I stood at the top of half blood hill, waiting for my quest mates to arrive.
"How long do you think they'll be?" I ask the tree next to me.
"The sun hasn't even risen yet, they aren't going to be here anytime soon." responded the tree.
I looked over to the tree, or more accurately, the spirit inside of it.
For the first time in the past two weeks, I was able to go to the grove of Dodona, the first week I spent in Hermes cabin, and apparently it's impossible to sneak away from children of the god of thieves. And the week after that I was being hounded by Annabeth 24/7, even in the dead of night I kept on getting ambushed by her.
But now, there's nothing to stop me from going to the grove... other than the ant hill filled with gigantic killer ants. Fortunately there was another route that I took, and the Hermes shoes helped. Unfortunately it required me to nose dive into a thick canopy of trees.
And after that I was finally left alone... in a forest that is definitely haunted.
Throughout the entire night the entire forest was screaming at me in a way that would've made me go insane if not for gamers mind. While i was in that forest it felt like my mind was caught in a cyclone, and it's desperately clinging on to the large stable rock that is gamers mind.
But I got through it all, the moment that I got the notification telling me that I succeeded in the quest I flew out of the grove and over to Thalia's tree.
When I first got over to Thalia's tree the first thing i noticed was that there was something different about the tree, I couldn't quite tell what it was, where the leaves a different color? have the branches moved? Was that ghostly apparition always there?
For some reason I thought that the ghost was the biggest difference. There was some sort of ghost that was actually inside the trunk of the tree, not just floating in front of it, but just sitting inside it.
It wasn't a shade like the lumberjack, but it was actually somewhat glowing, and I could clearly see the ghost's facial features, clothes, and other things like that.
The ghost looked like a 15 year old girl with black spiky hair made into a pixie cut, and dotted around her cheeks were freckles.
Unfortunately she was asleep so I couldn't talk to her... so I woke her up.
I watered the tree and hoped that like a human, having water being sprayed on you while you're asleep would wake you up.
And for some reason tree logic and human logic are somewhat similar.
The spirit who i'm assuming is Thalia woke up startled, not liking the wake up call. She looked around for a moment before her piercing electric blue eyes glared at me, and for a single moment it felt like she actually pierced me with lightning.
So Athenian eyes freeze you, Ares eyes burn you, and Zeus' eyes make you feel like you've been zapped, i wonder if my eyes have any sort of special effect.
After thalia glared at me, making her point, she tried to go back to sleep.
"Pardon me, you're Thalia right?" I asked while the supposed Thalia just laid still, I guess some people often come up here to talk to her, so this is just a normal thing.
Just imagining it for a moment terrified me. Have people talk to you but not talk back, to have people see you but not notice you. Stuck in a tiny world of your own, the thought of it, terrifies me.
"I can see you, your spirit." I said, this seemed to get her attention.
She opened her eyes again and looked over at me, somewhat uncaring, I guess she didn't quite believe me.
"I can also hear you as well, my name's Percy by the way."
"Can, can you actually hear me?" said Thalia, in shock and disbelief.
"Yeah, I can." I responded.
Thalia looked at me, shocked and on the verge of tears. "Is, this real, right? Not a dream?"
"Don't worry, it's real."
Thalia was actually starting to cry. She tried to jump out of the tree only to bump against the bark that refused to let her pass. Now, killing weird ass doggies, I can do. Staying the night in a forest Tartarus-bent on making you insane, perfectly fine. A crying girl stuck in a tree, what the actual fuck am I supposed to do?
I kind of just stood there, watching as both the girl and tree she inhabited started crying, I just hugged the tree. I didn't think it would change anything, but who knows, maybe she'd appreciate the gesture.
"How? How am I talking to you?" asked Thalia
"I'm the champion of the fates, so I can do a bunch of weird shit." I replied. "So... what do we talk about now?" i ask
"How long exactly have I been stuck in here?" asked thalia.
"About seven years."
"Have you met someone called Annabeth chase? Or Luke castellan?"
...
"Yes, unfortunately." I murmured that last part.
"What did you just say?" asked thalia incredulously
"Yes, I've met Luke" who's planning on helping the literal titan of evil. "And Annabeth" who hates me and my pet.
"No, what did you say, exactly." Thalia said, even more incredulously.
