Fanfic / Prytaneum

At the end of the Second Titanomachy, Percy found Hope to be in short supply. With Kronos unstopped, his friends dead or dying, and the gods falling one by one, it was hard to believe they still had a chance. But when Hestia sacrifices herself to give him 'Hope', there's no reason not to take it, even if it costs him his life. But when he awakens...

— Series Description

The battle with Kronos goes horribly wrong and Percy Jackson ends up dying, only to wake up inside of the dungeon. When he gets free, he ends up going Hestia's Familia (taking Bell's place) and combs through the Dungeon in search of any of his friends who have survived. Thus begins Prytaneum, a Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? crossover written by Ryuugi, who is best known for writing The Games We Play.

Prytaneum provides examples of:

• After the End: The story takes place thousands of years after the loss of the Second Titanomachy, meaning that Gaia rose without contest and reshaped the world.
• Alien Blood. Monsters in the Dungeon often have strangely coloured blood, for example the War Shadows have black blood.
• An Arm and a Leg: Wayland lost both of his legs when he refused to create weapons for Evilus. Like Naaza, he got prosthetics from the Dian Cecht Familia.
  • Zanis gets one of his hands bitten off by Mrs O'Leary in "Powder Keg".
• Anger Born of Worry: Eina’s typical reaction to dealing with Percy’s antics.
• Attack Reflector: The purpose of Percy's Skill Thetis, <A Plea To Hold Back Fate>. Word of God is that at full charge with all nine layers it is capable of reflecting an attack on the level of Riveria's Rea Laevateinn. Good luck getting it charged that much.
• Audience Surrogate: As to be expected after being dropped in a strange place and time, Percy has very little information of what is considered common knowledge, requiring other characters to fill him in.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Sure being able to create his own personal hurricane is cool, but it also drains a large amount of power from Percy and runs the risk of injuring allies. He tends to limit the use of them for this reason.
• The Bait: Fels admits that he wants Percy to play this role to keep the attention of Evilus away from what they are doing.
• Being Watched: Percy can sense when he's being spied on by Freya.
• Berserk Button: The Dungeon and its monsters REALLY don't like it when Percy drains power from the Pantries.
• Blessed with Suck: Percy's "Despair" Skill. It causes the Dungeon to Zerg Rush him by greatly increasing his encounter rate and as his condition worsens, the effect increases.
  • Bleeds into Cursed with Awesome via Had to Be Sharp. Percy and everyone with him, get continuous Training from Hell, as long as they're in the dungeon...
• Blood Magic: Several of Percy’s later Mystery recipes require using his own blood, purified by Nectar into divine ichor, as a part of the process.
• * Brown Note: The Batpats use sound waves to disrupt the target’s concentration, which Percy says “was a nice way of saying they projected the sound of nails on a chalkboard straight into my head”. Percy eventually figures out how to use their fangs with Mystery to recreate the Sonic Arrows used by Michael Yew.
• Brutal Honesty: Percy bluntly tells Ishtar that she disgusts him after he becomes aware of how she uses her Charm ability to consign women to the Red Light district.
• Call-Back: Percy tries to copy his father's sending Typhon into Tartaros via a whirlpool on the Black Goliath, but eventually becomes too exhausted to complete it.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Beings born from the Dungeon can devour the magic stones of other monsters to grow stronger. The magic stones of low level monsters barely make any difference to higher level ones as Mrs O’Leary demonstrates. Feeding her the magic stone of the Irregular Black Goliath restored her to full power and then some despite having previously reduced to a shadow that Level 2 magic stones were barely healing.
  • The Demi Spirit Anaklusmos devoured the magic stones of every monster from the 19th to the 27th Floors and the Irregular Black variant of the 27th Floor Boss which spawned on the 28th Floor. In Chapter 71 she offers Percy one, noting that as a being born from the Dungeon he could use it to restore part of his drained power. He refuses.
• Canine Companion: Mrs O'Leary, who can Shadow Travel, devour monsters, and even stop Percy's soul from leaving his body in the event of a temporary death.
