[CHAPTER NOT EDITED THROUGH GRAMMARLY. WILL BE EDITED AT A LATER TIME.]
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"Somebody speaking."
'Somebody thinking.'
Disclaimer: I do not own PJ, MCU , or any other anime/novel/manga/fanfic that I may use.
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Chapter 5: My life in the Pit below Hell.
Year 2:
Contrary to my naïve expectations, learning is not always fun.
"You call this a sword?! It looks more like a broken branch from a goddam tree that my grandmother would use as a walking stick! Don't just waste good Drakon bones you fool!" (Damasen)
"Your grandma is a primordial god! Why would she need a walking stick?!" (Perseus)
"How can you not understand?! I explained the same word a thousand times! No titan had this much trouble before!" (Bob)
"I am not a titan dammit! Please explain again." (Perseus)
"Oi! How many times do I have to tell you not to eat plants without letting me check first?! This is the twenty third time I've had to cure you from another poison!" (Damasen)
"Your journal is confusing as hell! They all look the same! Can't you draw better?" (Perseus)
"Do you have rocks for eyes? The letter looks like this! THIS!" (Bob)
"*Snort*" (Little Bob)
Yeah, learning is not always fun.
Lesson learned.
Year 10:
"I don't know but I've been told, this language is way too fucking old." (Perseus)
"Damn right it is! That's the point, now get back to meditating!" (Bob)
"Sir, yes sir." (Perseus)
With a mock salute, I went back to meditating on a few words. My two friends can be real marine grade drill instructors in fields they are proud of. Bob told me that not many learn enchanting because knowing a language to speak and knowing it on a deeper level are different things that almost no one focused on aside from the scholar/forging types and a few rare ones like him.
Learning the language was one thing, I finished that in a few years, but for the deeper understanding, he explained that I should focus on a few specific words to get the enchantments I'm aiming for.
It was kind of weird for a while when Bob and Damasen decided the best way for me to learn was for them to only speak in the old language until I understood it.
That was not a fun time for me. The bastards just smirked at me and kept ignoring me.
It never occurred to me before that, but it turns out I've been speaking fluent Greek during my time down here. A Greek demigod is simply hotwired to naturally know Greek just as Roman demigods naturally know Latin.
Interestingly, they speak Latin down here as well. I didn't take well to the language but it's a work in progress.
Anyway, the words I've been focusing on in the old language are Expansion, Storage, and Recall. I wanted to use 'Space' rather than dividing things up, but Bob said it's dangerous to use 'big' words that are to broad in their ways of use. It was annoying, but I could understand his reasoning.
I chose Expansion because I want to be able to make my own human sized tent. I have memories of some incredible stuff from when my old self occasionally entered Artemis's hunters camp.
I wanted to create a similar style tent that's bigger on the inside and can somehow contain a fire that needs no chimney while the exterior can be grown to a giants size or shrunk to a humans size. I wouldn't want my friends to break my tent if they can't fit through the door.
Next was Storage, I asked Bob if there were ways to store things for easy movement and he told me that using the Storage enchantment should allow me to have a pocket space of sorts.
I planned to tattoo the symbols on my body so I could summon whatever I need whenever I need.
Lastly, Recall was very important. My sword, Riptide, has always had the Recall enchantment on it. Whenever it was lost, it would reappear in my pocket in pen form. I wanted to place this enchantment on every weapon and piece of gear I plan to make so no matter what happens, I wont be caught off guard.
The only thing that can impede it is the direct energy of a primordial god. An example was when Percy attacked Tartarus and got Riptide stuck in his neck. The sword couldn't free itself from the neck.
There were other interesting ideas I had but frankly, I was trying not to bite off more than I could chew.
Ten years and I was making little progress on 'understanding' these words. I meditate and ponder them almost every day and I'm not making much progress.
Bob says its supposed to be hard or everyone and their dog would be an enchanter. Plus, it looks like I didn't have much talent for the art itself.
Still, time can change hard work into results rather than relying on talent.
In other news, I stopped trying to kill myself when learning about edible plants!
I haven't poisoned myself in over a month, so I consider that a plus.
'Wait… is my skin supposed to look yellow….?
…
Fuck.'
"Damasen!" (Perseus)
"Again!?" (Damasen)
Year 50:
You know, novels with training arcs don't do real life justice. The number of little things in day to day life add up. Like fighting monsters on a daily basis, the lack of a challenge can get boring when your able to kill most mid and low grade monsters in a single lethal attack.
Damasen eventually got tired of my whining and started throwing me at his daily Drakon hunt to deal with me while he chilled back at his hut and did whatever he does.
Bob tends to go off on his own to hunt monsters to gather enough energy for the enchantments he made for his new spear/broom.
I asked the guy why he was obsessed with janitor equipment and he said he found it entertaining to beat up monsters and beings with janitorial equipment.
Anyway, on the plus side of things, I got used to using the mist to choose my spoil of war and I got an incredible amount of experience in corpse disassembly.
Fighting the Drakon was one of the few challenges I got these days unless I wanted to walk across of half of Tartarus, so I just focused on learning and training.
I was making great progress as well.
I had myself a fully functional camp in a human's size made out of Drakon materials. The stuff was almost indestructible, I couldn't do a damn thing to it when I tried to attack physically. It's resistant to all elements and it's quite heavy so there is nothing to worry about any weather knocking it off the ground.
I had a large tent for sleeping and relaxing, a tent with a large kitchen and supply room for ingredients, a tent with a makeshift armory and supply room for crafting materials and spoils of war, an open walled workshop with a roof and posts made from Drakon bones plus a Drakon bone furnace, a large outdoor fire pit, and I had plans for a few special designs one I can finish studying the goddamn enchantments!
I was getting close but its still not at the level I need yet.
I also made clothes, sleeping bags, and other clothe related items out of furs from different monsters and beasts I got spoils of war from. Hellhound fur is insanely soft and durable while being resistant to elements and if used in clothing, it helps the user blend into the shadows and lower their presence. Manticore leather is perfect for boots and footwear. Carnivorous Sheep fur is perfect for the inside of tents and for rugs, Giant Crab shell's are perfect for creating various utensils, and Dragon bones are amazing for storing special liquids including their own blood.
