Chapter Summaries

Angel left Gloria and Lydia to continue arguing while he entered Dream Wilderness, and Tree Spirit worried about the coming tea party. In Firstheart City, an exhausted Frod returned from Sin Demon Laboratory and found Sanders waiting in his office, asking whether Angel had visited.

• Angel explained that he had left because Gloria and Lydia were attacking each other instead of discussing Eyeless Man.
• Tree Spirit worried about hosting the tea party beside the Eternal Tree and considered asking Liana to move it to a ruin, but Angel doubted she would agree.
• Angel sympathized with Tree Spirit, noted that Mirror Princess was still asleep, and entered Dream Wilderness after finding Gloria and Lydia still arguing.
• Frod arrived at Skyvault Tower in the rain and ordered Shalu to return to Sin Demon Laboratory.
• Frod entered his office and found Sanders waiting, and Sanders asked whether Angel had come by in the past two days.

Sanders told Angel and Frod that he had completed the final data needed to establish Dream Wilderness’s energy system, but still needed to calculate authority-bearing limits. He asked Frod to prepare to fuse with a carefully restricted authority, while Angel considered whether to take on another authority himself.

• Sanders visited Frod and asked him to notify Angel that he wanted to meet, then discovered Angel had arrived at the Skyvault Tower.
• Angel explained that he had left his seclusion training after the mini signal tower alerted him to events outside.
• Sanders told Angel that he had finished collecting data on macroscopic energy expression but still needed to calculate the energy system’s coefficients and authority-bearing limits.
• Sanders asked Frod to try fusing with an authority within a restricted range, and Frod agreed to choose an authority before Sanders’s next visit.
• Angel offered to bear another authority, but Sanders said Angel’s success with the Authority Tree made his capacity difficult to measure; Angel agreed to consider it further.
• Sanders asked about Angel’s training and could offer guidance on self-settling, though he could not help him study Green Pattern.

Sanders discussed methods for settling the mind with Angel, then asked him to investigate whether Angel’s new Compression Green Pattern could produce Nightmare Stones. They also reviewed the Living Threads outbreak and Dream Wilderness, leaving its planned opening secret for now.

• Sanders explained several methods for settling the mind and shared his experiences with Angel.
• Angel described the Compression Green Pattern, and Sanders explained his theory that Nightmare Stones formed from compressed Nightmare Realm aura.
• Sanders asked Angel to test whether the Compression Green Pattern could create Nightmare Stones, and Angel agreed.
• Angel told Sanders he planned to move from Demon Illusion Island to the ruins, and Sanders approved the precaution.
• Sanders reported that Living Threads infections in Windmill Town were declining, though many patients remained and the situation elsewhere was unknown.
• Angel recounted his conversation with Lord Rhein, and Sanders advised keeping Dream Wilderness secret until its general situation was perfected.

Angel learned that Rhein had given him an activator that let him choose when to open the Garden of All Spirits and who could enter. He worried that the privilege would bring conflict and trouble, and he left the problem for another time.

• Angel told Sanders about the rewards Rhein had given him, including the activator for the Garden of All Spirits.
• Sanders explained that the activator let Angel open the Garden of All Spirits once whenever he wished, rather than merely enter when it opened.
• Sanders revealed that Angel could also decide who entered with him, making the activator a valuable privilege and a burden.
• Angel rejected the idea of selling entry or charging his fellow Savage Cave members, since he did not want outsiders entering or disputes arising.
• Angel asked whether he could enter alone, and Sanders warned that opening the Garden would cause too much commotion to hide.
• Angel failed to find a solution and decided to put off dealing with the activator until he planned to visit the Garden.

Angel returned from the Dream Wilderness and learned that Toby had tricked him into eating a Glutinous Bud Tree fruit so Toby could keep all the dried fish. Gloria also told Angel that Lydia had not reneged on their agreement to return Eyeless Man, but wanted to discuss something with him first.

