Chapter Summaries

After leaving Ailini, Linsey traveled toward Echo Valley, where he expected to encounter the Seventh Stage Awakened Han Sike and Mu Le Na Hu En. A new task pushed him toward protecting the forest, and he found and harvested some Frost Thorns Wood along the way.

• Linsey failed to catch anything while fishing in the ruins, then followed his map toward Echo Valley after leaving Ailini.
• Linsey realized Han Sike and Mu Le Na Hu En were also heading toward Echo Valley, and he resolved to avoid fighting them if possible.
• Linsey spent experience points to increase his Strength and Agility, then claimed the Jungle Expedition III rewards: Honeysuckle Bean Vine seeds and an autonomous Watering Can.
• Linsey discovered the Jungle Adventure IV task, which required him to protect the garden's core and the forest, and decided to pursue it despite the likely conflict with the two Seventh Stage Awakened.
• Linsey found a Frost Thorns Wood on the mountain path, harvested seven units, and discovered recipes for Frost Poison Arrows and a Frostwood Cloak.

Linsey reached Echo Valley Town after two months of travel and learned that refugees and explorers had gathered there during the forest crisis. While settling into an inn, he overheard rumors that people had gone missing near town after searching for a forest treasure and secret realm.

• Linsey equipped the Frostwood Cloak, which combined with his Poison Thorn Wood Armor to activate the Plant Toxins set effect.
• After a week of torrential rain, Linsey reached Echo Valley and recognized the echoes produced by the canyon.
• Linsey arrived at the crowded Echo Valley Town and learned that explorers and refugees had gathered there during the forest mutation and the war in Nine Bends City.
• Linsey paid two Silver Coins for a crude room at an inn and listened to explorers trade news.
• Linsey overheard inn guests say that several people had recently gone missing north of town after rumors of a forest treasure and secret realm spread.

Linsey listened to adventurers discuss unrest in Echo Valley Town, rumors about Fuerzi, and the dragon-slaying hero linked to Black Mountain. After learning about trouble in the north of town, he found his inn room was a leaky shack and considered investigating instead of resting.

• Linsey moved his meal closer to a group of adventurers and overheard rumors that Fuerzi was still in town and Awakened planned to find him.
• Nana speculated that the trouble might be connected to the civil war in Nine Bends City, while others wondered whether the Dragon Beast’s death in Black Mountain had triggered events.
• The adventurers praised the person who killed the Seventh Stage Dragon Beast, embarrassing Linsey, who focused on his meal.
• Linsey tried the inn’s Yellow Banana Stick, Blue Tail Catfish, and sour Red Snake Plum juice, then claimed he had been trapped in the forest when asked about his arrival.
• Linsey spent two hours gathering details about the disappearance and treasure in the north of town before discovering that his room was a leaking wooden shack.
• Linsey wondered whether to skip resting and investigate the north side of town.

Linsey walked through rain-soaked Echo Valley Town to investigate the disappearance of a man, and intervened when an adventurer attacked a boy. The boy directed him to Fuerzi’s lodging, where Linsey heard someone angrily order another person out.

• Linsey headed north through Echo Valley Town, noting the locals’ unease and the town’s echoing caves.
• An adventurer shoved a boy into the street water and tried to kick him, but Linsey stopped him and sent him fleeing.
• The frightened boy told Linsey that Fuerzi, companion of the man who went missing the night before last, was staying at Aunt Hella’s wooden house.
• Linsey reflected on the trouble caused by outsiders and Awakened in town, then approached the house and heard an angry voice shout, “Get out!”

Fuerzi guarded Haila’s home against Awakened seeking answers about his missing companion, while Linsey entered his room to question him about the forest’s abnormal changes. Fuerzi sensed nature’s favor toward Linsey, but a powerful ability suddenly stopped him from speaking.

• Fuerzi refused to let the Awakened surrounding Haila’s house enter and shut the door on them.
• Fuerzi apologized to Haila for the trouble and promised to find a way to resolve the situation.
• Fuerzi found Linsey sitting in his second-floor room and cautiously asked who he was.
• Linsey explained that he was gathering information about the forest’s abnormal changes and asked Fuerzi what had happened that night.
• Fuerzi sensed that Forest's Will favored Linsey, but an ability stiffened Fuerzi’s body and prevented him from speaking.

Linsey discovered that Fuerzi was silenced by Mu Le Na Hu En’s Organizer Skill and used the order’s reactions to locate where the missing adventurers had gone. He realized they were in Echo Cave, but before he could decide whether to investigate it or continue toward the Garden Enclosure, a crowd rushed to seize Fuerzi.

