the allure of a private club. The building literally looked like it was trying to keep strangers out. But that did not bother him at all. He was after all a god.
The fact was he had arrived way too early. He was at least ninety six hours ahead of schedule. It was intentional. For a dagger of that caliber, he could not just blindly put all his hopes on it being the real deal. He had to confirm if it was the original Cursed Blade. He arrived at the magnificent sliding doors and tried to get in. But two big, burly guys (who could have easily passed as sumo wrestlers) blocked his way.
"I'm sorry gentleman, but it's members only."
Thier mouths said 'sorry' but they definitely did not look sorry. In fact, their stern expressions basically told him to get lost.
Alex read the situation clearly and saw that there was no way he was going to get past them. It was as clear as day. On a normal day, there was no way these two knuckleheads could stop him if he wanted to go in. It was not out of his reach to steal or snatch the blade. But that would bring an unnecessary amount of heat on him.
Besides, one of the cosmic laws that bound gods was that no god could get access to artifacts that belonged to another god. It was the way things were. Just as a fish could not fly, or a bird could not swim, these laws were unbreakable. So, even if he wanted to, he simply could not use his abilities to forcefully take another god's artifact. Sword god probably knew this already, and counted on the law to keep other gods from interferring with his game on earth.
Alex was helpless. Surely, all of this could not have been for nothing? Just when he needed humans to go with their instincts to judge appearances, these two knuckleheaded guards were chosing duty over typical human stereotyping!
He simply could not go back empty handed. He had to come up with a plan- QUICK.
As if in response, the universe ushered in a way out in the form of an exceptionally beautiful yellow haired woman clad in a red evening gown. Alex had not even noticed her talkless of looked at her for help. But somehow, fate intervened and she was the one who ended up approaching the helpless Alex;
"Good evening gentlemen, is there some kind of problem?"
One of the guards, (obviously a womanizer) hoarsely replied before anyone else could; "Oh none at all miss!" he repeated again like a school boy; "None at all!"
But the lady ignored the hell out of him. She was obviously addressing the fine looking young man in dashing apparell. It was no coincidence that she had appeared there at that moment. From afar, the lady had sighted Alex's overall charming appearance and was intrigued. As a lady who appreciated the fine things of life, she saw Alex's flamboyance. His extravagant clothes and accessories told her all she needed to know. So, she took advantage of his obvious trouble with the guards to approach.
"Well, I have a feeling that now that you're here, the problem has been taken care off already." Alex was the one talking now.
The compliment hit home. She smiled gracefully; "Aren't you the charming one."
"I aim to please..." he answered sweetly.
Turning to the guards, the lady declared in an assertive tone; "Let him through, he's with me."
It goes without saying that they were not too happy with that declaration. Both of them clearly wanted to score with the lady. But mister smooth-talking-fine-looking clothes had managed to ruin it all. They let them through.
Alex was more than thrilled he did not have to hurt of kill the guards. As she led him through the magnificient doors, he looked at her properly for the first time. It was not just the dress or the confident air, the lady was a beautiful creature with a voluptuous figure. It was a dangerous combination for a woman. But an even more dangerous breed were women who had all these things and were fully aware of the fact that they had them. With the way she took the lead, and postioned herself within the full view of his eyes, Alex discerned that she was definitely of the latter group.
"Well, well, it looks like I owe you one for getting me past those two polar bears out there."
"Oh please, those two knuckleheads? Don't mind them, they're big softies."
"I'm grateful anyway." He stretched out his hand. "I'm Alex."
"Scarlett."
Even though Alex had met one too many strippers with that name, there was only one thing he could say to her;
"Ah, an exotic name for an even more exotic woman."
"You flatter me sir. Thank you I guess."
"My pleasure, so tell me Scarlett, you appear to be the boss here, what is it exactly that you do?"
The time had come for her to glorify herself in the sight of this obviously successful man. So Scarlett did not even bother with trying to be modest about her job;
"I'm actually one the main organizers here you know. We handle a lot of major events here, all year round we're fully booked. So I'm responsible to bringing in the big fishes of the entertainment world to come and play here."
Faking it, Alex genuinely appeared to be impressed; "Very impressive miss Scarlett- it is miss isn't it?"
She nodded shyly.
Alex proceeded with the wanton flattery; "What a cool job. It turns out I was right after all, you are the boss here..."
"Well I don't know about that, I do preside over the invitations and decide who and who gets in. Guess you could say I have full authority in that department."
That was what Alex wanted to hear. Turns out there was no need to coerce it out of her. She served that information up to him on a silver platter. This time, Alex was not pretending when he said;
"Interesting!"
At that point, the Pleasure System dropped an interesting bit of information regarding her. It's stoic voice resounded in his mind;
"New Update alert; Be informed that Miss Scarlett Thunderman currently possesses the potential of a B-class candidate. The system detects an underlying potential lurking beneath the surface. Coital relations with this human is advised."
Alex imbibed this new information with lightning speed. The fact was, humans had the propensity ti become gods. But it could not just happen at the switch of a button. The proccess was fraught with self-sacrifice, consistency and maybe even a little faith. Although, very few humans actually attained apotheosis (transceding the mortal shell to god status), it was very much possible.
Now while there was no manual or hand written guide, or mysterious directions kept in some secret chamber, the length and breadth of it was through meditation, attaining enlightenment, and finally- the permanent severance of the silver cord that binds the mind to fleshly desires. The process of finally becoming immortal could take anything between five to fifty years.
But it was not guaranteed to be the same for everyone. As each and every human's face differed from one another, so did their potential.
The 'potential' that was being referred to in this case was not the widely accepted generic term in linguistics. No, it referred to a particular psychic essence that every human carried. It was the core of their spiritual being. As it was situated way outside the limits of their consciousness, it could neither be controlled by, nor subject to the human mind. It was a true mystery that lied with the divine secrets of creation. Not even Alex (or the other lesser gods) fully understood it completely.
But one thing he was privy to was the varying degrees of Potential levels on the spectrum. The Potential Spectrum was divided into ten different levels;
X, SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, F.
In Alex's case, the higher the level of the girl in question, the better for him. In other words, he was like an Angel that had fallen from his station, and therefore needed the 'grace' of human women to ascend back.