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

Speaking of refugees, Belluga had a lot of aborigines now, primarily from the East, so this meant a huge part of their blind spot of the territories East of Alterra was filled up in this trip.

They also got a lot of information from Khlack slaves, wherein some citizens just helped them order the map. They were slaves but they could still receive money that came after they became slaves, as long as it was given willingly.

Based on the map they had so far, the place they transferred to was either a circle or an oblong.

Bart mentioned it wasn’t that large of an area. It was simply an area with very little Aether. However, when they arrived the place was revitalized as if it didn’t have any difference to the outside world.

It was the opposite of the Grave of Villages they had trained in before, about a week or two of travel south of their current location.

According to high-level aborigines who had settled nearby—like Jonathan and his cronies—their area seemed to have died a decade before they arrived. Jonathan’s papyrus library had records of it, in fact. It said of a resource depletion in an area, causing the fall of the few villages there.

Similarly, the previous transfer (Gaudi’s people) seemed to have had a similar if not the same experience. Gaudi overheard some slave drivers mention something of the sort.

The emptiness of aether in these spots was also convenient because no one would settle there and they had the place for themselves—at least until the protection period ended.

The previous Transfers were hundreds of years prior and the ones before that were a thousand years before that. Sadly, there was no record of the surviving people anymore, so they could only make do with the information they could gather.

With these data, they came to a conclusion: Whenever a Transfer was about to happen, an area would lose aether in preparation for it.

However, a lot of these were suppositions and they didn’t spread it out yet. There wasn’t any urgency to know such a thing anyway. What they needed to spread though, was something looming above everyone.

Raine served tea and they continued to chat. ”I’m honored to have the person heading the Alterra’s Logistics department to personally visit us,” she said.

”There’s a reason I personally went on this trip,” he told Raine. ”This is to inform the associated villages that they had two to three months to prepare before Alterra became a town.”

”What?” Raine exclaimed, but calmed herself immediately. This should not have been a surprise. ”...may I know the requirements to becoming a Town, if you don’t mind me asking.”

”20000 population, 15000 residents, and 1000 prestige.”

Raine looked at her pitiful 110 prestige that had barely moved after so long. Although a lot of Terran territories got 100 prestige early on, the increase thereafter had become much slower.

It was likely that the initial prestige had to do with the burst of population, but since nothing significant was affected after that, there was no more improvement.

Looking at this, the prestige alone would take probably another decade. To be honest, becoming a Town was something not in her plan either.

What she could do was to protect her territory against stronger mobs. They were so close to Alterra, after all. Before, it was a blessing, now… it would be turning dangerous.

”To prepare for the upcoming mobs, missions outside would definitely maximized. You probably would only have to worry about mobs coming at you from the East or the North, for the most part.”

That was to say: Guard their side well, and all will be well.

Eagle finally left after a few more reminders, and Raine massaged her temple as a new problem arose.

She frowned and then looked at the man beside her. ”Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked, staring at her new aborigine hire.

The man’s name was Quiro. He wasn’t a hire from the Village Center—which showed useless hires 99% of the time now—but rather one of the aborigine refugees from the East. They arrived not long after Esias’ Team did.

Quiro was not bad-looking, though he had the masculinity of a fighter that added to his charm. He was tall, and his tanned skin and curly hair added to his appeal.

Most importantly: He was a rare fire elementalist, which was why she hired him on the spot (after doing a detailed oath, of course).

The man stepped forward as he was called. ”I.. I’m not sure what you mean, milord.”

Raine narrowed her eyes and looked at him. ”You were looking at me weirdly. Did it have to do with our visitors?” Raine asked and it made him flinch.

Raine noticed that Quiro had been watching the visitors with a frown. The aborigine was not sure how to respond to this.

”I…” He knew they were allied, but it felt bad to see their lord act humble toward someone else.

He remembered when he and his people were feeling homeless, the lord was the one to take them all in.

His fire had already lost spark at the time. He was ready to give up—ready to die. However, the lord came, waving his spear, and killing the monster that was about to eat him.

He lifted his eyes to meet the lord’s and he couldn’t help but feel a little flustered. ”I… I am just uncomfortable to see you humbled.”

Raine’s eyebrows rose as she stared at the man, but she had to admit she was a little touched. Her voice changed from stern to just a little gentle, catching the man off-gaurd.

”They are strong and we depend on them a lot,” she explained. ”Maybe we’d need to call them again to help us out soon.”

Quiro shook his head. He had sworn to help the lord with whatever they had, as long as it didn’t compromise the safety of his family.

”I will guard this territory well. Don’t worry, my Lord,” he paused. ”We will help the territory become so strong we won’t have to be so dependent on others.”