Bottle of Forest essence;
Will allow the drinker a permanent +5 to all stats in the forest. Will also enhance the user's senses when in the forest.
Percy had waited for over a year to drink the first one of these he found because he wasn't sure it was safe. The first time this was a loot item he got from defeating a Gergosa, so immediately he was on alert. He didn't' want it to turn him into a monster or something. But now he knew what it could do, and there was no reason to hesitate.
'No...wait,' Percy turned to Artemis, she was the Goddess of the Hunt, of the Forest, she would probably sense it if he grew stronger because of the forest. So Percy sighed as he made a mental note for himself to use the essence the first chance he got.
"So now where do we go?" Artemis asked.
"I think that way," Percy pointed at the direction from which most of the Paradoxes charged from, "since the monsters came from that direction I'm betting we'll find the boss there as well."
Artemis nodded as the two began walking deeper into the forest. Percy was having fun, but this dungeon crawling just didn't feel exciting, not when he first started. He remembered the very first dungeon he hoped into, Gods that felt like so long ago.
He was so stupid back then, he just jumped in without a care in the world. The only thing he had to protect himself was a sword, a shield and the ability to control water. And with that he took down Zed, his first servant. It was a proud moment of his life, one he won't forget. And by the way things are going, he probably will never replicate.
Things have, for a lack of words, been getting boring lately. Percy was quite frankly far too powerful for these normal dungeons. He killed all those Paradoxes without breaking a sweat, and not just that he wasn't even trying now. In fact he could have just killed them all with his tactile telekinesis alone, just rearrange all their molecules and rip their hearts out.
Percy sighed, 'this just isn't as challenging as it used ot be.'
"Something the matter Percy?" Artemis asked noticing her friend's low spirits.
"Nothing Arty it's just....sigh, that back there didn't even feel like a work out, you know? It just felt so easy, their broke down like they were nothing, hell I didn't even use a quarter of my power!"
Artemis chuckled, "and now you know how a God feels. Congratulations, welcome to the club."
Percy sighed again, "how do you guys deal with it? With all this power?"
Artemis shrugged, "honestly? I don't know. I was born a God, I've never had to contemplate mortality or anything of the sort. But I did ask my hunters, the ones that became immortal, how they felt. They said it was similar to moving to a new town, everything will be different, but at the same time it will also be the same."
Percy rolled his eyes, "yeah but I'm different from your hunters, they can't do the things I can do, Hades, they can't even come close. Ah, no offence."
"None taken, you were simply stating the facts," Artemis shrugged as they passed a small stream devoid of any life forms drinking from it.
"Thanks....but I think you were right, about it being like moving to a new neighborhood or something. Except in my case it's a new planet and my neighbors all happen to be Gods."
Artemis nodded, "true....you know you could do what Gods do."
"And what's that?"
"Seal away some of your power," Artemis explained, "our true form contains all our strength, it's what we can truly do. This form you see now is....well it's only a fraction of what we can do."
Percy frowned, "I see....sealing your power....intresting....maybe."
"Well whatever you plan on doing I suggest you hold off on it for some time, at least after Kronos is dealt with, then you can-"
Artemis stopped mid sentence as a gasp escaped her mouth. Percy and the Goddess looked with open jaws as the forest gave way to what looked like a valley. In the center of the valley was a tree so big it dwarfed Olympus. It's vines were the size of skyscrapers and it's leaves the size of cars. And surrounding this behemoth of a tree were thick forest the kinds Artemis hasn't seen since the dawn of man.
"B-beautiful," Artemis exclaimed as she looked at the trees and the forest surrounding it.
"I-I didn't realise there was a place like this," Percy said in blunt truthfulness, "if I did.....damn, now I'm wondering how the others might look."
The two quickly continued their walk into the new denser jungle. Every tree they saw was teaming with life. As when before everything was dead, here there were bugs and other creatures of the forest. Birds, monkeys, snakes, Percy swore he even saw a tiger once.
The branches of the giant tree covered them and blocked out the moonlight. Percy snapped his fingers summoning a fireball, it eliminated the area around them, but not much else.
"This is all so beautiful," Artemis spoke as she looked at it all. She approached a bush of roses and plucked a single flower, "such beauty."
