A day passed and we reached the next town. After this was the underworld kingdom. We set camp for the night and decided to go the next day. There were small bugs inside my carriage and I spent most of my time killing them. Day came and we set out again. In the distance, I could already see the walls. They were pitch black and on them were torches that were still lit up even though it was day. I took two hundred soldiers instead since it scared me and entered the city.
The houses were all black with green windows and the people had green faces on their robes like what I'd seen before in the black hole near Delaever's house. I was still on edge so I kept my hands in my pocket which was where my knife was. "Achilles, can you ask where the underworld is or where the library is?". He walked to someone but came back empty handed.
"They just said they don't know and to go to the grand library" he said.
"Okay, let's find it" I said.
Hours passed and we still couldn't find it. We did however find a castle located near the back of the village. We knocked and were greeted by a tall guard. "Are you here to see the King?" he asked. I nodded and he let me in. Across me was a short man in a throne seven times his size. "What do you want!" yelled.
"I want to know where the grand library is" I said. His frown slowly turned into a wide grin. He began laughing wildly and said, "Okay, I'll tell you where it is once you complete my trials!". I looked at him confused and asked, "What do you mean, trials?". He began to laugh even louder and said, "You'll have to complete ten quests just like Heracles". I froze. I'd heard of his stories but thought it was just a myth about being brave and stuff but it turned out it was real. I gulped and nodded. "Start by cleaning my horse stable, just like what Heracles did three hundred years ago!" he yelled.
I was escorted to the horse stables and what I saw made my heart drop. There were over a hundred horses and it smelled horrible. There was hay creeping through every corner of the room. The guard gave me a pitchfork and left. I began by taking out the hay since I wasn't ready to remove the shit all around the room. By the end of the day, I'd cleaned out about an eight of the room. The next day came and I began cleaning at five in the morning so that I could clean more by the end of the day. Han came to check on me and offered to help but was stopped by the guard. By the end of day two, I'd cleaned half of the remaining hay. I also began cleaning all of the shit and finished that.
The next day came and once again I woke up early. I bought some spray and a mop to clean up the floor. I came back and after a while, the smell was gone. By the end of the day there was no more Hay around. I went back to the castle to proceed to my second trial. "I see you have finished cleaning so now I shall give you a mission" he said, "Kill the Nemean lion, I'll give you a map".
The next day came and I set out. It was right next to the village and inside the forest so I quickly spotted the lion. It was bigger than usual and shone bright. I threw my knife at it's head and it shrieked. It rushed at me and I pulled my knife back. I ran towards it and stabbed it's eye. It stumbled back and I took the chance to stab it's other eye. Now that it was blinded, I could kill it. I stabbed it's hind leg and began to kill it. Finally, it collapsed and died. I sliced off it's head and brought it to the castle in a bag. "Congratulations, well you are an army leader so I couldn't expect less" he said clapping.
A few days went by and I'd killed the Cretean boar. I had seven more labours left and then I could go to the underworld. Then I could get Mati and kill the King of Thebes. I now had to kill the Stymphalian birds. I'd decided to read on Heracles' trials to find out how he beat them so that it'd be easier. The final labour would probably be the hydra which none of the books had records on. I planned to finish all the labours by the end of this week since I could kill a monster per day.