Sorry, I know it's annoying to read announcements before you can get to the good stuff, but I just want to let you know that I won't be covering every room and fight in the game. Just small milestones or emotional moments.

Chapter 3

Percy had only made it ten steps by himself before the first monster attacked. A little Froggit hopped in front of him and initiated a battle. Percy was so startled he accidentally slashed the little guy in half with Riptide. The frog faded away into dust. Percy knelt down and cradled it in his hands.

"Oh my gosh, I- I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry," Percy cried.

He had never felt so guilty about killing a monster before. The narration box interrupted him by saying, You won! You got 4g. Your EXP increased. Percy didn't care about the gold. He tried to hold back the tears so that he didn't get the dust wet. He found a small hole in the wall and put the dust inside, muttering a small Greek phrase he had heard at shroud burnings back at camp. With a heavy heart, he turned away and continued onward.

In a large pile of leaves, there was another one of those stars. He touched it, interested to see what it would say this time. Crunching the leaves fills you with DETERMINATION. File saved. File saved? This was more like a video game than he had previously thought. But how could it save his actions? Maybe it was a metaphor.

When Percy turned away from the star, he saw a Froggit he had previously not noticed before. He decided to apologize to it about the death of the Froggit.

"Greetings, human, I would like to teach you something," the Froggit said, somehow speaking in perfect English that Percy could understand.

Percy sniffled. "I'm sorry I killed your friend."

The Froggit continued like it hadn't heard him. "When fighting monsters, certain actions can cause them to not wish to fight you anymore. So please human, if a monster no longer desires to fight, show us mercy, please."

"I will," Percy promised. He would never make the mistake of killing an innocent monster again.

"Thank you, human," the Froggit ended.

Percy saw a doorway to his right, but he decided not to investigate. He continued on, but almost immediately stopped once he had reached another hallway. The floor ahead of him had cracks and looked like it would break at the slightest touch. He debated jumping across, but the space of unstable floor was too wide. He figured he could just stomp out the floor and use the ledge that would be left over to crawl across. He broke the floor, but when he tried grabbing onto the ledge, it broke as well. Percy fell for the second time that day, landing on a soft pile of leaves that broke his fall. He wondered if all holes in the Underground had something soft at the bottom. Percy was worried he would be stuck, but luckily, there was a doorway with stairs leading up. He walked up the stairs and ended up on the other side of the hallway.

In the next room, he received his first phone call from Toriel.

"Hello, my child, are you doing well so far?"

Percy nodded, and then remembered people couldn't hear nods over the cellphone. He smacked his forehead and replied, "As well as I can!"

"Good! Now, I have a few questions for you. Do you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon?"

Percy considered. He didn't think he had ever had those flavors. "I guess I really don't mind, as long as it's blue."

"Blue?" Toriel asked. "What an odd request," she whispered to herself, apparently thinking Percy couldn't hear her.

"Sorry," Percy apologized.

"Oh, no, that is perfectly alright!" Toriel quickly reassured him. "I am just not used to that answer. I will see what I can find. Now, do you have any food allergies?"

"No, not that I'm aware of," Percy said.

"Thank you, my child. That is all I needed to know," Toriel said, hanging up.

After meeting a new monster known as a Whimsum, Percy approached the newest puzzle. Pushing the rocks onto the pressure plates would remove the spikes on the bridge that was covering a shallow pond of water. He decided not to do it, and just crossed the water instead. He had the strangest feeling he had missed something, maybe an opportunity for a comedic interaction, but shrugged it off.

A strange plate of cheese was stuck to a table in the next room, along with another star, which Percy now called save points. He quickly ran through the room, not wanting to risk another monster encounter. He found a ghost pretending to be asleep on the floor. Percy had only met a couple ghosts throughout his time as a demigod, but this one was more cartoonish and seemed less dangerous. He considered walking through the ghost but decided that would be rude. He gently tapped the ghost, his fingers phasing through. The ghost sighed and got up, initiating a fight.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," Percy apologized.

The ghost looked very sad and introduced themselves as Napstablook. Percy decided to cheer them up by smiling at them. Napstablook started crying, and Percy was worried he had offended them.

"Heh," they chuckled.

Apparently, he hadn't.

Napstablook continued crying, the tears like acid as they splashed against Percy. He tried his best to dodge them. He wasn't sure if it was the same thing, but he finally understood why scientists were so scared of acid rain. He also wasn't sure how a ghost could cry. Did they have tear ducts? When Napstablook stopped, he decided to tell them a pun.

