"I don't care! Lord Hades ordered us to take of these demigods and that's what we are going to do! Got it?!"
"Yes boss," the smallest on replied with a frown.
"I'll take the big one," Luke whispered with a sadistic grin.
"The middle on is mine," Percy said as he took out a water bottle.
"Do I have to fight the smallest one?" Grover asked nervous.
"Why? You want the bigger one?" Luke asked with a smile for which Grover quickly shook his head.
The cyclop's then took up their spears and began to walk to the other compartments. When they walked passed their hiding spot Percy jumped out and swiped Riptide across the middle one's back causing it to fell to his feet in pain.
"Bro!" called the smallest one and then suddenly vines started to creep around his legs and binding him in place.
"What the hell-" the largest one began only to have Luke jump on his back and stick his blade into the cyclops one eye blinding the monster.
"AH!" It roared and fell to it's knees. Percy ran to the big one, used it as a jumping board and launched himself upwards.
The cyclops of average height looked up and saw Percy come down on him, "oh fuc-"
SLASH!
Percy cleaved the monster's head from it's body as it bursted into golden dust leaving behind it's giant spear. Percy then turned and saw Luke slashing away at his cyclops while Grover just managed to bind his by covering him in veins.
So Percy jumped to his friends rescue and took care of the cyclops with ease.
Ping!
Skill has leveled up!
Sword Mastery, Lv-13 (10%)
Allows user to freely handle swords.
65% more damage when using swords.
Percy closed the box and then checked on Luke. The son of Hermes was finished with his monster and was now panting, but on his face was big grin.
'Do I look like that sometimes?' Percy asked himself as he put away Riptide.
"Well that was easy," Grover said.
BOOM!
"For fucks sake grover stop jinxing us!" Luke cried out as he dashed out of the compartment to see what happened outside.
As Luke opened the door to leave this compartment a gust of air blew in pushing him back. The passageway to the other compartment was destroyed separating the one they were in from the rest of the train.
"Fuck!" Luke called out as he slammed the door shut.
"What happened?" Percy asked.
"Someone separated this compartment from the rest. We aren't connected to the train any more."
"Well shit," Percy cursed, "who could do something like that?"
"I don't know, but whoever did this is smart. They used the cyclops attack as a distraction and separated us from the rest. They probably don't want us to reach LA."
Percy's eyes shot up, "the Lightning Thief."
Luke looked surprised, "w-what?"
"I think it was the Lightning Thief that did this. He or she would gain the most from delaying our trip to the Underworld."
"I see," Luke frowned, "well either way we are screwed."
They could feel the carriage slow down to a stop and when it finally did the questers jumped out of the destroyed train carriage and looked around. They found themselves in the middle of nowhere. Surrounding them on both sides was a huge forest, something grover enjoyed immensely.
"So where to now?" Luke asked.
"I'm thinking we need to get to the closest town," Percy replied and then turned to Grover, "any ideas G-man?"
"Huh? Me?" Grover asked stumped.
"Yeah you. The forest is kind of your deal isn't it? Think you can navigate us through this?"
Grover nodded his head quickly and dashed into the forest. Luke chuckled, "I swear he probably jinxed us on purpose just so that we could go through the forest."
Percy chuckled, "wait up Grover!" The two demigods caught up to Grover inside the forest and found their friend talking, or at least he was talking, to a squirrel.
"Really? Really? You don't say? Are you serious? Hmmm sounds like a problem," Grover said stroking his chin.
"Ah Grover....buddy. Are you okay?" Percy asked his friend, "why are you talking to a squirrel?"
"Oh didn't I tell you? I can speak squirrel," Grover replied as he turned back to the squirrel, "that's Percy, my friend. The tall guy is Luke, but be careful he might steal your nuts."
At the the squirrel looked at Luke and started squeaking in an angry tone while holding up a fist. Luke put his hands up, "okay okay I give."
The squirrel then nodded and turned to Grover. It then pointed to the left and ran back up a tree, probably to find more nuts.
"So what did the squirrel say?" asked Percy.
"His name is Fred. And Fred said that there should be a town a few miles that way," Grover pointed to the left.
"Okay then, let's follow the direction given by a squirrel," Percy said walking to the left, "gods I cannot believe I just said that."
Grover then lead them through the forest all the while stopping to ask for directions from the various forest animals. Needless to say this was the strangest thing Percy had done. Not the fact that his life was a video game. Not the fact that he literally fought a demon from hell just yesterday. This.
