“Ardika. You got to tell us. You can't just stumble into your dorm like you got hit by a train and tell us it's nothing!” Percy complained, looking at me from over the lunch table with an expression that mixed the worst parts of curiosity, confusion and just the hint of indignation.

“He's right.” Grover said absently, sniffing the air with a confused expression.

“I mean, you disappear every day and then you turn up out of the blue and collapse on the bed, unable to get up until next morning? That's not ok, Ardika.” Percy continued his rant.

“Absolutely.” Grover responded again, with the same vague confused look on his face.

Percy looked over to Grover, “I mean, Ardika… if you need us to call the ghost busters or something you got to let us know?” Percy asked, cautiously and looking at Grover.

“He’s right.” Grover responded again, clearly not listening to anything that was happening around him and causing both Percy and me to crack up a bit.

“I think that he is a little dead to the world right now.” I commented, leaning my head onto my hand to relax my sore muscles as I took a bite of breakfast. It was the morning after I had enchanted Mystic, and while I was recovering from my enchanting quicker then I have before due to getting to level 10 in Ring Maker but I still felt pretty bad. Luckily, we had today off of school so I could spend the time to chill while I recovered a bit instead of forcing myself to go to class this morning.

Though being questioned by Percy was not the ideal way to chill. Honestly, my guilt is growing by the day at this point. But I can make it, at least until the fury attacks Percy near the end of the year.

We laughed for a few seconds, and it only increased when Grover didn't even react at all. Then finally Grover looked around, his expression clearing for a moment as he looked between us. “Hey! What did I miss?” He complained to the pair of us, only increasing our laughter, but after he sat back and frowned we quieted down.

“Ok… Grover aside, I still want to know Ardika. Just tell me what is going on, because I am honestly getting worried for you.” Percy said after a moment of silence.

I gave a sigh, as I felt my pangs of guilt increase and I felt myself about to give in. “Ok, I will be honest with you.” I started to speak, my mind racing. “I just pushed myself a little too hard during training.” I admitted, sighing as I took a bite of my food. ‘Not lying, just not explaining to the full extent. I can't just say I was doing magic, after all.’ I thought to myself internally while I watched Percy, reading his expressions.

He didn't look like he bought it one bit. “Training for what exactly?” Percy asked, looking me over with disbelief on his face.

Ok, brain… think… “Sports. I was… um.. Doing exercises and stuff and I overdid it a bit. Pushed myself a bit too far and fell a bit.” I lied after a second, halting over my words.

“Sports? You are planning to get onto one of the sports teams?” Percy asked, confused at my response. I gave a sigh and a nod to that, “Yes, I heard that there was a… um… basketball team I could try out for.” I confirmed, making stuff up on the spot.

“Basketball. You?” Percy asked, leaning back and looking me over incredulously. “Hey, I will have you know that I am great at basketball. I am going to be the best on the team!” I complained, looking at Percy in mock indignation.

‘Ah, shoot. I think I just accidentally forced myself to join the basketball team.’ I thought to myself in absolute panic, but not letting it show at all. ‘I am not even that great at basketball, either. But I just went and said all that! I am so stupid!!!’

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P.O.V. of Grover

Ardika was absolutely panicked after he told that to Percy, and I had no idea why. He didn't show it outwardly, but I could feel his emotions pretty easily. Being the only Satyr in this school was as interesting as ever.

But this year honestly felt like it was going to end up leaving me in a hospital for being so stressed. First off, I found two demigods were going to this school. Then once I got a good feel for Percy, I realized that his scent was incredibly strong despite the amount of repulsing human aura that was inexplicably coated through it. Then I realized that Ardikas scent was somehow growing over the course of the time he was here until his scent was almost as powerful as Percys!

Then I woke up this morning and I couldn't smell him in the dorms. I was absolutely panicking for the first hour while I searched for literally any hint of Ardika, thinking that he was attacked by monsters and kidnaped or something, only to find Percy and Ardika arguing in the cafeteria. Percy told me the story of what happened after that, that he apparently appeared in their dorms, like he was sore and in pain, seeming completely drained.

And all the while he told me that, I noticed a drastic change in Ardika. His scent was almost completely gone! I could still smell it when I was as close to him as now, but it was so weak that it was almost overpowered by Percy's repressed scent to the extent that it was practically not there.

Honestly that was more concerning than the fact that Percy felt like he was almost as powerful as… well, her.

This was just too much. This can't happen to me! Not again!

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Ardika P.O.V.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

So… I absolutely messed up. I had told Percy and Grover that I was going to be trying out for the basketball team, and then I proceeded to tell them about how ‘skilled’ I was. Meaning, I had to try out for the team. More than that, I had to get on the team and actually be an important player. That changed a lot of things for me.

For example, I had to spend the time to build two basketball hoops and install them into the arena so I could have some practice and potentially earn a skill that would make me actually decent at the game. Also meaning I also had to take some time out from my schedule to practice shooting.

Then there was the fact that the tryouts were happening like next week, and I needed to sign up literally on the same day that I told Percy and Grover I was trying out for the team and even then I got a few side eyes from people because I was signing up so late. Though that might have something to do with the fact that I was not that tall and was signing up for basketball as well.

