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

A/N: Long chap, but only 1 today! This could’ve been divided into two chaps with a few more paragraphs (sobs) but I don’t have time (sobs).

Still, in terms of word count, it’s almost the same as 2 chaps! It’s cheaper for you guys, too, so don’t hate me xDD

...

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”Stop being stubborn and accept it by hand!” Mao said, squatting next to the panda and raising his hand.

The panda looked at him while it chewed and then rolled over elsewhere again.

Mao sighed, looking at the large fluffball in front of him. He only had five minutes left. If he failed, he had to line up all over again. What if someone else bonded with him in the meantime?

The panda, despite their laziness, awakened interesting skills. One of them could harden his skin like it was metal. This made their defense far superior to others of the same level, even among beasts. They also tended to roll around a lot. This wasn’t bad because it fixed their laziness, er, agility problem.

According to the stories of those who encountered the panda families in the wild, they were dealing with a small monster mob while rolling around like pinballs.

It was apparently shocking and hilarious. Too bad he didn’t see it! No one had the presence of mind to record it, either!

It was here that the animals all turned in a direction all of a sudden. This included the pandas, who rolled over all the way to the edge of their corrals.

RAHHH!

”Wha—” Mao, who was bumped aside by the pandas, scratched his bum. ”Yo! What’s going on?!”

He saw the bears rubbing or even bumping on the gates, as if demanding to be let out.

”This...”

He stood up and looked at them in puzzlement, before turning to the neighboring corrals, only to see the animals there behaving the same way. The only exception seemed to be Luis’ coyote, who was calmly sitting down next to its master.

RAHHH!!

The guards also looked awkward, but ignored them. Although the animals were smart and the guards would usually let them out if they were well-behaved and asked politely, it was still under the guards’ discretion in the end.

Everybody else was similarly shocked, and they gaped as the animals all tried to scratch or bump in a specific direction, as if attracted by something there.

Not long after that, they heard little voices echo amongst the crowd.

”WAOOOO!!!”

”OOUGGHHH!”

Little voices reverberated across the place and whenever the voices were nearer, the animals would be even more... enthusiastic.

Mao blinked and walked towards the gapped fences, looking over to see it was Meatball and Pepper admiring the animals!

”WWWAAAOOO! BIG! BIG!” Meatball yelled, looking at the panda, raising his arms as if trying to be bigger himself.

Pepper was looking at the corral across of this, which had the few lions and tigers they had. ”Pwetee...”

This made the animals really energetic, bumping repeatedly on the walls, as if frantically trying to go to them.

Bang! Bang!

These corral fences were actually modified level 2 fences, but Mao feared that the animals could really destroy them!

Then, they realized the animals in the enclosure were not the only problem; there were also at least a dozen animals outside!

Woof!

Meow!

Seeing as many cats and dogs were heading in their direction, the two babies giggled and their little feet moved to greet their new animal friends.

Woof!

Meow!

At first, it was cute, but it soon became clear to the adults that something was very wrong.

Before the small mob could glomp the babies, Lola and Yana gasped and grabbed them, lifting them up, while Fufi and Snow blocked the way.

ROAR!

AWOOOOO!!

Fufi growled at them, and the animals stopped moving. Some whimpered and bent down a little under his intimidation, while others—like some in the corrals—simply paused.

At the very least, the cats and dogs were stopped in their tracks, and at least a meter away from the babies. Fufi barked again, and the animals went back to their houses.

”What’s going on?” Yana asked, holding Pepper on one hand. She tried to calm down her palpitating heart, though she could only embrace the child.

Woof...

Fufi approached her and she smiled. She petted the dog’s head, which was now at her head’s height by the way.

Lola snuggled Meatball before she turned to her companion. ”Do we need to report this?”

”I think so, but they weren’t aggressive,” Lola said. ”More like they were excited.”

She had seen the expressions and none of them were hostile at all.

They looked at the babies, who were now giggling, unaware of anything unusual. They were just extending their little arms and making clawing motions as if wanting to grab the animals at a distance from them.

Sigh

”Call their parents!” Lola exclaimed, looking into the crowd. Many people would be eager to make contact with the Elders so there was no lack of volunteers. Not every guard had aether letters, after all.

RAHHH!

