Chapter Summaries

Richard and Hua Erzi entered Thirteen Mine to investigate the massacre of the miners and found a hidden tunnel beyond a breach in the wall. A giant spider ambushed them there, and Richard saved Hua Erzi before striking back.

• Richard reached Thirteen Mine with Hua Erzi, who first stayed behind but then followed him up the mountain for protection.
• Hua Erzi identified Five Cave as the tunnel where the killings began and led Richard inside.
• Richard and Hua Erzi found a breach leading to an unplanned tunnel, and Richard entered it despite Hua Erzi’s fear that it might lead to the abyss.
• Richard detected a foul stench and warned Hua Erzi when a giant black spider crawled overhead.
• The spider sprayed green liquid at Hua Erzi, but Richard pulled him aside and hurled an ice spike at the spider.

Richard discovered that radioactive ore at the end of the mine had caused Demonized Beasts to appear and decided to acquire the mining ground. He told Hua Erzi he would help avenge Hua Nuo by taking the mountain and flattening it.

• Richard killed an acid-spitting spider, and Hua Erzi recovered from his fear by taking up a stone and vowing to fight demons for Hua Nuo.
• Richard and Hua Erzi reached the end of the mine, where they found decayed corpses but no demons.
• Richard sensed concentrated corrosive energy in the ore and concluded that the mine’s radiation had caused Demonized Beasts to appear.
• Richard led Hua Erzi out of the mine and confirmed that he would keep his promise to help him.
• Richard offered to buy the mining ground and said he would avenge Hua Nuo by flattening the mountain.

Richard bought Thirteen Mine from Hua Erzi while keeping Hua Erzi as its public owner and manager, offering him generous pay. He explained that the attacks had ended and laid out plans to recruit Miners with higher wages, leaving Hua Erzi stunned by his wealth.

• Richard persuaded Hua Erzi to sell Thirteen Mine and remain as its nominal owner and manager for three times his usual pay or more.
• Hua Erzi warned Richard that frightened Miners would be difficult to hire after the massacre and continued attacks.
• Richard told Hua Erzi that his companions had killed the Demonized Creatures responsible for the attacks.
• Richard planned to recruit Miners by raising wages and having brokers bring workers from elsewhere if locals refused.
• Hua Erzi concluded that Richard was among the wealthiest Wizards and marveled at the scale of his wealth.

Didak and Bo Fei struggled with hunger and unemployment in Shangbala Town until Bo Fei told Didak that Thirteen Mine had reopened and was hiring. Despite the mine’s history of demon attacks, Didak chose to go for its higher daily pay.

• Didak counted his beans and divided them between lunch and dinner, then ate one he had accidentally dropped on the floor.
• Bo Fei found Didak at the tavern and said he had run out of money and had not eaten for nearly a day.
• Didak complained that the mines had not resumed work and asked Bo Fei to lend him money for a chicken.
• Bo Fei told Didak that Thirteen Mine was hiring again, though demons had killed workers there before.
• Bo Fei explained that Thirteen Mine paid fifty percent more than other mines and paid daily, and Didak agreed to go with him.

Didak and Bo Fei left Shangbala Town for Thirteen Mine, but hunger and a hostile bartender made the journey harder. At the mine, they found nearly a thousand Miners competing to sign up, and Didak urged Bo Fei to push through the crowd.

• Didak nearly collapsed from hunger, then asked bartender Thomson to put a fat chicken on credit, but Thomson refused and insulted him.
• Bo Fei stopped Didak from attacking Thomson and persuaded him to leave for Thirteen Mine.
• Didak and Bo Fei struggled along the road and reached Thirteen Mine close to noon.
• Didak and Bo Fei saw nearly a thousand Miners gathered to sign up for the mine’s higher wages.
• Didak told Bo Fei to charge into the crowd with him.

Didak and Bo Fei arrived at Thirteen Mine too late to get hired, then ran into Hua Wen, who revealed that he had left the tavern to manage part of the mine. Didak and Bo Fei looked to Hua Wen for help after learning he had influence over the miners.

