Chapter Summaries

Locke learned how the Bone Burial Ground deceived the Louis Plane into treating winter as death, and planned to use Moon Plums to restore the true nature of winter. Meanwhile, Lilith’s Cottage learned Locke was fighting the Black Wizards, and Justin ordered the White Wizards to support him.

• Locke used the Treant, Moon Essence, and an Imaginary Root to evolve a snow plum beyond the First-Ring Limit, while the Louis Plane’s power flowed back into it.
• The Ackerman Troll Wizard explained the Bone Burial Ground’s death-and-winter cycle and found research papers to help Locke counter it.
• Justin and Haren Vela debated whether to leave Lilith’s Cottage and attack, while Lady Morgana and Albert revealed that Locke was a Second-Ring Wizard fighting the Black Wizards.
• Justin ordered the White Wizard Association and Lilith’s Cottage forces to gather and support Locke, believing the battle could turn the tide.
• Locke used Bloom and Wither to create three Moon Plum seeds and planned to have a living being plant them in the Bone Burial Ground’s core, showing the world that it had been deceived.

Locke used Treant seeds to interfere with Wizard Berber Morgan’s control of the Louis Plane, and one seed-bearing sword helped a human youth defeat a Deathwinter Knight. As the knight died and regained the fear of death, he urged the youth to drive the sword into the Eternal Spirit Land to bring peace to the world.

• Locke discovered that Berber Morgan’s Undead army was slaughtering tribes near the Plane’s Children, and Berber confronted Locke before freezing his Treant.
• Locke revealed that he had escaped as three seeds and secretly placed them in a new Treant, then chose to intervene at a human tribe being hunted by a Deathwinter Knight.
• The Deathwinter Knight forced two brothers to choose which one would die, but the older youth picked up a sword and attacked him instead of fleeing.
• Locke’s three seeds embedded in the sword and empowered it with winter, letting the youth break the knight’s weapon and cut his body in half.
• As winter severed the connection between death and the Bone Burial Ground, the knight regained the ability to fear death and asked the youth to take the sword to the Eternal Spirit Land.

Locke used the World War against the Lich King to study how a power system could help forge Great Magic and advance him toward becoming a Star-Ring Wizard. After the Bone Burial Ground collapsed, the human boy who had followed Locke’s teachings became his first native student, and Locke began considering experiments with a power system in that world.

• A tribal boy and his younger brother chose to carry a sword to the Bone Burial Ground, and Locke secretly guided them with Botanical Magic lessons and enchanted leaves.
• At Golden Crown Mountain, Locke learned from Wizard Ackerman about a method for storing magic in life-tree leaves, then met Alex and Wizard Jagula, whose rejected funding proposal had overlapped with Locke’s research.
• Locke sent the Treant Legion against the Undead Calamity and planted Pinellia at the Bone Burial Ground, while the Lich King led the Deadwinter Knights toward the moon and its hidden Dharma Realm.
• As the Lich King entered Locke’s Forest Sanctuary, the human boy drove the sword into the Bone Burial Ground, and Locke used the three awakened Winter Magic Plant seedlings to deconstruct it.
• The Bone Burial Ground collapsed as the world recognized its deception, and Locke considered the boy his first native student and noticed his Permanent Defense Field transforming into a Permanent Defense Field Shell.

Locke rejected the Pale Pilgrimage Palace Master's offer of a second life and watched Berber Morgan die after the Palace Master halted his attempt to use the Grand Lord's Edict. With the Louis Plane's magic tide weakening, Locke began restoring its forest and named his first native student Nicholas Shaw, whom he planned to train as the world's first Forest Ranger.

