778 Chapter 778

'And we are back in the real world.' Marcus thought as the light from the teleportation circle faded.

They had now returned to the entrance of the special dungeon that they had spent several years clearing.

A quick look around and they found that nothing had changed, and while some of them expected the dungeon's guardian to come out everything stayed quiet.

"I suppose that the administrator gave us her personal congratulations so there was no need for the dungeon's system to as well." Marcus said absent mindedly.

Once they had made sure that everything was the same within the entrance room to the special dungeon, they all shuffled out and checked on the surrounding area.

"Looks like another creature has taken up residence here as the overlord while we were gone. So, who is going to take it out this time?" Lyra said with little interest upon their exit.

In the distance they could all clearly see a large form of crystal drake that had been sleeping on the bank of the large lake the special dungeon's entrance was sitting in the middle of.

It had naturally noticed their presence as they were not trying to conceal themselves and was lazily getting up to confront those that were intruding on its territory.

"It is only level fifty-six and a rare grade beast. Hardly a challenge. I will leave it up to whoever wanted to take it." Quillon said with a disappointed sigh.

A couple of times the new boss that took over the area around the special dungeon's entrance was actually fairly powerful and Quillon always jumped at the chance to be the one to fight against them

This time though it was a weaker beast compared to what they had encountered before, and it was not much of a threat to any of them.

"Here, I will do it quickly." Alaric said, stepping up with his staff raised and filling up with mana.

Noticing the hostile action and feeling that its life was in danger, the crystal drake stopped moving leisurely and let out a loud intimidating roar towards their party.

Any normal person would have been left paralyzed with fright from this, but the crystal drake, while a major threat to the majority of people, was comparable to a kitten to all of them.

With the flick of staff Alaric launched a small black ball towards the crystal drake that was preparing to launch a breath attack.

The moment the ball hit a dark light engulfed the crystal drakes' body and life left its eyes.

Its hulking body then collapsed onto the ground with a loud thud and small waves began to ripple out across the lake.

"Well now that we have cleared that up, I will head up to the surface first and prepare feast for when the rest of you join me." Marcus said as he opened up a dark portal.

He had left an opening at the entrance of the ravine before they came down and was now using it to instantly travel out.

Of course, it took a large amount of mana for him to create a long-lasting portal and when he used all he had he could have one last for around two months.

"Roxene, Inten, Blitz, did any of you want to come with me or make the trip with everyone else?." Marcus asked his beast companions.

Only those that had an affinity for the darkness element could travel through the dark portals, but so long as his beast companions were within his storage, they could go with him. Though Roxene could also use the portals normally being an entity with the power of darkness.

"I will go with you. Someone needs to taste test the food you will be making to make sure it is good enough." Roxene said, her gluttonous intentions clear.

"I think I will travel with everyone else. I enjoy looking at the crystals and this will likely be out last time here." Inten said.

"If Roxene is going to be helping you prepare the food you will need someone to protect you in case any monsters or beasts are attracted by the smell, my liege. I too will go with you." Blitz said, stoic as always and not only wanting food like Roxene.

With that decided, Marcus bid a short farewell to his friends and family and slipped through the dark portal with Roxene and Blitz in his companion storage.

When the portal opened up Marcus found himself standing not far from the widest part of a long winding ravine that went on for hundreds of kilometers like a scar in the earth.

Only a couple moments after Marcus left the portal Roxene and Blitz jumped out of his companion storage.

"My liege, I shall patrol the air and make sure than none interrupt you." Blitz said before taking off into the air and circling around a wide area.

"So, what are you going to make?" Roxene said, a glisten in her eyes in anticipation of the food.

"I have some ideas, but I do not have all the ingredients I might need. As you know most of what I have stored away in my item box right now are items that last a long time. I do not have many fresh fruits or vegetables. So, I figured I would stop by the nearest city and buy a few things. And while I am gone, I do have a job for you."

Roxene grimaced hearing that Marcus was going to put her to work, but her mood vastly improved when he told her what he wanted from her.

"Got it! I will find the tastiest beasts nearby and bring them back for you to cook!" Roxene said enthusiastically.

She then glanced up at Blitz, who Marcus remembered she wanted to eat upon their first meeting.

Of course, he knew that Roxene meant this as a joke, but chided her nonetheless and made sure she would not go after Blitz. Though at this point it would be much harder for her to catch him than in the past even if she did try to eat him now.

Launching up into the air Marcus looked out onto the horizon in the direction of the nearest city.

Then when he was ready, he used his unique skill to turn into light and race off into the horizon.

In only a couple seconds he arrived in the vicinity of the nearest city and entered without going through the gate.

He had no intention of eliciting any attention as he most certainly would if he entered normally thanks to his status as a prince and Mrazivý's fiancé.

He even went so far as to change his form just in case anyone might recognize him.

'The market is a bit sparse since this is not a city on a usual trade, route but they have most of what I want even if it is a bit expensive.' Marcus thought as he perused the market.

Luckily money was of little object to him at this point, with his high-level forge skill allowing him to make plenty of gold whenever he needed it.

Within around an hour he had bought hundreds of gold coins worth of groceries and surprised many store owners with his item box that seemed to never run out of room.

Naturally this had garnered him a fair bit of attention and he could sense a number of people following him around.

'Most of them seem to be personnel of merchants. Likely wanting to offer to hire me simply for my item box skill. Though the two best at hiding their presences are obviously up to no good.' Marcus thought as he completed his last purchase.

Still, people following him was inconsequential, since he was currently using a throwaway form from one of the people whose soul he had devoured a long time ago.

Now that he was finished Marcus swiftly slipped into an alleyway and went into his ghost form to give his followers the slip.

He even got a good laugh out of it watching them all frantically try to search for him as he seemed to disappear into thin air.

'Okay, that is enough watching their confusion. It is time I get back and really get started on preparing our celebratory meal.'

Heading back into the sky Marcus once again turned into pure light and raced across the world at lightspeed.

When he arrived back at the designated spot, he found that Roxene had already returned with her prey and was in the process of bleeding it.

"Looks like you caught something quite outrageous." Marcus said as he landed.

Before him was a gigantic boar the likes of which he had never seen before.

It was easily eighty feet long and a bit more than forty feet tall.

"Where in the world did you find this thing?"

"Oh, it was the strongest beast in the nearby forest. I used my nose to sniff it out. It actually put up a descent fight before I brough it down. I believe it lasted about nine seconds. If only because it focused its all on running away." Roxene said proudly.

Marcus could only sigh in exasperation since Roxene had gone above and beyond what he had asked her to do.

'Whatever. I need to start carving it up quickly before everyone arrives.'

Using all of his skills and abilities Marcus got hard at work preparing the meal he had promised. Starting with chopping up the gigantic boar that Roxene had brought him.

Thankfully he managed to get everything done in time thanks to his absurd powers, and when the rest of his companions made it to the surface, they found an entire feast waiting for them.

"Go ahead and dig in. This our greatest meal to celebrate finally beating the special dungeon."