Chapter Summaries

Murphy learned that Femis faced the Blood Oath Knights and ordered her to join the Witch Hunters in an assault on the Blood Vulture Corridor. After absorbing Jade’s blood essence, he watched Meow Brother’s nature ritual and felt a vast presence descend just as the player declared it had worked.

• Murphy assigned Bonnie to protect Triss and accepted five of Lady Adele’s six vampire hearts, asking her what she wished for.
• Lady Adele asked Murphy to stop treating Femis as an enemy, and Murphy explained that the Blood Oath Knights posed a deadly threat to her.
• Murphy ordered Femis and Lady Adele to join the Witch Hunters and destroy the Blood Vulture Corridor within three days, then left them to decide.
• Murphy watched Meow Brother and his crew prepare a nature ritual while Lady Femis walked away alone, asking Adele not to follow.
• Murphy absorbed Jade’s blood essence and gained enhanced vampire abilities, carrion-crow summoning, and improved swordsmanship.
• Meow Brother performed the ritual and called on Avalon, whereupon Murphy sensed a vast presence and Meow Brother excitedly claimed success.

Meow Brother became the first player to change careers, gaining the Avalon Church’s Oak Apprentice class and several nature-based abilities. Murphy then brought Triss and Femis to meet the Witch Hunters, where Triss recognized their old knight Lawson as someone she had spared more than a century earlier.

• Murphy watched Avalon answer Meow Brother’s flawed ritual and begin changing his psionic nature and attributes.
• Meow Brother accepted the Oak Apprentice career, gained three talents and four skills, and discovered that Avalon punished him for insulting the god.
• Meow Brother’s brothers declined to change careers, while Meow Brother worried that joining Avalon’s church could prevent him from becoming a vampire.
• Murphy escorted Triss, Femis, and Adele to the Witch Hunters’ gathering, where Captain Natalie reacted warily and Mirian welcomed Murphy.
• Triss recognized the old knight Lawson, who revealed that she had nearly killed him more than a hundred years earlier, and she taunted him for returning to challenge her.

Murphy and the others learned how Triss and Sir Finok met during the disastrous Saints’ Expedition and uncovered the truth behind the Seed of Life and the Oak Holy Blades. Sir Finok challenged Murphy’s proposed alliance against Salokdar, and Murphy insisted he had no loyalty to the patriarch who had experimented on Triss.

• Sir Finok recounted how the Avalon Church sent five hundred martyrs to reclaim the Seed of Life from the Blood Eagle Clan, and Triss explained that she spared Finok by banishing him from the battle.
• Triss revealed that the Seed of Life had no known power and that the Church’s account of its wonders was propaganda, which Sir Finok confirmed.
• Triss touched the Oak Holy Blade Watcher without being attacked, and Sir Finok explained that the blades had their own reasons to tolerate her.
• Captain Natalie struggled to accept that her Church’s celebrated history was misleading and that a holy blade could speak with Triss.
• Sir Finok rejected Murphy’s offer of cooperation, warning that it meant helping kill his own patriarch, and Murphy declared that he considered Triss his only patriarch and wanted Salokdar dead.

Murphy negotiated with Finnock and Natalie to prepare for an assault on the Blood Eagle Corridor, recruiting Avalon’s help to train his summoned warriors. As the group prepared to confront Salokdar, Femis chose to remain with Murphy and gave him the material for a tombstone crest.

• Finnock explained that the Winter Wolf Legion’s advance had delayed the Blood Oath Knights, giving Murphy more time to prepare to target Salokdar.
• Murphy arranged for Triss and Mirian to remain at Cadman City while his warriors received training in natural spirit energy and potentially joined the Avalon Church.
• Natalie demanded that Murphy’s warriors join the Old Church, and Murphy agreed as long as they were not forced to accept its doctrines.
• Triss urged Murphy to consider offering the Witch Hunters a home, but Murphy postponed that possibility until after the Blood Eagle Corridor operation.
• Femis decided to confront Salokdar about her family’s past, gave Murphy ebony stone for a tombstone crest, and thanked him for accepting her into his future territory.

Murphy prepared for the coming assault on the Blood Eagle Corridor by advancing his class, recruiting players, and announcing a major game update. The update drew in new testers, while strange deliveries and security measures left Orchid and Cement Heart wondering what Alpha was capable of.

• Murphy prepared his tomb insignia and class advancement, recruited twenty new players, and posted the Alpha 1.1 update announcement.
• The announcement introduced faction reputations, new classes, achievements, and a large-scale Blood Eagle Corridor test dungeon scheduled to begin in two days.
• Ashina Female Sword Saint told Lumina Sunscar she had received a testing slot and described how outsiders who tried to hack the game URL suffered computer failures.
• Deadly Orchid revealed that a black game helmet had arrived for her, then found herself holding it at an Antarctic expedition camp.
• Cement Heart inspected a damaged tracking device displaying a 404 page and wondered what Alpha was capable of.

