Read Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse 41 Mathew's doubts online for free - AllNovelFull

"And with that…" Mathew muttered in a rhythmic voice while swinging his ax down on the zombie's head. "We are done!" he shouted, turning his head to the back.

"All done here as well!" Daria reported a moment later. "Should we do as usual?"

Mathew raised his leg and placed it on the nearby zombie, keeping its corpse in place as he pulled on the ax's handle. The blade came out of the zombie's skull with a mix of sloppy and scratchy sounds.

That sound alone would be enough to send an amateur puking. Yet, even though the apocalypse started relatively recently, Mathew and his group have long gotten used to this level of stimulus.

"No, this time, I want you to try to visit the trader," Mathew shook his head. "Leila, you are still up for gathering the stones," the young man quickly added.

Mathew then made a motion as if he wanted to kneel, only to keep his knee just above the surface of the floor. He then grabbed an edge of the clothes of some corpse before tearing a chunk of the cloth away.

"On it!" Leila replied, raising her bloody machete to her forehead in some sort of a weird salute. She then quickly turned her attention back to the zombies.

Despite appearing as the shy and silent one of the two when Mathew first met those girls, Leila now proved to mind her situation a lot less than Daria did.

'And that's why it's Daria who should check whether wives can use merchants as well,' Mathew thought, watching how the girl quickly rushed past him and then up the stairs, jumping two or three steps with each leap she made.

'They are coming,' Mathew thought, alerted by his senses.

Ever since he started fighting with the zombies, he could feel his strength growing. Be it the speed of his movements, the strength of his strikes, or the overall awareness of the situation, they all skyrocketed.

Mathew initially picked the top of the school for that very reason. By keeping it clean from the zombies and gradually pushing to the lower floors, he could soon secure the entire school's compound for his group.

'And all of this could work pretty well if not for those damned monsters!' Mathew thought, clenching his teeth. At the same time, his hands moved the piece of cloth over the ax's blade, cleaning the filth of the zombie's blood from the dark metal.

"By the way," Leila called out right as Mathew threw the bloodied piece of cloth away.

"What's up?" Mathew asked while sending a glance over the stairs above.

Daria should only need a moment to reach the floor where they summoned a merchant. Yet, even though a while has already passed, she has yet to make her way back.

'Anyway,' Mathew thought, turning his eyes towards the down-leading part of the staircase. And then, as if following a clock, zombies emerged.

"What's up?" Mathew shouted, raising his ax on his shoulder as he took a step down the stairs.

"Why aren't we using the cores that we gather?" Leila asked, not bothered by the incoming wave of zombies at all.

After cleaning four floors already, those zombies were no longer an opponent worthy of her worry.

"So you noticed," Mathew commented, slashing an approaching zombie in half. The task of cleaving through the flesh and bones of the undead turned easy ever since his brawn reached over thirty points.

Yet, instead of following the stairs towards the bottom floor, Mathew simply stood guard at the edge of the stairs.

"But I'm not really sure if I should reveal the answer," Mathew added after a moment, using his improved senses to scan the nearby area for zombies.

'There are a few more on the other end of the stairs,' Mathew thought.

There was no magic in his ability. It was simple awareness combined with his improved senses and the sixth sense that he developed over all the fighting.

"Is there really any need for those secrets?" Leila shouted over, the changes in her voice indicating that she was moving towards the other end of the floor.

"We don't know who's listening, after all," Mathew replied while burying the butt of his blade into the side of another zombie's head.

'And if you can't understand such a simple hint…' Mathew thought, rolling his eyes with annoyance.

It was already taxing enough to take care of the choke point leading towards the floor they had just cleared out. Speaking nonsense with that weird girl felt like just a waste of time and energy.

"I'm back!" Daria shouted, only a moment later than the sounds she made while running down the stairs. "And sorry, but it doesn't seem like I can use the shop," she added as soon as she landed on the last set of stairs, grabbing the railing to keep herself up while she fought to catch her breath.

"I see…" Mathew replied, taking a step back up the stairs.

Right now, there wasn't a single zombie within their line of vision. As such, they finally reached the point when they could take a short rest.

"Are you going to spend all those cores now?" Leila asked, moving back from the far end of the floor, her hands occupied by a pile of bloodied cores.

Mathew raised his eyes at the girl and stared at Leila's face with an intense look behind his own eyes.

"What?" Leila asked, shrugging lightly. "Do I have something on my face?" she asked, quickly moving her head around, and she attempted to check her own state up.

"It's nothing," Mathew lowered his eyes and shook his head. He then took a knee again, taking a cloth from a zombie's corpse to make a makeshift pouch again. "Hide the cores like usual; I will use the one from the top floor," Mathew instructed before turning his eyes towards the other girl. "I will be leaving the stairs to you for a while."

Their relationship didn't start on the best foot. From her strangely open approach toward intimacy to her fierce character, later on, Daria didn't leave a good impression on Mathew. Yet, as the time went by and as the two of them fought the zombies off together, the young man couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy towards this straightforward girl.

'To think that the secret to her character would be that simple,' Mathew thought, his lips forming a small smile.

The young man then secured his ax between his shirt and the neck of his hoodie before climbing the stairs.

'I know it's only a guess, but isn't it strange?' Mathew thought to himself, analyzing the reason why he didn't want to talk about cores with Leila.

'We cleared out four floors in total, but the monsters didn't react any stronger than before,' Mathew thought, recalling the events of the recent past.

'And the only instances when I could feel their aura growing stronger was after…' Mathew thought, only to shake his head and focus on climbing the stairs.

Despite all the growth that he experienced, the simple structure of stairs was still his nemesis.

"I guess there is only one way to find it out," Mathew muttered before taking a deep breath and pushing up towards the merchant.

And towards the possible cause of the evolved monsters appearing a lot sooner in this line of time.

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"Right, I should check my level first," Mathew muttered to himself the second he reached the floor he was heading towards.

He didn't bother to check his progress while they were cleaning the rooms at all. Sure, while it meant he couldn't really donate his levels as they came, Mathew opted to strictly focus on fighting instead.

But now, with only the ground floor and the confrontation with the monster left…

There couldn't be a better time to check his progress.

[Level – 1/1]

[Vitality – 32]

[Brawn – 38]

[Agility – 30]

[Mind – 5]

[Arcane – 5]

[Total – 110]

[Accumulated Levels – 2/11]

Mathew stared into his reflection that he procured on a random piece of glass he found on the floor. This was the one advantage of having the school in such a devastated state.

'I grew quite a lot, didn't I?' Mathew thought, taking in the news while trying to keep his calm. 'I didn't think it would grow THAT much, though.'

The disparity between Mathew's expectations and reality was, for once, net-positive.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Mathew uttered, turning his eyes away from the reflective surface of the piece of glass he found.

And there it was. The being covered in a black hood looked human only when looked at from the back or sides.

Mathew took a look at the merchant, only to stand up and move towards one of the classrooms instead.

In order to make a purchase, he needed cores. And since they didn't want to carry the cores all over the place just to weight themselves down, they were hidden in the classroom Mathew was moving towards.

"There you are," he muttered a moment later when he finally moved enough rubble away to uncover a small cave within the pile with a bag full of cores.

"There should be about a hundred or two hundred cores in there," Mathew thought as he grabbed the bag and moved out of the room.

Back in the corridor, Mathew took a moment to stand down, immersing himself in the peaceful atmosphere present in the place.

He closed his eyes and stood by the window, allowing the gentle wind sneaking in through many cracks and gaps in the building's outer wall to caress his face.

'If not for all the corpses around, this moment could be pretty tranquil,' Mathew thought, taking a deep breath.

He then opened his eyes, and with a refreshed resolve, Mathew approached the merchant.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in the way in which Mathew summoned the shop.

