Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

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"Let's start with your former question," Mathew's clone said as it finally moved away from the spot it originally appeared at.

It brought its hands together before locking them behind his back and going on a stroll around the time-frozen forest.

"This apocalypse is just a way in which my people are altering the incoming wave of mana," the voice explained. "You can think of it as a front of extremely powerful radiation, cauterizing all the life that is not accustomed to its presence."

Mathew's clone turned silent, most likely to give real Mathew some time to digest the news.

"If we did nothing, then once the wave of mana would strike your planet, all life would be lost in an instant," the clone announced after some time before stopping and turning its face to look at Mathew. "With no exception. All. Life. Gone. Be it humans, animals, plants, or even bacteria and viruses. Nothing could face mana this powerful if it isn't already accustomed to it."

The clone faced its front once again before picking up its pace.

"So, you are saying that this zombie apocalypse…" Mathew hesitated, unsure how to properly form his wild thoughts into words.

"Is our way of gradually introducing mana to this world to save those lives that can be saved," the clone replied to the question that Mathew had yet to actually form.

This alone was enough to shut the young man for another long while, giving the clone some time to do a full circle around Mathew and begin its second round.

"Then…" Mathew muttered after a long while. Given just how unexpected this talk was, he didn't have the list of questions that he wanted to ask prepared, forcing him to take his time before recklessly opening up his mouth.

And with the added tangent of not being able to remember the conversation at all and only being able to convey some of the crucial points through some sort of message…

To say the situation was confusing would be akin to calling a mouse the most powerful one among all the animals on earth!

Mathew lowered his eyes to look at his own hands… but by doing so, he unknowingly looked down at the face of the cat girl that he saw struggling before.

"Then, what is this entire meeting all about?" Mathew asked, struggling to pull his eyes from the girl's teary face.

There was something inside him that drove him crazy to help her, even if he didn't know her at all. An instinct to protect which crossed over the barrier between the worlds and reached towards the girl that had no right to exist in the world Mathew came from.

"I think you should be able to figure out the answer to that yourself," Mathew's clone replied. It then stopped in its track, turned around, and faced Mathew directly. "But I will cut right to the chase. Right now, by refusing to pick a class and allow us to smoothly change your system, you are killing yourself."

Those few words struck Mathew like a hammer.

"Killing myself?" he repeated after the clone. Then, Mathew gritted his teeth and tightened his fists. "Is that the case?" he then asked, squinting his eyes as he raised them on the clone with a hint of hostility flashing at the depth of his pupils. "Because to me, it looks like you are trying another trick to deprive me of the strength I gained with my own two hands!"

The clone kept on looking at the original. And by staring right back at it, Mathew could see his clone slowly gaining the ability to convey some basic emotions with its mimicry.

"Listen. For a sentient being to adopt mana, it has to wrestle control over it from the source," the clone explained. "This entire apocalypse is set in a way that allows the survivors to do so by killing the zombies, being deranged by the wild mana overflowing in them."

'So far, this appears to make sense,' Mathew thought, quickly analyzing the visitor's words. 'But so would any story that they likely prepared in advance. If I still go with the understanding that they are trying to dupe me out of my system…' Mathew hesitated a little, only for his hostility to grow even stronger, 'then it's pretty much obvious that it's nothing more but a fake story aimed to make me believe them!'

"It's not a fake story aimed to make you believe us," the clone replied directly to Mathew's thoughts, taking the young man aback for the nth time during this single meeting.

"So you can read my thoughts too," Mathew muttered.

The level to which he dropped his eyelids reflected the growth of hostility within his soul.

"Such a task is child's play for us," the clone replied while nodding its head. "But back to the story. By killing… how you call them… zombies, you are claiming control over the mana they are infused with. But what happens when you are using that exploitative system of yours…"

The clone suddenly cut its explanation short. Then, it smiled before crossing its arms over his chest.

"Rather than giving you the answer, let me as you this," it requested. "What do you think happens when you gain more mana than you properly took control of?"

For the first time in a long while, Mathew's hostility decreased. While he was aware that the voice behind his clone would be perfectly aware of the change, Mathew just couldn't help how being treated seriously like that made it easier for him to accept the other party's words.

He didn't reply right away, though, opting to take his time to analyze the question first.

"Is the mana I can rightfully control getting diluted with the mana I can't?" Mathew put forward an educated guess.

"That's a good attempt," the clone said with a smile. "Trying to push the question into the framework of what you can understand is a great methodology for learning about the things you don't understand," the clone praised.

But as if it didn't want to praise Mathew too much, the owner of the voice then made Mathew's clone shake its head.

"Sadly, you lack the terminology necessary to understand a force from the seventh dimension that mana is at its core," it then dropped what felt like one hell of massively valuable information.

"What's the answer, then?" Mathew asked, forcefully stopping himself from analyzing what he heard, worried that it was exactly what the other party wanted.

The clone giggled a little.

"Your guess is close but not on the spot. But mana isn't like some sort of liquid that enters your body," the clone explained. "It's true nature is far closer to radiation. The mana you wrestled control over is radiation that your body can control. The mana that you didn't claim, though…"

The voice from the clone put a theatrical pause, proving it wasn't a being that was all about science or magic, but a being that understood small social clues or maybe even stuff like art and culture as well.

"Works on my body just like real radiation, right?" Mathew then asked, finally obtaining enough clues to figure out where this strange, godlike being was leading him to.