Waking with a start I try to sit up and feel pain wrack its way through my whole body. Blearily I look around with blurry eyes trying to understand my surroundings. I see Samada there holding a spear looking at me wearily.

Staring at him with my one uncovered eye I somewhat make out what he says “a-e -u al-? res-d” My hearing is shot I rasp out the only thing I can. “wat-“ dragging my sand paper tongue along the inside of my mouth I try again “water” The look of relief on Samadas face when he sees me talk tells me they werent sure if I would change into one of them after all of my injuries. He runs off to go get something, I think.

Mental me has apparently been writing up plans and going through the events of last night. There were so many places we could have gone better. We could have just escaped right away but running out into the darkness has its own problems. We should have stayed inside and just dealt with the darkness. The new moon made it hard to see anything without camp light though and a few of the kids were afraid of the dark.

Looking around I look at my arms and body. I’m wrapped like a mummy many of the bandages look like they need to be changed too. Hah I guess Shizuka is busy too Saeko is likely still injured and I without the both of us we have little defense.

Mentally I check my notifications. I didn’t even consider them last night I should have just plugged points in without checking them to go longer. -sigh- another mistake I’ll need to fix in the future.

Congratulations! You have finished the fifth quest in a chain quest! Chain Quest: Defeat 100 zombies.

Complete! Reward: 5 attribute points. Next Chain quest: Defeat 200 zombies. 60/200 Congratulations! You have finished a new chain quest! Chain Quest: Defeat 5 matured red zombie.

Complete! Reward: 6 attribute points. Next Chain quest: Defeat 25 matured zombies Congratulations! You have finished the fourth quest in a chain quest! Chain Quest: Save 20 other survivors. Complete! Reward: 2 Zombie cures Next Chain quest: Save 40 other survivors WARNING! You have used one of your zombie cures. You will no longer be able to acquire further cures from completing chain quest [Save X other survivors] instead reward will be replaced with attribute points equal to the number of cures you would have received.

one of them used it on me while I was sleeping. I don’t blame them I was pretty beaten up. The next notification was interesting though.

Notice! You have used a soul restoration item to combat a foreign influence. Skill [Treatment] has improved the effects of the soul restoration. Damage detected to host soul minor fixing performed. Further use will have significant diminishing returns. Soul integrity improved testing… Reincarnation system detected delayed until rebirth for improved integration.

Interesting so these cures strengthen the soul. That must be why Shizuka couldn’t find anything from the cures. What does it mean by due to treatment though? If they used the cure, it shouldn’t have gotten the bonus from my skill, should it?

Regardless I have points to spend. I pull up my status.

Name: Haruto Ikami

Age: 17 years 20 days

Carried over skills: Rebirth.

Health status 10/100

Afflictions: Fatigue, Fear, Pain

Free Attribute points: 11 points

Strength: 14

Speed: 14

Endurance: 12

Resilience: 14

Thought speed: 13

Perception: 10

Current skills

Disease resistance lvl Max (inborn skill) Mindscape lvl 74 Metabolism lvl 82 Swordsmanship lvl Max Subskill: Smashing blow lvl 3 Treatment lvl 30

The first thing that jumps out to me is that Its 20 days since my birthday meaning that I’ve been unconcious for nearly a week. Next is two of my skills are maxed out.

I pull up the description for disease resistance first to see whats changed.

Disease Resistance lvl MAX

Description: You are lvl% resistant to suffering the negative effects of a disease.

Lvl 25: You are no longer a carrier for diseases that have inflicted you.

Lvl 50: Effects of the skill are also applied to resisting parasite infections.

Lvl 75: Genetic disorders are slowly corrected to no longer hamper your health.

Lvl 100: Resist supernatural infections using your normal modifiers.

Oh that’s good so I’m effectively immune to their bites now anyways even without the cure -sigh- at least it wasn’t a total waste it healed my soul slightly.

Next skill I pull up Swordsmanship.

Swordsmanship lvl MAX

Description: You learn Swordsman styles Lvl% faster.

Lvl 25: Swings with your sword are lvl% Faster.

Lvl 50: Your blade suffers lvl/2% less of the shock from your strikes.

Lvl 75: Your lvl% more precise with strike using a sword.

Lvl 100: You have achieved mastery over the sword comparable to that of the strongest person in your current world. Swordsmanship subskills available.

Subskill description: subskills are specific techniques learned from using your blade at the point of mastery. New subskills can only be added once the previous one has been mastered. Unlike normal skills subskills have no milestone bonus and only have their primary effect and are only active when using stamina in order to achieve their effect.

Subskill: Smashing strike lvl 2

Description: Despite wielding the blade deliver a crushing blow. Deal lvl% more damage to bones and armor.

Interesting so swordsmanship at max level allows for specific directional growth rather than a general passive bonus. That’s useful but does my mastery of the subskills get carried over into my next life if I choose swordsmanship again? Or would I restart with a new technique.

