After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1190

Chapter 1190: The Iron Mountain Situation (Part 2)
Anyway, Rowan stared at the latest prisoners he had—the ones who were there to investigate what happened to the other two.

These people arrived with several beast carts in tow, even more arrogant than the team that came before them.

Basically, these people demanded that Iron Mountains had to ‘pay’ the black metal balance due the past months… multiplied by two. They expected the extra beast carts to be filled with Iron, basically.

Anyway, it got them straight to the prison, and now they were making a scene. The strong prisoners were held in isolation.

The Level 1 Prison could easily keep level 20 and below, but stronger ones would be greatly weakened. This was on top of the arguably inhumane punishment of taking away lifespans.

Anyway, for now, the prisoners could only run their mouths. They were very annoying, but it was in these times they got most information from them so they let them run their mouths.

So the guards would even actively irk them to annoy them. It was, apparently, quite fun to bully but ‘for a good cause’. For example…

“Where did they say they came from?” Guard 1 would ask.

“Falop Town,” Guard 2 said.

“Wasn’t it Wallop Town?”

“VALOV Town!” the prisoners yelled, some even in sync. “Valov Town is a level 2 Town!”

“What can a village like you do?!” How could they be so arrogant!!?

“Meh, never heard of it,” Guard 2 shrugged, looking at Guard 1 who just shook his head, as if thinking they had to most boring job ever.

This made the proud men redden in anger and in embarrassment. They could not move much, but they at least wanted to humble these bastards!! “We will get these mines!”

“Just you wait—Our Valov’s subsidiaries will crush you all!”

Rowan heaved a deep breath as he raised his hand, a flicker of ember appearing on his hand. Then, in a flash, it burst bigger to the size of a head.

Guards 1 and 2 then smirked, spraying the men with some excess oil they had in space (these were dirty oil that had been used several times in cooking).

“You bastards! AHHH!” “This is disgusting!!”

But then they saw the fireball heading in their direction and they could only scream in despair.

When Rowan left, the men were half dead. He didn’t kill them yet—it wouldn’t have been straightforward either since many had higher levels than him.

However, he did make sure they were as weak as they could be in order to exacerbate the weakening effect of the prison itself. He didn’t dare underestimate these bastards at all.

When he went out of the building, he saw Silvia right outside, waiting with a concerned face.

Rowan gave a small smile as he walked to her, raising his hand to pat her head. “They can’t beat the prison,” he told her, knowing what her concerns were.

She didn’t look particularly comforted, however. “Do you think people will question that capture?” she asked. After all, this batch was especially noisy. Everyone saw they were captured.

While they had a valid reason for doing so, it could be a problem if someone from their hometown arrived and demanded their release.

While causing chaos was indeed a crime worthy of imprisonment, becoming tortured until half-dead was not. Still, Rowan had to do what he had to do.

“They probably would,” was all he said.

Soon, people would get a clearer picture of what was happening—of what had been brewing for a while—if they hadn’t already.

Regardless, they reported this to Alterra, hoping they could send instructions as soon as possible.

…

Located far West of Alterra was the Level 2 Valov Town.

It had Level 6 inner walls—which was impressive for its level. It also had Level 6 sentries placed at optimal distances, added through the years. The exterior wall was only level 3, but it covered a large area, all filled with buildings, and was bustling with activity.

At the center of the inner area was a large house with four floors. Currently sitting on top floor was the lord, his various servants kneeling in front of him.

He was an old man around 80 or 90 years of age—though he looked a few decades younger. His name was Baltazar, a level 45 man with whitish hair and beard.

At this time, he had a dark aura around him, making him more intimidating.

He was reading a letter from the Master City.

“Hassen City has shown discontent with our production lately,” he said, gritting his teeth.

All of a sudden, he slapped the table in disgruntlement—pulverizing it—terrifying the servants even more. “Why hasn’t the money and black metal from Guia arrived yet! It’s been months!”

He had taken the previous delay as something due to the heat wave. There was also the fact that Guia was quite far away from them compared to the other.

However, the master city suddenly required a lot of it, so—even though it had various other sources—the lack of one source had become obvious.

Wazan, his second in command, heaved a deep breath. “The three teams we sent have yet to come back sir.”

Wazan was a level 37 elementalist, specializing in aggressive fire.

“What are their names?” he asked, and Wazan enumerated the names of the people he sent.

Baltazar then looked at his population list. “A lot of them has disappeared,” he said. “But some of them are alive, somewhere.”

Or rather, those from the third batch were alive. The ones prior to that were all dead.

The first two could have been dismissed as casualties of the various disasters that had been happening, but the third case made it clear—something else was going on.

Balthazar’s eyes darkened as he looked at Wazan, before turning to a few higher-levelled guards. “Go look at Guia yourself,” he said. “And pass Ferrol by the way, find a way to get both territories to pay for our losses.”

Although Ferrol was also a town, it still had to guard against offending the master city.

“Get Ferrol to make a Mercenary Mission for you.” Otherwise, traveling to Guia from their place—even by beast car—would easily take more than a week.

The man narrowed his eyes. That queer was one thing, but that bastard son of his had better have a good excuse for this!