Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

At Silverclaw Viscount's side, standing within the shadows, was an old man dressed in a gray robe. He was the Viscount's chief confidant and the one who controlled the entire family's intelligence network and assassins—Gray Raven.

The words Silverclaw Viscount had spoken earlier were actually directed at him.

Gray Raven gave a slight bow, his voice rough like sandpaper. "The information from Aetherlan says that this Levi is a wandering Great Knight with no background whatsoever."

"So the Duke of Silverbrook used a territory to obtain his loyalty."

"A Great Knight? Hmph!" Silverclaw Viscount let out a cold snort. "The Silverclaw family also has a Great Knight!"

"And even among Great Knights, there are differences in strength."

Previously, the Duchy of Silverbrook had a total of seven Great Knights—at least publicly.

And the Silverclaw family possessed one Great Knight they had carefully nurtured themselves. He was a symbol of the family's power, and also one of the reasons why Duke Silverbrook had previously remained silent regarding their encroachment upon Hornreach's interests.

Silverclaw Viscount tapped his fingers against the table as he spoke.

"A Great Knight does deserve respect."

"But the premise is that he should also know how to respect others."

"If he had first come to Silverclaw City before entering Coldwind Keep, none of this would have happened."

A cold light flickered in the Viscount's eyes.

"Your meaning is...?"

"We need to teach him how to respect others. We also need to let him understand that becoming a lord is not such an easy thing," Silverclaw Viscount said.

Gray Raven fell silent for a moment before offering a suggestion.

"Hornreach has almost no land suitable for farming. Without the black bread and ale from Silverclaw Territory, those three thousand fishermen and smugglers would all go hungry."

"Even the lord himself would end up without food."

Gray Raven's meaning was clear—cut off the grain flowing into Hornreach.

Without food, even the most overbearing lord would eventually bow his head.

So what if he was a Great Knight?

Even a Sky Knight would still have to stand up and raise a toast.

Silverclaw Viscount was extremely pleased with this vicious scheme proposed by his confidant.

Yet he still felt it was not enough.

After pondering for a moment, he suddenly remembered that because of the border war, a large number of refugees had appeared and fled into Silverclaw Territory.

This had increased Silverclaw Territory's expenditures.

In other words, Silverclaw Viscount's income had decreased, and his wealth had shrunk.

But now, there was a way to solve that problem.

So Silverclaw Viscount asked, "How many northern refugees are there?"

"Roughly two thousand. Or perhaps more. Maybe three thousand?" Gray Raven paused for a moment, unable to provide an exact number.

In the eyes of people like them, these landless refugees were worth less than livestock.

Livestock were wealth.

They were not. They merely consumed wealth.

If not for certain concerns...

"It doesn't matter." Silverclaw Viscount waved his hand dismissively after hearing the answer. Then he issued his orders to Gray Raven.

"First, close Frostfang Pass and forbid any grain from entering Hornreach."

"Second, drive all the northern refugees toward Hornreach. Tell them that Hornreach's lord is a benevolent man, and that there, they can obtain land and hope."

Gray Raven fell silent for a moment before saying, "Viscount, they may not necessarily be willing."

"Whether they are willing or not is irrelevant. As long as we are willing, that is enough."

A cruel smile curled onto the Viscount's lips.

A sharp gleam flashed through Gray Raven's eyes as he responded in a low voice: "Viscount, your wisdom is unmatched. Hornreach already lacks food to begin with. If a massive number of refugees floods in, their supplies likely would not even last a month before the granaries run dry."

"At that point, either corpses will litter the land from starvation, or rebellion will erupt."

"And those people certainly won't obediently sit around waiting to die."

"Then we only need to spread a few rumors saying that Levi's castle still has food stored inside. Even if he is a Great Knight, he likely won't be able to stop so many refugees once they lose their minds."

Silverclaw Viscount revealed a satisfied smile.

"Go. Carry it out exactly like this."

"As you wish, my lord."

Gray Raven silently withdrew back into the shadows, leaving the Viscount sitting there alone.

His gaze rested upon the enormous map before him, his eyes sharp as blades, as though he could already see Hornreach collapsing amid famine and chaos.

...

Gathering Technique!

The castle personnel Levi had assigned into groups had already cleaned the castle once over. The rushes and lamp reeds inside the great hall had all been removed, making the place look far cleaner than before.

But it still did not meet Levi's standards. A faint unpleasant odor always lingered throughout the castle's air.

