Show Me Your Stats!

Merchant Ronya stared at the map with a skeptical expression.

Not long ago, he had received an inconvenient visitor—a young man, suspiciously cloaked in a robe, who’d come asking him to trade fabric and food with Solar. Even offered extra pay. Ronya had flatly refused. Crossing those rugged mountains in winter was practically suicide. And even in summer, that damn mountain range was never easy to pass.

Lately, the rumors about Solar among merchants hadn’t been good. There were stories of increased earthquakes, or that a merchant caravan had been buried alive in an avalanche. Since Morunka-nim’s resting place lay there, it was only natural the terrain would be unusually treacherous. And just recently, hadn’t Bolni’s army pushed right up to Solar’s doorstep?

Yet that young man, whom Ronya thought had given up and gone back, returned to visit him once more. Looking worn out and pale—likely from hardship—the youth didn’t try to ask him to sell goods again. Instead, he smiled brightly and spoke some nonsense.

“I recently found a route from Solar to Bolni that only takes a day or two. Would you be interested in coming to see it?”

“What? A route to Solar that only takes a day or two?”

Truthfully, the distance between Solar and Bolni wasn’t all that far. But thanks to the mountains forcing one to wind and twist through detours, it took about a week. A path across the mountains in just a day or two? It sounded like some scammer’s pitch.

As Ronya blinked at him in disbelief, the youth handed over a simple map—clearly hand-drawn.

“I came across it by chance. It’s not a scam. If you’re worried, you can bring along as many servants or mercenaries as you like. In fact, the more guards the better. Just come to the spot marked on the map by tomorrow.”

And with that, the youth cheerfully exited the shop. Ronya spent the rest of the day frowning, glaring at the map.

The next day, curiosity finally got the better of him, and he left the shop. With trusted mercenaries bound to his merchant group by lifelong contract, he headed to the marked location. He had nothing to lose. If there truly was a direct route to Solar...

“That would mean more paying customers.”

With that hope, he arrived at the foot of the mountains, flanked by a heavy escort. One of the mercenaries kept peering at the map, then suddenly groaned as if something had just dawned on him.

“Master Ronya. If we keep going this way, we’ll end up there, won’t we?”

“There?”

“The Silent Cave, sir.”

“Wait, now that you mention it...”

The Silent Cave was infamous among locals in the area. Anyone raised in Bolni had, as a child, once heard the warning: if you misbehave, the monster from the cave will come for you. The cave itself was truly filled with grotesque ma-beasts. Even before Ronya was born, several extermination attempts had failed. Since the area around the cave was safe as long as you didn’t approach, Bolni had given up on it long ago.

‘So it really was a scam!’

But now that he’d come this far, he figured he might as well give that swindler a piece of his mind. With that thought, Ronya finally reached the spot marked on the map—and widened his eyes in shock. He’d wondered why he was hearing so much murmuring, and now he saw a crowd of people gathered near the Silent Cave. Looking closer with caution, he saw that they were all merchants and their hired mercenaries. There must’ve been dozens of mercenaries alone.

“You arrived just in time. I was about to give an explanation and head into the cave.”

As Ronya struggled to process the scale of this scam, someone called out to him with a cheerful smile. Snow-white skin, bright silver hair, bluish-gray eyes—just looking at them, anyone could tell this person was from Solar. Ronya finally realized that this was the same young man who’d visited his shop. Before he could say anything, the youth casually walked past him.

“How much longer are we supposed to wait? Is the cave really safe now?”

Someone shouted in frustration, unable to hold back. Other voices of discontent rose in agreement, growing louder. Ronya pushed through the crowd and craned his neck toward the Silent Cave. He’d heard it was teeming with ma-beasts, but to his eyes it was just a perfectly round cave, smooth as if carved by human hands. Not a single bat in sight.

In response to the question, the youth boldly strode forward—dangerously close to the cave’s entrance. Mercenaries who had actually seen the horrors of the Silent Cave flinched and instinctively stepped back. But nothing happened.

“Hello. I’m Hess from Solar. Do you remember me?”

Under the sunlight, the young man—Hess—had a soft glow to his features. He was handsome enough that women likely threw themselves at him. His polished face and voice—wasn’t that proof he was a scammer? Ronya eyed Hess up and down suspiciously.

“You merchants kept saying the mountains were too treacherous to cross, so I searched for a route myself. And here it is.”

With a flourish, he gestured toward the cave. But the only response was cold silence. Shrugging, Hess calmly walked into the dark cave. His footsteps echoed as he walked further and further in until the sound faded away—then he returned just as calmly. Not a scratch on him. Perfectly clean. Then, raising his hand again with another flourish, he shouted:

“A clean, safe, and comfortable path cleared of all ma-beasts!”

