Chapter 103

[Third Person's PoV] 

1 and half weeks later…

Lucian had three metal balls floating on top of his hands, spinning in circles while he leaned his head back against a tree.

Annabeth approached him with a large smile on her face.

Seeing her expression, Lucian smiled back. "Based on your expression, I take it you finished digesting the Librarian potion?"

Annabeth lifted her chin proudly. "What do you think?"

"So, what were you able to learn about being a librarian?" Lucian asked curiously.

Annabeth gestured with her thumb to the side, as if counting. "One, the importance of organized knowledge. To maintain order, books and information must be organized and placed accordingly, otherwise it leads to chaos." She then held out her index finger. "Two, although keeping knowledge safe is important, it's meant to be shared and passed on."

She extended her middle finger. "And three, information is power but also a responsibility. With access to knowledge comes the duty to share it wisely and ethically, guarding against misuse of sensitive or dangerous information."

"I see… Did you have fun?" Lucian asked as he manipulated the metal balls over his fingers.

Annabeth shrugged. "It was alright, not like any of the adventures I've had before."

"Looks like someone is slowly turning into an adrenaline junkie," Lucian teased.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Well, when most of my life has been an adventure, a slow life seems boring at times."

"Luckily for you, you and I are going on an adventure," Lucian said smugly, stacking the three metal balls on top of one another on his fingertip.

"Oh, are we going to find the labyrinth?" Annabeth asked excitedly, recalling what she needed for her next potion.

"But isn't it going to be difficult? The entrance is hard to find, not to mention navigating through it," she added.

"Wait, did I not tell you about the abilities I gained from the treasure seeker potion?" Lucian asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "I was too busy with the library, and you were doing who knows what."

"My bad, I was busy testing my new abilities and getting the other sequences," Lucian explained unapologetically.

"Wait, you already know what your next ones are?" Annabeth asked in surprise.

Lucian smiled, not replying. "I can't say more, but I will tell you what abilities I received…"

After he finished, Annabeth looked at him with her mouth agape. "What… that's so broken."

"Why thank you," Lucian smiled.

"Well, at least that solves most of our problems… but we still need to find the Daedalus Blueprint Essence and five celestial bronze ingots for the main ingredients, and a Feather of Icarus, Core of an Automaton, Tail Hair of a Sphinx, and Myrmekes spoil of war for the supplementary," Annabeth listed.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get ready so we can go," Lucian said, shooing her away.

Once more, Annabeth rolled her eyes but complied. A few minutes later, she returned wearing a tank top with her hair in a ponytail, tight khaki shorts, brown adventuring boots, and her daggers and her purple pouch by her side.

Lucian snorted as he saw her. "Alright, Ms. Adventure, let's go," he said, standing up and leading the way.

"So, what does it look like when you use your pathfinder abilities?" Annabeth asked curiously.

"I just sense it, like I know which steps to take to reach where I want to go," Lucian explained. 

"If I step off the path, it corrects itself and guides me back," he added as he walked back to where he had been previously.

"So, like intuition?"

"Kinda yeah, it's all just a feeling."

"Alright, we're here," Lucian said before he started walking towards the mounted rocks.

"Wait, what?" Annabeth asked, confused by Lucian's statement.

"I mean, the entrance to the labyrinth is just there," Lucian said, pointing in between the rocks of Zeus's Fist.

Annabeth looked at Lucian with a straight expression and started to slowly blink. "You're serious?"

"Yeah, I mean I did say that the entrance was closer than you would think."

"I thought you meant like a town over or a city over or something, not 10 steps away from where you were sitting," Annabeth said, turning and pointing towards the tree Lucian had been resting by.

Lucian just grinned before asking, "Well, are you coming or not?" and jumping into a hole between the rocks.

"Of course, I'm coming," she muttered before climbing up and jumping down the crevice. "CATCH ME LUCIAN!" Annabeth yelled, her voice echoing through the dungeon.

Lucian, already on the ground, extended his arms as she fell into them. Seeing that she was in his arms, Annabeth smiled mischievously, wrapped her arms around his neck, and swung her feet.

"My hero~" she said, batting her eyelashes and kissing him on the cheek.

Lucian chuckled as he put her down. Once on the ground, Annabeth reached into her pouch and pulled out a flashlight, seeing as it was really dark and difficult to see.

Seeing Lucian just staring at her, she looked at him in confusion. "What?"

Lucian reached into his shadow and pulled out two lime green bottles that were glowing in the dark.

"Here, drink this," he said, handing her one and drinking one of his own.

Annabeth was confused but still did as Lucian instructed. "Hmm, lemonade~"

She then started blinking a bit and noticed that she could see much clearer now without the flashlight.

"Ah, I see, so it was a night vision potion," Annabeth said, nodding appreciably.

"Follow my every move," Lucian warned her and began to walk, while Annabeth did as she was told and followed behind him.

"What do you think we'll see in here?" Annabeth asked with an adventurous spirit.

Lucian didn't immediately respond; he jumped over a tile, and as Annabeth did the same, he turned around and flicked one of the metal balls to the tile they just passed.

The walls from where the tiles passed slammed into one another, creating a loud noise before they went back to where they were.

"That," Lucian finally answered her question.

"Point taken," Annabeth nodded.

As they walked, they dodged many traps while Lucian showed Annabeth what they did. Some shot out poisonous darts, some caused the floor to part, exposing a pitfall to spikes, and a part of the roof came down with spikes under it.

The last one shot out a large ball of earth that came rolling their way.

Neither Lucian nor Annabeth looked the least bit frightened by it. Annabeth knew Lucian could take care of it, and Lucian knew he could take care of it.

He spread his legs out a bit, squatting, while getting into a punching position. As the ball rolled towards them, Lucian yelled as he sent out a punch, causing cracks to appear before it crumbled completely.

"Do you always need to show off?" Annabeth asked with a teasing look.

"Always," Lucian replied proudly before they both continued exploring the labyrinth.

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A/N: Tell me what would you guys like to see in the labyrinth that wasn't in the original story, like what rooms, object, or monster... it needs to make sense though