Chapter Summaries

Gao De obtained the controlled Disguise Art spell formula from Captain Roll and prepared to make its Spell Elixir, then searched for a Sea Sentinel mission that could take him outside Dorn City. He found a seven-day-old water beast expulsion mission in Lagos City but hesitated, suspecting that its apparent simplicity concealed a complication.

• Gao De bought the Rapid Excavation and Comfortable Slumber spell formulas and elixirs after the Dorn Arcane Vault lacked Disguise Art.
• Captain Roll gave Gao De the controlled Disguise Art formula as a meeting gift and warned him to choose Sea Sentinel missions carefully, since some could be traps.
• Mage Nasi explained that Captain Roll's gift also served as an apology for leaving Gao De without support during his training assessment.
• Gao De bought the materials for the Disguise Art Spell Elixir and went to the Abyssal White Tower to search for a mission.
• Gao De found a seven-day-old mission to expel Magic Octopuses and Foul Water Newts from Lagos City's Makoko District, but held back from accepting it because its delay seemed suspicious.

Gao De learned from Melia that the Lagos City Water Beast Extermination Mission was routine but avoided because Makoko District was polluted, dangerous to navigate, and neglected by the authorities. After he declined to volunteer, a sergeant assigned him the mission anyway, and Gao De prepared to travel to Lagos City with Tuanzi.

• Gao De visited Melia to ask why the Lagos City Water Beast Extermination Mission had gone unclaimed, and she explained Makoko District's history, pollution, and poor conditions.
• Melia told Gao De that the mission's military merit reward had been doubled, but Gao De decided not to volunteer because of the environment and concern for Tuanzi.
• The next morning, a sergeant delivered orders assigning Gao De the mission because no mage had accepted it voluntarily.
• Gao De suspected the nobles had arranged the assignment to suppress him, but he decided to complete it for the doubled reward.
• Gao De put on his Sea Sentinel uniform, collected Tuanzi from the Azure Wave Enclosure, and packed the shrunken capybara into the Capybara Pouch before setting out for Lagos City.

Gao De helped Anna hide from the airship staff after she sneaked aboard without a ticket, then learned she was traveling to Lagos City to find her sister. He discovered Anna had drawn a rune card to disable the boarding machine, and she began asking him to help her search for her sister.

• Gao De boarded an airship to Lagos City with Tuanzi, Northwind, and a bundle of tree seeds, then practiced Disguise Art during the flight.
• An airship staff member searched for a little girl hiding beneath Gao De’s seat, and Gao De concealed Anna and denied seeing her.
• After the staff member left, Gao De used Sense Emotion+ to confirm Anna had been pretending to be helpless, though she held no malice toward him.
• Anna told Gao De she had no money and wanted to find her sister in Lagos City, but she did not know where her sister lived or worked.
• Anna showed Gao De a rune card she had drawn herself, which could briefly disable the boarding machine and let her sneak onto the airship.
• Anna asked Gao De to help her find her sister, and Gao De suspected she had chosen him because he was a Sea Sentinel Mage.

Gao De arrived in Lagos City with Anna, found lodging, and learned that a group of men had been using water beasts to drive residents away. While practicing runes that evening, he discovered Anna knew advanced magical concepts and had already learned everything her former teacher could teach her.

• Gao De agreed to help Anna find her sister, Aisha, after completing his mission, and learned that Anna's family had fallen into ruin.
• Gao De checked into the Palm Tree Inn and read that the Ovoga Duchy had defeated the Sieden Duchy.
• A group of men learned that Sea Sentinels had been assigned to Lagos City's water beast expulsion mission and decided to release their final batch of larvae before withdrawing.
• Gao De took Anna to eat local grilled fish, then returned to the inn to practice runes while she watched.
• Anna recognized Gao De's rune practice, explained that she had learned everything her teacher could teach her, and questioned why he had not made Rune Constructs despite his second-tier rune range-system rating.

Gao De left Anna at the inn and traveled to Makoko District to investigate a water-beast infestation, learning about the slum’s harsh conditions from his guide Shama. When a Foul Water Newt surfaced, Gao De used Arcane Chorus+ on it, leaving the encounter unresolved.

• Gao De woke Anna, shared breakfast with her, and told her to wait at the inn while he went to Makoko District.
• Gao De hired Shama to guide him through Makoko District’s foul waterways and paid him two Silver Dragon Coins.
• Shama described how residents survived through scavenging and fishing as Gao De observed the district’s overcrowding and polluted water.
• Gao De detected a magical presence in the water and told Shama to stop rowing.
• A Foul Water Newt surfaced beside the boat, and Gao De cast Arcane Chorus+ while it remained motionless.

