Chapter 24: Marcel and the Golden lion
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Face to face with a menacing golden lion and what does Marcel do? He runs away. That’s right, he ran away as fast as he could. Although the lion looked like flashy enough to think that it’d be one of those ‘back and no bite’ kind of creatures, his instincts told him to book it and he’s never doubted them. After all, that’s how he’s managed to survive for so long in dungeons. If he ran into an opponent who he thinks he can’t defeat; he then makes a tactical retreat. Yes, it might be cowardly for a hero, but what’s the title for when you’re already dead and six feet under. Not to worry though since he’d usually come back after a while and destroy them, so hey, at least, he gets to destroy his embarrassing failures before anyone teases him with them. 

Marcel ran as fast as he could, away from the golden lion through the long grass, not looking back to see if it was still following him. He just ran until he was sure that he was far out of sight from the lion were he came saw a forest from the distance and entered it. 

After looking around the forest a bit to spot any dangers that might be lurking somewhere near him. After all, being cautious is a skill that smart people have to possess in the face of danger. There was nothing in the forest. Sure, there were trees and different types of plants in the forest, but the feeling he normally got when he entered a forest wasn’t there. It felt wrong being in that forest. His gift from Aspen, the dryad, normally kept him aware of his surroundings. It made him sense the life force of the earth itself, but even without it with him in the unknown place he currently found himself in, he could still feel that it was lifeless. Dead, as if all of it was of someone’s creatures. Even though he didn’t feel comfortable inside the lifeless forest, he still decided to stay inside of it rather than go out and be found by the golden lion who was probably looking for him.  

After scoping the area and determining that he wasn’t in danger for the moment, Marcel began thinking of his next move. He began thinking of whether he was inside of the cube the demon lord talk about earlier, how he’d get out of it and if he’d have to find the lion to exit the unknown space. He began thinking of the intimidating of the lion and how fierce it looked. It reminded him of the time before he talked to Winter after entering his cave and how strong and scary he was. He began thinking if this was the type of opponents, he’d have to face in the demon realm. They were all so scary. 

Back in the human world, the only creature that managed to scare him was a giant poisonous scorpion that poisoned all of his fellow party members and almost took his life in a dungeon, but looking back to that time now, it seemed like nothing at all. After all, how’s a giant poisonous scorpion supposed to scare you when you’ve already met the Supreme Guardian of Winter, the demon lord and an intimidating as hell, golden lion?  

Marcel thought of the stories he’d read about heroes as a child and based on them, it’s very obvious that the only way for him to leave this unknown space is to defeat the golden lion, but how is he supposed to do that? Man, he just entered this unknown space and he’s already being forced to think. How exhausting!  

The demon lord told him the cube was used to train one’s mind but how exactly does it accomplish that? ‘How’s facing a 2-meter tall golden lion supposed to help train your mind?’ and ‘Who finds this even fun in the first place?’ These thoughts ran inside Marcel’s mind.  

So, now he’s made up his mind to go slay the golden lion and get out of this little game that the demon lord called an illusory dungeon, but there’s one problem; Marcel currently doesn’t have any equipment to slay the lion with and magic doesn’t seem to be working either. Let’s take a look at what Marcel tried to do the moment he met the lion. 

[Flashback] 

The first thing Marcel thought of doing after coming face to face with the lion wasn’t to run away. His pride wouldn’t let him, at least at that moment. He thought quickly thought of using the new fire magic Claude thought him, but there was a problem; nothing seemed to be happening no matter how hard he tried to materialize the flames. It was like there was a barrier keeping him from using his magic. No matter how hard he tried, the magic just wouldn’t work and so, after trying and failing to use magic, he ran. 

[End of Flashback] 

He thought of what to do now that he knew that his magic wouldn’t work inside this mind game. He thought of it very hard and came up with one idea: If he was currently inside a mind game, then the obvious way to play it was with one’s mind. He then went on to test his theory. If he was right, then what he thinks is going to happen will provide him with everything he'd need to slay the golden lion.  

Marcel tried imagining his usual armor and Frostbite with him and then they just appeared. The dark blue armor he wore before coming to the demon realm. The good quality armor he had custom-made, and Frostbite sheathed and inside the holster he got as a present from a friend of his long ago. Everything he thought of was now there, on the ground, ready to be used. 

