The ti limit until the event started was running out, in just a couple of hours from now, we would have to face the Traveling rchant's invasion.
We made good progress during the limited ti we had, compared to the last event, we were much stronger, but... I was predicting we would face a monstrous adversary this ti around.
I still rember how [Gacha Kingdom Building] started acting strangely when the rchant's event ca up, almost as if a software glitch was happening.
Not only that, the guy forcefully initiated the event, sothing no one in the war against the Snow White Wolves Tribe was capable of.
Maybe he was just lucky, but with the little information I've got, everything seems to point at him being the most powerful creature I've seen until now, be it allies like lissa or even an enemy like Normyu who was said to possess multiple Gifts, neither of them triggered an effect like that on my Gift...
Miwen: "... Don't overexert yourselves, if it seems like it's not doable, even for a mont-"
Licia: "Hnm... we already made the request to leave the kingdom, so don't worry."
I must've repeated this a million tis by now, not only to convince the girls but also myself...
As things stand, the kingdom isn't that necessary. It would be a bit troubleso to lose it since it's where the majority of my [Citizens] are living, but that's all the use it has right now. It's not life-threatening or anything.
It would be troubleso, but the most important thing is our survival.
Well, as long as we don't bet our lives, that would be the worst outco. On the flip side, the best scenario would be one where we can just trade sothing with the guy and have him leave.
Sure, we might lose one day's worth of gacha tickets, but that's completely fine by .
With this intent in mind, I've saved up today's tickets. If we have a chance of winning, I plan on using these straight away, and if the rchant is willing to trade, I can also use them.
So for now, the best use is to keep them for myself...
I can also use [Kingdom Points] to get so useful things too, so I've been saving them up these past few days. I've only spent a few today to acquire Beatrice's [Wind Magic] and [Earth Magic] levels, and also share [Wind Magic] with Ellie, alongside my own [Fire Magic].
From what she said, she often used [Wind Magic] to control her arrows or to add penetration power to them, allowing her to input other effects in her shots.
As for fire magic, it's what you expect from an archer it seems, though it's really basic, the ability to set an enemy afla over a large distance is certainly useful.
This, alongside a few ideas and discussion about what we could do, ended up being the last preparations we did, and now, all of us stood on the walls I had recently created to protect the kingdom.
Miwen: "I'll be accepting the event now, get ready, everyone."
[Invasion! The Travelling rchant Arrives
For an Invasion to begin, a free plot will be added to the Kingdom from which the invaders can co from. Please, select a new plot of land to be added.
Please note that an invasion event provides greater rewards if success is achieved.]
Alright, a bunch of things you could've told earlier, as usual...
I guess receiving better rewards is an incentive to fight for the kingdom instead of letting it fall... I'm guessing it must be pretty good if I'm expected to put my life on the line for it.
I won't concern myself with it though, first of all, I'll select an area in the sa direction I did before, turning the kingdom into a 1x3 corridor.
Claire: "The forest expanded... isn't it bad?"
For soone like you who enjoys destroying nature, maybe, but...
Miwen: "When it was just a small patch, it was problematic since it would give him cover, but now that it completely engulfs the new plot, I'm hoping he gets lost and either goes towards the fog or gives up and leaves the kingdom."
Licia: "That strange fog is surrounding the forest on three sides, with no landmarks or signs of another person's presence, he might not be able to find the way out and even believe he's surrounded in all directions by the fog... that's... pretty good..."
Even if he ends up out of the forest, he might only do so after getting tired of aimlessly going around, and if he decides to burn down the whole forest like a certain soone, we'd at least get the advantage of him spending his mana...
??????: "Ehh... to be honest, the ti prison was a way better idea. It's the first ti soone managed to delay like this... I feel very annoyed right now."
Between Licia and I, a distinct voice that I had never heard before pierced my ears.