Just like before, he grasped at the shadow of the merchant's face, only for the domain of shadows to splurge around him and then pull the young man inside. And just like that, he returned to the familiar place with seven different shelves and the sacrifice altar in the middle.

"I wish to buy knowledge!" Mathew shouted, not even giving the shelves a single look.

"State your desired question."

For some reason, the system no longer held any emotions. It was as if Mathew's earlier episode with the merchant never happened.

'Maybe it's not happy by allowing its emotions to play a role?' Mathew thought, only to bite down on his lips a moment later. 'Look at me, already assuming the merchant is a conscious being, isn't it funny?'

Despite forming his thoughts in the way he did, Mathew was as far from laughing out loud as he could humanly be.

The prospect of the merchants actually being conscious and thus holding some sort of agenda…

'While it wouldn't be surprising, it would only confirm my guess,' Mathew thought, his face darkening a little to match the tone of what was going through his head.

"Do spending cores in merchants' shops affect the progress of the apocalypse?" Mathew asked the one question that he had continued to think about over a while already.

Yet, he received no answer.

"Unable to set a price for the question," the mechanical voice of the merchant quickly put down Mathew's hopes.

'Does that mean I'm wrong?' the young man thought.

The only logical reason for the merchant being unable to give him a price… Was that either the question was outside of the scope of the merchant's current level… Or if the answer itself had no value whatsoever.

'Judging from Murphy's law, it's likely the former,' Mathew thought, looking around the shelves that hold the merchant's wares. 'And I guess I really have no other choice but to test it manually,' he thought before raising his hand towards a random piece of a scroll.

"How much for this scroll?" Mathew asked, raising his eyes towards the densest part of the shadowy fog that made up the whole realm.

"A hundred and fifty cores," the merchant replied with its usual voice.

'Perfect,' Mathew thought, raising the bloodied bag with cores and throwing them all up.

A moment and an explosion of brightness later… Nothing happened.

"Huh?" Mathew shrugged only to raise his eyes up.

Around twenty cores still hung in the air, ready for him to pluck them back… But the lack of change, lack of information appearing… The sudden lack of responsiveness from the system worried Mathew.

"Where is the scroll?" Mathew asked out loud, hoping that the merchant wouldn't try to scam him just like that.

"You didn't buy any knowledge," the merchant replied, a hint of amusement present in its voice. Yet, when it appeared once again, its vibe turned spiteful. "What you purchased is an ability."

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"Ability?" Mathew repeated after the merchant only to shake his head. "Wait, does that have anything to do with my mind and arcane stats?" he asked, hoping to sneakily steal some knowledge from the merchant.

"Fifty cores," the cold voice of the merchant sounded extremely pleased with itself.

"Fuck," Mathew cursed, only to turn around on his feet and attempt to walk away from the shop. Yet, no matter how many steps Mathew took… he didn't move from his place at all.

'I don't feel any force pulling me back,' Mathew thought, surprised by the unexpected outcome of his attempt. 'It's like the space here… is curved in a way that disallows anyone to leave!'

This was a groundbreaking discovery.

He turned around on his feet, ready to talk to the merchant again…

Only for the young man's enthusiasm to die on the spot when he realized the downside of the idea.

"Just out of curiosity," Mathew called out, shaking his head over his momentary naivete. "How much would it cost for me to learn the spell allowing establishing areas like your shop?"

Mathew had no hopes of receiving an answer. And even if he were to receive one…

'I'm sure it would just say that it can't tell me,' Mathew thought, long parting with the idea that he actually asked about.

And then, for but a moment, something changed.

'Huh?'

The young man only managed to shrug when everything went back to normal, as normal as standing in a separate dimension of the shop could be.

'What the hell was that?' he thought, staring towards the place where for that single moment, Mathew could swear he could see the real figure of the merchant reveal itself.

This figure appeared out of nowhere… and just stood there with a small smirk on its lips before it disappeared altogether as if it never appeared in the first place.

"Five hundred cores," the metallic voice of the merchant appeared, slapping Mat hard with both reality and the subversion of my expectations.

There actually was a cost associated with learning this ability. But assuming that Mathew's guess was correct…

Then all the cores spent at a merchant would end up accelerating the apocalypse. In other words, by spending a whopping five hundred cores, a number that Mathew wasn't sure he could cough up in the first place, he could obtain an ability that would likely no longer be useful.

"I guess I will have to get a bit more cores for that first," Mathew stated, hoping that the merchant couldn't really read his thoughts.

This was the very reason why he didn't want to reveal his line of thought to Leila before. Because ever since Mathew noticed the possibility of a link between him using merchants to their fullest and the monsters evolving a lot sooner than they should, he could no longer happily thrust those merchants.

"I wish to go back," Mathew stated a moment later, content with what he had achieved so far.

And since he couldn't get the question of whether or not his guess was correct from the merchant directly, he was now ready to learn the news from his indirect method.

"May you come back to do more business soon," the metallic voice of the merchant appeared right as the entire subspace started to collapse, ejecting Mathew back into reality.

"Haah!" Mathew exhaled all the air from his lungs before desperately breathing in the fresh air.

'This was nervewracking,' he thought, falling to his knees as he desperately fought to regain his breath.

Yet, the world wouldn't leave Mathew alone, even for a moment. Before he could even stand up, a new, powerful roar shook all the air in the school, only to be followed by the very walls of the building cracking.

'It's not going to last long!' Mathew thought, alerted by the rate of degradation of the building's structure.

Wary of the potential collapse of his footing, Mathew rushed down the stairs. Yet, the second he made his first step, his body suddenly refused to follow his commands.

'What the…'

Mathew couldn't even utter a curse when his consciousness suddenly wavered, only for a strange vision to appear before his eyes.

In it, a man held something shiny in his hand. He then raised said hand… only to smash it down to the ground.

Snap.

Within a single frame of his perception, Mathew appeared back in reality, now free to go wherever he wanted. The strange force that stopped him before was now nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell was that?" Mathew asked out loud, once again taking a moment to take a breath and calm himself down. Yet, this time, the new roar didn't appear once, only to then vanish and refuse to repeat itself.

This time, the roar continued to shake the air in the school, forcing Mathew to enter his urgency mode.

"I need to hurry," Mathew muttered, grasping at the corpses on the floor only to gain a little bit of momentum. He then finally managed to get back to his feet and rush towards the stairs.

Mathew reached the staircase and instantly took a leap. Rather than trying to walk down the stairs like a normal person, he jumped all the way towards the ending wall of the corridor, only to bounce off it and jump down another set of stairs.

By using this method, Mathew managed to reach the second floor of the building in no time, only to see two of his companions with desperate looks on their faces.

"What happened?!" Daria screamed out, looking at Mathew in hopes of actually receiving an answer.

Yet, instead of sating the girl's thirst for an explanation, Mathew looked over at Leila.

Maybe it was her coldheartedness, maybe her unnatural calmness… But the girl somehow managed to notice Mathew's stare despite all the commotion caused by the roars.

In here, on the second floor, with just a single set of stairs separating them from the source of those roars… The sound alone was so powerful it made Mathew doubt his ability to fight those evolved monsters.

"Now you know why I didn't want to talk about the cores before," Mathew said before pulling out his ax from underneath his hoodie and looking down the last set of stairs left for them to clean.

"My bad, sorry for that," Leila muttered, not having any problems with accepting her mistakes.,

"Mathew!" Daria shouted, infuriated by his attention going to her partner. "What's going on?!"

"Nothing much," Mathew replied, only to shake his head. "The monsters are just that eager to see those who fed them!"

