Atlas looked around, confused.
"What do you mean by madness?"
The pipsqueaks from the club said nothing, however, Apollo quickly jumped in to save them.
"That doesn't matter for now. The first thing I need to do is teach you of the levels you need to achieve before reaching Godhood." He pulled Atlas to one of the nearby seats and silently turned to give the club members the stink eye.
Atlas acted as though he didn't notice it and just signalled for Apollo to elaborate. Apollo sighed in relief as he sat Atlas down. He then went to the opposite seat and hit Well,the chair.
"Well, first thing's first, there are basically three stages that have ten levels under them. These three stages are the Awakened Stage, the Nascent Stage and the Transcendent Stage,"
Atlas gradually began to understand the classifications.
"When achieving divinity manually, every step is crucial and a single mistake could forever hamper your progress. This step by step process is actually known as Cultivation with the Chinese; very ingenious indeed,"
Atlas had formed a three-layer building in his mind to represent the Three Stages and ten levels for each. From his mind's eye, he could tell that the 'building' was very high.
"So what stage and level are I on right now?" he questioned, hoping to make his position in the 'building' clearer.
Apollo put both his hands up, one hand was higher than the other though.
"Let's assume my hands are the first two stages; Awakening and Nascent. You are here…" He used his eyes to point at the lower hand. "... And if what I think is right, then you reached the second level of Awakening just yesterday."
Atlas' mind drifted to the time that the flame tattoo appeared on his hand and he suddenly shot a fireball at the Jotunn.
Apollo continued, dropping his hands.
"For now, you can only use simple physical strength and a few energy attacks…"
"Which is why we need to get weapons," Clyde added by the side.
Apollo nodded affirmatively.
"My brother, Hermes should be able to procure some for us."
Atlas nodded in understanding, but the moment Apollo said the name Hermes, the lights in the room began to flicker and a small tornado appeared at the centre of the room.
"Did someone say my true name?" a godly voice called out from the centre of the tornado and the lights flickered even more.
"Cut it out, Hermes." Apollo sighed as if annoyed and the lights stop flickering in an instant.
"Jeez, you can't handle a joke?"
The same godly voice called out, sounding bored. The tornado that appeared in the centre of the room silently dispersed and there was now nothing new except for the strange man floating in the centre of the room.
"What do you want Apollon?"
Apollo frowned at the name as he looked at his strange brother.
Hermes, contrary to his god-like voice, just looked like an ordinary middle-aged delivery man. He was dressed in a short-sleeved blue shirt and brown khaki shorts. He wore a blue cap and sported a wide smile.
Strands of his white-ish hair fell down from under the cap almost covering the deity's strange golden eyes.
Atlas stared in amusement at the god but his eyes soon lost that glow when he noticed the strange shoes Hermes wore.
The shoes resembled simple Mike's or Abibas' but instead had tiny flapping wings to the side. Atlas' eyes narrowed as he realized that the small wings were helping the god keep afloat.
"Oh, what's this here?"
Hermes noticed Atlas looking and focused his gaze on the teenager instead.
"I never thought I'd see another Titan so soon." he smiled weirdly then returned his gaze to Apollo.
"What do you want, brother?"
Apollo snorted and crossed his arms angrily.
"You have terrible manners, you know? Heck, one of your descendants is even here!" he yelled pointing at himself and one of the other three club members that hadn't spoken since Atlas had met them.
Atlas looked at the tall, lanky teen that had long grey hair that completely covered his eyes. It often raised the question of how could he see past all his hair.
The teen wore a loose baggy shirt and had a short stump of hair growing underneath his chin and over his lips. Apart from the shoes he wore that resembled Hermes' shoes and the backpack he seemed to persistently wear, nothing was distinctive about him.
Atlas would have never imagined him to be a deity's descendant otherwise. He most likely would have thought it was just some really naturistic fellow, in other words, a hippie.
From there on out, Atlas made up his mind to try to converse with the other club members more often.
'The more people on my side, the better.'
Hermes looked at the teen at the same time Atlas did and merely laughed.
"Nice to meet you, trivial descendant, out of a few hundred thousand!"
He turned back to Apollo as if nothing happened, prompting a small growl from the seemingly harmless teenager.
Atlas thought it was only for a second but he heard the teen say something faintly under his breath.
'That sounded like I'll rip your head off…'
Hermes only seemed to be amused no matter what insults or threats were thrown at him.
"Why are you so angry about it, anyway? You probably have as many descendants as I do!" the god's smile soon turned to one of mockery as he addressed Apollo.
'True.' Atlas commented inwardly.
Apollo was unable to counter and simply got to the point.
"We need weapons from Hephaestus."
Hermes smirked, seeing that he shut Apollo up, but he still brought out a notepad to jot things down.
"What grade and type?"
"Just simple Awakened grade guns and cold weapons. As for the type? Every type."
Hermes stopped writing on the notepad and looked between Apollo and Atlas and smiled knowingly.
"What's your name, little Titan."
Atlas' narrowed his eyebrows as he debated whether to answer the annoying deity or not. Eventually, he realized how little he cared about such things.
"I am Atlas."
As he said that, Hermes' smile widened and his eyes began to radiate deadly interest.
"And so the plot thickens." the deity muttered just before he disappeared.
Atlas decided to take charge from there on.
"Since he's gone, I think we should start expanding the gang."
Hermes' descendant looked at Atlas with a confused expression. "How will we do that?"
"It's simple." Atlas replied and pointed at the teen, "You'll help me recruit goons. I'll give you cash."
His words stunned the entire room and everyone, including Apollo realized that Atlas had a new intention.
Apollo stared in shock at the teen who was still issuing commands to the club members.
'I can tell from his discrete words alone. He doesn't want to become a deity alone. He wants something bigger. Atlas wants to overthrow the pantheon!'
****
Author's Note: Follow my Instagram @purplemidnightnovels
For more updates on God Of Gangsters and access to short stories, go to my p.a.t.r.e.o.n: Purple_Midnight