After having thoroughly trounced the six future knights, Roxene deactivated her supreme skill and shrunk back down to the form of a small wolf pup.
With a big smile she ran back over to Marcus and asked to be praised.
'Yep, you did a good job. I dare say that they will not forget this lesson for the rest of their lives.'
Marcus then took out a big piece of meat he had stored in his item box and gave it to Roxene as a reward for her hard work.
'Now there is just one last thing I need to do before I head on out of here.'
Heading over to Sir Kase who was lying on a bench in the arena recuperating from the injuries that Marcus had given him, Marcus pull out a piece of paper and a pen before bluntly saying, "Write down the chant and draw the formation for me."
Kase with disdain in his eyes looked up at Marcus and wished he could kill him. He had never been so humiliated in his life, but what could he do.
He could not use his status as a knight since Marcus had a higher title, and he already knew he could not win in a fight.
The only thing he could do for now was to roll over and honor the bet he had made. If only there had not been any witnesses he would surely weasel out of it, but three other knights saw the bet being made. If he decided to shirk away from the bet it was likely that Marcus and the other three could raise hell, and in the worst case he could lose his status.
With no other option Kase sat up and yanked the pen and paper from Marcus' hand and began writing out the chant and formation, all the while grumbling about it.
"There, I wrote down the chant and drew the formation. Now if you would not mind, I would like to be alone."
After making sure the chant and formation were genuine, Marcus stored the paper away and left wanting nothing to do with Sir Kase ever again.
'Well, I managed to get a new spell out of this, so it was a pretty fruitful endeavor. Though this does show me how sparse I am in the spell department, since even as a baronetess I cannot get spells above tier three that are meant for combat, at least not without joining some type of organization. Maybe I will try my hand at making my own spells at some point but I have no idea how to do that right now so it will have to wait.'
With his prize in hand Marcus made his way back over to Adrianna who had given some healing potions to the six future knights that had fought Roxene.
"Well do you think they learned the lesson we were trying to teach them?"
Turning her head to look at Marcus, Adrianna smiled and said, "Yeah I think they learned pretty well. You and that beast companion showed them not to be too full of themselves, so you have my thanks. Though you are a lot stronger than I thought you were Irene. I mean we are the same level, but you demonstrated strength closer to someone in the middle levels of the forties rather than thirty-six. So, would you mind telling me how you got so strong?"
Give it a bit of though Marcus decided to not lie to Adrianna since she was his friend, but he was going to omit the truth on a few things.
"I see so you have a blessing and got a load of stat boosting items and skill orbs from a treasure chest in a dungeon. So that is how you got so many magic skills and your stats are above the average of most people. Though as a knight even my stats are a couple hundred higher than most people at our level since the kingdom invests natural treasure and stat boosting draughts into its talent. I guess the chests from dungeons really are good, your stats must all be at least in the upper three hundreds or low four hundreds huh."
Nodding his head Marcus did not tell Adrianna that all of his stats had exceeded five hundred and his spirt stat was actually near seven hundred. He knew it would be far from believable since his stats were around the same as someone ten levels higher.
The two of them continued to talk for a bit while the young future knights recovered and once, they had Dame Herta who was Tessa' master suggested they all go and get a drink together.
Since everyone had time to spare and getting a drink sounded fun, all of them readily agreed except for Cain who said he need to be there for his master.
'Looks like he did manage to get it through his thick skull that he is not inherently above anyone just for being a knight. Though I wonder how his master is going to take this, I get the feeling he is a sore loser that is set in his ways.'
With just a last fleeting thought towards the wellbeing of Cain, Marcus headed out of the training area they had been using and joined the group of nine on their journey to a bar.
Around twenty minutes later, they had made it to a tavern called The Frozen Nightingale, which Sir Darian frequented.
Walking inside to the establishment the employees quickly recognized Sir Darian and brought their group to the nicest table.
"Wow you have been holding out on us Darian, you had such a nice place you go to, but you never took any of us before." Adrianna said with a teasing tone.
"Well, this has only been my regular spot for a couple of weeks, and last time I took you to get a drink you ended up drunk and got into a fight with a band of mouthy adventures."
With her face turning slightly red Adriana grumbled and said, "Ugh why did you have to tell everyone that, it was like five months ago, and those adventures started the fight."
After that everyone began snickering and laughing much to Adriana's dismay, until the waitress serving them came with a round of drinks and put them on the table and said, "This round is on the house for Sir Darian and his friends. We are still really grateful that you dealt with those hoodlums that were extorting us."
The waitress then left the table to their free drinks as everyone clicked there cups together and got to drinking.
The unlikely group of knights and a baronetess continued to enjoy a bit of revelry drinking and eating for a couple of hours.
In fact, at one point Adrianna even challenged Marcus to a drinking contest.
Unfortunately for Adrianna, Marcus had a bottomless pit for a stomach and could not get drunk, so after nearly a dozen drinks even with her strong constitution Adrianna lost passing out drunk.
"Damn Irene you look so dainty and fragile, but you really can put them away. Your face does not even look flushed." Said, Kieran who was the only one that was still sober other than Marcus.
Seeing the inquisitive look on Kieran's face, Marcus not wanting to divulge his unlimited stomach capacity leaned over and said, "I have been cheating, I stored most of the alcohol in my item box as I was drinking it."
Kieran with a surprised face look at Marcus and then to Adrianna before saying, "That was dirty." And the two of them burst out into laughter.
The merriment lasted for just a bit longer as those that had gotten smashed tried to sober up a bit before heading out, and when everyone was more lucid other than Adrianna who was still passed out, they all started to go their separate ways.
"Make sure she gets home okay, she really put herself through he ringer with all of those drinks." Marcus said, to Clarisa who currently had Adrianna slumped over her shoulders.
Nodding her head Clarisa adjusted Adrianna who was sliding off and said, "Thanks for what you did today. I think deep down I had already understood the lesson you and my master wanted to teach us, but I still went along with acting superior just because the others were as well. Now I got to get master home before she wakes up and makes things more difficult for me. See you around Irene."
Waving goodbye, Marcus made his way back to Blitz who was tied up nearby and began making his way home.
Getting back to his estate Marcus said hello to the maid on duty before heading to his workshop where he pulled out a number of items and got to work on making a few things.
'It is traditional to give a gift when visiting another noble, and my meeting with Wade's mother is coming up soon so I need to make something that will make her not look down on me.'
Taking his tools off of the wall, Marcus got to work on something special for the duchess he was going to be meeting within just a couple of days.