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

Meanwhile, some hundred or so kilometers north of Alterra, one of the scouting teams encountered something quite interesting.

This team was led by Luis and his girlfriend, Yllana, and under them were Tacky Brat and his friends.1

Tacky and the others were young people who used to live in Fargo back then, and one of the main rebellious forces in that war. They moved not too long after the war and had long joined the guard team.1

Tacky’s sister, Lani, had landed a nice, comfy job in the school bookstore where she sold cute kids the books for their future (her words, not his). 1

Considering what she had gone through back in Fargo, Lani had recovered particularly well. There were even rumors that she was dating again.

Anyway, this scouting team’s task was to expand the map Alterra had.

The process was that the Intelligence Team would buy out maps from the mercenaries and passing merchants. However, there would still be gaps in the map, particularly those farther from the territories.

There were also gaps between the Terran territories further in. Those places that merchants and caravans generally did not pass through. If anyone had maps of them, it would be the citizens of nearby territories, even villages.

In those cases, they would go there and buy off maps from the citizens. Villagers generally charged very little for their maps, as a few silvers could go a long way in villages.

Since they had a lot of Terran refugees, they had basically a lot of sources among them as well.

As for the rest of the areas they could not find maps to, Alterra would send scouting missions to map out the area, ensuring that they were aware of the happenings in the regions around them.

Right now, the scouting team was heading towards a village north of them. Northwards was the part of the region they had the least information about. They had the mountains and mountain ranges in this area, after all, and it was simply far easier to travel in all the other directions.

Not to mention, except for a few exceptions, most of their refugees were coming from elsewhere, likely because the North was relatively difficult to traverse as refugee.

Luis decided to go far North (at least in the Terran region) and slowly work their way back down to Alterra. At the same time, they didn’t want to waste the trip and wanted to at least know some more information about the aborigine territories bordering the Terran villages.

Hopefully, they could find the Town nearest to them, as that was likely a key player for the challenges faced by the Terrans up North. They’d have to determine whether they were hostile or not, and if there could be potential partnerships.

They already had an idea of the other places bordering the rest of their region, leaving the North blank. For instance, the nearest Town Southwest was Ferrol Town, which was a close ally and trade partner.

The Town nearest to their Southeast was Basset Town, which was a subsidiary. And finally, the Town’s nearest West was the enemy Voumi Town, which they hoped to handle without having to go to war.

As their maps expanded, they realized that the world was much bigger than they thought. The region in which all Terrans landed seemed small in comparison, though the final shape would only be finalized if they completed this scouting mission well.

Their group had been away from Alterra for more than a week now, and they were starting to miss home.

”This should be the farthest stop, for now,” Luis said, handing a bottle of water to his girlfriend. They also needed to restock soon. They were running out of resources.

Well, to be clear, they were lacking Alterran resources.

After all, the forest was lush, so they technically wouldn’t go hungry. For water, many of them had the training to find water (on top of some being water elementalists themselves), but they just missed the hot food from Alterra!

They swore to beg off reconnaissance missions for the next few months after this!

They soon followed the trails to a village. They were not sure if this was the Northern edge of the region, but they could ask around and determine whether the village had been attacked by aborigines. If so, then it should be easy to determine where the edge would be after that.

Anyway, it was a typical village except it was located near a hill, making it a nicely defensible area. It kind of reminded them of how Old Shrao Village was. That place survived so long due to its location. They wondered if this one was just as lucky.

As they approached the Level 3 walls, they soon saw the guards there. They were definitely Terrans, confirming that they were still within the Terran region.

The guards also saw them, and their internal alarms immediately flared. They saw how well-dressed and well-equipped Luis’ party was, after all. There were also a few tall people in the group and had features of locals!

They didn’t have good experiences with locals, as many were, so they were naturally hostile by default.

”Halt!”

Luis and the others were used to this by now. ”We come in peace,” he said, using Terran language.

”Terrans?!” they gasped, looking them up and down. However, they didn’t let down their guard even after knowing so. After all, many Terran territories stabbed others in the back, too.

”Where are you from?” they asked. Terrans coming here were usually refugees. These people...were definitely not refugees. This was what made them particularly suspicious.

”Ah, we’re just here to visit. We’re doing reconnaissance.”

”Excuse me?” Recoinnasance? Seriously?

”Do you have well-traveled people? We’d like to buy their maps,” he said, then looked at his party. ”We can limit the entries, and you can watch our actions if that will make you feel better.”

The guards gazed at each other, yelled at someone within the wall, and then looked back at each other guardedly. They probably called the Lord or another higher up, so all they had to do was wait in the area.

Anyway, since they were not showing hostility, the sentries weren’t doing anything to them. Sentries attacked beasts automatically, but for intelligent creatures, they had to break rules first, especially for territories that couldn’t afford detailed rules and regulations.

In Alterra, even a visitor showing hostile energy against a citizen was enough to get targeted by a sentry (there may or may not have been some overreacting shots, but no one died, fortunately).

Luis and the others relaxed, with Tacky and them even setting up camp. Someone took a bag from their space, opened it, and it flipped out into a small tent. Someone set fire, and someone started preparing barbecue (though with limited sauce since they were rationing right now).

Whenever a beast appeared, someone would easily take it down, with the rest of them not even turning around to see.

They also saw some masterful use of elements, far superior to their own powerhouses.

Then the people who cleared the beasts would casually sit back down with others. Someone even took out a portable recliner and chilled...

The guards: ”...” What is this? A vacation?

Yllana was a female guard, aborigine rescued after the Guia War Tacky and the others were part of the local rebels against Fargo back thenOne of the first SA victims before the Fargo-Alterra war