• Canis Major: Mrs O'Leary, who clocks in at over 15 feet... minimum.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Even after Percy tells her repeatedly that she can ask him for help if she needs to, Lili cannot bring herself to tell him or Welf the truth, fact that Zanis tries to use to his advantage when confronting Percy for the first time after breaking Lili's wrist and stealing the Crozzo Sword Welf gave her and the Magic Sword she had bought.
• Cassandra Truth: Played straight by Hyacinthus and the Apollo Familia, ironically enough by a prophecy given by Cassandra. Averted by Percy, who is Genre Savvy enough to realise ignoring the prophetic statements made by a woman called Cassandra with some connection to Apollo is just plain stupid.
  What was that? Someone in Apollo’s Familia… doubting a lady named Cassandra?
  Now, that’s just bad form.
• Charm Person: Freya and Ishtar are capable of this.
• Chekhov's Gun: Riptide being a Spirit Weapon. That means its vulnerable to possession by a Jewel Fetus.
• Clothing Damage: Percy goes through armour like most people changes underwear, and in one chapter is explicitly stated that he left spare clothing at Wayland's shop because he "was tired of people staring at him while he waited half naked in line to change his Magic Stones in the Guild.
• Combat Pragmatist: Percy is an avid believer in this trope. So is Ryuu.
  Percy: I was proud of my own swordsmanship too, of course, but pride wasn't my flaw; I was willing to give him a fair fight, but only on the condition that I was sure I would win.
• Comically Missing the Point: Percy does so frequently.
  • Upon being told by Lili that Crozzo magic swords are said to be powerful enough to dry up the sea, Percy's first reaction is to become concerned and ask why anybody would actually want to do that.
  • Happens again when Lili confesses to being a thief and a con-artist that has stolen from them multiple times and even attempted to steal Riptide.
  “You tried to steal Riptide?” [Percy] asked after a moment before chuckling to himself. “How’d that work out?”
• Cosmic Plaything: Many Gods and Goddesses tend to mess with mortals with special abilities for their own entertainment. To avoid this, Hestia and Percy agree that he should try to avoid getting other gods' attention, and keep his status as a demigod secret, just like his abilities, Magics and Skills. It didn't last very long, due to canon Minotaur incident.
• Crazy-Prepared: Percy keeps cheap flasks filled with water in his backpack, letting him heal and re-empower himself at any time.
  • Before he died (again) Daedalus entrusted a list of names to Uranus of people to watch out in the event they are reincarnated from the Dungeon. Additionally, he leaves the name "Quintus" as a way of letting Fels gain Percy's trust.
• Cutting the Knot: Surrounded by monsters? Trapped underwater and at the bottom of the lake? Punch through the floor of the Dungeon.
• Death by Adaptation: The fight against Kronos goes a lot worse than in canon, leading to this mess.
• Dem Bones: Fels.
• Didn't See That Coming: Percy knew the specs on the Goliath and tailored his strategies for dealing with the Black Goliath accordingly. He didn't anticipate the Black Goliath having a Breath Weapon capable of striking through his defences. Things rapidly deteriorate from there.
  • He didn't see the Jewel Fetus turning Riptide into a Demi Spirit.
• Discard and Draw: When Kronos regained his full power, Luke’s Curse of Achillies was destroyed in exchange for what Percy dubbed “Phenomenal Cosmic Power”.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Part of Percy's power-set is the ability to cause localized earthquakes and cause the earth to shatter.
• Doom Magnet: Percy as usual, which is only amplified by his "Despair" skill. Other Adventurers get monsters spawning in small groups on the early floors. Percy? Zerg Rush, traps and the Dungeon pushing the rules as much as it can in order to kill him.
• The Dreaded: The Black Dragon, responsible for slaughtering the Zeus and Hera Familias. Fels distinctly does not say its real name, a fact Percy picks up on.
• Dual Wielding: Percy chooses to try this with Riptide and Annabeth's dagger, at least until the latter is badly damaged and the former is turned against him.
• Dungeon Bypass: Mrs O'Leary can still Shadow Travel, which Percy uses to skip to floors he wants or avoid having to climb back through the high floors. Welf points out exactly how valuable this ability is.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Hestia points this out to Percy.
