‘Are those my stats?’ Mathew stood still while turning a big shard of glass around to look into the details of his own progress.
The first part of my status didn’t seem to receive any major changes outside of the status of my mind. It simply changed from the desperate that I was before to the determined that I was right now.
It was the other part of my status that picked up my interest.
[Mathew Karian]
[Level – 1/1]
[Vitality – 16]
[Brawn – 17]
[Agility – 16]
[Mind – 0]
[Arcane – 0]
[Total – 49]
[Accumulated Levels – 1/3]
‘Huh?’ Mathew shrugged when he finally managed to decipher the details of his detailed status. ‘Did I miss the notification?’ he thought, looking towards the bottom line.
At this point, it was pretty clear what this line was all about.
‘With two levels donated and one yet to be distributed,’ Mathew thought before looking at the last number displayed in his reflection. ‘The math does check out,’ he thought, gritting his teeth.
In theory, he could give that level to Nadia to help with her recovery. And it was something that Mathew seriously considered, given how he didn’t know where the time of his end would come.
But ultimately, if he wanted the girl to survive, taking out that monster was the main concern. Because even if Nadia were to survive her current zombified status, she would then become just another victim of the crashed building.
“Mathew!” Daria called out, desperately swinging down her sword. “We would use some help here!”
They have only managed to clear a single floor so far. Right now, they were just a few steps away from the staircase, digging into the mass of zombies on the floor below.
But contrary to the previous instance, this floor turned out to be far harder.
Not because the zombies received some mysterious and magically inconvenient power-up.
It was all because of their number.
And now, the young man and his two naked companions had to now deal with the problem they ignored earlier.
“Seriously, help!” Lila cried out when three zombies threw themselves at her.
And even with her raised level, she could hardly stave off their combined attacks.
Mathew shook his head, forcing himself out of his daze.
Whenever anything related to his system would come up, he would freeze to think it over. After all, it was his greatest asset and greatest tool to survive in the apocalypse.
But checking his own status and then trying to modify his strategy… was an activity that required a fitting place and time.
And due to the mass of zombies pressing toward them, the two poor girls couldn’t give Mat the window of opportunity to calmly think about his system.
“Got it,” he called out in response, taking a wide swing of his ax before throwing its butt directly into the crowd of zombies ahead.
‘The roads are getting stronger,’ Mathew thought as he immersed himself in the heat of the battle.
[Host can now donate a level]
A vision flashed in the corner of Mathew’s eyes, indicating that just a few moments of fighting were enough to bring his level up a notch…
Or rather, to give him the chance to donate his level again.
“I need a moment!” Mathew called out after thinning out the crowd of the zombies a little before leaving the rest to the girls.
He picked up another stray shart of glass and took a quick look at his own status again.
‘Just like I thought,’ he muttered under his breath, clasping his teeth together.
Even though Mathew clearly reached a new level, his level count on the main status screen failed to move!
‘Am I going to end up as a forever-level-one character?’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth against each other before raising his hand and slapping his own cheek.
He then shook his head to distract himself from the downsides of his system.
“I wish to donate two levels to wife number two!” Mathew called out, ignoring the shame of uttering such words in public.
[Donation accepted]
A message appeared before his eyes, prompting the young man to drop the shard of glass and rejoin the fight.
Thankfully, be it thanks to their raised levels or maybe Mat’s own progress, they managed to clear the floor without much trouble. Sure, the corridor crowded with zombies wasn’t the place Mathew would like to be, but he didn’t really have much choice.
“The building is really shaking,” Daria observed as their small group turned around and headed for the staircase again. She then raised her eyes and looked toward Mathew’s face. “So you weren’t lying about those monsters,” she muttered in a silent voice, as if too ashamed to admit Mathew was right.
“So it is,” Mathew replied impassively before taking a deep breath. “We only have three more floors to go,” he said before glancing over at the girls.
Spare for his donation, Leila managed to raise her level by one. Thanks to that, they now reached fourth and fifth levels, giving Mathew some hopes regarding the coming fight.
“We better hurry up, then,” Leila summed up, only to take a look at the worn-out piece of metal she was using as the weapon all this time. “It would be nice to get something better to swing, too,” she added before sending a strange look at Mathew’s face.
“Thinking about this, this place is as good as any,” he muttered under his nose, only to shake his head and turn around.
“Okay, girls, full stop,” he ordered as he lowered his ax. “Leila, you are responsible for gathering as many cores…” Mathew cleared his thought, “as much of those shiny stones as you can. Daria,” the young man turned his head to the other girl. “I need you to guard the staircase. Don’t let any zombies near,” he instructed.
Mathew then took a step back and looked at the bloodied corridor. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to picture their location on a model scale of the entire compound.
‘This place is really as good as any other,’ he thought before opening his eyes and looking at the girls with a mysterious ray flashing behind his eyes.
“We are going to summon a merchant!”