Chapter Summaries

Ang tested and sold his new Basic Strength Armament, then spent the following months improving his craft and producing more sets. He ended the chapter with over 5,000 Magic Crystals and shifted his focus toward Power Armor rather than weapon enchantment work.

• Ang tested two Basic Strength Armaments on the Level 1 Warriors Deli and Raden, and Raden demonstrated that the armor greatly increased his strength, speed, and defense.
• Ang priced the armaments at 410 Magic Crystals each, and Ernit agreed to sell them through the merchant association after Mage Guild appraisal.
• The Mage Guild rated one set Ordinary because of a flaw in its energy base and the other Fine, while Ernit planned to market them at higher prices.
• Ang completed the third set, received Master McGowan's advice to use reliable conventional runes, and ordered more materials.
• Over the next two months, Ang made eleven more Basic Strength Armaments, bringing his total to fourteen, and Ernit purchased them all.
• Ang's income from the armaments raised his holdings above 5,000 Magic Crystals, and he ended his weapon-enchantment partnership to focus on more profitable projects.

Ang traveled alone to the Guanda Plane to search Andalutin Forest for Ancient Elf runes that could advance his enchantment research. He reached Monag County and planned to arrange a forest map, a guide, and a horse before setting out.

• Ang sent Qatar and the senior students who had advanced to Rank 1 Mage red envelopes containing 50 magic crystals each, then considered giving his growing workshop team more training and responsibility.
• Ang prepared Power Armor and enchanted coverings, bought materials for his workers, and set off alone after Eileen and his other friends declined to join him.
• Ang traveled through the Empire’s teleportation network to Guanda City and learned that wealth and resources there were controlled largely by nobles and merchant factions.
• Ang continued by teleportation to Monag County, ate dinner at a local restaurant, and checked into an inn.
• Ang planned to spend two or three days securing a map of Andalutin Forest, a knowledgeable guide, and a horse before entering the forest to search for Ancient Elf runes.

Ang explored Monag County’s market in search of a guide to Andalutin Forest and bought a Green Mane Horse after earning the young mare’s trust. When every guide refused to enter the forest and the available maps proved too crude, he returned to the inn determined to find another way to pursue the Ancient Elf rune ruins.

• Ang asked an inn waiter about Monag County and walked to the market to look for a guide.
• Ang bought a young Green Mane Horse for 21 magic crystals after calming her with Holy Light Element.
• The horse trader explained how to find reputable guides and directed Ang to a gathering place in the market.
• Ang asked local and Imperial guides to take him to Andalutin Forest, but they all refused without explaining why.
• Ang bought the most detailed map available, which showed only the forest’s rough boundaries, and learned that shop owners did not know why guides avoided it.
• Ang returned to the inn and considered seeking information from knowledgeable adventurers or scholars, or exploring the forest himself.

Ang researched Monag County’s archives to learn about the Guanda people and the dangers of Andalutin Forest, then encountered a desperate Guanda boy whose sister needed medicine. The chapter left Ang at the siblings’ home, seeing the girl’s infected wound.

• Ang studied Monag County’s records and learned that Andalutin Forest had been a refuge and homeland for the Guanda people, who had developed ancient rune technology.
• Ang found records describing a curse against Guanda people who surrendered to the Empire, and learned that Level 3 and Level 4 Magical Beasts made entering the forest without a guide dangerous.
• Ang thanked a city hall staff member with a magic crystal and left the archives determined to find a guide before entering Andalutin Forest.
• Ang saw a Guanda boy pleading unsuccessfully with a Magic Shop staff member for medicine for his sick little sister, then followed him out of the city.
• Ang entered the boy’s slum home and found his malnourished little sister lying with an infected wound as the boy promised to save her.

Ang took the gravely ill Bubuta and her brother Roel from their slum hut to his inn, where he treated her infection and arranged food, clean clothes, and continued care. Bubuta survived the immediate danger, while Ang considered how to use his new connection to the siblings and the Guanda people.

• Ang examined Bubuta’s infected wound and offered to treat her if her brother agreed to a condition, and Roel chose to trust him.
• Ang carried Bubuta to his inn, with Roel following him from the slums.
• Ang used the Holy Light Technique and his Healing Potion to treat Bubuta’s wound, waking her and easing her condition.
• Ang arranged for Bubuta to bathe, provided clean clothes, and paid an attendant to help care for her over the following days.
• Roel washed and then sat with Bubuta as they ate the hot food Ang had arranged, carefully feeding her while Ang watched.

Ang learned about Roel and Bubuta’s hardship, then treated Bubuta’s poisoned wound until her condition stabilized. Roel explained the Guanda people’s alleged Ancestral Punishment in Andalutin Forest and agreed to guide Ang if he could break the curse.