"Unfortunately. Luke and Annabeth don't exactly like me all that much."
"And why is that?" Thalia once again said incredulously.
"I played a harmless prank on Annabeth, and I have a monster pet. And Luke doesn't like me because..." how can I break the news to her. "Well, you don't want to know, and even if I did tell you, you wouldn't believe me."
Somehow, despite being a ghost trapped inside a tree, Thalia is very intimidating. "Tell. me. Why."
"I'm telling you, you don't want to know."
Again, I felt like I just got electrocuted for no reason. "I'm telling you, if you don't answer, I will find a way out of this tree, and hunt you down."
"Just remember, I told you that you won't like it. I swear on the styx that this is the truth. Luke is a traitor to the gods." lightning flashed in the distance, showing that I'm telling the truth.
Thalia looked at me in shock beforing shaking her head in denial.
"No, no you're lying. Luke would never- he wouldn't. He wouldn't do that."
"I'm sorry, but he would, and he is."
Thalia's spirit looked on in disbelief, she didn't look at anything in particular, she was just stuck in her own little world, both literally and figuratively.
"Hey, how about we talk about something else? It would help you take your mind off of luke." I say.
Thalia didn't really react, she just gave a small, almost unnoticeable nod.
We just made small talk, how's the weather, what's being a tree like, what's being champions of the fate like, the only other topic I could think to talk about is how our parents are going to war against each other, and I don't think that's something that people wanted to hear so I just told her that I was going on a quest which she seemed to be disappointed by.
"Hey percy." said thalia, it was weird the way she said it, instead of just a bland monotone way of speaking she put some emotion into it.
"Yeah?" i asked
"Do me a favor, don't tell anyone that you can talk to me."
"Why?"
"Because i don't want to talk to anyone right now."
i spent the rest of the time on the hill in silence
Eventually Grover showed up, with a pillow tied to his head and a face that screamed I-Just-Found-You-Lied-About-The-Enchiladas-You-Jerk.
I just smiled and said "hey g-man, what's up."
Grover's glare faded "hey Perce, what are you doing here so early? I thought Chiron is supposed to meet us here at 9, not 8?"
"I'm just waiting for everyone else, fortunately I have this tree to keep me company."
Grover seemed to stiffen "we should go to the camp store so we have stuff for this quest, we should also get some breakfast."
I nodded and followed him back to the pavilion, but not without saying goodbye to thalia first.
"So what stuff do you think we'll need?" I asked grover.
"What do you have in your inventory?"
"I have money, a car and some food, I also have a pair of flying shoes, oh, I also have a thyrsus." I said, remembering that last item that I got from the tomb of the damned.
"Shouldn't that give you some sort of magical buff, with you being a satyr and all?"
"I'm not sure, is there anyway to check?" asked grover.
"Have you not used observe yet?"
"No, what's that?"
"It lets you see information on other things, just say 'observe' while focusing on something."
Grover looked at me and said observe. "It says that you're too high level for me to observe."
"I guess that's to be expected, no offense, but you're kind of low-level."
Grover looked down, embarrassed, and dejectedly said "yeah, I am pretty weak."
"Yeah, but that just means you have more room to grow." I said to grover, trying to cheer him up.
"Also, what do your spells do?" I was curious, I knew about the spells he picked, but I didn't know the actual descriptions of them.
"My spells are called panic, insanity, and tracker's tune. Tracker's tune lets me sense where things are by using my panpipes. Certain things affect my ability to sense them though, like how familiar I am with the thing being tracked and how closely related it is to the wild. The spell doesn't really cost MP because it's more of a song.
Insanity temporarily makes people delirious and makes them do crazy things, it also has a chance to give someone a permanent mental affliction, it costs 100 MP, but it says i can only use it on humans and animals.
and panic makes people, well, panic. It basically makes people scared shitless, it's kind of like insanity but it's more fear based. Unfortunately it's a high level spell, and the system says that I need to be level 10 to use it."
"I guess that makes sense, i mean, panic is a powerful spell that was used by gods, if anything i'm surprised that the level requirement isn't higher. And you should be able to level up insanity so it's stronger, that might take some time though, the thyrsus might help with that."
"Hey, since I can't see your stats, could you tell me?" asked grover "and also, what spells did you get, you must've gotten something pretty awesome if it was a spell from the fates."
