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

Within a few weeks, a vast land area was mapped out, with only a couple of dark patches in between. These patches were mostly villages.

Most villages did not have anything interesting to warrant caravans to pass through them. Not to mention, these villages’ citizens mostly didn’t have the resources to head out at all, so they were mostly living in isolation.

This was the case in most villages. Where else would they find a place like the Terran region, primarily made of villages, but had such active traffic exchanged between them?

Of course, heading out often was only possible for the weaker territories because of the infrastructure and the network Alterra created. Otherwise, it was a costly endeavour. In Towns, it was definitely a mercenary team-worthy trip, which was why they’d never run out of jobs.

Another reason why Tambai and Tanod hadn’t attempted to head out before this was...money and strength.

As the Class E mercenaries, they were (no Class C mercenary teams had slots), they could only jump 1000 kilometers each time, but they had to find the correct missions in the correct places to avoid excessive delays in their travels.

They had to complete the missions, too, otherwise the penalties could be harsh. The lightest penalty for abandonment was suspension from using the hall, which they definitely could not afford.

They had to be smart in which missions to take to make sure they wouldn’t have to go to too many detours and that their strengths would be enough to actually finish the job.

This meant that they had to likely risk their lives every time they jumped a thousand kilometers.

Not to mention, because the mission locations were not all known to them, they could even be taken farther away if they lacked information.

Fortunately, their bought maps now had a decent amount of information regarding the territories near their hometown.

It was ironic that they only found out about these things when they were so far away, considering that that was where they lived half of their lives.

This was how important the intelligence department’s role was, and all those contribution points they spent on expanding their maps were extremely worth it.

Information gathering was very expensive, especially in places where they had no influence. If they hadn’t landed in Alterra, who knew when they would’ve gotten home?

Another challenge was what they’d face heading back to Alterra. This was because they’d be going on foot. Their parents were not mercenaries, nor would they be accepted in normal mercenary teams.

They needed a lot of resources for that. Because they were unclear about how far they had to go, they had to save up a decent amount.

They also needed to grow stronger if they were to survive traveling on foot with their parents. They would also need to hire some mercenaries from there, too, to escort them to this region.

They both maximized the loan they could take from the bank, which was quite sizable for an individual, but was just enough for such a massive undertaking, considering everything that they lacked.

They also needed to buy a lot of defense equipment and potions, including beast repellents.

They couldn’t afford a mercenary team to escort them all the way there, either, so they’d have to go the long way round and maximize the arrays.

They would be jumping to Ferrol first, taking a relatively easy gathering mission, which was essentially just a delivery request from things already available in Alterra.

The client was one of the filthy rich nobles who got rich in the Ferrol festivals, so spending money carelessly wasn’t a problem.

They also knew it was a win-win situation, so the brothers made sure to add a lot of extra goods for the noble.

Although Ferrol was slightly Southwest, it was the only Level 2 Town within their range. If they got lucky, they could encounter a caravan heading far enough Northwest to minimize their travel time.

From Ferrol, assuming they couldn’t find a fitting caravan, then they’d be jumping to Twinwave Town, which was less than a thousand kilometers away from Ferrol.

Alterra already made deals with Bart’s people to post continuous simple missions, which doubled as delivery missions. People had their spaces, after all, and a few people from the Rolan mercenary team even had space stones, so this wasn’t too inconvenient. Rather, it was extremely profitable for both parties.

After Twinwave, they’d pass to another Town West, Zabon Town, and then they’d head to Valov after that, which was where the risk started. That place was hostile, after all, and it was fortunate that the Lords didn’t see records of travel history; otherwise, they could get in trouble just by landing there.

It was a long way, and they had to take several detours, but what could Class E mercenaries do when their hometown was so incredibly far away?

They would gather more and more information and buy more and more detailed maps as they closed in on their place. This would also grant them a bit of contribution points when they get back to Alterra.

Since their town was a level 1 town, there was no direct route there, and they also knew that the nearest level 2 town was not closeby. They would definitely go on foot on the last leg and, hopefully, they still had enough money to hire decent mercenary teams before they had to do so.

Anyway, these were all plans for now, and there could still be a huge amount of variables from the missions taken alone. While thinking about these things, the mercenary hall staff finally called on them.

”Next!” he yelled. ”Number 32!”

”Ah,” the two stood up and approached, handing over the number they had. Since the hall was ultra popular, people had to get numbers to queue properly.

Now that it was finally their turn to array, the brothers nodded at each other and stepped forward.

Hopefully, their trip—this personal mission—will be successful!