Chapter 1161: Chapter 1161 Celebration After a Harrowing Conflict

The moment that Marcus felt that he could use Ultimate Refresh again, he engulfed himself in silver light and sent out balls of the restorative energy towards Roxene, Lyra, and Quillon.

Though Forlorieous had healed them, that only went so far.

Like Marcus, Roxene was under the effects of Soul Burst’s backlash that halved stats, and Quillon and Lyra were horribly exhausted from pushing themselves beyond their normal limits.

Fortunately, Marcus’ Supreme Skill brought their statuses back to normal. Bringing all of them back to peak conditions.

Around a second afterwards, Quillon jumped to his feet and reached down to grab his sword that was usually at his waist.

However, his sheath and weapon were currently missing, so he grabbed ahold of nothing but air.

His reaction was understandable though, since Quillon had passed out before the battle had concluded, the last thing he remembered was his attack falling just short of finishing Gronex off.

"The fights already over. We won. Thanks in large part to you." Marcus said, moving in front of Quillon to get his attention.

Before he was even asked about it, he opened up his item box and handed Quillon’s amethros sword over to him. In all the confusion of the aftermath, he had stored it away for safekeeping to make sure that it did not get lost anywhere.

"Thanks. It almost doesn’t feel real. Frankly, I thought I was going to die. And part of me thinks that I still might have and this is all some sort of illusion."

Quillon understood how much of a wreck his body had been after his last attack.

The scenery around him was also vastly different from the devastated hellscape he remembered. It was only natural that he was confused.

Smiling, Marcus informed him that they got some help from a great spirit at the last moment. That was why they had all managed to make it through the battle with Gronex.

"Are you two done already? I’m hungry."

Having turned into her humanoid form, Roxene was standing up and stretching her body.

She had been in pretty rough shape herself, and now that the pain was gone, her hunger was making itself known.

Funnily enough, someone else’s stomach rumbled at the mention of food, and Marcus and Quillon turned around to see an embarrassed looking Lyra standing up and brushing some grass off of her body.

"I guess that I should make us all something to eat. Anyone up for dragon stew?" Marcus said, motioning towards the Gronex’s mountain-like body.

Thanks to Forlorieous barrier that was still up, no curious beasts or people had wandered into the area. Meaning that the enormous Lava Dragon’s corpse was still right where it was after the end of the fight.

Originally, Marcus had meant this as a joke, but Roxene simply nodded her head and Quillon and Lyra seemed to be curious what dragon would taste like. It was not a type of meat one could just go pick up at a market after all.

Regretting his words, Marcus nonetheless got to work.

Carving up Gronex’s body was a pain due to how large and tough it was, but he managed by using his scythe and the cataclysmic iron sword spell.

He prepared a few dozen kilograms of the best meat that was not ruined by the battle and stored the rest into his item box.

The colossal body took up most of the remaining space he had within the extradimensional storage skill. Marcus knew he would need to do some inventory management soon.

With hundreds of ingredients laid out on work tables, and dozens of pots waiting to go on magical heating implements, Marcus got to work on making several different types of dragon stew.

Utilizing his high stats, he worked faster than thirty normal people could by himself.

However, as he was going, he had an idea.

Using his Ecto Doppelganger specter power, he created twenty clones of himself.

It was a bit strange to be watching different version of himself all working together, but he had each one shared his high-level cooking skill were able to follow along with what he wanted without even needing to speak.

"""Okay, everything is ready.""" All of the Marcuses said in unison. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

After that, the original Marcus brought the clones back into his body and reabsorbed them as spiritual energy.

He had made far more food than four people could hope to eat. Though, he did not have a need to eat in the first place and had no upper limit on what he could consume so far as he knew.

As for Roxene, she might have taken a humanoid form right now, but that did not change the fact that she was really a giant wolf. She had quite the appetite since she was still growing.

"The flavor is really good, but the meat is a little tough." Quillon said, surprisingly analyzing the food.

"That’s true, but I like the way you can chew on it. It’s also perfect with this spicy stew."

Lyra enjoyed the unbelievably hot version of the stew that Marcus had made and was pleased by the texture and firmness of the dragon meat.

Marcus found that it had a strong and unique flavor.

It certainly would not be for everyone, and he figured that anyone without a certain strength stat wouldn’t be able to chew through it in the first place.

’It almost doesn’t feel real that we can eat, laugh, and have fun like this when yesterday we we’re embroiled in a battle to the death with one of the strongest creatures in the world. To think all that happened just while we were trying to make it to our destination.’

In the back of his mind, Marcus knew that they were not anywhere near done yet.

Their fight with Gronex could be only an unexpected prelude to the dangers that they would face in the Darklands.

There was no telling what the vampire empress that had called in the debts Marcus and Lyra owed wanted from them.