Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"Can you see anything weird near the merchant, Leila?" Mathew asked as he turned his eyes to his second wife.

"You mean that window levitating near where the guy's head should be?" Leila replied with a small smile as her eyes locked on the very same object.

"What about you, Nadia?" Mathew moved his eyes over to his prime wife.

Yet, seeing the detailed statistics of all three women, he could already tell what was going to be Nadia's answer.

"Yeah," the girl nodded her head. "Would you mind telling us what it is?" she then requested.

"Just a little bit longer," Mathew replied with a shake of his head. He then turned his eyes towards the police officer nearby. "What about you?"

"I only see the merchant," Daniel replied. As he stood in and observed Mathew's actions, he was perfectly aware of the topic. "No window handing above his head or anything," he elaborated while shaking his head sideways.

"Good..." Mathew muttered under his nose. He then lowered his head only for his eyes to alternate between the floor and what likely was a warehouse's door.

Mathew then raised his hand and rubbed his chin as he fell deep into his thoughts.

'Testing it out could be quite tricky,' he realized, too scared about potentially injuring any of his allies or even the innocent survivors of the apocalypse to make them the subjects of his testing. 'Wait, don't we have a perfect candidate for this?'

Mathew's shoulders twitched before he turned to the policeman with a smile. "Would you mind fetching both Norbert and Stephen?" the young man requested out of nowhere.

"Eh?" Daniel shrugged when he realized it was him that Mahtew's eyes laid upon. "What for?" he then asked, failing to make it any less obvious that he was simply trying to buy himself some time.

"I need to run some tests," Mathew replied before ignoring Daniel and turning his head back to his girls. "Daria, look again," Mathew then ordered. "Are you sure this window is all you can see by the merchant?"

Mathew might have been the only one who could use the grace feature of this merchant. Yet, there was also a chance that the only difference between him and Daria, when it came to noticing those things, was the fact that Mathew actually knew where to look.

"Now that you mentioned it... Isn't there some sort of a torch?" Daria replied with hesitation. She kept on staring at the white light of the grace above the floor. Her mouth would tremble now and then as she would attempt to speak out only to hesitate and end up not saying a word.

"What about you, girls?" Mathew moved his eyes over at Nadia and Leila.

"Nothing," Nadia was the first one to spread her arms open in a gesture of obliviousness. "I tried to look closer ever since you mentioned it to Daria, but I can't see anything special or unorthodox," she explained.

'So there is some sort of barrier to seeing those things?' Mathew thought before shaking his head and then approaching the merchant again. Yet, right as he stood a single step away from the hooded shadow, he suddenly turned his head to the back only to look at Daniel with displeasure.

"Weren't you supposed to fetch those two here?" Mathew asked in an irritated voice while pulling his eyebrows together.

"Fine," Daniel rolled his eyes before turning around and leaving for the hole in the wall that has now become the only route anyone could use to move between the floors.

Mathew accompanied the officer with his eyes, only moving them back to the merchant once he saw Daniel disappear below the floor as he quickly climbed down the shaft. Only then did he raise his arm and selected a single core out of the bag before pressing it against the shutters of the window.

'It doesn't work,' Mathew thought, surprised by the lack of cooperativeness from this merchant's feature.

Up until this point, every time Mathew would assume something would work like he could expect it to work within the game, it would quickly fulfill his predictions. And right now, by refusing to accept the core from his hand, the window that likely lead to the warehouse Mathew purchased simply refused to cooperate!

"How about you open it first?" Daria suggested as a small smirk made its way to her lips, only for the girl to avert her eyes and cover her mouth with her hand.

"I saw that smirk," Mathew called the girl out. "But do you really think something so stupid..." he started, reaching out for the window's shutters... Only to open them with a single pull.

And it went without question that any further words of beratement ended up stuck in the young man's throat.

"Well, it seems I was the one too stupid to realize it," Mathew muttered under his nose before pulling the shutters to the sides and pressing the core against a pitch-black layer of darkness hidden underneath.

This time, the core simply disappeared from his fingers the moment it touched the surface of the window.

[A single grade 1 core deposited]

A system message appeared in the corner of Mathew's vision, only for the young man to glance over and then ignore it.

"I want to pull out a grade one core," Mathew said right away.

When the core disappeared, it was like a frame of a movie changing. It was between Mathew's fingers and then it simply wasn't there. Yet, right now, the process looked slightly different.

At first, a hollow and see-through projection of the core appeared, just the tiniest distance away from the surface of the warehouse. Then, it slowly started to take colors.

'Pop!'

A small, weird yet satisfying sound reached Mathew's ears right as the core suddenly was infused with mass only to fall down to the ground.

"Careful!" Nadia reacted before anyone could as much as the sense that something was wrong, throwing herself forward and catching the core right before it could strike the ground.

