A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

“Of course!” Kira readily agreed. “This game is much more fun when you know everyone’s skills and the types of cards!”

Upon hearing this, Lucy also looked at her character card:

[Character: Lucy]

【Life: 4】

【Magic Power: 4】

【Skill:

Useless Seduction: Whenever you take damage from a male character, perform a judgment. If the result is a 'Magic Card', the damage taken is reduced by 1.

Celestial Summon: During your turn, you may spend one mana to randomly summon a character called a "Celestial". At the start of your turn, you lose one mana for each Celestial you have. If you do not have enough mana, you must discard the corresponding number of Celestials. You may remove a Celestial at any time.

Celestial Spirit Command: When you summon a Celestial Spirit, you gain one of its skills (excluding limited skills and awakening skills), which can be changed at the start and end of the turn;

Summon Old Friends: Awakening Skill. At the start of your turn, if your Mana and Celestial Spirits are both above 3, discard all Celestial Spirits and consume 3 Mana to summon the 'Celestial Spirit King'. The Celestial Spirit King will consume 3 Mana at the start of your turn; if you do not have enough Mana, it will be removed without consuming any Mana.

Star Chart Chronicles: Limited Skill, consumes all mana to deal damage to any number of characters for a total of the corresponding points.

"You bastard! What do you mean by useless seduction?!"

Upon seeing her own skill, Lucy instantly flew into a rage and forcefully threw the card in her hand at Kira.

Kira quickly dodged: "I heard it from Happy and Natsu. What's wrong? Isn't this very realistic?"

"Those two bastards!! I'll deal with them when I get back!!"

Knowing it was inappropriate, Lucy suppressed her anger and asked again, "What about the 'Celestial Spirit King'? What are the 'Celestial Spirit King's' abilities?"

Kira refused to answer the question: "Sorry, I can't tell you that for now! Anyway, the Awakening Technique will definitely trigger as long as the conditions are met. It's not something you can choose not to activate! You'll find out just how strong 'Celestial Spirit King' is when it's summoned!"

"So, the timing of the trigger is very important? It really is a test of 'luck'!"

In terms of intelligence, Lucy has a considerable innate advantage, which allows her to quickly understand the rules of the game; and in terms of luck, as the "true protagonist" of the original work, she is also exceptionally lucky.

Putting everything else aside, in this test in the original timeline alone, they only encountered Philid and Biguslo, the only ones who would go easy on them. Otherwise, they would not have been able to pass this test at all if they had encountered anyone else.

"There's one more thing. Since this is Kana's assessment, we'll be using a '2 vs. 1' and 'main vs. secondary' mode! That means the two of you will be fighting against me; and if Kana's character dies, the game ends immediately; conversely, if my character dies, you win!"

Just as Kira continued explaining the assessment rules, Cana suddenly spoke up: "Wait! You just said this is a dual assessment of 'strength' and 'luck.' I understand what luck means, but what about strength?"

"Strength? Strength is generated based on your own abilities, such as the character card's health, mana, and skills! And of course, calculation ability!"

As Kira spoke, he showed his character card to the two of them: "By the way, this is my character, you two get to know him first!"

Chapter 297 The Battle Begins

[Character: Kira]

【Life: 8】

【Magic Power: 8】

【Skill:

Genius of Mischief: Once per turn, you may draw the number of cards in the deck equal to the current number of players, and then select the same number of cards to add to the hand of any number of other players. These cards are called 'Mischiefs' and cannot be used or discarded.

The Prankster: At the start of a player's turn, if the number of 'Pranks' in their hand is odd, the number of cards drawn during the draw phase is reduced by 1; if it is even, the number of cards discarded during the discard phase is increased by 1.

Mischievous Talent: During your turn, you may remove any number of 'Mischievous' cards from other players' hands. If a player has 1 'Mischievous' card removed this turn, they discard one card from their hand or an equipment card; if 2, they lose 1 mana; if 3, you deal 1 damage to them.

Word of Power: You may treat your 'Spell Card' as any Spell Card that has already been played on the field (excluding Spell Cards that have already been played in this way within the same turn); your 'Attack' and 'Defense' can be used interchangeably; the effect of 'Recovery' on you is doubled.

Item Merchant: Your equipment/item inventory is 2. Each time you lose an item, choose one of the following to activate: Draw 2 cards; Restore 1 health; Restore 1 mana.

Light of Hope: Awakening Skill. When you are near death, immediately increase your maximum health and mana by 2 and restore half of your health and mana; increase your draw count and hand limit by 2.

After seeing Kira's character card, Cana and Lucy were stunned for two seconds before they burst out at the same time.

"Hey, your health and mana are way too high! Why are they double ours?!"

"The names of your skills are weird too! How much do you enjoy playing pranks?!"

"The name is weird enough, but the quantity and effect are just too unfair!! There's no way we can win!"

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!

Kira clapped his hands three times to stop the two from shouting: "I told you, this skill manifests based on each person's strength, it's absolutely fair and just! My stats are so high because I'm stronger than you! Of the sixteen people in this assessment, only Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel have a stat of 5, yours is really just average!"

"As for the number of skills, the first three skills related to 'pranks' should actually belong to the same group. I just separated them, which is why there is the illusion that 'I have a lot of skills.' In reality, I only have four skills, just like you. Lucy's [Celestial Spirit Summoning] and [Celestial Spirit Control] are the same!"

Kira explained to the two of them in a serious tone, "Or do you think it's more likely that I'll do everything in my power to stop you from taking the exam?"

"This one……"

Lucy and Cana exchanged a glance and silently sat down.

