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I Became A Zombie Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Dungeon Discovery

All the remaining points from leveling up were allocated to STR (strength) to increase my attack power. After that, I traversed through the forest again. However, I rarely encountered any monsters, and only managed to defeat a few skeletons. Moreover, while searching around, I had reached quite deep into the forest.

「Gosh. I’m so hungry. I’ve only eaten bark after becoming a zombie, after all…」

There are very few animals living in this forest, and most of the monsters are undead. You can’t eat undeads, obviously.

Mushrooms can be found on the ground, but most of them are poisonous. I couldn’t find anything that seemed safe to eat. And although it was dangerous, I collected and put a lot of Anmindake mushrooms in my magic bag as a last resort.

In my case, the Iron Stomach skill thwarts the effect of Anmindake, but status ailments can still take place. Anmindake can be used as a sleeping drug if it is in small amounts, but if it exceeds the allowable amount, it will cause sleep abnormalities… This is why it was called a garbage skill.

(Hmm, this sound!? A river! I can eat fish!)

I found a lot of fishes swimming in the river

「With these claws, I should be able to catch some fishes!」

I rushed into the river to catch some fish but I couldn’t. As I chased after the fishes, I gradually got to the depth where my thighs were submerged.

「Damnit! Come here, my dinner!!!」

――Splash! Splosh!!――

I slipped and fell into the river.

(Oh no, I’m drowning! The river is suddenly flowing faster… Uwaaaaa!)

I was helplessly dragged by the torrent and swallowed into the basin of the waterfall.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

I woke up in a cave-like place. The thunderous sound of the waterfall echoed behind me.

「That was dangerous. I was lucky to survive. I should be more careful from now on. For now, let’s see where this cave leads.」

The cave was so dark that I could barely see my surroundings.

「Hmm? What’s that light?」

After a while, I found a faintly glowing magic circle on the ground. I recalled having seen this magic circle before.

「It’s a dungeon! I don’t know what’s on the inside, but there might be monsters I can eat inside the dungeon!」

The scenery suddenly changed when I touched the magic circle. It seems that I was transferred into the dungeon.

What appeared was systematically cut walls and ceiling. It seemed like some sort of historic ruin. Glowing moss and flowers sprouted from the cracks in the stone pavement, illuminating the surroundings. The passage was wide enough for four adults to walk side by side.

I checked my HP. There was about half left.

「Even if I turn back, there is only the waterfall basin. No choice but to move forward.」

About 5 minutes after I started exploring the dungeon, a monster appeared before me while growling. It had a fat body, walked on two legs, fur all over its body, and huge tusks on its boar-like face.

「Orc, huh? An E-rank monster…」

The difficulty of subjugating monsters varies greatly depending on their strength and intelligence. Therefore, when the Adventurer’s guild was founded 800 years ago, monsters were classified by rank. New species and mutants were ranked as soon as they were discovered.

The vast amount of information is edited and sorted by the monster types with drawings and explanations, and are stored in the Adventurer’s guilds of every city. I love this so-called “monster encyclopedia”, and whenever I have free time, I read it in the guild’s library and imagine how I would fight the monsters in it.

There are nine ranks of monsters, from F to SSS, but it is rare for monsters to be ranked S or higher. Such monsters only appear in lands which are rich in magic essence or large dungeons which have more that 50 floors with super-high difficulty. I’ve only heard about SS and SSS ranks in legends and myths.

Adventurers are ranked from F to SSS, the same as monsters and they are required to be strong enough to subjugate monsters of the same rank with a single party (4-5 people). In short, a C-rank monster is as strong as four C-rank adventurers.

By the way, Ghouls are also E-rank and are on the same level as Orcs. But I’m not sure if I’m too hungry or if my senses are becoming more monster-like, because the Orc simply looks like a delicious meat to me.

「Don’t resist and be eaten by me, pork!」

『Gugooo!』

We both leapt at each other with great force. The orc charged in with a big swing, but my claws slashed the orc’s eyes faster than it could reach me. The orc, blinded, staggered backwards, swinging its hands around wildly. My victory was guaranteed.

I waited for the orc to stop thrashing about wildly while observing it. When it stopped its wild movements, I quickly hit it three times in the abdomen and face. The orc collapsed and stopped moving.

「Well, I was able to get some meat, but…」

There was no wood in this dungeon that could start a fire. I took out a dismantling knife from my magic bag and quickly dismantled the dead orc.

「It can’t be helped, let’s eat like this.」

…It was quite delicious.

What surprised me was that I ate a whole orc in about five minutes. A ghouls teeth can easily chew through an orc’s meat.

「That didn’t fill my stomach at all. Can I turn an orc into a beverage… No, let’s not think about that.」

Since only orcs appeared on the 1st floor, I turned all of them into food as soon as I encountered them. Having become accustomed to dealing with orcs, I continued through the dungeon violently while carefreely munching on the orc meat I stored in my magic bag.

「Oh! Stairs. It’s the type of dungeon that goes upwards.」

As soon as I went up the stairs without a care, I arrived at a fairly large room. In the back of the room, there were “large numbers” of orcs and orc fighters with a slightly larger body.

The orcs’ gazes fell on me all at once, focusing on my right hand… the meat I was munching on.

「Ah, sorry… I’ll be on my way!」

『Gugooo!!』『Bumoooo!』

There were at least 20 orcs roaring and charging at me all at once.

I immediately put the meat in my right hand into my magic bag and ran down the stairs. As I looked behind me, the orcs came down the stairs one by one.

Seeing that, I turned my body around and raised my fists.

「If it’s one on one, it’s no different than an all-you-can-eat buffet!!」

I threw my fist into the belly of the orc that descended first, and when it stopped moving, I bit its neck and tore it into pieces! I tossed the dead orc to the side, and then threw a high kick into the face of the orc fighter that followed behind. After that, I immediately broke its leg with a low kick and slammed my fist into its jaw with an uppercut!

Until the group of orcs stopped coming down from the stairs, I thought of the fastest way to exterminate them and continuously implemented it.

「Phew, I was really surprised!!」

I took a deep breath after turning the entire group of orcs into lumps of meat.

「When it comes to dealing with a group, my offensive power is still insufficient. From now on, let’s focus on increasing strength and agility stats.」

When I checked my status, my level had risen to 18. I distributed all remaining points into STR (strength) and AGI (agility).

Status

【Name】Doumeki Aun

【Race】Eater Ghoul

【Condition】Hunger

【Level】18

【HP】170/400

【MP】310/310

【STR】29

【VIT】10

【DEX】4

【INT】31

【AGI】37

【LUK】35

【Title】-

【Skill】

・Iron Stomach

・Pain tolerance

・Hunger

・Predation (Lv.2): HP recovery effect (small) added

・Martial arts (Lv.2): Increases damage and impact from unarmed melee (improved correction)

「That’s the rumored “Sudden Room”, huh… Certainly, if that many monsters attack all at once, there will be casualties. The experience points are really good though. Huh? My skill level has also increased!! …Let’s celebrate by eating some meat.」

While I was waiting for my HP to recover while stuffing a large amount of orc meat into my stomach, I suddenly realized that my life as a monster was more enjoyable than when I was a human.