I Don't Own Percy Jackson
"So about those books" Rick was just staring at me, when one of the women just said softly.
"What the fuck was that?" I just glanced over to her and said.
"Divine flames, well, sun fire if you want to be technical, but the sun is made from divinity, and I powered the fire through divinity, so it's just an argument on semantics. Anyways, unholy stuff doesn't like holy stuff" The woman just blinked.
"What?" I sighed while Rick moved slowly to start gathering my stuff, which was nice of him.
"The sun is, like, made up of about a hundred different gods and creatures because mythology is weird and trying to wrap your head around it would make it pop like a grape. Just accept that science is fake and move on" One of the men spoke up next, as I moved around, just looking at the stuff on the shelves, they were always interesting to look over.
"Then... how did you use the... sun then?" I just hummed and tapped my earring before saying.
"I stole a piece of Apollo's version of the sun and can use it to do whatever I want with it... Mostly fire, I like fire, but technically I can make light rays, but I prefer not to. Anyways, he's cool about it, so I haven't been killed for it"
"Wait, Apollo, like... The actual God? You just... know him?"
"Yeah? I drove the sun once as well, we're tight like that, well, technically it's because he's lazy, and Artemis needed a favor from him, and I needed a ride. Artemis isn't as cool but we have an understanding, you didn't hear that from me though"
"How many gods have you met?" I had to pause for a moment at that, tilting my head as I counted them in my head before...
"Twenty-seven, the twelve Olympians, the Fates, a roman wolf, a few major and a bunch of 'minor' gods, most in the afterlife where I visit on occasion... I'm friends with... Hades, Hestia, Lupa, Dionysios, probably, then their is Nike but she's my mom so she doesn't count... I'm chill with most of my extended family, Zeus wants to kill me, but the Fates are on my side, but really they don't like me, but my great granny is really scary and the two of us are chill, besides that time she tried to kill me on a mountain in Mexico, but I try to not remember that... What was the question again?" I kind of got lost in thought there, and everyone was staring at me, so I just smiled back.
"H-how old are you again?"
"Fourteen, why?"
"No reason"
The looks on their faces were funny. I still turned back to Rick who was currently stacking up a number of books, as I just headed over to the counter and went to work, asking about everything in the stack and if there was a standard potion kit or something I could buy.
Turns out there wasn't one, which was pretty disappointing, but that's fine, I still got a bunch of stuff, paid half a fortune to get it all, and then moved to head on out, when suddenly Rick called out to.
"Hey, Nick" I glanced back with a blink, as the man took a long moment before asking, "Do you think you could look into seeing why the demon activity has increased?" I just hummed, thinking it over, before saying.
"Sure, that sounds fun" With that darkness shot up and wrapped around me, and in an instant I was gone from their view.
"What the hell are you doing?" Silena just sounded confused, as I looked up at her before shrugging, as I looked down at the cauldron in front of me, as I looked over at one of the many annoying books I had, about what should be a potion to increase strength. I didn't know by how much, but these things were made for humans, so the potency of the thing probably wouldn't be that great.
"Potion making" She sighed before asking.
"Are you actually making something or are you just tossing stuff in a pot and seeing if you can mess with someone?" I hummed before looking up at her and said.
"Yes"
"I see... Does this have something to do with the fact that there is lightning around you?" I blinked and looked up as said trail of lightning arced around me, before I glanced back to her and said.
"Not really, I just got bored so I learned more powers"
"Yes... because that's how it works"
"I mean, it is if you're me"
"I feel like that is a very hard gateway to get through"
"Well, that's everyone else's fault. Anyways, I'm just burning time, I'm going to head out of camp for a while with Nico, he wants to meet his dad, and I'm kind of the only person here who knows how to teleport at the moment" Silena sighed, before giving me a look.
"Do you think it's a good idea to bring a ten year old with you?" I gave her a look, before asking.
"He wants to come along, and I want to see how strong I can get him. It'll be funny"
"That can't be your basis for doing things... Whatever, how long do you think you'll be gone from camp?" I hummed as I thought about that for a long moment before saying.
"Not sure, a friend of mine wants some help with something, it'll probably be dangerous, so at least a few weeks, maybe up to a few months. Depends on how willing Nico is on fighting demons if I return to drop him off"
"De-... I'm not going to ask, do not get the kid killed alright? Good terms or not, I don't think Hades is going to just accept one of his kids dying on your watch" I snorted at that, before saying.
"If I can beat Fate to keep one alive, the other shouldn't be that hard... I think, I'll see how it goes, but the kid's strong, give it a few months and I think I'll have him at a solid top three for the camp" She quirked an eyebrow at that.
"You have a lot of faith in him"
"I have a lot of faith that kids from the big three are bullshit" She then proceeded to snorted at that.
"You aren't wrong... So you're just going to head out? Don't want to hang around any?" I just shrugged.