• Locke considered establishing a foundation in the Southeastern Corner Region to support research into the Forest Sanctuary and Mister's Power.
• As the Bone Burial Ground collapsed, Berber Morgan tried to use a blank Grand Lord's Edict to kill Locke, but the Pale Pilgrimage Palace Master intervened.
• The Palace Master showed Locke Pale Pilgrimage's eternal world and offered him a position as Death knight Grand Marshal in exchange for his soul and obedience after death; Locke refused.
• The Palace Master rebuked Berber Morgan for misusing the edict, then Berber knelt and his avatar and main body collapsed.
• Locke realized Berber's death would close the world passage and weaken the Louis Plane's magic tide, so he used the Synthesis Cube and Moon of Evolution while expanding the forest.
• Locke made the boy called Dogmutt his student, renamed him Nicholas Shaw, and declared that he would become the first Forest Ranger in the world.

Locke created and used the Great Glazed Winter Green Plum to expand his Forest Sanctuary’s subsidiary forest, then returned to find White Wizards battling the Black Wizard Alliance above Verdantia University. Hassan used the Mithril Legal Codex against Isaac as a Star-Ring Wizard emerged from the Forbidden Forest, forcing the battle to halt while a prisoner there vowed revenge on the Pale Pilgrimage.

• Locke completed the Great Glazed Winter Green Plum, studied its winter-dormancy power, and used it to help his forest spread across roughly one-fifth of the world.
• Locke returned from the Louis Plane and found White Wizards counterattacking the Black Wizard Alliance at the ruins of Verdantia University.
• Albert told Locke about Association President Justin’s plan and relayed Harlan Vela’s invitation to a gathering of fellow disciples.
• Hassan bound Isaac with the Mithril Legal Codex and punished him for injuring Hassan and damaging his magical artifact, hoping to make Isaac his Debt Slave.
• A decree entered the Forbidden Forest, and a Star-Ring Wizard emerged after completing a mission; a prisoner inside accused the Black Wizard of breaking his promise and threatened the Pale Pilgrimage.

Hassan defeated Isaac by binding him as a Debt Slave, then secured the Blood Curse Court while the White Wizards accepted its removal from the region. As Locke entered the Forbidden Forest to investigate a magical summons, he encountered Silent Bee and a mysterious nonhuman figure who welcomed him home.

• Locke realized Hassan planned to use the Mithril Codex to disrupt Isaac's curses and make him a Debt Slave, while the injured Star-Ring Wizard Marcus Dalton emerged from the Forbidden Forest with broken sword fragments.
• Marcus abandoned Isaac and escaped on a Frost Bone Dragon, while Hassan sealed Isaac's powers and bound him to a debt lasting one hundred and ten years.
• Hassan took control of the Blood Curse Court and persuaded Association President Justin to let its members leave for the Cloud Marsh Wetland.
• The dean of Verdantia University regretted losing Locke as a student, but Locke transformed with the Demon Dragon Rose and entered the Forbidden Forest after sensing a magical summons.
• Locke met Silent Bee and a mysterious nonhuman figure, who called the Forbidden Forest his home and invited him to return.

Locke encountered Wizard Jagula, whose research into elemental evolution had competed with Locke’s work, then learned more about the Forbidden Forest and its Natural Guardians from the Fairy Silent Bee. He recruited Jagula to investigate a Death Magic plague in the forest, leaving them ready to collaborate on the research.

• Locke learned that Wizard Jagula’s grant application had been rejected partly because his plant-evolution research overlapped with Locke’s work, and Jagula denied interest in discussing Locke’s findings.
• The King of the Forbidden Forest’s World Tree Leaf reacted to an evil presence under his robe, and the King revealed that he also possessed a World Tree Leaf before departing.
• Silent Bee explained that the King of the Forbidden Forest was a Type III Natural Guardian, described the Fairies’ history, and showed Locke plants afflicted by Death Magic.
• Locke agreed to help address the forest’s plague in exchange for Silent Bee using Fairy Enlightenment on one of his Treants, then decided to find a researcher to lead the project.
• Locke showed Jagula a reenactment of the polluted plants, and Jagula eagerly agreed to collaborate and apologized for blaming Locke over his rejected grant.

