Reincarnated as a Lizard

To avoid having the bathhouse collapse on top of them when they clashed with the mole gnolls, the group of adventurers didn’t hesitate for a second. Leaving the bathhouse to confront the mole gnolls outside.

This movement was of course seen by the necromancer hiding behind the bathhouse, causing her to use the opportunity that had been gifted to her on a silver platter to slowly move closer to the outer wall of the bathhouse from a blind spot that allowed her to avoid detection from the group of adventurers.

Of course, this didn’t mean she could just casually stride through the still very much active magical traps that blocked her path towards the outer wall of the bathhouse, but... It at least meant she could make use of her experience to bypass said magical traps, something that was very much possible given the fact that the magical traps hadn’t been designed to stop someone like herself. On the contrary, the magical traps served more like an early warning system against approaching monsters and had little effectiveness when it came to harming someone like herself.

Not that there weren’t any deadlier traps around, just that those traps were undoubtedly located right next to the exit itself to serve as a last wall of defense against her trying to escape from the dungeon.

And as the adventurers began their bloody battle against the mole gnolls, she had her bone construct approach one of the magical traps.

Thud~

Jumping off her bone construct before starting to dismantle the magical trap before her, an act that would undoubtedly have been impossible if she hadn’t explicitly researched all kinds of magical traps in preparation for launching her attack on the Swirling Sands Dungeon. After all, before she could get to the dungeon core, she first had to sneak into the dungeon without being discovered by the Adventurers Guild and the branch of the Holy Light Church located within Temple Guard City where the dungeon entrance was located.

Thinking back to how she had ended up spending over a year just to slowly move her forces into the Swirling Sands Dungeon without being detected. Only to have said army of undead and necromancers get crushed by the dungeon core when it decided to add another floor, she couldn’t help silently lamenting that she hadn’t been fast enough to deal with the dungeon core.

If only she had been able to seize the dungeon core before it had been able to add in another floor, she wouldn’t have been in this kind of life and death situation where she had to sneak around like some lowly rat avoiding local pest control.

Not just that, but she would also have had the opportunity to surpass the SS rank and step into the true upper echelons of power within the Eternal Life Sanctum.

”Haaa... I really hope I will be able to get out of this alive...” Sighing to herself as she finished dismantling the first of many magical traps blocking her path, a sense of growing unease began spreading throughout her body as her gaze kept moving towards the barely visible battle taking place in front of the bathhouse.

For some reason, even as she slowly drew closer to the bathhouse and hadn’t yet been discovered by the group of adventurers locked in battle with the mole gnolls, she only felt her unease growing with each passing second.

By the time she dismantled all the magical traps blocking her path to the outer wall of the bathhouse and was about to break through it to reveal the interior of the bathhouse and hopefully find the exit leading out of the dungeon, this sense of growing unease reached its peak.

Making it feel to her like the second she decided to break the bathhouse wall before her, something terrible would happen.

Bang!

But even if she felt the danger before it had arrived, she didn’t have much of a choice if she wanted to leave the dungeon. Deciding to push forward by climbing back up on her bone construct before commanding it to break the bathhouse wall. Ensuring that she would be able to make full use of her bone construct to face off whatever deadly situation she would end up finding herself in after she broke into the bathhouse.

Rumble~

However, the sight that met her one the other side wasn’t some elaborate trap laid down by the adventurers to stop someone from getting to the exit leading out of the dungeon nor was it some powerful monster that had been waiting for a perfect opportunity to strike her while she was distracted breaking through part of the outer wall-

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

”Huh? Bath spirits...?”

Instead, what she ended up finding herself face to face with was a large army of bath spirits charging towards her filled with what could only be described as a burning fury that wouldn’t be satiated without seeing her dead. Not exactly what she had been expecting from the growing sense of unease. After all, bath spirits were hardly difficult enemies for someone with her strength to deal with.

A single wave of her hand sending out a pulse of death energy would be more than enough to sap away their pitiful life force and put an end to them before they could get anywhere close to her-

Thump~! Thump~!

And that was exactly what she decided to go with as a loud heartbeat echoed out from her chest followed by a surge of death energy gathering around her heart before another heartbeat sent the wave outwards in a sphere around herself. Hitting anything that crossed its path before rapidly sapping away the lifeforce of whatever was hit.

A perfect attack for dealing with a large number of far weaker enemies like the hundreds of bath spirits that came surging towards her after she destroyed part of the bathhouse they inhabited- or that was at least how things were supposed to go...

”Huh? That is-!?”

But before the pulse hit them, the bath spirits reacted on instinct and merged into a single entity that was far large than the ten or so centimeter tall bath spirits. Turning into what could only be described as a majestic water spirit standing more than three meters tall as it floated in the air before the now rather shocked little necromancer.

[Greater Bath Spirit, lvl 1]

[Description: The amalgamation of countless smaller bath spirits, the greater bath spirit is an exceptionally rare spirit that is rarely ever seen and only appears when a large enough bathhouse or other bathing facility inhabited by a large enough number of bath spirits suffers damage from a malicious actor that shows an intent to destroy their home.

One of the more unstable spirits because of how it comes to be and rarely survives for more than a few days after its born. Even then, it’s far from weak, with even the weakest Greater Bath Spirit having strength comparable to top ranked SS Rank Adventurers. However, the most fearful part about facing an angered Greater Bath Spirit is its immunity to physical attacks and high magical resistance. Making it hard to deal with even for someone surpassing the SS Rank. Not hard to avoid, you just need to respect the baths inhabited by bath spirits and not cause needless destruction.]

”A greater bath spirit... How unlucky can I be... To think this place was a bathhouse with enough bath spirits to form something like this...”

Although she couldn’t read the description of the now far larger and majestic-looking bath spirit that had appeared before her, as a senior necromancer, she of course knew what the spirit before her was along with how it had come to be.

Unfortunately for her, though the ancient looking structure in the middle of the dark underground forest was a bathhouse, it wasn’t exactly easy to see that from the outside, let alone guess that it was a large enough bathhouse that it could give birth to something like a greater bath spirit.

Swish~!

”Huh, what is-”

Splash-!

”Waaah-!?”

And while she was lost in her own thoughts, the greater water spirit launched its first attack. Firing off a large wave of water that directly swept her and the bone construct beneath her into the air. Carrying them away from the bathhouse.

From start to finish, everything had happened far too fast for her to react in time and when she realized what was happening, it was already too later for her to stop what was happening as the wave of water conjured up by the greater bath spirit triggered the countless magical traps she hadn’t dismantled.

After all, she only needed a single path leading up to the outer wall of the bathhouse, why in the world would she dismantle all the magical traps? Not to mention how long doing something like that would take nor the fact that she could get spotted by the adventurers in the process.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Because of this, a large number of smaller magical explosions soon enough rang out behind the bathhouse, as the large wave of water carrying her and the bone construct triggered the countless magical traps.