Seeing the row of chests, everyone felt a great sense of accomplishment welling up inside them.
It had taken them multiple years of pushing their minds and bodies past their limits to reach this point, but they had finally beaten the special dungeon, Realization of Self Perfection.
Yet their attention on each of the chests was soon drawn elsewhere by a cloaked figure that was sitting at the back of the room and drinking tea at a large table with fifteen seats around it.
Immediately all of them tensed up and prepared for battle against this entity that had appeared at the end of the special dungeon.
Roxene was the first to relax and Marcus soon followed after her. Both of them recognizing who was leisurely waiting at the table.
In a flash Roxene ran over to this person with a look of affection that none of them had seen other than Marcus.
"It is good to see you again as well Roxene. Go ahead and take a seat next to me and we can talk for a little while. I have made sure to clear away a good chunk of time for all of you." The person who was clearly a young woman by her voice and stature said.
Immediately Roxene's form shifted, and she took on a humanoid form that she rarely used.
Quickly she had taken the appearance of a young woman that looked to be in her late teens with long black hair going down the left side of her head and white hair going down the right.
However, Roxene's transformation was not perfect. She had yet to master looking completely human and still had trouble transforming her ears and tail. Making her look like a beast person rather than a human.
She was also wearing a set of magic clothes that changed whenever she transformed. But it was simply a rather plain looking pair of pants optimized for moving around in and a fairly standard blue shirt.
"No, that simply will not do for this occasion. I normally am fine with practicality, but since this is our first tea party, you should be dressed up."
With the snap of her fingers the administrator caused Roxene's clothes to warp, and in an instant she was now wearing a dress with a white top and black bottom.
"Hm, the rest of you could use some better cloths as well. You all look ready to go to war." The administrator said with a slight chuckle.
Waving her hand she sent out a pulse of magic that was incomprehensible and Marcus along with everyone else felt themselves wrapped up in it.
Their armor transformed back into its sealed state as pendants, their weapons were forcefully pushed into their item boxes, and their clothes were transformed into formal wear.
Even the beast companions found themselves affected, with their human transformations forced and their clothing changed. And Lilia who was till unconscious found her wounds healed and shot awake
Naturally this show of blatant disregard for what should have been possible put everyone on edge. Except for Marcus who already knew that the administrator could do pretty much whatever she wanted in this world.
Then for the last touch the dark cloak she was wearing ripped apart and formed itself into a red orange dress.
Now before them was the appearance the administrator took while on Mirrion. Looking like a normal human girl of around the age of fifteen with medium length brunette hair.
Of course, despite her appearing to be normal, everyone knew that was far from the case, and fear of the almighty entity that could seemingly warp reality was beginning to well up inside everyone that did not know who they were dealing with.
"Calm down! If she wanted to kill us, we would already be long dead. That is the administrator, the entity that created this world. Do not let her appearance fool you, she is no young girl." Marcus said to ease his friend's nerves
Thankfully this did the trick as they all at least knew of the administrator from what Marcus had told them.
Still, having the most powerful being on the planet right in front of you was enough to keep anyone on edge.
"You know it is rude to disparage a young lady's appearance Marcus. And I will have you know that while this is not my true form now, I did at one time look exactly like this." The administrator said with puffed up cheeks. Feigning that she was hurt by his comment.
Sighing, Marcus knew that this was just how the administrator liked to act and was not her actual personality, which she kept well hidden.
"Now why don't all of you join me. It will be quite the bland celebration if only Roxene partakes."
With clear anxiety on their faces, everyone slowly moved towards the administrator, while Marcus, despite his own worries, did his best to calm them down.
In the end they all got seated around the table the administrator had prepared, with Marcus having to sit next to her like Roxene since no one else would.
"Let us begin. This is just my little way of congratulating all of you for clearing this special dungeon which is no small task and one of the harder challenges I set up."
After the administrator said this a large tear in space opened up around the table and numerous confectionaries and drinks began flying around the table.
Soon everyone had their favorite beverages and sweets laid out in front of them and the administrator encouraged them to enjoy themselves.
Slowly things began to calm down, as the alluring smells dropped everyone's guards, and within a few minutes the tension that had been hanging in the air had lessened greatly.
"So, what is it that you want? I doubt that you show up to praise everyone that clears one of your special dungeons." Marcus said to the administrator in between sips of his favorite brand of coffee that he used to drink regularly back on Earth.
"Well, it is true that I would not show myself to anyone else like this. But I was already here and wanted to see Roxene." The administrator said with genuine care in her eyes that almost made Marcus forget how heartless she could be. "Though the other reason is so that I could apologize to you and your sister personally."
Marcus was taken aback when he heard this. He had no idea what the administrator wanted to apologize for, but also was shocked to see that she seemed truly remorseful.
"I did not do a thorough enough job looking into Rolthor, the Archdevil you fought. That black contract he had was not something I knew about, and if I had, I never would have allowed it to come here with him. Unfortunately, it was hidden deep within his body by an entity much like myself in terms of power. This caused you both to have to deal with a greater challenge than I originally intended that easily could have gotten all of you killed. Allow me now to give you my sincere apology for my negligence." The administrator said with a bowed head.
Everyone went wide eyed seeing this gesture. The creator of Mirrion and an entity akin to a god had just bowed her head towards them and admitted her mistake.
"Aunt E, I mean administrator. There is no need to go that far. You should not be lowering your head to anyone." Roxene said in a fluster.
"No, I truly do owe all of you, and especially Marcus and Lilia, an apology for missing something so critical. If not for all of you truly having reached the peak of your power my oversight could have gotten all of you killed. I do my best to keep any outside interference from reaching this world, but even I cannot catch everything."
Once she had finished her apology the administrator pulled out glowing orb that had six distinct colors in it.
One look was enough to tell everyone that it contained an immense amount of power.
"Take this as a token of my apology." The administrator said as she handed the orb to Marcus.
The moment he took ahold of it he felt the orb get absorbed into him and a searing heat built up in him.
For a second he thought that the administrator meant to kill him, but the heat quickly dissipated, and all the energy seemed to disappear within him.
"What was that?" Marcus asked, clearly still alarmed by what had just happened.
"I do not believe that you have looked at your evolution requirements yet, but that would have been the most difficult object for you to obtain. Within that orb was the essence of six great spirits which I gathered as a gift to show truly how sorry I am for what happened with the Archdevil. Now you need only complete the other far easier requirements and you can reach the apex of being a spirit and ghost."