Shadow Money Wizard Gang Chapter 2 (Patreon)

"Harry Potter's base magic is definetly on the low end of the cosmic scale of magic... Hmm maybe I can just upgrade this wand to be able to draw my divinity out to actually damage monsters." I muttered thoughtfully as I pulled on the finger/claw from the Empousa.

Normally as a demigod I was supposed to throw these monster drops to my divine parent for favor. For them to bless my quests and just not throw a monster at me for the crime of existing.

I on the other hand with the inherited knowledge of magic from many other worlds knew many other... Much better options for this monster drop.

'Camp Halfblood is assuredly itself protected by barriers and the gods themselves so I can't use magic to so blatantly divine it's location... Fuck it, I can get another monster drop at some point.' I thought.

With wand in hand I was about to make a sort of shrine to my 'mother' Hecate before I paused at the reminder that this Empousa was one of her keepers of the mist and magic.

Soooo I hard pivoted to making a sun like shrine of stone with a burning fire in front of it that I kneeled in front of.

I took a deep breath and I spoke solemnly as I tossed the bronze finger claw into the fire which burned gold. "Lord Phoebus Apollo, Alexicacus, the averter of evil, the Lord of the Golden Bow. I sacrifice this glory in your name as I make my journey to Camp Halfblood to join my brethren."

The already darkening sun above my head that was setting into twlight I felt it's gaze upon my form as Apollo, the god accepted my offering and prayer.

Then I felt a whisper of wind. Carrying the scent of a serpent, the burn of harsh but life saving medicine, and finally the heat of the sun on the back of my neck.

And as I looked around at the first true form of divinity I had come across.

A loud thunk rang out and I snapped towards the sound to see an arrow burrowed into the ground.

The arrow's shaft was made out of marble white like wood and it's fletching glowed a soft gold. But tied to the end of an arrow was a thin cloth ribbon that blew against the wind oddly in a very specific direction.

'That... The ribbon is pointing the direction Apollo wants me to go!' I thought in realization.

Granted as for why I called upon Apollo. He was kinda a rule breaker in being willing to aid demigods at times and being more on the 'chill' side of things. Especially when I called upon his name as the Averter of Evil.

For a moment I thought I should leave the arrow behind... Then I shook my head as I coudn't leave one of Apollo's arrows behind even if this arrow wasn't imblued with his true divinity when he took on his divine form in battle.

Still I followed the ribbon that had fallen to a relaxed state when I picked up the arrow towards where it had pointed.

And after a while I reached a new trail that branched off the hiking trail I was on. Then as I kept moving a loud shout rang out.

"Hey!" 

I looked towards the source and from behind a tree came two older male teenagers with although different facial features they both had somewhat differing shades of gleaming bronze hair.

"Hey yourself." I said with my hands rising up as both of the older teens had bows in their hands with an arrow on the strings. Thankfully they weren't pointed at me.

But I could see the celestial bronze tips on those arrows. And I had a feeling that a simple shield charm woudn't block those arrows.

"I am looking for Camp Halfblood... Uhh I was told it was safe from other monsters?" I said a bit sheepishly.

The two demigods, almost certainly children of Apollo that he directed me towards nodded with one of them saying with a lighter grin. "You are on the right track... Kinda anyway. Come follow us then. We can take you there."

I sighed in relief and approached the two who took one hands off their arrow nocked bows with myself saying. "My name is Jake Bariss. Who are you two?"

The two shared a look before the one who spoke before said. "My name is Big John Edwin. And this is my twin brother Slim Jim Edwin... We are sons of Apollo, sooo do you know your godly parent?" He asked curiously.

My lips twitched at their colorful names to say the least.

Then I shrugged and said, unsurely. "I have some ideas as I am talented with magic. But I know I had a mortal dad."

The younger and yet bigger one named Slim Jim Edwin then said in a deeper voice. "If your godly parent hasn't claimed you officially in the camp. It's best not to make assumptions. As it could piss off your parent."

And for the rest of the short hike through the forest. Both of the twins gave me actually helpful advice for an 'undetermined' demigod.

Like the existence of Mr. D or better known as Dionysius and Chiron, the trainer for the demi-gods in particular. With both twins rather emphatically saying that I shoudn't approach Dionysius for anything.

Otherwise, they told me that being an unclaimed demi-god, I was going to be stuck in the Hermes Cabin until I was claimed by my godly parent.

Which... For me? That wasn't going to change much if at all even when dear old mom decided to finally claim me anyway.

Then our path opened up and I could see past the tree line to Camp Halfblood as I could feel us walking past the barrier that surrounded the camp.

Camp Halfblood was huge! 

It was surrounded by large roiling hills that was covered in thick forests and at the other end of the camp, from where we I could see the ocean and the beach itself.

