Ch. 1Awakening

Chapter Summary: “Awakening”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Li You awakens in an unfamiliar room covered in faintly glowing teal-blue vines.
  • He recalls being a food-delivery worker who encountered a “Hundred-Ton King” before apparently dying or being transported to another world.
  • Examining himself, he discovers that he has become a small girl, wearing a white dress and lacking his original male body.
  • The room is coated in thick dust, suggesting that its former occupant had been lying there untouched for weeks or months. Li You wonders whether he has transmigrated into a corpse or preserved body.
  • He explores the surrounding structure and finds a vast central hall filled with glowing vines, ruined furniture, decayed objects, and scattered human and animal bones.
  • The absence of rescuers, authorities, windows, or readable records leads him to suspect that the facility is sealed, underground, abandoned, or hidden from the outside world.
  • Li You picks up an unusual futuristic-looking gun-like object and uses it as a makeshift weapon.
  • He discovers an abandoned elevator shaft and an emergency stairwell, then climbs upward through eight floors rather than investigate the dangerous-looking building.
  • On the ninth and highest floor, he finds a small door leading toward apparent sunlight and eagerly escapes.
  • Instead of reaching land, he emerges onto a platform surrounded by an enormous, deep lake enclosed by towering rock walls, leaving him trapped and uncertain how to escape.

Character Development

  • Li You quickly shifts from confusion and denial to accepting that he has transmigrated into another body and world.
  • He demonstrates practical survival instincts by checking for injuries, studying his surroundings, searching for clues, and finding a weapon.
  • Despite his fear of the bones, darkness, and possible monsters, he forces himself to remain calm and continue exploring.
  • His lack of the original body’s memories and inability to read the available books make him especially vulnerable and isolated.
  • His initial hope of escaping the abandoned facility is replaced by renewed helplessness when he discovers the enclosed lake.

Significant Themes

  • Transmigration and identity: Li You must confront the shocking loss of his former body and identity while inhabiting an unknown girl’s body.
  • Isolation and survival: The abandoned structure, lack of information, and absence of other people emphasize his complete solitude.
  • Mystery and horror: Glowing plants, skeletal remains, futuristic technology, and unexplained destruction suggest a major catastrophe or hidden experiment.
  • Hope followed by despair: The apparent sunlight and exit briefly inspire Li You, only for the outside world to reveal another seemingly inescapable prison.
  • The unknown world: The setting hints at a technologically advanced but devastated civilization whose history Li You cannot yet understand.

Character Interactions

  • Li You has no direct interactions with other living characters in this chapter.
  • His primary “interactions” are with the abandoned facility and its clues: the glowing vines, decayed remains, unreadable books, strange weapon, stairwell, and lake.
  • The chapter focuses on his internal reactions and attempts to interpret the traces left behind by the absent inhabitants.

Ch. 2Fog

Chapter Summary: “Fog”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Li You assesses his situation on the Water Platform and concludes that escape by swimming is impossible: he cannot swim, the body he inhabits is that of a young girl, and the opposite cliff offers no viable landing or route upward.
  • A large seabird briefly gives him hope that the lake might provide food, but a gigantic mutated Fish Monster suddenly erupts from the water and devours it.
  • The monster then attacks Li You directly, surging onto the platform. Its grotesque appearance includes exposed flesh, tumors, dangling eyes, clawed fins, and a mouth that splits open into a circular, tooth-filled maw.
  • Li You flees into the underwater facility and locks the side door behind him. The creature repeatedly attacks the door but fails to break through, eventually retreating.
  • Convinced that the lake is far more dangerous than the abandoned facility, Li You decides never to venture outside again unless absolutely necessary.
  • He descends through the facility, checking the basement levels and finding no immediate threats or useful supplies.
  • On the tenth basement level, he encounters dense white fog, Glow Vines, and a sealed door leading to the eleventh level. Human bones, skulls, and claw marks around the stairwell suggest that survivors once fled downward while monsters pursued them.
  • Despite the danger, Li You enters the fog. After walking through it briefly, he becomes overwhelmingly drowsy and collapses into a deep sleep against a Glow Vine.

Character Development

  • Li You shifts from despair to cautious hope when he realizes the lake contains fish, but that hope is destroyed by the Fish Monster’s attack.
  • His survival instincts become sharper: he quickly evaluates dangers, uses the facility’s functioning locks, and chooses the relative safety of the abandoned base over the open lake.
  • He demonstrates growing willingness to investigate despite fear, entering the fog and continuing to explore even after seeing evidence of past violence.
  • His thoughts reveal uncertainty about the original owner of the girl’s body, whom he suspects may have possessed unusual abilities or qualities.

Significant Themes

  • Survival and adaptation: Li You must use observation and reasoning to survive in an unfamiliar body and hostile environment.
  • False hope and sudden danger: The harmless-looking bird and potential food source quickly become part of a terrifying display of the lake’s ecosystem.
  • Isolation and entrapment: The cliffs, lake, ruined facility, and sealed stairwell emphasize that Li You is trapped with few options.
  • The unknown and grotesque transformation: The Fish Monster embodies the unnatural dangers of this world, while the fog introduces another unexplained threat.
  • The aftermath of catastrophe: The bones, claw marks, and abandoned infrastructure suggest a past disaster that devastated the facility’s inhabitants.

Character Interactions

  • Li You has no direct interaction with humans in this chapter.
  • His encounter with the seabird is indirect but important, as the bird first inspires hope and is then killed by the Fish Monster.
  • His primary confrontation is with the mutated Fish Monster, whose attack forces him back into the facility.
  • He also interacts with the abandoned environment—doors, stairways, Glow Vines, and the fog—which alternately provides protection, clues, and danger.

Ch. 3Magic

Chapter Summary: “Magic”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Li You awakens in what appears to be a vision or dream of the underwater facility’s past. He finds himself in the body of a young silver-haired, red-eyed girl.
  • A hazy woman named Tabitha wakes him, and Li You follows the children through their daily routine: dressing, washing, eating breakfast, and attending class.
  • During roll call, he learns the girl’s identity: Ivette Lochvia. He decides to adopt her identity for the time being.
  • Ivette attends a virtual language lesson using advanced head-mounted technology. The class teaches Black Tide Language through a virtual reality system created by Gravity Group and powered by a technology called the Rune Array.
  • Before lunch, the children receive medical examinations. Through conversations with the other children, Ivette discovers that the facility is not a school but the Mount Ish Black Tower Research Center, also known as the Abyss Base.
  • The children are orphans who were diagnosed with rare genetic diseases and brought to the facility for long-term observation and treatment by Black Tower Pharmaceuticals.
  • Ivette learns that the base lies beneath a crater lake on the dormant Mount Ish volcano. The revelation causes her to wonder what disaster killed everyone in the facility and left behind monsters.
  • She imagines possibilities involving biological experiments, a viral outbreak, or the original Ivette being a mutated survivor or virus host, though she recognizes that these theories may be exaggerated.
  • After her examination, Ivette asks Tabitha about runes. Tabitha explains that runes are the basis of magic, science, matter, and human civilization, confirming that this world uses both advanced technology and magic.

Character Development

  • Li You/Ivette: Initially confused and unsettled by being transformed into a young girl, Li You gradually adapts to the situation. He accepts the name and identity of Ivette Lochvia, behaves like an ordinary child to avoid suspicion, and actively investigates the facility’s history.
  • Ivette demonstrates curiosity, caution, and analytical thinking. She carefully gathers information from the children and staff rather than relying entirely on speculation.
  • Her interest shifts from simply understanding the dream to exploring the world’s technology and magical system.
  • Dr. Tabitha/Tebesa Clovelan: She is introduced as a gentle caretaker and researcher who supervises the children. Her patient responses make her appear trustworthy, though the mysterious fate of the facility leaves her past and role open to question.
  • The other children: Their comments reveal that they come from orphanages and believe they are receiving treatment for genetic illnesses. Their innocent understanding contrasts with Ivette’s growing suspicion about the facility.

Significant Themes

  • Identity and transformation: Li You must inhabit the body and identity of Ivette, forcing him to reconsider gender, appearance, and personal continuity.
  • Dream, memory, and the past: The translucent, NPC-like figures and unfamiliar language suggest that Ivette is witnessing a recorded or supernatural remnant of the facility’s history.
  • Science and magic: Advanced virtual-reality technology exists alongside rune-based magic, showing that this world’s civilization developed along a different technological path.
  • Hidden danger beneath innocence: The children’s routine resembles ordinary boarding-school life, but the facility’s true purpose and eventual destruction suggest exploitation, secrecy, and possible tragedy.
  • Curiosity versus speculation: Ivette tries to understand the mystery logically but recognizes that fear and familiarity with disaster stories can lead to wild conclusions.

