Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"How is he?" Daniel fell to his knees and leaned over Mathew's body.

He reached out and grabbed his face, using his thumbs to lower the skin around the young man's eyes. He then looked deeply into Mathew's pupils, looking for any sign of shock or brain trauma.

"I will manage," Mathew said in a weak voice.

Despite Nadia's immediate assistance, he felt the consequences of his unfortunate landing. Even now, several moments later, Mathew's sight was blurry and his thoughts slow.

"It's not good, he is in a shock," Daniel ignored Mathew's assurance. He turned his head up and to the side, sending a glance at the girls' faces. "Well, it's not something lethal so he should get better after some rest," the officer then gave his diagnosis.

For someone in Daniel's line of work, the ability to perform first-response medical treatment was a must.

"Did you check on Norbert?" Mathew fidgeted. 'I can't think straight yet,' the young man observed.

He wasn't going to play tough and pretend he was all right. It would be a sign of his lack of responsibility rather than his courage and endurance.

'I should gather the information, then,' Mathew decided, struggling to raise his eyes at Daniel.

"Yeah, I checked up on him," the officer nodded his head before releasing a deep sigh. He then stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. Hie fingers then started to tap against his elbows. "He still needs some time to recover," Daniel finally said what Mathew was interested in. "That prisoner of yours is stuck to the wall, just like you hoped he would be," Daniel then added, concluding his quick report.

He then averted his eyes and looked away from Mathew's face.

"Good," Mathew replied while closing his eyes.

'How come I end up at the limit of what I can survive all the time?' he asked himself, heaving a deep sigh.

'I've been dead tired, nearly dead from the virus, nearly dead from my landing...' Mathew thought, pressing his eyelids harder than usual. 'And up until this point, whenever I reached my absolute limit in something, one thing would follow,' Mathew thought, resting his head against the wall before slowly opening his eyes.

And sure enough, his entire harem stood by his side, ready to cater to his every wish.

"Can you move that guy somewhere else?" Mathew asked, turning his eyes to the officer. "You should know better how to make him easier to manage and keep locked."

Mathew had no intention of doing everything himself. And when it came to handling prisoners, the police officer had a world of experience more than Mathew could ever hope to get.

As such, leaving the job to the person most competent in doing so was Mathew's obvious decision.

"I actually wanted to request the same," a look on Daniel's face changed a little. He still looked right into Mathew's eyes...

But the young man could tell that officer's eyes were now somewhat distant.

"Isn't that great?" Mathew asked with just the tiniest bit of irony. He then closed his eyes and hung his head low.

'It's still hard to think straight,' the young man took notice, gritting his teeth over how powerless he was to solve his own affliction.

"Anyway, can you pass me the cores we gathered?" Mathew took a deep breath and asked. He then jerked his shoulders against the wall and raised up. "The sooner we get the media back and running the better."

"Sure," Daria jumped from her spot only to return with a sizeable bag of cores. The brown piece of skin likely came from some sort of backpack and now was tearing apart under the weight of the haul.

"How many did we get?" Mathew asked, grabbing the bag and raising his eyes to the girl's face.

"Around three hundred, I would say?" Daria clearly hesitated. "Can't give you the exact number," she admitted as a tiny frown appeared on her lips.

"It's okay," Mathew encouraged the girl. "This entire event was pretty hectic," the young man held nothing back against himself. "And we didn't really get to complete our mission either," he added.

Mathew then reached out and placed his hand on Daria's head.

"We did a good job, okay?" He asked, rustling Daria's hair. "And I never expected you to know the exact number either," Mathew added before shrugging his shoulders and sending Daria an amused wink.

"Fine," Daria whimpered, her shoulders slumped as she brought her head down only to look up. Her eyes were sparkling with some sort of passion.

'Is this how it's going to start today?' Mathew suddenly realized.

His hand twitched. But before any of the girls could react, he retracted his arm and turned towards the merchant nearby.

"I'm going to see what I can do with this fortress," Mathew quickly said and rushed towards the merchant.

Given Mathew's state, he wouldn't be able to do anything else if the girls were to occupy him right now. And in spite of all his injuries, working more turned out to be salvation rather than a punishment.

The shadows surged all around the young man, separating him from the dangers of the real world.

'To think that I would ever seek refuge in this subspace,' Mathew thought, shaking his head as he marched through the half-formed realm as it continued to manifest.

The second the altar appeared, Mathew opened up the bag and threw his cores into the air. He then grabbed both of his hands full of the tiny shinies before counting them down and placing ten on each of the small pedestals he observed before.

"Water, gas, and heating," Mathew muttered, taking a step back right as the cores turned white before exploding in a wave of light.

The young man couldn't tell if anything changed in the real world. He couldn't tell if what he bought was what he expected.

But he could see that the three pedestals from before now turned into a set of five.

'Three of them are the same,' Mathew noticed as he took a closer look at the changed side of the merchant's space. He then turned his eyes to examine the two new pedestals.

"A warehouse and... what?" Mathew mumbled. His pupils went wide as he stared at an extremely simple picture on the last of the pedestals.

It consisted of only three elements.

First, the price of fifty marked at its top. Then, a human hand. And finally, a patch of grass.

"Touch grass?" Mathew muttered, his entire body starting to tremble.

The young man tightened his hands and gritted his teeth.

He then raised his eyes and directed them towards the area where the presence of the merchant was the strongest.

"Is this some sort of a game for you?!" Mathew shouted, demanding the answers from this strange being.

So far, he simply relied on its services only because of how desperate he was. But now, Mathew was quickly losing his patience.

Yet, his raging did nothing. This time, the merchant simply didn't react to his outburst.

'I shouldn't act like that,' Mathew thought, tuning down and then ending his rant within a single second. 'I should avoid antagonizing whatever this being is,' he thought, sending one last grudgingly look towards the merchant's presence before turning his eyes back towards the pedestals.

'At least I think what this might do,' Mathew thought, placing further fifty stones on the pedestal.

"I want to go back," the young man requested.

'I know I should've checked the media before getting another thing,' Mathew thought as the shadowy realm collapsed all around. 'But the temptation was simply too great,' the young man added in his thoughts as he returned to reality and opened his eyes.

Mathew could see one change in the real world right away. And it was a small bundle of pure, white light that floated roughly a meter above the ground.

'What a rip-off,' Mathew thought, burrowing his furrows. 'Whoever came up with this should get sued for copyright!'

His soul protested. But knowing the use of the light, Mathew couldn't stop himself from reaching out.

Mathew's hand grasped at the white bundle. And as the young man squeezed, strange energy surged through his flesh.

All the haziness from his earlier fall disappeared. All the pain deeply rooted in his over-exhausted body vanished.

'It's as if this light itself was healing me...' Mathew thought, stunned by how quickly he returned to his peak state.

The white light surrounded him for a moment... only to then recede and revert back to its original form.

Yet, the moment Mathew returned to his senses, the look on his face darkened.

'It's great to know that it works and all...' he thought, pursing his lips into a thin line as another realization came to him. Then, his face darkened as he felt the presence of the three predators behind his back. 'But I think I know what will make me use this feature in the near future!'