Locke arranged for Wizard Jagula to research the Forbidden Forest’s pollution, funding the trip and exchanging knowledge with him about Elemental Soil Evolution Studies. In the Forbidden Forest, Locke learned why its inhabitants distrusted Wizards and was invited to plant an item tied to one of his secrets in the Secret Treasure Tree, leaving him considering whether to use a drop of his blood.

• Jagula explained that he could not afford the Forbidden Forest expedition, so Locke offered thirty thousand Magic Stones and promised his clone would help him enter safely.
• Locke declined any share of Jagula’s papers or project results and instead exchanged ideas with him, learning the foundations of Elemental Soil Evolution Studies and how his Fire Tree Silver Blossom Spell differed from evolution.
• Locke told the Silent Bee Fairy that Jagula would arrive in a little over a month, and she agreed to admit him while explaining that Wizards had been barred for poaching and investigating the forest’s secrets.
• The Silent Bee Fairy promised to bless Locke’s Treant and give him a Speaking Tree once the forest’s pollution was resolved, then showed him the Forbidden Forest King’s Secret Treasure Tree.
• The Silent Bee Fairy explained that the Secret Treasure Tree could grow an item tied to a person’s secret into a treasure fruit over five years, and Locke asked whether a drop of his blood would work.

Locke planted a drop of his Demon Dragon Bloodline in the Secret Treasure Tree, learned that a Star-Ring Wizard had taken Dragon Saliva Threading Heaven from the Forbidden Forest, and planned to report the clue to his teacher. Meanwhile, he sought research materials and experimental resources, then joined Hassan and Wizard Justin after the rebellion was suppressed, where he showed little interest in receiving the Southeast Insignia.

• Locke used the Spirit-Vein Stitcher to extract his Demon Dragon Bloodline and planted it in the Secret Treasure Tree, which would produce a Secret Fruit in five years.
• Silent Bee told Locke that a Star-Ring Wizard had taken Dragon Saliva Threading Heaven, and Locke recognized it as a core ingredient in the Dragon Soul Potion and suspected a connection to the Rose Council and Rose Witch.
• Locke planned to report the clue to his teacher, then searched for Imaginary Root research and sent the Rose Council library an application to read its Second-Ring free area.
• Mitchell Hart granted Locke a one-month library pass but changed the library rules to prevent other unaffiliated Wizards from following his example.
• Locke's Ancient Tree Fruit Doppelgänger returned to the ruins of Verdantia University, where the Black Wizard Alliance had been defeated and Hassan had subdued Wizard Isaac.
• Hassan thanked Locke and agreed to help him conquer a plane, while Wizard Justin offered them the Southeast Insignia; Hassan accepted eagerly, but Locke dismissed it as useless for earning teaching-position points.

Locke returned to the Southeastern Corner Region, met with Association President Justin, and proposed an alliance fund to help Lilith's Cottage apprentices become Formal Wizards through the Forest Sanctuary. Dean Earl agreed to establish the Augustine Forest Alliance Fund, which Locke planned to endow with one million Magic Stones.

• Hassan told Association President Justin that he had taken control of the Blood Curse Court and planned to relocate its mentors to the Cloud Marsh Wetland, while Locke said he would soon leave for the Starfield Sea.
• Locke reunited with Wizard Harlan Vela at Lilith's Cottage and met Isis, Harlan's talented new apprentice, whom Locke welcomed as his junior apprentice sister.
• Dean Earl Thompson explained that Lilith's Cottage had lost seven Formal Wizards in the war and that Verdantia University's Breeder discipline had been devastated; Locke offered to help acquire some of its equipment and personnel.
• Harlan Vela explained that the Black Wizard Alliance had captured Verdantia University's Formal Wizard Breeders and taken them into the Forbidden Forest, where they disappeared.
• Locke proposed sponsoring qualified Lilith's Cottage apprentices with five hundred thousand Magic Stones each in exchange for accepting his Forest Alliance Spell, and Dean Earl agreed to establish the Augustine Forest Alliance Fund.
• Locke said Hassan would form the fund committee and deposit one million Magic Stones to support apprentices pursuing the Forest Sanctuary as their Permanent Defense Field.

