Percy wished to stop and just like that the cloud stopped, it seemed he could have to think to move, since he didn't have legs anymore. But just as he got a feeling for his new body it became solid again.
Slowly his bones became solid as his heart started to beat again. The pumping of blood pounded in his head, the sound of his breathing was very loud distracting him from anything else. Percy felt his forehead being covered in sweat as he promptly collapsed onto the ground panting.
Becoming formless and then soild was an experience Percy would never forget. The gas body he had was so liberating and free, it was such an addictive feeling to have, almost made Percy understand what it meant to be a god. And when he turned back solid he became painfully aware of just how human he was.
After he stopped panting Percy pulled up his mana bar;
Percy Jackson MP: 250/500
Percy smiled at this, he could go into his smoke form one more time. And so readying himself Percy focused, 'Smoke Form.'
The feeling of formlessness came to him quicker this time, but Percy was ready for it. He quickly began to move across the fields, his body responding to his every command. He was literally gliding across the forest grounds. He moved across the trees seamlessly, he twisted and turned as he explored the forest at a speed only his smokeless form could achieve.
He then saw a tree up ahead and decided to test his limits. He charged ahead at the tree and at the moment of impact his smoke body split in half and met up on the other side. Percy looked back at the tree as he kept glancing forward, it was covered in moisture now, must have come from his smoke form.
He then turned around and saw another tree ahead of him, let's see whether the first time was just luck. Percy charged ahead and as he was about to hit the tree his body transformed back into his solid form. Percy however couldn't stop moving as he crashed into the tree causing it to break in half.
Percy rubbed his head and got up, 'god dammit! Fucking time limit!'
Ping!
Skill has leveled up!
Smoke from, Lv— 2 (23%)
Turns the user's body into smoke, colour depends on person.
Cost— 250 MP
Duration— 30 seconds
Well atleast it leveled up. Percy then opened his inventory to get something to restore his mana and found that his supplies were running low. Deciding to save them Percy closed the inventory and walked back to the stone formation and sat down.
After his mana regenerated at a rate of 20% per minute, that is 100 MP per minute. Note to self improve Wis, for every 10 Wis he had his mana regeneration improved by 5%. Percy understood the implications of this and smiled, he was going to abuse the shit out of this.
After five minutes Percy's mana was fully charged and he got up ready for another round for smoke form training.
Smoke from, Lv— 3 (31%)
Turns the user's body into smoke, colour depends on person.
Cost— 225 MP
Duration— 30 seconds
After three cycles of using up his mana and regenerating it Percy managed to level up the skill once. He would have done more but it was getting late and for the sake of appearances he needed to go wake Luke up for the next shift.
"ID escape!"
The red sky cracked open as Percy walked back to the camp site. As he reached them Alecto and Craig made themselves known appearing in front of Percy and bowing.
"Master."
"Did anything happen?" Percy asked.
"No master," Alecto replied.
"Good. I'm going to bed right now and I will send Luke out to patrol, stay out here and away from him and back him up if anything goes wrong. Then do the same when Grover wakes up for his shift, got it?"
Alecto and Craig nodded and disappeared back into the shadows of the forest. Percy took of the gauntlet of Kefka and put in his inventory and then walked into his camp.
There he walked to Luke's sleeping form and reached out, but just then Luke jumped out and a slash of bronze flew through the air. Percy jumped back just as the blade reached his neck, "stop Luke!"
The son of Hermes looked wide eyed at Percy, his eyes filled with fear as sweat covered his face, "Percy?"
"Yeah, it's me. I came to wake you up, it's your shift Luke."
"Oh, right. Yeah, okay," Luke stammered out as he put his sword away, "sorry about that, it's just-I... bad dream."
Percy bent down, "was it about Thalia?"
"Yes.... it was nothing," Luke then got up and threw his blanket up as he up on his shoes and got ready, "I'll go to patrol, you get some rest."
"If you want I can-"
"-No. No, it's okay. Probably can't get anymore sleep tonight anyway," Luke said as he walked away from camp and into the forest without looking back.
Percy sighed and waited for Luke to be out of sight. The moment he was gone Percy sighed and pulled his blanket closer as he drifted to sleep.
Ping!