"I wouldn't mind it, but I have plans and ideas I want to finish out, and being honest, being here is fun, but all the interesting stuff happens out there. I want to see it all before I settle down properly, otherwise I'm going to be so annoying about it" She just huffed, before asking.
"You're just going to do something insanely dangerous right?" I mean... "Just be safe alright? I know you can handle yourself, but you're also the only one here who is crazy enough to put yourself into danger just for the heck of it, and bring another half-blood with you"
"I feel like I'm being accused of something"
"Glad you caught onto that, now, are you actually going to keep in contact this time?"
"Sure, I'll call you up every few weeks if you want"
"All I'm asking is you don't disappear for another year" Yeah, I can manage that, as I gave her a smile and nod, "Good, then I'll see you soon... What are you going to do anyways?" I just smiled and shrugged.
"Go to hell, maybe, but past that, I have a few targets I want to kill" She gave me a look at that, but didn't question me, as I wondered where Nico had gone off to. I needed to train him up quick if I wanted to make sure he could survive being around me when I went on my little murder run. I had deities to meet, kill, and see if I could... take over.
After all, the world didn't need that many titans did they? I mean, all they did was just stand around in Tartarus right?
"Mind if we have a talk before you leave? I do believe that we've been meaning to have one since we returned to camp?" I blinked out of my thoughts as I looked back at Silena before humming as I thought that over.
"We could talk now then, so... there isn't some awkward last conversation we'll have right before I leave, so we don't leave things in a state of unbalance and making it weird when I come back because we haven't adjusted ourselves to the ideas we put in place because instead we kind of just once again ran from them" She blinked before saying.
"Uh, yeah, that. First question, why do you do that? Like, some times just randomly you spit out incredibly random things like that"
"It's called metacommentary, it's a running joke of mine by pointing out narrative flaws within standard book and media tropes, it's been a thing for as long as I've been around it feels like" It's literally the reason I'm in a girl's body because I did that and pissed the dev off, doesn't mean I'm going to stop.
"I don't really get it but I don't really get most of the things you say so... Uh... I mean... What should we talk about? I mean, you were right back after the quest, we're friends, you're my best friend but... we aren't good friends to each other. What's... the thing we can do to work on that?" I just shrugged.
"I don't know Silena, I'm emotionally clueless most of the time, you're one of my first friends ever, before you there was a male stripper and a group of thugs to be honest, so I don't really know... how to do this... Maybe just... set guidelines so we don't step over any lines without meaning to, since we seem to have a bit of a habit of doing that" Silena sighed before moving over and sitting next to me as I went back to stirring the pot in front of me as she said.
"Well then... Don't kill anyone in camp?" I hummed as I tossed in what I think was a dehydrated eye of some kind, and said.
"I don't want to make it a habit so alright... I don't mind being called weird, I know you and people like Percy don't actually mean anything by it, and it is kind of funny some times, but psycho isn't... I don't like that one, especially if you're serious, I've been through enough at this point to know if I really was insane or not" Silena nodded, looking guilty before thinking something over for a long moment, then said.
"I won't say psycho anymore, and I am sorry about what I said before, it's just... You never give me or anyone else warnings on anything, you just do stuff and expect everyone else to figure out why. We aren't all as smart as you or the Athena kids though, you can't just... put that on me all the time" I just nodded.
"Yeah, it's kind of an asshole thing to do to you, no promises for anyone else though, asshole or not, it's kind of funny" She just sighed, but it was clear Silena was feeling better about it as well, at least a little, as we continued to talk and discuss everything over with each other as I continued on making the potion. In the end we came to a pretty strong conclusion with each other and I had a new potion bottled in my hands as I looked it over.
[Potion of Minor Strength]
A simple potion that gives the user a boost in strength for a limited time
Increases your Strength score by 3 points
Duration: 10 Minutes
Rank: D-
[Notice: Skill [Potion Brewing Mastery] has been unlocked]
Hmm... Not the best, for a normal human that jump in strength would probably be anywhere from twenty to fifty percent, but I have, well, my Strength score as a baseline is barely below two hundred, with my perks, item boosts, etc. it can be effectively at three hundred fifty... Basically, the idea that this potion did anything for me would be beyond laughable.
But the skill on the other hand, opening the skill up, the baseline perks was a five percent increase to potions I brew, in the speed, quality, etc. You know, the basics that would show up, so that's probably five per level, with it's phantom modifier being in Control and well... Basically, given all my other boosts, the effective level of my level one skill is... thirty-nine, so assuming it keeps the same, that means my next potion will have a boost of one hundred ninety percent.
I think I'll get right to making my next potion then! Since my skill level has shot to the moon, I can now make a much more difficult potion, and then the skill involved will get a ton of exp, and since it is such a low level, that just means I can power level it up a few ranks to make the hidden levels even stronger for me.
Exploiting the system can be so rewarding a times.