"Sure, you can see my stats, and as for my spells, I can do this weird thing where I can see things I'm connected to, and I'm also a pretty good weaver, I also get some things from Poseidon being my dad, but i'm still deciding which spell I want." I said
Lvl: 16
HP: 1600/1600
MP:1600/1600
Str 34 (+5) = 39
Vit 24 (+5) = 29
Dex 12 (+15) =27
Int 15
Wis 11
Luc 55 (+10)
Ability points: 10
After I looked at my strength I got excited, i'm only 1 away from getting my strength milestone. I know that I should've put my ability points into wisdom or intelligence, but strength was right there.
I dumped all my ability points into STR, only after doing so I realized that it would've been easier to have boosted my strength by one through training, than to dump all of the ability points into strength.
"What spells from Poseidon did you get?" asked grover as we reached the dining pavilion.
I took a seat at the Poseidon table while Grover stood up.
"I have water spells and some fire spells, and i got something called Poseidon's rage and Poseidon's aura. The first one makes me cause a random natural disaster at the cost of low mana whenever i'm in a stressful situation, I don't have any control over it though, if I'm in a life or death situation I could make a magnitude 8 earthquake that goes on for hours, or a light drizzle of rain. And poseidon's aura has a weird description, it says that I exude the unyielding and ferocious force of the sea, causing my enemies to drown in the presence of my power. I'll tell you about them later, there's a lot to list, and I'd rather not show everyone at camp that I have video game powers."
"Fair enough, I think I'll go get breakfast now, I'll see you later perce."
"Bye g-man."
I begin to eat the brilliant blue breakfast that was just put in front of me by a passing nymph. Blueberries, blue pancakes, and blue orange juice... would it still be orange juice if it's blue.
But eventually the inevitable finally caught up to me.
"So can I be on the quest?" said Annabeth from behind me.
I turned around, half a pancake still in my mouth. I quickly ate the rest of the pancake and responded.
"No, I'm sorry but I already invited two others to the quest."
"Grover and Clarisse, I know, but it's not like it's a rule for a questing group to be made of just three people, it's more like a guideline."
"I'm sorry but no, I'm not taking you on the quest."
Annabeth glared at me, freezing me before she put on her invisibility hat and leaving.
I turned around to my breakfast and was disappointed, why? Annabeth's glare somehow froze my drink.
I'm serious, she turned my drink to ice... can it be called ice if it's not frozen water?
Just then I thought of trying something, I focused on my glass of ice and concentrated, trying to create a new spell using the necklace of Hestia, but I accidentally created three.
Ability unlocked: utility: thaw (lvl5)
Use your magic to turn frozen objects into their liquid form
(100MP/1 square meter melted)
Ability unlocked: utility: evaporation (lvl5)
Heat liquids to a boiling point, making them eventually turn into a gaseous state
(100/MP 1 square meter evaporated)
Ability unlocked: utility: temperature control (lvl5)
Control the temperature of the area around you or on certain objects
(37.5MP/ square meter altered when altering the temperature of an area)
(12.5MP when altering an object's temperature)
Good news, my blue orange juice melted, bad news, it also evaporated.
After breakfast i went to grover and asked him what he think we might need, we already had transport covered, and food, and some money. But grover would probably know what's the best things to get.
We just needed some camping equipment apparently, just bedrolls and rations, also a few drachma. Oh, and also godly food that may kill us.
Nectar and ambrosia, the food and drink of gods, they both do the same thing, ther OP healing items, every bite of ambrosia and sip of nectar heals a demi god by 750 HP, as well as giving 250 MP. and they also temporarily quintuple HP and MP regen.
There's only two bad things about them, one, only demigods can consume these, if anything else does, they go boom. And two, if demigods consume to much, they also go boom.
And after getting that we made our way up to the hill where we were greeted by a half horse, a half god, and a tree. Well, the tree didn't really greet anyone, she just gave a glance over in my direction before silently sulking again.
"Where's clarisse?" I asked curiously.
"I believe i last saw her training, she said something about stocking up on spears." answered chiron. "Until she arrives I suggest it best that the two of you see if you have gotten everything you need."
"Yeah, we just visited the camp store so i think we should be good."
"Hey percy," said Luke who stood next to chiron "i wanted to give you these, as a good luck present." Luke handed me a shoebox that he was carrying.
