Mountain of the Immortals

Having gone through the complete list of mundane buildings, I felt a weight that had been sitting on my shoulders for a few weeks lift off of me. I knew exactly what I had left to upgrade and a rough timeline of when this would happen. Of course, that wasn't to say that I had everything sorted out.

* * *

Available Divine Realm Construction Projects:

Divine Portal (1/1) - Divine Realm Construction

God's Watchtower (1/1) - Divine Realm Construction

Hexagonal Prismatic Ambrosia Cell Tower (1/1) - Divine Realm Construction

Wonder of Worship (1/1) - Divine Realm Construction

* * *

The day was coming to set the secondary portal in the sea. Artemis and Aphrodite had communicated with the crafters, miners, and lumberjacks to create a gigantic artificial lake that would allow traders to dock directly on Mount Olympus after using it. A big chunk of the people that were now available for building things again were put onto this project.

* * *

Name: Divine Portal

Level: 5

Level-Up Requirement : Settlement Level 6

Level-Up Cost: 1,600x Stone Units (16,000 MP)

12 Divinity Points

Level-Up Time: 32,000 minutes (19,200,000 MP)

Description: A two-way portal that can be permanently placed at a distance of up to 15 miles from the guild core. These portals allow for instantaneous teleportation between them with absolutely no limitations on size and numbers, other than the size of the portal itself. Portals of level 5 or higher can make use of a secondary set of portals. This second gateway can be permanently placed at a distance of up to 150 miles from the guild core.

* * *

Artemis had found a river running down the side of Mount Olympus and the miners had confirmed it would be possible to create a lake there, big enough to fit a few ships. In the beginning, it would probably be no more than two ships with enough space for them to maneuver. That's when I would place the secondary portal in the Aegean sea, with its counterpart right in the middle of the lake.

Artemis made sure to pick a spot that would allow for expansion to fit more and larger vessels in the future, essentially creating a whole port near the top of the highest mountain in Greece. Work was only just beginning to take off but I could hardly wait for the moment I would see ships start appearing on our mountain.

The god's watchtower had already been upgraded to level five and the wonder of worship's starting level was already five, so that only left our favorite food-producing construct.

* * *

Name: Hexagonal Prismatic Ambrosia Cell Tower

Level: 4

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5

Level-Up Cost: 8 Divinity Points

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

Description: Ambrosia is the food of immortality. Just as bees are capable of creating honey, so can places of power claimed by gods produce ambrosia. A series of interconnected hexagonal cells will produce enough ambrosia for one ration per day.

* * *

As the last of the divine realm projects at level four, I would definitely be upgrading it at some point, though I wasn't sure how soon that would be since it was entirely reliant on how much faster I would be able to regain my DP now. At the old regeneration rate, I would barely have enough DP to upgrade it before leaving for our raid on Hyperion's jail. And going there with no DP was absolutely out of the question, especially since we might need my divine teleportation skill to escape. But if I saw that I was earning DP fast enough now that passive praying had been unlocked, I would just upgrade it before our next mission. The benefits of ambrosia were just too great and I was curious to see what changes leveling up the cell tower would bring.

By this point, I had reached our house, but I still wasn't quite done so I took a seat on the covered porch outside and accessed the last list of construction projects--the one that had been unlocked after slaying Typhon.

* * *

Available Enhanced Guild Core Construction Projects:

Monster Slayers' Union (1/1)

Dragon Ghost Protector (1/1)

Magic Item Manifestation Altar (1/1)

* * *

The status screen of the Monster Slayers' Union showed that it could not be upgraded above level four, and my favorite magic-item-spitting altar was already level five. I couldn't remember the level of the Dragon Ghost Protector so I pulled up its information.

* * *

Name: Dragon Ghost Protector

Level: 4

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 1,000,000x Gold Units (1,000,000,000 MP)

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

Description: The essence of Typhon, the one-hundred-headed dragon has been captured in the guild core and is available for use for as long the core exists. By constructing one hundred golden dragon-head sculptures on the periphery of the city, the ghost of the king of monsters can be unleashed upon anyone who dares attack the settlement. This defensive measure will cost 1,000,000 MP to activate, lasts for one hour, and can only be used once per week.

