175 I'm sorry (Yes, that's chapter's title, not author's apology)
“Mathew!”
It first appeared as a distant voice, one that Mathew could call a miracle to hear.
“Mathew!”
The second call appeared like a word spoken by a friend to Mat’s side, brought up in a casual discussion.
“MATHEW!”
‘Huh?’ The young man finally opened his eyes when the call turned into a proper shout that penetrated his ears and threatened to wring his brain dry.
Nadia’s terrified face was the first thing Mathew saw when his eyes finally started to convey what they saw to his brain. Yet, it wasn’t the thing that Mathew could perceive the most.
Cold.
An everpresent and never-ending cold shrouded his entire body as if all his clothes vanished only for the world around to turn into artic.
His heart was beating fast as if he just finished a force-march rather than regained consciousness.
“What’s goin on…?” Mathew asked, only for his words to come out shaky. For some reason, his lips refused to move like usual, opting to act sluggish and lazy instead.
“He lost too much blood,” Nadia called while turning her head to the side, talking to someone who was right outside of Mathew’s field of vision.
‘Did I?’ the young man thought, too weak to even open his mouth and utter this question out loud. ‘Then maybe I should invest some of my free points into vitality as well?’
The young man was well aware of how hypocritical he was when it came to distributing points. When it came to his girls, Mathew would be the first to make them raise their vitality. Yet, when it came to himself, he would have to defeat a lot of his inner, mental opposition to do exactly the same thing.
‘I guess I just feel the pressure to constantly do my absolute best,’ Mathew thought, feeling like a thousand needles pierced his heart for every second that he was condemned to seeing Nadia’s panicked and desperate expression.
‘I need to ensure that my stats offer the best survivability to damage ratio…’ Mathew thought, hesitating under the pressure that the fear on Nadia’s face put on him.
“Fine…” Mathew uttered weakly before sending a simple command to his system.
‘It’s good I can operate it with just my thoughts alone,’ the young man realized, watching how some of his spare points went right into his vitality.
[Mathew Karian]
[Level – 2/2]
[Vitality – 82] > [Vitality – 102]
[Brawn – 60]
[Agility – 60]
[Mind – 50(38)]
[Arcane – 100]
[Total 342]
[Accumulated Levels – 38/43]
[Avaible points: 90] > [Avaible points: 70]
“AAAAH!” Mathew took a massive breath. As soon as the change to his vitality came active, the young man felt as if a massive weight was taken off his chest, allowing him to breathe properly again.
‘Thinking about it, didn’t I just reach some sort of threshold?’ Mathew asked himself as he glanced over at his status.
His vitality crossed a hundred points threshold. And while the improvement alone was enough to alleviate some of his current problems… The gamer’s side of Mathew’s soul screamed out.
Because in most of the games that he played in his life, reaching this kind of round number with one’s statistic points would come with additional perks!
“I guess this is just another thing I will need to put in the back of my head and save to analyze later,” the young man muttered.
Mathew then finally put some strength into his muscles, resting his hands against the floor before using them to prompt himself up.
“Mathew!” Nadia shouted as soon as she noticed her partner’s movement. She quickly placed her hands on Mat’s shoulders only to gently press him down, refusing his wish to stand up. “You need to rest now, do you understand?!” she nearly screamed in his face, holding her voice back right at the border between a decisive direction and a shouted order.
“I’m a little bit better now,” Mathew protested with his voice while allowing the girl to push him down.
Even though they still have yet to resolve their quarrel from before, the dangerous reality that they were in clearly allowed the girl to figure out whether that quarrel was important or not.
And sure, while there was still some tension in the air between the two of them, Nadia was long past the idea of ignoring Mathew in his vulnerable moment over some silly disagreement from before.
“You are nowhere near good enough to move,” Nadia opposed Mathew’s words, even going as far as to mount his hips and sit down right on his crotch, pinning the young man down to the ground with her own weight.
‘She’s so decisive,’ Mathew thought, staring at the girl’s curves from this extremely favorable position.
“Huh?” Nadia was pretty quick to notice the changes caused by Mathew’s preferential perspective. She brought her head down and took a look at the spot she was sitting at. Then, the girl shook her hips to the side, rubbing her own crotch against Mathew’s in a bid to ascertain whether her feeling was correct.
And then, Nadia brought her eyes up and rested them on Mathew’s face.
“Seriously?” she asked in a tone of someone unable to believe that a certain topic came up in a situation that didn’t call for it in the slightest.
“I told you I’m better now,” Mathew countered, averting his eyes while a small blush appeared on his cheeks.
“I can feel that now,” the girl came with the counter of her own, rubbing her hips a tiny little bit more.
Mathew didn’t bother to continue this exchange of bickering. Instead, he brought his hands up and placed them on top of Nadia’s slim waist.
“Dear, I don’t think this is the right time for that,” Mathew finally said, going against every instinct that made him a man. But just as he said, this wasn’t the time for him to engage in leisure.
“On that, I can agree,” Nadia said as she nodded her head. She then stood up and moved a bit to the side before offering her hand to help Mathew up. “And before we go back to the compound…” she suddenly uttered, putting the unnecessary topic back on the pedestal.
Yet, rather than continuing with the topic, Nadia simply rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Mathew’s back, hugging him as close as she could.
“I’m sorry.”