Sammy looked at them with a smile. "Sorry none of us were able to greet you earlier," he said, doing the standard casual salute of Xeno.
Naturally, even before Bart's party left Iron Valley, Gill sent a letter to Alterra that their old friend Bart was coming and he was bringing another half-orc with him.
Everyone was so busy though so no one met them before now. So busy, in fact, that everyone thought someone else told Gochi of who was coming, which was one of the causes of the previous debacle.
Bart shook his own bad mood due to the news and greeted him with a smile. "So… this is your home?" He remembered when they were struggling to find a place just a few months ago. Now, they helped build such a thing. It was unbelievable.
"Yep. Nice, huh?" Sammy said with a proud smirk. "Sorry the others are unavailable; everyone's preparing for what's to come."
"Let us guide you, and let's discuss some business along the way," he said. Bart nodded.
"Well, discuss this Extreme Heat I heard about by the way."
Bart asked the others to continue going around the territory with Louie and get as much information as they could. Meanwhile, he went with Sammy along with his right-hand man, Eloi.
Sammy brought them to the new pastry shop in one of the avenues. It was a nice two-storey shop with comfortable distance seating with half-partitions. There was a counter up front with a colorful menu pasted on a surface.
The design wasn't too pink or anything though, or else Sammy would've felt weird taking two grown men taller than he was in there.
He ordered for them this time, choosing flavors for them before based on the Xeno fruit that they liked.
It was quite a popular shop and if it was after work hours or during break, there would be a queue outside.
Anyway, they settled into one of the more private corners of the shop as they waited for their orders. "So, ask away, as business partners, I will do my best to answer."
"How did you know it's coming, and how are you so certain?"
"In our world, there are people who study the laws of nature and weather," Sammy explained. "We can't 100% guarantee it will absolutely happen in the next few days, but the chances are too big to ignore."
"What are you planning to do? I mean, if you can tell us."
"We're digging a lot of underground areas to keep water as well as to build abodes there," he kindly explained. "Heat is less underground, and this is further improved by our insulating materials."
Insulating materials? They then recalled the items from the specialty store. "I saw those in the store," Eloi said. However, they didn't quite understand how it worked.
Again, Sammy explained, which was really nice of him. "They basically keep the heat in or out, so it'll be useful whichever way the weather goes."
"We also added a lot of parks—because vegetation was also known to reduce temperature— and our buildings were customized to allow natural ventilation."
"That's so interesting…" Eloi said and Bart nodded.
"It's amazing what you guys did in a place ," Bart said, just more impressed the more he saw and heard. "Not long ago, I remember this area being a no man's land."
This made Sammy look at him. "What do you mean?"
"This area used to be a barren place a few years back. I suppose your people's entry revitalized the place."
Sammy paused at this.
However, it did make sense. Within the scope of the protection period, whatever shape it was, and however big its scope was, there seemed to be no aborigine territories at all when they arrived.
Therefore, this place must've been uninhabitable before.
"It's like the direct opposite to the Grave of Villages, right?"
"Precisely," Bart said, looking at them. "I heard you stayed for a long time there."
Sammy nodded with a shrug. "Yes, we needed to gather strength quickly."
"You people are insane," Bart said, shaking his head. Although the monsters there weren't so strong, Sammy and the others had much lower levels back then. Camping there was like a death sentence for most people at the village level.
At the same time, the risk obviously paid off. In a span of a few months, they caught up with the average power level found in towns!
The trio chatted, caught up with the events of the past including where Baku was found. Sammy thought it'd be nice to find the other half-orcs, but that was a bit of an overreach so he didn't think too much of it.
He also told them about the deals they had with other territories (that were publicly available), and the Aborigines were shocked to find that even Bleulle City was in there.
"Your aether letters must've come from there, then?"
Bart could only gape at them. Nobles in towns had been trying everything to get connected to nobles from cities. Some succeeded, while most were only humiliated.
What was this now? A village directly dealing with cities! What's next? Dealing with Orcs?
Bart and Eloi's minds whirled, but they were fortunately distracted because their order had finally arrived.
"Ah, here's our dessert," Sammy said, handing them over. "This is Ice cream. It's sweet and cold—perfect for this weather."
The men looked at their cups in interest, seeing the pastel-colored rounded sweet. It was very cool, and they lifted their spoons to their mouths not knowing what to expect.
The moment the bit of the food touched their tongues though, their eyes went wide as saucers.
"It cools me down—" Bart said, taking another bite. "I'm happy."
Then they got a bit too passionate and took a large bite, making their eyes twitch as an uncomfortable sensation crept up their heads.
Sammy said, looking at the big men eating ice cream with such enlightened expressions. "Don't eat too much too quickly," he said. "You might get a bit hurt."
"It's really cold," Bart said after a while when he finally had the mind to do some analysis. "How do you do it in this heat?"
"Trade secret," Sammy said with a grin. "But I can ask if you could enter a partnership with us so you can bring the technology home."
The two shot up and extended their hands to him to show their agreement, as if Sammy would disagree. "Deal!" they said and Sammy couldn't help but chuckle.
Anyway, there were many problems they had to deal with, but for now it'd be this heat.
"More ice cream please."