Chapter Summaries

Evan trapped Bokatolo’s potential hosts and worked with Milan and Crack to destroy the evil spirit with a Demon Severing dagger. He collected the resulting Evil Spirit Dust, the final ingredient he needed to brew the potion that could make him a Formal Wizard.

• After a beaver spirit broke the Spiritual Barrier, Bokatolo escaped Evan’s attacks and possessed a native who tried to shoot him.
• Evan restrained the crowd with Animated Plant vines, forcing Bokatolo to abandon its host and retreat across Cold Water River Bay.
• Evan lured Bokatolo toward the shadowed riverbank while Milan used Spirit World Traverse to hold the evil spirit in place.
• Crack stabbed Bokatolo with Evan’s Rune Silver Dagger Demon Severing, annihilating the spirit and leaving Evil Spirit Dust behind.
• Evan collected the dust and considered asking Apusowa for gifts after saving him and the Brown Bear Warrior.

Brigadier General Daos’s Sirius expedition reached Potosi Island and discovered immense silver deposits, then massacred the Atelian refugees living there. The expedition’s secrecy collapsed when a Sark spy’s tern escaped and three Atlan warships arrived, leaving Daos unable to contain the discovery.

• Daos, Captain Victor, and Navigator Locke guided two surviving expedition ships through fog and reefs to Potosi Island after a sea monster destroyed their third ship.
• Daos and his men landed, surveyed the five-island chain, and found three mountains rich in exposed silver ore.
• Daos’s soldiers killed the Draper Tribe’s refugees, and Daos ordered a camp built and secret reports sent to Sirius and Navidad Fort.
• The ship crews reported that they had captured a Sark spy but failed to stop his tern from escaping, and that three Atlan warships had arrived.
• Daos realized the expedition’s secret had been exposed and could no longer be salvaged.

After helping the Yucatan Tribe defeat Bokatolo, Evan began brewing a Spirit Communication Potion from the Evil Spirit Dust he had obtained. His first attempt failed and released a ghostly shadow, leaving him to clean up and try again.

• Apusowa thanked Evan for helping defeat Bokatolo, and the tribe purified and burned the remains of the Skinless People before scattering their ashes in Cold Water River Bay.
• Evan, his companions, and the reconciled Crow People returned to the Yucatan Tribe, where the tribe held a Prayer Ritual for its five dead tribesmen.
• Evan prepared to brew a Spirit Communication Potion and gathered his tools and ingredients, including Evil Spirit Dust and materials supplied by Apusowa.
• Evan followed the potion formula, added one-tenth of the Evil Spirit Dust, and watched the mixture separate into a clear, silver-shimmering liquid above a layer of impurities.
• The potion suddenly exploded, and a ghostly shadow attacked Evan before dissipating into black dust; Evan cleaned the workbench and began again.

Evan completed two bottles of Spirit Communication Potion and gathered several Totem Warrior Training Methods while patrolling the coast. The Storm Cape spotted a damaged Sirius expedition ship disguised as a Palos vessel, and Evan ordered his crew to intercept it as Captain Viktor feared a native curse had taken effect.

• Evan finished brewing two bottles of Spirit Communication Potion, fulfilling the final prerequisite for his promotion to Formal Wizard.
• Evan reviewed the Totem Warrior Training Methods he had obtained from the Yucatan Tribe and learned more about the New Continent's spirits and Extraordinary paths.
• Evan spotted a damaged Sirius expedition ship flying a Palos flag through the seagulls' reconnaissance network and ordered the Storm Cape to approach it.
• Captain Viktor recalled how Atlan and Sakh fleets had driven his expedition from the Potosi Islands, leaving the Dolphin badly damaged and its crew fleeing toward Sirius territory.
• Viktor saw the approaching Faletis warship and wondered whether a native tribe's curse had taken effect.

Viktor ordered the Dolphin to prepare for battle rather than reveal the secret silver mine, while Evan pursued the damaged ship after learning about the discovery. Viktor tried to seize Evan during a staged rescue, but Evan anticipated the ambush and crushed him before the Sirius crew could take control of the Storm Cape.

• Viktor killed his first mate for urging him to trade the silver mine’s location for prisoner-of-war treatment and ordered the crew to fight.
• Evan learned from seabirds that the Sirius crew had discovered a silver mine in the northern New Continent and ordered the Storm Cape to capture them alive.
• The Storm Cape identified the Dolphin as a Sirius navy ship, approached with its gunports open, and received the crew’s false distress signal.
• Viktor rowed to the Storm Cape with a chest, pretended to be a Tulip Alliance captain, and drew his Swift Sword to attack Evan.
• Evan pierced Viktor’s shoulder with his Sword Staff, then crushed him against the deck when Viktor attempted Flesh Liberation.

