Recaps

Hughberlian pressed Ferrat with her Purgatory Scorpion Tail while the Sage Institute teachers discussed her strengths and the team support Lanchi could provide. Ferrat remained wary of both examinees as the teachers waited to see what cards Lanchi would reveal.

• Hughberlian recalled the Purgatory Scorpion Tail to her hand after her ambush failed, and Ferrat assessed the danger of being drawn into a prolonged fight.
• The Sage Institute teachers examined Hughberlian's Pink Divine weapon and discussed how her fragile, physical-assassin build could benefit from support.
• Vice Principal Ron suggested that Lanchi could support Hughberlian with summons or enhancement effects, and the teachers wondered what cards remained in his deck.
• Ferrat watched Hughberlian for another stealth attack while keeping Lanchi in view, unsettled by Lanchi's calm demeanor.

Lanchi used a collection of failed healing spells to torment Ferrat instead of healing Hughberlian, leaving Ferrat in agony on the Ilyavin Great Plains. The teachers in the Conference Room realized Lanchi was deliberately provoking his opponent as the storm gathered overhead.

• Lanchi cast an Erroneous Slow Heal, accidentally—or deliberately—targeting Ferrat instead of Hughberlian.
• The terminal identified the spell as a failed healing card that restored health while inflicting intense pain whenever it did so.
• Vice Principal Ron and the teachers recognized that Lanchi could use the long-range, persistent healing effect to torture Ferrat.
• Lanchi stacked several more failed healing spells on Ferrat, who trembled and groaned in pain.
• Ferrat’s fury grew as he endured the spells beneath the approaching storm.

Lanchi fled Ferrat while Hughberlian stalled the furious examiner, but Ferrat broke through and closed in on Lanchi. With the exam seemingly at its end, Lanchi prepared the final Magic Card he had made with Talia using the ancestral relic Poem of Compassion.

• Ferrat ignored Hughberlian and pursued Lanchi, who kept tormenting him with Mistaken Healing Cards.
• Hughberlian fought to delay Ferrat while Lanchi cast spells and retreated, as the Sage Institute teachers doubted they could win.
• Ferrat spotted Hughberlian's opening as she retrieved her dagger and blasted her aside with wind magic.
• Ferrat charged toward Lanchi as Hughberlian struggled to chase after him and the distance between the two men rapidly closed.
• Lanchi stopped fleeing and examined the final Magic Card he had created with Talia using Poem of Compassion.

Lanchi summoned his Orange Epic card, Poet of Great Love, to stop the enraged Ferrat. Its magic intensified everyone’s emotions, and Ferrat’s mind snapped as he crashed to the ground with a cerebral hemorrhage.

• Ferrat charged at Lanchi while Hughberlian chased after him, convinced the fight was lost.
• Lanchi summoned the Flower Fairy and transformed the gloomy grassland with its healing aura.
• The Poet of Great Love’s hymn affected Ferrat and Hughberlian, intensifying their emotions and disrupting their control.
• Hughberlian realized the beautiful Flower Fairy was a succubus whose card increased all living beings’ emotions tenfold.
• Ferrat lost his rationality, fell from the sky, and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

Lanchi and Hughberlian passed the examination after Lanchi’s Poet of Great Love caused Ferrat to suffer a cerebral hemorrhage and be evacuated. The Sage Institute’s teachers discussed Lanchi’s dangerous abilities and citizenship, while Lanchi recalled his summoned cards and prepared to leave the Artificial Shadow World.

• Lanchi worried that he had hit Ferrat too hard, and the system evacuated Ferrat after detecting severe cardiovascular and cerebrovascular damage.
• Theresa contacted the medical team and feared that Lanchi’s future as a healing mage would ruin the school’s reputation.
• The Sage Institute’s teachers reviewed Lanchi’s victory, debated whether to investigate his citizenship, and concluded that he would be terrifying to face as he grew stronger.
• Vice Principal Ron searched the Knight Institute’s new student records and discovered that the school had enrolled a promising pair.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian passed the examination; Hughberlian exited to recover while Lanchi prepared to recall his cards and leave.
• Lanchi reflected that Poet of Great Love’s summoned creature resembled Talia because he had copied her appearance when making the card with her.