• Angel woke beside a Glutinous Bud Tree and reunited with Toby, who gave him its fruit before hurrying off to eat dried fish.
• Angel ate the fruit and discovered that it would keep him from feeling hungry for at least a month, preventing him from eating Toby's dried fish.
• Gloria explained that Toby had likely arranged the fruit to stop Angel from competing for the dried fish.
• Angel asked Gloria about Lydia, and Gloria said Lydia still had not addressed the trade for Eyeless Man because she wanted to speak with Angel.
• Gloria said she would confront Lydia at the Savage Cave tea party and hold her to her promise to return Eyeless Man for three million magic crystals.

Angel learned that Su Mishi had left Savage Cave with Flora and might not return until the tea party. Meanwhile, Liana tried to persuade Tree Spirit Lord to let her hold the tea party in the Eternal Tree’s inner court, and went to seek Night Sylvie’s help.

• Gloria told Angel that Lydia planned to become the protagonist at the tea party but could no longer rely on Mirror Princess, who had fallen asleep.
• Angel asked Butler Gude where Su Mishi was and learned that he had left Savage Cave with Flora a month earlier and might return with her for the tea party.
• Liana showed Fire Charm a venue design she liked, but explained that Tree Spirit Lord would not open the Eternal Tree’s inner court for the tea party.
• Fire Charm suggested asking Night Sylvie to speak with Tree Spirit Lord, so Liana flew to find her with Fire Charm following.

Fire Charm asked Liana whether Angel had returned to Savage Cave, while Angel and Gloria traveled near the Cloud Library in disguise. Angel prepared to relocate to the ruins with the Tree Spirit Lord, and Gloria reluctantly handed Toby back to him.

• Fire Charm questioned Liana about Angel's possible return, but Liana said she did not know and dismissed speculation that Angel was being sidelined for his attitude.
• Liana and Fire Charm headed toward Night Sylvie's home, and Liana noticed Gloria near the Cloud Library without explaining what she had seen.
• Gloria told Angel that Liana had likely recognized him, but Angel trusted her to keep his disguise and low-profile plans private.
• Angel explained that he was taking precautions against the Budding Believers and said he would leave for the ruins with the Tree Spirit Lord.
• Gloria tried to persuade Toby to stay with her by offering dried fish, but Toby remained loyal to Angel, so she tossed him back to Angel.

Angel and the Tree Spirit encountered refugees fleeing a Living Threads outbreak on the Pamiji Plateau. After Angel rescued a dying girl and learned what had happened, the Tree Spirit took him toward the ruins while notifying Angel’s mentor about the refugees’ former settlement.

• Angel and the Tree Spirit spotted a group of refugees from the Eternal Night Kingdom migrating across the snowy plain.
• Angel found a frostbitten girl left behind and gave her a dreamlike message to share with her people about jumping into a bottomless chasm to find a way to live.
• The girl awoke, believed her encounter had been a dream, and went to tell the refugees what she had heard.
• Angel and the Tree Spirit learned that Living Threads infection had forced the refugees to flee their settlement, where nearly half the people had been infected.
• The Tree Spirit said he would take Angel to the ruins and had already notified Angel’s mentor of the settlement’s location.

Angel and Tree Spirit used a pair of experimental records to locate and open a relic hidden among spatial crevices. Tree Spirit left to deal with Liana and her companions, while Angel concealed the entrance and entered the relic alone.

• Angel sensed spatial fluctuations across the barren wasteland but could not locate the relic directly.
• Tree Spirit gave Angel the first volume of Tizhalo's Experimental Record No. 117, which resonated with the second volume inside the relic and revealed its coordinates.
• Angel used the coordinates to open a metal door, and Tree Spirit confirmed that the relic's seal remained intact.
• Tree Spirit learned that Liana had come to Tree Spirit Hall with Fire Charm and Night Sylvie, then left to meet them after creating an avatar tree at the entrance.
• Angel used a Nightmare Illusion technique to disguise the avatar tree as a stump and conceal the relic entrance, then went back inside alone.

Angel discovered that lighting the corridor’s candleholders triggered a mechanism that sent him in a loop back to the ruin’s entrance. After extinguishing them and proceeding through the darkness, he found a suit of knight armor bearing damaged alchemy magic patterns.

