Transmigrated as a Ghost

Mrazivý then went on to list the ever-expanding amount of details that had led her to believe that Marcus and Irene were one in the same.

"I heard from Wade that you used a scythe in the battle against the ice ants in River Landing. I also heard about the magic you used which was similar to what you used when we fought our way out of the dungeon from my great grandmother. I mean how many people do you think have iron magic, not many. And when you opened the door to my tent just now, it pretty much served as conformation."

Hanging his head low Marcus realized that the similarities between him and his persona as Irene were a bit too similar.

'But at least there are very few people that have met me as both Irene and Marcus. Other than Lilia who I opened myself up to, and Mrazivý who I interacted with as both personas no one else should be able to make the connection. Maybe Joras or some of the people I rescued along with Lilia but only if they meet me again as Irene, since so far, they only know me as Marcus.'

As Marcus though of the handful of people that could maybe make the connection between his two identities, Mrazivý pulled out her appraising eye and put on the monocle like device. 

"Level thirty-five and your stats are pretty high as well. Also, the number of skills you have has increased, but why did you go through the trouble of learning chant shortening when you do not need it."

Coming out of his thoughts, Marcus noticed that Mrazivý had put on the appraisal magic artifact she had that let her look at people's status.

However, Marcus now knew that her item was still not strong enough to look past the unique skill he shared with Roxene, and she had only read his false status.

"Well, you have gotten a quite bit stronger but the fight we are in right now is pretty tough, so try to stay away from the center of the battle and stick with us and act as a support alright."

Mrazivý seemed to be showing, Marcus a bit of concern, though when they were still in the dungeon together, she was only a little stronger than him when he could not use soul burst.

"Mrazivý what level are you, I know you must have been in the low thirties when we met in Loursend."

Mrazivý then gave a smirk and said, "You want to know, too bad I am not telling. Even my own party members only have an estimate of my level, but I can tell you now that it is above yours at level thirty-five."

'Acting all high and mighty huh, let's see what you think of this.'

"Why do you not take a look at my level again you may find that you know as much about my level as I know about yours."

Mrazivý with a smirk still on her face used her appraisal lens artifact to look at Marcus' status once more and found that everything was the same except that his level was now one.

Marcus then looked at Mrazivý smugly as the smirk on her face disappeared.

"How did you do that; I know for a fact that you are not level one."

Mrazivý was beginning to get a bit flustered now that she was not the one with the advantage in the level hiding game.

Certainly, she had some type of magic artifact that hid her status from appraisal, but Marcus was able to change up his information to a certain degree and could make himself appear far weaker than he actually was.

"Come on tell me how you changed your status just now and what your level really is. If you tell me that I would be willing to let you know my level as well."

Marcus thought about it for a minute and decided to tell Mrazivý the truth, she already knew enough about him that this was a small secret in comparison.

"Okay I changed my level with a unique skill I have called false status, which allows me to alter the information obtained by the appraisal skill or items that use it as their base. Now go ahead and tell me you actual level and I will let you see what mine really status looks like."

Mrazivý let out a sigh before leaning in close to Marcus and telling him her level. 

"I am level forty-two right now."

Surprised to hear that her level had gone that high, Marcus was pretty impressed since she must have worked hard to get to that level.

Nodding his head Marcus undid his false status and let Mrazivý see what his stats and skills really look like.

Seeing his true status, Mrazivý's jaw dropped since his skills and stats were incomprehensibly strong for his level.

His stats overall were still around three hundred higher than hers even though she had access to plenty of stat boosting items and recently got a huge influx of natural treasures from the intelligent beasts that had brought her stats to their peak.

'How the hell does he do it. I am four levels higher, yet his stats are stronger than mine. And what is with that ridiculously high spirt stat. Not to mention the number of powerful and high-level skills he has.'

Mrazivý felt her competitive spirt rising as she looked at Marcus' status that was superior in most ways. She was used to being considered one of the kingdom's top prodigies and after the incident in the Ocean Bluff Temple she had worked much harder to get stronger.

However, there was no doubting that Marcus was stronger when comparing stats and skills so Mrazivý sat down in defeat and said, "You got me beat, I worked as hard as I could to get stronger after getting trapped in that boss room, but you still are stronger than me."

After taking a moment to collect herself Mrazivý slapped both her hands against her face and stood up and said, "But I did also managed to get this which at least puts us a bit closer together."

A viscous looking blue liquid then began to ooze out of Mrazivý and the temperature in the tent began to drop rapidly.

Marcus then watched as Mrazivý manipulated the liquid turning it into different shapes and expanding and contracting it.

"When the dungeon reset at the beginning of this year, me and my party went back in and cleared out all three boss rooms from the Ocean bluff Temple, and the only thing in the boss on the third layer's chest was a single golden skill orb."

Marcus then realized what Mrazivý was telling him. He had held a golden skill orb twice so far once from the unique skill he got from the administrator and another from the one he got after winning the dungeon's monster festival.

Seeing the recognition in his expression Mrazivý looked at him proudly and said, "That's right this is my own unique skill mercurial ice."

She then manipulated the frigid viscous blue liquid that was her unique skill a bit more before it moved back towards her body and seemed to be absorbed into her skin.

The two of them then began to talk more in-depth about what they had been up to since parting in Loursend.

"Yeah, after we beat all of the bosses in the Ocean Bluff Temple, I decided it was time to move on, so we came here to the Cordillera Depths to continue to get stronger. Oh, and along the way my great grandmother after hearing about the teleport trap incident sent one of her students with me as an extra guard, so that is how Diana ended up in our party."

"So that is why she is here. I was wondering if she quit being Aria's disciple and decided to be an adventure."

"Well, she has been pretty useful since she is a powerful magic user, but she is not much of a team player and buts heads with me often, but she still follows my orders even if she complains about it."

After talking for bit longer about little things that had been going on in their lives, Mrazivý eventually put on a serious expression and said, "I am really glad we have been able to catch up, but I think it is about time we talk about the situation we currently find ourselves in."

Nodding his head, Marcus went into serious mode as well, knowing that they would have to get to this topic eventually.

"First I know you just arrived so let me tell you that demon is strong. I checked it the first time we fought with it, and it is level forty-nine. We tried our best to take it down along with the winged unicorn Veunlux, but it ran away before we could really hurt it. Then it came back a couple days later with a stronger army with new monsters to take us on. We have been in a war of attrition waiting for the dungeon' simulated day while fighting for hours at a time ever since. At the rate we were going, it was only a matter of time before we were overrun, but yesterday I guess Veunlux used some type of secret attack to drive the demon back."

Shaking his head Marcus decided to clear up Mrazivý's misconception and said, "Actually that massive blast of light was caused by me."

Stunned into silence by what he said, Mrazivý took a few moments to wrap her mind around Marcus being the one who had caused that earth shattering attack and took a deep breath to calm down before beginning their strategy meeting anew.