NOVEL NEXT Chapter 84 Pillage
Chapter 84 Pillage
Asteria tilted her head as she gave Alex a sly smile. "So, you are going that route huh."
"Well, this is the best thing that I can do for now." Alex shrugged as he continued on flopping down on the bed. "Oh now that I noticed it, this bed smells real good..."
"Ew, what a creep." Asteria muttered to herself as she touched the symbol on Alex’s forehead.
"Um Asteria..." Alex slowly said as he saw Asteria about to do her job. "Can you make the appearance of the Tome less flashy? I don’t want the Divine Knight to sense anything weird..."
"Ok ok..." Asteria replied quickly as she gave Alex an irritated look. "I am about to do that, and you just ruined it by telling me that I should do it..."
"Oh." Alex said, not understanding why Asteria was angry again. "Go on then."
"....." This time there was only a slight glow, as another old book appeared in front of Alex.
This time the book had a huge, gaping mouth in its cover, complete with serrated teeth and dripping drool.
Alex slightly recoiled upon seeing this, immediately not liking what he was seeing.
What made his distaste worse was the fact that there was a 12-inch long tongue lolling out from the mouth, and it was doing its very best to lick Alex.
"Ugh, this is the Abyss Tome: Greed? I thought it will look like something cool..." Alex muttered to himself as he gingerly touched the book.
At the instant that he touched it, the book turned into particulates which entered Alex’s body.
Alex closed his eyes as he slowly assimilated the contents of the Tome with his mind.
He opened his eyes a minute later, feeling more rejuvenated than before.
"Ok, 2 down, 5 more to go in the future..." Alex muttered to himself as he checked out his body.
"So, how do you feel now, Alex?" Asteria inquired as she flopped on top of his head. "Do you feel the urge to steal something or just wreck lives?"
"Huh? No!" Alex hotly replied as she gave Asteria a glare. "I am not feeling anything like that! Wait, are you expecting that to happen to me?"
"Of course not!" This time it was Asteria who looked offended. "I was just joking, ok? Tsk, can’t you even take a joke?"
"I am always wary as long as you do something to me." Alex replied as he shook his head wryly. "After all, you seem serious on making me miserable..."
"That is just what you think, you paranoid hooman." Asteria angrily replied as she placed her hands on her hips. "Hey, instead of bickering with me, why don’t you go and check out what you got?"
"Right, right..." Alex said as he began to inspect his new Tome.
"...Ok, that is weird." The longer that Alex inspected his Tome, the more that he realized that Abyss Tome: Greed was actually unique.
Unlike Abyss Tome: Envy, Abyss Tome: Greed does not have many spells in it. It only had one spell, which can be considered to be just an auxiliary spell in a sense.
This spell is called Pillage, and it comprises all the abilities that Alex gets from the Abyss Tome: Greed.
What the Pillage Spell does is just simple. It allows the user to steal all the power of his/her target.
Once stolen, the user can keep the stolen power, or they can give back the stolen power to its original owner.
Now, this may sound unfair, but there are two limitations on it.
\u003e\u003e\u003eFirst Limitation\u003c\u003c\u003c
[[[The spell Pillage can only be used on targets with lower power level than the user.]]]
This just means that Alex cannot use Pillage on targets that are much more powerful than him.
Alex cannot use Pillage on any Divine Knight, as they are much more powerful than Alex.
But if Alex’s target was something like a Grade 1 Monster Rabbit, then he can easily pillage its power.
\u003e\u003e\u003eSecond Limitation\u003c\u003c\u003c
[[[There is a limit on the amount of Powers that can be Pillaged. It is not unlimited.]]]
This means that Alex cannot just Pillage numerous amounts of power to himself. There is still a limit to the amount of powers that he can steal.
The total amount of powers that Alex can pillage is determined by the Grade of Abyss Tome: Greed that Alex is in right now.
The number of Grades will equate to the number of Slots that can hold in pillaged powers.
One Grade means one Slot for powers.
Reaching Grade 1 will unlock 1 Slot, Grade 2 will unlock 2 Slots, and so on and so forth.
Right now, Alex is:
Since the slots will only depend on the Grade of Abyss Tome: Greed, Alex currently had only 1 Slot for Pillage.
This means that the number of powers that he can pillage amounts to a maximum of only 1 power.
This still looks limited, but Alex was fairly confident with what he can get.
Right now, Alex’s list of stolen powers looks like this:
[Grade 1 Slot] -------- Empty Slot, needs to Pillage power.
[Grade 2 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 2 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 3 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 3 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 4 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 4 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 5 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 5 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 6 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 6 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 7 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 7 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 8 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 8 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 9 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 9 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 10 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 10 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 11 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 11 Abyss Energy to access.
[Grade 12 Slot] -------- Needs Grade 12 Abyss Energy to access.
By looking at this list, Alex realized that once he reaches Grade 12, the maximum amount of Slots that he can get is 12 Slots.
This is somewhat an enticing number, but Alex knew that it will still take him a long time to reach Grade 12, so he had to make do with 1 slot for now.