Lanchi acquired the epic Magic Card Poet of Great Love for 75,000 pounds, leaving him indebted to Talia and tying them together for years. After Poet of Great Love returned to card form, Lanchi left the Shadow World and found Teacher Theresa handling Ferrat’s aftermath.

• Lanchi agreed to repay Talia 75,000 pounds over ten years with interest for Poet of Great Love, and Talia became responsible for protecting and helping him earn money.
• Poet of Great Love walked around as a summoned creature, joked about tormenting another enemy, and ignored Lanchi’s warning to obey the law.
• Poet of Great Love returned to card form after telling Lanchi to grow stronger so she could stay outside longer.
• Lanchi left the Artificial Shadow World and returned to the examination hall, where he noticed Teacher Theresa assisting medical personnel with Ferrat.
• Hughberlian heard Lanchi say he wished he could have helped carry Ferrat and suspected Lanchi was malicious despite his innocent expression.

After the examination, Lanchi reunited with Hughberlian and found her in a tense standoff with Princess Vivian. He tried to smooth over their hostility with his high-EQ remarks, leaving Vivian and Hughberlian silent and visibly unsettled.

• Lanchi entered the examination hall and noticed Hughberlian facing off against Princess Vivian and two wary examinees.
• Hughberlian ended the confrontation by telling Vivian she could challenge her in the arena after enrolling, then joined Lanchi in the waiting area.
• Lanchi learned Vivian was a princess and modestly credited his and Hughberlian’s teamwork for passing Examiner Ferrat’s trial.
• Vivian warned Lanchi to stay away from Hughberlian, but Lanchi turned her words into a compliment about Hughberlian’s beauty.
• When Hughberlian denied wanting to reconcile with Vivian, Lanchi suggested she had considered it, leaving both women unable to respond.

After Lanchi helped Hughberlian pass the examination, the two left the hall together, while Vivian feared Lanchi would turn against Hughberlian if he learned she was half demon. Hughberlian advised Lanchi that challenging the Shadow World was the quickest legal way to make money, and he reflected that his White Mage skills were ahead of his card-making.

• Lanchi mediated between Hughberlian and Vivian, leaving the examination hall peaceful.
• Teacher Theresa returned, congratulated Hughberlian and Lanchi on passing, and explained how to collect their enrollment credentials.
• Vivian watched Hughberlian leave and thought Lanchi would reject her if he discovered she was the illegitimate half-demon daughter of the Duke of Aransal.
• Lanchi asked Hughberlian how he could make money quickly and legally in the royal capital.
• Hughberlian said her family might have invested in Lanchi if her father had not gone missing, and recommended challenging the Shadow World.
• Lanchi considered that his White Mage combat profession was more developed than his Card Maker craft.

Lanchi learned that his entrance exam results could exempt him from the Registered Challenger Qualification Exam, bringing him closer to beginning true Shadow Worlds. Three days later, his father Noe Wilford read a newspaper report about the exam accident and assumed Lanchi had failed and returned home.

• Lanchi considered how to earn money and grow stronger, concluding that challenging Shadow Worlds could raise his tier faster than card making alone.
• Hughberlian explained that Lanchi’s exam performance should earn him an exemption, then described challenger tiers and the academy’s Fourth Year and Part-time System students.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian reached the final landing, said goodbye, and went in different directions.
• Three days later, Noe Wilford read a report about the Ikelite Magic Academy entrance exam accident and joked about the student who had injured an examiner and damaged the activation terminal.
• Noe assumed Lanchi had failed the exam and returned home, and he planned to cut off Lanchi’s financial support.

Lanchi arrived alone at Ikelite Academy to obtain his Student Bracelet and begin campus life, but the Magic Engineering Institute was not yet open. While he waited outside the Old Liberal Arts Building, Princess Vivian arrived and asked him about its carved School Badge.

• Lanchi left Talia behind and headed to the Magic Engineering Institute's Old Liberal Arts Building to exchange for a Student Bracelet.
• Lanchi arrived before the building opened and waited on the lawn, admiring the School Badge atop its spire.
• Princess Vivian explained that Magic Artisan Jela Zelt had carved the School Badge two hundred years earlier.
• After staff opened the building, Vivian asked Lanchi what distinguished the carved School Badge from a manufactured one.