What do I want dragon blood for? I'm not really sure. Damasen said its valuable and I recall something similar in fantasy novels I once read.
Crafting was an uphill battle as well. I was able to make my living environment and tools to use but creating weapons was a different ballgame.
It required tremendous amounts of effort just to but an edge on such a hard material. It's been ten years since Damasen let me build my own workshop to practice in. He said my creations finally have enough of an edge to cut a carrot so I could practice on my own time now.
I walked away with a twitch in my eye and my carrot slicing Drakon sword.
Still, I have to give the guy credit. He makes working with one of the hardest materials in the world easy. I bet Hephaestus would envy this guys skill with bone crafting.
But Drakon bones were not the only material to use for crafting in Tartarus. There were mines for Stygian Iron down here and being the champion of Lady Styx got me the benefit of being able to jump into her water with heated Stygian iron ore to finish its processing without being smited by her.
In the underworld, Hades had to make extensive deals and offerings to Styx before she allowed him to use her waters to process Stygian iron.
I planned to use this material for a few weapons. You see, like I said before, Bob was the one to invent his method of using the essence and energy from monsters he slays to fuel the activation of his enchantments.
I don't know what non-primordials would use as substitutes but whatever it is, it requires a lot of energy.
Think of a few thousand slayed monsters just for one activation. And that's mostly because its harder to find the older monsters that lived long enough without reforming as they have the most energy.
My idea was simple, I would use Stygian iron weapons property of absorbing the essence of beings it slays to my advantage.
A simple Stygian iron dagger could hold a few hundred monsters worth of essence.
When I wondered why more demigods and gods didn't use the material, Damasen just laughed at my ignorance.
Turns out, its only beings of the underworld and with connections to 'death' or incredibly powerful gods that can use the material. Otherwise, the weapons would absorb the wielders essence as well.
Another benefit of being Lady Styx's champion.
The other two materials I could find here were the actual rocks of Tartarus but they were heavily corrupted by Tartarus's foul essence so unless I wanted to make a weapon that would constantly try to corrupt me, it wasn't a great idea.
The other one was Stygian ice.
Stygian Ice is a rare material that can only be made in the river Styx as it is cooled. Despite its fragility, it won't melt like normal ice. When the holder of Stygian Ice is close to death, the ice will become colder until it feels like it is burning, but from cold instead of heat.
Stygian Ice can be forged into different shapes to be used for different purposes, but it is very hard to craft.
With my slowly returning memories, I remembered I once had a whistle made out of the material. It could be used to summon hellhounds, however it shattered after a single use.
It was around my 34th year that I remembered I had a loyal hellhound companion named Mrs. O'Leary but no matter what I did, I couldn't summon her to me. I could feel something responding to my call, but Tartarus was interfering with it.
According to Damasen, nothing could teleport out of Tartarus and while no one would want to teleport in, it would still be incredibly difficult. It was easier to just jump into the physical hole.
I didn't really know what to use Stygian ice for at the moment, so I tried making a whistle like the one from my memory.
It was NOT easy.
The damn thing kept exploding if it was only slightly cracked and water immunity or not, it's not a pleasant feeling to be at the epicenter of a magical ice explosion.
Eventually, I did manage to finish one.
Looking down at the whistle in my hands, I hesitated.
"Do I really want to attempt this? Wouldn't it be awful to get her stuck in Tartarus along with me?" (Perseus)
A grunt to my side made me turn to see Damasen sitting nearby.
"Don't be a fool Perseus, do you not know how much pain it would cause a loyal companion to not be able to be by its master's side?" (Damasen)
Bob, who was feeding Little Bob on the side spoke up as well.
"I tried to let Little Bob go once before and it was a frightening experience. I was mauled and dragged back home covered in blood." (Bob)
Damasen and I looked down at Little Bob, the size altering giant saber tooth cat, and saw the titan house cat sized furball give us a look like it was looking down at us. Like a god standing before mortals.
We just rolled our eyes and moved on.
Cats stand supreme, any question to their supremacy will be met with sharp claws as long as they don't find a nice spot to nap in. In that case, the mauling will come at an annoying time like when your sleeping.
Turning back to the whistle in my hand, I confirmed my decision and blew on it.
An extremely high-pitched sound rang out and all of us to wince or hiss in pain.
The sound lasted a few seconds before the ice whistle shattered.
I looked around but didn't see any change and just sighed.
"Well, I guess that didn't wo- OOF!" (Perseus)
*BARK!*
I got tackled by what felt like tank and when I tried to turn my head, I only saw a massive wall of midnight black fur and a giant…. red… tongue.
"No girl! Down! Ahhh! That's gross! Ok, ok, I get it, I missed you to." (Perseus)
Mrs. O'Leary reached me.
"*whistle* Well I'll be, that's one massive hellhound you have got there." (Damasen)
"Wow, what a beautiful dog. YOW!" (Bob)
Little Bob didn't take kindly to Bob showing appreciation for a lower creature in its eyes.
The little cat had the mighty titan bending to its will.
I managed to pry the giant happy hellhound away from my face and looked at her in the eyes while rubbing her head.
"Haha, it's good to see you girl. Thanks for coming when I called." (Perseus)
*Whine*
"A lot has happened; sorry it took so long." (Perseus)
*Bark*
I winced at the shotgun volume of her bark but pushed through.
Not that I wasn't caught off guard, I was physically strong enough to play with her without being crushed or injured.
"Hm… hey Perseus, didn't you say that she was your familiar?" (Damasen)
I turned a curious eye at him and responded.
"Isn't this what you meant? She comes when I call for her and listens to me." (Perseus)
Even while I said it, I felt it was wrong. Damasen's deadpan stare confirmed my feeling.
"*Sigh* Sometimes man, I forget that your so young." (Damasen)
I rolled my eyes at that.
"Well, sorry for not being a few thousand years old you old man." (Perseus)
I got a stink eye for my sass, but he continued.
"A familiar is different from a companion. First off, you need to tame or subdue a monster, you have fully tamed this big girl.
Second, you need to reach out with your essence, you can use the mist as a bridge, and connect with her essence.
The result is that she will be strengthened and mutated by your essence, and if she is ever killed, she will reform from your energy rather than reforming in Tartarus.
You must remember, a named monster, one with its own story, will retain their memories upon rebirth in the pit, but the rest will be mostly a blank slate with broken memories like what you experienced.
