Chapter Summaries

Linsey and Red questioned a captured black eagle and learned why its flock had attacked them and what awaited them in Thousand Mountains Stone Forest. They left the wounded eagle behind and continued east toward the stone forest.

• Linsey and Red woke the captured black eagle and asked why its flock had attacked them.
• The black eagle said Fuwo-daren had come to investigate the deaths of their kin near the forest’s edge and suspected something was wrong with the Tree Mother of the Great Forest.
• Linsey asked about the black eagles’ territory and learned that other powerful clans controlled lands deeper in Thousand Mountains Stone Forest.
• The black eagle told Linsey that its nest lay atop the tallest, thickest stone pillar and asked to be released.
• Linsey and Red left the injured black eagle behind and continued toward Thousand Mountains Stone Forest.

Linsey and Red crossed the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest and reached the black eagle clan’s nest. They attacked the Black Eagle King, and Red struck as it prepared to take flight.

• Linsey and Red found the stone forest more comfortable than the damp Great Forest and rested overnight inside a cave they carved into a stone pillar.
• Linsey spotted the black eagle clan’s nest on his map and planned to defeat the Black Eagle King, the flock’s only Fifth Stage magical beast.
• The next afternoon, Linsey and Red drank Hawk Eye Potion and climbed the steep pillar toward the nest.
• Linsey shot down a black eagle that spotted them, and the pair reached the summit.
• The Black Eagle King confronted Linsey and Red, but Red leaped over its nest and thrust a poisoned javelin toward it.

Linsey and Red defeated the Black Eagle King and its flock, then questioned the king about the Dragon Beast. It revealed that the Dragon Beast had lived in the Underground World for centuries before suddenly dying mid-sentence, leaving Linsey with only part of its account.

• Red struck the Black Eagle King with her Wood Poison Javelin and kicked it into the ruins of its nest.
• Linsey killed or subdued the black eagles trying to escape, then threatened the Black Eagle King into surrendering.
• Linsey asked the king about the Dragon Beast, and it said the beast had lived in the Underground World for more than three hundred years and became a Fifth Stage magical beast there.
• The Black Eagle King began describing a vast depression east of their location, then abruptly died and left Linsey a Black Hawk Heart.

After the Black Eagle King died from the Dragon Beast’s influence, Linsey and Red concluded that the Dragon Beast was hiding a secret in a pit east of them. Linsey’s task system revealed a new objective, and after driving off the remaining black eagles, he crafted a beastly accessory and claimed a tracking item.

• Linsey determined that the Black Eagle King had died because the Dragon Beast’s source essence prevented it from revealing information about the Dragon Beast’s origins.
• Linsey and Red decided to investigate a huge pit to the east, and the Task Bar displayed the Mystery of Origins task.
• Linsey kept his promise not to wipe out the black eagle clan and had Red kill a few eagles to drive the rest away.
• Linsey and Red stayed overnight atop the stone pillars, where Linsey crafted and equipped the Heart of the Beast from four hearts.
• Linsey claimed a Hunting Mark with three uses after earning enough basic achievements from clearing out the black eagles.

Linsey and Red crossed the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest and found three collapsed stone pillars balanced in an unusual formation. At the base of one pillar, Linsey discovered a mole-like magical beast and began asking it about the sunken ground nearby.

• Linsey and Red traveled for two weeks through the stone forest without encountering any magical beasts above the Third Stage.
• Red asked whether they were close to their destination, and Linsey explained that traveling on foot was slower than flying.
• Linsey noticed three enormous stone pillars resting against one another and suspected source essence had kept them from shattering.
• Linsey and Red approached the pillars and found a clear lake surrounded by damp mounds, with magical beasts marked nearby on Linsey's map.
• Linsey offered food to a mole-like magical beast, which emerged and spoke with him.
• Linsey told the creature they were crossing the stone forest and asked about the danger posed by the sunken ground.

The Dark Tide Water Lizards attacked the Groundhog Clan’s nest, exploiting the loss of both clans’ leaders to seize territory and pursue a new leader. As the battle continued, several lizards emerged onto the surface to investigate a threat and found a human man and woman instead.

