Reincarnated as a Lizard

Following her skeletons as they were allowed inside the undead kingdom under the guidance of the few undead and skeletons that had originally been guarding the tunnel to prevent anyone from sneaking inside one of the most important areas of the undead kingdom, it didn’t take long before she passed through the border and officially entered the active part of the catacombs that had turned into a death energy rich location perfect for naturally generating new undead and skeletons for the undead kingdom.

Of course, given how she didn’t really stand much of a chance in the face of the lich in charge of the undead kingdom nor even some of the powerful armies that were undoubtedly under the control of this lich, she decided to stay low for now and continued having her skeletons move in a chaotic and natural fashion befitting of wild skeletons that hadn’t been properly adapted to the undead kingdom yet.

To make everything more believable, she let go of a few dozen skeletons and allowed them to roam freely. Splitting off from the main part of the army of skeletons under her command to make everything look more natural just to avoid arousing any unnecessary attention. Planning to use the cover she had created for herself to not only get close enough to the lich that she would be able to start planning around how to take it down, but also to hide from the adventurers from the Adventurers Guild. Knowing that there was no way the adventurers currently present within the ninth floor would attack the undead kingdom in the foreseeable future.

After all, though there was likely only a single lich whose strength surpassed the SS Rank present within the undead kingdom, a lich’s strength wasn’t its individual power, but instead the vast undead armies under its command.

And...

A lich in control of an entire undead kingdom was an entity that even other beings above the SS Rank had to fear, as they could make use of vast battle formations controlled by their armies of undead to exert a terrifying power far beyond their level. Making them a headache to deal with even for light priests of the Holy Light Church who specialized in killing undead.

Even for the guild, taking on an undead kingdom was something that required them to carefully gather enough people before recklessly making a move. Having learnt from experience over the years that the adventurers who perished during such an attack would almost certainly end up returning to the battlefield as undead.

The only exception to this would be if an especially powerful adventurer was around, but she didn’t really think this would be the case given how the Swirling Sand Dungeon wasn’t exactly that important in the grand scheme of things and would hardly be enough to attract the attention of those powerful adventurers. In fact, this dungeon had been specifically chosen by her as the target after she had made sure it wasn’t anywhere close to any of the more important dungeons or cities under the Adventurers Guild.

Ensuring that the adventurer that would inevitably show up when the guild realized the seriousness of the situation would be someone who hadn’t advanced far and should have only recently surpassed the SS Rank.

Or that was at least how things were supposed to go...

FWOOOOSH-!

But the first thing she ended up seeing after poking her head out of the catacombs was a sky covered in flames as countless meteors streaked through the sky above with fiery trails following behind them. Descending towards the sprawling undead capital city below.

The city that she had just stepped inside alongside her trusted bone construct and the skeletons under her control.

”This... Meteor shower!? What kind- oh no, is it that one from that frozen wasteland up north!? Why in the world did he end up here of all places?! Is it the gate leading into the dreamscape? Did he just happen to pass through when I decided to attack the dungeon core?” Feeling her brain short circuit for a brief second upon seeing the countless meteors descending from above, it didn’t take long before she started cursing out loudly. Almost instantaneously realizing who it was behind this terrifying spectacle.

Whoosh~

And as if to showcase her fear of this individual, she had already turned around the second she had opened her mouth and returned to the catacombs below the city. Dragging her army of skeletons and her bone construct along with her as she didn’t care about hiding herself from the surrounding undead and skeletons and only wanted to escape as fast as possible from the periphery of the undead kingdom.

Understanding very well what kind of existence had show up and knowing full well that this person just so happened to be one of the people within the Adventurers Guild who wouldn’t care much about the natural advantages a lich might have within an undead kingdom. On the contrary, the other party might even show a bit of excitement at the increased challenge.

Not that any of this would change the outcome of the battle, as there was simply no way she could see a newly minted lich born from a newly formed undead kingdom standing any chance against that old menace from the guild.

Not to mention a newly minted lich, she had even heard this person had killed one of the old liches from the Eternal Life Sanctum in the past and was not a being she could take on. The best-case scenario was her escaping without the other party noticing her presence.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

BOOOOOOM-!

RUUUMBLE~!

But, as she escaped underground and felt everything around her starting to shake violently, she understood that just escaping from the undead kingdom was far from enough, with that kind of adventurer present, it was only a matter of time before she was discovered and ended up dying in his hands.

Because of this, she soon enough decided to decisively abandon the skeleton army she had gathered. Draining all the death energy within them to strengthen herself and restore some of the bone constructs strength. Knowing that her only true escape path would be for her to find the exit out of the dungeon before that terrifying adventurer concluded his battle with the newly minted lich and came after her.

The only problem with this was the fact that she had no clue if the catacomb tunnel she had been following so far would truly lead to the underground world that the dungeon core had hidden away in.

Unfortunately, in her current situation, she didn’t have much of a choice and could only bite her lips in frustration before urging the bone construct beneath her to rush forward at top speed. Hoping that catacomb tunnel was truly connected to the underground world of the dungeon.

The adventurers potentially guarding this exit wasn’t even in her mind, as she was already prepared to sacrifice the bone construct to get out. Feeling confident that she should be able to push through the bunch by sacrificing her bone construct and escape through the exit before those adventurers could stop her.

...

”Hm? Odd, such a potent death energy fluctuation from underground. A barrier? No... Perhaps I hit a hiding necromancer or some important place protected by the little lich.”

Floating above the now cratered landscape of the once glorious capital city of the undead kingdom that had been turned into a sea of flames, the adventurer behind the chaos slowly voiced his thoughts as he looked down towards the ruined part of the city that the catacombs were located below. Having clearly sensed the little necromancer the second she forcibly drained the death energy of the skeletons under her and used the drained death energy to strengthen herself and the bone construct.

Of course, though he wanted to investigate the situation below and see if he had really ended up accidentally hitting a necromancer from the Eternal Life Sanctum, the owner of the city he had just cratered wouldn’t give him the chance to do so-

ROOOOAR-!

As a bestial roar echoed out from the depths of the royal palace located at the center of the vast city. Followed by over a dozen towering bone wyrms soaring into the sky towards him filled with killing intent.

[Bone Wyrm, lvl 189]

[Bone Wyrm, lvl 193]

[Bone Wyrm, lvl 187]

[Bone Wyrm, lvl 198]

[Bone Wyrm King, lvl 203]

[Bone Wyrm, lvl 199]

[Bone Wyrm, lvl 182]

[Bone Wyrm...]

The sheer number and strength of these wyrms being a bit surprising even to him, as he hadn’t expected the newly minted lich to have such a powerful group of bone wyrms under its control. Especially the leading bone wyrm king whose strength had already exceeded the SS Rank.

Together with the still hidden lich behind the scenes, he would have to face off against two beings above the SS Rank, something that forced him to take the winged bone snakes flying towards him a bit more seriously, as this wasn’t a battle that would end as fast as he had originally anticipated...