A monster never truly dies unless they fade. You can disperse or absorb their essence with a Stygian iron blade, but they will still reform anywhere from a dozen to a thousand years later.
When she reforms from your energy, she will retain all her memories." (Damasen)
My eyes widened with every sentence.
"That would be incredible. I wouldn't have to be so worried about her dying that way, not that I want to get her killed but the worry is always there. How come I never heard about this before?" (Perseus)
"Because its an old practice. Hero's and gods don't usually favor a monster, they would rather kill it for honor or some nonsense. The idea of bonding with a monster went out of favor even during my time but it was still known back then.
There are probably a few who know of it and use it but again, another reason for it being unliked was that gods didn't want other bonded to their essence. A tamed monster would still require the gods energy for rebirth and most wouldn't enjoy the feeling while a subdued monster also ran the risk of betraying their master if they saw weakness.
Honestly, with the nature of the divine, I'm not surprised the practice got lost to time." (Damasen)
I could only nod to that, from what I recall, I could barely name a few gods who would be willing to do it. Artemis is one, I'm sure those deer of hers are familiars. Her hunters also probably have some form of bond with the wolves.
The idea to bond with Mrs. O'Leary was tempting but I wanted to tell her the truth.
"Hey girl, I think I need to tell you a few things." (Perseus)
At her curious look I sat down in front of her and she laid down with her head in my lap and her tank sized body laid out comfortably.
I did my best to explain the situation to her, she might act like a puppy to me, but she wasn't stupid. She always understands what Daedalus and Percy told her when they were her owners.
Honestly, I may not feel emotionally connected to people Percy knew aside from maybe my father, but Mrs. O'Leary was different.
She was blindingly loyal and steadfast. I mean, she just came to Tartarus for fucks sake! She is smart, she knew where she was going when I called.
I broke the news to her directly and she tilted her head in confusion before sniffing me more carefully.
She raised her head abruptly to look into my eyes and I thought she might attack for a second before I saw her calm down and lick my face gently.
I tried to understand what she was trying to say.
Her aura was sad for sure, but it almost felt like she was saying it doesn't change anything.
Rubbing her head, I smiled at put my forehead against her soft fur.
"You still want to stay by my side girl?" (Perseus)
*Whine*
Her extra sloppy tongue lick gave me her answer.
I gave her an annoyed but happy look and wiped her slobber off on her. She didn't enjoy the return of her spit and tried to play bite me.
"Haha, down girl. Damasen, how do I do this?" (Perseus)
Damasen smiled at the sight of us and I couldn't help but wonder if he ever had a monster of his own.
"Just put your hand on her head and summon some mist. Mentally imagine the mist like a bridge connected her essence to yours. If she accepts it, she will latch onto you and you will feel it." (Damasen)
I nodded and did just that.
Using the mist has gotten easier in the years since I've begun practicing with it.
Damasen has been showing me many different tricks with it but the main and first use he showed me was how to use it as a bridge to connect with things.
The mist has a few specific uses but other than that, it can respond to your intent just like magic but for the divine.
I reached out with the mist and in my mind, created that mental image of our essence's.
In the darkness of my minds eye, a river of energy appeared with different coloured glowing colors. Green and blue for my connection to the ocean, black and gold for my connection to the rivers, and a nice turquoise for my ego.
Off in the distance of the darkness, another river of light came into being.
It was a third of the size of mine and filled with black and soft ember red colors.
I mentally pulled at my essence and reached out a tendril toward the foreign one. Once it made contact, I felt a pulse of… something… and then it responded.
The foreign essence river quickly approached my own river and began to hover around my river like a satellite. It began to extend something similar looking to roots into my river and I immediately felt a pull from my core.
With a smile, I exited my mind and my eyes widened at the sight in front of me.
"What's going on!?" (Perseus)
Mrs. O'Leary was covered in clouds of glowing darkness like a shroud and I heard strange cracking noises coming from the inside.
Damasen quickly approached a put his giant hand on my shoulder, or more like a finger on my shoulder.
"Sorry Perseus, I should have mentioned this first, this is part of the process. Once the bond is made, the master's essence will influence a mutation in the familiar. It's usually a positive change unless your essence was extremely dark and vile." (Damasen)
I slowly processed that and nodded.
"How long is it supposed to take?" (Perseus)
Damasen shrugged.
"I don't know the answer to everything you know. But if I had to guess, I would say a few hours to a few days, your much more powerful that may realize, she is being altered to an extreme level.
It's rumored that the Nemean Lion was a simple house cat that was bonded with a powerful primordial before it faded or left this world leaving the Lion to run free. That should give you an idea of how much its possible to change." (Damasen)
I couldn't help but gape at that piece of knowledge.
Sure, Percy had killed the beast once but that was with a team and dumb luck. That beast was powerful, deadly, and had it actually wanted to kill him, Percy and his friends would have been slaughtered. It was just playing around with them for some reason.
My look towards my familiar was no longer just worried but expectant.
"I wonder what she will look like when its done." (Perseus)
Just then Bob spoke up.
"You know, from the story you told us of her, she was named Mrs. O'Leary by Daedalus right? Why not give her a new name with her new mutation? You're a new man, she is a new familiar, it would be fitting." (Bob)
Damasen and I blinked and exchanged looks before he shrugged.
"It's your call, but it's a good idea." (Damasen)
"I like the idea but I'm not sure on a name just yet. I'll wait till she's done before deciding." (Perseus)
They both agreed with me and then went to do their things.
As for me, I decided to sit down and meditate for a while to watch over her.
Free time means more training time.
*Line Break*
Year 100:
Annabeth.
Annabeth, Rachel, Calypso, Grover, Thalia, Nico, Chiron, Zoe, Charles, Silena, Hazen, Reyna, Leo, Jason, Piper, Frank, Blackjack, Mother, Tyson, Luke, and so many more.
It took a century, but my memories of the people Percy knew returned to me.
I had pieces and broken memories before so I couldn't put together faces and names. Only scenes where Percy would be doing something without being able to see the others around.
I recalled Percy's fights in the supernatural world along with lots of broken memories of meeting different gods early on.
From there, bits and pieces slowly recovered. 98% of it was from the supernatural side without any faces and names aside from gods.
