The numbers were slightly different, but upgrading them both was a no-brainer. I selected the option to upgrade them both instantly. The workers were surprised when they were teleported away from their workbenches, but as the lumber and iron units flew over their heads, they understood what was happening.
The buildings grew in size, and right before the walls surrounding them were placed, I saw that the worktables and devices inside—magical or not—had now multiplied too. The same was true for the openings in each structure. The lumberyard had gained an additional entry point on its side, larger areas for temporary storing of logs, and tools that would help them in processing the wood. I didn’t know too much about how the lumberyards worked or what their optimal setup might look like, but this one now looked immaculate to me. And the celebrating woodworkers and lumberjacks seemed to agree.
* * *
Name: Lumberyard
Level: 6 (Maximum)
Output: 20,000 Units/hour
Job Slots: 1,200
Description: A lumberyard is the focal point of a community's woodworking business, be it imports, exports, treatment, or processing. Owning a lumberyard significantly increases the lumber unit production rate. Master woodworkers can now carve runes and imbue magic abilities into items created in this lumberyard.
* * *
I had no idea if we had any master woodworkers yet, but these random extra bonuses on buildings at maximum level raised my excitement a tiny bit more with every upgrade. I was now wondering if an axe with a wooden handle covered in carved runes would stack with whatever other magic property the weapon might have already.
I shifted my eyes to the mining camp and noticed that it too had two additional openings. One of them was a similar size to the original one, complete with its own rail tracks for the cart from the mines to travel upon. The other new one was significantly larger, with two sets of rail tracks going inside. This would serve as an easier way to bring in larger chunks of ore, which might prove useful in case the miners found larger crystals too. They would need to create a new cart that could ride on two set of tracks, but I was confident the pygmies would be able to do that.
This gave me an idea. When Typhon, the hundred-headed dragon sent by my father to destroy us, was on his way, we sent everyone inside the mines so they would be able to stay out of harm's way.
At that time our citizens had no proper training in battle and I wasn't going to risk them fighting against a monster that was clearly too strong for them. I wasn't even sure if we were going to make it out alive. Things had changed since that day, with our town now having many capable fighters who were, thanks to our crafters, also outfitted well enough to go into battle.
As battle-ready and trained as many of our citizens now were, we still had many civilians. Farmers, builders, elders, and children. As their numbers increased, it would be even more difficult to get them to safety quickly. A large cart that could carry multiple people and go in and out of the mines faster than any human could run might be exactly what we needed.
I made a note to mention this to Artemis as I pulled up the upgraded status screen of the mining camp.
* * *
Name: Mining Camp
Level: 6 (Maximum)
Output: 20,000 Units/hour
Job Slots: 1,200
Description: The mining camp is the beginning and the end of every miner’s working day. This is where ores will be crushed, ground, roasted, smelted, refined, and cast. Owning a mining camp significantly increases the metal and ore unit production rate. Master jewelers and metalworkers can now merge precious stones and metal together, with a very high chance of the amalgam retaining the properties of both materials.
* * *
The upgrade here had quite similar effects to the lumberyard, with the added benefit of merging magic qualities of resources into one. Again, I started wondering what the limits of this practice would be. If we merged a ruby that gave immunity to fire damage with a sapphire for immunity to ice damage, would the result retain absolute immunity to both?
More importantly, however, what would happen if we merged that with another amalgam that offered immunity to two other elements? Was this the way to create legendary magic items? I doubted it would be as easy as that, yet I couldn't help but wonder. If it was possible at all, it would be a game of chance. And chance was always on the side of immortals.
With these two buildings upgraded, I had now fulfilled at least Artemis's request to make sure her crews had the best facilities possible. The next building on the list was the blacksmith's workshop, Hephaestus’ domain, and perhaps the one building that absolutely needed upgrading if we were ever going to have any hope of defeating Cronus.
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* * *
Name: Blacksmith's Workshop
Level: 5
Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 6
Level-Up Cost: 6,400x Lumber Units (64,000 MP)
3,200x Iron Units (32,000 MP)
1,600x Stone Units (16,000 MP)
Level-Up Time: 7,680 minutes (4,608,000 MP)
Description: The blacksmith's workshop is what separates hamlets from organized village communities. Tools, weapons, and armor are only the beginning of what a smithy can offer to a settlement. Owning a blacksmith's workshop unlocks weapon and armor research as well as crafting equipment and tools. At the current level, the blacksmith's workshop is able to produce large-sized machines of war as well as well as employ two spellcasters. These individuals would be able to instill minor enchantments into items or break them down with the chance of creating a core that holds an existing enchantment.