• Eye Scream: Kronos gets Annabeth's dagger rammed through his eye socket in the prologue. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it certainly distracted and infuriated him.
  • Percy regrows both his eyes after tanking a second blast from Zanis' stolen Crozzo sword.
• Famous Last Words: Hestia's last words before her Heroic Sacrifice in the prologue: “Open your eyes, Percy Jackson”.
• Fatal Flaw: Percy maintains his, the inability to abandon his friend. He let's Revis escape because every second he delayed her was one Riptide could use to get away.
• Fish out of Water: Percy, given the shape of the world.
• The Final Temptation: Anaklusmos offers Percy the chance to join her in serving Her and in doing so he would be able to get all of his friends and family back since she can bring back the dead. The only problem is that doing so means Orario would be destroyed. He refuses.
• First-Episode Resurrection: The prologue has Percy stabbed through his Achilles' Heel by Kronos and dying as Olympus is destroyed. In the first chapter he wakes up inside the walls of the Dungeon.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Percy can tell how strong an Adventurer is by their sheer presence, as well as the gods and even monsters to a degree. The strength of this seems to be connected to his Magic stat
• For Want Of A Nail: The turning point was Annabeth dying on the Williamburg Bridge instead of merely being wounded. From there, things went From Bad to Worse.
• From Bad to Worse: The effects of Percy's skill Despair- it attracts monsters, much like a demigod's scent in pjo canon, and its effects get stronger as Percy's condition worsens.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Mrs O'Leary, the friendly Hellhound the size of a garbage truck.
• Genius Loci: The Dungeon is explicitly noted by Percy as being aware, and shows the capability to learn.
• Genre Savvy: Percy recognizes that he is in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse, and happily applies the same principles he uses playing video games.
• Ground Punch: Percy does this to shatter half of an island and bring it into the lake, at the expense of his hand.
• Healing Factor: Percy's canonical healing from water is amplified due to his increasing magic stat, allowing him to do absurd feats, such as survive tanking two blasts from a Crozzo sword (although that one required help from health potions and Mrs O'Leary. Percy even points out how him being injured or maimed isn't really as big a deal for him as it may be for other people.
• Heroic RRoD: After Shadow Travelling too much Mrs O'Leary begins to lose her corporeal form. Taking Hestia down to the 18th Floor to reinforce Percy after barely recovering from previously overusing her powers reduces her to a tiny fragile shadow.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Hestia sacrifices herself in the prologue to protect Percy from being killed by Kronos and giving him a chance to strike Kronos.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Percy’s self-esteem is all but non-existent, blaming himself for the destruction of Olympus and the deaths of all his friends. Upon Hestia explaining that his Hero Developmental Ability makes him bring out the best in others and inspire heroic actions his first thought is to wonder how he qualifies.
  • Hestia also has self-esteem issues, and internally refers to herself as a worthless goddess.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: The Black Goliath is finally killed when Welf uses his Anti-Magic as it prepares its Breath Weapon. The resulting explosion blows its head off.
• Home Field Advantage: Percy when in water takes this to an extreme. His Making a Splash powers give him so much control over water that he is capable of altering how others are able to interact with it and trapping them underwater or stuck in the same place. Even Revis, who demolished both Percy and Ryuu with little effort, finds out that being unable to breath or move to be a serious enough problem to flee.
  • Percy and Revis both have a Home Field Advantage in that fight, Revis being a creature of the Dungeon and Percy being despised by it caused it to weaken the floor beneath the lake they were fighting him, allowing Revis to escape.
  • Inverted by the Olympians in the prologue. Fighting Kronos in the throne room put them at the heart of their power… and also gave Kronos access to their Thrones.
• Hope Spot:
  • "Smothering" has Percy, Welf and Lili make it through to the 18th Floor Safe Zone without the Goliath spawning or the monsters following them. Then the Dungeon summons the Black Goliath.
  • In "Melt", after spending a few chapters hoping that Daedalus is still around, being the first link Percy has to his previous life and thus possibly the first real clue as to what's going on, he reaches Daedalus' workplace... and finds the man had killed himself a long time ago.
