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

Back in the village center, Ansel looked at the side to see his sister with a small button-like thing with patterns. It was much smaller than the terran marble ball though. It was probably smaller than a teenage girl’s pinky nail.

”What is that?”

”Tracker,” she said, staring at it. They blinked and looked at her.

Before heading up, Veronica handed it to her and told her what it was. Apparently, Estra ’borrowed’ it from her family’s vault to follow Vaughn. They would borrow it for a while and give some contribution points. If she allowed them to keep it after that, then they could exchange larger points for it.

Anyway, if they figured out how this worked, not just the reconnaissance missions, but also protection missions would enter a different level of efficiency.

Although she was getting ahead of herself (like always), she could already imagine the branches and the products they could possibly develop once they cracked the code for this.

For one, they could create more such tools, which could allow them to monitor the current location of their own people as well as their targets. They could even reverse engineer and make anti-tracking tools.

Another, they could even use it in the construction and cartography industry as an ultra-accurate way to measure distances and directions.

It could even contain arrays that could be useful for certain communication devices.

Anyway, the possibilities were vast, and even if there was a long way to go before they could crack it, she couldn’t help but feel excited anyway.

...

Althea headed straight to the Toolmaking department after the meeting, and she showed the tool to Kalfene and the others.

The output requirement for each tool maker was very fair. They just had to do the amount of what would normally be consumed relative to the Alterran working hours of 10 hours.

At first, they were asked to create a tool with someone observing them, which made it a bit challenging and difficult to focus, but they eventually did get the hang of it.

It felt like a test more than anything, and it made them a bit nervous, with the observers having to continuously remind them not to think too much (which ended up making them think even more).

After the next few days, this was what they did, and eventually they did get used to it.

They also procured the materials for them. The materials for their tools weren’t that rare, but they were uncommon enough that they would be troublesome to get by batch. Somehow, Alterra managed to get a few sets.

When a product was finished, the Alterrans were very impressed, and the toolmakers thought they’d be pushing them to do more after sending a wave of admiration. This was normally the case.

Unexpectedly...

”You’re amazing, but I think you use too much energy...”

”I think it’s beautiful, but I don’t think this intricate shape will do a lot...”

”Is this part really needed? Maybe you can explore...”

And so on...

Basically, when the Alterrans studied their productivity, they were asked to focus on developing their skills rather than producing anything.

This baffled the toolmakers because most people would want them to produce what they could—as much as they could. Apparently, they didn’t think their productivity was maximized and pushed them to improve that instead, even if it meant they wouldn’t be producing much. They even allowed them to go below the quota for the first few months.

For Kalfene, his productivity seemed to be 1 set of aether letters every four to seven days, while Sleuth could create one in six days if he was focused. Kahonn was even worse, and he was still not halfway done with the token guard.

Not to mention, while their success rates were higher than others, there was still a chance of failure, wherein all that time and the raw material would go to waste.

Now, not only were there team leads actively trying to find ways to streamline the process, but they were also required to clock in hours in ’research and development’.

Their direction of study was also incredibly targeted—they were asked to study and memorize specific arrays found in the tools they made!

At first, they really had no idea how to start. Memorizing the pattern was one thing, but they had to understand it somehow. They felt like students who were facing an exam they could not understand.

What made it even more embarrassing was that these arrays were supposedly in the tools they created themselves, so they should’ve been familiar with them!

Menzon was the one with the harshest exercises. Inheritances worked by giving them a rough instruction on how to create the product. However, it was still up to the body, skill, and brain of the recipient whether they would be able to do it at all.

As for the arrays required, it was when the other parts were mastered, and it would be like imprinting a set pattern on the tools, which was why the toolmakers themselves weren’t too privy about the arrays they were using.

Basically, Menzon had the ’instruction manual’ for a great tool, yet he had none of the technical skills to actually accomplish it.

They had the impression that inheritances were still given to people who had the potential to use them, but perhaps there were times it was just random? Who knows...

To be fair, it was not an easy tool to create either. If he didn’t go to Alterra, it was estimated he’d never actually see it happen.

Fortunately for him, he was in the land of the curious, and he became the subject of various trials and experiments. It was unnerving and a bit pressuring, but he felt... useful.

The only other time he felt useful was when he first awakened the toolmaker profession, and he got the associated benefits from it. With his benefits, his family also did, and they had bragging rights for a long time.

However, when it became clear he wouldn’t actually be able to apply anything, that fire died down very fast, and he even became the subject of mockery among his peers, which in turn embarrassed his family too.

Soon, he had to suffer the disgusted stares of his peers as well as his family, and it was only because he was just naturally shameless that he was able to go through all those years without breaking.

Anyway, Althea and the others arrived with a new tool while they were in the middle of studying.

”This is indeed a tracker,” Kalfene said, confirming. ”It can track a person—placing them in your map—up to a hundred kilometers away.”

She looked at Kalfene. ”Someday, try to make one.”

Everyone turned to look at her, especially Kalfene, whose glasses almost fell down. ”...Pardon?”

Did she just ask him to make an entirely new tool out of nowhere?

Althea smiled beautifully, mesmerizing people randomly, before she took out a scratch paper and started doodling, occasionally looking at the tool with sparkling eyes.

She used rulers and compasses to draw, and it took her about an hour to draw the details of all three, but everyone watched her movements carefully and without impatience.

”The Aether Letter and Boards—and now, the tracker—have at least 3 similar arrays,” she said. ”I need you to master these three arrays.

”Who knows what we can create from them?”