Chapter 21

The Hermes cabin was already there, practicing basic stabbing and slashing on the straw filled dummies covered in Greek armours. We hadn't got a new camper in 10 months, so all present here were already experienced fighters, way beyond the basic exercises, but Luke never let them get away without doing it.

I checked the blond boy's status quickly as I approached the group.

Luke Castellan

Age: 15

Race: Demigod (Blood of Hermes)

Tier: 4

Level: 280

Divine Power: 50,000/50,000

Stamina: 137,500/137,500

Health: 135,000/135 ,000

Stats

Strength: 260

Speed: 300

Dexterity: 295

Endurance: 275

Constitution: 270

Mental: 27

Spirit: 100

Luke had grown quite a bit too. In terms of physical progress both thalia and I already surpassed him, with thalia leaving him so far in dust it wasn't even funny. But where he lacked physical might, he more than made up for in pure swordsmanship. Just 15 years old, and he was already regarded as the very best of this generation, even by chiron. Hell, I was sure the boy was already a master swordsman, which was just ridiculous considering his first teacher was Chiron who started teaching him an year ago. Same time as I started.

"You ready, kael?" He asked, holding his sword loosely as he rolled his shoulders.

In response I made a show of cracking my neck and knuckles. Then, with a smirk I twirled the blade in my hand before pointing it at him.

"Born ready." I replied.

There was no further talking, he came at me with an outward swing at my shoulder, barely giving me time to dodge backwards.

But he'd predicted that, I knew, the plan was all in his eyes as he twisted his blade and bought it back inside towards the same shoulder, only from backside. I managed to let my blade block it clearly before stepping inside his guard to drive a quick punch to his chest.

He twisted out of my punch like a silken cloth while putting all his strength to push his blocked blade further with both hands before dragging it back as he retreated. My blade hadn't moved more than an inch though, I was too strong for him to overpower me with sheer strength, and too fast to take advantage of his longer reach. We parted with no points to anyone.

This time, I took the charge. I was more skilled in unarmed combat and more physically superior than him, so I usually tackled him with a physical maneuver before striking with my blade. This time though, I tried to surprise him and came in blade first with a quick stab to the chest, which he parried to the side instinctively just like I wanted.

Using the gap, I tried to move inside his guard again to engage in unarmed but he read me like a book and shifted to a side, letting my shoulder-slam uselessly drive into the air, before he countered by slamming the pommel of his sword to my head.

I was quick though, quicker than him, and managed to bring my elbow up just in time to smack it aside while also taking the opening created to rush him and push my shoulder in his chest once more.

Again, the skillful bastard made sure to just dodge me by a hairs-breadth before retreating, not taking the chance to strike at my unguarded side.

"Come now, kael. More bladework than bodywork please?" The smirking bastard taunted, taking this time to catch his breath.

I scowled a bit at him, though I knew it was true. My sword-fighting style usually involved a lot of body use. My physique was superior to most afterall, it'd be stupid to not take an advantage of that. But I also knew I wouldn't grow my swordsmanship by relying on my strength and speed.

Sighing, I readied myself to a bout of pure swordfight, which I usually lost.

...Or maybe not? Hehehe.

We both clashed our swords again, this time in a show of force, and just as I managed to push him back slightly, he disengaged and bent down in a single move, dodging my head strike before launching a sweeping cut at my feets.

I managed to take a quick backwards step just enough to let it slide before shooting forward with a lightning fast cut to his head while using a little bit of air manipulation to hold his head in place. The startled boy barely shifted his face in time, but my blunt sword still nipped him on the ear. I retreated quickly as he wildly retaliated with a furious upper slash, a scowl marring his face.

"1 point to Mikael!"

I grinned.

"You little cheat!" Luke spat out exaggeratedly, glaring at me slightly. "I felt the air shifting, kael. You can't fool me now."

I stared at him in surprise. I did cheat yeah, but he hadn't sensed that in the last few spars.

"Fine, whatever." I shrugged. "The point stays though."

"No, it doesn't." Luke growled out before looking at the one calling points. "Nolan, don't count that one."

"Let it stay, Nolan." I responded, staring at the boy too. "Luke should learn from his mistakes to avoid it from now on."

"Cut it off, Nolan!" Luke yelled at the hesitating boy. "It's a cheat point, we don't do that over here."

"Oh shut up, Luke. You are scaring the boy." I snapped, before looking at the twelve year old. "Be a dear Nolan, and go sit down."

The boy ran away.

"Nolan! Come back here! One week in the most uncomfortable sleeping spot of the cabin if you don't!" Luke bellowed but the boy kept running. Finally, he sighed while shaking his head. "...no respect for counsellors nowadays.."

"Maybe don't scream at them?" I advised innocently.

"Oh hush, you little cheat." Luke responded snappily. "Our alliance in capture the flag is broken, just so you know. And I'll enjoy whooping your ass with Thalia."

I just chuckled slightly.

"We'll see, we'll see.."

"But seriously though, kael. You need to stop using tricks if you want to improve further with a sword. The last time you showed any noticeable improvement was over three weeks ago."

"True." I admitted with a sigh. It had indeed been three weeks since I achieved lvl 5 as an expert swordsman. Unfortunately, I've stagnated since.

"It's just...these friendly spars forces you in a box, you know? Against the monsters you use everything you have so when you're just practicing, it doesn't feel as...intense, I guess?"

Luke nodded slowly, looking thoughtful. "Yeah, I get you. Maybe you should wear weights while practicing? It'll limit your physical advantage."

"I'll check it out. But for now, let's go another bout, shall we?"

"Sure."

And with a quick breath, we were onto each other again, our blunt blades clashing with loud clacking noises.

