729 Chapter 729

“I am pretty sure that we need to go this way.” Quillon said assuredly

“No, I remember, it was down this tunnel.” James said, certain of his own memory.

“But I recall there distinctly being a large quality of green crystals protruding around the area of the passage that leads towards the entrance.” Lyra said, trying to add more detail to her reasoning than the others.

Currently, Marcus and company were lost int eh labyrinthine tunnels of the crystal caverns.

They had managed to make it back to the tranquil shrine that was a place dedicated to the great spirit of sound and had a nice break there. But had now found themselves a bit lost.

‘Something must have changed down here. I know we left markers so that we could find it when we returned.’ Marcus thought deciding not to get involved in the arguing match of directions.

‘Hey, Roxene, can you pick up our scent from the last time we were here?’ Marcus asked to his beast companion over telepathy.

In response, she gave him and incredulously look and sighed while shaking her head.

‘I may be good, but there is not a trace of our previous trek left after this long. I can smell a few other things that have moved around more recently, but following their trails is likely just to get us more lost. Though I suppose if we wanted revenge for whatever removed the markers we left, we could hunt everything in this place down until we get the right one or everything else is dead.’

Marcus rolled his eyes at Roxene’s response that was obviously made in jest and started thinking of something better than just wandering around aimlessly.

They were trying to find a place they had only reach last time by exploring for weeks. But now they wanted to get there in only a few days by going the most direct route that they had scouted out last time they left.

The only problem they had never come this way from this direction, and with no markers all of their memories were hazy enough to not recall perfectly how to get there.

‘I suppose that is the best way to go about it.’ Marcus thought with a resigned expression.

What he was about to do was going to suck, but he figured it was the best way.

“I think that is enough arguing about which way to continue. It is clear that we are all lost and just picking a random direction is not going to help. Why don’t the rest of you set up camp here for today and I will go out and scout the way with my ghost form?”

Toiling around with Marcus’ suggestion it eventually was agreed to by everyone and he went on his own to complete the tedious task before him.

Now able to pass through any physical object he began rapidly flying around all over the place in search of their destination.

‘No, no, no, ah, here.’

With fortunate on his side, it took him only around two hours to eventually find an area he recognized.

It was where he had finished off the queen of the flying sting rays that had assaulted them on their first foray down here.

While the markers they had left were gone, nothing had covered up the large gashes in the ground indicating that a fierce battle had happened here.

‘I should check on the dungeon’s entrance and make sure something else is not waiting for us now that it has not been occupied for a year.’

When he arrived at the area that housed the entrance to the special dungeon Marcus was once again blown away by how beautiful it was.

The large doorway still sat in the middles of a beautiful lake and there were vibrant crystals all around.

Unfortunately, his gaze soon rested on something that had not been there before, as he locked onto the new master of the area.

‘That is quite the sizable basilisk.’

Peering into the large area, Marcus could clearly see that easily two-hundred-foot-long lizard with a fairly serpentine body.

It was quite elongated like a snake, but it still did have short and stout limbs. Twelve sets to be exact that were situated at equal intervals along its body.

‘The ones I read about are only supposed to reach around thirty feet. This must be some evolved version and pretty strong from what I can tell at a glance. Ugh, yep, level sixty-seven. Not something the average person could deal with. But I think I should be able to handle it, and there is something I want to test out.’

Dropping down around a kilometer away Marcus rematerialized and immediately caught the attention of the giant monster.

Its three sets of eyes quickly narrowed in on him and it slowly began unwrapping itself.

It was clear it did not see Marcus as much f a threat. Likely due to his tiny size in comparison and the fact that he was suppressing his aura.

When it had reached around four hundred meters from him it reared its head up high and looked directly into his eyes.

Flashing a fearless smile Marcus met its look and stared right back.

In its eyes he could see a dark gray glow being emitted and a line of mana was being connected to him.

‘Oh shit!’

To his surprise, what he wanted to test out was not going the way he had expected.

Being a ghost gave him immunity to a number of status conditions, such as poison. But it seemed that this Basilisk’s petrifying gaze could still affect him.

His legs had started turning to stone and panic began to set in.

Other than the sudden appearance of Mrazivy’s crazy demon summing uncle at their engagement party, this was the most alarmed he had been in a very long time.

However, as the gigantic basilisk grinned while watching its prey turn to stone, it was suddenly surprised to watch it disappear.

In the wake of where Marcus had once been, was just a thin layer of hollow stone in the shape of legs.

‘Whew, looks like that worked.’

Having reverted to his ghost form, Marcus found that the petrification had worn off.

Of course, this had only been a hypothesis, but while being turned to stone he only felt the surface of his form being affected and figured it would only work on the parts of him that were begin solidified by the unique skill Master of Soul and Body.

‘I guess I got my answer. Petrification works on me when in physical form but not ghost. I almost want to try and see how spirit healing, or my restoration magic works, but I really do not want to be experimenting with being turned to stone anymore.’

Satisfied with the results he had already acquired; Marcus turned his attention back towards the monster that was frantically looking around for him.

‘Laser.’

Staying ethereal Marcus swept his hand in and arc and unleashed his fastest attack spell.

He was hoping to kill the gigantic basilisk in one hit.

Unfortunately, while it could not detect him perse, it did feel the danger to itself from his spell.

This little bit of precognition allowed it to react to the attack that came out of nowhere and it moved its large body with impressive speed.

The laser spells did still manage to hit it, though only with a graze and a powerful red film like barrier appeared and protected it from any damage.

‘This is not going to be as easy as I hoped.’