Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

Levi couldn't help but think that Rapunzel's godmother seemed to carry quite a bit of influence among witches.

He reached into his pocket, took out the special wooden box, and handed it to Barbara.

"Lady Barbara, this is a gift I prepared for you."

Barbara accepted it without the slightest hesitation. With a cold snort, she opened the box and found what looked like crystallized dragon's blood inside. Somehow, Rapunzel's godmother had purified the dragon's blood to an astonishing degree. The moment the lid opened, an overwhelming Draconic Presence filled the air.

The geese immediately became restless.

Even Mykes, the count's son who had been sleeping on the bench, unconsciously tensed.

Barbara promptly closed the lid, and the oppressive dragon's aura vanished.

Her expression grew serious.

"Blood from a Sixth-Order dragon. Just one step away from reaching the demigod-level Seventh Order."

"This is the blood of the Seven-Headed Dragon that appeared in the Mist Swamp, isn't it?"

It seemed Barbara was surprisingly well-informed about what was happening in the outside world.

Levi nodded.

"That's right. I collected it after the Seven-Headed Dragon fought the Four-Winged Angel and its blood was scattered across the battlefield."

"But I had no idea the Seven-Headed Dragon had already reached the Sixth Order."

Barbara looked at Levi for a moment before letting out a mocking chuckle.

"A Sixth-Order magical beast is equivalent to a human Sixth-Ring Wizard. But dragons are naturally stronger than wizards of the same rank."

"And this wasn't just any dragon—it was a Seven-Headed Dragon."

"Even an angel couldn't defeat it."

"In all of humanity, only a handful of people possess that level of power."

She closed the box and nodded slightly.

"This gift of yours is indeed valuable."

"Now tell me."

She fixed her eyes on Levi.

"What exactly did you go through all this trouble to find me for?"

Levi didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he glanced at the sleeping Mykes.

A mysterious power was quietly reshaping and strengthening the young man's body. When he woke up, he would discover that his strength had increased severalfold, allowing him to break through from the Knight realm into the Great Knight realm.

Only then did Levi turn back to Barbara.

"I wish to ask you how to break through to the Fourth-Ring Wizard realm."

"The Fourth-Ring Wizard realm?"

Barbara carefully examined him from head to toe before shaking her head.

"That gift isn't enough."

"What do you want?"

Levi met her gaze without backing down.

"I haven't decided yet."

"But every exchange must follow the principle of equivalent value."

She pointed at Mykes as an example.

"Take him, for instance."

"He helped me carry my hay home and even gave an old woman with bad legs like me a ride."

"So naturally, I rewarded him accordingly."

"I raised his strength to the level of a Great Knight."

"And I'll even give him a little money on top of that."

"That's a fair trade."

Even now...

Barbara was still putting on an act.

Before this, Levi hadn't understood why she was behaving this way.

After all, she was a Fourth-Ring Wizard, and his Detection spell couldn't reveal her core secrets.

But Barbara had made one mistake.

She shouldn't have allowed the Goose Girl to appear before him.

His Third-Ring Detection spell had seen straight through her.

Not only had Levi discovered the rich mermaid bloodline flowing through her veins, he had also uncovered one crucial piece of information—

Her bloodline was the key to opening her ancestors' tomb.

Then he discovered another piece of information about her—

Every month, Barbara drew a portion of her blood. She claimed the bloodletting was part of a treatment, but in reality, she had another purpose.

A little deduction was all Levi needed to understand Barbara's true motive for taking the Goose Girl in.

The Goose Girl's powerful mermaid bloodline caused her tears to turn into pearls whenever she cried.

To ordinary people, such an ability was priceless.

But to a high-ranking Fourth-Ring Wizard like Barbara...

It was utterly insignificant.

Barbara wasn't someone who lacked money.

Hadn't the original fairy tale ended with Barbara giving every pearl she had collected back to the Goose Girl?

That alone represented an unimaginable fortune.

Yet Barbara hadn't cared in the slightest.

She looked down on that kind of wealth.

She hadn't taken the Goose Girl in because she was some kind of money-printing machine.

The only kind of "wealth" that could truly interest Barbara was the kind found within the supernatural world.

Levi was convinced that something inside the Goose Girl's ancestral tomb was incredibly valuable—something Barbara desperately wanted.

Otherwise, there would have been no reason for her to go through all this.

Barbara was a witch who strictly believed in equivalent exchange.

That was one of the few pieces of information Levi had managed to learn about her.

Mykes had simply carried her for part of the journey.

In return, Barbara elevated him to the level of a Great Knight.

That reward clearly exceeded the value of what he had done.

But Barbara still did it.

Because Mykes himself was one of the "items" Barbara had chosen for an equivalent exchange with the Goose Girl.

Looking at the original fairy tale, what had Barbara actually given the Goose Girl?

She had raised her for three years.

She had collected the pearl tears she cried—though those pearls rightfully belonged to the Goose Girl in the first place.

And most importantly...

She had found the Goose Girl a husband, given her a palace, and even provided her with a large household of servants.