Locke organized a project team at Lilith's Cottage to maintain his captured world while keeping his Star-Forging plans secret. Later, he discovered that a grafting technique could let one Magic Plant share another's Imaginary Roots, and planned to research ways to do so without physical contact.

• Locke asked Harlan Vela and Academy Head Earl to recruit eight to ten reliable First-Ring Botany Wizards from Lilith's Cottage, and Academy Head Earl agreed to approach Verdantia University about Patti's transfer.
• Locke read a paper on Approach Grafting and considered using it to let Magic Plants share Imaginary Roots, possibly through connections between the Imaginary Sea or the Styx River.
• Locke tested grafting the Golden Peach Tree to the Sea Golden Sand in the Dune Plane laboratory, then used the Fire Tree Silver Blossom Spell to create an artificial nutrient channel.
• Locke saw the Sea Golden Sand gain energy from the Golden Peach Tree's Imaginary Roots and planned to research contactless Approach Grafting at libraries in Golden Crown Mountain, Boniface University, and the Rose Council.

Locke advanced his grafted Sea Golden Sand to the second ring, studied how the Moon of Evolution could control its mutations, and prepared to investigate the results more cheaply. Witch Catherine praised him for uncovering the Pale Pilgrimage’s harvest of dragon saliva threading heaven, assigned him further work, and left for the Genesis Conference, giving Locke a three-year window to pursue his research while senior wizards were away.

• Locke used the Magic Tide Flow Enhancement Spell and his Great Magic to evolve the grafted Sea Golden Sand into a second-ring magic plant, whose traits had mutated through information backflow from the golden peach tree.
• Locke used Bloom and Wither to produce three viable Sea Golden Sand spore lattices, then placed them in the Synthesis Cube to examine their traits without raising them.
• Witch Catherine asked whether Locke had completed the Test Ring task and tasked him with investigating Anna and the Pale Grand Lord’s activity in the Forbidden Forest; Locke explained that the Pale Pilgrimage had already taken the dragon saliva threading heaven.
• Witch Catherine warned Locke that he could not yet oppose a Star-Ring Wizard and explained that Great Magic’s power system was a hierarchy.
• Witch Catherine told Locke she was leaving for the Genesis Conference in the Southern Ridge Demon Capital and expected to be away for up to three years, advising him to seek Trajan’s help and finish his tasks.
• After the call, Locke realized that the absence of Witch Catherine, the Rose Throne, and many Third-Ring Wizards gave him an opportunity to advance his Imaginary Root research.

Wizard Michael admitted that Solas Barefoot could not quickly design Wizard Shoes to surpass the Black Giant Hummingbird Wizard Shoes, prompting Director Holmu to punish him and secretly recruit a Second-Ring designer. After learning the shoes had earned another ten million Magic Stones, Locke prepared to begin several research projects and use his methods to pursue mass-produced Second-Ring Wizard Shoes.

• Wizard Michael told Director Holmu that even a year might not be enough for Solas Barefoot to match the Black Giant Hummingbird Wizard Shoes, and Holmu docked his bonus and threatened to marginalize him.
• Wizard Michael left the director's office, while Holmu decided to secretly transfer a Second-Ring designer into the First-Ring department to make competing shoes.
• Wizard Holmu offered Wizard Hick a Peacock Calcite Magic Stone mine in exchange for designing shoes that surpassed the Black Giant Hummingbird Wizard Shoes.
• Witch Scarlett told Locke that the Black Giant Hummingbird had earned ten million Magic Stones, and Locke agreed to collect the Shop Alliance's business license and pay its taxes a week later.
• Locke decided to launch his Southeastern Corner Region projects and use two months of research, the Moon of Evolution, Bloom and Wither, and the Synthesis Cube to seek a way to mass-produce Second-Ring Wizard Shoes.