Evan captured the Sirius expedition ship Dolphin and learned that a vast silver deposit on Potosi Island could draw the New Continent’s powers into war. As the Storm Cape raced back to Fort Dearborn, Evan spotted a Sirius reinforcement fleet nearby, three days before his ship could reach safety.

• Evan defeated and captured Viktor, then took the Dolphin and questioned its crew.
• A surveying scholar revealed that Potosi Island held an estimated twenty-five thousand tons of silver and that the Netherlands Banking Group had discovered it first.
• Evan transferred the Sirius crew to the Storm Cape, scuttled the Dolphin, and had Milan erase the ship’s traces through sorcery.
• Evan ordered the crew to prepare for combat and guarded Viktor as the Storm Cape sailed south toward Fort Dearborn.
• Bess warned Evan of a Sirius fleet of three battleships and five cruisers passing about 120 kilometers away, while the Storm Cape remained three days from Fort Dearborn.

Evan began his wizard promotion ritual on a deserted island and connected with the Tree of Life, the Source of Mysticism of his school. Guided into its Material World, he witnessed the former school’s accumulated knowledge and learned the structure of the Tree’s four worlds.

• Evan and the Storm Cape crew sailed to a deserted island, where Gary led patrols to secure the area for the promotion ritual.
• Evan performed the ritual beneath the full moon using the Tree of Life diagram, his inheritance scroll, and the creations he had developed as an apprentice.
• Evan connected with the World Will, nearly became trapped in its vast consciousness, and was pulled into the Tree of Life’s Source of Mysticism.
• Evan learned that the Tree of Life was the school’s ancient source and saw its first realm, the Material World, filled with knowledge and creations left by earlier wizards.
• Evan understood the four realms of the Tree of Life and learned that advancement determined which realm a wizard could enter.

Evan passed the Tree of Life trial and became a Formal Wizard, receiving a powerful transformation that raised his Spirit Power and granted him Animated Aura. After testing his new ability, he prepared to study the sorceries needed to match his new rank in combat.

• Evan planted the seed formed from his heart image in the Tree of Life’s inner world, and it grew into a Red Iron Fir.
• Evan fed the tree with his knowledge and experience until it surpassed its 156-meter limit and he passed the trial.
• A miraculous substance entered Evan’s Sea of Consciousness and merged with his soul and body, completing his Soul Ascension.
• Evan’s Spirit Power rose to 2.1, his Prime Matters advanced, and he gained the Formal Wizard ability Animated Aura.
• Evan tested Animated Aura and discovered it could animate objects, alter material form, and briefly overclock his body.

Oathbreaker Bradley urged Dead Bone Rudolph to accept Sirius's offer to establish a pirate nation, but Rudolph refused. Bradley issued a Pirate King Summoning Order, and many pirates volunteered to follow him, setting the Golden Sea on course for change.

• Bradley arrived at Shipwreck Bay and learned that Rudolph would reach the city about an hour later.
• At Pirate City, Bradley proposed accepting Sirius's offer to establish a pirate nation, but Rudolph rejected the plan as a threat to pirate freedom.
• Bradley asked Edward Teague to confirm his right to issue a Pirate King Summoning Order, and Edward agreed.
• Bradley left to summon willing pirates, while Rudolph accused him of secretly serving Sirius and Edward lamented the pirates' divisions.
• Many pirates volunteered to join Bradley, leaving Rudolph and Edward wondering what Sirius intended.

After advancing to Formal Wizard, Evan Garratt learned that Sirius was fighting Sack and Atlan over the Potosi Silver Mine. Faletis assigned him and the Storm Cape to secretly disrupt Sirius’s supply lines, and the chapter ended as Vice Admiral Gustav called for Major Boris.

• Evan overheard a Sirius envoy threaten Fort Dearborn and learned that Faletis intended to resist Sirius’s plans for Potosi.
• Evan reported to Vice Admiral Gustav and Rear Admiral Damon Brand, confirmed his advancement to Formal Wizard, and was praised as a valuable combat asset.
• Damon explained that Sirius was battling Sack and Atlan over the Potosi Silver Mine while imposing a blockade on nearby waters.
• Damon and Gustav ordered Evan to lead the Storm Cape and the Endeavour as ghost units attacking Sirius’s supply line between the Nearshore and the Outer Sea.
• Evan accepted the mission, and Gustav called for Major Boris as further support.

