Staring at the undead city that had started to emerge in the distance, one of the adventurers could not help letting out a quiet sigh of exhaustion staring at the city in question. "A city... Great... Now we will also have to deal with a local city guard unit..."
"Don’t worry too much, we should be able to avoid it by going around. From what I can see, the miasma hasn’t fully settled and the undead from this monster kingdom should still be in a somewhat docile state if we don’t attack them."
"Docile? Say that to the hundreds of undead still chasing us from behind trying to kill us." Unsurprisingly, with one of them stepping forward to try and see a potential way out, another quickly stepped forward before motioning towards the large number of undead about to catch up with them, causing the one who had just spoken up to quiet down before the rest all shifted their attention towards the one standing at the front that had ended up with the leader position.
Damnit it all! Why did I have to end up as the leader for this kind of deadly mission!
Something that caused the person in question to silently curse inside his head at his great luck before laying out a barely acceptable plan that would have them moving around the city itself trying to avoid drawing any unwanted attention from the undead inside the city. After all, the undead inside a city like the one before them were bound to be far stronger than the few undead that were chasing after them.
Not to mention, there was also the very real chance that provoking the undead inside a city would end up drawing attention from the ruling undead of the monster kingdom. Brining about far more danger than the few powerful undead inside the city could ever pose to them, as in a worst-case scenario, an undead army could be mobilized against them... And fighting an undead army capable of utilizing a large-scale battle formation wasn’t something any of them wanted to face off against. Understanding that such a powerful enemy had a very real shot at killing them even if only a few undead and skeletons at the SS Rank ended up being mobilized.
That was the terror of a large-scale battle formation.
...
Outside the developed part of the dungeon, around the same time the group of adventurers found themselves despairing upon witnessing the undead city that had emerged during their troubled journey through the undead kingdom of the ninth floor. "Finally, a path appears!" The leading undead smiled with happiness for the first time since she had ended up landing on the ninth floor of the dungeon. Not wasting a second as she commanded the bone construct in the shape of a giant lizard beneath her feet to move forward through the tiny gap that had appeared as something seemed to have drawn the attention of the dungeon core away from its development of the dungeon for a short time.
"Se- wait up!"
"Senior! Don’t leave us behind!"
"Run, that old witch has no intention of saving us! Every man and woman for themselves!"
"Argh! Why did I have to lose all my undead earlier!? Can’t even use one as a mount."
And as she set off towards the small path that had been created by the dungeon core as its attention was drawn elsewhere, the necromancers she had managed to gather during her travel through the undeveloped part of the ninth floor all screamed out in a panic upon realizing she had no intention of carrying them along with her. Forcing them to rush forward using their own undead or their own two legs in case they had no undead or skeleton around to carry them.
It wasn’t that she intended to leave these necromancers behind, it was just that picking them up would delay her... And given how she didn’t know for how long the dungeon core would be distracted and this path would remain open, she simply didn’t want to risk her life saving these necromancers. Prioritizing her own life above all else as she poured all her strength into the bone construct below her. Allowing its speed to surge beyond its previous limits as the surrounding terrain still in a chaotic messy state flashed by in a few short seconds before she found herself in the middle of an empty wheat field with nothing but a few lone trees around.
Still, just getting to a developed part was far from enough, as she was still too close to the undeveloped part of the dungeon.
Something that was clear, as she spotted what looked to be some kind of strange-looking city still in the process of taking shape. Carrying traces of several different races, as it was clear the dungeon core hadn’t fully decided on a style or maybe the race in control of this small city hadn’t been determined.
But... The presence of a city made it clear that there were at least some kind of intelligent monster race living within this dungeon floor, though it was still difficult to determine what race it belonged to and how developed it was.
A monster kingdom was the first thought that emerged, but it was also possible to just be a few scattered city states belonging to different races. In fact, this kind of situation was far more likely compared to an entire monster kingdom appearing on the ninth floor of a dungeon. Even more so given how she had a feeling that the dungeon core itself wasn’t fully ready to expand and had only done so early because it had felt pressured to do so faced with the threat she and the mist serpent posed to it.
Speaking of the mist serpent, she hadn’t seen it since first landing on the ninth floor of the dungeon. Having shaken it off shortly after escaping from the initial landing spot.
Putting one and one together, she guessed the sudden shift in attention from the dungeon core might have to do with it encountering the mist serpent...