"Yeah," Percy observed each animal here and found they were just that, animals. They weren't monsters to kill, they didn't offer an Exp points, well they did, but enough to warrant their death.
"We must come here more often Percy," Artemis almost pleaded with him as she took a deep breath stretching her arms out wide, "truly a place of wonder."
Percy nodded, "sure, why not? Maybe we can come here every other week or something, should be fun."
Artemis happily agreed as the two began to walk further into the forest. They quickly came across a big river that seemed to go underground towards the root of the giant tree in the center of the forest. Percy figured a tree of that size would need a lot of water to keep it alive, this river might just be one of many other water sources the tree draws from.
Artemis and Percy jumped across the river and moved forward. Percy's eyes were finally getting used to the darkness, he might not need the fire ball in a few minutes. Heck maybe—
"GRRR!"
Percy and Artemis were immediately on high alert. Percy readied Waverider and Artemis nocked an arrow. The sound came from all around them, for the life of him Percy couldn't pin point where. The trees took on a wicked tone now, every shadow held death, every noise sounded like danger.
"This way," Artemis started walking one way, Percy wasn't sure if this was where the sound came from, but he trusted the Goddess knew where she was going.
"GRR!"
The sound directly behind them, Percy turned and launched the fire ball in his hand. It flew through the air as the thing that growled at them jumped with a yelp.
Percy readied his weapon to attack when Artemis stepped in front of him, "wait."
Percy blinked but didn't move, he looked to the beast and was surprised by what he saw. It was a green tiger with yellow strips. It was as big as a bear and was covered with wounds left and right. One of it's eyes were shredded into pieces and it's right leg looked like it was broken in several different places.
Percy quickly observed the creature;
Dirtiger of the Forest
Lv— 21
HP: 150/15,000
MP: 300/300
Str— 32
Vit— 43
Dex-23
Int— 14
Wis— 12
Luc— 3
A member of the proud Dirtiger family, this creature is known for its ruthless attitude and it's dangerously sharp fangs. It is often known as a pack hunter but can also fight solo for its meals.
Kill to gain— 1,000 Exp
"It's dying," Percy stated as he noticed it's HP drop by 5 points every second.
"We need to help it," Artemis said as she slowly put down her bow and arrow approaching the beast with open arms.
The Dirtier saw her and growled. Artemis stopped and put her hands up, "it's okay, it's fine. I promise you, I'm not going to hurt you."
The beast however didn't believe her, he jumped forward and swiped with his paw scratching Artemis's open hands.
"Arty!" Percy moved to her but the Goddess shot him a look. The demigod paused, he knew a warning when he saw one, and the last thing he wanted was for Artemis to be mad at him. He stayed back, but tightened his grip on Waverider.
Artemis turned to the tiger, golden ichor running down her hands. She looked at him, "it's okay," the Dirtiger growled, "everything is going to be fine."
The goddess reached out once again. The cat looked at the hand, it tensed, Percy thought he would have to step in, but the moment Artemis's fingers touched the monsters green fur a weight had been lifted. The cat fell down to the ground collapsing where it stood, it's body finally giving in.
"Percy," Artemis called him over and the demigod was by her side in an instant. "Can you help him?"
"Goddess I can cure cancer," Percy smirked as he put a hand on the dirt tiger's head activating his powers. Slowly the wounds on the tiger began to close itself as more as it slowly grew to normal. Percy's healing also restored 25% on his HP and MP, it was well on it's way to recovery.
"That's an amazing power you have Percy," Artemis whispered in awe as she saw it in action.
"Thanks," Percy's hands stopped glowing. He ran his hands along the tiger's fur and smiled "he'll be fine."
"Could you please put him in your inventory for me?" Artemis asked as she got up.
"Ah yeah but....well I...." Percy groaned, "why do you want me too?"
"We can't just leave him out here now can we?"
"Yes but...you do know that none of this is real right?" Percy asked.
"What do you mean?"
"This, this forest and the animals, none of this is real Artemis," Percy explained, "it's just an illusion the Fates created. It's kind of like a virtual training ground with everyone else acting like a supporting character."
Artemis frowned, "then....what about those servants of yours? The ones you got from here?"
"Well.....I honestly don't know," Percy groaned, he had never stopped to think about it. Where the things in this place alive? Was Percy killing things that had life? In truth he didn't want to know the answer, he was afraid he might not like it.
