This was a conflict between divine authority and royal authority.
The Baron of Oakwood was unwilling to let the Church erode his lordly power, so just as Levi had expected, he suppressed the matter of the bandits worshipping an evil god.
And Yalina's voluntary departure also greatly pleased the Baron of Oakwood.
If things had followed the original fairy tale plot—luring the bandits to the wedding and mobilizing a large force to capture and execute the rest—there would have been no way to avoid alerting the Church.
As for what price the lord in the fairy tale had paid, that was never mentioned.
Naturally, Levi had no way of knowing.
But there was one thing he could clearly see—these bandits were truly stupid.
After the cook had drugged them and escaped, they still didn't suspect anything was amiss. They made no preparations at all, and in the end, they met their deaths.
But the world itself was a slapdash stage.
From Levi's higher-dimensional perspective, he could see the inconsistencies. But those caught within the situation were blind to them. The bandits failed to notice anything wrong, which led to the later events—the robber bridegroom attending his own wedding, only to be caught in one fell swoop.
Of course, part of it was also due to the bandits' lack of strength.
If every one of them had possessed the power of a Great Knight, the fairy tale's ending would likely have been completely different.
A children's fairy tale would have instantly turned into a dark one.
At this thought, Levi let out a light chuckle.
Then he thought of himself—his own situation wasn't much better.
The Magic Mirror Queen was sending a Great Knight and a squad after him to silence him.
Although a single Great Knight was no longer worth his concern—if he wanted, he could deal with one at any time—the real issue wasn't the Great Knight, but the Magic Mirror Queen behind him.
If Levi dealt with this pursuing force too cleanly, it would likely alert the Queen.
And if she personally took action or resorted to other means, Levi's situation would become extremely dangerous.
So, for the time being, he couldn't eliminate this "tail" behind him.
He had to keep it—buy himself time to develop.
Sigh!
In the end, it all came down to one thing—he wasn't strong enough!
If he were strong enough, why would he need to worry about any of this?
He could just march straight back to the royal city, hang the Magic Mirror Queen upside down, and spank her!
Why would he need to endure such frustration now?
As Levi thought this, his attention naturally shifted to the spell crystals within his soul sea.
As long as he increased his Spiritual Power and enhanced the strength of his spells, his overall power would rise accordingly.
Spiritual Power depended on meditation.
The power of spells, however, required repeated practice.
At present, there were five spell crystals in his soul sea:
Level 4 [Detection].
Level 2 [Conversion].
Level 3 [Gathering Technique].
Level 3 [Wizard's Hand].
And the unexpectedly acquired Level 1 [Polymorph: Nightingale].
At a glance, the number of spells wasn't small, but their overall power was pitifully weak.
Only [Detection] had reached the level of a First-Ring Spell.
All the others were still at the apprentice level.
There wasn't a single second-ring spell among them.
With this, advancing to a Second-Ring Wizard would be extremely difficult.
He needed to raise the power of his spells first.
Compared to other wizards, Levi had one advantage:
He only needed to repeatedly practice his spells to increase their power.
Other wizards, on the other hand, had to rely on long-term research and dangerous experimentation to achieve the same result.
Compared to them, Levi was already far more fortunate.
He decided not to waste any time and to seize every moment for spell practice.
Among the five spells, Levi quickly chose the one he would focus on—
[Polymorph: Nightingale].
This spell was completely different from the others he had mastered before.
Moreover, its level was low, making it easier to achieve results through practice.
So Levi selected it.
With a thought, the spell crystal belonging to [Polymorph: Nightingale] in his soul sea trembled slightly. His Magic Power instantly surged into the spell's runic circuits, and a strange force enveloped his body.
When that strange force dissipated, Levi was no longer in the carriage.
In his place was a small, agile-eyed nightingale.
[You have cast Nightingale Polymorph once. Experience +3. Current EXP: 3/100.]
After becoming a First-Ring Wizard, casting these apprentice-level spells that didn't even qualify as First-Ring Spells granted him a relatively high amount of experience.
This was inevitable.
Just like asking a senior student to relearn lower-grade material—he would grasp it much faster.
For Levi, this was also a good thing.
At the very least, it meant his spells would level up more quickly.