"Are we really going to the Underworld!" I nodded at the excitement in Nico's tone as we walked into the woods around camp.
"Yep, we're taking the long way around though, I give it a week or so until we get there, though given one of the things we'll be doing, it might be longer for the outside world" Nico blinked, his face scrunching up, clearly trying to think of a way that that would make sense before he asked.
"Are we going to time travel or something? Can you time travel?" I laughed a bit before saying.
"Nah, but that would be pretty cool wouldn't it?" He nodded, as I went on, "I don't know how to do that one, but we're going to use some transportation that may or may not get us really lost. I'll have to see how it works out when we get there" Nico just hummed as we walked along a small trail as he finally asked after a moment.
"How are you going to train me?"
"Dodge"
"Huh- Ow!" Nico's head snapped back as my fist smacked him lightly in the face as he stumbled back before holding his nose, before looking up at me with a glare. If I was anyone else, I might have been intimidated. Though it did give me a reminder to teach him how to be actually scary, clearly he got an edge on it from his dad, but he didn't know how to focus it yet, so as it stands he looked more like a pouty puppy.
"W-what was that for?!"
"Did I ever told you about the time I was trained under a wolf goddess?" He blinked, giving me a look, but couldn't help but ask.
"No? What happ-"
"Dodge"
He didn't dodge, I just snickered to myself as we continued on as he yelled at me as I finally said after he seemed to wear himself out.
"I'll tell you what happened when you can manage to not get hit without me warning you" He pouted, hard, as I just smirked to myself as we finally came to a stop in front of a massive pine tree that at it's base had a beautiful golden fleece. This was actually my second time visiting the tree, the first time was a few months back when I arrived back after my little meeting with Nyx.
But for an explanation for anyone curious-
[The Golden Fleece
The fleece that was shorn from the flying ram Chrysomallus, created by Poseidon. This fleece holds incredibly powerful healing and fertility powers for those in contact with it.
-When in contact with a person, their recovery rates will all be increased 25 times [Notice, this effect stacks with other, similar, boosts]
-When in contact with a person for more than a minute, any negative Status Effect will be removed
Rank: S-]
Cool right? Just by touching this thing, my regen time for my mana, which naturally was at a rate of one percent per minute for a total of one hundred minutes, would be reduced to four minutes. Combined with my Styx water bonus, which was five times faster, the total was barely three minutes to fill up all three of my power points, stamina, mana, and spirit. Not to mention what it would do for my health regen rate.
Needless to say, this item was busted, if it wasn't the only thing keeping the camp from being swarmed, I'd steal it without a second of thought. This was the kind of item that literally broke balance. In a fight, I don't think I could spend my power fast enough to be able to out pace the regen rate. Literally, for mana alone, I'd be recovering around six thousand points a minute, that's a hundred points a second.
Not to mention it would make the cost of Trade Off trivial in all regards. Sadly, I couldn't just take it, but... I could still make use of it's effects, as I reached down, ignoring the dragon that was guarding the thing, we were chill like that, even as Nico gave the thing a curious but hesitant look. My hands coming to place themselves on the fleece, before reaching underneath it, where it was pressed to the tree... as I pulled out a single item made of Stygian Iron, and just smirked as I used Search on it.
[Strongly Infused Stygian Iron Bracelet-
A bracelet made of Stygian Iron that has come in contact with a single type of essence, Divine Mana, and has sealed it into the object, as no other essence of any kind as been infused into this metal, the Mana is undiluted into the power in which it was using when sealed into the metal.
Skill: [Golden Fleece's Vitakinesis]
Available Mana for Skill: 14,237
Rank: B-]
Cool right? Stygian Iron, what an incredibly broken metal, I love it. I had this idea around for a while, since I learned about the properties of Stygian Iron, I asked the guys in the Underworld to make it for me when I got my gun made, it was the thing they hadn't been overly interested in, but damn was it clear that this was worth it.
Looking the thing over as Nico gave it a curious look, I just smiled at him, before sliding the thing on, onto my right wrist. This one wasn't as fancy as the massive arm gaurd that I wore on my left arm, but that was fine, I didn't need it to be fancy, it just had to store what I wanted in it, and then all I would have to do it click it to the Stygian Ice that I also wore, be it on the before mentioned arm guard, or my necklace, it wasn't hard, and once the effect was activated, then I had, hopefully, at least a minute or two, with the full power of the Fleece powering my regen rated to infinity and beyond.
"So what is up with this stuff anyways? I know the other campers can't use it, because it's underworld stuff so only we can use it. But... It isn't really a weapon is it? I mean, the sword you got me is really cool and all, but isn't jewelry kind of useless?" Nico just sounded confused, so I turned, gave him a smile and said simply.
