Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

While Barbara was still suffering from a headache, Levi used Detection to uncover a great deal of hidden information. As the clues connected in his mind, they gradually formed a complete timeline.

The first events took place six or seven hundred years ago. The exact date was unknown, but it was earlier than when the Mermaid Prince came ashore.

A Golden Fish carrying the Sea God's Divinity was caught in the same fisherman's net again and again. The fish came to believe that this was fate's arrangement, so it instructed the fisherman's wife and his horse to eat its body, while the remaining parts were buried in the ground.

From the earth grew Golden Lilies, which gave birth to two Golden Foals, while the fisherman's wife gave birth to two Golden Children.

When the two Golden Children grew up, they wished to ride out into the world on adventures.

Before leaving, they told their father that he could judge whether they were safe by watching the two Golden Lilies at home. If the flowers remained bright and vibrant, they were healthy. If they wilted, they had fallen ill. If they withered away completely, they were dead.

After the brothers set out, they entered an inn, where everyone mocked them because their entire bodies were made of gold.

One of the brothers could not bear the humiliation. He abandoned the journey and returned home to stay with their father.

The other brother wrapped himself in a bearskin to conceal his golden body and bravely crossed a forest haunted by bandits.

Within that forest, the brave Golden Child fell in love with a beautiful young woman and married her. However, his father-in-law despised him, believing the bearskin made him look like a beggar, and planned to kill him. Later, though, he accidentally discovered that the young man revealed his golden body while sleeping, and abandoned his murderous intentions.

One day, the Golden Child dreamed of a magnificent stag and chased after it. He accidentally fell into a witch's trap and was turned to stone.

One of the Golden Lilies back home immediately withered. Seeing this, the brother who had remained at home set out at once to search the forest for his elder brother. He saw through the witch's scheme and forced her, through sheer determination, to lift the spell, bringing his brother back to life.

In the end, the brothers were reunited. One returned home to care for their aging father, while the other continued living happily with his beautiful wife.

That was the destined storyline of the fairy tale The Golden Children.

Of course, those were events that happened later in the brothers' lives, so there was no need to discuss them for now.

Returning to the Mermaid Prince's timeline...

After the Golden Fish carrying the Sea God's Divinity came ashore and was eaten, the cursed Mermaid Prince was revealed to have been the loser in a war beneath the sea. Another Mermaid Prince had defeated him, ascended the throne as the Mermaid King, and become the ruler of the ocean world.

This was the information Levi had uncovered from the murals carved onto the stone coffin.

If Levi's guess was correct, then this Mermaid King was closely connected to the Little Mermaid from the fairy tale The Little Mermaid.

But that was another story.

Returning to the Mermaid Prince...

As the defeated prince, he wanted to reclaim everything that belonged to him. It wasn't about proving to others how extraordinary he was. He wanted to tell the world that whatever belonged to him, he would take it back.

Yes—the throne of the Mermaid King had always been his.

Unfortunately, he no longer had any chance of making a comeback in the ocean world.

So he turned his attention to the missing Sea God's Divinity. Having learned certain hidden truths, he struck a bargain with the Sea Witch, obtained a pair of human legs, and came ashore.

This was connected to the fairy tale The Fisherman and His Wife.

However, after arriving on land, the Mermaid Prince searched for many years without ever finding the Sea God's Divinity. All he managed to uncover were a few scattered clues.

Therefore, before entering his eternal sleep, he carved all of those clues onto his stone coffin. His hope was that one day, an outstanding descendant would discover his tomb, inherit his will, continue searching for the Sea God's Divinity, merge with it to become a new Divine One, then return to the ocean world and reclaim the Mermaid King's throne for their bloodline.

Unfortunately, the Mermaid Prince's dream was destined to fail.

Not only had his bloodline become exceedingly thin after generations on land...

...the people who eventually discovered his tomb were not his descendants at all, but Barbara and Levi.

The clues he had painstakingly gathered through countless hardships ultimately became Barbara's and Levi's reward.

Even so, relying on those clues alone to find the Sea God's Divinity was like searching for a needle in the ocean—especially after several hundred years had already passed.

Barbara realized that as well. A deep frown creased her brow, and her expression darkened.

Levi, on the other hand, remained much calmer. Thanks to the knowledge from his previous life, he knew more than Barbara did. He already knew that the Sea God's Divinity was connected to the story of The Golden Children.

Although several centuries had passed, Levi still remembered every detail of that fairy tale. Using its storyline as a guide, he might be able to locate descendants of the Golden Children's bloodline.

After all, he possessed Detection.

Once he raised Detection to an even higher level, uncovering secrets like these would become much easier.

Levi's chances of obtaining the Sea God's Divinity were far greater than Barbara's.

After all, this was the key to breaking through to the Seventh Order.

And becoming a Divine One meant stepping onto the path of immortality.