Standing at my right side, a man with long silver hair, a white suit, and a gentle smile, the personification of an elegant and well-mannered man... he was leaking enough bloodlust through his eyes that a large sense of false symtry was created as if we were looking at sothing that would never be comprehensible to humans.
Even I, who've lived my life in peace could recognize it, that thing had seen so much blood and death, that one or two more wouldn't even cause him to change that fake smile he carried. Just being targeted by his gaze feel like I'd throw up.
rchant: "So, how many of you do I need to kill before I et the one responsible for this?"
It was hard to even let out my voice in his presence, still...
Miwen: "If you are talking about this land... That... would be ..."
rchant: "...No. You're not. I sense no demonic power or divinity coming from you... and I don't suppose you're one of the Endless either. Although... looking at your Gift, it might be the closest to one I've seen...
seems like I can make sothing out of the ti wasted in there..."
Aside from divinity, I can't recall ever hearing about the other things. But it didn't matter, as what he said after, took precedence over everything.
rchant: "...Alright! I've decided. I'll kill everyone here except for you. And then, you'll bring to-"
No. You're not.
Miwen: "Claire!"
While the first ti might've been a threat, the mont he raised his hands, it was ti for us to act.
He might've caught us off-guard, but in the little ti I've bought with our conversation, everyone managed to put so distance, allowing to make use of the kingdom points and spawn a big house on his exact location. It had three floors and should be around 3 or 4 tis the size of the house the girls were living in.
The way he moved from the forest all the way to the wall in the blink of an eye, I could co to two conclusions.
Either it was through sheer speed that he managed to search the entire forest and find an exit in seconds, or... he was capable of teleportation.
After trapping him inside the house, I used so more points to move it into the air, where Claire promptly burned in seconds.
I also spawned a few more rouses around in every direction aside from the one the flathrower girl was using.
Using the kingdom points, I kept moving them, making it so that they were locked in place instead of falling to the ground.
And just to be sure there would be an escape, I kept changing the house's design, effectively turning it into a labyrinth, and of course, I made sure to remove all windows and doors.
If he only had speed, being so far up in the air, inside a house burning up... either he'd die by the flas, or he would suffocate in there due to the smoke.
Anyway, I don't see him surviving for long with Claire's full-power fire magic being constantly thrown at him.
If he had teleportation, there was a chance he could only teleport to places he could see, in which case, using the other houses to block escape from any direction would end up bringing about the sa result.
The biggest problem would be if...
rchant: "...You're certainly surprising. I didn't see any skill for manipulating gravity in your status. Then again, I stopped reading about your Gift when a [Chairs Banner] ca up. I'm supposing those houses ca from sothing like that?"
He ca back to the exact sa place he was before.
This ans he's probably capable of teleporting back to places he's been once before too, or at least sothing that brings about the sa effects.
There's gotta be a weakness or limit to it though. Normyu's Gift was also pretty overpowered but had limitations placed on it when it ca to both power and quantity. As for my own Gift, the limitation cos in the form of forced randomness...
Miwen: "We're going with the ice arena, go down, everyone."
The mont I said that everyone jumped down from their positions in the wall towards the ground.
The ice users amongst us made ice slides, while Claire used her fire to propel herself.
Beatrice grabbed Anna in a princess carry and they both safely landed on the ground thanks to her wind magic.
As for Ellie, she did sothing similar but also kept firing arrows at the rchant while free-falling. It was a bit eerie how she didn't even look at the ground for a second and just kept her attention towards the rchant.
Thanks to that though, she seems to have managed to predict his next position as he teleported everywhere, and an arrow way faster than the others reached his position the mont he teleported there.
It was no use though since he simply grabbed and broke it before it reached him.
At least this confird that it's not only his teleportation that was troubleso, but his physical abilities also seed pretty high.
As soon as everyone landed, Mia, Licia, and I began to make the arena as fast as we could while scattering in every direction.
rchant: "Hm... and what's that supposed to do?"
