"So, how much have you guys progressed?" Percy asked the children of Hades.
"I can do this!" Nico yelled out in excitement as he closed his eyes focusing on his mana. Percy felt Nico's mana react to his calling as it flowed out him easily.
Percy then saw the shadow's underneath Nico lift himself up as Nico stood on a pedestal made of the stuff.
Percy smiled, "impressive Nico. I'm surprised you got so far."
Nico beamed, "thanks Percy. The other Percy and I trained with each other all day. I helped him master his wood powers and he helped me with my shadow control."
Percy nodded, 'the cloven elders must be teaching mini me how to control the forest life. Hmm, maybe I should pay a visit on one of these training sessions, just in case.'
"Okay Nico I want you to now try and learn this," Percy stood up and stretched both arms. He then commanded the shadows in his sleeves to jump out like tendrils and impale themselves into a tree. Percy then pulled the shadows as he sailed through the air much to everyone's amazement.
Percy then launched another shadow grapple across the open area and disengaged the old one flying in a new direction.
Eventually Percy right back in the center as Nico started clapping like crazy.
"Woah! How did you do that?!" Nico asked in wonder.
Percy pulled on his sleeve, "I use the shadow created between my clothes and my skin to form a sort of grapple. I use the grapple to maneuver around in an open combat battle field. It's useless on a pain battle ground, but most of the time you never face a monster is a place like that. It's great for quick and sharp movement, and for a sword user like you being faster and unpredictable could prove a useful trick up your sleeve."
Nico nodded as he immediately went to the side to begin training in the new task Percy had given him.
Percy then turned to Bianca, "your turn."
Bianca nodded as she spread her hand out. Slowly the shadows on the ground beneath her started to move as the ground itself broke apart. Percy saw the Earth in front of Bianca break open with the shadows wrapping around piece of stone turning it black. The stones floated around Bianca in a protective manner.
Bianca sighed lowering her arms, "I couldn't use just my shadowsa alone," she explained, "it didn't' feel right. So I...ah, I kind of just played around until I discovered that I could also move small pieces of the Earth. Then I just sort of mixed them together and presto."
Percy smiled, "hmm, well Hades is called the ruler of everything below the Earth. I suppose he kind of shares that domain with my dad, considering Poseidon is the Earthshaker. So it's not that surprising you can control the Earth to a small extent. But this...infusing one element with another....even I never tried anything like that before. Ingenious."
Bianca blushed at the complement, "t-thanks."
Thalia giggled, she couldn't believe she never saw it before. Bianca was head over heals for Percy, not that the boy was noticing, he was to focused on the black stones in front of him.
Percy conducted a few experiments on the stones. It seemed that by infusing her shadows into the stone Bianca could control it just as easily as Percy could the shadows. She could also somehow make them float as high as she wanted and even launch them as projectiles at enemies.
After some thinking Percy finally stopped, "okay, honestly I don't even know where to begin with your powers. Nico was pretty straight forward, but you..... You are a little bit different. I want to start you on pure mana training like Thalia, but you just received your powers, so I'm not sure you can do it just yet. Hmm, for now train by yourself. Create new and different methods to use this... shadow stones. Try to create way for you to use them for both attack and defence. Oh,and why don't you try and see whether you can create a stone structure large enough to carry your weight?! That way you can basically fly!"
Bianca blinked at the suggestion and immediately took mental note of them all. She then left to find a place to train like her brother leaving Thalia and Percy alone.
"So," Thalia said with a smile, "are we going to make out or train?"
Percy smiled, "what do want to do?"
Thalia grinned, "we can kiss later. For now we train."
Percy nodded getting into business mode, "right. So did you get a chance to read and learn the marble skin spell?"
Thalia sighed as she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the scroll containing the spell's details. "I read it, and I understood it. But I'm having difficulty using it."
Percy nodded, "let's see wether I can't help you out on that front."
The two sat down on the ground and Percy took Thalia's hands into his own. "Alright Thalia, tell me what you understand form the scroll."
Thalia sighed relaxing herself, "I have to pour my mana out through my pores while visualising it turning into stone. But that doesn't make any scene! Don't you like have to say some kind of spell or do something to activate the spell?! Hos does just visualising it help in anyway?!"
