Having finally made it to Loursend Marcus could now start looking for Lilia. He nearly left the adventures guild preparing to search the city for the Fair Sunset Tavern when he realized he could just ask for directions.

‘I really am an idiots sometimes, this city is massive, and I am currently in one of the largest information hubs in the city, they probably know at least the general location of taverns and inns.’

Heading back inside Marcus got into one of the long lines of people waiting to be served.

‘Damn there are a lot of adventures here, far more than River Landing, maybe it has something to do with that ocean bluff temple Bryce mentioned.’

After waiting for around thirty minutes to be served Marcus finally made it to the front of the line where a young boy no older than fifteen was manning the booth and asked Marcus, “helLO miss How can I help you today?”

Marcus visibly winced when he heard the young man’s voice crack multiple times.

‘Uh I remember those days, good luck kid it gets better eventually.’

Giving his silent support for the young man Marcus then told him that he was looking for the Fair Sunset Tavern. The poor kid looked like a dear caught in head lights before he asked Marcus to wait just a second. After around a minute he came back with a book and began rifling through the pages. When he found what he was looking for he said, “The FAir SunSEt Tavern is located in the southwest of Loursend and should be just a bit north of the Church of Aigean the Ocean Spirit. The CHurch is a big blue building and should be hard to miss.”

Thanking the young man for his assistants Marcus made his way out of the adventures guild and started heading towards the southwest part of the city. After having walked for over four hours Marcus finally stopped realizing his predicament.

‘I’m lost, this place is too damn big, and I have headed southwest until I hit the city wall. The sun has already begun to set, and I have no idea where I am. I figured this church would stand out, but this city is a like a labyrinth, and I have yet to come across a big blue building.’

Smacking his head against a wall Marcus wished he had one of those birds he saw people flying around on so he could have an aerial perspective when he remembered he was a ghost and could float above the buildings to search around.

‘I cannot believe I forgot I can float, even if I am tethered to Irene’s body, I still have over forty feet I can travel.’

Exiting Irene’s body Marcus floated up forty-three feet to try and get a better view of the city, however, some of the building were still slightly too tall and continued to obstruct his view. That was when Marcus remembered his recent level up and opened his status.

‘I really need to calm down, frantically trying to find Lilia is not going to help me especially if I keep forgetting to use my abilities to their fullest.’

Looking at his stat points Marcus discovered something.

‘Why do I have twenty stat points and now that I think about it, I had six skill points when I leveled up to eleven. Wait so the system is exponential not additive, great this means the difference between levels becomes more apparent the higher you get. So, I probably have no chance against anyone more than just a few levels ahead of me.’

Marcus then assigned his stat points now giving two to strength and vitality, four to agility, and six to both intelligence and spirit. With his new boosted spirit stat Marcus managed to make it high enough to look over most of the buildings in Loursend and see pretty much the whole city.

‘Now where is that church… whoa it is glowing, how did I miss it, the building is around three stories tall and as long as a football field, I somehow walked right past it without noticing.’

After Finding his bearings Marcus suddenly felt himself moving and when he looked down, he saw two men dragging away Irene’s body.

‘Shit, this is not good.’

Marcus then rushed back into Irene’s body, gaining control of it, and startling the guards.

“What the hell, the corpse just came back to life.”

When Marcus took back control of Irene’s body the two men became alarmed and dropped him onto the ground. When Marcus tried to get up, he was greeted by the pointy end of two daggers aimed at his face.

“Um could I ask what you two are doing, I decide to take a quick rest against a wall and suddenly I am being dragged away by you two.”

While he was talking to them Marcus had started to appraise them and found that one was level eight while the other was level ten. The two men looked at each other before they both nodded and ran away.

‘Well, that was certainly weird, I wonder why they are out looking for corpses. Whatever it has nothing to do with me, time to go find that tavern.’

Marcus then made his way towards the direction of the church but once again seemed to get lost until he appeared on the other end of a street where the church was visible. With the church finally in view Marcus started Making his way north looking for the Fair Sunset Tavern. Unfortunately, the sun had already set, and Marcus was forced to slow down to thoroughly check the names on the taverns he passed. By the time he finally located the Fair Sunset Tavern it was already well into the night. Luckily for Marcus for a tavern in a major city the night was the time for their best business.

Walking inside Marcus noticed the dozens of men and women sitting around enjoying food and drink. Finding an empty table Marcus sat down and waited to be served, while looking around for any of the slavers that had kidnapped Lilia.

‘Irene got a good look at seven of them and her death is the most vivid memory she left me, so I am sure if I see one of them, I will recognize them immediately. Hopefully, I do not have to stake this place out for too long because my only other lead is to search through the whole warehouse district.’

After a few minutes, the busy staff made their way to Marcus’ table were he ordered some ale and fired fish. When his order arrived, Marcus realized he had not had anything to eat since breakfast and dug in devouring the food.

‘Ah that was satisfying nothing like some fried food and alcohol to help heal the soul. Now let’s take another look around and see if there are any familiar faces.’

Marcus scanned the room thoroughly looking at everyone’s face before he finally recognized one. Staring at the man and his friends Marcus recognized another one of them and was now certain he had found his quarry.. The man noticing Marcus staring at him came over and said, “Hey there miss I could not help noticing you staring at me, did you want to head upstairs and get a better look.”