Chapter 235 - 235 Meeting Back Up With Lilia

After taking a day to rest and celebrate their victory over the boss monster in the Cordillera Depths, everyone began to prepare for the long journey out of the dungeon.

"Okay I guess we are all ready to, time to make the trek out of the dungeon." Treasa said, as they packed away the last bit of equipment.

Having packed up all of their camping and cooking gear, Marcus, Treasa, and Jarek exited the boss room that they had conquered, and walked back out into the massive lake area that was filled with beautiful waterfalls.

Looking around it was still and incredibly breadthening view and Marcus planned to bring Lilia here to show her this amazing place.

Pulling out his stealth boat Jarek placed the craft gently into the water before all of them got inside and began the long journey to exit the dungeon.

…

Ten days soon passed as they had taken the journey out of the dungeon far more leisurely than when they were heading to the boss room, and they had just entered the forest area that was near the exit marking that they had just about one day left of travel.

'Roxene, we have entered the forest area, are you all still here.'

Sending out a mental message to Roxene he waited for his beast companion's answer and soon got a reply back saying, 'Yeah we are, but we are a bit busy right now, contact you in a bit.'

The telepathic connection then cut off and Marcus began to worry slightly since he was wondering if all of them were doing okay.

He had of course been checking in daily with Blitz and Roxene, and they had apparently been doing well along with Lilia while exploring the outer areas of the forest area.

But in the dungeon, your situation could change in an instance so he could not help his mind wandering to the worst-case scenario.

However, just a moment later Roxene reconnected with him and said, 'We have finished up. So, what did you need?'

With their connection reestablished Marcus explained that he had just arrived in the forest area and was planning to meet up with them before exiting the dungeon.

'Okay we are currently in the eastern part of the area but we should be able to meet up with you in around six hours.'

Finishing their plan to meet up, Marcus let Roxene go to manage things on her end, as he looked towards Treasa and Jarek who were currently eating a quick meal before they headed out again.

"Treasa, Jarek. My little sister along with her and my beast companions are training in this area, so I am going to meet up with them before heading back, so would the two of you mind going back first without me."

Looking over at Marcus, both Treasa and Jarek gave each other a look before Treasa said, "That is fine but do you mind if we come with you. I want to meet the little sister you have been talking about."

"Yeah, I only briefly got to talk to her last time and we would like to get to know the person closest to you." 

'Shit.'

Panic started to set in on Marcus. Certainly, he had no problems with them meeting Lilia, but Roxene was currently with her and the two of them might recognize her as the wanted food thief or even worse that she is mythic grade beast.

However, the cogs in Marcus' mind quickly turned and he figured out a way to get hopefully get rid of the two of them.

"Are you sure that you want to take the detour Jarek. Dahlia is waiting for you to return and the longer you keep her waiting the more worried she is going to get. And Treasa I have no problem introducing you to my sister but she is currently embroiled in training and can get nervous around new people, so would mind waiting to meet her until we get back to the guild." Marcus said putting on his most innocent expression hoping that they did not realize that he wanted them gone.

Luckily Marcus' reminder to Jarek about his wife and unborn child was enough to have him go wide eyed and start running towards the exit with abandon.

Treasa though stood back for a bit but eventually relented when Marcus promised to introduce her as soon as they got back.

'Whew, now that that problem is dealt with, it is time to meet back up with Lilia.'

Running in the direction Lilia and their beast companions were, Marcus went a couple of miles on foot just to make sure that Jarek and Treasa would not notice before transforming into the form of a caladrius and taking to the sky.

Flying through the air, Marcus had to deal with the occasional attack from other flying beasts and monsters but he was able to repel them with ease normally just firing off one spell and ending the battle.

Alas, unlike when he was deep in the dungeon, the current area he was in was one of the three closest to the entrance and it was often hunted in by other people, and a group of them spotted him flying in the sky and began to attack.

One of the members shot a fire ball at him and Marcus had to bank to the left to avoid it.

'Crap, guess I look like a prime target for a large group of high-level knights and mages.'

The group below him was comprised of fifteen individuals who were obviously a unit of the army and not adventures, with six of them being level forty or above and the others being in the high thirties.

Normally they would certainly be a force to be reckoned with, easily strong enough to take down the level thirty-five beast they thought they had found, but for Marcus they were merely and annoyance.

Dodging a few more ranged attacks, Marcus watched as five huge roots began to come out of the ground and move towards him, obviously trying entangle and ground him.

Yet long before they could get anywhere near him, Marcus simply went ethereal and invisible disappearing from the knights' and mages' sight.

Now floating above the air in his ghost form, Marcus watched the confused looks on the knights' and mages' faces as the searched for the large plane sized bird that had suddenly disappeared.

'I need to be more vigilant of people around this area.'

Floating away from the unit of knights and mages Marcus descended back onto the ground and decided to continue on foot so as to not attract unwanted attention again even if it might be a bit slower.

After traveling for a few hours Marcus finally caught sight of Lilia and their beast companions.

It had been three weeks since he had last seen any of them and Marcus was quite excited to catch up with his sister and companions.

Running up Marcus began waving at them, quickly garnering all of their attention though their first response was to go on guard showing how they had gotten accustomed to being in the dungeon.

"It is good to see that all of you are doing well. So Lilia, tell me about what happened after I left."

Thrilled to be back with Marcus again Lilia first began telling him about her rank advancement test, and how it consisted of a few things like survival knowledge and basic etiquette since silver rank and higher adventures were often hired by nobles or wealthy merchants.

However, the big part of the test was combat prowess and Lilia's examiner was apparently a level thirty-one gold rank adventurer.

Lilia then described how it was a grueling fight, but in the end, using her tier four force magic spell after making an opening she was able to win surprising everyone around.

"Well, congratulations Lilia, though I knew you would achieve the rank up from the start. You are already strong enough to be gold rank so getting to silver was going to be an easy feat."

Soon everyone began talking about their experiences for the last three weeks and Marcus got plenty of applause for his retelling of the boss battle.

"Sounds like all of you have been working your hardest and I am glad to see everyone has leveled up a bit."

Currently Lilia was level twenty-nine, Blitz had gotten up to level thirty-six, Roxene had made it to level eleven, and Aurelia and Zareen were level twenty-five, and twenty-four respectively.

It was incredibly good progress and showed how hard everyone one of them had been working.

Once they had finished catching up, Marcus decided now was as good a time as any and pulled out the unique skill orb and chant shortening skill orb and handed them over to Lilia.

"These are both for you. I got them from the boss chest but neither of them are very useful for me, so I figured I should give them to you." 

Looking at the two orbs Lilia recognized what they were but she had never seen a golden skill orb before.

She realized that it must have been extremely valuable but at this point she had gotten pretty used to Marcus giving her things that were worth more than she could imagine.

Taking the two orbs Lilia first learned the skill from the normal one, getting chant shortening which gave her a big smile since as a front-line fighter using long chants was pretty difficult.

However, when she heard the message from the golden orb about it being a unique skill, she nearly dropped the orb.

In her classes she had learned about unique skills and how they had been wielded by some of the greatest heroes of the kingdom's past, including the first king.

Having any unique skill was incredibly rare and would automatically elevate a person possessing one.

With the orb still in her hand, she looked up at Marcus wondering if it was really okay for her to take this unique skill, but the smile on his face told her all she needed to know.

Taking a deep breath Lilia once again activated the unique skill orb and this time accepted it obtaining the peerless physique unique skill.

However, as soon as she did, she felt as if her entire body was lit on fire and Lilia began screaming under a pain far greater than she had ever felt.