As I descend the stairs, I wonder if I should bring a sword and shield just in case. That thought quickly drifts from my mind though, because the further down I go, the stronger the sweet smell gets and the more I drool. This is my innovative method of not getting lost in the dark. I just leave a string of drool connecting me to the entrance! Fuhaha. I'm not a snail.

"Spiral stairs go round, round round." I sing, and it echoes eerily.

A shiver runs down my back. The haunting reverberations of a singing ghoul sounds bloody terrifying. If anyone is alive down there, I'm sure they're gonna hide from me now.

Great job, me!

Focusing on my life sense skill as I continue down the spiraling staircase, I detect nothing, not even rats. Just as I am beginning to think that this staircase is cursed or something, it straightens out and I arrive at ground zero.

The fuck? It's just a small room with a carpet, a chair, a book case and a table. It looks like the study of a wizard or something, though there are no jars containing body parts so if it is a magic user it is probably not one with an affinity for the dark arts. Maybe my imagination is getting the better of me since it could just be a dark, damp dungeon study for a scribe or something, what with all the tomes lying around.

Although I'm slightly curious about the hefty tomes adorning the bookcases, this is not Alyce-chan's study time. I am drawn to other things at the moment. Such as the alluring sweet smell.

It's pretty dark down here, but lucky for me I got super juiced up eyes. Quietly, I resist the urge to scream byakugan and widen my eyes extremely. I do wonder what colour my eyes are. Do they even have the same eye colour? Maybe the system went all chuuni-mode on my ass and gifted me with heterochromatic eyes. I wouldn't put it past this damn system to do such a thing.

Cocking my head to one side, I note that the sweet scent still lingers, so my nose was not mistaken. I sniff sniff the air and no, I'm not a dog okay? Goddamn it!

I follow the scent to the carpet, grab it and peel it aside to find a wooden latch, which I easily snap open. The rusty lock is no bar to my call!

I'm slightly disappointed I didn't have to use my boney index finger as a lock pick. But perhaps that's all well and good, since I don't really know how to pick locks in the first place.

I'm not a shifty woman, okay? I only enjoy long walks on the beach and eating corpses like anyone else, you know? Tehehe!

A great wave of sweetness wafts out from the dark below, and I can't help but inhale deeply as a smile spreads across my face. I sure do hope I don't develop olfactophilia from all this sniffing and smelling... I'm not super hungry, but who am I to say no to a snack? Besides, if I get enough biomass I can fix up my body so it's less... zombyish, zombish? Beard-san will probably be more accomodating if I look less monstrous and corpsy.

That would be good, right?

Not that I don't think corpse lolis are cool, because they definitely are, okay? You hear me, me? But no matter how cool I am, I still get a bit freaked out when I see my exposed ribcage, so I've decided to properly fix up my body.

"Well, here goes nothing." I mutter, putting a skeletal foot on the first rung of the ladder down. It creaks a little and feels slightly mushy, but it's okay since I'm a lightweight, tehehe.

When I once more have my two feet planted firmly on solid flooring, I take a moment to survey my surroundings and nearly projectile vomit myself back up the staircase. Jeez, so many corpses... and they're all wearing nice clothes too. There's a bunch of child corpses as well...

During the battle, these people probably hid down here hoping that the soldiers would miss them and they could go back up. But some sick fucker trapped them down here. So instead of dying quickly, they died a slow and agonizing death that lasted a week instead of an instant. Their deaths could've been caused by disease or poison too, I guess. In this world, people have magic right?

But I guess it's not that normal to possess a lot of magic, otherwise surely one of these guys would've helped break out of the cellar. But... well, they are here now, that huge pile of mostly whole corpses.

I swallow my saliva and nearly start crying. Because... because I really want to eat them, even the children. Only Otep is allowed to eat the children raw, not me. Or... maybe an exception can be made because I am an adorable corpse loli? Uguu!

No no Alyce, focus.

I squint and study the clothes. They seem to be in fine shape, if you disregard the rotting corpses currently inhabiting them. The state of the corpses down here is certainly a lot better than the soldiers above. It's the difference between a half devoured chicken, exposing its bones and strips of flesh... and a whole chicken that looks slightly past its expiration date.

I just stare for a moment, since I know this isn't going to be easy. But I've got a mountain of flesh here which I need to fix my body, as well as an abundance of clothes from which to choose before I return to Beard-san. If he's even still there. I should check...

