He used his long arms to cut down the small ape beast that had leapt from the trees with his familiar machete.

　The fragrant scent of blood splashed through the air and the forest fell silent.
　The monkeys that had been watching us from high up in the trees must have realized that they were in the wrong, because they let out a strange cry and disappeared into the depths of the forest with tremendous agility.
　Their bodies move freely. The feeling of life disappearing through the machete. And a strong sense of contentment that fills my soul.
　When I first came back, I thought I was feeling it as a reaction to being unable to move in life, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

　The Lord, who was standing with his arms folded proudly behind him, looked at the monkey carcass once and then quickly turned around.

"End, are you ...... getting stronger?

"......

　I stood there in silence. I stood there in silence, because I hadn't been ordered to answer.

　A few months have passed since I became a carnivore. I've become accustomed to my body moving freely, and thanks to hunting demons in the forest every day, I've become able to read their movements to some extent.
　In the beginning, I used to exert so much power that I would break my own body in reaction, but now I can hunt the beasts with 'restraint'. The Lord also heals me less often.
　I'm trying my best not to make people feel uncomfortable from the very first battle, but I'm sure that the battle has actually become easier, and if nothing changes, I don't know what Lord will do, so it's difficult to adjust.

　It's fun to be able to move freely. It's fun to run, to jump, to learn. Most of all - it's fun to live.
　I'm not completely free yet, and it's a tricky situation, but I've been enjoying this situation for a few months now, as I've gotten used to working as an undead, and I've been able to relax.

I've been enjoying this situation for a few months now. I've already collected quite a bit of death. It would not be surprising if he turned into a ghoul. ......

　I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it. I took his touch with a blank expression.

　A few months after getting the material. I'd learned more about the undead than I had in my lifetime.

　Lord's library was a great place to learn. I brought a few books from there to the morgue, hid them in a drawer on a shelf that no one would open, and read them little by little.
　Most of the books were written in a language I couldn't read, so I didn't understand much, but I was able to gain some basic knowledge.

　Unlike living creatures, the undead do not grow over time, but by collecting the negative energy generated by the death of a living creature, their existence is strengthened and they mutate. This means that even those who have already died are not living in a frozen time.

　This is called "rank mutation" in the books.

　As written in the first book I found, the undead are the result of a curse placed by necromancers.
　I am now a corpse whose nature has been altered by the curse of necromancy.

　And the curse has an evolutionary system built into it.
　When a corpse is resurrected by the evil curse of a necromancer, the corpse acquires a new ego and becomes a more powerful undead by collecting negative energy according to the Lord's command. The carrion man is just the start.

　Lord, who is so absorbed in his research that he never leaves his room, not even to eat, takes me hunting with him every night without fail in order to accumulate my negative power and make me a more powerful undead.

　Apparently, I had a predecessor. The predecessor, who also accumulated death at the hands of the Lord, changed from a carnivore to a werewolf, went hunting without the Lord, and was eaten to death by a magical beast in the forest. That's why the Lord always follows me around.

　Dark and glowing eyes. When he looks up at me with eyes as dark as the undead's, he tilts his head.

I'm not sure if my ego is behind ......, but that's okay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

　That's right. No problem. They don't know.
　We can still fake this for a little while longer.

　The Lord is a powerful mage, but he wasn't experienced enough with the undead to see through my act.
　It's not surprising, since carrion people don't seem to have an ego, but he doesn't question my actions at all.

　Hunting with the Lord is very convenient for me. It's a safe way to increase my power.
　If he finds out that I've developed an ego, he'll change his orders. At least he'd give orders that wouldn't hurt him.

　All I needed was timing. It's the Lord's curse I'm working under.
　But the curse of the undead, once cast, will not be broken by the death of the wielder.

"End, bring me that monkey carcass.

　The usual order. He grabbed up the arm of the carcass, which was still dripping blood, and followed the road.
　The strong smell of blood and beast. The fragrant scent of corpses. Kuro blood dripping from a deep, split wound.
　I felt something hot stirring in my body.


§


　I've been hungry lately.

　Appetite. The desire I hadn't had in a long time was unbearable, scorching me like a flame.

　As usual, after following orders and being returned to the morgue, I started to act.

　It had been over a month since I had gotten that desire. The moment I got that feeling, I knew that my existence had changed.
　Appetite. Desire to sleep. s*xual desire. The three major human needs were irrelevant to the carnivore, but not to the higher undead.

　Since he had already gained some knowledge of the undead by then, he knew immediately that these desires were caused by the mutation of the hierarchy.

　Evolution through the taking of many lives. From a flesh man to a ghoul.


　The appetite I've developed is proof that I myself have been transformed into a higher species. Unlike carcasses, corpses have a certain degree of self-awareness and the intelligence of a human infant.
　Their bodies are also strengthened by accumulated negative energy, but their intelligence is the biggest difference between carrion and werewolves.

　For me, who originally had an ego and memories, the only advantage was a slight strengthening of the body, and I was not sure if it was worth the disadvantage of appetite, but I welcomed the change, even if it weakened me.

　Appetite. It's a human emotion. Being a carnivore was convenient, but for me, the desire was worth giving up the convenience.

　Right before I died, I could barely get a decent meal. I didn't feel hungry. I couldn't afford to feel it. Appetite was one of the things I had lost.

　Stifling the emotions that rose with hunger, I took off my tattered clothes, stripped naked, and left the morgue in hushed footsteps.

　The ghoul feeds on meat. As the name implies, the dead.
　In that sense, the morgue was like a pantry for me. Even the nose-distorting smell of death was just a pleasant scent to me as a monster. But it's not good to eat there.

