Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

The other battlefields around the Bosque capital were chaotic. There were two sides yet at time there were more than 3 enemies. The zombified version of both your comrades and the enemies, as well as your actual living enemies.

Of course there instances of both sides ceasing their attacks on the other to fend off the infectious horde, but just as often, some people weren't even aware of the zombies. Not until they were bitten and mauled and the infection spread to one more person.

"AAARGH!" One soldier screamed madly after a zombie bit into their shoulder. They sounded deranged! 

"HELP!!! NO-!" They tried to fight back, but the zombie pounced on them harder until there was nothing but a dead man.

They had been clawed at and bitten all over until their life was forfeited.

A simple spell then attacked both zombies. The head of both zombies were crushed by small boulders. The forces of Brennan Bosque quickly moved in and tilted the scale in the favor of the living beings.

"""DIE AGAIN!!!"""  "This is actually kind of sick and apocalyptic!" "KILL" "Get back here, you sack of rot!" The adventurers and knights had varied reactions, as was usual. 

The forces of Brennan that came as reinforcement quickly contacted the commander of this side of the battlefield. They both agreed to work together and push back the ferocious zombies.

The battle that was already skewed in the humans favor was now skewed against both the zombies and the forces of the Harvest March. Within less than half an hour, the chaotic battlefield was finally settling down.

Not just that, but signs of retreat even appeared in the camps of the harvest march. It was clear that they were dealt a heavy blow this time. A good chunk of the damage even appeared to come from friendly fire, which meant the losses on the side of Bosque were somewhat mitigated.

"Your Majesty!" Stuart called out.

A sword glistened under the sun's ray as it lopped off the head of another undead with both ease and grace. The head thudded to the ground, and Brennan cleaned his blade with a cloth before turning to face Stuart.

"I think it's about time we enter the capital" Stuart told Brennan, who realized he had been too immersed in slaying zombies.

"That's right!" Who knew if the Duke's family was planning something. They had already appointed a fake king. Setting Brennan up, by having him step down or asking him to just stay down, was the next logical move after the knowledge of his appearance spread.

"Everyone! Rendezvous and prepare to enter the capital!" Brennan shouted. He got off his horse and led it towards the capital city's gates. As for what happened if the gate was not opened for him... 

"I can just kill my way in" They could not stop a king from entering his kingdom, and they definitely couldn't stop him from entering his palace.

***

Back in the mushroom caverns, Ed was trying to coordinate the lizard's enough to have them making boats and ships. He hadn't yet started on the other plans, like the cannons, and it was with good reason.

'No!! Var, tell them it can't be done like that!' They were behind schedule. Currently, he was screaming at Var Agus and having him tell the lizardmen his thoughts. Rather roundabout, right?

There was no excuse for using this method. Ed wasn't trying to boost the respect of the lizardmen towards Var Agus or anything like that. What he was doing right now was a necessity.

'Argh, I can't believe I made such a stupid mistake' Ed had lost transmission.

The lizardmen would not notice much of a difference for now, but… Ed had lost transmission. He couldn't talk to whomever he pleased as he pleased anymore. The link skill had such a tragic downside.

One might think that just linking with everyone would do the trick, but there was a limit. This skill relied on his mental power, as most of the mental skills did, so going over would mean starting to lose pieces of his consciousnesses.

'How will I- Wait…' He hadn't lost it just yet, W still had the skill! The level might be 0 but W did have it, how joyous!

An exploit appeared in Ed's head, as long as he split up and then advanced his skills he could keep both the old skill and the newly advanced skill. Yet, the happiness of discovering this method was diminished by the fact that W was currently well outside his range of merging.

'It's not like I can retrieve him mentally' It would be cool if he could, but he couldn't. His workaround was not too shabby, it would have to carry him for a while.

'The command skill can thankfully still allow me to communicate with the others such as Shel, Sharog, Dakgu, etc. They had all been in his system space, so he could use his command skill to talk to them.

'Something along the lines of listen to me and then saying my words...' That was the workaround for non-lizardmen entities. If he absorbed them into the system, he could use this workaround on them too, but his current form made it just inconvenient.

