Chapter 05: A worthy sacrifice
To receive a greater blessing I need a greater sacrifice. A spoil of war from a legendary monster would be a great sacrifice. Luckily a son of Typhon is nearby. I wasn't stupid enough to think I can take manticore with my current combat capacity. After an entire day of hunting monsters, I reached level 25. But after reaching level 20 speed of leveling up decreased drastically.
[You have reached lvl 25]
[Innate ability unlocked]
<Blink>(Active)lvl 1
Allow user to teleport 10m within vision range. (25MP)
[Sword mastery reached lvl 30]
[Hyperactive reached lvl 11]
I looked at the notifications I received. The new skill was an innate ability. Must be due to being a son of Hermes. Then I decided to change stats.
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Name :Luke Castellan
Class :The Gamer
Sub Class :Demigod
Level :25 (0.05%)
HP :340
MP :290
STR :20>25
DEX :20>35
VIT :20>25
INT :15
CHARM :25
LUCK :20>30
Point :46>11
Titles :Fate breaker, Betrayer, Leader of Titan army, Son of Hermes
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Before hunting manticore I decided to check my new skill. I look at the street lamp a few meters away and focusing on it I thought 'Blink'. A blue light covered me. Instantly world around me shifted and I was in front of the street lamp. This skill suits better for fighting than transportation.
At night I was ready to hunt the manticore. I was wearing a purple shirt and a helmet that covers my face. I had another sword in my hand because I don't want to leave any trial that can be traced back to me. While monsters could take a few years to reform sometimes they come back in a few days. I can't take risks if Thorn escaped or reformed faster. With my disguise, he will think of me as a roman demigod who patrolled around San Francisco. Atlas commanded Thorn to wait for Thalia in the city and catch her. I reached the city and looked for a clue about Thorn's location.
After an hour I found one of the Atlas's hired mercenaries going towards a building. When I went near the building I heard weird noises from the alley nearby. I went toward it and found Thorn in his monster form eating a corpse. I slowly spread the mist around the building to make mercenaries wouldn't notice us.
Deciding to use this chance I blinked behind Thorn and swung my sword at his upper body but I forgot how agile his tail was. Thorn blocked my sword with his tail and pushed me away.
"Who are you demigod?" Thorn asked facing me.
"It doesn't matter you will be my snack." He leaped toward me. I quickly activated Hyperactive and retreated a few meters back. Thorn shot few spikes at me. I parried them with my sword. I used Blink to teleport beside him and target the tail this time. My sword passed through the tail separating it from the body. I saw a paw with sharp claws reaching toward me. I dodged it but it was too late and tips of claws dragged across my torso.
[HP:340/308]
It wasn't much but I already used one-third of the MP I have. I decided to end this quickly. I took a dagger from inventory and throw it at Thorn's face. He raised his paw to parry it. I quickly ran towards him and slashed the side of his body. Again Thorn swung his claws at me. I jumped into the air dodging it. Coming down I slashed my sword in a vertical arc, splitting his head in the middle.
Thorn exploded into a cloud of yellow dust.
[You level up]
I took a deep breath. The pain was easily subsided by Gamer's mind. I looked at the tail which separated from Thorn's body. I was expecting a head as the spoil but this will work too I guess. Then I put it on inventory. I looked around and found mercenaries still didn't notice my fight. Then I left that area.
I was thinking about whether I sacrifice for Hecate or Circe. If I remembered correctly Hecate sides with the Olympians. But Circe had hate for men. Hecate is the major goddess of magic while Circe is a minor goddess. Adding another five points to luck I decided to go with Hecate.
[Luck:30>35]
[Point:15>10]
After reaching an isolated area I create a bonfire. I threw the manticore's tail and dozen body parts of monsters from my previous hunt into the bonfire. The smell of burning flesh spread with smoke.
"Oh Hecate, goddess of magic, Queen of witches, Please accept my offering and grants me the power to wield magic" I chanted. A minute passed and nothing happened. Well, that's awkward. Should I try to sacrifice a living human or something? Suddenly flames of the bonfire turned dark purple and a silhouette of a woman appeared in the smoke. A woman wearing black robes came out of the smoke. She had black hair and green eyes radiant with power. Soon as her eyes fell upon me she snapped her fingers.
"Oh, shit"
A chain metalized around me bounding me before I could do anything.