  • Anaklusmos feels that the very notion of Hope is nothing but this:
    “The last and greatest of Pandora’s horrors. Hope was not given to mankind as a mercy, Perseus, for when have you ever known the gods to be merciful in their vengeance? It was meant as a punishment like all the rest, like the Phlegethon flowing through the lands of the dead. It gives you the strength to go on, only so you can suffer more.”
• How Do I Shot Web?: Percy struggles to figure out how to activate Mystery. When he does, he can only initially manage to create Undine Silk while slowly discovering new applications. Justified in that Mystery is an absurdly rare and carefully hoarded Developmental Ability, meaning there is not much information. Lampshaded by Wayland, it is called Mystery for a reason.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Percy had to do this with Mrs O'Leary.
• Imminent Danger Clue: Percy smells smoke before picking up it was coming from his Familia's church.
• Item Crafting: There are several Developmental Abilities which give adventurers with a falna the ability to craft things that would not otherwise be possible, and are vital in the competitive market of Orario.
  • Blacksmithing relates to the forging of weapons and armour, allowing blacksmiths to give their creations special properties
  • Mixing gives the ability to craft more powerful potions. It is popular among blacksmiths for the ability to create alchemical reagents they can use to strengthen their work
  • Metalworking is similar to Blacksmithing, but in less direct forms such as accessories or decorations that provide benefits.
  • Mystery is an incredibly rare Developmental Ability which is highly sought after and poorly understood, it allows users to "activate a miracle" and craft magic items. It works by synergizing with other Developmental Abilities, Magic and Skills, and how it manifests depends on the user. Mystery allows Percy to make a variety of magic items. Initially he only makes Undine Silk, but he later learns to make a variety of other items, such as Nectar, Greek Fire, Chameleon Armour, Sonic Arrows, knock off Nemean Lion skin and Golden Fleece.
• Jerkass Gods: Canon for both PJO and Danmachi, and how Percy generally perceives the gods. Percy’s reaction to finding out the gods only descended to the earth because they were bored to and not to save the mortal races to be comfortingly familiar. When confronted by examples of genuinely kind and helpful gods such as Miach and Takemikazuchi he is often caught off guard.
• Just Ignore It: Percy's reaction to Apollo trying to start a War Game with Hestia.
  Percy: "Don't pay attention when the gods do something stupid; it only encourages them. Just pretend they don't exist."
• Let's Get Dangerous! / Turns Red: Percy's pulled of some impressive Last Stands in canon, but his skill Hope is made of these tropes, making him more powerful as his condition worsens.
• Manipulative Bastard: Zanis, much like in canon. He blackmails Lili into stealing Welf's magic sword, then ambushes her in the Dungeon when she runs back up to kill him with it.
• Mercy Kill: How Anaklusmos relates to her attempt to kill Percy. She figures he's doomed to fail in his quest and will only suffer by dying and being reborn to suffer, so she wants to kill him to free him from hope and then take his soul so that he'll be reborn as she sees fit.
• More than Mind Control: Anaklusmos by whoever Her is. She's basically convinced that Percy is the one who's gone insane from hope to the extent she wants to kill him to free him of it.
• Mundane Utility
  • Percy manages to activate his Mystery Developmental Ability, an incredibly rare Developmental Ability capable of creating a miracle and creating magic items, for the first time while trying to repair Hestia’s fraying hair ribbon.
  • Undine Silk is a fairy cloth imbued with the power of a water spirit, capable of blocking out the heat of the 44th Floor. Welf uses it to remain completely cool while close to his forge, preventing heat exhaustion and allow him to forge for longer.
• New Ability Addiction: After Welf achieved Level 2 and the gained the Blacksmith DA he stayed up all night smithing items with different properties. Percy is slightly bemused by it.
• No Body Left Behind: The habit of Dungeon monsters 'not' to do this is a source of frustration for Percy, who is used to them turning into dust immediately after being killed.
  • As did Daedalus after his death.