• The Dark Tide Water Lizards crossed into the Groundhog Clan’s territory, planning to take its nest and settle near Three Pillars Lake.
• The lizards dug through an earthen wall, swallowed a young groundhog, and launched a massacre inside the nest.
• Groundhog guards returned from above, but the Dark Tide Water Lizards had already taken advantageous positions and inflicted heavy losses.
• One Dark Tide Water Lizard noticed that many groundhog guards had been stationed above and feared something threatened Three Pillars Lake.
• The lizard sent several capable clan members to the surface, where they encountered a human man and woman.

Linsey and Red fought off Dark Tide Water Lizards that surfaced while they were negotiating with the gophers, and Linsey discovered the gophers were under attack underground. He left Red to guard a captured lizard and burrowed down to help the gophers.

• The gophers vanished underground, and several Dark Tide Water Lizards emerged in their place.
• Linsey cut the leading lizard’s tongue with his Ice Badger Dagger, while Red killed the two others with her Wood Poison Javelin.
• Linsey captured the wounded Fourth Stage Dark Tide Water Lizard and used his map to spot a battle between hostile red markers and friendly or neutral gophers.
• Linsey equipped the Mountains Crest and burrowed underground to help the gophers, leaving Red to watch the captured lizard.

Red discovered that the First Stone Pillar contained an unusual power that briefly awakened a fragment of her lost memories, including a flash of white light. After Linsey returned from defeating the Dark Tide Water Lizards, a ground squirrel told him that the pillar had strengthened Red.

• Linsey burrowed underground to help the ground squirrels, leaving Red unable to join the battle.
• Red sensed source material in a nearby stone pillar and touched it, causing its power to surge toward her.
• The surge brought Red intense pain and fleeting memories of Black Mist, collapsing earth, and a White Steel Sword thrusting toward her heart.
• Red touched the pillar again, but it no longer responded, so she waited beside it while studying its power.
• Linsey returned after the ground squirrels defeated most of the Dark Tide Water Lizards, and a ground squirrel explained that the First Stone Pillar had strengthened Red.

Linsey and Red learned how the three stone pillars strengthened those who touched them, and Linsey chose the First Stone Pillar to boost his Life Lineage. The groundhog revealed that its leader had died after receiving an enhancement and began recounting an ancient war in the Underground World to the east.

• Red told Linsey that the First Stone Pillar had strengthened her abilities and brought back a single image of someone piercing her chest with a sword.
• The groundhog explained that each person could use only one of the three pillars, which strengthened source material, physical qualities, or the mind.
• Linsey touched the First Stone Pillar, greatly increased his source material, and learned through Commodity Skill that the altar had appeared to help the world resist Dragon Beasts.
• The groundhog said transparent lizards had attacked its clan and that its leader had died after failing to advance from the Fifth Stage to the Sixth Stage.
• Linsey asked about the sunken ground to the east, and the groundhog began describing a great war between two powerful races in the Underground World.

Linsey and Red traveled toward the Underground World while considering whether the Dragon Beast had a special interest in Red. They reached the vast, desolate region devastated by the war between the Eyeless People and the Lizard Dragon Clan.

• Linsey and Red discussed the Eyeless People and learned from the mole rats that their war with the Lizard Dragon Clan had caused a widespread collapse of the Underground World.
• Linsey and Red considered whether the Lizard Dragon Clan was connected to the Dragon Beast, which the Black Eagle King had said came from the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest.
• Linsey questioned why the Dragon Beast had ignored the Three Pillars Lake and the Tree Mother's death but had raged when Linsey rescued Red, and he suggested that it had tried to bury her underground.
• Red realized Linsey wanted to investigate the Dragon Beast's homeland for more evidence about its interest in her.
• Linsey spotted a sudden drop in the terrain and led Red to a vast, cracked wasteland strewn with toppled stone pillars.

Linsey and Red searched a collapsed basin for a passage into the Underground World. Linsey found a cave with signs of life and dug toward it, only to be attacked by a poisonous lizard-like creature.

