I woke up as the sun was setting, feeling slightly groggy. Long naps tended to have this effect on my body-- I had no idea the trip to the Norse realms had taxed my body so much, and I didn't seem to be able to get enough sleep--but I figured I would need all the energy and mental clarity I could muster for tonight's scheming.

I looked to my side where Aphrodite had been before I fell asleep, only to see that she wasn't there anymore.

There had been many times that I'd given a simple task to someone on Mount Orthys, only for them to perform well at first but then quickly become sloppy. This wasn't the case with Aphrodite and Artemis. If anything, they were becoming better and more efficient at their jobs.

I opened the guild chat and was pleasantly surprised to see there were no messages for me. It looked like my dear guild members had appreciated the hard work I was putting in growing our guild and didn't want to disturb my rest. But it was about time we finally talked about our next mission.

"What's everyone up to?" I asked in the guild chat. "Can you meet me at home in an hour?"

"I'm coming back from the forest now," Artemis said.

"I am wrapping up a meeting with a merchants' organization," Aphrodite chimed in. "I should be there in half an hour."

"Finishing my training now," Ares replied last. "Will have a shower and join you too."

"Great, see you all soon."

I closed the guild chat and went downstairs to the freshly cleaned foyer and then the spacious office room we had prepared specifically for guild meetings. I sat down behind the sturdy oak desk and started making notes on what I knew so far about the god named Hephaestus, about my uncle Hyperion, and about the place where he kept the god of the forge imprisoned.

Putting everything down on parchment helped me organize my thoughts and by the time the others started arriving, I had a pretty clear picture of how I would like us to approach the issue. It wasn't going to be easy but at least it was the beginning of a plan.

* * *

"First guild meeting with four members," I said, once everyone had taken their seats around a large rectangular table, the surface of which was etched with a comprehensive guide to all the realms neighboring the Greek ones and especially Mount Olympus.

"You seem to be taking your time with recruiting," Ares said. "Not that that's a bad thing."

"Actually, recruiting is one of the reasons I wanted to meet with you all today," I said. "But first, let me know how your day was."

"Well, I didn't do much," Ares started, "but I know what I could help you with."

"You already found something to do, brother?" Aphrodite asked.

"I have," he said with a smirk. "At first I considered training people in the barracks but after visiting them, I could see they're already operating very efficiently."

"Yeah, I think what you saw today might have been a little rehearsed so they could request an upgrade to their building," I said.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "It's clear they are doing good work and there's a good chance a god being there on the regular might do more harm than good."

"What are you thinking instead then?" Artemis asked.

"The intelligence agency," he replied.

"But we have no people to work there as agents yet," I told him.

"Exactly!" he replied, and now I could feel the enthusiasm in his voice. "I have been doing this kind of work for decades now. Give me a few days to go through our population--"

"A few days to go through everyone?" Aphrodite interrupted. "You know we have thousands more coming in tomorrow, right?"

"I know, and a few days would be all I need," he replied. "It's pretty easy to eliminate the bad fits before I even start talking to them. Once I have some people, I will start training them and sending them on small missions."

"If that's what you want to do, I'm all for it," I said. "Knowledge is power and I want us to know everything that's happening in the Greek realms, especially on Mount Orthys."

"Great!" Ares said. "I will start drafting people tomorrow. Is there anyone I shouldn't even consider?"

"The researchers," I said. "Until we find more, they should stay where they are."

"Clever as they may be," he said, "I don't think they would have been a good fit anyway."

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"That's good to hear," I said, then turned to Aphrodite and Artemis. "What about you, goddesses?"

"We got deeper into the forest today," Artemis said. "Your visits are making them cocky and we almost lost one of our crew members when they thought it was a good idea to go off on their own and chop down a tree with a dire eagle's nest in it."

"What can I say?" I remarked, trying to brush it off. "I have an effect of lingering confidence on people."

"Seriously," she said, "if you stop by again, please don't fill their heads with ideas of invincibility. Bravery is one thing, recklessness is quite another."

"Alright, I'll make sure to pull the reins in a bit the next time I see them," I conceded. "Did you make good progress otherwise?"

"We're pushing the boundaries with each new raid. Even when I'm not there, it takes around a week for the monsters to push them back into a less profitable part of the forest. The same goes for the mines."

"Less profitable part?" Ares asked.

"Each area of the forest and the mines have different types of wood, stone, ores, metals, etcetera," she explained. "The deeper we go, the more valuable and of higher quality those resources become."

"Sounds like your people are doing great work," I said.

She smiled and nodded proudly.

"What about you Aphrodite?" I asked.

"Ah, where do I even start?" She sighed. "Now we have signed trade treaties with most of the big merchant conglomerates operating in the Greek realms. This is all counting the increase in production that we will see starting tomorrow."

