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

The next few seconds were short, but it felt like forever. She did her best to control her direction, but it was much like riding a small boat within a tsunami, except she was at least a hundred meters above ground.

She was rammed all over the place, and she was forced to use all her mana to control the vine and continuously reinforce it. Such strong winds and continuous impact caused vine after vine to snap.

And then, she had to control it not only so she wouldn’t be hit by the recoil, but also to give time for the replacement to form.

It was a process just as dizzying as how she was being twirled around, occasionally hitting granite.

She had also taken out a few more seeds and spores from her space. She had to continuously feed it energy. Otherwise, she’d fall.

Eventually, her flight stabilized as she reached the ground, probably entering the base of the mountain where winds had calmed.

As she landed, she finally saw a glimpse of the forests that now surrounded her. It was not what she was used to. It was practically a primeval forest.

Seeing such a forest was indeed a bit shocking, but Althea barely registered it. Althea couldn’t even muster the strength to move a hand.

Agony erupted through every inch of her body. She hadn’t fully felt it while she was being rammed by the hostile, unpredictable wind, but now the pain hit her as several trucks did.

She wanted to drink a potion, but while she managed to take it out of the space, she couldn’t move an inch to take a sip at all.

She wanted to use her vines if her own bones were useless, but it didn’t help. Because of her lack of energy, her vine looked like it was a shriveled worm.

Time ticked by, and Althea fought to remain conscious, waiting for her body to recover enough to actually drink a potion.

Sadly, the situation did not wait for her this time.

Dun... Dun...

DUN

The loud approaching footsteps sent apprehension in Althea’s chest.

She watched as a massive monster came into view. It was a large reptilian kind, like how dinosaurs were depicted in movies, except it didn’t match any species she knew.

Dun

Dun

In her half-conscious state, she could see its nose twitching, looking for the scent of blood, likely dispersed by the strong winds around them. When it did manage to zero in on the scent, it stared straight at her.

Althea pursed her lips, feeling both the pain in her body and the dreaded feeling that she might really die today.

She was just lying there, so its approach wasn’t rushed. It was heading straight to her, its heavy steps like a countdown to her death.

Dun...dun...DUN

Unexpectedly, somewhere in its approach, several figures rushed over. They jumped over the monster, hanging at its back, seeming to stab at its shimmering scales with their palms.

ROOOOARRR!!

The monster reacted immediately, jumping back, stomping, and shaking its body as if to throw enemies away. Althea wasn’t quite sure of what was happening.

Her sight was already beginning to darken by this time, so her vision was not clear. All she could hear and see were several new figures targeting the new monster, hunting it, and the monster—definitely above level 30—was also attacking in turn.

The sound of growls, roars, hard skins clashing, and sharp claws tearing skin echoed all over.

She did not know when exactly she lost consciousness, but she was pretty sure some blood was splattered onto her.

...

Althea woke up in a cool, dim cave. A narrow shaft of daylight slipped through a small opening in the ceiling, falling across the uneven stone floor.

A cacophony of voices and noises echoed through this cave. She could make out the words they spoke, but every voice carried an animalistic edge—some had a deep rasp, some a low growl, some a rumbling purr, and so on—woven naturally in their speech.

Orcs.

She wanted to turn to get a closer look, but her body still ached from head to toe.

It was still battered, but fortunately, her physique allowed for a strong recovery, especially since she was an elementalist. She wasn’t by any means healed, of course. It was more like she had recovered just enough to take a healing potion.

Her vines guided the high-level potion into her mouth, and she immediately felt a little better. This potion was most useful for level 30s and above, and a little wasteful to use on a weaker person, but Althea’s stats had always been higher than her peers’, so nothing was wasted.

She soon recovered enough so she could sit up. She didn’t make any noise, even if her body was sore, and she silently observed the place.

It was a large karst cave with irregular ceilings. Some areas, like where she was, had a ceiling barely three meters high. On the other hand, the central area had ceilings tens of meters high.

Walking in and out were dozens of orcs of different shapes and sizes. Some bigger orcs brought large slabs of meat, while other orcs were holding various wild vegetables and fruits with their arms.

There were beds made of straw, and rudimentary baskets made of vines and twigs. At the center, they had a campfire, its smoke escaping from the very hole that carried light.

Althea entered a daze, broken only when she heard hooves gently approaching.

”You are awake, ba.”

A goat-like woman appeared. She was tall and stood on two hind legs that ended in cloven hooves. Curled horns framed her face above her slitted amber eyes, and a pair of long, pointed ears twitched at the slightest sound.

She wore a simple but relatively clean attire made of a single rough wool.

There was a scent of herbs around her, indicating she was their healer, or at least their version of one.

”Yes, thank you. For saving me,” Althea said, understanding the cause and effect even without asking. For one, she had herby paste around her wounds. The effectiveness was limited, but the function was there. She had lost consciousness outside, and her state upon awakening was better, indicating this group had goodwill.

Speaking of which, she was supremely thankful that everyone could understand each other. She could not imagine how life here would be if she couldn’t even communicate.

”Where am I?”

”You are in the Deepwoods,” she asked. ”Where are you from?”

Althea carefully chose her words. ”My home is near the Wall,” she said. She didn’t know the attitude of the orcs to those on the other side.

”The wall?” the goat repeated. ”The winds are very strong, and many monsters hang around there.”

The lands immediately on a mountain’s windward side should technically be very good areas to live in. It was usually the most fertile areas, mild to cool temperatures, and they experienced less extreme heat.

However, in this case, it seems like it was also a den of monsters.

”I’d like to find my way back, please.” ”You just need to tell me the direction.”

She nodded. ”Some of our people should go out hunting in a few days,” she said. It was actually a little fragmented and she added a lot of ba~ in her sentences, but Althea automatically filled up the blanks with her mind. ”You can wait for them. You’re not in the condition to be traveling around anyway.”

”Thank you. My name is Althea, by the way. Does your tribe have a name?”

”Hello, Althea. My name is Ohara,” she said. ”This is the Feyun Tribe. We are the tribe nearest to the mountains in this region, but we still keep our distance.”

Hearing their conversation, many orcs had long stopped what they were doing and looked curiously. The longer she and Ohara spoke, the more orcs eavesdropped.

This was definitely the largest variety of orcs she had encountered so far.

There were orcs with appearances similar to anthers, to hyenas, to zebras, to goats, to capybaras, and so on. Althea’s animal-loving gene was definitely itching a little.

She wanted to pat their heads, but she was sure it was impolite.

”Hello. I am Althea.”

”Hello, Althea!”

”What kind of orc are you!?”

”So small.”

”I haven’t seen similar ones to you.”

”I haven’t seen someone so...hairless before!”

”...”

”I wonder if she’s stronger than the small ones?”

Sad to say, physically, she was probably weaker than the small ones indeed. But she didn’t say it. Althea just smiled and answered the questions she could.

She looked around and saw a primate who was sitting in a corner, poking at something on the floor. She belatedly realized that it was a bug. ”I am mutated from his side. Hello, relatives.”

The chimpanzee flinched and looked at her with wide eyes. ”M...me?”

”Distant. Very distant. But don’t we have similar hands and feet?”

”Ohhhh!”

”What does mutated mean?”

”It’s not normal. Some may say it’s ugly.”

A frog orc nodded. It is a bit.

Althea: ”...”

Anyway, they were unexpectedly friendly. They were also wholly unaware of the race called humans.

Good for them, I guess?