Lanchi and Vivian discussed his interpretation of a sculpture before completing his enrollment at the Magic Engineering Institute. On the way to the dormitories, Vivian warned him about the dangers of real Shadow Worlds, while Lanchi concealed the harsher modifiers he and Hughberlian had faced in their examination.

• Lanchi described how the Southern Cross Constellation behind Magic Artisan Jela's Goddess Statue unified the sculpture, and Vivian was impressed by his insight.
• Vivian told Lanchi about her art-loving brother, Prince Enoer, and warned him to avoid meeting him.
• Lanchi completed his enrollment with Vivian's help and left for the dormitories.
• Vivian warned Lanchi that first-year students could not challenge Shadow Worlds alone and explained that Tier 3 Shadow Worlds were far more dangerous than the examination.
• Lanchi asked whether three severe modifiers could make the Infinite Phantom Canyon examination comparable to a runaway Tier 3 Shadow World, and Vivian agreed they could.
• Vivian suspected Lanchi and Hughberlian had faced those modifiers, but Lanchi denied it while concealing the similar conditions they had encountered.

Vivian advised Lanchi to consider joining a team before challenging a Shadow World, and offered to recommend him to hers. Their conversation ended with Lanchi becoming more interested in joining a newspaper office after learning that the Alchemy Institute’s Hutton Times could viciously smear people.

• Vivian advised Lanchi to learn about teams that could help him challenge Shadow Worlds, while Lanchi recalled the academy’s strongest teams and their powerful members.
• Lanchi told Vivian he had received notice that his exam-exemption materials were submitted and that he needed to complete the final steps to become an Iron Tier Registered Challenger.
• Vivian explained that Lanchi’s first-place Entrance Examination score could attract team recruiters, while Lanchi said others’ expectations felt like pressure.
• Lanchi’s gentle remarks prompted Vivian to admit that royal responsibilities exhausted her, before she caught herself and changed the subject.
• Vivian offered to recommend Lanchi to her team, praising its connections and logistical support, but Lanchi asked whether the Magic Engineering Institute had combat professions.
• Vivian warned that powerful Magic Artisans could fight and that the Alchemy Institute’s Hutton Times could smear anyone who offended it, prompting Lanchi to say he wanted to join a newspaper office.

Lanchi moved into the Sage Institute dormitory, chose a spacious first-floor room, and asked the administrator about fire-safety equipment because he planned to practice card making there. He settled in and reviewed the Card Maker registration requirements, then decided to explore a real Shadow World before pursuing the examination.

• Vivian explained that Lanchi could join a team led by a Silver Tier upperclassman, warned him about the dangers of Shadow Worlds, and offered to help him choose a team.
• Lanchi entered the Sage Institute Dormitory Building, where Vivian chose a second-floor room and he selected the larger Dorm 101 on the first floor.
• Lanchi asked the administrator where the fire-safety equipment was, listened to the building's safety details, and assured him he had brought no dangerous items.
• Lanchi arranged his belongings and considered using the extra room as a card-making workshop, noting that Talia called him a Card Blasting Master.
• Lanchi read the Card Maker Association Registration Charter and reviewed the Tier 3 requirement for the registered examination, then decided to explore a real Shadow World first.

On his first day at Iketerite Academy, Lanchi attended his required classes and sat beside Hughberlian, the isolated second-ranked student. As Hughberlian reflected on their bond, Mo Dan Gasigas arrived and pressured her to join his team, leaving her to reject his offer while facing a year with few chances to challenge the Shadow World.

• Lanchi arrived at the Sage Institute classroom and sat near Hughberlian, whom the other students were avoiding.
• Lanchi struggled through the first three required classes and fell asleep at his desk while Hughberlian studied beside him.
• Hughberlian reflected on the hostility she faced as a demon-kin and appreciated Lanchi's kindness and calming presence.
• Mo Dan Gasigas confronted Hughberlian and offered to take her through the Shadow World, claiming his was the only team that would accept her.
• Hughberlian refused Mo Dan's offer, aware that no other team was likely to recruit her.

Mo Dan bullied Hughberlian over her inability to find her missing father, but Lanchi intervened by warning him that his insults could bring legal consequences. The chapter ended with Lanchi trapping Mo Dan in his own admission that he had personally attacked Hughberlian.

