Stratum Settlement Gatekeepers
“We’ll get to the entrance of this stratum soon. Hang in there a little longer. There’s a settlement there, so we can take it easy.”
Stratum? What’s a stratum? Like a floor? It sounds like she’s talking about the inside of a building or something, but the sky is overhead, so we can’t be indoors, can we?
I don’t really get it, but I’m glad to be somewhere with people. I want to sell a ton and get a bunch of points.
We haven’t been attacked even once since setting off on our trip, so I didn’t have to use Force Field. Monsters only watched from a distance, never rolling up to mess with us. Frog people must have a good information network.
Still, I have to say, Lammis’s incredible strength is one thing, but her endurance is nothing to scoff at, either. She’s fine even after walking for five hours while carrying me. I think she could be an excellent hunter if she goes about it the right way.
“Oh, I can see the settlement! We’re here! We made it back alive!”
Returning to this place was her hope that had been crushed once before, after her party left her behind. Then she found me, and now we’ve finally arrived. I suppose it’s not out of the question that she’d be happy enough to cry.
She’s acting like it’s natural to carry me around, but if someone other than Lammis had found me, they might have destroyed my body to get what was inside. She says she was lucky, but maybe that’s what I should be saying.
Along the trail, I see logs stacked up—a palisade that feels wonderfully homemade. It looks about six feet tall. This settlement must be fairly large.
At what appears to be the entrance are two men wearing dusty sets of leather armor, one bald and the other with a sort of crew cut. Both are built like pro wrestlers, their presence more than serving their role as lookouts.
“Oh, well if it isn’t Lammis! Alive and well, I see. Your party came back half-dead, so you had me worried!”
The bald man who seems to have a sword scar on his cheek grins in a carefree way, clearly pleased that Lammis is safe. Is he friendlier than he looks?
“Yes, I managed to survive! I’m so sorry for worrying you, Karios.”
She puts me on the ground and bows to him. She’s as polite as she is short.
The man with the crew cut standing next to him narrows his eyes, merely watching their exchange. It almost looks like he’s smiling.
“It’s great that you’re safe and all, but what is that?”
“Oh, this? I think it’s a magic item. I picked it up at the lakeside. When you put money into this kiddo, it spits out goods!”
Kiddo, huh? I mean, I’m sure Lammis is quite a bit younger than me, but if we go by when I was reborn into this world, I’m only a few days old.
“You don’t say? Maybe some magic-item developer left it there as part of a test. Or maybe it’s treasure. I’ve never heard of anything like that on the Clearflow Lake stratum. It’s been five years since we became gatekeepers here… Right, Gorth?”
“Yeah.”
So the skinhead is Karios, and the silent, crew-cut one is Gorth. Looks like Karios is in charge of all the talking. The other one’s barely said a word.
“Is it an invention? Should I have left it there?”
“No, it’s just a theory. ’Sides, everyone in the dungeon knows that if you find something lying around a stratum, it’s yours.”
Dungeon? Wait, they’ve been talking about strata, too. Is this just one stratum of many inside a dungeon…? But there’s a sky. It definitely doesn’t look like we’re underground. What’s going on with this world?
“Anyway, you pay money to buy something? Can we buy something, too?”
“Yes, I think so. Can they?” asks Lammis, turning around to me.
I already have an answer.
“Welcome.”
“Whoa, whoa! Whose voice was that just now?!”
Karios cries out as he jumps back, glancing around. Gorth is staring suspiciously at me. Does he know I was the one who spoke?
“Ah-ha-ha-ha. It’s okay, Karios. This right here is who answered you. Right?”
“Welcome.”
“F-for real? I’ve never heard of a magic item that can talk. Couldn’t you sell that for a lot of money?”
“I-it’s not for sale! This box is going with me to see Hulemy.” Lammis stands in front of me and spreads her arms like she’s protecting me.
Oh, what a good kid. I may need points, but I’m sorry for taking your money away.
