Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

The Levi-created Ironbone walked deep into the heart of the Mist Swamp.

The farther it went, the thicker the fog became. Visibility dropped lower and lower, and the mist itself carried a faint corrosive property.

But none of that affected Ironbone after awakening its draconic bloodline.

Its scales could resist the corrosion of the fog. Its eyes could pierce through the mist and clearly perceive the surrounding landscape.

It strode across the deathly swamp as though walking on solid ground.

The kobold tracks that had once been everywhere, along with the roars of swamp creatures, had completely vanished. Only the sticky squelching of mud beneath its feet, mixed with the occasional crack of dead branches, echoed through the empty swamp, eerie enough to make one's heart tremble.

An ordinary soldier or hunter would have long since fled from the oppressive silence, but there was not the slightest trace of fear in Ironbone's eyes.

The deeper it advanced into the swamp, the stronger that horrifying, maddening aura became.

The kobolds that had once lived deep within the Mist Swamp had collectively retreated to the outer regions precisely because of this presence.

Even Dragonblood Kobolds who had awakened their bloodline found it difficult to endure such terrifying pressure.

But Ironbone was different. It was not a normal Dragonblood Kobold. It was the product of Levi synthesizing sixteen ordinary kobolds together.

It regarded Levi as its creator.

To it, Levi's orders were a mission that had to be fulfilled.

So even as the aura deep within the swamp grew increasingly dreadful and overwhelming, its conviction still supported it as it continued forward, seeking the source of this crisis even at the cost of its life.

And during that arduous advance, Ironbone sharply noticed something strange.

There was a faint trace of heat in the air.

Its mind stirred, and it immediately followed that scorching presence step by step toward a certain direction.

The swamp fog became denser and denser, but the fog in the direction Ironbone was heading was noticeably thicker than elsewhere. The farther it went, the more obvious the difference became. The temperature also rose significantly, and the air was filled with a pungent sulfurous smell that made breathing difficult.

But for kobolds—especially Dragonblood Kobolds—it instead felt rather comfortable.

Ironbone walked for an unknown length of time through the pitch-black mist where one could not see even an outstretched hand.

Then suddenly, the fog ahead opened up.

A massive sulfur pool appeared before its eyes—

The water was a murky dark yellow. Fine bubbles continuously rolled across the surface, releasing bursts of white steam. The temperature was astonishingly high. The weeds along the edge of the pool had already been scorched black and withered away. Even the ground itself had been baked into a charred yellow color.

That terrifying scorching aura was emanating directly from the sulfur pool.

And that lethal presence had reached its peak.

Ironbone's soul trembled uncontrollably. An ordinary Dragonblood Kobold would already have died from terror at this point.

But Ironbone still endured.

Its golden vertical pupils stared fixedly at the sulfur pool. It was almost certain now that the abnormality within the Mist Swamp originated here.

However, it could not return and report back just like this.

Because of its creator's command, it still had to continue investigating.

It had to uncover the secret hidden beneath the sulfur pool.

Ironbone looked around in silence for a moment.

Then it opened its jaws, unleashing blazing dragonfire toward the sulfur pool.

Ironbone wanted to see what exactly lay beneath it!

The instant the dragonfire came into contact with the sulfur pool, it did not merely ignite.

The liquid sulfur within the pool seemed like a demon enraged.

At first, it violently churned and boiled, releasing sharp screeches. Then countless golden flames burst wildly upward from the bottom of the pool, merging together with the dragonfire.

Immediately afterward, time itself seemed to freeze.

At the center of the sulfur pool, a blinding sphere of light rapidly expanded, devouring every color and every sound.

And then, in the next second, destruction descended.

BOOM!!!

That was not an explosion.

It was the collapse of the world itself.

A mushroom cloud mixed with sulfur, fire, and shockwaves erupted skyward. Even with its hardened scales protecting its body, Ironbone was instantly reduced to charcoal beneath that horrifying force, blasted apart into countless fragments.

The scorching shockwave swept outward in every direction like an invisible warhammer, carrying with it burning chunks of sulfur.

The dense surrounding fog was instantly wiped away.

The nearby environment vanished with it.

The earth wailed. Rocks melted. The air itself ignited.

It was as though the entire world had been reduced to nothing but deafening thunder and the suffocating stench of sulfur.

When the shockwave finally dissipated, the sulfur pool had been replaced by a gigantic charred crater at the center of the explosion.

The rocks along the edges still flowed with crimson magma. Wisps of black smoke and unextinguished flames struggled within the pit, as though the entrance to hell itself had been torn wide open.

Ironbone, the Dragonblood Kobold, had been utterly loyal and devoted to Levi unto death.

But it lacked common sense.

It did not know that fire reacting with sulfur would trigger such a violent catastrophe.

Fortunately, it no longer needed to regret that mistake.

The explosion had completely annihilated it.

Even if Levi possessed a resurrection spell, it would not have been able to bring Ironbone back.

Whether it wished to or not, it could finally rest in peace.

Levi sensed Ironbone's death immediately.

Although he had no idea what Ironbone had done deep within the Mist Swamp, the fact remained—

Ironbone was dead.

And in the very next instant, that world-destroying explosion erupted from the depths of the Mist Swamp.