• Linsey learned that Mu Le Na Hu En had taken Fuerzi’s companions and placed a Silence Order on Fuerzi.
• Linsey questioned Fuerzi by tracing directions on a map and used the Silence Order’s triggers to narrow down the forbidden location.
• Linsey identified Echo Cave on the cliff as the adventurers’ likely route and found colored markers throughout the mountain on his map.
• Linsey weighed searching Echo Cave against continuing toward the Garden Enclosure for a fruit that could treat his source material’s hidden danger.
• People outside shouted that someone had slipped in and rushed to keep Fuerzi from escaping.

Linsey confronted the Awakened gathered outside Fuerzi’s house and drove them off without killing anyone. He left them behind a thornwood barrier and took their Perceiver back inside.

• Linsey jumped from the second-floor window, knocked an Awakened unconscious, and turned him over so he would not drown in a puddle.
• Linsey identified the Perceiver who had detected him and questioned what the man had heard.
• A warrior attacked Linsey with a battle axe, but Linsey caught the blow and knocked him unconscious with a single strike.
• Linsey intimidated the gathered adventurers, carried the first man back to them, and ordered the Perceiver to come with him.
• Linsey scattered Hardwood Seeds to grow a thorn barrier around the house, warned the adventurers not to cross it, and returned inside with the Perceiver.

Linsey interrogated the Perceiver, who revealed that Mu Le Na Hu En had taken Fuerzi’s companions into a cave in Echo Valley and that a Law Knight was also involved. When a powerful Organizer art began suffocating Fuerzi, Linsey saved him with an Emergency Respirator, then took the Perceiver to Echo Valley.

• Linsey confronted the Perceiver for overhearing their conversation and used the Poison Thorn Wood Armor’s painful poison to make him talk.
• The Perceiver said Mu Le Na Hu En had taken Fuerzi’s companions into a cave in Echo Valley, and admitted he had joined the crowd because he believed Nature Followers possessed forest protections.
• Linsey exposed the Perceiver’s omission about a Law Knight and promised Fuerzi he would try to bring his companions back.
• Fuerzi suddenly began suffocating when the Silence Order changed into a stronger restraint, and Linsey kept him breathing with an Emergency Respirator until the effect faded.
• Linsey carried the defeated Perceiver away and headed with him toward Echo Valley.

Linsey enlisted the Perceiver Ka Ji to track Mu Le Na Hu En and Han Si Ke through the Echo Tunnels, where Linsey’s Task Bar revealed a mission to find a wounded Awakened. As Ka Ji followed the Seventh Stage Awakened’s scents deeper into the mountain, he detected an unfamiliar smell and stopped.

• Linsey gave Ka Ji the false name Di Ya Bo Luo and ordered him to lead the way to Mu Le Na Hu En and Han Si Ke.
• Linsey entered an Echo Cave and received the task “Search for the Wounded,” which promised a Decryption Game Module upgrade.
• Ka Ji used his enhanced sense of smell to find the trail left by Mu Le Na Hu En and Han Si Ke.
• Linsey and Ka Ji traveled for hours through the Echo Tunnels, passing adventurers and reaching passages marked by sharp terrain and skeletons.
• Ka Ji detected a peculiar scent on a cave wall that belonged to neither Mu Le Na Hu En nor Han Si Ke and warned Linsey that something was wrong.

Linsey followed Mu Le Na Hu En and Han Si Ke’s trail through the Echo Tunnel, where he found signs that a powerful merchant had sealed them underground. After locating Han Si Ke and another person trapped in a cave, Linsey gave Ka Ji a protective seed and ordered him to dig.

• Ka Ji detected another person’s scent following Mu Le Na Hu En and Han Si Ke’s route, but could identify only that the person had spent time around horses.
• Ka Ji’s tracking led Linsey to an underground fissure where the scent vanished, and Linsey reassured him that the trail had not been his fault.
• Linsey used the Decryption Game to find traces of a fight and Value Manipulation, then spotted two people in a sealed cave several hundred meters underground.
• Linsey concluded that one of the people was likely Han Si Ke and gave Ka Ji a Hardwood Seed that could grow poisonous thorns for protection.
• Linsey produced a Pickaxe and ordered Ka Ji to dig downward.

Linsey and Ka Ji dug through the mountain toward the sealed hollow beneath the Echo Tunnel, where Linsey hoped to speak with the two Seventh Stage Awakened connected to the forest’s mutation. They broke through into the cave and heard Han Si Ke below, who questioned whether they were Mu En’s people.