"Why are ghosts such good friends?"

Napstablook didn't respond.

"Because they keep you in good spirits!" Percy awkwardly finished.

"Heh heh," they laughed.

Percy braced himself for more tears, but this time, Napstablook did nothing.

"I'm really not feeling up to it right now, sorry," they apologized.

"Oh, that's alright! We don't need to fight, you're pretty cool!" Percy reassured them.

The narration box informed Percy that Napstablook wanted to show him something. Napstablook started crying, but this time the tears started going… upwards? They formed a top hat.

"I call it 'dapper blook'. Do you like it?" They anxiously asked.

Percy thought that was pretty sick. "Are you kidding me?! That's super awesome! How did you make your tears form a hat?"

Napstablook shed a single tear. "Oh, gee, that's really nice of you. Normally I come here to be alone, but today I met someone nice: you. I'll get out of your way now. Byeeeeee."

Napstablook faded away, and Percy felt happy at meeting a new friend.

Percy noticed a crossroad ahead of him. He could go left or straight. He decided to go straight, as there was more of a path leading that direction. Inside, he found a bunch of spiderwebs. He didn't mind them, but he knew Annabeth would hate this place. Examining the webs closer, he found a flyer. Spider Bake Sale: Come eat food made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders. Percy thought his dyslexia was messing with him for a minute, but after several re-readings of the poster, he realized that that was what it actually said. He wasn't sure if it was a joke or something, but after the weird encounters he had with a psycho flower, an over-protective goat woman with a mother complex, and an introverted ghost, he was inclined to believe it wasn't. He slowly exited the room, resolving to never question Annabeth's arachnophobia again. When he went the other direction, he found another sign advertising the bake sale. He quickly walked past it and talked to the Froggit he found, all the way at the end of the room.

"Hey there, why are you all by yourself?" Percy asked, kneeling down to the frog's level.

"I- "

The frog blinked and shook its head, as if trying to clear it. "I have always been alone here. I do not remember why."

Percy was disturbed. The frog had looked so confused, and there was an ominous, empty feeling inside of him. He tried his best to forget that experience and continued on.

Several rooms later, Percy was exhausted. He had battled constant monsters such as Moldsmal, Migosp, Loox, and Vegetoid. He had solved too many puzzles to count. There was one experience that had stood out among the others. When he had fallen into yet another hole, there was a random red hair ribbon sitting on the ground. Normally he wouldn't question it, but there was something sad and mysterious about it. First of all, he doubted a monster like Loox was going to parade around wearing a ribbon, and the Ruins were small enough that it seemed unlikely someone like Toriel could lose one. Secondly, when he had lifted the bow up to his face to examine it, he smelled a faint scent of iron on it. He knew what that smell meant. Whatever owner had owned this had been injured, and monsters didn't bleed. Instead of keeping the ribbon, he had gently placed it back where he found it. He figured the owner wouldn't appreciate him taking their stuff, and besides, he didn't wear hair ribbons. But besides that unsettling experience, most of his trip to Toriel's home was filled with frustrating puzzles and annoying fights. The worst part was that he was hungry. So by the time he reached her house, he was pretty grumpy.

When he walked through the door, Toriel was waiting for him with a huge smile on her face. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. There were a lot of yellow decorations on top of the light brown floors and walls. Percy could smell something wonderful throughout the house. On cue, his stomach growled.

"Oh, are you hungry, my child? I have a surprise for you; I baked a pie for you while you were gone," Toriel announced.

Percy was beyond grateful, but a small corner of his brain questioned how she had been able to make a pie in the time he was gone. He had been traveling for about two hours. He was pretty sure it took longer than that to prepare and bake a pie, especially if she had to go the same direction as him to get there. But, as he reminded himself, you should never question food. He eagerly waited for Toriel to tell him he could go eat, but she gestured towards a hallway to his right.

"I will show you to your room while the pie is cooling. Come with me, my child," she said.

Percy followed her until they had reached the first door in the hallway. She smiled at him and walked away, back the way they had come. He opened the door and peeked inside. The room was entirely red, which was jarring when he compared it to the calmer colors of the rest of the house. A dusty box of toys sat at the foot of the bed. Percy felt sad looking at it. He wondered when the last time was that someone had played with them. As he neared his bed, he felt very tired, and reasoned a small nap couldn't hurt. He placed Riptide on the nightstand and fell asleep.

