Chapter Summaries

Illumi and Baal's team discovered a Minotaur tribe in the changing Secret Realm Dungeon, raising questions about the creatures' intelligence and whether they could be negotiated with. Baal urged the Adventurers to learn more before deciding how to clear the dungeon.

• Illumi followed a group of Minotaurs after watching them hunt a giant wild boar, while Baal's team tracked the same creatures.
• Lucky observed the Secret Realm Dungeon and revealed that its tribe of over a hundred Minotaurs was created by the Holy Grail and followed preconfigured programs.
• Illumi and Baal's team discovered the tribe and debated whether the Minotaurs were real, intelligent beings or creations of Nen Ability.
• Illumi asked whether clearing the dungeon required killing every Minotaur, and Baal cautioned that the dungeon's rules might have changed.
• Baal suggested that the Adventurers try to communicate with the Minotaurs before choosing how to proceed.

Baal's team observed the Minotaur Tribe and debated how to approach its powerful members, while Illumi chose to wait and watch. As Baal tried to lure the Minotaurs with roasted meat, Lucky opened a new modern-day zombie-themed Secret Realm Dungeon in Keli City.

• Illumi agreed to observe the Minotaurs with Baal's team, which counted over five hundred tribe members and spotted a powerful Nen-using leader with a steel trident.
• Baal's team planned to test the Minotaurs by driving beasts toward them, while Lucky judged the adventurers too weak to fight the tribe directly.
• Lucky opened the day's second Dungeon Secret Realm, a modern Keli City dungeon resembling an apocalypse despite containing no real Zombies.
• After seeing the Minotaurs kill beasts, four team members who could not use Nen decided against fighting, while Illumi stayed to observe and Baal considered making contact.
• Baal hunted prey, built a fire near the tribe, and roasted meat to attract the Minotaurs while his teammates watched their reaction.

Lucky observed Baal and Illumi make contact with intelligent Minotaurs whose memories and thoughts came from humans, and considered whether they could become genuine lifeforms. Baal and Illumi entered the Minotaur tribe, met its leader, and Baal began teaching them to cook.

• Lucky used roasted meat to draw three warrior Minotaurs out of their tribe, where Baal and Illumi waited cautiously.
• The Minotaurs communicated with Baal and Illumi through gestures, judged them to be no threat, and accepted Baal’s roasted meat.
• Lucky reflected on the Holy Grail’s Third Magic and wondered whether Minotaurs and future Secret Realm characters could become genuine lifeforms.
• The Minotaurs invited Baal and Illumi into their tribe, where they met the leader and called him the Bull Demon King.
• Baal taught the Minotaurs how to roast meat, prepare other ingredients, and make cooking tools, while his companions waited anxiously outside.

Baal and Illumi prepared to leave the unusual Secret Realm, where they had observed an intelligent Minotaur tribe. The Minotaur Leader called them messengers of God, gave them a mysterious mark-related gift, and warned them to leave before time ran out.

• Baal's team exchanged information with the returning adventurers and reported that the Minotaurs were intelligent and the forest held dangerous aura-wielding animals.
• As the eight-hour mark approached, Kahn fired a flare, and Baal and Illumi signaled that they wanted to leave the Minotaur tribe.
• The Minotaurs tried to persuade Baal and Illumi to stay, but the Minotaur Leader let them go and called them messengers of God because of the marks on their hands.
• The Minotaur Leader touched their marked hands with his steel fork, gave Baal a black stone containing aura, and warned them to leave before time ran out.
• Baal and Illumi reunited with their companions and departed, while Baal asked whether the Minotaurs needed help.

Baal and his team emerged from the changed Secret Realm Dungeon, where one teammate awakened Nen and Baal explained how dungeon battles affected Adventurers. Ging Freecss paid to learn what happened inside, but Baal kept the Minotaur Tribe’s reward secret, leaving Ging to investigate another dungeon.

• Baal and his companions exited the Secret Realm and watched the rift disappear without releasing any monsters.
• One of Baal’s teammates awakened Nen, and Baal told Illumi that dungeon battles built up the aura needed for awakening.
• Baal explained that registering with the Adventurer Guild distinguished true Adventurers, and he connected the guild to the power the Minotaur Leader had placed in their marks.
• Ging Freecss secretly boarded the motorboat and offered one hundred million Jenie per person for information about the dungeon.
• Baal’s companions revealed details about the expansive dungeon, its Nen-using beasts, the Minotaurs, and their reward, but Baal refused to show Ging the item.
• Ging left to watch another ten-person dungeon after concluding that the Secret Realm Dungeon had evolved or updated again.