Little by little, these memories pieces themselves back together and here I am. A century later and Percy's mortal half of the memories are back.
I didn't really know what to feel.
I don't exactly feel an emotional connection to these people, I am not Percy.
If anything, I think positively on some while others I would have cut down in a heartbeat were, they to stand before me.
My thinking and actions have drastically changed from the young man Percy was back then. He was around seventeen when he died while I am a century old.
I love learning, fighting, hunting, and frankly, I am quite comfortable where I am, even if this place is the stuff of nightmares to the Greek/Roman pantheons.
Percy's life was his own and mine is my own, I have no issue with understanding that. If anything, I only really feel a connection to Percy's monster companions because of their devoted loyalty.
I called on Mrs. O'Leary years ago out of both curiosity and the desire to tell her that Percy was gone. Out of all the people in the memories I recovered, she was the one I could see waiting patiently until she fades for Percy to return.
I couldn't do that to her, and I am incredibly grateful I called on her.
*Grrrr*
A low growl made me turn to see my familiar coming up to and I couldn't help but smile at my partner I've become comfortable with for the last fifty years.
"Hey girl."
She walked around my body a few times before finding a comfortable place to lay down while putting her massive head on my lap.
*Whine*
"Aw, what happened? Did Little Bob bully you again?" (Perseus)
*Grrr*
"Haha, I don't think the little furball wants to be friends." (Perseus)
*Whine*
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you will get her to turn around one day." (Perseus)
My loyal companion is still very friendly to anyone I deem an ally. She is always helpful and protective of myself and to a minor extent, Bob and Damasen. So when Little Bob is in a similar position with Bob to me and my girl, she thought she could make a friend.
Little Bob, however, is not a fan of canines.
That won't stop my girl though, she can be determined when she wants to be.
And speaking of her, I should probably mention just how she changed from being Mrs. O'Leary, the tank sized hellhound mastiff, into being my familiar who I named, Yin.
The mutation process took a week in total.
When I could finally see her again, she had changed from her mastiff looking appearance into a sleek and deadly looking wolf.
She still had the same midnight black fur, but her body structure was altered. She is still the size of a tank and her defense is insanely high, but she is more streamlined. Also, her eyes turned into burning ember like coals that can increase in intensity when she is agitated or excited.
As for new abilities, on top of her increased physical traits, we have spent some time discovering her new powers.
She can still shadow travel but now she can enter my shadow and simply live in there if she wanted to. It seems my shadow is some kind of dimension for her to rest/recover in.
She can alter her size with her current one being her main form. She can't grow bigger, but she can shrink to the size of a small wolf pup. She tends to take joy in riding on my shoulders as repayment for me riding on her in her full size. She's not the fastest thing around but she is damn well the toughest, she just likes to plow through things without taking a scratch.
She gained the ability to ignite her paws on fire and launch fireballs from her mouth. It seems her mutation dug into the genes of hellhounds and pulled out her affinity for fire.
But the biggest ability she gained was something I deemed 'Alpha Hellhound'. She has the ability to tame normal hellhounds that she subdues and make them one hundred percent loyal to her.
In the last fifty years, she has tamed a total of twelve hellhounds and they all live in my shadow until she or I call for them.
Somehow, since Yin and I are connected, the hellhounds listen to my commands as well.
I did have to tell Yin to stop recruiting however, I didn't want a legion of hellhounds living in my shadow no matter how much fun she seemed to be having with making them follow her orders.
I have to feed them after all.
Anyway, aside from Yin, only Annabeth made something stir in me but…
"*sigh* It's been a century already. She must have passed away by now." (Perseus)
If you are wondering how I am alive, there is a very simple reason.
Bob is the titan of mortal life spans.
I took Styx's words to heart about immortality being better than the Greek afterlife and decided to aim for it.
When I asked Bob, he said he was not able to grant me immortality, but he can slow down my aging by a ratio of 100:1. For every century, I aged one year.
Mentally, I'm 117 years old but my body looks 18. Well, with my looks, I could pull off a few years older but that's not the point.
My point it, unless she gained immortality, which is unlikely considered just how much shit you have to pull off to get thunder brains to get over his pride and offer it to a hero, she should have already passed away.
I can only hope she moved on from Percy and lived a full life.
With another sigh, I pushed away from those thoughts.
*Whine*
Yin was giving me a pleading look, she wanted to go play.
Well, play for her was hunting fearsome monsters in anyone else's book but I was happy to oblige.
If you could have summed up Percy Jackson with the word 'Hero'. Then the word for me would be, 'Hunter'.
Year 180:
"I FUCKING DID IT!" (Perseus)
"I can see that; can you not yell in my FUCKING EAR!" (Damasen)
Rubbing the back of my head sheepishly, I smiled apologetically at him, but he waved it off with a good-natured smile.
"It only took you one hundred and eighty years, but you actually managed to do it, that's both sad and impressive for similar reasons." (Damasen)
I punched his shoulder lightly and hmphed at that.
"Oh shut it, this damn thing was giving me nightmares with how difficult it was." (Perseus)
He just chuckled while I turned to Bob who was studying my work.
"So, what you think Bob? Does it pass?" (Perseus)
My voice did not tremble when I asked that, I don't care what anyone says.
Bob nodded and slowly smiled.
"Congratulations Perseus, you finally managed to imbue the meanings of the words Expansion, Recall, and Storage on to something." (Bob)
He almost seemed to swell in pride, almost like my accomplishments were because of his teachings.
My eye twitched at the sight.
'This shameless little….. His damn teaching method is to just repeat the same thing over and over and then say I'm dumb for not understanding. My IQ was enhanced by Lethe for hades sake, this enchanting method was NOT meant for demigods. Even gods don't use it according to these two.'
Still, I pushed through my thoughts when I looked at my hard work.
It was just three strips of leather, each with one symbol carved into it. Each with a word I have been trying to 'understand' on a deeper level for almost two hundred years.
I could agree at this point that I don't have much talent in this area but I don't care. I have become numb to the passage of time as long as I was kept busy with something, it was actually a great way to kill time to meditate on the words and ponder them deeply.
Just as I was soaking in my accomplishment, Bob decided to kill the mood.
