After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1008

Chapter 1008: Helios Lands in Bleuelle!

A City was huge.

Since they were coming from the mountain range, they had a higher vantage point and could see more of the city than people on the normal ground level.

Basically, it went as far as one could see, even from a certain height.

Helios’ eyes were wide as he was introduced to a whole new world with such tall walls and buildings. Alterra also had a few tall buildings, but he had never seen them done to this degree.

Back in Terran, he traveled a lot, and he could compare the size to the cities there and he could say that Bleuelle—and likely most cities in this world—were definitely on the larger side.

This was understandable. This world probably had billions and billions of people, too, but it was much more dense due to the dangers of places outside the territories.

It was also interesting to see something so completely different architecturally to what Alterra had. Since they were so near quarry mountains, most of the buildings in Bleuelle were predominantly made of stone. However, likely due to the limitations of technology, the upper floors had a lot more wood to reduce the weight.

As for why he even noticed these details—although he still had ways to go to get to his uncle’s level—Helios’ training was to be greatly observant of their surroundings and he picked up a few things along the way.

Anyway, there was a long line of people coming in and out from various directions, indicating the activity of the place. There were two queues: One for people on-foot and another for people in Beast Carts.

The Beast Carts were, understandably, lining up at a distance apart to keep them behaved. So even if they were fewer in number than the ones on foot, their queue looked longer.

Anyway, Helios had never seen so many Beast Carts lined up before.

Then again, it made sense. Even if only a small percentage could afford such a carriage, this was a city with probably a million people or more. By ratio, of course it had a lot of carriages.

The group lined up on one side of course, though it seemed like the line was slow because the Beast Carts were the priority entrants. If it misbehaved at the entrance, everyone else had to keep waiting.

As they queued, Helios took notice of the people in the line. It was a mix of decently dressed businessmen and also refugees.

He thought for a while and decided to chat around in hopes of finding out more information in general. If he managed to report back to Alterra, his absence might even give him contribution points!

If all goes well, he’d bring Sahara back. If she asked him to support her family, he would do it too!

Helios had long been brewing ideas on how to convince her when they did meet.

He knew she was having trouble in her Town. He’d definitely do whatever he could to help her out. Alterra was a hodgepodge of brilliant minds. Maybe they could get help, too!

However, for Alterra to help, he—and, ideally, Sahara and her hometown—must show enough value!

It wasn’t much, but being the source of good information was a start!

Not to mention, he needed contribution points to make Sahara a permanent resident! Alterra’s requirements had been spiking, and he ought to stabilize her status as soon as possible!

He also needed to buy his own house. Although he and his uncle had made a downpayment for their house and were already halfway through amortization, both of them were bound to have their own families—they’d need their own spaces!

Anyway, by being a social butterfly (with a few crackers here and there) he found out that the refugees came from various territories around this place.

Some had been greatly affected by the unexpected Heat Wave, particularly those East and Southeast—territories apparently nearer the desert. There were also refugees from the West, some of whom were attacked by orcs.

Although he had heard of orcs from their natives as well as the half-orcs, it felt different to hear about them in this context. In terms of volatility, they were a cross between Baku’s destructive powers (and more) and the irrational bloodlust of beasts.

While they had sentience, they were extremely violent. There were also certain types of clans that ate humans. Generally speaking, even if it was different races, Helios considered eating fellow intelligent beings as cannibalism… which was disgusting.

There were also visitors from Towns. They were mostly here to buy some Blus or get some items from the marketplace, where various merchants from different territories nearby congregated to sell their things.

Some visitors were even from a familiar town—Jacoba. They were small-time merchants who couldn’t afford Beast Carts, but were big enough to form small caravans.

Blu was too expensive, but other products were good things to buy and sell back in Jacoba—especially to the lord and their families who could buy anything as long as it made them look regal.

He did get news that there seemed to have been some chaos that went on though, and it involved Cassandra. As merchants, they were naturally more informed about current events and knew that a war with Ester Town was brewing.

The Jacoba merchants said they’d be staying in Bleuelle for a while, letting that war pass, and they ranted to him a lot about how their savings might get drained in this place. But what could they do? They’d rather not risk becoming slaves.

Helios took note of all the information he had and placed them in his notebook. As he settled back to his team, a few of them couldn’t help but sneak peek at his notebook (which was really interesting on its own, by the way) and realized he was writing in a language they couldn’t understand.

Scribble, scribble

Stare

Scribble, scribble

Helios sighed and lifted his head, looking at the nosy mercenaries next to him. “What is it?”

Puto stared at him. “We also have a lot of information,” he said, extending his palms and doing a ‘give me’ motion.

Helios’ lips twitched and he handed jerkies to them.

His mercenary friends happily took the snacks and continued to leak some info to him.

It seemed like Alterran products were as good as gold with them, which was great for him.

From them, Helios found out that Bleuelle also had a pretty big influence South. However, although the ruling party had been hiding it, the people did eventually learn of the fact that the Blu was dwindling.

A few years ago, it even inspired a large-scale movement to find a new mine. In fact, the reason why Enok knew the mountain well was because he took a few jobs—from different factions, mind you—to guard the people looking for it.

No mines were found though, which actually gave Bleuelle more incentive to increase their prices.

However, there was a limit, because many previously-consuming territories began to opt for system buildings instead. Anyway, the selection increased as time passed on, and there was less and less value in creating an aether building—which, in their minds—tended to become more and more similar, anyway.

They chatted about this topic for a while and, before they knew it, the gate appeared in front of them.

The conversation died down as Helios’ attention focused on the gates and what lay behind them.

[Welcome to Bleulle City!]

“Sahara,” he uttered, his tone filled with longing. “Are you here?”