Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

Gretel hadn't forgotten that Levi—the mysterious male wizard—was still around.

Judging by the timing, the poison should have taken effect by now.

With that in mind, Gretel planned to go back and deal with Levi.

But the moment she turned around, she saw Levi standing silently behind her.

Caught completely off guard, Gretel let out a scream. Acting on pure instinct, she hurled a magic explosive cake at him.

Originally, this was something she had prepared to use against her mentor, Margaret.

Unexpectedly, it never got used on Margaret—instead, it was used on Levi.

Levi's Spiritual Power and physical attributes far exceeded those of ordinary people.

In his eyes, Gretel's movement looked like it had been slowed down twenty times.

With a mere thought, Levi summoned Wizard's Hand, easily catching the magic explosive cake.

Boom!

The magic cake detonated violently, but the explosion was completely contained within the Wizard's Hand, unable to cause Levi even the slightest harm.

Not even a speck of dust reached him.

Levi casually brushed off nonexistent soot from his clothes. With a wave of his hand, the invisible Wizard's Hand sent Gretel flying, then opened the bread oven and pulled out the old witch Margaret, who had nearly been burned to a char inside.

Margaret was severely burned, but still alive. After coming out, she somehow produced a pile of magical sweets and began eating them.

Very quickly, her burns were brought under control, and the pain eased significantly.

In a hoarse voice, she said to Levi, "Thank you."

"I did learn your meditation method, after all. But right now, you should think about how to deal with her." Levi looked toward Gretel in the corner as he spoke to Margaret.

Margaret's expression was complicated.

Meanwhile, Gretel—lying there with blood at the corner of her mouth and several broken ribs—was filled with terror. Tears streamed down her face as she begged Margaret, "I'm sorry, Mentor… I… I won't dare do it again."

This was the first time Gretel had ever called Margaret "Mentor."

And that alone revealed something—

She had always known Margaret was teaching her.

Before this, she had only been pretending—pretending to be the victim.

That single word, "Mentor," completely shattered whatever hope Margaret still had.

Yalina arrived with Miss Nightingale, Odelle.

Looking at the wrecked scene before her, she quietly asked Levi, "What happened?"

Levi didn't answer. Instead, he looked at Margaret.

Margaret seemed completely drained of spirit. Letting out a sigh, she turned toward where she remembered Gretel was and said, "You didn't have to be this impatient."

"I was even more impatient than you."

"But none of that matters anymore."

"Don't kill me! Mentor! I was wrong! I'll never do it again!" Gretel pleaded frantically, all her previous arrogance gone.

"I won't kill you." The disappointment in Margaret's eyes deepened. She took out a gray candy and said to Gretel, "This is a Memory-Erasing Candy. Once you eat it, you'll forget everything that happened here… and everything you learned here."

"After that, I'll send you home. Your brother as well—he'll forget this place too. I'll send both of you back." Margaret paused before finishing, her eyes filled with indescribable emotion.

"No!" Gretel shook her head desperately. She didn't want to lose what she had learned.

Margaret smiled—but it was a bitter, desolate smile.

She turned toward Levi and said, "Help me. As for our previous agreement, you don't need to fulfill it anymore."

Levi's eyes flickered slightly. Without a word, he used Wizard's Hand to take the Memory-Erasing Candy and force it into Gretel's mouth, making her swallow it.

Very soon, Gretel fell unconscious.

"Sleep… just sleep. When you wake up, everything will be over," Margaret said softly.

Then she looked back at Levi. "You've seen quite the joke."

"I don't think this is a joke," Levi replied. "Sometimes, a fruit picked before it's ripe is never sweet."

Margaret's eyes trembled slightly at his words. She gave a bitter laugh.

"You're absolutely right."

"Too bad I realized it too late."

"I don't have the strength left to find a new successor."

"Children with wizard aptitude are not so easy to find."

"And I don't have much time left."

Levi looked at her, a thought stirring in his mind, and said, "Perhaps I can help you."

