Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

The Mermaid Prince was still alive!

A quasi-Sixth-Order existence.

The moment Levi learned this, his expression darkened.

After all, for someone at that level, killing Fourth-Ring Wizards like them would be effortless.

Even if he could become void and Barbara could become wind, what of it?

It wouldn't matter.

A being like this had already begun to touch the domain of rules.

Every movement carried the power of rules.

Their Mana Transformations would be forcibly broken in an instant.

The gulf between their respective realms was like an uncrossable chasm. It wasn't something that could simply be bridged.

The instant Barbara heard Levi's warning, she tensed. Transforming into a gust of wind, she dragged him five or six meters backward before reverting to human form.

Then she saw the towering Mermaid Prince inside the stone coffin stir before slowly sitting up.

Her face filled with disbelief.

"...Impossible."

"The lifespan of the merfolk never exceeds three hundred years. Even royal merfolk are no exception. Even if he'd reached the quasi-Sixth Order, he still shouldn't have lived longer than five hundred years. But more than six hundred years have already passed. How could he possibly still be alive?!"

Had she known the Mermaid Prince was still alive, she never would have come here.

It would have been no different from seeking death.

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to her.

"Could it be... he really obtained the Sea God's divinity? Is that how he's managed to live this long?"

If that were true, then the Mermaid Prince was even more dangerous than she had imagined.

There was a very good chance he had already crossed the barrier between the Fifth and Sixth Orders and become a true Sixth-Order existence.

Perhaps...

Even stronger.

Above the Sixth Order?

The realm of demigods?

Barbara's face turned deathly pale.

She immediately decided they couldn't stay here any longer. Half her body dissolved into wind as she prepared to sweep Levi away and flee.

She truly deserved her reputation as one of the exceedingly rare Good Witches in Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Even in a crisis like this, she never considered abandoning Levi. Instead, she simply shrieked, "Levi! If we make it out alive this time, that means I saved your life! You'll have to compensate me! Equivalent exchange! It has to be fair!"

Levi grabbed her firmly by the arm.

Keeping his expression calm, he said, "We don't need to run, my lady. The situation isn't nearly that bad."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Weren't you the one who said the Mermaid Prince isn't dead yet?"

Barbara froze mid-motion and frowned at him, though she did not cancel her Mana Transformation.

"He's not dead."

"But he's about to be."

Blue light shimmered in Levi's eyes as he pushed Detection to its absolute limit, calmly studying the Mermaid Prince as he slowly rose from the coffin.

This Fifth-Order merfolk, who had survived for over six hundred years, had only the faintest spark of life remaining.

Like a tiny candle flickering in the wind, it could go out at any moment.

The last of his strength had long since been exhausted during his endless slumber.

As things stood, he no longer possessed the power to threaten either Levi or Barbara.

In fact, the only reason the Mermaid Prince had managed to awaken at all was because he had absorbed the power contained within Barbara's Mermaid Bloodline Sigil.

Otherwise, he would have remained asleep until true death finally claimed him.

But even that borrowed strength wouldn't sustain him for long.

Sensing the presence of outsiders, the Mermaid Prince slowly opened his eyes.

They were as deep a blue as the darkest depths of the sea, carrying an unfathomable solemnity.

When he saw Barbara and Levi—but failed to sense any descendants of his own bloodline—he paused in surprise.

Then he let out a long sigh.

His body began collapsing into countless bubbles.

Originally, he had intended to leave the blessings of the deep sea to his descendants.

Instead, two pure-blooded humans had arrived.

There was no point anymore.

So he chose to end his life with dignity.

Levi immediately rushed over and reached out, placing a finger against the Mermaid Prince's body.

The Mermaid Prince had no idea why Levi was doing this.

He merely watched him with quiet indifference.

The instant Levi's fingertip touched him, the Mermaid Prince's body completely dissolved into bubbles and vanished before his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

Barbara canceled her Mana Transformation, walked over to Levi, and asked in confusion.

Levi simply shook his head without answering.

Barbara assumed she had already figured him out.

"Were you trying to get something valuable from the Mermaid Prince?"

"It's useless."

"According to legend, the merfolk are descended from the Sea God's bloodline. When they die, their bodies dissolve into foam and return to the sea."

"No one can desecrate the body of a merfolk."

She spoke with complete certainty.

"You won't gain anything."

Levi merely pressed his lips together in silence.

How could Barbara, a mere Fourth-Ring Wizard, possibly imagine the true extent of his abilities?

Even though the Mermaid Prince had ultimately dissolved into foam...

Levi had still gained something.

