Chapter 4, Act I - Let's Do Get Help.

I woke up with a start, crying. I didn't remember most of it. I just knew I saw my friends. "Kronos, after what you just did, you earned yourself an eternal enemy. Nobody uses my friends as a bargaining chip against me. And I'll find my way back to them on my own. Just you wait." I declare, the ground shaking at the Titan lord's name.

Quest Added!

Make your way back to your friends!

Rewards: Your old powers, a reunion, and ?!

I grin sadly. Just like the old days, then. I grab the drachmas from my inventory, and check my powers, sighing in relief once I saw elemental manipulation was unlocked. I called water from the bay to make a rainbow, and tossed a drachma into it. "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, and show me Chiron, at Camp Half-Blood." I noticed while the message appeared that it was chipping through my MP fairly quickly. I had maybe a minute and a half to talk, at most.

"Chiron, sir! I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need your help." I call through the rainbow, in order to catch his attention. The centaur turns to the rainbow, and looks on at me in surprise. "What is it, child?" He asks. "I'm in Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay, near some beach. I don't know much more than that. I know satyrs can smell demigods, though. They can find me. I need transportation to Camp. I'm a demigod, a child of Hecate. I need a satyr sent to find me. I'm safe for maybe a few days before I'm in danger. And the message is about to die, sir, the rainbow can only be held for so long with my magic." I explained quickly.

"I see. I'll send a satyr out to search near there. Stay secure for a few days, and we can bring you here." The centaur assures me, interest in his eyes, as the rainbow starts to fade. "The message is dying, sir. But I'll be here! Just please hurry!" I call out as the Iris Message fades into mist.

I sigh, alone again on the shore of the bay. "Well, might as well start exploring this, huh?" I mutter to myself, conjuring the skills menu. I didn't really see anything aside from basic Mist Manipulation, Elemental Manipulation for powers, and for abilities the basic Gamer ones, between Gamer's Mind and Body.

"This is going to be a boring few days." I muse, as I start to search for a rock to skip while my MP restores itself. After a few hours, switching between rock skipping and training my powers, I find something peculiar, just out of the corner of my eye. There was a tiny blue gleam.

"There's no way..." I mutter, slowly getting up and approaching the gleam. I get to the light, and notice it's a Greek Delta, or Δ, against this cluster of rocks. "This universe's Hazel could control the Labyrinth with the Mist. But I should wait for the satyr. I could call Chiron again. But the satyr's probably on a flight here now." I debate with myself, really considering whether or not I could, or if I should, use it as fast travel.

"Oh, fuck it. If I die, I'll go to a new universe anyways." I recklessly press my thumb to the Delta, opening an honestly pretty cool pathway. It opened an arch into a staircase descending into it. I hesitate again. I don't have a weapon. Minos could be lurking in there, too. I know he'd be lurking until his defeat in the Battle of the Labyrinth. Then I remembered a pretty simple solution.

My mother's a goddess of necromancy, too. I find it likely I can summon the dead, just as children of Hades could, or how Ares could with soldiers on the losing end of a war. So I just grinned and grabbed my tent, skipping my way into the deadliest maze in existence.

But I'm quickly stopped by an invisible wall at the bottom of the stairs, as a screen appears in front of me.

Dungeon Level 1!

Would you like to enter?

Yes/No

I groan. Can I not fast travel with the Labyrinth? That's disappointing. "Help." I called the System.

What do you need help with?

"Is it possible for me to fast travel with the Labyrinth?" I ask. Why not make sure, you know?

Not yet. You need to beat the dungeons of each place you want to travel to. But time does travel faster in the dungeons. So the satyr might just arrive when you exit the dungeon.

Now that was motivation. I'd get too restless over the course of the days I'd have to wait for the satyr to find me. With no consideration for my safety, I click yes on the Dungeon. The Labyrinth entrance closes, and the wall disappears, making me fall forward.

"Ow." I groan, standing back up. I immediately snort when I see a dead skeleton just happening to be clinging to a Celestial Bronze sword. Typical that they'd give me a weapon, after I'd forgotten to get a weapon.

I pry the sword from the skeleton's grip, and slowly move forward. I take a step back when I see something unexpected. They may have handed me a sword, but it was rendered immediately useless anyways. They threw skeletons at the child of a necromancer. My sword might be useless, but my powers aren't.

I just need to figure out how to control the dead. Easy peasy. It's just unlocking a power that I don't know how to use or unlock. I grasped at straws for any potential memories in my past life, trying to see if I had something similar in powers. I couldn't remember anything, unfortunately. It was no use. Just the girl's face.

