'What is this feeling?' Alex wondered, feeling something of incomparable softness beneath his head.
Slowly, his eyes fluttered open and what came into his sight could only be called divine.
Just a few centimeters from his face, he witnessed the beautiful and sleeping face of a woman. From her delicate nose to her soft, full lips, this woman's face was angelic and a pure delight to the eyes. Her skin was flawless, with a gentle, radiant glow, and her long, dark eyelashes rested peacefully against her cheeks.
Her high cheekbones framed her face perfectly, and her cascading hair, like spun silk, added to the ethereal beauty. Most captivating of all were her closed eyes, hinting at a serene and dreamlike state, promising an even more mesmerizing gaze once they opened.
"Beautiful..." Alex mumbled with an absentminded expression. It wasn't the first time he was seeing Amelia's stunning face, but in this moment, Alex could once again feel how lucky he was to have such a charming woman as his wife.
A wide, goofy grin spread across his face, lighting up his tired features.
"Thanks for the compliment," Amelia suddenly spoke, her eyes still sealed shut.
"I'm only stating the truth," Alex replied, gently rubbing his head against Amelia's pillowy lap.
Amelia let out an exhausted chuckle at her brother's antics, "You should avoid moving too much. I might have healed your wounds, but your body is still severely exhausted."
"You don't seem to be doing much better," Alex remarked.
Although she was as beautiful as ever, Alex could see the dark bags under her eyes, hinting at how tired she was.
"Mmh," Amelia nodded, her eyes still closed. "Since I wasn't certain how big I should make the orb of residual energy to harm a peak level 5, I made it as big as I could. But as you know, my residual blast ability consumes my stamina instead of mana."
Amelia sighed and opened her eyes, revealing her beautiful but tired gray eyes. "After that, I had to heal all your wounds, which were too many," she said with a gentle smile, lightly stroking Alex's face. "You should be more careful in your fights; it tears me apart to see my husband being so wounded."
"That's because I know you'll always be there to heal me that I don't mind it even when I'm being wounded," Alex paused before continuing in a loving tone. "But since I don't want to sadden my lovable wife, I promise to avoid being wounded as much as I can... but on one condition."
Amelia raised a brow and inquired, "What condition?"
"I get to have a kiss whenever I want," Alex grinned.
A chuckle escaped Amelia's lips, "I already belong to you and you can do whatever you want with me, so there's no need for such a condition."
As if to prove her words, Amelia bent her face and pressed her full, luscious lips against Alex's for several seconds before pulling back, leaving a warmth that lingered.
"I'm so going to make love to you the instant I recuperate," Alex said with a grin.
"I'll be waiting then, come at me with everything you've got, big boy," Amelia replied.
The two of them burst into laughter for a moment before a peaceful silence settled around them.
After a long while, Alex spoke once again, "Say, can you help me increase my mana reserves?"
Amelia tilted her head in confusion, "How am I supposed to do that?"
Alex then explained to Amelia the idea he had when discussing his mana reserves problem with Lilia.
"So what you're asking me is to use my cell master ability to make your heart act like... a monster's core?" Amelia wondered.
"Yeah, something like that," Alex nodded, "Is it possible?"
Amelia remained quiet for a while, a thoughtful expression on her face before hesitantly nodding, "It sounds like something that might be possible, but I'm not confident enough in my skills regarding cell control to pull it off."
Among all of her three abilities, Amelia's cell master ability was actually the one she had the least familiarity with. The reason was that she spent a lot of time training to control her residual blast ability.
As explained earlier, her residual blast ability consumed her stamina each time she used it, leaving her body too exhausted to do anything afterward. It would take her weeks or even months before she could continue her training, and since their father judged that the residual blast ability was too dangerous, he made Amelia focus solely on mastering that ability. As a result, her other abilities stalled.
Once she finally got the hang of using her ability without risking harm to herself or others, Amelia began focusing on her other abilities. However, the ability she trained the most after that was her plant control ability.
The result was that, although her cell master ability was a very precious and extraordinary ability, she was the least familiar with it. The only things she knew how to do were healing or killing a being by ordering its cells to either destroy, reproduce or transform themselves.
Oh, she also knew how to modify her plants to make them gain characteristics their natural form wouldn't allow them to have, such as the plant that birthed the luminous bulb they had been using to light up their path in the dungeon's upper floor.
However, it was obvious to Amelia that she had yet to scratch the surface of her ability.
"Plus, if I want to commit to such a risky plan, I would need to have a very deep knowledge about the entire human body and the heart in particular," Amelia explained.
What Alex was asking of her required very fine control of her ability coupled with medical knowledge, and right now, even if she could manage to finely control her ability, she simply did not possess the required medical knowledge.
"So if you were to obtain the necessary medical knowledge, you could do it?" Alex wondered.
"Not really," Amelia shook her head, "Even if I were to obtain such knowledge, I would need to research and find how manipulating and transforming your cells would impact your heart in the way we want while not being dangerous. You probably guessed it, but even a small mistake on my part could cause your death."
"I'm certain that won't happen," Alex gave Amelia a reassuring smile, "Have some faith in your skills. Oh, that actually reminds me, what happened inside that circular room in the Night's base before we came? Anna told me about an individual that attacked you before leaving."
"Oh, you speak of that psycho?" Amelia's tired eyes flashed with an annoyed expression, "That guy spoke nonsense, used his pressure on us before disappearing to gods know where."
"You don't sound as shaken as Anna had been," Alex remarked.
Although Amelia was speaking in a harsh tone, her face portraying a slightly enraged expression, to Alex, she just looked cute right now. However, beneath that affection, he harbored a burning resolve. If he were to meet that Rangyl, he would make the guy pay for what he did. How dare he harm his wives? No one threatened or hurt his loved ones without facing the consequences!
"From what Anna told me, he said that you had some special power, right?" Alex wondered, his expression turning curious.
"Mm," Amelia hummed in agreement. "He didn't react when I used my plant manipulation ability, so I guess he was speaking about my cell master ability."
"It's true that your ability to control the cells is extraordinary," Alex said, admiration lacing his voice.
He never really stopped to think about it, but now that he did, the power to control cells was actually pretty overpowered. He always knew about this fact, but the more he thought, the more potential he could see in this ability. The implications of such control were vast and, in the right hands, incredibly powerful.
'Well, I have a way to identify its value... more or less,' Alex thought to himself.
By using the number of points it would cost him to copy Amelia's cell master ability compared to how much it had cost him to copy the smoke element, he could more or less deduce the ability's worth. If the point difference was significant, it would confirm just how powerful and valuable her ability truly was. The higher the cost, the greater the potential and versatility of her cell master ability.
Thus, he asked the system how much soul points he needed if he wanted to copy Amelia's ability.
Thus, he asked the system how many soul points he would need to copy Amelia's cell master ability.
A moment later, the system's response appeared before his eyes.
When he saw the price to copy the cell master ability, Alex's eyes constricted into pinholes, a sharp intake of breath the only sound he made.