Recaps

Benjamin stopped a malfunctioning elemental dust separator and was taken away by enforcement wizards, expecting them to investigate him. In a secret chamber, Level Four wizards reviewed his actions and found no signs that his soul, mind, or relationships had been compromised.

• Benjamin rushed through the corrosive dust and tapped the separator’s key rune nodes until its alarms and unstable energy stopped.
• The apprentices cheered, while the injured were treated and evacuated by magic puppets; enforcement wizards took Benjamin away.
• In a secret chamber, powerful wizards reviewed footage of the accident and assessed the apprentices’ reactions.
• The wizards examined Benjamin’s soul, relationships, subconscious, and cognition, finding no evidence of parasitism, replacement, or alteration.

Noren Academy's wizards reviewed Benjamin and confirmed he was neither a spy nor under outside control. They protected his research under the Star Track Tribunal's covenant and approved a Level Two Training Agreement to support his growth.

• A balding wizard reported that Benjamin's fate showed no signs of contact with an unknown powerful being, and the Dean confirmed that the Plane Origin showed no external invasion within the past century.
• A wizard suggested seizing Benjamin's unusual material, but Mentor Clark warned that doing so would violate the Star Track Tribunal's covenant.
• Another wizard dismissed the material as a Level 5 achievement and pointed to Mentor Clark's past creation of a Level 6 material as an apprentice.
• Mentor Clark proposed activating the Level Two Training Agreement for Benjamin, and the wizards approved it by an overwhelming margin.
• Mentor Clark announced that the Academy would notify the relevant departments and mobilize resources for Benjamin.

Benjamin was summoned to a secret chamber, where Instructor Clark told him the Academy had activated his Level Two Training Agreement after his research and conduct impressed them. The agreement gave him expanded access to Academy resources and markets, leaving Benjamin relieved that the Academy regarded him as a promising apprentice rather than a threat.

• Enforcement wizards took Benjamin to a guarded chamber, where he waited without restraints or questioning.
• Instructor Clark arrived and praised Benjamin's White Iron-based Isolation Material and his response to the public laboratory incident.
• Clark explained that the Level Two Training Agreement gave Benjamin broader purchasing permissions, access to a private laboratory, and the ability to sell research across the Star Ring Federation.
• Benjamin asked whether the Academy would provide points or materials, and Clark said the agreement's privileges were the support; Benjamin would need to earn resources himself.
• Benjamin realized the Academy had recognized his potential and felt safe under its rules.

Mentor Clark explained that the Academy had thoroughly investigated Benjamin and found him to be a gifted, trustworthy apprentice, though some wizards had hoped he was connected to unknown gods. Benjamin realized his identity had been cleared and resolved to keep the Great Dao Library secret while using his knowledge to gain opportunities.

• Mentor Clark told Benjamin that the Academy had spent considerable resources checking his soul, connections, and potential, and had found no hidden danger.
• Mentor Clark revealed that some wizards had hoped Benjamin was linked to foreign gods whose knowledge might benefit Wizard Civilization.
• Benjamin grew alarmed at the thought that the Great Dao Library could be mistaken for a divine scheme and resolved to conceal it.
• Benjamin concluded that the Star Ring Alliance's Level Two Training Agreement confirmed his identity was cleared and gave him room to present his knowledge as Wizard World discoveries.
• Mentor Clark told Benjamin that the agreement would take effect within a week, then left the secret chamber.

Benjamin enjoyed his new privileges and established a mid-level laboratory, then used his Adamantine profits to plan how to compare the materials and laws of the Wizard World with those of the Cultivation World. He began looking for Wizard World materials to study, only to discover that their variety and the available information were overwhelming.

• Benjamin secured approval for a laboratory and rented a mid-level one so he could live and work there.
• Benjamin refined Adamantine from the Academy’s gold reserves, kept some for experiments, and sold ten units for 100,000 points.
• Benjamin bought elementary Runology and Potions courses after finding advanced knowledge courses far too expensive.
• Benjamin reasoned that comparing the two worlds’ materials could help him understand their differences and began browsing the Academy’s materials exchange.
• Benjamin found that Wizard Civilization’s countless conquered planes had produced an immense range of materials and reference works.