Character Interactions

  • Tabitha wakes Ivette and guides her through the morning routine, establishing their caretaker-child relationship.
  • Ivette interacts with the other children while waiting for medical examinations, learning about their orphanage backgrounds and supposed genetic diseases.
  • She speaks with Tabitha after the examination and asks about runes. Tabitha’s explanation introduces the central concept of magic and hints that Ivette may eventually study it.
  • Ivette’s internal interaction with her reflection highlights her discomfort with her new body and her decision to accept the identity of Ivette Lochvia.

Ch. 4Learning

Chapter Summary: “Learning”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • After Tabitha explains Rune Compilation, Ivette realizes that this civilization treats magic almost like computer programming, suggesting an advanced technological society.
  • Ivette worries about how long the dream will last. If it ends soon, she may be stranded alone in the Ruined Base without food or reliable supplies.
  • She asks Dr. Tabitha for continued access to the Vision Terminal so she can improve her understanding of the civilization’s language. Tabitha agrees and tells her to request access whenever necessary.
  • Following physical examinations, the children receive unidentified medicines tailored to their genetic conditions. Ivette finds the situation unsettlingly similar to an experiment but takes her medicine without resistance.
  • During the afternoon, while the other children play in an activity room, Ivette returns to the computer room for independent study.
  • In the Vision Terminal’s unrestricted mode, she activates the self-study program Happy Little Classroom and meets its AI assistant, Firefly, represented as a friendly chibi rag doll.
  • Ivette asks Firefly about the glowing vines in the Ruined Base. The AI identifies them as Magic Light Vines, genetically engineered plants designed for biological illumination and capable of living for more than 2,800 years.
  • Firefly calculates that a vine with a forty-centimeter-thick main stem would be approximately 288–315 years old. Ivette realizes this implies the Abyss Base has likely been abandoned for around three centuries.
  • She begins to suspect that the outside world may also have been destroyed, leaving her in a post-apocalyptic environment.
  • Ivette then asks how to learn magic quickly and without money. Firefly initially suggests expensive or dangerous options, including scavenging and improvised magical devices, before recommending the ancient Retro Meditation Method.
  • The method is extremely inefficient by modern standards: reaching the minimum mana level needed for a stable Illumination Spell would take an average of seven years and four months, compared with only a few minutes using modern Active Rune Groups.
  • Despite its impracticality, Ivette decides to consider meditation because she has no better option.

Character Development

  • Ivette becomes increasingly resourceful and determined. Rather than passively waiting for the dream to end, she actively seeks knowledge that could help her survive in the real world.
  • Her priority shifts toward learning the local language, since understanding it would allow her to study independently and access the library’s information.
  • She also displays cautious scientific reasoning by verifying Firefly’s measurements and converting the plant’s estimated age into a historical implication.
  • Her concern about the vines, medicines, and abandoned base shows a growing awareness that the dream may contain clues about her actual circumstances.
  • Dr. Tabitha is portrayed as cooperative and supportive, granting Ivette access to educational resources without questioning her unusual eagerness.
  • Firefly serves as a more flexible and personable AI than the teacher-controlled system, though its literal and sometimes dangerous recommendations create comic tension.

Significant Themes

  • Knowledge as survival: Ivette treats education, language learning, and magical knowledge as practical tools for staying alive.
  • Advanced technology versus ancient methods: The world possesses sophisticated AI, genetic engineering, and rune technology, yet Ivette may be forced to rely on an obsolete meditation technique.
  • Isolation and uncertainty: Ivette does not know when the dream will end or what condition the real world is in, creating a constant threat beneath the comfortable setting.
  • The passage of time and forgotten civilizations: The ancient vine provides evidence that the Ruined Base has been abandoned for centuries, raising questions about what happened to the civilization.
  • Science, experimentation, and ethics: The children’s supervised medicines and examinations make Ivette feel like a laboratory subject, even though she accepts them because the setting is only a dream.
  • Adaptation under limited resources: Ivette repeatedly rejects ideal but unaffordable solutions and searches for methods accessible to someone with no money or equipment.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette and Tabitha: Ivette respectfully requests continued access to the Vision Terminal. Tabitha responds kindly and gives her permission, reinforcing their teacher-student relationship.
  • Ivette and the attending doctors: The doctors explain the children’s medicine schedules and dosages, while Ivette silently questions the experimental nature of the treatment.
  • Ivette and Firefly: Their interaction drives the chapter. Ivette uses the AI to identify the glowing vines, calculate their age, and investigate ways to learn magic. Firefly answers efficiently but offers increasingly impractical solutions until Ivette forces it to find a more natural, affordable method.

Ch. 5Who Changed Her?

Chapter Summary: “Who Put Them on Her?”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette spends an entire afternoon learning the Meditation Method in the dream under the AI’s guidance, but concludes it cannot help her immediate survival problem. Its benefits would take years to appear, while she will likely starve soon after awakening.
  • She eats in the base cafeteria and observes that the staff treat the orphaned children kindly, making her question her theory that the facility is conducting human experiments. However, she still suspects that the staff may be unaware of a larger conspiracy.
  • Over the next several days, Ivette studies Black Tide Language and uses the computer-classroom AIs to research the outside world and possible survival strategies.
  • Her research reveals that survival in the sealed Ruined Base is nearly impossible. The Magic Light Vine is poisonous and indigestible, leaving her with no viable food source.
  • Ivette concludes that remaining in the dream is safer than returning to reality. She spends six months there, living with the contradictory hope of surviving in the illusion while despairing over her eventual awakening.
  • The dream finally ends. Ivette awakens on the tenth underground level of the Ruined Base, with the magical mist gone and the surrounding Magic Light Vines remaining.
  • She discovers that she is now wearing underwear, tights, and leather shoes that she did not possess before entering the dream. This raises the possibility that the dream was actually a form of time travel or that someone—or something—dressed her while she slept.
  • Ivette tests whether she physically traveled through time by checking the dirt on her feet. Since her feet are still dirty, she concludes that her body did not travel through time.
  • Unable to find evidence of an intruder, ghost, or evil spirit, she tentatively blames the strange Dream Mist for the clothing anomaly.
  • Returning to the level where she lived in the dream, Ivette gives up on finding an immediate solution and accepts that she may simply starve and restart.

Character Development

  • Ivette becomes increasingly pragmatic and survival-focused. Rather than automatically seeking escape from the dream, she recognizes that the illusion may be her best chance of survival.
  • She demonstrates strong logical reasoning, resisting panic when she suspects that a supernatural entity may have interfered with her.
  • Her six months in the dream deepen her attachment to its safe environment and make awakening emotionally complicated.
  • Despite her despair, Ivette remains resourceful, researching language, technology, and practical survival methods.

Significant Themes

  • Reality versus illusion: The dream may be more substantial than it first appears, raising questions about whether it can affect the physical world.
  • Survival and compromise: Ivette must choose between an artificial but comfortable existence and a real world where she is almost certain to die.
  • Logical thought versus fear: The chapter emphasizes the danger of allowing fear and speculation to overwhelm rational judgment.
  • Mystery of the Dream Mist: The unexplained clothing suggests that the dream has powers or rules beyond ordinary illusion.
  • False safety and uncertainty: The friendly behavior of the facility’s staff challenges Ivette’s suspicions, but does not fully dispel them.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette and Dr. Tabitha: Tabitha reminds Ivette to eat and guides her to the cafeteria, showing continued care and concern.
  • Ivette and the cafeteria worker: The worker warmly encourages Ivette to eat more, reinforcing her doubts about the facility’s supposed cruelty.
  • Ivette and the AI: The AI teaches her the Meditation Method and supplies information about language, survival, toxic plants, and the likely nature of the Dream Mist.
  • Ivette and her own suspicions: Much of the chapter’s tension comes from Ivette questioning whether the people around her are trustworthy, whether the dream is self-sustaining, and who could have placed the extra clothing on her.

Ch. 6Waiting to Die

Chapter Summary: “Waiting to Die”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette initially gives up hope and decides to wait for death inside the ruined underground base.
  • Her survival instincts soon compel her to explore the remaining floors, searching for food or anything useful.
  • By combining written records in the facility with information learned through her dreams, she identifies the purpose of each basement level:
    • Levels 10–9: The Metamorphosis Project and its staff quarters. The project treated genetic diseases in orphanage children like Ivette.
    • Levels 8–7: Active Rune Laboratories, which produced powerful Rune Elixirs capable of turning ordinary people into spellcasters almost instantly. However, all remaining supplies are long expired.
    • Level 6: Staff living quarters, now completely empty.
    • Levels 5–4: Rune Elixir laboratories, responsible for products such as enhanced strength, improved metabolism, eternal youth, and hair regeneration.
    • Level 3: Experimental animal breeding.
    • Level 2: Ordinary staff quarters.
    • Level 1: The inspection and security floor.
  • Ivette finds no usable food, medicine, or escape route. Her only discoveries are scraps of once-advanced magical equipment.
  • She attempts to escape through the ventilation system, but the welded grating is too strong for her child-sized body.
  • With the base sealed, the surrounding lake inhabited by Fish Monsters, and no other food source available, she believes death is unavoidable.
  • After sleeping, Ivette realizes that more than a day has passed without her becoming seriously weak, dehydrated, or dangerously hungry.
  • She monitors herself for several more days and discovers that her body remains energetic and healthy despite prolonged starvation.
  • This leads her to conclude that the original owner of her body was extraordinarily abnormal and may have survived for three hundred years without external cryogenic equipment.