Within his Sea of Souls, two new spell crystals had appeared.

[Polymorph: Flounder!]

[Illusion!]

Flounder Polymorph was most likely connected to the curse that had once transformed the Mermaid Prince into a flounder.

Levi suspected that if he continued upgrading the spell...

...it would eventually evolve into a Mermaid Polymorph.

And then there was...

Illusion!

This was the ability the Mermaid Prince had used to grant the fisherman and his wife's wishes!

The illusion that Levi and Barbara had encountered before entering the tomb had also been created by this Illusion spell.

If he could continue raising the level of Illusion, then perhaps one day he would be able to achieve what the Mermaid Prince had—making the false indistinguishable from the real.

Sometimes, what is real is false, and what is false is real!!!

Of course, that kind of effect would only be possible after raising Illusion to an extremely high level.

Levi now possessed far too many spells. Every single one seemed important, so it was hard to say how much time and effort he would ultimately be able to devote to this one.

There were now fifteen spell crystals in Levi's Sea of Souls.

What did that mean?

It meant he had already surpassed the limit of a Fourth-Ring Wizard and reached the level expected of a Fifth-Ring Wizard.

If Levi could raise his Spiritual Power further and elevate even one spell to the Fifth-Ring level, then he would become a genuine Fifth-Ring Wizard.

But that was far easier said than done.

At the moment, he didn't even possess a single Fourth-Ring spell—that is, a Level 7 spell—let alone a Fifth-Ring one.

The good news, however, was that now that his Spiritual Power had reached the level of a Fourth-Ring Wizard, his Sea of Souls no longer imposed any restrictions. Once he returned, Detection would soon be able to advance to the Fourth-Ring level.

His other Third-Ring spells would be able to break through as well.

But Levi simply had too many spells. His time and energy were limited, and there was no way he could develop every one of them equally. He would have to focus on a select few.

A spell like Illusion certainly looked impressive and useful.

But Levi already had plenty of impressive and useful spells.

Take Conversion, for example. It was one of the very first spells he had ever obtained, yet even now it still hadn't reached the Third Ring.

It wasn't that Levi failed to appreciate how much Conversion had contributed.

He simply didn't have enough time. Focusing on one spell inevitably meant neglecting another.

As a result, Conversion's level still wasn't particularly high—at least relative to how quickly Levi's strength and realm had advanced.

Besides, wasn't it obvious? Several of his spells were still only Level 1.

Thinking about that, Levi let out a helpless sigh.

What a luxurious problem to have.

While his thoughts wandered, Barbara, seeing that Levi still hadn't answered her question, had long since turned her attention elsewhere.

She was going to look for some loot herself!

Surely they hadn't gone through all that effort only to return empty-handed.

It wasn't long before Barbara discovered a series of murals carved into the inner wall of the stone coffin.

Protected by magic, they remained perfectly clear even after all these years.

The first mural depicted a fisherman casting his net into the sea and catching a fish.

Barbara frowned.

"Is this the Mermaid Prince's life story?"

Her words brought Levi back to his senses, and he followed her gaze toward the murals.

The first mural did indeed show a fisherman catching a fish.

The second, however, depicted a woman inside a palace looking at the fisherman with a puzzled expression.

The third showed the palace disappearing and turning into a humble thatched hut. The fisherman returned to the seaside and caught the same fish once again...

Levi continued examining them.

The second-to-last mural showed the fisherman dividing the fish into six portions: two for the woman to eat, two for a mare, and two buried in the ground.

The final mural depicted two children, two foals, and two flowers.

Although the murals ended there, the information they revealed immediately reminded Levi of one of Grimm's fairy tales—The Golden Children.

Before he could recall the story itself, Barbara suddenly cried out in confusion.

"At first, these murals really do seem to tell the Mermaid Prince's story... but the further they go, the less that seems to be the case."

"Could these actually be clues the Mermaid Prince discovered while searching for the Sea God's divinity?"

"That fish represents the Sea God's divinity. Being eaten means the divinity was transferred onto land."

"That would also explain why the Mermaid Prince ultimately came ashore!"

"Those two children, those two horses, and those two flowers... they all carry the Sea God's divinity."

"Find them, and perhaps you'll find the Sea God's divinity."

"The Mermaid Prince must never have found them during his lifetime!"

"Which means... the Sea God's divinity still exists!"

Barbara exclaimed excitedly, throwing out an arm.

"But the Mermaid Prince lived six or seven hundred years ago. That means these murals are at least that old as well. So where are we supposed to find the people, the horses, and the flowers shown here after all this time?" Barbara said, her brows knitted tightly together.

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

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