AN:  For those that have been thinking the MC is basically chuunibyuo, congratulations you caught it.  There are reasons for this, MC was a lot like this when he was younger (middle school/high school), note how he hasn't mentioned/thought about his previous relationships at all, so let that be food for thought.  Another note is that this will likely be the last chapter from 1st person POV, at least from the MC perspective, for a while.  Also more action will be making its way into the story as well.  There was a good point that I've been focusing too much on the physiological aspect and less on the action.  While that was intentional to a certain degree it got a bit out of hand, expect more descriptive battles from now on.  Last note is a few things will be revealed this chapter along with a new important character so enjoy.

STR = strength, AGI = agility, VIT = vitality, END = endurance, DEX = dexterity, WIL = willpower, CNC= concentration, INT = intelligence, RCT = reaction time, and WIS = wisdom.  

Chapter 6: Encounter: cracks form

I spent the entirety of the next day combining different exercises in order to boost all my stats quickly.  Unfortunately I couldn't figure out any way of improving my intellect, wisdom or reaction time (as those are what I guessed the stats that I couldn't increase meant).  Funnily enough doing math problems repeatedly does not in fact help improve you intelligence, nor does solving mazes that I built myself.  

Still it wasn't in vain as I finally ended up getting a whole number on my strength and managed to get all my stats, besides the aforementioned three, to twenty.  The training had a very steep curve in terms of effort to results as it took me half the day just to get the last point in the stats.  I did manage to find a decent way of improving my vitality that didn't involve giving myself brain damage though, it was punching the ground!

There was a cost paid though in the form of my now nearly depleted food and water reserves including my long term food so now I was getting ready to go supply pillaging.  It was all worth it though as I could things now that I've only seen Olympic athletes do before.  I was at the peak of human physical prowess, at least I think so but I'd test more later, although I did find it a bit odd that training my flexibility actually worked for improving my agility.  One thinks of speed when they hear the word not the ability to put a foot on one’s head but again thoughts for later.

Now I was making my way back towards were I killed the group of goblins that I found the strange marble by.  There was no real reason to do so, the homes closer by still had supplies I could take but I felt almost compelled to go back.  If that was the only reason I wouldn't have done so but there was a whisper in the back of my mind that kept getting stronger the closer I got and I was curious.  I couldn't understand what it was saying but as it kept getting louder I felt like I kept getting closer to understanding what it was telling me.

Suddenly the whisper stopped and a tense feeling flooded the atmosphere causing me to ready my bow in response.  It didn't take long before I saw a threat, a group of six goblins chasing after an extremely abused looking woman.  The woman had a fairly big lead on the goblins, which were still a bit out of my maximum range.   I saw I had the ability to save her and I had an intense compulsion to keep her safe, so that's what I did.

I think my appearance startled the girl though I wasn't sure as her face was shadowed by her hair making it hard to see her expression.  I ran towards her knocking my arrow and pulling my bow as I did so, and as soon as I got in range I stopped, planted my feet and fired my arrow.  It was a rather lucky shot as I didn't give myself time to properly aim and set up while the goblin was a moving target at my max range but I ended up getting a hit to the lead creature's heart.  

The goblins were only briefly surprised but that surprise quickly turned to anger which spurned them on causing a rather impressive increase in speed for such a small creature.  By this point the woman had managed to run to me and hid a few feet behind my back.  The goblins made quick time but I managed to shoot two down, one of my black arrows sticking out through their eye socket, before I dropped my bow and rushed out to meet them in melee as I didn't want to involve the woman.  

I fought carefully drawing my longer machete in one hand and a goblin dagger in the other, keeping my two survival knives in reserve in my boots.  I didn't know how to fight with a weapon by itself let alone dual wield so the fight was savage as I duked it out with the remaining three monsters.  The creatures weren't very skilled with a blade either fortunately and came in staggered so it wasn't as difficult as it could have been.

The first one launched a surprisingly quick leaping thrust towards my chest which took my off guard.  I had to desperately twist aside to avoid the blow and I still managed to get nicked on the side.  Still he was off balance from his attack leaving me a perfect opportunity to finish it off.  Fortunately my aim was true and I planted the shorter, and thus less cumbersome, dagger right into its face although this had the unintentional side effect of breaking of the blade in its skull.  With the creatures being less than half my height on average it was difficult to fight them properly which was why I preferred to use my bow as much as possible.

Still loss of weapon or not I had killed one of them before they could group up to attack me.  The remaining two creatures were either smarter than their late companion or just more cautious as they ended up coming at me together after witnessing their friend's demise.  I managed to use my machete too block too scare one away during its attack but the other used that opportunity to cause I deep stab into my thigh.

Hissing in pain but reveling in the excitement of battle my body was soon flooded by Adrenalin causing my heartbeat to pound in my ears and my vision to narrow.  My brief inattention enabled the previous deflected goblin to have an opportunity to launch an attack on my side, luckily I was able to react in time to avoid a stab to the kidneys and get a gash across my stomach instead.  The beats was unbalanced and vulnerable to attack, unfortunately the angle was too awkward to use my weapon to I quickly snapped my knee up into its side causing it to fly back a few feet unto its back.  

The other goblin once more came in for an attack but I had remembered him this time and had kept an eye on him in my peripherals.  The poor creature didn't get time to look surprised before I brought the machete down on his head like I was chopping wood, killing him instantly.  The remaining goblin was still on the ground struggling to both breath and get up when I walked up to it and quickly stomped down on its throat, silencing it forever.