Wizard Trajan gave Locke thirty Magic Crystal Cards from Witch Catherine’s Academic Lineage Fund and invited him to join a mission against a Black Wizard pirate ship. Locke also secured Wizard Sith’s approval to use Group 2’s equipment and the Rhizosphere Replication Table, while his Ancient Tree Fruit Doppelgänger returned to Lilith's Cottage to discuss Wizard Shoes with Madam Irina.

• Wizard Trajan explained the Academic Lineage Fund and transferred thirty Magic Crystal Cards to Locke on Witch Catherine’s behalf.
• Wizard Trajan invited Locke on a near-void mission to destroy Black Wizard pirates, and they arranged to meet at Little Peach Mountain in a week.
• Locke asked Wizard Sith to approve his equipment requests, and Sith agreed while expecting Locke’s research to advance Group 2’s work on Energy-Locking Structures.
• Wizard Sith lent Locke the Rhizosphere Replication Table for his research and warned him to take care of the third-hand magical artifact.
• Locke’s Ancient Tree Fruit Doppelgänger met Madam Irina at Lilith's Cottage, where she offered to sell his Pure Magic Plant Wizard Shoes in the Southeastern Corner Region.

The Rose Witch investigated Meraki’s declining wizard-shoe business while Locke arranged to sell affordable wizard shoes in the Southeastern Corner Region and planned a production base in Albert’s Forest Sanctuary. At Lilith’s Cottage, Locke healed Yuli and discussed Forest Sanctuary training with Christine, whose request to teach her student unsettled Albert.

• The Rose Witch ordered Meraki staff to gather a century of wizard-shoe design records and decided that diagnosing Meraki’s decline mattered more than confronting Locke for now.
• Locke signed an authorization with Madam Irina to sell his Black Giant Hummingbird Pineapple Wizard Shoes and Demon Realm Pineapple Wizard Shoes in the Southeastern Corner Region at much lower prices.
• Locke arranged for Albert to establish a small wizard-shoe production base in his Forest Sanctuary and offered him thirty thousand magic stones each month.
• Locke used Primordial Fire to restore Yuli’s damaged soul and remove residual spell toxicity, improving her prospects of becoming a Formal Wizard.
• Christine asked Locke to guide her student, a Thorn Garden apprentice studying Harvest Force Field, in learning Forest Sanctuary, and Albert questioned whether the student belonged to Lilith’s Cottage.

Locke negotiated cross-academy cooperation for a student, then learned that Hassan could not decipher his treasure map without an enormous investment. He arranged legal contracts and a fund oversight committee for his projects in the Southeastern Corner Region, but declined Harlan Vela’s suggestion to launch a competition because he was short on funds.

• Locke approved Christine’s effort to arrange cross-academy training, while warning that the Forest Sanctuary would require at least 1.5 million magic stones in resources.
• Hassan told Locke that his treasure map might use a Triple Magic Key or a Fivefold Magic Key, and that deciphering it could cost at least ten million magic stones; Locke postponed the attempt until he was stronger and wealthier.
• Locke hired Hassan to prepare three contracts for 1.5 million magic stones and chose the Mithril Legal Codex as their curse guarantee.
• Hassan proposed a low-cost Committee Oversight Model, and Locke formed a six-person fund committee chaired by Harlan Vela to supervise his Forest Alliance and Louis Plane funds.
• Locke calculated that his contracts, committee, and two fund investments had cost 3.59 million magic stones, then declined Harlan Vela’s proposal to establish a Breeder competition because he was broke.

Locke studied the Spirit Macro of the Crimson Vampiric Stone and learned how Second-Ring potions used Spirit Macros to gain special authority. After his first attempts at drawing it failed, he used the Synthesis Cube to produce a usable rubbing, giving him a shortcut to brew Second-Ring potions while improving his Spirit Macro skills later.

