Mountain of the Immortals

By that point, we had reached the town walls and now we split up to continue our daily tasks. A lot of them revolved around making sure that we would be in a battle-ready state in case we received a notification from the watchtower about Cronus making a move. At the same time, since I had already upgraded most of the town's buildings, I had to make my regular check-ins with our citizens.

The town, which was now more of a city, was bustling with people. Some were lost in the chaos of construction that was taking place all around them in the residential neighborhoods, while others were super-focused on their tasks. This made it pretty easy to see at a glance who had been part of this place for a while and who had just joined us.

The construction of new residences was moving at a great pace, and I could see that some of the livestock Aphrodite ordered had already arrived and was making its way to the upgraded farms. I followed the procession of animals and watched them disappear behind some trees on the north side of town. Visible above the trees were the masts of two ships. It was such a peculiar thing to see, ships on a mountain, but I was pleased to know that this plan was already working. Especially since it just might come in handy in the very near future.

I started off by visiting the fighting academies, where the people training in them had decided to honor their patron gods with large marble statues in the center of the training grounds. As expected, both headmasters were most grateful for having honored them with such an upgrade. Their assurances that they would train as hard as possible and make sure their warriors would be the strongest and most loyal ones the Greek world had ever seen were music to my ears. I made sure to leave a few hints that their diligence might soon be called upon, and they were more than pleased to hear it.

As a matter of fact, they both told me that as much as they liked training, the warriors were anxious to get some real battle experience. Training with each other and fighting monsters was good for raising their levels and sharpening their skills, but they yearned for battles for the glory of Mount Olympus.

The headmaster of the magic academy on the other hand was not as enthusiastic about the prospect. He didn’t say anything of the sort, of course, but it was obvious he was more interested in furthering his studies and experiments. This wasn’t a bad thing per se, as I wanted our spellcasters to help this place grow outside the boundaries of a military state, but this wasn’t the best time to pursue such noble endeavors.

And when I mentioned that his spellcasters might soon be called upon to prove their worth in the battlefield, he showed willing, but I could tell that he would rather see mages studying than dying. Such was the way of this world, however. I could only hope that we would make out of this without too many losses.

"Just the man I was looking for," Hephaestus said as I approached his favorite place in the world, the smithy.

"If you want me to strike that hammer or fan the flames, I'm afraid you won't find me up to the task," I replied.

"No, nothing like that," he replied and brought forward a thin slab of wood with a small list written on it in chalk. "But I’ve got something I do need your help with, and I am sure you'll want to help me."

"And what would that be?"

"I’m not level sixty-one yet, but that doesn't mean I can't come up with the general idea behind the recipe for creating an A-grade weapon."

"You mean you already know what we need for the titan-killer?" I asked.

He nodded. "Exactly. Check out the recipe I’m sending you."

I received a notification and looked at the ingredients.

* * *

Recipe Name: The Titan-Killer

Level: 8

Type: Weapon

Subtype: Spear

Rarity: A Grade

Success Rate: 100%

MP Cost: 201

Durability: 120,000/120,000

Weight: 1,920st.

Materials: Something from a titan's flesh and blood

Something that would kill the wielder

Something that would make the wielder immortal

24x Orichalcum ore

* * *

"Pardon my notes in the materials needed," he said. "But this is the general idea."

The fact that he was able to create a recipe that the Dark Energy had accepted and turned into a notification was incredible. I’d never met anyone who could craft items from level-eight recipes, since they were in the A-grade range, much less someone who would be able to create the recipes themselves.

Yet he’d done it with the ultimate success rate. I couldn’t get a preview of the weapon, but it was obvious from the materials and name that it would do exactly what we needed it to.

"Okay, let's break these down," I said. "Something from a titan's flesh and blood. Does that mean we’d need to fight him once, and retreat so we could create the weapon before attacking him again? Because I don't think any titans would give us this of their own volition."

"I was thinking of it in a less literal sense," he replied, pointing at me.

"What? The son of a titan? Would that even work?"

"The Dark Energy never deals with half-truths or speculations, especially in recipes. The fact that this recipe was accepted with these materials means that we can interpret it like that."

"But what if it doesn’t work?" I asked.

