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

During the past few months, Sarah and Gurnam were focused on their training.

Sarah was a wind-archer. This combination, along with her experience in the national team, pretty much secured her a spot as Alterra’s best archer.

Gurnam was a fire swordsman, and he had shown great reflexes and battle instincts, his potential as a close-ranged fighter exemplary.

Their training lasted more than 20 hours of each day, and they only went home to rest. For the most part, they were practically camping outside the territory.

Of course, they were not strong enough to do this carelessly, so they were always camping within the scope of the sentries. They would also take several missions to Ferrol Town here and then for a change of scenery, as well as to add challenge.

Being in the ’home ground’ had a lot of advantages, after all, and this was not just limited to sentry placement, but their increasing memorization of the terrain.

The minimum level to head out as fighters in caravans to towns was level 15 because that was the average level of monsters in towns. This was already a powerhouse at the village level, but going from town to town naturally had different requirements.

They also had to join in more powerful mercenary teams, which had their own level requirements. Since they didn’t know which City it was from, it was definitely not nearby. If they failed to join the right team, they might take even longer to get to Milo even if they find out where he was.

Further, joining a ’high-level’ team didn’t necessarily mean one could jump the maximum distance they were allowed to take. There was a minimum level among mercenary teams per level, and that wasn’t just due to vanity.

Jumping 10,000 kilometers when one was only level 15 could result in someone’s explosion, after all. The array simply didn’t accept people below the level requirements to jump willy-nilly just because of membership.

This was one of the Teleportation array’s advantages over hall arrays. They did not have distance requirements, and people around level 10 or even less (depending on race and physique) could use it.

So even if they managed to enter a mercenary team at the minimum level, being a member weaker than the level requirements meant that they could not use the arrays and only take missions in their area or had to go elsewhere on foot. What use would that be?

This was just jumping from town to town. What more of a City?

They knew from Eian that Milo was taken by some noble from a City, just that he didn’t know who it was. They just knew it was in the western part of Voumi, which was as big as the world, because Mafo sent his auction invites in that direction.

Eian had been in Voumi, now Ceramica, Town this whole time and had never encountered Cauis at all. When he moved to Alterra, they had not encountered each other, and Cauis even had to leave for Holt City.

In any case, the minimum level if they were heading to a City was level 20, which Gurnam already reached by this time. Sarah only needed another level or so to do the same.

This was the level Alterra itself was trying to impose.

However, technically speaking, personal projects and missions weren’t something Alterra could control, even among their guards.

If they wanted to go, regardless of levels, Alterra wouldn’t physically block their way. They would be asked to send notice, and possibly do turnovers, but that was about it.

However, many people, especially government employees and guards, generally followed Alterra’s recommendations out of respect.

After all, they all knew how much Alterra cared and invested in their people. Being associated and getting into trouble could also cause trouble to Alterra—worse, sully its name. It felt disrespectful to jump into danger despite all this!

(None of the Elders actually imposed this ideology, but they did not stop it from forming either. It was just a natural side effect for people who were proud of their home and genuinely cared for it, inevitably connecting their own identities with it).

This was also another reason why people trained harder and harder, and this wasn’t limited to Sarah and Gurnam. Even if they were not going to a City, they didn’t want to embarrass Alterra!

The town was now level 2, and the average level compared to peers of the same level was much lower. They had heard some visitors say this, some even mocked them. How could the proud citizens stand for this!?

In Alterra, due to the training-hungry stats of the people, several training programs sprang up.

Many were not even related to the guards at all, and many of these were legitimate businesses.

The most popular were owned by mercenaries, mostly aborigines. They would assist the trainees outside the territory, usually around the edges of the Town’s area of effect, so the high-level monsters were less dense.

Since creating a base there, they knew they had to find more sources of income as well. Not to mention, helping people grow more powerful was a sure way to integrate.

Today, Sarah and Gurnam were now training with the Rolan Mercenary team. The training team was led by Sipa and Bulgogi, and they chose a location a few kilometers away from the Town walls.