The old witch Margaret's eyes lit up, as if hope had been rekindled. "How would you help me?"

"You know that I'll be traveling far and wide. If I come across a suitable child—one willing to become a wizard—I'll teach her the Candy House meditation method and bring her back here to inherit your legacy. What do you think?"

"Then it's a deal, Sir Levi!" Margaret broke into a wide grin—so she had been putting on an act with Levi all along!

Levi came back to his senses, rolled his eyes at her speechlessly, paused for a moment, and ultimately nodded.

Yalina suddenly cut in, "Levi, Lady Margaret, do you think I could learn magic from you? I also want to…"

Levi turned to look at Yalina and shook his head. "I already told you before—you don't have the aptitude to be a wizard."

Yalina immediately looked dejected. "I see…"

"It's not entirely impossible to practice magic without aptitude. As long as you find the legendary Fruit of the God of Love, it can be done," Margaret suddenly said.

"The Fruit of the God of Love…?" Levi murmured thoughtfully.

"That's right! The Golden Apple!" Margaret said. "It has two miraculous effects. One is to form a covenant of love—two people who eat the Golden Apple will love each other for life and never be separated. The other is that if a single person consumes the entire Golden Apple, they will gain the aptitude to practice magic."

"Then where can we find this magical Golden Apple?" Yalina's eyes lit up at once.

"That's not something an old woman on the verge of death like me would know," Margaret said. "Perhaps you can find the legendary Golden Bird—it can lead you to the Golden Apple."

As she spoke, she dragged her heavily injured body toward the outside. "I still need to deal with the little one's brother."

"And then have the white duck send them away."

"In the end, they don't belong here."

Margaret spoke in a tone tinged with numbness.

She didn't notice the strange look in Levi's eyes—Golden Bird, Golden Apple…

And what exactly was this Fruit of the God of Love?

Levi fell silent for a moment, then said to Yalina and Miss Nightingale Odelle, "In that case, it's time for us to leave as well."

"Leave?"

Levi nodded.

He had already become a Second-Ring Wizard.

And according to the feedback from Detection, the potion brewed from Moonshadow crab shells—he might as well call it a potion—no longer had any effect on him.

In other words, Levi had developed resistance.

And after communicating with Margaret, he learned that the Candy House could no longer provide him with magical materials more effective than Moonshadow crab shells.

After all, anything that could enhance the efficiency of Spiritual Power training—even if it only worked on wizard apprentices—wasn't something you could find everywhere.

Of course.

This didn't mean Levi's training—no, his training speed—would slow down afterward.

In his Sea of Soul, he possessed Detection, Conversion, Gathering Technique, Wizard's Hand, and Polymorph: Night Demon Owl—a total of five innate spells.

Just in terms of innate spells alone, he surpassed some Third-Ring Wizards.

The minimum requirement for a Third-Ring Wizard's innate spells was four.

And Levi had five.

Of course, among a Third-Ring Wizard's innate spells, at least one had to reach the level of a Third-Ring Spell.

That was something Levi didn't have.

However, with so many innate spells in his Sea of Soul, even if their levels weren't high, each one broadened the depth and strength of his Sea of Soul. And every time an innate spell leveled up, it would also provide a slight enhancement to it.

With that, the strength of Levi's Sea of Soul was no weaker than that of some veteran Second-Ring Wizards.

In other words, before reaching the upper limit of his Sea of Soul's strength, Levi's Spiritual Power would continue to grow at a relatively fast rate.

Just not as fast as when taking potions.

In that case.

There was no point in staying at the Candy House—it would be better to leave.

Once Levi made up his mind, he acted on it.

The next day.

Gretel and her brother, who had awakened at the edge of the forest, looked around in confusion at their surroundings.

After recognizing the somewhat familiar environment, Gretel said excitedly to her brother Hansel, "Brother, look—we're home!"

"That's right!" Hansel also came to his senses and said with a smile.

But his smile quickly faded.