• Red and Linsey triggered a landslide while descending into the basin, then decided to search its edges for an entrance underground.
• Linsey and Red split up, using a bat as a messenger while Linsey surveyed the basin with his map.
• Linsey spotted a stationary red marker in a cave and dug a tunnel toward it with his Meteorite Pickaxe.
• Linsey heard wind and breathing beyond the wall and suspected he had found a Lizard Dragon.
• A creature burst through the wall, knocked Linsey backward, and attacked him with a poisonous breath.
• Linsey resisted the poison and faced the creature, whose yellowish-brown serpentine eyes stared at him from the tunnel.

Linsey fought a poisonous lizard-like magical beast, but it fled and severed its tail when he caught it. He pursued it into a dark cave, where it led him to a gigantic Lizard Dragon that was probably Sixth Stage, leaving Linsey facing a far stronger enemy.

• Linsey struck the charging lizard with his Vine Wood Whip and drove it into a panic with the Emblem of Ice and Fire.
• Linsey chased the lizard through its poisonous mist and caught its tail with the whip, but it severed the tail and escaped.
• Linsey continued after the lizard as the tunnels grew darker and the creature led him into a concealed passage.
• Linsey entered a gray-black cave and saw the tailless lizard approaching a sleeping Lizard Dragon more than ten meters long.
• Linsey realized the enormous Lizard Dragon was probably Sixth Stage and far beyond his strength.

Linsey escaped a Sixth Stage Lizard Dragon’s scorching attack by burrowing underground and digging a shelter. As he tried to tunnel back to Red, he discovered friendly green markers deeper underground than the map had shown.

• Linsey fled from the sleeping Sixth Stage magical beast, but its scorching gale caught him in the tunnel and began destroying his defenses.
• Linsey used the Mountains Crest to burrow into the ground, then dug a temporary shelter with his Meteorite Pickaxe before Earth Escape ended.
• The Lizard Dragon chief sensed that Linsey was alive underground but dismissed the injured Lizard Dragon’s demand that it dig him out.
• Linsey connected the Lizard Dragons’ abilities to the Dragon Beast and inferred that the Dragon Beast might have originated in the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest and possessed airflow, temperature, toxin, and physical-strength abilities.
• Linsey checked the map and began digging toward Red, then noticed friendly green markers in deeper underground areas.

Linsey tried to escape underground after encountering a Sixth Stage magical beast, but source material abilities altered the tunnel and pulled him deeper. He landed near an Eyeless Person, whose identity he recognized as the chapter ended.

• Linsey dug an upward tunnel to reunite with Red, then found the passage coated in Zero-Sense Grease that made him slide downward.
• Linsey blocked the greased section and tried to climb back up using spears embedded in the tunnel walls.
• The spear slipped free, and the ground beneath Linsey softened, plunging him down through the earth.
• Linsey reached solid ground and recognized the creature waiting there as an Eyeless Person.

Linsey was rescued by the Eyeless People, who asked him to search a hidden cavern for something that could help them defeat the Lizard Dragon Clan. He learned that the Dragon Beast had once entered that cavern and gained its power, then saw a crystal-clear mountain peak ahead where the Eyeless People’s elder waited.

• Linsey realized the Eyeless People had pulled him underground and recognized them as potential allies because their map marker was green.
• An Eyeless Person warned Linsey that lizard dragons controlled the surface and offered to lead him to safety underground.
• Linsey questioned why the Eyeless People had rescued him, and they asked him to search a special cavern for something that could make them stronger.
• The Eyeless Person explained that a lone lizard dragon had entered the cavern long ago and gained enough strength to become the ruling Dragon Beast.
• The Eyeless Person directed Linsey to speak with the elder, and Linsey saw a crystal-clear mountain peak illuminated by his torch.

Linsey climbed the Eyeless People's salt mountain to meet their elder, Shazank, and discuss joining forces against the drakelizards. Shazank revealed that he could read Linsey's mind and said human writing in Crystal Valley was why he needed Linsey's help.