Benjamin realized his points could not buy every material he wanted, so he focused on studying and building a modest stockpile. Instructor Clark directed him to a hidden workshop project that gave him access to many unfamiliar materials, and Benjamin recognized the opportunity as a benefit of his Level Two Training Agreement.

• Benjamin abandoned his plan to buy materials in bulk and purchased a few samples for study.
• Benjamin spent the following weeks studying alchemy, potions, runes, and materials, then bought gold to refine into Adamantine.
• Instructor Clark asked Benjamin about his research and told him to check the Magic Network task section.
• Benjamin applied for a long-term project cataloging and analyzing stockpiled materials, and the announcement vanished after his application.
• Clark closed the project to further applicants and inferred Benjamin's interests from his recent purchases.

Benjamin reached Qi Refining Level Three and inscribed his fourth Truth Rune, choosing stability to deepen his Logistics Department studies. As he began constructing his first Wizardry Model, he reflected on how the Wizard System distinguished research-based models from rote-copied ones and privately viewed Logistics Department wizards as the orthodox practitioners and Combat Department wizards as cannon fodder.

• Benjamin advanced to Qi Refining Level Three after half a year of rapid cultivation.
• Benjamin inscribed his fourth Truth Rune, choosing stability from the Potions School, and planned to focus all nine core runes on Logistics Department schools.
• Benjamin examined the Wizardry Model taking shape in his Spirit Sea and considered how wizards constructed models through accumulated research and understanding.
• Benjamin reflected that rote-copied Wizardry Models could cast spells but could not be optimized or reliably adapted to changing conditions.
• Benjamin concluded that Logistics Department wizards were the orthodox practitioners, while Combat Department wizards served as cannon fodder.

Benjamin completed his Alchemy Wizardry Model and, after reaching the third level of Qi Refining, used Alchemy to make metal talisman paper. His first Flame Talisman produced only a tiny flame before going out.

• Benjamin finalized his Alchemy Wizardry Model, which let him analyze and control simple metals without external equipment.
• Benjamin reached the third level of Qi Refining and began learning talisman-making from the Great Dao Library.
• Benjamin used Alchemy to refine Adamantine and other metals into a workable talisman medium.
• Benjamin inscribed a Flame Talisman onto the metal paper and activated it in the laboratory Testing Ground.
• Benjamin watched the talisman release a thumb-sized flame that quickly went out.

Benjamin discovered that talismans could not draw on ambient Spirit Energy in the Wizard World, so their spells depended on his own True Essence and were less efficient than casting directly. He devised a plan to combine talisman principles with Wizard Artifacts so they could repeatedly invoke ambient elemental energy, but recognized that developing it would require deep study.

• Benjamin tested his talismans and found that their flames grew only when he supplied more True Essence, making them less efficient than casting spells directly.
• After studying the Great Dao Library and Alchemy Studies, Benjamin concluded that talismans invoked ambient Spirit Energy, while Wizard Artifacts stored complete spells and their energy in advance.
• Benjamin compared a talisman with a Wizard World spell scroll and confirmed that the scroll released its stored fireball without drawing on environmental energy.
• Benjamin proposed engraving instructions on Wizard Artifacts so they could use a small mental-power trigger to draw ambient elemental energy and repeatedly release spells.
• Benjamin realized he would need to understand talisman Seals and Wizard runes before combining the systems, and regretted not choosing Runology as his fourth Truth Rune.

After three years of research, Benjamin had reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining while holding his Wizard advancement at the peak of Level 3 Apprentice. He learned that Noren Academy would soon hold a dangerous trial ahead of a Federation-wide assessment, and saw it as a chance to test his nearly completed talisman-rune fusion research.

• Benjamin spent three years trying to combine wizard runes and Cultivation talisman techniques, while reaching the peak of Level 3 Wizard Apprentice and the sixth layer of Qi Refining.
• Amy told Benjamin that the Academy planned to hold a dangerous trial in about half a year, with possible fatalities.
• Benjamin contacted Mentor Clark, who confirmed the trial would take place on a recently conquered savage minor plane where Natives were resisting.
• Clark explained that the trial would prepare apprentices for a comprehensive assessment of more than a hundred Noren Academies five years later, requested by the Star Ring Federation.
• Benjamin decided that the trial would be a good opportunity to test his nearly successful talisman-rune fusion research.