Barbara had given the Goose Girl so many things not because her feelings for the girl ran especially deep—though that may have played a small part.

There was only one real reason.

Barbara believed that what she had obtained from the Goose Girl was worth that price.

Of course, that was another matter.

Back to the point.

When Barbara said she hadn't decided what she wanted yet and used Mykes as an example, what she really meant was that what Levi had offered simply wasn't valuable enough for her to reveal the method of advancing to the Fourth-Ring Wizard realm.

Levi carefully reviewed everything he possessed.

Aside from the dragon and angel materials, along with the golden discs, he really didn't have many treasures of exceptional value.

He possessed very few of the legendary treasures from the fairy tales.

The golden discs were out of the question. They were his greatest means of survival, and there was no guarantee Barbara would even be interested in them.

In the end, Levi realized he had nothing that could truly tempt Barbara into making the exchange.

After a moment of silence, he said, "I'll find something that interests you. When I do, I'll come back."

Barbara nodded, wearing a gentle, grandmotherly smile. She lifted the wooden box containing the dragon's blood and gestured toward him.

"Your gift..."

"It's yours, whether our deal succeeds or not," Levi replied.

He had plenty of the Seven-Headed Dragon's blood.

But the method to break through to the Fourth-Ring Wizard realm?

He didn't have it.

Neither did Rapunzel's godmother.

His Spiritual Power had already reached the required level.

His Detection spell had likewise been trained to the very limit of a Third-Ring Spell.

Yet unlike before, it refused to advance naturally into a Fourth-Ring Spell, as though something invisible were holding it back.

That was the downside of having no master.

His journey to becoming a Third-Ring Wizard had gone remarkably smoothly.

Only now, at the threshold of becoming a Fourth-Ring Wizard, had he finally hit a wall.

He had no idea how to move forward.

At present, Barbara was the only person who might know the answer.

He was willing to pay an enormous price for it.

So what was a little dragon's blood?

As long as she wasn't asking for the stars themselves, anything within Levi's power was negotiable.

All he wanted was that ticket leading into the realm of the Fourth-Ring Wizard.

He looked at Barbara once more.

"If you decide what you want, please let me know."

...

Levi left.

But not entirely.

He merely exited the barrier Barbara had created and floated high above the Thorn Wasteland.

Seated atop a Cloud Spirit, Levi closed his eyes and began meditating to restore his Magic Power.

Barbara knew he was still there.

She said nothing.

She simply looked at the wooden box in her hand, sensing the extraordinary purity of the dragon's blood inside. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.

In the end, she remained silent and turned to look at Mykes, who was still sleeping on the bench.

The time had come.

It was time to send him away.

He still had to bring Serena's parents here.

Reuniting Serena with her long-lost family was also part of Barbara's bargain with the Goose Girl—even if Serena herself never realized that, in her adoptive mother's eyes, it was all just another transaction.

Barbara walked over and gently shook Mykes awake.

"Wake up. You can't sleep here."

Mykes groggily opened his eyes, completely unaware of the transformation that had taken place within his body.

His mind still felt like mush, incapable of thinking clearly.

He merely listened as Barbara continued talking.

"Yes, you carried quite a lot for me earlier, and it wore you out."

"But you're still perfectly fine, aren't you?"

"So now I'll give you the reward you've earned."

"I know you don't need money."

"So I'm giving you something special instead."

As she spoke, Barbara placed an exquisite little box into Mykes' hands.

It had been carved from a single piece of emerald and was worth a fortune.

Her expression grew somewhat complicated as she softly said, "Take good care of it."

"It will bring you happiness."

"And now you may leave."

The only words that truly registered in Mykes' muddled mind were the last ones.

He immediately jumped to his feet.

His head cleared, and his spirits instantly lifted.

Mykes thanked Barbara—he truly was a well-mannered young man.

Then he hurried down the mountain without looking back once, accompanied by the cheerful honking of the geese behind him.

He couldn't stand staying there for even one more second.

What Mykes didn't know was that the moment he descended the mountain, he entered the Thorn Wasteland.

He quickly lost his sense of direction and was soon hopelessly lost.

Meanwhile...

From atop the Cloud Spirit, Levi watched Mykes leave.

After pondering for a moment, he consumed a large amount of Magic Power and cast Detection, activating an intelligence search.

More often than not, Intelligence Detection brought him pleasant surprises.

He hoped it would reveal a way to break the current deadlock.

One piece of information after another appeared before his eyes, visible only to him.

[Intelligence 1: The Magic Mirror Queen has begun creating the poisoned apple...]

[Intelligence 2: ...]

[Intelligence 3: After properly settling the Goose Girl, the witch Barbara will leave the Thorn Wasteland five days later and travel to the mermaid tomb. Using the Goose Girl's blood, she will create a bloodline seal in an attempt to open the tomb. However, because the bloodline's purity is insufficient, the attempt will ultimately fail.]

[Intelligence 4: ...]

[Intelligence 5: ...]

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