"Dodge"
Finding the entrance to the Labyrinth wasn't hard, I knew it was in that big pile of rocks, and I had found it before, when I had free time, so doing it again wasn't difficult. Nico thought the place was awesome, which I didn't disagree with, as we headed down the path as Adriel, floated out in front of us. Eyes from the dead and all that, Minos was strong and all, but relation to the Labyrinth or not, that wasn't what allowed the ghost to lead Nico around.
It was sort of like how clear sighted mortals could guide a person through this place, the dead just could see through that kind of thing, not as well as a clear sighted mortal mind you, but they could still do it, and since I had literal Eyes of Death, both me and Adriel combined could make something of a working navigation system between the two of us.
"So, what about, like, sword training and stuff?"
"You'll get that from practical experience and some spars when we get down to the Underworld"
"Ok... Uh, what about my powers? You said we only share shadows, so how are you going to help with the rest?"
"I learned most of your powers over the last few days. Sure, I wasn't using them through divine stuff, but I know how that stuff works, so translating what you should be doing should be simple enough"
"Wait, you just, like, learned all of it? How?"
"Divine magic and spiritual magic are two different things, a demigod is limited by their family line, but any human can learn other types of magic, Spirit is just one type. I figured it out a while ago, so I can learn other kinds of powers without needing the bloodline for it. It's not nearly as strong as my god stuff, but it comes in handy"
"Think I could learn?"
"Probably, but you don't really need it, I only got a few things from my parent so I've made it my mission to have more than any other demigod alive out of spite, even if I honestly really don't need even half the things I can do, you have, like, a ton of stuff already"
"Like what?"
"Let's see you have the potential over... the cold, infernal fire, undead, spirits, underworld monsters, the earth, fear, wealth, and shadows to list all the ones I know Hades can use, but if you get creative, you can probably do more" Nico had stopped walking, as I paused as well, looking over at him, waiting, until he looked up at me with wide eyes.
"I... I can do all of that?"
"Sure, you just need to figure out how with proper training in each, I see no reason why you can't"
"How many do you have access to so you can teach me?" I hummed, having to think about it before-
"Fire, ice, earth, and darkness, which is basically shadows but better. I also have power over madness and hatred, and as I see it, fear is, like, somewhere in between, so I can figure that one out enough to teach you" He just blinked, before saying.
"How many powers do you have in general?" I had to stop, and actually, like, pull up my skills and perks to get an answer to that, I honestly went insane with learning magic skills in the last week, I basically bought out old man Rick's store on magical spells, but I mean, I have like fifty thousand Spirit, it's not like I was going to over extend myself or anything.
"Uh, in very general terms I have powers that involve: water, fire, darkness, light, spirits, illusions, mist, wind, lightning, earth, cold, luck, potions, victory, healing, truth, oaths, madness, hatred, wolves, death, and the moon. Well, technically I can also magically power my strength, speed, endurance, mana control, mind, and technically I can also use divination, but, like limitedly, and technically all demigods have that anyways. Well, I don't, because our dreams are based on fate and me and them don't agree on much these days"
Nico's eyes were about as wide as dinner plate as I looked back to him after listing everything off.
"That's... a lot" I just shrugged, most of those elemental ones were new spells I got for the Spirit side of things, and even though I don't have a massive amount of levels in those skills, I did have incredibly high control, a lot of phantom levels, and very large amount of Spirit, meaning it really didn't matter that the skills were new, I could control them more than well enough to do what I needed them to.
"I'm cool like that"
"So what are we going to start with?" I hummed, before-
"Dodge" He managed to duck this time, as I just tilted my head to the side, as he looked up at me, beaming... right before my foot snapped up, tapping him in the jaw as he stumbled back, as he pouted hard at me as he rubbed the new sore spot.
"Hey! I dodged!"
"Yep, you managed to figure out the first part of my attack pattern, but that doesn't mean you can let your guard down, you got to be able to dodge like it's second nature without even knowing an attack is coming" He just pouted.
"That's impossible" I just smirked and said.
"Wanna make a deal then?" He perked up at that, as I continued, "Feel free to try and hit me whenever or wherever you want, don't announce yourself, just strike. The second you can land an actual hit on me, then I'll teach you how to shadow travel" He seemed to really like the idea, as he nodded quickly as I just nodded back as I turned around... And then moved to the side as Nico flung past me from where he had tried to tackle me, I just snickered as he wiped out onto the ground soon after.
It would take him at least a few months before he could actually land a hit, and I was going to teach him how to travel before that of course, but the extra motivation wouldn't hurt anything.
"Ah! Help!" I just hummed as I watched as Nico jumped out of the way from a swiping claw trying to take his head off from some lion thing.
"Just stab it?"
"How!?"
"By getting good" Nico let out what I think was a curse in Italian aimed at me, as I watched as he rolled out of the way of a pouncing attack. He had good technique on dodging from our 'sparring', but his ability to attack wasn't the best, as I just watched. Nico was saying something or another about how he was going to die, I just hummed, he was fine, the second I thought he was actually in trouble the monster's head would be blown off it's body.