"Woah!" Mathew shouted as he backed off, escaping from the path of Nadia's leap. And then he had no other choice but to watch from the front-seat perspective how his beloved fell down on the ground. "Are you okay?" Mathew then asked, rushing forward to check on the girl.

"Come on, do you really think something like this would bother me?" Nadia asked as she swiftly gathered herself up from the floor.

Mathew extended his arm to help the girl up. Yet, rather than accepting his hand, Nadia brought her own hand up... and then placed the core directly on Mathew's palm.

Her eyes turned to the side while she tightened her lips. Nadia's expression soured as she turned her face away only to mutter, "you didn't need to ask for it that quickly."

"I was trying to help you up," Mathew replied with a powerless comment on his own before shaking his head and putting the core back into the bag in his other hand.

And then, without any hesitation or second thoughts, he shoved the entire bag right into the void of the warehouse.

[A bag with thirty-seven grade 1 cores deposited]

'Huh?' Mathew shrugged. Because now that he heard the number, he realized that the math of the merchant didn't check out.

'We definitely gathered under three hundred of them. I then used thirty to get the first three unlocks and a further two hundred fifty to unlock the second set of features,' he thought. 'On its own, it all works out. But when adding the spare cores...''

Counting all the cores up, their haul from before should be exactly three hundred and seventeen. And this number was quite a bit bigger than what Mathew already expected!

'Could it be that there was a core that was more expensive?' Mathew guessed. 'Like, the one taken from that leader, maybe?'

Once again, Mathew ended up stuck in the loop on his own thoughts. He was so distracted that he didn't even bring his hand down, making it oscillate right near the void of the warehouse.

"Mathew!" Nadia's shout finally brought the young man back to his senses.

"Huh?" Mathew moaned a little while shaking his head. "How long was I out?" he then asked, turning his head and looking at his wife with worry.

"Only a few moments," Nadia replied while concern made her face turn tense. "Are you really sure you are alright?" she then asked as she took a step closer to her partner. "You got hit quite bad, back then," she added, reaching out with her hand towards Mathew's cheek.

"I'm fine," Mathew replied with a smile while allowing Nadia's small hand to fall on his cheek. He even went as far as to raise his own hand and sandwich Nadia's fingers between his palm and his cheek.

For a short moment, the young man simply drifted in this comfortable position, using Nadia's hand as a temporary pillow.

"I brought the guy!" Daniel suddenly shouted, forcing Mathew to snap out of it. The exhaustion filling the officer's voice made Mathew flare up... Only for the young man to see the officer struggling to get out of the hole while carrying Stephen on his back.

"What about Norbert?" Mathew asked on autopilot, genuinely expecting to see both of them at once.

"Do you really think an old man like me can carry two people at once?" Daniel replied with a scoff before heaving a heavy sigh and dropping Stephen on the floor. "But honestly speaking, Norbert is still out. I didn't want to disturb him," he added before averting his eyes and sitting sideways on the floor, taking his time to regain his breath.

"Well, it's not that much of a problem," Mathew replied as he turned his eyes back towards Daria. "Now then, do you remember when I asked you to see if there is anything extraordinary around the merchant?" he asked.

"It's this light," Daria replied, this time her voice was devoid of any hesitation. "At first I thought I was simply tired, but now I'm certain. There is no way for a blob of light to just float randomly a meter above the floor!"

"You are completely right," Mathew replied with a smile before waving at the girl. "Come closer," he encouraged.

"Somehow, I don't really feel like doing it," Daria hesitated as she cast her eyes on Mathew's face. "I really don't like that smile of yours," she protested, clearly unwilling to follow through with Mahtew's order.

"Scaredy cat," Leila commented under her nose, only to turn her face away as soon as Daria directed her furious glance at her partner.

"Fine then, let me show you what this weird bundle of white light does," Mathew said. He then clenched his teeth... Only to randomly send the most powerful strike that he could manage against a nearby concrete pillar.

His raised statistics added a lot of strength to Mathew's punch. But even his improved vitality didn't make Mathew's skin resilient enough to sustain this kind of impact.

As a result of the punch, Mathew's hand was covered with blood as the small part of concrete that he broke away with his punch made a great job at cutting the skin of his hand open.

"Can you see just how injured my hand is?" Mathew asked while raising his slightly pained hand for all to see.

"Yeah," Leila nodded her head only to stumble on her feet when Nadia suddenly rushed forward, sending a powerful gust of wind Leila's way.

"What the hell did you do?!" Nadia screamed out, scrambling around as she attempted to reach for Mathew's hand.

"Just trust me with this one, will you?" Mathew requested while putting a stoic look on his face.

At first, Nadia hesitated. She ultimately pursed her lips and backed off, although her face showcased just how dissatisfied she was with this kind of development.

"Well then," Mathew muttered, taking a quick glance at where he should aim his hand before moving his eyes back on the girls. "Let me show you something glorious," he said before grasping at the silvery light.