But even with the restrictions on the Pillage Spell, Alex knew that he can have a great time using Pillage, as he only needed to find the right people to Pillage from.
And right now, there is someone that Alex was willing to try it on.
"Teresa had always been weaker than my power, even in our first meeting. Since her total power level is lower than mine, then it just means that I can Pillage her abilities for myself!"
This is the master plan of Alex that will allow him to pretend as Teresa perfectly.
By using Pillage on the much weaker Teresa, Alex can temporarily take all of her Golden Knight Abilities for himself.
Once he did that, Alex will just have to use these abilities tomorrow, and that will surely fool the Divine Knight perfectly.
Of course Alex will not take Teresa’s Golden Knight Power for long.
He will return Teresa’s powers once he and Alina leaves this world.
He will return all of it, without a single drop withheld.
After all, Alex knew that Teresa was a decent person, so leaving her powerless forever is not just right for him.
So technically speaking, what Alex will do is to just ’borrow’ Teresa’s power. He will also return it once he was done using it.
"Time to look at her then." Alex muttered to himself as he closed his eyes in concentration.
With the way that Alex appeared right now, it seemed like he was busy looking for something, and indeed, he was looking for something.
"Found it."
One second later, and he found out what he was looking for.
He felt the connection that he was looking for, and he used it to access what he wanted.
"Woosh~" Alex found himself looking at a large space, with objects and people inside it.
This large space was Alina’s Space Storage, which was created when she combined her Esper and Monster Abilities together.
This is where Alina usually stores everything that she owns, including some living objects.
Since this was Alina’s ability, it should have been only her who can access it.
But Alex was able to plead Alina to allow him access to her Storage too, and here he is, looking at the contents of Alina’s Space Storage.
"This is impressive." Alex muttered to himself, as he realized that he was able to access Alina’s Storage Space even when he and Alina were hundreds of kilometers away from each other.
"With this storage accessible for both of us, we can easily use this storage to send messages to each other." Alex thought to himself as he began to write a letter addressed to Alina.
He then left this letter inside the Space Storage, knowing that Alina will find and read it later.
"Ok, now that I am done with the letter, its time for me to see the real attraction in this place." Alex muttered as he looked at the only living beings inside the Space Storage, who were all staring at him.
"Yo, wassup." Alex said as he looked at Teresa, Carlie, and the 5 little monsters, all looking at Alex with surprise.
"Hello!" The 5 little monsters have been all traine- taught by Alina to treat Alex well. Because of that, they greeted him politely as they saw him. They were even unfazed with his current disguise.
As for Carlie, she was only silent, with her body still recuperating from her injuries.
Alex actually found it hard to believe that someone like Carlie could just stay calm in her situation. With the way that she attacked them before, Alex thought that she was someone who will trash out just to escape.
But that was not had happened. Carlie just stayed quiet, and she did not do anything threatening or worrying.
Alex had a suspicion that Carlie was all like this because of Alina whispering something on Carlie’s ear a week ago.
"..." Alex was not sure what Alina said to Carlie a week ago, but it was somewhat enough to make Carlie stay like this in the Storage.
If Carlie and the 5 little monsters were subdued and calm, the remaining person surely not is.
"F**k you!" This is Teresa’s only reply as she glared at Alex. "Once I get out here, I will make sure that I will-"
"Oh, just zip your mouth, ok?" Alex said as he gestured Teresa to shut up. "You had been cursing me already since you saw my disguise. Am I really that bad to you?"
"Creep! Pervert! Pedo!" Teresa said venomously as spit flew out of her mouth. "I won’t forgive you for taking my face and preventing to be Father’s daughter!"
"Well, I had to do some things, and this is the best disguise that I can use." Alex said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"You motherfu-"
"We had an agreement 3 days ago, right?" Alex suddenly said as he looked down at the livid Teresa. "In that agreement, you allowed me to use this disguise of yours, and to take your powers temporarily too. Surely, you are not reneging on that agreement?"
"Tsk!" Teresa gritted her teeth, as she looked like she had been cornered. "F**king agreement, if I only did not need both of your help, then I would not have joined in that agreement!"
"Hehehe too bad for you, you already did." Alex said as he placed the matter of their agreement with Teresa at the back of his mind.
The agreement that he and Alina made with Teresa was a tightly-guarded secret, so much so that Alex forced himself to not think about it just to maintain its secrecy.
"...Fine." Teresa sullenly replied, as her temper seemed to have cooled off as she deflated a little. "Stupid agreement!"
"....."
"....."
Both of them then stayed silent, with both of them waiting for the other to talk.
It was Teresa who broke off the silence, looking at Alex with narrowed eyes.
"Tentacle guy..." Teresa mumbled as she let out a soft sigh. Her voice was currently soft, as her anger seemed to have entirely disappeared. "I do not need to guess it anymore, you are here to ’borrow’ my powers already, right?"
"Touche." Alex replied as he nodded his head. "Are you ready now?"
"I am not, so please just get done with it." Teresa replied curtly as he closed her eyes in exasperation. "I still have to sleep, so just do it now."
"..."