After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 286

Chapter 286: Iron Bog (Part 1)
At this time, Ansel was currently a couple of kilometers away, in a place where the air was thick and humidity was intense. All they could hear was their sticky footsteps and the occasional gurgle of bubbling muck.

They were currently halfway through the mission, heading to what would—hopefully—be an iron bog. When the announcement was sent to all of them, he was approached by a shy man—a refugee who arrived with Jun back then. Even before leaving Bright, they immediately mapped (okay, it wasn’t him) the approximate direction of the bog and they decided to take the risk.

The trip was set to take at least a full day, and the output wasn’t even certain. However, although the trip could go to waste, iron was just too important to the entire territory not to take a look.

Ansel stopped and looked at the sky, wondering if they’d be able to get back to the territory by sunlight.

He looked at the person beside him and asked, “What time is it?”

The man raised his sundial-like watch to check the time, “It is a few hours before noon.”

“Thanks,” he said, his sights returning to the rough untravelled path in front.

Ansel would also want to be able to tell the time. Sadly, the sundial watch didn’t work well with someone as directionally-challenged as he was.

Alas!

No one was perfect, not even him.

Putting these thoughts aside, his small party continued to trudge through the humid forests. Soon the ground changed and got muddier and muddier, soon arriving in front of a swamp.

Ansel’s dark green eyes stared at the disgusting viscous pond. His eyes twitched every time the bubbles spit some liquid on his leather boots.

He looked around and saw the trees here were quite unique, with moss and lichen adorning their branches and trunks, blending in the greenish hues of the bog.

Their forms were twisted and bare, their barks were weathered and textured, and their leaves were dark and leathery.

This wasn’t a surprise because, after all, these poor trees grew in iron-rich water and acidic soil.

There was also the occasional fruit, though they smelled bitter and sour. He didn’t even try to taste it. He simply took a bit of fruit and trees for Althea to study.

Later, Althea would indeed study these thoroughly. The usefulness of the fruits wasn’t much, but the wood could be used, even just the branches, for sustainability.

After that, deep red and purple dyes would be introduced to the territory, belatedly adding another batch of contributions to their group.

Further, these trees were also rich in tanning compounds, which could be sold to Baron for his tanning business.

Of course, for now, he didn’t know these things because his eyes were attracted by the stones half submerged in the muck, which created a (very small) pathway to the other side.

It was inviting people to step, and one wrong step and one could be sucked.

So they didn’t cross. Instead, Ansel took a random big rock that could fit in his space and then released it on top of the bog.

Flop!

They watched as the stone dropped on the disgusting fluid, forming a ripple that was quickly absorbed by the viscosity.

Nothing happened for a moment and Ansel almost thought he was being overly paranoid.

But then—as if the viscous liquid responded to his ‘attack’—more and more bubbles began to form.

These bubbles got larger than the bubbles before them, popping disgustingly and hitting not just their boots but also their pants.

It was here that extremely disgusting grotesque forms emerged from the muck, one by one, making weird noises between growls and howls.

The creatures’ skins were pallid and slick and their red eyes were gleaning with predatory hunger, and plenty of big men in their team shivered.

They were like aliens from old sci-fi movies. It was super gross.

Anyway, everyone’s weapons were all long ready, and just waiting for orders.

“Watch my back!” Ansel yelled at his team as he raised his weapon, a sword he got customized from Brenda with some material donations from Oslo.

He was among the first to trigger the Swordsman occupation in Altera, and he was bent on practicing it.

“Yes!”

Amos, the young guard with high potential that Drake had his eyes on, was with him at the moment along with a few others.

Together, they met the monsters as soon as they got off the swamp, swiping and stabbing with increasing skill. Together, they chipped away at the monsters.

This went on for a while as the swamp aliens weren’t weak, and the fact that they felt squeamish didn’t help at all. Another was the fact that they had been fighting for what was probably a whole day.

Amos was going on his second weapon now, the previous one losing durability even before they got to the swamp. This was the same with almost everyone else.

Ansel’s was a bit better. His was a bespoke weapon and thus had much higher durability than others.

Anyway, they slashed away, trying to be technical with his slashes, for efficiency.

Nearby, Amos poked his spear and killed the other, and the other guards took care of the last ones, gaining points.

[Ghasa (Lv2), +50 copper, +50 experience]

Ansel took advantage of an opening and lifted his leg to kick a monster to another. Then, using their imbalance, he ran over them and stabbed them, finally impaling the damned things.

With increasing skill, he stabbed and slashed, the metal of his sword screeching against the metallic skin of the monster.

To be honest, it made his teeth hurt.

However, he had long lost (most of) his squeamishness and he stabbed away as if he wasn’t affected. At some point, he even felt his body becoming one with the sword—a sensation that occurred when he activated the Swordsman Occupation.

[Ghasa (Lv3), +70 copper, +70 experience]

[Sword Slash (D). Swordsman Skill. 50% chance of doubling damage. Lasts 1 minute. Mana -10]

Ansel’s eyes brightened. Finally!!

His first Swordsman Skill!