• No-Sell: Zanis uses Lily's magic sword on Percy, only for Percy to walk through it with barely any reaction.
• Not Quite Flight: During the fight with the Black Goliath Percy figures out how to mimic flight by willing water to stick to his skin and then controlling it, describing it as less being flight as "pushing the water I was holding myself with".
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Anaklusmos slaughtered every monster on floors 19-28 of the Dungeon, then killed a Black version of the Floor Boss of the 27th Floor on the 28th. The 28th Floor isn’t even recognisable after she was done with it.
• Ontological Mystery: The question of how the world is like it is now, so different from how Percy used to know it to be, is one of the running mysteries of the story. Not to mention why Percy was suddenly reborn from the Dungeon.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Ethan managed to kill Annabeth, leading Percy to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and slaughter all the enemy demigods on the Williamsburg Bridge. Without Annabeth and Ethan there, everything went downhill after that.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Percy gives a very memorable one to Revis after she refuses to tell him about the Jewel Fetus.
  “Fine,” I said, sounding too calm even for my own ears. My hands trembled, knuckled clenched too tight, blood running too hot in my veins. “Then we can continue this conversation when you get tired of drowning.”
• Properly Paranoid: Percy knows that the Dungeon is out to kill him and is appropriately cautious whenever things seem to easy.
• Really Gets Around: Poseidon, as per canon, which Percy complains made his mythology lessons with Chiron a bit too information and causes him to "tune out" certain myths as a result. He happily muses that at least he wasn't Thalia, who had Zeus as her father. Judging by Hestia's snarky comment about them hitting on Thetis sounding like them, this hasn't changed.
• Really 700 Years Old: Fels is old enough to know Daedalus personally when he was reborn hundreds of years ago.
• Red Baron: Percy gets the Alias "Hound of the Goddess" after Freya interrupts the suggestions of embarrassing nicknames and musing how he reminds her of a cute puppy. Compared to the previous suggestions from the gods he definitely got lucky.
• Reforged into a Minion: What happened to Riptide when it came into contact with the Jewel Fetus, turning it into a Demi-Spirit.
• The Reveal: Fels reveals that the Dungeon spawns the dead as monsters, with Daedalus and Percy being failed creations because it couldn't turn them into monsters, hence why it goes after them.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ryuu's canon rampage turns out to have been against Evilus, and everybody even remotely associated with them got destroyed. When she finds out that some of them may have survived she doesn't take it well.
• Running Gag: Percy's ability to constantly ruin his armour in early chapters.
  • Later on Percy begins waving off any of his weirdness by saying that it is magic and not to worry about it.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Eina decides to go to the Loki Familia about the stolen magic sword and what Percy and Welf were about to do even though she knew she could potentially lose her job for doing so.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Anaklusmos heavily implies that Elpis, the Spirit of Hope, in currently inside Percy. Whether it is Sealed Good in a Can or Sealed Evil in a Can is up for debate.
• Seen It All: Percy's reaction to Fels revealing himself to be hundreds of years old as an undead skeleton.
• Skewed Priorities: Anaklusmos's reason from running away from Percy on the 18th floor? She felt she was underdressed.
• Soft Water: Averted for anybody who isn't Percy. Welf is badly injured after falling 600 feet off a cliff into a lake, despite his reasonably high Stats as a Level 1, and theorises the only reason he wasn't worse off was that Percy noticed him falling and altered the properties of the water.
• Shout-Out: Wayland, a member of Hephaestus' familia, is one to Wayland the Smith from Norse Mythology.
• Stepford Smiler: Hestia shows signs of it. Percy and Welf quickly realise Lili is too.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Actually justified. Percy's strength fluctuates and changes depending on which of his Skills and Abilities are activated by the situation, allowing him to range anywhere from mid-Level 3 to low-Level 5.
• Strong Flesh, Weak Steel: Being a demigod, Percy's armours break faster than he does. Though normally averted, as it's noted that it's usually the other way around.
• Super-Empowering: An unintentional variant. Percy's Hero DA supports and inspires heroic actions in himself and others, making people around him more likely to develop heroic Rare Skills and even magic.