• Didak pushed through the crowd with Bo Fei, but the registration worker told them Thirteen Mine had already filled its expanded quota of five hundred hires.
• Didak blamed Thomson for delaying them, while Bo Fei suggested they look for work at other mines.
• Hua Wen greeted Didak and Bo Fei and explained that he had left the tavern voluntarily for a better-paying role at Thirteen Mine.
• Hua Wen said he managed part of the mine’s workforce and had brought in most of the miners who were registering.
• Didak and Bo Fei realized Hua Wen could help them, while Hua Wen privately suspected that an unnamed important outsider had influenced Hua Erzi and the mine’s reopening.

Hua Wen tried to find work for Didak and Bo Fei after they missed the mine's registration, and sent them to Captain Sean for a high-paying job that required running. The pair passed Sean's first test and followed him to a camp for a second test, where he brought out a strange black, candle-shaped object.

• Didak asked Hua Wen to hire him and Bo Fei at the mine, but Hua Wen said the positions were already filled.
• Hua Wen called over Captain Sean and arranged for Didak and Bo Fei to try out for Sean's unusually dangerous, highly paid work.
• Sean tested the pair by having them race to a rock and back, then invited them to a second test.
• Didak and Bo Fei followed Sean to a camp behind Thirteen Mine, where a group of other applicants waited.
• Sean had Barry bring two iron boxes and opened one, revealing a black, candle-shaped object that puzzled Didak.

Sean demonstrated a dangerous Alchemy Item to recruit workers for Mr. Hua Erzi's mining operation. After the blast shattered a boulder, Didak embraced the danger and vowed to stay, while Bo Fei remained uncertain.

• Sean warned the workers that they had to learn to use Alchemy Items to join his squad and earn triple wages.
• Sean lit the Alchemy Item in a hollowed boulder and ordered everyone to hide behind a shelter's low wall.
• Didak sensed danger, pulled Bo Fei along, and pressed him down as the Alchemy Item exploded and shattered the boulder.
• Sean showed the workers the destruction and offered them a chance to join; three withdrew, and Sean dismissed two more for disobeying orders.
• Bo Fei suggested that he and Didak leave, but Didak declared he would do the job even without pay because he found it thrilling.

At Thirteen Mine, Didak led the demolition squad through its safety checks and coordinated a large blast that shattered a stone wall into scattered ores. With every Alchemy Item confirmed activated, he withdrew the squad and called for the hazard-clearing team.

• Didak inspected the blast points and received confirmation that all ten teams had completed their checks.
• Sean praised Didak's work and told him to follow the demolition procedures.
• Didak ordered the teams to prepare, distribute Fire Sticks, and take their assigned ignition positions.
• The igniters lit the fuses on Didak's command, then retreated behind the shelter walls as the Alchemy Items exploded.
• The Team Leaders confirmed that every installed Alchemy Item had detonated, and Didak saw the stone wall shattered into ores.
• Didak led the squad away to rest and notified the hazard-clearing team to inspect the area.

Didak oversaw the mine’s demolition and ore-processing teams while worrying that the mountain would eventually be leveled. Meanwhile, Richard began testing radioactive ore samples from Thirteen Mine to determine whether the deposit could support nuclear weapons research.

• Didak watched the danger-clearing team search for every fragment of the Alchemy Items before the next teams entered the site.
• A team sprayed pale-blue liquid over the ore, then Hua Wen’s large work team processed and transported it down the mountain.
• Didak wondered how long demolition work would continue and fell asleep at the camp.
• Workers secretly processed selected ores into powder, sealed them in lead boxes, and transported them away from the factory.
• Richard entered a protected laboratory in Eden Garden and prepared to test samples from Shangbala Town for Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239.

Richard’s tests on ore samples from the Thirteen Mine of Shangbala Town confirmed that the mountain held a rare uranium deposit, potentially sufficient for preliminary nuclear weapons research and production. He connected this work to his broader research program, whose foundation was the Superheavy Nuclei Stability Island Element Theory.

