After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 412

Chapter 412: Bird Encounter
A/N: Dedicated to Lin-chan, my first castle-giver~! It took a while to find a place where I can squeeze your request but it’s finally here LOL.

Thanks for the castle Lin-chan~

(Guys, for LotusLin is also a writer~ If you’re into fantasy stories with gods, check hers out!)

Castler Request: “More Ansel and Fufi, please!”

Anyway, back to the story~

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“Eww, Fufi, don’t eat that! Just bite it, BITE it!” Ansel yelled as he pried the dog’s mouth open. When the dog finally did, the head of the gross poisonous-looking reptilian monster rolled down straight to Tom’s feet.

The big man turned pale immediately.

Fortunately, this time, he didn’t embarrass himself by vomiting the contents of his stomach.

Fufi and Ansel were now training near Bright Territory, along with a few others. He was helping out Tom, Artie, and Bruce with their levels. He arrived here with a couple of other soldiers and guards as part of the weekly routine of going to other territories, primarily to check if they had loved ones there.

Because Ansel’s family was already complete—the greatest subject of envy—he decided to ‘give back’ to society, starting with helping out old friends level up.

“You’re really nice for doing this,” Tom said, taking down a monster only a level lower than he was with a swipe of his large axe.

“Well, what are friends for,” Ansel said with a smile. Tom was particularly in need of this because he wasn’t a guard like Artie or Bruno, who managed to get a slot with training with Garan’s team and, now, the aborigine hires.

He lived with them so he felt a little left out when he saw their levels shoot up while he leveled up very slowly.

Ansel offering to help was really heaven-sent.

“Thank you, I really owe you a lot.”

Bruce and Artie tagged along and also thanked him a lot. Although they had the advantage of being guards, Ansel’s help allowed their slots to be given to newer guards who needed the training more.

They were quite ‘patriotic’ in this way, believing the combined strength of the guards, and not just their own individual strength, mattered the most.

Ansel shrugged, “Well, it trains both of us too,” he said, pointing at the dog who was now eating something though, fortunately, it looked like it was something from his space.

WOOF!

“So cute…” Tom chuckled and Fufi, who had heard that he was being complimented, felt goodwill to these people. He immediately stood up and ran towards them, making the ground shake a bit in his movements.

At this time Fufi was already level 7, and he was almost as tall on all fours as Ansel standing upright.

Although it didn’t bother Ansel at all, it made Tom drop a sweat. Who would feel calm when you see a car running straight at you?

“Who’s a good boiii!” Ansel cooed, rubbing the large dog’s head. The dog was obviously enjoying it as his tail was wagging fast enough to serve as a fan.

Ansel only rubbed his head and chin even more. “Who’s a goood boii? You areee, you areee!”

WOOF!

He laughed, taking out a few dried and flavored Gouji berries to place in the dog’s mouth as a treat. (He always had some in his space for Fufi’s treats—Fufi really liked it and Ansel liked how scary the dog looked when red juice dripped down his sharp teeth).

WOOF!

However, while the dog and man were ‘flirting’ the dog suddenly froze and stood up, startling the others. He then growled, looking in a direction.

The four men naturally increased their guards until Ansel realized the footsteps weren’t monsters.

It was human’s.

“Hide,” he mouthed and immediately the lot of them climbed up the tree.

Ansel and the others stopped breathing while they waited for the humans to pass. Soon they heard rustles of leaves and a large group of about ten people passed by, one of whom was even an Aborigine!

ba-dump, ba-dump

Ansel stopped breathing, afraid to be found. He wasn’t naive enough to think all humans were friends, let alone they were outnumbered and outpowered.

What if they were perverts and found him pretty?!

He shivered.

Clutter, Clutter…

The various tangents in his mind were interrupted by the slight sound near his head. Ansel blinked and stiffly turned his face to his side to look at the branch beside him. He almost fell down the branch when he realized that he was face to face with a bird.

