Chapter Summaries

Lynn attended a Faceless Ones gathering as Ladak, where he challenged a wizard’s lecture on the human body with his own more detailed knowledge and earned the speaker’s coins. After the meeting, he was asked to stay behind with three other members.

• Lynn entered a strange illusory space with fourteen other figures, and the intelligent brain began analyzing it.
• A tall, thin wizard lectured on the human body, and Lynn refused to pay because he already knew the material.
• Lynn expanded on the lecture with detailed information about muscle fibers and bodily composition, prompting the tall, thin wizard to give him the coins.
• Lynn declined to convert the coins into energy and briefly explained proteins before the gathering continued with a lecture on psionic magic.
• The Faceless Ones ended the meeting after agreeing on the next gathering, and a male wizard asked Numbers Three, Seven, Eleven, and Fifteen to stay behind.

Lynn learned that North planned to hunt an Eye of Death in the Sea of Mists using a High-grade Magic Crystal Cannon mounted on a Sky Airship. North recruited Lynn, Barbara, and two others with lavish rewards, and the group settled on the day after tomorrow for the operation.

• Barbara pressed North to explain why he had asked her to obtain a High-grade Magic Crystal Cannon, and North revealed that he planned to hunt an Eye of Death.
• Lynn learned that the Eye of Death caused the Sea of Mists' great whirlpools and understood that North intended to attack it from a Sky Airship.
• Lynn questioned how they would find and aim at the Eye of Death in the mist and stop it escaping, but North claimed he had solutions.
• North offered Lynn a share of the rewards and a chance to make a potion from the Eye of Death's spiritual essence, while promising Barbara and the others generous payment.
• Lynn proposed the day after tomorrow for the hunt, timing it to coincide with Iyetar Academy's break, and resolved not to let North take most of the benefits.

After a secret gathering, Lynn discovered that illusory coins could replenish the A.I. chip’s energy, then disguised himself as Ladak and went to inspect the airship North had built. The group prepared to launch it after nightfall, while Lynn concealed his connection to the original design.

• Lynn converted five illusory coins into a five percent increase in the A.I. chip’s energy reserves.
• Lynn suspended his arcane mathematics classes for a week and assigned his apprentices several hundred questions as homework.
• Lynn disguised himself as Ladak and rode with North’s servant to a hidden cave beneath a coastal cliff.
• Lynn saw the modified airship and met North, Hank, Eva, and Barbara, who were all Three-Ring Wizards and Blood Thorn leaders.
• North refused to reveal how he had learned to make the airship fly and decided to wait until nightfall before launching it.
• North had apprentices carry barrels of pungent liquid onto the airship while the group waited.

North led Lynn, Hank, Eva, Barbara, and the apprentices into the Sea of Mists aboard an airship to find the Eye of Death. They located the moving target, but the airship descended into its whirlpool, leaving the crew in danger as North tried to raise it.

• North used a magical compass to track the Eye of Death, and its needle first pointed at Lynn because of the power he carried.
• North expanded the compass’s range until it pointed toward the depths of the Sea of Mists, then ordered the airship to follow it.
• After searching for most of the day, North warned the others that the Eye of Death hunted living beings and that they needed luck to avoid a powerful one.
• Lynn sensed the target nearby and shouted for the airship to climb when the crew unknowingly descended to just above the sea.
• The Eye of Death’s mental influence dazed the apprentices, and its whirlpool dragged the airship onto the water.
• North began filling the airship’s overhead airbag with hydrogen as the vessel rocked violently, while an apprentice was swept into the current.

North used the marrow of a Feathered Serpent to clear the fog and bait the Eye of Death into a frenzy. Lynn manned the Magic Crystal Cannon, and the airship’s attacks wounded the raging beast as it lashed out below.

• North launched a crimson crystal that dispersed the nearby fog, then ordered the crew to throw barrels of liquid into the whirlpool.
• The liquid drove the Eye of Death into a frenzy, and its huge, barbed tentacles rose from the sea.
• Hank hesitated to fire the cannon, so North ordered Lynn to take the gunner’s position.
• Lynn’s first cannon shot missed, but after North lowered the airship, Lynn struck the Eye of Death and exposed its enormous body.
• Lynn fired again and pierced the Eye of Death, drawing inky green blood as the enraged creature attacked the airship with its tentacles.