Character Development

  • Ivette: Moves from despair and resignation toward cautious hope. Her practical nature drives her to investigate the facility even after she believes there is no way out. She becomes increasingly analytical, observing her body carefully rather than immediately assuming she has found a miraculous solution.
  • Ivette also begins to understand that her current body’s unusual abilities are not caused by her transmigration. The original girl herself possessed an extraordinary constitution, raising questions about her true identity and connection to the base.

Significant Themes

  • Survival and resilience: Ivette’s refusal to stop searching, even after accepting death, highlights the strength of her survival instinct.
  • Mystery of identity: The original owner’s ability to endure three centuries without food or conventional life support suggests she was far more than an ordinary orphan.
  • Science and magic: The ruined facility represents a civilization where advanced biotechnology and magical pharmaceuticals existed side by side.
  • Hope emerging from despair: Ivette’s discovery that she can survive without food transforms an apparently hopeless situation into a new mystery and possible opportunity.
  • The limits of knowledge: Although Ivette learns the function of the base, understanding its purpose does not immediately provide a way to escape or survive.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette has no direct interaction with other living characters in the chapter.
  • Her main “interaction” is with the AI, whose dream-based explanations help her interpret the facility’s records and understand the Metamorphosis Project, Active Rune Group, and Rune Elixirs.
  • She also indirectly engages with the forgotten researchers and corporation through the documents and abandoned laboratories they left behind.

Ch. 7A Mage's Training

Chapter Summary: “A Mage’s Training”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • With the immediate threat to her survival gone, Ivette settles into the Ruined Base and begins investigating the original owner’s identity and abilities. She concludes that the original owner was likely a subject of the Metamorphosis Project, possibly connected to Black Tower Pharmaceuticals.
  • Ivette suspects the original owner’s apparent immortality may have been an experimental result, but she cannot explain why the woman possessed almost no magical power despite centuries of life.
  • Realizing that she has time but no practical means of escape, Ivette commits herself to studying the Meditation Method and becoming stronger.
  • Over the course of a year, she adapts to life in the base by meditating, exploring its floors, sorting abandoned objects, and reading magical texts. She occasionally visits the Water Platform entrance to enjoy the outside world and think about her family on Earth.
  • She studies Detailed Explanation of Inner and Outer Mana and Rune Siphon Effect, learning about Internal and External Mana and the magical principles governing Origin Star.
  • After one year, Ivette tests her magical capacity and discovers that she has only accumulated slightly more than two Mana Points—ordinary progress despite her hopes of possessing exceptional talent.
  • Rather than giving up, Ivette resolves to compensate for her lack of talent through patience and effort. She spends another five years studying magic, organizing books, and learning about runes, spell structures, and incantations.
  • After six years of training, she successfully casts a Frost Art, creating a large ice crystal on the Water Platform. The spell consumes three of her approximately nine Mana Points, demonstrating how limited her reserves remain.
  • As she turns away from the ice crystal, Ivette notices that her reflection in it appears slightly older, raising a troubling question about whether she is truly ageless.

Character Development

  • Ivette changes from an anxious survivor into a patient, disciplined researcher and aspiring mage.
  • She learns to cope with isolation, monotony, and disappointment. Although she initially hopes to be a naturally gifted “chosen one,” her ordinary magical progress devastates her confidence only briefly.
  • Her possible immortality gives her a long-term perspective: she believes that persistence can overcome the limitations of talent.
  • She becomes increasingly knowledgeable about magic, moving from basic meditation and spell theory to studying runes, mana mechanics, and spell construction.
  • Her discovery that she may be aging undermines her assumptions about the original owner’s immortality and introduces new uncertainty about her own body.

Significant Themes

  • Patience and perseverance: Ivette relies on time and sustained effort rather than natural talent.
  • Identity and uncertainty: She continues trying to understand the original owner, the experiments that created her, and the relationship between the two women.
  • Science and magic: The chapter presents magic as a system that can be studied through theories, formulas, runes, and measurable mana points.
  • Isolation and homesickness: Though physically safe, Ivette remains emotionally separated from her family and the outside world.
  • Immortality versus mortality: Her supposed agelessness is questioned by the apparent aging of her reflection, suggesting that her condition may be more complicated than she believed.
  • The limits of power: Despite six years of effort, Ivette’s mana remains low, emphasizing that survival and mastery require more than simply having time.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette has no direct interactions with other human characters in this chapter.
  • Her main “interactions” are with the abandoned base, magical texts, the AI’s information, and the mysterious legacy of the original owner.
  • Her relationship with her absent family remains emotionally important, as she repeatedly thinks of them while observing the outside world from the Water Platform.

Ch. 8Rune Arts

Chapter Summary: “Rune Arts”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette’s body continues changing after her transmigration: she grows from under 1.5 meters to about 1.65 meters, develops an extraordinarily beautiful appearance, and then stops aging physically at roughly seventeen or eighteen.
  • She suspects her condition may be the result of genetic-level Rune Compilation, hidden technology from Black Tower Pharmaceuticals, or some connection to the sealed metal door beneath Level -10. She believes opening the door might reveal the truth about her body and origins.
  • Fifty-three years after her transmigration, Ivette has developed her own system of magical research. Using Magic Light Vine juice as ink, she records and refines rune-based spells in her cultivation journal.
  • Because the original magical formulas require a Magic Guide Terminal and contain too many runes to memorize, Ivette creates simplified or modified spells herself:
    • Frost Bullet, an efficient ice attack.
    • Flame Dance, a fire tornado with room for further improvement.
    • Wind Walk, a movement spell that makes her unusually light and unstable.
  • Ivette experiments with these spells by luring a smaller aquatic Mutant from the crater lake onto the Water Platform.
  • She uses repeated Frost Bullets to injure the creature, Wind Walk to evade it, and Flame Dance to burn it severely. Once her mana drops to a dangerous level and other Mutants approach, she retreats through the tunnel and locks the door.
  • Although she does not kill the creature, Ivette considers the encounter successful because it provides practical combat data and gives her valuable first-hand battle experience.
  • She also identifies accuracy and combat practice as areas requiring future improvement. Nearby Flying Boards, though currently unpowered, remain a possible means of escaping the underground facility.

Character Development

  • Ivette has become highly independent, patient, and scientifically minded. Rather than relying solely on inherited magical technology, she studies rune structures and develops her own spells through experimentation.
  • Her decades of isolation have made her methodical and cautious. She carefully monitors her mana, recognizes danger thresholds, and retreats instead of fighting recklessly.
  • She is increasingly capable in combat, but still acknowledges her limitations, particularly poor accuracy, incomplete spell optimization, and limited mana reserves.
  • Her mysterious agelessness remains a source of unease. She feels as though her body is governed by a predetermined biological program, reinforcing her uncertainty about whether she is truly in control of her own development.

Significant Themes

  • Identity and bodily autonomy: Ivette questions whether her appearance, vitality, and lack of aging were deliberately engineered, suggesting that her body may be part of a larger technological or magical design.
  • Knowledge through experimentation: Unable to use the Origin Civilization’s magic directly, she combines observation, imitation, and repeated testing to create workable alternatives.
  • Adaptation and survival: Ivette survives through preparation, efficiency, and restraint rather than brute force. Her retreat from the Mutant demonstrates that survival matters more than winning every confrontation.
  • Technology versus individual skill: Magic Guide Terminals and ancient rune systems represent advanced civilization, while Ivette’s memorization and bodily conditioning show how one person can reproduce complex magic without relying on lost technology.
  • Hope of escape and discovery: The sealed door and dormant Flying Boards symbolize possible freedom and answers about her past, even though both remain inaccessible for now.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette’s primary direct interaction is with the aquatic Mutant. She deliberately provokes it, tests her spells against it, observes its behavior, and uses distance and movement to control the fight.
  • Her relationship with the unknown creators or institutions behind her condition is indirect but central. She mentally connects her agelessness, vitality, and the sealed lower levels to possible experiments by Black Tower Pharmaceuticals or the Origin Civilization.
  • She also interacts with the environment as a source of knowledge: the lake provides combat subjects, the Magic Light Vine supplies writing ink and fuel, and the abandoned Flying Boards offer a potential escape route.