Small birds like this weren’t actually that uncommon, but they were rarely seen. To survive in this world, they had to be extremely fast and almost invisible. They evolved not to make any sounds as well. In theory, they should communicate via another way. For example, like ultrasonic methods.

This was the first time Ansel saw one up close. They really looked a lot like the Terran birds except for some features.

They had zoologists in Altera who had just joined the Research Center. The guy’s name was Reddit. He was a foreigner from another continent, but it happened he was in Eden studying the endemic species there, not that there was much biodiversity in their country.

One of his favorite features of this land (Xeno) was the birds (other than Fufi, which was the reason why the dog was adventuring more outside lately).

As for why he was limited (for now) to the milder species, this was because Reddit still shivered at the mention of the beasts. He was a scientist and had no fighting ability and he had seen death in the mouth of monsters too many times to count, leaving him traumatized.

This was a pity because it would be great if he could study the behavior of the beasts. Fortunately, he could still handle the carcasses which was why whole bodies of monsters tended to be brought inside the territory.

To the terror of many.

Of course, he still forced himself to frequent the training hall so he could meet the territory requirements of fighting. He was still a weak stick though.

Anyway, for birds, Reddit had some theories they went along with until they were proven wrong in reality. The creatures theoretically had specially-shaped feathers to dampen the sound of their flight, much like owls back in Terran, though even more pronounced. The texture should be velvety, and their bodies sleek.

He looked at the subject in front of him and he had to say that Reddit guy really knew what he was talking about.

To be honest, Garan had already mentioned the fact that it would be great to take advantage of birds to send messages, since they were extremely fast and difficult to catch, but so far they hadn’t encountered a way to attract them, let alone train them.

The bird looked at him (very creepy without the chirping sound) and he heaved a deep breath. He wasn’t naive to think that he was Snow White who was loved by birds. Birds here were unlikely to be gentle if they were to survive.

It tilted its head again and Ansel swore there was a glint of red in there. He realized it was a drop of red as it was eating a red fruit—the ubiquitous Gouji Berry. The fluid between its beak made the red droop and made it look extra creepy.

He wanted badly to go down to the ground, but then the damned group decided to frickin stay there for a bit! There happened to be a small clearing where they were and the group also decided to take a rest there.

He was focused on how to not make noise for a while until he began to hear some familiar names from the mouths of the newcomers.

“That Vismont place isn’t bad,” One man said, “I’m so shocked about the products available!”

“The food, custom house, everything is…” he whispered, “Even better than back in Fargo…”

The term made Ansel freeze immediately.

Fargo? That horrid territory?

They came to Vismont?

Ansel knew his sense of direction wasn’t very good but he at least knew that Vismont was somewhere northwest of Altera and Bright. Fargo… according to Garan, was somewhere West. It should have somewhat of an equal distance between Vismont and Bright, much like how Altera was.

“What do you think? Are we going to attack it first?”

“We should wait until the team who went to Bright finishes up.”

“Well, I kinda wanted to stay there. The food was really nice.”

“Well, if we overtake it, we’d have as much as we want!”

“My food had been consumed already. Should we just go back to buy more?” One said, “It’s not like it’s far away.”

“Please, if the level 12 Aborgine isn’t here, you’d be eaten.”

The two men cursed at each other a bit, obviously having some sort of rivalry going on. Another man sighed, used to their conflict, and decided to shift the topic instead.

“Hey, I heard they’re under another village. Named Altera.”

“Ah, I heard about that too,” one said, “Apparently, much of the products came from there.”

“What? Really?”

“Should we go check it out as well, then?”

The group looked at each other, greediness glinting in their eyes, and it made Ansel’s blood boil.

Altera? So they’re going to Altera now?

He was very annoyed, but he kept his body frozen. He was barely even breathing.

Unfortunately, luck was never on his side.

He felt a bit of wind at the back of his neck. He flinched, turning to see what it was, only to see that there were more creepy birds staring!

It was as if waiting for him to mess up!

Weren’t birds supposed to be well-hidden? What were they doing watching a good show?!

Clutter Clutter

“WHO GOES THERE!”

Ah, shit…