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

”A what?” The three aborigines asked, confused, though some of them may have heard an Alterran mention it in passing. However, since they didn’t know what it was, they really didn’t remember much about it.

On the other hand, Troy—who had been watching at the side—stood up and gape. Finally, Hardy was pretty much sparkling at this point and could not contain himself.

”You mean—”

”Seriously?!”

”It’d take a bit more, though,” she added, realizing she had jumped the gun (no pun intended). ”When we mastered using the Criel in cold weapons, it’d be easier for us to figure out what we need to do for the handgun.

”So...” she looked at the dagger. ”Let’s figure this out—we’d need a bit more help, time, (funds), and effort... but we should get there in a few years!”

...

Research Center, the next morning

Althea was sitting in her office, studying arrays (she dedicated some hours to study arrays, whichever one they were) when she received a very nice proposal.

She put aside the array in question and focused on the news, eyebrows rising as she read more.

She immediately called the proponents of the proposal and, after seeing them with her own eyes, she realized they had not slept a wink.

Although humans, thanks to their improved physiques, required much less rest now, they still needed a few hours to regenerate.

When one did not sleep at all, the effect was much more obvious. It looked more like a crash. Even soldiers who were out on a mission would make sure they had at least an hour or two of a shut-eye every day.

The explanation was that their spirit needed some time to recover, too, and ignoring that would cause a burnout.

She looked at the four people with panda eyes, dried lips, and overall dreary bodies, masked just enough by their eyes sparkling with passion and excitement.

It was quite an interesting combination.

She worried if they were lucid at first, but she knew they still had that last burst of energy left.

”Explain.”

It was Lin who spoke up. Despite her panda eyes, she seemed excited.

”Well, we have successfully created a new alloy weapon using Criel!”

”We have tested it and it had twice the damage of our best steel weapons. Sure, it took a long time to make, but we should be able to compress that... eventually.”

Brenda chimed in. ”Although the dagger is not yet a Class C weapon, I can feel it is at that border.”

If she managed to apply her inheritance at Class-C weaponsmith, along with the proper handling and combination of the materials, she felt she could really improve it to become a system-acknowledged Class-C weapon.

Brenda had upgraded to Class C, but she had yet to actually create an actual Class C weapon. Her production of Class Ds, though, was excellent, and her success rate was practically 100%.

Similarly, her father was also a Class C weaponsmith, and at the peak of it, too. If they figured out the details, he might really be able to do something about it. However, unlike Brenda, her father had made one or two Class C weapons in the past decade.

If she managed to create a legitimate Class C weapon, then she’d be able to officially call herself that tier. Although she was technically a C-class weaponsmith already, the convention was that she was an ’incomplete’ one until she managed to create the weapon on her own.

Of course, most Class C weaponsmiths were relatively old, at least in their 50s (the youngest one she knew was a decade older than she was), so she wasn’t pressured to do so much, and she was allowed to focus on what she needed and wanted.

Hardy had also awakened the weaponsmith and armour maker occupations a couple of months back. However, since his attention was divided between the two practices, he was still Class E in both despite his talents.

That said, his bone and wood weapons were all of superior quality and definitely trumped all weapons of the same class.

He was probably going to upgrade soon, though, so Brenda would be able to focus on creating Class C weapons instead. She would need all the time she could get to focus on this specific tier.

Like every other thing—leveling, skills, and so on—there was a massive gap between Class D and Class C weapons. Although on paper there was only one level between them, there was a chasm that a vast majority could not cross in their lifetime.

For one, the costs went up by several folds. Class D weapons cost a few gold on average, while Class C weapons costed scores to even hundreds of gold.

This was why many level 30s would still have D-class weapons, and they’d just have to replace them every month (or week) or so due to durability issues. The fights at that level simply cut a weapon’s durability by a fraction each hit.

Don’t even talk about Class B weapons, which could easily buy a token for a decent village.

It was not just in materials, but there were also some arrays involved in these weapons. They can also handle levels of creatures that lower-tier weapons could not even scratch.

Althea smiled wider. ”Timeline?” she asked, and Lin handed her another piece of paper. They had just finalized it after they had submitted the initial proposal.

”We should be able to create Superior Class D—or even Class C—cold weapons within the next several months, a year at most. Guns, on the other hand, would be ready in about two to five years—” Lin paused. ”Depending on how much we can grow our own abilitues... and...how much funding we can receive.”

This made all of them a little awkward, and Althea to chuckle. ”Okay, approved,” she said, handing them a blank check that could be withdrawn at the bank.

”Please prioritize this,” she told them, referring to the superior cold weapons. ”Ideally, before our next upgrade.”