Chapter Summaries

Orsaga enjoyed dinner with Golanel and told her he would probably remain in the city for another month. The next day, they attended a chamber of commerce banquet, where the hosts treated Orsaga as a highly distinguished guest.

• Orsaga sampled the Elf restaurant’s magical cuisine and agreed with Golanel that it tasted good.
• Golanel asked whether Orsaga planned to stay in the city, and he said he would probably remain for about another month.
• Golanel asked about Orsaga’s carefree attitude, and he described himself as selfish because he cared about few things.
• Orsaga and Golanel arrived at the chamber of commerce banquet dressed formally, and an attendant showed them greater deference after seeing Orsaga’s invitation.
• The vice president of Mitese’s largest chamber of commerce enthusiastically greeted Orsaga and Golanel.

At a banquet, Orsaga noticed a young noble secretly studying the Bottomless Abyss and judged that the man was doomed whether the gods or the abyss discovered him. He then heard that the defenses behind the line he had destroyed had fallen, leaving the fate of the surrounding countries in the hands of the gods.

• Orsaga scanned the banquet guests and spotted a young man with traces of abyssal power, privately admiring his potential as a future Demon believer.
• Golanel asked why Orsaga was watching the young man, and Orsaga said the man’s future held no light because he would be killed if he continued researching the Bottomless Abyss.
• Golanel showed off the jewelry Orsaga had bought her to the noblewomen and young noble ladies.
• Orsaga overheard guests discussing the fall of defensive fortifications behind the line he had destroyed and the guerrilla war spreading across several dozen countries.
• Orsaga heard that Demigod Zard had gone to the region with the Sword of Radiance, then concluded that ordinary people could only drift with the outcome of the planar war.

Orsaga stayed out of a jealous confrontation between Golanel and his former companions while Sarah used a corrupted crystal statue to summon their master. The summoned being arrived only as an avatar and demanded Blood Food to strengthen his new body.

• Orsaga judged that he would flee regardless of whether Karto or the gods won, and hoped they would weaken each other enough for him to remain safely in the world.
• Several women questioned how long Golanel would stay with Orsaga, and Golanel mocked them as his former companions while Orsaga remained unconcerned.
• In a cavern beneath a swamp near Mitese, Sarah instructed church members to corrupt the exorcism spellwork on a crystal statue and prepare a summoning ritual.
• Sarah and her followers used the blood of ritual-killed Magic Beasts to form a crimson egg around the statue, from which their master emerged.
• The summoned figure asked Sarah to prepare Blood Food, while Orsaga realized that only an avatar had descended and regretted losing a chance to sell the true body to Karto.

Orsaga explained to Golanel that he had once loved an ordinary woman, whom he had killed himself, and Golanel accepted that she could not change him. After gathering the information he needed in Mitese, Orsaga traveled by carriage toward a prosperous nation of mages.

• Golanel questioned Orsaga about his indifference toward his former companions, and he said their relationship had only been an exchange of benefits.
• Orsaga admitted he had once fallen for someone, then revealed that she was dead and he had killed her himself.
• Golanel realized she could not change Orsaga and chose to maintain their current relationship rather than distance herself.
• Several dozen days later, Orsaga left Mitese after collecting the information he needed and headed by carriage toward a mage-rich nation.
• The convoy stopped for a rest, and Orsaga stepped out while the driver unsaddled the magically enhanced horses.

Orsaga released weakened, contagious organisms into the air to begin a concealed disease-spreading plan that could eventually provide souls and help him ascend as a Demon Prince. He watched them drift away, uncertain whether they would evade the world's surveillance.

• Orsaga sat in a secluded spot and let bacteria-like organisms spread into the air.
• He designed the organisms to cause cold-like symptoms and breathing difficulties, with low lethality but broad reach.
• Orsaga planned to release dozens of diseases and estimated they could eventually harvest millions of souls each year.
• He considered Death Plague and pain his clearest paths to power while continuing to develop Bloodflame, spells, and hand-to-hand combat.
• Orsaga watched the organisms drift away and worried that the world's surveillance might uncover his plan.

