After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World-Chapter 1893: Rock Salt Incident (Part 2)

Bit by bit, the group would head closer to the salt mines while they trained, arriving there in a few hours.

Mao was at the back while riding his giant panda. It was now lumbering along the forest, and if it led the way, it was estimated that the travel time would be twice as long.

Eventually, they reached the mines, and the miners and citizens headed in to start mining with their special pickaxes. Since this resource-gathering mission was technically independent of the territory, each piece of equipment was a miner’s personal investment. The quality depended on the weaponsmith whom they had commissioned to make it.

The guards and hired mercenaries, on the other hand, spread out to guard the edges, with one or two walking around in case a beast passed through.

Pang was rolling around the perimeters too, and ran over monsters he could handle and then rolled away from monsters that he could not.

In the latter case, Mao would detect the danger, and earth spikes would appear. Even if it didn’t kill the monster within a few shots, the panda would be there to finish it off, thus gaining the experience points.

Mao had a lot of shortcomings, but he really doted a lot on his own people.

The mining sessions would usually be finished within two to three days, primarily because the ores would’ve filled up each miner’s space as well as a few small carriages they took along with them.

For better or for worse, humans had better physiques when they adjusted to this world, but even the rock salts also had better ’physiques’ and were far more difficult to mine than those in Terran.

For example, brute force might not be enough to gather them if one were below level 15. One would need to gather a bit of aether, too. It could be treated as training, in a sense.

People also didn’t want to camp for too long, especially when they were not even that far away from Alterra. Some of them would even go back to sleep and just return when the sun went up, though there were naturally some cost implications.

The mining session was just as usual for the first day. People mined, camped, trained, and chatted.

However, after a while, Bento, a materials engineer who happened to be in this batch of miners (he was one of the repeat miners, due to his profession), approached Mao.

He pulled the soldier aside, and he had a solemn expression on his face. Knowing this guy’s gregarious personality, this expression made Mao a little surprised. "What is it?"

Bento went directly to the point as soon as they got out of earshot. "Mao, the Rock Mines are dwindling."

"What?"

The rock salt mines were, at this time, their only decent source of salt! There were also a few salt mines in the desert, but those were just enough to serve the local population, so they wouldn’t be willing to sell them for a low price.

Did that mean the supply would dwindle, it would get more expensive, and their food would be less tasty?!

Mao’s stomach stumbled in dread.

"How long do we have?"

"With the current consumption, about two to three years at best," he said. "I can be wrong, and we can be lucky enough to find more underneath, but it’s not too likely to completely depend on."

Mao heaved a deep, deep sigh. "It would be great if we’re near the sea," he said.

Sadly, it was so far away that the majority of the aborigines in their region didn’t even know what a sea was!! That was really telling of how far that was.

They’d have to start exploring where the big cities were getting their salt! They definitely wouldn’t be cheap though.

Mao wanted to cry. Was this the end to his favorite comfort food: The Salted Fish Fried Rice?!

....

The rest of the team wasn’t aware of this impending "doom".

Later that night, they were just having a large celebratory barbecue amidst the beautiful crystals. They got a bit of a haul (with most in people’s spaces), and they decided to mine a bit more the next day and head back home before dark.

They had already cleared the areas of monsters, so they could really relax. The mercenaries would just make rounds in alternation.

Meanwhile, Gochi prepared his wife’s vegetable kebab using her favourite sweet sauce.

She giggled while watching her husband. "I had the oddest dream last night.

"I was eating a veggie bun, the bun opened its eyes, and talked to me," she said, her rounded eyes glistening with fondness.

Gochi looked at her with warmth and amusement. "Oh? What did it say?

Mao paused and thought, trying to remember. She shook her head in the end. "I dunno," she said. "But I found it endearing."

He smiled. "It seems like you love sweet buns so much that you’re dreaming of them so much," he said, preparing that very food for her.

The barbecue was communal, but he brought some sandwiches, and he’d just place the barbecued veggies inside.

Mao nodded, ears twitching as she stared at her flat stomach.

In any case, the group finished up their food and prepared to eat it, with Gochi handing some over to Maomao, in small servings each time. It was more convenient because the rabbit tended to nibble on her food, so she ate slowly.

It was just that today, for some reason, as Maomao took a bite, she instinctively spat it out. Mao blinked and immediately felt bad. Gochi simply handed her another small bun while studying the first one with her nibble marks.

Gochi blinked and sniffed at it, not seeing anything wrong with the food. Mao, on the other hand, felt really bad for wasting food, especially when she saw there was nothing wrong with it.

So, she decided to take a big bite—

However, as she swallowed it, her eyes widened, and she paled, as if suddenly losing blood.

Gochi’s ears twitched alertly, immediately shifting to face his wife. Before he could ask what was wrong, she covered her mouth and ran to the side, practically puking out all the contents of her stomach.