Chapter Summaries

Ang ended the North Wind Warband’s exhausting hellhound hunts and helped secure Bahoya City’s surroundings as the support troops’ victory sharpened tensions with Marquis Yaglu. While patrolling, Ang encountered refugees from the fallen Bain City and arranged for Bahoya City’s defenses to receive them.

• Ang ordered the North Wind Warband to stop hunting hellhounds and guard the walls while conserving its strength.
• Ang helped Haru’s team scout, and the support force eventually killed roughly forty thousand hellhounds around Bahoya City, while nobles seized nearby resources and clashed with Marquis Yaglu over logistics.
• Ang learned that many cities had fallen and Marquis Yaglu’s enchanted warband had not returned, but he remained focused on protecting his soldiers and returning to the Empire.
• Ang spotted refugees approaching Bahoya City and learned from their spokesman, Kidd, that Bain City had been breached and devastated by the hellhound legion.
• Karina of the Fetler Family told Ang that she and the refugees sought shelter in Bahoya City, and Ang offered to notify the city defense forces to prepare for their arrival.

Ang reported refugees from fallen Bain City to Marquis Yaglu and Haru, who feared the Hellhounds were overrunning the Tarim Plane’s border cities. As the refugees settled outside Bahoya City, Haru and allied nobles planned a new defensive wall, while Ang suspected his destruction of a nearby Hell Gate had made their route safer.

• Ang told Marquis Yaglu that Bain City had fallen and its refugees sought shelter, but Yaglu ordered them settled outside Bahoya City and barred from entering.
• Haru explained to Ang that Bain City’s fall could mean the Hellhounds were advancing around the Tarim Plane’s outer cities, though blocked information channels left their fate unknown.
• The refugees established a camp outside Bahoya City, building Wooden Huts from nearby trees, while Marquis Yaglu allowed them to do as they pleased as long as they caused no trouble.
• Haru invited Lady Karina to his command post, where she said the road to Bahoya City had been safer than other routes, and Ang suspected the destroyed Hell Gate had reduced the Hellhounds there.
• Haru told Ang that nobles had formed the Tarim Support Mutual Aid Alliance and planned to build a defensive wall outside the city using refugee craftsmen.

As Bahoya City's refugee camps expanded and Ang patrolled the wilderness, he encountered an adventuring team claiming to have come from Central City. When they surrounded him after he demanded to know who they were, Ang overwhelmed them with magic and close combat, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Haru organized refugees and craftsmen to build an outer wall while Ang worried Marquis Yaglu might use the camps as a buffer against the Hellhounds.
• As the refugee population grew, Ang hunted criminals during patrols and earned the name "Bringer of Justice."
• Ang killed a Spotted Hyena in the wilderness and met an eight-person adventuring team seeking directions to Bahoya City.
• The team said they had come from Central City, but refused to identify themselves when Ang questioned them and surrounded him.
• Ang blocked their attacks with a magical shield, then used spells and physical blows to injure several members and drive the team back.

Ang subdued an adventuring team and questioned Quintina about fleeing Central City. He forced the others, including Susan, to leave and kept Quintina behind, then asked why she had escaped.

• Ang beat the lean swordsman when he challenged Ang’s reliance on his shield, then made Quintina massage his leg while questioning her.
• Quintina told Ang she came from Tarim and learned magic at Tarim Mage Academy, then admitted that the group had escaped from Central City.
• Ang ordered the adventurers to go to Bahoya City but insisted that Quintina stay because she was useful.
• Susan tried to protect Quintina, but Ang threatened her with a fireball, and Quintina persuaded her to leave with the others.
• After Susan and the adventurers disappeared, Ang asked Quintina why she had fled Central City, but she trembled and stayed silent.

Ang forced Quintina to reveal why her adventuring party had fled, and learned that their former employer Bess was a Black Magic Society member responsible for the Hellhound invasion of the Tarim Plane. Quintina described how the party escaped Central City as it became surrounded, leaving Ang with her account of Bess’s scheme.

• Ang frightened Quintina into speaking and guessed that her party had been hired to escort someone connected to the Black Magic Society.
• Quintina agreed to explain what happened after Ang promised he would not hurt her party.
• Quintina said Bess, a powerful traveler from the Nomisia Plane, hired her party to guide him around the Tarim Plane.
• Quintina recalled that Hellhound traces appeared in cities shortly after Bess and the party left them, while Bess refused to visit Bahoya City.
• Bess left a letter revealing that he belonged to the Black Magic Society and had orchestrated the Hellhound invasion as a surprise for the party.
• Quintina said the party escaped Central City amid panic and rumors that the Empire would close the plane’s teleportation gate.

