If someone asked me to describe Annabeth, some words come to mind. Smart, stubborn, tough, determined, arachnophobic, stubborn, persistent, determined, persistent.
Did I mention that she's stubborn, determined and persistent? Well she is.
For the week leading up to the quest I was getting constantly ambushed by her, in the training arena, dinner, the middle of the woods, the only places where I was safe from her was my cabin, bunker 3, the lake, and the bathrooms.
And every time it's the same thing, she wants to come on the quest with me. And everytime she asks I say the same thing, no.
Admittedly she has some good reasons for her wanting to join, she's been training for something like this for the past 7 years, she knows basically everything about every monster out there, and she has an invisibility cap.
All are very useful things to have on a quest.
But on the other hand, I could identify any monster's weakness with just a glance, I'm already friends with a tank who's the literal daughter of war, bloodlust, and destruction, or at least I think we're friends. I am definitely going to invite Grover, so all positions are already full, and another reason why I'm not inviting her is because she attacked nagini.
Even ignoring everything else, she attacked nagini, my friend. It's going to take a long time for me to forgive her.
Everytime she ambushes me she just decreases the already nonexistent chances of me asking her to be on this quest.
I just tried to avoid Annabeth anytime I see her coming, unfortunately this led to me jumping into a thornbush, twice.
But even then, she still finds me.
I just told her to leave me alone for a few days and then I'll consider letting her join on the quest. Fortunately this actually worked, or so I thought.
It took two days to realize that Annabeth was spying on me and seeing if I was actually considering letting her on the quest. What gave her away was my ability to detect bloodlust, thanks to Annabeth it even leveled up.
In the two peaceful annabeth-less days (or so i thought) i asked clarisse if she wanted to help me, her response?
"If you didn't invite me, I would've gutted you."
"So is that a yes?"
"Figure it out punk."
So I guess she's coming on the quest. Again, I'm not completely sure if we are friends.
And when I asked grover it was predictably more complicated.
We were at the lake, looking over the calm water that in turn calmed me. The only thing that disturbed the peaceful moment was the occasional crunching of metal cans due to Grover enjoying his lunch.
"so , that council thing you told me about a few days ago. What was that about?" I ask.
"The council of cloven elders, they're a group of wise old satyr's that decide matters concerning the wild and nature spirits." replied grover.
"But shouldn't there be a god for that?" I asked curiously
"There is, Pan, the lost god. The reason why the council exists is because Pan has been lost for centuries and the duties of the wild now fall upon the satyr's. The reason why I wanted to visit them was so I could get a searcher's license."
"And what's that? A searchers license I mean."
"It's something that gives me permission to go and search for Pan. In order to get it I have to find something of value, like a demigod. It's every satyr's dream to find Pan, and I know I'm going to be the one who finds him."
"So did you get your searchers license?" I asked, a bit sad he might not be able to join on the quest.
"No, since you ran away from me before we got to camp it doesn't count."
Now I feel sad about that, I was the reason why Grover didn't get his searchers license.
Side-quest: searchers license
Help Grover get his searchers license so he may find pan
Rewards:
Magical panpipes
3 spell books
1000 EXP
Failure:
Grover's disappointment
Eventual destruction of the wild
"Well, there's something extremely valuable that I'll need help finding, want to help?"
Grover took his eyes off of his half eaten meal in shock and looked at me.
"Wh-what?" grover muttered out bewildered.
"Grover, will you help me find the materbolt?"
Bloodlust has leveled up to level 2
You can sense someones killing intent from 20 meters away
Bloodlust has leveled up to level 3
You can sense someones killing intent from 25 meters away
Detecting bloodlust felt weird, it was like I could see what is behind me, but I could only see the person who wants to kill me, and that person is really blurry.
I turned to see who was there and I saw a white outline of a person wearing a baseball cap.
I turned to grover and said "how about you think about it, and come to Poseidon cabin in about an hour to tell me, i need to tell you something anyway."
I turned and walked away.
"Yes."
I turned to look at him, "I'll come with you on the quest." I smiled at him and continued my walk.
About an hour later while I was lying down on one of the beds in my cabin, Grover came in.
"Hey G-man."
"Hey perce."
"So what i wanted to tell you, it's about the quest." I said before looking around to see if Annabeth snuck into my cabin while I wasn't paying attention.
When I confirmed that we were alone I quietly said to grover. "I'm the champion of the fates."
Grover looked shocked and said "Percy, you shouldn't say something like that, if the fates knew that you lied about such a thing you wou-"
"Die? I know, and also, the fates know and control everything so if i said it in the first place they would allow it. Grover, I swear on the river Styx, I'm not lying to you, I really am the champion of the fates."
Thunder sounded in the distance, proving that I'm telling the truth and making Grover jump in fear, before almost fainting.
Before he fainted and hit the floor I quickly walked to him, grabbed him by the shirt, and slapped him until his half-way-fainted face turned into an I'M-AWAKE-STOP-SLAPPING-ME! Face
"B-b-but how, w-why?" grover stuttered, unable to fully grasp the concept.
Honestly I wasn't sure what to do. My plan was to invite him to the quest, tell him about the situations with the fates, and then invite him into the party. But he's so panicked that I doubt I could explain anything to him. Hades, I doubt I can ride a minotaur past him and he'd notice it.
Maybe I should've just let him fall unconscious and waited till he woke up.