* * *
We still had enough materials to cover everything needed. Even the cost of the instantaneous upgrade in MP was laughable at this point, especially since I would have paid hundreds of billions to make sure Hephaestus had everything he needed to craft the titan-slaying weapon.
Without giving it too much thought, I focused on “Level-Up” and selected “Yes” when I was prompted for the instant upgrade. From my position at the top of our house, I could see small flashes of light inside. The blacksmith pygmies were teleported outside of the building, but I didn't see Hephaestus at all.
It was only once the walls of the building started swirling around it, mixed with wooden planks, large plinths, and iron bars, that I saw the god of the forge in all of his fiery glory, smashing his hammer onto an anvil. I only saw him for a split second before the walls rearranged themselves into a larger structure, with multiple chimneys.
Around the new workshop were pools filled with liquids that I assumed were there to quench the fiery metals or treat them in some way. The exterior of the workshop was also now adorned with all kinds of new surfaces to carry out prep work for the materials that would be used inside.
I couldn’t see what had changed in there, of course, not until I inspected it myself, but the sudden scream in the guild chat made it pretty obvious that things had changed for the better.
"Zeus!" Hephaestus said in an excited voice I’d never heard from him before. "This is just marvelous! All these specialized tools… and enough anvils for all of us."
"I'm glad you like it," I said. "Do you think you'll be able to craft the weapon we need with all this?" I asked.
"With the new ability attached to it, most definitely!"
I wasn't sure what he was referring to yet, so I pulled up the upgraded building’s information.
* * *
Name: Blacksmith's Workshop
Level: 6 (Maximum)
Description: The blacksmith's workshop is what separates hamlets from organized village communities. Tools, weapons, and armor are only the beginning of what a smithy can offer to a settlement. Owning a blacksmith's workshop unlocks weapon and armor research as well as crafting equipment and tools. At the current level, the blacksmith's workshop is able to produce machines of war without any size limitations, as well as employ twenty spellcasters. These individuals would be able to instill major enchantments into items or break them down with the chance of creating a core that holds an existing enchantment. The quality of crafted items is now directly bound to the person crafting them.
* * *
The workshop was perhaps the building with the most changes so far. Not only had it become much larger, with more space and equipment, but all of its secondary traits had increased as well. We hadn’t created any war machines so far, except for a few prototypes that worked like magic catapults, but the fact that this feature was now maxed out was comforting. After all, we might soon need many more.
Then there was the number of spellcasters who could be employed there. So far we had a few of them at levels around the mid-thirties, who had come from the warmage academy and were experimenting with imbuing enchantments into items or breaking them down, but we hadn’t had any breakthroughs. They were still learning what was possible, and having only two slots available at any given time, meant that things were taking a little longer than we would have liked.
With twenty slots, however, if we were to keep the slots fully occupied around the clock—meaning three shifts—we would need sixty of them. At the moment we didn't have sixty powerful spellcasters, which probably meant we would need to go through another round of finding people with the right class and having them trained there.
This was going to be a task for Hephaestus, or for him to arrange with the pygmies. Magical weapons were more often than not the reason why battles ended with one victor instead of the other, so this work would be key. Especially if they could instill major enchantments into pieces of equipment, and even more so now that metals and precious ores could be merged and their properties combined.
I could only imagine what a set of leather armor would be able to do if each piece could give two major magical boons or protections—total immunity to all elements, along with accelerated HP-regenerating abilities, boosts in Physical Attack, and so many more. The possibilities were endless. I couldn't wait to see the wonders that Hephaestus would be able to create.
But the most important part of this upgrade was mentioned only in the last sentence of the description. It meant that once Hephaestus was level sixty-one, having gained A-grade mastery for equipment, he would also be able to craft equipment at that grade. And knowing that he was the best crafter in the Greek world, I had no doubt the quality would be like nothing ever crafted before.
One of the most important parts of our plan was now complete. The next step would be to gain the level and craft the weapon. After that, we would be ready to strategize a way to defeat my father, whether with a stealthy mission or a clash of armies.
The sun was now getting ready to set and I wanted to do as much work as I could before retreating for the day.
I didn’t want to stay up long because we had previously noticed that whenever one of us hadn’t rested enough, our XP per hour was lower the next day, which meant we all needed to stay longer. This in turn made us stay up later than usual to complete the rest of our daily tasks, slowly becoming a bigger problem for the whole guild.
Determined to do everything I wanted to as quickly as possible, I pulled up the next buildings on my list. These were the barracks Ares was responsible for.