Precht waited outside the boar cave for over half an hour, his anxiety becoming visible to the naked eye.
"Strange..."
"He's been in there for so long. why hasn't Darwin come out yet?"
"Could it be that he met with an accident inside?"
In the blink of an eye, Precht could think of a dozen possible "accidents."
For example: he couldn't find an opportunity to administer the medicine, the medicine was accidentally spilled, the scent was detected, the medicine didn't work, his identity was seen through, he failed to drug all the boars, or a glitch in the Take Over Magic caused Darwin to lose his mind and be assimilated by the boars...
Precht suddenly felt that having such a clever brain wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Because at this moment, the more he overthought it, the more uneasy he felt.
"No matter how strong Darwin's talent is, at the end of the day, he's just a seven or eight-year-old kid. It's been less than a month since he awakened his magic. Letting him complete this kind of work alone is too risky no matter how you look at it!"
"Sigh..."
"I was really too impulsive before, actually agreeing to such a pact with him."
"If something really happened, I wouldn't know how to explain it to Weston and Mavis..."
Just as Precht was losing his patience and preparing to enter the cave to investigate, a wild boar came "thud-thud-thudding" out of the cave, raised its head, and "oink-oinked" twice toward the spot where he was hiding.
Precht: "..."
Wild Boar: "..."
Ten seconds later.
The boar seemed to realize something and suddenly shuddered. Its whole body glowed as it shed its boar form, reverting to Darwin's appearance.
"Uncle Precht, come on out!"
"My plan succeeded!!"
Whew...
As long as he's okay!
Precht breathed a silent sigh of relief before standing up and walking toward Darwin.
"What took you so long?"
"Do you have any idea? You've been in there for half an hour. I almost thought something happened to you!"
Though it was a reproach, his tone was filled with unmistakable concern.
Diagnosis: A total tsundere!
"Well, what choice did I have?"
Darwin gave a bitter smile and helplessly started counting on his fingers: "After going in, I first had to find the 'kitchen' of this pack and locate their granary. After that, I had to sneakily drug the food while ensuring every single boar ate the drugged portions. Meanwhile, I had to pretend to eat as well so the other boars wouldn't see through me, and finally, I had to wait for the medicine to take effect..."
"Solving all that in just half an hour is actually pretty fast, okay?!"
If put that way, it was indeed quite fast.
Seeing that Precht didn't have much of a reaction, Darwin started chattering about his adventure inside the cave: "You have no idea, while I was in there, a few boars kept following me around making these 'oh-ho-ho-ho' noises. It almost made me miss my chance to drug the food. I don't know what kind of madness got into them?"
A group of boars making "oh-ho-ho-ho" noises at you??
Precht instantly fell into a deep silence: "Well... I think it's better if you don't know the reason."
"Why??"
Darwin blinked his innocent, clear eyes: "Do you know the reason?"
"I don't!"
"Then why did you say it's better if I don't know?"
Precht didn't dare answer.
He had probably already guessed the reason in his heart, but for the sake of Darwin's dignity, he couldn't bear to tell him the truth!
Darwin could only continue guessing blindly: "Could it be that my Imaginary Take Over still has flaws and they saw through it? Or maybe they just saw a new face and wanted to pick a fight to determine my status in the pack?"
How could that be the case?
Hearing this, Precht shook his head inwardly.
After getting to know him during this time, he had discovered one thing: Darwin's Imaginary Take Over was completely different from ordinary Take Over Magic.
Just like Weston's Super Archive, its function was also starkly different from the Super Archive magic used by other wizards!
On some level, their magic belonged to the category of "mutations."
In ordinary Take Over Magic, the principle is to inject the soul or factor of the target into one's own body, adding parts of that target's appearance onto a human base.
For example, by receiving a "Cat Soul," a human becomes a "Cat-Person"; by receiving a "Weapon Soul," a human becomes a "Weapon-Person"; by receiving a "Demon Soul," a human becomes a "Demon-Person"...
Even in a "Full-Body Take Over," and even if the subject's dominance is taken over by the target, the wizard can still maintain a certain human appearance.
But Darwin's Imaginary Take Over wasn't like that!
Not only could he change freely between "Animal Form," "Human Form," and "Beast-Man Form," he could even adjust the ratio of "Animal" to "Human" on his body at will.
When he adjusted the "Animal" ratio to "100%"—total beastification—he didn't look human in the slightest.
That form wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the highest level of Transformation Magic.
This was why he could turn into a boar and sneak in without being discovered, and why even Precht couldn't distinguish the real from the fake earlier.
"Stop overthinking it, your Take Over Magic has no flaws!"
"Even I couldn't tell, do you think a bunch of wild boars could?"
However, no matter how Precht tried to change the subject, Darwin remained persistent: "If there truly were no flaws, why were they oinking and shouting at me?"
Come to think of it, the name "Fairy Tail" seemed to represent eternal adventure, eternal mystery, and the eternal exploration of the truth?
The people of the guild had truly inherited this "spirit of inquiry" all too well!
After a long while, Precht sighed: "How about this, take me to see exactly which boars they were!"
He decided to just make up some excuse to brush it off.
"Follow me!"
Darwin's spirits lifted. He led Precht into the boar cave and found the boars that had been circling him earlier.
"These ones?"
"These ones!"
"Hmm... they..."
Suddenly, Precht's voice cut off, and his expression changed drastically.
His gaze was locked onto these peculiar wild boars on the ground, his eyes reflecting three parts confusion, three parts shock, and four parts disbelief.
This sudden change startled Darwin.
"What's... wrong with them?"
Precht didn't answer. He simply knelt down, released magic from his hands, and began to carefully examine the boars.
Seeing his solemn face, Darwin didn't dare ask more and simply stood guard quietly to the side.
After a good while, Precht finally stopped his movements and spoke words that were truly shocking.
"These wild boars... aren't real wild boars!"
"They are humans!"
"A group of humans who have been hit by a curse, or perhaps Black Magic, and turned into wild boars!!"