~Percy's Pov~

I woke up pretty late in the middle of the night. My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. Remembering the rewards for the last quest I opened up my inventory, scrolling down I finally found what I was looking for, the level 5 skill disk. As I pulled it out I saw it looked like a round steel disk with a 5 on the front of it. It was also pretty small too maybe the size of a sand dollar.

Bing!

Choose a Skill to level up 5 levels!

The skill menu then popped up in front of me. I didn't know which skill I would like to level up, on one hand, I could do the reading skill, the sneak skill sounded pretty good, then I remembered that the Earthquakes skill was a low level. Eventually, after a long debate with myself, I went for leveling up 'Critical Strike' so I pressed on it.

Bing!

Skill Leveled Up!

Critical Strike Level: 6

Small chance that the user may gain an extra damage boost when attacking.

Increase- 1200% Every Critical Strike

2230%=52% Chance of Critical Strike

My eyes for the second time that day nearly bulged out of their sockets. I then opened up my 'Status' menu and decided to use up some of the Skill Points I had. Also just in case, you're wondering here's my current stats.

Name: Perseus Jackson

Title: Champion of the Unclaimed

Race: Demi-God

Level: 10

XP: 529/10000

HP: 550/550

MP: 275/275

Str: 817=25

Vit: 4517=26

Dex: 35317=28

Int: 717=24

Wis: 917=26

Luck: 517=22

Stat Points: 45

I had thought about it for a while until I decided to increase Str. and Dex. using both 10 Points on them to increase them. Bringing Str. up to 35 and Dex. up to 38 with the bonus of my current title. So that left me with a total of 25 Skill Points, I sighed in contentment, I then laid back down and fell into the pleasant domain of Morpheus.

I woke up when the truck stopped, Annabeth and Grover were already up. I heard the front driver's door opened and closed, I then heard someone walking around to the back of the truck. We all ended up hiding behind a couple of crates, then the doors opened and sunlight flooded inside. "Yeah, they're all still fine!" I heard a man yell, presumably to his partner. The doors then were shut again but they weren't locked.

"Well, it's now or never," Annabeth said and then got up and led us to the doors. "Wait, We can't leave them here like this," Grover said as he gestured to the caged animals. We all had a silent agreement, I slashed open the locks with Riptide and quickly opened the doors. All of the animals then burst out into the streets jam-packed with cars.

As we exited the truck I looked around and noticed we were in Las Vegas. I could see all the hotels, the fake Statue of Liberty, and the tiny Eiffel Tower. We soon got off the Highway, but not after I noticed somebody take a photo of us.

We approached a hotel, an alluring aroma alluring us towards it with a sign called 'Lotus Hotel and Casino'. We entered and was surprised to see all of the games, food, and other stuff. Music was blasting throughout the whole building. I heard laughing and people just having a good time. Then a man came up to us, "Ah, finally, you showed up," He was dressed in a nice red velvety suit. We thought he had a confused for someone else. "I think you got us mixed up with someone else," I pointed out.

He then stared at us blankly before bursting out in laughter. "Oh, that's a good one sir," he breathed out, He then held his hands out, and in it was 3 plastic cards. "Anyways, here are your cards, feel free to try out any of our amazing games or food, Your room is number, 308." He then backed away to greet another pair of guests.

We then went ham on the games and food. I even managed to sneak several plates of food into my inventory. Let me tell you, this place had amazing pizza, absolutely to die for. Heck, I was even able to gamble some chips I cashed in with the card. I knew I had to be 18 or older to gamble but no one in here cared. So I went with it. With a little bit of betting on specific roulette numbers, then using condensed moisture in the air I was able to get a good amount of money off it, $10,500 to be exact.

I know it's technically cheating but hey I was given this gift by the Gods so why not use it? Plus I even got a new skill from it.

Air Moisture Manipulation Level: 1

The user controls smaller particles of water in the air to their advantage.

Cost: 15 MP per minute

I walked around and cashed my winnings in, not wanting to make every guy in this place bankrupt. Then I accidentally bumped into a girl, we both fell to the ground. I was first to stand up and I offered my hand to her, "Sorry, I didn't look where I was going," She didn't take my hand and didn't respond. She had black hair and a green cap on her head. The cap was positioned in such a way that I couldn't see her face, but I felt her eyes on me.

She kept her eyes on the ground and walked away, "Um, are you ok?" I asked out to her, She still walked away and walked away behind some arcade machines, I scratched my head and walked away. I eventually walked up to our room. On my way up I walked into a guy, (I seem to be doing that a lot recently.) he didn't fall but I noticed he looked a lot like an Elvis impersonator. "Woah, sorry dude," I said while apologizing, "Dude, you like, totally messed up my groove." He then pulled a comb from his white jacket and 'cleaned' his slightly miffed hair.

He then walked away while I stood there slightly confused. When I got to our room I walked into our room and washed my face in the sink.

Bing!

Due to Entering a body of water, you have gained 25 to Str. Vit. and Dex., as well as a 2,000 to HP and MP.

I sighed and suddenly an image shimmered in front of me, and no it wasn't a part of the gamer ability. It showed a woman underwater, she had black hair and sea-green eyes, She had lots of traits similar to mine, she could have passed as my sister.

"Lord Perseus, you're under a spell, the Lotus Casino is trying to keep you there, It's a realm different from our reality, You must escape," "Wait, Wait, Wait. Slow down a moment, What do you mean?" I asked, "The Casino you are currently in is trying to trap you in its walls forever, you, however, must escape, Your father sent me to warn you and give you these." Amazingly 3 milky-white pearls appeared in the sink.