• Roel described how his parents died, how he and Bubuta were driven from their home, and how a magical beast’s venom left Bubuta gravely ill.
• Ang promised to take responsibility for Bubuta’s treatment and left the siblings to rest.
• After several days, Ang removed the necrotic tissue from Bubuta’s arm and treated the wound with a Healing Potion, stabilizing her condition.
• Ang asked Roel why the Guanda people avoided Andalutin Forest, and Roel explained the legend of Ancestral Punishment against those who surrendered to the Empire and their descendants.
• Roel agreed to guide Ang into the forest if Ang could find a way to break the curse.

Ang sought evidence about the Andalutin Forest’s supposed curse so he could persuade Roel to guide him there, while caring for Bubuta as she recovered. Roel explained the Guanda people’s history and beliefs, leaving Ang to consider how understanding their culture could help him uncover the truth behind the Ancestral Curse.

• Ang paid the Adventurer’s Guild fifty Gold Wack to investigate how many Guanda people had died or gone missing in the Andalutin Forest, and was told to return in three days.
• Ang healed Bubuta and advised Roel to give her small, frequent meals as she regained her strength.
• Ang asked Roel about the Guanda people, and Roel described their history of conflict with the Empire, displacement into the forest, and gradual integration into Imperial society.
• Roel explained that the Guanda people maintained their distinct traditions of nature worship and ancestral deities while pursuing opportunities in the Empire.
• Ang listened to Roel and concluded that respecting Guanda history and beliefs might help him persuade Roel to enter the forest and investigate the Ancestral Curse.

Ang used Adventurer's Guild records and Roel's own investigation to challenge the Guanda people's belief in Ancestral Punishment. Convinced that the forest's real dangers—not a curse—had caused the deaths and disappearances, Roel agreed to guide Ang into Andalutin Forest after Ang promised to look after Bubuta.

• Ang showed Roel and Bubuta records suggesting that Guanda people who died or vanished in Andalutin Forest had fallen victim to ordinary dangers rather than Ancestral Punishment.
• Roel investigated the cases himself by speaking with the families of the dead and missing, and confirmed the records' accounts.
• Bubuta recovered from her injuries and began earning a small wage by helping the innkeeper.
• Roel told Ang he no longer wanted fear of the supposed curse to limit their future and agreed to guide him into Andalutin Forest.
• Ang promised Roel that he would continue caring for Bubuta and keep her safe.

Ang and Roel prepared for their expedition, entered the Andalutin Forest, and followed signs of Guanda history to an ancient sacrificial altar. Ang copied the altar’s intact runes, and the two set out to follow their clues deeper into the forest.

• Ang arranged a courtyard and a caregiver for Bubuta, who accepted that she could not join the expedition and vowed to become independent.
• Ang and Roel reached the Andalutin Forest and traveled into its depths, relying on Roel’s tracking and hunting skills while Ang handled the Magical Beasts they encountered.
• After nearly ten days, Ang and Roel found an abandoned Guanda settlement and followed the Guanda people's Mother River upstream.
• Ang and Roel discovered an ancient Guanda sacrificial site beside a mountain and decided to camp there before examining its runes.
• Ang cleared the altar, identified its intact runic array, and copied the symbols onto parchment.
• Ang proposed following the runes’ clues deeper into the forest, and Roel prepared to continue with him.

Ang activated the Guanda altar with Magic Crystals and discovered that its runes enhanced vitality, relieved fatigue, and healed living creatures, but consumed enormous amounts of energy. He continued investigating the altar’s unusual material and rune system, while its deeper origins remained unknown.

• Ang connected a Magic Crystal-powered device to the altar, and its runes glowed, making him feel refreshed while Roel experienced an overwhelming surge of vitality.
• Ang observed that the altar’s effects varied by person and that three Magic Crystals powered it for less than five minutes before the runes went dark.
• Ang tested the altar on magical beasts and found that it healed living creatures, including the severely injured, but could not revive the dead and required nearly thirty Magic Crystals to save a dying beast.
• Ang engraved the runes on miniature models made from different materials but could not reproduce the altar’s effects, and he noticed its distinctive mineral composition might be essential.
• Ang searched the surrounding mountains for the altar’s mineral, recorded his research, and continued investigating the possible connection between its material and runes as Roel admired his work.

Ang and Roel left the buried rune platform and explored deeper into the forest, where they discovered a secluded Guanda people tribe living in a gorge. They withdrew to avoid frightening the tribe and planned to approach its members gradually to earn their trust.