"HAAH!?" Daria opened her mouth wide, uttering a loud shout without a care in the world about potentially attracting zombie attention to them. "What the fuck do you mean?!" she screamed out, slapping her fist against the concrete wall of the building.

Thud.

The dull sound of the impact initially played a trick on Mathew's senses. Only when his eyes followed after the movement did he realize that the girl actually smashed the concrete in, nearly making a hole through the entire thickness of the wall!

"I can't give you any proof," Mathew said, fixing his grasp on the handle of his ax as he took a step down towards the hell that he had no other choice but to conquer.

"But it seems that using stones at the merchant boosts the strength of monsters and zombies alike!"

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Mathew descended down the stairs. Following after him were two girls, each holding a machete in their right hand.

They moved down the stairs, one step at a time. Yet, no matter how each of them wanted to prolong the moment before the fighting would resume…

The world continued to move forward regardless of their wishes.

"Take the sides!" Mathew commanded, bringing his hand up the handle of the ax, grabbing it pretty near the blade mount.

"Yosh!" Daria breathed out only to take a deep, long breath. And then, just as she started to let the air flow back into the atmosphere, she moved forward.

Her machete drew a wide arc in the air, only for the girl to decapitate one of the few monsters that had already made their way towards the staircase.

On the upper floors, clearing the corridor and the staircase adjacent to it would give Mathew's group at least ten to fifteen minutes of rest. But now that they were invading the very bottom floor of the building, that time shortened to just five minutes.

"I'm on it too!" realizing that she was late for the party, Leila shouted and rushed downstairs.

"Go on," Mathew said, nodding his head.

As ungentlemanly it was for him to move behind the girls, he had to save his strength for the fight with evolved monsters.

It was a challenge he never encountered and, all the more, never accomplished during his first run of the apocalypse.

But now, Mathew had little to no choice regarding this matter.

"Let's go!" Mathew said out loud, shaking his shoulder to warm them up.

And then, he took the corner on the staircase, officially entering the space considered to be the ground floor.

'I can see…' Mathew ignored all the zombies swarming below, focusing his attention on scanning the place of battle. 'Four… No, five of them!'

The monsters were there, just like Mathew guessed.

Each of the monsters took a separate spot in the open space of the bottom floor, each of them banging their massive bodies against the concrete walls supporting the building.

'What the hell?' Mathew thought, shocked by what he saw.

This wasn't a random rampage of monsters unable to find the prey despite sensing it.

It was a coordinated effort clearly aimed at taking the entire building down!

"Take care of the small fry!" Mathew shouted his order, rushing ahead.

The experience of clearing the upper floors with the girls quickly proved to be quite useful.

Mathew didn't pay any mind to the zombies. He simply rushed ahead, aiming for the nearest of the evolved zombies.

Even though each of the zombies and evolved ones as well had distinctive traits that made it one of a kind, all the basic evolved zombies had a pretty similar frame.

They all looked like massive piles of meat and bones. And from what Mathew could tell by staring one of such monsters down, the evolved ones actually were made from several zombies.

'They couldn't move like that without any sort of skeleton,' Mathew thought, using the fact that the monster didn't notice him yet to pave a way towards it.

'Still, that skull armor is going to be a pain,' Mathew thought, noticing where the rest of the bones from the five bodies of the evolved zombie consisted of go.

The evolved zombies looked as if someone had taken a man, plastered flesh of four more people all over him, only to then enclose the subject in a cage made of bones.

There was only one special element about the monster, save for all sorts of organs hanging on the outside of its skin.

And it was a gentle-shining crystal whose shine could be seen even from through the folds of fat of the monster that covered it.

It was the monster's crystallized heart. An organ allowing its form to operate, yet so overused due to this task that a single scratch was enough to make it go into overdrive.

'Disgusting,' Mathew thought, swinging his ax to the side and allowing the handle to seemingly sweep out of his grasp.

Thrown to the back, the ax's blade pulled the entire weapon along. Mathew only closed his hand when nearly the entire handle brushed past his fingers.

And then, with the greatest possible leaver on the weapon, Mathew swung it forward, right against one of the few exposed vitals of the monster.

"RAAOOARAR!"

The monster unleashed a hectic scream when one of its organs squeezed and then exploded, covering everything in the vicinity with dark blood.

'Again!' Mathew shouted in his mind, retracting the weapon only to swing with his entire body and pull a downward slash right against the monster's shoulder.

"SCREEEEE!" once again, the monster released a powerful cry. Yet this time, Mathew's attack turned out to be successful, digging deeply into the monster's flesh and reaching all the way to its crystallized heart.

The second Mathew's blade touched the crystal hidden by lumps of flesh and bones, the entire thing exploded, shredding the body of the evolved monster apart.

'I guess it couldn't rely on muscles alone to keep that kind of mass up,' Mathew thought, shaking his head and looking around to take stock of the situation.

The girls did their job well, holding all the other enemies at bay. Yet, the screams of the monster that Mathew defeated already alerted all the other ones present on the ground floor.

And then, Mathew saw it come out.

It wasn't anything that he had seen in either of his lives before.

Just like the simply evolved monsters, it was constructed from flesh, blood, and bones, making it look pretty grotesque. Yet, its form alone was enough to nearly send Mathew into a frenzied puking.

From afar, the new kind of monster looked like a centipede, standing on ten pairs of legs and hands alike while flailing four more pairs in the air like some sort of weapon.

Its legs were constructed out of bones connected with lumps of flesh.

'What the hell is this?' Mathew thought, feeling all the satisfaction and euphory from killing an evolved monster disappear in the heat of a moment.

He had encountered the evolved monsters before. This was the one reason why he dared to go against them with only three souls in his group.

Yet, in the face of this new opponent… Mathew could feel something warm spreading over his legs and crotch.

'FUCK!' Mathew screamed inwardly out, shaking his body to get rid of the terror that froze him in place.

For a second, everything except Mathew froze in place.

The zombies stopped moving, and the evolved monsters dropped their charge.

Then, every last undead being on the ground floor of the building turned their eyes towards Mathew.

"ROAAAAR!"

With what seemed like an order from the undead centipede, all the undead rushed forward, eager to tear Mathew's body apart!

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"Shit," Mathew only managed to utter a single curse before his mind went into a frenzy.

'No one told me that centipede would be able to command the zombies, god damn it!' Mathew protested in his thoughts while pushing the speed of his body to the limit.

"Leave…" Daria jumped in from the side, kneeling a zombie that was about to snatch at Mathew's leg. "The small fries…" she added, turning around on the spot and sending another zombie off with a kick.

"To us!" Leila joined in, slashing a hand aimed for Mathew's hair with her machete.

"Thanks!" Mathew momentarily nodded his head, only to shake off the feeling of terror and return to the battle.

Right now, he couldn't afford to be absent-minded. Right now, he had an entire ground floor full of zombies and monsters to clear. And until that task was finished, Mathew couldn't rest easy.

"Die!" he shouted, moving towards the next nearest monster.

Now that they were all converging on him, with the exception of the centipede monster that stood back, every moment brought Mathew closer to fighting several evolved ones at once.

And this wasn't a task he was confident to fulfill.

Mathew slashed with his ax to the left and then to the right, opening up a path between two zombie victims of his attacks.

Now that the battle had progressed, he could no longer just leave everything to the girls.

'How are they doing?' Mathew had to cut all the zombies in the proximity before he allowed himself the luxury of taking a glimpse at the girls.

Currently, Daria was taking an attack from an evolved monster head-on while Leila pushed through zombies to join hands with her.

'Good idea,' Mathew thought, intentionally slipping on the blood and seemingly falling down, all to avoid a slashing attack of the nearby evolved monster.

'So this is an agile one,' Mathew thought, recognizing the building of the monster.

It was the very same kind that the one who snatched two of his friends during their last escape in his previous life.