My mind rushed through possibilities as skeletons started to stalk towards me. "Mother help me." I prayed as I decided to just give my idea a try. I closed my eyes, a tingle running through my arms as I stretched my MP out, wisps of bluish energy flying towards the skeletons. "My mother holds dominion over your kind. You will obey me as you would Hecate, the Lady of Magic and Necromancy." I demanded, trying to emulate some degree of authority in my voice.

Whatever I did seemed to have worked somewhat. The skeletons melted away, leaving bones, armor, and steel swords. I took a helmet, and tried equipping a chestpiece, and achieved minimal success. "Well, fuck it. Onwards! To victory!" I shouted, charging forward recklessly.

"Ah fuck! Oh shit! No!" I yelled, backtracking minutes later as another horde came upon me. I had another idea. I felt my magic build up in my chest, and I let loose a guttural scream. A burst of blue energy shot from me in a ring, vaporising the skeletons. I fell flat on my ass at that.

"I need to keep moving. But that was cool." I muttered, standing back up. I start moving forwards, only slightly terrified of my low MP. If my gut was right, it was time for the final boss, and I'm feeling a terrible sense of deja vu. I saw a crimson red gauntlet, attached to it the arm of a statue, buried under debris. I crouch behind a large pile of rocks, and just watch. Something felt weird.

Minutes later, my MP finally was fully restored, after those bursts of energy. So, with that in mind, I did something reckless again. I stepped up to the gauntlet and tried grabbing it, only for it to swing at me amateurishly. I stumble back to dodge it, the gauntlet barely grazing me.

-30 HP!

Holy shit. That was just it grazing me. The pile of rocks shifted to unveil potentially the ugliest thing I've seen. You know Taserface from Guardians of the Galaxy? Imagine him, but with large patches of skin missing across his body, with no clothes, aside from some white Fruit of the Loom undies. That would be what he looks like. What was it with this universe and monsters wearing only Fruit of the Loom?

I'll admit, I was terrified. That gauntlet could kill me in one full-force strike. I needed to be careful. Okay. This guy's huge and bulky, but probably really slow. I only had one solution, and that was to stall, at least until I had a better idea, so I drew a sword, and pointed it at him. "Let's dance, O' Zombified One." As soon as it got close, it started to swing, and I rolled under it, imbuing my sword with magic as I slashed at his side.

The off-brand Taserface grunted, stepping back, one of his hands getting held where the wound was, as if checking for blood, despite being a zombie. He growled, and slammed the hand with the gauntlet into the ground, making it tremble, as a ton of skeletal hands clawed from the ground. I felt like I was swallowing a boulder. How would I handle so many skeletons and this guy at the same time?

I closed my eyes, almost waiting for death, until I felt an almost numbing tingling all over my body from my panic. After hearing confused grunts from the zombie, and the fact that I hadn't died to add to it, I assumed it was safe to open my eyes. The skeletons had blue wisps in their eye sockets. I could only assume that meant some Hecate voodoo went on here, given the blue energy I sent off fighting those skeletons earlier.

The skeletons turned around, almost in sync, and I couldn't help but smirk, albeit a little shakily. "As it turns out, Mr. Brains-iac, you're not the only necromancer here. So, I'd advise you to take your ass back to the grave before I pound you to mulch with your own skeletons." I threaten. The zombie seemed confused, and strangely a little scared, if its slightly higher-pitched grunt was anything to go by.

The skeletons formed a circle around him, closing in slowly as I ducked around to find an opening to sneak in without the zombie noticing. The zombie swung, knocking out a few skeletons. I saw a few skeletons with shields, and I hoped this would work. "You guys with shields, make some stairs with your shields!" I ordered over the commotion. Those skeletons broke away from the circle, more skeletons sneaking in to replace them.

The skeletons started crouching, making me a staircase to climb up with their shields. I leapt up the staircase, and jumped the zombie from behind, imbuing my sword with magic and swinging at his neck. There was a disgusting "schlick!" sound, and a quick thump as his body hit the ground. I wrinkled my nose, but used an Observe.

It didn't work on the zombie, but it did work on the gauntlet I'd tried grabbing before.

The Gauntlet of Hecate

This gauntlet, crafted by your mother, had been a gift to an unknown Egyptian magician to boost their magical capabilities. It had been passed down for several generations before it finally got lost with the last of their line in the Labyrinth.

When equipped: +5 levels to all magical abilities, +5 Wis, +5 Int.

I whistled a little at the description of the thing. I was hesitant to grab it off a zombie, but I did it anyway, and put it on, feeling a rush of power from it. "Gods damn." I commented. I finally remembered the skeletons were still standing there. "You're all dismissed. You fought well. Thank you." I ordered, and they sunk back down into the ground.

I placed the gauntlet in my inventory for now, and made my way back to the Labyrinth entrance, opening it up to find an undisguised satyr examining where my tent had been.