• Ang concealed the rune platform beneath soil and vegetation, then continued along the river with Roel.
• Ang questioned Roel about the legend of the Guanda people’s punishment as they traveled into increasingly remote terrain.
• Ang and Roel entered a secluded gorge and found caves that served as dwellings for a Guanda people tribe.
• Ang and Roel observed that the tribe’s women, children, and elderly were impoverished and that few adult men were present.
• Ang concluded that the tribe relied on gathering rather than hunting and led Roel out of the gorge to wait for a safer chance to approach.

Ang and Roel gained the trust of the Green Bear Tribe by bringing them food and salt, then learned that its men had been taken away four years earlier by a larger tribe deep in the forest. They discovered an ancient stone and patterned hides among the late elder’s possessions and planned to investigate their significance.

• Ang drove a Spiny Boar Beast toward the Guanda women, killed it with his dragon thorn, and used Roel to calm them and speak with their chief, Yuyuli.
• Ang gave the Green Bear Tribe the beast, and Roel carried it back to their cliffside caves, where the women butchered and cooked it.
• Ang gave Yuyuli salt, which she added to the meat, and he and Roel gave their portions to the tribe’s hungry children.
• Ang and Roel learned that about eighty elders, women, and children remained in the tribe, with no adult men, and noticed their severe malnutrition and lack of resources.
• Yuyuli told Ang and Roel that a larger tribe had summoned the Green Bear Tribe’s young men four years earlier and that the tribe had once numbered nearly five hundred.
• Ang searched the late elder’s possessions and found a mysterious stone resembling one he had found before, patterned beast hides, and magic crystals; he decided to study the stone and hides.

Ang and Roel helped the Green Bear Tribe secure food, then explored the elder’s cave and studied its murals and ritual runes. After Yuyuli identified the stones used to build ancient altars, Ang resolved to investigate the river upstream and attempt to restore the altar.

• Ang and Roel refused to sleep in the tribe’s cave, set up a tent, and Ang protected it with a warning magic array.
• Yuyuli asked Ang and Roel to hunt two Spiny Boar Beasts in exchange for a visit to the elder’s cave, and they captured two adults and three young beasts.
• Ang and Roel helped the tribe gather wild fruit and learned that its population had dwindled to just over eighty people while its men remained missing.
• Ang studied and copied the elder’s cave murals, then stored the cave’s symbol-covered stones and other objects in his Magic Waist Pouch.
• Ang examined the objects the next morning, and Yuyuli identified rune-carved stones from upstream as the material elders had used to build altars.
• Ang concluded that finding more of the stones could help him restore the altar and reactivate the runes’ power.

Ang and Roel searched for the stones needed to restore the Green Bear Tribe’s altar, but the lake was too dangerous to enter, so they investigated a neighboring tribe’s abandoned settlement instead. There, they found an unfinished altar and learned from Yuyuli that the rituals invoked the Ancestor’s power; Yuyuli agreed to help try to awaken it again.

• Ang and Roel found the lake filled with Water Element Magical Beasts and returned to the Green Bear Tribe without collecting stones.
• Yuyuli explained that the tribe’s elders had used altar-empowered talismans to protect people gathering stones from the lake.
• Ang decided to visit a neighboring tribe, and he and Roel found its abandoned cave settlement and an unfinished altar with runes like those of the Green Bear Tribe.
• Ang and Roel recorded the altar’s runes and returned to show their findings to Yuyuli.
• Yuyuli recalled that elders blessed warriors at the altar by invoking the Ancestor, whose power the Guanda people believed protected them.
• Ang asked Yuyuli to help restore the altar and awaken the Ancestor’s power, and she agreed.

Ang and the Guanda Tribe successfully awakened the altar’s power through a reconstructed sacrifice, restoring the tribe and granting Roel a major increase in strength. After Yuyuli explained the ancestors’ blessing and the ritual’s requirements, Ang prepared to join a future sacrifice and deepen his understanding of the tribe’s traditions.

• Ang and Yuyuli reconstructed the ritual, but the altar remained silent until they burned spirit-guiding grass in the brazier and resumed their prayers and dance.
• The altar filled the canyon with blue light, strengthening the tribe and raising Roel from an Intermediate Squire to a Senior Squire.
• Ang checked that the tribe was safe, then helped Roel stabilize his new power and had him learn how the others experienced the blessing.
• Yuyuli told Ang that the sacrifice had connected her with the ancestors and that Roel had received a special Courage Blessing, while the rest of the tribe received ordinary blessings.
• Yuyuli explained the materials and preparations needed for another sacrifice, and Ang decided to participate after preparing his mind and Qi force.
• Ang studied the Guanda people’s traditions with Yuyuli and the elders, earning the tribe’s trust as he prepared for a future ritual.

