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

From what they knew, dwarves’ weapons were most useful at Town-level only, as City-level buildings seemed to have a different level of arrays and magic.

Otherwise, the dwarven tribes would have long attacked the many cities that held their brethren. It was also why only Cities would dare hold dwarven slaves, and not even openly anymore.

It was also why Otto and the rest did not dare to hold the dwarves they encountered back in Old Shrao (still a bit of a pity, she wanted to meet one). At the town level, if they dared hold a dwarf against their wishes, then they could expect to make an enemy of the dwarves and their weapons.

A few dwarves would’ve been really useful in this war tho.

They did not dare underestimate Valov on its own, let alone that they had obviously gotten help from a City.

For now, much of what they could do was enhance their defenses and prepare for the scenario that the walls really could be destroyed, and not just breached.

Their wall was the best for the tier, but they weren’t indestructible.

For Alterrans, who had been indomitably protected by the walls for years, the concept that it could really be destroyed was a bit alien to them. However, this was something that truly could happen and should be within expectations.

Only with negative expectations would they have enough sense of urgency.

The past weeks, everyone was busy preparing, and all the Elders were busy with their own things. Althea, though, was in her home for now, waiting for the exact time for one of the satellites to start a war, so that Valov wouldn’t be able to attack them.

To declare war as satellites, it was actually Althea herself—the Lord of the main territory—who had to send the declaration. This was natural. Satellites didn’t have a separate Lord, only her.

Her map would just be supplemented if the territory they were attacking wasn’t there yet.

This was one of their advantages because they had accurate timekeeping tools, so they could time things to the second. Accurate timekeeping was actually one of the keys to this type of strategy, especially now that they had territories waiting eagerly to attack them.

In terms of timing, others wouldn’t be able to beat them. Not to mention, there was a cooldown per declaration, even if it was a fail.

When one declared war, and it was deemed prohibited, say, because the two-week leeway was not yet over, even if only for a few minutes. There would be a few-minute cooldown before they could try again, and that could mean the difference between waiting another two weeks or not.

It could be said that the territories that successfully attacked them before had an element of superior guesswork and luck (or bad luck).

At the same time, they did not assume they were the only ones with timekeeping techniques, which was why Althea was always undistracted at least half an hour before she had to declare war through the satellites.

She was just in one room, without her children, her husband, or anyone.

It was just that, a few minutes in her isolation, Harold suddenly burst through the door.

”MISS ALTHEA! MISS ALTHEA!” he yelled, eyes tearing and voice hoarse from crying. ”THE CHILDREN!”

”What?!”

Althea forgot everything at that moment and rushed after him. She did not even think about why they were going so far into the forest. It was within their walls, so her panic-stricken mind simply did not consider any danger, considering the strict rules and regulations.

What she did not expect was for them to arrive at a clearing, and there, she saw Mathilda, Gru, and the other Elders, as well as some of their assistants and family members...all with worried expressions on their faces.

”What’s going on?” she voiced out. ”Where are the children?”

She could not sense her children there at all. Her heart was palpitating, and she was feeling dizzy from worry. She forced her mind to calm and think about what was happening, though with differing success.

This was suspicious, very suspicious, she knew. Her instincts were telling her something was wrong. However, before she could make any guesses or react in any way, things suddenly shifted.

An instant later, she felt a change in the atmosphere, and she immediately ordered the earth to rise up.

BOOM!!!

At that moment, explosions resounded around them, and the people were barely saved from direct explosion using her earth platforms.

However, she had to make them so quickly, raise them so high, and create so many—how sturdy could they be?

BOOM!

Another explosion resounded under them, which caused their already wobbly platform to shake further and crumble. Althea gritted her teeth and used a large amount of mana to reinforce the plateaus, keeping them up as she was unsure whether there would still be explosions happening close by.

The rules would prohibit damage, but one of the loopholes was the damage-causing items that had delayed activations. They had noticed this rather late, when they started making more bombs, but the rules didn’t allow for regulations on them; otherwise, a lot of things would’ve been prohibited.

A lot of things, when separate, were harmless, and only when combined would they be harmful.

Even fire, a little oil, and water could cause an explosion. It was simply too broad and was therefore not permitted to be added to the Rules.

Because they couldn’t do anything about it, they didn’t make related rules regarding it either, because it could give people the idea of what they could do instead.

Everyone there was shocked, barely even noticing that many of them had been injured; their ears were ringing from the shock.

From Althea’s arrival to this current moment, not more than 5 seconds had passed.

Althea covered her head, massaging her temples. She took out her weapon as she stood up, trying to settle everyone down while looking around for her enemies.

[Valov Town (Lv2) declared war on Alterra Town (Lv2)!]

...

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A/N: As mentioned before, the release date of the new FL apoc story ”Planet vs Aliens: The Space User Returns’ has been brought forward by a month~

Hope to see you there!