Evan created an Animated Beast Hide from a spiny dogfish and tested it on Baldwin, who transformed into a shark-like fighter. The Storm Cape and Endeavour continued toward the boundary between Tulip and Sark waters to intercept Sirius's ships.

• Evan and Captain Robbins agreed to head for the Tulip-Sark territorial boundary and intercept Sirius's supply ships.
• Evan studied new witchcraft while preparing to strengthen his crew and pursue his longer-term plan against Wright in Iliya.
• Evan peeled a spiny dogfish and used incantations to create the first Animated Beast Hide.
• Fleck and Baldwin volunteered to test the hide, and Evan chose Baldwin to avoid risking Fleck's future development.
• Baldwin shouted "Invincible in battle" and transformed into a muscular, shark-skinned figure with fins and a dorsal spine.

Evan’s crew detected a pirate fleet led by the bloodthirsty Mallory and prepared an ambush to blockade its route. As the pirates entered the Mist Silver Lamp’s fog, Evan called on Boris to demonstrate his Cannon Art Expertise.

• Evan tested Baldwin’s shark Animated Beast Hide against Fleck and found it could raise Baldwin’s combat ability, though it drained its host when its power ran out.
• Bess alerted Evan’s crew to four pirate ships approaching, including Mallory’s Fifth-Rate warship and the cannibalistic Anuma People pirate Moprati.
• Evan learned that the pirates had massacred Faletis prisoners and ordered Captain Robbins to form an echelon while Milan prepared the Mist Silver Lamp.
• The two battleships waited beyond the pirates’ sight, and the four pirate ships sailed into the fog after more than six hours.
• Evan asked Boris to unleash his Cannon Art Expertise against the pirates, and Boris accepted the order.

Evan’s warships ambushed a pirate fleet in the fog, and Major Boris’s gunnery expertise and enchanted Artillery Command Saber let the Storm Cape destroy the pirates in two volleys. Evan saw that the Storm Cape could overwhelm even fifth-rate warships with its enhanced cannon fire.

• Boris took command of the Storm Cape’s gunnery crews and trained them to load Scorching Bullets.
• Evan ordered the Storm Cape and the Endeavour to approach the pirate fleet from downwind and open fire at five hundred meters.
• Boris used his Artillery Command Saber to boost the ship cannons as both warships fired a devastating first volley that wrecked the pirate fleet and detonated one ship’s magazine.
• Boris ordered a second volley, which silenced the pirates’ return fire and left their ships burning.
• Evan recognized the Command Saber’s immense power and concluded the Storm Cape could defeat the pirate ships without the Endeavour’s help.

Evan used the Storm Cape’s air power and artillery to destroy the pirate fleet, then ordered the survivors hunted down. Three injured extraordinary pirates launched a surprise attack on the ship, and Ghoul Moprati prepared to fight as a Voodoo Spirit Warrior.

• Evan resolved to find a way to keep Boris in service by helping his sick son in Far Sail Territory, then ordered Beth to deploy the White Gulls.
• The White Gulls dropped Little Elf incendiary bombs that set the remaining pirate ships ablaze.
• Evan ordered grapeshot loaded and the Marine Corps to form up as the two battleships closed in on the wreckage.
• Jobri, Ghoul Moprati, Butcher Mallory, and other survivors resurfaced, but Boris’s grapeshot killed several of them.
• Moprati, Mallory, and another extraordinary pirate leaped from the sea beside the Storm Cape to attack it.
• Moprati activated his Spirit Warrior power with a Voodoo doll and drew his Baya Sword.

Evan pursued Mallory and Moprati across the sea while Jobri surrendered to the knights aboard the warship. Evan discovered Moprati’s Spirit Warrior abilities and used enchanted swordplay to badly injure him, leaving Moprati struggling to control his starving Voodoo Doll.

• Moprati summoned a spirit through his Voodoo Doll, while Mallory unleashed his Weeping Blood technique, and the two pirates launched themselves from the sea toward the ship.
• Evan chased Mallory and Moprati across the water, while Jobri surrendered to Gary, Boris, and Milan and offered important intelligence.
• Evan fought Mallory and Moprati, learned that Moprati used Capoeira Battle Dance and could become intangible, and enchanted his sword to strike spirit bodies.
• Evan wounded Moprati with Wave Leap, severing a thigh and an arm and damaging the Voodoo Doll on his chest.
• Moprati chanted the wizard’s spell to calm the injured Voodoo Doll as it tried to burrow into his body and feed on his organs.