Benseke and the caravan’s guards prepared to face an adult Cloud Winged Eagle, but the beast vanished after sensing danger. Orsaga had secretly killed and eaten it, leaving Benseke puzzled about where it went.

• Benseke maintained his weapon and warned his mercenary team to keep watch while he and Hake discussed Hake’s nephew’s average Professional aptitude and their suspicious client.
• Benseke spotted a Cloud Winged Eagle circling overhead and told everyone to prepare for an attack.
• The caravan’s fighters readied themselves, hoping to kill the beast and profit from selling its corpse.
• The Cloud Winged Eagle sensed danger, cried out, and vanished, leading Benseke to suspect it had Spatial Ability and was a mutant.
• Orsaga watched from a distance while eating the Cloud Winged Eagle, which he had killed to avoid damage to his carriage and obtain Blood Food.

Two brothers fled after their drunken leak of a secret inheritance drew dangerous pursuers, but Orsaga intercepted the attackers and learned what was happening. He spared the brothers and decided to use them as bait to draw in more enemies.

• The middle-aged guard suspected the Cloud Winged Eagle’s disappearance was a probe and blamed his brother for leaking information about their treasure.
• The brothers had discovered their ancestor’s Secret Letter and a trial-bound inheritance, but they had been too afraid to attempt the trial.
• After the leak attracted watchers and trouble for their businesses, the brothers fled the city with a Mercenary Team escort.
• People pursuing the brothers’ treasure caught up with the convoy, but Orsaga sensed their malice and killed them from several kilometers away.
• Orsaga read the attackers’ memories, spared the brothers, and decided to use them as bait for more pursuers.

Orsaga’s convoy reached Augustus after an uneventful journey, while he used two brothers as bait to gather souls and strip their treasure. At the city gates, he prepared to undergo inspection, confident his magical disguise would hide him from the city’s defenses.

• Benseke suspected Orsaga was responsible for the convoy’s safe journey and hoped to win his favor.
• Orsaga decided to spare the two brothers, but stole their treasure and altered their trial barrier so failure would be fatal.
• Orsaga swallowed the several hundred souls he had collected, though they barely satisfied his hunger.
• The convoy stopped at Augustus, where the coachman explained that everyone had to undergo inspection because Demonic Beasts had invaded nearby places.
• Orsaga studied the city’s layered magical defenses and trusted that his disguise would keep the inspection spells from identifying him.

Orsaga entered Augustus and hired a young guide to take him to the city’s largest library. After paying the boy a gold coin, Orsaga went inside alone to seek knowledge, while the guide was left wondering whether he could become a professional.

• A city guard scanned Orsaga with a Magic Ritual controller and let him pass through the gate with a fawning smile.
• One of the brothers behind Orsaga fantasized about inheriting his ancestor’s legacy and becoming a Legendary Rank Expert, while Benseke and the guards looked on with disgust.
• A young guide offered to show Orsaga around Augustus, and Orsaga asked him to lead the way to the largest library.
• Orsaga paid the guide a gold coin, far more than the boy had planned to ask, and the boy eagerly led him to the library.
• The guide explained the library’s entry fees and access rules, but Orsaga dismissed him and entered alone.
• Clutching the gold coin, the guide considered taking an aptitude assessment to see if he could become a professional.

Orsaga entered a vast library, paid for access to its first three floors, and studied how its Tower Spirit monitored readers. After finding a way around the books’ protections, he began secretly copying their knowledge into his mind, leaving the library with a trove of information waiting to be studied.

• Orsaga paid the attendant for access to the first three floors and declined to undergo an assessment.
• Orsaga explored the first floor and began examining books while analyzing the spells that guarded them.
• Orsaga discovered that the books’ spells reported readers to the Tower Spirit, which expelled anyone who had not paid.
• Orsaga judged the first-floor protections manageable and used invisible tendrils of spiritual power to copy the books’ contents into his mind.