Lynn, North, Hank, and the others blasted the Eye of Death with a Magic Crystal Cannon and spells until it seemed dead, then tried to tow its sinking body. The beast had been playing dead and pulled their airship into the sea; after Lynn severed the tentacle dragging them down, the airship crashed onto the water, where another tentacle came crashing toward it.

• Lynn, North, Hank, and the others bombarded the Eye of Death until its body stopped moving.
• North used the airship’s grappling claw to hook the sinking beast and began towing it.
• Lynn sensed something was wrong, and a tentacle emerged from the sea and wrapped around the towing rope.
• Hank warned that the Eye of Death was playing dead as it dragged the airship toward its maw.
• Lynn spent much of his own magical energy to fire a weakened cannon shot that severed the tentacle, but the airship crashed sideways into the sea.
• A gigantic tentacle came crashing down on the floating airship.

Lynn devised a way to use the airship’s gasbag against the Eye of Death after the monster destroyed the Magic Crystal Cannon and trapped the airship. He ordered the others to prepare their strongest Flame Magic as the damaged gasbags released hydrogen and oxygen, leaving the fight poised for a dangerous explosion.

• The Eye of Death smashed through the airship’s defenses, destroyed its Magic Crystal Cannon, and killed Eva with a tentacle strike.
• Barbara froze a tentacle with Ice Breath, and North and the others shattered it with Flame Burst Spells.
• North warned the group that Flame Magic could ignite the hydrogen-filled gasbag, but Lynn secretly pumped oxygen into the secondary gasbag.
• Lynn detached the gasbag from the cockpit and let the Eye of Death drag it in front of itself, then told North, Hank, and Barbara to count to three before casting their strongest Flame Magic.
• Lynn’s Magic Missiles struck both gasbags, releasing hydrogen and oxygen as the Eye of Death’s tentacles flailed around them.

Lynn and the others killed the Eye of Death by igniting hydrogen inside its gasbag, though the explosion wrecked their cockpit and nearly drowned them. After collecting the monster’s spiritual essence, they pressured North into sharing some of its blood, while Lynn kept his potion-maker’s share of the essence untouched.

• Lynn prepared a near-optimal hydrogen-and-oxygen mixture, and North and the other wizards ignited it with Flame Burst spells after the missiles struck the gasbag.
• The explosion blasted the Eye of Death apart and hurled Lynn, North, Hank, and Barbara into the sea inside their damaged cockpit.
• Lynn confirmed the monster appeared dead, and North inspected the warped cockpit before they approached the corpse and extinguished its flames.
• North took the Eye of Death’s spiritual essence crystals and collected its blood in a Mithril bucket for his alchemy research.
• Hank, Barbara, and Lynn pressured North to share the blood, and he gave each of them a bottle in exchange for part of their payment.
• Lynn said his share of the spiritual essence could not be touched, and North told Hank and Barbara they could buy it later.

After returning to the Land of Wizards, Lynn used Gnaw Rats to test [Source of Magic Power] brewed from spiritual essence, discovering that the Eye of Death's essence caused unusually strong magical reactions and violent behavior. Concerned about dangerous side effects, he decided to make a weaker version and have someone test it before he considered taking it himself.

• After three days at sea, North, Barbara, Hank, and Lynn returned to the Land of Wizards, and North promised to deliver what he owed within a few days.
• Lynn returned to Ladak's estate and ordered Coleman and the apprentices to gather one hundred Gnaw Rats for experiments.
• Lynn brewed three versions of [Source of Magic Power] using spiritual essence from a Fire Lizard, a griffin, and the Eye of Death, then tested them on groups of Gnaw Rats.
• The Gnaw Rats given the Eye of Death potion became aggressive, and those given larger doses developed crimson eyes, intense magical reactions in their brains, and died.
• Lynn concluded that the Eye of Death's spiritual essence was far more potent than the others and decided to prepare a weakened potion for someone else to test first.

Lynn questioned Joanne about whether she had revealed his identity, then offered her a stronger experimental [Source of Magic Power] to help her advance. Joanne realized Lynn was still an apprentice and drank the potion, while he watched to observe the advancement process.

