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

Sammy and the others smiled at him, and Mao patted his shoulder. "Well, since our place had the ability, we just did what we could.

"We wouldn't make any excessive sacrifices though, so count yourself blessed in your own right, too."

"Anyway, for a Town, doesn't Voumi seem a bit wasteful?" one of the mercenaries mumbled from behind.

"Regardless of level, an elementalist is an elementalist."

"It is their confidence that they could get more if they wanted, so he could be selective," Ersat explained.

In a twisted way, this made sense. For example, in Terran, a luxury car was useless—it was all for show, cannot even contain many people, and had too low of a chassis that it gets trouble when passing road humps—yet people still bought them, simply because it gave status to have the luxury to spend so much money on something impractical.

This was a parallel used for the nature of Voumi's ceramic industry before as well, so it seemed like this was their principle, whether they noticed it or not.

"Besides, in the arenas and so on, they would save us before we died—we're still merchandise after all. It is just that the resources spent on us would be lower."

"Further, if we still can't hold on our own or become invalids—as many ended up being—after a while, they will give up on us completely."

Locals, especially elementalists, have very high regeneration rates. Even after injuries, as long as the injury wasn't lethal, then they were likely to recover enough to move.

However, if not treated properly, the injuries would still pile up until it'd be too much for the body. They could become invalids and, in Xeno, gaining even a minor disability was practically a death sentence.

"We might be relegated to be part of the boom team."

"The what?"

"Basically we exist to self-destruct in wars if needed."

"..."

Self-destruct, one of an elementalist's abilities. They would use their own elements and gather everything they can in their cores, and cause a large explosion, dependent on their level and their skills.

At the same time, not every elementalist could actually do much. It was not easy to gather enough energy to create an explosive reaction.

In most cases, for 'weak' elementalists, if they tried to self-destruct, their bodies would just implode and maybe damage the people or property directly next to them.

The problem was whether they were high-leveled or not. Elements, by nature, had a strong penetration effect. So an explosion from that could really cause deep damage, even if its scale was not too high.

So far, no enemy of Alterra had been willing to make such a sacrifice, but this reminded them that enemies could have elementalist slaves now—and the chances of them being Terran were practically guaranteed.

One of the reasons they trained everyone, regardless of potential, for a while was probably because of this. The higher the level, the more damage they could inflict even in death.

It was tragic, but these people survived all that for so long and stayed sane; it was really admirable.

"No wonder you guys can carry your own weight," Sammy said, clearing his throat. "It's not bad. You'll at least be certain you'll have a stable source of living when you move to our area."

"I noticed you keep saying 'area'."

Sammy nodded. "I refer to our 'area' because it's not limited to our own place—it's practically a small region with a tight alliance to each other."

He then looked around and pointed at random areas where different groups of rescuers were, particularly those with banners. "This is actually a joint project, though other territories only had a couple of representatives."

He then indicated at a few people who were going around socializing. At first, the rescued thought they were just being friendly, but apparently they were recruiting.

"Basically, they're given a chance to recruit among you back to their own territories," he said. "They will pay us the amount we paid (plus some interest), and it would be up to you guys where you want to go.

"That old guy over there is called Esias," he said, pointing at one of the leaders under the 'Belluga Village' banner. "He's an exceptional earth user and one of the elders of Belluga Village. They specialize in Linen and cotton making."

The reason they chose this industry was that Andrei's two apprentices were there. They were in the same building as he was when the migration happened, though after that, they found themselves in different places.

Fortunately, they weren't transferred too far, so they ended up in the same region in the end.

Sadly, they arrived when Alterra had closed its doors and were unable to become citizens. Andrei went to greet them when he was informed, and they decided to create a branch of his clothing line there.

Then, Raine was quick to catch on things when she saw Andrei visiting her territory (he was quite famous now), and she secured the two apprentices by giving their business a lot of perks.

Andrei's company also established a commoner's brand and rented a building to mass produce. The land of Terrans was not lacking in skilled and literate manpower, and it would not take long before they could become another source of affordable fabric.

After Belluga, he pointed at the next banner.

"That guy is Juno from Bright Village," he said, pointing at the handsome green-haired aborigine standing in that side. "For now, their main industry is preparing monster bones for equipment."

There weren't many weapons makers, but creating the body beforehand definitely helped streamline the mass production of the items. They also made other materials from bones.

Lord Micheal had mentioned he was looking for something else to do, but they hadn't quite found the niche they wanted to invest in yet.

Sammy then pointed at yet another banner. "Those people are from Shrao, they are starting to do some sauces or at least the Base or some ingredients."

Because the allied villages were so close together, and so close to Alterra, they has come to realize that it was better for each village to specialize in a specific industry rather than to try and dip their feet everywhere like Alterra did.

So the three allied territories discussed among themselves and chose the industries they believed they would do best and focus on that. They would then trade with each other for lower costs.

"Anyway, our territory will be freeing you in the sense that you would be able to do what you wanted.

"However, to escape from the system restrictions, a minimum of 5 gold still has to be paid," he said. "Our territory already paid a large amount buying you, and you will be paying for that slowly when you're ready (if you choose Alterra). On the other hand, you'll be responsible for buying yourselves out.

"Don't worry," he said. "The past few months, plenty of slaves had freed themselves this way."

Yulia and the others' eyes were bright as they looked at each other, slowly absorbing the fact that even if they were still tagged as slaves…they were becoming 'free'.

No one felt bitter that they had to work for their freedom. That kind of entitlement had been squeezed out of them over the past couple of months.

Now… they just wanted to start earning!