Regardless I should spend these points. I put 3 points into resilience, 2 into endurance, 3 into strength and 3 into speed. Perception may be useful with the darkness but if I don’t have to worry about being infected then as long as I keep fighting, I should be able to hold back most threats. Confirming my choices, I feel the warmth flow through my body. Previous aches feeling a little less sever as my body works to correct itself. A slight popping sound in my ears as i feel some sort of flood pour down the side of one ear.

I’m snapped out of my thoughts by the door opening. There a very haggard Saeko is walking in with the assistance of Saya.

“Hey hun, you’re looking better…” She looks over at me wincing as shes set down. Saya awkwardly stands their face flashing between upset and happy to see me awake.

“Wat-water” I croak out again the guy went and got them but didn’t bring any freaking water?

“OH! Right um here uh” Saya scrambles and grabs a bottle of water and puts a straw in it so I can drink. I feel it going down my throat and sigh happily as it works wonders. This could be the best drink in the world right now for all I care as I suck it down greedily. I want to talk to them but this comes first.

Saeko is staring at me a bit of worry still in her eyes.

“We heard you were speaking… we uh I wanted to thank you for saving me… If it werent for you I would have died out there… It only took one mistake one moment… It’s my fault you’re like this…” Saeko who usually isn’t very emotional usually she has a playful smile on her lips or a small frown at things. But looking at her now. Seeing her eyes puffy from crying, seeing her face contorted in pain like this sends a pit into my stomach. It reminds me of that day when we first started dating. I try to reach my hand out the pain is intense, but I force it. She moves out and takes it. I give a gentle squeeze to her hand.

“Its -cough- its not your fault… I -cough- I’ll always be there to help you. Even if it kills me.” Looking at her eyes they start to well up again. Saya meanwhile is looking on in contemplation. We have been ‘dating’ for a couple of days now but its mostly just been fun. We never really had any moments like this she probably knows that I like her but don’t love her like Saeko. I can try but it’s a simple fact that I just can’t bring myself to feel the same way about her.

Saya looks at me finally starting to talk. It seems like she wants to be upset but can’t bring herself to be. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. There was a lot of panic from the group when you fell from the roof and crashed into the ground below.” I wince at that. I didn’t break my fall or anything, so I likely hurt myself even more from that.

“How…How are you feeling?” Despite her wanting to be angry worry still creeps into her voice.

“I’m feeling much better now that you are both here… I feel much better knowing that you're both okay.” I look at Saeko and her arm. Its bandaged up but it likely did a lot of damage even if she was cured from turning into a zombie.

“How is your bite?” I ask Saeko.

“I didn’t get turned thanks to you… I can’t grip things tightly with it either I can barely put any force into my grip. Thankfully its my non dominant hand but I still need both to properly wield a sword…” She stares at her own wrist like it betrayed her. Shes wielded a blade one handed before but not to the level of wielding it with two. Using two allows for much more control and strength to be applied.

“You’ll be fine.” I croak out with a slight smile that’s hard to do with the bandages on my face.

The worried look on her face gets the slightest tug of a smile on her face. Saya speaks in.

“Your both pretty beat up. When we saw you on the ground, we didn’t know what to do Shizuka thankfully has carried that cure you gave her to study on her at all times. She used your hand to make you inject yourself with it. Something about trying to get the most out of your skills. It was pretty smart. We couldn’t do that with your bandages, but you seem to be healing up quickly. When we took you in, we thought… We though you might die… but your made of sterner stuff.” Saya starts strong but the longer she talks about it the more her voice slowly starts to crack, and the worry shows through.

That also explains why it said I used the cure on myself. The item seems to exactly cure the effect but treatment amplifies it so it helps more then intended. Letting out a long sigh that feels nice in my throat after the pain it was in before.

“So how is everyone else handling it?” I have an idea of how things will go. Without Takashi the group is levelheaded and with Saya making choices it will likely do well even if I’m not up and about.

“Well, we have set ourselves up in one of the larger houses in the town. You’re actually in the master bedroom of it currently. We are planning out what to do in the future at the moment. We have books on different subject and a few of the locals have joined up with us after noticing that the town is nearly devoid of undead now. Our little stunt the other night wiped out a majority of the undead in the area all at once. Which is fairly intimidating considering many of these people haven’t even killed one undead yet.

I tell them about the notifications I got there was a slight wince from Saya when I mention I will no longer receive any cures and the other effects that they have. At the moment thanks to two of them being used we only have 4 and there will never be any more than that.

“That’s unfortunate, but maybe our kids can have the same resistance we gained from it? Like a learned antibody?” Saeko seems a bit hopeful at this I can’t deny that would be useful. Feeling her hand in mine I have to hold it almost gently now as I feel myself drifting off again.

A slight smile as I look at them both. “For now, though I need some more rest. You too Saeko don’t think I didn’t see you stagger your way in here. Go sleep.” Her small smile becomes slightly cramped and Saya gets a smile in return.

“I TOLD YOU SO~” Smiling at the discomfort its causing Saeko. It gets a bit of a chuckle out of me as well causing a bit of pain in my sides. They both give their farewells and leave me to my rest. Saeko lingering behind looking at me in the eye while she is still there before following behind.

We are going to make it. This place can work it’ll just take a bit of time and effort.