• Lynn asked Joanne whether she had told anyone about his identity, and she denied doing so while recounting who she had spoken with about their past.
• Lynn concluded that Joanne's account offered no clues about how someone had learned of Carl and shifted to his other reason for calling her.
• Lynn showed Joanne a [Source of Magic Power] he had brewed and warned that its stronger effects and possible side effects were unknown.
• Joanne inferred that Lynn was not an Official Wizard, and his silence confirmed her suspicion.
• Joanne trusted Lynn, drank the potion, and Lynn watched for signs of her advancement.

Joanne successfully advanced to Official Wizard after drinking Lynn’s potion, and Lynn then took the same potion in Ladak’s secret chamber. In his consciousness, he faced the Eye of Death and prepared an antimatter attack against it.

• Joanne drank the potion, endured its painful effects, and successfully became an Official Wizard.
• Joanne tested her new ability to cast spells without materials and told Lynn that the potion caused intense pain but no noticeable side effects.
• Lynn returned to Ladak’s secret chamber and drank a dose of the potion.
• Lynn entered a world of thought, where the Eye of Death attacked him with its tentacles and crushed his body.
• Lynn flew above the sea, attacked the Eye of Death with White Phosphorus Fireballs, then created hydrogen and antihydrogen spheres and launched them as his Antimatter Annihilation Cannon.

Lynn survived the annihilation of the Eye of Death and advanced to become a Second Circle Wizard. He then released the stored soul of White Dove and promised to look for a way to return her to her body.

• Lynn and the Eye of Death were caught in the antimatter explosion, which destroyed the monster and shattered Lynn’s Consciousness Space.
• The energy from the explosion broke through Lynn’s magic-power barrier, strengthened his abilities, and advanced him to the level of a Second Circle Wizard.
• Lynn tested the intellectual brain’s ability to release the stored energy entity and ordered it to bring the entity out.
• Lynn recognized the summoned girl as White Dove and realized the stored entity was her soul.
• White Dove discovered she was dead and began to cry, while Lynn tried to comfort her by promising to find a way to put her soul back into her body.

Lynn tested his psionic control over White Dove, then considered the dangers and uses of soul power. When Barbara and Hank came to complain that North had disappeared without paying them, Lynn suggested that North had used them to obtain Eye of Death’s blood, leaving all three alarmed by what he might be planning.

• Lynn used Necromantic Manipulation to control White Dove’s spirit body, and she escaped into the AI chip’s reserve pool when he released her.
• Lynn named the energy in the AI chip soul power and studied Ladak’s notes on psionic magic, noting its risks and usefulness for reconnaissance.
• Lynn spent the following days condensing defensive Spell Slots after completing his advancement.
• Barbara and Hank told Lynn that North had not paid Hank’s promised reward or appeared at his manor or base.
• Lynn suggested that North had used them as blades to obtain Eye of Death’s blood, and Barbara and Hank grew alarmed.

Hank and Barbara suspected North had found a way to become a Great Wizard using the Eye of Death’s blood, and they planned to pressure him into revealing it. Meanwhile, Lynn resumed teaching mathematics and told his apprentices they had barely begun, leaving them bewildered by the subjects ahead.

• Barbara said she wanted to find North and learn how he might advance, while Hank proposed threatening him with the possibility of spreading word about his method.
• Hank and Barbara formed a temporary alliance and left to study the blood they had obtained from the Sea of Mists.
• Lynn recalled that the Eye of Death’s blood resisted his experiments and considered investigating its use in an alchemical magic array.
• Lynn reviewed the apprentices’ mathematics homework and praised their progress, prompting Pierce to ask whether they had finished the course.
• Lynn listed advanced topics the apprentices still had to learn, leaving them confused by everything except the word “triangle.”

Lynn demonstrated how mathematics could combine with magic by firing twelve Magic Missiles over the Screaming Tower and precisely striking training dummies beyond it. Elock and Debra brought back the headless dummies, leaving the apprentices astonished by Lynn’s accuracy.

• Lynn took the apprentices outside and cast twelve Magic Missiles that arced over the Screaming Tower and disappeared from view.
• Lynn sent Elock and Debra to fetch the training dummies while the apprentices assumed his spell had missed.
• Elock and Debra found twelve headless dummies at the training grounds and learned that Magic Missiles had fallen from the sky to strike them.
• Elock and Debra returned with Daka and the others carrying the damaged dummies, and Debra asked Lynn how he had done it.
• Elock explained to the gathered apprentices that Lynn’s missiles had crossed the distance from beyond the Screaming Tower and precisely hit the dummies.