• Locke read that Spirit Macros revealed the hidden true forms of things and allowed Second-Ring potions to affect wizards by granting them special authority.
• Locke learned that Paracelsus had founded Spirit Macro Studies and that the discipline could provide a path toward deriving the Truth Spirit Macro.
• Locke spent a night trying to draw the Crimson Vampiric Stone's Spirit Macro, but his three rubbings were crude and inaccurate.
• Locke discovered that the Synthesis Cube could synthesize his failed rubbings and used it to create a decent Spirit Macro rubbing with a ritual action.
• Locke concluded that he could use the rubbing to brew related Second-Ring potions first, then use the proceeds and experience to develop his Spirit Macro skills.

Locke’s clone refined two Second-Ring Spirit-Stabilizing Potions in the Forbidden Forest and planned to test one during an upcoming Void voyage. After Wizard Jagula arrived, Locke rescued him from the Speaking Trees and brought him to investigate the Forbidden Forest’s Death Energy Contamination.

• Locke gathered materials from the Forbidden Forest and successfully refined his first Spirit-Stabilizing Potion, then made a second bottle for Wizard Trajan’s upcoming Void mission.
• Locke sensed unrest in the Forbidden Forest and discovered that a Potions Root Realm surrounded the bottles, while the King of the Forbidden Forest remained hidden.
• Wizard Jagula was attacked by three Speaking Trees whose Wild Surge energy disrupted his Spell Models until Locke asked the trees to withdraw.
• The Silent Bee fairy apologized for nearly killing Jagula and explained that Wild Surge suppressed human nature; Locke told Jagula he could research in the forest if he obeyed its rules.
• Locke led Jagula to the site of the Death Energy Contamination, where Jagula prepared to study it using a borrowed Electromagnetic Magic Mirror.

Locke brought Witch Stefania toward Golden Crown Mountain and discovered that Witch Zoe’s soul was surrounded by a strange Plane Power that might draw enemies to her. At Ghost Gate Pass, Locke, Wizard Trajan, and Valerie Quinn rented a Boat Peach craft for their near-Earth void exploration.

• Locke refused Wizard Jagula’s offer to study together and left the Forbidden Forest for the wizard Airship with Witch Stefania.
• Locke threatened Stefania aboard the Airship, while she offered to trade the Specter Holy Church’s core Spell Models for a place in a White Wizard organization.
• Locke examined Witch Zoe and detected strange Plane Power around her soul, then suspected it had guided their repeated encounters and attracted deadly enemies to her.
• Locke warned Zoe that he was not interested in her luck, and Zoe resolved to avoid meeting him again.
• Locke met Wizard Trajan and Valerie Quinn at Ghost Gate Pass, where Trajan explained the costs and protections of renting a small voidcraft.
• Locke and Trajan rented a Boat Peach craft from Ghost Peach, and Trajan pointed out its Star-Ring Magic Plant Imaginary Root.

Locke, Wizard Trajan, and Witch Valerie Quinn prepared to take the Peach Ark into the void from Infinity Mountain. After Locke demonstrated that he could refine Second-Ring Spirit-Stabilizing Potions, he realized potions might let him build a power hierarchy for his ecosystem, while Trajan began treating him as a rare resource for future potion needs.

• Wizard Yuri guided Locke, Wizard Trajan, and Witch Valerie Quinn to Infinity Mountain's summit, where the Peach Ark returned to its full size.
• Locke explained that Imaginary Roots lifted Infinity Mountain, and Wizard Trajan described the mountain's origins and its present role as a launch site.
• Wizard Trajan and Witch Valerie Quinn drank First-Ring Spirit-Stabilizing Potions, while Locke offered Trajan two Second-Ring potions he had refined.
• Wizard Trajan drank Locke's potion, and Locke observed it grant Trajan Authority that formed a Spirit-Stabilizing Membrane over his soul.
• Locke drank a Second-Ring Spirit-Stabilizing Potion and considered whether potions could create a hierarchy and power system for his ecosystem.
• Wizard Trajan asked Locke to refine potions for him and his friends, but Locke explained that he could only make a few each year before Trajan activated the Peach Ark.