Chapter Summaries

Ronan, a transmigrated Level 1 Wizard Apprentice, explored the wilderness near his treehouse and narrowly avoided a wizard duel. Unable to afford a safer home, he stayed in the dangerous Treehouse Area and fell asleep.

• Ronan reflected on his weak body and his life as the son of an Earl, who had come to study at the Hoddam Wizard Gathering Place.
• While exploring near the lake, Ronan saw two figures fighting with magic and fled after one collapsed.
• Ronan reached his treehouse, locked himself inside, and worried that a wizard might come after him.
• Ronan decided to move into town but found he lacked the magic stones to afford lodging without selling his inheritance.
• Ronan resolved to stay in the Treehouse Area, be cautious, and fell asleep from exhaustion.

Ronan settled into life in Hoddam Wizard Land, gathered fireflies to light his treehouse, and prepared to try meditation again. After discovering an old inscription beneath his blanket, he felt encouraged and calmed his mind, leaving him ready to begin cultivating.

• Ronan cooked a simple dinner from mixed grains, wild mushrooms, and pigeon eggs.
• He caught firefly-like creatures to light his treehouse, then hurried inside after encountering two robed figures in the woods.
• Ronan examined the books left by the previous owner and read the instructions in Basic Meditation Technique.
• He found the words “The soul is the home of immortality” carved into the bed board and imagined a former resident meditating there.
• Ronan took encouragement from the inscription, overcame his lingering fear, and settled his mind for meditation.

After Ronan succeeded at meditation, a Character Panel appeared and revealed his wizarding status and lack of elemental affinity. He studied through the night, then noticed his body felt weaker as morning arrived.

• Ronan successfully sensed spiritual power after meditating and thanked the carved word "soul" on his bedboard.
• A pale blue Character Panel appeared, showing Ronan Damien as a Level 1 Wizard Apprentice with Non-attribute Affinity and Basic Meditation Technique at Beginner 1/100.
• Ronan learned that his wizarding talent was ordinary and his progress toward the next apprentice level was still incomplete.
• Ronan stayed up reading wizard books and meditating while testing his new panel.
• At dawn, Ronan collected dew from the Old Oak Tree and noticed chest pain, weakness in his limbs, and worsening physical condition.

Ronan discovered that prolonged meditation had eroded his body with excess energy particles, and he decided to exercise rather than slow his cultivation or buy costly potions. After gathering supplies and eating breakfast, he went for a run in the forest and stopped to rest at a clear spring.

• Ronan realized that the previous owner's poor health came from energy particle erosion caused by excessive meditation.
• He chose physical training as a way to strengthen his body without slowing his cultivation or spending money on neutralizing potions.
• Ronan gathered morning dew, ate breakfast, and checked that his Meditation Technique proficiency had risen to 5/100 while his strength remained unchanged.
• He planned a forest running route away from the lakeside where he had seen wizards fighting and jogged for nearly an hour and a half.
• Ronan found a clear spring bubbling from a tree hollow, washed up, and soaked his feet.

Ronan discovered a hidden treehouse, then spent the day studying and practicing Energy Missile until he successfully cast it and gained confidence in his abilities. By night, repeated practice had improved his spellcasting, and his Character Panel showed Energy Missile at Beginner 14/100.

• Ronan found a treehouse hidden beyond a patch of bushes and decided to change his running route to avoid it.
• Ronan studied meditation and zero-order spells, choosing Energy Missile because it required no elemental affinity or weapon.
• Ronan practiced the incantation and gestures for hours without success, then kept training despite having no money for Academy lessons.
• Ronan successfully cast Energy Missile, blasting a crater into an oak tree and realizing he had gained genuine wizardly power.
• Ronan continued practicing until late at night, then checked his Character Panel, which listed Energy Missile at Beginner 14/100.

Ronan advanced to Level Two Wizard Apprentice and improved Energy Missile through disciplined training, allowing him to hunt for food. He grew more confident in the Treehouse Area, but his worsening chest pain left him seeking a better way to train.

