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

Menzon looked at everyone’s faces, seeing their excitement and their awe.

The last time he saw this was when he awakened, coming from both family, friends, and strangers. He thought that he had finally ’made it’ and he didn’t have to remain a background character like everyone thought when they saw his plain, forgettable face.

He was slapped by reality within a year, and that nice thought was quickly wiped away when people saw what he was capable of making. I.e. none.

Now...the words felt genuine. Like he really deserved the praise.

What to do? His eyes were heating up and his nose was starting to feel runny.

Sniffle

”Hey, man, are you crying?”

”I’M NOT!”

”Eh...”

Althea smiled as she shook her head, just proceeding with studying the tool a bit more closely. She observed it from all sides and even had a ruler on hand. After a minute or so, she spoke up. ”It is a slightly concaved mirror.”

”Pardon?” Menzon asked, trying to recall the various science lessons he was forced to take along with many other aborigine researchers and scholars.

Every professional aborigine was taught some of the basic concepts in the Terrans’ world. It was enlightening, to say the least, and also admirable because of how generous they were.

Then he recalled his lessons. His lessons had a lot to do with light, waves, and particles as well as mirrors and its effects.

After a few pauses, he finally remembered what she was referring to. ”Yes, Miss Althea,” he said.

”Can you study creating a convex one?”

From what she could see, the current mirror increased the attack power because it focused the attack. It condensed more aether to reinforce what was thrown at it, and then threw back a slightly stronger attack in turn.

Although focused attacks were good, it was nice to have more Area of Effect attacks, even if it reduced the damage per shot. This was especially useful if one did not have such an attack or if they simply wanted to damage more enemies, in contrast to killing them.

Which, technically, was what they always wanted in wars when facing slaves.

Menzon could not answer immediately. He somewhat understood her request; it was just that he wasn’t entirely certain how to do it.

Although it may look simple, as simply changing the shape of the mirror, the process itself wasn’t. The inheritance he received only told him how to do the former, and that took him years to understand.

Rather, if he hadn’t been in Alterra and the skill hadn’t been studied by the people here, he really doubted he’d ever have made a breakthrough at all.

It was really amazing. They watched him try his inheritance for weeks, and they determined where the lapses were and had theories on how to make things work.

But this request...he did not have an inheritance. How was he supposed to start? Would he disappoint them? Would their treatment become less warm?

The insecurities were obvious with how pale he got, and the Alterrans could only look at each other. Menzon did not notice this, though. He was simply sinking into his own scared state.

”Don’t worry, we will help you. We always will,” Lady Althea’s warm voice pulled him out.

He lifted his head and met her emerald eyes, and it seemed he was able to read his thoughts. Then he saw the other comrades next to her, and there was no hint of distaste or disappointment in their eyes.

Then flashes of the various memories he made here passed by his head, and the times he spent with these people.

He was reminded of how they met, how they helped him unconditionally, and how they celebrated every little win he had. Suddenly, he felt ashamed.

How could he think so pitifully?

Menzon blinked, holding back the tears. He looked at Althea and the others. ”I’ll do it.”

...

The celeste mirror and so on were just some of the developments in the toolmaking industry, which was indeed showered with huge amounts of resources by Althea and the other elders.

The human resources assigned to the department included most of the math and array-study team members. It ended up pushing aside several other projects. There were also plenty of material resources spent here too—and it wasn’t small.

Most magic tools require particular ingredients to create. Even Althea’s protective token, which on the surface only needed wood and her talents, was not that simple.

For example, there were only specific types of wood that could be used. There was a particular type of wood (which was fortunately common enough in the region), a certain age (which varied depending on the height of the branch wood used, or if it was a wood from the trunk), a specific amount of moisture, and so on.

It was only because Althea was an exemplary wood-type elementalist that it felt relatively effortless. If it were other people, they’d definitely struggle even from just selecting materials alone, let alone inscribing anything without cracking it.

Another breakthrough in this area was regarding the in-depth study of one tool, the slavery protection token they borrowed from Oslo back then.

It was the anti-slavery token, the tool that would make the system bypass someone even if their territory fell, making them exempt from becoming slaves no matter what happened.

It was one of the first magic tools the Alterrans had taken hold of, but it also happened to be one of the more difficult ones to decipher and make something of.

It could mask the system itself, after all, which was probably why there were so many challenges, restrictions, and so on. When it came to this tool, it seemed like there was a cascade effect, wherein one change triggered unintended changes in another, even if it had already been ’fixed’.

Studying it felt like they were attracting bad luck (since it was like preparing for a loss in a war). However, they did so anyway, especially since many of their citizens would be travelling and they could be stuck in a territory stronger than Alterra, at least on paper.

To be completely exempt from slavery when someone was stuck in a territory undergoing war, one either needed to have this token or simply be a permanent resident in a stronger territory.

When their territory was of the same rank as the winning territory, then their citizens could still be slaves. Roughly, the calculation should be similar to how ’comprehensive’ strength was calculated.

This was another reason why they were trying so hard to increase comprehensive strength, to the point that Althea neglected her own strength at some point. They could not rush through ranking up (nor did they want to), so they could make up for it through foundational strength.

The fact of the matter was that, in terms of average level, Alterra was far from the strongest among Towns. Sure, the Alterrans could just not go to stronger territories, but the world moved so fast, and so did opportunities. It was highly doubtful everyone would be able to stay still.

For example, would an Alterran really not go to a City because they were afraid to get caught up in a City-level war that might not even happen? What about their people who were always in Ferrol? Ferrol was a Level 3 Town. If they got stuck there during a war and Ferrol lost, then they could still become slaves.

Althea did not want her or her people to be afraid of such things. She hoped they could explore freely. Having to handle monsters and hostile people was already problematic enough; she didn’t want to think about them being random collateral damage just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Anyway, she hoped that they could recreate the anti-slavery tool soon, and those who had likened themselves ’array experts’, those who were in the array team despite there not being an official inheritance for it, wanted to study it the most in hopes of receiving the magic tool inheritance.

Imagine: among the tools, this would definitely be one of the best-sellers! Who wanted to be a slave? NO ONE!

Anyway, the breakthrough was the determination of one of the arrays (it had a lot; It was, after all, an array that could bypass the system records.)

This was only one, but it was one of the more important arrays in Althea’s opinion, and the reason why she placed so much importance in studying this particular token.

This array, along with the array that’d allow an ’overwrite’ to whatever appeared in the system, was the foundation of one of her real goals.

She wanted to create a token that could mask her status—even at the sight of Lords.

It was only this way that she, a Lord, would be able to go around as she wanted, as she needed, without worrying about anyone seeing her identity.

This wasn’t just because of her selfish wish to travel (though it was certainly a part of it). It was because there’d come a time when she would need to see the world.

Don’t ask her why she knew, she could just tell by instinct—as if it was inevitable. And she had to prepare for it.