Gao De used a beguiled Foul Water Newt to locate and destroy its nest, killing nearly two hundred hatchlings and about a hundred adults while collecting proof for his mission. He learned that the newts had come from a nearby shack, revealing that someone had bred and released the beasts, and entered the shack to investigate.

• Gao De used Arcane Chorus+ and Beast Bond+ to befriend a Foul Water Newt and make it lead him to its nest.
• Gao De killed the newt hatchlings with Blade Burst+ and electrocuted the survivors and returning adults with Lightning Lure.
• Gao De killed around a hundred adult Foul Water Newts over the day and collected their tail fins as proof of the purge.
• Gao De arranged for Shama to meet him the next morning to clear out Magic Octopuses, then asked him to take the boat to another location.
• Gao De learned that the Foul Water Newts had come from a nearby shack and entered it after concluding that someone had bred and released the aquatic beasts.

Gao De investigated an abandoned shack in the Makoko District and found evidence that juvenile Foul Water Newts had been bred elsewhere and brought there. After returning to Lagos City, he remembered to feed Anna and decided to design first-tier Rune Constructs suited to his needs.

• Gao De found Foul Water Newt slime in a huge barrel inside an empty shack and concluded that juvenile water beasts had been transported into the Makoko District.
• Gao De repaired the shack's padlock with Repair+ and asked Shama to learn who had lived there, rewarding him with a Silver Dragon Coin.
• Gao De used Heavy Burden and Wolf's Speed to carry the mission payment back to Lagos City, then realized he had forgotten to arrange Anna's lunch.
• Gao De took Anna to a restaurant, told her he would help find her sister after the main task, and said the work might take several more days.
• Gao De began sketching and calculating a first-tier Rune Construct design tailored to himself while Anna watched.

Gao De designed a Rune Construct to improve his endurance and expand his offensive options, using Jose's Breath of the Wild as a reference. After Anna suggested adding conversion and output runes, he completed a preliminary blueprint and began checking its Rune Arrays through calculations.

• Gao De assessed his strengths and weaknesses and decided his Rune Construct needed to improve his endurance and provide more damage options.
• Gao De designed an initial endurance array based on Breath of the Wild but struggled to decide how to add offensive abilities.
• Anna suggested adding conversion and output runes, giving Gao De a direction for his design.
• Gao De completed a preliminary blueprint and chose Shimmering Copper as its primary material.
• Gao De calculated the first Rune Array, adjusted its runes until it met the limit, and moved on to the next array.

Gao De completed a First Circle Rune Construct blueprint in one night with Anna’s intuitive guidance. After Anna asked about a formula, Gao De realized she could understand patterns in the symbols and numbers.

• Gao De struggled with Rune Array adjustments until Anna offered practical intuitive suggestions.
• Gao De and Anna worked together through the night, verifying the Rune Arrays and completing the blueprint.
• Anna praised Gao De as a genius, and Gao De thought of his late mentor, Jose, with sorrow.
• Anna asked why a formula used 4.64 in some cases and 2 in others, noting that the former represented Rune Arrays containing the same rune.
• Gao De explained that connecting identical basic runes increased their energy to the level of an advanced rune, then asked Anna if she understood the symbols and numbers.

Gao De investigated the Magic Octopus attack in Makoko District and learned that aquatic beasts began appearing around the time a suspicious group moved into the area. At the clinic, he found Physician Danika treating the wounded with the rare Healing Spell.

• Gao De praised Anna for understanding part of his calculations, then let her sleep while he went out alone the next morning.
• Gao De hired Shama to take him to the site of the latest Magic Octopus attack, but learned that five people had died and four others were gravely injured.
• Shama told Gao De that a group of seven or eight people had moved into the area five or six years earlier, around the time the Magic Octopuses and Foul Water Newts first appeared.
• Gao De asked Shama to take him to the clinic and learned that the suspicious residents sometimes disappeared for several days.
• Gao De entered the clinic and saw Physician Danika use a Healing Spell to treat an unconscious, badly wounded man.

Physician Danika healed four injured Makoko District residents and helped Gao De learn about the Magic Octopus attack. Gao De followed Tuanzi to the beasts’ location and trapped and killed all eleven Magic Octopuses, leaving the waters clear of the attacking group.

• Physician Danika treated four seriously wounded residents and told Gao De that her sect, the Tide Speakers Sect, was struggling.
• One injured resident woke and began recounting the Magic Octopus attack to Gao De.
• Gao De took Tuanzi and Shama to the attack site, where Tuanzi tracked the Magic Octopuses by scent through the polluted water.
• Tuanzi drew the eleven Magic Octopuses toward him, and Gao De trapped them in a Tidal Net+.
• Gao De struck the trapped Magic Octopuses with three Lightning Lures, killing them all.