• Ronan realized his Character Panel helped him retain progress as he mastered Energy Missile unusually quickly.
• Ronan trained rigorously for half a month and advanced Energy Missile to Proficient, shortening its casting time.
• Ronan killed a wild elk with Energy Missile and harvested its meat for food.
• Ronan noted that his spiritual power had grown enough to cast Energy Missile four times, but energy particles seemed to be worsening damage to his lungs.
• Ronan considered finding a Knight Training Method and cautiously passed a middle-aged wizard neighbor in the woods.

Ronan traveled to Hoddam’s residential district to shop for training supplies and necessities, but his seventy-six Magic Stone Grains made the high prices painful. He reached the crowded Wizard Market and began browsing its stalls, still unsure how he could earn more money.

• Ronan gathered his seventy-six Magic Stone Grains, packed supplies and dried beast meat, and left his cabin for town.
• Ronan turned away adventurers offering their services and entered Hoddam’s residential district.
• Ronan chose the Wizard Market over the guarded Dwarf Market after seeing well-equipped Academy Faction wizards head that way.
• Ronan discovered that flour and seasonings cost dearly, while no one wanted the ordinary beast meat he had brought to sell.
• Ronan reached the busy stalls at the end of the market street and gradually relaxed among the vendors and shoppers.

Ronan bought Universal Powder and blank Rune Stones at a market stall, then returned to his treehouse to study rune studies. He reached the book’s explanation of runes and their importance to wizardry.

• Ronan browsed the market and admired a magical item, deciding he wanted to buy one when he could afford it.
• Ronan purchased two bags of Universal Powder and thirteen blank Rune Stones from a stall owner who teased him about teaching himself rune engraving, then gave him two extra stones.
• Ronan abandoned his search for a Knight Cultivation Method and carried his purchases back to his treehouse.
• Ronan checked that no one had entered his treehouse, prepared dinner, and made a lamp pouch from fireflies.
• Ronan read his inheritance book about runes and reached the section explaining their role in spellcasting and magical items.

Ronan chose Rune Inscription as a low-cost profession and began studying the Cleaning Rune, hoping to earn money by inscribing runes onto stones. After memorizing its shape, he moved on to copying and drawing it as the first steps in his practice.

• Ronan learned how Rune Inscription and magic-tool enchanting worked, and reviewed the prices and levels of common Zero-Order Runes.
• Ronan found twenty usable blank Rune Stones and a carving knife left by the original owner, but worried that his limited materials gave him little room for failure.
• Ronan chose the Cleaning Rune and spent the night memorizing its curved-broom shape.
• Ronan made a pot of flour paste for breakfast, then planned to copy the rune before practicing with his carving knife.
• Ronan resumed a packed routine of training, meditation, spell practice, and rune study.

Ronan struggled to inscribe a Cleaning Rune, ruining seventeen Rune Stones as fatigue and limited supplies held him back. He took a walk in the forest, where he tested his Mastery-level Energy Missile and reflected on the danger to his lungs from frequent meditation.

• Ronan failed to inscribe a Cleaning Rune for the seventeenth time and blamed his dwindling mental strength and stamina.
• Ronan reviewed his improved skills, including Mastery-level Energy Missile and Beginner-level Charged Weapon, while worrying that he had only three blank Rune Stones left.
• Ronan left his treehouse to rest and considered asking his family to send him copies of the Knight Training Method because meditation was harming his lungs.
• Ronan cast Energy Missile at a nearby wild wolf, killing it and destroying the surrounding shrub and part of an oak tree.
• Ronan continued along his familiar forest route, then washed his hands and face at a tree spring.

Ronan visited Old Wells, shared a meal with him, and heard that a pair of Half-Elf siblings had moved into the eastern area. After returning home, he prepared to make another attempt at Rune Inscription with his three remaining blank Rune Stones.

