Waking up the next day Marcus felt refreshed. He had not slept or rested his mind for over a month and even though as a ghost he could go pretty much infinitely so long as he did not use all of his mana or spiritual strength at once, the toll on his mind had definitely made his thinking a bit sluggish.
'Damn I just realized why my scythe nearly collapsed in on itself yesterday. I forgot to add the strengthening formation around the darkness stone before connecting it with the lightening and shine stones.'
With his mind fully rested Marcus was able to recall the slight mistakes he had made while forging his scythe and understood that this could have been avoided had he been at one hundred percent.
'I guess more than a month is just a bit too long to have my mind active all the time. My thought process was getting a bit dull after that much time, I suppose even a ghost has to rest some time.'
Admonishing himself for working too hard, Marcus made a vow to get at least a little rest every two weeks so that he did not run his mind into the ground.
'Now then time to get ready.'
Getting out of his large and luxurious bed, Marcus made his way over to the attached bathroom and began filling the large tub up with water.
Sliding into the water Marcus allowed the warm water to relax his mind, body, and soul.
After pushing his bath to the utmost limit of spare time he had before meeting up with the Eternal Queens, Marcus got out, dried himself off, and put on his normal adventuring wear.
Looking over his gear for one last check, Marcus was satisfied that he was ready, and went downstairs where he found Elianna and Hazel preparing a large amount of food for his journey to the mine.
Smiling Marcus thanked the two of them before having a quick breakfast and then storing all of the food into his item box.
'Sometimes keeping up the appearance of eating can get tiresome, but at least what Elianna and Hazel make is always tasty.'
With all of his preparation completed, Marcus said goodbye to his maids and exited his manor.
Sending a mental command to Blitz, Marcus had the lightning stag come over to him and quickly mounted on top.
Riding like the wind Marcus and Blitz made their way towards the eastern gate of the city where he was going to meet up with the members of Eternal Queens.
Soon Marcus could see the gate and as he got closer, he noticed seven young women standing near the gate along with four snow horses.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtTrotting up to the Eternal Queens Marcus asked, "Have you been waiting long?" but, Bridget seeing Marcus shook her head and said, "No we only got here around ten minutes ago."
Glad he had not kept them waiting for too long, Marcus waited for them to mount their horses before they turned towards the gate and exited the city.
Stepping out of the city Marcus could see all around him a vast landscape covered in snow and the immense cold assaulted him and the eternal queens.
Now that they were out of the city with its citywide heating formation, the eternal queens activated the heating enchantments on their clothing making the freezing temperatures bearable
However, Marcus was not bothered by the cold at all and actually forgot to activate the enchantment on his clothing until Atalie the most vigilant member of the party said, "Irene, are you not freezing, you have not activated you warming enchantment. You are going to get frostbite if you do not activate it soon."
Marcus realizing his blunder quickly activated the enchantment on his clothing and thanked Atalie for her help.
'Crap, the cold does not bother me at all, so I forgot. In fact, the only time I have ever felt a sense of cold since becoming a ghost was when the ice ant queen hit me with that weird spiritual attack.'
Shaking his head Marcus brought up his vigilance level since he had allowed the beautifully scenery of the snow to distract him.
The eight of them continued along the snow-covered roads using a map that Thabon had given Marcus to guide their way.
Their current destination was a large town called Klopot which was only around a days journey from the mine.
However, as they were making their way towards their destination, Atalie the parties scout stopped everyone and said, "Irene come here for a bit I want to confirm something with you."
Marcus wondering what was going on moved towards Atalie and said, "What did you need me to do."
Atalie pointing towards a small hill in the distance said, "That hill, it looks strange, and I could swear it moved slightly when we came into visual range. I am also getting a weird feeling from it, like it is anticipating our arrival."
Marcus casting his gaze towards the hill in question used his creature appraisal skill and confirmed that it was indeed not a hill.
"You were right Atalie, that is not a hill. It is a level twenty-eight frost drake, and I would say that it is waiting on the road to ambush us."
Hearing what Marcus had said, everyone immediately put up their full guard.
A drake was a lesser dragon and was considered one of the strongest types of rare grade beasts, and even for a group of strong adventures like the Eternal Queens, if they were caught off guard would have certainly had causalities.