• Linsey used his Meteorite Pickaxe and spatial bag to direct Ka Ji in digging a winding tunnel underground.
• Ka Ji noticed the newly filled soil and asked Linsey why they were searching for the Seventh Stage Awakened; Linsey said the cause of the forest’s mutation remained unresolved.
• As they neared the sealed hollow, Linsey warned Ka Ji that he could leave before they reached it, but Ka Ji hesitated to abandon his connection to Linsey.
• Linsey broke through the ground into a dark opening and heard Han Si Ke tell someone to stay behind him.
• Linsey called out that they meant no harm, and Han Si Ke asked whether they were Mu En’s people and who they were.

Linsey found the gravely wounded Law Knight Han Si Ke and a child hidden underground, where Han Si Ke revealed that Mu En had defeated him. Linsey refused to leave Han Si Ke to die and began treating him with rare medicinal plants, ending as he applied Night-Shining Ramie Mushroom paste to the Law Knight's wound.

• Linsey and Ka Ji reached the hidden cave, where Linsey introduced himself to Han Si Ke and explained how they had found him.
• Han Si Ke explained that his injuries would soon kill him, and the child revealed that Mu En had ambushed him using hostages.
• Han Si Ke asked Linsey to take the child away, but Linsey insisted he could treat Han Si Ke and examined his injuries.
• Linsey's medicines failed because Mu En's Source Material Skill interfered with their effects.
• Linsey placed Phoenix Grass on Han Si Ke's leg, then mashed Night-Shining Ramie Mushroom into paste and applied it to the wound.

Linsey treated Han Si Ke’s severe wounds with the Night-Shining Ramie Mushroom and Phoenix Grass, restoring his body but leaving his soul weakened. As Han Si Ke’s Law Domain ended, Mu Le Na Hu En’s traps triggered a cave-in, and Linsey built a fortress to protect the group.

• Linsey used the Night-Shining Ramie Mushroom to corrode the Organizer’s Skill and poison from Han Si Ke’s wound, then cut away the damaged flesh.
• Linsey gave Han Si Ke Phoenix Grass and kept him from spitting it out, while reassuring the protected little girl that Han Si Ke would survive.
• Ka Ji watched Han Si Ke endure the treatment and was moved by the knight’s will to survive.
• The Phoenix Grass restored Han Si Ke’s wounds, broken legs, and missing arm, though his status showed that his soul remained weak.
• Han Si Ke thanked Linsey, then his Law Domain ended, allowing Mu Le Na Hu En’s traps to trigger a cave-in.
• Linsey called Ka Ji down and used the Hand of Construction to build an airtight fortress around the group.

Linsey and his companions escaped the underground trap, and Linsey agreed to face Mu Le Na Hu En while Han Si Ke returned to quell the civil war in Nine Bends City. Before they parted, Linsey revealed his true identity, prompting Han Si Ke to suspect he had also killed the Dragon Beast on Black Mountain.

• Linsey used building materials and his Meteorite Pickaxe to dig everyone out of the collapsing underground cave, discovering that Lara's nature-linked skill had supplied their air.
• Linsey directed Ka Ji to dig toward an Echo Tunnel and asked Han Si Ke about Mu Le Na Hu En, learning that Mu Le Na Hu En was an injured Seventh Stage powerhouse.
• Han Si Ke learned that the clash between him and Mu Le Na Hu En had triggered a prolonged civil war in Nine Bends City and struggled to choose between returning to the city and pursuing his enemy.
• Linsey offered to handle Mu Le Na Hu En and the Forest Veins while Han Si Ke returned to Nine Bends City; Han Si Ke accepted and gave Linsey his longsword.
• Han Si Ke asked for Linsey's true identity, and Linsey revealed that he was the Linsey brought over from Black Mountain.
• Han Si Ke recognized Linsey's disguised appearance and asked whether Linsey had also killed the Dragon Beast on Black Mountain.

Linsey and the group neared the Echo Tunnel as Han Si Ke explained the conflict in the City of Law and gave Linsey a letter of introduction. The group broke through into the tunnel, leaving their next move close at hand.

• Han Si Ke warned Linsey that thwarting Mu Le Na Hu En would change his life, and Linsey said he understood.
• Linsey equipped the Law of Icing and gained 15 points of will attribute.
• Linsey asked about the City of Law, and Han Si Ke offered him a letter of introduction to Lan Di Er at residence 14 on Stone Wall Street.
• Han Si Ke explained that the Human Wisdom Codex was kept in the Spiral Hall and that its laws were revised as the world changed.
• Ka Ji opened a new passage with his Iron Pickaxe, revealing the Echo Tunnel.

