Chapter Summaries

Triss rescued Murphy from Grand Duchess Shani, who had come to seize him over her descendant, the White Mountain Earl. After Triss and Shani uncovered the history behind the Cold Moon Coup and Grand Duchess Sophie’s fate, they agreed to discuss urgent matters between their clans and kingdoms at the Blood Eagle Gallery.

• Triss answered Murphy’s urgent call and pulled him away from Shani’s attacks with a spatial psionic spell.
• Triss and Shani traded accusations, then Shani introduced herself as a descendant of Hero King Boris and explained her personal grudge against Murphy over the White Mountain Earl.
• Triss deduced that Shani had orchestrated the Cold Moon Coup and challenged her for bringing Nordtov under her control.
• Triss revealed that Sophie had loved the second ruler of the Rurik Dynasty, correcting Shani’s belief that Sophie’s male lovers had been her true partners.
• Murphy explained that the White Mountain Earl was safe and invited Shani to discuss business with the Blood Eagle Clan.
• Triss opened a portal to the Blood Eagle Gallery, and Shani accepted her invitation to stay; Murphy decided to use the visit to promote new player testing slots.

Grand Duchess Shani visited Scarlet Castle, where the players’ unruly attention earned them a temporary debuff before she met with Triss and Murphy. Shani demanded Transian territory in exchange for aid, but Murphy and Triss rejected her terms and warned that Transia would resist coercion.

• The players received a server-wide notice that Grand Duchess Shani had arrived at Scarlet Castle, and Kaqi Toni and Ni Geilu Dayou went to see her.
• Shani toured the Blood Eagle Corridor with Triss and Murphy, then used her power to briefly dizzy the players and give them a three-hour “Letch” debuff.
• Shani told Murphy that only four thousand of the six thousand captured blood thralls remained and questioned whether the Blood Eagles could manage their return.
• Murphy proposed a long-term food agreement with the Winterwolf Legion, offering southern Transia’s mining region as collateral and requesting the return of the blood thralls.
• Shani demanded control of the Gor Forest, Batasing, and the plain between Krium Fortress and the Filthy Swamp in return for food and warned that Nordtov could take the territory by force.
• Triss and Murphy refused Shani’s territorial demands, cited other powers that would oppose her expansion, and insisted that Transia would not be coerced.

Murphy demanded that Nordtov support Transia’s war against the Black Calamity, then argued that loans and trade would strengthen the Wolf Queen’s reforms and turn Nordtov’s factories into a powerful war economy. Shani returned from the negotiation unsettled, and Andre concluded that Murphy had won because Nordtov needed Transia as both a buffer and a market.

• Murphy rejected any negotiations over Transian territory and demanded the return of six thousand blood thralls, military supplies, continued trade, and his appointment as Governor-General.
• When Shani rejected his demands, Murphy proposed that Nordtov lend Transia money to buy its goods, explaining how orders and trade could strengthen the Wolf Queen’s reformers.
• Murphy insisted that Shani relay his terms to the Wolf Queen, and Shani returned to her lodgings still trying to find a flaw in his argument.
• Shani asked Andre to analyze the negotiation, and he said Murphy’s plan could help Nordtov’s industry but would eventually create pressure to find new markets through war.
• Andre warned that Nordtov needed Transia as a market and security buffer, and told Shani that she had lost the negotiation.

Murphy secured the Wolf Queen’s provisional approval of his four requests for Transia, but Shani gave him three months to defeat the gnoll bandits and bring most of the region under his rule. He accepted the challenge and arranged for Andre to remain in Transia, then asked Shani to stay and make a tour of his territory.

• Players bought the alchemy hut’s upgraded fire oil, while Mud Truck invited Rich Bro to join the camp’s administrative team and train against gnolls.
• Shani told Murphy that the Wolf Queen had approved his requests for Transia, including releasing blood thralls, supplying his army, arranging a loan, and assigning the Thorn Clan to the ore-for-food program.
• Shani set two conditions for Murphy to become governor: he had to eradicate Transia’s gnoll bandits and bring at least 60% of its population under his authority within three months.
• Murphy accepted the conditions and asked Shani’s son Andre and his retainers to remain in Transia and assist him.
• Murphy signed the treaty after reviewing it, then asked Shani to stay longer and tour his territory so his warriors could see the Wolf Queen’s authority represented.

