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

The next few days were incredibly fast-paced. Everyone was busy and set to work particularly hard, hoping to prepare the territory and themselves the best they could.

Naturally, as the Lord, Althea was no different.

Now that the infrastructure and military concerns were settled and on track, Althea decided to lock herself up in the lab again, munching on a sweet cookie (or lollipop, chewy candy, or whatever her dainty claws got from space) as she did so.

The first half of the day was dedicated to her small bombs. She had given all the bombs she had to Winona before she left, so now she had to make more to help her deal with the mobs.

Among the many types of small bombs on her lists, the easier-to-do ones were the paralysis bombs and poison bombs. This was because she had plenty of paralyzing and poisonous plants, so the main affecting components were done fairly easily.

Her main challenge was the triggers or ignition mechanism.

After all, there was no gunpowder, only some rough similar powder she managed to squeeze out of available materials.

How many people had literal fire-on-hand like Rowan?

So she had to do some alchemy first and create a solution that reacted upon exposure to air.

She took various plant parts in her collection, trying to see the effects. This alone took many hours. It would’ve taken longer had she not recorded her findings on plants as she found them, very thoroughly in her notebook and the tablet.

After a while of searching, she came across the stalk of the Amerie plant, found in the forests East, which belatedly sparked a bit after being burnt.

Inspired by the progress, she studied and tinkered at will and she got very, very, immersed in the activity.

She ate only when she noticed her stomach gurgled—which was once the entire day.

Harold and Sheila could only bite their nails. After all, Althea warned them of what she was doing and made strict instructions not to disturb her lest something exploded.

”Do you think I packed enough?” Harold mumbled looking at the shed in worry.

”Well, we did give her something to eat for a good 10 meals… my worry is if she’d actually eat them.”

”Sigh…”

”Sigh…”

Anyway, while the people outside were worried to death, the person inside lived in her own world.

After yet another half day of experimentation, Althea finally managed to come up with the finished products.

One was blue and the other was violet. They were even smaller than the bombs she gave away, and a bit more potent.

[Improved Paralysis Bomb (D): incapacitate enemies below level 10 for 10 seconds]

[Improved Poison Bomb (D): Decrease the life of enemies below level 10 by 1 every second for 5 minutes]

Ah, beautiful.

Both ’inventions’ did not trigger the World Knowledge notification though. This meant that somewhere out there, someone also had this.

This also meant she’d have to share some of her proceeds with this person.

Tsk.

She made a few more batches, taking a few more hours of her day. Anyway, now that she had the improved formulas for these, it was time to move on to the true damage bombs.

One example was the fertilizer bomb—a true explosive. This was very difficult. What she could do at this time definitely wouldn’t compare to the bombs she knew, but it should be enough to damage a small mob of level 4s.

A passive of Pharmacist, like weapons makers, armors, and other creator occupations, was to infuse aether into their work, increasing their efficiency and effectiveness in this world.

This was precisely why medicine from Terran would not work for people beyond level 2, why Terran guns were worse than a local bow-and-arrow, and how a flimsy wooden shield could handle more damage than a slab of Terran metal.

It was a fascinating concept that ought to be studied more deeply when she finds the time.

It was also around this time that her stomach finally told her to eat, so she dropped her work to eat. She blinked at the plethora of options on the table. There was bread and jam, rice and viand, and some hard-to-perish fruits.

Seeing the feast prepared for her, her eyes couldn’t help but warm.

…

The true bomb experiment was more difficult because it was more dangerous and this meant she had less leeway in her trials and errors.

This didn’t make her falter though. She knew very well that this could save a lot of people’s lives.

As such, in a room lit with special torches protected with youli stone, a beautiful girl with long dark brown hair and emerald eyes looked over at her intricate workspace.

Her movements were deliberate and precise, honed from years of obsessive practice, trying to balance the potency and safety of her creation.

This was not easy and she almost blew herself many times. She also had to limit the more dangerous parts of this experiment during the day, lest she ignited the torches and blew herself up.

Hours of trial and error later, she used her Pharmacist ability and Tori to study the composition of the item.

A little adjustment later—

[You have successfully created a unique explosive. Received Gift Pack (B)!]

Her eyebrows rose. Wasn’t there a pharmacist who invented something similar before? Perhaps the formulation and effects were too different that it counted as an original?

Anyway, Althea excitedly opened it to see it was a beautiful robe. It was plain in color, but the fabric looked like superior silk, and it had a different sheen to it.

[Medina Robe (C): +40 Defence, lowers presence by 20%]

Putting it on, Althea’s attention quickly returned to her experiments.

But her eyelids eventually turned heavier as the minutes trickled by, as if her body was already aware that she had finished the most important tasks and it was finally time to rest. Soon, she had no choice but to go to bed.

She was a bit regretful her momentum was broken, but then she saw her babies and all her tiredness went away, letting her sleep peacefully, the energy completely renewed for yet another bout of obsessive experimentation the next day.