Reincarnated as a Lizard

Ruuumble~

Watching the surging tide of mole gnolls behind her, she understandably felt a surge of panic and had no time left to care about the potential danger lurking within the underground forest before her.

If anything, she hoped some powerful monster would jump out and help her block that surging tide of mole gnolls behind her. Knowing just how difficult those monsters were to deal with once they decided you were someone on the to kill list...

Where are all the monsters?! Isn’t this place so close to the dungeon core supposed to be overflowing with powerful monsters!?

But surprisingly enough, even after five minutes of madly dashing through the thick foliage of the underground forest. Not a single monster popped its head out to stop her, causing her to silently curse the monster in her head.

Of course, though she cursed them, she also understood that there was a very good chance that these monsters already knew about the mole gnolls and didn’t want to jump out and end up being targeted by those pests. If anything, knowing about this kind of menace was something that could almost be considered inherited memories carved deep into the bloodline of any monster living underground.

Meaning... Even if these monsters had never seen the mole gnolls before, something deep within their bone warned them not to step out and draw their attention. End result being the quiet dark underground forest that the little necromancer ended up finding herself rushing through at great speed that easily left those mole gnolls in the dust.

However, even though the mole gnolls slowly faded from view behind her, she didn’t dare to slow down in the slightest and continued rushing forward at great speed. Knowing from her past encounter with these menaces, that there was no way for her to escape them without a flying undead to take away.

In the past, during her previous encounter with them, she had originally not had any flying undead under her control and had at first just run away after realizing she couldn’t beat them, but that had been her first mistake... After a week had passed since leaving those menaces behind, they popped out of the ground and attacked her. Forcing her into a month-long escape that was both humiliating and despair educing.

It was only by sheer coincidence that she had run in a large flock of migrating monster birds that she quickly killed off and transformed into undead that had allowed her to escape. After which she learnt through one of the knowledge repositories that mole gnolls used some kind of unique magic to track their prey through the ground. Meaning only by leaving the ground would one be able to escape from them.

And...

It was also during this little reading session that she had learnt the Eternal Life Sanctum specifically instructed one to avoid these annoying monsters, something that was specifically mentioned to be the general warning given by everyone throughout the world when mentioning mole gnolls.

Mainly because they weren’t just difficult to deal with but also had little to nothing of value on them and served little to no purpose for undead, as their inherently powerful and unique earth magic couldn’t be carried over- that and the cost to benefit in terms of death energy made them far too expensive compared to a normal undead or skeleton that would be far stronger than those small mole gnolls.

”Huh? Light?” And it was while she was rushing through the dark forest that she suddenly discovered a source of light emerging in the distance, causing her to unknowingly let out a small exclamation of surprise as her speed slowed ever so slightly looking towards the bathhouse that seemingly materialized out of nowhere within the dark forest covered in dense foliage.

The strange structure and the fact that it was directly in her path made her draw closer to it while she silently hoped this strange structure’s appearance meant that the exit out of the dungeon she had been searching for was located somewhere within this structure that had materialized out of nowhere.

”Magical traps...” But she had barely drawn any closer to the bathhouse before she was forced to stop upon noticing a magical trap blocking her path. ”This- is the exit here!? Am I really that lucky!?” However, the cation she felt from spotting a magical trap in front of her quickly vanished after she realized what this meant. Knowing there was a good chance she had run into the group of adventurers that had ruined her bone construct and put her in her current deadly situation in the first place.

And of course, the only reason why this group of adventurers would hunker down in one place like this and even go so far as to surround the place with magical traps, would be if the exit out of the dungeon was located within the bathhouse, something that was beyond doubt great news to her.

The only little problem that stood before her was the simple fact that rushing forward into those magical traps would be difficult to say the least and might even end up with her getting killed before she had a chance to even reach the exit.

Even if she could sacrifice her bone construct and make it recover its past strength for a bit, it wouldn’t be enough to break past the countless layers of defense that these adventurers had somehow managed to set up around the exit leading out of the dungeon. Especially so considering the time her bone construct could remain at its most powerful would only be for a few short seconds. Enough for a single burst of power, but far from enough to bring her all the way to an exit out of the dungeon that she hadn’t even laid her eyes on yet.

In her original plan, the exit would have been out in the open and she could just rush past any defense the adventurers had set up using this one burst of strength from the bone construct, but with the structure hiding the exit, it became far harder for her to just burst forth and charge out in this manner. Instead, she had to find some other way to get inside before she could afford to burn up her bone construct.

Luckily for her, she wasn’t entirely without options, as the mole gnolls closing in on her from behind were undoubtedly perfect candidates to help draw out the adventurers while at the same time helping her breakthrough the countless defensive measures put in place around the bathhouse.

Thus, without the slightest bit of hesitation, she circled around the bathhouse and began silently waiting for the mole gnolls that had been chasing her to show up...

Rumble~!

And they didn’t disappoint in the slightest, as the vast wave of mole gnolls that had been chasing her so far emerged from the forest. Charging towards her at great speed and in turn also the bathhouse between her and them. Intend on leveling this little structure that stood between them-

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Something that soon enough triggered the first row of magical traps, causing a dozen or so unsuspecting mole gnolls to get blown up without the chance to hide underground nor use their powerful earth magic to protect themselves.

RUUUUMBLE-!

An act that seemed to enrage them greatly, as they rushed forth with even greater momentum-

”What is hap- Ah! MOLE GNOLLS!”

Just in time for the adventurer moving out of the bathhouse to investigate what had happened to find himself face to face with the vast army of mole gnolls charging straight at him filled with killing intent no less than the killing intent directed towards the necromancer hiding behind the bathhouse- if anything, the killing intent was greater given how they perceived this new person as the one behind the sudden death of their companions.

Rustle~

Not that the person in question had any time to care about that, as he had already rushed back into the bathhouse screaming loudly. Getting those inside ready for battle. Knowing just what kind of annoying enemy they were about to find themselves facing off against.

”Ugh... Whyyyyy! I don’t fight those things without any skilled earth mage...”

”Hey! I know earth magic!”

”I said skilled...”

”You!”

But though they were clearly far from happy about the enemy they were about to face off against, they were nowhere near as panicked as the little necromancer hiding outside. After all, amongst their group there were still a few who could counter these annoying mole gnolls. Leading to some of them even casually bantering with one another as they got ready to face off against the mole gnolls.

If anything, the only thing the group was worried about was the bathhouse itself being destroyed, as that would mean they had to defend the exit out of the dungeon without any cover from the other monster living with the underground forest.