Niu Niu considered leaving the Pioneer Legion camp to return to Transia, despite Amber urging him to abandon Murphy and join the Witch Hunters. Meanwhile, Little Ashina admired Mirian’s Iron Hammer Guard trench gun, but a call from East Prussia revealed that something had happened to the White Oak Warband.

• Sister Pomegranate advised Niu Niu to gather information in East Prussia, but he insisted he would return to Transia after one more day.
• Amber gave Niu Niu a Mind Microphone module that enabled two-way simultaneous translation and tried to persuade him not to return to Murphy.
• Old Porter summoned Amber and Niu Niu to Natalie’s barracks after something happened.
• Murphy accompanied Little Ashina to meet Mirian, where he also discussed a contract with the Kingdom of Nordtov.
• Little Ashina admired Mirian’s Iron Hammer Guard trench gun, and Mirian contacted Major Fraser to ask about its blueprints.
• Mirian ended the call and told Murphy that something seemed to have happened to the White Oak Warband.

General Loren told Major Fraser to report his suspicions about the Tower of Rings to King Louis privately, then asked him to help the White Oak Warband veterans escape before the psychics could take them. Fraser coordinated with Mirian and Murphy, who prepared to receive the veterans and confront the Tower of Rings.

• General Loren warned Fraser that his report's theory linking the Tower of Rings to the subspace rift could put him in danger and offered to tell King Louis privately.
• Loren revealed that the Tower of Rings planned to take custody of the White Oak Warband veterans and arranged for a staged rebellion to let them escape.
• Fraser contacted Mirian and asked her to shelter the Witch Hunters, while Murphy told him to release them before dusk and meet at the Andmar Hills border.
• Fraser spotted a Tower of Rings carriage outside the barracks as Murphy said the Blood Eagle Clan was ready to confront the psychics over the calamity.

Natalie led the surviving White Oak Warband to accept Murphy’s offer of refuge in Transia, while Murphy and the players prepared to escort them and fight the Tower of Rings. The chapter ended as the forces set out for the Andmar Hills and Murphy invited Grand Duchess Xiani to dance at the Crimson Ball.

• Major Fraser explained that the Tower of Rings planned to hunt the Witch Hunters, and urged them to flee to Transia with Murphy’s help.
• Natalie chose to lead the White Oak Warband to Transia, citing her father’s agreement with Murphy and the Avalon followers among his mountain warriors.
• Amber asked Major Fraser for 3,000 mind microphones, and he hinted that she could take them from the warehouse.
• Murphy rallied the players, and a quest appeared to escort the White Oak Warband and fight the Tower of Rings in the Andmar Hills.
• Murphy’s forces used Lady Triss’s teleportation array to head for the battlefield, and Grand Duchess Xiani accepted his invitation to dance at the Crimson Ball.

Niu Niu assembled a player group to escort Amber and the White Oak Warband toward Transia, while the Pioneer Legion quietly let the witch hunters depart. Murphy gathered reinforcements in the Andmar Hills and killed Tower of Rings riders who ordered his troops to withdraw, then faced Triss’s angry threat over his supposed romance with Shani.

• Niu Niu shared his hidden mission to escort the White Oak Warband and recruited a ten-person player group for its dangerous journey to Transia.
• Amber prepared to scout ahead with Niu Niu and fifty elite scouts, while Heru chose to defect from the Tower of Rings and join them.
• Natalie saw Amber off, and the Pioneer Legion’s quartermaster gave her a suit of armor as a farewell gift.
• Murphy gathered players, veterans, and Blood Eagle forces in the Andmar Hills despite Maxim’s concern that their presence might provoke the Tower of Rings.
• Triss seized and killed the Tower of Rings riders who ordered Murphy’s troops to withdraw, then threatened Murphy over his supposed courtship of Shani.

