By the time I got back to camp, the campfire was almost cold.
I could hear the voices of the campers singing somewhere off into the distance, bouncing off the trees and ringing through the air. Every part of Half-Blood Hill felt alive—the animals tittered above us, the insects buzzed in the warmth of the night, the trees swayed in a summer breeze—it was almost like the camp was yearning for me just like I was yearning for it.
I took a seat on one of the logs and stared into the dying embers of the fire.
Hm.
What should I do?
Well, I have a few minutes to myself right now, so I think I'm going to invest these allotted points, now.
Yeah.
I nodded to myself slightly, pulling up my perk tree. My eyes widened at the sheer amount of perks that were available to me. Those two major quests weren't playing around at all. Not only were there a ton of new perks, but there were also colors on some of the perks now. Imagine a clear, translucent hexagon. That's what most of the perks on the tree looked like- but some of them now had color.
Like, this one, for example, had its right corner tinged light blue. Curious, I zoomed in on it. It sort of looked like someone had dropped some food coloring on it but didn't let it fully disperse.
— - —
Perk:
Level: 1 [Description]: allows the user to surgically inject a certain amount of their mana into the opponent's mana pathway system upon contact, causing damage to surrounding organs due to their proximity to the circulatory system.
— - —
Holy fuck this one was brutal! I narrowed my eyes at the cost—two points. Why was the cost for this perk two points, as opposed to all of the other ones?
"Help?" I mumbled under my breath.
Ping!
The perk tree dropped into the background, and letters began to come to life in front of me.
— - — ~
Due to your level surpassing [LVL][25], you have unlocked the first tier of attribute-oriented perks! While they tend to be more expensive than your base perks, skill-oriented perks tend to offer focused benefits in the attribute group they're related to!
— - —
Hmm. That opened up a whole new set of questions. What kind of attributes did I even want to boost? I tried to push logic aside for the moment. It wasn't easy. Looking at my life like some kind of video game stat sheet felt…weird. Like, really weird.
So instead, I decided to approach it the way I'd look at any other demigod. What were my weaknesses? Honestly, long-range combat was a glaring one. Right now, my entire strategy relies on getting up close, and while I wasn't bad at it, it wasn't exactly the safest option. I needed something that let me hit my enemies before they could hit me. Something like archery. That could be cool. I could swing a bow off my shoulders and let a few arrows fly at someone before blasting my way in and carving them up with Riptide. But before I got too carried away, I had to rein myself in.
Tunnel vision—it's a problem. If you're not sure what I mean, just think about it: I'd been wielding a sword for, what, two, maybe three weeks? And with that tiny sliver of experience, I somehow managed not to get vaporized by the God of War. That wasn't luck. That was adaptability. By that logic, focusing on just one skill or weapon seemed like a waste of time. If I used the time I had left before heading to Atlantis wisely, I could start mastering long-range techniques and still keep improving my close combat skills. Why not be versatile? Keeping that in mind, I managed to allocate all of my points without too much trouble.
— - —
{Perseus Jackson} [Son of Poseidon] [Hestia's Favored] [Echidna's Bane] [Always Sunny] [Godhunter] [Hera's Blessing]
[LVL]: 29 [6900/16,000]
[STR]: 45 [+20]
[DEX]: 55 [+20]
[CHA]: 27 [+5]
[$]: 46USD, 53D
[Info]: Son of the legendary lord of all seas, Poseidon, and Sally Jackson, Percy is the current [Child of Prophecy] and bearer of Olympus' flame. Despite his murky past, Percy is ready to take on his future with determination.
{Titles}
[Son of Poseidon] - Permanently grants [+]1000 and increases [Mana Regeneration] rate by [1%] per five seconds.
[Hestia's Favored] - Permanently grants [+]750 and [+]750.
[Echidna's Bane] - Grants immunity to all poison-based status effects and toxins, and reduces incoming damage from monstrous creatures by [10%].
[Always Sunny] - This title makes your natural charisma shine even brighter, making you a beacon of positivity and influence and boosting your [CHA] by [2] every level-up.
[Godhunter] - Grants [+][20%] damage to divine or godly beings (including minor gods and divine constructs). Increases critical hit chance against godly enemies by [+][10%].
[Hera's Blessing] - Boosts your [Mana Manipulation] skill to [15] and unlocks techniques, allowing you to shape mana into intricate forms, such as shields, weapons, or traps.
— - —
Yeah. My physicals were up there, but I figured I'd still need major boosts to my tactical thinking and mana capacity if I wanted to be a true warrior. Based on what I'd read about attributes before, I needed to bolster my intelligence a bit. I opened the perk tree up, and true to my hypothesis, there were dozens of multicolored perks there, just waiting for me to go through them.
Anyway, the boost to my INT was already becoming abundantly clear. Rather than rushing in, looking for the coolest ones, and spending my points on them, my brain worked on a more holistic level. Mastering a wide range of weapons was my new goal, right?
That meant firstly, I'd have to put a huge emphasis on fine-tuning my muscles. A huge aspect of swordsmanship was how lithe and graceful I was. [DEX] also played a huge part in my motor skills and reaction time, so it was only logical that I'd need to find a perk that could boost all of that.