Whizz!

The sound of the air getting cut by the extremely sharp claws of the monster penetrated deeply into Mathew's brain, assaulting his soul with a forced realization of what would happen if he ended up struck by this attack.

'Damn it!' Mathew screamed internally out, refusing to allow panic and terror to take control of his actions.

Mathew used the momentum of his slides to bend backward, only to spring up a short moment later. Thanks to this clever maneuver, Mathew managed to sneak past the monster's defenses, only to smash at its chest with a round, wide sweep of an ax.

'Fuck,' Mathew thought, bitting down on his lips. 'It didn't go through deep enough,' he complained, only to press the entire weight of his body on the ax's handle in an attempt at unlodging it from the bones of the monster.

But the weapon didn't buckle.

'Huh?'

Left with no other choice, Mathew leaped back, only to watch how the muscles around the wound he inflicted on the monster suddenly squeezed, completely locking his weapon in place.

"SHIT!" Mathew cried out, forced into a bare-fisted battlefield.

Right now, he had no advantages of his own and was pitted against monsters that could turn invulnerable even against his greatest weapon.

'We are screwed, aren't we?' Mathew thought, barely avoiding another slashing attack, this time from a second monster that joined the fray.

If Mathew had any hopes for winning the conflict and clearing the school before, they all vanished on this spot.

He was already hardpressed to stay alive while against a single opponent and with his powerful weapon. And now he had to fight two of the monsters with more to come at any moment… all the while lacking any form of weapon?

'Wait, what the hell,' Mathew shook his head, repelling yet another attack of terror on his soul. 'Who said I don't have any weapons?' Mathew asked himself, reaching to the back of his pants and pulling out the same kind of machete that his girls were using.

'Still,' Mathew thought, feeling how the spark of hope ignited by the touch of the weapon quickly extinguished under the cold wind of reality.

What was he supposed to do with just a short machete against three monsters?

Mathew gulped his saliva down.

This was the end of the line.

Mathew took a glance to the side, only to see that the two girls were hard-pressed to fight off the advance of a single monster and several zombies.

'And I am supposed to take care of all of… those?' Mathew thought, turning his eyes back towards his current enemies.

And then he saw it.

The centipede that kept to the back before now rushed ahead, most likely sensing the desperation oozing out of every fiber of Mathew's being.

'If it can command the zombies, it has to be somewhat intelligent,' Mathew thought, only to suffer through yet another attack of terror.

Watching how three burly monsters, a sea of zombies, and a massive, disgusting centipede all zeroed in on him, Mathew tightened his jaws, ready for the inevitable.

'And that means…'

If the monster was intelligent, then Mathew could trick it. And in the current situation of the monsters holding an overwhelming advantage, the best bet was to pretend to give in to the attacks of terror that shoot Mathew's soul.

Left with no other choice, Mathew could only trust his gut. He could only trust his gut telling him the right moment to use it, his guess regarding what else he could do…

And lastly, he had to trust that, albeit working for the apocalypse, merchants couldn't scam him.

The closest monster reader, swinging its massive arm right towards Mathew's head.

But while it managed to negate Mathew's attack earlier and ended up surviving the slash… The monster clearly expected Mathew to back off.

The young man only took a quick glance to the side, putting his eyes at the angle that allowed him to track the movements of the centipede. And right as the monster before him attacked, Mathew took a step forward, driving his fist directly under the folds of the monster's meat, right against its shiny core.

Mathew didn't punch it, though. Instead, he pushed his fingers apart only to bring them down on the core and then pull it out with one swift move!

Normal cores extracted from zombies would only reflect light; they wouldn't shine on their own. Yet, the stone that Mathew carved out of the monster's chest clearly illuminated its surrounding, even if the power of the light was pretty damn low.

'Well then,' Mathew thought, raising his hand with his trophy in it while throwing one last glance towards the monster.

"Donate all my levels to my first wife," Mathew muttered, counting seconds towards the right moment.

He ignored a massive first rushing towards the side of his head. He ignored a set of three claws reaching out for his knees.

He even ignored the face of terror made up of three different faces in a triangular shape and then surrounded by a circle made out of five sets of jaws filled to the brim with teeth.

And right as the centipede monster brought its anus-like mouth to feast on Mathew's flesh, the young man brought his hand down.

And just as the young man brought his hand down, a strange force seemingly appeared to assist his move.

The stone crushed underneath the weight of Mathew's fingers. Its shine quickly seeped outside, only to turn into a sizzle…

'I hope you will survive,' Mathew thought, closing his eyes.

The core in his hand disintegrated. And then, a wave of intense, white light covered everything on the ground floor of the school.

The thickest part of the forest was usually the safest. The high-growing grasses, lush bushes, and plethora of places to hide were Kaya's favorite playground.

What she never expected, was for the said playground to turn into her last place to hide in the whole world.

The footsteps of the approaching soldiers could be heard in the distance. Those clumsy humans couldn't move through the forest without making a massive racket.

It was one of the major upsides to hiding in the ancient forest. Kaya could hear the humans long before they would approach her.

And just like many times over, when the footsteps got too close, Kaya stood up and silently ran deeper into the forest.

Then, her fur-covered ears twitched, only for the girl to come at a complete stop and energetically turn her head around.

"Who are you?!"

"Cough, cough!" Mathew spat out a mixture of blood, snot, and saliva that clogged his throat.

He couldn't really remember anything that happened after he unleashed his ability.

'What happened?' Mathew asked himself, coughing out all the dust that he inhaled after losing his consciousness. Yet, as he opened his eyes, he felt a tingle of panic poking at his nerves.

Because even after he opened his eyes, there wasn't a single thing that he could see.

'Wait,' Mathew thought when another realization struck his mind. 'I can't move!'

The young man managed to keep himself psyched up about the task by simply ignoring all the possibilities of him dying.

It wasn't that he didn't take them into account; he simply refused to think about them too much.

But Mathew now was different. Because he now realized that there was something worse than death.

'Am I seriously going to just lie down and wait for some zombie to come and snack on me?' Mathew asked himself, his heart starting to beat faster to pump more blood to his muscles.

"NO!" Mathew shouted, using the momentum of his lungs to tense all his muscles up.

'Maybe I'm paralyzed, maybe I turned blind,' Mathew thought, gritting his teeth as he pushed his muscles closer and closer to their limit.

"I heard him!" Daria's voice suddenly reached Mathew's ears.

'At least those do work,' he thought, his body relaxing and… not moving at all.

'Could it be that I'm actually stuck under the rubble?' Mathew thought, trying his best to analyze his situation. 'Wait, I don't have the time for this! I need to free myself and finish those monsters up!'

Reminded of his goal, Mathew pressed his muscles again… But whatever was covering his body refused to buckle.

'I guess I'm stuck here,' Mathew thought, his lips inadvertently forming a small smirk. 'It's a pity I don't have any stepsister to help me out,' he thought, Mathew's humor somehow staying by his side instead of leaving like all Mathew's hopes and dreams.

"Mathew!" a voice penetrated through the darkness, reaching Mathew's ears again. "Where are you?!"

'Is this a trap?' Mathew thought, the burden all over his body reminding him to be careful.

Ever since Mat saw that centipede monster, he realized that he actually knew nothing about the apocalypse. His experiences from his previous attempts have already gotten him so far… But the usefulness of what he knew back then was quickly running out.

In other words, his future was just like his situation right now.

Bleak, dark, and full of potential threats.

'Still, I guess I have no other choice but to take a gamble now,' Mathew thought.

He then inhaled a mouthful of breath.

"I'm here!" Mathew shouted as loud as his voice would allow him. Yet, stuck underneath a pile of heavy rubble, miraculously surviving the entire ordeal… Mathew couldn't really use his voice as he would normally do.