Gao De completed the Magic Octopus extermination but stayed in Lagos City to investigate the mastermind and search for Anna’s sister, Aisha. He found that Aisha had recently asked about shipyards, while in Cisera Town Sir Robert faced a mysterious visitor who knew his identity as Mage Keith.

• Gao De collected the Magic Octopuses’ eyes, brains, and ink sacs, then returned to Lagos City and promised Anna he would look for Aisha.
• Gao De questioned innkeepers about Aisha and learned from the Rose Inn receptionist that she had stayed there seven days earlier and asked about local shipyards.
• Gao De asked Anna whether Aisha knew shipbuilding, and Anna said that she did not.
• Sir Robert refused his steward’s suggestion to enlist the town patrol in searching for Anna, fearing that outsiders would learn of her existence.
• A cloaked middle-aged man appeared before Sir Robert and asked whether he should call him Sir Robert or Mage Keith.

Gao De learned that Aisha was being pursued and deduced that she planned to buy a ship to escape by sea. After locating her likely shipyard, he discovered she had left without enough money to buy its last brigantine, then asked the bankrupt owner about taking over the shipyard.

• At the Palm Tree Inn, Gao De saw a cloaked man ask about Aisha using her portrait, and he later told Anna that someone was searching for her sister.
• Anna confessed that her family had no debts and that Aisha had come to Lagos City to hide from people pursuing their family treasure.
• Gao De reasoned that Aisha might buy a ship to escape by sea and chose the bankrupt Harland Shipyard as the most likely place she would visit.
• At Harland Shipyard, the owner told Gao De that an out-of-town young woman had tried to buy the last Harland Brigantine but lacked enough money.
• Gao De asked Harland what price he wanted for the shipyard.

Gao De negotiated to buy Harland Shipyard after learning how the Spirit Marrow Craze and its collapse had driven it toward bankruptcy. Harland accepted Gao De’s 9,200 Plantagenet Coin offer, including a stake and advisory role for himself, and agreed to wait while Gao De prepared the funds.

• Gao De asked Harland to price the shipyard, its assets, materials, and remaining brigantine as a package, and Harland valued them at 11,200 Plantagenet Coins.
• Harland explained that he had invested the shipyard’s liquid funds in Spirit Marrow mining, and the industry’s collapse left Lagos City’s fishing and shipbuilding sectors in decline.
• Gao De challenged Harland’s valuation, pointing to the shipyard’s weakened position and the limited effect of local recovery measures.
• Gao De and Harland bargained from 8,000 to 9,200 Plantagenet Coins, and Gao De offered Harland ten percent of the shipyard’s shares plus an instructor and consultant position.
• Harland accepted the deal, agreed to withdraw the shipyard’s sale notices, and consented to a preliminary contract with a 50-coin deposit while Gao De prepared the funds.
• Gao De told Harland to direct the young woman who had wanted the brigantine to Anna at the Palm Tree Inn.

Gao De helped Anna reunite with her sister Aisha, a fugitive princess from the fallen Sieden Duchy, and explained how he deduced their royal identity. Aisha planned to take Anna away, but Gao De’s reasoning and the scent on Anna’s fingers left their next move unresolved.

• At a harbor restaurant, Gao De told Anna that Aisha had visited Harland Shipyard, and he arranged for the shipyard owner to direct her to Palm Tree Inn.
• Gao De took Anna to Lagos Library and paid to read books about the Sieden Duchy and the Ovoga Duchy.
• Aisha secretly entered Gao De and Anna’s room using Invisibility, then reunited with Anna and thanked Gao De for protecting her.
• Aisha said she intended to take Anna away by ship, while Gao De warned that she had no secure place to go and that pursuers were after them.
• Gao De explained that he traced the pursuers to the Ovoga Duchy and used information from a book about Sieden royal customs to infer that Anna was a princess.

Gao De persuaded Aisha to take Anna to the Northern Territory instead of the Terra Continent, promising to provide for them and teach Anna Runelore. After Aisha and Anna left to avoid their pursuers, Gao De opened an Astral Teleportation gate and returned to the Northern Territory.

