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

Later that night (i.e. about 5 minutes after the fact), a lot of people gathered around a park to see Clifford-Boop.

He was taken to the nearest park while they waited for the experts to come, and the bystanders naturally did not miss the chance to fawn, take pictures, and take videos of the giant pupper.

”He’s large!”

”AHHHHGGHHHH!”

”Boopie-dear~ Please eat meeee!”

”Oh no! Even a bag of jerky isn’t enough anymore!”

”Buy more bags! BUY MORE BAGS!”

”Much cute, magnified!”

Someone got close and spread his arms. ”BOOP—ah~” the dog loved to boop his nose and immediately went to do so to him. The dude was promptly thrown a few meters away, though he had a smile on his face, so all was well.

He remained also so big that when his adorable ”little” tail (that was more than a meter long) wagged, it created wind that could push low-levels a few inches.

Many couldn’t hold back in the end, and soon the giant puppy remained surrounded by people petting him.

Dogs were so soft, fluffy, and pudgy. Everyone had had the urge to just bury themselves in his softness. Well, they had the chance now that he grew bigger, didn’t they!? How could they miss it?!

ARF!

The pupper loved attention, so he was very happy right now.

ARF! ARF!!

The entire pharmacy team appeared soon after. The crowd parted for them, looking at the glorious people with admiring eyes.

Everyone knew what they had accomplished for the territory! Not to mention, just having Lady Althea as a pharmacist added a certain beautiful prestige to the occupation, too.

Some of the pharmacists felt proud and handsome, some were indifferent, while most felt awkward and wanted to hide under their coats. Many were just too introverted to bask in attention.

In contrast, the ”ill” doggo was having the time of his life.

”WOOF!” The giant baby barked in happiness.

Someone even asked him to roll over. Suffice it to say, a few people were ’happily squished’ in his path.

The pharmacists’ eyes twitched, wondering if these people were all drunk, but they were quick to resume their professional stances.

They went to look for Penelope and asked more about the potion. Gus stood there,1 right next to her. He was her partner in this experiment, so he also knew a lot about it.

He was having a date with his aborigine girlfriend when his aether letter—the one sending messages specifically from the Research Center—heated up and asked them to congregate in one of the parks (for smaller parks, they were referred according to the street they abutted).

Hoffen led the questioning, his eyes fixed on the dog. He asked her to tell them everything that happened today, as well as the process by which the potion was made.

They, of course, asked for the descriptions as mentioned by the system.

”I’m not sure, Grandmaster...the potion only had ??? as description when I took a look with my assessment skills.”

Hoffen nodded. ”This means that its effect is not fixed. It could change as the potion grows older, or it could change depending on who uses it.”

Hoffen took out Tori v2 (another one of the less compact versions they made from scratch) and studied the compounds of the remaining potion Penelope managed to keep. At the same time, those with assessment skills used their skills to study it in parallel.

The park had quite a show; people loved watching the dogs and the giant puppy, and they were also watching the pharmacist at work.

”It’s temporary, fortunately,” Hoffen said to the relief of everyone. ”I suppose it should last a week or so.”

”Will he be alright?”

”I studied the remnants, and all it seemed to do was to temporarily expand the body mass. It’d be weakened after, but with enough regenerating potions and food, it should be able to recover on its own.”

”What a relief,” Penelope said, almost in tears.

While people were having fun and amused by the change, Penelope had been frozen in place, her mind whirring with the thought of the possible side effects it could have on the puppy.

Gus saw this and sighed, patting the girl’s shoulder in comfort. It was completely platonic, of course, though not necessarily in the eyes of others.

His aborigine girlfriend saw this and frowned, but she just looked down as if she hadn’t seen anything.

This was Wana, one of the first aborigines received by Alterra after the Fargo war.1

She was part of Umi’s group, the pleasure worker under Fargo back then, though she had long moved on from that life and was now working under Juliet as she studied psychology under her.

She met Gus at a mixer, which was something very new for her. It was a group of young people hoping to find others to date. She had never been in a true relationship, and for a while, she had disliked men in general after what she had to go through, so she had never tried dating during the first year or so of her stay in Alterra.

However, after staying in Alterra for nearly two years, she eventually opened herself up and joined the dates when she was pulled into it by her friends.

They had been dating for a while now and had just made it official less than a week ago. Seeing him close to someone who shared the same interest (and spent a significant amount of time with on a daily basis) was causing her discomfort.

She had grown up in an environment where men thought with their lower bodies, so she was very insecure at this time, and her upbringing was telling her to just accept it.

The pharmacist had no idea about this little discomfort, though; they were focused on the issue at hand.

”It can last a few days,” Hoffen said, sighing, before looking at the giant dog stepping on some people, who did not seem to mind anything at all.

And so, the giant baby will be borking and booping people for a bit longer.

The first Alterran pharmacist next to Althea herselfOne of the rescued aborigine pleasure workers