• Richard conducted a series of chemical and heat tests on the powdered ore samples through most of the night.
• Richard measured the final precipitate and recorded the results in a table on a Papyrus Scroll.
• Richard concluded that the Thirteen Mine sat above a rare uranium mine with promising prospects for nuclear weapons research.
• Richard considered how a nuclear weapon could protect his research from powerful enemies, while noting that violence was not his main purpose for developing one.
• Richard traced his research back to the Superheavy Nuclei Stability Island Element Theory he had formulated in the Emerald Kingdom on Smans Island.

Richard examined the flaws in his Superheavy Nuclei Stability Island Element Theory, especially the missing radiation from decay, and proposed that an unknown Extraordinary Particle neutralized it. He concluded that nuclear weapons could expose the particle’s properties and potentially lead him to understanding a universe.

• Richard considered how his theory explained the world’s magic and how it had guided his research.
• Richard identified the unexplained absence of radiation from decaying Wandering Energy Elements as a major flaw in his theory.
• Richard proposed that an Extraordinary Particle neutralized decay radiation and pointed to the Uranium Ore sample’s unusually low radiation intensity as possible evidence.
• Richard decided that studying huge numbers of microscopic particles through nuclear reactions could reveal the Extraordinary Particle.
• Richard concluded that nuclear weapons could create those reactions and help him uncover a universe.

Richard considered how the universe’s rational origins determined its eventual fate, tracing the Big Bang, the formation of elements and stars, and the cycles of matter. He concluded that the universe would ultimately reach heat death as its energy dissipated and everything cooled.

• Richard argued that understanding the world required explaining it through rules and rational processes rather than divine creation.
• He described how the universe expanded from a singularity and produced hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of lithium through early nucleosynthesis.
• He explained how gravity formed the first stars, whose cores forged heavier elements through successive stages of fusion.
• He described how massive stars formed iron, collapsed, and exploded as supernovae, creating elements heavier than iron.
• Richard concluded that matter cycled through death and new life while entropy increased, leading the universe toward heat death.

Richard considered the Wizard World's universe and began preparing to research Extraordinary Particles by manufacturing nuclear weapons. Pandora briefly woke and called for Richard before falling asleep again, while the Lich Old Man tried to escape his room and ended up trapped in an iron box.

• Richard left Eden Garden, intending to research Extraordinary Particles by gradually developing nuclear weapons.
• Pandora rolled off her bed, woke up, called for Richard, and fell asleep again before going to find him.
• The Lich Old Man heard Pandora's voice and tried to escape his room, but failed to pass through the door or sealed window.
• Richard returned, found Pandora on the floor, and placed her back on the bed before going to the Mechanical Processing Sector laboratory.
• The Lich Old Man tried to slip out while Richard worked, but Richard put his phylactery in an iron box and shut it.
• The Lich Old Man emerged from the phylactery and wondered whether Richard had trapped him deliberately.

Richard investigated the Shangbala uranium deposit in his consciousness-body state, estimating its reserves and considering its potential for nuclear weapons. He returned to Thirteen Mine, where Hua Erzi reported that mining was progressing rapidly and giving them growing influence over regional ore prices.

• Richard watched Thirteen Mine's operations before entering the ground to trace the uranium deposit.
• Richard estimated that the deposit contained roughly 50,000 to 300,000 tons of uranium ore and considered the weapon-grade uranium it might yield.
• Richard returned to his body at the camp and met Hua Erzi, who had come to report on the mine.
• Hua Erzi told Richard that alchemy items had made mining more than ten times faster and that the mine was shipping tens of thousands of jin of ore daily.
• Hua Erzi said the mine's output had secured partial regional pricing power, with plans to expand its influence toward the Delan region and Toke City.

Hua Erzi reported shortages of Alchemy Items and warned that nearby mines might turn hostile, so Richard ordered him to acquire and manage them. When Richard caught an elderly intruder near the factory construction site, the old man suddenly died without any sign of mana or life force.

