Mountain of the Immortals

It looked like every building we had would soon be operating at full capacity. That wasn't the end of my administration tasks for the day though. I still had a few workers available and I needed to decide the order in which they would work on the upgrades of the existing buildings.

The storage buildings would probably need upgrading if we were to continue producing enough resources to level up our core again but it wasn't something that we absolutely needed at the moment. For now, I wanted to make sure the basics were all upgraded to their maximum.

Since I had taken care of building more houses for people to live in, farms to feed them, and mana generators to continue growing our MP pool, the next step was to maximize the returns from resource-generating buildings. At the moment I only had two of them--one for lumber and one for stones and metal--and I wanted them to operate as efficiently as possible.

I pulled up the mining camp first as I wanted to show my appreciation to all the miners I'd encountered today.

* * *

Name: Mining Camp

Level: 4

Output: 400 units/hour

Job Slots: 24

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 4,000x Lumber Units (40,000 MP)

2,000x Iron Units (20,000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 1,920 minutes (1,152,000 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.

* * *

The number of materials needed to level it up was quite low compared to the rest of the upgrades. In fact, I was pretty sure we already had what was needed in our stores, so I simply activated the upgrading of the camp, making the outline of the new version appear around the existing construction. Almost immediately, a group of workers headed in that direction to inspect it, only to then run over to the storage buildings to bring the necessary materials and get to work.

Next on my list was the lumberyard, and I could only hope I had enough workers to initiate the building of that as well. If not, I would be forced to use mana workers, since I didn't want it to look like I was playing favorites between the two group of resource gatherers.

* * *

Name: Lumberyard

Level: 4

Output: 400 units/hour

Job Slots: 24

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 4,000x Lumber Units (40,000MP)

Level-Up Time: 1,920 minutes (1,152,000MP)

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 the lumber unit production rate.

* * *

This project required even fewer resources to complete so I quickly opted to build it with the lumber units still left in our storage. I was happy to see that some more people headed toward the lumberyard to inspect the new schematic that was hovering around it. Only this time, they started picking up the lumber that was already prepared in the yard and hadn't been sent to storage yet.

This meant they were able to start the upgrade a bit earlier than the mining camp, though a few minutes didn't make much of a difference to me. The most important thing was that both buildings were going to be ready for more people to work in them around the clock, thus increasing their output.

At this point I probably had very few workers still available, if any, so I thought about what else I could possibly start building next. Reinforcing the walls was always a good choice, so I pulled up that status window.

* * *

Name: Walls

Level: 4

Level-Up Requirement.: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 10000x Lumber Units (100,000 MP)

150000x Iron Units (1,500,000 MP)

300000x Stone Units (3,000,000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 15,360 minutes (9,216,000 MP)

Description: A wall of stone and concrete that surrounds the entire settlement. The wall is thick enough to allow a few people to patrol along its top, and it is a great defense against large-sized enemies. It can withstand significant non-magical damage and a minimal amount of magical damage as well.

* * *

The amount of materials required was staggering, but despite the high cost, I ultimately thought that it would be better to purchase them than have any of the workers sitting idle. The walls would take around eleven days to completely upgrade and that should take care of the rest of the workforce I had available at the moment. Once the new citizens moved in and our population grew, I could look into upgrading more buildings.

When I opted to start the upgrade, however, I was met with a prompt written in red.

* * *

There are not enough available workers to start the construction of this project.

Would you like to spend 921,600 MP and assign mana workers to this project?

Yes No

* * *

I selected "No" and completely closed the upgrades window. Having all of the available people working on something was enough for now. Upgrading the walls would have to wait until our citizen numbers grew, and then I could look into what we should work on next. All I could do now was wait until Aphrodite was done with our new arrivals.

I pulled up the overview one last time before heading back home.

