After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 429

Chapter 424: Forest Training
Outside the walls, in all directions, there was plenty of activity, with hundreds of Alterans experiencing improvement every single day.

However, the magic wasn’t just happening outside the walls, but inside as well. For instance, the Training Hall was occupied all 28 hours of the day.

And, without knowing, the Hall finally met the requirements for the upgrade!

[Congratulations! The Training Hall (Lv1) could now be upgraded to Training Hall (Lv2)]

“Oh?”

When this notification arrived, Althea and her husband were kilometers away from the village, deep into the southern mountains, training. They were more or less closer to the aborigine territories now because the monsters were stronger in this area.

As for why they would travel so many hours just to do this, she had no choice in the matter.

After all, three or more levels below her didn’t win her anything anymore!

This was actually worse than before, where she could get experience from monsters 4 levels lower!

Obviously, other people could get experience as long as they weren’t five levels weaker than they were. Very unfair!

It was apparently the same with Garan, and nobody else.

For now, they didn’t know for sure what had caused this. If they had to guess, they’d say it was a balancing act of nature though.

For some reason, the stat increase of both of them was much higher than others of the same level. Ansel was very bitter when he found out.

In any case, all the monsters around their area were no more than level 6 or 7—and this was when they got lucky—and it simply wasn’t efficient to stay there anymore.

At least, not when she wanted to reach level 10 as soon as she could.

Anyway, along with leveling up, today they set on fixing her weaknesses: Close combat.

Or rather, they hunted for monsters that were so strong that her passable fighting skills from before were no longer of much use.

She couldn’t be dependent on her archery either. Even if the bow was powerful (for now), what if the enemy was so quick that she couldn’t even draw her bow?

“What is it?” Garan asked, seeing her staring into nothingness as she walked. He extended his hand to push away a branch that was about to nick her.

“The Training Hall just upgraded! I’m looking forward to seeing it,” she said and turned to him, and he pulled her closer so she didn’t trip on a stone.

It had to be said: Althea could get really careless when her husband was around. If her friends were here, they’d shake their heads.

‘Letting Down Your Guard’ was one thing, but this was too much, right?

It was fortunate they weren’t together when this all started, giving her time to grow in this environment. Otherwise, it was estimated Althea would be spoiled useless!

Neither Garan nor Althea saw this as a problem and even if they did they wouldn’t mind. Althea, despite all her flaws, always adjusted accordingly when she needed to step up.

Otherwise, her entire group would have long died.

Anyway, before Garan could ask the details of this good news, the two of them paused and raised their guards, facing a direction.

They stepped back a bit to a more stable cover, eyes and attention on the rustles of leaves approaching them. Soon a group of four monsters appeared. Judging by their size and aura, they could see this was a mob of predominantly level 9s.

They were of the avian family with long talons and beaks. They were flightless birds like the emu, only uglier, bigger, and much more lethal.

Non-domesticaed Birds of this world (i.e. not Gugu Birds) only went two ways: Retain their small sizes but develop extreme speeds and stealth, or turn to monsters themselves like this one.

However, as always, using the principle of respecting life, they never took the first shot. They would always be in the defensive, at least at the start, unless they were absolutely certain that the monster was aggressive and dangerous.

However, the thing about monsters here was they really didn’t have sentiment at all. They just have a thirst for blood, no different from the zombies back in Terran. So far, they had yet to discover a non-aggressive monster, not including specially-bred species like the Gugu Bird or the Broat.

The group of four immediately attacked, and Garan immediately raised his hand to cause them some damage.

Althea stopped him. “Just corralle them except for one,” she said, and Garan immediately changed his attack.

“Yes, wife,” he said dotingly.

[Ice Wall (D). -40 Mana]

Following his hand movements, a wall made of hard ice appeared, surrounding the other three. He also added a freezing effect to restrict their movements.

Caw! Caw!

The remaining monster didn’t even notice its companions had been trapped, however. Its red eyes focused solely on Althea, the meat in front of it.

The monster sprinted to her, quick with its long legs. Althea managed to dodge a hair’s length. She somersaulted to the side, revealing her renewed katana, courtesy of Garan and the weaponsmiths.

There still weren’t new effects, and the rank was the same, but the attack was slightly improved and the durability was brought back to 100.

Garan nervously watched the fight but did not move. More than once had his wife been angry at him for prematurely interfering.

On his third time ‘ruining her good deeds’ he was even kicked out of the bedroom, thrown to the cold and lonely guest room bed!

Althea didn’t bother with her husband’s thought process at the moment as she was focused on the battle at hand.

The monster’s level was the same as her own, which meant it would be a challenge to beat by herself.

Fortunately, she had sharp senses and a brave heart, so she didn’t feel intimidated to the point of freezing when she saw its peck impale the trees behind her every time she dodged.

The damned thing was not only strong but was also very fast. For a while, Althea just dodged its attack, albeit with increasing ease.

It was just a pity for the poor trees whose trunks were more or less destroyed as collateral damage.

Bang!

A tree fell backward, a thump echoing in the forest, but it didn’t do anything to deter the two fighting.

The weather was nice and temperate, but Garan was sweating. Covering himself with his ice at this point probably wouldn’t help.

When she tripped a displaced root, his heart stopped, and his arm and legs automatically moved.

“No, don’t help me!”

He stopped, gritting his hand and teeth, and reluctantly froze in place.

He should trust his wife, that was his duty.

Back to the battle, Althea rolled around to avoid its hit, and her sharp emerald eyes saw an opening.

Althea swung her sword and hit the skin exposed from its attack—a weakness—taking advantage to do some serious damage.

Slash!

The bird screamed, eyes turning redder.

Caw!!! Caww!!!

She avoided its berserk attack, slashing at opportune times, conserving as much spirit as she could.

As she got used to its attack, she soon became more aware of her surroundings and she started moving in accordance to it.

In her mind’s eyes, she mapped a virtual image of the surrounding forests, the trees, the rocks, the boulders.

She tried to shield herself with these as she could, also using them as distractions.

She heard a light crack near her and, while avoiding a beak, flitted to another direction, before suddenly moving to another.

When the monster lifted its beak off the wood, half of the tree trunk was taken with it. Althea moved around and led the monster around as she ran, her emerald eyes focusing on the tree barely standing.

She timed everything as accurately as she could. When she saw the flimsy trunk move slightly in a direction, she immediately ran to where it would fall, before abruptly moving to another spot.

Caw! Caw!

She moved and the monster stood where she did. A moment later, the damaged trunk fell down, directly on the unsuspecting monster.

Caw!!!

The tree could trap it only for a few seconds of course, but it was enough to distract it enough for her to hit its vitals.

[Slash (E), -2 Mana!]

[Slash (E), -2 Mana!]

[Killed! Emalau (Lv9). +250 copper, +250 experience!]

Her legs weakened a bit as she received the notification, with Garan immediately walking to her.

He wrapped an arm around his wife’s small waist, pulling her to him. Althea was shaking and she flinched at his movements. “Husband?”

But he didn’t speak and just lifted her head, dipping his own to catch her lips—immediately changing the angle to gain access inside.

Althea let him do what he wanted; she knew he was scared. She knew he needed to do this—to feel her—to calm down.

And she was the same.

So she just smiled and wrapped her arms around him, with him hugging her even tighter in response.

Just like that, all her fears disappeared and she was relaxed again.