[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 4: The beginning of a legend.

(AN: I was debating on writing in first or third person and I think I'll focus on first person to see how it feels)

The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed. Or at least, I think it was morning. It's hard to tell in Tartarus since the place always has a grayish atmosphere and its clouds are blood red with the ceiling being too high to see.

And yet somehow, even with memories of the world on the surface, he didn't really mind his location.

'Perhaps it's because it's where I was born or where I first came to exist in but while it doesn't feel like home, I can't say I hate where I am. Maybe this has to do with Lethe's gift of never doubting my identity.

I'm me, and I don't care where I am. The old Percy is gone, I can barely recall any names or faces of his friends or family.

I am Perseus now, and I have three new friends as well as a patron goddess.'

Sitting up from where he was laying on the fur of some monster, Perseus looked around the room.

Damasen wasn't there while Bob and Little Bob were passed out on their own furs.

Getting up and heading outside, I took a deep breath and ignoring the poisonous taste, I stretched out.

'I can't recall how things felt before, but I feel so powerful now.'

I stretched in every way I remembered and did a few light movements, and my body wasn't stiff at all. I was full of muscle and still flexible. Like a panther, light on my feet.

'Yesterday's battle helped me adjust to my body, but I lost myself a bit in the battle haze. I should take some time to slowly get used to my abilities, both physical and divine.'

A sound of things being moved around brought me out of my thoughts. I looked to the side of the hut to see another smaller building. It only had a single wall and a roof, but it was pretty obvious what it was.

Damasen was there, rummaging through a large pile of Drakon bones and materials while a furnace was burning hot in the workshop of his.

"Hey man, good morning. Or whatever it is you say down here." (Perseus)

Damasen chuckled but didn't turn my way.

"Haha, yes, there is nothing good about this place but in the same sense, good morning to you as well." (Damasen)

I walked over and looked at what he was doing.

"Finding a new weapon?" (Perseus)

Damasen nodded.

"More like making one, Drakon bones are some of the greatest materials in the world but they are not natural weapons or easy to craft. My lance was broken so I need a replacement before my foe comes back later today." (Damasen)

I clicked my tongue at that.

"What a pity, even after managing to tame that beast, you still can't beat your curse." (Perseus)

Damasen waved it off.

"It's fine, do you really think I haven't tried that method before? I've fought the beast once a day for thousands of years. The taming wouldn't last, and I would need targets for it to attack while tamed. It's been a few centuries since I last used that method, so I didn't recall it at first.

My curse is what it is, I am simply making the most out of it." (Damasen)

I couldn't help but look at him with respect for mentality, he never truly gave in to hopelessness or despair despite hating to fight.

"Is it possible for you to teach me how to craft things?" (Perseus)

I got a strange look from him, but he shrugged.

"Sure, why not. It's always a useful skill to have. Any particular thing you're trying to make?" (Damasen)

"Well the skill itself would be nice so I can make whatever I need but I was aiming for weapons and gear. You have been a great host, but I can't impose forever, and I don't think it's a great idea for me to get used to using giant sized, well, everything haha." (Perseus)

Damasen grunted in approval while lifting a long straight bone onto the table.

"You have the right mindset at least. Having a friend is great but everyone in life, and especially those down here, need to learn how to survive on their own. I can show you my skills and beat them into you no matter how little talent you might have." (Damasen)

I smiled at the challenge in his tone.

"Bring it on big guy, I'm a new man and I want to learn whatever I can." (Perseus)

Damasen hummed at that.

"If you really want to learn more, you can ask Bob to teach you some things as well." (Damasen)

I blinked at that. Bob was a nice guy and a powerful titan but what could he teach me?

Damasen seemed to understand my look and chuckled.

"Don't look down on the friendly titan, he has a strong skill for enchanting. That spear of his was enchanted to connect with his essence. It enhanced his powers and was the main reason he was so weak after Tartarus broke it. I'm sure he will correct his mistakes but if you really want to learn something useful, ask him about it, the guy would be ecstatic to help." (Damasen)

After a second of thinking about it, I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll ask him when he gets up. For now, I think I'm going to try and organize my mind, figure out my priorities and plan for the future." (Perseus)

Damasen nodded and told me when lunch was.

I walked a bit away from the hut but stayed within the swamp's territory.

Finding a nice spot, I sat down and used the techniques engraved in my mind to delve into a mindscape of my own.