Lynn explained how mathematics and a coordinate system let him hit training dummies from far away, then promised the apprentices improved magic and early graduation for perfect scores on an exam. After discussing alchemy with Tick, Lynn checked on Joanne’s condition after her advancement and urged her to get down to business before their two hours ran out.

• Lynn explained that he had used precise positional data and trajectory calculations to strike the training dummies from a distance, and said he could adapt the technique to stronger spells.
• Lynn promised to teach the improved spell and allow early graduation to apprentices who answered every question correctly on an upcoming Mathematics Department examination.
• Lynn taught the apprentices about the Cartesian coordinate plane, then spoke with Tick about its importance and the principles of setting up and breaking Alchemy Formations.
• Lynn asked Tick about alchemical methods for increasing a wizard’s strength, and Tick said such methods were rarely used in the Land of Wizards anymore.
• Lynn asked Joanne whether she had suffered any discomfort after advancing; when she reported none, he urged her to get down to business before their two hours were over.

Lynn privately tutored Joanne, then attended an advancement ceremony at a South City manor disguised as Ladak, where he secretly sent animal puppets to scout the grounds. The gathering’s host, North, appeared just as Barbara confirmed he would attend.

• Lynn explained Cartesian coordinate problems to Joanne during a private tutoring session, and she thanked him before leaving.
• Joanne recognized the Ring of the Faceless on Lynn’s hand and said Coru had worn it when he took her as an apprentice.
• Lynn wondered whether Coru was Number Four among the Faceless Ones and how Coru might have revealed his identity.
• Lynn arrived at the manor disguised as Ladak with fifteen apprentices and sent Gnaw Rat, crow, and lizard puppets to scout the estate.
• Lynn met Barbara and Hank at the banquet and asked whether North would attend the ceremony.
• Barbara said North would definitely come, and North appeared in the banquet hall.

North began Blood Thorn’s advancement ceremony by unveiling a new Alchemy Formation that he claimed could amplify a wizard’s power. Hank and Barbara suspected the ceremony would undermine their control over advancement slots, while Lynn investigated the heavily guarded estate and found Mithril pillars forming a larger setup around the hall.

• Barbara demanded that North explain his absence and fulfill his promises, and North assured her that everyone would receive what he had promised after the ceremony.
• Lynn surveyed the sealed estate with his gray crows and Gnaw Rats, spotted Mithril pillars arranged like an Alchemy Formation, and lost a Gnaw Rat to a guard dog.
• North announced that the advancement ceremony would begin immediately and revealed a new Alchemy Formation across part of the banquet hall floor.
• North said the formation could amplify a wizard’s power and invited Blood Thorn’s apprentices to test it, while Hank and Barbara suspected he was weakening their control over advancement slots.

North activated the Alchemy Formation, which first increased the apprentices’ magic power before turning their absorbed power into a deadly force that consumed their bodies and souls. Lia recognized it as Merk’s Soul Devouring Array, and North revealed that he intended to sacrifice everyone to become a Great Wizard.

• Bock and the other apprentices entered the Alchemy Formation despite Barbara’s anger, and Lynn did not stop them.
• North activated the formation, and Bock and the other apprentices felt their magic power surge.
• The apprentices began collapsing as the formation’s power poisoned them and consumed their bodies and souls.
• Lia identified the formation as the Soul Devouring Array of the Evil Mage Merk, and North declared that the sacrifices would help him become a Great Wizard.
• The wizards attacked North, but Hank’s Flame Burst Spell exploded before he could launch it when his soul was disturbed.

North activated the manor-wide Soul Devouring Array to drain the wizards’ souls and advance, but Lynn absorbed much of the power, preventing North from reaching Great Wizard. North blamed Lynn and prepared to kill him.

• The formation disrupted the wizards’ souls, while Lynn remained unaffected and Lia transformed into an Owl Beast to attack North.
• Lia shattered North’s Mage Shield and injured him, but North healed and blasted Lia aside with Spell Shock.
• Lynn corroded the banquet hall’s Alchemy Formation, but North revealed it was only a secondary formation and activated the manor’s Mithril pillars.
• The array pulled soul power from the guests, and Lynn used the intelligent brain to absorb it until its energy reserves reached 100%.
• North gained power but failed to break through to Great Wizard, then accused Lynn of stealing the souls and vowed to kill him.