After recovering from his Trial of Strength, Maxim received Jade’s sword and armor from Murphy, who prepared to make him a Tomb Guard after his First Embrace. The pair searched Cadman City’s sewers for a death-saturated place to craft Murphy’s badge, where they found the remains of civilians and learned that the city’s tunnels could become a vast ghoul nest.

• Maxim woke mostly healed, and Murphy gave him Jade’s ceremonial blade after settling their conflict with Jade and Mark.
• Murphy told Maxim that he would delay his transformation until they reached the Blood Vulture Corridor and resolved the weakness in Maxim’s bloodline.
• Murphy invited Maxim to help make a Tomb Guard badge, and Maxim dressed in Jade’s combat leathers before joining him.
• Murphy and Maxim entered Cadman City’s sewers to find concentrated deathly energy, ignoring Maxim’s objection that the tunnels were filthy.
• They discovered nearly a hundred dead civilians and determined that a monster had killed them before leaving at least three days earlier.
• Murphy warned that the deaths across the city’s sewers could spawn at least ten thousand ghouls and create a vast den of evil beneath their territory.

Murphy and Maxim cleared vengeful spirits from an underground chamber so Murphy could complete his Tomb Swordsman advancement. After binding the new tomb badge and gaining powerful death-based abilities, Murphy burned the corpses and hoped the dead would someday find peace.

• Maxim warned Murphy that the ghoul nest beneath Cadman City and other undead threats made the area dangerous, but Murphy chose to deal with the chamber first.
• Murphy and Maxim fought and killed nearly a hundred vengeful spirits, filling the ebony stone with death essence.
• Murphy shaped the stone into a diamond, bound it with his blood, and advanced from Blood Vulture Swordsman to Tomb Swordsman.
• Murphy gained Death Assault, Death's Call, Essence Devouring, and Death Enhancement, then used Death Enhancement to create his Death Grip technique.
• Maxim burned the corpses as Murphy wished the dead peace and hoped the ruined city would one day be rebuilt.

Murphy redirected Sister Pomegranate from scavenging to Witch Hunter training by giving her a hidden quest, then joined Maxim at the defensive line. There, Sister Pomegranate met Lumina, Ashin, and Orchid, while veteran players introduced the new arrivals to scavenging and camp routines.

• Murphy emerged from Cadman City's sewers with Maxim and gave Sister Pomegranate a letter of recommendation and a hidden quest to train at the Witch Hunter camp.
• Sister Pomegranate learned that all 16 first-batch testers had received the same quest, then told Lumina she had seen Murphy climb out of the sewer and had taken a picture.
• Murphy overheard Sister Pomegranate's chat and threatened to punish her if she posted the picture on the forum.
• Sister Pomegranate met Lumina, Ashin, and Orchid near the defensive line, and they discussed their backgrounds and plans to join the game group's circle.
• Kachitoni Ta and Muddy Road Oil briefed the 18 new players, directing them to scavenge ruins for starting funds while Kachitoni Ta warned them not to touch his gear or break camp rules.

Meow Brother visited the Witch Hunter camp, discovered he had earned a server-first achievement, and met players choosing classes and gear. Sister Pomegranate’s group received a quest from Triss, while Niu Niu accepted Amber’s offer to join an expedition to Morland Village.

• Meow Brother found new players searching Cadman City for quests and went to the Witch Hunter camp to turn in his hidden quest.
• Meow Brother gave Ashina a revolver to apologize, then learned about the achievement system and found he had earned the server-first title for opening Avalon's Lost Church faction.
• Sister Pomegranate led Lumina, Ashina, and Orchid toward the sewers to explore and practice their combat skills.
• Triss’s three-eyed crow summoned Lumina to receive a quest, and Sister Pomegranate suspected that NPC relationships could grant players a Warrior title.
• Sister Pomegranate advised her cousin Niu Niu to build his reputation with important Witch Hunter NPCs, and Niu Niu agreed to accompany Amber to Morland Village to deal with a ghoul nest.

Triss recruited Lumina and her companions to retrieve a sample from the Bloodhawk Sacred Blood Pool and Salokdar’s blood, hoping to use them to grant the players vampire-like powers. Lumina accepted the dangerous quest, and her team began preparing for the operation while Triss wondered whether they were ready.

• Lumina and her companions visited Triss, who explained that she was researching a way to transform the players’ psionic projections into vampire-like beings using the Sacred Blood Pool.
• Triss tasked Lumina’s group with obtaining a pool sample and Salokdar’s blood, gave them special bullets called Vampire’s Lament, and started the Champion of Cavendina questline.
• Lumina accepted the quest, which gave the group two days to prepare before the operation against the wounded grand duke and his forces.
• Sister Pomegranate planned to level up the team, improve their equipment, and recruit Meow Brother, while Lumina said she would visit the inner city about her class change.
• Triss worried that the rookies might not manage the mission, then called Weber over to help her find supplies outside the city.

