After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 2132

Chapter 2132: The Hollow Forest

If someone was a bit less alert, this monster could eat random things that just landed on it, thinking it was a simple hill. Who’d be able to guess that there were an endless number of teeth underneath its rocky exterior?

Garan knew that this level of monster couldn’t be easy to deal with.

SLASH!

He summoned a large metallic whip in the shape of a flexible tube. He controlled it like how Althea controlled her vines, but with less control, which was why Garan rarely used it.

Althea could control her vine well because it wasn’t conjured out of nothing. It was grown from an actual thing with its own fiber lines and strength.

In contrast, his metal was manifested from scratch, and each bit needed his control, so he naturally couldn’t make it as flexible or react as quickly as Althea’s vine.

For now, however, it’d have to do.

The momentum wrapped around the head of a monster that managed to climb up to him. He pulled himself up and, using his own momentum, kicked the level 20 monster down into the serrated mouth.

This mouth closed very quickly, and for a moment, people would wonder whether the giant mouth was just an illusion. However, it was only for a moment.

CRUNCH!

Garan watched as the level 20 monster was crushed as if it were a persimmon, splattering ’juice’ all over.

CRUNCH!

One could hear the monster inside being crushed into pieces, which easily gave rise to goosebumps.

KKKKRRRRHHH!

The giant beast didn’t seem particularly satisfied with eating the monster, targeting him specifically, even if the monster was a few times bigger than him if one looked at meat.

This was consistent with what they knew. These monsters universally yearned for the ’clean’ aether in the bodies of intelligent beings, so he would always be a target.

This was nothing new; it was just that the mob was far more troublesome than he was used to.

KRRRRHHHHKKK!

It did not help that he avoided its mouth once. He quickly realized that its mouth seemed to be able to appear anywhere!

For example, this serrated mouth, even if the body itself was still (and it wasn’t), could appear in any part of its body. Because the rocky surface was stable, it was difficult to determine where the mouth would appear next.

This made it difficult for him to make focused shots. He wondered if it had many mouths underneath this rocky shell, or could the mouth move underneath it?

But considering there was a few-second delay between each attack, he leaned more towards the latter.

ROAAARRR!

At this moment, another monster jumped over, appearing in his blind side.

His eyes sharpened. He jumped up just in time, body rotating mid-air, and he landed on top of the monster. It was another level 20 monster, but stronger than the one before.

While holding on to the beast shaking around, trying to shake him off, Garan was watching the surface of the rock giant.

Sure enough, something shifted on the ground below, and Garan immediately jumped up.

The giant monster once again opened its serrated mouth to eat the meat beast. As he jumped in the air, he took out one of the bombs from his space and dropped it into the mouth, just before it closed.

Boom!

KKKHRHRHRHHRRKK!!!

It successfully exploded inside the monster’s mouth, angering it even more. He could tell because the serrated mouth widened and the teeth looked sharper than before, before it abruptly closed again.

After Althea showed her ability before, she was respected. But when she saved so many lives, helped clear out a new temporary home, and then even grew food for them, she was treated like a goddess.

As for meat, they did not lack this. Aside from the ones they had in their spaces, they had also lured in a bit of meat from outside today, when the wind movements had begun to recover. By this time, days after the mob, many of the monsters had relaxed and slightly dispersed.

Later, they’d even find out that some were attracted elsewhere, i.e., to Garan. As the wind picked up again, they would disperse even more.

Althea used her vines to pull in a weak monster, pulling it inside the new hole before covering it up with her earth ability again.

The show of two elements, especially associated with feeding the tribe, made people revere her even more.

If there was such a thing as personal prestige, would her status spike up every day in orc territory?

Althea cleared her throat. "It should be safe to get a beast here and there, and the main cave might be okay in a few days."

The group led her near the bonfire and started respectfully cooking for her.

She had been in isolation most of the past few days, but it seemed like her prestige had only increased. They also learned to add some tomato and mushrooms in the skewers. Though the meat might be a bit charred at times and the flavor a bit bland, it was much better than what they had before.

As for the smoke, they added nets of sorts near the holes to dissipate the smoke. It wasn’t a long hole, a shaft, so the smoke dissipates even more en route to the outside.

Althea ate the skewers offered to her and silently studied the energy in the meat.

She thought how good it would be if the humans also learned to absorb meat nutrients to turn them into healing potions as the orcs did. The orcs might have specific organs, glands, or unique enzymes in their bodies that would digest the beast’s protein in such a way.

Potions were consumables that could run out at any time. Not to mention, there was such a thing as potion fatigue.

To be able to study this, she’d have to invite orcs to Alterra too. But those could just be the ones from Quo Town. She probably would trust this research to a handful of morally sound characters, lest they started experimenting on live orcs in the future.

If humans could start healing just by eating meat, the number of lives saved in the long term would be immeasurable.