Grover eventually stopped at a small clearing as the sun started to set finally covering the woods in darkness. "Think we should stop for now?"
Percy nodded, "ya, sounds good."
"Good idea," Luke replied as he started to unpack taking a blanket out of his bag while Percy gathered firewood. He then made a pit and put all he gathered in there. He then looked around and once the coast was clear took out a lighter, the one he nicked from the mafia grunt in the warehouse, from his inventory. He then started the fire and put the lighter in his pocket, don't know when you might need it again.
"That was fast," commented Luke when he saw the fire starting, "sure your are not the son of Hephaestus or something?"
Percy chuckled, "hehe, yeah I'm sure. Anyway where do you think we are?"
Luke shrugged as he sat down next to the fire hugging his blanket, "probably Indiana, maybe Kentucky. I don't know. But we are halfway there, and we would have been there already if someone didn't jinx us!" Luke shouted the last as Grover who nodded sadly.
"Yeah yeah yeah I know I know," Grover waved it off, it was nothing special. Percy and Luke had been shouting at him for the entire time they were hiking through the forest, so he kind of got used to it.
"So what's for dinner?" Percy asked as h pulled out his own blanket from his bag.
"Ah.. I got some berries," Grover said as he held up some white berries which kind of looked like human eyeballs.
"Ah Grover you sure those aren't poisonous?"
"Ah.. I don't think so."
Percy used Observe;
Doll's Eyes,
The entire plant is generally poisonous especially for human beings. The most harmful part is the berry despite its sweet taste. The killer substance is a carcinogenic toxin which causes sudden soothing effects on a person's cardiac muscles and can easily lead to death.
Well shit.
"I think that's Doll's eyes Grover," Percy said, "very sweet and very deadly."
"What?!" Grover shouted as he tossed the berries away.
"Relax I doubt anything that is poisonous to human could kill you," Luke said with a laid back attitude, "how did you know that Percy?"
Percy shrugged, "I read it in a book."
Luke smiled, "you have to much Annabeth in you."
Grover eventually calmed down and smiled sadly, "I remember the last time I was out in the forest camping. Do you Luke."
Luke smiled a sad smile, "yeah. I do."
"When was that?" Percy asked as he felt a story come on.
"It was before we came to camp," Luke said as he looked up at the stars, "we being me, Annabeth....and Thalia."
"I told you about her didn't I Percy?" Grover asked, his voice filled with shame, "I told you how I was assigned to be their protector."
Percy nodded while Luke continued, "I think it was the last night before she... before she died."
"Yeah, it was one of the best nights of my life."
"We sang, danced and lived like there was no tomorrow."
"Remember when Annabeth drew a mustache on your face while you slept? Your were furious about it the next day."
Luke laughed, "haha! God that girl was such a prankster back then!"
"Annabeth?" Percy asked surprised.
"Yeah," Grover nodded, "she once painted my hooves pink and put pompoms on my horns. I didn't notice fore two days!"
Percy laughed out loud, "that's hilarious! I didn't know!"
Luke nodded, "she wasn't the same after Thalia's death. Something in Annabeth died with Thalia."
Grover nodded as he put his head down in shame, "it was all my fault."
"I don't blame you for that you know."
Grover looked up, "what?"
"I don't blame you Grover. You did the best you could, Thalia died on her terms, she died a hero. But she shouldn't have had to be a hero, she shouldn't have had to make that sacrifice. But she was forced to, and why? Because our parents don't give a damn about us."
"Luke that's not true-"
"Bullshit it's not true!" Luke shouted interrupting Grover, "you know it's the truth Grover! You're just to scared to admit it!"
"Luke that's enough," Percy said.
"No Percy it's not! If you weren't there none of the unclaimed would know who their parents were! None of them! They would have died not knowing whether they were loved or hated. You think that's not possible? It is. So many demigods go unclaimed, unprotected, and you know what happens to them? They die. They die. They would have died by the hands of monsters not even knowing why. That Percy is what life our parents condemn us to."
Percy looked at Luke and then sighed, "I know Luke. I know. But I don't care about them. I don't care about revenge, all I care about is my friends and my family. And by that I mean my mom and everyone in camp."
"They deserves to pay Percy!"
"It's not like we can make them feel sorry! It's not like we can make them feel regret! It's like you said Luke, they don't care about us! So you tell me, what the hell can you do to make them feel regret?!"