They were together with the earth user Baison, a former slave they received from the Basset Town war. He had been one of the more impressive slaves at the time, though on the wrong side, and had assisted a lot of people to get through a lot of the people’s attacks.

He was lucky because Alterra’s defense was solid. If not, he wouldn’t have been able to integrate at all just by virtue of the deaths he could’ve indirectly caused.

Finally, Troy, Fred, and their gang were there too. They tended to try different teams for exposure. Which also meant it could get quite noisy.

Whoosh!

Fred laughed, staring at Troy’s bleeding nose again. ”HAHAH! How many times has it been? Aren’t you thankful that you have such a flat nose?”

Troy’s eyes twitched, but he kept his cool. Having a calm and collected lover made him calmer too, so he didn’t seem childish.

Well, he tries.

He made a gangster face, which was made even more stupid by his bleeding nose. ”Well, my girlfriend would treat me later.”

”...”

But was Fred the type to accept defeat?

In response, he made an even more gangster punchable face. ”Huh? What did you say, Mr. Two-levels-lower?”

Somehow, Fred managed to jump two levels within the past one or two months, getting ahead of Troy by a lot!

The weaponsmith gritted his teeth. ”Don’t be so proud!! You just cheated cuz Baku helped you out a lot!”

Fred found no shame in this. A network was part of one’s skills!

This argument went on, and it annoyed everyone else, especially when monsters appeared, and they were still arguing.

After the small mob was dealt with, Sipa sighed and wrapped his arms around the two. It seemed like a friendly gesture at first, except his smile was threatening.

”Focus,” he said between gritted teeth. ”Or both of you will have flatter noses.”

...

The temporary team headed back inside when it was dusk, and the lights of the Town was already partially lit up.

Even in the undeveloped parts of the outer circle, there was equidistant lighting along the roads, and they looked very beautiful.

Sarah and Gurnam smiled. They often saw this sight every time they went home after a long day of training but, for some reason, they were always comforted.

Gurnam smiled and held her hand. ”Shall we have dinner?” He asked and gently nudged her to the nearest marketplace. The two ate in the food court, buying whatever they were in the mood for.

Amusingly, Gurnam—who famously wasn’t fond of sweets—actually bought a chocolate waffle.

”I thought you’d like it,” he said, handing it over to her. Sarah smiled and took a bite, though a second later she looked nostalgic. ”My brother would love this.”

”Hmm, Milo indeed looks like someone who likes sweets.”

Their day outside ended like this, and they headed back home with entwined hands. They did not expect that there was something written on the paper on their door.

Because there was no such thing as voicemail here yet and not everyone had aether letters, many people would post a piece of paper on their door. The bigger the better.

They’d allow people to write and leave messages there.

The only trouble here was that anything could be written and they would not count as vandalism.

Humans were humans, immature was immature, and the Alterran version of graffiti came about.

This could only be done on the pieces of paper, of course, so the damage was limited.

Fortunately, the troublemakers were afraid of Gurnam, so their paper was relatively clean.

They divided it into sections and would mark it after reading it, so it was easy to see where new messages were while being frugal with paper space.

/There is a post for you. Please collect them in the Guard Station./

Sarah and Gurnam stared at each other, and they wordlessly headed to the Guard Station. They did not know what to expect.

When there were letters not directly to them due to circumstances, as espionage works, the letters could be arranged to be collected in the Guard Station.

Another reason could be that the message was directed to many people to save costs. And finally, it could be a message from slaves, who were not allowed to send Posts directly.

They were not sure what it was about, and Sarah opened the letter with managed expectations. Her eyes widened as she read its contents, and her knees buckled.

Gurnam caught her, and only then did she burst out in tears, embracing him.

”Why? What happened?”

”I’m happy...” she said, sobbing, patting her chest as if to calm herself down. ”So happy!”

Her brother was okay!