“Hulemy’s that crazy magic-item-engineer lady, right? I think she was in the settlement for a while once. She’s sharp as a tack, so maybe that’s a good idea.”
Well, that explanation just makes me feel uneasy. She’s crazy, but she’s also an engineer? That doesn’t bode well. Now I’m not entirely sure I still want to meet her.
“I know! Do you want to buy something?”
“Sure, I’ll try anything. Your recommendations must be safe. If it’s one thousand, that’s one silver? Expensive, but… What does it sell anyway?”
“Um, this is delicious water. And this is sweet, like tea, I think with milk in it. Both are super-cold. The lower row is warm, gooey soup. The red tube is food. It was kind of like fried putetu.”
“So it has both warm things and cool things? I’ll take the soup and the fried stuff. What about you, Gorth?”
“I’ll have sweet tea.”
“Insert coins.”
Both of them twitch in surprise, but at Lammis’s urging, they put their silver coins into the slot.
When I finish dispensing their orders, I make sure to thank them, and say, “Please come again.”
They both got bottle cans, so they opened them easily, but they might not have been able to if those were pull tabs. I should stay away from those kinds of products for a while.
“This soup is real warm.”
“And this is ice-cold.”
Both of them take a gulp at the same time before downing everything all at once. A moment later, their eyes snap wide open.
“What is this?! Hold on a second, this is seriously amazing!”
“Hmm. This is quite good.”
“What about these fried things…? Ohhh, god, these have a simple taste, but I just can’t stop!”
“Give me a few.”
Lammis watches as they devour the pressed potato chips, a happy grin on her face. I’d probably be making the same expression if I could.
Karios wasn’t willing to share, so Gorth bought another tube of chips. Then, seeing how much his partner enjoyed drinking up the milk tea, Karios takes an interest in it as well. One milk tea, coming right up!
They take quite a liking to their purchases, and they buy at least one of everything I have. It seems like Karios’s favorite is the corn soup, and Gorth’s the milk tea.
The sales totaled nine thousand, or nine silver coins. I’ll get ninety points from that. Thank you, my dear customers.
“Man, this is really something. Whoever made that thing’s got tip-top taste, and being able to drink both warm and cool stuff is amazing. Fancy leaving it here? We can’t go anywhere while we’re on lookout duty. It would be real nice if we could have this.”
“Yes.”
Ah, I see. If she sets me up here, they’ll probably buy things on a regular basis. They’ll trade off lookout duties, too, and if the others buy things as well, it might mean steady sales.
“Hmm… Should I? I don’t want to leave this box…”
“Well, then bring it around every now and then. We promise we’ll buy something when you do. And I’ll tell the others, too.”
“It must be difficult to carry like that,” says Gorth. “Why not buy shoulder straps?”
Now that’s a nice idea. I don’t hate being carried like I’m being hugged, but it’ll probably be easier for Lammis to carry me around if I’m strapped to her back.
“Oh, maybe! Are you okay with that?”
“Welcome.”
“You are? Okay, I’ll bring this box around every once in a while!”
“Great, thanks. Now we’ve got something to look forward to while standing watch.”
“Thanks.”
With this, it looks like I can reasonably expect future sales. Points are my everything, after all. I want to stock some new products and add more functions, too.
To start with, collecting points is my top priority.
“Let’s head to the inn for now. Whatever we do, money comes first…”
Yeah, sorry about that. I put you through a lot of expenses. If I have the leeway, I should give Lammis part of my sales. Can’t I do anything along those lines? I’ll look into it when I have time.
Large tents dot the inside of the settlement. Not the kind of tents you take with you on a day off to go camping, but sturdy, circular ones, the sort nomadic tribes might live in.
Each camp seems to be a shop or a home, and everyone standing at their entrances as we pass by gives us curious stares. I suppose a small girl carrying a boxy hunk of metal would look strange to anyone.
The ground is flat and level. I can’t quite call it paved, but it’s probably easier for Lammis to walk around here than in the wilds.
“Over there is the inn I stay at.”
It’s a two-story wooden building, unusual for the area.