Evan defeated Mallory and Moprati by turning their fight into a fungal execution, then collected the mushrooms growing from their bodies for a plan that could affect the war. He captured the Yellow Cloth Doll inhabited by an evil spirit and considered what its users’ methods revealed about them.

• Mallory emerged from the water transformed by his loss of control, and Evan threw him into the supposedly helpless Moprati.
• Mallory and Moprati fought and devoured each other until Evan scattered Parasitic Seeds over them and used Appetite Stimulation to intensify their instincts.
• The fungi spread through both men and consumed their bodies, and Evan killed them once their self-awareness had vanished.
• Evan gathered the bizarre mushrooms, thinking they could help determine the war’s outcome.
• Evan caught the Yellow Cloth Doll as it tried to sink beneath the water and suppressed the evil spirit inside it.

Evan and his crew spent a month intercepting Sirius supply ships, easing pressure on Sark and Atlan while earning substantial spoils. As their raids became harder against escorted convoys, Director Niekado arrived with Evil Spirit Dust and asked Evan for help involving the Yucatan Tribe.

• Evan learned from Jobri that one of the Two Kings of the Golden Sea had defected to Sirius, and he warned Fort Dearborn about the threat to Tulip Alliance territory.
• Evan's crew repeatedly stole or destroyed Sirius supply shipments, spreading a legend of the Sea Ghost in the white mist and helping Sark and Atlan recover some breathing room.
• Sirius began grouping supply ships and escorting them with fleets, making further attacks too risky for Evan's two battleships.
• Evan studied Formal Wizard witchcraft aboard the Storm Cape while his crew transferred captured goods and incoming supplies with merchant ships.
• Director Niekado visited Evan with a bottle of Evil Spirit Dust and asked for help concerning the Yucatan Tribe they had visited together.

Evan learned that the Yucatan Tribe had vanished after a more powerful evil spirit appeared, but he left the matter to Niekado and focused on his mission. When a Sirius relief fleet arrived, Evan's ships prepared to attack the Third-Rate Ship Stedenburg and its escorts.

• Niekado told Evan that the Yucatan Tribe had disappeared and left behind a bottle of Evil Spirit Dust.
• Evan removed an evil presence clinging to Niekado and warned him to seek a Purification Ritual rather than investigate the tribe.
• Evan traded Silver Amulets for the bottle, judged the tribe's situation dangerous, and chose not to pursue it while his mission remained unresolved.
• Storm Cape and Endeavour met a relief fleet from the Laplata Viceroyalty, and Evan ordered his force to attack.
• Boris warned Evan that the Third-Rate Ship Stedenburg likely carried a powerful clergyman who could counter spells.
• Captain Stanley and Reynolds Ban dismissed the threat of the Sea Ghost as Edmund praised the Eternal Fire aboard the Stedenburg.

Evan’s forces launched a seabird bombing ambush against the Sirius Fleet, crippling two cruisers before the fleet could respond. Dean Edmund detected the attackers and pointed them out, but Stedenburg came under fire as the chapter ended.

• Evan ordered Beth to send the seabirds to attack the Sirius Fleet with Alchemy Bombs and potions.
• Dean Edmund spotted the air strike and cast Divine Protection, but the bombs broke through the barrier and scattered across the fleet.
• One cruiser’s deck was devastated by explosions and Voodoo Potion, while another was set ablaze by Little Sprites.
• Edmund used Flame Immunity to extinguish the fires, but the two cruisers had already been forced out of the fight.
• Edmund identified the attackers’ position as an Iron Fire Torrent smashed through the fog toward Stedenburg.

Evan’s fleet battered Stedenburg, but Dean Edmund used a costly ruby to summon a Flame Pterodactyl that cleared the mist and exposed the attackers. As the creature charged Storm Cape, Evan invoked World Barrier to protect his ship.

• Evan ordered the two Fourth-Rate Ships to load Solid Shot and concentrate fire on Stedenburg, wrecking its poop deck and crushing gunners below.
• Colonel Stanley ordered a counterattack, but Stedenburg’s crews could not accurately aim through the mist.
• Dean Edmund sacrificed a ruby to summon a Flame Pterodactyl, which swept away the mist and revealed the two attacking battleships.
• The Flame Pterodactyl defeated Evan’s seabird force, and Evan ordered the surviving birds to evade.
• As the Flame Pterodactyl charged Storm Cape, Evan tore off his oak-fruit charm and cast World Barrier.