Recaps

Fran learned that high-ranking apprentices were likely behind the attack because they targeted strong rivals to improve their assessment rankings, and she planned to disguise herself at the Apprentice Market. Meanwhile, the Transmutation School tasked its apprentices with investigating the death of Richter and recovering his notebook and a stolen item.

• Elan told Fran that powerful apprentices attacked their rivals outside assessments to improve their ranks, and Fran realized her reputation and trips to the market had made her a target.
• Fran decided to keep a lower profile and disguise herself when visiting the Apprentice Market.
• Taen arrived late at a meeting where Mentor Belori announced that Richter's death had been confirmed and assigned the apprentices to find his notebook or establish that its knowledge had been destroyed.
• Belori offered to teach enhanced-organ transplantation surgery to whoever completed the task, with additional knowledge as a reward for finding an item with the [Plunder] trait.
• Taen told an acquaintance that the modified humans he had bought were nearly useless, though they could still serve as organ materials.

Fran and Lai attended Harbos Roins’s Forge School class, where he promised to recruit apprentices who performed well. Elan was there on a mission to approach Harbos, while Harbos hoped to find promising recruits for a school short on people.

• Fran and Lai entered the spacious classroom and found most of the front seats occupied.
• Fran recognized Elan, who claimed his school had sent him to pay his respects to Harbos.
• Lai explained that a directional sound device prevented apprentices from hearing conversations far away.
• Harbos Roins introduced himself as head of the Forge School and announced that he would invite strong performers to join.
• Harbos hoped to recruit promising apprentices, while Elan suspected the school was struggling with its lower-order spells.

Fran and the other apprentices struggled to follow Harbos's advanced lesson on crafting high-tier magic staffs, though Fran's Foundry Studies proficiency rose quickly enough that she began understanding some of it. Harbos revealed that he lacked basic training materials and hoped a gifted apprentice could develop the low-level techniques needed to support his school's spells; he then introduced Tool Enchantment.

• Fran gained 20 Foundry Studies proficiency from Harbos's lecture and began to understand some of what he said.
• Lai asked Fran whether she understood the lesson, and Fran loudly admitted that she did not.
• Elan recognized that Harbos was teaching material far beyond the apprentices' level because his newly founded Forge School lacked low-level knowledge and spells.
• Harbos watched the apprentices fail to grasp his instructions and worried that he had no suitable low-level crafting techniques to support his spells.
• Harbos finished explaining how to craft a high-tier magic staff and introduced the spell Tool Enchantment.

Elan tried to join Harbos’s Forge School and offered Cuilan Academy’s students as a source of apprentices, but Harbos refused because the school needed a Spell-creating genius. Harbos revealed that Fran had already mastered the Spell he taught, leaving Elan stunned.

• After class, Elan asked Harbos to speak privately, while Fran and Lai wondered why he had taken the teacher away.
• Elan told Harbos he wanted to join the Forge School, and Harbos warned that switching schools could hinder his future advancement.
• Elan offered to make Cuilan Academy’s students a priority source for the Forge School in exchange for Harbos’s help.
• Harbos rejected the offer, explaining that his school needed a genius capable of creating Spells rather than more students.
• Harbos revealed that Fran had learned the Spell during class, and Elan realized she had been sitting near him without his noticing.

Fran improved the Purple Shortsword with runes and reviewed her skills and options for advancing her professions. After deciding that mage advancement might require crafting a powerful tool, she realized her Steam Engine could fulfill that requirement.

• Fran used a Rune Pen to engrave [Acceleration] and [Penetration] onto the Purple Shortsword, increasing her Runology proficiency.
• Fran reviewed her Panel, noted her rising attributes and skills, and decided to focus on advancing as a mage.
• Fran rejected the Territory Knight profession after seeing its demanding requirements, including a knight title and recognized land.
• Fran studied notes on a First Order spell and learned that it required crafting a sufficiently powerful tool.
• Fran recalled her Steam Engine and concluded that it might qualify as the tool needed to learn the spell.

Celine and Elan discussed Harbos’s refusal to trade and speculated that Lai might be the genius who understood his lessons. Meanwhile, Taen and Xiu Lin searched the wasteland for buried bodies and found one beneath a plot registered to the supposedly bankrupt Pharmacist Association.

• Celine told Elan that Harbos had refused their proposal, and they discussed how long it might take to create spells for lower-level people.
• Elan recalled Lai’s behavior during Harbos’s lesson and wondered whether she had suddenly understood the material, though he remained unsure.
• Taen took Xiu Lin to search a stretch of wasteland for buried corpses as part of an academy investigation.
• Xiu Lin’s testing device detected a corpse beneath the compacted ground, and Taen found that the plot’s work order had been filed by the Pharmacist Association.

Fran placed a rush order for materials and components to build a steam-powered machine, then learned that Richter’s buried body had been discovered at the Transmutation School. The investigators had no clues yet, but Fran feared magical methods might reveal that she killed him and resolved to hurry.

