Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

Among kobolds, a Kobold Chieftain was already considered one in ten thousand.

But Levi still felt its strength was insufficient.

He believed it needed to be strengthened further.

So after his Magic Power recovered, he exhausted all of it and fused the two remaining Kobold Chieftains together using Synthesis.

And even this was already Levi's limit.

Fortunately, after the two Kobold Chieftains fused, the extremely faint trace of bloodline hidden deep within them awakened, transforming them into a Dragonblood Kobold.

Its body was even larger than that of the original chieftains. Dark golden scales covered its entire body, each scale carrying a faint draconic aura. Its head vaguely resembled that of a dragon, and it possessed amber-colored vertical pupils.

A Dragonblood Kobold.

Or rather, a kobold shaman.

This Dragonblood Kobold had not only awakened the incredibly thin trace of bloodline within its body, causing a massive transformation in size and physique, but had also gained spell-like abilities.

Different Dragonblood Kobolds possessed different spell-like abilities depending on the bloodline they awakened.

For example, the Dragonblood Kobold Levi created through fusion possessed three abilities: Draconic Presence, Dragonfire Breath, and Brute Force Enhancement.

In terms of raw physical strength alone, this Dragonblood Kobold could already contend with a Great Knight.

If it used its spell-like abilities, even ordinary Great Knights would not be its match and would be burned alive by dragonfire.

In truth, the strength of this Dragonblood Kobold was already comparable to certain veteran Third-Tier Wizard Apprentices. If its bloodline abilities were further developed, it might even be able to wrestle against beings at the level of First- or Second-Ring Wizards.

Even so, Levi was still not fully satisfied.

But he had already done everything he could to improve the strength of this Dragonblood Kobold.

'It'll do for now,' Levi thought.

Honestly, from a cost-performance perspective, this was an extremely poor trade.

The amount of Magic Power Levi had consumed just to create this Dragonblood Kobold was enough for him to effortlessly kill over a hundred of them.

But some things could not be calculated that way.

He wanted to investigate the secrets hidden deep within the Mist Swamp, but the deeper regions of the swamp had become increasingly terrifying. He no longer dared approach casually.

Even Third-Ring-level Detection could not probe it.

So to be safe, he planned to send someone inside to investigate.

However, choosing the right candidate was not easy.

After all, the mission was extremely dangerous and demanded considerable strength.

Levi immediately crossed people like Rune and Yalina off the list.

It just so happened that his Synthesis had recently advanced to the level of a Third-Ring Spell.

And thus came this "kobold synthesis" experiment.

Levi was reasonably satisfied with the result. While the Dragonblood Kobold was not exceptionally powerful, it was barely sufficient for the task.

More importantly, creatures synthesized through his Synthesis were born absolutely loyal to him, treating him like their creator god and never betraying him.

Like this Dragonblood Kobold before him.

Ever since its birth, the creature's eyes had been filled with fanaticism whenever it looked at Levi.

Levi could feel the devotion within its soul.

After thinking for a moment, he gave it a name.

"From now on, your name will be Ironbone."

Then he gave Ironbone its order.

"Go."

"Go deep into the swamp and uncover the source of that mysterious aura for me."

The Dragonblood Kobold could not understand human language, but it understood Levi's intent and nodded heavily.

So Levi used Wizard's Hand to throw it beyond the city walls and into the Mist Swamp.

Thanks to the hard scales covering its body, the Dragonblood Kobold Ironbone was unharmed and successfully entered the swamp.

It sensed the presence of its own kind, but paid no attention to it.

In its heart, Father's command was the most important thing in existence.

It would willingly give its life for it.

Thus, after orienting itself within the swamp, Ironbone began moving deeper inside.

It was already nighttime, but its night vision made everything within the swamp appear as clear as daylight. Even the mist could not obstruct its sight.

Although its instincts continuously warned it of danger, the newly born Dragonblood Kobold Ironbone still advanced toward the depths of the swamp without the slightest hesitation, eventually disappearing into the thick mist.

Not long afterward, the kobolds' Great Shaman arrived.

It was the Dragonblood Kobold whose head looked almost indistinguishable from that of an evil dragon.

Surrounded by a group of powerful kobold guards, it came to this place.

Its nose, more sensitive than a hunting dog's, caught the scent of its own kind.

Not an ordinary kobold.

But a Dragonblood Kobold that had awakened the bloodline of its ancestors.

Dragonblood Kobolds were exceedingly rare.

The Great Shaman could not claim to know every single one, but it could recognize the tribal scent each of them carried.

Yet the aura surrounding this suddenly appeared Dragonblood Kobold felt completely unfamiliar to it.

As though it had appeared out of nowhere.

The kobold Great Shaman could not help but frown deeply.

It looked toward the direction where the newborn Dragonblood Kobold Ironbone had disappeared. Deep within its eyes lingered an anxiety it could not dispel.

After remaining silent for a while, it turned its head toward another direction.

The black fog and mist could not obstruct the kobold Great Shaman's vision.

An enormous wall nearly eight meters tall appeared within its sight.

