After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 383

Chapter 383: New NPC
Later that night, Althea finally had the time to check her luck for hiring aborgines.

Territory-related things were effective distractions from the worry of potentially destroyed friendships.

Of course, another distraction (Garan) offered to ‘help’, but she put a hold on it for a while. She was determined to do something productive for the territory today.

She pecked on his lips as he reluctantly watched her go. She pinched his cheek, “It’s only half an hour.”

He frowned and his face didn’t change, it didn’t help that he was a bit drunk and was thus a lot more pouty. She found it adorable and placed a few more pecks on his lips. His eyes darkened but he was holding the babies in both hands—to move to the crib, apparently—so he couldn’t pull her to him.

She knew this and chuckled, before turning to look at the babies snoozing peacefully in the comfort of their father’s warmth.

She giggled and placed soft kisses on their chubby cheeks, before placing another one on her husband’s.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said, whispering, “You can have me however you want tonight.”

…

Before Garan could do anything, she teleported to the Village Center’s third floor.

She stood in front of the teleportation circle and paid the fees. As always, the activity didn’t start very positively.

The first four weren’t useful to hire—one was a mere labor worker, and another was a beast poop cleaner. The other two were women with that occupation again.

Why were there so many?

She didn’t haven’t much hope for the last one.

Since the first batch, decent hires had become rare. She really wanted to become a town, so the options for hiring wouldn’t be so limited.

With low expectations, her delicate fingers pressed the generate button once again, and a portly man appeared on her ‘screen’.

[Name: Tronie Woods

Level: D

Abilities: Construction Materials Expert

Wage: 15 gold/mo]

“…!!”

Of course, she hired him.

She watched with a little excitement as another old man appeared on the circle, surprised to see her (a reaction which now she found to likely be because she was a woman), and bowed down respectfully as soon as he caught himself.

She nodded. “Have a seat,” she told him as she went up to the cupboards to get some snacks. She was half-expecting no decent options today so she didn’t bother preparing beforehand.

Tronie awkwardly followed instructions, body language oozing with tenseness and apprehension. It was like he was waiting for some punishment or something.

Althea pursed her lips, wondering what was going on in this aborigine’s head this time, but she shrugged and simply took out a box of cookies and arranged a couple on the plate.

She also heated some water via a fire-powered portable stove made of metal and Youli stone Eugene and the others had developed.

Interestingly, every sound the utensils and equipment created made the new aborigine flinch.

Tronie’s head was indeed running wild. His previous territory had an eccentric lord. He didn’t dare look up to see what was making all that noise.

‘Am I going to die? Or tortured, maybe?’

‘Nonono,’ He shook his head, ‘Lords aren’t allowed to make us do what we don’t want to do,’ he chanted. It was why he spent so much getting hired through the Chancery of Appointments instead of going through direct channels.

How to escape?

Is he really going to die?

No, right?

His wild thoughts were abruptly stopped when a whiff of Elvendell entered his nose, followed by a gentle tap of the food platter.

“Here, have some snacks and drinks,” the lord said, “Be careful of the tea, it’s a little hot.”

Tronie couldn’t help but gape at the beautiful and steaming brown cup. He gulped, thinking no matter what he thought, he ought to follow the Lord’s order.

So, very tentatively, he raised his hand to get a piece, letting it enter his mouth with dramatically small movements.

A bite was all that was needed to remove all his tension.

…

A couple of minutes after taking in all the pastries on the plate, the aborigine’s soul finally returned to earth.

“Welcome back,” Althea said, making the man flinch and almost kneel down to beg when he realized he had spaced out IN FRONT OF THE LORD!

Goodness elves!

“It’s fine, don’t kneel, calm down.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Calm down,” she repeated. “I won’t hurt you.”

“I never—yes, milord.”

Althea waited for the man to calm down before speaking, “I saw your job. What are your skills?”

“My passive is to decrease construction time by 10-15%,” Tronie said and paused. Although, despite all the nerves, his eyes gravitated hungrily towards the empty plate.

Althea’s lips rose a bit as she saw this, but she simply continued with her questions. “Hmm, interesting. What else?”

“I also have a skill to be able to locate any construction material, milord.”

Althea brightened at this. “Any material? What if you’ve never heard of it?”

“Yes,” he said, “It’s a possibility.”

Althea already had hundreds of ways to use this skill, and not just in construction materials.

But he quickly added a caveat, dismissing her thoughts.

“But the condition was I must understand the principle behind its use, and know its use as a construction material.”

Well, never mind. However, this alone was already very good.

One of the primary things she hoped to find was enough material to make cement enough to create strong and tall buildings.

They did find some limestones in the river, but it wasn’t enough to build anything beyond a shed.

Although without reinforcing steel and their height was limited, there were still too many uses for concrete and she did not want to waste them.

She looked at Tronie, curious. “How… how does your passive work? How do you decrease construction time?”

After all, there were plenty of ways to hasten this time—but a lot of it was to compromise on the quality of the building.

For example, Clout could also decrease construction time, though she felt the principles behind their skills were different. Clout could automatically determine the best way to fix the available materials to each other, but Tronie here was allegedly a Materials expert.

Tronie blinked, a little taken aback by the question, and it took him a few moments to answer her. “When we’re within 150 yards from an ongoing construction, the materials would be in their maximum constructionable state.”

Very interesting. But…

“Isn’t wood your basic material?” She asked. If so, how would his skill affect it?

“Yes, wood and stone. For wood, when my passive is activated they become much easier to handle and would become as is after being settled. Stone, on the other hand, would either be lighter or soften up temporarily.”

How magical.

Althea thought for a while and mused that it was likely that, should concrete structures be implemented someday, this construction NPC could hasten the setting of concrete!

If they could settle the source of iron, they would eventually get steel. After that, they would be able to build high-rise buildings on their own, saving space.

She made a mental note to increase manpower on steel research. This would probably be on Eugene’s team, partnered with Kimura.

She looked forward to the time her territory would be filled with high-rise buildings—because that would mean they would able to use the space below for a lot more things!

In towns, generally, only 3 floors of buildings were seen except for a level 5 town center which would have 5 floors.

In cities, according to Oslo, buildings were only up to six floors, 5 floors mostly. The cities also had the max level City center, which could have 7 floors.

The third and last custom building, available in cities, apparently wasn’t a building either, so she could only do manual work if she wanted to go higher.

She nodded and spoke to him a bit longer, but more of an orientation for his sake, which left him extremely honored and touched.

“Basically, as long as you have the heart to contribute, you’ll fit right in,” she said with a smile.

“As for accommodations, hired people have their own units in Community 2,” she said, “You can ask anyone below for its location. You can also ask some locals and guides for other amenities. Our village has a lot.

“And also, my being the Lord is a secret. Please don’t tell anyone, and don’t call me such outside.”

Although Tronie was puzzled, he nodded dutifully.

“Yes, milord.”

“Tomorrow, you will be joining the research team, located east of the Village Center. Look for Kimura and Belinda.” Both of them could also learn something. Kimura in relation to materials, especially local ones, while Belinda for assessment of them.

Perhaps… they might even trigger a similar occupation.

“I’m looking forward to what you can offer us, Tronie,” she said, letting out a mysterious smile, “I assure you the territory will not disappoint.”

The old man nodded, his heart beating in both apprehension and excitement.

Whatever he encountered, he had a feeling he would be surprised!