Eventually the little guy, Nico, not the lion, though both were small and cute, just in different ways, finally managed to land a fatal hit, slicing through the side of the monster enough to kill the thing. Soon after Nico was laid out on the ground, panting like he just ran a marathon. Heh, adorable.
"I- hate- you!" I just moved over and looked down at Nico as he stared up at me with squinted eyes.
"No you don't" He just groaned before putting his arm over his eyes.
"You could have helped, I could have gotten hurt"
"Pain builds character, besides, I had to kill monsters way back when I was your age without help"
"Really?"
"I mean, probably" I actually had no idea, I don't really remember being his age. Nico just groaned as I finally said, "You'll be fine, you can't learn unless you're put in a situation where you have no choice. Sink or swim and all that nonsense, besides, with me here, you dying is pretty low in odds. I can heal you if you get hurt remember?" He just sighed before nodding.
Finally moving to stand up, while I just tilted my head before moving to the side just enough for when his sword shot up, he hit nothing but air. I just lifted my foot up and pushed him back into the ground by his shoulder, then waited a moment, before saying.
"Oh, right. Dodge" Nico let out a whining sound.
"Uh... Nick?" I blinked and looked over at Nico, who was staring up at me with massively wide eyes.
"Yeah?" He just opened his mouth before closing it, I just waited patiently, as he finally managed to choke out his words.
You have a sword... in you" I blinked, before looking down, and huh, would you look at that, there was in fact a sword there, just sort of stabbed in my side, it missed the important parts, so I just shrugged.
"Yeah, it appears so, one moment" With that I grabbed onto the thing before ripping the blade out and tossing it away.
"Shou...Should you just pull it out?" I shrugged.
"Nah, never do that if you aren't me, or have a strong healing power" With that I placed a hand on my shoulder and Nico watched as a long path of darkness formed and moved to cover both the entrance and exit wounds.
"Isn't that tiring?"
"Not really, this only costs about a thousand points"
"Points?"
"Yeah, mana points"
"Ok... Uh... how many points do you have? Is that a lot?"
"Not really, I have fifteen thousand as a base, but because I'm awesome I usually have a little under twenty thousand"
"Why...?"
"Item bonuses mostly, well, items that give me stat bonuses from my perk bonuses, which gives me power bonuses, oh, and skill bonuses as well, which is kind of the main draw from the build I'm running"
"What?"
"Don't worry about it"
"That... uh... ok?"
"So... Liking... You know... Is normal?"
"Yep, twenty-first century, gotta love it. I mean, sure, there are some shitty people out there, but those are the ones you're allowed to stab"
"Really?"
"Well... I mean, no, but that hasn't ever actually stopped me before"
"So, it's fine that I'm..."
"Gay? Flamingly homosexual? Fruity? Liking massive d-"
"Yes! That... Please just shut up"
"Heh... But yeah, it's cool. No one at camp gives a damn. Though I will be teaching you some cool progressive stuff that the government would have you believe is wrong, or at least they will for another decade or so, then everything will get weird about women rights again, and after that some stuff wi- Well, spoilers. Anyways, wanna learn three dozen flags and what they mean?"
"Uh... Why?"
"Because if you don't, then someone will probably try to yell at you for not being gay enough"
"What?"
"I know right? Also, dodge!"
"AHH! THAT's FIRE!"
"W-was that a demon!"
"Yep"
"Why do demons exist?! Those aren't Greek! And why did you stab it twice in the head? It was already dead!"
"Always double tap?"
"Wha-"
"And demons exist because other mythologies exist, they are kind of shitty though, I haven't really found anything from the biblical side of things that are remotely nice... Well, I have, but... anyways!"
"B-biblical? Like that bible?"
"Yep, great flood, eyeball angels, the four horsemen, and all that. I'm glad I found this dude though, I've been looking for one for a while"
"I-is that why we are in this place?"
"Sort of? It brings people where they want as long as you know how to move around it, but it's Greek so it clashes when it comes to finding other mythology stuff I guess, but we managed to brute force it so that's good"
"What did you even need this thing for? It's... well, it's missing it's head now"
"Scrying ritual, I'mma overpower cast it while using this things demonic core"
"Demonic core?"
"It's like... the heart of this thing, but instead of blood it's more a corrupted holy essence that get's pumped throughout it's system. I'm going to use it to track down some other demons and then we are going to go hunting after we visit your dad and I get my upgrades in"
"Is... that ok?"
"Oh sure, I actually have one hell of a grudge against demonkind as a whole actually, so I'm thinking about making this a poorly concealed purge reference, or DOOM, depends on if I can find some heavy metal and enough speakers in time"
"What's the purge?"
"...Huh... I don't actually know. We're going to start having movie nights after this"
"What's a movie night?"