Ch. 9A Hundred Years

Chapter Summary: “A Hundred Years”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • After her first battle, Ivette becomes increasingly comfortable with combat, repeatedly visiting the Water Platform to practice by firing a few spells at Mutated Creatures before retreating.
  • She discovers the lake’s ruler: the enormous One-Eyed Serpent King, a thirty-meter mutated serpent with a single eye and tentacles inside its mouth. Its presence makes escaping via the Flying Board far more dangerous.
  • Over the next seventy-three years, Ivette trains steadily and reduces her Water Platform visits to avoid provoking the serpent. She eventually accumulates 100 Mana Points and forms a Mana Core, greatly increasing her cultivation speed.
  • Across the following century, she refines her main spells:
    • Frost Bullet: Reduced to one Mana Point per shot and developed into a rapid-fire “Gatling” mode.
    • Flame Dance: Improved control and efficiency, allowing up to four fire pillars at once.
    • Wind Control: Evolved from Wind Walk into a versatile spell for movement, hovering, acceleration, and repelling enemies.
  • She creates only one new spell, Wrath of Thunder, because her memory can support only a limited number of complex, instantly cast formulas. Her daily life becomes highly repetitive: meditation, spell practice, observing Mutated Creatures, and studying the Serpent King.
  • With her Mana Points nearing 400, Ivette decides she is finally strong enough to test the serpent.
  • She lures the One-Eyed Serpent King from the lake using Magic Light Vine tendrils. When it attacks, she evades its waves and tentacles with Wind Control.
  • Ivette freezes the serpent’s head and tentacles with dozens of Frost Bullets, then uses Wrath of Thunder, spending 240 Mana Points. The lightning attack paralyzes and apparently kills the serpent.
  • To ensure it is dead, she burns the exposed portion of its body with Flame Dance and uses Wind Control to dump the corpse back into the lake.

Character Development

  • Ivette grows from a frightened, inexperienced fighter into a patient and highly capable combatant. She learns to remain calm under pressure, plan around an enemy’s strengths, and combine spells tactically.
  • Her long isolation turns her into a disciplined researcher and engineer of magic. Rather than relying on new discoveries, she repeatedly improves existing spells through experimentation.
  • She also becomes more cautious and observant. Her fear of the Serpent King, deep water, and its enormous size remains, but she overcomes that fear through preparation and gradual training.
  • Ivette’s extreme longevity and repetitive routine begin to affect her perception of time; years pass so quickly that she struggles to form lasting memories of them.

Significant Themes

  • Time and immortality: Decades and centuries pass almost unnoticed, emphasizing the psychological strangeness of Ivette’s extended life.
  • Persistence and gradual growth: Her strength comes from endless practice, refinement, and patience rather than sudden breakthroughs.
  • Knowledge as power: Ivette defeats the serpent by carefully observing its habits and designing magic suited to specific combat situations.
  • Fear versus preparation: Although she remains terrified of the Serpent King, preparation allows her to confront a threat that once made escape seem impossible.
  • Isolation and repetition: Her peaceful, monotonous life grants her progress but also distances her from ordinary human experiences and memories.
  • Efficiency versus destructive power: Frost Bullet and her other spells emphasize control and mana efficiency, while Wrath of Thunder sacrifices efficiency for overwhelming single-target damage.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette has no direct human interactions in the chapter; her primary relationships are with the hostile environment and its creatures.
  • She observes the Mutated Creatures and the One-Eyed Serpent King for decades, treating them almost as subjects in a long-term study.
  • Her decisive confrontation with the Serpent King becomes the chapter’s central interaction: she uses movement, freezing, lightning, and fire in sequence to counter its attacks and secure its apparent death.

Ch. 10Escape

Chapter Summary: “Escape”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • After killing the Snake King, Ivette realizes that the greatest obstacle trapping her in Crater Lake has been removed. She has enough magical power to operate a vehicle and has repaired a Flying Board capable of carrying her away.
  • Rather than leave immediately, Ivette remains in Abyss Base for several decades. She studies the battle’s rewards and continues improving her signature spell, Wrath of Thunder.
  • The upgraded spell’s mana cost falls from 240 to 100 points while retaining 60% of its original power. With her Mana Points nearing—and eventually surpassing—500, Ivette becomes powerful enough to defeat any creature that challenges her.
  • The mutated creatures around the lake begin treating Ivette as the new ruler of the area. Even stronger challengers are destroyed with a single spell.
  • After surpassing the 500-mana threshold, Ivette finally decides to leave. Her only unresolved disappointment is that she still cannot open the mysterious alloy door leading to the eleventh underground level.
  • She departs Abyss Base on her repaired Flying Board, crosses Crater Lake, and uses Wind Control to climb out of the crater.
  • From the crater’s rim, Ivette sees the post-apocalyptic world for the first time: forests have overtaken cities, skyscrapers are covered in vines, and nature has reclaimed civilization.
  • She travels into Ish City, once a major human metropolis and the site of a Black Tower Pharmaceuticals branch. The city is now overgrown and silent, inhabited only by animals and Mutated Creatures.
  • At the Black Tower, Ivette concludes that there are no other surviving humans on Ish Island—and possibly very few survivors anywhere on Origin Star.
  • Faced with the realization that her hoped-for human society and exciting new world no longer exist, Ivette decides to begin rebuilding her life through farming.

Character Development

  • Ivette transitions from a prisoner who has endured two centuries of isolation into an independent and highly capable survivor.
  • Her long confinement has made her cautious and methodical: although she can escape immediately after killing the Snake King, she chooses to spend decades preparing and strengthening herself.
  • Her magical growth is substantial. She possesses nearly 500 mana points and has developed a military-grade offensive spell, making her one of the strongest surviving beings in the world.
  • Ivette initially imagines herself as a heroic savior who will enter human society, rescue civilization, and gain admiration. This fantasy is shattered when she discovers that humanity appears to be extinct.
  • Despite her disappointment and renewed loneliness, she remains adaptable and practical, ending the chapter by choosing farming as a constructive first step.

Significant Themes

  • Freedom and captivity: Escaping Crater Lake represents the end of Ivette’s physical imprisonment, though her emotional isolation continues beyond the crater.
  • Preparation and patience: Ivette refuses to rush her escape, showing that freedom is more valuable when secured through careful preparation.
  • Civilization versus nature: The ruined cities and vine-covered buildings demonstrate nature reclaiming the remnants of human civilization.
  • Loneliness and survival: Ivette expects freedom to bring companionship and adventure, but instead finds an empty world where she may be the last human alive.
  • Rebuilding after catastrophe: Her decision to farm suggests that survival and civilization will begin not with grand heroics, but with ordinary, sustainable work.
  • The contrast between technology and magic: The Flying Board’s sophisticated magical circuits vastly outperform Ivette’s personal spells, emphasizing the lost achievements of the Origin Civilization.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette has no meaningful human interactions in the chapter, reinforcing her isolation.
  • Her relationship with the Mutated Creatures changes: after defeating the Snake King, they recognize her as the new dominant force and avoid her.
  • Creatures that challenge her are swiftly eliminated, establishing her authority over the region.
  • The chapter also highlights Ivette’s indirect relationship with the vanished human civilization. She observes its ruins, imagines its former glory, and recognizes that she may now be responsible for beginning humanity’s recovery.

Ch. 11Aurora Night

Chapter Summary: Aurora Night

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Over more than a decade, Ivette transforms a woodland area in Ish City into a personal estate, building a three-story wooden house, cultivating fields, and collecting hardcover books containing the technological knowledge of Origin Civilization.
  • She travels throughout Ish Island, visiting Ish City, Grayport City, and Luya City. She finds only ruins and dangerous Mutant nests, confirming that she is likely the island’s sole surviving human.
  • Ivette studies Magic Engineering, hoping to repair magitech devices and eventually create powerful magic circuits. However, her hopes of leaving the island are crushed by the overwhelming number and power of the Mutated Creatures in the sea.
  • She witnesses a gigantic machine-organic sea monster, which she names the Steel Sea Dragon Beast. Its existence reveals that the mutation plague can infect not only living organisms but also machines, AI-controlled Mechanical Puppets, and Magitech Soldiers—helping explain the fall of Origin Civilization.
  • Nearly three hundred years after her arrival, Ivette sees an aurora for the first time. During this peaceful moment, she hears a human scream from the surrounding ruins.
  • Ivette investigates and discovers a frightened blonde girl, apparently no older than ten, standing on a stripped-down vehicle. The girl is unmistakably human but speaks an unfamiliar language.
  • Ivette brings the girl back to her estate, gives her the bedroom, prepares food, and accepts that she will have to sleep on the sofa. Although communication is impossible, the girl behaves politely and cautiously eats the meal.
  • Ivette realizes that the girl’s arrival will end her long isolation and bring new meaning to her life.