Admittedly, for them, the probability of winning at cards is higher than in a physical fight.

"The odds of winning..." The two turned their attention back to the three character cards, and half a minute later, they simultaneously threw them to the ground in anger again. "How is it possible to win?!"

"Hmm...how about this then!"

Seeing the two on the verge of tears, Kira finally resisted the urge to watch them cry and decided to relax the test standards. "If you can last until the end of the 10th round, you'll pass! And given that this is a team test and the gap between us, I can cancel the 'main/sub mode' and change it to 'challenge mode'."

"The so-called challenge mode means that if one person dies, and another person can survive for 3 rounds alone, the deceased person can be revived!"

The two beamed with joy: "Really?!"

Kira smiled and nodded: "Really! Anyway, the examiners in the other passages, except for Erza, definitely won't go all out to stop us!"

"Great!" Kana and Lucy hugged each other and cheered.

"Well then, if you're ready, let's begin!"

……

While Kira, Cana, and Lucy were explaining the rules, the assessments for the other channels officially began.

In passage A, Elfman and Abba Greene encountered Mira.

This couple is currently taking the first step in building emotional connection and working together to overcome challenges.

Inside the B lane, Fidelity and Bigelow encountered Laxus.

Out of respect for the rules, the three started fighting after a brief exchange of pleasantries; however, due to their deep friendship, they did not actually fight.

Philid deeply admired Laxus and found it difficult to attack him directly. Therefore, he chose to let Biggleslow take the lead while he assisted from the side, taking the opportunity to set up a spell. Laxus pretended not to see it, used 30% of his strength, and fought Biggleslow on his own. The two fought back and forth, but neither was injured.

Inside the D passage, Juvia and Lisanna encountered Erza.

Without showing any mercy, Erza immediately switched to the Sea King Armor and the Flame Emperor Sword, which were effective against Juvia. With each move, she caused the ground to crack and the walls to crumble, with pieces of rock falling one after another.

As for Lisanna, even after receiving the animal spirit, her speed was still completely inadequate against Erza, and her attacks were practically nothing more than a tickle. Erza didn't even need to change her armor to leave her panting and in a sorry state.

Inside the E-Channel, Natsu and Happy encountered Gildarts.

Faced with this true second-best player in the guild, Natsu was completely powerless to resist. Even with all his strength, he couldn't make him move an inch.

As for Harpy, He's here just for watching the show and making sarcastic remarks.

In the F channel, Levy and Gajeel were lucky enough to choose "Quiet" and passed the first stage without any trouble, making them the group with the most "luck".

In the G and H passages, it was a battle between Gray and Rocky, who faced off against Mester and Wendy.

To avoid revealing her identity, Mester didn't use her memory manipulation or teleportation abilities, and could only fight with her bare fists. Naturally, she was no match for them and was forced to retreat. Wendy, on the other hand, had a bad temper and lacked combat awareness. Moreover, she had focused all her magic on support skills, so she was completely defeated once targeted.

In fact, ice-making and light magic are not particularly powerful magics, but they are just as strong as Gray and Loki.

Under Kira's influence, especially after Zonia consumed the experience pack, Grey was about 30% stronger than in the original work at this time; and Loki, who regained his Celestial identity and Celestial power, was already much stronger than when he stayed on Earth for two years at the beginning. Now, with Lucy's growth, he can also draw on more Celestial power.

The outcome of this test of mutual combat was already predetermined from the moment they stepped into the passage.

At the end of the passage, Maklov slowly stepped forward.

He sat down on a boulder, his gaze calmly fixed on the cave exit ahead, awaiting the children's test results.

……

"Is this your best 'luck' ever? Not bad at all!"

Inside passage C, Kira, Cana, and Lucy sat in a triangle formation. After playing rock-paper-scissors, Cana went first, Lucy second, and Kira third.

Although he was at a disadvantage, Kira was not afraid at all; the strength of his character card gave him enough confidence.

"Alright, let's begin!"

The game begins with the four players taking turns drawing four cards from their hands.

Round 1.

At the start of Kana's turn, she drew two cards from the top of the deck and then fell into deep thought.

At this moment, the cards in her hand are: the basic cards [Attack], [Defense], and [Recovery], the magic cards [Frost Attack] and [Fire Wall], and an equipment card [Torch].

[Frost Attack (1): Deals 1 point of ice damage.]

[Fire Wall (1): After use, it can defend against one water-attribute attack of the same level.]

PS: Same level: If the mana cost is the same, then they are considered to be of the same level.

[Torch: Adds fire attribute effect to normal attacks]

'This is a decent, well-balanced deck. While it's not particularly effective offensively, it's excellent for stalling for time!'

After analyzing the cards in her hand, Cana turned her attention to her skill bar: 'The skill [Drunkard] prevents me from holding cards to defend outside of my turn, meaning I have to use all my cards within my turn! It seems I'll have to be the main attacker in this battle, buying time for Lucy!'

Thinking of this, Cana acted decisively, striking first and targeting Kira: "Use [Ice Attack]!"

The battle horn had sounded, but Kira remained calm and collected, and with a backhand... deducted one life point.

"Does he want to awaken quickly?" Cana immediately realized Kira's purpose.

Kira smiled without saying a word: "Go on!"

"Let's give it a try!" She attacked Kira again, "Use [Attack]!"

Kira loses another drop of health, leaving him with 6 health points.

Kana uses [Restore] to fully restore her mana, equips [Torch], then discards [Defense] and activates the skill [Card Master] to obtain the card [Ice Shield].

[Ice Shield (1): After use, it can defend against one fire attack or physical attack of the same level.]