"Then I'll know. If this isn't going to work as the material, the recipe won't update."

"Would some of my blood work then?" I asked.

"I think it would."

"Do you want to do it now?"

"Let's go through the rest of them first."

"Okay,” I said. “Next is something that would kill me."

"Yes. I know many things would kill you, but we have to be more specific than that. And keep in mind that the only reason I think your blood will be accepted as the first ingredient because the blood of a god is powerful. We can't use something that’s D-grade, or even C-grade, to create an A-grade weapon."

"Something that would kill me, eh?" I mused. I started to look through my inventory.

It didn't take me too long to find something perfectly suited to this very situation.

"What about this?" I sent him the notification for an item I had sat on for quite a while now.

* * *

Item: Heart of Typhon

Type: Crafting Component

Durability: 867568/950000

Grade: A Grade

Weight: 4200st.

Description: The one hundred-headed dragon Typhon, king of monsters, had lived thousands of years before being slain by Zeus, the god of thunder. The beast had given spawn to myriad new monster species with its pair, Echidna, storing a bit of their essence in each one. The essence of all of these monsters was likewise stored in the heart of their progenitor, making it stronger with each new generation and species. When used as a crafting component, the heart of Typhon can imbue an almost infinite number of attributes from these monsters.

* * *

Hephaestus recoiled upon absorbing the information I had sent. "You have the heart of the king of monsters? That is, without a doubt, the rarest of materials I’ve ever used in crafting. Damn, it's probably the rarest thing I’ve ever seen. It is literally one of a kind."

"And Typhon died trying to kill me, so I suppose this would work right?"

"I have no doubt about that," he said and his eyes shined with anticipation at the idea of using it. "And the effects the weapon will adopt are going to make this one hell of a spear, even besides the titan-killing ability."

"Alright. And then we’ve got something that would make me immortal," I said.

"That’s pretty straightforward," he said.

I looked at him a little confused. I was already immortal, so I didn’t need anything to make me immortal.

"What do you have that can make you come back to life if you're killed?” he asked.

"Oh, right!" I said, and took it out of my inventory.

* * *

Item: Ambrosia

Type: Consumable

Durability: 1/1

Grade: A Grade

Weight: 20st.

Description: The food of immortality. Ambrosia can only be created in places of power that have been claimed by a god. A mortal or god who eats ambrosia will gain one instance of immortality. This means that if a person who has consumed it dies, they are returned back to life with full HP/MP and without losing any XP. Each individual can only consume one unit of ambrosia per day.

* * *

He smiled. “So we’ve got a unique A-grade material, a one-of-a-kind super-A-grade material, and your blood, which will probably also be A-grade."

"Won't it be B-grade since I'm not level sixty-one yet?" I asked.

"Well, my blood is already A-grade," he said, as if knowing that was something completely ordinary. "I guess yours will be too."

"You're already using your blood in crafting?"

"Of course I am. Blood, sweat, and tears. Literally. How else am I going to craft kick-ass A-grade equipment for all of you?"

"I thought you weren't able to do that just yet."

"I can't perform the last stage, but I have most of the long list of materials needed already crafted."

"Well, that leaves only the orichalcum ore then," I said, looking at the recipe again. "Shall I ask Artemis to make sure we have enough?"

"That’s not something the miners can just bring back," he replied. "Our pygmy friends do believe our mountain contains veins of orichalcum, but it’s much deeper than any of them can go."

"Deeper than they can go?" I asked. "How so? I thought they were digging deeper all the time."

"They can physically go there, but the monsters in that area would be much too powerful for them," he explained.

"Artemis won't be able to protect them?"

"I believe it would only take one ranged strike from a monster to kill them. This isn’t something she would be able to handle alone. I'll need to do it myself."

"If it's that dangerous, we should all go together," I said.

"I was hoping you would say that," he admitted. "But I don't want us to lose an XP-farming day, so perhaps we can XP our way down there?"

"It won’t be optimal but I guess it would be better than trying to do it all and then still having to head to our regular XP place."

"I think so too," he agreed.

"Then let’s do it tomorrow,” I said, and switched to the guild chat. "Alright, everyone. Hephaestus needs orichalcum and it's very deep in the mountain. Deep enough that it's dangerous even for him to go alone."

