Mountain of the Immortals

Within seconds the temple was complete and I focused on it, absorbing the Dark Energy information.

* * *

Name: Wonder of Worship

Level: 5 (Maximum)

Description: A place to unite all followers under one roof. This temple is the epicenter of any god's faith, as well as the holiest place to visit for their followers. Pilgrimages can be carried out with this temple as a goal. Each pilgrimage successfully completed provides both the god and the follower with XP proportionate to the distance traveled. Additionally, continuous subconscious praying is unlocked.

* * *

Seeing buildings at their maximum possible level was always a good thing. As much as I liked upgrades and their benefits, there was something special about knowing that a building I had put up was the best version of itself it could ever be. Knowing that I had the best I could get gave me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

The people who were still out on the streets started flocking into the temple and all of the torches inside were soon lit, giving it a beauty that was hard to match among the other buildings in our city. I smiled with pride and focused on the divinity level-up notification again to check the new skill I had unlocked.

* * *

Name: Go with the Current

Level: 1

Type: Active - Divine

HP Consumed: 0

MP Consumed: 100

DP Consumed: 1/minute

Power: -

Range: Self

Precondition: None

Description: The god of thunder and lightning is able to leave this mortal coil for a brief period of time and transform his consciousness into pure electric energy. By doing so, Zeus is able to travel through any material that allows electricity to pass through it, adopting all the attributes of the energy he has become. Zeus will reclaim his body when his available DP run out.

* * *

This was an interesting skill that would probably be useful in lots of situations, though I wasn't a hundred percent sure I understood it. Would I need to switch in and out of my body to see where I was going as energy, or would I just continue?

So far, the Dark Energy had gifted me with skills that would be useful in the challenges that I was about to face, one way or another. But I couldn't understand how this skill would be of any use in our upcoming dungeon run. I knew that lightning traveled well through water and some metals, but I couldn't see how this might be utilized.

Since I only had one DP left after the construction of the temple, I decided that perhaps I should let them regenerate a bit before I tried this skill out. After all, I was hoping that I would gain DP back much faster from now on. So I continued checking my notifications.

* * *

The construction project "Melee Fighting Barracks" has been successfully upgraded to level 4.

* * *

With more people in the town I expected more to be joining the fighting barracks, and they absolutely deserved another upgrade, especially after the little demonstration they had prepared for me when we returned with Ares. Now we also had enough resources and plenty of workers available to build and upgrade less conservatively.

I pulled up the information on the barracks and looked at the upgrade requirements.

* * *

Name: Melee Fighting Barracks

Level: 4

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 80,000x Lumber Units (800,000 MP)

: 40,000x Stone Units (400,000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 7,200 minutes (4,320,000 MP)

Description: The perfect place to train for melee combat. The barracks are equipped with all the necessary training equipment and magical automations needed to strengthen the body and increase in aptitude with all close-combat weapons. Troops that train in these barracks gain an 8% increase in Physical Attack and Attack Speed.

* * *

The cost in terms of resources had grown twentyfold compared to the previous level, but I still thought it was absolutely worth it to buy them with MP. Since the upgrade was going to be done by mortals, we were already saving a lot of MP compared to an instant build. I purchased all the resources and they materialized around the building. When I opted to upgrade the barracks, the outline of the future version of the building appeared around the existing one. In five days, we would have the melee fighting barracks all caught up with the rest of the buildings. Then they would have to wait for the guild core to level up, just like everyone else.

I pulled up the next notification waiting for me, though I already knew what it was going to be.

* * *

The construction project "Ranged Fighting Barracks" has been successfully upgraded to level 4.

* * *

Without thinking about it, I focused on the building and pulled up its information.

* * *

Name: Ranged Fighting Barracks

Level: 4

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 80,000x Lumber Units (800,000 MP)

: 40,000x Stone Units (400,000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 7,200 minutes (4,320,000 MP)

Description: The perfect place to train for ranged combat. Everything a fighter needs to excel in this style of fighting can be found in these barracks, from moving targets to a multitude of training weapons and projectiles. Fighters who do their training here will see an immediate increase in their agility and control over these weapons. The troops that train in these barracks gain an 8% increase in Physical Attack and Attack Speed.

* * *

The small percentile boost in Physical Attack and Attack Speed when we first raised these buildings might not have looked like much, but the eight percent we had now--and even more so the ten percent boost we'd have in five days--was a significant increase. Considering that this would be something that stayed with all the warriors of our guildhall, a ten percent increase spread over thousands of people that might also get buffed before battle, was killer.

Again, I didn't even consider delaying this upgrade. These two buildings needed to be upgraded at the same time to avoid any of our fighters feeling left out or underappreciated in comparison with one another, just like the lumberyard and the mining camp. Whatever one of them got, the other should immediately get as well.

The next notifications I'd received looked like a long list but I had a pretty good idea what it was about before I even expanded it.

* * *

The construction project "Manor #2" has been successfully upgraded to level 5.

The construction project "Manor #3" has been successfully upgraded to level 5.

The construction project "Manor #4" has been successfully upgraded to level 5.

...Expand

* * *

This was definitely the biggest step in growing as a community. Having all of these buildings filled with people meant that we had enough citizens to run all of our resource gathering facilities around the clock, enough workers to build, upgrade, and maintain our buildings, enough people to manage all of the tasks that a city needed--from cleaning to maintaining the vegetation to running shops and baking pastries.

Dion, the city at the base of Mount Olympus, might have more citizens still, but ours lived in the most beautiful and efficiently managed place in the entire Greek world. Not to mention that they were living in mansions, with comforts usually reserved for rich merchants, lords, and kings.

The manors had been occupying the largest number of our workers for quite some time and now that they were all finished, it meant that we would be able to push the rest of the buildings up to level five at last. I pulled up the list of regular buildings to see what was still left to do.

* * *

Available Construction Projects:

Tent (160/160)

Storage Shack (2/6)

Farm (32/32)

Lumberyard (1/1)

Mining Camp (1/1)

Blacksmith's Workshop (1/1)

Melee Fighting Barracks (1/1)

Ranged Fighting Barracks (1/1)

Walls (1/1)

Mana Generator (4/4)

Magic Thunder Coil Defenses (2/4)

Warmage Academy (1/1)

Academics and Research Institution (1/1)

Intelligence Agency (1/1)

Sky Harbor (0/1)

* * *