He hurriedly put on his armor and it felt like it always had, but Frostbite just wasn’t the same. After all, the real Frostbite is a temperamental dragon with a brother complex while the sword with him just wasn’t any of those. It was just a plain sword. Marcel began to miss the sword Frostbite he’d been with two years before coming to the demon realm, but then he remembered the brother complex he found out about recently and just forgot about it. His impression of Frostbite will never be the same again after the day he met the ‘real’ Frostbite. Poor Frostbite! Marcel began to wonder if all the super ancient legendary weapons he’d heard of have quirky personalities like Frostbite. He prayed that the wielders of those legendary weapons will never get to see the real side of their weapons or else they’d be so disappointed that they might never touch their legendary weapon again. As he’s no longer living in a lie anymore, the least he can do is pray for all those ignorant wielders who might never get to see the quirky sides of their weapons and be awakened like he is. Poor ignorant legendary weapon wielders. May the impressions they have of their legendary weapons be just as ignorant as they are. 

After putting on his armor, the next thing Marcel had to do was make a plan for how he was going to defeat the golden lion. From what he knows so far, magic doesn’t work as it usually is inside of the illusory dungeon, so he has to figure out a way to defeat the monster without it. He’s sure that he can’t do it without magic since well, he never went head to head with a monster with just his physical strength alone. Marcel’s strong, but he’s always been one to rely on his magic and that’s led him to train less in physical strength. He made a mental note to definitely train his physical strength when he got out of the cube. 

Marcel thought of another thing besides his physical strength to rely on; that mental ability he knows he has inside of the cube. He can’t use magic here, but the way it works seems similar to magic. It’s visualization and projection, the same process that’s used to make magic. All he needs to do from what he’d surmised after making his armor and Frostbite was if he thought hard enough about it, it’ll happen. Marcel began testing his next theory to find out what it can and can’t make. He thought about more blades and they were created, then thought of a chair, clothes and even gold, they all appeared, but when he thought of things like food or a tree, animals or even a magic spell, they just wouldn’t work. That barrier seems to stop him from making them.  

It looks like the mental creation ability inside the cube only conjures up inorganic stuff or things that aren’t alive in the normal sense. Magic can also be considered something alive, thus being the reason why he can’t make it. After creating more inorganic stuff, he discovered that it takes at least 10 seconds before he can conjure up something new. The things that he creates also don't disappear either after a while, although he’s guessing that if he just left them anywhere, they’d disappear after who knows how long. 

So, now he has his physical strength along with a Frostbite that couldn’t create ice like the real Frostbite and the ability to create inorganic stuff. Although there were still a few things that he hadn’t tried yet, he decided that it’s time to stick it to the golden lion. He’s going to fight the lion who dared to scare him. 

He went back to the place where he and the lion first met; the prairie, and hid among the long grass. He waited for the opportune time to attack the golden lion lying in a cleared patch of the prairie, looking as conspicuous as ever with its sheen golden pelt. Marcel felt like he wasn’t close enough to the lion, so he moved from about 80 meters away from the lion to 50 meters from it and when he finally stopped moving, he could see a grin appear on the lion’s face.  

“Got you, pest!” He heard the lion say in a deep voice that almost startled him as it ran towards him and pounced. After pouncing at Marcel and getting close enough for his claw to reach him, it lifted its paw, readying his claws to attack Marcel. Marcel hurriedly pulled out Frostbite to defend himself, although when the lion struck, his sword was just cut through.  

“Foolish demon. Who do you think I am? I’m the great golden lion of the grand fields. Why wouldn’t you think that I would be able to slice through your sword?” The lion said arrogantly. Marcel thought that he’d made a fair point. Why didn’t he think about that in the first place before coming to attack the lion?   

Marcel upon having his sword broken had to resort to using his next best plan; retreating. After all, the lion just cut through his sword with its claw in half as if it was nothing. If it let’s say, got his hands on him, he’d be very dead, and he still doesn’t know if he’ll find himself in the real world if he dies there. There are so many uncertainties regarding what might happen to him if he dies there. He’ll do what a good soldier does when the enemy is too much to handle and retreat. He’ll go back and think of another plan, then come back and defeat the lion when he’s made full preparations. 

Marcel has decided to run away, but he’s sure that the lion in front of him won’t let him leave a second time. He began thinking of a way to distract the lion, then he got one and it isn't organic.  

Ten seconds had already passed since he created the last sword to defend against the lion’s next attack after the first one, so, he created the thing he thought of and threw it far away from their current position. He then turned and began to run as soon as the lion knew what it was that he’d made. 

After Marcel had run a far distance away from the lion, he heard it roar and its voice echoed through the plains as it roared over having been fooled by what Marcel had made. But what was it that Marcel made that forced the mighty lion to ignore him for it? The answer is something very simple and ridiculous, although quite unexpected; meat. And not just any meat, a big juicy steak.  