* * *

Looking at the cost of the gold units, I remembered why I hadn't upgraded it yet. Gold wasn't something we'd been able to find in the mines yet, at least not in large enough quantities to make me believe that not paying the MP to purchase it would be a real option in the near future.

The conversation with the others in the guild about our people feeling safe and proud of their city had really stuck with me though. And I wanted to upgrade everything I could before leveling up our core again. With a heavy heart, I purchased all of the gold units and, for the first time, saw our MP pool take a serious hit. We still had hundreds of billions but it felt like the more I had, the stingier I was becoming with it. I hated seeing the numbers fall like that.

The gold appeared instantly along the walls, bars shining under the moonlight. It was a sad thing that we could only ever utilize it for this specific project and not trade it or even take it out of our city at all. Knowing this was the last task I had for the day, I accepted the prompt to initiate the upgrade of the project.

Now that everything had been set in motion and there was nothing left for me to do, the exhaustion of the day crept up much faster. I was craving something to drink but felt too lazy to get myself some wine. I didn't even have the power to call one of our servants to have them pour me a glass.

Thankfully, the moment I sighed in disappointment, the door opened and my two goddesses joined me along with a bottle of red wine and an extra glass for me. They were surely getting some levels in mind reading.

"Care for some wine from the Egyptian realm of Duat?" Aphrodite asked, placing an empty glass in front of me.

"There's nothing I want more right now." I reached out and held the bottom of the glass to steady it as Artemis poured me some. "I didn't know they could make wine down there."

"Neither did I," Aphrodite replied, "but the merchant that gifted this to me said that it's the next big thing in exports of the Egyptian underworld."

"I’m inclined to agree," Artemis said, her own glass already half-empty.

After smelling the sweet fruity aroma of the wine, I took a sip. It had a strong sweetness to it but it wasn't overwhelming by any means once I'd swallowed it. It left only a gentle aftertaste of berries and vanilla, something that I would never have expected from any of the underworld realms.

"This is good," I said, agreeing with Artemis. "The merchant did well to bring this to us."

"The merchant would have brought us anything and everything he could just for the chance of doing business with us--" Aphrodite said.

"Come on. No more work talk," Artemis interrupted. "Can we have a few moments of relaxation? It's not like I'll be able to keep myself awake for much longer."

So instead of talking for a moment, we just looked out at the city we had built. Most of the mortals were now either returning home or heading to one of the taverns to enjoy themselves. They seemed happy to be part of what we had created.

"We're doing a good job, aren't we?" Aphrodite asked.

"We are," I said, and took her hand in mine, "and I thank you for all your efforts. Nothing would have been possible without you two."

"Do you see yourself doing this forever?" Artemis asked. "I'm enjoying the work I'm doing in the forests and mines. What about you two?"

"Some days can be a bit too much," Aphrodite confessed, "but overall, I like what I’m doing."

"What would you change about those ‘too-much’ days?" I asked.

"Talking to smart people and opportunists can be draining at times," she explained. "I definitely enjoy it but every once in a while, I'd like to have someone else deal with all that." She waved absently at the city.

"Why don't you give someone the rights then?" Artemis asked.

"I don't have anyone ready for that yet," she replied. "Mind you, I am training a few people... even if they don't quite know it yet. We need more time."

She took a sip of her wine as I released my grasp on her hand and Artemis turned her attention to me instead.

"What about you?" she asked.

"I like it. And I don't mind all the rush so far," I said. "We're still growing and we will continue to do so as fast as we can."

"But don't you want to slow down at some point?" she said.

"We will," I replied with confidence. "Once Cronus is out of the picture."

"Why do I feel like once you're on the throne, we'll discover a whole new level of busy?"

"I'm sure it will be fine." I took a big sip of wine and enjoyed the night breeze on Mount Olympus.

* * *