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

Hundreds of kilometers East of Alterra, there was a certain small group of half-orcs and dwarves traversing the terrain. This group had been traveling across the forests and varying terrains this whole time, rarely making a formal stopover in a human territory.

The world was so large that even if there were thousands of territories in the region, the forests, mountains, and other things in between were far more vast.

Because of their, er, group composition, it wasn’t easy for them to enter a territory without garnering unwanted attention, so they simply didn’t enter a territory.

All of them were capable of surviving in the wild, anyway, especially with strong half orcs. If they couldn’t handle the threat, they’d run, though the dwarves and the babies would be carried by the other two half-orcs.

In their case, they could only travel on foot, resting a bit when they found a suitable campsite. They weren’t entirely sure where the settlements were exactly, but their pace was steady.

Each leg of the trip was massive, and it was inevitable for them to take a while. Even when Freya was carrying the four dwarves (now making themselves at home on her shoulders) because they were too slow, it’d still take a while.

Even if they did succumb and had to take a formal stopover, they could only go to a village at most.

This was because attracting attention in Towns, with their party composition, was too dangerous, especially since they had Post Offices and a stronger population. It was a recipe to be hunted by strongmen, and they might not be able to go against them.

During the past week or so of travelling, they had only come across two villages where they bought bread from the restaurant, as well as consumables, weapons, and equipment from the shops.

Of course, the consumables like healing potions had to be bought from other people since villages did not have pharmacies. They might not find it in every village.

It was always Sephra and Nana who went in because their size wasn’t too abnormal. They covered their characteristic features with robes and gloves. Other than that, the group stayed in the wild.

This was already days ago, and they needed to replenish their healing potions already. They’d have to find a village again soon, ideally one connected to a town—not too near but also not too far from one—so the consumables were likelier to be sold.

Another challenge was that they were not sure where their destination was exactly. While the teenage dwarves received a map from the Alterrans they encountered before, because it was too far away, all they had were arrows and a rough direction on where to go.

Whenever the terrain wasn’t friendly, like a particularly steep mountain range, then they had no choice but to make detours, extending their travel time even more. They’d just have to find their way to the right direction again.

At some point, it was time to rest again after a long travel time. They could only hope they were really getting nearer to the place.

They thought this camping session would be as usual. Find a nice place to rest and eat, and then continue their trip. It was just that this time seemed a bit different.

Freya had the strongest physicality among them. She raised her claws, and her companions stopped talking. The talkative dwarves had to have their mouths covered, though.

(She always wanted to do that. Imagine traveling for weeks and three out of four dwarves kept chattering in her ears??!)

”Hush,” Freya said, and narrowed her eyes in a direction. ”I could hear some noise in this direction. It’s a crowd of humans,” she said. However, it was a bit far away, and they were upwind, so she had no more indication of it.

She slowly headed in a direction, and the others curiously followed. One of the dwarves who followed closely (and lacked the sense of personal space) ended up bumping on her ankles when she suddenly stopped like this.

”Ow!”

”Hey!”

”Don’t stop so suddenly.”

”Hush,” Freya said again, happily shoving her large paws on their faces to shut the nearest one up.

When one was shut up like this, the others shut their mouths too, as if mirroring by instinct, creating some sort of asterisks with their mouths, making them look like buttholes.

She then used her other hand to point out a man-made path. It was relatively wide, indicating the party or caravan was relatively large. They also couldn’t see the edge of it, so this group must be a bit far away.

The reason why they were curious about large caravans was that they would always lead to a relatively big territory. While they were not planning on heading there, a large territory meant there were also smaller paths created to smaller territories and villages.

They had been looking for villages that could buy consumables from towns, after all. As for going to a town in disguise, they really would rather not try.

They heard that the Lord Panel that those humans had would indicate information about whoever entered, so even if they used a disguise, they could still be detected. At least in villages, even if they did find out, they wouldn’t dare make moves.

Before the tigress could go and check it out, she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder.

”I will check it out,” Nana said, and her wings expanded to a size even bigger than her body. When it was retracted, no one would know it could extend like this.

Nana was very fast in the air, almost mimicking the speed of the local birds. This way, even if she passed over the caravan, as long as she didn’t stop to hover, they wouldn’t detect her.

It was just sad that she was too weak to carry anyone, and that she could only fly for a limited amount of time, otherwise their trip would be much easier.

With Nana’s help, they were guided to the best observation area without risking exposure themselves.

They weren’t planning on interacting with the humans, but they could get useful information by eavesdropping or spying around. Their senses were also stronger, so they could eavesdrop from a relatively good distance.

They soon overheard some interesting information.

”How long do we have to walk?”

”We should be in their area within the next day,” another said. ”Valov is not nearby, after all.”

”The war would have already started by then.”

”Does it matter? The deal is our appearance. We don’t have to be the vanguard,” another said. ”You want to be a vanguard?”

”Of course not.”

”We will arrive at the end when the enemy already has openings and is weakened. We’ll have an easier time making up for the inconveniences of having to walk to Valov’s array.”

”We’re helping Valov as their ally,” another added, looking a bit apprehensive. ”For Valov to call on so many allies...the enemy this time must be threatening.”

His companion, who had been complaining throughout, gritted his teeth. ”Going against a place called Alterra, whatever that is. This better be worth it!”

Freya and the others blinked.

Alterra?