Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"And?" Mathew turned his eyes towards Carol, curious to see her reaction. "How are you feeling?"

In theory, raising one's level by five wouldn't bring all that much of a difference. And even though Mathew heavily focused on the girl's mind statistic, she had yet to grow it beyond what other members of his group already achieved.

Yet, given how Carol's level nearly doubled in what appeared to be a single instant, asking her about how she felt about it herself could give the young man some insights.

"I'm... not sure,' the girl replied while putting a hesitant look on her face. She then raised her hand to her eyes as if eager to figure out just how much her strength grew.

"What is it?" Mathew repeated his question, moving his eyes toward the girl's hand.

"My eyesight," she then admitted and lowered her arm back to her side. "It seems to be better than before," she then said while putting a confused expression on her face. "I mean, it's not like I was having trouble seeing things before but... how can I explain it?" she wondered out loud only to get more lost in thoughts.

"Mhm," Mathew nodded his head, eager to find out more about the effects of raising one's level. "Did anything else change?" he then asked, hoping for a better answer than what he got so far.

"Well...' Carol took some time to think before replying. But after a while, she finally lifted her arm and placed it on her stomach. "I feel hungry," she answered while rubbing her tummy.

"Really?" Mathew muttered only to lift his left hand and place it on top of Carol's fingertips which were currently resting on top of each other over the girl's stomach region. "And how much food do you need right now?" he wondered out loud only to guess just how much food their bodies actually needed when they reached the state beyond natural human growth.

'Wait, that's bad' the young man quickly realized what was going on when he could feel three separate stares digging into his back. As such, instead of investigating the topic any further, he simply retracted his hand only to lock them over his chest.

"That's a pretty weird question to ask, isn't it?" Carol pointed out with a small, awkward smile. She then threw a quick glance at the rest of the girls in the group before taking a step to the back in a futile attempt of escaping the spotlight. "I'm not sure how to quantify it but I feel like I could eat a cow whole."

"Then our next destination is decided," Mathew then announced, turning around and heading straight for the doors.

"Huh?" Carol twitched, rapidly turning her head around to follow Mathew's movements. "I can hold on, though?" she then protested, a hint of fear appearing in her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Mathew then asked, turning his head around and staring down at the girl with his eyes wide open.

"I mean..." the girl hesitated. She then swallowed a mouthful of saliva only to open her mouth...

And then have her stomach play quite an overture to express its hunger to the wide world.

Carol's face flushed with red as she attempted to hide her blush by averting her head.

"I don't need to eat right away," she finally managed to squeeze a few words that threw some light on what she meant before. "We came here so that I could grow even stronger, right?" she then pointed out, only for her face to suddenly freeze in terror. "Or could it be... that that's it?"

"No, you are correct," Mathew said, closing his eyes for a moment as he took two long breaths to calm himself down. "It's true that we came here to let you grow even stronger. It's also true that we are not done with that yet," he explained a little, only to follow Carol's example and avert his face. "But that brings us to another topic," he said after a short moment. "Just like back about an hour ago..."

"You forgot," Nadia said in an exasperated voice only to raise her hand and use it to cover her face. "You forgot that the touching grass feature only exists at the specific merchant," she then elaborated in a small voice while shaking her head with disbelief.

"That's... right," Mathew admitted to his own faults. "Which is also the very reason why I need someone to take care of this place from now on," he then added, raising his head and throwing a tense look at the sibling duo. "I can't handle having everything on my shoulders. You guys could see the effects of that twice already," he pointed out only to pick up his pace and reach out for the doorknob.

"The trip here turned out to be unnecessary, then," Nadia commented, shaking her shoulders as she followed in Mathew's footsteps.

"Maybe yes, maybe no," Mathew replied as a small smile appeared on his lips. 'Maybe babe I don't know,' he added in his thoughts out of mental obligation before shaking his head and focusing back on the topic. "We learned that a sudden growth in your strength leads to your body craving nutrients to support said growth," he pointed out only to step outside of the autonomous office area and make his way out to the main hall.

"Where are we going now?" Carol asked, clearly uneasy over how her situation turned into such a messy topic.

"All the way to the top," Mathew replied, only for a wry smile to appear on his lips. "We will have to crawl through that damned shaft," he reminded everyone only to open up a little as he then shared a small grin with the rest.

"But it's a price that I'm willing to pay!" he said, his soul filling with joy when he finally got a shot at quoting a sentence from the show that he grew up loving as a kid and then nearly worshipped as he grew more mature.