I saw a massive golden lion charging me. It was easy to recognize, but my mind was suddenly hit by information about it, giving me a splitting headache. Probably why it had been in the junkyard.

Back to the lion. It was clearly the Nemean Lion. I mean, lions just don't grow that big, and their claws generally aren't bronze. A red box was outlining it, with info scrolling beside it, with how far away it was, weight, height, and generally useful information. Unfortunately, nothing in there about really killing it. Currently, it was useless.

I sprinted up a pile of junk, hoping it would be to heavy to climb the pile. As I thought that, a green box outlined the pile, and I saw how it could shift, what materials were in it, and its weight limit, which was, sadly, more than the lions weight. I pulled out riptide, but I knew it wouldn't do much.

Strangely, the lion wasn't really snarling. It sat at the bottom of the pile, whimpering the a stray cat that wanted food. I thought of how to kill it. No ideas presented themselves.

I cautiously walked down the pile, hand extended for the Nemean lion to sniff, ready to pull it away at the first sign of aggression. It nuzzled my hand, then looked up hopefully at me.

I walked back to the house and rummaged through the cupboards, with the lion at my heels. I found a large stack of beef jerky, but when I tried to pull it out, the cupboard door slammed onto my hand.

Even with the curse, it hurt really badly. I cursed, then opened the door again. This time, though, I stabbed the door to remove the closing thingy. I carved out a triangle, hopefully removing whatever it was. I tried again, and this time succeeded in pulling out the jerky.

I gave it to the lion, and watched it walk away, wishing I could solve all my problems by bribing monsters with beef jerky.

After the Nemean lion left, still finding it weird how it didn't want to kill me, I started sifting through all of the junk around me. My new eye started giving me all the statistics of the things I picked up. Weight, length, quality, balance, etc. for weapons, and just regular quality for materials.

I realized that none of the weapons had a quality above 70% besides my new golden sword. Now that I look at it it looks like one of those swords I saw romans use in my history books. I wonder why the greek god of forging had a roman weapon in his junkyard. Maybe he got bored and wanted to try something new? No no, that can't be it, something else is going on here.

People call me stupid, or seaweed brain, or other things to insult my intelligence, but what they don't know is that I'm actually quite smart and I conquered most of my dyslexia a few weeks after the titan war and the rest over the next year. I know how to figure things out and I have a gut instinct when something is wrong. The one thing you learn to trust as a demigod is your gut, it's always right. When I conquered my dyslexia I started getting A+'s in school because now that I can read and write perfectly I realized my brain absorbs info very very fast if I understand it. It would explain how I got good at swordfighting so quickly

Wait why did I start ranting again? Anyway I started walking back towards my tent house when I felt something, something weird. Like a feeling pulling me in a specific direction. I was able to resist it long enough to get lunch but after that I couldn't take it anymore. I started walking where I was being pulled, jumping and running over piles of junk along the way. When I finally reached my destination I realized I was at the edge of the junkyard.

I felt a bit tired, but I could cope. I saw a group of three people walking away from the junkyard with one staying behind to grab /something. When he picked it up I felt this strange urge to protect. That wasn't his thing! THAT WAS MINE!

I roared in anger at him taking my stuff. In all honesty, I have no idea why I was so angry, I did the exact same thing as him. Taking stuff while the guard-. Wait a second, I'm angry because he took something when he shouldn't be taking. That sounds a lot like the junkyard guardian. Does that mean I'm the guardian now? It would make sense, I mean I'm the first living being to step foot in here after the old one died. Either way, THAT'S MY STUFF, BRO!

I looked over the people. If they were demigods, then I could straight up attack them, but if they were mortals, then I would just knock over junk on them. They were wearing purple shirts, and one was highlighted by a red box, that seemed to be associated with threat, because when I gave the Nemean lion food, the red box turned green.

I yelled at them "Who dares steal from the junkyard of the gods!"

My voice flowed over the valley where the junkyard was today, the 3 people looked up at me. The one on the bottom of the junk pile looked petrified, while the other two looked horrified at their compatriots actions.

I yelled, "State your names and intentions, so I can judge you!"

The one on the bottom squeaked out " Octavian, legacy of Apollo, and I mean no harm."

"Really?"

"Y-yes"

"Then why are you picking up a gold bar?"

Octavian started stammering, then the other 2 got over their shock and approached me.

The kid on the right walked up, he kinda looked like a blond superman "My name is Jason, Son of Jupiter."

Wait Jupiter? Isn't that roman Zeus? Wait that means there are roman demigods, that's why there was a roman weapon here!

The kid on the left was clearly female, and stated in a strong voice" I am Reyna, daughter of Bellona."

Another Roman? Wait maybe Octavian was a legacy of roman Apollo, if I recall correctly his name doesn't change.

I growled out at them,"Why do you take from the junkyard?"

Octavian said "Why do you care? Why don't you take things as well, they never use it."

"I care because I AM THE GUARDIAN!"

Octavian then pissed his pants and fainted. Jason looked shocked and Reyna didn't seem to care very much, just mostly annoyed at Octavian for getting her into this.

