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.

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?”