Orsaga secretly absorbed knowledge from a bizarre assortment of books in Augustus while avoiding detection, as nearby apprentices wondered at his reading choices. Meanwhile, a bald, muscular man forced a cowardly noble into an ancestral treasure trial, only to discover that the flames could cook the supposed protective shield nearly to death.

• Orsaga covertly read strange books and withdrew his mental tendrils whenever the floor scanned for unusual activity.
• After three days, two apprentices noticed Orsaga seriously reading books about hens, lizards, and sow care, and wondered about the interests of the powerful.
• In a forest more than a hundred kilometers from Augustus, a bald, muscular man demanded that a cowardly noble open an ancestral treasure chamber.
• The noble spilled his blood on a wall, revealing a door, after the bald man claimed the deadly mechanism was only a test of courage.
• Inside the chamber, the bald man used the noble as a shield against a blast of fire, but the noble was cooked nearly to death and the man's smile froze.

After collecting the first floor’s knowledge, Orsaga compared the Miling World’s mages with the Wizarding World’s wizards and judged the Miling World poorly prepared for Abyss Lord Karto’s invasion. He began gathering knowledge from the library’s second floor, where unusual theories sparked new inspirations.

• Orsaga finished collecting the first floor’s knowledge and marveled at its bizarre range of research and hobbies.
• He compared the strength, ambitions, and warfare capabilities of the Miling World’s mages and the Wizarding World’s wizards.
• Orsaga concluded that the Miling World’s defenses were already breached and that Abyss Lord Karto’s forces had the advantage.
• He went to the library’s second floor, worked out its protections, and began collecting its more specialized knowledge.
• Orsaga read the second floor’s strange theories and found that some of them inspired new ideas.

Orsaga finished gathering knowledge in the library and found that basic skill books were difficult for many readers to understand because they lacked literacy. When Gullier confessed her interest in him, he bluntly rejected both marriage and a relationship, then left the library.

• Orsaga reached the third floor, where low- and mid-level professionals struggled to read the foundational skill books they rented.
• Orsaga read a basic swordsmanship book and quickly understood its techniques, reflecting that he preferred direct, unarmed violence.
• After two months, Orsaga finished his objectives and asked Gullier why she had been watching him.
• Gullier introduced herself, asked whether Orsaga had a wife, and then asked if she could be his wife or girlfriend.
• Orsaga said he found family and relationships troublesome and preferred brief, mutual arrangements, leaving Gullier and the onlookers stunned.
• Orsaga ignored the crowd's reaction and left the library.

After waking from half a year of absorbing knowledge, Orsaga learned that abyssal Demonic Beasts had overrun a nearby country and driven refugees into Augustus. He welcomed the disaster because he enjoyed seeing others suffer.

• Orsaga woke in his luxury suite, ordered food, and used magic to eat it from across the room.
• Orsaga left the inn after half a year in bed and noticed Augustus was crowded with distressed people.
• Orsaga listened to the pedestrians and learned that abyssal cultists had opened a portal to a Land of Pollution two months earlier.
• Orsaga learned that the resulting Demonic Beast invasion had devastated a nearby country and sent refugees fleeing to Augustus.
• Orsaga felt delighted by the suffering and hoped to see more Demons die miserably.

Orsaga encountered Allison, the High Elf who had nearly injured him at the Goreli Defense Line, and learned she knew of him through Golanel. After they exchanged greetings and discussed their backgrounds, Orsaga invited Allison for a drink, and she accepted.

• Orsaga spotted Allison while wandering through the city and recalled that she had nearly blown his head apart at the Goreli Defense Line.
• Allison recognized Orsaga and explained that Golanel had told her about him.
• Allison remembered Golanel's warnings about Orsaga's dangerous, contradictory nature but found his greeting polite.
• Orsaga truthfully described his distant origins and said he had recently arrived in the region.
• Orsaga invited Allison for a drink because she was Golanel's friend, and Allison accepted.