• A Magic Artisan society receptionist turned away customers who could not afford rush fees as dagger commissions kept the society busy and profitable.
• Fran placed a rush order for a machine’s components and bought extra coal, refined Oreichalkos, and refined iron.
• Fran planned to make the machine’s airtight cylinder, piston space, and valve herself because she was unsure whether her blueprint was accurate.
• Fran overheard that Richter’s body had been found in pieces beneath ground compacted by the Construct School, and that investigators were tracing who ordered the work.
• Fran worried that magical methods could identify her as Richter’s killer and decided she had to hurry.

Belori investigated the remains of Richter outside Cuilan Academy while Luosiqi reported that the Pharmacist Association had found no clues. A witness claimed Richter had ordered the construction work that destroyed his own body, so Belori ordered apprentices to track down everyone who had met him.

• Belori arrived at the excavation site and learned that most of Richter's remains had been found, but the two items she sought were still missing.
• Luosiqi introduced Taen as the apprentice who had discovered the corpse, and Belori promised to bring him to surgical instruction.
• Luosiqi explained that the Astrology School could not identify the killer and that an apprentice was investigating the Pharmacist Association.
• An apprentice reported that a man involved in the engineering order claimed Richter himself had arranged for the Construct School to carry it out.
• Belori concluded that the account suggested Richter had arranged his own death, then ordered Luosiqi to send apprentices with Tracking Bugs to find everyone who had met Richter.

Fran bought Telekinetic Hand and Shadow Concealment from Elan, then was confronted at Emerald Heart by Transmutation School apprentices investigating Richter’s death. When Fran challenged their authority and the tavern crowd rallied behind her, Xiyinsi prepared to attack.

• Fran visited Elan in disguise and bought Telekinetic Hand and Shadow Concealment, explaining that she was afraid of being attacked.
• As Fran left Emerald Heart, Xiyinsi and Taen stopped her and accused her of being suspected in the murder of Richter, a Transmutation School apprentice.
• Fran refused to go with them and questioned whether the Transmutation School had authority to seize people.
• The apprentices in the tavern cheered Fran and jeered at Xiyinsi and Taen, while Taen urged Xiyinsi to let her go.
• Xiyinsi brushed Taen aside, raised his wand, and cast Magic Missile.

Fran defeated Xiyinsi and Taen in a bar after Xiyinsi attacked her with a tracking Magic Missile. She left before the enforcement team arrived, while Xiyinsi vowed to seek retaliation from the Transmutation School.

• Xiyinsi fired a tracking Magic Missile at Fran, but she dodged it and rushed toward him and Taen.
• Fran grabbed Xiyinsi and struck Taen, then let the returning Magic Missile wound Xiyinsi before throwing him to the floor.
• The bar erupted in cheers as Fran left the two apprentices alive and looked to Elan for help settling the incident.
• Elan signaled Fran to leave, and Xiyinsi watched her go while vowing to report her to his mentor.
• The enforcement team arrived, and an apprentice claimed Xiyinsi and Taen had fallen by themselves as Elan nodded.

Belori abandoned her search with Tracking Bugs and used a Sacrificial Divination on Richter’s remains to learn how he died. The results pointed toward the Sword Chant School, and Belori decided to confront them.

• Xiyinsi and Taen reported their encounter with a black-robed woman to Belori, but could provide few identifying details.
• Belori stopped the Tracking Bug search after it failed to produce useful clues and recalled the apprentices searching the streets.
• Belori asked Diana of the Astrology School to perform a Sacrificial Divination, offering all the remaining soil mixed with Richter’s remains.
• Diana’s divination revealed that Richter’s murderer was skilled at casting Spells, physically exceptional, and unfamiliar with a complete swordsmanship system.
• Luosiqi identified the Sword Chant School, and Belori decided to visit them because one of their apprentices had been badly injured.

Fran hid at home from the Transmutation School while beginning to build a Steam Engine, believing she would remain safe until it was complete. Meanwhile, Harbos noticed Fran’s absence from his lecture and met Elan, who asked whether he had accepted their deal.

• Fran decided to stay inside until she finished the Steam Engine, planning to seek Harbos’s protection afterward by showing him the [Tool Enchantment] Spell.
• Fran used Oreichalkos to forge a piston, gained the Magic Artisan Profession, and began planning a large water tank for the Steam Engine.
• Harbos taught a lecture on crafting weapons for specific creatures and noticed that Fran was absent.
• Harbos brought Elan to their meeting place, where Elan asked whether Harbos had accepted his deal.

Elan learned that Harbos was interested in Fran’s unusual weapon-forging talent and discovered that Belori was investigating the Sword Chant School for a possibly leaked Notebook. After failing to search the grounds, Belori began narrowing down which apprentices might have killed Richter.