Because he remembered that their parents had abandoned them in the forest precisely because the family had no food left.

Now that they had returned, what difference would it make? At most, they would just go through being abandoned all over again.

Thinking this, he suddenly felt something hard pressing uncomfortably against him from inside his clothes. When he took it out and looked, it turned out to be several nuggets of raw gold.

"Gretel, it's gold!"

"With this, Father won't abandon us anymore."

Gretel took a look, then reached into her own pocket and pulled out several pieces of gold as well. "I have some too, Brother!"

She was overjoyed.

"Strange… where did this gold come from? Gretel, do you remember anything?"

"I don't remember! But that's not important, Brother. What matters is that we have it."

"…You're right. But how did we get this gold…?" Hansel scratched his head. He still hadn't realized that he had grown much fatter—his memory was still stuck at the moment before they encountered the white bird.

Meanwhile, on the other side—

The old witch Margaret stood beside the white duck—this was the same duck from the original fairy tale, the one Gretel had commanded to carry her and Hansel across the river.

If Gretel hadn't learned magic from Margaret, how could an ordinary person possibly command a white duck?

And a white duck capable of carrying a child—just how large would it have to be?

This alone showed that it wasn't an ordinary duck, but a magical creature, just like the white bird that had previously led them to the Candy House.

But that was beside the point.

After being burned, Margaret had become even more hideous.

She waved toward Levi, who stood on the other side of the river.

Yalina felt somewhat reluctant to leave—before they departed, Margaret had given them a large number of sweets, nearly filling Levi's alchemy carriage. For a girl, these treats were irresistible; even Miss Nightingale Odelle liked them, though she didn't eat much.

Levi, however, remained calm.

In this world, there is no banquet that never ends.

He simply said, "I will bring back the student you're looking for."

And that was exactly the sentence Margaret wanted to hear.

Her smile grew even more grotesque and terrifying.

Levi, expressionless, stepped into the alchemy carriage filled with the scent of sweetness and said to Yalina, "Let's go."

"…Alright." Acting as the coachman, Yalina puffed her cheeks, took up the reins, and said to Miss Nightingale Odelle beside her, "Odelle, time to work. Go ahead and scout the road—see if it's passable!"

Miss Nightingale Odelle nodded, fluttered out of the birdcage, and flew ahead to scout the path.

Inside the carriage—

Levi's gaze shifted slightly as he activated the high-consumption Daily Intelligence Detection:

[Information 1: The seven dwarfs living in the Whispering Forest have, through certain means, made contact with a witch from a Rapunzel garden and are attempting to purchase a potion that can heal Snow White's scars.]

[Information 2: Through the dwarfs' channels, Snow White has learned of your situation as a fugitive and is worried about you.]

[Information 3: The Magic Mirror Queen has learned that you are studying a meditation method in the Candy House and has dispatched a powerful witch to deal with you. She possesses a formidable curse that can turn people into frogs.]

[Information 4: After Gretel and Hansel returned home, the gold on them was confiscated by their parents. They continue to eat poor-quality food in small portions, but for the time being, their parents have no intention of abandoning them again.]

[Information 5: A certain witch living in a magic castle has learned of the deaths of those evil cultists and is currently investigating the matter.]

[You have cast Detection once. Experience +1. Current EXP: 3/1600.]

...

After Detection advanced to Level 5—equivalent to a Second-Ring Spell—the amount of information Levi could obtain increased.

What had previously been four pieces of intelligence had now become five.

However, among these five, several were of little use to Levi—he simply noted them and moved on.

Only one piece of intelligence truly mattered to him.

Information 3.

The Magic Mirror Queen had sent a powerful witch to deal with him.

And that witch possessed the ability to curse people into frogs.

In an instant, Levi thought of only one fairy tale—

The Frog Prince.

In that story, a prince is turned into a frog by a cruel witch, and is later restored to human form by a princess playing with a golden ball.

Could it be that this powerful witch… is the same cruel witch from The Frog Prince?

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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> /TitoVillar

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