Gacha Kingdom Building

The same strange effect as last time happened, but like the common tickets before, it seems like I\'m updating to it somewhat, as it felt shorter, and Ellie confirmed that it didn\'t take as long for me to answer her back this time.

With that done, since this time we weren\'t going to have an Invasion, there was nothing for me to do in the Kingdom, and considering the recent rewards, it was probably a good idea to keep some Kingdom Points stored.

Which left us with just the dungeon raid to perform today. I didn\'t want to waste too much time on it, as I thought giving everyone a good rest would be a better investment than getting one or two more levels than we usually do.

We still ended up getting at least two level-ups, which allowed us to reach past the 60\'s barrier, and by completing the ninth floor, we\'d be essentially in high-ranker territory, being among them in all but fame.

While the plan was to not waste too much time in the dungeon, since we weren\'t followed at all, I got curious about the elves in the forest and Claire pressed us to go see the situation for a little while. It was a bit of a detour since undoubtedly she\'d want to play with it, but we were going to have to eat lunch anyway, so why not do it in the usual spot?

As if to rain in our parade though...

Elizabeth: "Hm... it doesn\'t seem like they moved at all..."

Claire: "Did they give up?"

It\'s possible, but I can\'t imagine their leaders explaining that a bunch of adventurers halted all of their plans for the foreseeable future.

More likely, they are planning their next steps, or...

Miwen: "How are they doing mana-wise?"

Bea: "They increased both quantity and concentration..."

Claire: "...Then they are preparing for a big one..."

It would normally be a worthwhile attempt... they just need to overpower us one time to then be free to surround the Dungeon Gate.

The problem is that they are essentially misunderstanding the problem. They must think that if they store enough mana, they can overpower or outlast us, which isn\'t the case at all.

I can hardly blame them though, just the thought of someone having unlimited mana would be sufficient for most mages to give up a battle.

Even if they decide to tackle it with strength instead of attrition... Elizabeth\'s barriers are not the strongest spell she has, and with a proper sky, I\'m afraid that no matter how much mana they gather, the entire forest, alongside all that is living in it, would become history in a minute.

...Just imagining this "battle" and the stories that might be told after is already enough to make me realize how she managed to acquire Demonic Power and Divinity in her past life... the idea of a single person being able to dominate an entire battlefield like this does sound like the stuff of epics.

Well, whatever they were doing, it didn\'t seem like they were ready yet, so we ended up with our hands tied. No matter how much Claire wanted to play, provoking them wouldn\'t do us any good beyond the stance we\'ve already taken, that is, cleaning the area around the gate and pushing the forest back to its starting line.

We were still going to have our lunch in front of them though, they can consider it as much of a provocation as they want, I wasn\'t going to concede on this.

...Is what I thought, before I had to concede on it.

Once again, the Knight Commanders noticed us and came to offer a "proper meal" at the tavern, all on their tab.

Tasting another person\'s cooking for a change didn\'t seem like such a bad idea, and the girls also seemed interested, so we ended up accepting their invitation.

It was also a good opportunity to take a look at the city, and it was pretty much as I thought. They were definitely preparing for an escalation. Wagons were coming and going, and commerce seemed like it was booming. Not to mention, a large quantity of armed men, both soldiers and adventurers, were hanging around.

I suspect the latter aren\'t very happy with their source of income being cut like this, but their kingdom is probably offering some incentive in return for them to not stir up trouble, after all, this would give the elves an even better excuse for their behavior.

I wanted to look a bit more into it, but it was hard to do when we were being treated as celebrities. By the time we reached the tavern, a large crowd of soldiers and adventurers was tagging along, asking questions about our powers and relationships.

Of course, they were mostly interested in Claire and Elizabeth who had shown incredible prowess.

There was no doubt that some of the people here could match Claire\'s max power, but they seemed to think that she was able to perform that much by herself when in actuality, it was thanks to Elizabeth that she could keep her full output all the time.

Not that I was jealous of the attention or anything... I even had some fans of my own, which I made sure to flaunt in front of Mia.

While I\'m not the most sociable person out there, it was worth giving them attention in order to gather as much information as possible, and with the amount of alcohol going around, it became quite easy to pry for a bit.

I was expecting to find discrepancies in the stories about the elves, and I did find them, but not to the point where I could discredit either side. The overall structure of the story that I was being told by everyone remained the same, and only a few details here and there were different from the first version we were told.

This could be attributed to several factors, and the drunkness of the teller was certainly among them... I suppose it is as much of a downside as it\'s a plus when it comes to gathering info.

After a while, I had to give up on this since it seemed like they at least had their story straight. Since there was nothing else to gain here, I just accepted the friendly atmosphere that the Tavern was in as everyone started putting their drinks on the drunk Commander\'s tab.

Claire was having fun sharing stories and tales about... herself. And since she is somewhat weak to alcohol, I asked Licia to join her, and the two ended up in a bunch of different conversations.

