Place of Power: Primary Guildhall - Divine Realm

Name: Mount Olympus

Level: 5

State: Idle

MP: 326,878,320,155

MP Generation: 23,000 MP/minute

Population: 1,270

Lumber : 65,517

Iron: 24,157

Food Rations: 44,849

Level-Up Requirements: 80x Level 5 Manors (1/80)

16x Level 5 Farms (0/16)

4,000 Citizens (1,270/2,000)

Intelligence Agency (0/1)

Complete 1x Research Project (0/1)

Complete 1x Raid (Met)

1,000,000 Food Rations (44,849/1,000,000)

1,000,000 Lumber Units (65,517/1,000,000)

1,000,000 Iron Units (24,157/1,000,000)

Level-Up Cost : 10,000,000 MP

Level-Up Time : 34,560 minutes

* * *

As expected, the number of houses, farms, and citizens required had doubled, but I suspected those were safeguards put in place by the Dark Energy itself to make sure that the city would keep growing in a healthy manner. The real bottlenecks were the ones at the end of the requirements.

In this case, we were kind of lucky that a raid boss had come to us and we didn't actually need to go raiding. This would be a significant step in a clan hall's progress, especially one that wasn't ruled by gods. A city would first need enough citizens to become warriors, then make sure that they learned how to fight effectively in groups.

What's more, raids required a completely different approach to large-scale battles. There was usually only one target--in some cases a few minions too--but the enemies were much stronger than any soldier one might face in battle. Having a good balance of damaging spellcasters, ranged fighters, tanks, healers, and buffers was very important.

All these things would indicate that the clan was getting stronger, the city prospering and training as one unit, and that they were ready for bigger things. Our clan was slightly different, so we didn't need to worry about something like that. Not yet.

Growing fast, however, had its own challenges. While we would have absolutely no issue with building the intelligence agency, completing a research project wasn't part of my immediate plans. At least, not until now. I knew we probably needed some kind of science or magic studies person to work in the amazingly equipped academics and research institution, but hadn't had any luck finding one so far.

I hadn't been too invested in finding or training people to work there, as I thought they might eventually join us on their own. But it seemed like most people had no interest in things like research. That was totally understandable too. In a world filled with monsters and bandits, academics and philosophy were a luxury only the very rich could afford. And those rich people were rarely fit for work in a place like that, as their motivations tended to be limited to extending their own resources and gaining more power.

We needed smart people with a knack for the arcane and tinkering with things. Of the thousands of people that would be joining our city, I had no doubt that at least a couple of them would be suited for the job, but when the leveling of the whole guild was at stake, I didn't want to take any chances.

"Aphrodite," I said in the guild chat, "I want the first people moving in to be people who are fit to work in the research building."

"I don't know which of them are suited to such a thing," she replied a few seconds later. "We've never asked them about it."

"It's really important that we get some," I followed up. "It's part of our new level-up requirements. The building can occupy twelve researchers right now but if we get more, we can upgrade it."

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"Should we put them at the front of the row of people about to move in then?" Artemis asked, jumping into the conversation.

"You're right," I agreed. "Aphrodite, you can get up to a manor's capacity in tinkerers and arcanists, and we'll insta-build their home so that they can start working immediately."

"That should make it easier," she replied. "I'll make the announcement and let you know."

"Alright, I'll build their house now. Once they're settled, I'll send them to work immediately." I closed the conversation.

Having figured that out, I went to the available construction projects menu and chose to build a house from scratch. With all of the resources in our storage buildings, it was quite mesmerizing to watch the materials shift from a tent to a cottage to a proper house, until they settled down in the shape of a manor identical to the one the goddesses and I were now living in.

A house full of researchers might not have been exactly what I was planning when I'd initially thought about getting thousands of new citizens to join us, but since it was something we needed to grow as a guild, I had to adjust my expectations. I could only hope that the research topics of the institution would be something useful for all of us.