He calmed himself and began flapping his wings, getting a feel for the abilities of the nightingale.
The nightingale formed through spell transformation was different from an ordinary one.
The nightingale Levi had transformed into could vibrate its chest to produce human speech, unlike a normal nightingale, which could only make bird calls.
Beyond that, Levi discovered that the nightingale's vision could perceive ultraviolet light, allowing it to distinguish color combinations more effectively, and it could still see in extremely low light—making it well-suited for nighttime activity.
Moreover, the nightingale's large eyes and deep eye sockets made it highly sensitive to movement.
In terms of hearing, the nightingale could detect higher-frequency sounds and had an innate instinct for accurately judging direction and distance.
As for smell, taste, and touch, the nightingale was quite ordinary.
As for combat ability—how much fighting power could a normal nightingale have? It was basically negligible.
But there was one key point: after transforming into a nightingale, he could fly!
Levi felt that flying dozens of kilometers posed no difficulty at all, and at maximum endurance, he could even cover over a hundred kilometers in a single day.
The flight speed wasn't fast, but the nightingale had strong maneuverability and was very agile in flight.
This alone made the spell extremely valuable.
If he encountered an enemy he couldn't defeat, he could transform into a nightingale and escape. If he needed to scout a target, taking the form of a nightingale would make it very hard to detect him.
In some aspects, it could be called a god-tier ability.
What more could he ask for?
However, what disappointed Levi somewhat was that after transforming into a nightingale, he couldn't use any other spells.
The only thing he could do was cancel the spell and revert to human form.
If he didn't do that, he could maintain the nightingale form indefinitely—until his Magic Power was completely exhausted.
And with his current Magic Power reserves, he could maintain the nightingale state for at least eight hours.
With a thought, Levi gently flapped his wings and flew out through the rear door of the carriage.
He quietly flew above the carriage, and with his sharp vision, easily saw Yalina driving the carriage, chatting enthusiastically with Miss Nightingale Odelle beside her. The two—or rather, one person and one bird—had long since moved beyond talking about matters in Oakwood and were now chatting about all sorts of things.
From beginning to end, neither of them noticed the lively-eyed nightingale flying above them.
After listening for a while, Levi climbed higher, flying to an even greater altitude. He easily passed through the dense canopy and reached over a hundred meters in the air. From there, in his nightingale form, he saw the entire forest stretch out like a vast green ocean, boundless and endless.
A sense of freedom welled up in his heart.
This was far more exhilarating than wandering around in a carriage.
Levi even had the impulse to just keep flying like this to the end of the world.
Suddenly—
"Shriek—!"
A sharp cry came from above him.
At the same time, a powerful gust of wind from beating wings descended.
An eagle had set its sights on Levi as prey.
In his nightingale state, Levi couldn't use any spell abilities.
Seeing the razor-sharp talons about to hook into his nightingale body, Levi had no choice but to cancel the Nightingale Polymorph and revert to human form.
The moment he returned to human form, his body was immediately pulled by gravity and began to fall toward the ground.
At that moment, Levi also saw the eagle above him.
When the eagle saw Levi suddenly revert to human form, it seemed startled as well. It halted midair, its gaze almost human-like, filled with uncertainty.
As he fell, Levi glanced at it. With a thought, an invisible hand condensed in midair and grabbed toward the eagle.
[You have cast Wizard's Hand once. Experience +...]
The eagle sensed something was wrong and tried to flap its wings to escape.
But how could it possibly get away?
It was seized by Levi's [Wizard's Hand].
However, Levi didn't kill it—he only restrained it.
Otherwise, with the explosive strength of a Level 3 [Wizard's Hand], capable of exerting over half a ton of force, a slight squeeze would have crushed the eagle into pulp.
Instead, Levi controlled the [Wizard's Hand] with his mind and hurled the eagle far away like an arrow released from a bow. In the blink of an eye, it became a tiny black dot in his vision.
Once freed at a distance, the eagle didn't dare linger. It flapped its wings and fled at top speed.
Meanwhile, Levi continued falling toward the ground.
Seeing that he was about to crash into the treetops, Levi activated the Nightingale Polymorph once again.