So Levi secretly cast his spell, using Gathering Technique to "collect" all the filth and grime hidden in places that had not been properly cleaned.

After he finished, the entire castle's air became noticeably fresher.

Many places did not appear drastically different at first glance, yet somehow gave people the unmistakable feeling of being far cleaner.

Naturally, Levi's own lord's chamber received special attention from his Gathering Technique. Inside and out, it looked completely renewed.

This time, Yalina, the wolf-eared girl Little Red Riding Hood, and the Sky Knight Rune had all been given private rooms of their own. While they could not compare to Levi's chamber, they were still considered quite good.

Levi also used Gathering Technique on each of their rooms.

For him, it merely consumed a negligible amount of Magic Power.

During this period, due to the qualitative transformation brought about by the quantitative growth of his Sea of Souls, Levi's meditation training had become exceptionally effective. His Spiritual Power had skyrocketed upward from 45 points, increasing at a rate of nearly one point per day.

As a result, his Spiritual Power rapidly rose to 59 points and, today, officially reached the limit of a Second-Ring Wizard—60 points.

His Magic Power had also reached 20,000 points.

During this period of rapid growth in both Spiritual Power and Magic Power, Levi had devoted almost all of his time to practicing Detection.

This was the spell he had mastered the best and possessed the highest proficiency in.

Levi had placed all of his focus on it, hoping to raise the spell to the level of a Third-Ring Spell as soon as possible.

And once Detection broke through, Levi's Spiritual Power would also break past its bottleneck alongside that breakthrough. Combined with the other required conditions—

Levi would become a standard Third-Ring Wizard.

"Standard" meaning the minimum requirement.

At that point, Levi's overall strength would undergo a major leap.

However, even though Levi had desperately cast and practiced Detection during this period, the spell's experience points had only reached 344 points.

And the requirement for max level was 1600 points.

For this spell, Levi's progress bar had not even reached half of half yet.

But that was merely a matter of time.

At most, after a few more months, Levi's Detection would certainly reach Level 6—the level of a Third-Ring Spell.

At that time, Levi's Spiritual Power would also rise along with it, and he would become a genuine Grand Wizard.

Second-Ring Wizards were already extremely rare.

So what kind of realm was a Third-Ring Wizard?

Levi still felt a trace of anticipation toward it.

But for now—

Levi shifted his focus back to reality.

With a thought, he cast Detection once more.

Half of his Magic Power vanished instantly.

Experience points increased by one.

[345/1600]!

Then, five pieces of intelligence appeared before him one after another:

[Information One: The Magic Mirror Queen has decided to personally travel to the dwarves' cottage where Snow White lives in order to kill her. However, she must wait for an opportunity when the Seven Dwarves are absent.]

[Information Two: A High-Tier Inquisitor of the Inquisition has been misled and headed toward the Black Forest a thousand miles away.]

[Information Three: Because of your lack of cooperation, Silverclaw Viscount has decided to drive a large number of refugees into your territory while simultaneously forbidding grain from entering your lands.]

[Information Four: The terrifying aura within Mist Swamp is becoming increasingly obvious, and the intelligent lifeforms inside have begun migrating toward the outer regions.]

[Information Five: At the western harbor of Coldwind Keep Town, there is an iron sand deposit with abundant reserves.]

...

Five pieces of intelligence.

Because Levi had arrived in Hornreach, much of the intelligence now revolved around matters concerning Hornreach itself.

First was Information One, which honestly held little value for Levi.

His attention quickly shifted toward the other pieces of intelligence.

Information Two mentioned the Inquisition and a High-Tier Inquisitor.

Levi's brows furrowed slightly.

He had only just barely escaped the Magic Mirror Queen's pursuit, and now he had been targeted by the Church's Inquisition as well.

The fact that the Church could force a queen who possessed the Magic Mirror to conceal her true identity was proof enough of its terrifying strength.

What Levi feared most was solving one problem only for an even greater one to emerge afterward.

An endless cycle.

Fortunately, the other party had gone to the Black Forest a thousand miles away.

Levi guessed that, on that night, when he had gone into the Black Forest to find that lucky hunter, he had unintentionally misled the members of the Inquisition.

Although he had no idea what method they had used to track him down—

Fortunately, they had headed toward the Black Forest a thousand miles away, giving him valuable time to grow stronger.

After pondering for a moment, Levi turned his attention toward Information Three.

A vicious scheme!