Done with my battle I turned back to the woman I had just saved and I quickly started hyperventilating.  The woman had a black arrow through her forehead and was staring at me with dead eyes.  I was too stunned to move as she walked the short distance between us before looking up at me an asking a simple question.

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"Why didn't you save me at the mall?"

Then she was gone and I was left alone.  Disorientated I start looking around and was once more surprised when I notice the goblin corpses were gone and all the signs of our battle had went with them.  Then I started to remember, I remembered the mall and I promptly started screaming.  I remembered a woman with lifeless eyes slowly staring up at me reaching her hand out for salvation and I had turned away.

Then I was back, standing in the same spot and very confused.  I was feeling vulnerable and instinctively reached for my bow in comfort only to feel myself grasping at air.  Bringing my arm back to stare at my empty hand I noticed that my clothes were gone and then I remembered, I had lost those two days ago.   Shaking my head to clear my thoughts and shake away the confusion I put the thoughts in the back of my mind trying to forget about them and continue walking towards the location of my previous real battle.

It took a few more minutes before I made it to the scene of my fight and saw the very rancid corpses being feasted on by an assortment of birds.  I briefly noted the lack of a human corpse before the thought was pushed to the back of my head and promptly forgotten.  The whisper had disappeared before I even resumed my journey and the compulsion had left with it but I had still wanted to check the area out.

I briefly go through the houses nearby managing to find a set of clothes, consisting of jeans and a blue turtleneck but no shoes that fit me well enough, though it was slightly small.  I had also managed to refill my backpack full of supplies and was about to start walking back to my base before I once more felt a strange sensation. It wasn't an urge or a compulsion this time, it was just a strange notion that checking out the only two story house on the block in order would be good.

I was a little leery of strange feelings popping up in my head now but I decided to check the house out anyways.  I readied my newest weapon, along with finally deciding to put on clothes I found myself a metal bat to use as a club as well.  The first floor had turned up nothing of importance, just the usual amount of supplies a house would have and a few old corpses.  On the second floor however I noticed something that didn't belong, a faint rustling sound coming from above me.  Narrowing my eyes I readied my bat and started locking for the attic entrance, which was rather easy to find not that I was looking up.  When pulled down the latch and climbed that ladder into the attic I was shocked to see a child huddled in the corner.

-POV Switch-

I was so tired, so hungry but most of all so thirsty.  I had been here for days now, although I wasn't able to tell time as there were no windows and my phone had died long ago.  My parent's had yelled at me to come up here and stay there until they came to get me,  I don't know why but they had their no nonsense voice when they did so and I instantly did what I was told.  I didn't know what was happening, the blue screen had really confused me when it showed up and my parents yelling at me hadn't helped.

Of course the confusion quickly turned to fear when I started hearing screaming and I ended up crying myself to sleep while I covered my ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise.  I awoke sometime next day I think, it was hard to tell as my phone was already dead when I tried to use it.  My parents hadn't come to get me yet so I was going to wait until they came for me like they said.  I waited a long time and was soon thirsty; luckily there were a few bottles of water in the attic that I managed to find.  

There was no food though so I was still hungry but I kept waiting, my parents would come for me they also do what they say...always.  As I continued to wait my water eventually ran out and now I was so tired that I slept most of the time.  I was woken up by the sound of someone coming up the stairs, the sound jolting me awake causing me to move about slightly.

It was my parents they came back like they said they would!  I knew they would come, they never say things they don't mean.

My excitement gave me a new burst of energy and I positioned myself so that I could look at the attic entrance with bated breath.  The entrance opened and I heard someone climbing the ladder which caused me to start crying with relief at being able to see my parents once more.  Then I saw him, the sight of him instantly caused me to stop crying.  He was a big man holding a bat and he looked nothing like my dad.  The thought of why my dad wasn't the one to get me briefly overlapped with the memory of panicked screams and that's the last thing in my mind before everything went black.

-POV switch back-

It was a girl, roughly 9 or 10 years of age, looking like she had been stranded in a desert, complete with cracked dry lips and dark bags under her eyes.  She had stared at me briefly before she apparently collapsed due to exhaustion or something else.  I was confused as to what I was supposed to do; normally I would have helped her without hesitation but now?  Now I didn't feel anything when I looked at her, all I had was a logical conclusion that keeping her alive had no real benefit for me and had several costs associated with it.

As heartless as it was I was about to abandon her when I saw them again, the two females from the house in their entire gory splendor.  They were standing next to the child just staring at me.  I stared back trying to determine what they were and what they wanted.  This lasted about a minute before they started to speak in their weird whisper voice, this time in unison.  

"Why?"

After saying that they paused, which confused me as I was expecting them to fade away like they usually did after asking their customary question.  I had seen them a few times when I was dreaming always asking the same question but they hadn't appeared while I was awake since that first night.  I was about to try walking up to them and seeing if I provoked a response when they spoke again.

"You could have saved us."

With that they faded away leaving me alone once more.  Their words shook me to the core and caused a sharp pain to appear in my head.  As I struggled with the pain I realized what I was going to do with the child, and with my course set the pain faded much like my visitors had.  

AN:  This is the last chapter from Max's POV for a long while, hoped you like it.  As for his strange visitors no they aren't ghosts but that's all I'll say on the matter.  

Thanks for reading,

Ren Waya