As the trial approached, Benjamin completed his research into combining wizard runes and cultivation talismans and began making reusable Rune Artifacts. He crafted prototypes for attack, defense, and mobility, then carried them to the training ground to test them.

• Benjamin used Analysis Art and Alchemy to study wizard runes, talisman structures, and the principles behind basic talismans.
• Benjamin designed a reusable Rune Artifact made from Adamantine and specialized Metal Essences, combining Wizard World artifact-making with methods from the Great Dao Library.
• Benjamin crafted an attack-type Rune Artifact that cast a shape-manipulable Fireball Spell.
• Benjamin crafted a defense-type Rune Artifact that formed energy shields with properties based on the elemental energy they absorbed.
• Benjamin crafted a mobility-type Rune Artifact that let its user fly faster and more agilely than the Wizard World's Flight Spell alone.
• After checking the prototypes with laboratory instruments, Benjamin carried them into the training ground to test them.

Benjamin tested his prototype Attack-Type and Defense-Type Rune Artifacts in the training ground, confirming their power, versatility, and rapid shield deployment. The defense bracelet briefly endured a Level 1 Formal Wizard attack before burning out, and Benjamin decided to make extra artifacts as backups for the trial.

• Benjamin activated the Attack-Type Rune Artifact and blasted a heavy metal target with a fast, powerful fireball.
• Benjamin controlled the fireball in flight, steering it around obstacles and experimenting with changing its size and shape.
• Benjamin tested the Defense-Type Rune Artifact against apprentice-level attacks and found that its shields adapted to different elemental energies.
• Benjamin exposed the bracelet to a Level 1 Formal Wizard-grade attack, and its rapidly renewed shields protected the target before the artifact was destroyed.
• Benjamin concluded that the Rune Artifact's continuous casting let it withstand the attack and decided to prepare extra artifacts for the trial.

Benjamin completed and tested three Rune Artifact prototypes, then joined the Noren Academy apprentices gathering for the trial on the Savage Wilderness Plane. As the apprentices prepared to teleport, Amy thanked him for the advance information that had helped her profit, and warned him that the trial would be dangerous.

• Benjamin tested his Movement Rune Artifact, confirming its speed and maneuverability, and judged his three Rune Artifact prototypes successful.
• News of the trial spread across Noren Academy, prompting apprentices to prepare and causing practical Wizard Artifact and potion prices to soar.
• Benjamin decided to test the three prototypes during the trial because there was no time to pursue his other research ideas.
• Benjamin arrived at the teleportation plaza, where several thousand apprentices had gathered with their equipment.
• Amy told Benjamin that the trial information he had passed on helped her prepare and make a profit, then warned him that people might die.
• An authoritative voice at the center of the plaza ordered the crowd to be silent.

Benjamin prepared to enter the Gray Rock Plane trial, where apprentices would collect score tokens and compete based on their total points. As the teleportation began, he was sent into the plane with Amy and the other apprentices.

• A high-ranking wizard announced the trial rules, including the token objective, equipment limits, and Level 3 Wizard Apprentice requirement.
• Benjamin learned that older apprentices from the previous class could compete, and Victor warned him and Amy that those veterans might be much stronger.
• The high-ranking wizard gave each apprentice a ring that could transport its wearer out of the plane, though using it would void the trial results.
• Benjamin and Amy wished each other caution before Amy joined the line and Benjamin stepped into the teleportation array.
• Blue light and violent spatial fluctuations enveloped Benjamin as the teleportation began.

Benjamin arrived on the Gray Rock Plane and tested how its violent elemental power affected his Rune Artifacts. Satisfied with their enhanced performance, he flew toward an area rich in elemental energy to test them further and collect local materials.

• Benjamin activated his defensive shields after teleporting to the Gray Rock Plane and recognized that its elemental power was unusually violent.
• Benjamin tested his Rune Artifacts, finding that the earth shield was more durable, his movement was faster, and his fireball destroyed a boulder with greater force.
• Benjamin decided to test the artifacts' limits and collect materials unique to the plane, while aiming only to place in the top ten percent of the trial.
• Benjamin flew toward a region with denser elemental power and avoided other Wizard Apprentices, preferring to find living targets before fighting people.

Benjamin tested his Rune Artifacts against beasts and terrain across the Savage Wilderness Plane, assessing their combat performance and limits. He discovered that sustained maximum output caused overheating and depleted local elemental energy, then continued his field trials while gathering materials.