• Super Power Lottery: Percy is a demigod in a world where it is thought to be impossible and carries on his previous capabilities. Upon becoming a Level 1 has two Developmental Abilities (impossible for a Level 1), three Magics (when three slots is generally the most anybody can have) and two skills already.
  • Hestia points out that his own magic is closer to the gods' own Arcanum, either activating automatically or with no chant (or even a verbal trigger) required.
• Super Prototype: Percy bemoans the fact that the Nemean Pelt and Golden Fleece that he creates through Mystery are far inferior to the originals, due to the limits of his Mystery level and the materials he had available.
• Super-Senses: All Adventurers have these, but Percy's sense of smell is strong enough to track individuals. It increases with the Falna. High level adventurers can effortlessly hear whispered conversations from a distance, as Percy pointed out to Hestia that if she really didn’t want Ryuu to hear their conversation they would have to move far further down the street.
• Tempting Fate: Fels makes it quite clear that he wants Percy nowhere near the package Hashana was carrying. Sure enough, Percy ends up trying to block the Jewel Fetus from reaching Aiz… and Anaklusmos is turned into a Demi Spirit.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Dungeon's typical reaction to Percy is to throw ludicrous amounts of monsters at him. When he first arrives on Floor 11 he the Dungeon sets an Infant Dragon, a Level 2 monster known for slaughtering entire teams of Level 1s, on him. When that doesn't work? It proceeds to spawn three more (there are only five of them in total), summon other monsters from every wall and direct the Minotaurs (also Level 2 monsters) fleeing from the Loki Familia towards him.
  • To deal with the Level 6 attacking Aiz, Percy has Ryuu snatch up the girls before unloading one of Welf's magic swords on the murderer. Then has Ryuu back it with her magic. Then drives Riptide into the ground to collapse it down and bury them. Typically, it fails dramatically to kill her.
• Third-Person Person: Lili.
• To Be a Master: Welf’s goal is to be able to make something that amazes even Hephaestus, which would require him to be the best smith in the entire world. To get there, his Blacksmith Developmental Ability would need to be at least E, but probably C or higher (raising even one rank is described as ludicriously difficult) and accordingly probably need him to be at least Level 5 or 6.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Anaklusmos reveals Percy isn't human. He's a monster, born in the Dungeon but with his human apperance due to his divine blood.
• Turned Against Their Masters: It turns out that the Dungeon spawned Percy as a monster, or tried to but couldn't make him into one. Since then he's been pretty much antagonizing it. Daedalus was apparently the same
• Uncertain Doom: The Poseidon Familia. While Wayland believes they were destroyed after the fall the Zeus and Hera Familias, Fels instead states that both they and the Hades Familia disappeared.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Cassandra of Apollo's Familia gives a cryptic prophecy regarding Percy after seeing it in a dream.
  Cassandra: "When the dragon wakes, everything will burn. For seven days and seven nights, it'll burn, and no blade will stand before it."
• Villainous Breakdown: Zanis completely loses it after Mrs O'Leary takes his hand off. He even unleashes his stolen Crozzo magic sword in the middle of Orario, killing a significant number of his own Familia members as well as collateral damage to the surrounding area of the city.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 63: Blacken, Part 2. Fels reveals what happened to the Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon Familias, the origin of Evilus, how they believe the Dungeon anchors souls to magic stones to create monsters, and Apollo tries to start a War Game with Hestia.
  • Chapter 69: Kindling. Riptide comes into contact with the Jewel Fetus and begins to transform.
• Wham Line: From Chapter 71: Boil.
  Riptide:“Perseus… You kept me waiting.”
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Not Daedelus, despite having the means to do so.
• * The Workaholic: Percy has very little concept of downtime, being driven by his need to explore the Dungeon and find his friends.
• Wrecked Weapon: Annabeth's dagger was badly damaged after Zanis uses his stolen Crozzo magic sword, Kazuki, on Percy. Welf is holding onto it until his Blacksmithing is high enough to repair it in a way that does it justice.
  • Riptide in unmade and Reforged into a Minion by the Jewel Fetus.

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