When he awoke, he discovered he was tucked in, and the light was off. Had Toriel caught him sleeping, and done this for him? He was embarrassed, but he secretly was grateful for the motherly goat watching over him. He yawned and got out of bed, stretching. On the floor to the side of the bed, he noticed a small plate with a piece of blue pie on it. He was awed by Toriel's thoughtfulness, and picked it up, carrying it out of the room. He briefly considered looking through the other rooms but decided it would be an invasion of Toriel's privacy. He instead went to the end of the hallway and looked in the mirror. He was startled by his appearance. He looked much younger than he remembered, about 13, and realized that was probably why Toriel thought he was a child. Maybe going to the other world had changed his appearance. He also noticed with a twinge of sadness that his silver hair streak from holding up the weight of the world had disappeared. Hopefully it would return when he made it back to his world.

When he reached the entry room once again, he headed into the other room and found Toriel sitting there on a rocking chair, reading a book. She looked up, surprised.

"Oh! You're awake already. I hope you had a good sleep. Would you like to eat your pie with me?"

Percy accepted the offer and sat down at the table, waiting patiently for her to return with her slice of pie. When she had sat down as well, he took his first bite. Tears welled up in his eyes and his throat became choked up. Memories of his mother making delicious treats for him as a young child flooded back. He remembered tugging on his mom's apron, asking when the cookies would be ready. She would display the spatula with all the dough on it before leaning down to ruffle his hair, causing him to return a big gap-toothed smile. He returned to the present, feeling the warm fire from the center of the room, smelling the pie, and seeing Toriel smile at him, like everything was going to be alright. He felt so nostalgic in that moment, and wanted nothing more than to stay with Toriel, to relive the parts of his childhood that had been taken away by his demigod quests. But as he looked into Toriel's crimson eyes, he knew he couldn't stay. He had his own home to return to, where his own mother was probably crying, waiting for him to return. He cleared his clogged throat.

"Mo- Toriel, thank you for how kind you've been to me. It really means a lot, and you don't know how much I needed this," he began.

Toriel smiled. "You do not need to thank me, my child. I would do anything for you."

Percy gulped. This was going to be harder than he thought. "If you would do anything for me, will you let me go?"

Toriel's fork fell onto her plate with a crash. Her jaw dropped, and it seemed it was her turn to have tears well up in her eyes.

"What do you mean? You live here now," she insisted.

"I really do think you're awesome, and it's not anything against you. It's just that I need to return to my family. My human family," Percy emphasized.

Toriel stood up, a firm look in her eyes. "Please stay here. I have something I need to do."

It didn't sound like a request, more like an order. Percy waited until she had left the room, and immediately disobeyed. As he peeked into the entry room, he saw Toriel heading down the stairs. He felt Riptide return to his pocket as he walked down the stairs, which was not a great sign.

Any comfortable feelings he had previously had dissipated as he entered the basement. It was freezing cold, every step echoing as Toriel came into view. Percy knew he had been loud enough for her to hear him coming, but she made no attempt to turn around and speak to him.

"You wish to leave, do you not?" Toriel asked, but Percy got the feeling she didn't want an answer. "Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins, a one-way-exit to the rest of the Underground. I am going to destroy it. Go upstairs, my child."

"Wait, what? No!" Percy protested, following after her as she speedily walked further into the basement.

"I thought you would be different than the others," Toriel muttered, "But you are just as foolish."

Percy would normally not mind such an insult, but coming from Toriel, it felt as though he had been slapped. He looked around her, seeing the heart-broken expression on her face.

"Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again, and again, and again," Toriel sadly said. "They come. They leave. They die. Can you not see? If you leave the Ruins, you will perish."

Percy felt the use of the word perish was a little bit harsh, but he got the gist.

"How will I die, Toriel? All the monsters I've met so far have been kind, like you," he asked.

Toriel's shoulders tensed. "If you leave here, they, Asgore, will kill you for your soul. I am just trying to protect you! Please, go upstairs."

Percy didn't know who Asgore was, but the way Toriel said his name made him sound dangerous. He was heartbroken by how desperately Toriel was trying to stop him. She seemed to care about him a lot.

When Toriel reached a bend in the hallway, she paused.

"Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning."

Percy guessed that if he went any further, Toriel might snap. He didn't know what she might do to stop him. Maybe she would camp out in front of the exit to prevent him from proceeding. Whatever she did, he knew the risks would be worth it. He followed her to the end of the Ruins, where two large doors lay. Whatever happened next, he would do what the save points had told him to do: stay determined.