Percy nodded, "yeah, it's confusing at first, I get it. But magic is all about the intent Thalia. Our elemental magic is a part of us, so it knows what we want it to do. But other forms of magic isn't as....connected to us. For them to work, we have to will them to work. And the only way we can do that is by concentrating and using our intent. Magic isn't something that has a passcode or a law book. It is literally the unexplainable given form. The only way we can grab hold and control this amazing power is by using our mind."
Thalia took a deep breath calming herself down, "so you mean mind over matter?"
Percy nodded, "right. And remember, visualise what you want."
Thalia nodded as she closed her eyes tapping into their mana. Percy could feel it pour out of her with ease, she had been practising. The mana was then directed directed towards Thalia skin as it poured out of her.
Percy could feel some parts stick back on Thalia's skin, but for the most part the mana just floated away, wasted.
Thalia sighed, "shit."
Percy smiled, "let's try that again."
They did and again she failed. They tried three more and three more times she failed.
Thalia threw her eyes open and growled in anger, "fuck this!"
Percy smiled, "it's okay Thalia. You're not supposed to get it at once."
Thalia glared at Percy, "this is so not fair Percy! I am doing everything right! I am pouring the mana out, but I can't seem to make it stick Percy!"
Percy sighed, "I know. You just have to practice, that's all."
"Why can't this stupid thing work already?! Gods this is frustrating!" Thalia threw her hands up in anger.
"Thalia-"
"-I just fucking suck! Shit even Nico managed to bring his powers under control pretty easily and even I don't have that much control over lighting!"
"Thalia-"
"-Why isn't this working!"
Percy grabbed Thalia's face with both hands and pulled her close for a kiss. Slowly all the anger drained away from Thalia's face as she simply lost herself in the kiss.
Percy stopped and pulled away, "are you calmed down now?"
Thalia nodded, "I thought we said no kissing until later."
"I needed to calm you down somehow," Percy said with a smile, "right, now let's try this again. This time let me help you."
Thalia nodded and closed her eyes. Percy held her hands, "slowly pull out your mana."
Thalia did so drawing on it like it was second nature to her.
"Now slowly push it out of your pores," she did so and tried to immediately pull it back forming a layer across her skin. "No, don't strain it. Don't try and push it. Think of my hand as the mana," Percy lifted his hand and pressed it on Thalia's forearm, "as I press my hand along your skin I apply the mana to it."
Thalia was losing focus again, the way Percy touched her was distracting her. But the daughter of Zeus pushed through. She focused her mind and imagined Percy applying the mana on her skin, coating it.
Soon she gained control over the mana and applied it directly on her skin, finally activating Marble skin.
Percy smiled, "you did it."
Thalia's eyes shot open in surprise, "holy shit. I did it!"
She jumped at Percy in joy, "thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Percy laughed,hugging her, "it was all you Thalia. I just helped a little."
Thalia looked into Percy's sea green eyes and drew closer giving him a soft kiss, "no....you did more than just help out a little."
Percy smiled, "alright. Now, why don't you try and do it on your own?"
Thalia nodded and sat back down closing her eyes and meditating. Percy felt her mana being drawn out and then poured outside. She had little trouble coating it on her arms, but eventually did so forming a layer on mana around her skin turning it as hard as stone.
Thalia opened her eyes and smiled, "this is so cool."
Percy nodded, "yup. So, how do you feel?"
Thalia pinched her skin, "well, I feel....different? It's like my skin get harder when I try to pinch it" she said pinching it again, "but it's normal when I not," she rubbed her hand gently over her skin which caused it to become normal.
Percy nodded, "exactly," Percy then took out riptide and tried to cut himself using the blade only for the celestial bronze blade being unable to cut through the skin.
Defence— 296,175,230
"Be careful Percy!" Thalia shouted.
"Relax, I'm fine, see," Percy said showing his hand to Thalia.
Thalia examined the place where Percy tried to cut himself and found not one blemish, "amazing."
Percy nodded, "yup. Plus let me in on a little secret, this spell doesn't have limit."
Thalia was suprised, "what does that mean?"