Lumina and her companions searched Cadman City's ruined inner district for the old performer Madam Triss had described. After Lumina played music that let the skeleton dance and rest, she received a Bard class-change prompt and learned that Niss's music box was buried nearby.

• Lumina, Meow Brother, Little Ashina, Lan Hua, and Sister Pomegranate crossed into the devastated inner district and headed for the cemetery instead of the vanished Blood Fang bar.
• Meow Brother sensed danger ahead, and the group found restless skeletons in the cemetery and fought through them.
• Sister Pomegranate spotted a skeleton carrying a golden saxophone, and Lumina played tunes that let the skeleton dance and quieted the surrounding dead.
• The dancing skeleton turned to dust after her final performance, leaving a rusted key behind, and the other skeletons collapsed as their curse ended.
• Lumina received a prompt to change her secondary class to Bard and identified the key as belonging to Niss's buried music box.
• Little Ashina produced shovels, and the group prepared to dig up Niss's grave.

The players, Witch Hunters, and Murphy’s forces prepared to attack Blood Eagle Corridor, while Murphy committed to protecting Triss and securing his territory. He gave Maxim a secret mission to detonate the corridor’s self-destruct device during the assault as he planned to build a growing army of players.

• Banzai Happy Stick and the other players planned to hold the corridor’s second hall with militia support while an elite team entered through a cavern passage to reach Salokdar.
• Maxim offered the Cadman Self-Defense Army and survivor-camp guards for the operation, and Murphy ordered him to put the militiamen at the Witch Hunters’ disposal.
• Murphy rejected Maxim’s suggestion that they betray Triss, saying they had to fight to protect their people and claim the territory they sought.
• Murphy told Maxim to go with Adele to the corridor’s self-destruct device and activate it at a critical moment, keeping their cooperation with the Witch Hunters secret.
• Murphy trained in the Blood Eagle wing techniques and considered how taking Transia could let him recruit an enormous army of players.

On the eve of the assault on the Blood Eagle Corridor, Fennok gave Natalie a pair of Blessed Holy Blades and warned her that Murphy was a dangerous force whose followers needed watching. Their talk turned into a painful confrontation over Fennok’s long absence, leaving Natalie to depart for battle while Fennok prayed for her safety.

• Fennok lent Natalie the paired blades Guard and Retribution, which he had forged during the Fourth Black Calamity, to replace her confiscated sword.
• Natalie warned that Murphy could become a greater threat than the Blood Eagles, and Fennok agreed that Murphy’s influence over the survivors made him dangerous.
• Fennok assigned Natalie and her squad to monitor Murphy’s servants, especially Maxim, during the operation in the Blood Eagle Corridor.
• Fennok told Natalie that the White Oak Warband had only 1,419 members left and that she might need to lead them if anything happened to him.
• Natalie accused Fennok of abandoning her and her mother, rejected his hopes for her future, and left to prepare for battle.
• Fennok prayed that Avalon would protect Natalie through the coming storm.

The players and Cadman Self-Defense Army gathered to enter a dangerous dungeon and reclaim Cadman City, while Murphy’s quest warned that failure would wipe out the survivor camp and restart the server. As the force marched toward the Blood Eagle Corridor, Meow Brother’s group discussed the importance of coordination and considered turning their in-game reputation and gear into a mercenary business.

• Happy Stick’s sewer raid had leveled many third-wave players and recovered enough firearms to equip the group for the dungeon.
• Chen Dian Niu Niu, Kachi Tony Tai, and Mudigeludayou discussed their gear and quests, while Lumina explained her Bard class and Little Ashina showed off her pistols.
• Murphy rallied the players and issued a quest to clear the Blood Eagle Corridor and kill Salokdar, warning that failure would wipe out the survivor camp and restart the server.
• Meow Brother and the other players weighed how to preserve their limited manpower, with Old Qu and Jie Chong arguing that team cohesion mattered more than recruiting many players.
• Show-Off-Without-Hands urged Meow Brother to build a small mercenary outfit by trading valuable gear, claiming the business could make more money than Meow Brother’s company.

Murphy led the players and Witch Hunters into the Blood Eagle Corridor to reach the clan’s sacred grounds, where they encountered activated guardian constructs. After revealing the corridor’s achievement challenges and defeating a group of constructs, Murphy prepared to face a tougher core construct controlled from the watch room.