Orsaga and Allison discussed the worsening Demon Tide and the threat posed by the demon behind the plague that destroyed the Goreli Defense Line. As Allison recalled the powerful red-armored demon she had fought, Orsaga’s talent alerted him that someone nearby was admiring him, and he decided Allison must be praising his handsomeness.

• Orsaga and Allison shared Karna Fruit Wine while discussing why Allison had come to the city to recover from injuries inflicted by an Upper Demon.
• Allison described how the Goreli Defense Line and its hastily built replacement had fallen, leaving the region locked in brutal fighting against the Demon Tide.
• Orsaga reasoned that aid from other nations and infighting among the abyssal demonic beasts would likely keep the disaster from spreading too quickly.
• Allison said the mastermind behind the plague that destroyed Goreli remained the greatest threat and recalled how a red-armored demon had nearly defeated her and Emerson.
• Allison silently considered Orsaga handsome, triggering his Talent Abilities, and Orsaga concluded that she was admiring his looks.

Allison spoke with Orsaga about her plan to return to the Elsera Elf Kingdom, while remaining wary of his unexplained arrival at the Goreli Defense Line. She ordered Kara to investigate him, and Orsaga accepted her suspicions as a useful distraction.

• Allison suggested Orsaga seek out Golanel, but he declined to look for her himself.
• Allison said she planned to visit the Elsera Elf Kingdom after recovering, and Orsaga agreed to visit its art gallery, Arla's Court, if he had the chance.
• After Orsaga left, Allison used her bracelet to ask Kara to investigate him.
• Allison questioned how Orsaga had entered the Goreli Defense Line unnoticed and concluded he was hiding something.
• Orsaga sensed Allison's suspicions but decided they could serve as camouflage.

Orsaga monitored and adjusted the diseases he had spread, then consumed a High-Concentration Soul Crystal refined from the soul power they had harvested. Meanwhile, in Augustus, a beautiful woman secured a family’s submission to Demon Lord Karto.

• Orsaga reviewed disease trends and mapped infected populations by race across nearly three hundred million square kilometers.
• Orsaga adjusted mutated diseases to keep their symptoms and effects within limits.
• Orsaga tasted and swallowed the High-Concentration Soul Crystal Sarah had given him.
• In Augustus, a beautiful woman asked a middle-aged man for his decision on her proposal.
• The middle-aged man agreed that his family would submit to Demon Lord Karto, and the woman promised they would share in her master’s glory.

Orsaga declined Sarah’s invitation to meet her evil god master, then followed coordinates sent through an Abyssal Contract to a gathering of Demons near Augustus. The Demons initially suspected him because they could not sense his Abyssal aura, but he revealed his true form and waited for the meeting to begin.

• Orsaga encountered Sarah at his hotel and refused her invitation to meet her master, an evil god.
• Sarah was pleased that her Fanatic Believers restrained their anger over Orsaga’s refusal and showed sound judgment.
• Orsaga followed coordinates sent through an Abyssal Contract by a subordinate of Demon Lord Karto to a barren mountain near Augustus.
• Orsaga passed through a hidden Space Door and found dozens of Demons gathered in a cavern.
• The Demons grew wary because they could not sense Orsaga’s Abyssal aura, so he revealed his Demon form and displayed his pure bloodline.
• The elderly dwarf Demon told Orsaga to wait for the meeting, and Orsaga carved a seat into the cavern wall and sat down.

Gewa gathered more than a hundred demons on behalf of Karto to recruit them for an attack on the magical city of Augustus, offering rewards for their participation. After the demons signed confidentiality contracts, Gewa revealed the city’s strength, and Orsaga recognized the place.

• Dozens of demons arrived at the cave, where Orsaga waited for the appointed time.
• Gewa introduced himself as a member of Karto’s Third Main Force Legion and asked the demons to help destroy a large city and establish a Land of Pollution.
• Gewa offered rewards such as Soul Crystals, magical materials, and high-grade items, and none of the demons chose to leave.
• The demons checked and signed the contracts, which included confidentiality clauses.
• Gewa identified Augustus as the target and described its population and powerful defenders, while Orsaga recognized the city.