Chapter Summaries

Gao De completed his Truefrost advancement, expanding his Second Circle spell library to thirty-five spells and gaining confidence for the Academy Challenge. His airship arrived in Etheran County’s Morning Light City, where he encountered the county’s healing-focused mage culture.

• Gao De learned several new Second Circle spells, including [Mind Spike], [Moonlight], [Soul of the Healer], and [Rime Binding].
• Gao De’s Truefrost Bloodline awakened [Vortex Warp [Truefrost Spell]] and [Misty Step [Truefrost Spell]], bringing his Second Circle spell library to thirty-five spells.
• Gao De watched the airship pass Etheran County’s plains and Coast of Light before approaching Morning Light City and its Tower of Morning Light.
• Gao De disembarked at Morning Light City and noticed a white-robed mage offering free magical treatment to passersby.

Gao De arrived in Morning Light City during the Sea Purifying Festival, found Etheran Academy closed for the holiday, and joined the crowds watching the coastal ritual. As the lighthouses’ light purified the Gloomy Cold Currents, his Mandora Demon Eye revealed an anomalous current just as the ritual reached its climax.

• Gao De watched a Lighthouse Cult mage heal an old man's fractured ankle for free and learned how the cult served the locals.
• Gao De learned that the city was celebrating Sea Purifying Festival and discovered Etheran Academy was closed for the day.
• Gao De followed the crowds to the shore, where residents scattered flowers and glowing plankton into the sea as the lighthouse ritual began.
• The lighthouses released light that purified the Gloomy Cold Currents and nourished the sea life, while Gao De observed the process with his Mandora Demon Eye.
• As the ritual neared its peak, Gao De spotted a Gloomy Cold Current unlike the others.

Gao De witnessed the Pale Water Blossom contaminate the sea during the Sea Purifying Festival, prompting Etheran County to evacuate the shore and seal the coastline. After the Lightforged called for mage support, Gao De volunteered, determined to enter the extreme cold despite Second Lieutenant Elves warning him that the danger exceeded his rank.

• Gao De saw unusual Gloomy Cold Currents fuse with light elements and spread a strange black-and-gold energy through the sea.
• The lighthouses sounded Etheran County’s maritime alarm, and the City Guards evacuated the festival crowd as the Lightforged deployed to the coast.
• The anomaly spread into gray, grease-like matter, and the coastline remained sealed while the Etheran Academy stayed closed.
• Gao De waited in Morning Light City, bought magical plants and seeds, and heard the call for mages to help contain the Pale Water Blossom.
• Gao De reported to a Lightforged gathering point, where Second Lieutenant Elves warned him that a Second Circle Mage could not withstand the extreme cold.
• Gao De remained determined to help because he wanted to test his cold resistance against the conditions.

Gao De joined the effort to clear dangerous Cold Condensation Fragrance from the Pale Water Blossom region after Elves explained the crisis and its hazards. Confident in his unusual abilities, he plunged into the freezing sea and swam toward the affected area.

• Elves initially doubted that Second Circle Mage Gao De could withstand the Pale Water Blossom region, but accepted his Sea Sentinel insignia and registered him for the mission.
• Elves explained how the Ghost Whale King’s death, an undersea volcanic fissure, and the Sea Purifying Festival had combined to create the Pale Water Blossom.
• Elves described the mission: retrieve polluted Cold Condensation Fragrance before energy fluctuations caused it to explode and worsen the damage.
• Gao De judged that his cold resistance and underwater abilities made the mission suitable for him, and Elves gave him a High-Grade Cold Resistance Potion.
• Gao De left the potion unused, activated [Ocean's Touch+], and dove into the freezing sea toward the Pale Water Blossom.

Gao De searched the Pale Water Blossom for Cold Condensation Fragrance, using his unusual physiques and precise Truefrost Mana control to safely extract several pieces. He teamed up with Ella, a Lightforged Military Mage, and the chapter ends after he successfully seals an unusually large, unstable piece.

• Gao De entered the Pale Water Blossom and used his abilities to find and safely extract his first piece of Cold Condensation Fragrance.
• Gao De followed colder currents deeper into the sea, improving his search while encountering increasingly unstable pieces.
• Gao De met Ella, who shared information about cleared areas and proposed they work together, with her searching and him handling the finds.
• Ella led Gao De to a large piece of Cold Condensation Fragrance whose cracked energy shell seemed too dangerous for her to remove.
• Gao De precisely froze the shell's cracks, stabilized the energy, and extracted and sealed the large piece.