• Murphy and the others descended into the Blood Eagle Corridor after the Witch Hunters warned them that astral manticores remained below.
• The young lady, Murphy, and Adele opened the sealed corridor doors with the Grand Duke’s Seal and the Shard of Desire.
• Murphy triggered the corridor’s achievement list and copied most of its challenges to the players’ interfaces.
• Gargoyles and humanoid constructs attacked the group, and the players drew them toward Murphy, who destroyed several with his powers.
• Femis reported that she had captured the Black Iron rank core construct in the watch room, and Murphy told her to wait for his signal before sending it down.

Murphy used the players to clear the Second Hall while he pushed the Witch Hunters toward the deeper corridor, where he and Finnock stumbled into an astral manticore. After the players defeated the gargoyle commander and faced a final ambush, Femis began considering choosing warriors of her own.

• Murphy’s players cleared the constructs and collected rare cores while the Witch Hunters watched, then Murphy had Femis drop the gargoyle commander into the Second Hall and pretended to retreat.
• Happy Stick organized the players for their first boss fight as Murphy told Femis to send in more gargoyles to test them.
• Femis warned Murphy that far fewer survivors remained in the corridor than expected and suspected a dangerous presence had slaughtered many of them.
• Murphy left the players to fight and led the Witch Hunters deeper into the corridor, while Natalie’s team took a different route.
• Murphy and Finnock broke through a hidden wall and found an astral manticore waiting in a cavern, forcing Murphy to prepare to fight it.
• The players battered the gargoyle commander, then faced six more gargoyles at once; Femis left the security room considering which warriors she might choose.

Happy Stick's group cleared the Second Hall's gargoyle boss, then learned to support the Witch Hunters by luring Blood Vulture vampires into their ambushes. After A-Cha, Car, and Gugu Chicken were cornered, a powerful masked NPC rescued them and led them to a hidden room, where they found a crowd of people.

• Happy Stick's group defeated the gargoyle boss, but seven players died when its final phase overwhelmed them.
• Good Pigeon discovered a control switch, and the players activated the dungeon's gargoyle constructs as temporary followers.
• After elite vampires ambushed them, Happy Stick decided the players should lure enemies to the Witch Hunters, and the strategy helped the allied forces advance.
• A-Cha, Car, and Gugu Chicken retreated from three pursuing vampires but were rescued by a hulking masked NPC who called himself a Blood Vulture Protector of the People.
• The NPC led the three players through hidden passages to a locked room, where they opened the door and saw many people inside.

A-Cha’s report revealed that Blood Eagle tribune Kudel had sheltered at least fifteen hundred civilians beneath the Gallery, so Murphy sent Femis to lead them out. Femis found Kudel still guarding the survivors but too corrupted by astral energy to trust her, and she prepared to force a way past him.

• A-Cha and the other players discovered a crowded underground shelter and estimated that it held at least fifteen hundred civilians.
• Murphy defeated an Astral Mother Manticore, then learned from A-Cha that Kudel had gathered the survivors and killed the deranged vampires in the Gallery.
• Murphy told Femis that Kudel was alive and ordered her to escort the civilians out while he and Finok continued through the underground river.
• Femis led the players toward the warehouse, where they passed the stone bodies of slain vampires and found Kudel guarding the survivors.
• Femis tried to explain that the Astral Rift had closed and that she had come to help, but Kudel refused to let anyone approach the civilians.
• Femis ordered the players to prepare to force their way through and raised her staff against Kudel.

Femis and the players defeated Kudell but stopped attacking when civilians emerged to protect him. The survivors agreed to evacuate under Murphy’s leadership, while the players complained that their limited playtime was ending.

• Happy Stick’s players used vampire statues and broken pillars to survive Kudell’s attacks and wear him down.
• Civilians rushed from the warehouse and shielded the weakened Kudell, prompting Femis to stop the players’ attack.
• Femis announced that Murphy had established a survivor camp, and the survivors’ representative agreed to accept his leadership after recalling Murphy’s kindness at a relief station.
• Femis offered the warehouse supplies as rewards for helping evacuate the survivors, and the players accepted the quest.
• Good Pigeon, Happy Stick, and Meow Brother urged the players to complain on the forums about the game’s six-hour daily time limit.

Murphy and Finoc cleared an ancient ghost camp beneath Blood Vulture Corridor, then shared a meal and spoke candidly about their pasts, Finoc’s family, and the Witch Hunters’ future. Finoc warned Murphy that the Ten-Year War concealed a much larger danger and urged him to tell Triss while avoiding further investigation.

• Murphy and Finoc finished clearing the ghost camp and discussed the ancient ruins beneath Blood Vulture Corridor.
• Murphy and Finoc rested by a campfire, where Murphy recalled how Triss had saved him and Finoc revealed that Natalie was his daughter.
• Murphy invited Finoc and the Witch Hunters to settle in Transia, but Finoc rejected the idea of choosing between Murphy’s offer and the king’s pardon.
• Finoc warned Murphy that the alliance behind the Ten-Year War hid deeper forces and told him to inform Triss without spreading the warning or investigating further.