That was the very first thought that appeared in Levi's mind.

If it were an ordinary lord, Silverclaw Viscount's scheme truly would have left him completely helpless.

But Levi was not an ordinary lord.

Not to mention his Gathering Technique and Synthesis.

Rune could also provide his inexhaustible supply of bread, ham, and wine!

With those resources, his territory absolutely would not collapse.

On the contrary, by sending over a massive number of people, Silverclaw Viscount would actually be helping him instead.

Levi's eyes flickered as a plan formed in his mind.

His gaze then shifted toward the remaining intelligence.

Information Four warned of the danger within Mist Swamp.

He would need to make preparations for that as well.

The problem was that he still did not know what exactly the terrifying aura inside Mist Swamp was.

Even the intelligence detection had failed to uncover it.

For now, he could only take things one step at a time.

Lastly came Information Five.

An iron sand deposit?

A series of thoughts surfaced within Levi's mind:

Iron-bearing rocks from inland mountain ranges had undergone millions of years of weathering and erosion, breaking down into fragments. Rivers then carried those fragments into the sea.

Ocean waves and currents acted like natural gold pans, repeatedly washing away the lighter quartz sand while leaving behind the heavier, denser black iron sand, which accumulated along coastlines, river mouths, or ancient riverbeds.

That was an iron sand deposit!

For Levi, this was an extremely valuable resource point.

With it, he could mine the iron sand and refine it into metal.

However, iron sand deposits were rather special and could not be refined using traditional steel-smelting methods.

Traditional blast furnaces and bloomery furnaces were designed for chunked ore. If fine sand were poured directly into them, it would block the airflow, extinguish the furnace, or prevent the molten iron from properly gathering into usable masses.

Therefore, methods like pelletizing or specially designed furnaces were required.

But Hornreach currently lacked those conditions.

When the time came, Levi himself would need to step in.

His spells Gathering Technique and Synthesis could be used here to rapidly gather and synthesize large quantities of weapons and armor in a short amount of time.

That would make it far easier for him to equip the army that did not even properly exist yet.

Once the crisis had passed and the territory developed further, this iron sand deposit could be handed over to specialized personnel for smelting, eliminating the need for Levi to personally handle everything himself.

Because time was tight, Levi first summoned Sky Knight Rune.

The moment the man arrived, he rubbed his hands together like a fly and said somewhat disappointedly, "Lord Levi, where is everyone else? I thought it was mealtime?"

Levi's face immediately darkened.

This lunatic who randomly lost his mind every so often...

He said irritably, "In three days, the lord of the neighboring Silverclaw Territory will forbid grain from entering my Hornreach. No—forget three days later. He has already started doing it now. At the same time, he plans to drive a massive number of refugees into my territory."

"How many?" Sky Knight Rune asked.

"At least several thousand," Levi replied.

Rune immediately sucked in a cold breath.

"With that many people, my bread and ham won't be enough."

"You're forgetting another group," Levi said. "The original three thousand people already living in Hornreach."

"Hornreach is extremely barren. Farming is nearly impossible. Aside from fishing and hunting, there are no other food sources. But hunting is dangerous now because of Mist Swamp, and fishing is never guaranteed."

"So once Silverclaw Territory cuts off grain supplies to our lands, the pressure on us will become enormous," Levi said.

"Lord Levi, I understand now." Rune spoke decisively. "I'll head to Silverclaw Territory immediately, kill that Silverclaw Viscount, and bring back grain."

As a Sky Knight, he had the confidence to say such things.

Of course, if he were surrounded and continuously assaulted by an army, even he could eventually die from exhaustion.

Levi rolled his eyes at him.

"Can you stop thinking about killing people every other second?"

"Do you think I'm some natural-born maniac?"

"Can't you think of another solution?"

Rune looked somewhat aggrieved.

Aren't you one too?

Naturally, he did not dare say that aloud.

Levi glanced at him helplessly and said, "If we can't think of another solution, it won't be too late to kill him afterward."

Rune's brows lifted.

Sure enough, Lord Levi was still the same Lord Levi as always.

After a brief pause, he asked, "Then Lord Levi, what do you need me to do?"

"First, you'll need to temporarily hand over those few items of yours," Levi said.

"That's no problem." Rune agreed without hesitation.

However, after pausing briefly, he added: "But Lord Levi, although the bread, ham, and wine are technically inexhaustible, I still can't use them excessively. If I overuse them, I become noticeably drained."

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

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