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

Althea looked coldly at the scientists. The younger one was down, but the old man was looking at her with tears in his eyes, terrified and pleading to be spared.

Such was human conflict.

Some might think they have done nothing wrong, and they might feel like they were helpless victims, but to others...they were no different from terrorists.

Her peripheral vision captured the lifeless figures of two elementalists, both with their chests opened up carelessly, as if someone stabbed them. One even had his skin peeled, showing muscles, without any finesse.

It was just an incidental ’peeling’ while some internal organ was removed.

Her eyes then swept through the half-orc, no longer moving. His chest was indeed burnt. It was like someone shot a bazooka right into his chest.

What was it all for? Just a bit of power?

It might seem hypocritical of her to say this, of course, because she was a triple elementalist, but she had no doubt that if she weren’t one, she wouldn’t bother going against nature to capture power that wasn’t meant for her.

She’d have found her own niche and lived well in it.

Before leaving, she put another pellet of poison into the old man’s mouth. He had seen her, so she didn’t want to leave him any way out in case he survived the explosion, as unlikely as that would’ve been.

She was keeping him alive, for now, because his life force was passively holding down the core’s explosive energy. She needed those couple of minutes to leave this place.

She headed towards the door with the two elementalists, both of whom she covered with a cloth. It was a stupid cover, but it was better than nothing.

Unfortunately, her stealth skills were limited mostly to herself. However, she wasn’t entirely without ways.

Because there was a technique she had been wanting to try, she hadn’t mastered it yet, but—again—it was better than nothing.

The mirage.

She could do this by layering humidity. More humid air meant the air there would have a different density than dry air. If she arranged them in gradients, then light would bend unevenly.

The result would be warped silhouettes. It was basically a controlled atmospheric lens.

The image shown would (of course) not be a new object, but simply a warped and slightly displaced image from elsewhere.

So many of these techniques she had ignored or had not developed over the first year here due to her busy schedule. Now, she had no choice but to force them out in the open.

The tension was both stressful, pushing her out of her comfort zone, but she could feel herself growing a lot.

BOOM!

The explosion happened just as she had exited the door. She didn’t dawdle and rushed away, taking advantage of the loud noise and chaos to slip out of the area.

Sadly, Althea couldn’t get out of the village immediately because it entered a lockdown after the illness appeared. Every sector was guarded, and there were also people making rounds to prevent the spread.

This SOP was quite good, but it was really hindering Althea’s escape.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long because the ban was lifted. Why? Because the guards had to be urgently summoned elsewhere outside the territory.

Althea didn’t even have to guess what happened. The women had been rescued, and the rescuers were having a fight with the enemy.

A massacre probably wouldn’t happen. Though the enemies weren’t protected outside the territories anymore, if the level gap was too massive—say, 20 levels—between the attacker and the attacked, there was a possibility that the system might impose some penalties on the attacker the moment they landed on any territory.

It was all very metaphysical. No one could really understand the elves’ world arrays and how they worked. Probably even the elves themselves didn’t expect things to become this detailed. In a sense, it was truly a ’self-learning’ system.

She couldn’t help but think that when all those elves disintegrated at the creation of the system, did part of their will get transmitted, too?

...

She met up with the team about an hour later. Most of the local guards were taken down, making it easy for Althea to get out, even while dragging along two burdens.

She had already sent aether letters out, so her husband met her as soon as she went out. He immediately grabbed the other two from her back before fussing all over the place.

They didn’t dawdle there for too long, of course, and they rushed to where the rest of the team was.

They were now camping in a clearing next to a rock formation, using it both as a cover and as a backing.

Other than their group, there were now more than a hundred slaves there. Interestingly, Tak and Tamon also grabbed some other human slaves on their way out.

They’d figure out how to free them later. They couldn’t free them (even for a fee) since they were not their citizens, after all.

They merged with the two groups, and Garan and Althea headed to Virion’s camp. Before they entered his tent, however, they heard a little commotion not too far away.

”BROTHER!”

Althea turned to see it was Aisa, the girl who accompanied her in the tunnels. She was rushing towards Virion’s men, who were carrying the elementalists.

The woman confirmed the man was indeed her brother and that he was still alive, immediately breaking into sobs of relief.

Althea smiled before heading into the tent.

All that trouble was worth it, after all.

...

”Our people will head back with the slaves,” Virion said. ”We will send someone to attack this village to regain ownership of it.”

When a territory loses, half of its assets would go to the winner. The first priority to be ’converted’ as wins would be the slaves outside the territory.

The three and Beru continued to discuss their next moves for a while, with Althea telling more about what she had found, which angered the rest of them.

She waited for them to mention everything they knew first, in case there were other important things, so she could analyze them as they went along.

”It started with their Lord, a half-orc, showing off his wind elementalist skills. It wasn’t strong, but it really did come from him.”

Finally, she mentioned the next clue. ”They seem to have another base in a place called Quo Town.”

Virion and Beru paled when they heard the name of the town. That was their subsidiary.

Hopefully, no one from their side was involved...

...

The meeting adjourned after another hour. Unexpectedly, when Althea went out of the tent, she was greeted by a familiar girl.

”Miss! It’s me! Do you remember me?” she asked, her eyes red from crying. ”I...I found out you were the one who didn’t give up on my brother. Thank you! Thank you!”

She kept bowing while crying. Her brother was still unconscious now. According to the medics, he (and the other) were given weakening potions. Had they not been found when they were, it would’ve been permanent.

Most of all, they were taken out even when they were complete burdens, giving them the chance to live.

This life saving grace was too deep. No words could express it.

”Can we...can we follow your grace?” she asked. She swore to serve well for the rest of her life! Even if she was assigned to be the night soil maid, she’d raise her hand up high to volunteer!

Althea shook her head. ”We don’t live in this region. We live quite far away, in fact.”

”We can follow you!” Aisa retorted. Whether it was on this journey or sometime in the future, she did not care!

”I...I may not be much, but I can do anything and many things. I am hardworking, and I am very careful with my tasks! My brother, on the other hand, is an elementalist! You...you don’t even need to pay us salaries. We will do it on our own!”

Althea shook her head again, but her voice was gentle, afraid of disappointing the girl too much.

”We have our own missions,” she said. ”If you insist, you can apply for a job in Alterra Town,” she said. ”There should be connecting missions in Warrior City.”

Of course, the premise was that she could join an official mercenary team to join the fun.

Alterra, once it became known as a territory, would be 100% a popular place to go to for the locals.

”If you still wish to go to a town rather than stay in a big City like Warrior City, then...Alterra welcomes you.”

If someone saw the ’glory’ of a City and still wants to go to Alterra, then Althea would no longer discourage them.

Aisa practically flopped down to kneel in gratitude. Althea managed to stop it on time, but her tears did not stop. Althea almost had to coax her before she was also coaxed away by her husband.

Aisa did not mind being left behind. Her eyes were brimming with tears, but her pupils seemed to be sparkling with light and hope.

She—along with her brother and friends—would absolutely go to Alterra.