Mountain of the Immortals

I woke up on the fourth day feeling slightly sore and a bit drained by the constant training followed by administration tasks and making sure everything was running smoothly. My DP were completely replenished, which was a testament to how much their regeneration rate had increased after building the wonder of worship.

Running the numbers in my head, I figured that even if I spent the eight DP needed to upgrade our ambrosia-producing facility, I would be back to full DP in time for our mission. So I pulled up its window and opted to upgrade it. It wouldn't be ready for another five days but I was in no rush to complete it faster.

With that taken care of, I headed to our daily training session. We were engaging in the usual banter while XPing but I could tell that my guildmates were also getting tired of this. After all, being a god meant that others usually did most of the work for you. But we all knew that we were halfway there with our daily training and were looking forward to our day of rest before we gave it our all one more time to get the god of the forge back. We stayed focused on our goal and showed the patience that befitted creatures that would never see the end of their days.

After another eight hours of training, I was completely exhausted and wanted to call it a day early but there were still a couple of things that I needed to check. For starters, our storage facilities had leveled up and required my attention. I headed directly there after Aphrodite cast her little refreshment spell on me. Apparently a sweaty god was not the image she thought I should project.

The buildings had grown significantly in size but their frame had also expanded in volume. The walls were significantly thicker and their surface was coated with a glistening substance that was cool to the touch.

* * *

Name: Storage Facility #1

Level: 4

Stored Resources: 56,887/1,000,000

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 24,000x Lumber Units (240,000 MP)

3,000x Iron Units (30,000 MP)

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

Description: A multi-story wooden building meant for storing purposes. This building is optimized to utilize every inch of space while also offering absolute protection for anything that is stored inside. A magically operated platform can transfer items from one level to another. Three of the floors have extremely low temperatures to keep biological materials from degrading and one of them has cabinets of extra-dimensional storage, which are devoid of oxygen. Additionally, a mana coating over the building's exterior protects it from flames, frost, and bludgeoning damage.

* * *

I didn't have the mental fortitude right now to go into the buildings and check them one by one, but judging by the dozens of people that were going in and out of them, I had no doubt the interior would have undergone a significant upgrade as well. After all, the storage limit had multiplied by a factor of ten.

Four million slots for resources were definitely enough to cover our needs. Even if we decided to start filling our warehouses instead of using and selling our goods, it would take months before we would be able to fill them up.

On the other hand though, the storage was one of the few types of building that hadn't been upgraded to level five yet and I didn't want to just leave them like that. I chose to upgrade all four of the storage buildings again and even larger outlines appeared around each one. The potential increase in size looked huge but I had no doubt that most of the work would be done underground, digging deeper into the mountain with magic.

I promised myself that after the eleven days the buildings needed to level up had passed, I would visit at least one of them to see the inside. Knowing its layout would help me in my discussions with Aphrodite, as that was where most of the traded goods and magic items were stored as well.

Then I put one leg in front of the other and trudged toward the second and thankfully last stop on today's tour of administration tasks. The warmage academy had been fully upgraded and I wanted to see how it looked, as well as how the new headmaster was doing.

* * *

Name: Warmage Academy

Level: 5

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 6

Level-Up Cost: 16,000x Lumber Units (160,000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 9,600 minutes (5,760,000 MP)

Description: The place to be for magic users. The warmage academy isn't just focused on offensive magic but is rather a meeting place for all magic paths, including healing and buffing. Spellcasters that train and study in this academy gain a 10% increase in Magic Attack and Casting Speed.

* * *

Hitting double digits in the Magic Attack and Casting Speed bonuses was proof that having such buildings for our citizens to train in were absolutely worth it. Making every attack count was true enough for fighters, but even more so for spellcasters who only had so many attacks in them before they needed to rest.

As if expecting me, the newly arrived first headmaster of Mount Olympus's warmage academy came out of one of the buildings and over to me. He was wearing long robes which completely hid his limbs, and it looked more like he was levitating toward me rather than walking.

His face was full of wrinkles, though his sparse white hair and beard made him look older than he probably was. The hunched man had probably spent most of his life studying, but there was something in his brown eyes that spoke of wisdom gained only through battle. He wasn't just a scholar. After all, a scholar would not be fit to teach our warmages.

"Master Zeus," the man said, and gave a bow as he reached me. "It is an honor to meet you."

* * *

Name: Kalinikos Oraos

Race: Light Elf

Class: Duelist of Mana

Level: 47

* * *

"It is good to finally meet you as well, Kalinikos," I said as soon as I'd absorbed the information from his Dark Energy prompt. "Aphrodite has spoken very highly of you."

"The goddess Aphrodite is far too kind," the man said. "I thought that we might expect a visit from you, since the academy was upgraded today."

"Indeed. I wanted to see whether the upgrade is useful to you and the training of our magically gifted citizens."

"Most definitely, Master Zeus," the man replied. "The library has grown and now gives us the ability to copy books, so that we no longer have to worry about them being damaged over time. It only takes a couple of days before our disciples create a copy of new books for us."

"That's great to hear." I rubbed my neck, the tiredness of the day getting the best of me.

"I do not wish to take too much of your time, Master," the man said, and bowed again. "I only thought that this would be a great opportunity to present myself to you and thank you for upgrading the academy. We will do everything in our power to make you proud."

"Your service is greatly appreciated," I said, and smiled at the old man before turning my back and taking the road home.

He looked like an honest man. From what Aphrodite had told me, his yearning for magic and growing in power had earned him quite a few enemies, though none of them were significant enough for us to worry about. Still, this had somewhat reduced his ability to excel academically.

That fact, in combination with his dueling skills and his high level made him the perfect candidate for the position of headmaster. He would win by having a position of authority where nobody would be able to touch him and he'd be able to further his studies, while we had gained a competent practitioner to lead our spellcasters.

I barely had time to get out of my armor before falling into bed. I let the exhaustion take me by spreading myself out over the otherwise empty bed. I didn't even notice when Aphrodite joined me. The sleep was deep and uneventful--exactly what I needed.

* * *