Luke started at Percy and then spoke in a whisper, "I can destroy Olympus."
"You don't have the power."
"No, no I dont," Luke narrowed his eyes, and then sat down away from the fire. He pulled his blanket up and covered himself up, "good night."
Percy sighed as he pulled out his own blanket from his bag and gave it to Grover, "you sleep first. I'll take first watch."
The Satyr nodded as he slowly pulled the blanket over himself as he slept near the fire.
"Wake me up for the second watch," Luke called out not turning to look at Percy.
Percy sighed, "yeah, okay,"and quickly walked away from the camp site. As soon as he was far away Percy pulled out the gauntlet of Kefka and summoned Alecto and Craig.
"Master," they bowed.
"Protect Luke and Grover from any danger, and make sure they don't see you," Percy ordered his servants as he walked deeper into the forest.
"What are you going to do master?" Alecto asked.
"I need to train," Percy replied as he walked away.
After a few minutes of walking Percy stopped and sat down on a rock structure that looked similar to a bed. Percy then put one hand up and called, "ID create: Empty!" The sky turned red as all the noise of the forest died out.
He then pulled out his skill list and wondered what he should try and level up. Deciding to train the first skill he ever created, Physical endurance, Percy took out the gauntlet of Kefka and summoned Zed.
"Master," Zed bowed
"Zed I need you to hit me," Percy explained.
"W-what?" Zed stammered.
"Hit me," Percy said as he spread his arms out, "but be gentle about it. I know your monstrous strength first hand and I don't want to die."
"Are you sure?" Zed asked as he drew back a fist.
"Yup," Percy replied as channeled mana into his skin thinking out, 'Marble Skin'. He put 100 MP into the spell and felt his skin harden into marble. This along with the jacket he was now wearing should help him survive Zed's attack.
Zed's punch moved slowly, but the moment the fist impacted Percy's body the son of Poseidon flew back and into a tree breaking it's trunk.
"Shit!" Zed cried out as he ran to Percy. "I'm sorry boss!"
"It's okay," Percy grumbled out as he slowly got out of the tree truck patting away the sliders from his jacket, "I'll survive." Percy then pulled up his health bar;
Percy Jackson HP: 128/700
Percy sighed in relief, that was a close one. He closed the box and then;
Ping!
Skill leveled up!
Physical Endurance, Lv-8 (2%)
Your Body's durability increased and you take less damage.
22% less damage from physical attacks.
'Well atleast I know it works now,' Percy then looked at Zed and smiled, "that was perfect Zed. Just let me heal and we can do it again."
Zed nodded dumbly and watched as Percy seemingly pulled food and drinks out of thin air stuffing them all down his throat.
"Woah boss you sure can eat," Zed commented as Percy finished his small feast.
Wiping away pancake crumbs Percy smiled, "thanks. Now, hit me."
This process of training continued for an hour. Percy activated marble skin, got punched, leveled up his Physical Endurance, ate food and then got punched again. Soon he stopped leveling up after just one punch from Zed, it became two punches, and then three. Everytime Zed punched him Percy was courting death, but the reward was well worth the risk.
Physical Endurance, Lv-17 (20%)
Your Body's durability increased and you take less damage.
40% less damage from physical attacks.
Percy smiled at this. If this was how things were going to be he should eventually be able to take no damage at all from physical attacks. But It would be difficult to train in this from now on. Zed was the most physically powerful person he knew and right now he could take two back to back punched from him. That meant eventually he would have be hit by a freaking meteorite or something to gain more training in physical endurance.
Percy closed the box and turned to Zed, "that's enough for now. Dismissed."
"Right boss," Zed nodded as he turned into smoke and evaporated into nothing.
Percy then turned to his skill list again and picked out the next skill ne wanted to train in. Swimming? Can't do it. English language? No books. Teaching? When did I even get that? Og right Nancy, wonder how she's doing.
Finally Percy decided to try out his smoke form, the skill he got from defeating Marchosias. He got to his feet and then called out, "Smoke form!"
Suddenly Percy felt his body loosen up, he felt himself being lost into the air as slowly everything became undone. Percy's eyes didn't exists anymore but he could see his form clearly. He now stood as a bright blue gas with hints of green in the corner. He then tried to move by using his legs only for his entire smoke body to float in the direction he wanted to go.
