Chapter 206 Carol's first improvement
"I'm sorry for that," Mathew said, lowering his head in apology. "I just wanted to make sure they knew exactly what they were signing up for," he then added, trying to push at least a part of the blame to the situation.
"Do you really think I was talking about your set of reveals there?" Nadia then countered, leaning her head over her shoulder as she tapped her fingers against her elbow.
For a moment, Mathew found himself unable to find the right words to use. 'Just what the hell am I supposed to tell now? That I enjoyed fucking Carol quite a lot?' Mathew then thought, only to close his eyes and take a deep breath. 'Well, I'm a man so it would be weird if I didn't enjoy it.'
Mathew could rationalize his own actions all he wanted... but the scar that they left on his girls would remain regardless. And even if they knew it was a necessary step, it didn't mean they were happy with it.
"Listen, dear," Mathew finally opened up his mouth and said. "It had to be done. It's done. Let's forget about it now, okay?" he suggested, ignoring how his words made Carol suddenly twitch.
"I would love it if that could be so easy," Nadia replied, finally averting her eyes and lifting the pressure she put on Mathew in the first place.
"You guys are okay with it as well?" Mathew then turned his attention to the other members of his harem.
"I dislike what happened but it's not like I'm going to nag you about it," Leila said with a shake of her shoulders. Yet, the look of displeasure that she had on her face clearly proved that while her words had some truth to them, she didn't paint a full picture with them.
"How about we just drop this topic instead," Daria suggested with a sigh only to shake her hands and then comb them together over her chest. "We still have shit to do, don't we?"
"True," Mathew nodded his head, too wary of the situation to push it any further. "Let's go visit the merchant then," he then said, only to move towards the main door that led outside.
He didn't need to turn his head around to know what Nadia was doing behind him. He could feel her heated glare on the back of his neck as he opened up the door and walked out.
Just like it was before, the journey down to the autonomous office at the bottom floor of the school passed for the entire group in complete silence.
"I guess you didn't want to use the merchant at the top to avoid survivors from seeing the process?" Nadia finally struck up a conversation once the group reached the ground floor.
"Something like that," Mathew replied, averting his eyes as he moved forward. "I don't want anyone to see how I'm adding skills into Carol's system," he then explained, knowing full well that his words were all Nadia needed to calm down a bit.
Still, the look of annoyance on her face made it quite clear that while she understood the logic behind his actions, she didn't approve of them either. And even if it was mostly just because of jealousy at this point... Mathew didn't really care as long as they could implement their plan without any issues at hand.
"We are here," Mathew then announced once the group passed one last set of doors. And just like all the times before, the merchant awaited them in silence, calmly standing in the corner of the room while its shadows coiled underneath its hood.
"Okay, first thing first," Mathew said, turning his face towards Carol. "There is virality, brawn, agility, mind, and arcane," he explained. "They refer roughly to your health, strength, speed, and well..." he then hesitated only to spread his arms open in a sign of cluelessness. "I'm not really sure what mind and arcane stand for but the mind seems to increase your ability to use magical energy while arcane appears to improve the quality of what you can do with said energy," he explained the basic information about the stats.
"Okay, I got it," Carol replied while putting on a focused expression on her face.
"But it all leads to a simple question," Mathew revealed only to look intently at Carol's face. "How would you like me to raise your stats?" he asked. "Right now, your early build is oriented towards health and mind. And while that might mean you have more potential towards those aspects, it's nothing more but a guess of mine."
'I already committed the sin of distributing points for the girls without asking them about their preference first,' Mathew thought, swallowing his guilt along with a mouthful of saliva. 'Back then, it was necessary to make the most out of the limited resources we had. But in this particular case...' he thought, keeping his eyes on Carol's face.
The girl... didn't reply right away. Instead, she lowered her face and closed her eyes, taking her sweet time to analyze her options.
"Raising all the stats equally isn't the best idea, isn't it?" she then asked, shaking herself off her daze and raising her eyes back on Mathew.
"No, it isn't," Mathew replied with a shake of his head. "Let's just say that your brawn is twice as high as your mind and agility," he then explained the basics of his class system. "That means you would be much more proficient when it comes to strength-based skills while comparatively lacking in others." He then pointed at Nadia who stood beside him. "Nadia here is far better when it comes to speed, thanks to how many points I invested in her agility." He then finally turned towards Leila. "And Leila over here has both decent brawn and agility, making her a great all-rounder. On the other hand," Mathew then turned his eyes towards the last girl he officially recognized as his harem member, "Daria's build is focused on mind and arcane, giving her some seriously insane powers."
This time around it was Daria's turn to lower her gaze to the ground and close her eyes as the praise rained down on her head.
"I see..." Carol muttered, scanning the faces of all the girls in the office before once again drifting off into the dreamland of her thoughts. This time, however, she didn't take as long.
"I've decided," she then announced, raising her eyes and straightening her back. "You said that my early statistics are focused on health and mind, didn't you?"
Mathew nodded his head in reply.
"Then, those are the two statistics I want you to improve," she made her decision and announced it out loud.
"Sure thing," Mathew said, nodding his head once again. "Right now, I have five spare levels on me so let's start with those," he announced only to squint his eyes before uttering the familiar sentence in his thoughts.
'I wish to donate five levels to my third wife!'
[Wife #3]
[Name: Carol Handar]
[Age: 18]
[Level: 4] > [Level 4+5]
[Race: Human]
[Class: N/A]
[Status: Exicted]
[Level - 4] > [Level 9]
[Vitality - 15] > [Vitality 30]
[Brawn - 5] > [Brawn 10]
[Agility - 5]
[Mind - 17] >[Mind 47]
[Arcane - 5]
[Total - 47(0 gifted)] > [Total - 47(50 gifted)]