Mountain of the Immortals

"That was great," I said as the last beast disappeared. "We must have gotten something like a whole percentile point today."

"We've been here for eight hours straight though," Aphrodite said. She'd just finished casting her final healing spell, bringing me back to full health.

"I don't mind training for longer hours," Artemis said as she approached us. "After all, it's extremely hard to gain levels right now. My only regret is that we're not getting any drops or resources from all these monsters."

"That too," Aphrodite agreed. "Over the past couple of months, we've killed thousands of level fifty-nine beasts and we don't have anything to show for it except for our XP, which hasn't even been enough to get us to level fifty-eight yet."

"I agree it's not optimal," I replied honestly, "but what's the alternative? Go from one realm to the other until we find a grinding place that hasn't already been claimed by someone as powerful as us? Cause you know that people would rather fight us than lose or even share good XP spots."

"I know, I know," Aphrodite said. She sent a small spray of water down the back of her neck. "I'm not saying this isn't good. It's great and it's safe. It's just--"

"Boring." Artemis finished her sentence.

"I get it," I said, prompting them to start walking back up the hill toward the guildhall. "We'll soon get to see some action though."

"Counting the days," Aphrodite said, though her mood immediately lightened.

Over the past two months, we had gotten into a fairly standard routine in terms of our day-to-day tasks. The first and most stable part of our day was coming to this place to XP. Of course, we hadn't abandoned our plans to take on my father and become the greatest guild of gods in the Greek realms, but everything started with getting stronger.

Whereas many gods stopped XPing after gaining their divinity status, going up against the king of titans meant that we had to continue pushing the boundaries of our powers. Gaining new skills and raising our influence as gods by acquiring more followers would close the gap in power between us.

Once our daily XP round was done, we split up and each of us carried out the guild tasks that they were most suited to. Artemis alternated between working with the miners and the lumberjacks of our city. Each group was already pushing the boundaries of what would be considered safe spaces to take resources from.

Both of the forests on the sides of Mount Olympus and its underbelly had zones at different levels. Each of these zones held different resources, with the tougher zones providing higher quality wood and metals or even precious ores. Since we had enough people to run both the mining camp and the lumberyard at full capacity the whole time, it made sense to push the limits of what they could generate.

Artemis was always there with them, protecting them and clearing additional zones to help them maximize their yield. Even if we wouldn't be able to use everything they brought back, it was still worth it since high-quality resources were an easy sell with merchants.

These merchants all needed to be dealt with by someone and that wasn't going to be me or Artemis. Aphrodite was by far the best suited for anything that would involve interacting with other people. Not only was she the most charismatic, but her charms had a positive influence on more than just our personal relationship.

Every single time she asked for a discount when buying resources, or demanded a higher price when selling our own, she would get it. Of course, she never tried to trade horse turds for mythril ingots. She always asked for better terms in a reasonable way, and she always got them.

I wasn't sure if it was her charm alone or some experience in negotiating and manipulating people and situations, but I didn't care much either way. She was on my side with all her heart and soul and that was more than enough for me. And if her skills managed to bring in more resources for our guild, even better.

Over the past two months, our city had been fully upgraded in terms of housing and the waiting list of people to move in as soon as we had more space was larger than ever. This fact had caught the attention of not only Greek merchants but also a few daredevils from other realms.

People claiming to represent minor Egyptian deities as well as a few denizens of the abyssal realms wanted to do business with us. I had no doubt these individuals had recognized that our guild would grow into something great and had rushed in to establish relationships while we were still young.

My trusted Aphrodite did her best to provide them with what they needed, but never quite enough to sate their hunger. In other words, she always had them coming back for more, each time bringing us more information about what was happening in the world along with resources that we weren't yet able to procure from Mount Olympus alone.

I, on the other hand, focused on the construction of new projects and buildings, putting the right people in the right places, and generally making sure everything was operating efficiently. I wanted our resource gatherers to keep working to bring things back, and it was therefore important that everyone stayed happy.

Many times while living at my father's guildhall on Mount Orthys, I would climb down the mountain only to see the humans hating the jobs they'd been given and simply obeying because of their belief in my parents. The people of Olympus and those in the city of Dion, at the base of the mountain, were not just happy because they were serving their gods. They were proud of what they were doing and I believed this was the reason we were growing so fast.

That said, carrying out all these tasks right after an eight-, or sometimes ten-, hour XPing session was draining. On top of that, keeping up with Aphrodite and Artemis wasn't always the easiest of tasks. I would never complain, but it had taken some time to learn how to navigate living with them.

I hadn't been in a steady relationship for decades, much less with a goddess.

It was an oddly disarming comfort--knowing that no matter how difficult or challenging a day would be, that I would always go back to my goddess at the end of it--that kept me going. That and the fact that I knew we would soon be strong enough to challenge my father's dominance over all the Greek realms.

In fact, the time had almost come for our guild to level up. I knew today was going to be a very busy day.

"Things might get a little messy in the city today," I said as we were closing in on our residence, citizens waving at us cheerfully left and right.

"Are you upgrading something?" Aphrodite asked, not paying too much attention.

"The whole guild core!" I exclaimed. "I've been telling you about it for days."

"That's today?" Artemis asked, suddenly interested. "Will you upgrade the timber and mining facilities too?"

"I guess?" I said, not sure if that was going to be my first option. "I'm going to be upgrading a lot of things."

"Our place as well?" Aphrodite asked. She dropped her robes on the ground as soon as we set foot inside and headed straight to the baths.

"Yes, I guess I can start here," I said.