Character Development

  • Ivette becomes increasingly self-sufficient and knowledgeable, combining farming, construction, magic, and technological research to create a stable life in the ruins.
  • Her long solitude makes her emotionally numb, but she retains a faint hope that human civilization may still survive elsewhere.
  • Her encounter with the Steel Sea Dragon Beast deepens her understanding of the catastrophic nature of the Mutations and makes her abandon any plan to cross the sea.
  • The appearance of the girl awakens Ivette’s dormant compassion and curiosity. For the first time in centuries, she feels warmth and anticipates companionship rather than merely enduring solitude.
  • The young girl is introduced as frightened but disciplined. Despite hunger and confusion, she remains courteous, observant, and wary of Ivette, whom she appears to regard with a mixture of reverence and uncertainty.

Significant Themes

  • Isolation and companionship: Ivette has spent centuries alone, and the girl’s arrival marks a possible end to her emotional and physical solitude.
  • The collapse of civilization: The abandoned cities, ruined settlements, lost books, and infected machines demonstrate how completely Origin Civilization was destroyed.
  • Hope versus despair: Ivette dreams of surviving human communities and technological recovery, but the terrifying Mutants repeatedly undermine her optimism.
  • Knowledge as preservation: By collecting books and studying old technology, Ivette preserves the memory and achievements of a vanished civilization.
  • Humanity amid catastrophe: The girl’s survival and civilized behavior suggest that human culture and innocence may endure despite the world’s destruction.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette attempts to communicate with the girl in Black Tide Language, but the language barrier prevents understanding.
  • Unable to speak with her, Ivette relies on gestures and practical care, guiding her to the estate and preparing food.
  • The girl responds with formal politeness, bowing before eating and carefully observing Ivette while maintaining her guard.
  • Their cautious first interaction establishes a relationship based on tentative trust, with Ivette acting as a protector and the girl as a wary but respectful guest.

Ch. 12Witch, Evil God

Chapter Summary: “Witch, Evil God”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette spends two days trying to identify the language spoken by the mysterious blonde girl, but discovers it matches neither of the known major languages nor any regional dialect.
  • She begins to suspect that the girl may also be a transmigrator, possibly one who arrived through bodily rather than spiritual transmigration.
  • Unable to solve the language barrier conventionally, Ivette develops a communication-based Mind Magic spell called “Heart’s Language.”
  • Using her repaired Crucible Ring X3 Magic Guide Terminal, she loads more than fifty thousand runes into the spell. She also installs “Vitality Technique,” a healing spell, despite the device’s extensive damage and limited remaining rune capacity.
  • Ivette activates Heart’s Language through physical contact with the girl. The spell allows them to hear one another’s thoughts and bypass the language barrier.
  • Ivette discovers that the girl secretly regards her as an Evil God, specifically the legendary Witch of Finale, and is terrified that she may be forced to serve or betray humanity.
  • The girl explains that she entered Ivette’s world through a temporary dimensional passage called the Remnant Abyss, which appears near a once-century Aurora.
  • She identifies the monsters Ivette has killed as Filth Demons, creatures that spread a corrupting infection through scratches and can assimilate living beings.
  • Ivette realizes that the Aurora she witnessed three months earlier may have been the event that connected the girl’s world to her own. She also begins to suspect a possible connection between the girl’s world and Origin Civilization.

Character Developments

  • Ivette demonstrates her intelligence, persistence, and technical expertise by creating a highly complex Mind Magic spell from limited information and damaged equipment.
  • Her curiosity about the girl deepens as she recognizes signs of transmigration and learns that the girl comes from a separate world.
  • Ivette retains a pragmatic, analytical attitude, but she also shows growing affection and concern for the child, whom she views as unusually obedient and well-mannered.
  • Ivette secretly builds a “backdoor” into Heart’s Language, allowing her to mute her own thoughts while hearing everything in the girl’s mind. This reveals both her cautious nature and her willingness to control the situation.
  • The blonde girl is outwardly gentle, obedient, and composed, but her thoughts reveal intense fear, resentment, and a determination not to betray humanity.
  • Her immediate submission—including kneeling and begging Ivette to kill her—shows how strongly she believes Ivette is the Witch of Finale, though her fearful thoughts also reveal that she is desperate to survive.

Significant Themes

  • Miscommunication and interpretation: The chapter explores how appearances and incomplete information create false assumptions, especially the girl’s belief that Ivette is evil.
  • Fear of the unknown: Both the girl and Ivette confront an unfamiliar world, alien magic, and uncertain origins, but they respond differently—the girl through fear and submission, Ivette through investigation and experimentation.
  • Power and trust: Ivette possesses overwhelming informational and magical power over the girl, particularly because she can read her thoughts without being fully transparent about the spell’s capabilities.
  • Transmigration and connections between worlds: The chapter expands the story’s larger mystery by introducing dimensional gateways, alternate civilizations, and the possibility that the girl’s world may be historically linked to Origin Civilization.
  • Appearance versus reality: Ivette appears terrifying to the girl because she lives alone in the Land of Finale, yet she has actually rescued and cared for her. Likewise, the girl’s obedient exterior conceals suspicion, fear, and inner resistance.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette and the blonde girl have already developed a basic nonverbal rapport through gestures despite being unable to speak to one another.
  • The girl instinctively cooperates when Ivette reaches out her hand, reinforcing Ivette’s impression of her as unusually perceptive and obedient.
  • Once Heart’s Language is activated, their interaction changes dramatically: Ivette hears the girl’s unspoken hostility and fear, while the girl realizes that Ivette can hear her thoughts.
  • Ivette denies being an Evil God and questions the girl about her origins, shifting their relationship from fearful captor-and-prisoner dynamics toward investigation and possible mutual understanding.
  • The girl provides crucial information about the Remnant Abyss, the Aurora, and the Filth Demons, giving Ivette new clues about the relationship between their worlds.

Ch. 13Expectation

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette questions Rosalyn about her origins and learns that the girl came from another world—or possibly another timeline or parallel universe. Rosalyn explains that the Demon race invaded the Eastern Continent, separating her from her family. While fleeing, she saw the Aurora and entered the Remnant Abyss.
  • Ivette realizes that the Remnant Abyss and Aurora Belt may connect multiple apocalyptic worlds. She considers several possibilities, including destroyed planets, time travel, parallel universes, and the possibility of eventually returning to Earth.
  • Rosalyn mistakes Ivette for the “Evil God” of her world’s mythology and asks her to grant the power to fight the Demons. Ivette corrects her, explaining that she is only a mage named Ivette Lochvia, also known as the Witch, and cannot grant power or send Rosalyn home.
  • Ivette offers Rosalyn shelter until the Aurora appears again and promises to escort her into the Remnant Abyss when the time comes. Rosalyn accepts this arrangement and reveals her full name: Rosalyn Shien.
  • Over the next three months, Ivette uses Heart’s Language to learn Radiant Tongue, the common language of Rosalyn’s world.
  • Rosalyn explains that the Radiant Continent is home to humans, Elves, Orcs, and other races, while the Demon race inhabits the Western Continent, also called the Demon Abyss Continent. The Elves are reportedly the strongest race and often command frontline fortresses.
  • Ivette becomes interested in Elven plant magic and considers recreating it, though her limited Furnace Ring X3 capacity forces her to conserve resources.
  • Rosalyn gradually adapts to life with Ivette. She begins seeing the ruined city of Ish City not as a terrifying wasteland, but as a fascinating ancient ruin.
  • Wanting another “exploration,” Rosalyn persuades Ivette to close her textbook and take her out. They travel by Flying Board toward the suburban Factory District, where Ivette plans to search former Black Tower Pharmaceuticals facilities for scrap, machinery, magitech vehicles, or airships.
  • Along the way, Ivette efficiently disables flying Mutants with Frost Bullets. Rosalyn is astonished by Ivette’s ability to cast powerful magic without chanting and begins viewing her as an extraordinary master mage.
  • Rosalyn ends the chapter hoping that, since she cannot yet return home, Ivette might teach her magic.

Character Development

  • Ivette remains analytical and cautious, investigating the mysteries of the Remnant Abyss while balancing her practical survival needs with responsibility for Rosalyn. Though she initially treats Rosalyn mainly as someone to protect, she gradually develops a comfortable, almost familial relationship with her.
  • Rosalyn shifts from fearful and suspicious dependence to genuine trust and affection toward Ivette. Her intelligence and political awareness are evident when she disguises her request for power as a test of Ivette’s intentions. She also becomes more curious, adventurous, and hopeful about learning magic.
  • Rosalyn’s background is clarified: she is the daughter of Count Sien of the Kingdom of Eton, giving her status and access to knowledge about the Aurora Belt and Remnant Abyss.