Within seconds, I found myself standing on a soft beach with the sound of waves hitting the shore. It only took a few seconds for the current state of my mind to become clear to me.

My mindscape seemed to naturally set itself toward my divine affinities. A trio of small tropical islands sitting on clear ocean water made up the majority of my mindscape. Bubbles with cracks on them were flowing around the sky at fast paces while the sky itself was clear, showing my lack of doubt and stress.

"Ha, I guess I really am a laid back guy. My situation doesn't bother me and on the contrary, I feel kind of excited for new things to see and do." (Perseus)

After getting a good understanding of my mindscape, I decided to get started organizing my memories and setting up my defenses.

I recalled Lethe's words: "Think smart, not hard."

Walking between two islands, I started to imagine what I wanted. A coral spiral shaped structure began to rise from the ocean bed out of the surface. I created hundreds of locked doors with their own combinations that were all connected to each other, if one broke the lock and walked through, they would only end up walking out of another.

Choosing a random door, I had it open to a large cavern filled with glowing aquatic plants and colorful corals. It glowed like something out of a fantasy.

Deciding to divide 'Percy's' memories from my new ones, I marked out a section of the cavern and created numerous pearl like orbs for different general areas of the memories I had. Broken they may be, the memories still hold pieces of information.

'I'll have to ask Lethe how to recover the rest later.'

With just a thought, the roof of the cavern opened up to the sky and my memory bubbles began flooding into the space and flowing into their categorized pearl orb.

It only took a few minutes for it to finish its job and I shut the roof and locked the space again.

"*sigh* now comes the annoying part." (Perseus)

I need to go into each of these orbs and index them for easier access. Once I do that, I can transfer important information that is not connected to my old self to pearl orbs in a new section set to my current life and they will automatically continue to absorb new memories as they come in.

Of course, I will have to periodically check in on them but that's not an issue.

Exiting the cavern, I turned to the coral spiral and had it sink beneath the waters and into the ocean bed.

Then a smirk formed on my face as I thought about loads of fun ways to mislead anyone who tries to mess with my mind.

First off, I covered one island with heavy mist and different layers of obstacles, both mental and physical, and then I left clues around the island that would eventually lead invaders, if they make it that far, into finding a large X marked spot where they would have to dig up the sand to find a chest. The chest would hold a note that simply tells them a new clue.

Each clue would lead to another and take invaders on a goose chase throughout the island. With that much time available, I could easily subdue or eject them and whatever they tried to do.

With my memories secure and simply waiting for indexing, I made my way to the second island and found a nice clearing on the beach to sit down.

'Let's organize what abilities I have and what I plan to do for the foreseeable future.'

Waving my hand, words began forming in the air. To my left were abilities I know of and to my right were the next steps I planned to take.

[Hydrokinesis or water manipulation is my main ability. I can summon water at the expense of my own energy, control bodies of water, breathe underwater, freeze or heat up water, create mist or fog, harden water, heal with ocean water, have limited control over existing poison as it is only part water, and all of that is only limited by my energy, imagination, and knowledge.

I'm sure there is more for me to discover but it seems a bit difficult here in Tartarus, the ocean was always obedient under my command. The only water here is the rivers and even if I have their favor, their water feels like I'm lifting heavy weights instead of the light cotton feel of the ocean.]

I drew a line beneath all that.

[Son of the sea god. Aside from my Hydrokinesis abilities, I am also immune to water pressure, can fall from any height into water without issue, choose if I want my clothes wet or not, speak to horses and aquatic life, cause minor earthquakes, I have an intimate awareness of any ship I am on and can telekinetically control them, I'm immune to water damage as well as having a high resistance to heat, I gain a boost in all around qualities when in contact with water but its limited in non-ocean water, and finally, I can create storms centered around myself with wind and lightning added to the mix.

Storm creation is however only possible when it's raining, or I am near a large amount of water. Summoning enough water for a personal storm would kill me.]

Drawing another line below that, I continued on to the rest of abilities.

[Curse of Achilles - nearly invulnerable, except in one weak point, highly increased strength, speed, agility, reflexes, endurance, and fighting skills, also making it less tiresome to use immense powers.

Advanced stamina to supplement the energy necessary for my curse. Blood that can heal others who I willingly give it to while being untouchable by those I do not permit at the fate of being burned to ash.

