728 Chapter 728

After returning to the royal capital of Borealia, Marcus quickly made his way back to his estate and picked up Lilia, Alaric, and all of their beast companions.

Tomorrow was the day that they would be setting out for the special dungeon and their group was going to be meeting up at the castle before setting out just like last time.

When they arrived, they found that Mrazivy had already taken care of everything, and they were setup in a guest house that their team would be using.

Waiting for them there was everyone else. Surprisingly even including James who had arrived back from his duty as leader of the sky knights just a little after Marcus and left for Lethallan.

“It is good to see you again James. Glad you could make it back on such short notice.” Marcus said as he shook the man’s hand.

“It was not much of a problem. I would not miss this for anything. It has been around a year since we last braved this special dungeon and Fallon really wanted to go back in hopes that she can evolve into a mythic grade magical beast.”

As James said this, the beast in question who had taken her form as a beautiful woman with silver and gold hair flinched slightly and the teacup in her hand shook.

“James why are you making it sound like you are here mostly because of me. Until yesterday you were raving about having a chance to explore again with your little sister.” Fallon said as she fixed a sharp gaze at her companion.

Hearing this, everyone began laughing, and James rubbed his head awkwardly before quickly changing the subject.

“Ah, Marcus I see that you have a new face with you. Would you mind introducing him?”

Turning around to see Alaric uncomfortably standing behind him, Marcus realized he got caught up and forgotten to present him to the rest of the group.

“Sorry for that. This is Alaric. He is a good friend to Lilia and wanted to be strong, so I trained him up and saw that he had the tenacity to reach greater heights. So, I figured we could bring him with us to the special dungeon where he will undoubtedly get stronger.”

Marcus then beckoned the half elf boy forward and he gave a proper introduction like a noble.

‘Oh yeah, I almost forgot that James and Mrazivy are royalty. I treat them normally, so I forget sometimes that there is proper etiquette to follow in their presence. Especially for nobles of the Borealia.’

Seeing how tense Alaric was, Marcus asked Lilia to help him unwind and get more comfortable interacting with everyone.

Once things began to settle down all of them sat down to discuss their plan for the special dungeon and make sure that everyone was on the same page.

“Okay since we have made our plans and done all we can I think some sleep is in order. I am beat and want to be in top condition for tomorrow.” Mrazivy said to bring their meeting to a close.

All of them then began heading to their rooms and slept through the night to be at their best physically and mentally.

“Are we already to go?” James said from Fallon’s back.

Each of them had mounted onto a flying magical beast and just like last time were going to be flying directly out of the city.

They had gotten the rare permission to do so, and it was going to save them a lot of time instead of slowly getting their entire group through the city streets.

“We are good to go here.” Marcus said from the back of Blitz.

“Lyra and I are ready as well.” Mrazivy said from the back of her own beast companion, the frigid owl Eirwen.

Quickly the others also sounded off and James gave the signal to take off.

As a famous member of the royal family and the sky knights it was not uncommon for him to be seen flying over the royal capital so him taking the lead would show that their procession was legitimate.

Along with James they were also flanked by other members of the sky knights who would be acting as escorts to make sure that the citizens knew this was all above board.

‘The city is always impressive to see from this high up.’ Marcus thought as they flew along.

The place was truly huge like one of the grand cities from back on earth like New York or Tokyo.

And along with its large size came an equally large population. Some of which had set up a sort of parade.

Unlike last time, the kingdom had announced ahead of time that a group of flying beasts would be going over the city and that James would be leading them.

‘I can see now that he is really quite popular. No wonder he was considered the best choice to be the next ruler even if he turned it down so that he could continue to be a sky knight.’

Soon their group had flown from the royal castle to edge of the imposing wall that protected the city and were out into the open countryside.

It was here that their sky knight escorts left them after wishing their leader good luck.

A few hours went by as they flew and everyone with telepathy connected to each other so that they could still converse along the way and not just ride in silence.

‘Oh, there it is.’

Spotting the long ravine that cut through the ground for hundreds of miles, Marcus informed his group since he was the first to see it and they began traveling along its length to find the widest point of entry.

“So do we want to head in now or rest and wait till tomorrow?” Marcus asked as he peered into the deep ravine.

“I believe it would be prudent to camp out here tonight. The place is labyrinthine, and last time we encountered those flying sting rays that swarmed us and nearly did some of us in. While we killed all the ones we saw, it is possible that they have started to repopulate in the last year, or that some other monster or beast might have taken over the area. I think caution is in our best interest.” Quillon said, giving his opinion.

Nodding their heads, everyone remembered what had happened last time and even though none of them were all that tired from the flight over a day of rest would allow them to get back up to their peak.

With everyone in agreement they set up camp for the night and first thing in the morning headed down into the deep ravine that went miles down into the world’s crust.

“Everyone make sure to keep ahold of the railing and try not to get scared. I am going to begin lowering us down.” Marcus said.

Just like last time he had created a scaffolding out of his iron threads for everyone to use in order to lower themselves down into the ravine.

Luckily this time he had quite a bit more mana and better control of his magic which made it not nearly as straining on him as it had been preciously.

When they finally touched down Alaric and Inten who were the new members of their group that had not been here before looked out in awe at their surroundings.

“Pretty impressive right Alaric? And we are just getting started. There are even more amazing sights further in.” Lilia said, happy to be able to show this off to Alaric.

After taking a few minutes to look around, James and Fallon took the lead while Marcus and Mrazivy stayed in the back to cover their rear.

“Ah there it is.” Lyra said when she spotted the opening they had used last time.

They were doing their best to retrace their steps, but in the massive ravine things could easily start to look the same and they had gotten a little lost at the start.

Thankfully they got back on tract easily enough and began their decent into the crystal caverns.

Going through it the sights were still as striking as last time, and they spent a good amount of time simply enjoying the beautiful natural structures. Until they came to one specific chamber.

“How about we have a bit of fun here before heading on. It is a couple of our members first time, and it would not be fair if they did not get to enjoy themselves in this place.” Mrazivy said with a big smile on her face.

However, while it seemed that she was trying to be considerate, Marcus could tell that she just wanted to play around in the musical crystal room herself.

Taking a fairly long break all of them took their turns playing some music or sometimes just randomly making sounds with the crystals.

Eventually some of them did start to get tired, and once nearly four hours had gone by, they decided to head on.

“Everyone get ready. This is the best part.” Marcus said as he signaled them to hit each of the crystals at the same time.

As they did the vibrant light show and soothing melody of the greatest song any of them had ever heard played through the room.

Then when it was done, just as expected a passageway opened up for them to make their way to the tranquil shire that was a place of worship for the great spirit of sound.