• Mo Dan taunted Hughberlian and said she would eventually have to beg him for help finding her father.
• Mo Dan mocked Hughberlian for relying on Lanchi to pass Iketerite Academy's entrance examination, provoking her anger.
• Lanchi woke and reminded Mo Dan that personal attacks violated the student handbook.
• Lanchi explained how Hughberlian could pursue a legal case against Mo Dan after her Duke title was approved.
• Mo Dan challenged Lanchi to prove he had intended to insult Hughberlian, and Lanchi pointed out that Mo Dan had already admitted to personally attacking her.

Lanchi baited Mo Dan into making threats while defending Hughberlian, then watched Mo Dan leave after dismissing his warning about the Wilford Merchant Guild. With class still dragging, Lanchi considered challenging the Shadow World and wondered whether Hughberlian would join him.

• Lanchi calculated that Mo Dan could face eight years in prison, then warned him against threatening Hughberlian.
• Mo Dan threatened to use the House of Marquis Gasigas to swallow the Wilford Merchant Guild, but Lanchi welcomed the prospect and refused to back down.
• Mo Dan warned Lanchi that his abilities would be exposed in the Shadow World, told Hughberlian her plans would fail, and left the classroom.
• Hughberlian thanked Lanchi, and Lanchi said he preferred mediating over fighting.
• Lanchi grew bored in class and considered challenging the Shadow World with Hughberlian.

Lanchi offered Hughberlian friendship and legal help, then invited her to team up in a Shadow World. Hughberlian accepted, and Lanchi proposed they go challenge it that very day.

• Lanchi told Hughberlian she could seek legal help from him and promised not to stand by while she was bullied.
• Hughberlian accepted Lanchi's goodwill and promised to recommend him as an adviser to the Aransal Family if she found her father.
• Lanchi recognized that Hughberlian cared more about finding her missing father than inheriting the family, and she privately resolved to keep her dangerous investigation secret.
• Lanchi invited Hughberlian to team up in a Shadow World, and she agreed while warning that he could change his mind at any time.
• Lanchi proposed that they challenge the Shadow World immediately, and asked Hughberlian if she would come with him.

Lanchi urged Hughberlian to stop hesitating and leave with him to challenge a Shadow World, and she agreed. Their classmates reacted with alarm, while Vice Principal Ron recognized the pair and considered their departure in light of their performance in the Third Round Exam.

• Hughberlian asked Lanchi to wait a few days before challenging a Shadow World, but Lanchi convinced her that delay could keep them from acting at all.
• Hughberlian agreed to go, and she and Lanchi hurried out of the classroom just before class began.
• The freshmen debated whether Lanchi and Hughberlian were really going to challenge a Shadow World alone on their first day at Iketerite Academy.
• Vice Principal Ron arrived to teach and learned that the pair had left for a Shadow World challenge.
• Ron recognized that Lanchi and Hughberlian were gone and recalled their performance in the Third Round Exam, which made him less immediately alarmed than he would have been about other freshmen.

Lanchi and Hughberlian registered as a team at Iketerite Academy’s protected Void Gate and entered it to begin their first Shadow World challenge. They arrived in an unknown world as the matching process began.

• Lanchi and Hughberlian passed security and reached the Void Gate inside Iketerite Academy.
• Lanchi named their team the “Civilized Exemplar Squad,” and the staff member registered their Challenger Licenses and Team-Up Card.
• The staff member explained how Shadow World matching worked and warned them not to leave the gate during matching.
• Lanchi and Hughberlian entered the Void Gate together and were transported to a new world.

Lanchi found himself disguised as a demon and trapped in a Tier 4 academy Shadow World, where he had to pass a lethal exam and investigate the danger ahead. Back at Ikelite, students noticed that Lanchi and Hughberlian were the freshmen challenging the rare demon-themed Shadow World.

• Lanchi awoke in a dark classroom at Purgatory Corridor Academy and learned that failing the Demon Magic Text exam or cheating would get him erased.
• Lanchi saw that the Tier 4 Shadow World required the challengers to explore the academy, investigate tonight's danger, and survive until the time limit ended.
• Lanchi discovered that the Shadow World had given him a demon disguise with white horns and crystal-like exoskeletons.
• Students at Ikelite watched the live feed of the newly opened demon-themed Shadow World and recognized Lanchi and Hughberlian as its challengers.

