Son of Hades (4)

Chiron gazed at Adriel and Amelia, noticing their discomfort in the arena, especially Amelia's evident distress. Recognizing their unease and considering both of their circumstances, he decided that the duel wasn't suitable for them at that moment.

"Hmm... If both of you are not comfortable with the duel, we can cancel it. But I request that you two get over this problem as soon as possible before it becomes an obstacle to your growth."

Adriel and Amelia apologized to him for disturbing the flow of the program.

'As expected of a centaur who was once the mentor of many heroes. Chiron's perceptive insight and experience into the psyche and emotions of demigods was unparalleled.'

Under Chiron's guidance, Amelia would be able to overcome her fears much easier. However, there was still quite a long time for the 'incident' to happen and change Amelia's mentality forever.

"If that's the case. We can end today's lesson for now. You are all dismissed."

With a silent departure, I made my way towards the Hades cabin. The sun had already descended, and the last light rays of the day scattered onto the camp, casting long shadows across the campgrounds. I was planning to go to sleep early and wake up early in the morning to head for the training ground.

It was time for me to fully inspect the status window and abilities.

***

"Hu ... Hu ..."

I inhaled and exhaled unceasingly as the fatigue of the training session settled in. Gripping my daggers tightly, I swung at the straw dummy before me. I delivered a final decisive blow, severing one of its arms.

'This should be enough...'

'Status Window'

---

Name: Blake Norman

Bloodline: Son of Hades

Strength: F-

Agility: F

Stamina: F-

Intelligence: F

Divine Energy: F

Charm: S

Daggermanship ==> G+

Ability ==> N/A

---

I was satisfied with the result of my three and a half hours of training as I noticed there was a new line added to the status window.

One could add a new profession to the status window after learning the very basics of a weapon. I had been trying to grasp the fundamentals of daggers to imprint 'Daggermanship' onto my status window. Now that I had it on the status window, it would accelerate my improvement and show the level of my understanding of daggers. Though it was only (G+), it was expected as I had just learned the basics.

As my eyes wandered across the holographic window, my eyes were drawn into the ability section, which was still empty. I had two ways of gaining abilities: finding them out in the world in the shapes of scrolls and books, or awakening my bloodline abilities as my divine energy expands.

That means that as the rank of my divine energy rose, I would be able to awaken abilities related to Hades' authority. Thus, the power of your bloodline abilities was directly correlated with the power of your parent god. Since I was the son of one of the Big Three, I was one of the lucky ones in that regard. This was also viable for Adriel and Eleanor. In fact, they might have already figured out their first ability since their ranks were higher than mine.

I was pulled out of the sea of thoughts as I could feel threatening glares on my back. I had come to the training grounds when the sun had first shown itself on the horizon, and nobody was there. But now that many demigods had awakened, the training area was filling steadily with demigods.

'The hospitality towards Hades' children is really something else.'

I gave up and left the area since I had no energy left to deal with this. On my way to the cafeteria, I pulled out my phone and looked at the date.

'Seven days till the flag war. The story is finally taking off for real...'

***

Three teens walked through the stone pathway while chatting with each other. Two of the three emitted potent auras around them as the Big Three's blood flowed through their veins. They were Adriel, Amelia, and Eleanor.

Although they had just met a couple of days ago, they had already become very close friends. As they approached the cafeteria, which looked lively with all the demigods, their attention was all gathered on a boy with black hair and crimson eyes sitting alone and enjoying his meal peacefully. The first one to speak was Eleanor.

"Should we go and sit next to him since he is on our team? His name... Was it Drake or something?"

"Sigh... No, it's not Drake. It's Blake. And I don't think it is good for either of us to sit together."

Adriel projected his opinion and corrected Eleanor's mistake. But somehow Eleanor was more puzzled now.

"Eh? Why would you say that? Why would sitting next to him cause any problems?"

Realizing Eleanor had no idea what was going on with Blake, even Amelia couldn't help but roll her eyes and scold her for not knowing such an important matter.

"You honestly don't know about the rumors about him? Haven't you heard what happened last time a child of Hades came to the camp? Literally everyone in the camp is talking about this, how did you manage to end up completely oblivious to such a hot topic?"

She had become accustomed to Adriel and Eleanor pretty quickly, as they spent most of their time together in the camp. Her shy personality had been opening up around them.

"What? I have no idea what you are talking about. Am I missing something?"

Feeling wronged, Eleanor tried to defend herself but failed miserably. Amelia unwillingly started elaborating on the situation.

"I will explain it once so listen carefully. I was told by a senior here that 100 years ago, a daughter of Hades wrought a cataclysmic betrayal upon the camp. Her treachery unleashed unprecedented devastation, claiming the lives of many and leaving countless others gravely wounded. She had mysteriously managed to manipulate an army of monsters to attack the camp. However, the monsters were stripped of flesh, blood, heart, or anything else that would prove that they were alive. Rather, they turned out to be autonomous skeletons of monsters. The twist is that normally, different species of monsters couldn't have coordinated an all-out attack on the camp, let alone supposedly dead monsters. So this revelation left but one chilling possibility."

"The dead monsters were controlled by someone..."

"Exactly! And only the daughter of Hades could have pulled off such an ability. Since then, no other children of Hades have appeared in the camp, but it all changed a couple of days ago."

As she rummaged through her memories of the last couple of days, she realized Blake was really being discriminated against whenever she saw him. But then she remembered her duel with him and how he had extended his hand for her to stand up. She didn't think he was an evil person, though she was definitely annoyed by how he managed to beat her during the duel.

"I don't think he is a bad person though..."

"Still, it would be better for us not to associate with him so much. And to be honest, I don't really trust him for some reason. My instincts tell me to stay away from him..."

"I see..."

Taken aback by Amelia's words, Eleanor tried to divert the topic. Without taking any other words, they got their meal too and sat on the opposite side of the cafeteria where Blake was eating his meal.