I sat on my bed in the Poseidon cabin, reminiscing on the time I'd spent at camp. A week had gone by already, and the place felt more and more like home by the day. I know that sounds cliche, but you have to believe me.
Have you ever had a piece of clothing, like a hoodie or I don't know, a pair of jeans or something, where every aspect of it feels perfect?
Like, comfort, formality, color, material-—all of that stuff? I had a hoodie like that once. It was this maroon zip-up from Hollister, and I once wore it every day for a week straight, just because it felt so comfortable. I washed it, of course, but I just kept finding excuses to put it on. It worked for the school day, it fit in at the YMCA after-school academy, and no one raised any eyebrows when I wore it to the sixth-grade dance.
Well, Nancy Bobofit did. She was kind of a bully all around, though, so I took her reaction with a grain of salt. Camp Half-Blood was kind of like my maroon hoodie. In just a few short days, I'd fallen in love with it.
Every part of it, from the friends I was beginning to make to the fun activities we got to do, just felt right. It felt right in a way that school, or anything else, for that matter, never had. It was a shame I had to leave already, but I knew I'd be back someday soon.
Well, hopefully. My days in the past week had fallen into the same routine, more or less. Each morning, I learned Battle Strategy from Annabeth, and we talked about all sorts of monsters and their weaknesses.
Aside from that, we also talked about Greek myths in general. She knew a lot about that. Like a frightening amount. Annabeth tried to hammer home the fact that anyone could be a monster over and over again, but I wasn't too worried about that. I could get someone's life story in a glance, after all. It would be pretty tough for a monster to sneak up on me, and even if they did, they'd be getting a one-way trip to the Underworld, courtesy of my sword.
After seeing and hearing my progress in swordsmanship from Luke during our mealtimes, Annabeth tried her absolute hardest to sucker me into joining her Capture the Flag team, but I wouldn't budge. I didn't have any time to spare! A few days after my dad visited, I made a point to talk to the Oracle. I got a formal quest, and Chiron, despite really not liking the entire situation, said I was good to go whenever.
Now, I could be wrong here, but the fact that two of the Big Three gave me the green light for the quest probably played a part in that. He may have been comfortable stepping on Mr. D's toes, but going against the word of one of the Big Three was something even he didn't want to do unless given no other choice. I didn't exactly feel like dying before I could get to my mom, though, so I took a week to prepare myself.
Or, more specifically, I took a week to get smacked around by Luke while he prattled off about swordsmanship.
After my encounter with Hestia, I felt lighter and more peaceful. I felt like a weight had been taken off of me without me even knowing it was there in the first place. I could think clearly for the first time, but I still knew I had to leave for my quest. I ranked up two more levels in my time, and I had a whole bunch of stuff to spend from various little quests and that one big one from Luke.
I sighed and leaned back into my bed. I felt pretty good about the quest all week, but now since it was the night before, I was sort of doubting my decision to leave so hastily. I mean, I knew it was just those pre-quest jitters speaking, but I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I had been a little too hasty in making all of these decisions to leave and stuff.
Well, what's done is done. I can't change the decisions that have led me up to this point, nor would I really want to. I have a quest to do—I can't let myself get sidetracked. Trying to get my mind off things, I decided to focus on the Game.
The notification in the top right of my vision pulsed again, reminding me that I had eleven stat points and four perk points to quickly allocate. In general, I noticed that I got five attribute points per level and one perk point per level.
The extras were from the two long-term quests I had. Objectively speaking, my stats were coming along nicely. Another thing I noticed was that despite my lower level, I could still fight and even defeat people who were almost double my level at times. It was kind of like Skyrim in that aspect. And well, a little bit of common sense, too.
My theory from earlier had been correct—different demigods evolved in vastly different ways. The Demeter cabin, for example, had massive stores of mana, and their [WIS] was the highest I'd seen thus far. Ares cabin, on the other hand, had crazy high levels of [STR], even if their [INT] was nothing to write home about.
You had your occasional outliers. Whether it was their mortal parent or their country of descent, some demigods differed from their brothers and sisters. It was an interesting thing to see. Well, no time like the present. I pulled up the perks list. My eyes widened as I looked at the screen. Before, there had only been a few perks available to me. Now, though, the entire first quarter of the tree was glowing, meaning that I could pick and choose from what I wanted.
I zoomed in.
The tree splintered off towards the middle, where a black border outlined a group of around six perks. The border was covered by a translucent lock symbol that pulsed every so often, emitting bursts of light. Hm.
I hit the button.
The lock sunk under my touch, and the top of it popped open. It spun, sending out threads of white that flushed out the black border.
The Game sprawled out words in front of me.
— - —
~ [Godly Perks] are perks that can only be unlocked through experience and story progress. They offer many boosts that you wouldn't find in your base perks, at the cost of a special, [Godly Perk] point. Keep playing the game and improving to earn more! You've been granted a free one.
— - —
Their names glowed brightly, unlike the normal perks. I started reading through them, one by one.
— - —
[Perk]: Sea's Pride
[System Denomination]: Active/Passive
[Attribute Group]: WIS
[Level]: MAX
[Description]: You're the son of Poseidon, through and through! While entering a body of water, your HP and MP regenerate 200% faster!
Gain enhanced movement speed and the ability to shoot out of the water at incredible speeds!
— - — — - —
[Perk]: Elemental
[System Denomination]: Active/Passive
[Attribute Group]: WIS
[Level]: MAX
[Description]: Bend the elements of the world to your whims. Take a reduced cost [30% MP] for all elemental abilities. For each element you can control, the effect is multiplied.
— - — — - —
[Perk]: Godly Constitution
[System Denomination]: Passive
[Attribute Group]: WIS
[Level]: MAX
[Description]: Replace your insides with godly ones, kickstarting your body's growth, maturity, and durability. Take a flat [+][1000] to all physical attributes initially, with an additional gain of [+][500] each time your level increases. Advances [STR] by [1][AP] for every level-up.
— - —
I blinked as the number underneath became visible. It cost four perk points! That made a lot more sense. I was starting to see how the Game balanced everything. These perks were a lot more passive. As opposed to some of the attack-heavy perks I'd seen in the base tree, these seemed a lot more tuned toward my body and had passive effects on how I interacted with other people or certain situations. I zoomed back, honing in on that last perk.
This was insane! How could a perk like this even be available? Those physical boosts would let me funnel stat points away from [VIT] and [STR] and let me focus more on other attributes. I bit my lip. I didn't even bother looking at the other perks.
My finger hovered over the glowing option for a moment longer than I should've allowed. Not as hesitantly as I would've liked, I tapped the icon to confirm my choice.
And instantly, I regretted it.
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