Obsession And The Moving Corpse

……

……..

…………

…………….

“…Am I still alive…?”

The pain all over my body disappeared, and I thought I’d finally died, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

I move my arms and legs.

“…They’re moving?”

Even though I have no sensation, for some reason the limbs that should have been crushed are moving.

I swing my arm up with all my might and――

――Thud!

――The rubble flies aside and one of my arms becomes free.

With a strength that would’ve been impossible before, I shove aside the rubble crushing me one after another and escape from the pile of debris.

“Could it be that it succeeded?”

Just before I died, I cast【 Necromance 】on myself.

I don’t really know why I did something like that.

The desperate, snap decision I made was to use my one and only skill,【 Necromance 】.

But――I won the gamble.

I died the moment I activated【 Necromance 】, and then I was brought back by the【 Necromance 】I’d activated.

“Strictly speaking, I’m just moving while still a corpse…”

That I could shove aside rubble with my low-level, malnourished, weak arms is probably thanks to being a corpse.

I noticed when manipulating dead monsters in the past that living creatures unconsciously hold back their strength and can’t use their full power.

I confirmed when a goblin I controlled with【 Necromance 】threw a punch with enough force to break its own arm, so there’s no doubt.

The same thing must be happening to my current body.

“Maybe, in this state… I could take revenge on those bastards…?”

Even while controlling a body with【 Necromance 】, the corpse keeps rotting away.

My body is already severely damaged; I have to take revenge on them before the rot turns my flesh to mush.

“This body will probably last about a day at most.”

The leg cut by Sylvan is still bleeding, but there’s no pain and I can move it fully.

My sense of pain is gone.

“That said, I can’t just keep bleeding like this. The wound will let the body rot.”

I take a bandage from my knapsack and stanch the bleeding.

“For now, I need to find an upstairs staircase.”

“Grrrrr…!”

“Tch! A monster!?”

Was a Minotaur closing in on me!? ――I thought so, but the creature there was an orc.

Even though an orc is weaker than a Minotaur, I wasn’t sure if it could beat me now that my body’s limiter was off…

“Gruah!”

The orc raises its weapon, a greatsword.

I avoid it with a backstep!

My body moves exactly as I intend!

It’s like I’m controlling my own body the way I would control a monster with【 Necromance 】.

The greatsword plunges into the floor.

Before the orc can pull it out, I slash at it with the knife I carry for cutting up corpses and retrieving Magic Stones.

“Gyaaah!?”

The knife slices the tendons of the orc’s right wrist, making it drop the greatsword.

“Gwooooorrr!!”

Unable to grip a weapon, the orc thrusts its left fist toward me.

I roll to slip past its side, and as I evade I grab the greatsword the orc abandoned.

“Take this!!”

“Gugyaaah!?!?”

The heavy greatsword that would have been a struggle to lift before slices up the orc’s torso with a smooth motion!

“This is the finishing blow!!”

I follow through with a downward slash aimed at the skull.

The blade bites in up to its brow; the orc’s eyes roll back and it dies.

I—alone—defeated an orc…!

“I beat it… haha… amazing…! With this, I might actually be able to get revenge on them.”

I know which inn Sylvan and the others are using as their base.

With this kind of power, if I attacked them while they slept… I might actually be able to kill them.

“Right. Maybe I can even control orcs now――【 Necromance 】!”

――Crack!

I activate【 Necromance 】on the orc, but it fails.

“Tch! So the success rate of【 Necromance 】depends not on the body’s strength but on the level gap. Still, it seems this body can at least activate【 Necromance 】.”

At least I have the strength to defeat an orc.

And I can still activate the skill.

Just having these gains is enough.

I hoist the greatsword onto my shoulder and head for the surface, advancing down the dungeon corridor.

I don’t know which way the exit is, though.