• Ronan visited the tree spring and walked west to Old Wells's treehouse, where the old wizard invited him to share roasted Red-tailed Gray Mountain Goat.
• Ronan and Old Wells ate together, and Wells asked how Ronan's Rune Inscription studies were going.
• Old Wells told Ronan that a pair of Half-Elf siblings had recently moved into the eastern area and warned him that they had vicious tempers.
• Ronan returned home, practiced Energy Missile, bathed, and meditated before preparing to inscribe a Cleaning Rune on a blank Rune Stone.

Ronan successfully engraved two Cleaning Runes after many failures, giving him a source of income and two Rune Stones to sell. At the market, he returned to the stall owner who had mocked him and claimed he had needed nearly two hundred blank Rune Stones to succeed.

• Ronan ruined a Rune Stone at the final stroke, then meditated and successfully engraved a Cleaning Rune with careful focus.
• Ronan saw that Rune Inscription—Cleaning had reached Beginner 2/100 and calculated a net profit of one Magic Stone and thirty-one Magic Stone Grains.
• Ronan considered confronting the stall owner about the promised free Rune Stones but decided against drawing attention to his talent.
• Ronan went to the Wizard Market with his two Cleaning Rune Stones but could not afford a stall fee, so he returned to the Rune Stone stall owner.
• The stall owner questioned how many blank Rune Stones Ronan had used, and Ronan claimed he had needed nearly two hundred.

Ronan sold two Cleaning Runes for a Low-Level Magic Stone and bought blank runes, then searched the market for a cheap way to strengthen his body. The chapter ended as he asked the price of an Ancient Ascetic body-tempering method.

• Ronan sold two Cleaning Runes to a stall owner for one Low-Level Magic Stone and fifty Magic Stone fragments.
• Ronan spent fifty fragments on ten blank runes, received ten more for free, and decided to limit how often he sold runes at the stall.
• Ronan browsed the market and approached a young wizard selling spellbooks to ask about Knight Training Methods.
• Ronan rejected expensive knightly inheritances and asked for the cheapest option, so the young wizard showed him a method of body-tempering postures supposedly used by Ancient Ascetics.
• Ronan inspected the method and asked the young wizard how much it cost.

After being pressured into buying the Ancient Ascetic Body Tempering Method, Ronan focused on Rune Inscription and built up a stock of Cleaning Runes. He began practicing the method, whose painful poses made him suspect it was designed to increase pain tolerance, though he continued because it seemed to be strengthening his body.

• Ronan bought the Ancient Ascetic Body Tempering Method from a young wizard who pressured him with his mental power.
• Ronan inscribed Rune Stones, sold successful Cleaning Runes, and accumulated materials for another trip to Dwarf Market.
• Ronan took a break from inscribing, blasted fish from the lake with Energy Missiles, and brought them home for dinner.
• Ronan read the method's diagrams and began practicing its awkward poses, adding the exercises to his daily routine.
• As Ronan neared mastery of the first pose, the pain intensified until he realized the method was likely self-torture rather than a proper Knight Training Method.
• Ronan decided to keep practicing until he could afford a replacement, noting that his face seemed less puffy and his body felt stronger.

Ronan’s meditation and spellcasting improved, while his rune work earned him a stash of Cleaning Runes to sell. Old Wells told him Potter had died, then asked Ronan to adopt Potter’s orphaned daughter, Sheryl.

• Ronan reviewed his growing meditation, Energy Missile, and Cleaning Rune proficiency and planned how to spend the Magic Stones he expected to earn.
• Old Wells arrived at Ronan’s treehouse at night and told him Potter was dead.
• Ronan joined the neighbors at Potter’s funeral, where Old Wells recited a eulogy and burned the body with a fireball.
• Old Wells asked Ronan to adopt Potter’s daughter, Sheryl, because she had no one else to care for her.

