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7.8% Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse / Chapter 32: [Bonus chapter]Blunder

Chapter 32: [Bonus chapter]Blunder

The shadow within Mathew's grasp expanded the second Mat squeezed down on it.

It suddenly expanded, forming a blurry barrier that separated the young man from the rest of the world.

While stuck inside, Mathew's experience of time changed.

'It's always this weird feeling, isn't it?' the young man thought, immersing himself in the darkness.

He never got to truly check whether or not the time flowed differently within the merchant's shop. It was something that only required both parties to carry a clock.

But still, Mathew never really had the time and opportunity at the same time to pull such a basic test out.

And what seemed like a mere moment later, the darkness suddenly pulled away, revealing three tables both on Mathew's right and left, with a sacrificial chamber in the middle.

All those elements were made from some sort of chiseled stone, giving off a tough and cold feeling. There were some runes inscribed on the sides of each of the tables, while the sacrificial chamber turned out to be...

A big, black, metal pot. A kettle, to be more precise.

"So much for grandeur," Mathew muttered, his lips twitching in a quick, small smirk.

It appeared that the basic, unupgraded merchant would display its status in the shop. And once its level would rise higher...

"Well, let's not waste time," Mathew muttered, scanning the content of each of the tables.

Sadly, most of it was already greyed out. Out of six items that this merchant would normally sell, only two remained intact.

'A weapon and a scroll, huh?' Mathew thought, analyzing the items.

Scroll indicated some sort of knowledge; every RPG addict knew that. On the other hand, a single sword on the other table didn't really need any further explanations.

"I will get both of them," Mathew said out loud, raising his hands and pointing at the items he wanted.

'Over two hundred stones, huh?' Mathew thought. 'A hundred to summon the merchant, and...'

A total of ten stones suddenly rose up from Mathew's makeshift pouch, only to turn into a ball of light and then reveal their content.

And just like this, a sword and a note appeared below Mathew's feet. Notably, though, while the scroll now turned into a blurry illusion, the sword on the table remained as it was.

'So I can buy multiple weapons, huh?' Mathew took notice before turning his eyes towards the sacrificial pot.

"I wish to upgrade the shop," Mathew called out.

"Ten cores," the familiar, robotic voice responded to Mathew's call without fail.

Mathew only nodded his head before throwing ten cores into the kettle.

The shadow that earlier revealed the area suddenly pulled towards the young man. Covering everything away from his eyes, it then shook like a single, living organism before receding again.

The stone slabs making up tables turned into proper, wooden stools. And more importantly now, not only each of the tables housed now three items, there were even plaquettes with the names of the item attached!

"That's surely convenient," I thought, my eyes moving towards the new grade of items I could buy. Yet, I quickly stopped my head and leaned down, picking up both of the items I had already bought.

"You may now know the names of the wares," I spelled the words on the note out loud. I then raised my other hand and rubbed the side of my head, not caring for the sword I already held in it.

"I guess those plaquettes are not the benefit of the upgrade, then," I muttered before raising my eyes towards the new items again.

Contrary to my worries, the items from the first shop didn't disappear. Yet, with their form blurred, I somehow couldn't tell at all what they represented. As such, I didn't know whether I couldn't buy them yet or if they were already out of stock.

"New grade of weapons, huh?" I commented as I turned my eyes towards the table that still housed the simple sword.

Now, there were two more options. A machete and an ax. Yet, there was a small caveat.

Mathew reached down and picked up the name tag of the ax.

'Outside of a single exception, this is the only nametag written in golden letters,' he thought before looking at the weapon in his hand.

It was almost exactly the same.

"What's the price of those weapons?" Mathew called out to the merchant.

"Five cores for the sword, twenty-five for the machete, one hundred and twenty-five for the fireman's ax," the robotic voice, like always, responded in an instant.

Mathew's lips twitched a little. He then raised his eyes towards what seemed like the densest part of the shadow.

"How much would the weapon I'm holding go for, then?" he asked.

