Looking between Quillon and Lyra, Marcus was still having some trouble grasping their relationship.
Eventually though, he managed to come to terms with it and calmed down a bit.
“Quillon, would you mind coming with me for a few moments.” Marcus said with a serious tone.
Sighing, Quillon did not particularly want to discuss this any further. But got up anyway, since he could tell Marcus was not taking no for an answer.
The two of them then exited the parlor into a side room. Where Marcus pulled out a magic device that dampened the sound in the area to prevent it from escaping.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Quillon said while eyeing the sound dampening magic tool.
“I just have a few things that I want to say.” Marcus said as he fixed his gaze onto Quillon. “First, as you know, Lyra is like an older sister to me from my old world. She experienced a horrible and tragic end there and I do not want the same happening to her here. Second, she has lost her family here already, and our group is the closest thing she has to one now. I want her to be safe and live as happy a life as possible from now on. To that end, I will accept your relationship with her since you are strong and a good person. It would be hard to find a better man for her than you. Just make sure that you are serious about it. I do not think I could forgive you if you hurt her.”
In response to Marcus’ warning, Quillon just looked him dead in the eyes resolutely, and said, “I have no intention of ever hurting her. I am not such a frivolously man to simply give her and my feelings up. Other than my relationship with my master, I consider her the most important. And by extension, this group we have formed. For the longest time I believed I would never find comrades around my age and level to grow and fight alongside with. I would never trade this for anything.”
Marcus satisfied with Quillon’s response and already knowing what kind of man he was, gave his approval of Quillon’s relationship with Lyra.
The two of them then exited the room with smiles on their faces, and both Mrazivy and Lyra who had been waiting nervously looked relieved to see that all the tension was gone.
“What you to talk about in there? Neither of us could hear it?” Mrazivy whispered to Marcus as he walked back over to her.
“Oh, just a quick conversation between guys. I will tell you more about it later.”
After that the four of them got caught up with each other and talked about their respective trips into different dungeons.
“I see. that is pretty impressive. The three of you managed to beat two bosses in such a short amount of time. But I guess to gain as many levels as you all did, you would have to push yourselves pretty hard.” Marcus said.
After all of their hard work, each of them had gained a number of levels. With Quillon now sitting at level sixty-three, and Lyra and Mrazivy being sixty-four.
“Just for the record, it was not just the three of us fought in the boss fights. We are not reckless enough to enter into one lightly. I made sure we had Tesia supporting us with her healing and sacred magic, while Marek acted as our front-line tank.” Lyra explained.
The three of them then detailed the battles they had with the powerful dungeon bosses.
“When we were fighting the level sixty-eight storm giant boss, I honestly thought we were going to lose. But Lyra managed to get off a lucky illusion magic spell that finally effected the thing and create a huge opening for us to exploit.” Mrazivy said, detailing what she considered their hardest battle.
“Hey, do not discount your own contributions in our other boss fight. I think in some ways that level sixty-six blood lion boss was tougher with its high-speed regeneration. If you had not frozen it solid in the end, we may never have been able to beat it.” Lyra said, heaping some praise onto Mrazivy.
Soon enough they had finished relaying the battles they had experienced in the high-level dungeon within Tralenstein.
“So, what did you all get from beating the dungeon bosses? I imagine the rewards must have been quite valuable from a higher-level dungeon.” Marcus said, his curiosity at its piqued.
Smiling, Mrazivy opened up her item box and pulled out a couple very valuable items.
“An amethros ingot, and a unique skill orb!”
Astonished, Marcus had been hoping for one or the other, but had not been expecting both.
“Yep, we got the unique skill orb from the blood lion fight, and the amethros ingot from the storm giant.” Quillon said with a satisfied look on his face.
Even in a high-level dungeon where rewards were typically better, it was not guaranteed to get something like a unique skill orb or an amethros ingot.
Mrazivy then handed the ingot over to Marcus since he was their groups designated forgemaster.
“I see, you all want me to make you some accessories to boost your powers. Sure, I can do that, but what about Lyra? Her weapons are still just adamantine and are not even system recognized.”
“Oh, that is fine. That would not be enough to make two kukris for me anyway. Though if you wanted to give me an upgraded set of adamantine, I would not say no.” Lyra responded.
Nodding his head, Marcus agreed to make Lyra a new set of kukris and to use the amethros to give everyone some upgraded accessories.
Though while they were going into these details, there was a knock on the door, and Clara informed them all that lunch was ready to be served.
“I guess we can finish this up afterwards. Let us go taste what Marcus has prepared for us.” Mrazivy said with a gleeful expression on her face.
She was very much looking forward to the cooking that Marcus had personally taken part in, which was bound to be good.
“Just a moment, I need to slip back into character.” Marcus said to stop Mrazivy from hastily leaving while he was still in his original form.
Quickly he switched back over to being Irene, and the four of them exited the parlor and made their way to the dining room.
When they arrived Lilia and Alaric were already sitting at the table waiting for them.
‘I wonder what happened.’
Looking them over, Marcus could see that while Lilia seemed perfectly calm, there was a look of tension on Alaric’s face.
Still, since his sister seemed fine, Marcus did not pry for now and decided to get lunch started.
“Ah that was really good. It was completely worth it to drop everything and come over here.” Mrazivy said once she had finish eating.
Everyone agreed with this sentiment, and Marcus along with his staff received compliments from everyone for how delicious the food was.
“Now how about we retire to the parlor again and have a more thorough discussion of our future plans.” Marcus suggested.
However, before they all got up to leave Lilia raised her hand to stop them.
“Actually, before that, could Alaric and I have use of the yard?” She asked.
A bewildered expression on his face, Marcus told her it was fine, and asked her what she was planning to do out there.
“Oh, Alaric and I are going to have a battle.”