I sit down and close my eyes, focusing on Raven-chan. Suddenly my vision tilts and my stomach lurches. Ugh, why are you so high up raven-chan! No, no no. Down raven-chan doooown.

Raven-chan proceeds to dive beak first towards the ground like a dart, so quickly that I can feel my consciousness flying along with raven-chan... he-hey, raven-chan... the ground is close, you know? Too close, you know!?

Darkness.

I blink my eyes open, my body jolting from the shock. My head hurts a little bit.

Did I... did I just make raven-chan suicide? Oh my god I'm an idiot, ahaha...

Deciding to forget about summoning magic for the moment, I refocus my mind on the task at hand. It's no use crying over spilled milk. I should let bygones be bygones. The magnanimous, big hearted Alyce-chan. Still, the horror of Raven-chan's last moments will be with me forever. I shiver involuntarily, then I jump to my feet. I gotta move, I gotta do something otherwise I feel like I'm gonna scream.

So I walk over to the corpses. God forgive me. I strip all of the children near my size of their clothes, throwing them in a pile near the ladder.

The clothes, not the children!

I'm not a barbarian, you know. I'm a humane corpse eating loli ghoul, okay? Goddamn it!

I try to not look at the corpses too much or I will be sick. So soft and squishy and delish--- no Alyce. Bad Alyce.

Gritting my teeth, I walk over to one of the larger shapes because I saw that it had a nice long black cloak. This one was just sitting in a corner enveloped by this black cloak and I can't see what's beneath the black cloth at all.

"I'll have you as well, cloak-san." I say as I reach my hand out towards the slumped shape in the corner, silently praying for forgiveness once more as I strip the black cloak from the body.

It shouldn't be a big deal though. I unwrapped many a snack up on the battlefield, but I guess it's different when the corpses are so... whole.

Thankfully the black cloak comes off easily and I throw it in the pile of clothes as well. Then I turn back and find a man standing before me in only his underwear.

"wh-whawha?" I let out a strange sound and fall on my ass. Oh great, you're the embodiment of elegance Alyce.

A groan escapes from the man, and as I take a closer look, I realise. His flesh droops, and he looks rather sickly, oh and his eyes are red. So that probably means he's not exactly friendly? Maybe? Why did I aggro an almost naked man? Hey! I... I know that lolis frequently aggro grown men in anime, but this is real life, you know?!

Just as I jump back to my feet, the thingie shambles towards me with another groan and swipes a hand at me in a rather lazy way, as though it's batting aside a fly. It doesn't look very threatening at all, so I just raise an arm to block it. When the zombie man's attack hits me, pain erupts through my arm followed by a sickly snap. I feel a whoosh as I am catapulted backwards into the far wall. My head impacts the wall and my world blinks briefly to black.

Dizzy and not really knowing what happened, I stand back up with spots dancing in my vision. The pain of my broken arm is severe, but I've been through much worse so I don't let it bother me. How strange. That attack looked so weak, and yet it was so strong.

I have to remind myself that I'm just a weak low level noob right now, so even sloppy zombies like this guy can be dangerous I guess.

Having learned my lesson, I jump towards it to bait out one of those slow sweeps. It complies with my feint and exposes itself. I duck under the attack and punch upwards catching the zombie in the jaw. With a crack the head snaps up. Ugh, now my hand is broken too, but the zombie falls down so I guess my attack was effective.

The thing is still writhing on the ground, slowly trying to get back up, groaning and moaning. This is a bit easy... I just walk over and stomp on its face a few times until there's not much head left. It's a bit like mashing a giant potato with my feet, haha.

A giant, very smelly potato.

The zombie doesn't smell sweet like the other corpses. It somehow smells sickly and unappetizing, a bit like the corpse homies. There's a difference in scent between living corpses and dead ones, I guess. Trust me on this. Alyce-chan is, after all, a corpse connoisseur! fufufu.

Congratulations, you've defeated Zombie man level 14. Congratulations, you've leveled up! +7 attribute points, +10 constitution.

Huh? That thing was only level 14, yet it destroyed me when it hit? Though I suppose it traded speed for strength even though that makes no sense at all... when in doubt, chalk it up to magic I guess. I dunno. Good thing I got a level though, but I didn't get another talent point or trait. I guess they are more rare than in World of warcraft vanilla. In that game you got a talent point every level after 10. Maybe I will get another point and trait when I reach level 20?

I want to hurry up and find out whether my hypothesis is correct! Alyce-chan powerleveling go!