"And some culture training as well. It'll be fun!"
"Oh... And also, what did demons do to you anyways?"
"Ah... Uh, well, let's just say I have a schrodinger's friend and leave it at that"
"What's a schro-"
"Dodge"
"The entrance to the underworld is... a studio?"
"Honestly, I don't get it either, but if you don't understand something, then just don't think about it. I hear it works"
"Do you do that?"
"Never, I'm way too curious, I mostly just shelf ideas and then when I have the chance to answer them, get it there"
"Who's that guy? He's looking at you weird"
"That's Charon, he's, like, my great uncle, he's terrified of me because his mom likes me more than him"
"That's Nyx right? The one who almost killed you?"
"Yep, closest being to ever do so, and yet I'm still kicking, I think that's what scares him the most"
"That or it could be just you in general, you're kind of scary"
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, yesterday we were attacked by a demon and you literally gutted it because you wondered if it had organs or not... It was still alive"
"If I didn't do it quickly then it's body would have broken down. What was I suppose to do"
"And then you stabbed it two times in the head, and said it was a double tap"
"...I still don't see the issue"
Nico looked ready to say something when a small cough came from our side, as both of us turned to look away from each other as we looked at the ferryman.
"I-If you don't mind?" I blinked as the man spoke up, "You are not allowed to bring any others with you, as per your deal with Lord Hades" I hummed at that before saying.
"I mean, you're not wrong, but I'm pretty sure the guy won't mind this guest. Nico here happens to be Hades' kid" Nico gave something of an awkward wave as Charon looked down at the kid for a moment, squinting like he was trying to get a better look at him, as I moved, putting my face in his way as I said with a decidedly more cheerful tone, "And last time I checked, I don't give a shit what you tell me I can do" Charon had nothing to say to that, and instead just looked away before nodding.
"...Right" I beamed, and before long we were in the Underworld, as Nico looked at everything around him with awe, as I went through the act of being a tour guide, pointing everything out that I thought was important.
You know, where the funny comedians were, the best place to talk to Styx, the pit to Tartarus that I've been thinking about going down into for a while now, and the forge I worked at. Nico had... questions about one of the middle ones, I told him to not worry about it, since I was planning on being a god when I went down there. That didn't seem to help his questions.
I wonder why?
Anyways, we continued on, I left Nico to explore the palace proper, while I went to go collect my stuff from the forges. It went by quick enough all things considered, I picked up my frankly ridiculous amount of ammo, and picked up my new gun as well. This one was designed after a glock, because who the hell wouldn't want a Holy Glock when given the chance? Also, it was magazine feed, since the workers had more time to work through the idea and come up with new ways to make sure the thing could fire properly.
The design, like I said was basically just a glock but slightly bulkier, with the entire thing being a light eating black iron, that was embossed with gold lining making it look incredibly badass. The grip had two silver plates on the side that gave the handle a nice white sheen, with the rest being that deep red wood that was the same as the handle of my revolver. It was awesome.
While for a reason outside of just wanting more guns, because guns are awesome, this way I had a solid fifteen round magazine to work through instead of just six bullets, but on the other side of things, I couldn't just rotate the cylinder of the gun to a certain bullet, cause there was no cylinder, so if I wanted to use more special ammo than the basic titan enhanced version that just became my standard bullet type, then I'd still have to use my revolver, which I'm more than fine with.
That wasn't the only thing I had gotten, though when I placed it on my left hip, since my right one had a sword, two daggers, and my other gun, I did feel like an incredible badass.
Next up was my armor, in case anyone hasn't remember... I don't really use armor much, no point really, my skin was strong enough that I was pretty hard to cut naturally, my regeneration rate was literally strong enough I could nearly die a few times a day and not really notice past using a little mana to heal myself, and that's only if I got hurt in the first place, which very rarely happens if I'm being honest in one on one encounters.
Armor just didn't serve much of a point, but it could be badass, and I've been missing my cloak for a while now, and I missed the familiar weight of something on my shoulders.
Hence my other requested item, as I pulled open a small box from a handy skeleton that I had Hades make work for me in his personal forge, as I pulled out the beautiful item. It was honestly breath taking, as I pulled the long pure black furred cloak from the box, before with a whoosh, flicked it up, making the thing unravel from the flap of wind as the entire thing burned an almost golden glow for a moment, before the black fur shifted into pure white, with a golden highlight peaking out from the white locks.
The cloak itself was obviously enchanted, made out of fur of the strongest and biggest hellhounds in the Underworld, the ones that marked the patrol of the pit to Tartarus. Bound and sewed together through the use of golden thread, the same used by the Aphrodite cabin with my old cloak, into the elegant design before me.
Since it was made of hellhound fur, it naturally had magical properties, being immune to any and all heat or cold, being incredibly hard to strike through, stab, slash, or otherwise, and was surprisingly light... But then again, that might be a me thing, since I can probably throw a car without much issue, everything is light to me.