• Hua Erzi told Richard that growing mining operations had caused an Alchemy Item shortage and that nearby mines were losing workers and ore output.
• Richard said a new factory would help supply Alchemy Items and ordered Hua Erzi to buy nearby mines, especially Nine Mine, Eleven Mine, and Dilagen Mine.
• Hua Erzi explained that high wages had kept workers orderly, and Richard praised the mine's security.
• Richard noticed an elderly man sneaking into the factory construction site and hurried to grab him.
• The old man turned toward Richard with a mocking smile, convulsed, and fell dead; Richard checked his pulse and confirmed his death.

Richard suspected that Ford’s strange death at Thirteen Mine might have involved a Wizard and ordered Hua Erzi to investigate. He brought Ford’s corpse to Blue Lake Manor to examine its soul, then summoned the Lich Old Man for help.

• Richard considered whether Ford had been possessed by a Wizard from an unknown organization or the Truth Society and demanded information about him from Hua Erzi.
• Hua Erzi identified the corpse as Ford, a poor and mentally unstable man from Shangbala Town, but Richard remained suspicious and decided to study his memories or soul.
• Richard ordered Hua Erzi to arrange a carriage to Galan City and form a dedicated security team for Thirteen Mine.
• Richard brought Ford’s corpse to Eden Garden, summoned a Soul Worm, and tossed it into the Lich Phylactery.
• The Lich Old Man emerged from the phylactery, threw the Soul Worm away, and angrily demanded to know what Richard was doing.

Richard tried to enlist the Lich Old Man to analyze Old Ford’s soul, but the Lich demanded that Richard promise to revive him first. Richard refused to accept the terms, studied Soul Echo from “Veisha Secrets,” and began recalculating the spell after his first casting failed.

• Richard asked the Lich Old Man for help, but the Lich demanded an apology and a promise of free help with his revival.
• Richard set the phylactery aside and chose to study “Veisha Secrets” himself to analyze Old Ford’s soul.
• Richard reviewed three soul-analysis spells and chose Soul Echo as the safest method for the conditions in Eden Garden.
• Richard spent most of the day calculating Soul Echo’s mana circulation, then tried casting it on Old Ford’s corpse.
• The spell failed and caused a mild backlash, so Richard began recalculating while pushing the corpse off his papyrus.

Richard successfully used Soul Echo on Ford’s corpse and uncovered clues suggesting the old man may have been influenced by someone. He went to Ash Academy to find Bobobo Wei Qi, only to discover Wei Qi behaving as if he had just awoken from a dangerous condition.

• Richard failed twice to cast Soul Echo on Ford’s corpse, then recalculated the spell and successfully saw a series of memories from Ford’s final hours.
• Richard considered whether Ford had been controlled by a Wizard connected to the Truth Society and decided to prepare for that possibility.
• Richard flew to Ash Academy late at night, entered after receiving no answer at the gate, and found Bobobo Wei Qi lying motionless in a spire room.
• Richard melted the window and entered cautiously, but Bobobo Wei Qi suddenly sprang upright and fired an Air Missile that exploded against the wall.
• Bobobo Wei Qi rushed to a chest, drank five bottles of potion, and froze when he noticed Richard in the room.

Richard visited Bobobo Wei Qi at night to discuss a threat to their identities in the Truth Society, while the Lich Old Man later found a corpse in Eden Garden and tried to use it to escape his confinement. Pandora woke to a noise outside her room.

• Bobobo Wei Qi nearly choked on his potion when Richard startled him by entering his room, then listened as Richard explained the urgent danger to their identities in the Truth Society.
• Richard questioned Bobobo Wei Qi about why he showed no signs of life while sleeping, but Bobobo Wei Qi refused to reveal his secret and agreed to discuss the situation.
• After Richard left Eden Garden, the Lich Old Man searched the laboratory for a way out, then discovered a corpse and decided to attempt resurrection with it.
• Pandora woke from her second sleep, found no one in her room, and reacted when she heard a muffled sound outside.