Who wouldn't want that?

A trace of excitement flashed deep within Levi's eyes.

Barbara failed to notice the subtle change in his expression. She looked utterly disappointed instead. After staring at the white jade coffin for a long moment, she let out a regretful sigh and said to Levi, "All right."

"This expedition was a failure."

"Still, these things are enough to make up for at least some of our losses."

"As agreed, we'll split everything equally."

"Also, you made an outstanding contribution during this expedition, so I'll compensate you for it."

"If you're willing... I was going to offer bloodline purification, but you don't need that. Your wizardry is better than mine. Instead, I'll teach you the method of creating Bloodline Sigils through bloodline purification as compensation. What do you think?"

Barbara spoke without pausing, yet there wasn't the slightest spark left in her eyes.

It was obvious this expedition had dealt her a tremendous blow.

Even so, she still insisted on dividing the spoils according to the principle of fairness.

Levi glanced at her before turning his gaze toward the white jade coffin.

"Is this thing very valuable?" he asked.

"Yes. While researching the Mermaid Prince's life, I learned that he once came across a stone tainted by the bloodline aura of the mythical Gorgon Sisters... I never expected him to turn it into a coffin... This is that very stone."

"It can slow the passage of life and improve meditation efficiency. It remains effective even for Fourth-Ring Wizards and Fifth-Ring Wizards, making it an exceptionally rare treasure."

"With this alone, our trip wasn't a complete waste," Barbara said.

"Let's take it with us... Actually... let's take everything in the tomb that can be moved... Then we'll divide it all fairly... That's enough." As she spoke, Barbara's tone gradually became more irritable, though she herself didn't realize it.

Perhaps the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

Levi understood. He said nothing and simply continued looking at the white jade coffin.

"The Gorgon Sisters?" he murmured.

Barbara heard him. She knew a great deal about them, but assumed Levi did not. After all, much of the knowledge from the Age of the Old Gods had been heavily suppressed.

Young wizards weren't necessarily aware of it.

So, true to her nature—Barbara had always been a kind-hearted witch—she patiently explained.

"The Three Gorgon Sisters were descendants of the first generation of the Deep Sea gods. Their father was Phorcys, the Father of a Hundred Monsters and the former Primordial God of Chaos beneath the Sea. Their mother was Ceto, the Great Sea Monster."

"The three sisters were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa."

"Medusa?" Levi's expression turned surprised upon hearing the name.

"You've heard of Medusa?" Barbara asked.

"A little. I've heard her eyes could turn people to stone," Levi replied.

"Exactly." Barbara nodded before continuing. "But it wasn't just Medusa. All three Gorgon Sisters possessed the power to petrify others. In fact, Medusa's two older sisters were even stronger in that regard."

"I see." Levi raised an eyebrow slightly.

"They lived on the legendary Island of Sarpedon, also known as the Island of Mist and Stone."

"But Medusa didn't live there at first!"

"Unlike her two sisters, Medusa was born looking no different from an ordinary person, and she was extraordinarily beautiful."

"Back then, the Sea God Poseidon coveted her beauty and pursued her repeatedly. Having nowhere else to turn, Medusa sought refuge in the temple of the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, where she vowed to remain chaste for the rest of her life in service to the goddess. But Poseidon ignored Athena's sacred laws, entered the temple, and violated Medusa."

"Athena was furious, but she didn't dare confront Poseidon. So instead, she took out her anger on Medusa."

"Athena cursed Medusa!"

"Ironically, the curse awakened Medusa's bloodline power. She gained the same abilities as her two sisters, and with their help, fled to the Island of Sarpedon, where she came to despise the gods—especially Poseidon and Athena."

"Later, Athena sent a hero to kill Medusa and mounted her severed head upon her shield."

"From the blood Medusa shed, one part gave birth to Poseidon's offspring, while another fused with the rocks of the Island of Sarpedon and became this." She looked at the white jade coffin. "It possesses abilities beneath the notice of the gods, yet extremely useful to people like us."

Barbara rested her gaze on the white jade coffin.

"That's its origin."

"So that's how it happened." Levi nodded thoughtfully.

Barbara continued, "Let's take it with us. Once we're back, we'll cut it apart and split it evenly."

Her voice was utterly devoid of enthusiasm.

Levi said nothing more. He simply nodded. If it could improve meditation efficiency, then he wanted to see just how effective it really was.

Just then, Barbara suddenly remembered something and warned him, "Oh, right."

"In some places, there are still secret cults that worship the Gorgon Sisters. They draw power from them and also carry out the Gorgons' will by hunting down anyone connected to the Sea God Poseidon."

"We'd better keep this coffin hidden. If those fanatics ever see it, they'll believe we've desecrated one of their sacred relics, and that'll bring us nothing but trouble," Barbara said.

"..."

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

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