• Benjamin tested his defensive and offensive Rune Artifacts against acid-spitting lizard beasts, then collected samples from their remains.
• Benjamin used a giant ape to test the Movement Rune's speed and maneuverability, finding that maximum output quickly overheated it before he killed the beast and gathered materials.
• Benjamin tested his Rune Artifacts against burrowing beasts and dangerous plants in different regions, recording results and collecting novel materials.
• Benjamin discovered that repeated high-intensity Fireball Spells depleted nearby fire elements, reducing later spells' efficiency and power.
• Benjamin concluded that Rune Artifacts depended on ambient elemental energy and moved quickly between attacks to work around local depletion.

Benjamin tested his Rune Artifacts by defeating a Thunderstorm Beetle, then discovered a team of Wizard Apprentices struggling against a powerful fire-element Magic Beast. He watched their battle from behind cover, evaluating their attacks as the fight continued.

• Benjamin used his Rune Artifacts to kill a Thunderstorm Beetle and collected its lightning-essence organ and score token.
• Benjamin considered asking Mentor Clark about obtaining a Space Ring because his beast-hide backpack was nearly full.
• Benjamin sensed a fierce clash nearby and flew toward it, stopping behind a red crystal ore deposit to observe.
• Benjamin watched a team of twelve or thirteen Wizard Apprentices battle a ten-meter fire-element Magic Beast.
• Benjamin assessed the apprentices' ice and water attacks and judged their Wizardry Models inferior in power and continuity.

Benjamin watched ordinary Combat Department Wizard Apprentices fail to defend themselves against a Fire-Element Magic Beast, then killed it alone with a Rune Artifact. A hidden apprentice witnessed the slaughter and fled, terrified of Benjamin.

• The Combat Department Wizard Apprentices' defenses collapsed under the Fire-Element Magic Beast's attacks, and the survivors fled after several were killed or injured.
• Benjamin approached the lava lake after the apprentices had escaped and drew the Magic Beast's attention.
• Benjamin bombarded the Magic Beast with fireballs from his Attack-Type Rune Artifact until it disintegrated, then collected its score token and essence fragments.
• A hidden apprentice watched the fight through a Scout-Type Wizard Artifact and was shocked that Benjamin killed the beast in two minutes.
• The hidden apprentice cast enhancement spells and ran in the opposite direction from Benjamin.

Benjamin repaired his Rune Artifact as best he could, identified ways to improve its combat use, and continued deeper into the red-ore wasteland in search of materials. There, he found evidence of organized native activity and wondered whether the traces had been deliberately left after the wizards cleansed the plane.

• Benjamin inspected his damaged Rune Artifact and realized excessive release strained its main body despite redundant runes.
• Benjamin decided to use pure energy bolts as his main attack and recognized that rapid casting could drain nearby elemental power and weaken an enemy's counterattack.
• Benjamin continued deeper into the wasteland, fought increasingly cunning Magic Beasts, and collected higher-grade materials.
• Benjamin found orderly grooves, stacked and polished bones, signs of artificial fire, freshly cut trees, and a trap that might target humans.
• Benjamin concluded that Natives lived in the region and suspected the wizards had deliberately left these remnants after cleansing the plane.

Benjamin discovered a small settlement of natives in the Gray Rock Plane and learned that survivors from several destroyed kingdoms had united in a hidden camp to resist the returning wizards. The chapter left the survivors alarmed by the apprentices’ ability to escape through space, a power they believed had once belonged only to their vanished gods.

• Benjamin secretly watched a group of natives hunt a large Magic Beast and noticed their metal weapons, language, and crude energy techniques.
• Benjamin followed the hunters to their concealed cave settlement, where he found fewer than a hundred residents and two heavily armored natives.
• Benjamin used Analysis Art to study the natives’ energy circulation, decided their methods were too rudimentary, and left to search for stronger natives.
• Survivors from several kingdoms gathered in a hidden camp and discussed how Noren Academy’s apprentices had entered the Gray Rock Plane again.
• A priest showed the leaders a ring taken from a Wizard Apprentice and explained that apprentices used it to escape through spatial abilities.
• The survivors grew dejected when they realized the wizards wielded spatial power, which they associated with their gods who had vanished in the earlier purges.

