Chapter Summaries

Suye attended a large auction with Gorlo and bought several valuable collectibles before discovering a genuine Divine Might Bottle used in a scam targeting foreign nobles. Despite Gorlo’s warnings that buyers would lose the bottle after paying, Suye decided to buy it for the divine might inside.

• Gorlo brought Suye into the arena bazaar, where Suye used the Altar Eye to find and buy seven collectibles worth far more than he paid.
• Suye bought an unremarkable armlet for fifty thousand Golden Eagles, then spotted a black ceramic bottle whose Light Mist suggested extraordinary value.
• Suye recognized the bottle as a Divine Might Bottle containing a strand of divine might and learned the seller was asking five hundred thousand Golden Eagles.
• Gorlo explained that the bottle was genuine but that witches summoned it back after each sale, while shills helped deceive foreign buyers.
• Suye insisted he still wanted to buy the bottle for its divine might, and Gorlo agreed to go with him.

Suye bought the Divine Might Bottle and a strange Terracotta Warrior, sacrificing the latter in the Ruined Space while discovering that the bottle remained in his possession despite the seller’s attempt to reclaim its divine might. The seller and several nobles failed to retrieve the bottle through Ancestral Summoning and offered to refund Suye, but he demanded four million Golden Eagles to return it.

• Suye paid one hundred thousand Golden Eagles for the Divine Might Bottle, then secretly sacrificed it in the Ruined Space without inspecting it.
• Suye bought a Terracotta Warrior whose black transformation released a monstrous beast that the altar devoured.
• Gorlo warned Suye that the seller’s shills were following him, while Suye confirmed the Divine Might Bottle was still there.
• Donaldson and five nobles questioned Gorlo, admitted Ancestral Summoning had failed to retrieve the bottle, and asked him to offer Suye a refund.
• Gorlo relayed Suye’s demand for four million Golden Eagles, and Donaldson and Rodnan threatened that the dispute would not end easily.

Suye attended the trade fair, bought millions of Golden Eagles’ worth of collectibles, and watched an auction unveil a handwritten script by Socrates. He outbid an Egyptian for the script at two million Golden Eagles.

• Donaldson and his companions plotted to force Suye to surrender the Divine Might Bottle, while Rodnan went to wait outside with Gold Rank warriors.
• Suye bought dozens of collectibles during two rounds of shopping, spending several million Golden Eagles as nobles and Pythian Losers watched him.
• The auctioneer sold a god-forged Senior General medal for four hundred and fifty thousand Golden Eagles and introduced a damaged suit of divine armor.
• The auctioneer revealed Socrates’ handwritten script, and the venue fell silent as he described its significance and began bidding at five hundred thousand Golden Eagles.
• Suye outbid the Egyptian rival, raising his offer to two million Golden Eagles, and the Egyptian conceded.

Suye attended the trade fair and won the Old God's Godblood Statue for 3.1 million Golden Eagles, despite Gorlo's warning that its rumored benefits were mostly unfounded. After the auction ended, Suye prepared to pay for his purchases when someone stopped him.

• The auctioneer gave Suye a receipt for Master Socrates' handwritten script, and Suye chose to pay after the auction.
• Suye noticed familiar noble youths watching him, then used his Altar Eye to recognize the final lot as a valuable Godblood Statue.
• The auctioneer revealed that the statue belonged to a deity from the Dark Age, and many guests were influenced by its strange sense of safety and reverence.
• Gorlo explained that the statue's rumored family blessings were exaggerated and that its practical uses were limited.
• Suye bid against other guests, raised the price to 3.1 million Golden Eagles, and won the statue.
• As Suye prepared to pay, someone called out, "Wait!"

Charles publicly accused the Persian merchant Aladdin of being a commoner impersonating a noble and demanded that he reveal himself. Suye answered by revealing the Silver Dove Crown, leaving the trade fair stunned as he faced Charles.

• Charles took over the trade fair's high platform and denounced commoners who challenged the nobility, announcing that he would expose one of them.
• Charles pointed out Aladdin, and the crowd assumed the Persian merchant was a commoner in disguise while Gorlo feared Suye had been exposed.
• Suye warned Charles to reconsider who had sent him, but Charles refused and demanded that Aladdin remove his Magic Mask and accept punishment.
• Suye said he would come clean and produced the Silver Dove Crown, stunning Charles and the gathered nobles.
• Suye put on the Silver Dove Crown and displayed the Silver Dove Robe, then looked toward Charles as a foreign merchant identified the crown aloud.