Percy sighed, "fine, I'll put him in my inventory, but it won't help. He will essentially be frozen in time, he will still need to recover when we take him out again."
Artemis nodded, "that is fine. Please do so." Percy complained and after storing away one large and heavy tiger the two were off once again.
"That was a pretty big tiger," Percy commented, "I wonder what could have done that to it."
"A Primadox?"
"Not likely," Percy shook his head, "they only go after Hind's, plus Dirtigers hunt in packs, a single Primadox wouldn't have the guts to take on an etier pack and hope to survive."
Artemis sighed, "and how exactly do you know all this? If I recall correctly you insist you have never been here, you act and react like you have never been here, and yet you know so much about the creatures and their lives."
Percy sighed, "it's a long story. And I told you, I can't tell you."
Artemis rolled her eyes, "fine, fine, everyone has a right to keep their secrets. Just don't bottle them up too much."
"I won't, promise" Percy smiled, 'after all I have Thalia to talk too.'
"But if what you said is true," Artemis glared, "then something other than a Primadox attacked the diretiger, and whatever that something was probably took out an entire streak of tigers." Percy nodded in agreement, whatever they were hunting for was powerful. Hopefully it would be strong enough to make Percy work up a sweat.
Soon they reached the roots of the giant tree, which Percy took to calling 'Stumpy'. The roots were above ground creating a virtual system of caves in the ground. Percy could barely see inside them, even with his 8.0 Eyesight. If he was a betting man he would say those root caves housed the monster they were searching for, which means...
"We have to go inside the roots," Artemis stated.
Percy sighed, "it's dark in there, I can barely see out here, one can only imagine how"
Snap!
Artemis snapped her fingers and summoned a ball of light that floated above them shedding silver light on everything.
"Huh....never mind," Percy and Artemis walked forward into the cave like roots. Darkness took over as the ball of light Artemis summoned did little to lighten up the path before them.
TICKOO!
Artemis and Percy came flying out as something knocked them outside with a swing of its mighty arms. They flew across the air until they crashed through several trees before they managed to get onto their feets slowing themselves down.
Artemis wiped the ichor from the edges of her mouth, "that hurt."
"Yeah," Percy didn't even have time to react to the monster's swing, even his area scenes didn't pick up on it.
Remaining defence — 485,000
Percy was really glad now that he had improved on his marble skin defence points. That attack was fast and powerful, it took out 15,000 points in a single shot, definitely not to be taken lightly.
"GRA!" the roots began to rubles as a blue hand grabbed the edge of the wooden cave opening. Slowly a beast bigger as big as Cerberus pulled itself out of the roots. It stood on four legs resembling a cross between a dog and a gorilla.
It's fur was blue and covered with bony white spikes running along it's back and crowing its spine and joints. It's face was that of a cat's with large black whiskers, it's eyes were black and it's teeth were tainted with the colour of blood and green fur.
Rumbling Baloth
Lv— 78
HP: 500,000/500,000
MP: 10,000/10,000
Str— 350
Vit— 120
Dex— 50
Int— 80
Wis— 67
Luc— 0
The Baloth is a vicious and dangerous killer that cares for nothing and no one. It often huts for larger prays and is known to hunt for sport relishing in the kill.
Warning! If you see it's fur turning red, run!
Kill to gain— 90,000 Exp
Percy grinned, 'this is exactly the kind of challenge I'm looking for!' He got up and took off into the air flying around the beast, "hey ugly! Over here!"
The Balmoth turned to Percy and growled, "GRA!" a blast of blue energy exploded out of it's mouth flying towards Percy.
Warning! A ball of mana—
Percy didn't bother reading it as he managed to maneuver away just in time to avoid the monster's blast. He grunted as he felt the energy roll off of the passing ball of energy, it was very, very powerful.
'So I'm dealing with something that can use mana, nice,' Percy readied his trident as he hurled it at the beast with all his might. The blue trident flew through the air but was knocked aside by the monster's armoured fists.
Percy grinned, 'oh hell yes! Now this is what I'm talking about!' Percy gathered mana into his arms and sent energy blast after energy blast at the monster. It didn't look like they hurt one bit, but it served to drawn the beast's attention.
