Sometimes, we all just have this one month where only bad things happen, don’t we? If Marcel had a word to describe the past month of mostly misfortune that he’s been forced to endure, then Boltz is the appropriate word he’d use.
AAAHHH!!! Why, why, why? Why did he have to come to this mostly barren and gloomy place where sunlight is as rare as a solar eclipse to train? Oh, it was for fucking lightning bolts to strike him. Despite expecting that his time on Boltz was going to be painful, he tried his best to hold back his thoughts and feelings that told him to give up. Heck, he even resorted to cursing people for pain relief, and in the end, he came out victorious. He endured so long because it was all for his pride and future.
He was still weak, very weak and that isn’t good. He had to get strong enough to be considered a threat against the cheeky Demon Lord who did nothing but belittle him at every move. He has to make that bastard pay for calling him weak the night after he screwed him. This was all for a future where he could sneer victoriously as he brought the Demon Lord to his knees. Even though he might have given up on the idea of killing the Demon Lord somewhat, that guy deserves some good thrashing and he’s going to be the one to deliver it. He’ll make sure of it!
For the victory he planned in his head, he held everything in. He held in how foul he smelled from having his skin peeled and mostly charred and his clothes burned from the repetitious lightning strikes. He had wanted a break from the lightning atop the hill but he never got the relief he desired. He sat there, not moving for the many days before he finally achieved his goal of high lightning resistance. He was frustrated at first but eventually calmed down and bore the pain all by his lonesome. Nobody could help him with this goal of his, except for the Spirit of the World, but even she ignored his pleas for the world’s assistance for many days.
He sat atop the cliff, sleep-deprived the entire time as well. His eyes desperately needed rest but he didn’t give them any. It got so bad that he started hallucinating. For some reason, he saw his cheeky archnemesis, the Demon Lord, laugh at his sorry state and it annoyed him even more. He felt cranky and was sure that he’d gone deaf from having sat through the multiple lightning strikes which fried most of his organs. They were also incredibly loud. Sure enough, intermediate light magic could heal those injuries right up but still, nothing would feel the same for a while. Having not eaten anything for a long time, he had become so thin. He lost so much weight that his body had long started eating apart his muscles. If not for the fact that the magic energy in the air helped with sating him a little, he would have already collapsed.
Marcel looked terrible. Having not slept for over a month now, he had these huge eye bags under his eyes that had morphed his cute and attractive face into that of a sleep-deprived monster who sought to eat anyone who dared to even give him a glance. His remaining muscles became stiff and his entire body, albeit the strengthening at the hands of the lightning strikes, felt so weak that he could hardly mood.
His intense hunger worsened that situation even more. It reached its peak and so did his loud stomach growls, frustration, and impatience which seemed to want to swallow him whole. Even with how bad his situation was, the poor guy gave it his best to endure all the pain that his journey to acquire powerful lightning resistance and lightning bolt brought him, and now, guess what? HE DOESN’T KNOW WHERE THE TELECIRCLE IS!!! Just great!
Yes, the location of the telecircle which should help him return home, the place where he’ll finally find the solace he desperately needed, is unknown to him. Damn that Claude! Why didn’t he just tell him that? How is he supposed to get home now? Is this a test or something? Seriously, why does everyone have to make things harder for him?! Argh!!!!!!!!
‘Oh, yes! Why did Claude not tell Marcel the location of the telecircle leading out of Boltz?’ is a question someone should ask, right?
Simple! It was to introduce the little hero to some hardship. As a hero, most of his life was going to be smooth sailing with the aid of the Spirit of the World. With his immense amount of luck, the number of cliché solutions that are normally presented to him when he’s in trouble is astronomical. He’ll hardly experience any setbacks in life and this... isn’t good!
Without any setbacks, Marcel will be unable to move forward when he eventually meets one that challenges the life that he’s lived so far; a situation where the world is unable to assist him. He won’t be able to make proper decisions and will always be counting on others to help him in tough situations. Overcoming adversities is a basic trait everyone should have, even heroes and thus, Claude was willing to play the villain this time and the Demon Lord agreed too. After all, why would Claude even tell him about the dangerous skill he invented if the Demon Lord hadn’t approved of it? This time, even Vitalis agreed with the prodigy and the Demon Lord and so, she wasn’t interfering until Marcel was on the brink of certain death, though, in the end, she pitied him and helped anyway after he acquired the low resistance. Such a softie!