Tower of Rings psions tried to surround and destroy the White Oak Warband, while Murphy’s allies attacked their forces from the rear. The Warband split up to escape, and the chapter left the battlefield raging as Triss countered a legion-grade spell and Murphy’s force fought the psionic hunters.

• Lady Beli learned that three rear scout squads had gone silent and ordered the Fifth Company and several high-ranking psions to reinforce the threatened rear.
• Happy Stick’s nine-player squad wiped out a psionic hunter squad, reunited with Niu Niu and Amber, and learned that Natalie’s force was trapped inside the enemy perimeter.
• Happy Stick proposed splitting the White Oak Warband into five groups, and Natalie agreed while leading fifty fighters toward the psions to draw their forces away.
• Murphy, Triss, Maxim, and Adele engaged nearly two hundred psionic hunters near the Andmar Hills, and Triss silenced their dimensional meteor spell.
• Players including Moneypoor and Rich Bro fought through the chaotic battle, while Stinky Baby’s venomous ambushes helped Moneypoor claim kills.

Natalie led the remaining White Oak Warband hunters in a charge against the Tower of Rings, while Shani and Andre’s vampire forces ambushed the psionic mages. The assault shattered the Tower’s position as Natalie’s group broke through, and Shani killed Mage Bailey.

• Natalie rallied the fifty remaining White Oak Warband hunters and led them toward the Tower of Rings’ encirclement.
• Mother Marianne shot Mage Bailey’s adjutant, and Natalie raised the Great Oak Sacred Blade and ordered the hunters to charge.
• Shani and her allies attacked the psionic mages from the shadows as Andre and the Thorn Nightwalkers struck their rear position.
• Andre froze several Psionic Apprentices and challenged a high-ranking psionic mage while the Witch Hunters broke through the Wall of Stone.
• Shani overwhelmed Mage Bailey, mutilated her, and killed her as the battle turned into a slaughter.

The White Oak Warband fought through a psionic ambush that trapped two squads in a deadly fog. As Sister Pomegranate faced a commander and Niu Niu battled a psionicist, Murphy arrived to watch Niu Niu fight.

• Happy Stick rallied the Transian reinforcements to rescue Niu Niu and Sister Pomegranate's trapped squads, while Maxim flew Ashina and Lumina toward the battlefield.
• Sister Pomegranate defended a pregnant woman and child, but Tiger Fate rescued them after she was wounded; she then faced the Psionic Hunter Fourth Unit Commander and called her gargoyle into the fight.
• Niu Niu carried wounded scout Amber through the fog, and together they ambushed two guards and a psionicist trying to escape.
• Niu Niu shattered the psionicist's shield, wounded him with a winged blade and crossbow bolt, and continued fighting after the mage broke his own shield.
• Murphy arrived beside Amber and told her that Niu Niu could handle the psionicist without her help.

Meow Brother survived a crash in the war fog and discovered that his Oak Apprentice abilities became far stronger in his preferred terrain. He defeated four enemies, completed his Black Iron Trial, and received a quest from Avalon, leaving him eager to convert his brothers.

• Meow Brother and his companions rode Happy Stick’s green gargoyle into the fog, where psionic lightning struck it and sent them crashing into a thicket.
• After recovering, Meow Brother found three psionic cavalrymen and an injured psionic mage searching the thicket, then realized his preferred terrain greatly amplified his nature spells.
• Meow Brother used animated vines and his replica Avalon Sacred Blade to kill the three cavalrymen, gaining Warlike Nature, Wild Nature affinity, and the Bloodwood Cultivation skill.
• Meow Brother interrupted the psionic mage’s counterattack with a charged Sacred Blade, defeated her, and completed his Black Iron Trial.
• When his four great generals arrived, Meow Brother was praying to a tree and urged them to convert after Avalon gave him a quest.