Highly increased intellect, never doubting my sense of self, immune to mind control, ability to create a mindscape to organize my memories and set up defenses to avoid letting anything in my head.

Some unidentified ability from Cocytus, I should go visit to see what she can tell me.

Ability to control the mist, a divine method of using illusions, memory alteration, and a few other abilities I have yet to understand.]

Getting up till here, I paused as something hit me.

"Where is my weak spot?"

Being that I'm in my mind, I can't check my body, but I don't recall focusing on any spot when I was reborn yesterday.

"Another thing I need to do."

Pushing it off, I drew a final line.

[Equipment:

Riptide – celestial bronze sword that is carried around as a ball point pen and will always return to me if lost.

Ripped shorts – leftover of my clothing.]

Chuckling at that last part, I created a large white board and pushed all my writing onto it before focusing on my right side, my goals.

[Long term goal: Free the rivers Styx, Phlegethon, Lethe, and Cocytus from Tartarus's grasp.

Short term goal: Learn crafting from Damasen, learn enchanting from Bob, experiment with cooking, organize my memories, train with all my abilities, speak with Styx, Lethe, and Cocytus about questions on their blessings.]

Having everything laid out nice and organized made me smile.

"Ahhh, writing things down really helps to clear up my thoughts. It looks like I have a game plan for the foreseeable future, let's see how things go."

*Line break*

It took me a week to finish organizing my memories into a proper index. You would be amazed by how much gets stored in the subconscious memory.

I was able to look at lessons my old self was half asleep with in schools and look at them once more. Nothing complex since the only memories I had were things Percy was awake for. When he fell asleep, there was no memory for me to look at.

It was frustrating but manageable.

The good news was that the old Percy was actually awake for mythology class in that camp half-blood place. Chiron was a good one on one tutor but not so much for a large group of pre-teens. Thankfully, he set up a good variety of class's and forced Percy to attend some.

Thanks to that, I had a good reservoir of mythology information. Unfortunately, it seems that anything not involving mythology and the Greek pantheon was blurred. My mortal memories seemed to be the first thing to go in my swim in the Delta of Despair.

When I went to go talk to Lethe, he confirmed that for me. His river washes away all memories and mortal ones are the easiest and first to go. Divine related memories come after that.

He did assure me that thanks to his blessing and timely save, I would eventually recall all of them. How long that took he did not know. It could be anywhere from a year to a few centuries.

I decided not to dwell on it and move on for now. Lethe did compliment me on my creativity with my mental defenses. Apparently the longer I have them up, the stronger they will become.

My talk with Cocytus was interesting but unhelpful. As the first being she ever blessed, she has no idea what her blessing would entail. The only thing she could tell me was that her blessing focused on my lungs and vocal cords.

I tried shouting and commanding things, but I would prefer to lock those memories away for eternity. It was very embarrassing when nothing happened.

Deciding it would come to me eventually, I left it alone and moved on.

It was my talk with Styx that through me for a loop.

Flashback:

"Can you please repeat that?" (Perseus)

I stared up at the tall goddess whose mindscape I was pulled into after stepping into her waters in confusion.

She was smiling down at me with a strange twinkle in her eyes.

"You asked where I put your weak spot yes? Well, my answer is a question. What is the most secure spot on the exterior of the mortal body?" (Styx)

Even with my increased intelligence, I only came up with a few ideas off the top of my head.

"My tongue perhaps? Inner armpit?" (Perseus)

She smiled wider.

"Think lower." (Styx)

I furrowed my brow a bit.

"My ankle? Isn't that bad karma or something?" (Perseus)

Styx shook her head and seemed to be taking a lot of amusement in this.

"Higher, it's a very secure and 'hidden' location." (Styx)

I tried to see where this was going and eventually, my eyes widened in horror.

"You didn't!?" (Perseus)

Her smile almost split her face.

"Oh, I did. Come now Perseus, you must surely see how secure it is? It is protected behind walls of invulnerable flesh. I am shocked no one has chosen it before now." (Styx)

I felt a growing headache at what had happened to me.

"You would have to find a gay warrior with a death wish for it to be chosen. *sigh* I'm not going to have issues with bowel movements am I?" (Perseus)

Styx snorted at that.

"No Perseus, you won't. It's only a danger for it to be attacked by at least a few inches of a weapon that can draw blood. It has to pierce the skin and dig into you to kill you. Nothing passing through will harm you." (Styx)

I looked up at the shit eating grin Styx was wearing and sighed again.