After more than a month of sitting on a hill that strengthened and weakened him immensely, even his mind wasn’t in the mood for any deep thoughts. All he could think about was a nice hot bath, a feast, and a week-long sleep but before all that, he somehow has to get himself home and this time, even Aspen’s gift, the vine tattoo, isn’t responding to his calls for help. Now he has to find the telecircle all on his own. Great!
Taking a deep breath, Marcel tried calming down his riled-up emotions and thought of his next move. His brain was lagging from the effects of malnourishment. He couldn’t come up with many ideas except for manually looking for the circle, though it might take a few additional days before he finally does find it. Hey, he’d endured thus far but he thinks he can make it. The worst that could happen was him getting even more frustrated but then again, what could a few more days on Boltz do to him when he’s already at his breaking point.
Now before he went off looking for the circle, first, he had to eat something. He was already running low on energy. Claude recommended not eating anything during the time he trained and that was already over, so he could eat now, probably. Some food could help with increasing his energy for a while. He didn’t have much in his spatial storage but it was enough to keep himself fed for an entire week. He was starving so might as well eat half of it right then and there... and so he did. He was a growing boy, albeit how he looked. The foodie, in a world where lightning could come at him at any time, sat down again and ate half of what will take three normal people to finish in a week in two hours and it did nothing much to him. He was so hungry that he almost couldn’t resist eating the other half in that very moment, but his tired brain stopped him. Reasoning Marcel wasn’t gone just yet.
What was he going to do tomorrow if he finished it all that day? His brain asked him.
He stopped himself from making that mistake and instead, focused on finding the circle and soon as possible.
Firstly, before he began, he put on some damn clothes. The old ones were already singed to ashes. Seriously, what is with him and finding himself in situations where he ended up naked? He should probably wish for indestructible clothes the next time he has EP and hope that the Spirit of the World will give it to him.
Jokes aside, Marcel tidied himself a bit and put on some clothes to look presentable in case he met someone while finding the telecircle. Some illusion magic here and there and boom, he had hidden a bit of his eye bags. Even with his proficiency with illusion magic, he still needed a certain level of focus to bring out its potential but right now, he doesn’t care. It was fine as long as he didn’t look too much like a starved, sleep-deprived monster in front of others. He could muster at least that much focus for the illusion spell.
With the illusion magic out of the way, the only thing left was how to look for the telecircle but, walking is too hard! He didn’t have much energy, to begin with, so wind flight magic it is. He decided to fly and look for the circle from above. It would also be much faster that way. If he did that, with his flight limit around 80 km/h, he was sure that he would make much more progress in a short amount of time. This plan was good but the moment he started flying, he saw a big problem with his plan. He’d failed to account for his little lightning friends overhead.
A few minutes after he started flying, he noticed a serious problem with his plan. Um, why are the lightning bolts trying their hardest to knock him out of the air?
The lightning bolts claimed the skies of Boltz as their territory and anyone who tried to enter would face their wrath. Him flying in the territory they’d claimed, even if he housed their brother, was just insolent. He needed to be terribly punished but out of consideration for their brother, they’d leave the lower part of the sky to him.
They struck at Marcel whenever he aimed for a higher altitude and even with his lightning resistance, it was painful, so he kept to the lower skies and flew very cautiously. After all, his lightning resistance didn’t mean complete immunity to lightning. He’d get very hurt if he got enough lightning strikes.
With him sticking to his part of the sky and leaving the lightning to theirs, the number of stray lightning bolts that aimed for him lessened and his flight was peaceful. He flew for about an hour and a half and when he came to a part of Boltz densely packed with the battered trees he’d noticed during the time he spent on that hill, he noticed three men in the distance. They’d come from amidst the forest of trees and were going somewhere. Were they perhaps going to the telecircle? Maybe he should stop and ask around. It will help greatly with his search.
What will this encounter bring? Will it be good fortune or ill fortune, a blessing or a curse?
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