The time limit until the event started was running out, in just a couple of hours from now, we would have to face the Traveling Merchant's invasion.
We made good progress during the limited time we had, compared to the last event, we were much stronger, but... I was predicting we would face a monstrous adversary this time around.
I still remember how [Gacha Kingdom Building] started acting strangely when the Merchant's event came up, almost as if a software glitch was happening.
Not only that, the guy forcefully initiated the event, something 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 Melissa 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 moment-"
Licia: "Hnm... we already made the request to leave the kingdom, so don't worry."
I must've repeated this a million times 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 troublesome 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 troublesome, but the most important thing is our survival.
Well, as long as we don't bet our lives, that would be the worst outcome. On the flip side, the best scenario would be one where we can just trade something with the guy and have him leave.
Sure, we might lose one day's worth of gacha tickets, but that's completely fine by me.
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 Merchant 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 some 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 aflame 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 Merchant Arrives
For an Invasion to begin, a free plot will be added to the Kingdom from which the invaders can come 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 me 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 same direction I did before, turning the kingdom into a 1x3 corridor.
Claire: "The forest expanded... isn't it bad?"
For someone 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 someone, we'd at least get the advantage of him spending his mana...
??????: "Ehh... to be honest, the time prison was a way better idea. It's the first time someone managed to delay me 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 symmetry was created as if we were looking at something 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.
Merchant: "So, how many of you do I need to kill before I meet 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 me..."
Merchant: "...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 something out of the time 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.
Merchant: "...Alright! I've decided. I'll kill everyone here except for you. And then, you'll bring me to-"
No. You're not.
Miwen: "Claire!"
While the first time might've been a threat, the moment he raised his hands, it was time for us to act.
He might've caught us off-guard, but in the little time I've bought with our conversation, everyone managed to put some distance, allowing me 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 times 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 come 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 some 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 flamethrower 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 flames, 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 same result.
The biggest problem would be if...
Merchant: "...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] came up. I'm supposing those houses came from something like that?"
He came back to the exact same place he was before.
This means he's probably capable of teleporting back to places he's been once before too, or at least something that brings about the same 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 came to both power and quantity. As for my own Gift, the limitation comes in the form of forced randomness...
Miwen: "We're going with the ice arena, go down, everyone."
The moment 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 something similar but also kept firing arrows at the Merchant 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 merchant.
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 moment he teleported there.
It was no use though since he simply grabbed and broke it before it reached him.
At least this confirmed that it's not only his teleportation that was troublesome, but his physical abilities also seemed 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.
Merchant: "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.
Merchant: "Oh? You're coming at me? 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 merchant 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 become the most annoying archer in the world.
Arrows you thought were misfired would correct their trajectory towards you, some wouldn't be real, while others would appear to have been multiplied, making it hard to know where they came 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 time, 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 time.
Using the fake images of the mirrors he had stopped attacking, I got close enough to stab him.
But the moment I did, I realized how much of a mistake I had committed.
Merchant: "I can still hear you, you know?"
...That wasn't a warning meant for me.
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 meant for Mia.
She jumped from another direction, throwing her fists enhanced with ice magic, but the Merchant 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 me enough time 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 Merchant broke the ice block that Mia made around his hand.
Ellie tried to keep firing at him as soon as I left, but...
Merchant: "I've seen enough."
From his shoes, flames started to spread. It melted 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 melted away.
Merchant: "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 amusement?
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 merchant and I remained in the kingdom.
Merchant: "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 someone who'd do that either..."
That is to say...
Miwen: "I'm not making any sacrifice here, I fully intend on defeating you."
Merchant: "Hahaha! Seriously? A being like you couldn't even hope to survive a flick from me."
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 name showed up, much less his skills, and that's taking into account that my [Appraisal] was capable of at least informing me of Melissa's level way back when it was only at level 1.
This by itself told me that this guy, as I feared, was in an entirely different league.
Melissa 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.
Merchant: "Give it your best shot then. If you entertain me enough, I'll at least give you time for some nice last words."
Our unfair battle commenced, and its result would lead both of us into a path we couldn't come back from.