After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

Gorgon Ridge, 12 kilometers from Twinwave Town

”Captain! Watch out!!” A voice yelled, pulling a strikingly handsome man out of his reverie.

Flinching, Garan barely dodged the sharp canine of the sabertooth Hyena, his ebony-colored hair singed slightly by the attack.

His sharp eyebrows furrowed as his eyes focused on the enemy ahead.

Instinctively, he raised his lean muscular arms and a huge spear made of ice appeared, stabbing the monster’s eye.

The monster roared in pain, but otherwise, the damage was minimal. At best, it only got angrier.

With the cone stuck in its eye, the monster jumped in his direction, its large palm creating a small crater where he stood.

The man temporarily shook away his distraction from earlier, using a lot of mana to reinforce the ice spear, making it strong enough to handle his next wave of attacks.

He made swift movements both to attack and defend, his sculpted muscles flexed beneath his taut skin, showcasing strength and agility in each movement.

In the midst of the attacks, the man’s chiseled face clenched as he surveyed his opponent.

He judged its life to still be a quarter-full, and its movements only slowed by a bit from its peak. His sharp cerulean eyes zoned in on more potential weaknesses he could exploit.

Similarly, the monster’s menacing eyes were also observing him, ready to maul him at another moment of distraction.

Garan looked at his mana which was already less than half, limiting his reservoir of skills to use by a third. After a moment of consideration, he chose a skill to use.

[Used Iced Ground (D), -15 Mana]

Ice condensed from his feet, immediately crawling from his area toward the monster.

Because it wasn’t able to avoid it, the skill successfully hindered its movements.

It only lasted a few seconds before the Monster lifted its paws again, but it was enough for Garan to climb up its back in its distraction, using another skill to skewer a weak spot—the small pinch of soft skin behind its neck—to finally kill the damned thing.

[Used Stalagmite (D), -25 Mana]

When the monster escaped the bind, it didn’t even look up at the large block of ice his size appeared above his head.

Garan jumped over the ice, adding his weight, and then let gravity do its work.

SPLACK!

[Killed Sabertooth Hyena (Lv14): + 400 copper, +400 experience]

He did not have any respite as the surrounding monsters roared at the same time at the loss of their leader, and immediately went berserk.

It was only then they knew what they’d been fighting wasn’t that bad yet.

Using the spear he blocked the attack that vaulted towards him. He swung the translucent rod around to deal with the predominantly level 12-13 mob surrounding him.

Now that the leader was dead, it was much easier to deal with the rest of the mob, even if they were in the dozens.

Two of his teammates took out the preliminary version of their crossbow, adding long range support to those fighting in close range.

The struggled to kill each one, but not too much. With teamwork and synergy, they soon entered a zone where they could kill a monster together in a short span of time.

[Killed Sabertooth Hyena (Lv13): + 370 copper, +370 experience]

[Killed Sabertooth Hyena (Lv13): + 370 copper, +370 experience]

[Killed Sabertooth Hyena (Lv12): + 350 copper, +350 experience]

[Killed Sabertooth Hyena (Lv13): + 370 copper, +370 experience]

[Killed Sabertooth Hyena (Lv12): + 350 copper, +350 experience]

[...]

Seeing that his teammates didn’t need help, Garan continued to focus on his fight at hand.

He killed a few more level 12s and 13s, consuming his manifested elemental ability.

When the ice disappeared, Garan carefully looked at his remaining mana and the surviving monsters, making a quick calculation.

Soon, stainless steel knives appeared around him, hitting the weak spots of the handful of monsters that surrounded him with skill and precision.

Finally, using the physical skills he learned early on, which consumed a lot less mana, he finished off the ones still moving.

As for the rest of the team, they also killed off the mob they were against. There were plenty of injuries and a lot of blood but none were fatal, thankfully.

It was at this moment of respite that an exclamation on the side sounded.

”AH!”

It was a loud yell, making everyone raise their guards again, only to find out it was one of them celebrating.

”I’m finally level ten!!” A pale-skinned soldier, Luis, yelled in glee.

His team, after heaving sighs of relief, both congratulated and mocked him. ”You realize you’re the last one right?”

