Taking a few minutes Marcus did his best to calm down, as the fear of realizing what kind of entity he had as an enemy dawned on him.
'It is going to be fine, that demon seems to be somewhere else right now and I can make myself scarce before it shows up. Or maybe it will take so long to get here I will be like level one thousand or something and can kill it with a flick.'
As Marcus started to come up with favorable scenarios for if and when the blue demon ever showed up, the fatigue of his earlier fights caught up with him and Marcus lulled into a deep sleep.
Feeling his arm being shaken Marcus slowly opened his eyes and found Mrazivý standing above him, and when she saw his eyes open, she said, "Irene hurry and get up. The beasts want to see all of us."
Shooting up Marcus looked around and found that the only one here was Mrazivý and after taking just a moment to examine his state asked, "How long did I sleep for."
Mrazivý then told Marcus he had been asleep for ten hours, surprising Marcus a bit since normally just around four would be more than enough for him to be back in peak condition even after weeks of being awake.
'Guess getting sliced in half can really take it out of you.'
Getting up out of bed, Marcus put on a new set of clothes before following Mrazivý out of her tent where the rest of her party along with Lilia were waiting.
The ten of them were then led by Findlyier the little pixie dragon who had recruited all of them, to the hill where the tree of wisdom sat.
As they approached, they saw that the intelligent magical beasts had lined up into two rows and were bowing their heads.
It appeared that every beast that was not still terribly injured was here, and as they got closer to the top of the hill, they saw the fourteen strongest beast who were all of the epic grade, and above level forty sitting atop the hill.
Among them was the polar owl that had been fighting with Mrazivý, but Marcus also noticed that some of the beasts he had made note of before were not here, probably having died in the battle.
When they all made it to the top of the hill Marcus could see that right in front of the tree of wisdom, a large hole had been dug and laying next to it was the body of Veunlux the former leader of the intelligent beasts.
Except as Marcus looked at him, he saw that his horn was missing and there was a precise hole in one of his sides.
However, before he could ask about this the fourteen epic grade beasts all bowed their heads as well, and their new leader a huge ape with crimson fur said, "I would once again like to thank all of you for aiding us in protecting our home. I know that each of you had your own reasons for doing so, but nevertheless without all of you we would not be standing here today. On behalf of all of us you have our eternal gratitude."
A cacophony of cheers then resounded from the intelligent beasts around them, and Marcus could only feel elated.
The cheering eventually settled down and the crimson furred ape once again began speaking.
"Mrazivý and her party Royal Frost, you came to us in our time of need and stuck with us as the battles raged on and became tougher. Without your support we would have been overrun long before this day, so as agreed upon we will supply your kingdom with a certain number of natural treasures every three years and Eirwen shall become Mrazivý's beast companion."
The level forty-five epic grade polar owl Eirwen then moved over towards Mrazivý and stood behind her.
Marcus was a bit surprised to see this development since it meant that the intelligent beasts were going to lose one of their strongest, but overall, this was probably better for the beasts since it would give them a connection to the kingdom.
A dozen baskets of natural tressures were then brought out to Mrazivý and her party who stored them away and the crimson furred ape then turned towards Marcus and said, "And you Irene, you are all of our savior. You came in our greatest time of need and fought back the demon, and then along with our valiant leader killed the menace. Your power is greater than any of us could have ever expected and without you we undeniably would have all been slaughtered or enslaved. For this we can only offer you our thanks and wish for you to have this, we are certain that Veunlux would want you to have it."
The crimson furred ape then walked forward and opened its hand to reveal a large magic core that had white lines going through it in the shape of a star and a softly glowing horn.
Marcus was astounded to see this and could not believe that the beasts were giving him these parts of Veunlux.
As the new leader of the intelligent beasts handed these out to Marcus, he hesitated to take them and said, "Are you sure, he was your friend wasn't he, do you not think he should be buried with these."
Shaking his head, the crimson furred ape said, "No, Veunlux would not want these parts of him to sit in the ground and rot, I am certain he would rather have them go to strengthen the savior that brought us all to the next day."
With that last conformation Marcus took the horn and magic core and stored them away in his item box while internally cheering since they were very high-quality materials he could use for forging.
"Now while this is what we had decided on to give you as a reward, is there anything else you would like. I know we had no formal agreement with you like with Mrazivý and her party, but for all you have done if it is within our power, we will do what you ask."
Thinking about it for a moment Marcus quickly came to a conclusion as he had already given this a good deal of thought.
"If possible, I would like some of the fruits from your tree of wisdom, and to use this area as a base for training while I am here, along with access to natural tressures for my sister and her beast companions growth."
Nodding his head the crimson furred ape said, "Very well that is well within our ability and shall be done."
After that the beasts buried the body of Veunlux and there was a long moment of silence as the beasts mourned those that had fallen in battle.
When the beasts had finished saying their goodbyes to their friends and family that had died in the war with the demon, a party began to ensue as the beasts celebrated their victory.
However, Marcus only stayed for a brief moment for politeness' sake, before heading off to a quite area next to a tranquil pool of water since there were a few things he wanted to check on.
"Status."
Name: Marcus Ferrous/Irene Geist
Age: 31/20
Race: Unbound Ghost (Great Spirit of Light and Darkness)
Title: Baronetess
Level: 40
HP: 15330/15330
MP: 7260/7260
STR: 703 (+7)
AGL: 680 (+41)
VIT: 640 (+6)
INT: 719 (+7)
SPR: 878 (+9)
Stat Points: 156
Skill Points: 60
Supreme Skills: Embodiment of Eclipse, Greatest Potential
Unique Skills: Personal Status, Soul Devour, Master of Soul and Body, Soul Burst, Embodiment of Light, Embodiment of Darkness, False Status
Specter Powers: Ghost Sounds, Spectral Arm, Phantom Pressure, Life Drain, Tendrils of Shadows
Looking over his status Marcus first noticed that his age had gone up by a year meaning that his birthday which he had long lost track off must have been today.
'To think after losing my sense of time when I fell to the center of this world, I would be able to find out the day of my birthday again.'
After feeling quite happy to have once again discovered his birthday, Marcus looked over his stats and noticed that they had increased once again and was quite pleased with how high they had gotten.
'Now for the big one, I already have an inkling but what is my formally sealed unique skill.'
Scrolling down Marcus found the unique skill that had helped him get over one of the biggest hurtles in his second life, albeit almost killing him in the process.
There he saw it the unique skill that he had created along with the fragment of Irene's soul called soul devour, and after reading its description Marcus could only feel a sense of anticipation and trepidation.