"I heard him!" Mathew heard Leila's voice only for a sudden tapping to reach his ears. "Where does tapping comes from?" Leila asked as soon as the strange noise stopped.

"Above my feet?" Mathew replied, only for a powerful bout of pain to pierce right through his chest.

"Cough, cough!" Mathew's entire body tensed up as he coughed, yet it still wasn't enough for him to free himself from his situation. On the other hand, he could now see a slight ray of light reflecting on the blood he had just coughed up.

"Just wait for a moment!" Daria shouted over, only for a series of strange noises to follow.

'I guess I was right about being stuck underneath the rubble,' Mathew thought once he recognized the strange noises for what they were.

And soon enough, enough of the broken concrete and various elements of furniture ended up removed from the pile to allow the young man access to fresh air.

"WHEEZE!"

The powerful breath Mathew took of this relatively dust-free air seemed to reinvigorate his body, filling his muscles with strength once again.

'Was I on the verge of suffocating?' Mathew thought as he pushed his muscles to their limits, slowly pushing a massive concrete slab off his chest.

"Mathew!" Daria shouted when the two could finally see each other. "How are you doing?" she asked, a look of worry appearing all over her face.

"I'm alive… somehow," Mathew replied, only to move his hands to another task.

Now that three people worked on uncovering Mathew from where the rubble burying him, they managed to complete the task pretty soon.

"Here," Leila reached out with her hand towards Mathew, helping him to get back up to his feet.

"What's the situation?" Mathew asked while still lying on the ground. Yet, even when he stood up, he simply hung himself on Daria's shoulder, unable to keep himself upright just yet.

"All the monsters are gone," Daria replied, only to point her hand out in a seemingly random direction. "One of them died on the spot; another one got buried under the rubble. We finished the last one to remain," she explained.

'The numbers don't add up,' Mathew thought, forcing his head up and looking around the place.

"Where is the centipede?" Mathew asked, unable to see a single hint of this strange monster falling prey to his skill and its after-effects.

"Centipede?" Daria asked, cutely leaning her head to the side like some sort of confused animal.

"Didn't you see it?" Mathew asked, his eyes opening up wide. 'Was this some sort of illusion? Charm?' he thought, racking his brains to come up with a possible explanation.

A small noise came from a ruble nearby. Just like Mathew managed to survive the onslaught caused by his own ability, it seemed that some zombies did just the same.

'Well, given how we need to destroy their brains to really kill them, it would be no wonder if some survived that hell,' Mathew thought, taking one last deep breath before moving on and approaching the source of those noises.

"Hmm…" Mathew moaned a little as he raised his hand and rubbed his cheeks.

He now stood directly on the pile that produced the small noise that attracted his attention. Yet, rather than going in to finish the zombie below, Mathew couldn't help but shake his head and close his eyes for a moment.

'Nadia…' he thought, clenching his hands into fists. 'I hope that donating those levels was enough for you to survive.'

Mathew's head turned to the side. Even after the fight, he could still see the path that his small group took to reach the middle part of the bottom floor.

And what he could also see was the very reason for the rubble littering all over the ground floor.

He could see the massive walls of the school's compound, blue sky, and a mass of zombies filling up the outer grounds of the school.

All of that, because of a very simple reason. A reason that also explained the amount of rubble all over the place.

It was the western wing of the school.

Or rather, its complete absence and a massive pile of rubble that replaced it.

'I guess I can only hope you were in a different wing when it all collapsed,' Mathew thought, clenching his fists even tighter than before.

Then, Mathew's body suddenly shook as his footing became unstable.

'What?' Mathew thought, looking down…

Only to see a massive claw emerge from underneath the pile of concrete and broken furniture!

'So it's alive!' Mathew thought, instantly jumping off the pile and towards the two of his companions.

"What the hell is this?!" Daria screamed out when more and more claws started to break through the rubble, only for the trio to soon realize that those weren't claws at all.

The sharp, pointy bones that penetrated through the rubble… were actually the legs of the centipede that Mathew was so worried about!

"Retreat!" Mathew muttered, the sight of the centipede emerging from the rubble sapping all the strength and motivation that he had left. "We are no match for…" he said, only to watch Leila leap ahead, right towards the sharp bones of the centipede's legs.

"ROAAAAR" a massive, anus-like head of the monster finally broke through the rubble, emerging from the pile while the dusted trash cascaded down its long neck…

A long neck that Leila jumped towards, only to slash right through it with her machete!

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"How in all hells…" Mathew muttered.

His eyes followed the centipede's head that Leila cleanly cut off with a single slash.

The bloody chunk of meat moved through a wide arc, spraying blood all over the place.

'Huh?' Mathew thought. He could feel his legs weakening.

'Was this supposed to be that easy?' he thought, his hands trembling.

The severed head drew its arc and fell to the ground. It then tumbled across the rubble.

The sound of the centipede's head appeared in complete silence as if no other sound dared to make itself known.

'Wait, what?' Mathew forced his eyes away from the bloodied chunk, turning it back on the scene of action.

For but a second, the world appeared to freeze. All the zombies stood in place.

In that single instant, they seemingly all lost interest in the events from before.

'Huh?' Mathew thought.

And then everything snapped right back to reality.

The zombies started to move again. While they clearly lost their goal as an entire horde, the nearest few of them instantly looked toward Mathew and the girls.

And the centipede that Leila beheaded started to move again as well.

Its razor-sharp legs swung forward, threatening to cut the girl in two.

All before Mathew's eyes. All in a strange, slowed-down pace, as if the world only turned one frame at a time.

'I won't make it,' Mathew thought. He didn't even think when his muscles tightened, making his body constrain a tiny little bit.

And then, following nothing but his wits, Mathew leaped ahead.

'Come on!'

There were only a few meters apart. A distance as great as several football fields for a geeky nerd.

'Just a little bit more!' Mathew's soul screamed out.

His hand reached out, strangely drifting through the changed, denser fabric of the space.

The centipede's legs nearly reached Leila's exposed sides. Even with her shirt on, it offered close to no protection.

And right when those razor-sharp bones brushed against the girl's sides, Mathew's hand landed on her shoulder.

'GET BACK!'

Mathew didn't waste his time or breath on shouting. Instead, he channeled all his willpower, strength, and agility into a single task.

He jerked his hand to the back.

As if he was on the last stroke before a piece of paper in his other hand would cover with an army of his white, would-be descendants.

And somehow, before Leila's body would be cut at her slim waist, Mathew pulled her out.

"Wha…" the girl didn't manage to utter a single, full word of surprise when her back crashed into the rubble behind.

The centipede didn't wait.

Once its legs cut at the air, it had to realize that its prey had somehow escaped.

And as if it wasn't just deprived of its head, it slashed its legs at Mathew.

"Get," Mathew shouted, kicking at the long, thurd-like pile of flesh that made up the centipede, "lost!"

Before the monster's legs could injure Mathew, the entire thing flew several meters away. And even if that alone wasn't a feat, that single kick forced the entire thing from underneath several tons of rubble!

'What the hell?' Mathew thought, only to dodge a step when the centipede raised up.

Now that it was fully erected, it stood at an astonishing five meters up.

"Tsk," Mathew clicked his tongue, staring at five meters of flesh sprouting razor-like claws on both of its sides.

The blood continued to sprout from its severed neck.

'Aren't I…' Mathew thought, gulping down his saliva. 'A little strong?' he thought, taking but a faintest of moments to look down at his hands.

It was then that he noticed the simple yet disastrous fact.

He no longer held his weapon in his hands.

'There is no time to think about it,' Mathew thought, desperately raising his eyes.

