The realization that he didn't need Soul Points to level up was quite refreshing. Alex knew that if he had to increase his other abilities and mana capacity, it would take him much longer to become strong than if he used points to increase his other abilities and his mana capacity with monster cores.
Not to mention, he would likely have to copy several powers along the way, and given the number of points required for that, not using points to level up would be a good thing.
"And so?" Scarlett asked when she saw that Alex still hadn't answered her question.
"Ah... Sorry for zoning out. As for your question, yes, I can use monster cores to level up."
"As I thought," Scarlett began but then remembered something she wanted to ask him when he woke up.
"While your body was reconstructing for the last time, your body released some kind of black liquid. Do you know what that was?"
"What is she talking about?" Alex asked in turn, addressing the system.
[The black liquid represents all the impurities that were in your body as well as the remnants of the elixir you drank as a child.]
"I see," Alex said before explaining to Scarlett what the black liquid she was referring to was.
Then Alex got up from the bed, wanting to clean off the blood on him, but he noticed that he wasn't very dirty. So he asked Scarlett, "How come I'm fairly clean after everything that happened?"
"Of course, I took care of cleaning you up. However, you'll have to do it yourself one more time because I couldn't wash off the blood from your hair."
Alex looked at Scarlett with an inquiring gaze and teased, "Was it you personally who—"
"Of course, it was one of my inventions that took care of it," she said, embarrassed.
Alex chuckled upon seeing her like that and then asked where the bathroom was.
Once in the bathroom, he undressed and noticed that his physique had changed compared to before. His muscles were more defined, and his body was very toned.
"This might be due to the increase in my abilities," he thought as he entered the shower to wash up.
After a few minutes, he emerged with a towel wrapped around his waist and asked Scarlett while drying his hair, which had grown longer and now reached his back, "Are my clothes still in the other room?" Referring to the room where he had changed before.
However, Scarlett didn't respond directly. Her gaze was directed at his well-defined abs, which were more visible now. But when she realized she was ogling him, she blushed and stammered all embarrassed, "Th-they're in this room," pointing to a door in the bedroom.
Alex, noticing that she had been checking him out and her embarrassed demeanor, wanted to tease her more but refrained from doing so to avoid embarrassing her further.
He headed toward the bedroom, saying to Scarlett, "You should go get ready for dinner."
Hearing what Alex had just said, Scarlett composed herself from her embarrassment and replied, "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"What?" Alex asked.
"Our deal was that I would join the dinner if you agreed to let us run tests on your increased strength using the artifact, which unfortunately can't be done today, so our deal is off."
'She's right,'Alex thought before proposing another deal.
"Okay, let's do this: if you join me for dinner tonight, I promise to come to you every time I have tests to run."
Scarlett didn't respond for a moment but eventually agreed.
"Okay, now that's settled, go get ready while I change," Alex said as he entered the room where his clothes were.
He wasted no time in changing as soon as he saw his clothes and exited the room just a few minutes after entering. However, he didn't find Scarlett in the bedroom. Instead, he heard the sound of running water from the bathroom, so he deduced that she was probably in there.
Just as he was about to tell her to hurry up, he heard Scarlett's voice coming from the bathroom, saying, "There's someone at the door, go see who it is."
"How do I open the door?" Alex asked.
"On the table near the bed, there's a remote control that opens the door."
Alex looked at the indicated table and saw the remote control, which he picked up. He left the room, telling Scarlett to hurry.
He descended the stairs and made his way to the library's front door. Once there, he used the remote control to open it.
Upon seeing who stood behind the door when it opened, Alex smiled while thinking, 'Hmm... It seems that it might be time to start planning how to earn some points.'