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“Can you hold my arm and lead me for a while?” Mathew turned his head to Nadia and asked a few moments after the group got on the move.

“Sure thing,” Nadia replied without even a second of hesitation, reaching out and wrapping her hands around Mathew’s arm. “But is there something wrong?” She asked and leaned her head to the side, showcasing her curiosity.

“Do I need some kind of trouble to ask for some help?” Mathew asked with a small smirk blossoming on his lips. “Or maybe you don’t find it manly enough?”

Rather than just showering the girl with compliments like he would usually do in moments like that, Mathew opted to act a little playful.

“What are you talking about?” Nadia protested only to laugh out. “I don’t really mind it. It was my curiosity speaking,” she explained before rubbing her cheek against the side of Mathew’s hand.

“Okay then,” Mathew muttered before closing his eyes. “You still here?” he then asked.

There was no need to name who was the recipient of Mathew’s words. After all, there was only a single entity that Mathew couldn’t see with his very own eyes to confirm their presence.

“Yeah,” Norbert didn’t hold his reply back. “What do you need?”

There was only one reason for Mathew to call out for Norbert. They weren’t buddies to just chat the time away, so there had to be some sort of business hidden behind that quesiton.

“Can you tell me what kind of ability Norbert has?” Mathew asked. “I mean, I know he shot you with a gun, so you didn’t experience his abilities head-on, but with your own ability….”

Mathew didn’t need to finish his words.

Norbert’s system didn’t give him any benefits in combat. Yet, his scouting ability was unparalleled.

“To be frank, I have no idea,” Norbert shook the shoulders of his ghostly apparition. “How about I go and try to find him out?” he then suggested.

“We still need to know where exactly he is,” Mathew pointed out before nodding his head. “So yeah, if you could, that would be awesome.”

“Keep someone on the lookout for me,” Norbert advised. “I will try to hit you up once I find him, so it would be nice if I didn’t need to spend several minutes trying to time my voice to your blinking,” he added.

And just like that, Norbert’s presence disappeared from the area.

“Did he leave?” Mathew asked as he opened his eyes and turned them towards Daria. In their whole group, she was the only one somehow capable of seeing his ghost.

‘Maybe it has something to do with their arcane or mind stats?’ Mathew attempted to guess only to then shake his head. ‘No, until I can level her up, I won’t even be able to check her stats. There is no point in assuming anything.’

“He did,” Daria said as she nodded her head. “Watch out!” she then shouted, only for Nadia to heavily pull on Mathew’s arm.

“Huh?” Mathew shook as if waking up from a daze, only to realize that he nearly tripped at the last step of the stairs.

“Where to, now?” Nadia quickly asked, a small blush appearing on her face due to the mistake she had nearly committed. Even though Mathew had already opened his eyes, she was still snuggled up to his side. As such, it was obvious Mathew still relied on his prime wife to guide him.

‘It’s not like it’s her fault of anything,’ Mathew thought when he realized Nadia simply hoped to change the topic before her mistake would become the agenda in the group. ‘I don’t think she’s the one to blame either, but I don’t think I”m capable of explaining it to the girls,’ he thought while casting a quick glance at Daria and Leila.

So far, Mathew has managed to keep his weird relationship stable. There were some points that made this relationship a tough challenge for all of them. Thankfully, though, it was still way too early for those problems to surface and strike hard enough to put this fragile cooperation at risk.

“Still the same place,” Mathew said. “Back to the second merchant,” he added before turning his eyes to Leila. “Can I ask you to lead the way?”

“Not a problem,” Leila replied, and a smug smile appeared on her lips. “Right, since I’m at the front right now, it won’t be a problem if I lash out at that guy the moment I notice him, right?”

“That’s…” Mathew muttered only to lower his head and set his eyes on the floor. “Actually, let’s take a stop here,” he said as the group reached the staircase that would lead them back to the path Mathew and his second wives took to reach the ground floor before.

“Did you realize something?” Nadia asked, pushing her upper body forward only to turn her head to the side and take a peek at Mathew’s face.

“Not this time,” Mathew bit his lips as he shook his head sideways. “I simply noticed I have yet to come up with a valid strategy for this encounter,” he explained before freeing his arm from the girl’s clutches and taking a step to the side only to rest his back against the wall.

Mathew then turned silent as he shut himself off from the world around him.

‘There is no way to know what his abilities are, not unless Norbert proves to be more capable than I’m expecting him,’ Mathew thought while scouring his mind for some hints.

Yet, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t come up with any trick that would make their looming fight easier.

“I’m empty,” he finally revealed the state of his mind, refusing to look up at his companions out of shame. “I have no idea what we should do to safely take him down,” he admitted before turning silent once again.

“Why not just rush him down, then?” Leila suggested while playing with the knife in her hand. Then, a strange glint of excitement appeared in her eyes. “After all the leveling up we did, he shouldn’t be a threat to us, no matter what his system is,” she pointed out.

“While that might be true, I’m tempted to just ignore him and rush for the merchant,” Mathew revealed the only strategy he managed to come up with. “After all, the only reason why we need to fight him is to get to the merchant. And that guy would benefit from the establishment of the fortress just as much as we would,” he added.

“If that’s the case,” Nadia started to speak.

Mathew closed his eyes.

“I don’t know if that will help, but I heard him saying some weird stuff,” Norbert said as soon as Mathew was able to hear him.

‘Weird stuff?’ Mathew thought as a bad premonition appeared in his mind and made his entire body shake.

“Elaborate,” he ordered shortly while raising his head even though he couldn’t see Norbert’s ghost at all.

“I didn’t dare to come too close in fear that he would somehow notice me,” Norbert excused himself before taking a short pause as if to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to say. “What I heard was him saying something about sacrificing his lung if necessary.”