"Now you have to go kill a few thousand monsters and activate them to see if it works as intended. If they do, then you can carve the symbol on your equipment and repeat the hunting." (Bob)
Seeing his kind smile, I wanted to kindly stab my sword in his arm.
"You just had to kill my good mood didn't you?" (Perseus)
"Oh? When did I do that?" (Bob)
His innocent smile wasn't as effective since he was holding his broom/spear behind his back.
Damasen was just chilling in a recliner with some Drakon jerky and watching the show.
"You want your ass kicked man! Fine, let's do this." (Perseus)
"Ha! In your dreams you brat, I will have my revenge. Damasen, what's the score?" (Bob)
Damasen pulled out a book and took a look.
"84 – 62 with Perseus in the lead." (Damasen)
I gave Bob a smug look at that while he just growled and charged.
"It will be 63 soon!" (Bob)
Damasen enjoyed a good show that day.
No matter how kind you are, you can't live for multiple centuries with anyone and not have problems. Thankfully, as the three of us are good friends and men, we can just call it a 'spar' and wail on each other. All the stress is gone with just one fight and were all happy.
Still we limit it to just weapons and hand to hand combat, not special powers or we will wreck the area.
I may have had increased stats from the curse of Achilles but thanks to the combo of it and my raised intellect from Lethe, I actually was able to learn and adapt my skills in fighting.
With Damasen, one of the first generation of Giants born to appose Ares, a god of war, and Bob, one of the first generation titans who was actually strong enough to match Kronos in power, I had great sparring partners.
I'm still prone to mistakes and I'm not invincible but I took my skills to a level that could match a full god in straight combat.
As for my various abilities, I'm coming along nicely with them.
Water manipulation is no longer as difficult as it once was, and I am not awkward with changing it from one thing to another. The water I can summon is still limited and I'm not a huge fan of doing it because its very energy intensive. I don't even think there is much water in the air in Tartarus, so I have to directly convert my energy into water, and it a conversion of 1:1 or 1:2 so, not great.
Still, I use it daily on small scales such as drinking water, showering, making a mist or fog when I hunt, and launching small but highly pressured water bullets from my fingers. I even make a hot spring sometimes since I can both heat or cool water, but I do it far from my camp because I swear Damasen and Bob are hounds. They seem to always know when I make a hot spring and demand I make it big enough for them.
Do you understand how much water is necessary for a twenty-foot-tall giant plus a twelve-foot-tall titan? Because it is not a fun experience acting like a fire hose.
I made sure to understand the extent of my earthquake powers far away from Damasen's swamp but it's not something I enjoy using.
Perhaps if I were the only one in the middle of a large enemy army it could be useful but other than that, it just causes mass destruction on a wide area. It's easier to use water or my swords if I am in an area I don't want to utterly wreck.
Other than that, I learned a few tricks here and there for different situations like my water snake tail I made after I was reborn.
The only thing I really couldn't test out was my storm creation. There just isn't enough water to use and even if I'm Styx's champion, she isn't about to let me create a storm from her waters. She is pretty chill but not that easy going.
As for my blessings, I am fully adapted to my curse and stamina levels. I can even use the heating up my blood trick to melt away the curse on specific parts of my body so I would only leave that area vulnerable. I actually made a good but dangerous training method of weakening the curse to lower my stats to a mortals level and training my skills under the pressure.
Just existing in Tartarus without the curse is incredibly painful and taxing so I see it as a training method. It really toughens me up when I let my curse come back in and recover.
Still, with the dangers of it, I don't do it often.
Lethe's gift I try to make the most of. My mindscape is very organized and honestly, I've made so many redundant defenses that if I could forget the correct path, there was no way I would be able to access my own memories.
As a safety precaution, I left myself clues around the area of my mind that only I would understand if I ever do actually suffer from memory loss from something being able to overcome my defenses.
I was prepared but not arrogant, Lethe makes sure to remind me of that whenever I visit him. His powers revolve around the mind and he isn't the strongest such being in the vast universe. He is up there among the mental gods but not the top of the food chain. Don't let that fool you though, he can be terrifying when he wants to.
He could subtly infiltrate your mind without even looking at you and make you think on a base level that you are a rock. You will stop breathing and just die without even thinking to do something.
Or make you think you're a caterpillar, or a magical girl, or a robot. The guy can do scary things to people aside from just his rivers main ability of wiping memories.
As for Cocytus….
We still don't know what her gift does. All I can say is that it makes the action of speaking any language easier and my enhanced lungs makes a variety of things easier for me to do but still, it is weak for her blessing. She also confirmed that there is some other effect, but we couldn't figure it out. It would come in time was the only answer she had.
Finally, my cooking ability. With Damasen's journal memorized, I began writing my own journal filled with recipe idea's and various plants and meats from the things I stumbled into.
Tartarus is WAY bigger than some people might think.
From east to west, it wasn't that big but from north to south, its massive.
Far in the north, there are rolling mountains full of broken glass, sharp jagged rocks, and heavy snow and sharp winds.
In the deep south, there are varieties of different dark forests that are the territories of ancient creatures and different divine beings that were imprisoned in Tartarus.
To the west of Damasen's swamp is Nyx's mansion and where many of her children live.
To the east of the swamp is the forest of curses where everything in it from plants, to monsters, to rocks have different ways of trying to curse people.
To the southeast is the abyss. An area of Tartarus that is just a massive pit of chaos. No one knows what's beneath it and where it leads but it is below Tartarus and it is where Chaos, the father of Tartarus came from and left through.
But what's really surprising is that Tartarus is actually the home to hundreds if not thousand of small minor realms.
(AN: Think of Tales of Demons and Gods. Nie Lie walked through a cave to enter a minor realm.)
Hidden in areas through the plane are tiny entrances to small realms. Many of them are very fragile and cant handle a powerful divine entering them so they are mostly left alone by everyone.
I myself have traveled into a few.
Some had nothing but broken earth and darkness everywhere where Yin was ecstatic and kept messing with me. The only inhabitants were some kind of skeletal fish that didn't do much but simply float around, it scared the crap out of me when I first bumped into one.
Another had a tropical forest filled with strange beasts similar looking to dinosaurs. And others were all kinds of crazy.
I was hoping to find one with ocean water or at least a large body of water but I've had no real luck so far. Only the tropical one had ponds, but the water felt contaminated by something, so I didn't try.
