Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

Marching through swampy water, one could see lizardmen. These lizardmen weren't marching without reason, they were evacuating en masse. In other words, they were fleeing from something.

"I can't believe we have to leave our home…" "I know we just reclaimed it" The various lizardmen villages hadn't even finished settling back into their old homes before they were forced to evacuate. How unfair!

Yet, thanks to Var Agus's great reasoning they had no choice but to suck it up and move out. That was to say that although most of the lizardmen ended up agreeing with Var's decision, some were still rightfully angry.

The ones that didn't fall into this category however were all the ones that thought that Var Agus, as the sole communicator of god, could do better, right?

These people however also put little to no protest. Var Agus was wise enough to offer them good things for their move. This meant that in the end he did have to resort to offering these benefits much to his displeasure.

The benefits were namely anything that gave the other lizardmen villages an opportunity to threaten Var's monopoly on the mushroom God.

United in their thoughts of destroying this monopoly, these tribes also decided to move out in groups. This particular group of marching lizardmen for example consisted of 3 lizardmen tribes.

"Hey, what was that?" A lizardman asked warily.

"Huh?" Someone from another tribe exclaimed.

The march came to a sudden end.

While these various lizardmen tribes marched towards the mushroom cavern, another group of mixed races was marching towards their same destination.

A and Yoashk were taking the lead towards the mushroom caverns. Currently, they were crossing through the former ogre cavern while mounted. As of the moment, there were no signs of anything strange occurring.

Which… made sense. Nothing strange was supposed to happen. Nonetheless, A couldn't help but feel uneasy.

'If we are not in trouble then…' Then A's source of uneasiness would have to be the lizardmen villages.

'We need to hurry' While trusting a mysterious sixth sense seemed illogical getting there faster could never hurt. The group was just about to reach the boss chamber of the cavern but clearly this speed was still insufficient.

Fortunately, A was wise enough to bring not only Dakgu, but also Sharog. Well, in reality she had actually been the one to volunteer to be brought along. Clearly, Sharog thought she needed some sort of break from the administrative matters.

At their roots, orcs were born for battle. Even the comparatively meek Sharog was no different.

"Sharog, please use your wind spells" A said using Yoashk's body as per normal. Sharog nodded while atop her mount before promptly casting a spell.

"Hahaha! Yes! Faster!" Of course, the fact that Sharog was brought along also meant that Shel couldn't bear to stay behind. She would go wherever the blood flowed!

Due to the suspected rough terrain, everyone had an individual mount this time allowing Shel to recklessly coax her boar into expending more and more energy. 

'She is going to run it dry…' These mounts were not at all carefully chosen, though if there was something in common for each of them it had to be their speed. That was to say their stamina couldn't be guaranteed except for the undead few.

Following the spurring of the living and hastening of the dead, the lizardmen delegates were one step closer to returning to their home. With the assistance of the orcs they sped past the ogre cavern and in no time at all their sight was covered by the beautiful glowing spores of the magic mushroom.

"Don't breathe in too much…" A warned. He wasn't certain if mushrooms could grow inside the orcs and lizardmen considering the magical nature of these spores. He presumed not since otherwise the creatures of the cavern would have long since left the scene.

After a little while later, Sharog's mana was reaching its limits.

"I can't keep it up anymore" Sharog could in fact keep it up for longer but it would be ill-advised. A mage without mana was just a regular person, or in Sharog's case a regular orc. Which… one would suppose would at the bare minimum not leave her helpless.

"Alright, we are almost there anyway" A didn't insist, however. He allowed Sharog to quietly take in the sights around them since they would now be reaching their destination.

Indeed, just a couple of minutes later they were at a seemingly abandoned underground settlement.

'There hasn't been much traffic here huh…' A thought observing the bleakness of the stone houses and the lacking homeliness of the living.

It was then when a door to one of these bleak stone houses parted open.

"Huh?" A lizardman looked through the parting before widening their eyes in surprise.

"Hey!" They cried out excitedly.