Significant Themes

  • Uncertainty and cosmic mystery: The chapter expands the questions surrounding the Aurora Belt, Remnant Abyss, and the relationship between different worlds, timelines, or universes.
  • Trust across cultures: Ivette and Rosalyn must overcome differences in language, mythology, and assumptions about gods and magic.
  • Found family and companionship: Their shared daily life—cooking, studying, traveling, and exploring—gradually transforms their relationship into one of mutual affection.
  • Power versus perception: Rosalyn interprets Ivette’s advanced technology and effortless spellcasting as divine or legendary power, while Ivette sees herself as an ordinary mage limited by resources.
  • Hope amid catastrophe: Despite war, displacement, and the ruined world, Rosalyn finds hope in Ivette’s protection and the possibility of learning magic.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette gently corrects Rosalyn’s reverence while allowing her to continue calling her “Lady Witch.”
  • Rosalyn tests Ivette’s morality by asking whether she will empower her against the Demons, then becomes more trusting when Ivette offers shelter without demanding betrayal.
  • Their conversations about the Radiant Continent reveal Rosalyn’s limited but valuable knowledge and Ivette’s scientific, practical curiosity.
  • Their domestic interactions show growing familiarity: Rosalyn helps Ivette cook, interrupts her studying to request outings, and openly seeks her attention.
  • During their explorations, Ivette protects Rosalyn from Mutants while Rosalyn enjoys the adventure and increasingly admires Ivette’s abilities.

Ch. 14Trial

Chapter Summary: “Trial”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette and Rosaline return to the manor after a disastrous expedition in the Factory District. A giant Mechanical Turtle, partly covered in red flesh, ambushes them from the ruins and nearly devours them.
  • Ivette escapes by using her exceptional skateboarding skills and Wind Control, though she is shaken by the encounter and embarrassed that Rosaline witnessed her losing control.
  • After cleaning up, Ivette reflects on her recklessness and realizes she has become too complacent. She resolves to remain cautious, since she is still far from powerful enough to survive every threat.
  • Rosaline unexpectedly asks Ivette to teach her magic. Ivette hesitates because magical knowledge from the Origin Civilization is extremely valuable, and Rosaline may eventually return to her own world.
  • Ivette offers Rosaline a trial instead of immediately accepting her as an apprentice: Rosaline must practice a Meditation Method for three years and demonstrate sufficient magical growth.
  • Rosaline eagerly accepts and begins meditating seriously. Her interest in dangerous expeditions decreases, making Ivette’s daily life calmer.
  • Ivette spends the following year reading, gardening, reclaiming wasteland, and searching the ruins for information about energy storage. She considers unlocking an Electric Net to protect the manor and her crops from animals, but this requires more advanced technology first.

Character Developments

  • Ivette: Becomes more self-aware after the Mechanical Turtle encounter. She recognizes that her desire to impress Rosaline caused her to act carelessly and recommits herself to caution. She also begins seriously considering the practical benefits and responsibilities of having an apprentice.
  • Rosaline: Shows growing admiration for Ivette and a strong desire to learn magic. Despite feeling unworthy and believing she has nothing to offer, she demonstrates determination by accepting the three-year test without hesitation. Her disciplined meditation marks a shift from adventurous observer to committed student.

Significant Themes

  • Caution and overconfidence: Ivette’s near-death experience reminds her that the post-apocalyptic world remains unpredictable and dangerous.
  • Knowledge and responsibility: Ivette struggles with whether magical knowledge should be freely shared, recognizing that teaching Rosaline could create both benefits and risks.
  • Merit and exchange: Rosaline believes important opportunities must be earned or repaid, while Ivette frames apprenticeship as a test of talent and character.
  • Growth through discipline: Rosaline’s magical future depends not on enthusiasm alone but on sustained effort over three years.
  • Rebuilding civilization: Ivette’s reading, gardening, land reclamation, and search for energy-storage technology reflect her gradual effort to restore security and infrastructure.

Character Interactions

  • Ivette protects and cares for Rosaline but keeps emotional and practical boundaries when Rosaline asks to become her apprentice.
  • Rosaline’s admiration contrasts with Ivette’s uncertainty and self-interest; Ivette must decide whether mentoring her is worthwhile.
  • Their relationship evolves from guardian and dependent toward a potential master-and-apprentice bond, with Rosaline’s future acceptance depending on her magical progress.

Ch. 15The Sky Fell

Chapter Summary: “The Sky Fell”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • On a rainy spring morning, Rosalyn prepares breakfast for Ivette, the Witch, as part of her effort to repay the care and instruction she has received.
  • The manor has become increasingly self-sufficient through Ivette’s magic: she grows wheat and vegetables, hunts for meat, and is developing an “Electric Net” to protect the crops from animals.
  • Ivette conducts Rosalyn’s first cultivation test, measuring her Mana Points after six months of practicing the Meditation Method.
  • Rosalyn achieves 6 Mana Points, far exceeding Ivette’s own progress during her first year of cultivation. Although Ivette remains outwardly calm, she is internally astonished by Rosalyn’s extraordinary talent.
  • Ivette declares that Rosalyn has passed and rewards her with a Sky Ring y2, a Magic Guide Terminal capable of storing powerful spells and allowing Rosalyn to cast them through mental commands.
  • Ivette explains the difference between Internal Mana and External Mana, teaching Rosalyn the foundational principles of rune design and magic casting.
  • After spending hours sharing her knowledge, Ivette formally accepts Rosalyn as her disciple. Rosalyn begins calling her “Teacher” instead of “Witch Sister.”

Character Development

  • Rosalyn continues to grow from a dependent child into a disciplined, eager student. Her regular cultivation and willingness to help with daily chores reflect her gratitude and desire to earn her place in Ivette’s life.
  • Her exceptional magical aptitude becomes clear when she reaches six Mana Points in only half a year. She is both anxious about failing and deeply excited by the opportunity to learn.
  • Ivette gradually shifts from treating Rosalyn as someone under her protection to recognizing her as a genuine student. She shares knowledge she has guarded for centuries and gives Rosalyn a magical tool for self-defense.
  • Ivette is visibly affected by Rosalyn’s talent, though she hides her surprise behind her usual calm expression. She also begins questioning whether Rosalyn’s abilities are connected to the Radiant Continent’s higher magical environment.

Significant Themes

  • Reciprocity and gratitude: Rosalyn’s cooking and household work symbolize her attempt to repay Ivette’s enormous generosity, even though she feels her contributions are small.
  • Mentorship and inheritance: Ivette passes on her accumulated knowledge, marking the beginning of a formal teacher-student relationship.
  • Hidden potential: Rosalyn’s rapid cultivation suggests extraordinary innate talent and raises questions about the differences between worlds and their magical systems.
  • Protection and independence: The Sky Ring represents Ivette’s wish for Rosalyn to defend herself even when her teacher is absent.
  • The contrast between appearance and reality: Ivette appears detached and emotionless during the test, causing Rosalyn to fear failure, while internally she is overwhelmed by Rosalyn’s remarkable achievement.

Character Interactions

  • Rosalyn serves Ivette breakfast and quietly supports the Witch’s experiments and household projects, while also worrying about the animals that may be harmed by the Electric Net.
  • During the test, Rosalyn anxiously watches Ivette for signs of approval, while Ivette deliberately maintains a neutral expression.
  • Ivette reassures Rosalyn that her limited mana will still be enough to use the Sky Ring because properly designed rune arrays can multiply the effectiveness of Internal Mana.
  • Their extended lesson reveals a shared enthusiasm for magical knowledge: Ivette enjoys teaching, while Rosalyn responds with admiration and eagerness.
  • The chapter ends with Ivette accepting Rosalyn as her disciple, and Rosalyn respectfully calling her “Teacher” as the rain clears.

Ch. 16Beaten Up by a Chicken

Chapter Summary: “Beaten Up by a Chicken”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Two years after Rosaline’s arrival, she is now twelve, taller, more mature, and increasingly independent. Using the Sky Ring y2 upgraded by Ivette, she can explore areas near the manor without constant supervision.
  • Rosaline visits a hidden nest where she regularly steals eggs from wild chickens. This time, she encounters a grotesquely mutated chicken nearly her own size.
  • The Mutant chicken attacks, but Rosaline calmly uses wind magic to evade it, ice bullets to freeze it, and fire magic to destroy it.
  • Feeling lonely and nostalgic because the chicken had been a familiar adversary, Rosaline mourns it—only to be attacked by another hen, presumably the first chicken’s companion. The title’s joke comes from Rosaline being “beaten up by a chicken.”
  • When she returns home disheveled, Ivette asks whether she crossed the safe boundary. Rosaline instead admits that she was beaten by a chicken. Ivette reacts with silent disbelief but later enjoys the fried eggs Rosaline prepared.
  • Ivette then takes Rosaline to investigate a strange patch of mist in a ruined building in the Blackwater District.
  • Ivette suspects the mist is connected to the Dream Mist she encountered centuries earlier in the Abyss Base. Rosaline can enter it safely, while Ivette immediately becomes overwhelmingly drowsy.
  • After traveling by an upgraded flying Magitech Motorcycle and carefully securing the area against Mutants, Ivette enters the mist and falls asleep, instructing Rosaline to guard her.

