Reincarnated as a Lizard

”To think those two ended up leaving so fast... I really hoped to have that dwarf and his dragon stay around for a bit. At the very least, it would have made a potential battle with the necromancer far easier in case she ended up finding this exit.” Looking towards the door leading out of the dungeon, the leading adventurer could not help sighing to himself as he said this. Feeling a certain sense of loss now that Verdell, a clearly skilled monster tamer whose strength was undoubtedly comparable- if not superior to his own, had left.

Still, even with Verdell leaving, he was still happy to have managed to make friends with another powerful adventurer who had a far greater chance of surpassing the SS Rank in the future than he had, a fact that was clear for all to see with the powerful dragon he had managed to tame.

Just taming a dragon alone was difficult enough, let alone one at the level of Scaly.

In fact, it had made him along with the rest of the adventurers think that Verdell had come to the Swirling Sands Dungeon to complete the dreaded class advancement at level 199, a class advancement that differed wildly from past class advancements in how complex and unique they were, with one of the requirements for this class advancement having required him to tame a dragon.

In other words, Verdell wasn’t just a top SS Rank Adventurer who had already reached level 199 and obtained his class advancement quest, but one who had already made progress when it came to completing said class advancement quest. The difference between the two was obvious, as every completed requirement for this kind of class advancement quest tended to result in a massive increase in strength.

The increase in strength Verdell had experienced coming in the form of having a dragon on his side whose strength had at the very least reached the top of the S Rank if not the SS Rank.

”Indeed, a pity, I hoped for him to stay as well, dwarfs are rare around these places, and I wanted to learn more about their culture if possible.” Nodding her head in agreement, one of the burlier melee combatants spoke up in a regretful tone.

”Learn more about their culture? Aren’t you just hoping to befriend a dwarf who could put in a good word for you when going to beg their magic swordsmiths for a new weapon?” But she barely managed to finish her sentence before one of the mages sitting on the edge of the small stone base that held the door leading out of the dungeon out of the water, called her out.

”Hmph! What do you know! I have always been interested in dwarven culture and making a few more friends never hurt. If that friend happened to lend a hand in me acquiring a new magic sword, wouldn’t that just be an unexpected surprise? Nothing wrong with that!”

”That... If you say so...” Hearing the shameless response from this companion of his, the mage could only roll his eyes and give up any further discussions. Knowing that continuing to lecture this burly woman would only end up with him getting beaten up by the brute.

”These two... At it again...” Seeing this little verbal spar, the leader who had his gaze fixed on the exit couldn’t help rolling his eyes before he found somewhere nice to settle down within the large bathhouse while waiting for a senior from the guild to show up and help them deal with the necromancer.

At the very least, with the exit being located inside the bathhouse, they only had to keep an eye on two entry points. One of these entry points being the hole they had created when crashing through the ceiling of the bathhouse earlier.

In other words, they had a rather easy job for the foreseeable future, with no real danger if the necromancer or any monster surpassing the SS Rank didn’t emerge to attack them. Allowing the group to settle in and take a break for once after delegating two people to guard duty for those two entry points.

...

”Those damnable adventurers, leaving me in this kind of state without leaving me any way out...” At the same time the adventures settled in to spend the next few hours relaxing inside the underground bathhouse, the necromancer they were set up to block from leaving through the exit within the bathhouse, found herself stomping her feet angrily on top of the now charred bone construct.

Since she had escaped from the magical flames that had engulfed the sea of tall grass in no time, she had little time to relax. Having monsters constantly swarm her with no care in the world.

Even with a vast difference in strength, these monsters still threw themselves at her. Giving her no time to stop to recover her strength nor assess the damage to the bone construct and see if there was anything she could do to fix the damage it had ended up suffering from.

Whoosh~

BANG!

Even while she was cursing the group of adventurers, an especially bold squirrel only around level 7 jumped down from above in an ambush that only ended up with the small squirrel monster being reduced to ash by the faint black veil surrounding her body.

”Another one!? How many of these squirrels live in this damnable place, this is already the 37th in a row!”

And of course, the sudden ambush resulted in another string of curses from the necromancer as she had the bone construct beneath her speed up so she could get out of the forest she found herself in as fast as possible.

Not just to avoid the constant unexpected ambushes she had encountered so far from the countless monsters hidden within the forest, but also so she would be able to officially start her search for the exit leading out of the dungeon.

Unfortunately for her, she had already come to the same conclusion that the group of adventurers had come to regarding this exit, it was somewhere underground close to the dungeon core. Meaning she had to find a way to reach the underground world that this exit could be found inside, something that was far from simple.

Something that was made even more difficult because of how any real potential paths to the underground part of this dungeon floor happened to be located within the burning magical inferno at the very heart of the ninth floor itself, a place she had no way to explore with her strength.

The only real alternative to turning herself into a unique torch being for her to find another path somewhere outside the central part of the ninth floor, something she had already deemed to be close to impossible to accomplish with the little time she had left before those stronger adventurers began showing up and combing through the ninth floor searching for her.

The only reason why she had been able to survive so far and the reason those people hadn’t reached the ninth floor of the dungeon yet wasn’t because they couldn’t rush down the second the ninth floor was completed, but instead because those above were smart enough to seal off any possible escape she might think of by trying to escape back up through the dungeon and leaving the normal way.

In the end, this left her with only one reasonable path forward when it came to reaching the underground world hidden beneath the surface of the ninth floor. Digging.

Of course, as a dignified necromancer who had managed to climb all the way to the Crypt Guardian Rank, there was no way she would dig on her own nor would she make the bone construct that oversaw her safety do something like that.

Instead, she decided to make use of the different monster who had attacked her so far. Having already formed a small undead army mostly made from squirrel monsters that numbered a little over a hundred.

Having the little army of monsters follow her out of the forest before creating a small base where they could begin digging underground. Making sure to choose somewhere secluded next to a small mountain that had enough foliage around to make them difficult to spot from a glance.

Knowing that this little digging operation was bound to take some time before it showed any results... And with the danger approaching from above, she knew that it would be impossible to complete her objective and reach the underground part of this floor before a senior from the guild emerged and began combing through the ninth floor searching for her.

Because of this, she decided to take precautions and do her best to hide away and make her little digging operation difficult to spot from the outside. Planning to hide it even more after the monsters dug deep enough for all of them to fit underground and the entrance could be sealed off and hidden with a few leaves and branches. Making it no different from some natural cave from the outside.