"Let's XP there tomorrow then!" Artemis said enthusiastically. "I'd love to see how deep we can reach."

"Sounds good to me," Aphrodite agreed.

"You think we'll be able to make it back in time if we get news of an incoming attack?" Ares asked.

"If my father mobilizes his troops from Mount Orthys, it would take at least thirty hours before they reach us. We’ll be perfectly fine."

"Alright then," Ares agreed. "I was getting tired of that place anyway. Time to switch it up a bit."

"Thank you, everyone," I said and closed the guild chat.

"Thanks,” Hephaestus said. “Now give me the rest of the materials so I can check the recipe."

"Do you want me to leave the heart somewhere?" I said, looking around. "It's quite large and even though it's in stasis in my inventory, I'm pretty sure it’ll make a mess once I take it out.”

“Just put it straight in my inventory,” he said, and sent me a notification to access his.

I did as he told me, and then looked around to make sure nobody was watching us.

"Should we do the blood thing now too?" I asked.

"Let me get a funnel and a container first." He went to a back room.

A few clangs of metal later, he came back with a shiny glass funnel and transparent crystal bottle. He placed the funnel's narrow end inside the mouth of the bottle and steadied it on a small table between us.

"Can you fill this up?" he asked.

The bottle wasn't large by any means, but a prick of my finger wasn’t going to be enough. I didn't think cutting my hand would be either. It would need to be something larger than that.

"I think I'll manage," I said, and extended my forearm above the funnel.

I retrieved a simple dagger I had in my inventory and cut a straight line down my arm, making sure to go deep enough that the blood flowed more easily. Hephaestus did not shy away from the sight, but instead watched carefully as the blood ran into the funnel and then down in the bottle.

Massaging the area above the cut did wonders in increasing the flow and pretty soon the bottle was full enough for Hephaestus to slowly raise the funnel and let the remaining blood fall into the bottle.

“Wrap this around the wound and make sure you burn it afterward,” he said as he handed me a towel. “Don’t want anyone else with access to your blood.”

I stopped the bleeding with the towel as he waited for the last drop of my blood to leave the funnel, which seemed to be magically pushing all the blood that was touching its surface down through the hole. When the bottle was completely full, he produced a top and sealed it.

He picked up the vial and brought it to his face, looking at the dark red liquid with wonder. I joined him when I caught a dim glow inside the bottle. I’d never seen my blood in a container like this before, so I was as surprised as he was to see that the glow was coming from miniature lightning bolts inside the bottle.

"Quite fascinating," he said.

"And just what we need, I think," I replied as the Dark Energy signature of the item finally appeared.

* * *

Item: Blood of Zeus

Type: Crafting Component

Durability: 120/120

Grade: A Grade

Weight: 16st.

Description: The blood of the thunder god, supreme monster slayer, and king of Mount Olympus. The very essence of thunder and lightning flows through Zeus' veins and can be transferred through his blood. When used as a crafting component, the Blood of Zeus can imbue lightning attributes into the crafted item.

* * *

"I guess you don't really need a lightning attribute in your weapon, but you're going to get one anyway," he said.

"It wouldn't feel right if it didn't have any lightning abilities," I said. "Can you check if this is enough for the recipe?"

"Why don't you see for yourself," he said, and pushed me another notification.

* * *

Recipe Name: The Titan-Killer

Level: 8

Type: Weapon

Subtype: Spear

Rarity: A Grade

Success Rate: 100%

MP Cost: 201

Durability: 120,000/120,000

Weight: 1,920st.

Materials: Blood of Zeus

Heart of Typhon

Ambrosia

24x Orichalcum ore

* * *

"Did the recipe update?" I asked, and he nodded. "Does that mean we have everything except the ore?"

"We do. We're almost there," he said and pressed his lips in determination. "I will make you the best weapon the Greek realms have ever seen."

He took a step closer to me. His eyes were shining and I felt the tension in his stare.

"And I will use it with pride," I said, stepping closer to him as well. "I will smash anyone who opposes us, and anyone who tries to take you away from us."

A flashing notification distracted us both.

* * *

An army of enemies has just mobilized within a 10,000-mile radius of the guildhall.

* * *

"Always at the worst possible moment," I sighed.