The ground was frozen solid, and we erected a bunch of ice pillars, effectively turning the whole place inside the walls into a mirror house.
rchant: "Oh? You're coming at ? Ha! I'll at least recognize your bravery."
Given how much Mia and Licia were proficient with ice magic, these ice pillars ended up being as reflective as actual mirrors.
By using this trickery, we were able to create a bunch of visual illusions of people chasing after him, prompting the rchant to waste his mana attacking each and every single target.
Having him waste mana was a decent strategy since we had three different mana pools working together, but it wasn't only that.
Thanks to Ellie's wind magic allowing her to change her arrow's trajectory and the reflections of the ice pillars, she had suddenly beco the most annoying archer in the world.
Arrows you thought were misfired would correct their trajectory towards you, so wouldn't be real, while others would appear to have been multiplied, making it hard to know where they ca from and which one was real.
The bullet hell she created wasn't the only problem for him though. The images continued to run towards him even though not one of us tried to directly attack him.
In ti, he noticed this pattern and stopped trying to destroy them, focusing on doing and destroying Ellie's arrows.
With that, we managed to trade his mana and energy for Ellie's unlimited supply of arrows.
If we kept at it for long enough, we should be able to win, and to make things even harder for him, we decided to send in a real attack this ti.
Using the fake images of the mirrors he had stopped attacking, I got close enough to stab him.
But the mont I did, I realized how much of a mistake I had committed.
rchant: "I can still hear you, you know?"
...That wasn't a warning ant for .
He didn't even have to pay attention to what I was doing, and actually let myself get close to him on purpose.
After all, there was no risk for him since I could pierce him with my dagger.
No... that warning was ant for Mia.
She jumped from another direction, throwing her fists enhanced with ice magic, but the rchant only grabbed her hand.
Mia: "Get out!"
She used her fists to try and freeze both of them together like how Licia had once done with her sword.
This gave enough ti to jump back, but I couldn't allow her to be in such close proximity to him and accepted the request she had left prior to this, making her leave the kingdom.
As soon as she was gone, the rchant broke the ice block that Mia made around his hand.
Ellie tried to keep firing at him as soon as I left, but...
rchant: "I've seen enough."
From his shoes, flas started to spread. It lted the ice, but even though Beatrice used her water magic to help as Licia and I kept trying to remake it, we couldn't compete with him at all, and in a matter of seconds, the whole arena lted away.
rchant: "I hope that wasn't the last trick on your bag... hm? I can't sense the wolf anymore..."
...So he could sense us... there was no point in the mirror house then... still, he let us attack him for his own amusent?
Ah... I see... he's only toying with us.
The look on his face remains unchanged as if he's enjoying a little stroll...
I wasn't wrong... he looks at us as if we are the smallest of ants.
...So that's the case then.
Miwen: "Guys... thanks for the help."
Licia: "Miwen? wha-"
I accepted everyone's request, making it so that only the rchant and I remained in the kingdom.
rchant: "Oh... If you can escape like that, I don't see a reason for you to sacrifice your life here... but I suppose I never understood that way of thinking to begin with."
Miwen: "Don't worry. I can't comprehend soone who'd do that either..."
That is to say...
Miwen: "I'm not making any sacrifice here, I fully intend on defeating you."
rchant: "Hahaha! Seriously? A being like you couldn't even hope to survive a flick from ."
Miwen: "I know. It's exactly why you're going to lose."
I couldn't get a single piece of information using [Appraisal] on him, not even his na showed up, much less his skills, and that's taking into account that my [Appraisal] was capable of at least informing of lissa's level way back when it was only at level 1.
This by itself told that this guy, as I feared, was in an entirely different league.
lissa could probably take on an entire party of high-rankers back on Earth.
This guy? He might be able to defeat everyone on Earth single-handedly.
Given that, I now know that there's no way I'm losing here.
rchant: "Give it your best shot then. If you entertain enough, I'll at least give you ti for so nice last words."
Our unfair battle comnced, and its result would lead both of us into a path we couldn't co back from.
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