• Angel lit a candleholder, and the others in the corridor lit up with it.
• Angel walked for miles through the corridor before opening a door and realizing it led back to the ruin’s entrance.
• Angel suspected the candleholders had triggered the looping mechanism and extinguished their flames.
• Angel proceeded through the dark corridor without lighting it and sensed that he was truly moving forward.
• Angel found a motionless suit of knight armor and noticed a damaged alchemy magic pattern on its breastplate.

Angel explored the underground levels of the ruins, identified the reception room and study, and found the laboratory and materials storage. He chose to inspect the vast, now-empty materials storage first, leaving the laboratory unexplored.

• Angel passed a suit of armor marked with strange magical patterns and descended a staircase to a reception room, where he found no traps or dangers.
• Angel explored a mostly empty study and continued down to the third underground level.
• Angel identified the laboratory from Tizhalo’s warning but decided to inspect the materials storage first.
• Angel entered an enormous storage space containing specialized environments and empty display stands labeled for magical materials.

Angel explored the ruin’s laboratory, found its alchemy room in disarray, and recovered the second volume of Tizhalo’s Experiment Record No. 117. Picking up the record activated a button, and after the laboratory stayed quiet, Angel found a black iron box raised on a pedestal.

• Angel entered the laboratory and found its mechanism inscriptions inactive and its ancient experimental equipment intact.
• Angel inspected the chaotic alchemy laboratory, guessed its oldest tools belonged to the ruin’s first owner, and left without tidying it.
• Angel found the second volume of Tizhalo’s Experiment Record No. 117 in another compartment among empty cultivation chambers.
• Angel picked up the record, triggering a button on the control console, and cautiously left the laboratory.
• Angel returned after five minutes and found a pedestal bearing a pitch-black iron box on the control console.

Angel teased Toby over Azaz’s dried fish, then sent him to the Dream Wilderness to help keep order in Firstheart City. He opened the box from the lower laboratory and began reading Tizhalo’s old notebook, finding data from more than eight hundred years ago and a reference to Experiment No. 98.

• Angel took a dried fish from Toby and threatened to keep it until it expired, prompting Toby to reclaim the plate.
• Angel offered Toby more dried fish in exchange for guarding Firstheart City with Tulas in the Dream Wilderness.
• Angel took the pitch-black box from the lower laboratory and opened it to find a parchment notebook.
• Angel recognized the notebook’s handwriting as Tizhalo’s and found that it recorded events from Year 6560 of the Southern Region New Calendar.
• Angel found scattered data and several lines referring to Experiment No. 98, but no explanation of the experiment.

Angel read Tizhalo’s notebook and learned that the former resident had begun Experiment No. 117 after changing the climate altered an experimental subject. The notebook ended with Tizhalo suspecting a hidden room because the ruins’ creator had left out a crucial item analysis platform, leaving Angel eager to investigate.

• Angel skimmed Tizhalo’s fragmented experimental data and found records showing that Experiment No. 116 had failed.
• Tizhalo wrote that changing the climate altered the experimental subject and inspired him to begin Experiment No. 117.
• Angel read Tizhalo’s later diary entries and learned that Tizhalo had been a powerful, sharply critical wizard.
• Tizhalo recorded that the ruins’ creator’s experimental tools were missing an item analysis platform, leading him to suspect a hidden room.
• Angel recognized that the missing platform supported his belief that the ruins’ creator had been an alchemist, then hurried to read the notebook’s final page.

Angel searched Tizhalo’s records and the ruin for the hidden room but found no clues, then went outside to ask the Tree Spirit about it. He first asked why the Tree Spirit was in such a good mood, and the Tree Spirit confirmed it was related to the tea party.

• Angel read Tizhalo’s notebook and both volumes of Experiment No. 117’s records but found no information about the hidden room.
• Angel learned that Experiment No. 117 cultivated parasitic mycelium that could make a host explode, and suspected it might be related to the Umbrella Fungus Bloodline.
• Angel searched the ruin and its first-floor corridor with his spiritual power tendrils but found no hidden room or unusual mechanisms.
• Angel restored the tree stump outside the ruin and summoned the Tree Spirit to ask about the hidden room.
• Angel noticed the Tree Spirit was in a good mood and asked whether Liana had decided against creating a dedicated tea party space.