Back to reality, Ed was still teaching the lizardmen to make boats. He drew a basic diagram of the shape, but he unfortunately had no idea what do actually do with the design.

'The craftsmanship is in the orc body' He couldn't use it to help build this boat or ship as long as this statement held true.

'I can try my hand at the cannons, but....' He didn't have hands! Ed became keenly aware that this form would not be doing him any favors when facing Eon. With inadequate skills and inadequate limbs… Ed's only choice was to return to his orc body.

Of course, that was not up to him. It was up to the dungeon. Ed looked forward to the day he would gain the independence to move freely in the dungeon. Just like, he no longer needed to wait for the dungeon to look away before using the system space.

'I need to return to my orc body, otherwise Eon might slay the hydra!' Ed declared in his mind with a mix of desperation and genuine alarm. He was hoping the dungeon would hear this cry. There was a reason to panic whenever Eon was involved.

After a short while, the dungeon did not reply. Although it hadn't responded, Ed decided to play it safe and transmitted through their link some words to Var Agus.

'Var, I will slumber for at most a day to recover some strength and provide you additional aid' Having Var Agus as the only with the privilege to talk to him solidified Var's position as leader, regardless of whether that was Ed's intent. Ed had already helped them in a subtle way.

With a clear and defined leader, the lizardmen could focus more on things that matter and leave aside the politics for a more peaceful time.

'Dungeon! Come on!' Ed now started to convince the dungeon anew.

After a bit more ranting in his own head, Ed finally managed to get through to the dungeon.

[Recalling Champion's Soul]

'Yes!' Ed exclaimed as his thoughts grew faint and distant. It wasn't long before he entered the familiar dark space and did his usual routine of turning off sixth sense.

Another thing that was usual was the wait timer. Ed had to wait 10 or so minutes before the dungeon respawned him in another body. The odds of the dungeon having listened to him were high, and Ed expected to find himself back in Sanctuary.

His expectations might not always line up with reality, but the situation in the crypt only needed scheduled maintenance to be profitable to both him and the dungeon. There was simply no reason to be summoned there.

After the 10 minutes ended, Ed found himself sucked up by a void and upon opening his eyes, he caught sight of a thatched ceiling. He had returned to his orc body as expected.

Ed decided not to waste any time and quickly stood up from the bed where he lay. This action alerted a young orc girl that was watching over Ed's sound sleep.

"Hm?" Ed actually recognized this young girl, she was Lash. The little sister of Gurln.

Thinking about Sharog's relationship with Gurln, it wasn't odd for her to also care for his sister. Assigning her the job of watching and caring for Ed even showed some level of trust.

'Maybe I've been treating Gurln too harshly' He had not accepted Gurln even until now. The young orc was from a separate tribe and had a competitive spirit. He was also smarter than most of the orcs.

'As a subordinate he could turn out rather hard to control' It was just the reality of things, and speaking of reality Ed had to find Sharog.

"Do you know where Sharog is?" Ed asked the young orc, who only nodded meekly. Her hatred for Sanctuary had died down quite a lot since he last saw her. She also seemed to have become shy in front of Ed for whatever reason.

The truth was the girl's brainwashing from the sacred tribe was slowly wearing off and being replaced by the brainwashing of Sharog. 

She would often praise Ed, and this was starting to get to Lash. She now felt that she had been disrespectful to Ed and the tribe he was building. He was such a mighty and godly figure, after all! Her eyes turned into stars as she looked at Ed.

Ed realized the odd shine in the girls eyes that screamed out admiration and didn't know what to say. Once she noticed him studying her expression, however, she quickly returned to her shy state.

"Ummm… Sharog…" Ed reminded Lash, who jumped up in fright.

"Ri- Right! Yes! Follow me!" How could she be so forgetful in front of this godly figure!?

Once again weird out by the behavior, Ed let out a low mutter.

"There is no way she is teaching these kids some nonsense while drunk or something, right?" It seemed improbable, Ed just followed Lash out of the house he was placed in.