Meow Brother received a hidden quest to help rebuild the Avalon Sanctuary and spread the natural faith, while Murphy’s forces defeated the Tower of Rings’ troops. After the battle, the Witch Hunters accepted Murphy as their protector, and he vowed to punish everyone responsible for Cadman City’s destruction.

• Meow Brother shared the quest to rebuild the Avalon Sanctuary with the Four Heavenly Kings and led them to hunt the fleeing Psionic Hunters.
• Meow Brother speculated that the missing Holy Blades and replicas could become rewards in the Avalon faction’s quests.
• Mother Marian killed her former comrade Pent for serving the Tower of Rings, then burned his body and reflected on finding peace in Transia.
• Old Eugene told Mother Marian that Avalon’s blessing had reached the players and declared Transia a new holy land for the Witch Hunters.
• Murphy learned that 1,000 Witch Hunters had survived and ordered Maxim to collect the heads of the fallen Psionic Hunters and psions.
• Murphy vowed revenge on the Tower of Rings, Wolfsbane, the Plantagenet Kingdom, and the Twilight for their roles in Cadman City’s destruction.

After the battle, Murphy helped Little Rich Guy learn that his rapidly growing astral scorpion lion would soon leave unless he completed the Black Iron Trial and formed a pact with it. He then welcomed Natalie and the surviving White Oak Warband into Transia as the Adventurers' Guild, while he and Triss returned home together.

• Murphy learned that only eighteen of the seventy little players had died, then discovered that Little Stinker had grown rapidly after eating hearts.
• Mother Marianne explained that the astral scorpion lion would mature and return to its world within seven days unless Little Rich Guy formed a pact with it, so he arranged rapid training with Meow Brother.
• Natalie asked Murphy whether his offer of refuge still stood, and he accepted the surviving Witch Hunters into Transia under the new name Adventurers' Guild, with Natalie as guildmaster.
• Murphy asked the guild to train his warriors, provide rewards and equipment for the players, supply two hundred warhorses, and retain its weapons to help investigate threats.
• Natalie thanked Murphy for his mercy, and Triss opened a portal home before teasing Murphy about his closeness with Shani and asking him to make a late-night snack.

Major Fraser learned that the Transians had left a bloody warning for the Tower of Rings, while Little Ashina and her friends made plans around weapons, trials, and vampirism. At the ruined church district, Old Eugene completed a wooden carving of Avalon and prayed, prompting the goddess’s protection to return to Transia as the first autumn rain fell.

• Major Fraser received a report that the battle had ended, then saw six hundred heads and a blood-carved message from the Scarlet Hand left at the border.
• Little Ashina celebrated receiving a Hammer Guard blueprint and arranged for Mother Mary Ann to craft the gun while her friends discussed their Black Iron Trials and plans.
• Little Ashina gave Orchid a sacred-oak shield bought from Meow Brother and announced that Water Lady might soon join them.
• Mother Jules showed Mother Mary Ann and Old Eugene the ruins where they would rebuild an Avalon sanctuary.
• Old Eugene finished carving a wooden image of Avalon, stripped off his weapons and armor, and prayed as green psionic energy gathered around the carving.
• Avalon’s protection returned to her believers, and rain fell over Transia for the first time that autumn.

Murphy discovered that Avalon had issued Meow Brother a quest outside his system and urged Count Andre to preserve his humanity as a vampire. As twelve players prepared to join the Blood Eagles, Triss and Shani sealed an alliance against the Wolfsbane Clan, and Niu Niu entered the corridor to become a vampire after promising Amber she could kill him if he became a monster.

• Murphy found that Meow Brother's Hidden Quest had come from outside the quest system and suspected Avalon was watching over him.
• Murphy encouraged Count Andre to resist vampire corruption by holding on to his human identity, inspiring Andre to write a poem and try his advice.
• After the players' number reached twelve, Triss admitted to Shani that they were summoned beings, and the two sealed a Sacred Blood Pact against the Wolfsbane Clan.
• Niu Niu promised Amber she could kill him if he became evil, then walked into the Blood Eagle Corridor with Kaki Tony Tai and Ni Gei Lu Da You to receive the vampire embrace.