Although it wasn't a very big ordeal for me to defeat zombie man, one fact remains. I look down at my dangling right arm, bone protruding from soft, sickly flesh. It's more broken than Rakan in negima, and... my head is spinning. The sweet scent of delicious nom nom flesh invades my nostrils and drool gushes from my mouth like a waterfall. Oh shit, it's coming. The madness is coming!

I involuntarily take a step towards the huge pile of naked bodies... and another and another. Before I realize what I'm doing, I'm already there, my body bending down over a corpse, my teeth gnashing and snapping, my mouth raining unsightly strings of drool down on the nearest corpse. I close my eyes because I don't want to see this. It's like I'm someone else right now. And yet, this is me.

At least I can still think a little bit, even if I can't control... aaarhgh. Hungry. Yes. Meat. Sweet meat is made of this! Who am I to disagree!

I dig in and the meat is soft and very easy to consume. Kukuku, I shall defeat this dessert! When I am done, nothing shall remain! Tehehe!

Warning: You have consumed a large amount of biomass considerably exceeding storage capacity. Recommended action: Regenerate body.

So it's not inferior biomass this time? Maybe it's the state of the corpses, or maybe the system rates nobles higher than soldiers. I really don't know, this system is confusing. At least with this, I should have enough to restore my body, I hope.

Call of the Grave Queen: +3 Str, +7 Dex, +5 Cons, +39 Int, +23 Wis, +14 Perc, +21 Spi

As expected, these people weren't warriors. If anything they were scholars or whatever. Maybe being a noble is a class, the heck do I know? In any case, it seems like quite the good stat harvest, though I am really getting sick of this all you can eat buffet...

Congratulations: Level up x5! 35 undistributed attribute points available. +50 Constitution.

Okay, the fact that I got so much experience from these civilian corpses must mean that I am still low leveled, and that there was a big shot or two mixed in. Yup, that's probably it. I doubt that the kids were high level... oh god, I ate children.

This time the level ups feel good, but also painful. It's... terrible. I am a rotting corpse that levels up by eating dead children... fantasy world? More like horror world.

I feel empty, desolate, forgotten. This is insanity. I went from calm and collected to insane monster in seconds. I have to get myself under control if I want to go back to Dwarf-san and try entering civilized society. Cutting my finger and going on a rampage in the city is no good. I have to fix this... I have to fix myself.

Maybe this state is related to my body? It's all skeletal and decomposing, so logically speaking I'm not exactly in the best and most stable of conditions. My brain might be the same, seeing as brains are considered to be a part of a body. Maybe I have brain rot in the literal sense of the word, tehepero! Wait, now's not the time to be teheperoing, Baka Alyce!

Crouching in a corner of the cellar, I feel hideous and disgusting. I want to puke. I can't believe I ate that big mountain of corpses. How does that even work? Very tasty though.

I close my eyes and lean my bare back against the wall. The exposed bones in my body scrape against the wall when I slide down a little ways to get into a more comfortable sitting position, but I pay it no mind.

This meal. I will make sure to repay these good men, women and children by making myself nice and whole. With this, I hope I can change my status, so I don't rot away like a zombie.

I want to slip into unconsciousness to try and forget about this nightmare, but I can't. I won't. Taking the easy way out is no good, you know? I'm going to take charge of rebuilding my body and it's going to be painful. Hmm. I have an interesting idea and I'm going to try it out!

I really hope this will work. I can't help the spark of excitement that lights within me. Hey, I'm a fickle creature, you know? I can't help it if I'm hot, then cold like that crappy Curry paté pop song, okay? Goddamn it! Wait... I feel like I got the singer's name wrong. Umu, don't care.

[Activate skill: Flesh Manipulation.]

I feel meat appearing from thin air. I feel ticklish tingles all over my body. I can even feel my exposed ribs slowly being covered by a layer of muscle and fat and tendons and all sorts of other things for which I don't have a name. It takes some time and some pain, but the creepy crawly tingly feeling is finally receding, which must mean that my outer layer is mostly finished?

I look down and the spot on my ribcage is now covered by pale white flesh. It looks corpse-like, but I am an undead after all. I used this body as a base to restore everything, so although I don't have a mirror right now I'm pretty sure I look a lot better than before. The one thing I can see is the long, elegant white mane of hair that goes all the way down to my waist! Fufu, bow down to your hair goddess. Now my dream of earning revenue off of shampoo commercials will finally come true! But wait, why is shampoo called shampoo? It has sham in the name, as well as poo. Holy shit! Does this mean that shampoo is a shitty scam!? What is life? Help!

