Leon POV
A week later, I found myself staring at a small mountain of coins piled up in front of me. It was the payout for all the mining I'd done, it was a lot of fun to see it all fly and be absorbed by my coin pouch. Besides the coins, they gave me another thing, something far more valuable, a large, dark chunk of said Plotinum, now safely stored in a spatial watch they'd given me, specifically designed to contain it.
Apparently, anyone who finds it gets to keep a good chunk of it, I could sell it, but I plan on keeping it. If I could find a craftsman god or anyone with the skill to work this metal...I could have something truly useful. Something that could give me an edge, maybe even against the gods themselves. But that was a problem for later. Right now, I had something else to focus on.
Charon.
To get everyone out of the main prison area, past the walls, and by the gates where we could walk along the Styx to locate Charon, we had only one option. The most dangerous job in the underworld: is cleaning the shores near the river.
It wasn't a job anyone wanted. Hell, even I didn't want it, but it was the only way to get us where we needed to go. The shores of the Styx were crawling with restless souls, damned spirits who'd do anything to drag the living down with them. They were jealous, envious, and filled with rage, and they'd tear you apart if they got the chance.
And then there was Cerberus. The three-headed guard dog of the underworld. Cerberus's job was to maintain the balance, to make sure no one escaped their fate. If Cerberus caught us out of place, or worse, if it thought we were trying to cross the Styx without permission, it wouldn't hesitate to rip us apart. So we gotta make Charon come to us. But that wasn't even the worst part. Cerberus was known to kill by mistake, taking out anyone in its path in its relentless mission to maintain order. So, not only would we have to fend off attacking souls, but we'd also have to survive Cerberus's attack if the souls were too rowdy.
Cleaning the shores near the Styx wasn't exactly a task people lined up for. There wasn't much profit in it, and the risk far outweighed the reward. To take the job, we'd have to apply for it and all of us needed to be approved. We couldn't risk splitting up, not when we needed to reach Charon together and get our magic unlocked at the same time. If one of us went ahead without the others, the plan would fall apart. After being approved, we have to pay for it afterward.
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Sasha didn't join us, she didn't want to risk her life with this job, which was fine with us. She didn't plan on the escape, only helping us with the so-called escape.
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"Let's hope we do get approved." Mike said as he crossed his fingers.
"Well, I'm hoping that they let us off despite you being with us, you so-called prince of the Olympians."
"So-called? I am! My father is Zeus!"
"Did you not learn anything from Viper?"
"My father is questionable, but Viper clearly gave out a biased story, he didn't mention all the good my father did."
"I did!" Viper exclaimed, "It's just that there are barely any, or at least is heavily outweighed by everything else. Even that doofus over there agrees with me! And he is the one who argues with me the most!"
"Of course, Leon would agree with you, he's also biased!"
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Eventually, in about 4 days, we all got our approval letters and we then headed for the shop where we gave the shopkeepers our approval letter and paid our hefty sum. We then pooled our money to get some gear like armor and weapons to fend off those envious souls. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Once we were equipped, we made our way to the gates. And then, we saw it, right after we walked past the tall walls that were the entrance to the underworld, there was Cerberus. The gigantic three-headed dog was more monstrous than I had imagined, its massive bodies towering over us as we approached. Each of its heads moved independently, scanning the area from all angles. We walked past Cerberus, careful not to draw too much attention to ourselves. It watched us, its head glaring at us and focusing on our every footstep before going back to doing what it was doing before.
We all let out a breath of relief as we then turned to see the styx. The shores of the Styx stretched out before us, it was black and murky. We could see the boats arriving, ferrying souls across the river to their final destinations. The souls stared at us as their faces instantly twisted with jealousy and rage as they watched us clean the shores by collecting the weapons of past participants. Weapons, pieces of armor, shattered shields, and other tools littered the area.
As we cleaned, I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. The souls gathered near the shore instead of walking through the underworld gates, their eyes fixed on us with a mixture of longing and hatred. The hours dragged on, and with every passing moment, the tension grew. The souls crept closer, their whispers growing louder, more insistent.
After what felt like hours of cleaning, we finally spotted him...well...more like we could hear him. There was a figure slumped over in a small boat near the shore. At first, I thought it was just another soul, maybe a ferryman taking a break. But as I got closer, the details became clearer...and louder.
He was this old man sprawled out, lounging lazily with a large dark cloak draped over his body, but that wasn't the strangest part. Beneath the cloak, he wore nothing but a pair of brightly colored swimming trunks, totally out of place in the gloomy underworld. The boat rocked gently with the movement of the water, and from it blasted thunderous rap music.
"That's him?"
"Umm...this is a first, I never saw him Laze like this, but I would recognize him, he gives out the same aura." Lux confirmed.
"We didn't really need you for this, did we?"
"Hey, even I didn't know that he would be like this, he's usually hard working..."