Angel learned that the Tree Spirit wanted him to take a task finding a venue for Liana’s tea party, but he declined. He then asked about the hidden room mentioned in Tizhalo’s notebook, and the Tree Spirit explained that past investigators, including Rhein, had found no evidence it existed.

• The Tree Spirit told Angel that Night Sylvie had persuaded Liana to agree to search for a tea party venue before carving out a space inside the Eternal Tree.
• The Tree Spirit offered Angel a task to find a suitable venue, but Angel refused because he was busy consolidating himself.
• Angel explained why he had come to see the Tree Spirit and asked about the hidden room recorded in Tizhalo’s notebook.
• The Tree Spirit said that wizards had investigated the ruin, but neither they nor Rhein had found clues, and they suspected the hidden room was only a casual note by Tizhalo.

Angel discussed the possibility of a hidden room in Tizhalo’s ruins with the Tree Spirit, who explained the ruins’ mysterious origins and advised Angel to investigate cautiously if he found clues. Before leaving, the Tree Spirit confirmed that Tizhalo and Dumartin had developed the Umbrella Fungus Worm bloodline, which was connected to the Mycelium Bombs.

• Angel reasoned that Tizhalo might have suspected a hidden room without ever finding it, and the Tree Spirit agreed it could exist.
• The Tree Spirit explained that the ruins had drifted through the void and appeared on the Pamiji Plateau over a thousand years ago, already abandoned and apparently built by an alchemist.
• The Tree Spirit suggested Angel might be best suited to find a hidden room because he was an alchemist, but warned him to bring his mentor if he found clues.
• Angel asked about the ruins’ first owner, and the Tree Spirit said he knew nothing beyond the owner’s being an alchemist.
• Angel asked whether Experiment No. 117 connected Mycelium Bombs to the Umbrella Fungus Bloodline, and the Tree Spirit confirmed that Tizhalo and Dumartin had developed the Umbrella Fungus Worm bloodline together.

Angel brought the knight's armor to the study and continued researching Green Pattern before entering the Dream Wilderness. There, Frod told Angel he had chosen an authority to make the Dream Wilderness feel more real, but had not yet named it.

• Angel remembered the damaged alchemy magic patterns on the knight's armor, carried it to the study, and set it aside for later examination.
• Angel spent fifteen hours researching Green Pattern, then crossed the Dream Bridge into Firstheart City.
• Angel asked Frod which authority he had chosen to fuse with, as Sanders had requested.
• Frod explained that he wanted an authority that would help the Dream Wilderness develop and become more real.

Frod told Sanders and Angel that he wanted to bear a subsidiary authority of the Law of All Things so plants and animals could exist in the Dream Wilderness. Sanders agreed to calculate whether Frod could withstand it, while Angel later checked on Firstheart City and spoke with Jon before leaving the Dream Wilderness.

• Sanders asked Frod which authority he wanted to use to make the Dream Wilderness more real, and Frod chose a subsidiary authority under the Law of All Things.
• Frod explained that he wanted plants, animals, and insects in the Dream Wilderness rather than merely changing its terrain.
• Angel noted that Celestial Change had already begun shaping the Dream Wilderness, while Sanders said he would need one to three days to assess whether Frod could bear the authority.
• Angel asked Sanders about knight armor carved with broken magic patterns, but Sanders did not know about it and suggested nothing further about the hidden room.
• Sanders returned to reality, and Angel asked Frod to oversee Toby, discussed New City and Leon, then visited Jon before leaving the Dream Wilderness.

Angel abandoned his attempt to reconstruct the knight's armor magic patterns and continued studying the Green Pattern. When Sanders reported that Frod might be able to bear the plant-related authority, Angel and Sanders considered letting him try despite uncertain risks.

• Angel spent ten hours listing possible ways to complete a damaged magic pattern on the knight's armor, then stopped when he realized the task could take years.
• Angel set aside the armor research and spent the next two days studying the Green Pattern.
• The Dream Gate alerted Angel when Sanders entered the Dream Wilderness, and Angel joined Sanders and Frod.
• Sanders told Angel and Frod that the Endurance Formula suggested Frod could probably bear the plant-related authority, though unknown variables made the outcome uncertain.
• Sanders said Frod could try, explaining that even failure would likely have little effect on the Dream Wilderness if the authority were returned to it.