Illumi registered with the Adventurer Guild and discovered that he could see an attribute panel, while Baal learned that adventurers had eight ranks tied to accumulating Nen. The group went to meet Guild president Yatai Conrad, who had just seen a new prophetic image.

• Illumi registered at the Adventurer Guild, and the Crystal Ball identified him as the first Iron-rank adventurer.
• Illumi saw an attribute panel listing details about his body and Nen, and Baal discovered he could see his own panel after registering.
• The clerk explained the eight adventurer ranks and said that accumulating Nen could lead to Iron rank, while higher ranks required additional conditions.
• The clerk summoned Baal and the others to meet Guild president Yatai Conrad after Baal asked about the connection between Secret Realm Dungeons and the Guild.
• Yatai Conrad watched Baal arrive and recalled that he had just seen a new prophetic image.

Yeta explained the Adventurer Guild’s plans and told Baal’s team about the Nen Crystal they had found, then shared a prophecy with Lucky about a dangerous battle in the Basen Rainforest. The chapter left Lucky aware of the possible threat as the rainforest’s Holy Grail System was ready to activate.

• Yeta congratulated Baal and his companions on becoming the first Iron-rank adventurer team and said the guild aimed to grow into an organization like the Hunter Association.
• Yeta explained that Secret Realm Dungeons could be cleared in different ways and gave Baal’s team information about Nen Crystals, including their uses and estimated value.
• Baal and his companions asked how to advance their rank, and Yeta told them they would need to pass the Adventurer Guild’s assessments.
• After Baal’s team left, Lucky summoned Yeta to the Holy Grail palace, where Yeta described a prophecy of Baal’s group fighting Danger Beasts in the Basen Rainforest and losing ground.
• Lucky considered the rainforest’s preparations complete and ready for activation, while Yeta admitted the prophecy might instead depict a battle inside a Secret Realm Dungeon.

As Zombie Secret Realm news spread, Adventurers and powerful Nen users in Keli City learned more about the dungeons and their rewards. Illumi agreed to let Chris join his team, while Ging became an adventurer.

• Keli City's Adventurers learned that the Zombie Secret Realm contained hordes of Zombies, some with Nen Abilities, and that Nen Crystals could be gained from them.
• More people became Iron-rank Adventurers, and Secret Realms continued appearing until their number stabilized at twenty-eight.
• Illumi continued training and lost another match on the Heavenly Arena's 160th Floor, then met Chris in the Massage Lounge.
• Chris told Illumi that he had received his Martial Arts Hall's sole adventurer slot and asked to join Illumi's team.
• Illumi eventually agreed to let Chris join his team, and Ging became an adventurer.

Illumi and Chris entered a Secret Realm Dungeon that sealed its entrance and trapped everyone inside until a full group assembled. After twenty-nine people arrived, the thirtieth entrant caused everyone to lose consciousness, and Illumi woke to Chris checking on him.

• Illumi learned from Chris that the Martial Arts Hall was under the Exploration Group and that Chris had received its adventurer qualification by drawing lots.
• A Secret Realm Dungeon opened on the street, and Illumi called Baal's team before he and Chris entered it.
• Illumi and Chris found themselves at a deserted bus station at night, where barriers prevented them from leaving or moving on.
• Baal's group arrived, and the trapped party grew to twenty-nine people without triggering the dungeon's start.
• The thirtieth person entered, everyone briefly lost consciousness, and Illumi woke to Chris speaking to him.

Illumi, Ging, and other Adventurers woke on a bus inside the Secret Realm and arrived in a ruined Keli City, where they searched for a hinted fighting tournament. After a fruitless investigation and a full day trapped inside, the group began to lose confidence and some Adventurers resorted to force.

• Illumi and eight other Nen Ability users woke on a bus after the Secret Realm swept them away, and Baal's team proposed that everyone cooperate.
• The group learned from the driver that they were heading to Keli City for a fighting tournament, then arrived in a ruined city and got off the bus.
• Baal's team and the other Adventurers questioned Keli City's residents but found no evidence that a tournament had ever been held there, and the driver had disappeared.
• The Adventurers split into groups to investigate, then regrouped after nightfall without finding useful information.
• After twenty-four hours passed without the Secret Realm releasing them, some Adventurers decided they were in the real world, while others used force against Keli City's residents.
• Baal's group and other Nen Ability users began to disagree as fear of being trapped spread.