Luckily, Atalie was an impeccable scout and with Marcus' creature appraisal skill they knew exactly what they were up against.
Bridget the leader of the Eternal Queens said, "Very well we will do the usual, Irene and Branna step forward and get ready."
Branna who was a young half elf with light brown hair moved to the front of the group and looked toward Marcus as she pulled out a staff that was topped with a red crystal gem.
Marcus nodded towards her and they both began chanting the same spell.
Soon as they both finished their chants, a small bead of fire appeared in their hands before flying off in the direction of the frost drake that had disguised itself as a hill.
"BOOM."
The two tier three fire ball spells impacted the frost drake causing a fiery explosion that immediately melted the surrounding snow and ice, and caused the frost drake to let out a roar of pain and anger.
Seeing the ice drake flail around in pain Marcus and Branna prepared anther double fire ball attack and released the spells towards the frost drake.
Unfortunately, this time the frost drake was ready, and it released its ice breath at the fire balls causing an explosion of fire and ice.
Bridget seeing that their initial attack had gone fairly smoothly said, "Okay you two get back and focus on support, let's use formation C and get ready for battle."
Nodding their heads, the members of eternal queens got into their battle formations, some of them dismounting from their mounts while others took up positions for evasion.
"Raaaaaar"
The frost Drake let out a loud roar and began barreling towards Marcus and the Eternal Queens covered in a thick armor made of ice.
Bridget and another girl named Yrsa who were the party's tanks, stood in the front with their heavy shields ready, and right before the drake impacted into them, they activate the enchantments on their shields and used the skill power guard.
As the drake impacted into the barrier that Bridget and Yrsa created, even with its large size that was twelve feet tall and twenty feet long it still did not make them move an inch.
With the drake's movement monetarily stopped, Jesnay fired a bolt from her crossbow while Atalie let loose an arrow.
As the two projectiles hit the drake, Atalie's arrow exploded with a burst of fire, while Jesnay's unleashed a bolt of electricity that coursed through the drake.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe drake taking major damage from each attack let out a pained screech and locking onto Jesnay swung its tail past the barrier that Bridget and Yrsa had created.
However, before its tail could come in contact with Jesnay, Marcus cast the spell he had been holding onto.
"Wall of Darkness."
The drakes tail smashed into the wall of darkness unable to go any further, and the corroding properties of the darkness magic even began eating away at its tail.
Swinging its tail back the drake looked angrily at Bridget and Yrsa that was preventing its advance and opened its mouth to unleash another ice breath.
Alas, at that moment Branna cast the spell she had prepared, and a wall of flames burst forth in front of the drake blocking its breath attack.
At the same time the fastest member of the Eternal Queens a rabbit beastwoman named Hella jumped high into he air right above the drake's back.
With her two swords crossed in the shape of an X, Hella charge each of them with a massive amount of mana causing their blade's to elongate before she let loose a devastating slash.
Slicing through the tough scales and hard hide of the drake, a fountain of blood began shooting forth from the horrible X shaped wound on the drake's back.
As the Drake staggered from Hella's attack Yrsa and Bridget who had been playing defense this whole time moved in for the attack.
Yrsa, wielding a massive morning star, slammed her weapon into the front right leg of the drake and with a loud cracking sound the drake's leg gave out.
The drake slumping onto the ground had now exposed its neck to attack, and Bridget taking this opportunity, took her spear and jammed it directly into the flesh of the drakes neck.
The drake now horribly wounded, in a desperate measure unleashed a frost mist that caused everyone to rush back from it, and taking this opportunity, began running away.
Unfortunately for the poor drake, the final member of the Eternal Queens was not going to let it get away.
Rekia seeing the drake running away, cast her tier four nature magic spell causing a mass of roots and vines to shoot out of the earth and begin wrapping around the drake.
Marcus seeing the drake trying to tear and rip away the roots and vines restraining it, jumped off of Blitz's back and said, "Blitz finish it."
Hearing Marcus' command, Blitz began to light up like christmas tree before a massive bolt of electricity flew from his body and blasted the frost drake.
The frost drake let out a deafening cry as the electricity fired its body and after just a few moments the drake could no longer resist and fell over dead.