Gao De and Ella’s cleanup of the Pale Water Blossom sea region was disrupted when an energy diversion went out of control, causing the water to grow colder and more turbulent. When a massive, unstable Thousand-Year Condensation Fragrance appeared, Gao De stayed behind to try to contain it while Ella evacuated to summon help.

• Gao De and Ella efficiently cleared Cold Condensation Fragrance across the sea region, while Ella grew increasingly impressed by Gao De’s abilities and shared safe-area markings with other mages.
• As the high-level Mages increased the energy guidance, currents surged, the water temperature plunged, and a lieutenant general ordered everyone to evacuate after part of the energy diversion flowed back into the Pale Water Blossom.
• Gao De stayed beside the freezing Ella as they retreated, but a sudden wave of extreme cold struck her and nearly left her unconscious.
• The backflow carried a giant, unstable Thousand-Year Condensation Fragrance toward them, and Ella recognized the danger of its potential explosion.
• Gao De urged Ella to evacuate and contact the high-level Mages for support, then swam toward the Thousand-Year Condensation Fragrance and used Mandora Demon Eye to inspect its energy flows.

Gao De sealed the Thousand-Year Condensation Fragrance and pushed his cold resistance to 299.9% before escaping the Pale Water Blossom Waters with Ella. After the crisis response continued, he registered his contribution and requested Circle Advancement Potions and rare second-circle spell formulas as rewards.

• Gao De used Truefrost Mana to weave an ice net inside the Thousand-Year Condensation Fragrance’s energy shell, sealed it in ice, and stored it away.
• After [Adaptive] raised his cold resistance to 295%, Gao De ventured deeper into the freezing waters, increasing it to 299.9% while advancing Truefrost Secrets until he reached seventy-nine mana patterns.
• Gao De met Ella and two high-ranking mages, showed them the sealed Thousand-Year Condensation Fragrance, and left the dangerous waters with Ella.
• Ella explained that the energy discharge was progressing smoothly as the Pale Water Blossom contracted, then accompanied Gao De to register the Cold Condensation Fragrance he had cleared.
• Gao De requested third-tier and first-tier Circle Advancement Potions and rare second-circle spell formulas as priority rewards, and Ella said they would try to fulfill his needs.

Gao De received his reward for helping resolve the Pale Water Blossom crisis, including advancement potions and rare spell formulas. When Colonel Cole asked why he had come to Etheran County, Gao De revealed that he was there to challenge the academy.

• Gao De waited in Morning Light City for his relief mission reward and enjoyed a brief stay in the city.
• Ella and Colonel Cole arrived with two advancement potions and formulas for five Second Circle spells as Gao De’s reward.
• Gao De accepted the rare [Alchemical Regurgitation] and [Divination] formulas, along with three ordinary spells.
• Colonel Cole learned that Gao De was a warrant officer among the Sea Sentinels and asked why he was not participating in the Academy Challenge.
• Gao De told Colonel Cole and Ella that he had come to challenge the academy.

Gao De arrived at Etheran Academy to challenge for its badge and learned that Ella, its third-stage Academy Defender, would face him directly. Ella charged into their duel expecting to exploit her melee advantage, but Gao De revealed his own close-combat skill, layered himself with buffs, and met her sword head-on.

• Gao De told Colonel Cole and Ella that he had come to challenge Etheran Academy, and Ella revealed that she was its third-stage Academy Defender.
• Gao De entered Etheran Academy and was escorted to Shimmering Shoals Magic Duel Arena, where Ella skipped the first two stages and offered to fight him for the badge.
• Ella opened the duel by forming a Flame Sword and Devout Shield, then charged Gao De at close range.
• Gao De formed a Frost Sword and cast five buffs while Ella closed the distance, revealing that he was also prepared for melee combat.
• Ella continued her charge despite recognizing her misjudgment, and her Flame Sword clashed with Gao De's Frost Sword.

Gao De turned Ella’s advantage in rank against her with a spell ambush, then used his Truefrost senses to find her inside supernatural darkness. The chapter left Ella immobilized by the combined restraints of [Earthbind] and [Rime Binding].