After three days trapped in Keli City, Ging concluded that the city was a false world and helped the group organize a fighting tournament as a possible way out. When the champion was announced, everyone lost consciousness, while Lucky watched from outside the Secret Realm.

• Ging argued that Keli City was not part of the real world, citing its nonexistent location and a phone call that never came.
• Illumi and the others discussed their failed attempts to find a way out, and Ging suggested holding the fighting tournament that had supposedly brought them to the city.
• Ging continued investigating alone and found that leaving the area around Keli City triggered his instincts to warn him of danger.
• Lucky revealed that three days had passed inside the Secret Realm while only three hours passed outside, and watched Chris as he neared a new level.
• Baal and the others prepared the fighting tournament for ten days, with Ging helping secure the city’s cooperation and officials.
• After the seven-day tournament ended and the champion was announced, everyone lost consciousness.

Ging and the others awoke from the Secret Realm’s dream and found themselves back in the station, where the survivors compared their experiences and Baal’s group kept their discoveries secret. After the Secret Realm vanished, Ging investigated his reward while Baal’s team discussed the realm’s dangers and prepared to use their Heavenly Arena Tickets that night.

• Everyone awoke in the station, and the adventurers who had tried to leave described surviving terrifying paranormal incidents.
• Baal and the others kept quiet about their time in Keli City and secretly held onto the tickets they had received as rewards.
• Ging saw the Secret Realm’s exit turn blue, was transported outside when it vanished, and left to search for another realm.
• Ging examined his reward card and learned it was a Heavenly Arena Ticket that only worked at night.
• Baal’s group brought Illumi and Chris to their base, discussed the Secret Realm’s hidden dangers, and decided to visit the Heavenly Arena together that night.

Illumi, Baal, and Ging discovered the Shadow Tower, a Secret Realm hidden inside the Heavenly Arena that challenged visitors to explore a monster-filled maze. After learning it offered rewards and Secret Realm Tickets, Baal’s team left without entering the maze, while Ging reconsidered his plans for Greed Island and decided he needed to meet Lucky.

• Baal and his companions used Nen to reveal a Secret Realm Rift at the Heavenly Arena’s eastern entrance, and Illumi noticed that bystanders could not see them disappear when they entered.
• Ging found another Rift at the southern entrance and entered the Shadow Tower separately.
• Regina introduced herself to both groups and explained that the Shadow Tower was a reflection of the Heavenly Arena, where visitors challenged mazes to reach higher floors and earn rewards.
• Regina told Baal’s team that tickets granted ten entries during set hours and that visitors could earn Secret Realm Tickets in the Shadow Tower.
• Baal’s team and Ging both declined to enter the first-floor maze, while Ging decided to discuss Greed Island with his companions and meet Lucky.

Ging met Lucky and revealed that he and his companions had decided to incorporate Greed Island into the Secret Realms rather than sell its game consoles. Lucky continued developing the Holy Grail’s power as the Shadow Tower’s influence began to spread.

• Ging gathered intelligence on the Secret Realms and concluded that their numbers had stabilized, while the Shadow Tower was the true great Secret Realm.
• Lucky’s Holy Grail absorbed Post-Mortem Nen left behind by a dead Nen user, gaining memories that could help it create more lifelike beings.
• Lucky received word that Ging wanted to meet and appeared in the Martial Arts Hall to hear him out.
• Ging resisted the overwhelming suppression he felt from Lucky and explained that he and his companions had chosen to make Greed Island part of the Secret Realms.

Ging and his companions helped Lucky integrate Greed Island entry qualifications into Shadow Tower’s maze rewards, and three months later they cleared the Tower’s first-floor maze. Ging used their lone permanent pass to enter the Second Floor and found a vast city beneath an open sky rather than another maze.

• Ging proposed distributing Greed Island qualifications as Shadow Tower maze drops, and Lucky agreed to the plan.
• Over three months, Keli City’s adventurer system developed, and Ging’s team cleared the first-floor maze after three attempts.
• The team examined the boss’s three drops: a permanent Second Floor Pass, a health-bar ability, and a Secret Realm Card.
• Ging activated the pass and discovered that Shadow Tower’s Second Floor contained a circular city, open plains, rivers, and mountains.

Lucky expanded the Holy Grail System in the Basen Rainforest while Illumi trained in Keli City and learned about the upcoming King of Fighters Tournament. The chapter ended with Chris revealing the name of the Six Styles’ sixth technique: Iron Body.