You have slept on a very uncomfortable surface; HP and MP have been restored 50% each. All ailments and negative status effects have been cured.
Percy rubbed his eyes awake and on instinct dismissed the box. He then looked around and saw Grover and Luke packing up as the sun was already out.
"Anything interesting happen last night?" Percy asked as he got up and put his own blanket into his bag.
"No, nothing interesting," Luke said with his signature smile.
Percy nodded, "good. That's good." He then looked to the forest and saw one of Alecto's wings, "ah I have to go and 'relieve' myself." And with that Percy quickly walked into the forest and as soon as he was far away from his friends Alecto and Craig revealed themselves to him.
"So did we have any problems during the night?" Percy asked as he pulled the gauntlet of Kefka out to dismiss them.
"There was nothing trying to attack the camp," Alectos said, "but there was something strange."
"Strange? Like what?"
"The blond kid, Luke? He snuck out during his patrol and made an Iris call in the middle of the night to somebody."
"Iris call? In the middle of the night? How did he get the light? Or the water?"
"Squirt bottle for the mist and he used the moonlight to from the rainbow."
"So who did he call?"
"We don't know. We couldn't get close enough to hear. The kid had good instincts. the moment I got 20 feet of him he noticed something was approaching him."
"Did you get anything? Hear anything?"
"All we heard is, 'we are in a forest in the middle of the country somewhere. I will get them to Denver just be ready for us there.'"
Percy frowned and nodded, "okay thanks for that." He then dismissed the two servants and put away the gauntlet. As Percy walked back to camp his head was spinning with idea about what Luke meant when he said those words. And more importantly who.
The moment Percy meet with Grover and Luke he smiled, for now he would need to act normal. Until he found out what Luke was up to.
"Ready?"
The both nodded yes as the three began their trek again. They went across the forest just as a mist started to settle in blocking their view to a degree. An hour or later Percy realised something, Grover was going the wrong way.
"Hey G-man you sure we are going the direction?" Percy asked.
"Yeah Percy, why do you ask?"
"Well it's just that we are now kind of heading in the wrong direction here."
"No we are not," Luke said looking at Percy strangely.
"Yeah we are," Percy then pointed to the sun which was nearly to the center of the sky, "see this is where the sun came from, we were going to the West, now are are going East."
"That....that's impossible," Grover whispered in fear as he realised Percy was right.
"But wait we were heading a straight line! I know we were," Luke exclaimed.
"Not really no," Percy replied, "Grover took a right a few minutes ago without noticing, I just thought he wanted to take a shortcut or something so I didn't really object. But then he took another right and started to head off in the wrong direction."
"Bu-but I don't even remember that! I don't remember taking a turn!"
"Yeah Percy. I don't remember Grover taking a right. I would have said something if I did!" Luke exclaimed.
Percy rubbed his chin....could it be? "Guys... I think someone is trying to trick us from getting out of this forest."
"What?"
"No way!"
"Yeah," Percy replied nodding, " you see where we are right now," Percy said pointing to the two mountains between which they were walking, "this valley probably leads to something that we are not supposed to see. Meaning whatever, whoever, is trying to confuse us is right ahead."
"How are you not effected?" Luke asked curiously.
'Because of Gamer's mind duh,' Percy thought but obviously he didn't say that, "I'm not sure. Maybe it's a son of Poseidon thing."
Ping!
Lie success!
"The mist!" Grover suddenly exclaimed, "maybe it has something to do with all of this! And maybe it doesn't effect Percy because he is a son of Poseidon! You know since mist is basically water."
"Can can you do something about this mist Percy?" Luke asked.
"I'm not really sure," Percy replied, "I haven't really tried."
"Well mist is just water in gas form. You should be able to control it," Grover said.
Percy nodded, "okay, let's see." Percy put his hands up and focused. He pushed his mana out and immediately it caught onto the water in the air. He could feel the moisture around him, moving passed him Luke and Grover. He then willed the mist to move back, it felt like pushing a table with one hand, difficult but possible.
Percy opened his eyes and saw the mist roll back. He allowed himself a smile;
Ping!
A skill of yours has evolved! Steam control has evolved into Moisture control!
Ј Water Controlling Lv-11 (62%)
Allows you to control any form of water from any source of water. You can reconstruct it in anyway you wish and it will obey your every command.