It has been two days since that particular event and I was fully recovered enough to do stuff now. But despite being back to normal, I was honestly still stressed about that event. I have never even been on a sports team in my life, and the most experience I had was from gym class.

So what I was doing now… was trying to forget all about my impending doom by working on other stuff. I was inside the storage room right now, facing a particularly angry caged hellhound that looked pissed at me. I mean, it was pretty justified. I had kept him caged in here for a long time, and barely fed him at that. But it was a monster that had repeatedly tried to unsuccessfully kill me several times now.

But he is not what I was focusing on right now, what I was focusing on was three objects on the metal table between me and the hellhound's cage. Mystic, the newest ring, Masatr, and a battery.

This was a bit of a test for Mystic, to see if I could see my enchanted objects, electricity and finally monsters thanks to my hellhound.

I took my newest ring off the table and I inspected it for a few seconds before trying it on. The pattern of the runes that the enchanting process normally made seemed the same as ever if I looked close, their shape unchanged, but when I looked at it from a wider perspective it shifted a bit. The patterns of the runes along the ring’s surface seemed to mesh together like the strokes of an artist to form an almost three dimensional artwork of wind that complimented unexpectedly with the engraved patterns I had drawn.

For all the knowledge that the system put in my head about the enchanting system… I had no idea that this was even possible. Why would the Spirit Energy form the runes in this pattern? Now that I was really questioning my knowledge on enchanting, what exactly do the runes do? Why were they formed? What are the red runes that appear during enchanting? I had no answers. Maybe I would have to find out for myself. Maybe… the system is trying to teach me instead of giving me all I need to know.

I put the mythril ring on my finger and let the ring's enchantment get to work. My body instinctively winced at the feeling of some of my Spirit Energy starting to be drained, but I relaxed almost as soon as my body tensed. It didn't feel bad, nothing like pain or whatever, maybe a little like using a sore muscle a little while after a workout. Like I was almost being strained, but not really.

Mystic used all of my Spirit Energy regeneration and then some however, so it appears that for now this ring might have to stay out of the way until I know I need to use it in a certain situation.

Then after a second, I felt the Spirit Energy that was gathering inside the enchanted ring release in a wave of energy all around the ring, going straight through objects in what appeared as a ring of Spirit Energy to my senses.

Then things started happening as the energy passed through where I couldn't see it, though I knew from the system identification that it would only go about ten feet away before it starts to dissipate into the air. Suddenly I looked around and suddenly several things stuck out to me. There was a light glow over all the walls, furniture and even the stone floor of the room I was inside, though the light was faint. The next thing that I noticed was that both the battery and Masatr were lit up brighter than if they were both low powered LED bulbs, making it impossible to actually see what either of them were beneath the light.

The next observation I made was that for some reason, the color of both the walls and Masatr were the same bright red of my Spirit energy, but the light that was being emitted by the battery was a bright electric blue… “The different energy types show up as different colors?” I wondered to myself, a bit confused but relieved by that. Confused because I had not written the enchantment to do that, and relieved because honestly a singular color would have made identifying stuff difficult.

Then my attention was drawn onto the hellhound in my cage as it let out a growl once again, and I got a good look at the effects of my ring on the monster.

“The light isn't following the monster when it moves…” I noticed, as I saw the bright purple result of my ring's enchantment staying in the shape of the hellhound while the hellhound in question was on the other side of the cell, pacing around. My ring then releases another wave of Spirit Energy and it scanned the area, creating there lights where the new positions of the energy signatures were. It was as if it was making everything almost update around me as the previous light disappeared from my vision and a new one appeared.

It was similar to as if my vision had an overlay that was tracking different things, but the frame rate was one every four seconds while everything was moving at real speeds around me.

So it was good for detecting hidden things, traps, and stationary monsters but not anything that could really help in a fight. In fact it would do the opposite and potentially hinder my vision if I look the wrong way and get distracted by a bright light that I could see through people or monsters. So it is a limited tool.

“All in all… I think that this turned out not that bad.” I summarized my test, then winced as my Spirit Energy reserves went down once more and sending a little bit of a pang through my practically empty soul. I took off the ring quickly after that and continued commenting, saying a revelation that was starting to make itself more known as I felt that pang. “I think that enchanting things puts me at a bit of a risk.” I started putting words to my thoughts, “If I am attacked by a monster, I cant use any of my rings besides Masatr and I am physically stressed for a few days after whenever I finish on top of my lack of Spirit Energy reserves. I would be practically helpless for a while.”

That thought and realization did stop my thoughts for a bit, making sure to internalize one key thing that I needed to remember whenever I felt like I was ready to enchant another ring. ‘Plan ahead of time to get somewhere safe before you enchant stuff. Don't enchant stuff when you know you could be in danger and do not do it when you need something done quickly.’

That was probably sound advice for future me, so I left it at that and I started getting on with other things. I threw a slab of meat that I had placed to the side into the cage to the hellhound, pocketed Masatr again, and I placed the battery back inside its package that was on a shelf.

I walked out the door to the sounds of squishing and mushing meat coming from the hellhounds cage, and closed the door with a thud as I walked up the stairs. Back to basketball practice I guess. I suppose it's about time to stop procrastinating.