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

A/N: Tomorrow, I’ll tryyyy to resume 2ch/day! It’s just a bit difficult. T_T wuwuwuwu sorry if I can’t tho. Even the other stories are barely updating now. They also ran out of stockpile chaps. Sigghhhh, I need a hug

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This was likely what Virion was sent to investigate in this village. Otherwise, if it was just a mere rescue operation, there was no need for him or Beru.

Quo Town was the largest known orc-led territory, as well. If in this village ’branch’, there were already level 20+ scientists and minimum level 15 guards, the difficulty would be greater in Quo.

”Why are we in such a backwater place, anyway?” the other scientist asked the older one, sounding unprofessionally miffed with his situation.

Speaking of which, one of the two scientists kept asking such newbie questions. She remembered the one she killed was also relatively young, probably only in his 30s or younger. Were two out of three inexperienced?

Perhaps whoever was assigned here, except for the old scientist (judging by the rasp of his voice and the slowness of his steps), was one of the interns, or something?

The old scientist cursed at him for being noisy. ”Shut up! Do you want this to be a success or not?! Remember: We cannot go back to the main base until we have ten successful cases with minimal side effects!”

”Considering how stupid you are, what if I’m forced to stay here the rest of my life?!”

The bratty scientist could only shut up. For a while, the surgery just went on without many words exchanged. Other than asking to hand over some item or medication, the two no longer spoke up.

Althea, as she lay there, was very curious about the process. However, she feared that even bringing a mirror out so she could watch as she lay would notify the others.

The old man had a higher level than her, after all. Not by much, but she didn’t underestimate him.

The process of transferring cores was obviously a tedious one. After they stopped chatting earlier, they really didn’t. Even their breathing slowed down.

Eventually, things seemed to calm down. Althea didn’t feel much fluctuation in the air, so she wasn’t quite sure what changed or whether it was a success or not.

It seemed to be over, since the two heaved a breath of relief and started talking. They washed their hands with the water bucket pre-prepared at the side.

”Finally done,” the old scientist said. ”This should be our fourth successful experiment in this village.”

The other agreed, nodding. ”Except for the fact that the half-orc chose the fire element, one of the most unstable elements to transfer, his physique has always been excellent, and our procedure—tried and tested—has been done perfectly.”

The scientist sounded quite smug. ”Now I remember why we do experiments in villages as well. We need villages so we can harvest cores without a trace and at a low cost.

”The elementalists in these parts are also weak, their potential limited, making their cores much less volatile as well.”

Though elementalists were rare, at least the ones that came through were not too strong. They were also unlikely to have strong backgrounds. Their strength or potential was low, making them a much better fit for the experiments.

In fact, their ratio of four successes after sacrificing a hundred was already pretty good because of it. In the main areas experimenting with orcs, there might be more ’success’ stories here and there—though they had been low-key, fearing retaliation—the ratio of death was much higher.

”I just thought of something, Leader. Our first success case was two years ago,” the man said excitedly as he chewed on some snacks for himself, as if oblivious to the corpses around him. ”This means our pacing will only speed up. Perhaps we’d be able to leave this stinky ditch in just another year or two!”

She could feel the utter nonchalance for life.

Could she kill them now?

The two were not able to bask in their own imagination for long because there was a sudden spot shift in the room—specifically, over the subject.

”AHH!”

”STOP!”

”He’s burning!”

”OUCH!”

”I’m burning! Kill the fire! Kill the fire!”

”I think it’s coming from the core!”

”Damn!” ”Take it out, then!”

”Those cores are expensive! Losing one is taken out of our payments!”

Althea couldn’t see what happened, but she could guess.

There was a lot of noise around, and it seemed like they were trying to take the core out of its new host. After some scuttling around, it seemed like they managed to get their bearings, but not before they felt heat on their hands.

”MY SUPERIOR CLASS D Gloves!” The younger one gasped in despair.

”DON’T LET GO YOU IDIOT!”

”My hands!!”

Then, the clutters slowed down, and the heat seemed to have lessened. At the same time, she heard two people flop down in pain. The younger one was even rolling on the floor while clenching his hands.

”IT HURTS! UGH!”

She saw it this time because, after all that chaos, how could she not watch? They were in too much pain to mind her, anyway.

”The sequelae this time are a bit harsher!” the old man said, gasping, looking at the separated core with wariness.

Althea thought to herself: The subject is dead; pretty sure that’s not just ’a bit harsh’.

The core now looked like a piece of magma with burnt outer skin. It was beating with light and heat, though very muted.

”The previous failed experiment with a fire core was not this harsh. The half-orc back then just had a major fever that lasted for months, but otherwise he’s alive.”

He then stood up, ignoring his apprentice. He looked at the half-orc’s state. ”This one’s chest is burned through. Dead.”

The younger scientist had drunk a healing potion at some point, but he still lay down on the floor like a dead fish.

He was tired, and he was about to faint, but at least it was over, right?

Wrong.

Sad for them, fire was an extremely unpredictable element, especially when certain triggers were met. It had been weakened, but not completely killed, and the temperature suddenly shot up again.

Althea could also feel the area near her heat up even more.

It seemed like the fire core was about to...explode?

Even without its owner, it seemed like the core still followed its will.

Her eyes flickered in complicated light, shifting her gaze to the corpse next to the dead half-orc. It was a lifeless woman who looked like a third of her organs had been ripped out without care.

Seeing the core’s behavior, it seemed like its owner must’ve done his best to fight for her life.

Even when she was no longer breathing, the heart of her power was still following her will.

”It’s going to explode!!” The older scientist left, preparing to run. It was just that the earlier chaos consumed a lot of his energy, and the sudden shift in activity made his knees buckle, causing him to fall down on his face.

Bam!

Althea also made a move then. How could she allow these bastards to escape this tragedy of their own creation!?

She was hours too late to save that woman. She could at least help her get revenge.

Of course, while she wouldn’t stop the core from exploding—these people deserved it—she also had to get out of here safely.

This included the remaining two elementalists as well.

She activated the pellets embedded on the walls, immediately releasing the debilitating gas she created. These were sleeping and paralyzing powders. For the weaker scientist, this would work fully well, especially considering he was heavily injured.

For the older one, even when he had consumed a lot of energy, it might take effect for longer.

Althea didn’t have the time to wait for it to work completely.

After the other scientist fell down, vines suddenly appeared in the room. One grabbed the old scientist, covering his eyes and mouth, wrapping his arms behind his back, pushing him to a position where he couldn’t exert much strength, especially after the effects of the poisons landed.

The remaining vines helped Althea out. They were not too thick and couldn’t carry too many people, but they were enough to assist her in carrying the two unconscious elementalists up her back.

Speaking of this, the two elementalists still breathing were very weak, without signs of awakening even after all this commotion. She looked at the dead ones, one of which was recently dead since it was still warm.

Althea wondered if they were made to drink something that would eventually cause death.

She vaguely recalled what the scientists were talking about before, about a weakening potion. They must’ve taken those. She just hoped that the effects weren’t permanent.

”HMMP! HMMMP!” Meanwhile, the old man struggled in his hold, rolling around like a worm. Finally, he managed to move a bit so he faced Althea’s side.

”WHA!!”

His eyes were wide as they stared at her in horror, shocked that their ”ugly” experiment subject had woken up and was hitting back.