Lanchi and Hughberlian took a Demon Magic Text examination in the Shadow World, where powerful examiners made cheating dangerous. Unable to answer the questions, Lanchi became fascinated by the ancient demon spells and resolved to pass so he could study them further.

• Lanchi observed that the demon candidates feared the patrolling Demon Examiner, whom he suspected was Tier 5, making force an impractical way to leave the examination hall.
• Lanchi recognized Hughberlian sitting nearby, though she seemed distressed and avoided his gaze.
• Lanchi examined the magical writing tools and realized the exam tested ancient demon magic unavailable in human magic.
• Lanchi could not answer the questions but became excited by a question about spells for changing magical beasts’ fur and imagined adapting them into practical magic.
• Lanchi decided he had to pass the examination to learn the ancient spells and planned to ask Hughberlian about her condition afterward.

In the Demon Academy examination room, Lanchi observed the examiners and the students’ cheating methods while Hughberlian watched him. When two students tried to exchange papers, Lanchi reported them, and the Dragon Horned Demon killed them.

• Hughberlian struggled to face her exposed demonic form and realized she and Lanchi needed to cooperate to pass the exam.
• Lanchi studied the examiners’ patrols and noticed that students were cheating during brief blind spots.
• Two students in front of Lanchi prepared to exchange their papers while the examiners could not see them.
• Lanchi raised his hand and told the teacher that the students were cheating.
• The Dragon Horned Demon caught the two students and killed them as the other candidates watched.

Lanchi turned the examination hall into a bloody slaughterhouse by reporting cheating demon students, while Hughberlian struggled to understand him. Outside the Shadow World, Iketerite Academy students watched and worried about the newcomers, unaware that Lanchi was repeatedly steering the Dragon Demon toward the cheaters and making the Owl Demon jealous.

• Lanchi stopped writing his exam and began reporting demon students who cheated, prompting the Dragon Demon to praise him for maintaining order.
• Students gathered at Iketerite Academy’s Open-Air Mega Screen and reacted to Lanchi and Hughberlian’s dangerous Tier 4 Shadow World challenge.
• The Dragon Demon and Owl Demon slaughtered cheating students in the examination hall, while Lanchi sometimes let cheaters go to preserve their slim chance of survival.
• Hughberlian buried her face in her desk and wondered whether she still seemed more human than Lanchi.
• Lanchi’s reports repeatedly led the Dragon Demon to catch the cheaters, leaving the Owl Demon jealous and Lanchi barely suppressing a laugh.

At Ikelite Magic Academy, teachers and students watched Lanchi and Hughberlian face a perilous Tier 4 Shadow World, and several observers debated whether Lanchi’s actions were deliberate. The chapter left Frei noticing the campus commotion and deciding to investigate later.

• Vice Principal Ron rushed to the Conference Room, where Dean Loren explained that Lanchi and Hughberlian might still suit the dangerous Tier 4 Shadow World despite the serious matching accident.
• A Platinum Tier woman laughed at Mo Dan’s apparent defeat, while Mo Dan admitted Lanchi might not be an idiot.
• A young prince and a card maker watched the ruined Demon Examination Hall, and the prince speculated that Lanchi might have acted deliberately, though he did not understand what had happened.
• Frei put up a plaque for the Frei Detective Agency in the Knight Institute dormitory and decided to check out the unusual campus commotion later.

Lanchi used a carefully timed report and a hidden Magic Card to make the Dragon Demon and Owl Demon race to punish the same student, then provoked them into turning their anger on each other. The examiners faced off as Lanchi watched, while Hughberlian realized he was deliberately escalating their conflict.

• Lanchi tracked the examiners' movements and used Basic Etiquette to force a demon examinee to kneel and appear to be copying answers.
• Both the Dragon Demon and Owl Demon rushed to punish the student and reached him at the same time.
• The examiners argued over who had arrived first, and their hostility grew as neither would back down.
• A hidden Long Live Friendship Bug climbed onto the Dragon Demon's suit and spoke an insulting outburst at the Owl Demon using Lanchi's thoughts.
• The Dragon Demon could only roar in pain while the Owl Demon tightened his grip, and Lanchi watched as the two examiners neared a fight.