Percy Jackson - The Record of The Journey of a Mortal Who Become a God

It was Thursday afternoon, following the routine of the campers. Today was the fencing class based on the teachings of Luke, the best swordsman in recent years according to Chiron himself.

Everyone from the Hermes Cabin, and some campers from different Cabins who were interested in learning, gathered in the large circular arena. Under Luke's orders, they began their training with basic lunges and slashes, using straw-filled dummies with Greek armor.

Percy looked at the sword in his hand that also didn't seem to fit like the others and let out a sigh. He thought he had a talent for this, since everything he tried before didn't seem to be right.

At least he figured out that Annabeth was right about his dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't so hard to read. Not harder than English, after a few hours of studying that morning, he could read a few lines of Homer without any headaches, stumbling here and there.

The bad thing was that he quickly found out he was terrible at all the other camp activities.

Chiron tried to teach him archery, but they both discovered he didn't excel at it. The centaur didn't complain even when he had to pull a stray arrow from his tail.

Running? He wasn't good at that either. The instructors, the wood nymphs, made him eat dust. It was somewhat humiliating to be slower than a tree.

And the fights? Forget it. Every time he went to the mat, Clarisse took him down. "And there's more where that came from, you klutz," she would always murmur things like that in his ear.

The only thing he was really excellent at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of hero skill like his friend who was good at everything.

He looked at Ikki and saw him practicing basic movements with a regular sword in a corner away from everyone; something he had been doing for the last half hour.

At that moment, Ikki was executing automatic movements he had programmed through his [Artificial Deity] that followed those in his memory. He was basically progressing effortlessly on the path of the sword, given that he had excellent examples of how to use one in his mind, and through his skill, he could channel it into his body and create muscle memory.

Taking a deep breath and focusing on training the art of the sword, he synthesized this path with the help of his extremely brilliant brain, thus creating his own unnamed style.

Although it seemed very weak at first glance, it actually had a terrifying potential...

The essence of this style was summed up in perceptions of sword handling, four of them to be exact; [Application of Knowledge], [Depth within Simplicity], [Speed Equals Invincibility], [Back to Nature]!

He understood all of them except the last part, [Back to Nature]. He only had a rudimentary understanding of the meaning it contained, but nothing concrete.

For the first domain, [Application of Knowledge], the essence of this insight referred to knowing when the right circumstance was, when it was the right place, and when it was the right moment to execute which of the basic forms of sword attack. Simplifying, to execute the correct movements at the right moment.

For the second realm, [Depth within Simplicity], the essence of this insight refers to not seeking perfection of form.

The form is secondary and the intention is primary. Fencing that looks pretty and dazzling seems good, but it is nothing compared to real power. In fact, the deeper the art of the sword, the more common it will seem when executing the techniques contained within it. Upon entering this realm, the techniques executed by those who understand the dao of the sword may even seem awkward and careless.

At this stage, someone understands how to manifest their [Intention] in their handling, a kind of will to cut something materialized in reality through understanding, this "Will to Cut" becomes a physical energy capable of cutting anything.

For the third realm, the one he was currently practicing, [Speed Equals Invincibility], the essence of this vision referred to the vast dominion of the heavens, the same philosophy applies to all martial arts. As long as he achieved sufficient speed, he would be able to defeat anything in the world.

With enough speed, one can indeed reach the realm of invincibility.

What a pity that this was just a theory. After all, who would dare to say they are the fastest in the world?

At that moment, swinging the sword, he got used to the perception he had gained in the last few minutes. Now his awareness was in a place he called the "world of intention."

Explaining such a thing in such words is quite difficult.

What if we're living in a simulation?

Most people must have thought about this in their lives: "One world, our world, is nothing more than a simulation, and we are all mere artificial intelligences..."

Taking this into consideration, how does reality then arise? Through what exactly?

From his perspective, in this case, reality would create perceptions about different types of demands, instead of simulating reality all the time — somewhat like a video game optimized to render only the parts visible to the player.

— Maybe that's why we can't travel at the speed of light. If we had that ability, we would have traveled to other galaxies — before they could program such a thing, the programmer imposed that limit. A kind of rule of reality...

And if we see what we want to see — Ikki remembers someone saying that in a movie he watched in his past life — and if our reality exists because we need it?

Putting that matrix talk aside. The world of intention is a sort of advanced program; you perceive everything differently; your mind observes everything through the intention of an action.

Giving some examples.

The action of walking, the action of eating, the action of moving, the action of sleeping, the action of blinking, the action of smelling... All of this automatically produced a kind of "Intention" that only masters in weapon handling or those who, through effort, reached the first step of martial arts could feel and "see."

With this, a situation like someone shooting two projectiles in his direction, one to graze and the other to kill him. He would perceive which one it was at the same instant through the "Intention" exuded by that action, thus, even as fragile as a chicken, he could easily dodge a bullet.

At this level, it was as if someone had mastered the sixth sense to a supernatural degree; he managed to achieve this feat thanks to his powerful abilities and his sharp understanding through the [Nameless Mantra].

While swinging the sword. He could see the world becoming somewhat transparent in front of him; everything in the sky and on earth seemed to stop before his perception, just so he could see the action of swinging the sword being predetermined by him.