"You are all back!" The unfamiliar lizardman continued enthusiastically. They then made a puzzled expression noticing the mounts and orcs which were things they hadn't seen before.

'Maybe they are not so unfamiliar... I think I've seen them before' A thought upon having a closer look at the lizardman's puzzled expression.

If A remembered correctly Var Agus charged someone with the duty of protecting and maintaining the mushroom field.

Though that would imply there was just a single lizardman on the task, Var Agus put a whole team onto this. Needless to say, the lizardmen were still deeply mired in religion.

"How is the situation?" A decided to start asking some questions snapping the lizardman out of their confusion.

"The situation? Well, the last news we received was about an evacuation" The lizardman responded.

"I see" A replied pensively. 

While A was deep in thought, the lizardman and divine blood warriors settled down into their respective properties. Not everyone moved out of the caverns, just a large enough majority. The orcs watched on curiously.

After another few seconds of contemplation, A finally decided to simply consult with Ed on the basis of his earlier unease. A didn't think that now was the time to settle down anywhere.

'Ed, can you ask Var Agus about how things are going on his end. I will be on standby in the mushroom caverns' A couldn't contact Var Agus so Ed had to act as a middleman.

"Hey, is that our mushroom god?" Before A could receive a reply the lizardman interrupted his focus.

"Huh? This? Oh, yeah" A couldn't forget to lug around Ed's mushroom body. The cage in which it was rooted had a couple of bright and endearing colors. It was hard to mistake the mushroom as a regular mushroom.

"Can… Can I hold them?" The lizardman asked anxiously. They looked like a crazy fan asking for a small favor.

A didn't know how to deny this request and it was precisely at this moment that Ed sent back a message.

'Var has the majority of the lizardman outside the mushroom cavern but they are in trouble, hurry over!' Ed's transmission came with a frightening revelation. The lizardmen were in trouble. But what happened exactly?

'Understood' A didn't have the time to decipher this.

"Take the mushroom god and plant him safely" A didn't let the lizardman simply hold the mushroom god, he granted him the privilege of even planting him!

The lizardman didn't know what to say about the sudden thrusting of such a huge responsibility.

"I- I-" They were nearly brought to tears but A had no time for an emotional moment, those usually took too long.

"Everyone stop what you are doing, let's hurry out!" A shouted before running over to his mount.

"Yoashk, I will let you take command for a moment" A needed to work on strengthening the lizardman to help in any fight that was potentially to come.

"Understood" Yoashk muttered in reply.

"Huh!?" "We are leaving?" Some lizardmen were confused by the sudden order but quickly composed themselves. That was because they saw the divine blood warriors immediately charge for their mounts.

"For the mushroom god! Let's attain victory!" One of the warriors even shouted-! No wait that was Shel.

'Why in the world…!' A was still keeping an ear on things outside so he was stunned to hear this shout. His attention was thereafter once again stolen by the sound of galloping. Shel already had her boar take off.

"Yoashk, hurry on!" A shouted to what from an outsider's perspective was himself before his bony mount dashed off.

"For the mushroom god!" "For the fung-od!" "YEAH!!!" Unexpectedly, the orcs followed Shel in her odd battle cry.

'Where did they even get the term mushroom god from!?!' A didn't know if he should cry or be happy that the lizardmen and orcs were having a cultural exchange.

With some lizardmen also being reeled into the enthusiasm of the orcs, all the mounts that only now had gotten a chance to rest began their charge out of the cavern.

The sound of all sorts of appendages hitting the rocky ground inundated and echoed across the cavern like a furious stampede. It was a disorderly charge, but nothing was in more disarray than A's thoughts.

'Damn it!' He should have immediately tried to catch up with Var Agus when he and the others were absent from the cavern. Both in a battle and in an emergency, every second counted! A was chastising himself for his lack of initiative.

While the orcs and lizardmen were finally able to see the light of the cavern's exit, the thoughts of the migrating lizardmen were filled with darkness.. The shadow of death loomed over them.