LEVELING UP WIVES IN THE APOCALYPSE

‘So that’s how you become a mage,’ Mathew thought once the changes he picked for Carol applied to her status. ‘I had a hunch this might be the case, but it’s nice to confirm it,’ he rubbed his chin, ‘but what exactly is the actual condition for one to get this class?’

Carol’s mind level didn’t cross any round numbers that other members of Mathew’s group wouldn’t achieve before.

‘Does one need to get seventy-five points into mind? Or maybe they can’t have any other class already?’ he attempted to figure out the possible reasons.

Yet, Mathew didn’t dare to spend that much more time just trying to figure out one, small detail.

‘Contrary to a merchant’s subspace, using this feature does not affect the time,’ he thought, only to shake his head before wishing to leave the bath of silvery light.

The light that surrounded the young man started to move. It concentrated towards a singular point of space as if something was sucking it in. And in a mere flash, all the light disappeared, forming the ball of shiny light floating above the floor while simultaneously taking down the veil that hid the rest of the world from Mathew’s eyes.

“Ugh…”

The first thing Mathew heard upon getting back to the real world was an unpleasant sound coming from Carol.

She was currently down on her knees. Her body trembled a little while she kept her hand by her mouth, stopping herself from throwing up.

“I guess letting her stuff herself full wasn’t the brightest option after all,” Mathew commented, trying to use his questionable quality humor to lift everyone’s spirits.

“I will be… fine…” Carol uttered through her teeth, still fighting with the convulsions that shook her body every now and then.

Thankfully, the girl proved to be quite capable, overcoming her feeble state in a short moment. Yet, as soon as she finally shook her head before raising it as she attempted to stand up…

Carol froze.

“What. The. Hell. Is. This,” the girl uttered. Her eyes widened in shock as she stared off into the distance.

‘No, that’s not it,’ Mathew quickly noticed the dissonance between his initial observation and the small detail he missed at first.

While it was true that the girl appeared to look at something far beyond anyone else’s vision… Her eyes moved way too quickly to track something far enough. What’s more, there were hardly any windows in the area they were in and Carol didn’t even try to bring her eyes close to any of them.

“Ah!” Mathew suddenly exclaimed when a simple idea appeared in his thoughts. “Let me guess,” he started the conversation with a knowing smile. “You can see a bunch of windows with text, don’t you?”

Carol froze in a single instant. She then slowly turned her head to the side, resting her widened eyes on Mathew’s face.

“How did you…” she whispered, her voice full of disbelief. “How did you…”

Mathew couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, unable to contain his amusement.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said once he realized Carol actually appeared to struggle with words for the first time in the few days he knew her. “While I don’t know what you see, I do see a fair share of things that others do not.”

Mathew summed up his words with a simple shrug of his shoulders. For him, being able to not only observe but also interact with the system windows was a norm.

‘And yet, I can somehow understand why she was so startled, even if she knew about the system’s existence since a while ago.’

“The text says that I can now control four basic elements at the expense of my mana…” Carol then revealed with a straight face.

‘Oho?’ Mathew raised one of his eyebrows a tiny bit. He then covered his baffled expression with a gentle yet superior smile. ‘How much of this is true, I wonder,’ he then thought, refusing to accept the girl’s words at their face value.

Contrary to the rest of his harem, Carol had no place in Mathew’s plans for the direct future of those around him. Her role would be important, yet as she would fulfill by managing the school, she couldn’t follow Mathew and his girls on their frontier adventures.

‘I already announced I would give her a lot of autonomy. As such, she might not be too interested in revealing her entire hand all at once,’ the young man warned himself, perfectly aware of his natural human drive not to analyze the situation too deeply.

“It also says that the easiest method to control this new power of mine is to assign each spell I come up with a mix of words and gestures that would later be necessary to activate the said spell,” Carol continued to reveal her hands.

Whether it was naivety, pure desire to set herself bare before Mathew, or maybe just an attempt at hiding the important parts by revealing ones that bore no significance…

Mathew couldn’t tell.

“That’s great,” Mathew finally spoke up after giving Carol ample timeframe to speak her own mind. “Now, I believe we should focus on two things,” he then said, ready to stop wasting time on the topic they dealt with already.

‘It feels like we barely woke up and I can tell there are only a few hours of daylight left,’ Mathew thought, a wave of anxiety rising through his soul.

“How should we proceed, then?” Nadia asked while stepping forward to enter Mathew’s direct line of sight.

“First, Norbert,” Mathew said, turning his eyes towards Carol’s sister who silently followed them ever since the event on the lower floor. “I need you to take Carol west of the ruins to help her test her new abilities,” he announced only to turn his eyes towards his second wives. “I want the two of you to kidnap a few zombies and hold them at bay within the barrier,” the young man said only to turn his eyes towards Norbert.

“I need you to keep an eye on them as well. If something happens, hit me up immediately.”

“It will be done,” Norbert finally spoke up, nodding his head as he accepted his role in Mathew’s plans.

“What about me?” Nadia then asked.

She appeared to be full of confidence… yet Mathew could see the telltale signs of restlessness that sunk into her body.

After all, despite being the first wife, she would be, for some reason, the last to receive her assignments.

“You are going with me, dear,” Mathew replied, turning his eyes towards his lover and smiling gently.

Then, a hint of viciousness appeared in his eyes.

“I need someone to cover my back while I explain the new reality to the survivors!”