"Is this how it feels to communicate with the world? Incredible..." Ikki learned one thing by connecting with the world, as if a computer program was downloaded into his mind; he knew how to erase the intention from his sword strikes.

With this, he could apply a sword strike impossible to dodge or even notice.

Was this the third realm mastered, [Speed Equals Invincibility]?

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he closed his eyes for a moment and felt the world around him through intention.

It was as if everything had turned into computer data entering his mind, full of complexity yet easily understandable to him.

An idea arose in his mind.

Through his [Presence Manipulation], he could become an undetectable existence to any kind of thing, right? He wanted to use it to control the "Intention" in his actions, making it nearly impossible to defeat him in combat.

The possibilities of this idea excited him, but unfortunately, someone interrupted him in the middle of his exploration; Luke announced that duels would begin, and that he would be Percy and Ikki's partner since it was their first time.

"Good luck..." said one of the campers from the "wrong path," a soldier surrendered to evil, to Percy and Ikki. "Luke is the best swordsman of the last three hundred years..."

"I hope he goes easy on us..." Percy said to himself, somewhat worried and somewhat sarcastic.

He looked at the arena where his friend had gone up, then it was his turn.

Ikki and Luke were a few meters apart in the middle of the arena. Everyone kept their eyes on this duel.

"From what I noticed earlier, you have a good foundation in swordsmanship. All that's missing is experience, so in this duel, I won't teach anything; we will just fight until one of us loses their sword or says 'I surrender'..."

Here's the text translated into English:

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Luke explained, placing his sword in guard.

Ikki nodded and held his sword firmly in his right hand. Normally, this would be a position full of openings, but when he entered, it was as if there was none... Luke was somewhat surprised by this, but quickly calmed down and attacked.

He just needed to create an opening during the duel.

Luke swung his sword towards the younger boy in front of him, who also swung his sword back at him, intercepting his attack and pushing him back with his strength.

By this point, everyone already knew that Ikki possessed inhuman strength, speed, and reflexes. Far above any other demigod, and this fact had been hot news around the camp in recent days. So, he wasn't surprised to be pushed back; he even felt that the hit had been restrained.

Ikki quickly went on the offensive, making a swift movement to deliver a sword strike aimed at the opening he had created by pushing Luke back. The son of Hermes intercepted his attack and felt his hand go somewhat numb, as if a mountain had struck his sword.

Sparks flew from the blades of both.

Soon, the two began trading sword strikes, faster and more intense. The clash and sparks of the blades meeting were the only sounds in the arena.

Minutes later, instead of looking tired, they seemed even more intense and engaged in the pure fencing struggle. Everyone could see that Ikki was pressing Luke more and more and had the upper hand; it was as if he were a master correcting a child through the battle.

The most shocking part was that he wasn't using difficult moves; it was basic swordplay. But it seemed to have been honed to perfection, resulting in a simple yet profound fencing style of his own.

Watching the best swordsman of the last century lose this way was something no one had ever thought would happen, especially to a novice demigod; did he train in his mother's womb? Because, damn! The guy was good at everything, everyone had seen that in the last few days, and now even in this!

If they knew that Ikki had surpassed the best swordsman in the camp in just a few minutes wielding the sword, how would they feel?...

Despite noticing the disparity in swordsmanship, Luke swallowed his shock that grew during the exchange of moves and continued to fight. He felt that with Ikki's help, he could improve even more. And that was a good thing, right?

Although he felt an enormous envy of a demigod being so powerful.

Ikki skillfully wielded his sword towards his opponent. As always, the son of Hermes intercepted and then attacked; this time, he spun and sliced horizontally towards his neck.

Easily dodging by leaning back. In this lean, he placed one hand on the ground and pulled his body into a backflip; in the process, he kicked his enemy's abdomen and pushed him back.

Luke groaned in pain and crouched slightly from the kick, but Ikki didn't give him the chance to recover. As soon as he completed his backflip, he vanished from where he was and appeared in front of him, placing his blade next to his neck.

"I surrender..." Luke conceded, letting out a long sigh, still feeling the pain from the kick in his gut.

"That kick wasn't cheating, right?" Ikki asked, withdrawing the sword from the side of his instructor's neck.

"Actually, no. In a fight, it's just about winning. And even if it were just about swordplay, with your sublime handling, you could easily defeat me..." Luke said, with a strange look on his face, a mixture of envy, admiration, and malice.

Ikki obviously noticed his look but said nothing. He nodded and said, "Indeed, in a fight, it's just about winning."

"But where did you learn to fight like that? Wow, that was incredible..." Luke asked with a smile on his face.

"I trained a lot over the last few days..."

"In that case, you're incredibly talented at fighting. Even more than the children of Ares..."

While the two were discussing this, the others were silently watching everything. From the beginning of their fight, it was clear who the winner would be, but that didn't stop them from being surprised by everything.

It was a breathtaking clash.

Next was Percy's turn to fight, who, to everyone's surprise, also managed to defeat Luke with a bit of luck. Then the rest of the campers began to duel among themselves in a competition, which continued until just before evening.