[You have cast Nightingale Polymorph. Experience +3. Current EXP: 14/100.]
Yes—while maintaining the nightingale state, as Levi gradually became more familiar with the spell, his experience also increased little by little.
That was why, despite only casting Nightingale Polymorph twice, his experience had already reached 14.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the spell leveled up.
Thinking this, at the critical moment just before colliding with the canopy, Levi transformed back into a nightingale and flapped his wings, taking flight once more.
However, after the incident with the eagle, he no longer had the mood to continue flying in the sky. Instead, he flew back into the forest, found his alchemical carriage, and slipped inside.
Yalina and Odelle were still chatting enthusiastically, completely unaware that Levi had already left the carriage for a while.
Levi didn't disturb them. He simply stayed inside the carriage, practicing Nightingale Polymorph over and over again.
[You have cast Nightingale Polymorph once. Experience +...]
…
[You have cast Nightingale Polymorph once. Experience +...]
…
Five to six hours passed. Because Levi was repeatedly casting and canceling Nightingale Polymorph, his Magic Power consumption was far greater than simply maintaining the form. Before long, his Magic Power was nearly depleted.
However, he had successfully filled the experience bar for Nightingale Polymorph, reaching the threshold for leveling up.
With a thought, the spell began to upgrade.
In an instant, the spell crystal corresponding to Nightingale Polymorph within Levi's soul sea underwent a change. The runic circuits became more complex, and the response speed grew faster.
Levi's [Polymorph: Nightingale] had reached Level 2.
After the spell upgraded, there was also a subtle change within his soul sea, as if its overall strength had increased.
This was something Levi had only recently discovered.
Each time one of his spells increased in level, the strength of his soul sea would also improve accordingly.
It was like raising the upper limit of his Spiritual Power from that of a lower First-Ring Wizard to that of a mid-tier First-Ring Wizard.
Before reaching that limit, Levi's Spiritual Power growth would remain smooth.
Speaking of Spiritual Power growth—
Because Levi had been practicing Nightingale Polymorph for such a long time, his Magic Power had been overconsumed.
So he closed his eyes and began meditating to recover it.
Time passed, and more than two hours went by.
Levi's Magic Power was fully restored, and he withdrew from his meditative state.
This session of meditation also increased his Spiritual Power slightly.
In truth, Levi's Spiritual Power should have been improving more efficiently.
The limitation lay in his meditation method.
He only knew the [Basic Meditation Method].
For an apprentice wizard, this method was acceptable.
But for Levi, who was already a First-Ring Wizard, it was somewhat insufficient.
What he needed now was a higher-quality meditation method—one suitable for a wizard of his level.
Otherwise, the rate at which his Spiritual Power increased was simply too slow.
That wouldn't do.
'I have to solve this problem,' Levi thought.
But saying it was easy—doing it was difficult.
For the moment, he had no idea where he could obtain a higher-tier meditation method.
Levi fell into thought.
However, his body, having gone without food for a long time, reacted much more directly—it began to growl.
Only then did Levi realize he hadn't eaten anything for nearly ten hours.
Outside, the sky had already grown dark.
Yalina guided the carriage off the forest path and set up camp beside a stream.
While Levi had still been in meditation, Yalina had already gathered firewood, built a simple fire pit, and used a fire striker to ignite kindling, starting a fire.
Then she placed some black bread she had brought over the fire, along with a thick porridge made by simmering dried meat and oats together.
Odelle had already left her cage and was perched on Yalina's shoulder, staring longingly at the oat-and-dried-meat porridge.
At that moment, Yalina heard Levi's stomach growl. Her eyes shifted slightly, and she stood up, quickly walking to the alchemical carriage. She opened the door and saw Levi inside, his eyes as deep as the night.
"Levi… Lord Levi… dinner is ready," Yalina said.
She was grateful to Levi, and so she treated him with great respect.
"Alright, thank you," Levi nodded. He stepped out of the carriage and walked over to the fire.
Warmth immediately drove away the bone-chilling cold wind blowing from deep within the forest.
Although Levi's physique was exceptional and he didn't fear the cold, the warmth of the fire was still comforting.
He had just sat down by the fire when Yalina, who had come to his side, spoke up.