My eyes roved through the branches of the lightly green [DEX] tree. It was a really weird sensation, but I could feel my brain absorbing the information and making decisions much faster. There were some admittedly tempting ones.
[Opportunist] basically made it so that whenever I disarmed someone, my attacks became incrementally faster with each successful hit, capping at fifty percent increased speed. That sort of perk paired with [Hermes' Shadow] could do some damage in a hurry. I didn't want to sacrifice long-term success for short-term fun, though.
Next! [Lunar Lullaby] made it so that I could increase or decrease the amount of gravity being placed on my body at any given time. Again, tempting because it would make me incredibly fast if I kept up with it, but for now, I could use weights to help with that. Two points seemed like a hefty toll to pay for that, even if it did mean I'd be able to recreate Goku's training trip to Namek.
[Deadeye] improved my ranged accuracy by the number that my [DEX] skill was at any given moment. For example, my skill right now is 25. That means every time I threw a knife or shot an arrow, it would have a 25% boosted chance of hitting the target. Not bad at all, but eh. Not worth it to me.
The last one I really paid attention to was [Enhanced Counter]. If I hit what the game deemed a 'perfect' parry, it would slow down time until I decided what I wanted to do. Meh. I already have a timeslowing power…
The perk I decided on, of course, was [Eagle's Rally]. I'm guessing that it's probably some sort of reference to the Roman goddess Bellona, the ancient deity of war. That makes sense, to be honest because the perk itself is busted in all offensive aspects.
— - —
Perk: Eagle's Rally
[Description]: For the first week in which you learn a [Battle Skill], your progress in that skill is raised exponentially for each consecutive day you train in it! For example, if your progress in training a [Battle Skill] is 'X,' then on your second consecutive day of training, you will gain experience for the skill at the rate of X^2.
— - —
At first glance, it may not be as flashy as the other ones but think about it with me for a second. Let's say, on the first day, it's a multiplier of 2. That means, the next day, I'd start to master it 4 times faster. The day after that? 8 times. This was perfect. I was tempted to spend another set of points on another [DEX] perk, but at the same time, I was a bit curious about the other Tier 1 perks, as well. I don't want to get a INT perk. Not right now, anyway. I'll get one of those in the next cycle. I turned my attention to the strength perks. I didn't have to look too far for the one I ended up getting:
— - —
Perk: Hecatoncheire's Onslaught
[Description]: This is a technique that uses mana and concentration to enhance one's strength to monstrous levels. This is done by storing mana in one's hands or feet and releasing it onto the target with pinpoint timing. With this strength, the user can decimate the ground or even kill opponents with a single strike. The loss of concentration, however, can easily reverse the effects.
[BASE][COST]: [100 MP/S]! [BASE][DMG]: [100 X MP] + [100 X STR]!
— - —
Pretty cool, huh? The real kicker here for me wasn't that it was a multiple of my WIS but instead, my MP. That meant that if I pumped in all of the mana I could muster at this very moment in time, I'd be able to deal 1,731,500 damage to someone. Well, in theory. I couldn't do something like that without training, or I'm pretty sure I'd crush my entire arm into fine dust. The amount of concentration needed for something like that could take a while to reach. A part of me wondered: if these Tier 1 perks were this good, what would the Tier 2 perks look like? Eh, I'll find out sometime. The mana perk was a little tougher to decide on, as they were some of the coolest and most creative ones around, but I decided on one pretty quickly.
— - —
Description]: Boost your attack speed! While active, accelerate yourself over time, allowing your body to move faster initially and gain speed over time. Activation of this ability also stops the Wheel of Fate.
[BASE INCREASE]: [+][10 X DEX] speed! [COST]: [1000 MP/MIN]! [Wheel of Fate]: [Section I]: Heal 1.5% Max Health Per Second! [Section II]: 100% Mana Refund On Abilities! [Section III]: +25% Attack Speed! [Section IV]: +35% speed!
— - —
There was a small circular dial in the top right of my vision. Just like the perk description reads, there were four sections of it, with a small little arrow constantly moving around between them. Here's where the fun part comes in.
I activated [Accelerate] and the corners of my vision blurred. It felt like my vision was boosted—zoomed out if you will. My peripheral vision was suddenly much wider. The waves lapping against the shore of Camp, yards away, became easily visible. I saw some of the harpies in camp dive bomb a burrito a few yards away. The little arrow stopped moving in the second quadrant, and it bounced up and down a few times, before glowing blue. I lifted my hand, and a ball of flame erupted, curving around my palm. To my delight, not a single drop of mana was being used. The only drain on my mana was from [Accelerate] itself. I deactivated it.
Now then. Time for the godly perk. This part was really tough. Godly perks were always incredibly hard to choose from, but then again, I remembered that I was going to be going to Atlantis, and the decision was pretty clear.
— - —
Perk: Sea's Pride
[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!
— - —
Pretty easy. Five perk points, down the drain. Welp. I pushed off the log and walked toward my cabin—that bed was calling my name.