Mountain of the Immortals

“Are you okay?” I shouted at the goddesses.

The notification finally left my view.

“We are,” Aphrodite said, running to meet me, her weapon already glowing with mana. “How are you alive?”

She released her spell on a bloody and limping Artemis, healing her a little. They both looked pretty beaten up, with multiple bleeding wounds, while I was completely healthy. I took two potions out of my inventory and passed one over to her before throwing the other to Artemis.

* * *

Item: Greater Healing Potion

Type: Consumable - Potion

Durability: 4000/4000

Rarity: B Grade

Weight: 4st.

Description: A magic potion, which will restore HP at a fast pace upon consumption.

* * *

Artemis downed it immediately but Aphrodite finished casting the last spell her MP pool would allow on Artemis, completely healing her, before she drank hers. Her HP was hovering above the halfway point now and increasing by the second thanks to the effect of the potion. However, she still looked worse for wear so Artemis and I helped her away from the beast’s body, which was still pumping blood everywhere.

With each step we took, our disgust grew, our feet squelching through the blood-soaked mud that was now the ground of our settlement. None of that mattered anymore though. we’d just managed to stand our ground and killed one of the most powerful creatures to ever roam the Apocosmos.

“We thought you were dead,” Artemis said, once we were out of the blood pond and walking on relatively dry grass again.

“I was,” I said as we laid on the ground, “but I made an upgrade to our settlement just before the battle that allowed me to return.”

“It allowed you to come back from the dead?” Aphrodite asked, surprised. “Without anyone resurrecting you?”

“That’s right,” I replied with a proud smile. “No resurrection, returning with full HP and MP, and the best part is you can do it without losing any XP.”

“That’s preposterous,” she retorted, and started to try to stand up. “I want to see this upgrade you’re talking about.”

“You will,” I said and gently pushed her back down, “but first you need to rest. You’re completely out of MP and we all look a mess.”

“He’s right,” Artemis agreed, laying on her back and crossing her hands behind her neck as she looked up at the setting sun. “This was one hell of a hunt, Zeus.”

“That depends on how you look at it,” I said. “Some might say that we were the ones being hunted.”

“Appearances don’t matter in the hunt,” she said with confidence. “He who remains alive after the fight is over is the hunter. That thing was my prey.”

She pointed her finger at the now completely still corpse of the gigantic dragon.

“Speaking of which, did you receive that golden notification too?” I asked.

“The one that praised you as the new champion monster slayer?” Aphrodite asked.

“The one that couldn’t be removed from our view?” Artemis added.

“I guess you did,” I concluded. “Which probably means that everyone else has seen it too. This could bring a whole lot of trouble to us.”

“It will bring a whole lot of opportunities to us too,” Aphrodite said.

“More importantly,” Artemis said, and turned to look at me, “can you imagine the look on your father’s face when he realized you killed his monster?”

A big smile formed on my face.

“And then when he tried to push the notification away and couldn’t?” the huntress added.

That was enough to make me burst into laughter. I wished I could have been somewhere watching him go red with anger as it happened. Normally, I would have been worried that he’d take out his anger on my siblings, but at least he couldn’t hurt them if they weren’t there anymore.

This last thought was enough to make me stop laughing and bring me back to reality. We had slain one of the toughest things my father could have thrown at us and in doing so had turned every single eye in the Greek realms on our guild. Aphrodite was absolutely correct to suggested this could bring a treasure trove of opportunities our way but I was sure it would also spell more trouble in the future. After all, Cronus was not one to accept defeat and nor was I going to just let him live as if nothing had happened. The sand in his life’s hourglass was running low.

“What are we going to do about this thing?” Aphrodite asked, pointing at the still twitching mountain of flesh. “And look at all the damage it’s caused to our brand new walls.”

“I’ll need you to bring all mortals back from the caves,” I said, finally standing up. “There are probably an awful lot of ingredients we can loot from a monster like this.”

“And I bet its meat will give all kinds of boons,” Artemis said enthusiastically.

“If only someone hadn’t completely eradicated all of the dragon’s heads, we would have had a lot of dragon eyes, and skulls too,” Aphrodite joked.

“I’m pretty sure there are many teeth left unharmed here and there,” I replied with a grin on my face. “And if we really want to, I guess we can glue the pieces of a skull back together. At least enough pieces to form one skull.”

“I’m only joking,” she said, before casting her small water manipulating spell and cleaning each of us in turn. “You did great.”

“About that,” I said, and sighed. “I know that the golden notification only mentioned my name as Typhon’s slayer, but…”

This time, it was their turn to burst into laughter. My confused face probably only served to make them laugh even harder.

“I couldn’t give a crow’s ass about the notification, Zeus,” Artemis said when she finally managed to catch her breath. “This was the hunt of the lifetime and I will forever cherish it. I’m not doing it for the glory and the recognition but for the absolute thrill of it.”

“And you know me,” Aphrodite replied in a softer voice, already looking as if we hadn’t just fought a battle for our lives, “I prefer working in the shadows. You can’t have the goddess of love being called the supreme slayer of monsters or what have you.”

“Would you look at that?” Artemis said excitedly. “I finally got another level.”

“Hey, so did I,” Aphrodite said, and I took the opportunity to look at the notifications that were flashing on the edge of my own view.

* * *

Congratulations. You have advanced to level 57.

You have 5 skills ready for upgrade.

* * *