"They were a gift from my, father, they didn't help me during my quest but they'll probably help you."
I open the box lid to reveal a pair of shoes, but not just any shoes, hermes grade flying shoes. They looked better than mine, they were very clearly higher quality, and yet, they were barely used. I know about the quest luke went on and how it was a few years ago, and yet the shoes looked untouched.
'Observe'
Name: superior hermes grade athlete's shoes
Bio: Hermes, the god of messages, created a pair of shoes using powerful magic so he can use them as a gift to his son. But the bitter child of Hermes resents his father and his gifts, this left the shoes unused for years, just collecting dust in a box. But now they serve as a different present from a different deity, meant for perseus jackson.
Attributes
Thieves feet: whoever wears these shoes shall get +25 DEX and +30ft movement speed, and be as silent as the dead, where ever they walk there will be no physical trace of them
Fleet footed: the shoes can sprout wings on command
??? : observe is to low level to observe this attribute
I don't really have to guess what those question marks are, a curse, probably made by kronos, why else would luke give me something that would help me find out that he's a traitor, to sabotage me.
Too bad I don't know what the curse is.
"They're Hermes grade shoes, just wear them and think about them sprouting wings, then they will." explained luke with a fake smile.
I looked down at the shoes, on one hand they're cursed, on the other they're better than mine by far. It's a risk to take them, but they're still very useful. It's a risk i'll take.
"Thanks luke, i really appreciate this. I'll make sure to use them wisely."
Lying has leveled up three times to level 4
People are a bit more likely to believe you
Ping : congrats dumbass, you gotten one level for thanking luke and two more for saying you'll use it wisely
"Hey, prissy and wimp, where do you think you're going?" said the boar that came marching up the hill.
Just then a thought crossed my mind, is clarisse's stench strong enough to act as monster repellant? Or would monsters just think that she herself is one, if the monsters said that after seeing her, i wouldn't blame them.
"We're waiting on you, pig head." i replied
"Good, now that you've all arrived, you may begin your quest." said chiron "for the first part, argus shall drive you to the city in the camp van, and from there you shall make your way west to confront Hades about the theft. And once you've completed your quest you shall go to olympus to return what was stolen."
"Is there any wisdom that you'd want to impart on us before we go?" i asked
"Yes, don't die." replied chiron with a mischievous twinkle in his eye which annoyed me a bit.
"Don't worry percy, you'll be fine, i have complete and utter faith in you, i know you won't fail." said chiron. What he said annoyed me further, but I masked it under a face of gratitude.
Chiron is a great teacher, patient, kind and smart, and he treated everyone in class equally, everyone but me. He didn't want me to be like all of the other kids, he wanted me to be better.
I tried to be better, and sometimes i was, but he always had higher expectations of me, and that scared me, being scared of disappointing one of the only people that had faith in me.
Walking down the hill, me, Grover and Clarisse were met with a white van with a logo on the side reading 'DELPHI FIELD STRAWBERRIES'. And the driver was weird, there was something about his eyes, about 98 of them looked out of place while there were only two of them that were where they should be.
'Observe'
Name: argus panoptes
Title: servant of hera
Race: giant
Stats
STR: 200
DEX: 200
VIT: 300
INT: 150
WIS: 150
LUC: 50
Bio: argus is a giant that loyally serves the goddess hera, no matter how ridiculous the request might seem Argus shall kindly obliged and fulfill his duty to the best of his ability. Because of his loyalty Hera has rewarded him in various ways, such as giving peacocks the eye-like pattern on their tails and naming the famous ship the argo, after him. Currently his god given purpose is to serve as a guardian to the greek demi-gods of camp half-blood, which due to his peculiar biology, makes him a perfect and ever vigilant guardian.
Weaknesses: fire, dry eye, salt water, boring stories, he hates children of hermes, undying loyalty to Hera
Strengths: he's perceptive, vigilant, he doesn't need sleep, he's a good fighter
I looked back to the hill one last time curiously, only seeing luke, chiron and thalia. But no Annabeth, i'm surprised she's not here to make a last ditch effort to join the quest.
I won't deny that she'd be very useful on this quest, but i still can't forgive her for what she did to nagini.
I just shrugged that thought off and jumped into the back of a stranger's van.