After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 576

Chapter 576: Tanod and Tambai
In contrast to the Mauin Villagers, the hired guards Tanod, a level 13 bald swordsman, and Tambai, a level 14 balding spearman, were actually less experienced in wars even when they were already in their early 30s.

They were siblings born in a town, to cleaner parents. They grew up at the bottom of society, but at least they weren’t slaves. For that alone, they felt they felt blessed.

The siblings though, as they got exposed to more things in their youths, had seen the stark contrast of the lives of those people with strength compared to people like their own families who passed day to day with a meal or two.

At some point, the two of them decided to find a way to grow strong so they could change their stature.

It wasn’t easy, of course, but they found a way to get low-rung jobs at the Mercenary Halls to expose themselves more to that world. They started early, around their tweens, doing various odd jobs there like cleaning rooms, scrubbing floors, cleaning equipment, and the like.

They worked for more than a decade without much movement to their ‘careers’. When they neared 30 years of age, their levels were not even level 10.

First, they were poor and had no connections. They didn’t have a decent starting point as others. After all, most monsters in towns were strong. On average, the ‘weak’ monsters were at least level 10!

For level 1s and 2s, even trying to kill a weakened one was practically impossible with low-leveled weapons, let alone the fact that they had no access to people who could weaken monsters for them in the first place—at least not at an affordable price.

They got to this level by improving their hunting skills and determining where the weaker monsters were, but it was still dangerous and wasn’t very common in their area.

They also learned some fighting skills after tagging along with mercenaries, promising to clean up after them, and even using their space to store emergency tools for others.

Occasionally, there were some people who’d take ‘pity’ on them and allow them to get the last hit of a dying monster, though they’d laugh at them for taking so long.

Still, they would thank them graciously for the opportunity.

However, life was still hard even then.

In Towns, to have a proper life with such a high cost of living, one had to be at least level 15 as an adult. How easy would this be to achieve for poor people?

Hence, this created a massive wealth gap where there were people who lived decently, while there were people who lived at the bottom with a small meal or two every day.

It was so ironic because their world was rich in resources, yet they had to work hard every day to even pick a few Gouji fruits inside their territory walls.

They got to their levels through knit and grit, but their levels weren’t very high for a town so no one hired them as fighters.

Later, they triggered their occupations after years of observation as lackeys to the warriors and mercenaries they were assigned to serve.

They were so happy that they decided to push and fight against a level 10 monster together—almost dying in the process. They had to drag their bloodied bodies through the gate, barely keeping all of their limbs.

When much of their—and their parents’—savings had to be used to treat them, they knew it was time for a change.

They went to get hired in a Chancery to get away and, ironically, get other ‘opportunities’ in villages.

First, the levels of monsters were weaker and more conducive to their leveling.

Second, only villages would hire people of their aptitude from the chancery—which was generally more expensive than just hiring home-grown ones.

Also, villages would only take 5 gold a month, which was half their salaries there, while towns would take 10. Their levels would only have a standard rate of 10 gold per month, so getting hired in towns was basically working for free in their case.

So why don’t weaker people from Towns just go to villages, in the first place?

There were various reasons why most chose to stay in Towns despite the possible ‘opportunities’ elsewhere. First, it was simply not in people’s psyche to want to ‘lower’ themselves. By instinct, people thought villages were inferior and didn’t want the shame associated with moving to one.

For most people, ‘demoting’ themselves was the worst-case scenario.

Of course, this was more than just related to people’s pride. By default, Villages were simply much less stable than towns. They would be much more likely to fall from mobs or wars. Who would want to build homes in such places when they were already in relatively stable towns?

Life in Towns might be hard, but at least they could hold on to their lives!

Another reason was that getting hired in the chancery meant they wouldn’t be home for a long time, what about their parents?

Getting hired there was also a game of chance. They could be hired to the other side of the world. If they didn’t like it there, they’d have to travel all the way back, which could maybe take years.

But… they didn’t have a choice this time.

It was better than becoming a meat shield in wars along with the slaves—which was basically the only option their level had in towns for decent money.

Hence, after spending a few more months to recover and to earn a bit more money for the teleportation fees, the two finally went to the Chancery after tearful goodbyes to their parents.

They didn’t know when they could see their parents again, but they promised them a better life so they better hold on to it.

The brothers, at first, got hired at different places and they immediately went through a lot. However, their treatments there were levels different to how they were treated in Towns. They received respect for the first time.

But things flowed and ebbed and nothing lasted, with both territories falling in wars.

By coincidence, both their territories had nothing special about them, and only experienced wars once every couple of months. They were attacked by experienced territories and they had no choice but to escape after receiving some wounds, as allowed by chancery regulations.

After that, they went through a few more territories, and they were more or less the same in terms of situation and quality.

Regardless, the monsters fit their levels and they fought hard during mobs, eventually reaching their current levels after a few years because they still had to share the Experience with the lords and their cronies. Still, leveling up after level 10 was extremely difficult, and they—ironically—couldn’t imagine reaching the current strengths in towns!

However, they also learned how truly unstable villages were during this time, and their current territories also fell, leaving them no choice but to once again look for another.

Tanod’s final territory before Altera was a village near the Southwest deserts. The heat and aridness was intense there and he didn’t last a month. It wasn’t that he was queasy—he couldn’t afford that—but it was really too risky to stay.

He couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be if there was an extreme weather change which—by estimate—could be happening within the next few months!

What was worse… after staying there, he heard that there were occasional Undeads who escaped from their own areas, attacking the people they came across!

Cringe.

As such, he went to the nearest town—a place called Dune Town—to get hired there, hoping to be placed anywhere else. Anyway, places with relatively harsh weather year-round in the human realm wasn’t so common.

All he asked for was a normal territory, that’s all!