Mountain of the Immortals

I woke up the next day completely refreshed and seemingly before anyone else in our house. Aphrodite was still sleeping on my side, her breathing deep and slow. I crawled out of bed carefully, so as not to wake her immediately, and walked toward the large balcony overseeing the city--the latest addition to our home. Breathing the fresh air, I stretched my body and prepared myself for another day of hard work.

Half an hour later the others woke up as well and joined me for a quick breakfast. We usually skipped it or just ate something on our way to our XP location but it looked like I wasn't the only one who was looking forward to getting ahead of this day.

Ares looked even more tired than he had the day before, which only made his sister tease him even more. Throughout the whole eight hours of XPing, Aphrodite gave him shit about always having to heal him and that he was moving too slowly or was too careless with his attacks.

No matter how much she tried, however, Ares had clearly mastered the technique of ignoring his sister's taunts, even if it made for a very amusing day for the rest of us. The sun was still up when we finished and for the first time in days, I didn't have anything to do afterward.

There were no buildings waiting for me to oversee their completion or manage their upgrades, no visits to any of the workplaces, and no emergency consultations with the heads of each sector. Instead, I decided to stick with Aphrodite for a while. It would be a good way to understand what she did on the daily and how she might be able to replace herself with some mortals.

After only a couple of hours of endless meetings with merchants and ambassadors, hearings with the elders of Dion, and passing judgment on several small disputes, I could see why she was coming home drained every day. What I also saw though was the small envoy of mortals that followed her around, shadowing her and learning the ropes of what she did.

It was my firm belief that at least five of the two dozen clerks she had were ready to take over her responsibilities, meaning she would be able to take a higher-level overview position. My Aphrodite was too much of a perfectionist though and insisted that it would take at least a couple more months before she would be willing to let them take over.

On the way home, after leaving her in yet another meeting, I finally found out why Ares was looking increasingly tired every day. Passing outside of his house, I saw him talking to a few men and women, but he dismissed them as soon he saw me approaching.

"You didn't need to do that," I said.

"I was done with them anyway," he said, "but I have great news."

"Do tell," I said, and sat on a bench outside his manor.

"Those eight are my final candidates for the intelligence agency."

"Is that what you've been slaving over these past few days?" I asked.

He offered me a mug of beer he'd produced from his inventory and I took it.

"I told you I'd have them ready to go as soon as possible," he said, and then raised his own mug in salute before downing it in one go. "These people are smart, down to earth, and fiercely loyal to you."

"Then why didn't you keep them here so I can meet them?"

"Because they are soldiers above all," he said. "Meeting you will be a reward they will cherish forever, but which comes only after they start doing jobs for us."

"Does this mean I can allocate tasks to them already?" I asked.

"Take a look for yourself." He sent me the status screen of the intelligence agency.

* * *

Name: Intelligence Agency

Level: 5

Operatives: 8/8

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.

* * *

"Great work, Ares," I said, and immediately started to consider my options.

"I can give you suggestions if you want," Ares said.

"Look, I don't pretend to know more of these things than you do, so listen to what I want and tell me what you can do about it."

"Of course," he said, and produced another mug of cold beer from his inventory. "There's nothing like beer from Dion."

"Is this from Dion?" I said, looking at my mug. "Damn fine stuff! Anyway, at the moment I'm only interested in getting information on one person and his plans."

"Cronus," he said. His nostrils flared a bit as he said the name.

I had no idea he was so passionate about beating my father, but I was happy to see that we saw eye to eye on this at least.

"Correct," I said. "I want to know what he's doing, especially whether he's moving forces and planning for an attack."

"Pretty straightforward," Ares replied. "Would you agree with planting the seed of discord among his followers as well? Your father losing followers might serve you well when the time comes to face him."

"No, nothing as aggressive yet. I don't want to risk him finding out that I'm moving against him so soon. You can talk with Aphrodite and decide which organizations we want information on," I said, and then considered something that had been at the back of my mind since we returned to Mount Olympus with Ares. "Actually, there is another person I would like to get more information on. Or rather two people."

"Two individuals?" Ares looked at me surprised. "Do you know their names and whereabouts?"