• Ella and Gao De traded sword strikes, and she recognized his skill as genuine experience rather than a hastily learned style.
• Ella changed tactics and charged Gao De, but he dodged her attack and ensnared her with an enhanced [Earthbind].
• Gao De struck Ella’s [Devout Shield] with [Frost Sword], driving her off balance and silencing the watching mages.
• Ella cast [Abyssal Darkness] to regain the initiative, but Gao De sensed her through his awakened Truefrost Bloodline.
• Gao De hit Ella with [Rime Binding], freezing her and her shield while [Earthbind] continued to hold her in place.

Gao De continued to suppress Ella in their magic duel, then escaped her force-field dagger with [Misty Step] and struck her Guard Badge with [Shattering Sonic Wave]. The badge activated, ending the duel with Gao De as the victor.

• Gao De used [Mind Spike] to injure Ella and lock onto her location, then trapped her with [Ice Thorn Growth].
• Ella melted the frost, struggled against the ice thorns, and secretly formed a force-field dagger that she launched at Gao De.
• Gao De vanished with [Misty Step], causing Ella's dagger to miss and shocking the watching mages.
• Gao De reappeared thirty feet away and hit Ella with [Shattering Sonic Wave], triggering her Guard Badge.
• The duel ended with Gao De declared the victor.

After defeating Ella in a magical duel, Gao De received an Etheran Academy badge and traveled by airship to Fos County. He arrived at Golden Flow Airport in Jinliu City, ready to face the county’s cautious, defensive mages with a plan built around his strengths.

• Gao De examined the Etheran Academy badge Ella had given him after their duel and reflected on how his exceptional abilities had allowed him to defeat her.
• Gao De looked out from the airship and saw the coastline give way to Golden Flow Bay as he approached Fos County.
• Gao De reviewed Fos County’s ports, canals, trade culture, and mage combat style, identifying its defensive approach as vulnerable to his burst attacks and unconventional spells.
• The airship descended over Jinliu City and landed at Golden Flow Airport.
• Gao De gathered his belongings and walked toward the cabin door after hearing the disembarkation announcement.

Gao De traveled by canal through Jinliu City toward the Mage District, where he witnessed a hooded thief flee across shuttle boats. He secretly helped the thief escape with Longstrider before they disappeared into the city.

• Gao De boarded a canal shuttle boat at Jinliu City's skyport and learned from the boatman that the Golden Sand Tide would not occur until later in the year.
• Gao De reached the Mage District and watched mages train aboard boats in the canal's dense Water Elemental energy.
• A hooded figure fled a White Marble building and raced across shuttle boats while pursuers followed along the bank.
• The figure landed on Gao De's shuttle boat, and Gao De discreetly cast Longstrider on them.
• The thief leaped to the canal steps and vanished into the shadows of nearby buildings.

Gao De tracked down a young man who had fled a forced business deal and learned that the pack he was protecting contained an Alchemy Blueprint. The young man identified it as Jabir's Panting Furnace.

• The young man escaped into Jinliu City's abandoned warehouse district, worrying about the Alchemy Blueprint in his pack and recalling the mysterious help he received on the shuttle boat.
• Gao De appeared behind him, and the young man recognized him as the person from the shuttle boat.
• Gao De explained that he had tracked the young man using magical traces left by [Longstrider+] enhanced by Wind Spirit Moon Shadow.
• The young man denied being a thief and explained that a man had tried to force a deal on him before he escaped.
• Gao De believed him and asked what he carried, and the young man revealed it was a blueprint for Jabir's Panting Furnace.

Eli showed Gao De Jabir's Panting Furnace, an alchemical machine that used cheap Inert Phlogiston and a spent Magic Crystal to produce continuous mechanical force. Gao De watched it run and recognized the promise of its crude design, leaving him eager to learn more about the machine.

• Gao De asked Eli what Jabir's Panting Furnace did, and Eli explained that it produced continuous, controllable force.
• Eli led Gao De through the commoners' alleys to an abandoned house where he had been staying.
• Eli showed Gao De the crude furnace, and Gao De examined its pistons, joints, and valves with growing interest.
• Eli loaded the furnace with Inert Phlogiston, fitted a spent Magic Crystal, and cranked it until the machine started running.
• Eli explained that the furnace could power tasks for up to six hours using nearly worthless fuel, and that Jabir could improve its strength and durability.