'In this way, I will see not only whether or not I can sell my stuff, but also what's the markup on the items,' Mathew thought, trying to cheat out as much information out of his system as he could.

"Unable to purchase unidentified weapons," the voice instantly shut down Mathew's hopes.

'As if I would give up so quickly,' he thought, a smirk appearing on his lips.

"How much would it cost to identify my weapon?" Mathew continued his sneaky interrogation.

"Unable to appraise items of the rank higher than the shop," the voice reluctantly gave Mathew another hint. While it still kept its robotic mannerism and tone... It somehow appeared annoyed?

'It's actually way easier than I thought,' Mathew noticed, his eyes flashing with excitement.

There was something damn satisfying in finding ways around stuff to do what he wanted.

"How much for another upgrade, then?" Mathew asked, crossing his arms on his chest.

"Fifty cores," the shop's voice replied in a cold tone.

"Tsk," Mathew clicked his tongue. "Cheapskate," he spat on the ground before throwing a fistful of stones into a slightly bigger kettle than before. "Go and get yourself a nicer sacrificial chamber," he added, slightly perturbed by the changes in the merchant.

This time, no comment came from the merchant. The shadows exploded in volume, once again filling Mathew's immediate surroundings. Yet, when the shadows retreated a moment later, the shop changed completely.

There was no sign of the former tables, all the items that Mathew had yet to buy were now gone, replaced by the new stock of even higher grade.

"Fuck..." Mathew cursed, realizing his mistake. 'I guess that's karma for me, for being rude to the merchant,' he thought, tightening his fists. "May I ask where all the old wares went?" Mat asked, raising his eyes at the shadows with the hopes of mending his faux pas.

"User now reached a new evolution stage of the shop." This time, the robotic voice was full of satisfaction. "Please, do enjoy new wares!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
MotivatedSloth MotivatedSloth

Wait, so the MC makes mistakes and can be careless at times? What do you mean, who he is, a normal human or what?

I hope you liked this second (HIC!) chapter for today. Also...

Boobs.

And now that I got your attention, how about you go and donate some power stones to the story? :D

Chapter 33: Jackpot

"The shop changed a lot," Mathew muttered under his nose once he finally shook off the shock of his failure.

'Even if I won't be able to buy the stuff from before, that doesn't mean I can't get anything good," he thought before shaking his head and looking up.

There were several reasons why Mathew was in such a rush to raise the level of the merchant.

First came the need for weapons. And given how many floors Mathew's group still had to conquer before getting to the bottom floor, buying something durable was a must.

Then came the endgame of Mathew's plans. The monsters. And to defeat them, punny humans like them could only rely on the might of their weapons.

'That is, as long as we don't out level those monsters first,' Mathew thought, tightening his fists before taking a proper look around the shop.

Yet, before he could as much as figure out the logic behind the way it was set up, the young man raised his eyes towards the densest part of the smoke before asking again.

"Can you appraise my weapon now?" he asked.

This was the third of the big reasons why Mathew was so eager to push the merchant hard. Because from the looks of things, the ax that he wielded was actually of an even higher class than the one he could buy before. Otherwise, the merchant being unable to appraise it wouldn't make any logical sense!

And then, Mathew froze.

'Wait, how could I even use my own logic and impose it on the logic of the system?' he thought, noticing his second mistake.

Mathew didn't know the rules on which merchants operated. He didn't know and could ultimately only guess whether or not his idea would turn out to be correct or not.

"Cost of appraisal, fifteen cores," the mechanic voice of the merchant announced. This time though, just like at the beginning, there was no emotion behind it whatsoever.

"Deal," Mathew threw another fistful of cores into the air. And while some disappeared in the same flashy manner as before, roughly half of them remained suspended in the air, free for Mathew to pick up.

'At least it's not scamming with the price,' Mathew thought, waiting for the reveal.

"Status of the user's weapon updated on their log," the voice announced before disappearing. Something about the air's quality changed as if the world twitched... But Mathew couldn't really pinpoint the cause or location of this strange occurrence.

