After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 262

Chapter 262: Best Friend (Part 1)
Althea was blissfully chewing on something sweet—a sticky candy Harold made from her new sugary discovery—when the familiar ding sounded in her head.

[Congratulations! Your Village Center has met the requirements for upgrade!]

[✓] 10,000 gold

[✓] 10,000 total transactions

[Would you like to upgrade for 1500 wood, 1000 stone, and 1500 Gold?]

Her candy almost fell on the floor—almost, as her body didn’t want to waste a single bit of sugar.

“Upgrade?”

And… goodness. This was way higher than the previous time. Normal villages wouldn’t be able to afford this, right?

She wasn’t wrong. Most territories with level 3 Territory Centers were already Towns, in which case they would already be called Town Centers.

Of course, this did not mean that NPCs she could hire were still no longer limited to village level. However, that didn’t matter to Althea, as she would always upgrade these buildings when she could.

She had seen the advantages of the level 2 Territory Center, she didn’t want to miss whatever an upgrade had to offer.

She naturally said Yes to the upgrade, of course.

However, she knew that it was in the middle of the day and the building was being used by a lot of people. So, she decided to defer the upgrade by a few hours, scheduling an announcement of its upgrade as well.

Now that the Village Center was set to upgrade, she looked at the lord’s panel to see when the territory itself would experience the same.

[TERRITORY STATS

Status: Level 2 Village

Area: 3,142,000 square meters

Residents: 1115 (261 permanent, 854 temporary)

Total Population: 3024

Base Resources:

Wood: 6790/10000

Stone: 5989/8000

Money: 19911 Gold, 133269 Silver, 768199 copper

Reputation: 150

Buildings: Village Center (Lv3) , Weaponry Shop (Lv2), Defensive Wall (Lv3), Warehouse (Lv2), Farm (Lv2), Training Hall (Lv1), BathHouse (Lv1)

Bonus Building: Custom Building

Building Slots: 7/7 (+1)]

Althea looked at the population requirement that was finally exceeded. Now, she only had to maintain this for three days and she would be able to upgrade the village to level three.

She nodded and—after finishing up her candy break—resumed her experiments. Today’s experiments comprised mainly of powders.

She was now working on a bomb, inspired by the pharmacist potion bomb Oslo mentioned before. She didn’t know if she’d trigger a Pharmacist inheritance someday, but she always liked to rely on herself first.

She commissioned the construction team to build her a comfortable shed on the opposite side of the houses in the two conjoined villa lots. This was her alternative laboratory for things with a bit of… risky nature (not that Ansel and the others knew of course—she just told them it could get…smelly).

This was, after all, inspired by fertilizer bombs so there would be a time she might be using some… unsavory elements.

She wouldn’t be using much feces, fortunately. After all, a third of her fertilizer formulas didn’t need excrement, though these were naturally much costlier.

However, if she figured out the formula for this, the formula for lower-cost excrement-using bombs would be easier to handle and mass produce. But that would be left for others to do. She wasn’t going to touch that.

Anyway, she still had confidence in her skills. She could formulate great fertilizers with a combination of various plants. She could naturally make an alternative for fertilizer bombs.

And she was making good progress.

With the rate she was going, she should be able to complete this before the protection period ended.

She had a lot to thank her Pharmacist skills for this, otherwise, she’d take at least a year.

Tinkering with a few more formulations, using her skills, she looked at the data of the current formula and she judged her progress to be roughly 40%.

[Looking for…

[It’s me! I’m here….

[My love, it is I…. I’m here in Altera!]

Her eyes twitched.

More and more announcements flowed in, distracting her very serious experiments. The overflow must have a lot to do with her announcement of the Center closing for the upgrade, but still…

Why wasn’t there a ‘mute’ button for site-wide announcements? It was so annoying—

So… she set the payment for a public announcement at 20 silver per 500 words, for every 1000 people in the territory.

She nodded. Thinking of announcements as Ads, this would still be a fair price.

The announcements soon became scarcer and her screen turned back to its peaceful status.

But then a new announcement came shortly after, breaking her reverie again. However, instead of being annoyed, she was just surprised.

Why? Because this announcement actually had her name.

[Winona Armani: Looking for my BFF Althea Witt! I just arrived from Vismont, where are you?

[No, never mind, I know where you are. Who told you to be famous even in here. I’m knocking on your door soon. You better prepare a sumptuous lunch for me! Well, no not you, you can’t cook, find a chef! Xoxoxo]

Althea blinked, reading the message again for good measure.

After reading twice, she rolled her eyes, as if she was annoyed. It was just that there was a smile on her lips that betrayed her happy mood.

She put down her experiments and went back to the main living area and saw that the food was already being prepared.

“Hnngmaamaaa…”

“Mnhghhhnnm…”

She turned to look at her babies, who were extending their hands, calling for her. They were currently lounging about on the carpet with their stuffed toys (a new addition to Baron’s Toy factory, using some extra and waste cotton bought from the factory).

Theo and Maya were there, playing with them both. Especially Theo, who was always close to little Pepper, ready to give her what she wanted at a wave of her small hands.

For instance, the giraffe stuffed toy, was very quickly placed on Little Pepper’s cute palms, just as she wanted. This earned Theo a cute giggle, which made the boy brighten very adorably.

Althea’s lips twitched at the interactions and walked to them. She patted little Theo and Maya’s heads while smacking wet kisses on her babies’ chubby cheeks.

“Hnngmaamaaa~”

“Mnhghhhnamamaaa~”

Her heart softened at their cuteness and couldn’t stop herself from showering them with kisses. They giggled and waved their hands and small little stuffed toys around, looking very happy to finally see their mother.

This was what Harold, who had just come back from the cellar, saw. He had taken additional ingredients for a rich meal, as he felt dinner today ought to be special.

“It was your best friend?” He asked, just to confirm.

Althea smiled, her eyes warm. “Well, you can say so.”

Harold’s eyebrows rose at the answer. Even if the answer seemed noncommittal, he knew that Ms. Winona was definitely as she claimed.

He was quite looking forward to a person their boss acknowledged and even decided to prepare a few more dishes.

“Well, then,” He said, turning to the kitchen. “Let us welcome her well.”