After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 2121

Chapter 2121: Peeking Through

The dwarves had been isolated from the outside world for a long time, but the chaos outside was really too much. They did not expect to watch such a good show though.

At first, only three dwarves were watching through rock openings hidden somewhere in the homogeneous granite surface. At some point, others saw them peeking through a hole for so long and ended up watching with them.

There were only a few holes with the right angles then, so there were even arguments on who would be able to watch the fights below.

They almost even used one of the tribe’s treasures, which was a vast-seeing crystal ball, but they were afraid of being hit by the elders, so they did not dare ask for it. Anyway, their angle could already capture much of the fight.

"He is already settled down," the dwarf said. "I can’t find him anymore..."

"I wonder if he’s alright..."

"Oh hush," another said. "It has nothing to do with us."

He said it as if he wasn’t one of the dwarves who cheered the most.

"But he got rid of that damned bird!"

The bird had indeed been a bit annoying. They were somewhat fine because their base was within the mountain, but sometimes some of them had to go out to, say, get the meat outside.

They had a tool to attract monsters near their main gate. It would not only deal with potential trespassers, but it was also their way to get meat without having to go too far away.

Usually, though, the bell would be rung on purpose and only for a few seconds to control the number of beasts attracted. If the monster was manageable (i.e. not too high in level), they would then deploy their other tools to attack it.

It required a lot of energy and mechanics, but it was enough to kill some average-level monsters that came their way. Doing it every couple of days was also enough to feed their tribe, whose meat intake wasn’t particularly high anyway.

The carcass had to be gathered manually, though, and this was where the risks lay.

Lately, that stinky bird had settled down in their area and had been a pest since then. It seemed to have realized that the bell meant there was a concentrated amount of food there—many of which were even weakened.

Sometimes it would steal their food, especially after the game was already attacked by their tools, but there were also some cases when it’d arrive when a dwarf was out and would target the dwarf instead.

While the dwarves were equipped with life saving equipment and tethers, they were all still injured after being targeted by the stinky bird. One even lost an arm, which was a death sentence for a dwarf!

Then...today happened. The bell rang for a record-long time. At first, the dwarves were annoyed and started nagging each other. "Why would you turn it on?!" "Why would you keep it on?!" "Can you change the ringtone?" echoed inside their vast cave network.

Then they found out no one had activated it. This meant that someone was trying to break through!

Everyone had their weapons out, though they thought it was probably that bird again.

Rabid Monsters usually weren’t smart, but that giant bird was, so they would not have been surprised if it were.

Unexpectedly, it wasn’t the bird at all. They were shocked to see it was two legendary humans! The younger generation had never seen one, so they were naturally curious.

Some even wanted to go out and help, but they were immediately punished by the older generation.

One even threatened to cut their precious beard if they dared step out!

Scary!!

The older generation hated humans very much, and they always told stories about them, so soon every dwarf calmed down. They just hadn’t seen a human before, so they weren’t able to truly wrap their heads around the concept before.

They saw how powerful humans were, and their skills were fascinating. Too bad they were so evil!

No, since they were so powerful, then wasn’t it all the more reason to fear them? To not associate with them at all?

Anyway, now that the guy was gone, they could only go through their day as they always did.

As such, the paths the mob took tended to be completely decimated, taking time to recover.

That said, she couldn’t help but wonder if she could introduce the sedentary life to them. The orcs on the other side managed to do so, didn’t they?

What would signal the difference between the nomadic life and sedentary life? Agriculture.

The forest was so lush. Wasn’t it a good thing? And she was a wood user, she could breed the existing fruits to make them more productive after a few generations.

They were said to be simple-minded, but this just meant they were straightforward and one didn’t have to guess any inner thoughts with them. At the same time, she could still have a decent conversation with them.

Other than these, she also learned a bit about the orcs’ behavioral patterns. As she already knew, Orcs did not group together according to appearance. They wouldn’t have ’monkey tribes,’ ’tiger tribes, ’ ’herbivores-only tribes, ’ and so on.

Some behaviors seemed in line with their appearances. Like carnivore-like orcs prefer meat and avians prefer to live higher up, and so on. It wasn’t a hundred percent accurate, and knowledge about them was a work in progress.

The orcs also moved on instinct, but not in a way many humans think. They had estrus cycles, so they didn’t make love whenever and wherever. Orc cycles were also rare, only once a year, which contributed to their low birth rates.

There was a common misconception back in the human realm. Because orcs were known to go by their instinct, and many human males equated instinct to sex, they believed that orcs should be the same.

There was also another trait associated with orcs back in the human regions—orcs were war-like.

They still were; it was just that they were against such strong monsters that their energy would almost always go to hunting, rather than the classical war of conquest between groups.

The resources on this side were generally enough, and there were not too many individuals to fight for them.

There were probably hundreds of tribes in this vast land, but the land area was massive, and each tribe might not encounter each other for many years.

Althea silently wondered how many she would encounter during her stay here.