Ang told Quintina that hellhounds had come from Bahoya City and reassured her that the Mage Association was unlikely to target her while Bess remained uncaught. After feeding and teasing her, Ang claimed her as his prisoner and took her on his Magic Broom toward Bahoya City, where they spotted her teammates.

• Ang explained that hellhounds had appeared in Bahoya City before and said Bess must have had accomplices in his operation.
• Quintina described the panic in Central City and said Mage Association mages had searched for someone while she and her companions fled.
• Ang gave Quintina food and roasted Spotted Hyena meat with a fire spell, then teased her about being hungry and exhausted.
• Ang subdued Quintina, declared her his prisoner, and made her call him "Master" before they set off on his Magic Broom.
• Ang flew Quintina over Susan and the others, who recognized her, and then quickly flew away.

Ang brought Quintina to the North Wind Warband’s base, where he arranged a place for her to stay and instructed his soldiers to care for her. He then told Haru about the adventurers and the situation in Central City, before meeting two nobles and discussing trade between their mineral resources and his Enchanted Armament workshop.

• Ang brought Quintina to the warband’s base, where the soldiers teased him before he led her to a barracks and prepared a heated bath for her.
• Ang told a soldier that Quintina was a captive and a first-rank Water Mage, and the soldiers began arranging help for her.
• Ang rode to Haru’s base and reported his encounter with Quintina’s Adventuring Team and the news from Central City.
• Haru recorded the adventurers’ distinguishing features and said Bahoya City might soon reopen the Plane Portal.
• Haru introduced Ang to Viscount Robur and Count Calette, who discussed exchanging ore for enchanted equipment and agreed to continue talks later.

After Ang returned to camp, he refused Quintina’s request to visit her Adventuring Team, warning that they could be suspected of connections to Black Magic. Days later, he agreed to make Enchanted Armaments for Callet and Roble, found a usable magical furnace in the abandoned Mage Tower, and obtained Marquis Yaglu’s permission to use it.

• Ang returned to camp after drinking with Haru and the two nobles, then slept until afternoon.
• Ang found Quintina watching from the city wall and refused to take her to see her Adventuring Team, saying they were safer staying out of sight while suspicion of Black Magic remained.
• Count Callet and Viscount Roble asked Ang about Enchanted Armaments, and Ang explained that he needed rare materials and a magical furnace to make them.
• Ang searched the abandoned Mage Tower and found a small magical furnace on the fourth floor.
• Ang asked Marquis Yaglu for permission to use the furnace, and the marquis allowed him to take whatever he needed from the Mage Tower.

Ang relocated and activated the magic furnace, then worked with Quintina to craft the first batch of Enchanted Armaments for Kalet and Robul. After they approved the equipment and its cost, Ang arranged for ore to be sent to the North Wind Territory and left the story with his resource network beginning to grow.

• Ang moved the heavy magic furnace to the camp, where soldiers installed it beneath a shelter and activated it with mana crystals.
• Kalet and Robul brought ore, and Ang used available substitute materials to smelt and craft Enchanted Armaments with Quintina’s help.
• Ang completed two sets of Basic Strength Armament, two shields, and two Flame Swords, which Kalet and Robul praised.
• Robul tested the Power Armor and shattered a rock with an oversized hammer, while Kalet and Robul accepted Ang’s listed cost of 350 mana crystals for two armor sets.
• Kalet and Robul planned to use the armaments to persuade other lords to contribute ore, and Ang wrote Aida instructions for processing the incoming materials in the North Wind Territory.

Ang left Bahoya City to investigate the hellhound threat and found the Tarim Plane devastated, with refugees fleeing toward the city. He reached Sugdi City and discovered a Hell Gate guarded by more than twenty Three-headed Hellhounds, leaving Bahoya City’s danger more pressing than ever.

• Marquis Yaglu sent Ang to scout the refugees’ route for signs of hellhounds, and Ang prepared the garrison before setting out alone.
• Ang met Baron Navale and learned that hellhounds had overrun his territory while his remaining subjects fled toward Bahoya City.
• Ang flew onward, aided soldiers fighting hellhounds, and learned that nearly every city except the central city and Bahoya City had fallen.
• Ang reached Sugdi City and saw that it was overrun by hellhounds, with a Hell Gate sending out monsters and receiving objects in return.
• Ang spotted more than twenty powerful Three-headed Hellhounds guarding the gate and realized Bahoya City faced a grave threat.

Ang investigated the hellhounds’ resource-gathering and discovered that some could store items in their stomachs. He used disguised magical bombs to attack their plane, destroying Imps and severely damaging the Hell Gate so that it could no longer send anything back to the Tarim Plane.

