* * *
The construction project "Mining Camp" has been successfully upgraded to level 5.
* * *
The camp was the first level 5 construction project to be completed and I was curious to see whether there was the possibility to upgrade it even further when I leveled up the guild core again, and how much it would cost us, not to mention wanting to see the upgraded output it would now have.
* * *
Name: Mining Camp
Level: 5
Output: 2,000 units/hour
Job Slots: 120
Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 6
Level-Up Cost: 40,000x Lumber Units (400,000 MP)
20,000x Iron Units (200,000 MP)
Level-Up Time: 9,600 minutes (5,760,000 MP)
Description: The mining camp is the beginning and the end of every miner's working dat. 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.
* * *
Pretty much all of the stats were five times higher. We would now have more than three hundred miners, considering that there were a hundred and twenty slots per shift and the goddesses wouldn't let me work them for more than eight hours each. The most awesome thing was that we would be able to mine two thousand units per hour.
I'd left the responsibility for balancing the output between metals and stone with Artemis, but since the camp was up and running for the whole day, it meant 48,000 daily units. That was going to significantly decrease the amount of MP I spent on constructing projects, start filling up our storage facilities, and eventually allow us to start selling resources.
I looked at the next notification, pretty sure I knew what was coming.
* * *
The construction project "Lumberyard" has been successfully upgraded to level 3.
* * *
If this building followed suit with the mining camp, we would soon have all the lumber we would ever need. Crows, we would be on our way to becoming the number one lumber provider in the whole Greek world!
* * *
Name: Lumberyard
Level: 5
Output: 2,000 units/hour
Job Slots: 120
Level-Up Requirement: Settlement Level 6
Level-Up Cost: 20,000x Lumber Units (200,000 MP)
Level-Up Time: 9,600 minutes (5,760,000 MP)
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.
* * *
The upgraded output confirmed my suspicions, but it made me think of something else. Artemis had been very protective of the forest when we first met her, but she had no issues with taking the lumberjacks out to decimate trees all day. I found that odd, so I hadn't been able to help myself from asking her about it, especially since we would be ramping up production again.
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It turned out that the trees pulled mana from the place of power. No matter how much lumber we produced each day, we would never be able to catch up with the regeneration rate of the forest, meaning that when we cut trees on one side of it, new ones would grow on another side almost instantly.
That made sense to me, as I hadn't seen the tree population decrease at all since we'd moved to the top of the mountain. And she assured me that the same was also true for the mines. That was one thing less to worry about, though it did make me wonder where the mana was being pulled from exactly.
I couldn't see a deficit anywhere in the menus I had access to, but she was sure that was how the place healed itself. In the end I figured it was just part of Dark Energy's balancing of the guildhalls.
"We should be emerging in the North Sea soon, close to the shore of the northern lands," Aphrodite said.
Artemis opened her eyes, jumping out of bed. "About time," she said, stretching. "I want to shoot something."
"I'm sure you will soon find yourself in a situation where you won't know what to shoot first," I joked.
"Never," she replied seriously. "All you need to do in that situation is start shooting. And keep doing it until there's nothing left."
"Okay there, huntress," Aphrodite jumped in. "Let's not get too excited. This isn't our world, so perhaps don't kill everything you see just yet."
"Of course not," the goddess of the hunt replied. "But I don't care about making carcasses and I'm chasing a challenge. If I find it, you better follow me 'cause I won't be waiting."
"Don't you worry about that," I said.
Just then, we all felt the oyster decelerate and shake, reaching dry land after more than fifty hours in the water.
The oyster opened, and as we emerged from inside, the cold air hit us instantly. We found ourselves on the shore of a pebble beach, the waters swishing round us only a few dozen feet away from a thick, green forest.
"Isn't it supposed to be nighttime?" Artemis asked.
"The further north you go, the less stable the cycle of light and darkness is," Aphrodite said.
"They have very long days, and in some places no night at all, for months at a time," I added.
"That must be very hard for the night predators," Artemis said.
"After these long days come equally long nights though," I said.
"It must be a very confusing place to live," Artemis said. "How far are we from the portal to Niflheim?"
"We need to climb the peak of that mountain," Aphrodite said, pointing up at a relatively small snow-covered peak visible above the trees ahead of us.
"Won't take more than a couple of hours," Artemis said, with a calculating eye on the distance.
"The snow can be treacherous," Aphrodite warned. "We don't want to be too hasty."
"We won't," I said, as I stepped out of the oyster, helping Aphrodite out as well. "Is the oyster going to stay here?"
"Yes and no," Aphrodite said. "It doesn't stay in this plane when I don't need it, which is why I can summon it whenever and wherever I want."
"That's quite usef--"
"Are you coming?" Artemis shouted at us from the edge of the forest.
I smiled at the interruption and started to follow.
"Wait," Aphrodite said, and cast a spell on her. "Buffs."
"Yes, better safe than sorry, I guess," Artemis agreed.
We waited for Aphrodite to finish her buffs before walking into the forest.
The trees themselves weren't awfully close to each other, but their branches started very close to the ground and were abnormally long and straight. There were times that we ended up against what looked like walls made of trees, and only by using my spear were we able to cut through the thick branches and continue moving forward.
Whether it was because of the time of the day, or rather night, or because we seemed like a significant threat, no monsters or animals attacked us on the journey. It certainly wasn't because we were being stealthy. Each step forward was accompanied by the soft cracking of the frozen dew that had created a thin icy layer on the grass beneath our feet.
After about fifteen minutes walking through the thick forest, the ground began to rise in a slight incline. The trees were slowly becoming sparser, the ice thicker, and the air colder. We must have hit the base of the mountain, but the conditions here were more akin to what we had encountered near the top of Mount Olympus.
I looked at Aphrodite who had wrapped herself in substantial pink fur. She hated cold places as much as I did, but Artemis looked like she didn't mind it at all. Perhaps this was because she had spent more time than us on the mountain sides, or because she could feel the excitement of the imminent hunt. Either way, she appeared to have no problem scaling the mountain, no matter how much the snow began to pile up.
"There's someone up on that ledge," Artemis said, and pointed above us at a large figure looking down.
"They don't look very friendly," Aphrodite said.
In answer, the beast violently beat its chest with its massive fists.
* * *
Name: Ginnungagap Gray Yeti
Type: Giantkin
Level: 27
Disposition: Aggressive
HP: 515/515
Physical Attack: 87
Magic Attack: 62
Speed: 121
Attack Range: Melee
XP: 1657
Description: Ginnungagap Yetis are known for their protective nature, and tendency toward conquering new ground and expanding their territories. Despite their physical strength and resourcefulness, they are not particularly proficient with magical elements. Thus, these Yetis accidentally crossed through a portal from the realm of Niflheim and found themselves in a different plane entirely. Over the decades, the yetis evolved their gray color and took on a more bestial approach to hunting, though still utilizing their resourcefulness.
* * *