Leon POV

As I leaned back in my cell, I could hear Evelyn's footsteps approaching before she even spoke. She was persistent, I'd give her that. The cell next to mine had been empty for a while, but now it was hers. Viper had done the same on the other side, using the coins they'd earned to secure the cells closest to mine. It was a smart move, I had to admit. Keeping our group close meant we could communicate and plan more effectively. Not that there was much to plan at the moment.

Evelyn was on the safer side anyway and made good impressions, so she was granted a promotion easily, Viper was also respected, so it was easy. She had used her coins to get herself into the safe group, a move that took about two weeks to finalize. It was faster than I expected, but then again, Evelyn wasn't one to waste time.

She wanted to be close, not just for safety, but for whatever strange attachment she had decided to form with me. I still wasn't sure what to make of her or why she seemed so convinced that we were destined to be together, but for now, I wasn't going to argue with someone willing to stick by my side in this place even if I was still a bit dubious about her intentions.

"Why are you relaxing?" Evelyn asked, " Are you stressed? You haven't worked for the past 2 days."

"No, it's just that until Hermes is coming again, we've got nothing," I replied.

The rest of our group, if you could call it that, was minimal. Viper, Evelyn, John, his 2 friends, and me. No one else had shown any interest in joining, which was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, fewer people meant fewer complications and fewer chances for betrayal. On the other hand, it also meant fewer allies when things eventually went south, which they always did in a place like this. For now, we'd work with what we had. We'd stay close, keep our heads down, and wait for the right opportunity. Until then, I'd take what little rest I could get. No point in wasting energy worrying about what I couldn't change. Not yet, anyway.

"John's friends paid to switch cells with our neighbors, they should arrive within 3 hours." Evelyn informed me before handing me a book, "That contains bits and pieces of some infamous prisoners and how they angered the gods, you should be able to learn a few things there."

"...thank you...your help is a bit one-sided in my favor...apart from my so-called love, how can I repay you back?"

"Give me a date once we escape."

"Sure. But it's more of an if."

"Fine...if."

"But you should start working, we need a lot of rations and other survival necessities as it may take years, and I doubt we can find any food out there."

"Why do you think I've been requesting the extra meat bar, it's free, and we can put it in the food pouch."

"Yeah, but we still need magic, none of us can use magic so far, that's very essential in escaping, some gods are completely immune to physical attacks."

"Yeah, it's why I'm reading this magic book."

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I was leaning against the wall of my cell, eyes half-closed as I tried to enjoy a moment of peace when I heard footsteps approaching. I opened my eyes just as John appeared, a grin on his face.

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"Leon," John called out, "Got a couple of folks I want you to meet."

He stepped aside, revealing two figures standing behind him. One was a tall, slender female elf about 190cm tall, with long pale yellowish hair with dark blue eyes, while the other was a stout, broad-shouldered dwarf about 140cm tall with braided brown hair, dark blue eyes, and a bushy face. If I remember correctly, one was a marksmen and the other was a blacksmith.

"This here is Merith Aquilan," John said, gesturing to the elf before he then introduced the dwarf, "And this is Barir Namon."

"So," I started, looking at Barir, "You must be the blacksmith, right?"

"No, I am." Merith raised her hand

"And I'm the marksman." Barir corrected me as he then just flashed a crossbow that appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought-"

"Because he's a dwarf...wow, I can't believe you." another female voice interjected.

"Uh...is there a ghost that I didn't know about?"

"How rude!" the voice said and my eyes then went down to the crossbow, "I'm Betsy the crossbow, daughter of Hephaestus."

"I...wow...so Hephaestus creations can talk? That's cool."

"Hey, don't talk to me like I'm just a regular crafted weapon, I have a birth mother!"

"Birth...mother? I'm...I'm not even going to question it."

"How does someone give birth to a crossbow?" Mike asked as he tried to inspect the weapon.

"Barir, do something, that guy is ogling me!" Betsy shouted, "And of course they can, my mom's a fridge!"

"Hephaestus...a fridge..." Mike muttered and gave me this questioning looking at how it was even possible, but at this point, I was about \ to give up thinking.

Like I know that gods are very strange and love strange things, but a fridge...seriously? How does someone fall in love with a fridge? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Hephaestus just helped birth a whole dimension of talking tools. How does it even work? Is the author just going for pure shock value? Because I am shocked, surprised, appalled, disgusted, and amazed at such a horrifying concept.

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So great news, after a few days of research, I've learned about magic, that's the last thing we realistically need for this journey to work. Betsy can apparently form ammunition with magic, but they are nowhere near powerful enough to affect a god as its damage is similar to just regular ammunition, the difference being that it's made with magic, so it'll be useful against certain monsters that aren't affected by physical attacks, still, it's not enough.

Mike got them too, but his magic is super weak, he couldn't even beat a guard with it, he could be much more powerful with it unsealed.

Everyone has an affinity for one element: fire, water, earth, air, lightning, or something more obscure like darkness or light. But while everyone has that potential, almost no one can actually use it. The gods decided long ago that allowing mortals to freely wield magic would be too dangerous. They were afraid of what might happen if we figured out just how powerful we could become. The idea of a revolt, of mortals challenging the gods, was something they weren't willing to risk. So, they sealed our magic capabilities, locking them away so deep inside us that most people live their entire lives without even knowing it's there.

To use magic, to truly wield it, you'd have to have that seal broken. And the only ones who can do that are the gods themselves. They've got the power to unlock your potential, to let you tap into that elemental affinity. So...how do we get it unsealed without a god's favor? Currently, there's one way.

Charon. The ferryman of the underworld. He's a deity, a minor god who's been around since the old days. His job used to be straightforward: take the souls of the dead across the River Styx, but only if they had the coin to pay him. But things have changed. Mortals aren't buried with coins anymore. People don't honor the old traditions. So now, Charon's stuck ferrying souls for free, day in and day out. The underworld has even had to bring in a whole legion of minor gods to help with the load.

But here's the thing...Charon's a god regardless. He's got other abilities, too. One of those is the power to unseal a mortal's magic, to break the chains the gods have put on our potential. Of course, he doesn't do it out of the kindness of his heart. He's still a god, after all. He wants payment and not just any payment. He wants a lot of money.

If we can find Charon and pay him enough, he can unseal our magic, and give us the power we've been denied. But it's not going to be easy. The amount of money he'd want isn't something you can just scrape together in a few days. It's a fortune, even by the standards of the underworld. And then there's the matter of finding him. Charon's not exactly easy to track down. He doesn't stay in one place for long, always moving, always working.

So...we're gonna have to meet him.