"It means you can put how much ever mana you want into it and it will never fade away. Plus the more mana you spend the stronger you get."
"So the defence you obtain is based on the mana you spend?"
Percy nodded, "exactly. Right now my defence is probably enough to stand up to a lighting bolt from you dad."
Thalia's eyes went wide in surprise, "woah. This is one useful spell. I can tell why you wanted me to learn it first."
Percy nodded, "right. Now for the next hour I want you to sit down and continuously pour every single drop of mana you have into the marble skin spell. That way it should be strong enough for battle use."
Thalia nodded and did just that. Percy was now free to do whatever he wanted, and he already had something in mind. Percy first pulled out the skill disk he obtained from the quest yesterday. It was a level 10 skill disk, and right now he had a huge list of skills to use it on.
So far Percy had two very usefull skills he could use the disk on. Healing and telekinesis. He could have also used it on ID, but he was afraid if he leveled up ID create and not ID escape then that might cause him to be stuck in an ID forever.
So it came down to the two. So far the Healing powers were the most useful. Percy had already used to to save Ed's and Thalia's life along with curing a kid of cancer. Who knows what he could do with it.
But then came Telekinesis. Honestly the only reason Percy wanted this was because he wanted to move things with his mind. You know, like a jedi. It was no secret Percy was a fan of the Star Wars movies, and he really wanted to be a the telekinesis thing was the closest thing Percy had ever come to haveing force powers.
Eventually though duty overcame passion. The healing skill had the power to save countless lives, and Percy just couldn't bring himself to sacrifice all that just to be able to move things with his mind. After all what was it that the jedi believe in? There are no shortcuts in life, so Percy figured he would just level his telekinesis up the old fashioned way, grinding.
Percy used the skill disk on Healing increasing the skill by 10 levels;
Healing, Lv— 13 (0%)
Allows the user to heal any disease or ailments threatening himself or others.
Limit— 2 aliments per use, 2 targets at a time
Cost— 300 MP
Percy was surprised at the increase in the number of ailments he could now cure, and the fact that he could do two people at once. This truly was a valuable skill. Maybe Percy should become a doctor.
Percy closed the box and then took out the scroll of stealth he got as Loot from the Agent.
Scroll of Stealth,
Gives you a rank up in stealth skill and a new sub skill.
Would you like to learn?
YES/NO?
Percy pressed yes and immediately the effects began to take place;
Ping!
You have leveled up!
Sneaking, Lv-11 (50%)
Allows you to sneak up on someone.
60% chance of not getting caught.
55% chance of critical strike.
You have gained a new sub skill!
Wall Sight, Lv— 1 (0%)— Allows you to see the silhouette of people behind walls. This only applies if you are aware that someone is there, previously unknown people cannot be located.
Percy was surprised. This was the first very video game like skill he had gained in a long time. It was exactly the kind of thing one would find in a stealth game. But he did obtain it from defeating an assassin so maybe it should have been kind of obvious.
After the training session with Thalia and the others ended Percy began his own training. He was determined to level up his Telekinesis skill to the point he could use it in actual combat.
Percy sat on the fist of Zeus and sat crossed legged on the stone structure. The first thing he needed to do was learn how to move things, multiple things at once. So Percy decided to first move the stones that made up the stone structure.
He focused on the stones and tried to move a single one. He reached out and touched it with his mind, and then slowly he lifted it up. It was big, and heavy, just barely under the 80 pounds limit of his powers.
Percy was sweating by now, he could barely keep it up, but he did so for as long as he could. Soon the stone became normal to hold up, almost like Percy wasn't even holding up anything at all.
Percy then moved his focus to another stone as he picked this one up as well. This one was smaller than the other stone and Percy found it easier to lift. But just as he shifted his attention to that the first stone fell down flat.
Percy sighed, he needed to divide his attention between the two stones. He closed his eyes and tried again. He lifted the heavy stone first, this time he was used to the weight so the surprise of lifting something so heavy didn't effect him.
Then he moved to the next stone slowly lifting that up while reminding himself to focus also on the first stone.
Percy lifted both stone higher and higher as he directed all his attention to carrying up the two stones.
