Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"Were you guys using this path all this time?" Carol asked in a whinny voice as she struggled to come up the shaft. Even though there was a ladder there for an easily accessible means of traversing it, it was still fitted in an extremely cramped space.

Were any member of Mathew's group considerably bigger, they could potentially struggle with even taking this path up to the top floor.

"Yeah," Mathew replied, making sure to keep his eyes locked on the ladder. Even though he was climbing the ladder above his new wife, he could tell that looking down could potentially disastrous outcome down the line, once he would rest with his harem to sleep.

"How about making a rope ladder and throwing it down the main staircase?" Carol then suggested, only to release an exhausted moan.

The task of climbing the ladder was simple. Yet, for someone clearly not used to strenuous physical exercise nor boasting a huge improvement in stamina-related stats, it was still an exhausting task to climb nearly two floors up a ladder.

"That's not the worst idea," Mathew admitted without much thought.

"But?" Carol then asked.

"But what?" Mathew played dumb, having no wish to share the details of the small plans he had for the place. 'Even if they are going to be the ones managing it, I should be able to deal with it before getting the entire settlement finished anyway.'

Just like the young man explained to his actual wives before, it wasn't that he wished to keep his plans secret. It would simply take too much time and effort only to bear little if any benefit.

"It's the way you said it," another girl said from above Mathew. Yet, due to the narrowness of the shaft now combined with six bodies filling most of the free space within, the voice was too distorted for Mathew to recognize it. "Even though you agreed with her words, it's pretty damn obvious that you have something more in mind," the voice added only to top the sentence off with a small sigh.

'I wonder who said it,' Mathew thought, looking up.

Contrary to looking down, he felt pretty safe about looking in the other direction. After all, even if Daria, who was directly above him, ended up flashing her pants at him, it wouldn't be anything that she should be embarrassed about at this point.

"Thanks for letting me know," Mathew said, only to hear the familiar rustling of people crawling out of the hole. Yet, as the hole was small and located in a pretty inconvenient way, it also meant that Mathew soon had to stop in his track, hanging to the ladder to his dear life while he waited for the people above to get out of the shaft. "As for the reason, I vaguely remember there is an option to reinforce this building," he then revealed.

Now that the cat was out of the bag anyway, it was better to just spill the beans rather than stubbornly keep to his earlier decision. Since the circumstances of the situation changed, Mathew had no other choice but to adjust his decision as well.

"And I hope that doing so will regenerate parts of the building to how it used to be before," he then revealed the crux of his plans without going into extensive detail.

The situation changed. Mathew was now pretty much pressed to reveal what was going through his mind... But at the same time, this very situation meant that he had no need to lead everyone through the logic that brought him to the conclusion he just shared with everyone.

After all, Mathew's people were only interested in said conclusion, not every little hint and detail that brought Mathew to it in the first place.

"Okay, I'm out," Nadia reported given how she was the first to jump into the shaft before.

"My turn, then," Leila replied, quickly jumping through the hole in a pretty reckless and athletically demanding maneuver.

'That's the fittest girl in the group for you,' Mathew thought once he could see delicate rays of light reaching the shaft from the hole, now that there were two bodies less blocking its passage.

"There we go," Daria muttered to herself, seemingly levitating in the shaft as she calmly turned around. For a brief moment, she didn't hold the ladder with any of her libs, and yet she managed to move up a meter before floating right above the hole in the shaft and then simply sliding through it.

'Was that her skill?' Mathew thought, baffled by the ingenious application of it. 'Does it mean she can use a part of that monster-like transformation of her when there is little enough light?' he then attempted to guess, following his habit of looking into the clues about this new, changed world in every tiniest detail he observed.

"Coming through!" Mathew announced once he climbed roughly two meters up. He then stretched his right arm to the side, locking it against the edge of the hole. With his legs still on the ladder, he then twisted his upper body to the side, switching his other hand as well. And then, after dropping his legs off the ladder and letting them hang freely in the tight insides of the shaft, he simply pulled himself up before pushing his body through the opening.

"Here," Nadia said, squatting down and reaching out with her hand to help Mathew up.

Even though the man got up on his own, he still accepted the help with a heartwarming smile.

"Thanks," he muttered, dusting off his pants in a matter of seconds. "Now then, he quickly moved his eyes away from the girl.

For some reason, seeing her in a slightly unkempt state, with dust covering her clothes and several tiny smudges of the dirt from the shaft soiling her otherwise perfect face...

'It's making her feel more approachable, for some reason,' Mathew thought, gulping down his saliva.

Even though they were theoretically a married couple while being lovers at the core, the young man still faced some struggles to casually approach the girl.

'Is this the scammer fallacy?' he then thought, turning his eyes towards the merchant located right by the massive hole left after exploding the main staircase away. 'Well, who cares,' the young man decided to ignore the topic as he hurried towards the merchant.

"Okay then," he muttered to himself, reaching out for the merchant's shadow right away. "I will check some things out and get back before using any of the cores," he then announced, grasping at the shadows before any of the girls could stop him.

The shadows surged, only for the rest of the usual drill to follow suit. And a single moment later, Mathew stood in the shadowy realm, surrounded by several shelves filled to the brim with various items.

"And the weapon's rack is..." Mathew whispered, looking through the area.

Even though this was the best merchant, goods-wise, that he could use, for now, it was still a long time since he last visited him. And with that in mind along with all the troubles and guesses that occupied Mathew's memory, it was no wonder that he forgot its layout!

"There!" Mathew then exclaimed, once his eyes landed on a shelf filled with weapons of all possible sorts.

So, without any further hesitation, he stepped forward, ready to push one of his plans a tiny step further.

"Let's see what would be the best fit."