Eli showed Gao De the Breathing Furnace and explained its potential to replace costly labor, while Gao De recognized it as a prototype Magic Internal Combustion Engine that could transform society. Gao De warned Eli that the machine’s threat to the Plantagenet Dynasty’s entrenched class order could bring death to Eli and Jabir.

• Eli described how mass-produced Breathing Furnaces could power mills, mines, workshops, and breweries using cheap fuel.
• Gao De saw the furnace as the primitive heart of an industrial age, beyond Eli’s more limited plans for profit and labor savings.
• Eli praised Jabir’s ingenuity, and Gao De agreed that Jabir was talented and called the furnace an extraordinary alchemical machine.
• Gao De recognized that the furnace’s reaction array and phlogiston fuel could enable a Magic Internal Combustion Engine and transform productivity.
• Gao De warned Eli that widespread use of the furnace would displace workers, threaten social stability, and put Eli and Jabir in danger.

Gao De warned Eli that the Plantagenet Dynasty would suppress the Breathing Furnace because it threatened the existing order, then revealed that he wanted to meet its inventor, Jabir. Eli brought Gao De to Jabir’s secluded workshop, where the inventor continued working without turning to greet them.

• Gao De explained that the Breathing Furnace’s widespread adoption would displace workers and make Eli a scapegoat for the resulting unrest.
• Gao De told Eli that a changing nation could accept the invention, and Eli guessed the Holy Empire before Gao De clarified that he meant somewhere else.
• Gao De showed Eli his Military Mage badge and asked to meet Jabir, so Eli agreed to lead him to the inventor.
• Eli took Gao De through Jabir’s cramped workshop and up to the inventor’s room.
• Jabir kept assembling brass parts and muttering about his design while Eli announced that Gao De had come to see him.

Gao De told Jabir that the Plantagenet Dynasty would suppress the Breathing Furnace because it threatened the established order. He urged Jabir to take his invention to the Northern Territory, where it could be accepted and put to use.

• Eli introduced Gao De to Jabir, the inventor of the Breathing Furnace, and said Gao De knew where it could be used.
• Eli explained that Jabir had been orphaned after his father died in an alchemical explosion and that his family had supported Jabir's research.
• Jabir defended the Breathing Furnace as a machine that used magic power and mechanical principles to provide cheap, steady energy without spells or magic crystals.
• Gao De praised Jabir's invention and warned that it could replace laborers and threaten the Plantagenet Dynasty's rigid class structure.
• Eli agreed that Jabir and his invention had no future under the dynasty, and Gao De told Jabir to go to the Northern Territory.

Gao De persuaded Jabir to consider taking the Breathing Furnace to the changing Northern Territory and offered Eli a chance to join his new businesses. He left them to decide after the Academy Challenge and arrived at the strikingly designed Fos Academy.

• Gao De showed Eli and Jabir his Sea Sentinel warrant officer badge and explained that he had personally seen the Northern Territory changing.
• Gao De appealed to Jabir’s desire for recognition and support, urging him to leave his cramped workshop for the Northern Territory.
• Jabir nodded but did not give Gao De a final answer; Gao De promised to return after the Academy Challenge and offered to buy the Breathing Furnace prototype and basic blueprints.
• Gao De offered Eli a role in his new businesses after explaining that Eli’s plan to revive his family business through the Breathing Furnace was unlikely to work.
• Gao De left the workshop and reached Fos Academy, whose vast circular building stood behind a canal beneath a crystal dome filled with rotating cubes.

Gao De arrived at Fos Academy, where Steward Emondy bypassed the earlier challenge stages and matched him against Academy Defender Lorraine. Their duel began with Lorraine raising a metal fortress, while Gao De realized Fos Academy had studied his previous battles; the fight remained unresolved.

• Gao De entered Fos Academy and was escorted to the Scales of Contract by a guard who said Steward Emondy had ordered him brought there.
• Emondy explained that Gao De’s victories at Soren Academy and Etheran Academy had spread across the South Coast, and introduced Lorraine as Fos Academy’s third-stage defender.
• Gao De agreed to challenge Lorraine directly for Fos Academy’s badge, and the academy prepared the Scales of Contract arena.
• Gao De and Lorraine entered the arena, and their duel began as soon as they stepped onto its floor.
• Lorraine instant-cast [Animate Object] to raise twelve alloy plates into a sturdy metal fortress, while Gao De recognized that Fos Academy had prepared against his known tactics.