This time, a ripple of reaction stirred through the crowd. Those unfamiliar with the cave tilted their heads in confusion, while those who were familiar looked back and forth between the cave and Hess, their expressions flickering between doubt and astonishment. This time, it was Ronya—slightly excited now—who raised his voice in challenge.

“What? You're telling me the beasts in the cave are really gone? Since when?”

“Since two days ago. There were quite a few dangerous ones, so I cleaned them out.”

Her tone was as casual as if she’d simply swept the path clean while passing by.

“You? With what means?”

“Magic.”

Hess responded instantly, as if she'd been waiting for that question, and with a snap of her fingers, several dazzling lights floated gently into the air above their heads. Most of the crowd merely gasped in admiration, but a few mercenaries with magical training stared wide-eyed at Hess and the orbs. They had realized that this wasn’t just some ordinary light spell.

Even after confirming that she was a mage, Ronya still couldn't quite bring himself to believe it. Were all the mages who’d failed to clear this cave before just complete idiots, then? As the still-skeptical merchants prepared to barrage her with questions, Hess spun around.

“I’ll lead the way. Just invest a single day of your time, and you’ll see for yourself whether this path truly leads to Solar. Anyone who wants to follow—this way, please.”

Without giving them even a chance to speak, she began to walk slowly into the cave.

The merchants exchanged glances. One brave merchant quickly followed the mage, and that was enough for the others to cautiously trail after him. No one was alone, and everyone had come with hired mercenaries for protection. The sheer number gave them courage.

The cave was wide and tall enough to easily allow large groups to pass through at once. The floor and walls were smooth, as if sanded down deliberately. Fine, round pebbles rolled across the soft dirt—perhaps laid there to prevent slipping. Ronya instinctively began making calculations in his head.

‘When crossing the mountains, you never know when beasts, ma-beasts, or bandits might attack. But in a cave, at least you don’t have to worry about surprise ambushes. This is wide enough for multiple wagons and horses to pass through. The slope’s barely there—it’s almost like walking on flat ground.’

It was even so much warmer than outside that they had to take off their outerwear.

Looking around, Ronya could tell from the faces of the other merchants that they were all making the same mental calculations. This wasn’t like trekking over a mountain range—this, they could work with. Supplying Solar with food and fabric through this route would be entirely feasible. He recalled the premium Hess had offered earlier. Selling to Solar would be far more profitable than trading in Sobletz # Nоvеlight # or Bolni.

‘With a route this well-maintained, maybe it’s worth signing a long-term contract with Solar.’

And after all, wasn’t Solar the place where Morunka-nim had laid down her body? Devout believers still packed their belongings and risked their lives to pilgrimage there. If an easier route allowed even common pilgrims—who never would’ve dared cross the mountains before—to visit Solar?

A path people could travel meant money. Ronya was already working his brain in overdrive, listening carefully in case Hess dropped any more useful details.

“Isn’t it beautiful? This cave was formed over the course of at least three thousand years, as hundreds of thousands of ma-beasts melted through the rock at one secron per unit. I’ve seen melting ma-beasts create holes here and there before, but this... this is a masterpiece. Formations like this are incredibly rare. A perfect set of conditions maintained a mildly acidic environment for over three millennia. I was heartbroken sweeping the ma-beasts out of here, truly. The cave doesn’t go straight since it follows magnetic fields, which is a shame—but even so, it’s remarkable. I’ve never seen the spiral-ripple pattern unique to the Zitoregit subspecies so clearly before. And in the sediment along the floor, you can observe Heorope waveforms reaching nearly 20 ipcrons in unit length...”

She spoke all this with a perfectly calm expression, like some lunatic rattling off nonsense—and Ronya couldn’t understand a word of it. Still, he nodded along like it all made perfect sense.

After walking all day, they finally reached the end of the cave. Unlike the rest of the path, which had been smooth the entire way, the end was a bit rough and uneven—as though someone had forcibly broken through it. A few merchants stumbled and fell with surprised cries, and Hess, stumbling with them, gave an awkward smile.

“Another fifty years and it would’ve opened up on its own. It was a lot of work. I nearly got eaten by the Yoongyoongies—that’s what I call the ma-beasts—because I was running low on mana trying to break through.”

Yoongyoongies? Was that the name of a ma-beast? Ronya cocked his head at the odd term, but then—finally—the sunlight broke through.

Standing at the cave’s mouth, Hess spread her arms wide and called out:

“Everyone... welcome to Solar!”