But Marcel can’t make organic stuff, so how did he do it? Yes, Marcel can’t make organic stuff, but it doesn’t mean that he can’t imitate how they smell. The main steak itself is metal that he gave the shape and smell of the fine piece of steak that he thought of. After all, it’s something that he thought would distract a big cat and that’s what it did. 

When Marcel was back in the forest, he began to think of another plan to defeat the lion. Now that he knows that he can disguise stuff as he please like with illusion, he had another plan. The next part of the plan required him to experiment and just as he expected, it worked. He then went back to fight the lion. 

This time, the lion stood in waiting, fully prepared to attack the moment he got closer. This time, he isn’t holding a sword but rather a large hammer that’ll probably hurt if someone’s hit by it, even a lion as tough as the golden lion. The lion waited until Marcel was close enough and then pounced to attack, but then Marcel dodged its attack, used his speed to circle the lion and the before the lion knew it, it was trapped, and it was so easy too. 

Now let’s talk about what was Marcel made before going to fight the lion.  

[Flashback] 

Huh, it seems like all he does nowadays is think.  He thought about how to defeat the lion. From what he currently knew, a sword isn’t going to work against a brute like the golden lion, so he has to think of something else, something with the power to put down a brute like the golden lion. His body probably won’t last in a fight against the lion. He thought for a while, but he wasn’t getting anyway with thinking of a weapon capable enough to beat the lion, so he gave up. He sat there in the forest, on the ground, passing his fingers into the soil, and before he knew it, he’d drawn a hammer. Huh, talk about convenience. He found what he was looking for. 

He immediately created the large hammer as soon as he got the idea, but he was pretty sure that the hammer alone isn’t going to be enough. After all, he ran away twice because what his equipment wasn’t enough and so he thought of a few other things including a bear trap cloaked with illusion to look like something else, a spare hammer shrank to make it easier to carry and the most important of them all, a thin, strong net made out of steel that tightens whenever one tried to escape it. Man, this mind creation ability is great. As long as Marcel thinks of something that isn’t organic or specifically magic, he can create most of the things he wants to, but for some reason, he’s started to tire out the more he creates. He felt especially tired when he created the net he thought of and hadn’t seen at all in reality. After resting a bit, he went to fight the lion again, which leads to the current situation. 

[End of Flashback] 

So, the lion’s trapped and fell to the ground. Marcel, after managing to think of such a brilliant way to trap the lion, felt very accomplished. He landed a blow on the lion’s head with the hammer after it was immobilized and it roared in pain. Marcel made sure to hit it a bit more to prevent it from getting up and maybe pouncing at him. Now he knows not to underestimate the lion. The lion struggled to get out of the net although it tightened around it every time it tried to move. It was pointless to try to escape from such a trap, but it didn’t seem like it was giving up. 

Marcel thought of going in for the kill with his hammer when the lion’s pelt flared up a bright golden and turned into spikes, ripping the steel net to pieces. He managed to hit the lion’s head one more time before he realized that the situation wouldn’t be good for him if the lion escaped. He then hurriedly left the lion’s location once again and went back to his place in the forest. 

After fleeing again, Marcel was super unhappy about the fact that he had to run yet again because of the lion. Once again, he realized how weak and powerless he was in front of an enemy as strong as the lion. Even after gaining the ability to make most stuff inside the illusory dungeon, he still can’t defeat the lion. He was sad and depressed and wondered how much time had passed since he entered the illusory dungeon. He feels like he’s been planning for hours but then he gets defeated minutes after facing the lion. It’s so not fair how that big lion picks on him, he thought. If only he had his own lio- That's it. Marcel finally figured out how to defeat the lion, or at least he thought that he had.  

Now on his third attempt, he decided to fight fire with fire. He’s going to fight the golden lion with a lion he made himself. He began imagining and fashioning his mechanical lion that he’d fight the golden lion with. The lion he’s making has to be faster than the golden lion, stronger in terms of toughness and also be able to do a lot of damage against the lion. He made the metal used for making the lion ten times tougher than steel and when he was done making it, he made another. He’s been thinking a lot about back-up plans lately, so having two lions to fight the golden lion would be much safer and better than just one. After all, the lion won’t go down without a fight, so having two mechanical lions is better than one. 