Suye revealed himself as the Goddess of Wisdom's Secret Priest and ordered an investigation of Charles and the Baines Family, with Medels and the Temple Legion enforcing his authority. After Medels arrested Rodnan and his two Golden Warriors for trying to attack Suye, the temple procession reached the Baines Family as Athens's nobles turned against the family.

• Suye confronted Charles, and Medels arrived with the Temple Legion and acknowledged Suye as the Secret Priest.
• Suye ordered an investigation of Charles and the Baines Family, and Medels bound Charles and had Temple Knights carry him away.
• Suye removed the Silver Dove Crown before leaving the arena, and Medels bound Rodnan when he charged at Suye outside.
• Medels ordered Rodnan and the two Golden Warriors sent to the Judgement Hall, while Suye called for Rodnan to be investigated.
• The Temple Legion escorted Suye toward the Baines Family as nobles across Athens shunned the family and followed the procession from a distance.

Suye investigated Charles’s attack on him and discovered that another Temple had concealed the true culprit, likely using Andre to act against him. He left the Baines Family facing the consequences of Charles’s blasphemy and warned its patriarch that the Temple could destroy them.

• Suye and Medels had the Temple warriors capture the Baines Family and interrogated Charles about who had ordered him to target Suye.
• Medels’s Truth-Telling spell failed to make Charles reveal the culprit, and Suye realized another Greek Temple might be blocking his testimony.
• Suye noticed Charles react when he mentioned Andre and concluded that Andre had used Charles while acting under pressure from another faction.
• Medels searched for Andre but could not locate him because a mysterious Temple protected him.
• Suye explained that his Secret Priest status reflected his importance to Greece’s coming war and warned Patriarch Baines that the Temple might not protect the family.
• Charles begged Suye to kill him, and Patriarch Baines accepted the Temple’s punishment.

Suye forced the Baines Family to hand over valuable property while uncovering its forbidden scriptures, criminal schemes, and abuses. After retrieving his auction purchases, he claimed the family’s Hero Medal and left to discuss the temple’s judgment.

• Suye demanded compensation from the Baines Family, which pledged White Shore Town’s deed and Divine Power Equipment as collateral for the five million Golden Eagles it owed.
• Suye examined the family’s forbidden books and letters, uncovering Evil Scriptures, a private pirate gang, and the family’s role in seizing another family’s workshop technology.
• Suye visited the family’s private prison, ordered the temple to rescue the prisoners or grant them quick deaths, and retrieved Socrates’ Handwritten Script and the Godblood Statue from the steward.
• Suye scanned the Baines Family’s treasure vault and demanded its Hero Medal after its patriarch offered him the collection instead of the family’s Divine Power Plane.
• The Baines Family patriarch ordered the steward to bring the Hero Medal, and Suye took it before proposing that they discuss the temple’s judgment.

Suye punished the Baines Family for Charles’s blasphemy, removed Patriarch Baines from power, and chose Macus as the new patriarch. After surrendering his Silver Dove Crown and Robe, Suye hurried to offer the goddess his nearly perfect paper, hoping to strengthen his position before his enemies could strike.

• Suye ordered Charles handed over to the temple, stripped Patriarch Baines of his patriarchal title, and sentenced him to exile in the Deep Prison.
• Medels used the Black Owl Statue to bind Patriarch Baines and the Divine Power Cone to drain his divine power, while Suye demoted the Baines Family to a Legend family.
• Suye questioned Patriarch Baines’s three sons and selected Macus as the family’s new patriarch.
• Suye returned his Silver Dove Crown and Robe to the temple, and Medels warned him that nobles might attack once he lost the Secret Priest’s protection.
• Suye told Medels he would offer nearly perfect paper to Athena, then brought Laurence and Neder to the goddess’s temple with the new offering.

Suye received the Divine Might Foundation and advanced to Gold after meditating in Ruined Space. Meanwhile, Andre and two Revenge Priests discovered that Suye had received another Silver Dove Robe, leaving them unable to investigate his fate in Athens City.

• Medels told Suye that Charles would face the death penalty for blasphemy and that Rodnan and the other nobles would be sent to the Deep Prison, while Laurence warned Suye to prepare for the Greco-Persian War.
• Suye found the Divine Might Foundation and five strands of Divine Might Force among the Divine Might Bottle's rewards, then noticed that Ruined Space was helping the bottle absorb divine might unusually quickly.
• Suye meditated in the Volcano Plane, advanced to Gold, and saw his Magic Tower expand to five floors as Ruined Space grew larger.
• Andre and two Revenge Priests entered the vacant neighboring house and used an offering to check Suye's Divine Gift Power.
• The Revenge Priests learned that Suye's Divine Gift Power was fading but that he had the Silver Dove Robe again, revealing that he had made another offering to the Goddess.
• Unable to investigate Suye's fate while he remained in Athens City, Andre raised the coming Greco-Persian War as a possible opportunity.

