Mountain of the Immortals

Next on my list was upgrading the mining camp, especially now that we’d located areas filled with precious ores, metals, and gems. I wanted them to increase their output as much as possible.

* * *

Name: Mining Camp

Level: 3

Output: 200 Units/hour

Job Slots: 12

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 4 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 400x Lumber Units (4000 MP)

200x Iron Units (2000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 960 minutes (576,000 MP)

Description: The mining camp is the beginning and the end of every miner’s working day. This is where ores will be crushed, ground, roasted, smelted, refined, and cast. Owning a mining camp significantly increases the metal and ore unit production rate.

* * *

Looking at our lumber stock, I smirked when I realized we had just enough lumber for this upgrade, though I needed to buy the iron units. Once that was taken care of and the iron was waiting next to the mining camp, I selected another large group of workers and ordered them to start transferring the four hundred lumber units from the storage shack to the mining camp at the other end of the valley.

I also told them to start working on it as soon as they had enough pieces to start while the rest of them continued carrying it over there. This way, the sixteen hours needed for the mining camp’s upgrade could start as soon as possible.

I looked at the remaining people in front of me and thought about how I could best utilize them. I knew exactly what I wanted to build and in what order. The only thing left to decide was whether I should leave something for the mining team to work on upon their return or let them continue gathering resources.

Ultimately, there was no guarantee of how much longer they would be missing and if they’d have enough stamina left to continue working, so I decided to continue with my plan as if they weren’t part of the picture. I selected the next group of five and sent them running to the lumberyard.

* * *

Name: Lumberyard

Level: 3

Throughput: 200 Units/hour

Job Slots: 12

Level-Up Requirement : Settlement Level 4 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 400x Lumber Units (4000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 960 minutes (576,000 MP)

Description: A lumberyard is the focal point of a community’s woodworking business, be it imports, exports, treatment, or processing. Owning a lumberyard significantly increases lumber unit production rate.

* * *

I was looking forward to the day that I would need to start upgrading the storage building and maybe even need build more of them because we were overflowing with our stock of iron and lumber. Unfortunately, today was not that day, so I paid the 4,000 MP to make four hundred units of wood appear next to the building.

I was happy I wasn’t using mana workers anymore, since their cost grew exponentially due to their level-up times, which in turn made me realize another thing. The most important asset Mount Olympus had were its people. They were the ones gathering resources, building, and upgrading instead of having to spend MP on mana workers.

The men and women who worshipped me as their god and had come here to be part of this great guildhall were the single most previous resource of all. And I’d be damned before I let Cronus or any of his minions hurt them. I had been pushing them non-stop over the past few days since they’d arrived. It was high time for a celebration.

Once we’d sorted the necessary buildings for this level, we would throw a feast with food and drinks.

They may have been devout to me either way, but I wanted them to know they were appreciated. And what better way to show one’s appreciation than a little song and dance along with a full belly. Perhaps Artemis might be able to bring some prime game to the table and we could use all the jugs of wine I’d had stored in my inventory all this time without the right opportunity to consume them.

Pushing the thoughts of celebration aside for now, I sent the remaining workers to start building and upgrading the new farms that were just unlocked. We needed to become self-sufficient so that Dion became a trading point for us instead of the provider of all our meat and vegetables.

Just as I had purchased the necessary materials and waited for the workers to finish building the first level of the farm so I could buy what was needed for the next one, I heard a commotion coming from the direction of the mining camp. The two goddesses had returned with all of the miners that had accompanied them.

“How was it?” I asked.

“A smashing success,” Artemis said with pride.

I looked at Aphrodite, who was usually the more reserved of the two in terms of how well things were going.

“It’s true,” the goddess of beauty said, and started taking out things from her extra-dimensional inventory. “Look at all this.”

Every time she pulled her hand out of the pink rift in the air, she was holding a different gem.

* * *

Item: Amethyst

Type: Gemstone - Crystal

Durability: 820/820

Grade: D Grade

Weight: 12st.

Description: The beautiful violet coloration of this quartz has made it extremely popular among jewelers. Additionally, weapons using amethyst may experience bonuses to their healing and calming abilities.

* * *

“I bet this would make an amazing weapon or piece of armor for me,” Aphrodite said.

“The only thing we’re missing is the blacksmith,” I joked.

“I have faith,” Artemis retorted, though she wasn’t jesting at all. “I truly believe good things are coming our way.”

“Check this out too,” the goddess of beauty said and showed me another gem.

* * *

Item: Sugilite

Type: Gemstone - Crystal

Durability: 9800/9800

Grade: C Grade

Weight: 56st.

Description: A rather rare gemstone that usually has pink coloration and forms large groups of hexagonal crystals. Its use in crafting was previously forbidden in many realms due to the random effects it could imbue items with. The dwarf meister Aroiry Metalhand eventually discovered a connection between sugilite formations and the attributes they contributed to crafted items. This taxonomy led to nine subcategories of the crystal, with effects ranging from increased healing and curing to explosive or necromantic outcomes.

* * *

“I thought you would have wanted the one with the pink color,” I said to Aphrodite. “You’re giving it to Artemis?”

“It’s too much of a risk,” she replied. “Artemis doesn’t care about that. As long as she gets a cool enchantment, she’ll be fine. Otherwise she’ll just take out her over enchanted bow and continue using that everywhere.”

“It’s true,” the huntress agreed. “We also found a pocket of diamonds and perhaps rubies too.”

I looked above her shoulder and noticed the men and women were now heading toward the mining camp, only to find that it was being expanded further. Their excited cheers reached us too when they noticed all the new tools their workshops were being equipped with before making their way back to us, though a handful of them broke off and headed toward their houses instead.