He then shifted his hips to the side, avoiding a rock thrown by a jerk of the monster's legs.

'Wait, I need to calm down,' Mathew thought, jumping to another pile of rubble. Seconds later, the entire upper part of the centipede smashed into it, crushing the cement slabs into fine dust.

'It's far stronger than a bunch of meat like it should be,' Mathew thought.

He then squinted his eyes and tightened his fists.

'But I seem to be stronger as well,' he thought, heavily stomping his feet on the ground.

Mathew then launched himself forward.

The strength of his kick before proved just how insane his own development was.

'This system didn't help any bit to let me realize that,' Mathew complained in his thoughts, dishing out a fat kick to the monster's side.

'Since we are both too strong for our physical limitations,' Mathew thought, 'then its power has to come from somewhere!'

This was the one belief Mathew refused to give up on.

A belief that everything had to abide by some fundamental rules.

All zombies and monsters had a core somewhere inside their bodies. Merchants would exchange those cores for various items. Spending cores at merchants would affect the progress of the apocalypse.

Those three were just the first few things that Mathew learned about this new world of his. Yet, just like the physic that he knew before the apocalypse came, those appeared to be strict rules.

And two different systems of rules couldn't exist side by side. In other words, while in a way that Mathew couldn't yet understand, this world still had to follow the physical rules Mathew knew about!

'And in this case…' the young man thought, kicking away at the ground to retreat, 'it has to have a core somewhere inside!'

This was the one notion, one idea that Mathew was lacking.

The one element missing in the choreography of the fight that played out in his mind.

"BLURP!"

Blood shot from the severed body of the monster like a hose.

'Did it try to roar?' Mathew asked himself, retreating another leap only to fall down to his knees and reach out with his hands towards the ground.

The centipede then pushed its center of weight forward, falling on its bony-legs and rushing forward.

Mathew pulled his fingers down, grasping his right hand over the handle of his ax.

All of his retreats brought him right back to the place where he jumped from to save Leila. An event that occurred only a few seconds prior yet felt as distant as yesterday's fight.

"This time," Mathew muttered under his nose, raising his right knee.

The centipede's body was just too massive. And the young man had no idea where its core could be. What's more, the zombies were now all starting to converge on him due to all the noises caused by his fight.

'I guess I have no other choice,' Mathew thought, swallowing down his saliva as he tensed his muscles for this one last effort.

The easiest way to find the centipede's core was to simply split its entire body in half.

A deed that Mathew doubted he was capable of.

But a deed he had to accomplish to fulfill his one mission.

Mathew jumped…

Or he didn't. His mental projection of himself got ahead of his physical self. For but a split of a second, those two elements of Mathew's perception, his idea of himself and his natural senses, failed to synchronize.

And right at this moment, something bloody flashed right past Mathew's eyes, only to drill right through the centipede's body!

Tap, tap, tap.

Blood slowly trickled down a girl's hand as a massive stone she held with her fingers pulsated with a gentle light.

"I've finally found you!"

Blood trickled down Nadia's fingers.

It had a strangely thin consistency, flowing down as if it was water rather than a much denser and more viscous liquid like blood.

She stood tall, her chest pushed out, and her chin pulled high. Her eyes fell gently along the slope of her tiny nose as she cast her sights on Mathew's face.

"I've finally found you!" her lips uttered, trembling gently like butterflies dancing on the winds.

Mathew was stunned.

Save for all the blood and destruction all around, this was the scene that played out more times than necessary in the past.

Mathew slowly gulped down a mouthful of saliva.

'It's hard to be a boyfriend of a girl that's so cool,' he thought.

And exactly the same feelings would fill Mathew in the past, where his greatest worries were limited to bullies and grades.

His muscles relaxed a little; the familiar safety offered by Nadia's protection and oversight dulled the young man's senses and will to fight.

'No, that's wrong,' he thought, unable to tear his gaze away from Nadia's deep eyes. 'She's not my girlfriend,' Mathew realized, about to rise from his lowered position to embrace the girl. 'She is my wife!' he thought triumphantly, finally finding some room to amuse himself with this fact.

And then, Mathew snapped right back to reality.

A shiny stone pulsated waves of light in Nadia's bloodied hand. But the centipede didn't cease to move.

And it was actually rising up.

Mathew saw all of those moves before.

Sure, they were heavier and clumsier now, but that didn't make the evolved monster slow!

"Watch!" Mathew shouted, his body tensing up and then springing out in a single instant.

"OUT!" he finished his warning as he brought his ax down the middle of the monster.

It didn't die after Leila cut its head. It still didn't die after Nadia stole its life core.

'I just need to quarter it!' Mathew decided, slashing down on the turd-like pile of flesh.

"KILL IT!" Daria finally shook off her shock.

For the first time since the centipede took them by surprise by not dying, she could actually catch up to everyone's moves!

Mathew's ax split the entire five meters of the meaty thurd in two… Or it would if only the blade of the ax was about ten times longer.

All that Mathew's downward slash from a leap managed to achieve was a long cut at the monster's belly.

A cut way too shallow to seriously damage it. But a cut that revealed exactly what Mathew guessed already.

There was another shiny core in the bottom part of the centipede's body!

But this time, it wasn't only Mathew or Nadia that rushed to fight it.

Daria approached from the beast's right side, cutting at the blunt side of its legs with her machete. The weapon's blade met the bones of the monster… only to cleave right through.

'Huh?' Mathew gasped in shock as he jumped two steps away. He then brought the weight of his weapon to the bottom back, intending to go for another leap and a wide arc of slash.

"It's there!" Leila added, appearing from the monster's left and following Daria's example. Yet, instead of simply copying the idea, Leila aimed her attack at the legs near the monster's core.

Her blade cut through three of the centipede's legs, opening roughly a meter-long gap in its defenses.

"Get on top of it!" Mathew shouted as he rushed forward. He used the distance he gained by retreating to gain momentum…

But he didn't jump. He pushed both of his feet ahead of his knees, falling down on his ass. The momentum he stacked carried his slide on, bringing him right towards the opening Leila created.

The girls both long retreated from the monster's sides, following Mathew's order.

"Cut to it from above!" Mathew shouted as he fixed his grip over the ax's handle…

And then, by using the remaining momentum of his slide, he threw his shoulder out, spinning the ax in a perfect, nearly complete arc.

His swing could only gain momentum in the free space Leila created. But with Mathew's improved flesh, it was enough.

His ax cut right through all the bony legs of the monster near its remaining core, exposing the bottom part of the centipede to even lousy attacks.

At the same time, Leila and Nadia landed on the monster's back, only to furiously slash at its flesh with their short weapons.

He always hated the idea of Nadia standing up for him. Sure, it felt great to be saved from bullies; it felt great to have someone always ready to jump into the fire to help him…

But all of those ideas involved Nadia putting herself in danger. And this was the one aspect of the situation towards which Mathew's hatred knew no bounds.

'There is no other choice,' the young man thought, clenching his teeth as he retreated to make space for the girl.

The time of apocalypse wasn't the time when he could allow such worries to rule over his judgment. Right now, they needed all the help they could. And Nadia's display from a moment earlier was perfect proof of her newfound capabilities.

"Fuck off!" Nadia uttered in a cold voice, appearing in the gap Mathew created out of nowhere.

It was as if she stopped the passage of time, calmly walked to the spot, and then ordered the flow of time to resume.

Or maybe she was just too fast for Mathew's senses for the young man to perceive her movement at all.

And then, Nadia slapped the centipede's bottom.

It was a juicy slap, one that would send sparks of rumors and drama all over the school back in the day.

But now, with Nadia's augmented strength, it disintegrated the flesh of the monster that she slapped, along with the stone that hid underneath.