• Lucky incorporated the Pachi Tribe’s legacy and the Divine Tree into the Basen Rainforest’s Holy Grail System, where five different Secret Realms would appear.
• After Illumi reached the 200th Floor, Silva returned to convene a family meeting and plan to expand the family’s operations and intelligence work.
• Illumi returned to the Superpower Martial Arts Hall and settled on developing Manipulation-type abilities focused on reconnaissance and controlling plants, animals, and insects.
• Chris told Illumi that the King of Fighters Tournament would be held in the Basen Rainforest, with Lucky’s Tempest Kick training method as the champion’s reward.
• Illumi asked Chris about the sixth style, and Chris revealed that it was Iron Body.

Beyond Netero and three survivors returned from the Dark Continent after more than three months, carrying a blade of grass in a glass bottle. In Keli City, Chris, Illumi, and Shermie prepared to enter the King of Fighters Tournament as news of new Secret Realm Dungeons drew crowds to the Basen Rainforest, where Beyond's vessel finally reached shore.

• Beyond Netero and three other injured survivors sailed back from the Dark Continent aboard a Divine Script Creation, carrying a blade of grass in a glass bottle.
• Chris volunteered to lead the Superpower Martial Arts Hall's King of Fighters team, and he invited Illumi to compete and seek a Contract with the Divine Tree.
• Chris, Illumi, and Shermie were chosen to represent the Superpower Martial Arts Hall in the tournament.
• The Adventurer Guild announced that Secret Realm Dungeons would appear in the Basen Rainforest, prompting many Adventurers to travel there for the tournament and new opportunities.
• Yatai Conrad worried that something might happen in the Basen Rainforest but dismissed his concern because it was Lord Lu Qi's territory.
• Beyond's seawater vessel reached the shore near Lade Cape, and the four survivors woke as Beyond celebrated their return.

Beyond told Lucky about his expedition to the Dark Continent, where his team found the Herb That Cures All Illnesses in an ancient city guarded by dangerous creatures. Lucky examined the plant and left wondering whether it was connected to the Divine Tree.

• Lucky met the injured Beyond at Lade Cape, and Beyond thanked him for his advice, funding, and help developing Nen Ability and Divine Script Creations.
• Beyond explained that severe weather and enormous sea creatures had forced his team off course, leading them to an ancient city and the Gold and Silver Ingots instead of Longevity Rice.
• Beyond described how the city’s defensive creatures and parasitic plants killed five members of his nine-person team, though the survivors brought back the Herb That Cures All Illnesses.
• Beyond told Lucky that sea creatures seemed confined to territories, as if kept in enclosures, and that the team had found writing in the city but lost its linguist.
• Lucky examined the herb without using Nen, suspected it resembled the Divine Tree, and asked Beyond to share any research findings.

Illumi and Baal toured Lade Cape’s flea market, where independent martial artists bought training materials and inexpensive Divine Script gear. As they left, strange Nen mutations spread through stray animals and sewer rats, and a supposedly dead companion of Beyond revived with crimson eyes.

• Baal explained that Basen Rainforest and its flea market had helped him begin training and become an adventurer and Nen Ability user.
• Illumi examined the market’s incomplete training books, medicinal materials, and Divine Script weapons as he considered acquiring a weapon for himself.
• Baal and Illumi spent the day touring the market, where Baal noted that Divine Script Creations had become more common and imagined commissioning kitchenware.
• After Illumi and Baal left, stray animals in Lade Cape developed scarlet eyes and faint traces of Nen, while Nen gathered in swarms of sewer rats.
• A companion of Beyond who had returned with him, presumed dead and stripped in an alley, opened his crimson eyes.

Baal's team joined the sixty-four teams selected for the King of Fighters Tournament finals and entered the Pachi Tribe's Earth Secret Realm in the Basen Rainforest. The group arrived in a city built by Earth Elementals, where they learned the realm would later open to Adventurers.

• Baal's team was eliminated in the preliminaries, but Illumi and Chris helped them join the Superpower Martial Arts Hall group and enter the finals.
• A Pachi Tribe youth led the tournament participants through thick fog into one of the tribe's Secret Realms.
• Baal explained the Basen Rainforest's Secret Realms to Illumi, and Chris guessed that the tournament would take place in the Earth Secret Realm.
• The group emerged on a plain before a vast city and learned that its strange demihumans were Earth Elementals.
• The Pachi Tribe youth guided everyone into the city, where Pachi Tribe members used Earth Elementals and Divine Script to construct buildings and an arena.
• Illumi and the others saw an unfinished Adventurer Guild and learned the realm would be opened to Adventurers in the future.