Suye studied Gold-Rank magic and battlefield spells, then asked Niedern about schools he might form at his new rank. Niedern identified several possible schools and explained Suye’s defensive and summoning strengths, leaving him advised to pursue the Four Elements Strong Kill Stream.

• Suye planned how to adapt Rain of Fire and Trap Technique into wide-area attacks for the Greco-Persian War.
• Niedern described Gold-Rank schools and said Suye might form the Radiance Heaven School, Trap Mage School, Great Summoner School, and other schools.
• Niedern called Suye’s existing defensive combination the Turtle School and warned that Euclid could attack across space.
• Niedern learned Suye had advanced to Gold and reacted with jealousy before recovering.
• Niedern said Suye’s summoning abilities had half-formed the Great Summoner School and recommended the Four Elements Strong Kill Stream.

Suye discussed the mana costs and power of multi-element magic with Niedern, who encouraged him to develop the Multi-Element Creation School. As the Greco-Persian War approached, Niedern helped Suye plan an enormous Rain of Fire spell, and Suye successfully inscribed the basic spell in half an hour using a Meditation Needle.

• Suye and Niedern calculated how much mana multi-element spells required and discussed how even powerful spears could be countered or dodged.
• Niedern entrusted Suye with developing the Multi-Element Creation School and asked him to conceal his Gold rank until the academy's Gold Mage conference.
• Suye proposed enlarging Hellfire for the coming Greco-Persian War, and Niedern advised him to combine two forms of creation to make Rain of Fire cover a radius of one hundred meters.
• Niedern sent Suye to obtain Dual Creation diagrams from Hakadi and other Fire Magic masters, while he offered to find a diagram for Trap Technique.
• Suye entered the Magic Tower, used a Meditation Needle to inscribe Rain of Fire, and completed the spell in half an hour.
• Niedern assumed Suye had failed, but Suye told him he had succeeded because he possessed a Meditation Needle.

Suye tested his powerful Rain of Fire, learned and inscribed seven new spells, and was summoned to a meeting about the Greco-Persian War. At the meeting, Suye revealed that he had advanced to Gold, while Euclid reminded him that he was still owed payment.

• Suye tested Rain of Fire in the Mirror Gate, and Niedern concluded that its enormous range made Suye a match for dozens of Golden Mages.
• Suye studied seven Magic Creation diagrams, inscribed the spells with Mana Liquid repairing his failed attempts, and chose Large Rain of Fire and Large Trap Technique to keep.
• Suye received a Magic Letter summoning the Academy's Golden and Silver Mages to discuss the Greco-Persian War, then attended his first official mage meeting with Niedern.
• Niedern seated Suye between himself and Gregory, and Suye announced that he had advanced to Gold, stunning the gathered mages and exposing Niedern's boast.
• Aristotle, Euclid, and Archimedes arrived, and Euclid sat beside Niedern after Suye promised to pay him when a deal came through.

At a Plato Academy meeting, Suye explained a Consumption-Development Model for comparing countries as the council debated Greece and Persia’s future relationship. He assessed Egypt and Northern Europe, then left the council to consider how the framework might apply to the two rival powers.

• Aristotle recognized that Suye had advanced to Gold and gave him an Ice Queen’s remains as the academy’s reward.
• Laurence announced three meeting topics: the academy’s direction, Magic Artifact and potion supplies, and Greece’s relationship with Persia.
• After debate over Greece and Persia grew heated, Laurence asked Suye which country would gain the upper hand over the long term.
• Suye introduced a four-part Consumption-Development Model and explained how it measured a country’s long-term gains and losses.
• Suye classified Egypt as high consumption and low development, citing its conflicts and lack of recent advances.
• Suye classified Northern Europe as low consumption and low development, while predicting rapid growth once it built a stronger foundation.

Suye explained that Greece’s development gave it a long-term advantage over Persia, then showed the teachers how their opposing policies both aimed to protect Greece. He left the meeting arguing that Greece’s true goal was peace and security, while defeating Persia was only a means.

• Suye compared Greece’s investment in knowledge and technology with Persia’s spending on war and luxury, arguing that Greece’s low consumption and high development gave it the advantage.
• Suye asked Gregory and Kadelios why they supported their respective policies and showed that both sides wanted to protect Greece, despite treating each other as enemies.
• Euclid identified Suye’s reasoning as Positive Sequence Logic, and the mages recorded his explanation.
• Suye argued that the teachers were focused on the surface problem of Persia’s invasion instead of Greece’s deeper goal.
• Laurence and most of the attendees raised their left hands to show they wanted to protect Greece, while a few raised their right hands to show they wanted to defeat Persia.
• Suye said defeating Persia was only a means and that Greece’s true goal was to protect itself and achieve peace.