Knowing that we would also need farms to level up our guild core, as well as to provide more food for our increased population, I placed the resources needed for building the new farms around the already existing ones. The citizens who were currently idle would get to work as soon as they saw them, so I didn't have to worry about them not doing the work.

In the beginning, I had given orders to Aphrodite and she would pass them down to the mortals, but having them just pick up whatever was available to be built made much more sense. Since we'd agreed on that approach, all I had to do was place the semi-translucent frame of the building via the construction projects management menu--or place the resources around it in the case of upgrades--and the workers would get on to it immediately.

That was what I did now with upgrading the existing farms.

* * *

Name: Farm #1

Level: 4

Livestock: 40/40

Crops: 400/400

Job Slots: 24/24

Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 5 (Met)

Level-Up Cost: 3000x Lumber Units (30000 MP)

Level-Up Time: 24,000 minutes (14,400,000 MP)

Description: A farm that allows for a variety of small and medium-sized animals as well as a small selection of crops. Owning a farm increases the food ration production rate.

* * *

I purchased the lumber units and saw them appear in neat piles next to each of the farms that were going to be upgraded. The animals were only surprised for a moment since they were pretty much used to all the fuss of construction by now. The part that pained me most was the fact that each of the new farms cost 14 million MP to upgrade instantly.

Even if I upgraded half of them so that I could have them ready for the guild's level-up requirements, I'd still need more than 230 million MP. The alternative was to wait seventeen days. Since the manors and houses wouldn't be ready for a few days either way, I decided to halt on instant-building them.

It wasn't like this was the last missing piece for upgrading our core. Even if we found researchers immediately, who knew how long it would take us to finish one research project. At this point I could only hope it would not take any longer than a couple of weeks.

"Zeus, can you come meet me at the mines?" Artemis asked in the guild chat. "There's something you need to see."

"Did you find something?" I asked. "Can it wait until after I'm done setting up the construction projects?"

"It's nothing too serious, but you might want to deal with it now," she said cryptically.

"Alright, on my way."

We needed to build the Intelligence Agency though, and the faster I put people on it, the quicker it would be ready. I hastily purchased the lumber units and placed them next to the research facility. This should be enough for the workers to start building it and so hopefully we would have the building ready in sixteen hours.

I swiped all of the prompts for the progress of the buildings away from my view and took the path down the hill toward the entrance of the mines at the other end of the valley. The closer I got, the harder the ground looked, a result of the constant rolling of the carts that transferred ores and stone from the mining camp to the storage buildings.

I hadn't been here for a while and I was pleasantly surprised to see how well organized everything was. Despite the fact that there were carts coming and going in seemingly chaotic patterns, the people working here looked like they knew exactly what they were doing. The movements looked practiced to perfection, and after a few seconds monitoring them, I could already tell that under Artemis's guidance, the mining camp was operating as efficiently as possible.

The miners and other people who worked at the site were surprised to see me. They were probably used to working with Artemis as she protected them from the monsters in the mountain's bowels, pushing the boundaries of the places they could reach while mining, but they rarely interacted with me.

After a series of appreciative gestures and salutes, I realized that I needed to do this more often. The sheer joy these people took just from my visit was reason enough to make this a more regular occurrence. I had no doubt the people in the lumberyard would have a similar reaction.

I walked toward the entrance of the mines and was again truly impressed by the amount and quality of work the miners had put in here. What was once the mouth of a narrow cave now looked like the entrance to an underground hall, large enough to fit big beasts of burden and carts that would be able to carry significant amounts of earth from inside.

The guards that were usually stationed at the entrance were suspiciously missing, and once I took a few steps inside the mine, I understood why. Artemis was standing, along with a few of the guards, around a group of people I didn't recognize. My eyes hadn't quite gotten used to the lower light conditions of the tunnel, but the people they surrounded looked like a bunch of kids.

"Zeus, here's the situation," Artemis said, waving at me to come closer.

"Ah, the man in charge at last," said a steady, hoarse male voice.