Oh, I know of a way to check for my appearance. I can't see it, but I can check if it's restored or not through-- "STATUS!" I yell excitedly and it comes out as a growl. Oh damn, it's not just the outer layer that's important. I need to fix me up some vocal cords and stuff too.

Alyce Katheryn Francisca McDowell

Titles Demon Monarch Lady of Ravens Lifebinder Scholar Monster Rank: G+++ Basic Information Race: Undead (Ghoul) Gender: Female Age: 10 Level: 17 Character Status Health: 1879 Mana: 3547 Stamina: 1217 Class: None Strength: 33 Intelligence: 75 Charisma: 58 Sub-Class: None Dexterity: 26 Wisdom: 53 Spirit: 52 Sub-Class: None Constitution: 165 Perception: 46 Karma: -100 Sub-Class: None Affinities Holy: -100% Light: 0% Death: 100% Darkness: 100% Water: 5% Earth: 5% Fire: 5% Air: 5% Resistances Holy: 100% Light: 100% Death: 100% Darkness: 100% Water: 5% Earth: 5% Fire: 5% Air: 5% Traits Untiring (Undead) 99% decreased stamina drain at night. 33% increased Stamina drain in daylight. Life Sense (Undead, Ghoul) You can detect the pulse of life all around you. Radius is twice your perception. Current radius: 64 Meters (100 max). Hungering (Undead, Ghoul) If you eat the majority of a corpse, you will gain 10% of the experience you would get from slaying it normally. Status Effects Perfect Corpse (Condition) -1 Charisma. Uhm, you look perfectly fine, if a little cold. Those with the darker predilections such as necrophilia may even prefer you this way. To those people you appear to have an extra 20 charisma. Curses Eian's Condemnation (Curse) -100% to all attribute gains. Hurry up and perish. Titon's Judgement (Curse) When exposed to the sun and when outside in daytime, -50% to all attributes. Blessings Darkness of the Demon Monarch (Blessing) 100% resistance to holy and light magic acquired. 100% affinity to Darkness acquired. Call of the Grave Queen (Blessing) By consuming the flesh of the fallen (dead), you will absorb a small part of their stats. 100% death affinity. 100% increase to all death related skills. 100% immunity to poison and mundane (non-divine) curses. Odin the All-Father's Retribution (Blessing) 1000% increase to all mana related skills. 1000% increase to growth of all mana related attributes (doesn't apply to achievement bonuses). Skill acquired: Summon Raven Familiar(s). Title acquired: Lady of Ravens. Earthmother Gaia's Compassion (Blessing) 200% increased growth to all health related attributes (doesn't apply to achievement bonuses). Skill acquired: Flesh Manipulation. Skills Summoning Magick 1 (Active) Capable of contracting and summoning creatures. Strength depends on character attributes. Higher proficiency allows for more and higher leveled summons. Flesh manipulation 1 (Active) Through excruciating effort and pain, the user can manipulate their own biomass. Eating flesh will add to available biomass. Spells Summon Raven Familiar 1 (Active) Summon a raven familiar to do your bidding.

Hmm, my charisma is pretty high now? I knew it, I am a devilishly pretty corpse loli, fufufu!

Still a corpse though, but I knew it! I am perfect after all, ehehe.

But... for a perfect corpse such as myself, clothes are a necessary commodity. The soggy rag that just barely obscures the dangerous parts doesn't count as clothing! Not at all, okay? Goddamn it!

Thankfully, I have an ample supply of freshly taken off clothes. They smell a bit sweet and corpsy, but I probably do as well given how I've pretty much been bathing in rot, blood and decaying bodies since I spawned or whatever I did.

I quickly slip out of the disgusting rag and wander over to peruse my options in this morbid wardrobe of mine. I sorted the clothes into wearable sets when I stripped the child corpses, so I just walk by the line of clothes and look for something nice that fits me.

Although they might smell a little bit of death, I pick out an elegant looking dress which had at some point belonged to a noble child. There were also some very long black socks that went up to above my knees and I was very happy with that. I love me some snuggly socks, I just wish these were clean but that will come later. For now this will do! And her shoes are cute too, they look like mary jane shoes from my previous life, lacquered black with a little strap across the open top.