"Everything's ready for the influx of new residents then?" I asked.

"As soon as their housing is ready, we'll be adding them to the normal job positions," she replied.

"What about those in specialized posts?" I asked.

"Well, there was no way to find anyone for the intelligence agency before but I guess we have that covered now." She started listing the different specialized positions. "We have enough people to work on the farms, the lumberyard, and the mining camp. We also have our first warriors to have already completed their second class upgrade."

"That sounds great," I said. "Do they have military training?"

"That too, but most of them were gladiators," Aphrodite replied. "Their contracts were offered to us as part of a deal we made."

"This is no place for sellswords, Aphrodite," I said, slightly annoyed. I thought I had made myself clear on this issue in the past. "Give the order to absolve them of their contracts immediately."

"I know, I know," she said. "I had a talk with them immediately. I told them they can go wherever they want, but they are welcome to stay with us only if they are willing to pledge their allegiance to us. And they did. They were quite eager, in fact."

"I thought the positions for citizens were already filled?" Artemis said. "Won't the people who lost their spots be angry?"

"I always keep a few spots open for this exact reason," Aphrodite responded and then continued. "These people will take up mentor roles in the barracks, both the ranged and the melee."

"The people there will be thrilled to have high level warriors among them," I said, feeling satisfied again at the progress we were making. "What about the warmage academy. Anyone for that place yet?"

"It turns out you were right to suggest that we would be getting all sorts of people reaching out to live here," she replied. "I had multiple spellcasters apply for citizenship, two of whom were above level forty."

"Sounds like we have a couple of tutors for the academy as well then," Ares said.

"I don't think tutors need to be higher than level forty, so we have more than a couple," she replied. "But I think one of them will be the headmaster of the warmage academy."

"What about the other one?" Artemis asked.

"The other is more interested in magic items--" she started.

I interrupted her. "You really found someone who can work on enchantments in the blacksmith's workshop?" I asked, and she nodded with a grin. "That's amazing news. I was getting worried we might never be able to find such a person and convince them to move here."

"I doubt we would have if the global announcement about you slaying Typhon hadn’t been pushed to everyone," Aphrodite replied. "From what I've been told, people are rushing to come here from all corners of the Greek realms."

"If you think about it for a minute, your father couldn't have done anything better for you than send that hundred-headed dragon to kill you," Ares said.

"I'm sure he had the best of intentions," I chuckled. "I think it's only fair to let you know about the planning I did today too. All of the workers we have are currently occupied with upgrading and building projects. By tomorrow, all the manors will be finished and both barracks will be updated. Our research facilities will also be upgraded by tomorrow, so we might see new positions opening up and perhaps new research projects as well."

"I saw the building when I was walking through the town, but didn't check its status," Ares said. "What kind of new knowledge does it offer?"

"So far we have completed research on how to increase the yields from our mining camp and lumberyard," I explained. "By tomorrow, we will have an increase of four percent on their normal output."

"That's quite a lot for just two levels of research," Artemis said.

"Yes and hopefully we're going to get more research topics along with more researcher slots," I replied. "The blacksmith's workshop is going to be upgraded in less than three days and the farms will be ready in a week."

"Do we have enough food to feed all of the new people for the seven days between the upgrade of the manors and the farms catching up?" Ares asked.

"We have enough stored in our warehouses and the ability to purchase more from Dion or traveling merchants," Aphrodite replied. "It won't be a problem."

"Right, and then there's the issue of building a secondary portal," I continued, "which is directly tied to my available Divinity Points. I think I'm going to wait a while, or until I get one more Divinity level, so I can start constructing the 'Wonder of Worship' instead."

"What is that?" Aphrodite asked. "I didn't see it anywhere in the available projects."

"It's in the divine realm construction projects," I replied.

"We don't get access to what's available in that category," Artemis said. "Only what's already been built."

"I see. It's a building that would allow people of our faiths to start pilgrimages," I explained. "Every successful pilgrimage will award us XP relative to the distance traveled by the pilgrims."

"So we would get passive XP?" Ares asked.

"If people who are your followers travel from other places to this temple, then yes. But that's not even the best part."

"What could possibly be better than passive XP?" Aphrodite asked.

"Passive praying," I said with pride. "Our followers will no longer need to sit down and pray to contribute to our DP regeneration. They will live their lives according to our codes and in our honor, and that will greatly increase our DP regeneration rate."

"At last," Artemis sighed. "I was getting sick of always being careful how I used my DP. This is going to make future battles so much easier for us."

"Speaking of battles," I said, then cleared my throat in an effort to transition to the next subject on my list. "I think it's time we act to free Hephaestus."

"Is it time to talk about this now?" Ares asked.

"I think I have a plan, and I want to hear what you think."

They all nodded, so I picked up my notes.