Along the top of the massive wall, braziers burned at regular intervals, their flames driving away the darkness and making the night as bright as day.

Human soldiers with stern expressions stood guard and patrolled above it, carrying weapons or alchemical firearms.

The kobold Great Shaman's gaze landed on the alchemical firearms in the soldiers' hands, and its pupils abruptly contracted.

It was those cursed things that had halted their assault and forcefully pinned them outside the giant wall, preventing them from getting close.

"There's not much time left!" The kobold Great Shaman's eyes grew increasingly anxious, and its mental state became more and more frenzied.

And it was not just it.

All the creatures within the Mist Swamp had become increasingly violent and restless as well.

That frenzy drove them into relentless attacks.

But it was useless.

Last time, they had managed to breach one wall, only to discover another even taller and sturdier wall standing behind it.

What filled the kobold Great Shaman with even greater despair was the fact that among the human soldiers seemed to lurk an incredibly powerful existence.

That figure acted from the shadows, and many powerful magical creatures and kobold shamans had died mysteriously without even understanding how.

That was also the true reason their previous siege had ended in catastrophic failure.

"Damn it!"

"We were so close!"

The kobold Great Shaman ground its teeth in fury.

The enormous pressure was driving it mad.

"There's no time left!"

The kobold Great Shaman decided to gather all of its forces and launch one final assault.

The attack would take place tomorrow night.

There truly—was no time left!!!

After making that decision, the kobold Great Shaman cast one last deep look toward the direction where Ironbone had disappeared. In the end, it let out a nearly inaudible sigh before turning around and leaving.

Outside the Mist Swamp.

Inside the city walls.

The flames illuminated the night sky.

Countless people continued laboring diligently. Though every one of them was exhausted, hope still shone in their eyes.

…

It was time once again for the Bittervine harvest.

Originally, 9,600 strip fields had been reclaimed.

But as the population later increased, the settlers continued opening more farmland farther outward. The number of strip fields surged once again, increasing by more than one and a half times. Many of the new fields had already reached the outer areas of the city Levi planned to build.

After all, it was all worthless saline-alkali land anyway.

And Bittervine was not picky about soil. The more saline the land, the better it grew, and it was remarkably easy to cultivate.

After around a month, the plants had once again produced large starch-filled tubers.

Of course, the yield per unit was much lower than that of the original Bittervine, reduced by nearly half.

That was because a large portion of them had been propagated through cuttings taken from the first generation of [Bittervine], causing a decline in quality.

In the end, the estimated output came to 150,000 pounds of starch.

Only about fifty percent higher than before.

Honestly, that was already quite good.

The refined salt output had also reached sixty-five tons.

After several more planting cycles, the salt content within the saline land would be "grown out" to normal levels. At that point, crops such as wheat and barley could be cultivated there, and yields would no longer remain this low.

Even if Levi's new city eventually housed hundreds of thousands of people, it would still be capable of achieving food self-sufficiency.

Though that was a matter for the future.

According to the previously established rules, the settlers farming those fields handed over a large portion of this harvest to Levi as taxes.

Very few people dared cheat or evade payment.

Part of the reason was Levi's prestige and the support he enjoyed among the people.

But another major reason was that cultivating Bittervine required the lord to provide branch cuttings and leaves for propagation.

Of course, another important factor was that anyone caught cheating would have part of their farmland confiscated and be publicly whipped before the crowd. Afterward, those tax evaders would also face subtle exclusion from the other settlers.

In other words, their reputation would be ruined.

That greatly intimidated some of the "clever opportunists."

When the cost no longer matched the reward, such behavior naturally stopped occurring.

The first tax collection within Levi's territory could be considered a success.

Among those responsible, the internal affairs team led by Yalina and Miss Odelle had contributed enormously through their tireless work. Both women had become noticeably more haggard, almost reaching the same sloppy state as the Sky Knight Rune.

To reward them, Levi generously compensated the two women.

Don't misunderstand.

Not in bed!!!

Using Third-Ring-level Synthesis, Levi created two sets of skincare products from modern society and gifted them to the pair.

The gifts struck directly at their hearts. The moment they heard those strange items could improve their skin, both women became incredibly excited.

Sure enough, the only woman obsessed with beauty was not the Magic Mirror Queen alone.

The two women were extremely satisfied.

And encouraged by Levi, they continued working themselves to the bone for him afterward.

Because there were still countless matters within the territory waiting to be handled.

Collecting agricultural taxes was far from the end of it.

All that Bittervine Starch still needed processing.

The mills first had to grind it into flour.

The bakeries then had to turn it into Bittervine Bread and sell it cheaply.

The refined salt also needed to be dried.

These tasks sounded simple, but in practice they were incredibly complicated.

Production had increased, but processing capacity had not expanded accordingly. All of those problems had to be solved by Yalina and Miss Odelle.

Levi himself rarely intervened anymore.

Recently, he had been busy training his spells and investigating the kobold uprising within the Mist Swamp. He simply had no time to deal with such trivial matters.

If everything still required Levi to handle personally, then wouldn't those skincare products have been given away for nothing?

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

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