After rescuing Han Si Ke, Linsey claimed the reward that raised his Decryption Game level and used his new Deduction Analysis skill to investigate the tunnel. He concluded that the Garden Enclosure lay in a secondary space and prepared to use the Purple Leaf Vine Branch to reach it.

• Han Si Ke left, and Linsey told Ka Ji he could go, but Ka Ji offered to help with the plan to hunt Mu Le Na Hu En, and Linsey accepted.
• Linsey claimed the Search for the Wounded reward, raising his Decryption Game level to 2 and unlocking Deduction Analysis.
• Linsey examined the footprints and inferred that Mu Le Na Hu En had deliberately headed toward the Forest Garden Nursery near Echo Valley.
• Linsey returned with Ka Ji to the underground fissure and used Deduction Analysis to learn that someone had torn open a spatial fault to travel to another phase.
• Linsey concluded that the Garden Enclosure existed in a secondary space and took out the Purple Leaf Vine Branch, which could sever abnormal spatial connections.

Linsey used the Purple Leaf Vine Branch to open a rift into the Garden Enclosure, bringing Ka Ji with him. Inside, they found signs that Mu Le Na Hu En and another unidentified person had also entered, and Linsey led Ka Ji onward cautiously.

• Linsey slashed an underground fault with the Purple Leaf Vine Branch, opening a rift into the Garden Enclosure.
• Ka Ji followed Linsey through the rift into the vast, living wooden enclosure.
• Mu Le Na Hu En, injured and unable to open a wooden gate, resolved to wait three days for his strength to recover.
• Linsey spotted two sets of footprints and concluded that Mu Le Na Hu En and another person had entered the enclosure.
• Linsey warned Ka Ji to watch their surroundings as they followed the footprints.

Linsey and Ka Ji followed a trail through the Garden Enclosure and discovered that it opened onto Echo Ancient Town through a controllable phase membrane. They found a banquet hall with traces of its last meals, leading Linsey to suspect it had been abandoned during the ancient war involving the Extinction Crown.

• Linsey and Ka Ji followed footprints and scents through the Garden Enclosure, and Ka Ji said the person carrying the horse scent had arrived only about half a day before them.
• Ka Ji suggested that Reze might be a suspicious newcomer to Echo Ancient Town, but Linsey rejected the guess.
• Linsey and Ka Ji reached a bright platform overlooking Echo Ancient Town and the Echo River, where Linsey learned that a controllable phase membrane allowed people inside the Garden Enclosure to return to the main world.
• Ka Ji recognized the platform as a Banquet Hall, and Linsey found rotted food residue on its preserved tableware.
• Linsey connected the banquet hall's abandonment to the ancient war involving the Extinction Crown and wondered whether dangerous things from that era remained.

Linsey and Ka Ji tracked Mu Le Na Hu En through the Garden Enclosure, where Linsey discovered that a supposedly dry reservoir had been drained only hours earlier. Suspecting something inside was rapidly absorbing water, Linsey warned Ka Ji but continued following the enemies’ scent.

• Linsey considered using the Garden Nursery Management Seed to kill Mu Le Na Hu En, but learned that he needed the core control console to target a specific person.
• Linsey noticed the Decryption Game had marked a vast, dry reservoir and warned Ka Ji that something was wrong.
• Linsey climbed down and found a trace of water and evidence that water had recently been siphoned through a large channel.
• Ka Ji shouted into the reservoir and realized his echo could alert their enemies, while Linsey followed the water-flow traces.
• Linsey told Ka Ji that something was rapidly absorbing water and directed him to keep following the enemies’ scent.

Ka Ji and Linsey encountered Kuit fleeing through the Garden Enclosure with a hostile mass of vines behind him. Linsey resisted the Double Serpent Coin’s control and chased after Kuit with Ka Ji instead of confronting the creature, catching up to the merchant.

• Ka Ji sensed approaching footsteps in the tunnel, and Linsey prepared his bow while they waited for whoever was coming.
• Kuit rushed toward them, threw a Double Serpent Coin, and pleaded for help from the strange creature pursuing him.
• Linsey’s status panel showed that the coin had inflicted Benefit Temptation, but he used Datafication to reduce its control from fifteen minutes to five seconds.
• Linsey spotted hostile vines spreading through the corridor as the coin’s effect wore off.
• Linsey grabbed Ka Ji and ran after Kuit, pretending they would work out a plan together, then caught up to the merchant.