The centipede's flesh turned into mist, and the shiny stone that powered its movements shattered before turning into a pile of dust. Those two elements created some sort of sticky fog that took a long while to actually fall down.

And once it did, the massive body of the centipede finally fell to the ground before falling apart into a bloody mess of limbs, organs, and bones.

The force that held it together was no more, turned into a mist by Nadia's slap.

"Who is this girl?" Daria's mouth uttered a question, her wide-open eyes showcasing just how awed she was.

The girl's voice seemed to snap Nadia out of her strangely dazed state. She shook her head before refocusing his eyes and looking around the place.

"Huh?" Nadia muttered, raising her hand to her head as if she was in pain… But then she energetically raised her head again, turning her eyes towards Daria's face.

"Mathew?" Leila asked, noticing the strange behavior of the newcomer. "What…"

"Mathew?" Nadia repeated, her eyebrows raising as her voice turned nearly hostile. She then turned her deep eyes towards the young man.

And then, ignoring all the conflict, all the zombies that still threatened them with their presence, all the blood around…

Nadia took a step forward and crossed her hands on her chest. She then raised her chin and looked down at Mathew's face, like a mother who came home after long hours of work only to learn her kid forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer.

"Who the hell are those bitches?!"

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From Mathew's protector and savior to an angry girlfriend questioning her boyfriend about the events of the last night.

The change that Nadia went through in the span of mere seconds was immense.

'Damn.' Mathew swallowed his saliva, not sure how to approach the topic. 'I knew it would come to this, but how the hell am I supposed to tell her?' he thought.

Mathew averted his eyes to the side, pointing his right hand towards the girls a bit further away.

"It's Daria and Leila," the young man explained obediently. He then lowered his head before Nadia's stormy gaze. "I met them while trying to reach the bottom floor. The two of them helped me a lot while clearing the zombies out of our way."

Mathew was only a single instant away from kowtowing on the ground, with no care for all the blood and filth that covered it.

"Isthatit?" Nadia's doubtful reply merged into a single word.

She dropped the stone from her hand to the ground and then rested her fists on her hips. One of Nadia's eyebrows went up as her left foot started to tap against the floor.

'Wait a second, did we change genres or something?' Mathew stumbled to his feet. 'Wasn't this supposed to be an apocalypse?' he thought, feeling weak in his knees.

The exhaustion of all the fights finally caught up to the young man.

And just in that last fight, the strain that he put his body under…

'This is going to suck like fuck!' Mathew thought, feeling how his body weighted forward, his head on a crash course with one of the random piles of rubble.

"Mat!" Nadia's disposition changed in a mere instant.

She leaped forward, grabbing Mathew by his shoulders. Just in time to save the young man's head from striking a sharp bolt of a broken concrete reinforcement.

"Ah…" Mathew gasped for the air, somehow regaining the reins over his flesh. He jerked upwards, hoping to regain his stability…

The feeling of Nadia's skin rubbing against his threw Mathew's senses into disarray.

As a long-time close friend, he considered skinship with Nadia as something normal.

No, something casual yet essential.

And over the course of the last events, Mathew desperately lacked the mindest that simply hugging Nadia would put him in.

"I'm sorry it took me so long," Nadia muttered as she rubbed her hands against the back of Mat's head.

The young man's head was stuck in the sweet opening of Nadia's cleavage. Yet, for some reason, even the drops of blood that dirtied her skin didn't stop Matt from melting under the heat of the girl's skin.

"Wait, what the hell?" Leila stepped forward. "Who the hell are you?" she asked, keeping her machete in her hand.

"Calm down," Daria raised her hand to stop her friend before turning her eyes towards the couple. "It's like he said, I'm Daria, and this is Leila. We cooperated with Mathew to survive."

Nadia only threw a single glance at the girls before turning her eyes back to the top of Matt's head. She then lowered her eyelids and rested her head on top of Matt's.

"I'm so fucking glad you are okay," Mathew uttered, all the air escaping from his lungs as his body plummeted.

Every fiber of his being was on fire. Every strain of his muscles was overstressed beyond any reason. Even his bones were on the verge of shattering under a single breath of wind.

'Fuck…' the young man thought, unable to move a muscle.

"God damn it," Nadia muttered as she reaffirmed her grasp over Mathew's body. She then sharply raised her head and looked around.

"You two," Nadia raised her voice as she threw a cold stare toward Matt's companions. "Go and fetch the two rats that are waiting in the southern alley," Nadia ordered before throwing a kick and decimating the nearest zombie.

Despite how long the events appeared to them, they all took place in a short span of time. And now, the window where they were free not to care about the zombies… was now closing.

All the fighting definitely attracted a lot of zombie attention. And even with the boss monsters now gone, Mathew was in no shape to participate in such a fight.

"What are you going to do?" Daria asked as she stepped forward and started to clear the path for the couple.

"Where are you taking him?" Leila posed a different question, her eyes still hostile.

"To somewhere safe, he needs to rest," Nadia replied without the slightest care in the world as she made her way towards one of the school's wards.

It was a nearly autonomous area designed for the use of a company that sponsored the school. There, excelling students would usually kickstart their careers by going through the real-life practice of the craft.

Or that was the idea behind that place, now long abandoned and closed off due to the bankruptcy of the said company.

And now it stood. An empty area in the corner of the school's ground floor. Cleared out from all furniture, left to rot until someone would actually buy it out.

And now, Nadia kicked the blocked doors open before pulling Mathew's lifeless body inside.

She couldn't care less about those two girls or the couple that she brought with herself. Right now, the entire world shrunk into the feeble body of Nadia's beloved.

Nadia laid Mat's body down on the floor, resting his back against the thick, concrete wall of the compartment.

She then kneeled by his side and brought two of her fingers to the side of Mathew's neck, checking for his pulse.

'Ugh,' Mathew protested in his thoughts, feeling as if the tips of Nadia's fingers turned into red-hot drills.

"You always have to end up in a lot of trouble, don't you?" Nadia asked in a weak voice. Worry filled her eyes as she moved her hand and caressed Mathew's pained face.

"Nadia…" Mathew managed to utter a small whisper, his body slowly but surely regenerating. And now that Nadia was there to take care of him…

Unable to part away from Mat now that they had reunited, Nadia hugged him tightly. Yet, as time went on, she started to curl up. And soon, she ended up practically wrapping herself all over Mat's tired flesh.

"I will be okay," Mathew muttered, desperate to calm the girl's worries.

'As great as it feels to get pampered like that,' he thought, only to mentally shake his head.

Mathew then focused all his might, all his willpower, on raising his right hand.

And with this heroic effort, he gently patted Nadia's back.

"It will be all right," he whispered.

That was the utmost limit of what energy Mathew had left. But it was more than enough to make Nadia freeze.

"Matty," she muttered, raising her teary face above Mathew's eyes. She then brought her hand up and caressed his cheek while looking him deeply in the eyes.

'Damn,' Mathew thought, stunned by how the lights of Nadia's eyes glistered through the tears hanging right below.

There was little to no light in the place, yet Nadia's lips somehow got to shine with their own charming light.

'That's right,' Mathew suddenly thought, a momentary wake-up call shaking him awake. 'In the end, we never did it,' he thought, suddenly becoming heavily self-aware.

But there was little Mathew could do. With his body still on the brink of a total collapse, he became a subject, not the force.

Nadia's lips got closer. Her breath basked Mathew's face with a delicate aroma and filled his nose with the taste of the girl's air.

And then, Nadia's lips gently fell down on Mathew's.

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"Mhmm…" A small moan escaped from Mathew's mouth when Nadia pulled her head away.

Her cheeks were blushed, her eyes filled with passion. And her hands kept on caressing Mathew's cheeks.