Ang investigated the Green Bear Tribe’s altar and discovered how its runes converted energy into blessings, while Roel grew close to the tribe. They left the canyon after Yuyuli asked Roel to stay, but he chose to continue his journey because his younger sister was waiting for him.

• During the tribe’s second ritual, Ang sensed a mechanical awareness in the altar and realized its blessing came from runes rather than a conscious ancestor.
• Ang studied the altar’s energy flows, learned to activate its blessing, and concluded that the ritual gathered the tribe’s spiritual force through the divine grass.
• Ang considered seeking complete altars among larger tribes but recognized that approaching them could be dangerous.
• Ang and Roel prepared to leave the Green Bear Tribe, and Yuyuli asked Roel to stay and protect her people.
• Roel told Ang that he had refused because his younger sister was waiting for him, and the two left as the tribespeople waved goodbye.

Ang and Roel encountered a Guanda hunting party, whose members mistook Ang for a dangerous outsider and attacked them. The hunting captain agreed to take them to camp for the elders to judge, giving Ang a chance to learn more about the Guanda people.

• Ang and Roel traveled upstream as Ang studied Guanda blessing runes and trained Roel in combat.
• Ang and Roel spotted a Guanda hunting party, but a fleeing animal and a hunter's Bone Whistle exposed their hiding place.
• The hunters fired arrows at Ang and Roel, calling Ang a devil from beyond the forest, while the pair defended themselves.
• The hunting captain questioned Roel, who explained his Guanda descent, and Ang introduced himself as Roel's friend.
• The captain ordered Ang and Roel to return to camp for the elders' scrutiny, and they agreed to go peacefully.

Ang and Roel traveled with the Guanda hunting parties, where Roel confronted his estrangement from his people and both witnessed the hunters’ fear of a Sabertooth Beast. As hostility led by Keineg erupted into an attack, Ang and Roel fled into the forest, using magic and a wall of flame to evade their pursuers before hiding in the bushes.

• Ang encouraged Roel after the Guanda hunters treated him as an outsider, and Roel began to regain his confidence.
• The hunting party hid from a massive Sabertooth Beast, giving Roel a firsthand understanding of the danger the Guanda faced in the forest.
• Keineg joined the growing group, urged the hunters to kill Ang and Roel, and helped turn camp hostility into a midnight attack.
• Ang activated a Rune Stone to block the first attackers, but Keineg ordered the hunters to keep striking until the barrier broke.
• Ang fought back with Fireball, took Roel, and fled as Keineg pursued them through the forest.
• Ang donned his Power Armor and used a wall of flame to cover their escape, then hid with Roel in low bushes.

Ang and Roel escaped Keineg’s pursuit and traveled deeper into the Guanda jungle, where Ang subdued Keineg and his hunters without killing them. They discovered a large abandoned Guanda settlement and an intricate rune-covered stele, but approaching footsteps interrupted their exploration.

• Ang and Roel slipped away from Keineg’s nighttime encirclement as the other hunting captains pressured Keineg to abandon the search.
• After Keineg pursued them again, Ang fought off magical beasts and led Roel deeper into the jungle, then later silently incapacitated Keineg’s hunters and defeated Keineg without killing him.
• Ang and Roel evaded Guanda patrols while searching the forest for significant ruins and clues to the runes.
• Ang and Roel found a large abandoned Guanda settlement marked by battle damage and rune-carved stone walls.
• Ang deciphered some of the ruins’ inscriptions and copied the complex runes on a half-destroyed stele into his notebook.
• When footsteps sounded nearby, Ang signaled Roel to hide and moved into the shadows to investigate.

Ang secretly listened as Elder Rum taught Ciri about the Darita Tribe’s lost homeland and urged her to preserve their people rather than pursue reckless revenge. The conversation deepened Ang’s doubts about the Empire’s account of its expansion, while Roel reflected on the hardships and compromises faced by Guanda people inside and outside the Empire.

• Elder Rum brought Ciri to the ruins of the Darita Tribe’s former home and explained how the Empire had driven their people away.
• Ciri voiced her anger and desire to reclaim their homeland, but Elder Rum warned that rebellion could destroy the survivors and urged her to protect Guanda culture and bloodline.
• Elder Rum explained that Guanda relatives who had left the forest and made peace with the Empire were not traitors, prompting Ciri to reconsider their choices.
• Ang listened from hiding and questioned whether Imperial histories had overlooked the cultural loss and suffering behind the Empire’s expansion.
• Roel listened in Guanda and reflected on his own life in Monag County, the difficult survival of forest tribes, and the cost of integrating into the Empire.