At the same time, Mia and Anna were arm-wrestling some tough-looking dudes, which left Beatrice, Ellie, Elizabeth, and me with a less animated, but still rowdy bunch as we drank to our heart\'s content.

Ellie being an elf did raise some eyebrows, especially since she isn\'t known around the area, but the second Commander made sure to introduce her as a member of our group, and with his authority in full display, made everyone friendly to her.

I still wanted to keep her close though, just in case... the fact that I enjoy hugging her and showing off how cute she is had nothing to do with it.

Elizabeth: "If you\'re worried about the girls, you can have me watch them. As the king, you should enjoy such occasions to the fullest, in order to show respect to their hospitality."

Miwen: "Hm... but you\'re already looking tipsy though..."

Elizabeth: "That\'s not funny. As a demon, alcohol basically runs in my blood. No matter how much I drink here, I won\'t be drunk."

Miwen: "...Bet."

Everyone is immune to alcohol... until they suddenly find their limit. I\'m not sure how much her race factors in, but as a modern young man, I was quite sure I could outlast her.

And so, we started a show of our own, gulping down mug after mug full of beer.

The trick for winning this kind of competition is by taking it seriously until your opponent becomes drunk enough. Then you can take it easy and they won\'t even notice that you are not drinking as much.

Props to Elizabeth though, it did take a while for her to reach such a state, but it was tremendously foolish of her to think I would risk getting drunk here.

Liz: "...Not fair... you\'re not... as much..."

Miwen: "Slow and steady wins the race... give me an hour and I\'ll have drank more than you."

Elizabeth ended up completely out after a while, and both Bea and Ellie gave me judging stares as if I were a monster for tricking the poor demon this way.

Claire: "You... tricky bastard you are, eh? Howw about... facing a real... *hic*.... a real challenge?"

...And that\'s why someone needs to keep sober. This girl is only standing thanks to Licia giving her shoulder as support and she still thinks she\'s in any condition to challenge someone to a drinking game.

The fact that she\'s always so sure of herself works fine when it comes to fighting as she is incredibly skilled, but boy does it backfire in everything else she tries.

Claire: "...Check? ...C-chicken?"

The gal... she can barely get a word in properly...

But it\'s not her that I\'m afraid of.

Licia: "C\'mon, to end the afternoon? We can join in a bath together later if she loses~"

Claire: "...Y-yeah, don\'t you want to?"

You do realize that she\'s only saying that because she already knows you\'re going to lose right?

Not only that, she knows that she\'s the real challenge here, so she made sure that the bet was not between her and me. This level of trickiness can only be achieved by someone who is not yet drunk and has decided to play around with the others... so she\'s probably seeing me as an easy target...

What is scary is that I know she accompanied Claire all the way... and I can\'t really pull off the same trick I did with Elizabeth since it would be too much for me to go all-out at the start due to the fact that I\'ve already had my fair share...

Miwen: "Haah... I swear... You know we still need to make our way back through the dungeon, right?"

Licia: "Is that a no?"

... I can already tell that I\'m gonna be throwing up in that hotel tomorrow.

Still, it was fun playing with her. Claire barely lasted another mug, obviously. But Licia and I kept going for 5 or so.

As a responsible man, I knew I couldn\'t go any further, but we ended up drawing since she also forfeited the last one.

I\'ve got no idea if she did it on purpose, or if like me, she felt like going any further was too much, but in the end, our expedition back home consisted of only Mia, Anna, Ellie, a half-drunk Licia, and me.

We ended up having to leave our two little devils in the kingdom alongside the witch who went overboard drinking by my side thinking that if I got drunk enough it would be easier to have her way with me and finally claim the victory she\'s trying so hard to get.

It was way harder for us to reach the dungeon gate with almost half of the party, but by taking some of the easy paths with weaker enemies, we ended up safely back home.

Once there, Licia and I took Claire for a bath since she really needed to clear her head after all the drinking she had done.

She wasn\'t the only one that ended up being thoroughly cleaned though as after Claire had somewhat recovered, I got to experience Licia\'s drunk aggressiveness for myself.

That night, I had to order takeout for the girls since these two made me leave the bath straight for the bed and were only satisfied way later.

Even though it was already late and I thought that most of the effect of the alcohol had passed, I could still hear a voice ringing in my head.

[A Divine Event is coming in 3 days. This world will be cut off from others for the remainder of the event. Any person who is still present in this world when the event starts will be considered a participant on this world\'s side, no matter their place of origin. Further instructions will be given in the future. I wish you all good luck.]

...A Divine Event... it\'s Catherine then...

It has been a long time since Earth experienced one of those. Probably due to our bad performance... it\'s a good opportunity to show some promise, but she was quite vague about its contents or rewards...

Still, having a Gift now, I\'m looking forward to it...

That is if this is really happening and it\'s not just a drunk hallucination... But I\'ll only be sure tomorrow.