TRANSMIGRATED AS A GHOST

Listening to Marcus' question the village chief scowled a bit and said, "Unfortunately no one has been up there since you left. We tried too send a few people up a couple of times, but a group of goblins patrols the trail. In fact, the little bastards have been getting bolder lately and a couple of times some of them have even gotten close to the village. Luckily though, it has only been a couple of strays and me or Amos easily drove them off."

"Well, if that is the only thing causing problems with the trail, then both me and Lilia should be fine to head up there, and I can take out goblins if you want."

Shaking his head the village chief said, "No you have already done enough for us so do not go out of your way to look for trouble. I know you said you have become a gold rank adventurer but being reckless and charging after goblins has gotten many people killed in the past. The unit of soldiers from River Landing will be coming in a couple of months anyways, and the goblins will get cleared out then."

"Okay I will not go out of my way, but you can consider any goblin that attacks us on the way as good as dead." Marcus said confidently.

"Got it so when are you planning on going."

"Probably in a couple of hours, after Lilia has gotten some time to play and reacquainted with her friends."

"Just a couple hours! Okay I will need to go find Amos; we will have to double time it on our preparations."

The village chief then shot up and began making his way towards the door but Marcus feeling like there was some kind of misunderstanding quickly got up and stopped him.

"Um what do you mean by "go find Amos and make preparations." I know this may sound cocky but me and Lilia will be fine on our own."

The village chief then looked at Marcus and said, "There is no way we can let you go without our help. What if you get surrounded by a bunch of goblins, two people will not be enough even if you have gotten stronger."

Sighing Marcus said, "I know you have good intentions and at level nineteen you are certainly not weak, but in all honest you will not be able to keep up with me and Lilia. Anyways we each have our beast companions as well so it will not be the two of us."

Getting the village chief to calm down, Marcus eventually got him to agree to let the two of the go on their own after showing him his tier three iron magic spell.

"I suppose if you have such powerful magic, you will not need an old man like me, just be carful out there. Those goblins are crafter than you would think." The village chief warned.

However, Marcus was not really worried about goblins, since if they were strong enough to beat him, they would have long overrun this village.

"Well, I guess while I wait for Lilia to catch up with her friends, I will partake in the delicious food that Marianna has been preparing." Marcus said, while eyeing the dishes that were being set out.

Eating up the food, Marcus had a sense of nostalgia since it was food from the same person that had made the first real meal he had eaten in this world.

"Ah that was delicious, Marianna, I think you have become an even better cook than you were last time."

Responding in a flustered manner Mariann said, "No it must not have been even close to the food you eat in the capital now that you have become a noble."

"You are right if just talking about taste, but they often lose the homey flavor that gives you a warm feeling, so in many ways I prefer your cooking better. Ah in fact the only thing that really sets your cooking apart is lack of seasoning. So here I have two huge sets of spices so you can have one."

Marcus then took one of his spices sets out of the magic bag on his waist and handed it over to Marianna, though like her father she refused such an expensive gift.

Yet once again Marcus would not take no for an answer and said, "Just think of it as thanks for giving me your mother's clothing. Without those clothes I would have been in trouble, and I still wear them from time to time even today, so go ahead and take the spices since I have more than I need."

With that Marianna reluctantly took the spices set and looked at as if she was holding a box of treasure.

"Now I need to go find Lilia and then we are going to head back up to where our home used to be, but when I get back, I will teach you the best way to use those spices."

After saying that Marcus exited the village chief's house and went to find Lilia.

It did not take him long since on his life sense she gave out the biggest signal other than Blitz, and Marcus found her talking to a big group of young girls that were all cleaning goat fur together.

"Lilia have you been able to reconnect with your friends." Marcus said as he approached the group.

Many of the young girls hearing Marcus looked up and went stary eyed, since after Marcus' healing sessions he had become like the village's hero.

All of them then came over to him and started asking him questions, many of them wanting to confirm what Lilia had told them earlier.

Talking to the group of young girls for around half an hour Marcus told them some of the stories of his adventurers and how strong Lilia had gotten.

However, he had not come here just to make idle chatter and once the young girls seemed mostly satisfied, Marcus said that he needed some time with Lilia alone and that they could all talk again later.

"Lilia are you ready to go and pay your respects to those who died that day. I know it may be hard for you, but I am sure that our parents would rest better if you went to see them."

Marcus could see the conflicted look on Lilia's face, she certainly wanted to go and see where she had once lived and say goodbye to those she had lost. But another part of her was scared to go back to see the ruin of her childhood home and relive the scariest moments of her life.

But she soon but on a resolute face and said, "I am ready, let us go."

Putting on a comforting smile, Marcus patted Lilia on the shoulder to comfort her a bit before they went to pick up their beast companions.

"Okay Blitz we are going to go on a little trip so you can stretch you legs on the way." Marcus said as he undid the harness that connected Blitz to the carriage.

At the same time Lilia had grabbed Aurelia and Zareen out of the carriage and brought them back with her as the two lazy cats let out a big yawn.