They looked at the animals who were still banging on the fences. At this, they had no choice but to step to the edge of the ’zoo’, and only then did the animals seem to calm a bit.

The old women waited awkwardly at the side. They were surrounded by whispers, as well as words of concern, with many adults talking to the babies to see if they were scared (they were not).

Fortunately, the kids didn’t seem particularly shaken, just looking curiously at everyone.

Althea and Garan arrived a few minutes later, faces pale. The babies sparkled at the sight of them. ”MAMA!! PAPA!” They yelled, stretching their little arms to their parents, and the two naturally took them into their arms. Of course, as always, either one would always crawl to their soft mother, so Althea ended up carrying both of them in the end.

”What’s going on?” Althea asked as she embraced her babies. She was still huffing from rushing over. Garan patted the children’s heads before turning to the witnesses, who quickly gave them a detailed account of what was happening.

At this, they also called in the veterinarians and animal experts of the territory, who also appeared very quickly, considering they were summoned by two elders.

”I am not completely certain, but considering they were not hostile, just excited, I think... they hope to bond with the babies.”

Another animal expert, Reddit, nodded. ”I agree, Elders. In fact, I am fairly sure that is the case.”

This was really interesting. It was very difficult to get a legitimate battle pet and many people had been trying for a while. However, those same snobbish animals were rushing towards the twins as if they were desperate to imprint.

”But don’t the babies play with the unbonded kittens a lot?” Althea asked, wondering why this was a problem now.

”This is because the kittens were still too young to bond,” a voice sounded at the side and they saw it was Lady Gaia and Sir Zaol.

Gaia headed there with her husband when they heard of the commotion. They were having a date in a nearby tea shop when they saw Althea and Garan rushing through the streets.

”Like how humans cannot completely awaken before a certain age, it is the same with battle pets,” she said.

Althea’s eyebrows furrowed. ”Then what if the babies are also too young to bond?”

”Generally speaking, children can make bonds, but they had to be a certain age,” she said. ”Great care must be observed as premature bonding could have an effect on all parties involved.”

This caused Althea to embrace her babies tightly. This meant that, outside of battle pets who already had a partner, they had to be careful about the adult Terran animals that their babies would come in contact with.

Similarly, the adults there also took note to warn their young children against petting unbonded animals for a while. Even if Lady Gaia said that children, particularly those who had gotten past the toddler-age could bond, who would risk it?

Well, most parents won’t.

That said, Althea wondered if the babies would be very sad when the kittens grow up and they could no longer touch them? This was similar to Fufi and Snow’s future pups.

Althea shook her head. Then she’d just have to make sure the kittens and the puppies would bond as soon as they safely could. With their ever-growing knowledge base, she believed they’d gather enough data to determine when the milestones would be.

Since they were already in this topic, Althea’s curious bone started tingling again. ”Can you tell us more about the indigenous battle pets?” she asked Gaia. ”I know they exist, but I haven’t heard or seen any of them yet.”

”That is because they are rare, even in Towns and some cities. I am shocked by how many Battle Pets there are in Alterra, in fact, especially since they could actually make combat.”

”Pardon?”

”Our... battle pets,” she said. ”...are basically ornamental.”

These were seen in a few families in cities. There were large and cuddly ones, there were lethargic ones, there were small ones that could fit in the palm, and so on.

However, while there were a few varieties, one thing they had in common was that they were weak. They were considered ’pets’ only because they were docile, could imprint on a person, and would follow their orders.

Other than that, there was nothing noteworthy about them at all. It was why the Golds didn’t bother with them.

Well, completely useless was a bit unfair. In terms of strength, they could be of some help at village level, but definitely not beyond that.

They were also extremely rare and expensive, and it was inevitable that having one was a status symbol. In fact, Octavia also had one, though it just died of old age, since the current battle pets could only live a few decades.

Another reason none of the Golds bothered to bond was that one could only bond with a creature at a time. There was really no point to it other than some bragging rights.

The running theory was that they were descendants of the stronger varieties, but instead of evolving they devolved.

”Why are they called Battle Pets if they can’t go to battle?” she asked, a bit confused.

”That’s because there were records of them actually being strong and useful at one point,” she said. ”But... it seemed like they had disappeared when the Elves did.”