After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 2100

Chapter 2100: Orc Satellites

The little deer’s name was Nuki. He was an orc but was just about the height of an average human woman, not counting his horns.

Apparently, not all orcs were huge. There were smaller ones, too, not to mention the orc was still young and underage.

His horns curved gracefully outward from his head, the upper portion spread into a crown-like arrangement of points. It was quite pretty.

"This?" The little deer asked, grabbing the item with his hoofed hands. "It is something that Rourou picked up and wants to sell."

"Rourou?"

"Hmn, my piggy friend," he said.

"I take you later." He said, his moist snout twitching. "Must sell all."

Orcs naturally had language skills, though the younger ones tended to speak in overtly simplistic terms. Still, as long as they could communicate, it was already very good.

The knowledge of a universal language had been a gift of the elves back then, in hopes of reducing conflicts brought about by language barriers.

Without further ado, the couple showed off their wealth to get a move on.

"We’ll buy everything here. Please take us there now."

...

With a number of new pieces of paraphernalia, random plants, and random seeds squeezed into their spaces, the couple followed Nuki to his good friend Rourou.

Surprisingly, the little deer led them to the gates, and they realized that the target was outside the territory. Or, more accurately, in one of those orc mini-satellites.

It wasn’t nearby, located beyond the mini-village they saw before entering. It was a dense forest on the other side of the hill.

The residences were mostly shed houses with wooden walls, but the technique wasn’t very polished. It was the kind of structure that served just as a mere cover, but could be destroyed and rebuilt as needed.

The height varied depending on the inhabitants, though the minimum ceiling height here was still much higher than the human ceiling height.

They headed in a direction with a purpose, and the several orcs they encountered along the periphery—either skinning the meat, eating the meat, or sparring—turned their heads to look at the visiting humans, which was a very, very rare sight.

Fortunately, while there was plenty of apprehension, there was no naked hostility (yet). On the contrary, the walk was rather peaceful.

As many of the orcs they encountered amicably greeted the deer with their own greeting postures, it was clear that this could be attributed to Nuki.

The little deer lived inside the territory lines, but it seemed like he had a few friends here and there. That said, since they had a direction, they didn’t pass through the main social areas and headed straight to their destination.

Rourou’s house was at one edge of the territory. It backed against a large rock, making it more sturdy than many other sheds.

There weren’t any other sheds next to it, giving ample open area around it. The space between sheds depended wholly on the orc. Some were close neighbors, while others looked isolated. Rourou’s seemed somewhere in between.

Knock, knock

"Rourou? Rourou?"

The door opened up, revealing a chonky female boar orc. "What?" she asked with a habitual snort, and she looked a little grumpy.

There was still fruit skin hanging on her tusk. It was a red fruit, likely a gouji berry, so it looked like blood, making her look especially scary.

"Asking red pellet," Nuki began. "The weird sour one."

Rourou understood what Nuki was asking and turned her head to the human couple. "Why?"

It was here that Althea walked over and spoke up. "Our children need it."

Rourou saw the honesty in her eyes, and she paused, her snout twitching by habit. In the end, she stepped out to speak with them.

The shed was too small and was never meant to host guests. In Orc culture, social activities were held outside, so they ended up sitting on the ground in front of Rourou’s house.

Althea handed her the fruit that she had bought from the deer. "Found cluster. Very rare," Rourou said with a pensive expression on her face. The pig’s eyes were quite expressive.

It was quite delicious and healthy to eat, but not that delicious that she’d go out and hunt specifically for it.

The Elysian Plant was indeed a very good thing and a high-demand one because Hoffen (and now Alterra) posted a lot of missions for it.

However, Quo Town was a level 1 town without its own Mercenary Hall yet, so people here were largely unaware of the mission. The mercenaries who passed through with that mission wouldn’t share it because there was no reason to.

"Where did you find it?" Althea asked, unfurling a paper map of the area.

These were animals that preferred living in dens.

Later, they found out that Old Roof was one of the naked mole rats there.

Like before, Althea shared some of her goods with the naked mole rat. She spoke as slowly as she could, knowing that both age and race would make communication a bit challenging.

"Do...do you know how to get to the other side?" she asked, showing her sketch of the mountain, and then drawing someone to try and go over it.

Old Roof had been too young to have been part of the first batch of orc migrants, but she hoped that he knew something from the previous generations.

He thought for a long time while munching on the Alterran fruits, obviously fond of it.

However, in the end, he also had no idea how to pass through the mountains, wistfully shaking his head.

Althea sighed. "It seems like we’re going to really have to climb it."

The mountain was nearly vertical and could reach the clouds. It’d be dangerous, but it seemed like it was the only way now.

While they did not receive clues about the mountain itself, they did hear a number of stories. He liked the fruit very much, and Althea even gave him a small bottle of wine.

The orc ended up monologuing a lot. His words were a little fragmented, but he understood the gist of it. He mentioned how, in his youth, all the orcs were simple. They just wanted to have food and not die from the cold or the heat.

It wasn’t until certain people poisoned the minds of some orcs, telling them about the human women and what they should live for. At the time, they experienced a lot of deaths due to the plague, and many orcs had decided to try.

He spoke of it as if it were relatively recent.

In retrospect, Althea realized that there was no half-orc older than 30 years old.

There were no half-orcs back then, so who started this practice?

"They were human, but not really," Roof said, munching on his raisin.

’What do you mean?"

"They have a slightly different scent," he said, then lifting his head to look at both Althea and Garan. "Similar to yours."