Suye used the rise and failures of two Eastern powers to explain how a nation’s ultimate goal shapes what it learns, how it spends resources, and whether it prioritizes war or development. He left the teachers considering how the New East Country and the Western Powerhouse would deal with each other and the rest of the world.

• Suye compared the Eastern country’s policy of “Learn Barbarian Skills to Control Barbarians” with the small island nation’s broader goal of enriching the country and strengthening its foundations, explaining why the Eastern country lost their war.
• Suye described how the Eastern Great Man and his companions adopted commonism as their ultimate goal, enabling the New East Country to unite people, study broadly, limit conflict, and prioritize development.
• Suye contrasted the New East Country’s approach to commonism with the Northern Great Country’s leader, who attacked supposed obstacles and focused on opposing the Western Powerhouse, leading to the country’s destruction.
• Suye said the New East Country had maintained restraint and prioritized development despite pressure from the Western Powerhouse, while the latter fell into crisis.
• Suye asked what the New East Country and the Western Powerhouse would do to each other and other countries, and the teachers fell into deep thought.

Suye argued that Communism should guide nations toward cooperation and self-improvement, while struggle should remain a limited means rather than a goal. After the mages praised his ideas, they turned to how Greece could respond to the Persian invasion, and Laurence asked what would happen if Greece fell before its grand theory was complete.

• Suye contrasted the Western Powerhouse's suppression of other nations with the New East Country's pursuit of Communism and cooperation.
• The mages recorded Suye's speech, and Aristotle asked what principle underlay Communism; Suye claimed he did not know.
• Suye explained that he believed in Communism as a beautiful human possibility and contrasted the New East Country's correct-order thinking with the Northern Great Country's selfishness.
• Laurence asked how Greece should resolve the Persian invasion, and Suye proposed strengthening itself while developing an ideal and a theoretical system modeled partly on Plato's Republic.
• Laurence asked what Greece should do if it perished while constructing that theoretical system.

Suye explained how a far-reaching goal should guide Greece’s preparations against Persia and urged the assembly to look beyond appearances toward deeper principles. After the meeting, he recognized the importance of Eudoxus’s paper on the Theory of Equal Proportion and began explaining its connection to the foundations of axiomatization.

• Suye outlined strategies for defeating Persia while protecting Athens, preserving trade, and seeking allies, then argued that goals required thinking about the future and the whole.
• The assembly reflected on Suye’s ideas, and Laurence praised him as someone who might lead others toward reality and truth.
• After Laurence adjourned the meeting, Gregory called Eudoxus’s new paper on the Theory of Equal Proportion a small advance, prompting Suye to read it and insist it was significant.
• Archimedes asked Suye to explain the paper’s importance, and Suye recognized its connection to the emerging method of axiomatization and the future of mathematics and other disciplines.

Suye connected Aristotle’s ideas about premises to Eudoxus’s proofs and urged Aristotle to develop a theory of logic, prompting Aristotle to leave and begin researching. He then encouraged Euclid to pursue his ambitious theory of deriving vast fields of knowledge from a few principles, but left its explanation unfinished.

• Suye compared Aristotle’s and Eudoxus’s writing and identified their shared use of premises as a foundation for conclusions.
• Aristotle recognized the importance of premises, credited Suye as first author, and hurried away to research logic.
• Euclid asked Suye to explain how his ideas related to Euclid’s dream of deriving many theories from a few important points of knowledge.
• Suye defended the possibility of Euclid’s ambitious theory despite the teachers’ doubts and urged Euclid to explain it.
• Euclid called the unfinished theory First in the World and grabbed Suye when he pretended to leave.

Suye explained how Euclid, Aristotle, and Eudoxus had helped shape his vision of axiomatization, then urged Euclid to make it real. After discussing his priorities in magic with Niedern, Suye returned home and found General Faste’s carriage waiting outside.

• Suye described how the work of Thales, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Aristotle, and Eudoxus led him to believe Euclid could complete axiomatization.
• Euclid eagerly claimed the task of researching axiomatization and left to find Eudoxus and Aristotle, asking Suye to be the first author.
• Suye told Niedern that he had passed the research opportunity to Euclid and Aristotle so they could advance the theory sooner while he focused on magic.
• Niedern advised Suye to develop stronger combat spells and practice Enhanced Creation with Flame Demon Snakes and Summon Apprentice Servants.
• Suye returned home late at night and learned from Hill that General Faste’s carriage was waiting outside.