He went again to fight the lion again and as expected, the two mechanical lions weren’t enough to defeat it. They got destroyed by the lion’s powerful fangs and claws, thus leaving Marcel to return in defeat again. He began to think that it was just impossible to defeat the lion. It’s tough and powerful and manages to disgrace him every time they meet. He just like his future husband, the demon lord. He sat on the ground, pondering over what to do now that his metal lion plan had failed, but he came up with nothing, at least nothing new. 

He began thinking about what had gone wrong with his plan. The main problem all in all was that the metal he used just wasn’t strong enough. He began thinking of new metals to use for his next plan. He wanted to make metal a hundred times tougher than steel, but he doesn’t know of such metal in the human world, so he’s left at a loss. But seriously, why is the lion so tough? It’s big, it’s strong, so what could defeat such a powerful creature. He thought of it long and hard and after thinking till his brain couldn’t take it anymore, something came up. A dragon.  

Why a dragon? Well, a dragon is known for its almost impregnable body. Its armor is strong enough to withstand powerful magic attacks at its fullest. They are strong enough to make them one of the most powerful creatures out there, so why doesn’t he think of this lion as something like a dragon? He has nothing against Winter or dragons, but how would he go about killing one, you know, with their strong defensive capabilities? If he can figure that out, then he might finally get rid of that damned lion and get out of this mind dungeon or illusory dungeon or whatever the heck it’s called. 

After pondering about ideas on how to kill a dragon, he thought of something he read in a book recently. It’s said that all dragons have a reverse scale that may or may not appear on its body, well, except for guardian dragons. Touching a dragon’s is unforgivable since that’s their only weakness, so he thought, “If a dragon has a reverse scale as its weakness, then a lion would probably have something like that as well.”  

From what he’d noticed about the lion, it isn’t as fast as one would think it is. Its body is big, but that makes its attacks uncontrollable and predictable at the same time. You can see or predict where the attack is coming from but what type of attack the lion uses depends on it. The golden lion seems to be able to use magic but doesn’t use any magic in particular apart from when it hardens its pelt and creates spikes out of them. It doesn’t seem to have a weak point either, just like a dragon, because even though it’s known that the reverse scale is weaker than the other scales, it doesn’t mean that it’s so weak that anyone can target it. And then it came to him, target. You first have to target the reverse scale and then fire an attack at it. The probability of that attack affecting the scale depends on who’s firing that the power and accuracy of the attack, so, what can target and swiftly do away with a bothersome creature without it having a chance to retaliate back? An arrow. 

Marcel then decided to create arrows, and powerful ones at that. They have to be powerful enough to pierce a dragon’s reverse scale, but there’s a problem. Marcel doesn’t know how powerful a dragon normally is. Apart from Winter and Frostbite, he hasn’t met any dragons and he didn’t fight them, so determining the strength of one is very hard. Marcel made the arrows anyway and he made them as powerful as he could imagine. After all, an arrow that can drill a hole into a mountain can’t be called anything but powerful, and after he was done with that, he added a special effect to it and also prepared a few other precautions in case it didn’t work. After making something he’d never seen before once again, he felt so exhausted that he just laid on the ground and slept. It seems that the mental ability has a power source after all and hi. He slept for a few hours until he had recovered his strength, then he went once again to fight the lion. 

This time, the lion was ready as it had been for Marcel’s first three attempts and being as impatient as it was, it attacked him first.  

“Foolish demon! This time, I won’t let you get away!” The lion said, its voice as powerful as ever. Marcel was sick and tired of the lion calling him a demon, although he technically would be one sometime in the future. He began his usual antics of using the steel net and hammer first and then when the lion did what it usually did, as predictable as it always is, he launched his trump card. 

His trump card came from above in the form of an eagle since that was the special effect Marcel added to the arrow. He made the arrow take the shape of an eagle and made it fly high enough to come down fast enough to imitate the force an arrow released by a bow. The eagle in the middle of descending, will then transform into the arrow and hit the lion. The lion, upon seeing the approaching arrow from above, turned its pelt spiky and to his surprise, the arrow pierced its back.  

The lion seemed very surprised that the arrow pierced through its defense, but it didn’t seem at all worried even after it got hit by the arrow. The lion observed Marcel’s expression to see if he was up to something, but there was nothing. Marcel didn’t even come in a five meter’s proximity of the lion and his expression was normal. After seeing Marcel’s normal expression, the lion determined that it was out of danger, that that one arrow was all Marcel had. But Marcel wasn’t running away like he usually did, so the lion began getting worried.  