• Gao De deduced that Aisha and Anna were Sieden royalty fleeing to the Terra Continent, then proposed they travel to the Northern Territory instead.
• Gao De discovered that five-year-old Anna had memorized runes by watching others and recognized her exceptional talent for Runelore.
• Aisha agreed to take Anna to the Northern Territory after Anna said she trusted Gao De and wanted to go there.
• Gao De gave Aisha a route from Lagos Port to Valar Bay and promised to provide their ship and arrange a reception.
• Aisha and Anna left for Sea Echo Orphanage to hide from the Ovoga pursuers, while Gao De prepared to secure funds for Harland Shipyard.
• Gao De opened an Astral Teleportation gate and stepped through it to return to the Northern Territory.

Gao De returned to Yggdrasil and learned how Phoenix had expanded during his absence, including Sunaifa’s defeat of two rival Warmothers and the incorporation of six small tribes. He traveled back to Phoenix with Elder Gain, leaving the story as the Truefrost Tribe continued growing while rival tribes still coveted its barley.

• Gao De returned to Yggdrasil, whose growth and domain had surged as new magic trees appeared and the camp expanded to 167 people.
• Gao De asked Elder Gain for a Snow Wolf and learned that Sunaifa had ordered him to escort Gao De because rival tribes might target him.
• Gao De and Elder Gain rode toward Phoenix on a newly built ice road while Elder Gain explained that the Frostwolf Clan and Winter's Hammer had demanded Northwestern Barley No. 1 and its cultivation methods.
• Sunaifa rejected the two Warmothers’ demands, suppressed them in a fight, and released them after their tribes paid a ransom.
• Sunaifa announced that the Truefrost Tribe could welcome other tribes, and six small tribes joined, bringing more than ten magic trees to Valar Bay.

Gao De returned to Phoenix and held the Truefrost Tribe’s first all-hands high-level meeting, where officials reported on education, farming, and public security. He ordered plans for expanding the city and its institutions, and urged more tribes to join before the end of the year.

• Grant inspected Goldensheen Farm’s abundant Northwest Barley No. 1 fields and was delighted when Gao De returned to Phoenix.
• Damon reported that Phoenix First Academy had 3,569 students but only thirty-nine teachers, and Gao De ordered a campus planned for one hundred thousand students while promising to address the teacher shortage.
• Grant reported that Goldensheen Farm had reclaimed 310,000 mu, with nearly half still unplanted, and Gao De ordered grain warehouses and windmills planned without arranging fallow land.
• Kaitlyn reported rising rat numbers, conflicts involving newcomers, and insufficient security staff; Gao De directed the farm to recruit newcomers and approved increasing the Public Security Bureau’s staffing to two hundred.
• Sunaifa reported that six tribes had joined and envoys from four more were seeking admission, so Gao De invited tribes seeking food and shelter to apply before the year ended.

Gao De explained his plans to Sunaifa for acquiring Harland Shipyard and establishing a trade route between Lagos City and Valar Bay. Sunaifa supplied valuable goods to fund the plans, and Gao De left with arrangements underway to bring Aisha and Anna to Phoenix and feed Tuanzi high-rank Leyline Creature meat.

• Gao De told Sunaifa about his recent travels and explained that he planned to acquire Harland Shipyard and build a controlled trade route between Lagos City and Valar Bay.
• Sunaifa calculated that Gao De needed 12,000 Plantagenet Coins and took him to the Truefrost Tribe's treasury.
• Sunaifa gave Gao De Wolfblood Ginseng and fifty Icejade Wutong Leaves, leaving him confident he could acquire Harland Shipyard.
• Gao De outlined plans to recruit a crew, send Aisha and Anna to the Northern Territory, and build a basic port at Valar Bay.
• Gao De explained Anna's Runelore talent and Aisha's political and administrative skills, and Sunaifa agreed to prepare high-rank Leyline Creature meat for Tuanzi.

Gao De returned to Phoenix, arranged for Sunaifa to begin a census, and gave Flora seeds and magic tree seeds he had collected. He then consumed Wolfblood Ginseng and increased his Liquid Mana from twenty-six drops to thirty-nine, leaving him one drop short of the First Circle’s mid-stage.

• Sunaifa told Gao De that her Evergreen Longevity Sutra had advanced to Second Circle Mage and granted her the ability to communicate simply with plants.
• Gao De instructed Sunaifa to organize a census of the Truefrost Tribe before its expansion, and she agreed to begin as soon as possible.
• Gao De gave Flora seeds from nearly seventy kinds of trees, including six types of magic tree seeds, and promised to take her on an outing; Flora forgave him and shared a small flower with him.
• Gao De swallowed the Wolfblood Ginseng in Phoenix’s Core Spirit Land and refined its magic power using the Evergreen Longevity Sutra.
• Gao De increased his Liquid Mana from twenty-six drops to thirty-nine and reflected that developing the Truefrost Tribe would help him obtain more resources.