After Potter died from a suspected curse, Ronan learned that a Black Robe Wizard might be in the area and watched Sheryl receive care from the young witch and Old Wells. He then visited Dwarf Market, sold his Cleaning runes at Welling Workshop, and left with eighteen Low-Level Magic Stones.

• Ronan declined Old Wells's request to care for Sheryl but asked how Potter had died, and Old Wells suspected a Curse-Type Spell cast by a wizard from Black Wizard Land.
• A young witch soothed Sheryl with a spell, while Ronan recognized the Half-Elf siblings speaking with Old Wells and hurried away after the burly brother glared at him.
• Rumors of a suspected Black Wizard Land wizard spread through the Treehouse Area and faded, and Ronan later heard that Sheryl had been jointly adopted by the young witch and Old Wells.
• Ronan paid to enter Dwarf Market and brought his Cleaning runes to Welling Workshop.
• Welling Workshop bought all of Ronan's runes for eighty Magic Stone Grains each, leaving him with eighteen Low-Level Magic Stones.

Ronan bought a Tungsten Silver rune carving knife, decided to keep living in the forest rather than rent in town, and set his sights on joining Hoddam Academy. After raising his Spiritual Power with a potion, he began practicing Ascetic Body Forging to endure pain and improve his cultivation, while advancing his rune inscription skills.

• Ronan spent two Low-Level Magic Stones on a secondhand Tungsten Silver rune carving knife at the Wizard Market.
• After viewing houses in town, Ronan put off moving and decided to save money to enter Hoddam Academy.
• Ronan practiced the painful Ascetic Body Forging technique and found that it helped him tolerate pain and stimulate Spiritual Power growth.
• Ronan used a Spirit Concentration Potion to advance to Level Three Wizard Apprentice and improve his Cleaning Rune success rate.
• Ronan unlocked the Shine Rune, which Welling Workshop bought for two magic stones, though he considered it less useful than Cleaning.

Ronan advanced his rune work and reached the beginner stage of Ascetic Body Forging, transforming his physique and discovering his newfound speed and strength. After running deep into the forest and turning back to leave, he heard a violent explosion nearby.

• Ronan considered buying another Spirit Concentration Potion to raise his Spiritual Power and advance to a Level Four Apprentice.
• Ronan improved his Ascetic Body Forging proficiency and saw that the training had reshaped his body and eased his physical ailments.
• Ronan tested his strength by dropping from a tree and sprinting through the forest without tiring quickly.
• Ronan realized he had run into the forest's depths, where magical beasts might lurk, and began retracing his path.
• Ronan heard a violent explosion from his left.

Ronan stumbled upon the aftermath of a deadly wizard battle, but the surviving wizard spotted him and attacked. After narrowly escaping several fireballs, Ronan turned back to confront the weakened wizard, leaving their fight about to begin.

• Ronan found a clearing where one wizard lay dead and another, a pale-faced man with a red mole, was recovering.
• The surviving wizard noticed Ronan and attacked him with a fireball, forcing Ronan to flee through the burning woods.
• Ronan dodged several more fireballs and realized the wizard might track him if he kept running.
• Ronan decided to exploit the wizard's weakened state, charged his dagger with Charged Weapon, and returned to face him.
• The wizard drank a restorative potion and mocked Ronan, who charged at him in anger.

Ronan defeated the gray-robed wizard with two rapid Expert Level Energy Missiles, then overcame his nausea and examined the wizard’s magical rings. He left with a powerful protective ring and a renewed determination to train Energy Missile.

• Ronan charged the wizard, who raised a protective magical barrier from his ring.
• Ronan’s first Expert Level Energy Missile cracked the barrier, and his second shattered it and killed the wizard.
• Ronan felt relieved and excited by the spell’s strength, then struggled with nausea at having killed a person.
• Ronan looted two rings and found that the black turquoise ring held two mid-level protection runes.
• Ronan identified a Fireball rune on the red ring and guessed the wizard had used it to cast a third Fireball during their earlier chase.