Chapter 20

[Third Person's PoV]

Lucian woke up the next morning feeling more energized and in less pain. Luckily his hotel room had a bathroom, so he did his usual morning routine and got ready.

He then sat back onto the bed and took out his book and went towards the page where he kept a list of his powers and his different ideas for them.

"I used the shadows and enveloped my legs to jump that high but what else could I do with it. Can I lower my presence by enveloping myself in it but I would need to do it by someone to see if they can't dect me…"

Lucian started writing his ideas and thoughts on the matter related to his demi-god powers, "But I can't just completely focus on them, I also have to continue training with my weapons and magic"

Lucian sighed as he realized he had a lot to do. 'Well I'm not going to get it done by just sitting down' he thought as he put away the book.

Lucian stood up from the bed and just as he was about to exit he suddenly had a thought, 'I haven't actually tried shadow-Travel yet… I should do it'

Lucian closed his eyes and willed himself inside his shadow. Lucian then started moving inside his shadow which he then realized was a mistake as he didn't have a destination set.

He felt Lucian felt himself moving so fast he didn't know which way was up or down, left or right, it all felt like he was running at super speed without any way of stopping.

Lucian felt himself shot out from his shadow, and ended up crashing into a wall. Groaning he slowly got up and looked around, he looked at what appeared to be crime scene investigation and when he looked around some more he realized he was back where he fought the lion automaton.

"Great just what I needed to retrace my steps" Lucian groaned some more. "I'm too young to be having back problems"

'And my God did that take alot of me, I know it's supposed to be tiring to shadow travel but I didn't think it would be this much.'

As Lucian leaned against the wall to get his bearings he heard multiple footsteps coming towards his direction. He silently cursed to himself as he tried to use shadow travel once again, he closed his eyes and pictured the hotel room he was just at and sank back into his shadow.

Lucian felt the same sensation as previously and tried to get the hang of it. He reappeared back onto the room and wobbled forward, tripping on his own two feet and landing back on the bed.

"Definitely need more practice. Who knows where I would end up if I don't perfect it."

Lucian decided to just walk out after his failed attempts and summoned Larry to carry him on his shoulder. Lucian started focusing on the mist once again, changing their appearance to what they were previously when he walked in and exited the hotel. No one was none the wiser.

And so Lucian decided to walk and explore while very slowly making his way towards Virginia, making the months pass until it was late November.

By the beginning of August, Lucian would have traveled to Richland, North Carolina. During his time there Lucian started practicing his shadow travel and mostly practiced with the bo staff fighting automaton he would meet along the way even though he didn't gain any shadow soldiers.

By then middle of it Lucian would have arrived at Kingston, where he mostly started fighting using a bow. For practice Lucian would summon his 20 shadow birds and make them fly around him and he would try to shoot them down.

Surprisingly Lucian ended up encountering kins of Lamias during his walk. They were monsters/spirits that would feast on small children often regarded as demons.

Unluckily for Lucian they weren't the good looking kind often depicted in his previous life and were quite grotesque. After a battle with his bow and arrow, Lucian ended up killing about 30 during his stay there, expanding his shadow army.

By the beginning of September Lucian arrived at Goldsboro and switched to the chain scythe for his main use and practice.

During this time Lucian started practicing other applications towards his shadow abilities, he figured out how to blend his presence making him hard to detect. He named that technique shadow cloak and used it to explore the city without anyone paying him any attention.

As he walked by a park he encountered a large boar, it was so large that you just know it belongs to the supernatural world. Lucian ended up fighting it but got injured when one of its tusks made a large cut to the side of his Stomach.

Lucian had to lay low so he could recover for a few days, a scar is all that remains of their encounter, alongside a new shadow soldier.

Switching to a spear, Lucian made it to a city called Rocky Mount by October. As the month progressed Lucian became more and more proficient in his ability to shadow travel.

It was to the point Lucian made a new move thanks to it. He called it shadow blink, he would encase just his feet with his powers of shadow and quickly appear by the shadows that were close by, basically a short distance fast teleportation technique.

Due to being in the city Lucian didn't encounter monsters most of his opponents were mostly once again automatons of different animals.

Lucian decided to spend most of this month exploring and enjoying him more than fighting and gaining experience, but that doesn't mean he slacked off.

And it was finally November… Lucian turned his spear into a sword and took a step in front of him.

Once he made his way forward he took a deep breath, "Ahhh Virginia, I finally made it, what a painful journey that was". Lucian arrived at Emporia, Virginia.

Lucian then thought of something funny to do. He went and looked around the city and found a grocery store. When he found it, he did his usual routine with Larry and made him carry a shopping cart inside.

Lucian started buying ingredients for a large dinner, when he was done he paid and exited the store storing his bags inside his shadow.

Lucian went and found an inn that allowed the use of a kitchen. It was quite a walk away but with a bit of shadow travel Lucian arrived in no time.

One of the things Lucian became aware of the mist which he had forgotten due to how simple it was, was that he could disguise himself perfectly as an adult.

So Lucian went in and paid for a room, settled in and went straight for the kitchen. After a few hours of joice cooking Lucian stored everything in his shadow.

He went back to his room, Lucian set up a small protected fire and started offering most of the food he made leaving a little bit for himself.

He then started to pray with a smirk, "Hey dad, it's me Lucian though you probably already know that. It's been a while since we last talked, you know after mom's fiasco.

Anyway the reason for this offering is because it's November 2, the day of the dead, and so I wanted to say happy birthday"

Lucian knows that the day of the dead is mostly a Mexican holiday, but he still did it for 2 reasons, trying to be funny and having someone to talk to. It has been a couple of months since he had any real interaction with anyone and the loneliness was slowly getting to him. But surprisingly enough Hades answered…

"I should punish you for such disrespect"

"Holy Hades! you actually answered i wasn't expecting that" Lucian's eyes widened in surprise.

"Hmmph, why wouldn't I answer when my son is being an idiot… Why have you offered this much food!" Hades scoffed at first before sounding angry.

"Persephone is going to make me eat it all. I can already guess what she's going to say. She's going to say something along the lines of not wasting your hard work and efforts and let it go to waste."

Lucian smiled lightly at that, he still didn't know why Persephone was nice to him but he didn't discourage it.

"You can share it with step-mother you stepmother," Lucian said, still smiling.

"I barely have contact with you and you're already being a nuisance, should I be worried for what the future has in store" Hades crumbled

"Absolutely!" Lucian said in pure confidence.

There was a long silence before Lucian felt Hades leave his head.

"... Did I just get hung up on by my own dad?" Lucian asked himself with an awkward smile.