Anyway, that's enough summarizing for now, I have monsters to hunt to fuel my enchantments.
"I'm going to put these things on everything!" (Perseus)
"Then your going to be busy for a while. See you a few years." (Damasen)
I walked off while giving him the finger. Yin trailed after me with a happy smile on her face.
Year 200:
"Ah, it feels good to finish a hard job." (Perseus)
Laying down in my bed in my magically expanded tent, I sighed with satisfaction.
Twenty years.
That's how long it took for me to activate everything I wanted enchanted. All my tents, my backup gear, my important items, my weapons, and my storage area.
All my gear and weapons had the enchantment for recall. Each one was programmed with different distances and times that they should pop back into my storage space if crossed. I could manually turn them off but this way, I never have to worry about not having my gear and I can set up anywhere I need to.
My tents and a few other items had the enchantment for Expansion on it so now I can make the inside and outside of them expand to a large size/space separately. I can keep the tent human sized on the outside while making It a small house on the inside or vice versa.
With literal giant friends, they wouldn't be able to fit through the entrance otherwise.
There are limits to it, but the space is incredibly stable, and anything left inside the tent will not be affected if I pack it up on the outside.
I can have the inside be house sized, walk out, shrink the outside to the size of a beach ball, store it, and move away.
It was one hundred percent worth the effort of two hundred years.
As for where I store everything, well, I debated on it for a long time. It didn't feel right to have it stored into a pouch of jacket or anything so I decided to put it somewhere I couldn't lose it.
I made myself vulnerable and tattooed myself. With the curse back up, nothing could take away my storage.
I placed a tribal styled tattoo of the symbol on both my forearms. This way, I could summon weapons to both hands whenever I needed.
The storage space was quite large as well. Thanks to the enchantment being so strong and stable, the space was as big as a small warehouse and had no weight limit. Food placed inside doesn't rot or time moves so slowly that I can't tell how long it would take to rot. I did find out that there are things I cannot store such as items that are to big or items that belong to someone magically. Such as, Bob's spear or the water from one of the rivers. Taking water from the rivers seems to be the same as stealing a tiny piece of their body, and Lethe made sure to let me know how rude the idea was. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have tested the idea out on him.
While I was at it with the tattoos, I added a stunning tribal style black wolf with glowing red eyes over my right shoulder. Yin loved it and she was almost attached to my shoulder for a month in her small pup form in her excitement. I think she was trying to mark her territory to say my right shoulder belongs to her or something. I just found it adorable.
As long as she doesn't pee on me to mark it then we are good.
Taking a look around my home for the majority of my life, I smiled.
The space was bigger than usual thanks to the enchantment, but it was stylishly designed by me with different furs and pelts I collected over time.
The tent itself was made from Drakon material so its just shy of the hardest material known. And that includes the hide of the beast that makes up the walls, not just the bones.
Furs and pelts of various shades cover the walls and sitting area's.
My bed was my own design. It's a large dome shaped pit lined with soft fur to create a truly relaxing area to sleep in and as long as Yin shrinks down to at least half her size, there is more than enough room for both of us.
In the center of the tent was a large golden brazier burning without smoke, how that worked was actually quite amazing.
(AN: The following topic is bullshit made by yours truly. If you get butthurt by original ideas, pull the broom out of your ass and deal with it. Or shove it back in, that's your problem)
You see, twenty years ago, when I was ready to go out hunting to turn monsters into fuel for my enchantments, Bob gave me a special item.
That item was a large piece of Stygian Ice. Stygian ice is a magical material that comes from then far northern area of Tartarus where snow and ice falls into the river Styx from the harsh mountain ranges and their torturous weather system. The water becomes altered by the Styx and frozen into chunks with magical properties.
Unlike Stygian iron, Stygian ice is not invulnerable, its actually quite fragile so it cant be used for weapons. It can on the other hand be used to craft small items with various uses.
For example, Percy was once given a Stygian ice whistle by Daedalus that could summon Mrs. O'Leary to him. It didn't summon any hellhound but specifically her.
Stygian ice has a large variety of uses but its almost never seen or used for a good reason. Yes, it is processed in the river Styx just like the myths say, but no, it doesn't form just anywhere. It only forms in Tartarus, not in the underworld, because in Tartarus, the snow and ice that falls into the river is not normal, but something created by the body of Tartarus himself and then altered by the river's water.
So, when Bob gave me the piece of ice, he explained another property that I didn't know about. The ice has a single use property of absorbing the essence of anything that dies around it completely and storing it, but it can only be used on a single being's essence and it will only work if the piece is large and pure enough.
(AN: Skyrim – Soul Gems)
If it gets broken, the essence will scatter and eventually return to its original owner.
Most of the pieces that eventually make it to the surface are small, impure, and frankly just unknown. It's a material not many wanted to play with since Stygian iron has such a dark reputation of killing anything that's not related to death.
The piece bob gave me was one he had found recently and offered it to me because he wasn't comfortable with carrying it around. He said I should use it on the small chance that I come across a being with divinity in them. The ice would store their essence if I killed them and stop them from reforming for many centuries.
And five years later, I actually did stumble upon an opportunity to use it.
I came upon the reforming body of Hyperion the titan. An old foe of Percy and the titan of heat and heavenly light among other things.
The guy was a huge jackass and I didn't hesitate to stab him through his bubble and kill him.
The great news was that a wonderful effect was achieved when the Stygian ice piece absorbed Hyperion's essence.
I, Perseus, became the owner of an eternal flame!
Yes, with a piece of pure Stygian ice that cannot melt, it turned the stored essence of Hyperion into a flame that would never go out unless I shatter the ice.
I took the ice and carefully cut it up with exactly half going into my furnace permanently, a fourth going into my brazier, and the last fourth I kept stored for various uses.
It has no attack capabilities as it's not really my power, but its very useful for many mundane things. I doubt Hyperion will mind.
Anyway, back to my tent, against the walls was a large carved cabinet holding many sets of clothes and apparel while a second one to its right held weapons and various items.
Of course, I only placed the most used items out and left the rest in my storage space.
I also had a few leather pillows laid out so people could comfortable sit on the ground, not that the fur rugs weren't soft and comfortable.