• Ang watched hellhounds gather supplies around Sugdi City and observed one swallow items before passing through the Hell Gate.
• Ang crafted an ore coated with Glow Crystal powder and used it to make a hellhound vomit up its swallowed belongings.
• After confirming the trick worked, Ang disguised his remaining five sets of magical bombs and arranged for hellhounds to carry them through the gate.
• On the hellhounds’ plane, the bombs detonated, killing the chosen hellhounds and nearby Imps.
• The explosions damaged the Hell Gate’s rune array, leaving it able to send things into the hell plane but unable to return them to the Tarim Plane.

Ang’s damaged Hell Gate trapped a Three-headed Hellhound in hell and unleashed a furious pack that pursued him across the Tarim Plane. After five days of flight, Ang reached Bahoya City and collapsed while warning Marquis Yaglu that nearly eighty thousand Hellhounds were approaching.

• A Three-headed Hellhound entered Hell Gate, but the damaged runes left it stranded as the gate lost its teleportation ability.
• The Hellhounds found Ang and attacked him in the air; he escaped with flash powder, but the pack resumed its pursuit.
• Ang led the Hellhounds away from settlements, but they devoured refugees and other creatures along the way.
• After his Magic Broom failed, Ang continued fleeing on replacements and headed for Bahoya City to warn its people.
• Ang reached Bahoya City after five days and told Marquis Yaglu that nearly eighty thousand Hellhounds and more than ten Three-headed Hellhounds were coming before he collapsed.

After waking from a day and night unconscious, Ang learned that Hellhounds had breached Bahoya City's outer wall and that the defenders were still fighting. He joined the commanders as they appealed to the Empire for help, while the threat of the Three-headed Hellhounds and the city's single magic crystal cannon left Bahoya City in grave danger.

• Ang woke and learned from a squad captain that the Hellhounds had breached the outer wall, killed refugees, and were still attacking.
• Ang told Quintina that he had tried to destroy a Hell Gate in Sugdi City, which caused the Hellhounds to pursue him to Bahoya City.
• Ang went to the command post, where Haru and the nobles demanded to know why the Empire had not opened a portal or sent aid.
• Marquis Yaglu had every noble sign a strongly worded appeal to the Imperial Military Department and sent it through an ultra-miniature teleportation array.
• Marquis Yaglu warned that the Three-headed Hellhounds might discover the magic crystal cannon could handle only one of them at a time, and Ang learned the city had only one cannon.

Ang examined the magic crystal cannon and discovered he could activate it with his own magic power while protecting its runes. After successfully testing its devastating power, he persuaded Marquis Yaglu to try his plan against the Three-headed Hellhounds.

• Ang inspected the magic crystal cannon, separated its barrel from the carriage, and found that he could channel his magic power directly into it.
• Ang carried the barrel outside and fired it at a training-ground barricade, reducing the stone-and-steel structure to dust.
• Ang endured the cannon’s powerful recoil and concluded that magic power could both fuel the weapon and protect its runes from damage.
• Haru praised Ang, and Ang told him that his test confirmed the cannon could be used repeatedly if its runes were shielded during activation.
• Marquis Yaglu agreed to try Ang’s plan against the Three-headed Hellhounds, warning that they had only one chance.

Ang and the city defenders used ballista volleys and a magic crystal cannon to kill two Three-headed Hellhounds, then fought off ordinary and Two-headed Hellhounds beyond the walls. The Hellhound pack remained massed outside the city the next morning, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Marquis Yaglu's deputy explained that the Three-headed Hellhounds had to be drawn within 400 yards of the walls, and Ang proposed luring them into range at night before firing the magic crystal cannon.
• Ang flew into the forest with the cannon and light orbs, drawing the Three-headed Hellhounds into range as the ballista crews struck them with successive volleys.
• Ang fired the magic crystal cannon twice and killed two Three-headed Hellhounds, causing the survivors to retreat into the forest.
• Ang left the city wall to attack the Hellhound pack, killing ordinary Hellhounds and working with the ballista crews to defeat the Two-headed Hellhounds that ambushed him.
• Haru told Ang that the two Three-headed Hellhounds had yielded three Level 4 Magic Crystals and a large piece of Hellhound Hide, and Ang resolved to keep fighting.
• The next morning, Ang saw that a vast pack of Hellhounds still occupied the land beyond the city.

Ang repelled the Hellhounds from Bahoya City, then tracked and weakened their pack until they fled through Hell Gate in Sugdi City. He destroyed the gate and returned toward Bahoya City after wondering whether he had avenged the dead.