"Smash them under your feet and it will guide you home," Her voice started to sound distorted and the message was cut off. If this was a warning sent from a God I needed to get Annabeth and Grover and get out of here. I grabbed the pearls and headed downstairs. I spotted Annabeth playing a Virtual Reality Architect Building game.

I yanked the headset off her and said, "Annabeth, we gotta get outta here," She suddenly got really upset with me "What the hell Percy? Can't you see I'm busy?" She then tried to grab the headset from my hands but I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, "BIG SPIDERS, BIG HAIRY SPIDERS."

Her eyes then widened, "How long have we been here?" "I don't know but we gotta find Grover," We then explored to search for him until we found him playing a reverse hunting game, where you shoot the humans. "HAHA, Take that, you filthy Humans!" He yelled at the screen, I felt a little hurt but both Annabeth and I grabbed his arms and hauled him away. Kicking and screaming like a child.

"Oh come on guys, I just unlocked a new level!" We were stopped at the exit by the same man who greeted us when we came in, He then trusted out another card this one platinum in color. "We just got a message to upgrade your cards," Grover was about to reach out and take one but We hauled him away. "No thank you we really must be going," I said, "Shame, we just got a new haul too."

As we exited we saw that Grover had calmed down, "Sorry guys, I don't know what came over me," I had just noticed it became night. Looking at a nearby newsstand I saw we were in there for several days. The quest was due tonight! We set off to find the entrance quickly.

We walked past what looked like a Pawn Shop and I saw the news playing with Gabe on it. I read the Headline and it said "Teen Delinquent On the Run." It then showed a picture of me at the bus while holding Riptide, but Riptide was disguised as a baseball bat. I was pulled away by Annabeth, leading us down an alley. We started to search for where there could be an entrance to the Underworld.

~Line-Break~

We had spent the entire day walking around and looking for an entrance. As we entered a dark alley I saw a building with its sign still shining. The sign was easy enough to read with my Dyslexia 'DOA Recording Studios'. I felt a strange pull, walking in I saw something I didn't expect to see that day. Tons of Spirits waited in line, most likely waiting to be taken to the Underworld.

A man sat behind a desk reading a magazine article about a new fashion. I walked up to the counter with Annabeth and Grover behind me. "Excuse me, sir," That got him to look up from his magazine, "What do you want?" I assumed this wasn't gonna be as easy as I first thought. So I pulled a couple of Drachmas from my pocket while opening my inventory and set them on his desk. "An audience with Lord Hades." I then stacked another 10 coins on the desk.

He was staring intently at the coins, I then added another 4 to the pile. He snatched it and stood up, "Your death kid." We were led to an elevator, As he turned back to us I read his name tag, Which I almost read as Chiron but I noticed it was spelled 'Charon'. He then opened the door and we got in, we started to descend, it took a good 10 minutes of no talking until something else happened.

The elevator shifted into a boat, Charon was now wearing a black robe with a hood and was bringing us across a black river, items were floating in the river a ring, microphone, a diploma, and a collar. "What is this?" I asked as I looked over the side of the boat, "It's the river of Styx kid, every time someone has a dream and gives up on it something pollutes this river," Charon explained.

We crossed the river and eventually hit the bank on the other side. "This is your stop," Charon said before he led us off, He then got back on and drifted the boat away off into the red mist. We continued down a gravel path, then we came across Cerberus, a giant rottweiler with three heads. Spirits were walking off into different lines, one had a sign with "Quick-Judge".

"What's with the different lines?" "Some spirits don't want to risk being put into the Fields of Punishment so they just go into the Fields of Asphodel, The other is being judged by 3 different judges. Which switch around every couple of days" Annabeth explained. I looked past Cerberus and noticed a menacing-looking black castle, Standing on an overlook.

As we got in front of Cerberus he looked down at us very suspiciously. I had no idea how we were gonna get outta this one until Annabeth pulled out a red rubber ball. Then Cerberus had a complete 180 in attitude because he was holding out his tongue, wagging his tail, and practically pleading for the ball. Annabeth threw the ball up to him and his left head started to chomp on it.

We got past him as he was distracted. Suddenly Grover's shoes opened up and started to fly off in a different direction. Annabeth and I had to run after him to keep up. While we were chasing him he was yelling out "Maia!" but the shoes wouldn't respond. He entered a cave and grabbed on to a stalactite, allowing us to get enough time to catch up.

He then lost his grip and continued down the cave. Annabeth and I grabbed one of his arms as soon as he hovered over a deep chasm. I heard the maniacal laugh from my dreams sound in my head as I looked down into the red mist. As we held on Grover managed to kick one shoe off and send it flying into the ravine. The remaining shoe wasn't strong enough to go so we managed to get that one off as well.

After we caught our breath we headed back outside towards the castle and trekked along towards it. As we crossed over towards the castle we heard a distant sad howl from Cerberus. I also noticed a look of sadness in Annabeth's eyes. When we got to the castle we crossed over a bridge, I saw something coming down from the sky. As it approached I realized it was Alecto and her 2 sisters.

"Honey," She spat at me, though she didn't attack. She just stepped aside and let us pass. The doors were guarded by Skelton Warriors with spears. As we walked in we saw a plate white man sitting on a throne made of human bones, he wore a cloak imprinted with moving souls that seemed to be screaming, atop his head sat a crown of Human bones, and his voice boomed and radiated absolute power.

"I'm so glad you saw the error of your ways and decided to help me."

AN: I'm back again, anyway I know I'm not the best at writing dialogue which is why I tend to skip a lot of it. But I hope you enjoy this chapter