I looked at Jason and Reyna. They seemed to be pretty mad at Octavian, as the boxes, now green, showed harsh resentment, but not directed towards me.

"For the crime of trying to steal something from the junkyard I'm obligated to give you a side quest." I said. "You can also choose death, but that is much less pleasant."

"Milord, what is the quest?" Reyna asked.

"First off," I told her, "It's just Percy. Second of all, The task is for you to bring me three hellhound pelts, there is a pack of them one klick west of here. You will be rewarded at the end of the quest, however, as you didn't steal anything. When you get back to your home your quest mate Octavian must be punished by He-Vulcan."

"He-Vulcan?" Jason asked.

"Nothing, I just call him a different name in his presence" I replied, waving it away.

"We accept the quest." Reyna said.

"Good, now scram before I change my mind."

They ran quite fast after picking up Octavian, sometimes accidentally letting him hit the ground. They must hate him a lot to do that. I wonder if they will be able to kill the pack, it is quite a big one, thirteen of them i believe. If they do make it back I'll give them some celestial bronze, they don't have much of it by the gear they wear, all this enchanted gold stuff.

The quality of their gear was good but the durability on some of their armor is deteriorating, I'm not responsible for it if it breaks. I wonder how long I'll have to stay here being the guardian before I can find another one.

I started walking around just admiring the junkyard and all the stuff in it. My brain was getting better at handling all of the info the eye gives me but I still have a slight headache. I wonder when the next monster attack will be, it's getting boring around here.

I decided to go spar with the automaton dude that I own now. He needs a name, ehh Craig will work. I went to the tent house and Craig was waiting there for me. When I walked up he just nodded at me and walked off to the improvised training area I made, can he read my mind?

I followed him down to the improvised arena and saw him in a ready stance on the other side. I pulled out riptide as well as the golden sword that I don't have a name for yet. I got into a ready stance that felt right and waited. I stood there for about five minutes before he charged at me. He slashed down with his sword and I raised riptide to block. I blocked it and before I could do anything he was already slashing at my sides.

"You're faster than I thought Craig." I yelled over the clanging of swords. He just nodded once again.

I then kicked it up a notch by starting to use my new sword. Stabbing and slashing in different combo moves to slowly drive Craig back into the wall. When I backed him up against the wall I was able to disarm him and put a sword to his neck, or what would be his neck if he was a human.

He just nodded and got out of combat mode, getting his sword and putting it away. I looked around and noticed we had been fighting for over an hour. The romans will probably be back soon. I went off to where I first met them and waited there. After another fifteen minutes I saw them walking up, they looked tired and they all had a few cuts.

"We got your pelts guardian." Jason yelled up at me.

"Well then come up here and deliver them then!" I yelled back down.

He started climbing the junk pile and I realized how hard it actually was to climb one. The only reason I could do it so easily is because of two things. One is that the junkyard helps me out because I defend it and two is all the practice from the climbing wall.

When he finally got to the top he collapsed in what I assume was exhaustion. He held up the three pelts and I took them. One had a quality of 56% the second 67% and the third was 89%.

"Well the third one has the best quality, and the other two are okay so you can consider your task completed." I finally said.

"Great, now if you don't mind, we'll be going." Jason replied.

"I do mind, stay here and get your friend up here…. *sigh* Octavian as well." I said.

He yelled back down to his quest mates and they grumbled a bit before climbing up. Octavian seemed annoyed and I smirked, this seemed to infuriate him.

"What do you want guardian" he spoke with loathing blatant in his voice.

"Well there's nothing for you asshat." I snarked before knocking him out.

"Now that the piece of trash has been taken care of, I can give you a reward." I spoke happily.

"What is it?" Jason asked.

"Well I see you only really have this enchanted gold stuff." I pulled out my gold sword, "and I was thinking that you could use some celestial bronze." I said pulling out riptide.

"We would be very grateful for some of that rare material and it's called imperial gold by the way." Reyna replied.

"Well let me go get it for you, be right back" I yelled, already jumping down the junk piles at high speeds. The eye providing me with the fastest and safest route. I had to go two junk piles in before I found a heavy celestial bronze chestplate, 68% quality and 97/100 durability, this will suffice. I ran back with the chestplate in hand and when I got back Octavian was waking up.

"Here is your reward" I said before dropping it on Octavian. The romans stared wide eyed at the huge bronze chestplate.

"Whe-Where did you get so much celestial bronze? It's one of the rarest materials there is?!" Reyna asked in a shocked tone.

"Lord Vulcan throws anything he doesn't deem worthy of the gods in here, this was one of them. Just because the gods don't find it worthy doesn't mean demigods won't. Use it well romans, and complete your quest."

They just nodded dumbly, said their thanks, and walked away with Octavian in tow. I spent half an hour wondering what they were going to do with all of that bronze.

(::)(::) Shoutout to Guest for guessing right!(::)(::)

Also no, Craig is not Talos, Talos is gone.

Thanks to slayer2031 for helping me write this story, go check out his, he has a great story as well.