• Linsey climbed Flow Peak's salt mountain after his guide warned him not to mention drakelizards to the Eyeless People.
• Linsey collected rock salt and passed the Eyeless People he met, who let him continue to the hilltop.
• Linsey met Shazank, the Eyeless People's elder, who said he had heard Linsey's earlier conversation and agreed they shared an enemy.
• Shazank anticipated Linsey's questions and explained that he needed Linsey to investigate Crystal Valley because it contained writing he recognized as human.
• Linsey suspected Shazank was reading his mind, and Shazank confirmed it.

Linsey learned that the Dragon Beast had left the Underground World untouched after gaining power in Crystal Valley, while the Eyeless People and Lizard Dragons fought over the secret. As a Sixth Stage Lizard Dragon attacked, the Eyeless Person elder burrowed into Salt River to confront it, leaving Linsey with a chance to act.

• The Eyeless Person elder heard Linsey’s thoughts and learned he intended to kill the Dragon Beast, then explained that it had never taken control of the Underground World.
• The elder told Linsey that the Dragon Beast had risen from the Fourth Stage to the Fifth after encountering something in Crystal Valley, triggering a war between the Eyeless People and the Lizard Dragon Clan.
• The elder revealed that the Dragon Beast had crippled it with hot and cold airflow but spared its life to preserve balance underground, while some Lizard Dragons served the Dragon Beast and others fought the Eyeless People.
• The elder begged Linsey to help free its clan from the underground prison, but a storm and rising heat announced an attack by a Sixth Stage Lizard Dragon.
• The elder identified the attacker as a Lizard Dragon that feared Linsey could change everything, then split Salt River open and burrowed inside to begin a battle.

As the Eyeless People elder and the Lizard Dragon Leader fought, their clash shattered Salt River and endangered the Eyeless People caught between them. Linsey learned that Crystal Valley lay north and fled toward it, then sensed that his summoned bats had escaped through a newly opened hole above.

• The Eyeless People elder fought the Lizard Dragon Leader, and their battle tore Salt River apart while many Eyeless People died or fled.
• Linsey asked a fleeing Eyeless Person where Crystal Valley was and learned it lay deeper underground to the north.
• The Eyeless People elder launched a massive earth-and-stone attack that struck the cavern ceiling and sent rocks crashing down.
• Linsey headed north to search for Crystal Valley as the Lizard Dragon Leader counterattacked with powerful air currents.
• A boulder split and collapsed, opening a hole to caverns above, and Linsey sensed that his summoned bats had flown out through it.

Linsey rescued Red after she followed his bat underground and jumped from a great height, then told her about Crystal Valley and the ongoing battle between two Sixth Stage fighters. As they fled the fighting, Linsey reflected on the immense power of Ascendants, while a hissing sound came from the tunnel behind them.

• Linsey spotted Red falling into the cavern and used his treant form’s branches to cushion her landing in a water-filled pit.
• Red explained that she had followed the bat and fought through many Lizard Dragons to reach Linsey, and he treated her wounds before they headed north together.
• Linsey told Red that Crystal Valley might explain the Dragon Beasts’ rapid advancement, but warned that its benefits might not be available to them.
• The ground shook from the continuing fight between the Lizard Dragon Leader and the Eyeless People elder, prompting Red to ask about the gap between the Fifth and Sixth Stages.
• Linsey described Fifth Stage Awakened as Ascendants and wondered about the power of Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Stage beings before hearing a hiss from behind them.

Linsey and Red followed the Lizard Dragons through the underground tunnels to find Crystal Valley while avoiding the battle between two Sixth Stage beings. After digging toward the cave the Lizard Dragons surrounded, they broke through into a cluster of blue-glowing crystals.

• Red prepared to fight the approaching Lizard Dragons, but Linsey pulled her into a pit and hid them underground as fourteen Lizard Dragons passed overhead.
• Linsey and Red followed the Lizard Dragons through the tunnels, using their markers on the map to track them toward Crystal Valley.
• After half an hour, the Lizard Dragons stopped at an enormous cave, and Linsey and Red dug a tunnel toward it to avoid drawing the Sixth Stage fighters into a battle.
• Linsey and Red discovered that the Lizard Dragons had encircled the cave rather than entering it, apparently wary of danger inside Crystal Valley.
• Linsey's Meteorite Pickaxe broke through the soil and revealed blue-glowing crystals.