Reincarnated as a Lizard

Having started a digging operation of her own outside the dungeon, Scaly had found herself digging a small trench into the ground after being pushed through the bright light at the other side of the door that had kept her far longer than she had wanted it to.

The main difference compared to the digging she ended up taking part in and what the undead squirrels under the necromancer were taking part in being the simple fact that her digging was a complete accident and something completely outside her control. If anything, the digging was painful to an unbearable degree, as a few loose rocks had been ground against her scales when she did the glorious slide that dug out the small trench, she now found herself in.

But even with this, her pained look didn’t last for long, as she soon felt an overwhelming sense of joy flowing through her body.

Not because an innocent little rabbit monster had been crushed beneath her when she had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and landed directly on top of it. Giving her a bit of free experience. Instead, it was due to the simple fact that she had managed to safely escape from the Swirling Sands Dungeon before those powerful adventurers, not just Verdell but also the other adventurers had mentioned, appeared.

Although she had absolutely no clue about the actual strength of these adventurers that were being mentioned, the simple fact that they were strong to the point where even the dungeon core and the dungeon guardian construct defending it didn’t seem to be a worry made it clear to her just how powerful the adventurers being mentioned were.

Undoubtedly, they belonged to a completely different level even when compared to the mist serpent from the eighth floor.

Speaking of the mist serpent, the adventurers had mentioned something about them spotting a sea of mist from afar while they had been chasing after the necromancer in control of the bone construct during their conversation with Verdell. Making her guess that the mist serpent had truly ended up becoming one with the dungeon in the end, a true pity as she could already imagine the vast quantity of experience such a powerful monster would give her if she could kill it.

”Huh? Why is- Aaaah!?”

Thud~

Lost in her own thoughts while remaining motionless in the small trench she had ended up carving out for herself upon landing, a sudden familiar sounding cry brought her back to the present as she felt something hitting her back before sliding off her scales and down to the ground. Landing with a subtle thud.

”Damnable dungeon exit, why in the world would it teleport someone a dozen meters into the air and drop them?!” And even without turning around, she already knew who this startled cry belonged to, as the dwarf in question slowly dusted off his butt while cursing angrily towards the sky where the spatial power that had transported them here earlier had already vanished into thin air like it had never existed in the first place.

”Haaa... I heard these exits were unreliable, but I never expected it to just drop us off like this...” Walking up to her as she slowly lifted her head to face him in response, scaly couldn’t help curiously observing Verdell as he continued to complain about the dungeon exit.

He was complaining more than expected, but upon seeing his still pristine appearance thanks to the bath spirits meticulously care earlier, she had a feeling his grumpy mood after leaving the dungeon had something to do with what the bath spirits had done to him. Having been able to keep himself calm earlier in the face of the other adventurers not just because they were his seniors, but also because these seniors experienced a similar treatment to him from those bath spirits.

Of course, to Scaly, his now well-groomed appearance and silky-smooth hair didn’t matter. The only point of interest being how he kept touching his beard unconsciously while he was complaining. Making her realize that those bath spirits hadn’t just taken care of the hair on his head but had also helped clean his beard.

Well... It wasn’t just cleaning it, as it was notably shorter than before. Making Scaly wonder how those bath spirits had even been able to cut his beard with their weak water magic that did little to no damage and would at most afflict someone with the soaking debuff that made people wet.

Ah! The bath water elemental!

That was until she remembered the existence of the bath water elemental that had ended up joining the rest of the bath spirits in cleaning Verdell.

Weak as this bath water elemental might be when it came to combat strength, it should have more than enough strength to cut a dwarf’s beard.

In fact, from the way Verdell was constantly touching his beard, it was clear that he hadn’t yet realized what had been done to it and could only anxiously feel around trying to sense what was wrong.

Whoosh~

Feeling bad for the struggling dwarf, Scaly decided to help this anxious little friend of hers by conjuring up a ball of water that she quickly shaped into a mirror shape for him to inspect his beard-

”AAAAAAH! MY BEARD! IT-IT WAS REALLY CUT!? HOW DARE THEY! CURSE THOSE BATH SPIRITS! I SWEAR I WILL GET MY REVENGE!”

And what followed was a heart wrenching scream as the dwarf collapsed to the ground clutching what was left of his beard with tears in his eyes.

That... Is that little bit of hair on the face that important...?

Caught somewhat off guard by the dramatic reaction from Verdell, Scaly didn’t know how to respond as she just looked down on the now depressed dwarf on the ground.

”My beard... To think it has been reduced to such a pitiful state by those water demons...” Unaware of the confusion from the dragon next to him, Verdell continued his muttering out complaints to himself as he had already renamed the bath spirits behind the sudden and unexpected fall of his pristine beard.

Only after a good minute of wallowing in despair on the ground did he slowly get back up and start taking in the surroundings along with the Scaly, who had by now picked up and swallowed the rabbit monster she had ended up crushing earlier while at the same time also getting out of the small trench, she had ended up carving into the ground with her earlier landing.

Seeing a vast grass field stretching far into the horizon before him along with a small river flowing through it while behind him, a forest along with a few smaller mountains could be seen.

But more important than that, there wasn’t a single road or city in sight. Not even the slightest sign of an abandoned camp that might have been left behind by a group of adventurers passing through this place before them.

In other words, they had undoubtedly landed in some wilderness far from Temple Guard City where the entrance to the Swirling Sands Dungeon was located.

This was undoubtedly good news, as Temple Guard City would undoubtedly be swarming with adventurers both weak and powerful now following the expansion that the dungeon had just gone through and the interest the guild would be showing towards developing the dungeon even further even without mentioning them sending in reinforcements.

Avoiding the chaos of that place was for the best. Especially given how he had no intention of returning to that city after what he had gone through and planned on moving as far away from that place as possible.

Of course, this wasn’t just because of the potential trouble he might find himself in if he returned to the city but also had to do with undead kingdom that had taken shape on the ninth floor of the Swirling Sands Dungeon.

Even if the necromancers still alive inside the dungeon all perished, information about this undead kingdom would undoubtedly leak out within the next few weeks. After which Temple Guard City would turn into a new battlefront between the guild and the Eternal Life Sanctum, and he had no intention of getting himself drawn into that mess. Knowing very well that his current strength wasn’t anywhere near enough to ensure his own safety in that kind of environment.

Still... A completely unknown environment and a wilderness nonetheless wasn’t exactly a good place either, as these places were not just known for housing countless unknown and deadly monsters, but could also hold undiscovered dungeons that hadn’t been explored yet.

And accidentally entering an unexplored dungeon was often a death sentence, as the monsters tended to be looser in how they moved between floors compared to dungeons that had been under the guild’s control for hundreds of years. One such example being an S Rank Monster potentially wandering around on the first floor that would normally only be home to F Rank Monsters- or maybe E Rank Monster in a worst-case scenario. Not exactly the kind of surprise a trainee adventurer wanted to run into...