Murphy and Triss presided over the first player Embrace ceremony, welcoming twelve players into the Blood Eagle Clan as vampires. After the players drank the wine of immortality, they began their new lives as Murphy and Maxim’s progeny.

• Triss announced the Embrace ceremony and the twelve players swore their oaths to join the Blood Eagle Clan.
• Murphy gave the first eight players personal words of welcome and handed them golden goblets of the wine of immortality.
• Murphy welcomed Little Ashina as his progeny and reassured her that Scarlet Castle would remain her second home.
• Maxim addressed Sister Pomegranate, Kaki Tony, and Muddy Road Oil, declaring them guardians and warriors of the land.
• All twelve players drank the wine of immortality, while Mud Truck joked about Murphy’s words and Shovel scolded him.

Twelve players completed the vampire Embrace ceremony and gained Blood Eagle Clan identities, new racial traits, and access to vampire-exclusive classes. The chapter ended with the newly made vampires celebrating their abilities and equipment while other players debated whether to join them and speculated about the future Blood Pact feature.

• Murphy and Maxim oversaw the Embrace as twelve players drank the Wine of Immortality and had Sinborn blood infused into their psychic projections.
• Murphy's system updated Banzai Happy Stick's character into a Blood Eagle Clan vampire and announced that the Blood Pact feature was planned but not yet available.
• Little Ashina and Sister Pomegranate compared the players' reduced vampire bonuses with those of NPCs, while Murphy explained the adjustments were made for balance and convenience.
• The newly transformed players showed their fangs, began adapting to their changed bodies, and saluted Grand Duke Triss under Maxim's lead.
• Maxim and Lady Adele gave the new vampires bloodstone rings and manuals for exclusive advanced classes, exciting the Twelve Little Blood Eagles.
• Meow Brother lamented not becoming a vampire, while Carcar bragged to him about finding and raising a blood thrall.

Murphy welcomed Natalie to Crimson Castle, warned her about emerging gnoll bands, and helped establish the Adventurers' Guild as a supplier of equipment and services to his heroes. He also asked Natalie to advise Amber about the risks of loving Niu Niu, while Natalie agreed to build a new home for her followers in Transia.

• After the players tested their new vampire abilities, Murphy authorized Count Andre to sell Thorn Clan specialties and taught him to use computing orbs to give the players quests.
• Natalie arrived at Crimson Castle and warned Murphy that gnoll bands near the Andmar Hills were joining into a larger gang.
• Natalie gave Murphy psychic microphone attachments, and Murphy urged her to sell the guild's equipment to his heroes and fund the guild through its own business.
• Murphy asked Natalie to talk with Amber about the uncertainty of a relationship with Niu Niu, and Natalie warned him to keep Niu Niu from hurting her friend.
• Murphy flew off after promising to hold Niu Niu accountable, while Natalie headed toward Crimson Castle to begin work on a new home for her people.

Natalie planned a safe settlement and new roles for the White Oak Warband while establishing the Adventurers' Guild. At the Avalon Chapel, Meow Brother learned that his war sacrifice had locked him onto a dangerous path toward becoming a Red Knight.

• Natalie, Old Eugene, and Mother Marianne discussed settling the warband in Morland Village and organizing the Adventurers' Guild, including training, trade, and selling witch-hunting steeds.
• Old Eugene built a sign for the Adventurers' Guild, and Meow Brother arrived with his companions hoping to advance to a new profession.
• Natalie welcomed Meow Brother and his companions into the chapel and asked whether Avalon had given him a revelation; Meow Brother claimed the god wanted them to spread nature's faith.
• Natalie discovered that Meow Brother had performed a war sacrifice, and Mother Marianne warned him that it had closed off the paths of guardianship and neutrality.
• Mother Marianne gave Meow Brother a handwritten Book of Conquest, revealing his advancement path from Oakwood Apprentice through Oakwood Knight toward becoming a Red Knight.