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

In the end, in consideration of various factors, Garan and the team decided to follow the refugees to their village.

However, the travel was not straightforward as the survivors did not have a compass nor did they have the time to mark their path.

However, the so-called Fargo village was located in a particularly prominent landform—a valley—so they only had to go where the small mountains were.

Further, the soldiers also asked the refugees to help them tag the location on their maps—something that amazed the refugees to no end—so a few of them could even go ahead to the location.

Five people: Turbo, Jake, and three others, were sent ahead to check on the situation.

”The goal is to minimize the losses of the people.” Garan told the five, ”But be sure to keep your safety as the top priority.”

This had been their mantra since coming here. While they would still help people, they would no longer sacrifice their lives for them.

After all, only if they were alive would they be able to save even more people. More importantly, saving their own lives ensured they could protect their own loved ones well.

”Be careful,” he finally said and the five nodded.

”Yes, sir!” They said, and it took a few seconds for them to disappear from their sight.

The more optimistic young people couldn’t help but be in awe. ”Amazing…” they said, ”I wish I were that strong.”

Eagle, the soft-hearted one, smiled at them. ”You will be. Just be brave and aim for self-improvement.”

The young lad looked at Eagle in admiration. To be honest, the man had a bit of a scary face due to his sharp features, and he was the last person the lad expected to give any sort of pep talk.

Eagle sensed his stare and looked back with an eyebrow raised. ”Did I say anything wrong?”

The boy, Kyle, was both embarrassed and touched by his words. ”Er… thanks…”

Those who watched the interactions couldn’t help but smile.

Anyway, soon all the refugees could stand and walk one way or another, and Garan started walking forward, with everyone else following his steps.

Their steps were relatively slow as almost all the refugees were injured, but thankfully the soldiers were patient and protected them well.

It wasn’t peaceful for long, however, as they quickly heard rustles approaching them, and the soldiers immediately separated and headed in the direction of the sounds, fully prepared for what was to come.

Quickly, they took them down with their weapons, leaving the refugees absolutely in awe (again). As soon as the mobs were settled, the group started moving again. And when more mobs arrived, the soldiers would do the same. Over and over.

In the remainder of their travels, they encountered several more groups of monsters. These monsters were no longer limited to the usual levels 1 or 2 the refugees were used to. On the contrary, a lot of the new mobs ranged from level 6 to level 8.

Such levels were the minority in numbers, but it was enough to shake the refugees to the core.

”Why are the monsters suddenly so strong?!” Someone cried.

”Stronger? That was still weak.” Gill tactlessly mumbled as they ran.

”What?!”

”You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Eagle rubbed his temple as they trekked. ”Stop scaring them.”

”Don’t coddle them,” Gill said, ignoring the pale faces of the refugees. ”The average level of monsters here would remain at this level. They should get used to it.”

Some people cried and some even lost strength in their legs from the shock. Gill’s eyes twitched and decided to soften up his tone a bit.

”Don’t worry,” He told them, ”The monsters shouldn’t exceed level 10 around villages.”

At the very least, villages didn’t need to worry about a level 20 monster attacking them.

There was a rather accurate observation about these monsters: The stronger the territory, the stronger the monsters.

This was because of the energy, or aether, a territory innately had. This was what attracted monsters, and it varied from territory to territory. This was why during Upgrade Beast tides of villages, the level was generally lower than level 5.

For the low-level villages, he heard it was only level 3 mobs that attacked.

This side of the human territory did have generally weaker mobs. In turn, the weaker territories settled here for survival and also because they didn’t have much of a choice.

This was why no true strong professional stayed in villages, despite the potential for hegemony due to strength. After all, people would not receive any rewards for killing monsters 5 levels below them.

More importantly: who wanted to stay stagnant?

As if in a vicious cycle, weak territories would also turn away any strong individual who could change the status quo.

However, the average monster level was about level 7 or 8 and was already very lethal to the current Terrans. This was their new reality, and they had to adjust if they hoped to survive.

”There,” Gill said, very kindly.

The Refugees: ”...”

That did NOT make them feel better!

Gill ignored them, already feeling very kind in his attempt to ’comfort’ them.

Garan sighed and just continued his trek, hoping the advance party had mitigated the trouble up front.

As he walked, he couldn’t help but think a lot about what Gill was telling them.

This low-level mob around villages was not even permanent. It would change if powerful towns and cities appeared in the vicinity.

As such, more powerful mobs would be attracted by the aether produced by the vitality of a stronger community.

Because of the attraction of stronger territories to stronger monsters, there were cases of neighbors attacking neighbors, just to stop them from bringing in stronger monsters and implicating everyone.

But this was what weak cowardly lords chose to do, and he didn’t think there was a Lord from Terran who was like this.

At least, he hoped so.

He hoped that there would never be a war between Terrans. It was already them against the world and there was no need to add each other in the list of enemies.

To be able to thrive in this world, they had to work together.

Except with scum like Fargo, of course.

…

About half an hour later, they finally neared the vicinity of Fargo village. It was located in a lush valley with relatively comfortable side slopes.

The soldiers observed the terrain by habit and saw the other side of the mountain. It was steep and difficult to traverse.

This was a natural barrier on two sides, hard to attack and easily defendable.

It could be said that the Lord here had quite the foresight. Garan frowned, knowing the enemy could be a bit troublesome even in this new world.

However, as they went closer, they quickly heard loud growls and horrific screams and their pace turned panicked.

Soon they saw many corpses of humans and monsters, as well as the broken walls not too far from them. ”The monsters have traces of elements in them,” Gill said as their pace hastened towards the broken part of the wall.

Obviously, the people who came ahead had just finished off the monsters attacking the walls. It was just that a lot of monsters had already gotten into the territory.

The level 2 fence had long been breached. The gate was wide open and people were trying to get as far from it as they could.

Obviously, the refugees said the walls should’ve been able to last longer. They said that they had strong enough guards to hold on for at least half an hour.

What happened now?

Running against the crowd, Garan’s team weaved through to enter the opening to see the bloody scene inside.

There were maimed corpses everywhere, blood was splattered all over the floor and there were more people getting killed every step they took.

There were hundreds of corpses littered on the ground, stacked over each other, each with missing body parts.

There were monsters that were feasting with these piles, while some found more desire to hunt live prey.

The soldiers watched all this with a heavy heart.

It seemed they had miscalculated.