"That didn't feel bad at all," Nadia commented in a tiny voice, only to lean forward again.

Her mouth pressed against Mathew's, filling his head with only one sensation he could think about.

'They are warm,' Mathew thought, melting under the gentle embrace of the girl's lips.

With only the cold walls and floor to his back and bottom and the warmth of Nadia's body above, Mathew's body couldn't decide whether to get too hot or too cold.

"Everything will be okay," Nadia muttered silently, her face close enough for her lips to brush against Mathew's as she moved them. "I promise," Nadia leaned in, this time planting her kisses over Mat's cheek. "Mkay?"

"Nadia…" Mathew spoke out, only to sap all his strength with this single word.

It wasn't just the result of Mathew pushing himself way too much at the end. In reality, he continued to act way beyond his limits ever since he first swung his trusty ax. Yet, filled with determination and having no other choice, Mathew simply ignored all the warnings before.

His powerlessness right now was just an end result of such a strain.

"You can just relax," Nadia continued to whisper, her lips moving up and to the side of Mathew's face.

And then, as if his earlobe suddenly turned into a prime sort of snack, Nadia caught it with her mouth only to then munch on it with passion.

"Nadia…?" Mathew pushed himself yet again, this time the single word he uttered taking on a doubtful tone.

'What is she doing?' Mathew asked himself as the girl continued to nibble on his ear. 'Is it her race speaking through her?'

This time, Mathew didn't have the miracle system to turn Nadia back into a fully-fledged human. He only managed to stop the progress of the virus that was about to turn her into a zombie.

'If I recall correctly, she is a half-zombie, isn't she?' Mathew continued to focus on his thoughts, refusing to acknowledge the strange tingles of pleasure that continued to spread away from his ear that Nadia snacked on.

"Everything," Nadia's whisper blew directly into the hole of Mathew's ears, sending a shiver down his spine. It was then quickly followed by the sloppy sounds as Nadia's lips and tongue once again went crazy around his ear.

"Will," the girl continued to cheer Mathew up while covering his ear with her saliva.

"Be," Nadia moved her hands up and locked them behind Mathew's back, only to then use them as a support and ride up on his lap.

"Okay," Nadia finished her effort, leaving Mathew's ear with a quick kiss.

She then pulled her face up, only to look down at Mathew's face with a satisfied grin.

"I know that you are awake," Nadia spoke softly. She then wiggled her hips a little, eager to find a more comfortable position on Mathew's lap. "I guess you don't do or say anything because you are too tired to do that, isn't it true?" Nadia then suggested, only for her smile to widen as she brought her hands up and then rested them directly on Mat's chest.

'Damn,' Mathew thought, gulping down his saliva.

His half-opened eyes allowed him to be aware of what was going on. Yet, the mischievous grin that emerged on Nadia's lips…

For how well Mathew knew the girl, this was the one expression that actually could strike fear into his soul.

"And since you can't move at all…" Nadia's hands started to move up and down Mat's chest. "Then you won't be able to defend yourself either, would you?"

The grin on the girl's lips reached the limit of how wide it could get.

And then, without even a second of hesitation, Nadia moved her hands down and grabbed the bottom of her shirt before pulling it out through her head.

'Woah…'

The breast that would always be hidden behind the barrier of Nadia's clothes and undergarments now was left behind just the second, skimpy layer. And seeing how Nadia brought her hands behind her back…

"Stop…" Mathew muttered, still unable to utter more than a single word.

Nadia's hands froze for a moment as she looked down at Mathew's face. And then, as if not hearing his protests at all, she snapped her bra open, allowing the last layer of material that hid her chest to fall down.

'Woah…' Mathew's thoughts froze when the simple yet perfect image reached his eyes. The sight of Nadia's perfectly-shaped and sized breasts fried into his brain, only for Mathew's senses to sound an alarm when Naida leaned forward.

And then, she brought Mathew's powerless head and pushed it onto her breasts, enclosing his within a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry," Nadia muttered, her fingers running through the back of Mathew's head while his face buried itself in the flesh of her boobs. "I don't want to die without doing it with you, at least once," she whispered, her hands coiling around Mathew's head even stronger than before.

'Wait, is she… shy?'

Mathew's brain was the only organ that continued to work properly despite his exhaustion. Mathew's brain and…

'So now I'm turning from an apocalypse protagonist to a porn novel protagonist, huh?' Mathew thought as he became aware of one more effect that Nadia's intimacy brought upon him.

"And I can tell that you cannot wait to do it either," Nadia's whisper penetrated through Mat's ears, drilling deeply into the tissue of his brain.

And then, as if it was the most natural thing to do, Nadia reached out and snuck her hand underneath Mathew's pants.

'FUCK!'

Up to this point, Mathew hated the exhaustion that stopped him from moving. Yet, when Nadia's delicate fingers first touched his glans, only respect was left in the young man towards his current state.

Because his exhaustion was currently the last bastion that allowed Mathew to contain his lust… Or rather, stop it from spilling out right away!

"See?" Nadia whispered as her hand delved deeper into Mathew's pants. "You are already hard," the girl continued her commentary as her fingers wrapped around Mathew's shaft and started to slowly move up and down.

"We…" Mathew squeezed a single word out of his mouth. Yet, rather than giving up before his exhaustion, he pushed himself to the limit…

And then, he did it.

"Can't…"

A second word left Mathew's mouth, only to put a dissatisfied look in Nadia's eyes.

"I am your wife, am I not?" Nadia asked as she pulled her hand out of Mathew's pants only to lay both her hands on his shoulders and look the young man deep into his eyes.

"Are…" Mathew squeezed yet another word out of his mouth, this time propelled by the panicky fear of getting the girl angry.

'I never knew why she opted to stick with me, what made her like me so much,' Mathew thought. 'That's why using the situation to make her mine like that… how could it not be wrong?'

The social standing of the two of them couldn't be any further apart. Nadia was a school's master of martial arts, a popular and idolized figure of the school.

On the other hand, there was Mathew.

Someone who even the nerds of the class could easily bully.

'Even if that was in the past…' Mathew clenched his teeth.

As happy as he was with the idea of getting down with Nadia, he was so focused on doing everything he could to protect her that when the time to do the deed came…

Mathew's mind was paralyzed.

Yet, it didn't matter at all. After all, he was still paralyzed by his exhaustion. And from the looks of things, Nadia wasn't going to take his bullshit of hesitation into account.

And just like Mathew expected, Nadia raised her hips and brought her hand down, grabbing Mat's pants.

Her fingers quickly undid the button at the top of his pants, only to then lower the zipper and finally pull his pants down.

At this point, with only his underwear on, Mathew could no longer even pretend not to be hard.

"Woah," Nadia moaned, only for her movements to cease.

It appeared as if seeing Mathew's tent for rea actually managed to shake her determination up.

Then, the look in her eyes steeled up, only for her hands to move down again, this time hooking against the edge of Mathew's pants.

And with a single move, Nadia forced them down, making Mat's dick spring out right out of his messy pants.

"Now that I see it…" Nadia swallowed down her saliva as she hesitantly reached down for her fingers to embrace Mat's junior, "it really is big."

Once again, Nadia's fingers moved up and down while her eyes glued to the sight of Mathew's genitals in her hand. The glister behind her eyes made the girl look strangely fascinated by sight.

"You are tired, aren't you?" Nadia suddenly asked, her tone and disposition turning jumpy.

And just like one could guess, Mathew had no strength left to even answer.

"Then…" Nadia hesitated for one last time before averting her eyes and sliding down Math's lap. Her chest fell between Math's knees, and her head ended up just an inch away from the tip of his manhood.

"Let me help you relax a bit." Nadia shook her hand for just one more time before parting her lips and bringing them down on Mathew's wet glans.

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