Transmigrated as a Ghost

It took nearly an hour before Lilia's team arrived at the sewer entrance and another twenty minutes after that for Mrazivý's group.

After asking them about it, Marcus learned that both groups were attacked by a nearly endless wave of undead monsters.

Most of them had been weak, but some among the hordes were quite strong. Being unable to use any wide range attacks without collapsing a large section of the sewer system, it had proven a timely endeavor to fight their way through.

"They were awfully persistent. It wasn't until we got close enough to call for your aid that they finally retreated and gave up on chasing us." Lilia said with a huff.

While most of the monsters down here were merely shambling corpses, a few still possessed some amount of intelligence. When it became clear that it would be impossible to stop Lilia and her team, they retreated instead of allowing the entirety of their forces to be wiped out.

Mrazivý faced a similar but even fiercer assault. Unlike the undisciplined mob that attacked Lilia's group, what Mrazivý could only consider to be a proper army assaulted her party.

"Most of the skeletons and zombies had been outfitted in armor and wielded weapons. Among them were more advanced undead that gave orders and kept the weaker ones in line. Honestly it was a pretty big pain to deal with them. We even had to fight three monsters that were level seventy or higher."

This came as a bit of a shock to everyone as all of the powerful entities Mrazivý's team had encountered were undocumented. Either during Houten's past attempts to reclaim the city they never encountered these monsters before, or anyone that did never survived to report back.

'I'd guess it is likely the latter. They've sent scouts down here before, but none have ever returned. No wonder why though. No average team, heck no group that would generally be considered exceptional could survive coming down here.' Marcus thought while glancing at Endless Horizons.

They were a mithril rank party and their five members were all between level fifty and fifty-four. This put them well above the strength most people had. Yet their party had nearly perished down here after only a single battle.

Naturally, Novak, Clay, Emerie, Jovie, and Landyn were the most surprised by this news. A single level seventy monster had the right to be called a calamity. It could topple a city in a day and cause untold damage before a force strong enough to handle the creature was dispatched.

Of course, for Marcus and his companions dealing with monsters and beasts of that level was not an uncommon occurrence. They themselves were all over level sixty-five after all.

"H-how did you possibly survive such an encounter?" Novak asked, his expression tinged with disbelief.

"Well, the battle was a bit tough, but nothing we couldn't handle. I'll trust that all of you can keep a secret, so I'll come right out an tell you that I'm level seventy-eight."

Upon hearing Mrazivý's reply, Novak and his party members stared at her with wide eyes and mouths hanging wide open.

Mrazivý was around level eighty which was often around the level even the strongest person in a nation would be. On powerful nations like Aezam and Borealia would have someone at a higher level.

"D-does that mean, that the rest of you as well?" Emerie said, turning away from Mrazivý and looking at everyone else.

"Yeah, we're all around the same level. Mrazivý is the highest though." Marcus said. He did not feel like there was any reason to keep this from Endless Horizons. They were trustworthy and did not seem the type to go revealing other people's secrets.

Thankfully the five of them agreed to keep their lips sealed and promised not to speak a word to anyone else.

After that their two parties exited the sewers and headed back to their designated liaison to report what they had uncovered.

"Those bastards!" Novak said once they had finished meeting with Major Leopold.

Despite disclosing how dangerous the sewers were, Houten was not going to dispatch any other teams to help with the exploration. Apparently, they were already spread too thin with the operation on the surface.

"Are we just an after thought to them? What's the point of send the sixteen of us down there on our own if they don't seem to really care whether we succeed or not." Jovie said, her expression furious.

"Sorry, this is likely our fault. We embarrassed one of the kingdom's princes and this is probably a means of getting back at us." Mrazivý said apologetically.

"No, it's not your fault. I stepped in and offered my assistance because I thought it was the right thing to do. I just hope that Houten realizes what they are doing. They should not underestimate the pull a party of mithril rank adventurers have."

Novak had a dangerous gleam in his eyes. No doubt he would be spreading some unfavorable information about how the nation treats the adventurers assisting them.

Still, their two parties were stuck on sewer duty alone for the foreseeable future. This was not as big a deal to Marcus and his companions though. They were confident in their strength, and it was honestly better for their ultimate goals that there were less people keeping an eye on them.

'We'll continue clearing the sewers out like normal until we find a way into the castle. Once we can get in, we can find hopefully find a ghost king and maybe help ourselves to some other long-lost treasures.'

Of course, there was one other thing that Marcus was worried about, but he had made some arrangements to hopefully head off any problems. He had had to call in a favor, but hopefully with some extra assistance everything would sort itself out nicely.

"Okay, we're done here now, right? I am famished, so let us hurry and eat. Marcus, you're cooking. I want something especially good for all the effort I had to put in today." Roxene said, the look in her eyes offering no objection.

"Sure, I'll make a feast. It was a stressful day, so let's unwind with some good food and drink."

At this all of Marcus' companions let out a cheer, and Novak and his party looked at them with interest. They had never had Marcus' cooking but from everyone else's reactions, it was clear that it must be good.