The Mist Had Risen

The fluctuations of soul and emotion gradually faded.

The power of value began to operate.

With life and death on the line, the merchant could no longer afford to conserve his strength.

Kingfisher's Source Material and value became intertwined.

Then, on the ground, his body—just cut into two halves—automatically reassembled, becoming a Healthy Body once more where his phantom had stood.

On the street shrouded in night.

What Kingfisher displayed at this moment was another possibility for the merchant profession.

The merchants who had once opposed and fought Linsey had followed the standard path of "money measures all things."

But Kingfisher was different.

Like Ailini, he followed the path of "money is not everything," using standard units of value to measure all things in the world.

This skill was especially unusual at the Sixth Stage.

Beyond the skills born from a merchant's business philosophy, reaching this stage required them to comprehend one reality.

—The fundamental value of all things in the world.

Wounds, bodies, mental states...

Even more abstract and absurd concepts could become targets of their transactions.

After advancing beyond the Sixth Stage, even buying a person's life or death was no problem.

And what had just happened was the final trump card Kingfisher had prepared for himself.

A merchant's Source Material was Abstract Replacement. They could separate their Source Material from their bodies and create an independent extraordinary item.

So although Kingfisher's body had been on the verge of collapse, his Source Material System remained unaffected and continued operating normally, saving his life like a third party.

"..."

At this moment.

The battlefield instead fell into a strange balance.

Although Hilude's Source Material had faded, Kingfisher's subordinates had already suffered mental breakdowns and could no longer offer any assistance.

"Damn it!"

Kingfisher, now left all alone, cursed under