Though the laziest beast companion was certainly Roxene who had already taken up shop in Marcus' companion storage and fallen asleep.

With their beast companions in toe Marcus and Lilia made their way down the trail that led to the woods and entered, heading towards the destination hat had changed both of their lives.

Walking down the trail everything was peaceful until Marcus suddenly felt a tingling on the back of his neck and stopped everyone.

Looking down at the ground he quickly spotted and area of disturbed dirt that was definitely trapped.

'So, the goblins have trapped the path even though we are still only around ten minutes from the village, they really have gotten brazen. Unfortunately, they are not within sixty feet of me, so I will have to resort to other methods to find them.'

Calling out to Roxene, Marcus asked her to come out so she could locate the goblins that should have been lying in wait with her scent ability.

After being promised some delicious meat from the caladrius later, Roxene jumped out of Marcus' companion storage and began sniffing the air before pointing towards the northwest and telepathically saying, 'There are twelve goblins waiting in that direction around a hundred feet away, though the stench of gobbling permeates this entire area, so I think there is a big group deeper into the forest.'

Thanking Roxene for the information, Marcus went into his ghost form and floated over and quickly found the goblins lying in wait.

However, when he arrived, he noticed that one of the goblins was gone and looking deeper into the forest he saw it running away.

'Not happening.'

Exerting his phantom pressure Marcus crushed the fleeing goblin's soul and the creature died instantly.

Luckily the other goblins were still focused on Lilia and their beast companions, so they did not notice that their comrade had fallen.

'This does not bode well.'

Looking at the eleven remaining goblins, Marcus could see that their equipment was well above what a normal tribe of goblins would have.

Not a single one of them had a wooden weapon and most of them had crude iron weapons, but the highest level one had a steel axe.

Also, their levels were relatively high with all of them having double digit levels and the highest being level thirteen.

Of course, this was not a threat to Marcus, but if these goblins that would normally be elites for a normal tribe were being used as scouts, it meant that the goblins in the forest had grown stronger than believed.

'Well, we can deal with the goblins after we pay our respects.'

Marcus then quickly killed the remaining eleven goblins simply exerting his phantom pressure.

He normally would not do this since he got less experience when he used it and it did not level up any skills, but these goblins were so far below his weight class that even killing ten thousand of them would be a negligible amount of experience.

With the goblin scouts cleared up Marcus floated back over to Lilia and said, "I dealt with the problem so we can continue on our way."

After that they made the trip to what used to be the logging community where Lilia and Irene had lived, though along the way they did have to deal with a half dozen other goblin groups.

When they arrived Marcus quickly noticed that the there were a number of goblin tracks all over the place and they had taken any usable tool or remaining piece of wood, making the place look even more dilapidated.

However, the burnt-out houses were still there though having fallen mostly apart, but the most important area, where Marcus had buried everyone seemed to be undisturbed.

"Everyone's grave is over there. I am sorry I did not have the time to dig each of them an individual grave at the time, but at least their remains were able to be put to rest."

Marcus then led Lilia who had been quite up to this point as she looked around over to the grave and began offering up some prayers for the deceased.

Now that he had all of Irene's memories and feelings, saying goodbye to everyone here had a much deeper meaning and Marcus actually began to cry a bit.

Yet when Lilia saw the tears start to come out of Marcus' eyes, the dam she had set up on her emotions broke and she began bawling her eyes out as she said, "I am sorry mom and dad. I wish I had been stronger back then. If only I could go back now, I could save everyone. I wish everyday that we could all be a happy family again. Why did this have to happen to us."

Lilia while crying began to hit the ground in frustration and with her high strength stat was putting what looked like small crater impacts into it.

Knelling down Marcus grabbed her and wrapped her up in a hug, giving her some level of comfort as she cried.

Being here Lilia had to relive all of the trauma that she had experienced and the sadness of everyone she loved being killed.

Yet as Marcus comforted her, Lilia also soon began to realize everything she had gained after Marcus had saved her.

She now was receiving an education, never wanted for anything, had made new friends that cared about her, and the sister she had lost came back through Marcus.

Stifling her crying Lilia managed to get herself under control and was now only sniffling when she said, "Marcus I am glad that you came back for me. Without you I am not sure if I would still be alive. You have given me another chance at life when everything seemed to be so meaningless."

As Lilia said this, Marcus hugged her closer and said, "And you help keep away the biggest fear I have. Since I arrived on this world, I have always feared that one day I would truly become a monster that knows nothing but taking life and destruction. But so long as I have you, I know I can keep my humanity and not fall into depravity."

After their touching moment where the two of them laid each other's feeling out, they went around the nearby area and collected some wildflowers to place on the grave.

Then Marcus carved the names of those who were buried here onto a large stone and placed it at the head of the grave.

With that done, the two of them went around and looked over the area, mostly to remember the good times that had happened here.

But before long, night was coming and neither of them want to stay here, so it was time for them to go after giving one last prayer.