The enchants however where pretty cool as well, in case you're blind, there are two forms it can take, the black version and the white and gold version. The first to show my linked soul to the Underworld, and the white and gold in reference to my mother since they were her colors.
But that's boring, so the magic involved, let's get to that, since that's the really cool part right?
The Underworld version of the cloak had the barest traces of it's magic inside of it, which means the shadows that is casted from it act like they had come directly from the Underworld itself, allowing me to control them with much greater easy than a normal shadow. Which was fine, great even if I wanted to use them to fight, frankly I liked that the cloak looked super cool a bit more about the cost reduction, which in case anyone wants the technical answer, was about fifteen percent to all umbrakinesis skills used in conjuncture to the cloak in dark mode.
On the other side of things, the light mode, had a cool enchantment that allowed the white cloak to spread out and warp into two... emulation of a pair of white wings. They weren't perfect, and from what I've been told, I can't exactly fly with them, but I can glide like a bad ass, and can actually control them to a limited degree, but that's about it. But that's also really fucking cool, and I'll be honest, I totally fucking made them make this cloak for my vanity, so I was fine with that.
Pulling the white cloak onto my shoulders, I felt out a faint huff of excitement as I felt my mana reach out and connect with the cloak, the thing reacted instantly as the white fur spilt apart and moved, until two white wings were on my back as I looked over my shoulder at them with a massive grin. Fuck, these things were so cool, the fur itself even moved to look like feathers!
Still, the wings weren't real, I wasn't connected with them in any real way, but I was cool with that, I had fire and light powers because of an item and I didn't care they weren't actually mine.
...Ok, no, I care a lot, they felt kind of... borderline not right, like the weight of them weren't... right, I don't know. I liked them, I liked them a lot, but that doesn't mean I'm not aware that they weren't what I really wanted, more a cover stone for the time being until I got the real deal. Which felt a bit hypocritical given the rest of my physical situation, but then again I've never gone out and bought a strap on either so...
I'm pretty sure that's comparable.
Anyways, point is, this wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was something, and they were cool, so I was fine with them, plus, this was something I honestly did need to have in some way, so might as well have something that made me look good. After all, I needed something in case I ever fall out of a plane again and didn't want to use darkness to teleport since that doesn't exactly bleed off the inertia of terminal velocity like I'd want it to when I will be in free fall.
And given my track record for falling off things, I feel like having this side of the cloak would be a better alternative than going splat... Or maybe not? I don't actually know if I can survive a fall from that height at the moment. Maybe... I shouldn't test it... I really shouldn't... Maybe...
No, thoughts for later! I have a awesome cloak now, which I basked in wearing for a long moment before letting the wings slip back into the cloak before turning and walking off after giving a quick goodbye to my lovely workers.
After getting a large amount of spare magazines, and a frankly shit ton of bullets, loaded into the mags and as well in a few boxes, I headed on out, well, after dropping something off to get upgraded, it shouldn't take to long though, I had VIP treatment here after all, so I'll grab the item on my way out. I slipped the new items off into my always handy bag, and then headed on off. All things considered, this was already quite the worth while trip, having this gun was going to be very handy.
Moving back into the palace proper, I mostly just walked around, chilling, wondering if it would be noticeable if I stole an entire column made of ruby or not, then decided I wouldn't be able to move it around well enough for it to be viable. I mean, I could move it, it'd honestly not be that heavy, but it would be unwieldy... But the idea of using it smack a demon or titan would be really funny...
Nah, I can just shoot my problems away.
...Ruby railgun...
No! Not viable... But...
I just had the worst idea ever, and am going to be needing to visit Atlas again in the future, but that's besides the point for right now, it just wouldn't be necessary, but for the time being, I was fine with what I have, given that I had a number of firearms on my person, as well as enough strength to toss a car, I don't really need much more. I literally had the strength to injure a titian with a sword alone, not to mention I literally had the most powers of any demigod alive.
Sure, I might not have in total the same amount of raw power as someone like Percy did in the normal context, but let's be real, I'm much stronger, faster, and durable than he is at the moment, and I can literally go from a broken heap without a single point of energy to my name, to perfect condition in less than half an hour. It is no stretch to say I am literally the strongest demigod to ever have lived even if I don't have the same level of power as a big three kid off rip, I could in a single day use literally well over a million points of Mana by just using up all my power in twenty minute increments.
That isn't even getting into just the insane amount of Spirit I could make use of, there is a reason why I was able to survive the Fates' test when no one else could, my recovery rate was beyond anything anyone short of the gods could be able to contend with. For all my boosts, my regeneration rate ones were probably the most important and underrated part of them all.
Something important to think about at any rate for the future, but in the mean time, I'mma go find Nico and then beat the hell out of him until he can dodge properly, and then we can get into the actual fun parts about using powers and actual weapon training.