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After finishing with my spars, I parted from Luke who was going to retire for the rest of the day. I marched to the archery range, reaching it at the same time as the kids from apollo. Chiron was already present while the crowd gathered.

"Settle down now!" He called out, his tail swishing this way and that. "You know the drill, heroes. Choose the difficulty you feel suitable, and start your today's session. Those who does not have proper archery equipments, or feel the need to try out the camp ones for whatever reason, may pick them up from here."

I picked up one of the bows before taking a slot on the range. There were three levels of archery practice here; beginner, intermediate, and expert. At first I'd thought this meshed well with my systems skill level; basic, advanced, and expert. But I soon found a few differences.

While at first the system's and camp's level matched well enough, the later levels had differences. I was a lvl 7 advanced archer, and yet intermediate archery was too easy for me. I felt more comfortable with expert level, even though I probably wouldn't reach expert level for some time in my system.

Actually, it'll take a long time to reach the max level of advanced archery now that I thought about it. But still, I wasn't frustrated. Archery was the only combat-skill in which I was still progressing afterall.

Without further ado, I started the expert level practice session. I launched an arrow in every two seconds with 100% accuracy while also hitting the bull's eye of the moving targets seven out of ten times. Which was incredible for someone training since only half a year ago.

Though I was still quite a bit behind the best here, Natalia carter. The fifteen year old girl could launch 3-4 arrows in every second without ever missing the bull's eyes.

But I was sure I would surpass her one day.

It was simply a matter of time.

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The rest of my day passed with the same boring consistency as ever, I practiced flying with and without my wings and participated in aerial combat against Pegasus riders from Demeter cabin.

When I got a bit of free time, I retired in the cabin. Thalia was on guard duty and wouldn't be back until the meeting starts so I had the huge cabin all to myself. At this time, I usually experimented with my demonic or holy power.

I approached my comfy bed and reached into my inventory, where I kept all of my stuff, which included my three books where I noted down my observations. One was given by Issei of course, while the others I created myself. After my object creation leveled up to Lvl 5, I didn't even need to focus much to create small things like notebooks, water bottles, pen, pencils etc.

I just willed them into existence.

My skill with demonic magic had grown past even my mother's level. I could actually recreate the spear that she'd gifted me so long ago now.

Which was exactly how I did all the modifications to her spear, to make it a true monster slaying weapon on par with a celestial bronze spear.

I reached into my inventory again, and removed my weapon of choice.

[Piercer] (Rare): Made of steel and Celestial Bronze. Heavier than an average spear, it is made to match the user's strength and balance.

The six feet long spear still had a snow white body, but it's blue metallic head was replaced by a golden celestial bronze blade.

Now I can use the spear in my combat. A single clear cut from it could instantly reduce a hellhound to ashes.

I placed the spear back in the inventory, which had grown quite a bit since I first unlocked it. For every 50 in spirit, another inventory slot was unlocked, so now I had a total of 7 slots. One was reserved for my books, another for my spear, while a third one contained the Minotaur's horn.

I sat down on my bed, opening my first research book to look what I was working on. For the ease of navigation i had divided my research into three parts; General research, demonic power research, and holy power research. I also wrote an index of things I was working on, and another that I'd like to get started when I got the time.

General research

1) What world am I in exactly? Is it a fictional one, or mythological one?

2) What's my system exactly? What are the extents of its abilities?

3) How high does my stats need to be to go toe-to-toe against a god? What level are most of the god's on?

4) Does my system have companion mode that'll help me collect gir..ah friends? If so, get started on this immediately! Start young as they say.

All of these were strictly research related questions. Even the last one, I swear. I had an answer for most of them, so they weren't the focus of my research right now.

First, I still wasn't completely sure but i thought this was a mixture of mythology and fictional world. I remembered reading a series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians when I was 13 in my previous life, which was almost two decades ago now. But the more I became familiar with this world, the more it seemed similar, except all this devils and angels part. I was sure there was no such thing in the series.

Second, while my system definitely helped me to grow powerful, it was an inferior copy of the original Gamer ability. It didn't give me perks and it didn't have any dungeons. Perhaps I will slowly unlock the other gamer abilities, but for now I will have to make do.

Third, Dionysus was Lvl 740 in his divine form, while 640 in his mortal form. So I had to be atleast above Lvl 600 to even think of fighting a god. Plus he was simply a True god as opposed to the Elder god Hestia, who was Lvl 810 in her divine form while being lvl 710 in mortal form.

There was a full 1 Tier of difference between them, which was just ridiculous considering Hestia wasn't even an Olympian anymore. But still, I had a starting point, I just needed to work to reach it and surpass it.

Fourth, unfortunately no. It had no party system, no companion system, no relationship status, nothing at all. I'd already tried everything with Thalia so I didn't even try to research this subject further. Maybe when I grow into puberty and lose my virginity in this life it'll unlock some functions, but I seriously doubted that.

Sighing, I closed the first book. There was nothing more I could learn from these subjects.

My focus shifted to my research upon my demonic and Holy powers. Mainly, to combine Holy Light with normal Lightning and recreate the signature move of Baraqiel, the 10 winged fallen angel, Holy lightning. According to my mother's books that I'd read in the past, Holy Lightning was the most powerful element created by an Angel.

It was said to be especially effective against dark creatures, and most of the Greek monsters fell right in that category.

My ultimate goal was to take this 1 step further, and somehow combine Holy energy with Divine Lightning and create... something new. Something unique only to myself.

Just imagining the power of such a skill was making my skin erupt with goosebumps.

Now, I simply needed to brainstorm a way to make the theory into reality.