• Ang lured a Three-headed Hellhound into attacking him and killed it with the magic crystal cannon, causing the pack to retreat from Bahoya City.
• Marquis Yaglu collapsed after the battle, and Ang determined that exhaustion was the cause and prescribed a Stamina Potion and rest.
• Ang warned Haru that the Hellhounds' retreat might be a delaying tactic, then followed them to investigate while Haru kept the city's defenses ready.
• Ang concealed himself and ambushed the Hellhounds, later killing three more Three-headed Hellhounds and driving the pack toward Sugdi City.
• Ang watched the Hellhounds enter Hell Gate, destroyed it with two blasts, and flew back toward Bahoya City.

Ang returned to Bahoya City with surviving refugees after the Hellhounds withdrew, then prepared enchanted armaments for Haru’s expedition to retake Sugdi City. As Susan and her companions departed with Haru, Quintina faced the separation and began considering her own future.

• Ang returned to Bahoya City with the refugees and reported that the Hellhounds had retreated through the Hell Gate in Sugdi City.
• Ang spoke with Haru, who said the nobles planned to retake Sugdi City and shared rumors linking the Black Mages to the Tarim Plane’s Mage Association.
• Marquis Yaglu told Ang that his battle contributions had been reported and that the Imperial Mage Association would soon open the Plane Portal to support a strategic pincer attack.
• Susan told Quintina that she and her companions had contracted to follow Haru, and encouraged Quintina to consider following Ang instead.
• Ang forged enchanted armaments for Haru’s troops, and Haru gave Susan a longbow and women’s armor before the force departed for Sugdi City.
• Quintina watched Susan leave and told Ang she was happy for her but would miss her.

Ang accepted Humphrey's commission to forge Enchanted Armaments for the Yaglu family and used rare Magic Gold to create fifty powerful Golden Armor sets. After completing the work, Ang gave Quintina a specially crafted magic wand, and she eagerly tested its enhanced spells.

• Humphrey explained that the Northern Council and the Military Department had conscripted his second brother's Enchanted Warband, then commissioned Ang to forge armaments using materials supplied by the Yaglu family.
• Ang worked with the Yaglu family's blacksmiths and gem craftsmen, discovered Magic Gold among the materials, and designed armor woven with gold threads and runes.
• Ang completed the first fifty armor sets and enchanted them, creating Golden Armor that greatly boosted Qi force and formed a protective shield when Magic Crystals were inserted.
• Humphrey tested the Golden Armor and praised its power, but refused Ang's request to keep two sets as payment.
• Ang secretly used leftover materials and a Water Elemental Gem to make Quintina a magic wand that strengthened her spells and reduced their magic cost.
• Quintina tested the wand's spells, and Ang teased her before giving her a few days off to rest.

The Empire reopened the Plane Portal in Bahoya City, welcomed Duke Panston and his troops, and began its campaign to retake the Tarim Plane while Ang received a promotion and expanded territory. As Ang built up the North Wind Warband and prepared for future battles, a letter from Aida showed that North Wind Territory was thriving and Aida had become a Level 1 Warrior.

• Duke Panston arrived in Bahoya City with two hundred thousand Elite Troops, praised Marquis Yaglu and Ang, and announced a pincer campaign against the Hellhounds.
• Ang was promoted to First-class Baron, received one-third of the Beastlands, and urged Haru and the others to sell their Hellhound Hide while demand was high.
• Humphrey formed an Enchanted Armament Regiment from Ang’s equipment, and its battlefield success drew noble representatives seeking enchanted gear from Ang.
• Ang led the fifty-member North Wind Warband into the wilderness to train and gather materials, but told the soldiers they were not yet ready to join the fighting at Sugdi City.
• Ang read Aida’s letter reporting that North Wind Territory had produced nearly two hundred sets of armor, that Aida had become a Level 1 Warrior, and that Aisha was safe on her travels.

Ang helped manage the refugee crisis outside Bahoya City while the war against the hellhounds continued. He recruited former soldiers and two magic apprentices into his forces, leaving the recruitment effort underway.

• Duke Panston's army and the Mage Association's sorcerers pushed back the hellhounds and sealed gates, but reports estimated a million hellhounds remained on the Tarim Plane.
• The Mage Association issued a Wanted Order for Dominic, accusing him of betraying the association and opening gates that released hellhounds and supplied resources to demons.
• Ang and the North Wind Warband quelled disturbances among refugees who could not use Bahoya City's Temporary Portal, and Ang gave food to children while explaining the limits to an old woman.
• Ang organized a Logging Team to gather timber for shelters and invited former soldiers among the refugees to enlist in his forces.
• Ang opened a recruitment point, where many refugees signed up for military service and received wheat cakes.
• Two young men revealed they were magic apprentices, passed Ang's crystal tests, and joined his forces; Quintina registered them and offered to bring their families into the city.