* * *

Place of Power: Primary Guildhall - Divine Realm

Name: Mount Olympus

Level: 5

State: Idle

MP: 326,878,320,155

MP Generation: 23,000 MP/minute

Population: 1,270

Level-Up Requirements: 80x Level 5 Manors (1/80)

16x Level 5 Farms (0/16)

4,000 Citizens (1,270/2,000)

Intelligence Agency (0/1)

Complete 1x Research Project (0/1)

Complete 1x Raid (Met)

1,000,000 Food Rations (45,746/1,000,000)

1,000,000 Lumber Units (21,267/1,000,000)

1,000,000 Iron Units (13,548/1,000,000)

Level-Up Cost: 10,000,000 MP

Level-Up Time: 34,560 minutes

Constructing: Mining Camp (4.54% completed)

Lumberyard (4.53% completed)

...Expand

* * *

I made sure to remove all unnecessary information from the overview and minimize the constructing view since I didn't want to see all the projects whenever I called on it. If I ever needed to look at something specific, I could always expand the view and find it again. At the moment I had everything I needed in one place.

Proud at the amount of progress we were making, I stretched my limbs and took the way to my manor. It was almost time to pick up the daily portion of ambrosia and that was the time when I took my lunch every day. The people working in our house were as punctual about this kind of thing as they were discreet when we didn't want them around.

After getting home and storing the daily ambrosia portion in my inventory, I had a lavish, freshly cooked lunch. Then I thought it would be a good idea to rest my body and mind until our new arrivals had opened up the blacksmith's workshop and the research facilities. It wasn't often that I found myself alone in bed but I did cherish every moment of my early afternoon naps. That was my secret in keeping up with a goddess of love, beauty and sex while running a successful kingdom. Lots of naps.

* * *

"There's someone here to see you." Aphrodite's voice echoed from downstairs, waking me up.

"Up here!" I said, sitting up on the bed and waiting for Aphrodite's footsteps to reach the bedroom.

"I was sure you were having one of your naps again. You've been ignoring my guild chat messages for an hour now," she said, playfully angry.

"I could have sworn that my head touched my pillow only a moment ago," I said, and yawned myself out of the situation.

"Right, sleepyhead," she said, obviously not believing me. "There's someone who wants to talk to you."

"What about? Can't he tell you?"

"He can, but he said it's about your father."

That got me out of bed immediately.

"How did he get here?" I asked. "Only followers of my faith are supposed to be able to use the portal. Did he fly up here?"

"Everything is fine," she said, trying to calm me down. "And he did come through the portal. He is one of your followers. I guess he didn't know about what happened back at Mount Orthys and was sent here by your father to deliver a message."

"Where is he now?"

"By the portal," she said. I raced past her, and she turned to follow me as I flew down the stairs and out of our home.

I recognized the man who was waiting to see me instantly. He was one of the young stablehands. I could only imagine what my father must have done to my horses after I escaped him. But I wasn't going to ask him anything about what was happening back there. First, I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting myself into a trap.

* * *

Name: Antinoos Chrysou

Race: Human

Class: Fighter

Level: 7

* * *

"Antinoos," I said, and he immediately fell down on one knee. I pulled him up and smiled at him. "It's so good to see you again."

"Master Zeus," the young man replied in a wavering voice. "Your absence has been painful to your loyal subjects. I thrive in your presence."

"No need to be this formal, Antinoos," I said, patting his shoulder. "Let's take joy in the fact that you are here now."

"It was awful without you in the palace, Master Zeus," the man said, as if I hadn't purposefully tried to steer him away from the subject. "Your father did terrible things to us before most of us managed to escape."

"When did you escape?" I asked.

"I didn't, Master Zeus," he said. "As soon as I found out what your father had done and that you had fled Mount Orthys, I knew he would take revenge upon your beloved animals. So I set them free."

"You did good," I said, softly slapping his face in gratitude. "They will be happier in the wild than in my father's belly."

"I was caught in the act and was taken prisoner until now," the man continued. "Your father said I was the last of your believers on the whole mountain and that he would set me free if I did a quest for him."

"What kind of quest?" I asked. Then I received a notification he pushed to me.

* * *

Quest Name: Bearer of Titan News

Availability: Single

Rarity: C Grade

Description: Cronus, the king of titans, has a proposal for his youngest son, Zeus. Due to their recent past, a meeting between the two would most definitely end in a fight. A messenger is tasked with relaying his proposal.

Success: Deliver the proposal to Zeus.

Failure: Failure to deliver the proposal to Zeus within 60 days.

Status: 0/1

Time Left: 28 days, 11 hours, 2 minutes, and 18 seconds

Reward: Freedom to leave Mount Orthys without repercussions

* * *