NOVEL NEXT Chapter 70
His quest message made his story sound believable and I nodded in understanding. Manipulating Dark Energy prompts was definitely outside of my father's capabilities, and I couldn't see what the harm would be in listening to what he had to say. After all, there was no place I'd be safer than right here.
"I see," I said, and pulled the man away from the group of people who had started to gather around us by now. "What message were you assigned to deliver?"
"Thank you, Master Zeus," the man said, and his shoulders relaxed for the first time, as if he hadn't been sure I was going to sit and listen to what he had to say. "Your father said that he's willing to let go of his past grudges if you, Master Zeus, agree to an alliance."
I clenched my fist and a few sparks flew out of it, making Antinoos take a step back.
"It's fine," I said, trying to calm myself. "It's not your fault. Please carry on."
"He also said that you are going to be the only non-titan in the alliance," he continued, "and that you will be safe as long as you accept him as your true king."
"Am I to somehow answer my father on this?" I said.
The man shuddered slightly. "I can only assume that he would be expecting a response." He turned his eyes to the ground. "I could return to Mount Orthys and deliver your response if you wish it so, Master."
"Of course not," I said, and for the second time the man relaxed his posture. "I would never send you back there. You are more than welcome to stay here and join our town."
"That would be my honor, Master," the young man replied. His eyes glistened with joy and pride.
"As a matter of fact, we have many spare rooms in our newly upgraded house," I said, "and I'm sure the people serving us need an extra hand. What do you think of that?"
"That sounds like more than I deserve," the man said.
I stopped him before he could say anything more.
"There's the house," I said, and pointed at our manor. "Go find a bed for yourself and get to work at whatever the woman in charge of the house thinks you're best suited for."
"I appreciate this greatly, but if you did want me to deliver a response to your father, I'm sure it would be fine," the man offered, one last time.
"There will be no need for you to return to Mount Orthys with a response, because there will be no response," I said. "Now off you go."
The man hurried to his new home and I smiled at how happy he looked to finally be free of my father's clutches. I knew this happiness. I could relate to it.
"Are you sure we can trust him?" Aphrodite asked, having stayed out of the conversation but remained close enough to catch all of it.
"He's as harmless as a butterfly," I said. "He's a good kid, and I wish I could have taken all of my followers with me when I fled."
"It's not your fault," she said, and moved closer to touch her hand on my back.
"I know," I said. "Still, I'd like to make it right for him at least."
"And what about your father?"
"What about him?" I asked.
"It seems he wants peace," she replied. "Have you considered it?"
"There is nothing to consider," I said with determination. "I will only rest when he's dead and my siblings are avenged."
"I'm not saying you should forget about that," she said. "Just think of it strategically. Fighting fair is a lost cause."
"Who said anything about fighting fair?" I said. "I won't reply now, but we're essentially in a cease-fire as long as this proposal is in the air."
"But who knows how long it's going to last."
"Which is why we need to move fast," I said pointedly. "Let's meet tonight and discuss our next steps. We should act quickly."
"I like it when you get all worked up," she said, and her hand on my back suddenly curled, her nails digging into my flesh. "Tonight then. Oh, and I got a few smart mortals settled down already for you."
She kissed me behind my ear and turned to leave.
Having formed a small outline of what I wanted to achieve over the next few days, while Cronus was waiting for my answer, I accessed the overview of the city. It looked like Aphrodite had done an exquisite job finding people that would be able to work on research.
* * *
Name: Academics and Research Institution
Level: 4
Researchers: 9/12
Available Research: Improved Resource Gathering - Lumber Level 1
Improved Resource Gathering - Metals Level 1
Improved Resource Gathering - Stone Level 1
Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5
Level-Up Cost: 3200x Lumber Units (32,000 MP)
1600x Stone Units (16,000 MP)
Construction Time: 1,920 minutes (1,152,000 MP)
Description: Knowledge is the ultimate currency in the world of Apocosmos. This institution is focused on discovering long lost truths, deciphering the meanings of past events in order to provide insights for 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.
* * *
And now it all made sense. Researching things here would make our city stronger in the long run, and having them as a requirement for leveling up the whole guildhall would make any leader worth their salt try to find ways to stay on top of what they were offering.
Looking at the amount of resources we had in storage and what kind of things we used most of the time, it was clear that lumber had been falling behind stone and iron lately. Considering that stone and metals both came from the mining camp it made sense to give them an extra boost first. Especially for stone, since we would be needing lots more of it in order to upgrade the wall.
I focused on the stone-gathering research topic and a new pop-up appeared in front of me.
* * *
Name: Improved Resource Gathering - Stone
Level: 1
Type: Passive
RP Needed: 6
Precondition: None
Description: Apply the natural laws of the Apocosmos in combination with magic practices to make stone gathering easier, faster, and more efficient. Increases stone resources gathered by 2%.
* * *
On the one hand, the increase wasn't exactly crazy big. On the other, this was something we needed to do in order to level up our guild core anyway, and it wouldn't take any resources from us. In fact, the bonuses might eventually stack up enough to actually make a bigger difference.
I quickly checked at the other two research topics to see if there was anything different mentioned there.
* * *
Name: Improved Resource Gathering - Metals
Level: 1
Type: Passive
RP Needed: 6
Precondition: None
Description: Apply the natural laws of the Apocosmos in combination with magic practices to make metal gathering easier, faster, and more efficient. Increases metal resources gathered by 2%.
* * *
Name: Improved Resource Gathering - Lumber
Level: 1
Type: Passive
RP Needed: 6
Precondition: None
Description: Apply the natural laws of the Apocosmos in combination with magic practices to make lumber gathering easier, faster, and more efficient. Increases lumber resources gathered by 2%.
* * *
Seeing that they were all the same in terms of bonuses, all there was left was to work out what RP was. I focused my attention on those two letters, only to have an additional piece of information pop into my head and explain what this meant "Research Points". Apparently, each researcher was worth one research point for a day's worth of research.
This meant that the more researchers I put on a single topic, the faster it would finish. I put six of the nine researchers available on stone gathering and the rest on metals. The stone resources would need this whole day while the metals would take two days, which would be just enough time to have the first six finish lumber as well. This way, I would have all three of the research subjects down in a matter of two days.
Having taken care of that, we were right on track to start the upgrade of our guild in around two weeks' time. The upgrade itself would take another twenty-four days after that, so we wouldn't be seeing any major changes apart from the ones I'd just unlocked today for quite some time. Not that I was complaining.
Keeping a town of two thousand people happy and functioning was already a challenging task, even though I still found time to take my naps. Running a city of over ten thousand people sounded quite intimidating and I was in actual fear of what this meant for my favorite early afternoon activity.