Percy Jackson and the Adventures of A Sister

16. Magical Map to Safety

The next few years in the pit were spent on mapping the place. Percy knew the layers he had mapped like the back of his hand. Each layer was larger than the last. The first layer had taken Percy three years to map. It was basically the size of a city. Percy had a knack of memorizing the features of the landscape around him in the span of a few seconds. After further investigation, Percy proved himself wrong. He was not in the second layer.

It appeared that each layer was divided into some islands. Each layer had a central island. Monsters and the children of Tartarus were immortal in this central. The 'second layer' was not really a new layer, more of the worst part of the first layer. The layer was far larger than what he had imagined. Since the power restricting spell had broken, he had a large amount of energy. He turned himself to vapor and would scout the land. Even with this power, it took him years to scout each layer. He decided to use magic to make a map, so that others could navigate the place if needed.

He had found a helpful thing during the first two months he had been here. Anything that was buried in the ground or kept on it would not disappear or change. If you buried a stone two inches under the ground, it would stay two inches under the ground. Features moved, but never vanished. That mountain would never vanish off of the face of Tartarus, rather it would be somewhere else in the pit. Percy made an upgraded version of a magical tracking device. Magical tracking devices were basically objects that release a faint trace of magic, and you would search for the signature to find them. They were horribly inefficient and could be easily found thanks to the magic they released.

Tracking was the weak point of the sea magic. Land based magic was something that was far better at tracking than it's sea based counterpart. Percy changed that. He managed to make an efficient tracking device that was hard to detect. He used a spell similar to the binding spell, but instead of binding people together, he managed to bind objects together. Previous tracking devices were like security cameras. You would look at an area looking for a magical beacon. If the device left a certain area, it would be useless. Percy's device on the other hand worked in a manner similar to GPS.

It was composed of five devices, each storing a given amount of magic. Four of the devices were like the satellites the mortals make. The other device was the thing the remaining four tracked. Percy gave the parts names. The device that was to be tracked was called Apóstasi and the device that was used to track the Apóstasi was named the Zitón. Four Zitóns were spaced apart at equal distances, and found the distance between them and the Apóstasi. Using the distances between four equally spaced Zitóns one would be able to find the location of the Apóstasi. Each Zitón could be linked to about 20 Apóstasis.

Percy buried hundreds of thousands of Apóstasis in the ground to make a real time map of the changing pit. Normally for a mortal that would be unimaginable, but hey, Percy was a god. It took Percy a whopping 10 years to add the second layer to the map and two in the first, and Another 20 in the third and final layer. There was one thing Percy had found funny. There was a spell to do math. Seriously, math! thought Percy. It did come in handy though. Using the coordinates he managed to make a 3D map of Tartarus. It was the size of your average computer cabinet. The thing was not easy to carry, but Percy made a way.

He also got a portable home. He made a foldable tent out of hellhound-hide and cast a spell that would make it larger on the inside. The tent was divided into sections. It had a living 'room' which was just a large section of the tent that had a bunk and a cupboard and a couch. The couch and the mattress of the bunk was made from a part of the bed in Damsen's hut. Percy didn't stay there as he knew the giants would expect him to go there, so he didn't dare linger.

At the back lay a storage room. Everything was very organized. The final section was the kitchen. Percy had forged some utensils. He used some magic to make a stove. He had stacked up on food ingredients using Hestia's powers. If anyone who knew Percy had seen the place, they would be gobsmacked. Percy was known for being messy, but the tent was extremely organized. It was Percy's perfect home. Small, simple, but still homey.