The natives planned a counterattack against the Wizard Apprentices after Oswaldo revealed he could create a spatial blockade. They left the council determined to lure the Apprentices into traps and kill them all.

• Oswaldo revealed that his god had given him spatial abilities and demonstrated that he could teleport a Knight.
• Oswaldo said he could create an area where the Wizard Apprentices could not use spatial abilities, though he had not mastered the power.
• The scarred Knight commander proposed scattering point tokens as bait and using small warrior groups to lure Apprentices into traps.
• The leaders planned to exhaust the Apprentices’ powers, conceal the natives’ numbers, and call in reinforcements when needed.
• The scarred Knight commander vowed to leave no Apprentice alive, and the gathered warriors cheered.

Benjamin continued collecting unusual materials in the Gray Rock Plane while Native warriors launched increasingly coordinated ambushes against Wizard Apprentices. After easily defeating six attackers in a swamp, he set out to find their settlement, unaware that a massive purge of the apprentices was underway.

• Native warriors ambushed a seven-person apprentice team with poisoned arrows, disabled their escape magic, and gradually overwhelmed them.
• More than a dozen armored Native knights trapped a four-person exploration team in a canyon where flight and spatial magic failed, then attacked them.
• Benjamin was ambushed in a swamp by four hunters and two knights, but his shields deflected their weapons and his Rune Artifact killed them with fireballs.
• Benjamin collected the Natives' armor and bone spears and used Analysis Art to study the primitive runes on them.
• Benjamin suspected a nearby Native settlement was behind the increasingly frequent ambushes and continued deeper into the swamp to search for it.

The Indigenous Coalition turned Gray Rock Plane into a deadly hunting ground, overwhelming apprentice teams with traps and coordinated ambushes. Augusta stood out as a powerful exception, demolishing even carefully prepared attacks as she pursued high-value point tokens.

• Native hunters used poisoned weapons, bait, and spatial interference to trap apprentices and prevent their escape.
• A senior apprentice team and other groups were driven into defensive positions, then fell as their supplies and spiritual power ran out.
• The Indigenous Coalition’s attacks spread across the wilderness, leaving many apprentices dead and the plane blood-soaked.
• Augusta led her team through the plane, striking down native ambushers with lightning and advancing unhindered.
• Augusta destroyed a massive ambush involving a magnetic interference zone, explosive runes, cursed totems, elite knights, and Shamans, then continued toward the next high-value point token.

Augusta and Horn’s battlefield victories raised the apprentices’ morale as the Indigenous Coalition’s trap steadily drained their resources. The Coalition’s leaders grew uneasy when every scout and battalion sent to a northwestern region vanished, leaving behind a scorched wasteland they could not explain.

• Augusta and Horn continued breaking through Native defenses, and reports of their victories turned the apprentices’ fear into excitement.
• Priest Oswaldo and the Indigenous Coalition’s leaders reviewed their plan to trap the apprentices and exhaust their artifacts, potions, and mental strength.
• The Coalition’s leaders identified Augusta, Horn, and other celebrated apprentices as targets whose deaths would hurt the Wizards most.
• The leaders learned that scouts, an assassination team, and three vanguard battalions sent to the northwestern region had all disappeared.
• A Knight commander reported that the region had been burned into a wasteland, with the remains of Magic Beasts and Natives reduced to ash.

Benjamin annihilated a Native force that attacked him in the wilderness, while Wizard Apprentices learned of a supposed location for the Indigenous Coalition's leaders and decided to march there despite recognizing it as a trap. The Apprentices’ growing confidence and hunger for points set them on a dangerous course as the Coalition’s leaders remained away.

• The Coalition’s leaders chose to launch their final assault without waiting for Ant and Lurs, despite a young Knight’s misgivings.
• Benjamin used overwhelming firepower to destroy a group of Natives, then found a dying armored leader whose words he could not understand.
• Benjamin sensed and killed several Natives hiding at the rear of the battlefield.
• Wizard Apprentices heard that a reconnaissance Wizard had supposedly discovered the Coalition leaders’ hidden valley, and many recognized the information as likely bait.
• The Apprentices decided to follow Horn and Augusta to the valley, believing the geniuses could overcome any trap and that killing the leaders would earn them points.