The lion, upon seeing that Marcel wasn’t running away and determining that the arrow he was shot with was the only one he had, tried running towards Marcel, going for the kill, but then it saw some red liquid gushing out of its underbelly.  

“What?! What is this?!” The lion asked Marcel, angry but worried about what was happening to it. 

“I don’t think you have time to worry about that. Look above you.” Marcel pointed to the skies. The lion looked towards the sky and when it did, it saw four more birds flying above it.  

“But there aren’t any birds here? Where did they come from?” The lion thought. After a second to collect its thoughts and reviewing what happened a few seconds ago, he had a good idea of what those birds were. For the first time since coming to the prairie where the lion was, Marcel finally saw an expression of fear in the lion’s eyes.  

“No, no, no, no, no!!!” The lion said as it continued to bleed. It looked at Marcel whose expression was the same as it’s been the whole time and shook its head as if telling him not to do what it thinks Marcel is about to do. 

“Sorry, but it just has to be this way. I can’t get out of here without eliminating you and thus, I apologize.” Marcel said and then at his command, the four birds in the sky descended. They turned into arrows similar to the first one and pierced the lion’s body, making big holes inside of the enormous body of the lion even though the lion activated its defense. They broke through so fast that the lion’s pelt accomplished nothing in terms of defending it from Marcel’s attack. It fell to the ground and bled profusely. 

“Damn you! Damn you, demon! You invade my domain, make fun of me, then kill me?! Curse you!! Curse you!! May you suffer for as long as you live! May your life be hell on earth! Damn you!!!” The lion cursed Marcel on the verge of its death in anger and resentment. 

“Once again, I’m sorry. This was the way it had to be. I apologize.” Marcel said to the lion in its last moments, then bowed to show respect to one that he acknowledged a powerful and worthy opponent before it slowly began disintegrating and disappeared.  

He bowed in front of where the lion had been before it disappeared once again and felt grateful to it. If not for him coming into the illusory dungeon and meeting it, he would have never acknowledged his willingness to run in the first of great danger even though he was a hero. Running over and over again in the face of danger taught him how much of a weakling he was and because of a weakling, he had to come up with ways to defeat a foe he had no chance against in the beginning in a fair fight, thus increasing his creativity as he came up with things he’d have probably never tried if not for the lion. His creativity had increased so much that he has new ideas on how to use illusions and also different magics. He felt like trying the illusory dungeon was the right idea as it forced him to broaden his imagination.  

After thanking the lion for all it has done to help him to further better his imagination and progress in learning magic, the prairie abruptly got dark, like the lights of the place had all been switched off at the same time and when Marcel opened his eyes back again, he was among his treasures once again. He looked at the giant room and as he did, he heard his Informer go off. It had new information for him. 

 

<< Notifying: You have acquired a new skill, [Golden Lion’s Roar], a skill that instills fear in enemies with a strength lower than yours. It can be used to provoke beast-type dungeon monsters and opponents with soul power weaker than yours. It can also create a sonic attack that can make an opponent's ears bleed out, so be careful not to use it around monsters with sensitive hearing.>> 

 

Marcel heard the notification feeling a little happy, although he still found the demon lord’s voice that his Informer carried a bit distracting. It made him lose focus sometimes on the important information since the voice wasn’t the actual demon lord’s usual talking voice but rather his hot whispering voice that Marcel couldn’t help blushing when he heard. He’s glad that he’s gotten used to the demon lord’s presence, which is a weird thing to think according to him since somewhere inside his mind, the demon lord still carried the label of an enemy of heroes. He’s at least not blushing in front of the demon lord at the moment, so everything is fine. 

Marcel, after hearing the notification and pondering over how hot the demon lord’s voice that one time was, laid on the floor beside the huge pile of stuff that he was now owner too. He never thought that he would own so much stuff before, since well, he was raised in an orphanage and even though he went to live in the next big city after the capital Freiyz, he never indulged in buying himself luxurious things. He just sent most of the money he got back to the orphanage and made sure that they soon moved from the small village to one of the other seven big cities apart from Freiyz and Denfel, the city he previously lived in while in the human world. 

He looked at the treasures in the room and thought about his life at that moment. What would his family think if they found out that he was the demon lord’s wife? They probably would be easily convinced the moment they met the demon lord. He also thought of what his unknown parents might think too, but couldn’t think of anything good. He spent the next minutes after that staring at the Rubik's cube and thinking about how satisfying seeing the lion full of holes was. He felt so good about defeating the lion. He got rid of that lion who bullied him so much and even gained a skill from it. He thought of his life once again and felt like it wasn’t bad at all. 

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