Walking up the last steps of the dungeon back out into the open, the first thing Marcus noticed was how much he had missed the light of day. Something about the warmth on his body given off by the light of the sun seemed to comfort him.
After everyone took a moment to relax now that they had finally left the dungeon the group of knights and adventures along with Mrazivý and Marcus headed for Loursend.
As the group approached the gates, they noticed more and more people began to gather and most of them shouting about how they were happy that the princess had returned.
It turned out that Mrazivý was quite popular with the common people since she would often address them during festivals and did not act stuck up like other nobles and royals.
The cheers of people resounded across the streets as they flooded around the group on there way to the adventures guild branch.
Of course, the knights had wanted Mrazivý to immediately go to the viceroy's mansion in order to thank him for sending the rescue party, but she had said that she wished to go to the guild before in order to get an update on her missing party members.
Both of them had found out from the rescue group that two more of her party members had surfaced during the time after Marcus had ventured into the dungeon and since it had still been seven days since the knights and adventures had entered the dungeon, they were both hopeful for more good news.
Once the group arrived there was a huge crowd of adventures that began clapping upon seeing that Mrazivý was safe.
Nevertheless, the fanfare did not last long as our group quickly ushered into the large conference room in the back of the guild hall.
A meeting then started about what happened in the dungeon as most people were curious about what had happened with Marcus and Mrazivý.
Mrazivý being the princess took over telling the tale starting with how she and her party ended up walking into a teleport trap, and after that the lies began. She told of how she found herself in a corridor somewhere in the dungeon and decided to stay put until a rescue came. However, when Marcus ran into her a few days later this plan changed as with Marcus' help, she now knew the correct path to exit the dungeon. She then recounted a few of there tamer battles to keep the story believable and went until both Marcus and her met up with the rescue party.
When her story ended some people had skeptical faces knowing that some of her details did not add up but none of them had the status to openly question a princess.
However, the lies that she and Marcus had come up with were actually far more believable than the truth. No one would have believed that Marcus could defeat the boss of the third layer by himself when he was only a silver rank adventure. Also, that Marcus had found her in only a little over a day would have been completely unbelievable since it had taken the elite team of knights and adventures more than four days to find them.
After the meeting was settled and everything was squared away Marcus was quite happy that he had been granted a reward of three thousand gold for his acts of bravery in assisting the princess.
Mrazivý had actual fought for a much bigger reward but since they had played down Marcus' achievements in their retelling of events three thousand was the number they ultimately came to.
As everyone was exiting the room Marcus and Mrazivý went their separate ways as she had to go and formally thank the viceroy in order to keep up appearances and Joras immediately dragged Marcus up to his office.
Sitting down on opposite couches Joras started off the conversation saying, "So what really happened down there since anyone with half a mind could tell that what you both said down there was full of lies."
Marcus feeling his inner lawyer coming out said, "Are you saying that the princess did not tell the truth, that is quite the accusation coming from you. She is the most credible person in the entire city, she is both a platinum adventure and a princess of the kingdom why would she ever need to lie."
Joras right away realized that Marcus had no intention of telling him the truth and decided to lay off on questioning him.
"Fine I get it, what happened in the dungeon stays in the dungeon, but I can assure you that some nasty rumors are likely to spread about you two."
Shaking his head understanding what Joras meant Marcus asked a few of the questions that had been on his mind.
"Okay, so I heard about this assignation attempt on the viceroy's life what was that all about."
Joras then frowned and scoffed before saying, "That was just another stall tactic used by the viceroy in order to delay the rescue party even more. He need a legitimate excuse to delay sending aid to the princess, so he manufactured a fake assassination for himself. He made sure that the attempt happened in the public so no one could question his credibility. Of course, everyone saw it for what it was but without evidence no one could question the viceroy. Though at the end of the day, it does not matter since you seem to have saved the princess before any of us got there anyway.
Satisfied with Joras' answer Marcus asked the next question that had been waying on his mind for a while now.
"Joras, I wanted to know where I could go to put a mutual seal on a magical beast egg would you happen to know any place where I could do that."
Joras stared shocked at Marcus wondering where the hell he could have procured such a thing since they were not so easily obtained.
"That depends on the grade of whatever magical beast is in the egg. There are numerous places that can handle common and uncommon grade magical beasts but for any thing of a higher grade you will need to find a more specialized store."
Marcus looked at Joras in confusion not knowing that there was a grading scale for magical beasts. He obviously new that some monsters and beast were naturally stronger than others, but he did not know that there was a grading scale that people used to rank them.
"Could you tell me what the grades used to measure magical beasts are, I actually do not know."
Shocked once again Joras wondered how Marcus had made it to his level without knowing such basic things about magical beasts.
"I guess you did tell me you ran away from home and lived in the woods so you would not know. The grading scale goes like this, common being the lowest, followed by uncommon, then rare, epic, legendary, and finally mythic. Most of the magical beasts that you see around here are going to be common or uncommon magical beast and maybe the occasional wealthy merchant or high-ranking noble will have a rare magical beast. Ah a good example would be those gryphons you saw. They are all considered rare grade magical beasts which is why only the elite knights of the kingdom get to ride them. In fact, the only person I can think off that has even has an epic grade magical beast under their command is the knight commander of the entire kingdom and his glacial bear."
Understanding the rating system Marcus asked, "Where is the best place to assess my magical beast egg in the city since I believe that it might be at least rare grade."
"Wait you do not know what kind of beast is in the egg. How did you get it then, normally in order to obtain one you have to kill at least one of its parents or buy it from a merchant, but they would still tell you the origins of the egg?"
Marcus just continued smiling not planning to answer that question since anything he said would have to be a lie.
"Listen Marcus you are going to have to give me something if you want my help. Even if you find the place on your own, they are not going to allow you access to their best resources unless you have a letter of recommendation from a high ranking noble or reputable organization like the adventures guild."
"Fine I got the egg while in the dungeon, I have no idea what could be inside it so that is why I want to use the best in case it happened to be something really powerful."
Joras looked at Marcus not believing him since magical beasts and monsters did not spawn naturally in dungeons so the only way to get eggs from them was to defeat a boss. However, with that realization Joras had the wild idea come into his head, what if the two of them actually killed the boss of the third layer. It seemed like it would be impossible for just two people to do but Joras knew that Mrazivý was even stronger than him and Marcus was no slouch either. If the boss was lower level than he could see the two of them pulling it off.
"I understand so that is why the two of you made up that story, you must have gotten some incredible loot from the boss and did not want the kingdom to try to confiscate any of it."
Marcus immediately realized his error when he noticed that Joras knew exactly where he had gotten his egg. He had no idea that magical beast did not spawn naturally in dungeons and thought that Joras would think that he just came across a random egg.
Joras seeing the concern in his eyes said, "No need to worry I am not going to say anything, anyway you have the princess on your side so it should be fine. Give me a moment and I will write you that letter of recommendation."
After writing up the letter and handing it to Marcus, Joras told him that the name of the shop was called the Sea Beast and that he could get direction downstairs from any of the receptionists.