Levi immediately fell silent.

And not just him.

Around the borders of the Mist Swamp, whether kobolds or ordinary humans, everyone witnessed the explosion.

The face of Silverclaw Viscount darkened uncertainly.

The magical creatures descended into madness.

The soldiers of Hornreach wore expressions filled with intense unease.

Meanwhile, the Kobold Great Shaman's eyes lost focus, its mind turning blank. Its mouth trembled slightly as it muttered in Dragon Tongue—a language only Dragonblood Kobolds could understand: "The Dragon of Destruction shall awaken from the depths of the Lake of Fire. It shall bring eternal death and war."

And just as it spoke those words, a gigantic head slowly rose from the sulfur pool that had become a massive explosion crater—

The head was covered in pitch-black scales. Its eyes burned like molten lava, its pupils narrow and vertical. Rows of razor-sharp fangs filled its jaws, while scalding sulfuric fluid continuously dripped from its mouth.

The head alone was as enormous as the sulfur pool had originally been.

Even the portion exposed above the crater was taller than Levi's castle.

The moment it appeared, the sky abruptly dimmed.

Inside the castle, Levi felt as though he were sitting on a bed of needles. A deadly sensation flooded over him.

His soul was warning him.

Ironically, people like Yalina were too weak to even sense it.

Levi immediately cast a Third-Ring Detection toward the depths of the swamp.

The aura that surfaced was utterly chaotic, as though heavily disrupted.

In the end, only a single line of information appeared—

[The Seven-Headed Dragon, an important character from the fairy tale instance "The Two Brothers."]

Everything else remained unknown.

The moment Levi saw that information, his expression turned ugly.

The Seven-Headed Dragon!

Anything related to dragons could never be simple.

And this thing had seven heads!!!

All he had wanted was to find a place to peacefully enjoy farming life, not become some dragon-slaying hero.

And the opponent before him was the nightmare-level Seven-Headed Dragon.

Only now did Levi finally understand why Detection had been unable to uncover the secret hidden deep within the Mist Swamp.

The gap in existence was simply too vast.

A Third-Ring spell-level Detection could not perceive information about the Seven-Headed Dragon!

It was practically the same situation as the evil god he had encountered before.

Levi let out a long sigh.

What kind of absurd situation even was this?

Wasn't this supposed to be some beautiful fairy tale world? Yet simply trying to farm peacefully could still lead to encountering such an overwhelmingly terrifying existence.

He immediately called over Yalina—the coachwoman and head steward—along with Miss Odelle, the Sky Knight Rune, and the others.

The moment anything went wrong, they would flee.

Even if they probably could not outrun it, they still had to try.

Even now, Levi still had no idea that this entire disaster had been caused by his absolutely loyal creation—

The Dragonblood Kobold, Ironbone.

If he had known, he probably would have coughed up blood from sheer rage.

If not for Ironbone's stunt, the Seven-Headed Dragon would still have awakened eventually—

Just not now.

Levi would have had far more time. At the very least, his strength could have improved considerably.

Though against an existence like this, it probably still would not have mattered much.

At that moment—

The changes deep within the Mist Swamp continued.

As that gigantic, hideous, terrifying dragon head emerged from the explosion crater, the earth suddenly began to quake violently. Massive fissures split open across the swamp, and scorching magma burst upward from within them.

Accompanied by deafening rumbling, one enormous head after another slowly rose from the cracks—

Some were covered in azure scales.

Some gleamed with a dark purple sheen.

Some possessed twisted horns.

Each and every head was just as massive as the one that had risen from the sulfur pool, and every pair of eyes radiated a savage intent to destroy all things.

Seven colossal heads lined themselves up across the shattered earth.

Their necks slowly extended before ultimately converging into a single body—

A Seven-Headed Dragon.

Its entire body was pitch-black. Its wings spread wide enough to blot out the heavens themselves. Under the glow of magma, its scales reflected an eerie luster. All seven mouths exhaled scorching breath simultaneously, causing the swamp's temperature to skyrocket in an instant, until even the mist itself began to burn away.

The pressure radiating from it alone was enough to make the kobolds that had fled to the swamp's outskirts tremble uncontrollably before collapsing to their knees.

Meanwhile, the humans and other creatures outside the Mist Swamp were overcome by inexplicable dread, pounding hearts, and cold sweat.

This was the oppressive pressure created by an overwhelming difference in the hierarchy of life itself.

As a Third-Ring Wizard, Levi could still endure it relatively well.

But the others lacked his powerful Spiritual Power, and their reactions were far more intense.

Levi watched as the terrifying dragon deep within the Mist Swamp slowly spread its enormous wings and rose into the sky, soaring above the swamp.

Its colossal shadow blotted out the heavens and covered the entire swamp.

All seven mouths unleashed earth-shaking roars simultaneously.

The sound pierced through the mist and spread across hundreds of miles, proclaiming to the world its awakening and arrival.

And in truth, Levi was not the only one watching.

At the same moment—

Within the golden castle of Stromberg, the Raven Queen slowly raised her head, her abyss-like gaze turning toward it.

Within the frozen holy temple of the northern lands, the queen cloaked in wind and snow reflected the image of the Seven-Headed Dragon within her crystalline eyes.

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

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