"User's log?" Mathew muttered, lowering his eyes and resting his chin on his hand as he thought. "Only one thing makes sense here," he concluded before raising his eyes and finally taking a moment to look around the new shop.

The tables from before were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a row of seven shelves. They looked exactly like the furniture of your average convenience store. In fact, if not for how varying the wares on the shelves were, Mathew could think he actually entered a small shop instead!

The quality of the place was also better.

The sacrificial chamber now turned into a box Mathew recognized from hundreds of magnas that he read in the past. It was as if it was stolen from some Japanese shrine, with five solid walls and a set of rails covering the top.

Mathew moved up and approached the first of the shelves.

"Supplies," he muttered, moving over to the next one. "Clothes, weapons, information, tools... and what exactly are those two?"

Mathew took a closer look at the last two shelves. Even though they were brimming with items, one of them was greyed out, while the other one housed an impressive collection... Of some strange, colorful stones.

Mathew then leaned forward and looked at the plaquettes arranged to mark every last of the displayed items.

"Zombie bait, Zombie repellant, healing ground, empowering stage," Mathew mouthed out several of the names before raising his eyes and looking at the items themselves again.

Yet, they were still the same colorful stones as before.

"Maybe those are some kind of buffs? Special abilities for the user to purchase?" Mathew muttered only to shake his head and move back towards the two shelves that interested him the most.

"Chainsaw, gauntlet, cleaver, and handgun," Mathew counted out the new weapons that appeared in stock. This time, however, not a single one was named with gold-bearing letters.

'Oh right,' Mathew shook a little when the sight of weapons made him think of something. 'Now that my ax is appraised...' he thought before raising his head back towards the shadows.

"How much would my weapon cost?"

For the first time during all of Mathew's interactions with merchants, the voice didn't come right away.

"Three hundred seventy-five cores," the voice finally appeared, a clear annoyance perfectly noticeable in its dissatisfied tone.

'Woah,' Mathew took a step back before raising his hand and looking down at his weapon. 'It's that powerful?' he thought, baffled by the discovery.

He heard from one of his surviving classmates during the first run of the apocalypse that a golden fireman's ax could be bought from the merchants. That's why he was so happy to get one for free. And now, it turned out that the weapon he simply picked off the wall was worth nearly four hundred cores?

'If that's not a jackpot, then I don't know what else could it be,' Mathew thought, a satisfied smirk raising upon his face.

"How much do handguns cost?" Mathew asked before eyeing out the shelf with the weapon.

And then, he noticed something that he had missed before.

'Something is stuck in the back!' Mathew called out, leaning over the shelf to check it out further.

"A hundred cores," this time, the robotic voice of the merchant appeared to be in quite a panic.

"How about those machetes in the back of the shelf?" Mathew asked, recognizing the item.

This time, he no longer bore a smirk on his lips. This time, Mathew's expression turned devious instead.

'You wanted to make me think I lost all the items from before?' he thought, raising one of his eyebrows before shaking his head and taking on a natural expression. 'Well, there is no point in flexing this discovery in the merchant's face. Let's just play it cool,' Mathew decided.

He already suffered the consequences of angering the merchant. And even if its options to make Mathew's life were limited, there was no point in incurring merchant's wrath just for some self-satisfaction.

"Twenty-five cores," the voice replied, once again appearing to be completely emotionless.

'Does it hopes for me not to notice the pattern?' Mathew thought, only to ultimately ignore the topic and throw the rest of the stones from his pouch into the air.

"I want three machetes," he announced. And after a quick explosion of bright light, Mathew's new weapons appeared on the floor right beside him.

"Now then," Mathew turned his head towards the other shelf that caught his interest. "Could I maybe hear a little bit more about those scrolls?"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
MotivatedSloth MotivatedSloth

How about donating some power stones? It's really not that hard, just a few taps of your finger that will make this sloth smile :D

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