And of course, beyond that was a large spread of buildings that were splayed out across the area, with the twelve Olympian cabins being easily found even from a distance.

"Alright Jake come on. We need to take you to the Big House to introduce you to Chiron and Mr. D." Slim said as he patted my shoulder and I realized they were also still somewhat wary I would get blocked off by the barrier as we came in.

Still, I just nodded while the two demigods brought me to the end of the camp next to the edge of the main cabins. And alot of the demi-gods were giving me looks of interest at seeing me in normal clothes and not the orange camp shirts they were all wearing.

'God... Those orange camp shirts are ugly ass looking.' I thought before I realized that there was one group of people most definitely not wearing the camp shirts and with how 'beautiful' they were. It was clearly the children of Aphrodite.

Still, I refocused as the Slim also introduced me to the twelve cabins in particular, for each of the twelve Olympians.

"There is Chiron over there on the porch. You go ahead... Heh, I can already see him yelling at us for messing with our patrol so you go ahead as we need to get back to said patrol." Big John said quickly before both son's of Apollo ran off to get back into the woods.

A soft but heavy rumble rang out and I looked back to see Chiron had stood up from his seat and had transformed into his centaur form with himself trotting over to me with a somewhat welcoming smile.

"Hello, young man! My name is Chiron, the trainer of heroes. You may know me from mythology. May I have your name?" He said with a deep voice as he towered over me by a good couple of feet, as he got within arm's reach of me.

This Chiron, although not shown to train Percy all that much. He was still a man who had been protecting my kind in demi-gods for several millennia. So I spoke with respect.

"My name is Jake Bariss, sir."

Chiron merely smiled and said gently. "Just call me Chiron. Now, I am free for the next couple of hour,s so how about I give you a little personal tour of Camp Halfblood while I stretch my legs?"

I nodded firmly with Chiron showing me the cabins in particular, while also pointing out the cabin's counselors as we passed by them with some of them being... Familiar as he named them off.

"So... What happens if my godly parent isn't part of one of these cabins? Like I am almost positive that I am not of direct Olympian blood" I asked quietly as we left the overly packed Hermes cabin where he let me drop off my stuff so I could get more stuff to live here.

Chiron gave a wry and helpless smile as the Hermes Cabin although looking like a normal run down cabin was spatially expanded on the inside to allow the close to a thousand unclaimed campers have space there.

Really think about it... There were hundreds of gods and goddesses in the Greek Pantheon and they been fuckin mortals on the regular. Chiron all but bluntly told me as I asked how many people were in my cabin in total. And he told me that demi-gods fed their divine parents a steady stream of divine power in turn just for existing.

And with all the kids of the Olympians who were unclaimed as they hadn't 'proven' themselves to their parents. Along with the minor gods kids, that clearly showed how there was the demi-god population of Camp Halfblood.

"Ahem... To allow the lesser gods to build their own cabins at this point. It would be like putting them at the same level as the Olympians themselves." He evaded my question.

And I asked more bluntly. "Then could I make my own cabin when I am claimed out in the forest so it's out of sight. While making it a shrine to my goddess mother?" 

There was a pause as Chiron just stared at me and then he said with a sigh.

"In the centuries that we have moved Camp Halfblood around... You are the first to actually ask if you could build your own cabin outside of the view of the twelve Olympic cabins. But, the answer right now is a firm no. You are new to here young man, before your voice can be heard and things can change. You must prove yourself."

And I knew he spoke the truth. It wasn't even about my parent being a 'minor' goddess as back in the old days. If Achillies in his prime wanted to do something. Even the Olympians would watch his movements with glee and give his demands some amount of thought.

I was just a new kid on the block and he was trying to protect me from stepping on a god's toes as it were.

Still... I wasn't going to live forever in the Hermes cabin. Especially seeing as I would need space to work my magical shit as well!

"So how many demi-gods are here anyway?" I asked curiously as Chiron led me in a loop around Camp Halfblood to show me the training area's as well as the other sites.

All the while I had long since lost count of the number of demi-gods we passed. Many of whom looked at me curiously but didn't pay much attention to me.

Chiron let out a wolf whistle of thought before he said somewhat blandly. "Oh... Our numbers are rather strong as of late. We are close to about fifteen hundred campers at this point? A good number of whom are legacies with strong blood also to be fair."

Ah, legacies. People born without the direct conduit to divinity as first generation demi-gods were. But still had enough potent blood to be a lure for monsters as second generation if not further down the bloodline tree.

Either way after showing me around the camp Chiron handed me a couple hundred bucks and pointed me towards the Camp Store so I could buy myself some essentials. Then Chiron left me to my own devices.

"Hey a new guy? So you just got here?" One of the girls who was working the camp store talked to me as I came in.

