Download App
8.04% Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse / Chapter 33: Jackpot

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

Chapter 34: Weapon Delivery

Mathew posed his question. And then he waited. And waited. And once some amount of time had passed, he moved his eyes from the thickest part of the shadow back towards the shelf with the scrolls.

'If it didn't reply right away, it likely wouldn't answer at all,' Mathew thought before focusing on the names written on the plaquette below every scroll on the shelf.

"Patterns of spread, fortress establishment, and strategies, level information, class information..." Mathew mouthed the words, going through them all one by one.

"If this isn't a treasure trove of knowledge, then I don't know what is," Mathew whispered to himself before throwing a glance towards the thick part of the shadow again.

"How much for those scrolls?" he asked, pointing his finger at the shelf in general.

"Unable to answer," the robotic voice appeared right away.

"How about this scroll then?" Mathew changed his question, moving his hand to point at the scroll named 'Class Information".

"Fifty points," the robotic voice wasn't late this time. Yet, despite refusing to give the tally for all the scrolls before, it clearly didn't mind sharing the prices of each individual item.

"What's with this lack of accommodation?" Mathew muttered as he shook his head sideways. He quickly recalled, though, that he wasn't in some kind of grocery where the word of a customer was a word of law.

He was in a shop of a merchant that appeared at the same time as the apocalypse, and from the looks of the names of just a few scrolls picked at random, this shop was strictly tied to the very apocalypse that was happening.

In other words, the times when the customer was always right were already over. As such, Mathew could only complain under his nose before accepting the truth before his eyes.

"How about this scroll?" Mathew moved his hand over to another interesting piece. This time, it was one named "Strategems of battling the monsters."

"A hundred coins," the robotic voice of the merchant replied without even a hint of hesitation, proving that there wasn't likely any point in trying to kick the price a little bit lower.

'I can't afford it,' Mathew thought, staring at the scroll on display. 'Still, it's good to know that we can learn about how the world changes, even if it comes at a steep price,' he thought before leaning down and picking his weapons.

"I bought everything that I wanted so far," Mathew informed before reaching out with his hands forward.

There wasn't anything specific for Mathew to grab. He simply reached out and waited while the shadows that created this strange realm started to contract.

The momentum of the shadows quickly increased, turning their return into a vile storm that threatened to knock Mathew over. Yet, before the young man could lose his stability, everything came to an end.

All of the shadows that made up the merchant's realm returned to the grasp of his hand only to then condense and turn back into the head of the merchant on which Mathew grabbed.

"I'm back," Mathew muttered, more to himself than to the girls left on the floor. "How long was I away?" Mathew quickly asked, turning his head around to ensure the situation didn't drastically deteriorate while he was busy with a merchant.

"Only a short while," Leila replied, gracing Mathew with a small smile. "Did everything go like you hoped?" she then asked, tilting her head to the side.

'She didn't even bother to clean herself up,' Mathew thought upon taking notice of the girl's bloody hands. Or rather, bloody arms, as the marks left over by what she was tasked with doing reached all the way to her elbows.

"Yeah," Mathew replied, keeping his thoughts to himself before he reached out and pulled one of the machetes that he bought. "This is your new weapon. It might look simple, but it's the best one I could afford right now," the young man then lied without batting an eye.

'Well, that wasn't exactly a lie,' Mathew thought, thinking back over his own words as he turned around and headed towards the staircase to deliver the new weapon to Daria.

Even though she actually started with a sword from the shop instead of some makeshift armament, it was only to be expected for that sword to start wearing off any moment now.

Given the number of the zombies that she downed, the number of skulls she cracked, and the bones she split open... The blade of her sword was only moments away from breaking!

"Daria!" Mathew called out shortly.

Despite the unlikeable front that she showed him at first, as their small group started to open up to each other, Mathew got to learn a bit about the two girls.

And if Leila was the unpredictable, cute yet crazy one, then Daria turned out to be just way... simpler.

"Yes!" the girl replied right away, kicking away a torso of a zombie that attempted to climb the staircase. "What's wrong?" she then turned her head around, only to shrug when Mathew patted her shoulder with the handle of her new weapon.

"Weapon delivery," Mathew gave a quick explanation before looking down at the stairs.

The roars from below only grew stronger in the few minutes they wasted on collecting the cores and then spending them.

They were truly running out of time.

"Well then," Mathew shook his head and placed his hands on his hips, "how about we finish up with gathering the cones and then keep on going?"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
MotivatedSloth MotivatedSloth

Title is a courtesy of Blanklight64 :D

Load failed, please RETRY

Gifts

Gift -- Gift received

    Weekly Power Status

    Batch unlock chapters

    Table of Contents

    Display Options

    Background

    Font

    Size

    Chapter comments

    Write a review Reading Status: C33
    Fail to post. Please try again
    • Writing Quality
    • Stability of Updates
    • Story Development
    • Character Design
    • World Background

    The total score 0.0

    Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
    Vote with Power Stone
    Rank 200+ Power Ranking
    Stone 6 Power Stone
    Report inappropriate content
    error Tip

    Report abuse

    Paragraph comments

    Login

    tip Paragraph comment

    Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

    Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

    GOT IT