"You're not instructors from the academy, are you?"
Santa Claus—no, Kale—looked at Gapar and the others thoughtfully.
"You don't look like students either… Oh well. Since you don't seem like you're planning to attack me, how about buying something?"
He sat quietly behind the counter of a roadside house, looking every bit the part of a proper merchant.
A faint rustling sound came from inside the house.
An ambushing monster?
In reality, it was only the donkey-like mount he used to carry his goods.
[It's an afterimage.]
Tursey's voice echoed directly in everyone's minds.
[Looks like he's selling things. Should we buy something?] Roger added. [But what currency would we use? I didn't bring any money.]
Merchants who were afterimages weren't unheard of in other dungeons.
However, in most dungeons, selling items was simply a trigger for the next event. The required currency varied wildly—some demanded coins, some shells, others monster materials. There was never a unified system.
Most dungeons didn't actually need to conduct business with adventurers.
[Let's buy something and see what happens next.] Tursey had already decided to treat Kale as an afterimage meant to trigger an event through trading.
"Got anything good? Let's take a look." She stepped forward and tapped the damp counter.
"Please, have a look." Kale handed her a slightly worn handwritten list. Everyone crowded around to read it.
"Tool Pouch, Fire Grease, Anti-Magic Liver Jerky, Sturdy Meat Jerky, Sweet Brewed Fruit Jerky, Smithing Stones… What do the numbers after the Smithing Stones mean?"
There were quite a lot of items listed, but upon closer inspection, most were just variations of greases and livers with different attributes. Even the fruit jerky alone took up three lines. There weren't actually that many unique products.
"What's Anti-Magic Liver Jerky?" Tursey asked.
"Food made from beast liver. After eating it, it temporarily increases resistance to magic," Kale replied honestly. "Instructors used to strictly forbid selling things like this, but there aren't so many taboos anymore."
"Why?" she pressed.
He didn't answer.
He only responded when asked about other items' effects, repeating the same descriptions each time.
Tursey exchanged a glance with the others and visibly relaxed.
Repeated dialogue.
That meant Kale really was an afterimage.
Unless an event progressed, most dungeon afterimages eventually turned into emotionless, repeating machines.
Like Solaire from the Painted World—the Wolf Knight one. He had seemed almost too intelligent, like a living person. Adventurers who entered that Painted World all mentioned it in their reports. Later visitors would deliberately strike up conversations with him, trying to determine when he would begin looping.
But so far, Solaire hadn't started repeating himself, leading people to speculate that afterimages inside the Painted World might differ from those outside.
"The currency is souls," Roger said. Each item had a soul cost listed beneath it.
The Tool Pouch was the most expensive at 5,000 souls.
The cheapest item was Roa Fruit Jerky—"a handful" for only ten souls. Clearly something meant to fill the stomachs of the poor.
Honestly, who would buy food without special effects inside a dungeon? Even if you were starving, you could simply wait for the dungeon to close and eat properly outside.
Then Roger watched Gapar buy a handful of Roa Fruit Jerky, shove it into his mouth, chew once—
—and immediately spit it out.
"Terrible taste. Can't digest it." Gapar frowned and spat repeatedly.
That jerky was meant for future mount animals like cattle or horses. Humans couldn't digest it. The real edible food was the meat jerky.
Tursey asked about every single item's effect before she felt satisfied. She found this afterimage fascinating—it behaved exactly like a real merchant, without triggering any other event.
"These are all pretty unique," she murmured.
Then she spent a staggering 5,000 souls to purchase the Tool Pouch.
According to Kale, it was a magical item capable of automatically producing combined products from inserted materials. However, if random junk was stuffed inside, the materials would degrade into useless residue, damaging the pouch and shortening its lifespan.
As a bonus, Kale gave her the recipe notes for Anti-Fire Liver Jerky, which required beast liver, Roa Fruit Jerky, and Spark Butterflies.
Tursey immediately experimented by stuffing in random materials she had gathered along the way—
—and indeed produced a pile of worthless trash.
Roger bought a few items as well. Everyone purchased Anti-Magic Liver Jerky. In a world created by mages, any method of resisting magic damage was invaluable. No one underestimated its importance.
When they finished shopping, Kale spoke again.