I nodded and she smiled before saying. "Come with me. We have care packages for newbies so you don't need to spend all your money."

I was then given a bag filled with a dozen sets of camp clothes. Toiletries and all the rest of the goodies and the girl explained how shit worked in the camp store.

"So over here on the front side of the store we sell normal stuff. You know, just mortal stuff including protected phones and such so monsters can't track your calls while in protected areas."

Then she pointed at the back where she said with a frown.

"And in the back we have the divine shop. You have to spend Drachma's which you can only really find from monsters and  groups of monsters especially and people tied to the divines in some way."

"You can buy anything from blessed magical weapons, to even lesser blessings from the gods if you have enough Drachma's. It's how the economy of demi-gods and the supernatural world works." She explained.

I blinked and asked curiously. "You guys have any magical focus's or monster trophies?" 

To which she shook her head quickly and said plainly. "Nope. Magical focuses are only used by witches and such that follow the goddess of Magic and they make their own. As for materials, most demi-gods quickly sacrifice them to their parents or another diety they seek the favor of."

We kept talking for a bit before I asked curiously. "So what kind of blessing is the most commonly bought I guess?" 

To which she instantly said. "The blessing of Heroes from Hercules. It is a blessing that gives you the ability to demand a quest from one of the camps prophets."

And her words made me confused. Prophets as in plural? That didn't fucking make sense at all?

But then again the fact that Hermes was fucking with Apollo's prophet and ruined her was also fucking weird in canon so maybe it just didn't happen? If that was the case, was Luke still going to be a traitor?

But with my goodies in hand and the girl needing to get back to work I quickly made my way back to the Hermes cabin and changed into my new Camp outfit before I decided it was the perfect time to get an early dinner as I had been traveling around all day.

So I headed down to the long dining hall with it's massive tables for each cabin... Which made it jarring to see almost half of the cabins having zero campers while the Hermes table had a couple hundred teens and young adults at the table alone at this time right now.

Remembering the tables here were enchanted to make us whatever food and drink we wanted. I just grabbed a plate and whispered. "Lasagna." And I brought the plate over to the massive sacrifical flame that was set up in the middle of the dining hall.

"Here you go mother... I hope you like italian." I said quietly as I pushed like half of the large slice of lasagna on my plate into the flames which hissed as my food entered it.

And for a brief moment I could feel her gaze on me... A feeling of confusion before she seemingly just remembered I existed and then the feeling went away.

Clearly my mother Hecate didn't have too many kids in Camp Halfblood with how she focused on my sacrifice in particular.

Still with that ritual done I went back to the Hermes table and as I sat down someone also came to sit down beside me.

And as I took in my guest his words made my welcoming smile freeze. "Yo, my name is Luke. Luke Castellan, I am the Counselor for the Hermes Cabin, sorry I missed ya earlier but I was helping teach the swordsmanship class."

Luke was still a handsome blond haired guy. And he even had his signature scar that was the result of his quest to get the Golden Apple from Ladon that went down one half his face and crossed over his eye.

And just with a glance I coudn't tell if he was some evil asshole so I just smiled helplessly as I said evenly. "Its understandable. I did however just get here. Sooo any rules of the Hermes cabin I need to keep in mind?"

Luke gave a sharp nod and he said bluntly. "We take care of our own, but also any troubles in the cabin stays in the cabin. The other cabin's look down on us as the misfits already so even if you are claimed and move out. You will know that we watch out for our own."

Well that was interesting and then Luke paused before he added. "Also with the massive numbers advantage the Hermes cabin has. During large camp events, you are free to join any side you want, as many of the members are unclaimed who may belong to another cabin clearly anyway." 

"That makes sense." I said before I asked curiously. "Is there any events coming up actually?"

To which Luke nodded and giving me a look he said thoughtfully. "Yeah... There is the monthly capture the flag next weekend. But in three days we have a dueling tournament between us and the Ares Cabin."

At my brief look of confusion he shrugged and said bluntly. "The Hermes cabin is often forced into tournaments and other things to give the people within chance to shine so the gods will bother to claim them."

Yeah... Clearly Luke wasn't exactly too happy with the gods. But I knew things were already different compared to canon Percy Jackson.

Either way I then asked curiously. "So, last question... As a magic user, am I allowed to protect my tiny ass room to prevent. Sticky fingers from hurting themselves touching things they should not?"

Luke actually paused and looked me up and down before he said bluntly. "So long as those curses don't leave someone in the hospital do what you want. We take care of our own, but even the children of Hermes who inherit his domains of thievery know the score of getting caught."

And with that we both went back to eating as I planned on cursing the shit out of my personal room before an idle thought hit me.

'Wait... Would I get in trouble for using egyptian curses on dumbasses breaking into my room?'