"Normally undead are simply mindless zombie types so that's why I was so shocked when you spoke."

She’s curiously examining every inch of my bony body as focuses her glasses with an inquisitive look. I almost want to tell her to shut up for a moment since I was still processing everything about my new body. Trying to wrap my head around this I thought back to the beginning. I died. And then I ended up in this cave as an undead skeleton. After that I came across this woman who could use magic. Thinking of the events I realized my current situation.

I've reincarnated into a fantasy world. Not only that but reincarnated into an undead but with all of the previous memories intact. This situation was something straight out of the many Japanese web novels I'd read before. They were isekai novels and they all followed a protagonist who is either reincarnated or summoned into a fantasy world with the memories of their previous lives. They usually had some super power cheat skill and a harem of beautiful women.

Wait, does that mean I too have a powerful cheat skill?! Normally in these types of fantasy worlds there's a status screen you can pull up which should show me my skills.

"Status!"

Hmm, nothing. Let me try...

"Status open!"

...

"Hey! How do you look at your status screen? Like your skills and level?" The woman seemed startled by my sudden outbursts but then simply skewed her head at my question. "Status screen? What's that?"

Guess it's not one of those types of worlds. Still, I must have some powerful gift right? No point in thinking about it now, especially with that priestly woman still looking at me with nervous eyes. I got so caught in how I felt that this situation must be strange for her too. A talking skeleton seems to be odd even in this fantasy world.

"Sorry, I should introduce myself, I'm..." Should I tell her my real name? Should I even tell her about my previous life? The more I thought about it, the more irrelevant it became. I died. There's no going back. I should take this as a chance. To start over again. To start my new life I'll abandon my old name and go with... "Szandor."

"Szandor? You've even given yourself a name, how strange... Well, anyway, I'm Marie Hart."

Stolen story; please report.

It's strange to have a name? Well she did mention that undead tend to be nothing but mindless monsters so her feelings are understandable. So how should I continue to approach this? I could say I was created by a wizard through some magical experiment but since I don't understand how magic works in this world I may end up saying something wrong and making this more of a mess.

There is always the old tried and true classic: amnesia. It would be cliche but it would help explain away any ignorance on my part. I simply let her draw conclusions of my origins and we'll go from there!

"Unfortunately I have no memories up until about an hour ago. I simply found myself wandering in this cave. I'm not sure what I am or how I came to be here."

"Well, you most certainly are undead. The effectiveness of my [Holy Light] proves that. I was under the impression that the most intelligent undead were Elder Lichs and even they can barely string along a sentence. Though I've never met an undead before, after all, this is my first time out venturing with a party and now I'm lost in this cave..." She hung her head low as the last bits of her words spilled out with shame.

In a way we were both in the same boat. Inexperienced and lost in a strange place. I placed my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Though, seeing those bony hands will take some getting used to.

"We'll find them. They may be able to give me answers about what exactly I am. Where'd you last seen them?"

"I'm not sure... Shortly after we entered the cave to kill a cave troll terrorizing our village there was an earthquake and the ceiling began to collapse which seperated me from the group. I've simply been wandering around hoping to stumble across them before my torch goes out."

Couldn't they have used magic to clear away the rocks? Maybe magic like that doesn't exist in this world. Her other party members could also be just as new to adventuring as her so the possibility of them being not strong enough to deal with rocks seems likely.

If that was the case they probably won't be able to inform me well on the nature of this world or myself. Either way, finding them would be beneficial in finding a way out. "When the ceiling collapsed was it near the entrance, right?" Marie nodded. "Then it seems likely your party headed back to the entrance."

"You think they abandoned me...?"

"No, of course not." Well that wasn't entirely impossible. I didn't know them after all. "It makes sense to me if a group gets split up to go back to a familiar spot. After all, if they're searching around while you're searching around it may be more likely for none of you to find each other. It's also possible they went back for help since the path blocked by rocks may be the only way back to the entrance."

Why do I feel so smart all of a sudden? Or rather calm and collected. I should be far more panicked yet I'm assessing the situation and coming up with various conclusions. This could be a benefit of being undead. I may no longer feel fear which might be forcing my more rational side up to the surface.

"Ooh, that makes sense!" With that we started heading back in the direction Marie came from. I wasn't sure exactly what we'd do once we reached the collapsed ceiling but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.