After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World-Chapter 1194: Another War Declaration

Althea put the aether letter down and looked at the people around her. She felt bad at bursting their celebratory mood, but—

"Basset Town is preparing for an attack."

The nearby adults paused and turned, wondering if they heard that right. When they saw the couple's expression, they confirmed its validity.

This news naturally deflated the happy atmosphere in the room, though the little babies seemed to like the steps and kept dancing.

"Wigguw wigguw wigguw…" they mumbled with those milky voices of theirs, wiggling their diapered bums in good fun.

The adults couldn't help but chuckle, and the tense atmosphere lit up a bit.

"So they finally attacked, huh?" Ansel mumbled as he sat down in the nearest seat. "There goes the babies' first birthdays…"

"Well, it's not like we can't celebrate right after that…"

Of course, they were worried. They prepared and delayed as much as they could but there were limits villages could not reach, including the people's levels.

The past two weeks, the production and training had never stopped. Everyone only had 3 or 4 hours of sleep every day, and those with higher levels like Garan probably had less.

However, even if they made up for defense and weapons, if this war happened now, there would still be unprecedented losses for Alterra.

"They attacked as soon as they could…" Winona mumbled, quite annoyed.

"This was the logical step. They think we have been weakened by the previous war and the stronger monster mobs we are now continuously subjected to." Garan said.

"They're also worried some other town will attack us," he added. "In their minds, we are a prize to be won."

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Although they performed extraordinarily well for the Village Tier, Towns naturally had their own arrogance. Even if Alterra were strong, in their minds, that could only be in the Village level. A newly-minted town cannot compare to them.

In a sense, this wasn't entirely a bad thing. Alterra could use being underestimated again, rather than the enemy being overtly prepared.

He'd rather they get attacked by Towns other than Basset, too. After all, the latter had Fargo who could provide some information about them—particularly to warn about not underestimating them, and perhaps some strategy of what they could do.

He might even introduce some important technology, like bombs, though the material would be a challenge. No one could master the oaths yet, especially the vague ones, so it was best to assume that he could still do some indirect damage to them at this point.

Thinking of that guy, he couldn't help but feel ashamed again. It was his oversight that let him go away. If he had defeated those level 20s faster—

He stopped himself from dwelling on this. Instead, he let this shame fuel his desire to become even stronger—so strong that no amount of Fargo's scheming would be able to touch him.

He still had ways to go, but his progress was really not to be underestimated. He reached the edge of level 30 in the span of over a year. Even in Towns, this was many years of progress of fighters.

Garan also built a wide and intricate network of knowledge within the territory and beyond. He knew quite a few Towns had been eyeing them.

In response, he made sure the forces in Alterra were as strong as they could be, considering all the limitations.

The training of the guards had become much harsher in the past couple of months. Their average levels and fighting prowess had only been going in a steep line upwards.

Otherwise—even with the enemies serving as cannon fodders—Alterra wouldn't have gotten unscathed in the Upgrade Mob.

The preparation for their first Town War was naturally not light. The factories were now going overtime to increase their stocks, the gatherers also went around the territory, even the unwalled parts, to make sure they had a lot of resources.

Althea also added a few more sentries, placed some distances from each other, but not too far away. Too close was too expensive and would limit how she'd plan the space once she fenced the outer part as well.

For now, the monsters were already quite strong and there was no need for people to go too far from the walls and hunt. Rather, the half-orcs' villa, which was already beginning construction, even served as a camping grounds for those who were grinding to level up.

All aspects of the production were going all-out, and Iron Valley also reduced their iron to be sold to outsiders. Alterra used tons and tons of iron, hiring several temporary labor to help out, and they churned out equipment after equipment.

During the past few months, steel was slowly finding its way as the main material in weapons. While the output was still counted as a Class D Weapon (for now), other weapons of that tier definitely would not be able to compare. For this, the goal was the equip all guards with such a weapon before the war with Basset started.

The automatic production system buildings were also maximized. There would be groups of people to purchase everything, making sure it never stopped working just because it reached its production cap.

In the past few months, two simple manual warehouses were built, placed in some open spaces near the gates. These would be where most of these things were stored for easy access come wars.

There were guards assigned here and also warehousemen to handle the items. There were various rules to avoid pilferage, implemented especially for wars—where there were no rules.

These two areas were built on open space, and this was also where emergency infirmaries were placed. Both warehouses and infirmaries were not made of concrete, but of light construction that could be dismantled and moved as needed.

When the territory expanded, these areas would be dismantled. As for whether the new warehouses and clinics would be made permanent construction, it would depend on the future needs and plans of the territory.

The challenge was to prevent enemy strongmen from causing damage within the territory. Much like how Guia's Heso and the others managed to cause them headaches. This was one part of the intelligence group's scope of work.

Garan's Intelligence Group was a newly built subdepartment currently occupying a small building in the Barracks area. When the territory built separate buildings per department though, this group would separate and be its own entity as well.

This group specialized in information gathering and stealth, and team leads were also equipped with espionage magic tools they got from Otto. (They managed to get a lot of tools during this time in exchange for aether blueprints of the buildings. Since they were buildings Oslo already knew to do and had mastered to some degree, the success rate was incredibly high as well).

There was also Althea's visionstone, which could see—in real time—the overall population and prestige of the territories any citizen landed on.

She would feed the updates once a month (or weekly if it was a territory-of-interest like Basset Town), and their data would be one of the most informative bodies of information anyone would have about these territories, only inferior to the territories themselves.

This department was led, under Garan, by Loki. Other than some sly high EQ humans, Maomao was assigned to this, as well as a few goblins.

They could not require all visitors to make oaths and give their information in the Center (they tried, but it wasn't honored by the System), so they added an extra level of Visitors called 'Verified Visitors'.

These tourists and visitors would make the cheapest honesty oaths—at their own costs—wherein they would declare information about themselves as well as their places of origin, including their purpose of going to Alterra. It was kind of like a Visa, in a way.

The reason why some would do this was because they limited all amenities that required contribution points—i.e. The bathhouse, the Training Hall, the Library, and so on—from everyone who had not registered.

Those who refused to register were also monitored a bit more closely—not that they knew this, of course.

Anyway, for the remaining days before the limit, various departments and groups entered a height of preparation, barely resting for a minute.

Everyone was very antsy. While Alterra did very, very, well as a village, a Town-level war was a different monster.

With how they were now, there will be deaths—and they could only do their best to minimize it!!

However, the next day, while the entire territory was in frantic to become over-prepared..., she received a different war declaration instead.

[Inko Village (Lv3) has declared war on Limestone Valley (Lv3)]