　I didn't feel the same aversion to eating a corpse as I did when I first killed a hexenbiest. No, humanly speaking, I would avoid it, but I would not hesitate to do so if it meant survival.
　However, if the number of corpses, the material for my research, was decreasing, even the Lord, who is not very wary of me at this stage, would be suspicious.

　Think calmly. The feeling of hunger is so unbearable that it scorches your brain, and if you are not careful, you will be tempted to take a bite out of a nearby corpse.
　He needed to satisfy it somehow, before the instinct of appetite overcame reason.

　Passing through the skeleton knights patrolling on guard, I stepped out of the entrance.
　The moment I opened the door, a damp, warm breeze caressed my cheeks. Thick clouds of dark indigo obscured the night sky.

　As I passed through the entrance, a vast garden and gate spread out before me. In the garden, dozens of ferocious flesh beasts (fleshwolves) stand guard against foreign enemies. Many of them are pitiful beings born in the forest, slaughtered by me and my predecessors and brought back to life by the Lord.

　A night wolf undead smells me and turns its eye sockets towards me. It looks just like the night wolf that lives in the forest, but there is surprisingly little emotion left in its gaze. The night wolf twitches its nose once, then quickly moves away, as if it understands that I am a carnivore who is always accompanied by a load.

　The way it is, it's just a puppet that listens to orders written in a book. Every time I see it, I bite my lip and feel lucky that I didn't become one.
　And I strongly feel that I cannot let that happen in the future.

　Feeling the night breeze, I approach the gate. A steel fence stretches several meters high. It surrounds the house.
　It seems that there are not only physical obstacles, but also magical wards, but they have no effect on me, who is set as a companion.

　The gate is closed with a huge lock and chain. The only one with a key is Lord. I ignored the gate, walked next to it, grabbed the fence with both hands, and climbed up easily. The old me wouldn't have been able to support my own weight with both hands, but now that I've collected all the negative energy, it's easy.

　When I reached the top of the spear, I grabbed the tip of the spear and threw my body outward in a somersault.
　A spinning vision. Landing on the ground with all four limbs. You pass the numbing shock and slowly stand up. There is no problem with the movement of the body, and the body of the "corpse demon" can regenerate small wounds, unlike the "corpse man".
　I was nervous at first, but now I can go outside as easily as if I were going for a walk.

　And I walked into the deep forest, the murmuring darkness, without hesitation.
　Unlike when I was walking in front of the road, I alone could go as fast as I could. Conversely, I have no backup from Lord, but there are already no enemies of mine in this forest.

　The fingers of my right hand start to grind. My fingertips heat up. The nails of my five fingers rose and pointed like knives.

　One of the abilities of a ghoul.

　He hid the feverish claws with his left hand and sped through the darkness. The smell of beast. The smell of wind. An intense hunger burning in my brain, sharpening my senses.
　The object was soon found. A black mass protruding from the tall grass among the trees.
　It is about two meters tall. It is probably quadrupedal, so if it stood up on two legs, it would be as big as a tower. But the shadow, which was two or three times bigger than me, looked like food to me right now.

　I lowered myself and ran. A feeling of rapture at the freedom of movement of my body runs through my brain as I lose my appetite.
　The wind rustles the bushes. I leave behind the creaking of insects.
　The object notices my approach and turns to face me, but its huge body can't make a sudden change of direction in the thickly wooded forest.

　Then, using all the spring in my body, I threw myself into the air.

　My head goes down, my legs go up. The world spins in circles. Just below me, a black shadow looks back.
　Jet-black fur. Blood-red eyes and well-developed, strong, supple muscles that you can tell just by looking at it.
　A bear-shaped hexenbiest. The Night Bear the Lord calls it. It's tougher than a night wolf, and unlike the first fight, it's not a child.

　But it doesn't care who it's fighting.

　As you pass each other, it stretches out its arms and unleashes its claws. The tip of the claw, a few centimeters long, slightly scratches its fur-covered skull. The tough skull that protects the brain from the strong fur is slightly scraped away, and fresh blood dances in the air. The hexenbiest roars. As soon as I landed, I folded my body and slid into the bosom of the giant.



　I was already more than just a moving corpse.
　At that moment, I was more than a night bear. A wise beast... an ogre.

　A beast with a strong smell and an appetite that burns as if inspired by it. He thrusts his piercing hand into its heart with all his might. Its fur armor, muscle armor, and bones were easily pierced by the wraith's strength and claws.
　The huge body twitches, and the roar stops instantly. All that remains is a silent forest reminiscent of emptiness. I pulled my hand out, biting down on the blood flowing through my body, the heat and the feeling of contentment spreading through my body.

　The sound of blood vessels tearing. What remained in my hand was the source of life, still pulsing. A heart too big for my hands to hold. The terrible smell of blood and death filled my sense of smell, all of which whetted my appetite.
　As soon as I pull it out, I take a few steps away from the spot. As if it was waiting for me, the huge body of the Hexenbiest fell to the ground. It's dead. It's dead, but the heart that I pulled out is still beating. Its unreliable beating makes me feel life.

　I breathe out as if in a fever.

　--I'm undead, I can't possibly have a fever. I didn't need to breathe.

　I lifted my heart, which was glistening with blood, and ran my tongue over it.
　Just by doing so, I felt a shock that penetrated my brain. The taste, the smell, the touch, all of it, my body was demanding. There was no way I could have avoided it. This is what I need right now.

　Oh, I'm not human anymore. The fact that I had become undead so many times came to my mind once again, and I bit into the jewel-like heart.