I figure we can stay down here for about a week or two, just long enough for Nico to be able to survive in combat against any average monster, and then head on up to do some investigating. I had a lead already, or at least I knew where to go, so it wasn't that hard of a thing to work out from there once I arrive, since, well, I'm kind of a super genius when I actually bother to use my brain fully.
The following few weeks went by quickly for the most part, the highlights though are important to know about, mostly because they are amusing for me.
For one Nico got turned into a potted plant which was funny and I teased him violently and constantly over it, the first one literally, with a knife in case you were curious. In other, unrelated news, Nico has gotten a lot better at dodging and while he wasn't exactly the most skilled swordsman just yet, he could hold his own with a weapon now, and with his powers, he was already about on the level Percy was around the time he first got to camp in terms of raw power, which honestly was better than most demigods period, so I think the kid was doing pretty good.
Since he's two years younger than Percy was, and the fact the kid was literally leaping and soaring into his powers faster than I've ever seen anyone else, with the bonus he got from being in his home field, he excelled at having raw power, but his control had something to be desired. And by that, he sucked, or at least comparatively he did, but that might not exactly be fair since my magical control was honestly better than what even a child of Hecate could manage normally.
My obvious awesomeness aside, it was time to get moving as I gathered up the things I needed, my upgraded arm bracer, my child, and my gun, you know, the important stuff, and headed on out of the Underworld.
I didn't go far, just to LA, since I figured it would be nice to actually not just rush into the demons headfirst, because honestly? As much as I was an workaholic, and let's be honest, I really fucking was given I didn't even have a week break between six uninterrupted months of hell, and heading off on a training timeskip arc for Nico with the idea of demon hunting in mind.
Frankly, I figured I deserved something of a small mini break between my demon hunting and the next plot line where I'll be... cleaning up the pantheon a bit. So instead, Nico and I just did the equivalent of relaxing as well as a set of incredibly powerful demigods could.
It honestly reminded me a lot of my beginnings, back when I didn't have infinite money to just buy flights wherever I wanted, and back when I wasn't capable of teleporting across whole states. It was honestly fun, just going from place to place, killing shit and seeing what happened.
Turns out my luck fought against things like monster attacks in an interesting way, instead of me being lucky enough to overpower my insanely powerful scent to the monsters and not get any encounters with them, I instead just got tossed a bunch of interesting situations that normally wasn't what happened. Basically... like one of those supernatural shows, expected a weekly monster that was messing with a town where a team had to work to figure out what is happening and how to kill it, it was more like a monster of the day kind of thing, and instead of needing to study up I could just murder whatever it was in three dozen ways before it could blink.
I mean, I didn't, cause that wasn't good training for Nico if I just did all the heavy lifting, but it was fun all the same watching him squirm trying to figure out a certain monster's weakness or just what to do. I only had to step in and help out a few times, but that wasn't really saying much, mostly I just shot a monster's leg off did something to cripple it so Nico wouldn't die.
He was very pouty about it, but he never actually complained really, just doubled his efforts and I could respect that. So I made his life twice as hard because of that respect, and because it was funny, and because it was clearly helping the kid, like, seriously, a few weeks ago, barely a month, he never even held a sword and now he was about about par with an average camper, not a camper his age, just in general, which, like, by normal human standards was around peak bodybuilder levels of strength.
Sure, I was like, twenty times past that on a bad day, I could literally pick up a car above my head, but like I said, he's literally had a month and he was four years younger than I am.
All in all, I wasn't all that worried about him as we started on the path of some good old demon hunting.
Ok... This chapter has been in limbo for the last three weeks because I've kind of devolved into the pit of ttrpgs. By that, I mean I've joined three campaigns ranging from pathfinder, 5e, and Call of Cthulhu among various friend groups and have had literally no time during the weekends to write for the last month, and since most of my free time during the weeks is normally eaten up by work, and now mixed in with helping other friends... I've literally both not had the time or energy to write for this story, and as such I've finally caught up on my stock pile and have nothing ready to post for the following Monday after this chapter goes out. And given my free time isn't exactly ready to improve at the moment, I sadly think it's time for a slow down on the insane rate I've been tossing these chapters out. To be fair to myself, I've managed to fling out on average twenty thousand words a week for two months straight, and that's saying something, and I'm not going to just drop this story.
I have way to many ideas in mind to be able to just do that, so instead it's time for a switch up in our regularly scheduled update dates. I'll be trying to get out at least one chapter a week, on Fridays, though if I can't manage that, then I will at least try to make sure I can do it every other week for sure. In all reality though, being honest, I think having a break from the story for these last few weeks has been good for me on account of burn out, and this more lax pace should hopefully keep it so I don't want to die because of the idea of writing for this story gets that horrible. So this is probably a good thing and something I should have done earlier, but this is good enough for right now. With all this in mind, See ya in the next chapter.