Luis ignored them and placed his hands together looking as if he was squeezing something, as if he was constipated.

His teammates wanted to tease him, to tell some bad joke about poop, but sparks appeared in between his hands.

It was tiny and would have the damage of 0, but it was enough to make the youngest soldier ecstatic. ”I did it!”

This was followed by a few soldiers rubbing his head to congratulate him (which he didn’t appreciate) followed by mocking hoots at how an ancient match was better.

Garan smiled a bit at the sight of his soldiers. They worked very hard on this mission, and he thought he ought to reward them.

Especially, they didn’t suffer any loss this time.

”Then let’s celebrate with a barbeque!”

They all cheered.

Garan froze the bodies of meat to sell and left a couple for a barbeque party.

He had always been a great cook, years of training done purely to satisfy his wife.

After discovering some by-products from various plants (thanks to his wife’s obsession, he had learned a bit of fur), he had made his own set of condiments.

He gave the rights to distribute to the Rolan Mercenary team. He was also pretty well-off now, and they weren’t dirt poor as before.

He could still remember their penniless state during the first few weeks of arriving. At the time, they relied on findings in the wild to survive, as the living conditions in the town they landed near to was too high.

Of course, even with the dividends, they weren’t rich either. After all, finding information all over the continent to find a way home was in no way inexpensive.

”Your team is really good!” Bart, the horizontally-blessed head of the Rolan mercenary regiment, said with a large smile, visible on his bushy face.

The Rolan Mercenary Team was the group they partnered up with for this mission. Bart approached Garan, who was undressing to take care of his wound.

He sincerely praised them. When he first met them a few months back, the average level was three—the level of children.

Now the weakest was level ten. Of course, this was nothing compared to his team, but the rate of promotion was very impressive.

Further, they were all incredibly strong for their level. The captain, Garan, could defeat a monster only two levels lower than him alone, and still standing.

In his many years as a mercenary, this was not possible at all. This was particularly true with monsters above level ten that have improved bodies that required at least 5 skilled mercenaries of the same level to deal with.

This showed how much skill this team had, and that they would definitely be able to take on most human opponents with higher levels with relative ease.

And finally, the most important factor of his friendliness was one fact: They were all elemental masters.

Elemental masters. Not even 1 out of 10 strongmen were blessed with this.

This was why he and his team, actually condescended to partner with the then-weaklings.

And it paid off.

And the rate of return was amazing.

Garan nodded, giving credit to where it was due.

They were actually transported 3 months earlier, during the top-secret mission the World Union sent them to.

It was to deal with odd alien monster that appeared in what appeared to be a black hole.

However, as they fought against these monsters, the space around them suddenly ripped apart.

They watched as the tanks and other big weapons disintegrated and felt their own souls being pulled out of their bodies.

When they mysteriously arrived at a forest filled with unfamiliar vegetation, two-thirds of their people were already lifeless corpses, as if their souls were taken from their bodies.

And after various adventures three months later, the original one hundred survivors was reduced to a little over a score.

The enemies here... were too strong, especially when the first arrived. They were not prepared for it at all.

The guns that managed to ’pass through’ with them were only useful for monsters below level 5. It couldn’t even scratch the skin of stronger monsters.

However, it was also because of the weapons they had on hand that they survived long enough to gather strength to kill monsters on their own.

He was now level 16 and the lowest among the others was level 10, Luis, who got delayed because he was severely injured for more than a month on a mission.

In fact if it wasn’t for their rigorous training, they would have died having such low levels when they entered. At this level at least, they could now barely be considered a low-level mercenary team.

This was actually an impressive feat. After all, they’ve been here only for three months. The average level of combat-type professionals in their 30s was level 15.

It was gravely lacking compared to other established mercenary teams, but it wasn’t a bad accomplishment.

It was just that no one felt it was enough, no one felt they were fast enough, no matter how much the indigenous people complimented them.

They were rushing—rushing to be stronger, because only if they were stronger would they get access to more resources and better networks.

It was only this way that they could finally find a way home.

—The image of his beautiful wife appeared in front of his mind, a sharp pain of longing gripping his heart—

It was the only way he could be with his wife again.