As I put on the shoes and complete my outfit, I can't help but grin. It feels great to finally have proper clothes again, to have nice long hair and shoes that fit snugly as though they were made for my feet. With this, I hope that the dangerous monster madness will recede a bit. It will, right? madness-chan, you will, won't you? Pwetty pwease with cupcakes on top?

"Yosh!" I say, nodding to myself. My voice still comes out as a growlie growl, which reminds me that I have yet to repair my vocal cords and innards yet. It's not just the outer shell that's important, no. What's inside is important as well.

Closing my eyes briefly, I check on the biomass level but it seems to be fine. I still have more than enough since I didn't do any special modifications to my body yet, aaah but I really want to do that too, right here right now!

[Activate Flesh Manipulation]

Focusing my mind, I imagine some high-pitched girly voices that I heard many times before in my previous life. Guess binge-watching anime late at night has some benefits in this world?

My throat starts tingling and it feels really funny and weird and slightly disturbing, like ants are crawling around inside my throat.

I vehemently resist coughing and clearing my throat because I do not want to disturb the process. After some time, the warm throat itch finally recedes and a very welcome prompt greets me.

Congratulations. You have successfully used Flesh manipulation (unique skill) to craft The very pure and exceedingly innocent angel's perfect note vocal cords (Grade: Legendary, unique.) Your voice is like the tinkling of the finest little bell, very clean and pure and pleasant. +10 Charisma.

Clearing my throat, I part my lips and let fly an elegant song. "test test, testicle test. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck! Aaah, Ooooh, Aaaah. Fuck!" I giggle because of my cute, high pitched voice. This voice is not meant to say such words. Dangerous, dangerous.

This will work very well if I can get dwarf-san to teach me how to swear properly. Fuhaha, my evil plan. I wonder, will it succeed?

"But what's up with that name? I somehow feel its ironic... But still, I sound so cute!" I resist the urge to tilt my head towards the camera and peace the shit out of it. There's no camera though.

"This isn't even my final form!" I shout. Even shouting, I sound good. Fufufu, let's not become a narcissist okay?

[Activate Flesh Manipulation!]

I'm feeling horney, so I picture some small and cute oni horns in my mind. Something subtle, small and non-obstructive. The feeling results in two drilling pains, as though two men are drilling holes in my head with electric screwdrivers also known as power drills. Please don't drill Alyce-chan sho intenshly, owowo. Ugh, uguu, mach, ach... "Achtung!" I shout, and picture in my mind the properties I want.

Congratulations. You have successfully used Flesh manipulation (unique skill) to craft Demon Monarch's Oni horns of extreme cuteness (Grade: Legendary, unique.) Your horneyness surpasses everything in this world, and all shall bow down before the great demon Monarch once more. Grants: Demon race. Effect: +1 attribute point per level. +20% fire attribute affinity. -20% water attribute affinity.

Checking my available biomass again, I grit my teeth and activate flesh manipulation one last time. My head is starting to throb painfully and I realize I am pushing myself a bit far, but I have to do this. I feel slightly faint, but I will just bite my tongue if I feel like my consciousness is going to fly away.

Focus, focus! I strain my mind and picture pointy ears. Let's go elf ears! Japanese horizontal style please. Size? I will take a small, thank you bery much!

Oooh, I feel something stretching and changing. It feels itchy like with the other changes, but it's not nearly as bad as the horns being drilled into my skull. I easily ace the itch test with full points and obtain myself a pair of gloriously cute horizontal elf ears. Yes!

Congratulations. You have successfully used Flesh manipulation (unique skill) to craft High-elven ears of forest pearl. (Grade: Legendary, unique.) Grants sub-race: High-elf. Effect: +1 Attribute point per level. +5% earth affinity, +5% air affinity Warning: A large amount of biomass has been expended.

The world tilts on its head and I fall to my knees. It feels like my consciousness is sailing away on a boat. I'm fighting to stay afloat on the high seas. Swaying, swaying. Swayayay. Not! I bite my tongue hard and somehow stay conscious.

I must make my way back to Dwarf-san now! I can even talk to him with my new vocal cords. My only fault is that I smell a bit like a corpse, but that's that and this is this. I grab the large black cloak and wrap myself in it, slipping my thin arms into the large sleeves. The cloak covers me completely and the hood on the cloak is pretty huge too.

"I'm not a jedi, am I? I think I'd rather be a sith. Umu." Nodding to myself, I walk over and carefully climb back up the slighty rotten stairs, but this time I have shoes on so I can't feel the squishy wood beneath my feet.

Dwarf-san, here I come!