"It's the two Norse god brothers we pissed off in Niflheim," I said, my voice as flat as possible. "I don't want our actions there to come back and bite us when we're knee deep in shit with Cronus."

"Understood," he said somberly, knowing full well that this whole mess was on him and that we now needed to spend clan resources to understand what we were dealing with. "I will dispatch agents to Niflheim and see if there is a way to mend that bridge."

"Let me know what happens," I said, and stood up. "Also... agents, huh? I like the sound of it. Have a good rest, Ares. Tomorrow, we level up."

"Goodnight, Zeus," he said, and gulped down his beer before heading inside.

I didn't think we'd be gathering information on Cronus so soon, let alone find out what the state of our relationship was with the Norse gods we'd insulted. The fact that this possibility had opened to us so early was only because Ares had joined us.

If that meant that a couple of foreign gods were pissed at us, I decided I could live with it and even fight them if it came to it. Ares was a strong asset and I was sure he would become invaluable for our guild. I wasn't going to inflate his ego by telling him that, but it was good to see he was now more conscious about his actions and their consequences.

Sleep was very light for all of us in the hours before the dawn of our sixth day of daily XP grinding. I opened my eyes and saw that Aphrodite and Artemis were already awake and getting ready for the day we reached level fifty-eight and got one step closer to level sixty-one, when we would be able to finally use A-grade equipment--something I was sure would be needed in our battle with Cronus.

Ares was equally ready and determined for today's XP feast so we didn't even have breakfast before starting our daily training. Artemis was the first one to gain her level, but we had all agreed that we wouldn't stop until all four of us had reached a hundred percent in our XP bars.

This came a bit after five hours of rigorous, non-stop training, with Ares being the last one to reach level fifty-eight. We could barely keep ourselves from celebrating even though he gained his level in the middle of a rather large train of mobs who were still attacking me.

No longer caring so much about optimizing damage and the use of MP, we took the monsters down as quickly as possible and went to the rest area we always used to regain our MP and where no monsters would take aggro on us.

"At fucking last!" Ares yelled. "By the fucking crows and the ravens, we finally did it."

"Ready to check what we got?" Artemis asked, impatience in her eyes.

"Already doing it," Aphrodite said, her own eyes having lost focus.

"Hey, not fair!" Artemis replied, and immediately did the same.

I pulled up the notification and smiled as I absorbed it.

* * *

Congratulations. You have advanced to level 58.

You have 12 skills ready for upgrade.

You have unlocked 1 skill.

* * *

All of my neurons fired up when I saw that I had unlocked a new skill. I held my breath and didn't even blink as I focused my mind on what I had received.

* * *

Name: Detect Weakness on XXX

Level: 1

Type: Active

HP Consumed: 0

MP Consumed: 50

Power: -

Range: Self

Precondition: None

Description: ???

* * *

I was slightly confused as to what this skill was able to do. The description was completely locked to me no matter how much I tried to open it. However, when I focused on the "XXX" part of the name, a new prompt with a list appeared in front of my eyes.

* * *

Please select the race you want to attach the Detect Weakness skill to:

Golems

Angels

Beasts

Basilisks

...Expand

* * *

I focused on expand and the list populated my entire view. When I looked to my right, I noticed that the list would scroll in that direction too, revealing even more columns of races. There were plenty of races I knew and even more that I had never heard of, even some that I thought had become extinct and others that everyone believed were only myths and legends.

As interesting as the list was, I knew exactly the race I should select. I ordered the results alphabetically and selected "Titans". The list disappeared and the skill updated with the race I had opted for.

* * *

Name: Detect Weakness on Titans

Level: 1

Type: Active

HP Consumed: 0

MP Consumed: 50

Power: -

Range: Self

Precondition: None

Description: Whether through rigorous study, extreme hatred, or a combination of the two, one can find out and take advantage of the weaknesses all races have. The creature affected by this buff sees an increase of 5% to their damage output against titans.

* * *

Five percent on the actual damage instead of the starting Physical Attack number was a great deal. I couldn't have been more satisfied and I immediately shared it with the rest of our group.

"Crows," Ares said, as soon as he received it. "Cronus won't know what hit him."

"Suits you perfectly," Aphrodite said. I recognized a hint of pride in her voice.

"Now for my upgrades," I said, and looked at what skills I had leveled up.