I just grabbed grovers head, "Grover, look at me." I said.
He did so and panic was written all over his face.
"Just breathe man, relax. Breath in, breathout.'' I instructed him, it took a minute for him to process my words and act through them, and it took longer for him to calm down, well calm down enough for me to have a half decent conversation.
"Invite: grover." I said, inviting him to the party.
A screen appeared in front of him, a calm forest green rectangle with panpipes in the center
Grover underwood has gained the following benefits:
(minor) gamers body
(minor) gamers mind
(minor) inventory
(minor) observe
Spar mode
Grover can join you in dungeons and quests
1 respawn
He can choose 3 spells or enchantments from the following list
Grover has gained 5 ability points
(due to low level, certain spells will be unavailable until grover meets the level requirement)
Spell list:
Panic:
Channel the power of the lost god Pan and drive your enemies to near insanity due to fear
Nature preserve:
Bless a piece of land so it shall always be unaltered by human interference
Purify:
Produce an aura that destroys all of the pollution around you
Fertile land:
Bless a piece of land so any plants that grow on the blessed land will grow immensely
Disperse pestilence:
Anything that may cause pestilence shall disperse
Summon pestilence:
Things that may cause pestilence shall be summoned
Healing tune:
Through your panpipes, blow a tune that heals your allies
Nature's tune:
Through your panpipes,make a melody that restores your allies MP
The lost god's song:
Through your panpipes create a tune that commands the attention of nature and allows you to influence the nature around you as you please
Lost in the woods:
Curse your enemies to forever be lost in the domain of pan, never being able to see society again
Tracking tune:
A tracking spell that allows satyrs to track their target
Tree walking:
A spell that allows satyr's to enter a tree and leave another
Hypnosis:
Create a tune that calms those around you
Darker hypnosis:
Create a tune that makes those around you feel ill before they fall asleep
Revitalize:
If the nature around you has died that resurrect it to its former glory
Illusionary terrain:
Make those who hear your panpipes disoriented and confused, making them unable to actually see their surroundings
Wrath of nature:
All of the animals around you gain the status effect: rage
Song of clarity:
Cure your allies of various status effects, and allow them to see through illusions
Insanity:
Inflicts target with insanity, only curable through dionysus
Tame beast:
Make a melodic tune that can tame the hearts of wild beasts
Grover took one look at the game and allowed me to follow my advice. I did wince when he hit the floor, at least. Am I a good friend if I wince when I caused the pain? Meh.
i would've thought that the minor gamers mind would've stopped him from fainting, i guess it takes a moment to kick in.
Now, the question arises, do I wake Grover up with water, slap him again, or sit and wait?
Spoiler alert, I got bored after half an hour and woke him up with water, a lot of water.
"Bleh, dude, why?" Grover exclaimed, while spitting out water
"You weren't waking back up and I got bored," I explained, "if it's any consolation, I gave you half an hour."
"Yeah sure, i'm thankful for that." said grover sarcastically "Thanks for not slapping me i guess."
"Your welcome." i replied. "So, what spells are you going to pick?"
"Spells?" asked grover.
"Yeah, look at the screen."
Grover looked at the screen, showing the list of spells he can use. At this point I should just tape a pillow to his head.
I spent the next half hour AFK grinding STR by doing pushups, by the end i gotten +5 STR and +2 VIT
This time I decided to give mercy to the poor grover.
"They're giving away free enchiladas at the pavilion." I said, making grover jump up in excitement.
Before he got out of the door I blocked him.
"I was lying about that, sorry g-man. Before we continue talking..." I trailed off, grabbing a pillow from one of the beds and handing it to grover.
"Put this behind your head." I said.
"So what spells did you choose?"
"I didn't see the spells, I just saw my title. I mean, I always knew, but actually seeing that the fates themselves said it, it's just... amazing."
I didn't really know how to respond to what he said so I just nodded my head. "I can only imagine how it feels."
We sat there in silence for a moment.
"So, what spells are you going to pick?"
"Oh, yeah." grover said before he looked at the spell list and, guess what happened.
Grover fainted
It started to rain salmon
Grover grew to become a giant and started to destroy the world
If you guessed A, then congrats, you get a blue cookie.
Unfortunately he fell forward this time, so his head still hit the floor.
I really hope that he doesn't have brain damage, or a fractured skull, or broken teeth.
This time I just turned Grover over and checked for injuries, fortunately he had none.
This time I just let grover rest while I exercised (+4 STR, +2 VIT, +2 DEX), turned out Grover's snores make for an excellent work out song.
After Grover finally got up, at which point I think we missed dinner, Grover woke up and selected his spells. Specifically insanity, tracker's tune, and panic. Honestly i'm surprised that panic wasn't level-locked,or that grover being the nature activist that he is didn't pick purify
"G-man, we are heading out tomorrow."
"Sure Perce but we need three for a quest, and we are not three."
"I'm bringing Clarisse."
Dam, Grover really needs another pillow to protect the front of his head. I'm curious what he fainted from though, the thought of going on a quest with clarisse, or the thought of Clarrise's weapons-grade breath.
I'm leaving him to wake himself up. It turns out dinner was farther than I expected, can't wait to inform Grover that today was enchilada day, and he slept through it.
What, you thought I was joking? I just lied that there were enchiladas right that moment, not that there were enchiladas.