"My name is Kalé. I come from a nomadic tribe, traveling and trading."
"The mages of Raya Lucaria moved their land into this sealed space. I happened to be traveling here at the time and couldn't escape, so I was trapped."
Poor fellow, they all thought.
"Fortunately, I can still conduct business. With souls, I won't lose my sanity. But after this town was abandoned, I haven't had customers for a long time. Your arrival is a blessing—please take care of me in the future."
"What caused the town to be abandoned?" Tursey asked.
"I don't know. People simply started disappearing. Instructors and students stopped appearing. Perhaps something happened to the academy."
He pointed toward the distant Raya Lucaria Academy atop the cliff.
"If you're planning to explore there, go during the day. Mages are night owls—they're especially energetic at night. Just my advice… though I admit I'm saying this hoping you'll buy more of my goods."
Kale handed each of them a piece of meat jerky.
"But my true intention is that important customers survive."
Wow. This guy was surprisingly kind.
Dungeon afterimages had once been living people. A kind one earned Gapar's respect.
Still… no one dared eat that mysterious meat immediately.
Tursey tried speaking to him again.
Kale had become a repeater.
"What would you like to buy?"
"Back again? Welcome."
"Goodbye. It was a pleasure doing business."
No new dialogue.
So he really was just a merchant afterimage?
He was the first purely "merchant-type" afterimage they had encountered, and the currency was standardized. Nothing felt out of place.
That alone was valuable data.
"Let's check somewhere else," Tursey said, turning to leave.
Suddenly, Kale spoke again.
"See the huge bonfire in the town center? Light it. The flames will drive away beasts and evil beings."
"What?" Tursey turned back.
"That used to be a Site of Grace. Many couldn't see it. The mages fled here because of Grace, so they hated it and turned it into a bonfire that everyone could see."
A bonfire.
Very fitting for a dungeon like this.
They walked toward the center of town and saw a massive bonfire standing in the shallowly flooded plaza—at least ten times larger than a normal one. If ignited, it might roast anyone standing too close.
The flames were extinguished. Perhaps the lake water had doused them, or perhaps it lacked fuel.
The three mages worked together, using earth magic to raise the plaza slightly. The water drained away. The structure looked crude, but it would hold for now.
Everything would reset tomorrow anyway.
Boom!
The moment magical sparks touched the bonfire, flames roared upward. The giant spiral sword embedded within crackled loudly.
Along with the fire came a sense of safety.
Even Gapar had to admit—when he heard from Kale that there was a bonfire in the town center, he had felt an almost physical relief.
Since entering the magic classroom area, they hadn't seen a single bonfire. The deeper they explored, the more hollow he'd begun to feel.
Flames meant safety.
A place to rest without fear of ambush.
For Gapar, a bonfire meant rest.
For ordinary adventurers, it meant salvation. Seeing one was more thrilling than seeing a lover.
As the bonfire burned, the entire Academy Gate Town seemed to grow warmer. The lake's damp chill faded, replaced by comforting heat.
When Gapar noticed the ground beneath him was dry, he realized—
It wasn't his imagination.
The water of Academy Gate Town had receded.
With dry land restored, the town became livable. At the very least, it was no longer damp.
"By my estimate, it's about time for the dungeon to close," Tursey said. She had been keeping track. It was already late night in Liurnia of the Lakes outside. The sky here synchronized with the outside world.
"It's time." Gapar sat down beside the bonfire. Fire didn't frighten him—it felt natural. Comfortable.
"Today we made excellent progress and gained quite a bit."
Origin of star magic. Mage robes. Carian small crest. Exploration of the preliminary research area. Tool Pouch…
When they thought about it, they had accomplished far more than most adventurers could in ten days or even half a month.
We're incredible.
Everyone settled into their most comfortable positions around the fire.
Tursey remained dignified even while resting.
Roger lay flat on his back.
Hades, wearing his glintstone crown, stared silently at the moon—no one knew what calculations that genius mind was running.
They relaxed, waiting quietly for the dungeon to close.
For adventurers, this was a rare moment of peace.
The crackling flames were soothing. Troubles seemed distant. Nothing felt urgent.
Nothing could disturb this calm—
"Wait… it's past the closing time. Why haven't we been teleported out?!"
Roger shouted in alarm.