Cost-10 MP per minute
Special attack— Water Spikes-210 Damage cost 80 MP
Special defence— Water shield-35/35 Durability cost 95 MP
Special control— Blood control-cost 46 MP per minute.
Special control— Moisture control— cost same as water control + 10 MP
Percy blinked at, he didn't know skills could evolve! Does that mean if he learnt beginners karate and he mastered it it would evolve to advance? Hm this demanded research.
"Cool!" Grover shouted, "okay we should be good now."
Luke nodded, "okay but just to be safe Percy take point. I don't like the fact we were being manipulated so easily. Whatever is up ahead in probably what caused this all, we need to be alert."
Ping!
Quest Alert!
Find out who is messing with your head!
Reward,
A way out of this god forsaken place,
Skill book: Mist illusion techniques
Failure,
Death
YES/NO?
Percy pressed yes and the group began to move again, this time in the right direction. The mist became thicker but Percy managed to push it all way. Soon the sunlight started to become dimmer and dimmer and even the sounds of the animals went path between the mountains was clear now with Percy leading the way. Soon it turned dark as the sun slowly set down. Eventually the forest opened up and the mist started to clear revealing a large lake in front of the group.
"Holy shit," Grover said as he looked across the lake, "this thing is huge!"
"Look!" Luke shouted pointing to their right. There near the edge of the lake was a old fashioned log cabin with three cars in front of it, the most important thing however was the fact that the lights inside the cabin were on.
"Is someone in their?" Percy asked curiously.
"I think so," Luke replied, "let's go find out."
The group of questers did just that as they walked along the lake to the cabin. When the finally reached it they noticed a few things. The windows of the cabin were covered with blinds but Percy could see a few shadows inside. The cars all had their doors were wide open with the keys in the ignition. Percy walked up to each car and tried to turn them on, but none of them worked. All of them had dead batteries.
"Think we should go inside and talk to them?" Percy asked Luke.
"Sure why not."
The three approached the cabin door and Percy knocked on the door, "hello?"
Suddenly whispers broke out from inside the cabin and Percy could make out someone, a guy, telling others to hide and keep quiet.
"We can hear you you know," Percy said causing the whispers to go into a state of panic, god these guys are idiots.
"Let me," Luke said as he took out his lock pick set. He then began his work on the lock on the door and soon it clicked open.
"We are coming in," Percy said as he pushed the door open. He stepped inside but didn't have any time to observe the place as a grown man was charging him with a baseball bat. Percy moved to the side, caught the man's collar and slammed him into the cabin wall.
"Who the fuck are you?!" the man called out as Percy pinned him to the wall.
"Who the fuck are you?" Percy asked back.
"Jet it's okay their human!" cried a female voice from inside the room. Percy turned and there hidden behind a couch was two women, one blonde, a redhead, the one who spoke, and a man.
The blond looked like a child of Aphrodite, beautiful, with bright brown eyes and a jaw dropping figure covered by a pink tank top and a pair of jeans.
The redhead was beautiful too with green eyes hidden behind her glasses. She wore a pink shirt with a black pair of jeans but the most notable thing about her however was the fact that she was in a wheelchair.
The other man was tall, taller than Luke, with brown hair and dark skin. He wore a red hoodie and a pair of shorts.
Percy then turned to the guy he had pinned up against the wall. The man was average height, a little overweight but Percy could feel his strength as he tried to get out of Percy's grip. He had brown hair and brown eyes and looked pissed.
"Percy let him go," Luke said as he pried Percy off the older boy, Jet.
Percy did and threw the man inside, "alright looks like we got on the wrong foot there. But in my defence you did try to take a swing at me."
Jet rubbed his hands, "shit you are strong. How old are you? 14?"
"12 actually," Percy replied, "Grover get in here and closed the door."
The Satyr did and soon a silence feel upon the room. Luke then spoke up, "I guess introduction are in order. My name is Luke, this ball of strength is Percy and the guy in the beanie is Grover."
Jet looked at them and then to his friends. The red haired girl nodded and Jet sighed. "My name is Jet, that's Nat," the blonde, "Christy," the redhead, "and John."
"Great nice to meet you all," Percy replied, "now can you please explain why tried to take a swing at me?"
