Chapter 186 - 185 The Cordillera Depths

With their lodging now set Marcus and Lilia headed up to their room and got settled.

The first thing they did was take out any unnecessary items and equipment from their magic bags and Marcus' item box.

"Okay now that we have everything sorted here, I have a couple of things I want to give to you Lilia."

Taking out of his item box, Marcus handed over to Lilia a small quite old looking book along with and intricately designed mithril pendant.

Lilia gratefully took the items and first put on the pendant before looking at the book. 

When she opened it an expression of disbelief came over her face before she looked up at Marcus and said, "Where did you get this. Even at the academy they did not have any other force magic spells."

With a proud smile on his face Marcus looked at Lilia and said, "I had to do a lot of digging and spend a couple thousand gold, but I finally found an old shop that had a book with a few force magic spells for you. None of them are above tier three but your skill is still only at level two anyway. This is just to give you a bit more versatility. Though the really important gift is that pendent. Send some mana into it and then press the button on the front of it."

Doing what Marcus told her to, Lilia poured some mana into the pendant and pressed the button on the front.

Then in just a couple of moments the pendant had expanded turning into a full suit of mithril scale mail around Lilia.

"So, what do you think? I made it pretty light so you can still move around, and the enchantments are pretty basic so as to not drain your mana too fast, but it should hold up pretty well against most attacks."

With big eyes and a happy expression Lilia said, "This is amazing. It is so light it almost does not feel like it is here. Thank you Marcus I really do not know what I would do without you."

Lilia then moved in to try and give Marcus a hug, but he held his hands out to stop her since the scale mail was a bit sharp and he did not feel like being grated.

Lilia quickly realized the problem and deactivated the armor having it fold back up into a pendant before giving Marcus a hug.

"I know you said that we should take a day to rest before going to the dungeon but I kind of want to go now." Lilia said as she looked up at Marcus with big puppy dog eyes hoping to sway him.

Sighing, Marcus told Lilia that they could go today but they had to stop by the guild hall and register her as an adventure and pick out a few missions.

Of course, only silver rank or higher adventures and military units undergoing training were normally allowed within the Cordelia Depths Dungeon due to its high level of danger, but Marcus had already come up with a way to smuggle Lilia in.

"Roxene get up we are going to the dungeon."

Roxene who had already gotten onto one of the beds in the room and made herself comfortable looked up at Marcus and Lilia, before lazily heading over to Marcus and entering his companion storage and falling asleep again.

'Well, I guess she can take her time and nap while we pay a visit to the guild hall.'

With everything now set, Marcus and Lilia quickly picked up Blitz and headed to the guild hall.

Once there Marcus had Lilia register as a new adventure and then pick out a number of easy requests to increase her rank as fast as possible.

'Now then I just need to purchase a map of the known areas and we can be on our way.'

After paying a high price of fifteen gold, Marcus managed to get a decent map of the current layout of the first areas of the dungeon, though in terms of the dungeon's total area it was probably only around three or four percent.

'This dungeon really is a lot different than the Ocean Bluff Temple near Loursend. There are no layers where the monsters get progressively stronger the father down you go, and it only resets every four years instead of one. It is just one big maze of tunnels and large areas full of different monsters and beast ranging from around level twelve at the lowest and the strongest being in the low to mid-forties. Though that is just the normal monsters and from what I read before coming here there are a number of boss rooms scattered throughout and the strongest recorded one was at level sixty-one.'

Marcus continued examining the map thinking about the differences that this dungeon had from the one in Loursend, and after a bit found the first area he wanted to go to.

'It is a large, forested area where we can find all of the herbs Lilia needs to complete some of her requests and there are apparently a good variety of monsters.'

With all of their preparations now complete Marcus and Lilia exited the large and bustling guild hall full of experienced adventures and headed outside where they found a deserted alley.

"Okay Lilia, I just need you to hang in there until we have entered the dungeon and made our way far enough from the entrance."

Nodding her head Lilia braced herself for a bit and then Marcus possessed her.

Now in control of Lilia's body Marcus Jumped onto Blitz and hightailed it towards the dungeon.

Reaching the massive fortress that surrounded the dungeon's entrance, Marcus dismounted Blitz and walked up to the front guard that was checking people going in.

As the man looked down on Marcus who was currently possessing Lilia's body he said, "Sorry kid, this is not a place to play around or look inside, go somewhere else to have your fun."

The guard then tried to step past Marcus and check the next person's credentials, when Marcus pulled out his gold rank adventurers card and said, "I am not playing I am going into the dungeon to complete some requests, I believe I have the qualifications for me and my beast companion to enter yes."

The guard stopped abruptly and looked at the card in Marcus' hand and snatched it away.

He thought for sure it was going to be a fake but quickly found it to be real and looked down once again at the little girl in front of him.

"Kid you I do not know who you stole this from, but I am confiscating it and returning it to the guild."

However, Marcus had been prepared for this situation as well and took out his ID and handed it over as well.

The guards eyes went wide when he saw the silver plate ID identifying someone as a titled noble and quickly looked it over finding it to be the same as the guild card.

The guard then looked over at Marcus who had started tapping his foot and put on an angry expression and the guard not wanting to get in trouble allowed him in.

"Thank you, and next time I expect not to be held up just because I look like a child. I mean do you stop every halfling that comes through here."

Marcus then after making sure to act a bit like a haughty and peeved noble entered into the fort that surrounded the dungeon's entrance.

Walking inside Marcus finally saw the massive entrance of a huge tunnel carved into the side of the mountain.

Staring in awe for just a few moments, Marcus quickly walked through he entrance and into the dungeon known as The Cordillera Depths.

Running down the main entrance along with Blitz, Marcus passed by a number of other adventures and a group of soldiers as he kept running until he found a small alcove to jump into.

'Whew, I was nearly out of time, I cannot wait to reach level forty and get rid of this restriction on my possession skill, which does not even matter anymore since my soul has already been healed.'

Unpossessing Lilia, Marcus jumped out of her body and resolidified himself as Lilia reeled with the slight backlash of not having been in control of her body.

Looking around a bit Lilia smiled towards Marcus and said, "Are we in." To which Macus nodded his head and Lilia began cheering.

"Now that we have entered the dungeon, we just need to finish heading down the main entrance and then we will come out to a large room that connects into a massive weaving web of tunnels to other areas. We will want to stay lowkey and head to the tunnel leading to the forest area as quickly as possible. There is a whole battalion posted in the first large room in order to fight back any monster or beast outbreaks, so we do not want any of them question you."

Lilia nodded her had and the two of them began heading down the main tunnel which led to the dungeon proper.

Soon the two of them came to a large room that was labeled as area number one and saw the large number of soldiers stationed in makeshift fortifications with weapons like mana cannons being pointed down the largest tunnels.

Of course, the room was also full of adventures that had stopped to rest either after already having delved into the dungeon or making final preparations to enter.

However, Marcus had no intention of stopping lest Lilia attract unwanted attention and quickly found the tunnel that led to their current destination which was labeled area six.

"Okay let's go, and make sure to stay vigilant, I will do my best to make sure you do not die or get badly injured, but I am not going to baby you. If I help you too much you will not learn anything so just do your best."

After giving Lilia a quick warning and encouragement Marcus and her along with Blitz (and the still sleeping Roxene) entered into the dungeon intent to get stronger and seek adventure.