After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 334

Chapter 334: Althea’s Caveats
The group took the monsters back—their carcasses contained a lot of usable materials—inside the gates.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ansel asked his sister, now covered with a coat of sorts. He was supporting her shoulders and she was leaning on him. He was heartbroken but he knew having to fight like that was a necessary evil.

“Yeah,” Althea said, “Now I just want to see my babies.”

Ansel smiled in understanding also looking dazed at the recollection of his cute neice and nephew and just led the woman through the gate.

But when they entered they were a little startled by the crowd that had been waiting for them, immediately cheering as the gates closed.

“Amazing!”

“Bravo!!”

“I was terrified to see such large monsters, especially when I heard of their level, but looks like we can still handle it!”

“Nothing to be scared of!”

“We don’t need the protection period anymore!”

The crowd had been watching the fights from the safety of the walls. However, even if they did want to help, their skills and levels would just designate them as burdens instead.

At the same time, people from the health clinic arrived with all the tools needed to perform first aid, bringing the heavily injured guards back for more intensive care.

The crowd looked at the group—especially Althea—with fanatic admiration.

She had spearheaded the economic and agricultural development of the territory, and now she joined the guards to vanguard against the strongest monsters they had ever encountered so far.

And then they realized that she was the strongest non-aborigine!! It was unbelievable!

Just… what can’t she do?

With these thoughts, they couldn’t help but want to express admiration in one form or another. There were plenty of words of encouragement and affirmation, and there were also a lot of people who gave their stock medicines to those who fought, and none of them were rejected.

Of course, not everyone was amazed. For example, Ramona who was gritting her teeth in the crowd.

During the fight, in contrast with the aghast gasps and worried prayers when Althea got wounded, Ramona was holding back smiles.

Ramona frowned, glaring at Althea’s bloodied figure. Even all bloodied, she was so beautiful, so admired.

And why was she still so strong?! She was the strongest other than the Aborigines!!!

Ramona simmered on the side with a dark expression. “What’s wrong, wife?” A plain-looking man asked her in concern.

She had, of course, found a new man who did most of the work in their ‘household’. One who made all of the money with her in charge of ‘taking care of the household’ i.e. buying whatever she wanted.

He was even working as a staff of the Glorious Hospitality Company and was making quite a bit in commissions. She had been living amply, much much better than how it was in Bright.

However, more than once she passed by outside Althea’s house and she could see the wonderful colors inside even from outside the fences.

She could often hear laughter inside (though mostly by the children playing) and she could imagine the fabulous life she still had.

In comparison, her own life paled… again.

How could Ramona be satisfied?

…

Althea looked at the surrounding crowd, who were in a celebratory mood. She didn’t want to put a damper on it but she felt that she had to.

She shook her head and looked at them, waiting for them to calm down. Under her stare, they did.

“The new average of the monsters outside is level 7. I hope everyone—fighters or not—will try to gain strength on their own.” She said, her emerald orbs filled with seriousness.

“We only won because the aborigines are here. What if they aren’t? What if they couldn’t?” Territory wars had level limits—they knew this, she had to remind them of this.

The reminder, indeed, successfully put a damper in the celebration. Silence reigned the area for a while.

“It is still best to strengthen ourselves, without relying on anyone.” She said, heaving a sigh, “I’m sure the territory will help decrease the risks as it could, but of course, it wouldn’t be unavoidable.

“I hope everyone braves through it. Because… the monsters would only get stronger.”

She looked at the others and they gestured to continue back to their homes. Before leaving the crowd, Althea couldn’t help but add her last advice to them.

“Be stronger. It will be the only way to keep what we have now.”

…

Later that day, after a good bath, rest, and bonding with the babies, the siblings met again in the study room.

Althea and Ansel looked at the territory map, which was now much larger than it was before.

Paper now had preliminary products, though not enough to sell. For now, it was basically used only by her and the departments. Oslo’s Architecture and Engineering Team would definitely be consuming the bulk of it.

Graphite had also been discovered near a marble deposit by one of the adventurers just before the protection period ended. With graphite, they could also formulate ink and create pencils.

However, because the missions to safe harvest were limited, ink and pencils were also in limited supply, mostly exclusive to the territorial departments.

In any case, in front of them was a hand-drawn map of the territory. Drawn by Althea herself, primarily because she was currently the only one who knew the bird’s eye view of this place.

Ansel’s eyes dilated at the sight of the map, extremely impressed.

“Wow… huge area.” He said, eyes tracing over the large expanse of land.

“Hmm… I want to maximize every inch. I’m thinking of increasing the greening to 40%.” She said. This was very ambitious, but their goal had always been to build vertically. For Altera, this was not a pipe dream.

She wanted a higher percentage of this because this also included the natural forest resource points that had to be maintained. Not only would they be safer for the citizens to harvest, but they lacked the dangerous poison plants and insects that were abundant in the forests outside.

Don’t think of it as too much, these were all providers of quick-refresh resources.

All in all, while it seemed like an overkill, she believed it wouldn’t be a stupid decision to do so.

Her intuition told her so.

And eventually, she would be proven wise.