Character Development

  • Rosaline has grown physically and emotionally over the two-year period. She is more capable with magic, able to defeat a dangerous Mutant independently, and is trusted to explore within a designated safe zone.
  • Despite her increasing strength, Rosaline remains emotionally dependent on Ivette and struggles with loneliness. Her sentimental reaction to the chicken reveals her attachment to the few living creatures she encounters.
  • Rosaline also demonstrates responsibility by following Ivette’s exploration rules and protecting her teacher during the Dream Mist investigation.
  • Ivette has become more comfortable allowing Rosaline independence while continuing to act as a cautious protector and mentor. She has established safety boundaries, upgraded Rosaline’s equipment, and relies on her disciple as a partner in dangerous investigations.
  • Ivette’s curiosity about the Dream Mist and her interest in recovering lost technological knowledge show her continuing ambition to understand both magic and pre-apocalyptic technology.

Significant Themes

  • Loneliness and companionship: Rosaline’s sadness over the dead chicken emphasizes her isolation and emotional reliance on Ivette.
  • Growth and independence: Rosaline is becoming a capable young explorer, but her maturity is balanced by her lingering childishness and vulnerability.
  • Danger and preparedness: The Mutant threat leads Ivette to enforce strict boundaries and conduct extensive safety preparations before investigating the mist.
  • Mystery and altered reality: The Dream Mist introduces questions about dreams, dimensional connections, and Rosaline’s unusual relationship to phenomena that affect Ivette but not her.
  • Knowledge as power: Ivette’s desire to recover technological expertise reflects her belief that understanding lost knowledge may determine the future.

Character Interactions

  • Rosaline speaks politely and humorously to the mutated chicken before fighting it, then mourns it after killing it, revealing her emotional attachment to familiar creatures.
  • Ivette questions Rosaline about her messy appearance, and Rosaline awkwardly explains that a chicken defeated her. Ivette’s silent reaction provides comic contrast to Rosaline’s seriousness.
  • Ivette and Rosaline work together as an expedition team: Ivette handles transportation, planning, and magical investigation, while Rosaline scouts the mist and is assigned to guard Ivette’s body.
  • The chapter ends with Ivette entrusting Rosaline with an important responsibility as she falls asleep inside the mysterious mist.

Ch. 17Malicious Crime Duo

Chapter Summary: “Malicious Crime Duo”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette awakens in a rain-soaked futuristic alley in the pre-apocalypse Blackwater District, surrounded by holographic advertisements, neon-lit buildings, magical technology, and mechanical debris.
  • Rosaline enters the dream after touching Ivette, confirming Ivette’s suspicion that physical contact with her allows others to access the dream world.
  • Ivette discovers that ordinary people appear transparent and blurry to her, suggesting that she can perceive the dream’s inhabitants as unreal or fundamentally different from true beings. Rosaline, however, sees them normally.
  • Realizing they need legal identities to survive, Ivette and Rosaline deliberately attract three predatory young men. When the men attempt to assault them, Ivette kills them instantly with wind blades.
  • Rosaline burns the bodies, adapting surprisingly quickly to the violence. Together, they become an effective, morally ruthless criminal partnership.
  • Ivette uses a public service terminal and the Furnace Ring to hack the local police database and create false identities: “Ivette Shien” and “Rosaline Lochvia.”
  • She also attempts to steal the men’s money. Unable to break through the bank’s security, she sells their digital assets and earns just over 6,000 credits—enough for a month in a cheap hotel.
  • At the hotel, Ivette carefully checks for surveillance devices before allowing Rosaline to bathe, showing her caution and protectiveness.
  • Rosaline becomes captivated by the futuristic cityscape, viewing the technologically advanced Origin Civilization as almost divine. Ivette describes it instead as belonging to an “evil god.”
  • Ivette promises to take Rosaline sightseeing the next day, but Rosaline is too excited by the new world to sleep.

Character Developments

  • Ivette: Demonstrates practical intelligence, adaptability, ruthlessness, and technical skill. She quickly analyzes the dream’s rules, exploits dangerous people for identification documents, hacks official systems, and plans to acquire more secure identities later. Her concern over encountering her pre-apocalypse self reveals her awareness of her past and her desire to avoid disrupting the situation.
  • Rosaline: Shows curiosity and awe toward the futuristic world. Although initially frightened by Ivette’s sudden killing, she quickly recovers and helps dispose of the bodies, revealing an emerging capacity for violence and cooperation. Her shy reaction to sharing Ivette’s surname reflects her unfamiliarity with modern social customs.
  • Their partnership: Their relationship shifts from teacher and student into a highly efficient criminal duo. Ivette provides strategy and lethal force, while Rosaline assists with practical tasks and adapts to the new moral environment.

Significant Themes

  • Dream and reality: The chapter explores uncertainty about what is real, with Ivette perceiving dream inhabitants as blurry or transparent while Rosaline sees them normally.
  • Adaptation to unfamiliar worlds: Both characters must quickly learn the rules of a technologically advanced society, including identification, money, surveillance, and digital systems.
  • Moral flexibility and survival: Ivette treats murder, identity theft, and hacking as necessary tools for survival. Rosaline’s rapid adjustment suggests how extreme circumstances can normalize violence.
  • Civilizational contrast: Rosaline’s medieval worldview clashes with the futuristic Origin Civilization, which appears miraculous or godlike to her but corrupt and threatening to Ivette.
  • Protection and control: Ivette’s inspection of the hotel room and concern about false identities show her protective instincts, while her secrecy about her past demonstrates her need to control risks.

Important Character Interactions

  • Ivette explains the dream’s rules to Rosaline and tests her perception of the inhabitants.
  • Ivette kills the three attackers while Rosaline witnesses the brutality and later burns their bodies.
  • Ivette creates new identities for both of them, unintentionally making Rosaline shy by giving her the surname “Lochvia.”
  • Rosaline expresses wonder at the futuristic city, while Ivette offers a darker interpretation of the civilization.
  • Ivette promises Rosaline a tour, strengthening their bond and giving Rosaline something to anticipate despite the dangerous circumstances.

Ch. 18Cyber Mage

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

  • Before dawn, Rosaline wakes Ivette after lying beside her bed since around 4 a.m. because she could not sleep. Ivette reprimands her gently and reminds her not to sleep by the bed again.
  • A mechanical puppet delivery doll arrives with the clothes Ivette ordered online. Rosaline is astonished that a lifeless, humanlike machine can speak and move. Ivette explains that it is a magic-powered construct without a soul.
  • After changing into their new outfits, Ivette and Rosaline explore the city. Rosaline is fascinated by everything, including the grimy streets and ordinary breakfast stalls, because the unfamiliar world feels like an adventure.
  • Ivette explains that their immediate goal is to find a way to earn money. She intends to remain inconspicuous in Dream Mist until the dream collapses, while using the money to acquire a safer identity and address her legal troubles involving murder and police-system hacking.
  • Ivette has researched local underground markets and chooses to investigate the Junkyard Black Market in Blackwater District. She plans to visit the city center with Rosaline later that night.
  • The pair travel by bus to a garbage-station-turned-air-raid-shelter that houses the black market. Two heavily built cybernetically enhanced guards initially dismiss them as lost children.
  • To prove their status and force the guards to take them seriously, Ivette summons four enormous fire dragons through crimson rune rings. The guards recognize her as a Cyber Mage, also known as a Rune Hacker, and become immediately wary and respectful.
  • Ivette states that she and Rosaline want to conduct business but lack a guarantor. The guards, unwilling to make the decision themselves, agree to contact their boss.

Character Development

  • Rosaline remains energetic, innocent, and intensely curious. Her sleepless excitement shows how captivated she is by the “ancient divine realm,” while her fear and wonder at the delivery puppet emphasize her unfamiliarity with modern technology.
  • Rosaline also begins adapting quickly to the unfamiliar city. She is not bothered by its dirt and eagerly treats the experience as tourism, demonstrating optimism and resilience.
  • Ivette continues to act as Rosaline’s stern but protective teacher. She corrects Rosaline’s clingy behavior while still caring for her needs, ordering clothes and planning an enjoyable outing.
  • Ivette reveals herself as practical and strategically cautious. Her priority is to avoid attention, secure money, obtain a legitimate identity, and survive until Dream Mist ends.
  • Ivette also demonstrates the immense power and reputation of a Cyber Mage. Rather than explaining or arguing with the guards, she uses a controlled display of magic to establish authority immediately.