The whole space had a warm and comfortable atmosphere.
And finally, I installed a section of the roof of the tent to be able to open up. It was my hope that one day, I could use the tent while looking up at a starry night sky.
All in all, I created a great home for myself and it made me happy.
I had a home, a familiar, two great friends who are as close as brothers to me, loads of hobbies, and I'm in the perfect place to use those hobbies.
But still, it left me with a great question.
"What should I do now?"
I finished all my short-term goals.
I could aim to try and learn more words to enchant, and I plan on doing that in my spare time, but I don't have the desire to focus so strongly on it again.
I've learned most of what I can from Damasen for crafting.
I made myself a few different weapons from Drakon bones. Mainly I use a sword, a hunting knife and few dozen throwing knives all made from the bones, but I have a bunch of other weapons I made for fun to practice.
Longswords, hammers, even a bow and arrows despite the fact that I can't shoot for shit. I honestly blame Apollo, I once read a book on mythology that stated Apollo cursed Poseidon's children to never be able to use a bow well and when I recalled that memory, I was tempted to climb back to the surface and punch the blond bastard.
I tried for a few dozen years but frankly, when you trying to shoot straight and hit anywhere but straight, you should just give up. I hit Damasen a few times and he was not amused but to be fair, I was VERY far away from him and shooting in the other direction.
Didn't help my case though.
I trained my abilities as much as possible for now. Unless I find large amounts of ocean or at least fresh water, I am not improving much anytime soon, not that I won't try to.
And my mind is organized with all my memories intact.
"Well, let's go see Styx, she said she would have some fun quests for me to do. Maybe I can find a challenge somewhere."
Don't get me wrong, sparing with my friends and fighting the Drakon is a challenge, that Drakon is NOT an easy foe at all, but it gets repetitive after two hundred years.
It really makes me feel for Damasen, the poor guy. I wanted to see if I could break the curse, but it was set down by two primordial gods working in tandem, so…. yeah. Not simple.
Hoping onto my feet, I grabbed some equipment and threw on a nice leather hellhound jacket with a fur color over my naked torso and walked out.
I lost my habit of wearing shits long ago, they seem to get destroyed very easily.
My attire varies but for the most part, I just wear strong Manticore leather boots, leather pants with inlaid fur, and a long open leather jacket that reaches to my shins.
(AN: Think of Dante from Devil May Cry when he's not wearing a shirt but with a different face, hair, and slightly different personality. Perseus is not as bad as him.)
Now I know that's a lot of leather but what do you want me to say? Do you see an apparel store down here?
Besides, the leather and fur I have is incredibly comfortable like hellhound leather and fur. Is it in bad taste to wear it when my familiar is a hellhound?
The answer would be yes but frankly, she really doesn't care about it. To her, every hellhound aside from her is an enemy or a minion.
Exiting my tent, I came out to my usual camping spot. An area a short distance away from Damasen's hut and well in the central area of his territory.
Frankly, at this point, I could go mark out my own territory somewhere but why should I? I'm happy chilling on Damasen's land and we all watch each other's backs.
You can't really hope for many down here to do that for you.
Anyway, aside form my main tent, I have a few other things spread out. A second tent that I made into a bathroom since yes, I still need to use the bathroom unlike many down here. The lucky bastards.
It has a toilet, sauna, shower, and other necessities. Of course, the water if provided by me.
Another area is a bit special. It's a kitchen bit with a roof and posts instead of walls. The special thing is that the posts have the expansion symbol on them so that once you walk past the border line, the area is much bigger. It's a bit of an optical illusion that resulted from my experiment with it. This way, my kitchen is mobile as well.
I actually found out that I open a tent flap, the same optical illusion appears on them from the outside.
Aside from those areas, I have a large workshop for crafting, forging, and storing materials. It has a side attached area for skinning monster corpses and draining blood.
That was actually where I learned I have some power over blood. When you get a monsters body as a spoil, it contains all the normal parts you would expect in a fleshy body like blood and organs.
You see, its commonly taught in school that the human body is mainly made up of water, around 70% to be precise, but if you ever read the actual textbook, like Percy has once, once, skimmed through, you would know that the answer is more complicated.
I wont go into the details of the rest of the body but about blood. Blood is made up of Red blood cells, White blood cells, Platelets, and Plasma.
Of those four, Platelets, Red and White cells make up around 47% of your blood and none of it has water.
The other 53% is Plasma, and Plasma is 90% water. This may very slightly in different people but only slightly.
Plasma usually makes up over half of a human's blood and of that half, 90% is water.
So what does this mean? Can I control a person by their blood? I don't know since there isn't a human around for me to test it on.
I tried it on Damasen and Bob with their permission but as they have golden Ichor and not blood, it didn't work. Ichor does not contain water.
I tried it on monsters, but it also didn't work. Not only is their own energy protecting their body but most that do bleed, bleed Ichor as well. When I get a body part as a spoil of war, it's almost like their energy is recreating a piece of their original body before they become archetype monsters. Or perhaps it is using some system I don't know of, I really couldn't say since this is all hypothesis.
The ONLY thing I could confirm was that I could control around half the blood from a monster's corpse once it left its body. Most of the time, I had no intention of keeping it since its gross but occasionally there will be a monster with special properties like a Dragon.
You would think its ancestor, the Drakon, would have valuable blood like its descendants but no, apparently their blood isn't special.
Anyway, it was interesting to learn, I knew different beings have different physiologies but with the idea that most beings should have some amount of water in them, it was a weapon in my arsenal I could use one day.
I left my camp where it was since I have a backup tent in my storage area, the recall enchantments can be manually set to wait a few days for me to come back before teleporting into my storage area on my wrists.
Tapping a foot behind me, I looked at my shadow and spoke.
"Hey girl, you want to give me a lift?" (Perseus)
*Grrr*
Yin rose out my shadow in all her adorable glory with a noise of excitement. At least it was adorable in my eyes, it might be terrifying to another.
"Thanks girl, were going to see Lady Styx." (Perseus)
I jumped on her back and relaxed.
*Bark*
With an excited bark, she took off. Styx has a soft spot for Yin. She says that hellhounds are technically her half siblings and with Yin being so intelligent and happy go lucky around allies, she is found of her.
