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

The Hollow Forest was quite an enigmatic existence, even for the locals.

In terms of appearance, she thought that the relatively large trees she had seen after crossing over to this side already looked ancient, but then she saw the hollow forest, and she realized what primeval really looked like.

She found herself wondering why the plants here were so different from other places.

One of the reasons why prehistoric plants in Terran were so large was because there was a much higher oxygen level back then. Perhaps because the population in this area was so low, there was ample oxygen?

A trunk would probably need several people embracing it, and the smallest leaf size was at least as large as a man’s palm. Because it was a bit dim due to the density of the canopies, it looked extra eerie.

It was noon, but the light under this forest looked like it was dawn.

The sound was relatively quiet. Though most birds and bugs were generally not obvious anywhere, pretty much existing in their own domain, one could still feel their presence in an intuitive way.

In the Hollow Forest, it didn’t feel like there were bugs or birds around at all. As for the sounds, it was mostly the sound of rustling leaves, combined with some distant roars and growls.

It wasn’t that there were no monsters inside the forest and that there were no monsters approaching it. This was only limited to the big, stronger monsters that developed sharper senses than others.

The rest would still venture in if they ended up on this path, and many would even rush over if they smelled prey inside. But still, even with this knowledge, the sound the monsters made felt like it went through some sort of weird amplifier, creating the kind of reverberating sound that was creepy as heck.

She then looked at the large path likely created by a giant beast. It was recent because of the damage. Interestingly, many of the big trees had trunks bent outwards, but much of the fiber remained.

It might grow oddly as it recovers, or they might straighten up on their own. Anyway, this showed the resilience of the trees here.

She decided to follow the path created by the monster, using [Woodland Camouflage] whenever she could. This was a forest with very, very rich wood energy, which oddly felt comfortable once she started taking advantage of it.

The eerie and the comfortable mixed together created a perplexing sensation. It was like putting on sticky lotion used to massage the body. The stickiness was uncomfortable, but the massage felt good.

Speaking of wood energy...

Althea found her feet stopping midway just as she was about to reactivate the [Woodland Camouflage].

It seemed like...not just the quantity, but the quality of the wood element here in the Hollow Forest was actually different.

She ought to find a chance to meditate in this area soon. She had a feeling it would be very productive.

She lifted her arms and watched as the wood elements congregated around her arm, a natural reaction around wood elementalists.

"How peculiar..." she said, remembering what it was like outside the hollow forest. For a moment, she mused if it could’ve anything to do with their goal, and if they could use the energy to detect it. Sadly, the better quality wood elements here were integral to everything and therefore could not be isolated or made into clues.

Unexpectedly, it was here that she found the Elysean fruit, a.k.a. the mission plant required to make the Limb Regenerating Potion.

She came across it while her camouflage skill was activated, giving her the chance to study the surroundings well. It was really well-hidden, and it was no wonder people would not see it even if they encountered it.

It preferred to crawl under existing shrubs, making it look like part of a random root system somewhere.

The plant itself, once you get a better view, looked like a flowering vine that preferred to crawl on the ground. Since she was already there and it was difficult to find this, she decided to take what she could.

But it was as slippery as an eel, as if moving by reflex. It was like the touch-me-not plant that would fold whenever they were touched, except this one would curl on itself and dig deeper underground.

It could also sense vibrations on the surrounding ground, so when she tried to use her earth element to trap it, it would be able to react fast enough so it wouldn’t be trapped.

Very troublesome.

To be honest, if she had the time, she’d have been fascinated, and she would’ve found that chance to play around with it, testing the limits of its movements and perception. However, she had a lot of tasks on hand, so this would have to be put on the back burner for now.

She focused on figuring out its main pattern to capture it as soon as possible. Definitely before the camouflage expired.

Speaking of which, the fact that it could avoid her while her camouflage was on was proof that it reacted to movement rather than anything else.

So she had to take advantage of that.

She used some rocks and other things to confuse it. Soon, she figured out its pattern and designed the traps accordingly.

It so happened that she had a lot of loose stones in her space (especially from the digging session with the Feyun tribe), so she could throw something down vertically and the plant would be unable to sense it.

She grabbed the entire vine and what looked like four or five fruits and placed it in her space before it could react.

In her mind’s eye, she saw the vine with its roots squiggling around her garden area. She was afraid it’d damage her current plants, so she created a little cage inside the space, but she made sure it had soil to bury in.

Only the space directly merged with her original space evolved into a plantable one, but fortunately, finding the space stones helped her increase its size a lot; otherwise she wouldn’t have dared carelessly place a new, possibly rogue, plant inside.

She had managed to get 29 stones in total from that deposit, 5 of which were larger ones. She merged 2 large ones and 3 small ones into her personal space, keeping the rest to make accessories for others and maybe keep one or two for herself.

Her husband and her children would definitely get a few extra.

Now, her personal space was as big as three or four basketball courts, which was spacious enough in her opinion. This did not include the external spaces that she did not merge.

After they finished their goals, she would place many plants into her planting space to take home and study further. She had found herself a bit deeper into the forest, and her camouflage ended at the same time.

She realized she was a bit careless. Normally, her husband would be there to guard her, but he wasn’t with her right now.

Had she been just a bit unlucky, she would’ve been eaten before she could realize she was bitten.

She mentally berated herself and went to find the wide path, which had soon become an irregular zigzag shape, meaning the monster had struggled a bit when it moved.

Hopefully, at the end of it, it was already dead, and her husband was there, safe and sound.

Anyway, with the camouflage skill down, it felt like she was especially exposed, so she avoided the path of the monster to find a safe place to hide in while the skill recovered.

Rustle

Her feet paused for a second before her steps became faster and more urgent.

Rustle

Her heart dropped, feeling anxious. It wasn’t that she was afraid of many things, but the unknown always felt eerie.

Rustle

She actively tried to avoid the source of the sound, but it was difficult to pinpoint because of the forest’s internal reverberation.

Rustle

It sounded like a snake, and it made her wonder if there was a snake-like beast coming to her. She was mentally preparing herself for a fight with a slithering monster, but the fact that she could not readily detect its presence made her feel a little nervous.

Rustle

Other than a snake, it sounded a bit similar to when her vines moved across bushes.

Rustle

"AH!"

She blinked when she heard a gasp and a yell. More than one, too. Without thinking, she rushed over towards where she thought the rustling was coming from.

Fortunately or unfortunately, she ended up in the right direction.

There, she saw a thick vine wrapped around a tree and strangling two young orcs! Their whole bodies were wrapped and being squeezed against a tree, thoroughly struggling to move.

This vine seemed alive, even more so than the vines Althea controlled.

It made her feel rather befuddled.

What in the world is she looking at right now...

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