Significant Themes

  • Wonder versus familiarity: Rosaline views advanced technology as magical, while Ivette understands it through the world’s established systems. The mechanical puppet highlights how different cultures interpret the same phenomenon.
  • Survival and concealment: Ivette’s plan to “lie low” reflects the danger of Dream Mist and her need to manage both supernatural uncertainty and real criminal accusations.
  • Power and social status: The guards’ contempt disappears as soon as Ivette reveals her magic. Her identity as a Cyber Mage grants her influence even in a hostile criminal marketplace.
  • Technology and magic merging: Mechanical puppets, cybernetic limbs, holographic advertisements, and rune-based fire dragons all coexist, establishing a world where advanced technology functions alongside magic.
  • Teacher-student relationship: Rosaline’s dependence and admiration contrast with Ivette’s disciplined guidance, creating a bond that combines affection, responsibility, and occasional exasperation.

Character Interactions

  • Rosaline’s affectionate greeting and habit of watching Ivette sleep lead to a mildly humorous reprimand, reinforcing their close but unequal relationship.
  • Ivette patiently explains modern magical technology to Rosaline after the delivery, acting as both teacher and interpreter of the new world.
  • During their outing, Rosaline enthusiastically questions Ivette about their plans, while Ivette balances her student’s excitement against practical concerns.
  • At the black market entrance, Ivette’s calm confrontation with the guards contrasts with their dismissive hostility. Her magical display reverses the power dynamic, forcing them to recognize her authority and seek permission from their superior.

Ch. 19Hardcore Benchmarking

Chapter Summary: “Hardcore Benchmarking”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Ivette and Rosaline meet Welder, the giant leader of an underground market in Blackwater District. Welder appears to be a genuine Cyber Mage, equipped with four Magic Guide Terminals and a heavily enhanced body.
  • Ivette negotiates for:
    • Secure new identity cards
    • Rune-related professional books
    • A market stall to sell original Restricted Spells
    • Potential Rune Compilation commissions
  • Welder agrees to help obtain the identity cards but explains that pirated rune textbooks are too dangerous to trade because of the powerful corporations’ strict intellectual-property protections. Ivette is shocked to discover that even the black market avoids pirated magical knowledge.
  • Welder offers to introduce Ivette to potential buyers of her spells and lowers his commission from twenty percent to ten percent.
  • To prove her abilities, Ivette submits her original spell, Arcane Wind Blade YH47254, for evaluation in a Spell Simulator.
  • The simulator begins testing the spell’s efficiency. Its first category, Rune Quality, receives an S-rank, astonishing Welder, his guards, and Rosaline.

Character Developments

  • Ivette demonstrates confidence and composure in negotiations, though internally she is anxious about her unfamiliarity with formal spell testing. She remains highly pragmatic, eager to earn money to fund her research and future purchases.
  • Ivette’s extensive experience with rune design becomes evident despite her lack of formal training. Her spell earns an elite rating even though she considers it less refined than her other creations.
  • Welder is established as a cautious but fair underground leader and an inexperienced Rune Compiler. He recognizes Ivette’s unusual presence and skill, initially suspecting she may be an older mage using an Eternal Youth elixir.
  • Welder’s respect for Ivette increases after she demonstrates both confidence and technical ability.
  • Rosaline continues learning from Ivette. She is curious about the market and the testing process but imitates Ivette’s detached demeanor when confronted by unsavory people.

Significant Themes

  • Power and perception: Physical strength, wealth, experience, and personal presence all carry different forms of authority. Welder recognizes that Ivette’s calm demeanor suggests hidden depth.
  • Corporate control and intellectual property: Corporations strictly control rune knowledge, making even books more heavily guarded than illegal weapons. The chapter satirizes monopolistic corporate power and the enormous cost of knowledge.
  • Practical survival and commerce: Ivette must monetize her magical abilities rather than rely solely on her knowledge. The underground market becomes her first step toward financial independence.
  • Expertise versus formal training: Although Ivette is self-taught in the current era, her centuries of experience with rune design allow her to compete with formally trained mages.
  • Benchmarking and perfectionism: The Spell Simulator introduces a technical, almost industrial approach to judging magic. Ivette’s nervousness reflects the tension between genuine mastery and unfamiliar institutional standards.

Character Interactions

  • Welder politely questions Ivette’s identity and business intentions, while Ivette answers with controlled honesty and negotiates without intimidation.
  • Ivette warns Rosaline not to drink the suspicious coffee, showing her caution and protectiveness.
  • Rosaline asks Welder to explain rune redundancy and quality rankings, turning the meeting into an informal lesson.
  • Welder explains that garbage runes reduce casting efficiency and that spells are ranked from S to J according to their relative quality.
  • When Ivette’s spell earns an S-rank, the guards gather to watch, and Welder is visibly impressed. He concludes that Ivette is likely an obsessive perfectionist, unaware that her true advantage comes from centuries of experience.

Ch. 20The More You Buy, the More You Earn

Chapter Summary: “The More You Buy, the More You Earn”

Key Plot Points and Events

  • Welder evaluates Ivette’s spell, Arcane Wind Blade, using several performance categories:
    • Rune Quality: S-grade
    • Stability: A-grade
    • Mana Consumption Ratio: S-grade
    • Security Protection: J-grade
  • The spell’s extremely low security rating results from Ivette forgetting to include firewall and anti-hijacking functions. Despite its otherwise exceptional quality, this lowers the overall rating to A-.
  • Welder decides this weakness is beneficial for his customers, who lack the skill to hijack spells anyway. Ivette agrees to let him sell it at B-grade prices, causing Welder to become excited about the profit potential.
  • Additional tests reveal that Arcane Wind Blade is a “stat monster,” excelling in penetration, range, coverage, firing speed, and other combat-related traits.
  • The spell must undergo encrypted packaging before sale. Since Ivette cannot afford the service, Welder advances the cost. He buys two packaged copies himself for a total of 100,000 credits.
  • After the transaction, Ivette’s funds rise to 77,800 credits, though she remains far short of the 500,000 credits needed for Elemental Decay Completion Technology.
  • As Ivette and Rosaline leave, Welder explains the history of the air-raid shelter and discusses the Silent War, the conflict between the Corporate Alliance and Global International.
  • Ivette becomes interested in the war’s unexplained ending and considers investigating it while remaining in the dream.

Character Developments

  • Ivette: Demonstrates extraordinary Rune Compilation talent, producing a spell with near-perfect technical performance despite her careless omission of security features. Her lack of money remains a major obstacle, but she begins accumulating resources. Her questions about the Silent War reveal growing curiosity about the world’s hidden history.
  • Welder: Moves from skepticism to astonishment and then to enthusiastic business planning. He recognizes Arcane Wind Blade as an unprecedented opportunity and begins imagining how buying and selling it could revive his ambitions.
  • Rosaline: Remains completely confident in Ivette’s work, treating the exceptional results as inevitable because the spell was made by her teacher. Her pride in being Ivette’s sole student is emphasized.
  • Welder’s gang members: Though unable to understand the technical details, they recognize from Welder’s reaction that the spell is extraordinarily valuable.

Significant Themes

  • Exceptional talent mixed with practical carelessness: Ivette’s spell achieves elite performance in core areas but suffers from a basic security omission, showing that brilliance does not guarantee completeness.
  • Value versus technical quality: The spell’s official rating does not reflect its true combat potential. Welder’s willingness to sell an A-grade spell at B-grade prices highlights the difference between objective quality and market usefulness.
  • Commerce and ambition: Welder’s excitement illustrates how technological breakthroughs can reignite buried hopes and create opportunities in an otherwise impoverished environment.
  • History and hidden truth: The unclear conclusion of the Silent War, competing conspiracy theories, and the possible connection to the aberration virus establish a broader mystery surrounding the world’s past.
  • Power of corporations: The Corporate Alliance’s eight super corporations effectively rule the postwar world, while governments such as New Eden have little real authority.

Character Interactions

  • Welder repeatedly glances at Ivette as her spell earns elite scores, trying to determine whether she is truly a master Rune Compiler.
  • Ivette calmly explains and accepts responsibility for the missing security functions, while Welder views the flaw as commercially advantageous.
  • Welder offers to reduce the spell’s selling price despite its high performance, and Ivette agrees without concern.
  • Because Ivette lacks sufficient funds, she asks Welder to pay for the encryption service in advance; he complies and purchases copies for himself.
  • During their walk through the shelter, Welder shares his memories of the Silent War with Ivette and Rosaline.
  • Rosaline actively questions him about the Corporate Alliance and the war’s conclusion, prompting Ivette to consider researching the conflict further.
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