I, Perseus, a badass with incredible powers, had the single mortal weak spot of my curse, the only spot that could pierce my invulnerable status, at my anus.

Flashback end.

In hindsight, when you remove the embarrassing part of it, it's actually an incredible place to put it. 99% of the day, it is protected between two invulnerable ass cheeks with the smallest and tiniest of cracked space open to it.

I thought the inner armpit was a place no one would ever use, well, I never once thought about the anus. Just the pain it would bring a man to have to bathe in the Styx while focusing on it would be insane since when you normally bathe in the Styx, your mortal weak spot would flare up with pain ten times worse than the rest of your body which would be disintegrating and being put back together.

As for a women? I have no idea since I have never been one, but I doubt it would be pleasant.

Thankfully, I am one hundred percent sure I am straight and not curious. I also have Styx's word that she wasn't joking about things passing through. How sad would it be if I died to a bowel movement?

Anyway, moving on.

My talk with Bob ended on a great note.

He was more than happy to share his knowledge of enchanting. Unfortunately, it's not so simple.

According to what he told me. Enchanting works best with older languages. The older it is and more powerful the one who first created it, the stronger the effects and time it will have.

He spoke of a few languages that used it, but he wasn't knowledgeable on them. The only one he used was the ancient language of the old ones. The language spoken by primordial's, the titans and the giants in the old days.

Gods were also able to enchant but they used Greek/Latin for their enchantments. It had weaker effects, were more unstable, and had lower energy requirements. It seemed like one of the main reasons for Hephaestus having so many faulty machines.

The problem with using the old language was that words had power. To be able speak it is one thing, my enhanced vocal cords came into play to actually allow me that honor, but to enchant it is something else.

I need to understand the word to be able to put its effect on something. Everyone has a slightly different understanding of things and these words require detailed mental images before you can enchant with them.

And this was not easy with such an old language because the same word could have multiple meanings.

For example, if I wanted a fire sword. I would have to spend a long time meditating on 'Fire' while mentally imaging it in the form I want. Temperature, color, shape, size, auto adjustment, and so much more.

And the second reason for its lack of use was the high energy requirements. These words were strong and very stable, but they required large amounts of energy to use, after all, it was invented by primordial gods.

Even Bob, a titan, would have to supplement his own energy with the essence of monsters he kills to gather enough, a method he actually invented.

The combination of having to meditate for long periods of time and the energy necessary pushed away almost all from using the old language for enchantments.

But there are ways to get around these issues. Bob also only knew how to use the old language. He says using Greek/Latin is a waste of time and unstable.

Bob decided to spend a few hours a day instructing me on the language and his own experiences first before he would go into the actual enchanting.

Needless to say, it would take a long time to get anywhere.

Damasen on the other hand was also happy to pass on his crafting skills. Just like our conversation the morning after we got back, he was happy to help a man 'learn what he needs to survive' in the real world.

Crafting is a skill you need in the wild and technically, he lived with mortals thousands of years ago. He probably has no idea of modern technology but still, I fully agree with him. Technology is nice but if you rely on it and refuse to learn life skills, you will be lost and most likely die for a silly reason if you get stuck without any technology.

Not to mention that the materials we are crafting with are more useful any harder to handle than anything mortals could use. Celestial bronze and Imperial gold, the most common metals demigods and gods alike use, could cut through reinforced steel like butter.

He agreed to teach me in the morning hours, Bob would teach me in the afternoon, and I would go practice with my numerous abilities in the evening and late into the night.

It seemed that with my blessing from Phlegethon, I only really needed four hours of sleep WITH the curse. Isn't that amazing? Achilles, the man whose name rung throughout time, had to nap around twenty times a day to keep up with his fighting.

Finally, for my ideas on cooking, Damasen gave me a journal filled with his notes on plants he found down here.

Even in Tartarus, there are plants that grow. Most are poisonous and harmful but Damasen, using the endless time he had, found ways to neutralize their negative effects and boost the positive ones for different uses.

I spent a while memorizing that journal. The knowledge it held was almost literal gold down here in this place.

Still, that didn't suddenly make me an expert chef. On the contrary, I was barely decent.

I was ok with that, it would take time, but I was on the right track.

With a routine set up, with things to learn and feel alive with, time seemed to flow on and on, never stopping to wait for anything in its path.