It only took us a short ten minutes to reach the river Styx thanks to Yin jumping into shadows here and there to shorten the ride. Apparently, Tartarus makes it difficult to make far jumps through shadows for her so we break it up.
Jumping off her back, I rubbed her head and stepped into the water. Her black water was ice cold, cold enough to freeze one to the bone, and yet it didn't bother me much. Perks of my status.
As for another perk, I closed my eyes and focused.
'My lady, may I speak with you?'
I felt a gaze land on me before I opened my eyes to see the water ripple and Styx in her gorgeous humanoid body stepped out. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to care about size and meets me in a body my size.
"Perseus, my dear champion, I was wondering when you would next visit." (Styx)
She smiled gently at me and I couldn't help but smile back. She wasn't exactly a mother figure to me but an off hand aunt might be accurate.
She cares in her own way and is willing to assist me but she won't seek me out unless she needs something.
*Bark!*
She turned to Yin and her smile widened.
"Yin dear, I missed you." (Styx)
With familiarity, Styx approached and began rubbing Yin's neck. No one can resist Yin's cuteness, at least for allies.
I gave a wry smile and decided to tease her a bit.
"Oh, my patron goddess says she missed my familiar but doesn't say the same to me~? I think my heart is in pain, I feel betrayed~." (Perseus)
I got a dismissing hand wave from her.
"Don't be a drama queen child, we both know who is cuter between the two of you, I choose cute over handsome any day." (Styx)
I chuckled at that.
"Well, I can't deny that. And thanks for the off-hand compliment, I had a beautiful goddess give me some assistance with my figure." (Perseus)
It's not like Styx was responsible for my body being altered when I was reborn, nope, not at all.
"*pft* nice one Perseus, now what did you…. Perseus… is that an ancient language enchantment on your wrist?" (Styx)
She went from laughing with me to somehow giving me a strange pitying look that bothered me for some reason.
"Yes? I spent the last two centuries studying on it." (Perseus)
If anything, her eyes had an added element of amusement.
"And just how did you activate that enchantment~?" (Styx)
I knew I was missing something here.
"I hunted monsters and absorbed their energy into each enchantment I carved for around twenty years to finish activating them all." (Perseus)
Styx slowly approached me with a strange look on her face but I could tell she was trying hard to force a poker face and not laugh.
She put a gentle hand on my cheek and looked me in the eyes.
"My child, what materials is my river famous among the entire Greek and roman pantheon for creating?" (Styx)
I blinked at that and mentally recalled what I knew.
"The only things should be Stygian iron and Stygian ice….Stygian iron….." (Perseus)
My voice trailed off and I felt something crack in my head when I realized what I missed.
"Yes dear, and what is Stygian iron famous for?"
Like a broken man, I repeated what I just recalled that made me want to give up on life.
"Stygian iron has the property of absorbing the essence and life force of those it kills. It is famously used by deities related to death and their children since only they or primordial gods can handle it without having their own life force sapped away…." (Perseus)
Styx nodded and removed her hand from my cheek, like a doll with its strings cut, I fell to my knees in despair.
I just spent… twenty years…. doing something I could have done in two or less. I looked up at the empty dark sky and let out a manly tear.
"Not cool…." (Perseus)
"*Pft* Hahahahaha!" (Styx)
And Styx couldn't hold it anymore, she broke down laughing after doing her best not to laugh till now.
I felt like a man who got drunk in Vegas waking up to see he married a stripper.
Different scenario, same feeling of despair.
"TWENTY YEARS!" (Perseus)
And like a volcano, all my grief turned to rage.
Styx seemed to take pity on me and raised her hand. From her waters, hundreds of warriors from all time periods throughout history formed and charged at me.
You ever wonder why Styx can bind gods with her oaths? Its not that some terrible punishment with befall them for breaking an oath, at least not immediately. The reason she can is because the river Styx is also known as the divide between life and death. She is a master necromancer thanks to her powers and any being who breaks an oath they made in her name, sacrifice their soul to her eternal service when they eventually die.
Now gods can't die, they can fade but not die. However, the more they break an oath in her name, the more power Styx will have power over them in a confrontation.
Imagine Styx and Zeus in a fight. Zeus can be 50% stronger thanks to his special weapon and divine form but with every oath he breaks, Styx will gain around 2% more of a suppression on him.
And after all these years with Zeus being his usual rape trigger happy blow hard, he has every right to be terrified of Styx. He does everything in his power to try and get out of oaths he makes in roundabout ways instead of directly breaking them but he still mess's up thanks to his various issues.
If Zeus tried to fight Styx right now, she would bitch slap him. Still, to most of the really old gods and primordials, no one bothers with Zeus. Not because he is strong, but because they would feel dirty to fight him.
Gods do what they want, that's always been true, but Zeus is on another level. The man has raped enough women in enough ways to fill an entire section in the underworld. And then he leaves them to their fate when Hera takes out her anger on them because she can't do anything to Zeus.
She is a bitch to but honestly, you have got to pity the woman. Her younger brother somehow managed to marry her, which is binding under domain, and proceeded to demonstrate to the world how to be the worst husband possible.
Zeus is so gross that the gods who could bitch slap him, don't want to touch him while those that can't beat him, submit or run out of fear of Zeus attacking them because anyone not under him is a threat in his eyes.
Well, back on topic, where was I?
Oh right, I was ripping an undead army to shreds in my rage fueled grief of wasting so much time.
"RAAAHH DIIEEE!" (Perseus)
A Mongolian warriors head got sliced and punted like a soccer ball into another warriors head with the force of a canon ball.
Off to the side, Styx was patting Yin while looking on fondly, or mockingly, I couldn't tell.
"I wonder how long this will take?" (Styx)
*whine*
"No, let him get this out of his system now. You can play later." (Styx)
*Grrr*
"It shouldn't take that long." (Styx)
"TAKE MY TWENTY YEARS OF EFFORT AND DIE, PAINFUL MEMORY SLASH!" (Perseus)
"You know what, maybe we should take a walk, this could take a while." (Styx)
*Bark*
"Yes, yes, let's go." (Styx)
And so, an extremely terrifying goddess and a similar terrifying but not as deadly hellhound went for a walk in Tartarus while the champion and master of them respectively went on a rage induced slaughter among ancient warriors.
It was just another day in the pit below hell.