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

Well, one day, he hoped to become more useful. He just really, really, liked it here so he naturally hoped it would continue to prosper.

Someday, he'd convince his family to move with him, too. Ester really couldn't compare, though his constant praise of Alterra just made them suspicious of him.

At the same time, he couldn't entirely blame them either. Although Ester Town had lost its heir, it was still going strong. The Lord there was not that old, and he had a strong partnership with powerful territories, including some families in Bleulle City.

The next heir was still a baby, Eshno's post-mortem son, but the current Lord could easily wait another decade or two for him.

However, Ester Town's plant culture was really limited. For generations, the leadership there only focused on its industry plant, the Rio plant, which was similar to the plant Alterrans used to make linen and some paper.

At the time, he didn't really question it, thinking it was the practical choice, but after going to Alterra, he found out that it wasn't a good practice in the long term, and it would affect the health of the land.

The changes were slow, especially since they used System farms, so no one noticed it yet, but it was definitely happening. In time, perhaps Ester's main resource would dwindle as well.

Other than this, he also learned so many things about growing plants despite thinking he was an expert for the longest time. He attended professional classes in school. Even if he had been handling plants his whole life, he realized he only knew so little.

He was learning about flora and life in general, so even if the plant was unfamiliar, and even if his assessment skills could only give the basics about a plant, he could determine more uses for it on his own now. He was a bit less dependent on his inherited skills, and a lot more dependent on the things he was learning on his own.

His favourite subject was plant propagation. He learned things like cuttings (for shrubs), divisions (for perennials, grasses, bulbs like irises and lilies), layering (for climbers and shrubs), grafting, and the like.

And because of his inherited skills and his element, he could also determine which combinations were good, so he could build upon those.

In time, perhaps he could create plants that had never been seen before in Xeno! How exciting would that be?

Of course, that was something in the distant future. For now, his—and Miss Althea's—goal was to know, learn, and grow all types of plants, regardless of whether they were endemic to the area.

Through the technology in Alterra, they now had a very, very good rate of growing unknown plants. Compared to how they were before the greenhouse, the success rates had increased by more than 50%!

Some of the latest 'odd' ones they finally grew were the Prismatic moss and the Cushion Ferns, both of which were in the underground plant houses.

The System farm worked above and underneath the soil. If one were to liken its area of effect to a solid, then it'd be a cylinder.

To maximize this, Alterra made sure to build well vertically, whether above ground or underneath it, provided the plant assigned to the farm did not require deep roots.

More and more vertical farms had been erected at this time. They had tested a few farms some months back, and they had proven to truly increase the productivity of each farm.

Miss Althea had worried the farm's power would be divided/spread out, but fortunately, it didn't develop that way.

This was another magical thing that Thorance learned here. Who'd have thought that plants could even be planted like that?

That said, even before the advent of the vertical farms, Alterra already had so much surplus that they could sell a lot to other territories.

When vertical farms became a common sight, how much would they have? Maybe they would export as much food as they consumed!

On the other hand, the underground farms were also developed with the help of their many goblins, and one would be surprised at the scale their underground tunnel was planned to be.

Basically, after months of work, at least a quarter of the farms had an underground equivalent.

Of course, they made sure the entrances were only within the farm system to prevent anyone from using it to sneak around. There were also designated goblins to check all underground constructions for security reasons, and a team in the Research Center was developing an alarm system too.

That said, tunnel guards were officially one of the new career options for the little green ones.

The Prismatic Moss was something that illuminated on its own, charging itself with biological processes rather than from the sun. The others would call it 'glow in the dark' plant, which was actually quite apt.

The plan was to get them to survive above ground and multiply enough so they could line the roads, for the sake of wayfinding. Thorance and the others were also hoping to create a variety that would stay strong even if the beast mobs passed above them.

In the first phase, if it succeeded, this glow-in-the-dark line would first appear, probably a few hundred meters from the signage, or at least from the camping area. Even so, it was already very, very good.

And it was really very kind. They didn't care if enemies would be attracted as well, all that mattered was that it could help people.

Another one was the Cushion Ferns, which could make for great bedding. In the comfort of Alterra, this sucked, but when placed in strategic positions like the camping grounds, it could provide a decent sleeping area for those who needed it.

These would also sell great for other territories that didn't have cotton or enough gugu bird feathers to use in their pillows.

These were two of the successful projects in their field, and the plants to experiment on just kept growing. Thorance wasn't complaining, of course. He actually found it quite fun and fulfilling.

That said, the reason why they'd never run out of projects was that other territories would always send them a plant if they thought Alterra didn't have it yet.

For example, many of the associate villages had sent some already, and some were quite fruitful.

For example, Esias from Belluga and his people came from the North and Northeast had few interesting plants.

They found a lily-like plant that grew in the northern portion of the river. According to the research so far, it seemed to have a lot of medicinal uses, and now they were attempting to propagate it in a greenhouse lake (they added artificial water features in some greenhouses).

Anyway, Thorance could see Alterra becoming the center of Plant Studies, where territories from all over the world would send unknown plants for them to learn more about.

He wouldn't be surprised if, someday, someone from tens of thousands of kilometers away would head to Alterra, just to get their items appraised properly.

Thorance smiled.

Alterra seemed to be so effortlessly taking root in all aspects of this world, whether it was in food, clothing, technology, governance, and the like. What was so surprising about plants?