Mountain of the Immortals

We spent the next few hours analyzing the possibilities and limitations of my divine skills, as well as discussing party tactics for my normal skills. Once we finished, we switched our topic of discussion to the buildings in our guild, what my strategy was for growing it, and where he thought I should focus.

Ares was a great conversationalist and he had a brilliant strategic mind, something that I thought we needed more of. I thought very much the same things as he did, but sometimes he saw things slightly differently than I did. I had always appreciated this when I was debating with my siblings.

Different points of view always made for better decision-making, and the same was true when it came to deciding what should be built first in our guildhall. For example, Ares agreed that I should focus on resource-gathering and making the most of our mana generators, but he made a point about defensive measures that I hadn't considered.

According to him, strong walls didn't only keep enemies out of your city when they attacked, but also stopped them from attacking before they even reached them. What he meant was that the deterrent factor that a gigantic wall or huge weapon would have on enemies wasn't included in its description. And you couldn't put a price on that.

By that point, the two goddesses had also joined our conversation and added their own opinions. According to Aphrodite, whenever a merchant or official from another guild visited us, they would feel the security and awe of a well-protected city when they saw all of the defensive structures around it. Artemis added that, as safe and happy as people were for the time being, Typhon's attack and their hasty retreat inside the mines was still something they talked about with concern. If they knew that we were doing our utmost to make sure they were safe in the event of another attack, it would have a positive impact on their happiness and productivity as well.

This was why I loved conversations with people who had different perspectives from my own. I'd just found out about benefits that weren't apparent to me, and I made a note to have more of these discussion sessions in the future. That, and that I definitely needed to upgrade the walls as soon as possible, whenever I next had the chance.

I wasn't just going to throw away the work our citizens had already done to upgrade them while we were away. However, it did make me think that perhaps I should level them up instantly next time.

The remainder of the trip was quite relaxing, as it alternated between talking, strategizing, and resting. The topic of how we would handle rescuing Hephaestus came up multiple times, but I always put it aside. I wanted us to get back to our guildhall, take a few days there, and then we would plan after we were back to our usual selves and routines.

I didn't want to set aside the occasional notifications coming from the guildhall though. Especially the one notifying me that all our research subjects had been completed and that the researchers would now sit idle. And so, once I got the notifications that all of the initial research topics had been completed, I opened up the menu to see if any new ones had been unlocked.

* * *

Name: Academics and Research Institution

Level: 4

Researchers: 9/12

Available Research: Improved Resource Gathering - Lumber Level 2

Improved Resource Gathering - Metals Level 2

Improved Resource Gathering - Stone Level 2

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 meaning 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.

* * *

It seemed that the only thing that had changed was now having access to higher-level versions of the same initial three topics I had available. Since there were no new topics and I had quite a few workers available, I decided to upgrade the building as well. It would be some time before we upgraded the guild core again, so it made sense to bring everything up to its maximum level in the meantime.

Having set that up, I notified Aphrodite that we would soon have more slots for researchers and looked at the upgraded research topics.

* * *

Name: Improved Resource Gathering - Metals

Level: 2

Type: Passive

RP Needed: 3

Precondition: Improved Resource Gathering - Metals (Level 1).

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 4%.

* * *

I found it very interesting that having already researched the first level of the specific topic, the research points required for this level had dropped to half. I could only attribute this to the fact that the initial research was probably based on making some kind of scientific breakthrough, while subsequent levels were incremental improvements.

I had no doubt that at some point we would hit a plateau, but a further increase of two percent per level of research was more than enough for me. Especially since--after checking the other two research topics--I saw that each topic needed only three RP, which meant I could now gain one level per day in all of them. This way, I wouldn't have to worry about the miners thinking I was giving preferential treatment to the lumberjacks or the other way around.

Having set up a great plan for moving forward on the research front, I looked at one of the notifications I had been ignoring for a couple of days now.

* * *

The Divine Realm construction project "God's Watchtower" has been successfully upgraded to level 5.

* * *

I pulled up the information about the watchtower, happy to see that at least one of my divine projects was now at its maximum possible level.

* * *

Name: God's Watchtower

Level: 5

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 6

Resources Needed: 1,600x Stone Units (16,000 MP)

12 Divinity Points

Level-Up Time: 8,000 minutes (4,800,000 MP)

Description: This watchtower was created with the single purpose of guarding the realm of the god who controls it. At the expense of 1 Divinity Point per day, said god will be notified when a creature of significant power enters a range of 10,000 miles. Additionally, the watchtower will nullify a creature's invisibility once they come within 1,000 feet of the walls, and will notify the god who controls the watchtower.