“How are the miners?” I asked.

“As happy as ever,” Artemis replied. “They want to get back into one of the mines and start bringing out the precious ores.”

“But we thought it would be best to ask you first,” Aphrodite said. “Perhaps you have other plans for them?”

“As a matter of fact,” I said, “I do. The guildhall just finished upgrading and there are two buildings I’d like them to get started on.”

“Do we have enough materials for them?” Artemis asked.

“No, I’ll get them with mana. I used everything we have except the food rations,” I said with pride. “But these two buildings will be good additions.”

“In that case, set them up and I’ll round the workers,” Artemis said, and moved to leave.

“You’ll see the materials appear pretty soon,” I said, waving her goodbye. “And what are you up to now, my goddess of love?”

“I’m going to enjoy a bath and a glass of wine,” she said, and winked at me. “I’ve had enough of mines over the past days.”

“I thought you could just cast that little spell of yours and clean yourself up right away,” I noted. “You don’t need to take a bath.”

“The bath is not about cleaning myself, dear,” she purred. “Perhaps you could join me one day and I’ll show exactly what it’s about.”

“Don’t mind if I do later today,” I said with a smile.

“Today is for me,” she whispered in my ear, as she walked past me “Leave me be.”

“I... I will,” I said and watched her as she retreated toward one of the hot springs they had discovered over the past few days.

I had no idea how such a beautiful and powerful goddess had ended up all by herself on the island of Mykonos for so long but it didn’t really matter much now. All that mattered was that she was here with me as a team, and—most of all—that she had shown me that I could trust her.

“Where?” Artemis’s shout brought me back to reality.

I realized I’d been watching Aphrodite for far longer than I thought and had completely forgotten I needed to prepare the materials for the buildings.

I hastily opened the available projects for construction and chose the spellcaster training facility.

* * *

Name: Warmage Academy

Resources Needed: 800x Lumber Unit (8,000 MP)

Construction Time: 960 minutes (576,000 MP)

Description: The place to be for magic user. The warmage academy isn’t just focused on offensive magic but is rather a meeting place for all magic paths, including healing and buffing. Spellcasters that train and study in this academy gain a 6% increase in Magic Attack and Casting Speed.

* * *

I purchased the lumber units and placed them close to the barracks. Once the faint outline of the building appeared to guide the workers in completing the building, I opened the menu again and this time selected the last available project.

* * *

Name: Academics and Research Institution

Resources Needed: 1600x Lumber Unit (16,000 MP)

Construction Time: 1920 minutes (1,152,000 MP)

Description: Knowledge is the ultimate currency in the world of the Apocosmos. This institution is focused on discovering long lost truths, deciphering the meanings of past events in order to provide insights into the future, and pushing the limits of understanding. Through time and perseverance, the institution can provide permanent boosts to all facets of life in the Apocosmos.

* * *

This building looked like it was the heftiest of any we had constructed so far and I could only hope it would be as useful as it was time-consuming to build. I materialized the lumber and placed it on the east side of the valley. Immediately the workers headed over there and got to work.

Since the building needed thirty-two hours to complete, I knew it wasn’t going to be ready any time soon. Having gotten a grasp of how the mortals worked and the number of breaks they needed, I doubted the workers would have it ready in less than two full days, even if some of them picked up the work when others went to rest.

But as long as it meant we could stop needlessly expending MP on mana workers, it was all worth the wait. After all, it wasn’t like there was a limit to guildhall levels—at least I didn’t know of any—so any MP we saved would always be useful one way or the other.

Speaking of leveling up the guild core, I still hadn’t actually checked the requirements for the next level. I pulled up the view and checked the list of things I needed to do.

* * *

Place of Power: Primary Guildhall - Divine Realm

Name: Mount Olympus

Level: 4

State: Idle

MP: 327,487,232,128

MP Generation: 1,000 MP/minute

Timber: 23

Iron: 36

Food Rations: 1239

Building : Farms #9-#16 (2.31% completed)

Mana Generator #2 (0.73% completed)

Mana Generator #1 (0.09% completed)

Mining Camp (0.17% completed)

Lumberyard (0.16% completed)

Warmage Academy (0.16% completed)

Academics and Research Institution (0.07% completed)

Level-Up Requirement: 40x Level 4 Houses (1)

8x Level 4 Farms (0)

Academics and Research Institution (0)

200 Citizens (285)

100,000 Food Rations (1239)

100,000 Lumber Units (23)

100,000 Iron Units (36)

Level-Up Cost: 1,000,000 MP

Level-Up Time: 192 hours

* * *

Eight whole days! Getting the hall to level five required eight days that I couldn’t even skip with mana. I dreaded to think of how long higher levels would take and could only hope there would be some way to reduce the time needed in the future.

The rest of the requirements were pretty standard. The number of maxed out houses doubled and the same was true for farms. The number of citizens, on the other hand, multiplied tenfold as did the one-time MP cost and the number of resources needed.

Looking at how the numbers climbed with every level, I figured I’d need to look into recruiting people a lot more aggressively. Once fully upgraded, the houses would be able to hold more than twenty-five hundred people and that was only those who would want to stay in the guildhall’s settlement. Combined with Dion, we could have many thousands of people gathering resources, building, and upgrading structures on Mount Olympus.

All this would have to wait though. Between Aphrodite’s late night raids on my bed and the amount of work involved in constructing, upgrading and running this place, I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since we arrived. With everything ready and running on auto, waiting for the sunset before retreating to bed didn’t sound like the best option.

I walked toward our residence, which was still the only level four house at this point, and opened the door to the cool interior. The light that entered the place could be magically dimmed and I did so as I walked down the corridor toward the largest of bedrooms.