* * *

I hadn't considered the fact that enemies might approach us having rendered themselves invisible, and had therefore never worried about it. Knowing that I was now protected from something I didn't know I needed protection from in the first place was quite a confusing feeling but I took it as a win. As I did with the fact that the range of the watchtower had increased a hundredfold.

Considering how far away it would detect enemies now, I wondered whether I would need to upgrade it any further than this. When Typhon came to attack us, we'd had enough time during those one hundred miles to hide everyone before he reached us. With ten thousand miles' warning, we might even be able to completely abandon the guildhall if needed. Not that I would ever let that happen.

I opened another notification I had ignored when it first arrived.

* * *

The construction project "Intelligence Agency" has been successfully completed.

* * *

I could do nothing about this specific building at the moment, but since it was part of the requirements for upgrading the guild core, I'd had our people build it anyway. I hadn't been able to see before what it would be able to offer so far.

* * *

Name: Intelligence Agency

Level: 5

Operatives: 0/8

Assignments: Espionage - Information Gathering (0)

Espionage - Steal Technology (0)

Sabotage – Incite Discord (0)

Sabotage - Active Planning or Technological Sabotage (0)

Surveillance - Keeping Tabs on High-Risk Individuals (0)

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 6

Resources Needed: 3,600x Lumber Units (36,000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 8,000 minutes (4,800,000 MP)

Description: Intelligence operatives serve their city in the darkest shadows and deepest crevices of the Apocosmos. When there is information that might be of benefit to their homeland, these agents would sacrifice even their own lives in order to acquire it. Having an Intelligence Agency means that a city is interested in becoming a major player in the web that is the Apocosmos. Pieces of information may start flowing toward the masters of the agency almost immediately after its construction, and targeted espionage becomes available during wartime or for financial gain.

* * *

The agency looked a lot more complicated than I'd thought it would be. There were so many things an operative could do and I was sure I could find some great uses for most of the options. It would be especially helpful in getting some kind of inside information on what my father was doing, and whether he was preparing for an attack or genuinely offering an alliance.

At the same time, I had to be careful about possible spies among my people. Having all of our citizens pledge their allegiance to me and become my followers reduced the chances of something like that happening, but I couldn't help but feel a little paranoid now that I knew these things were a real possibility.

The only thing that kept me sane was the fact that I knew my father hadn't built a building like this in his guildhall. In fact, he was very bad at listening to other people's advice, much less putting resources into being fed information by mortals.

But I was nothing like my father. He was committing the same acts of hubris that he'd hated in his own father and which had driven him to depose of him. I was still kind of surprised that he didn't see the irony of it all, but I guessed that a slice of poetic justice would make for an even greater story once I had defeated him.

I showed the intelligence agency to Aphrodite and Ares and they were both beyond excited about it. This kind of game was something that the duo were particularly good at. Aphrodite was great at getting people to give her what she wanted face to face, while Ares managed similar, if not better, results behind their backs.

Together, these two could make the whole world kneel before us and ask for our permission to do so. I could only imagine what uses they might find for the operatives, gaining tactical advantages in battle, influencing politics, or establishing monopolies and acquiring merchant cartels. I'm sure they could have talked about it for hours if I had been able to listen to them for that long.

The bottom line was that this would be a big advantage for us and Aphrodite would do her best to recognize people that would fit into this type of role. They needed to be devout to me, individuals who would give their lives for the betterment of their city and our guild. And they would need to be humble people, individuals that didn't care about the glory. Their satisfaction would come from the fact that they were doing good work for everyone in their town, even if they never heard a single thank you, and even if they died in a faraway land and never got a proper burial.

Luckily, mortals were not particularly difficult to convince in terms of what was considered honorable, especially when it came from an immortal god. For this reason, Aphrodite felt confident that we would eventually find suitable people for the job.

And as a reward, as well as a means to solidify their conviction, I proposed giving them a portion of ambrosia. That might be just enough to save them from a difficult situation and it would certainly go a long way to making sure they remained loyal to us and their city. If we couldn't trust them to keep its existence a secret, I didn't know who we could trust.