• Harbos asked Elan about Fran, and Elan told him she had been staying home after a conflict with the Transmutation School.
• Elan realized Harbos likely sought Fran because she had uncommon talent in weapon forging.
• Belori demanded permission to search the Sword Chant School, but Burnett refused without a warrant and enforcement documents from The Alliance.
• Belori attacked Burnett briefly, then withdrew after seeing that he would be difficult to defeat before reinforcements arrived.
• Belori used her Spirit Realm Guide’s [Perception] to eliminate apprentices who could not have killed Richter and marked the remaining suspects for investigation.

Fran completed and tested her Steam Engine, earning a major increase in Foundry Studies and advancing her Artisan Profession. As she began practicing Tool Enchantment, a voice appeared in the room and remarked on her curious creation.

• Fran used Telekinetic Hand to start the Steam Engine and watched its flywheel spin faster and faster.
• Fran gained 200 Star Gazing Art proficiency and 11,000 Foundry Studies proficiency for completing the Steam Engine.
• Fran checked her Panel and found that her Profession had become Artisan, her Mental attribute had increased, and she had gained the Master Artisan trait.
• Fran drank an Energy Potion and tried to practice Tool Enchantment by engraving the running Steam Engine in her mind.
• Fran failed to cast the spell properly, but gained one point of proficiency before a voice spoke to her in the room.

Fran successfully used Tool Enchantment to create a steam-powered mechanism that greatly increased her strength, then showed Harbos how she had built it. Inspired by her design, Harbos saw a possible path toward Elemental Conversion and rewarded Fran with a ring.

• Harbos explained that Fran needed to imagine how her enchanted tool moved and affected her, and Fran recast the spell by picturing a steam-powered device assisting her limbs.
• Fran used the device to punch a deep hole in a stone wall, but the spell's heat and increased strength injured her hand.
• Fran described her imagined pushing mechanism and gave Harbos a blueprint, prompting him to realize it converted heat into usable mechanical force.
• Harbos connected Fran's design to a possible method for Elemental Conversion, then gave her one of his rings as a reward for joining the Forge School.

Fran joined Harbos's Forge School in exchange for protection from the Transmutation School and a chance to learn more Spells. After leaving home to dispose of scraps, she encountered Belori, an official Mage of the Transmutation School.

• Harbos offered Fran a ring capable of casting high-order Spells, and she accepted it.
• Fran explained that she wanted to learn more Spells, and Harbos offered her a path to study First Order and Second Order Spells after becoming an official Mage.
• Fran called Harbos her Mentor, joining the Forge School, and he told her to meet him at Cuilan Academy the next day for a Promotion Method.
• Fran went outside to throw away scraps from the Steam Engine and ran into Belori, who was looking over a sheet of paper.

Fran encountered Belori, a formal Mage from the Transmutation School, and tried to avoid drawing her attention. When Belori recognized signs that Fran might be her target, Fran attacked and activated Harbos's ring, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Fran used the ring Harbos had given her while Belori examined her skills and ruled her out as the person she sought.
• Belori questioned Fran about joining a school and reprimanded her for not wearing an insignia, while Fran claimed she had forgotten hers.
• Belori remembered seeing the red spirituality of [Plunder] on Fran and ordered her to come along.
• Fran stabbed Belori with two swords, but Belori repelled her with a sound-wave attack and survived Fran's follow-up strike.
• Fran activated the ring as her mental power drained, and someone screamed, "No, stop!"

Fran used Harbos’s ring to kill Belori and discovered that Blood of the Furnace could transform the surrounding area into liquid and restore it. She took Belori’s corpse home to study her supernatural organs, raising her Transmutation Studies proficiency.

• Fran controlled the ring’s Blood of the Furnace spell and restored the crater and its surroundings, revealing Belori’s corpse.
• Fran confirmed that Belori was dead and realized the spell could convert matter into liquid and back again.
• Fran received a Panel notification that using Blood of the Furnace increased her spell proficiency, and she planned to make spell rings to learn spells from other schools.
• Fran brought Belori’s corpse to her basement and examined her altered organs, gaining Transmutation Studies proficiency.
• Fran worked through the night and mastered the method of cultivating and transplanting organs, though its success rate remained unverified.

Fran visited the Academy Head’s Office and learned that Elan, the owner of the Emerald Heart Tavern, had become Cuilan Academy’s Academy Head. Harbos revealed that Fran was the mechanical master he had recruited, leaving Elan stunned at how many skills she possessed.

• Fran entered the Academy’s administrative building and found older people moving belongings out of a room as they complained about someone changing Schools.
• Fran met Elan in the Academy Head’s Office and learned he was Cuilan Academy’s new Academy Head.
• Elan warned Fran that the newly established Forge School lacked a complete apprentice advancement system and said she might have progressed faster in the Sword Chant School.
• Fran told Elan that Harbos had sent her, and Harbos appeared after Elan summoned him.
• Harbos identified Fran as the mechanical master who had used her machine to cast his First Order Spell, then left with her to discuss matters.
• Elan realized Fran could brew potions, wield a sword, forge weapons, and work with machinery, and understood he would be helping her establish the Forge School’s course.

Harbos explained the ancient Promotion Method to Fran and showed her how the Forge School's alternatives could help her qualify as a formal Mage. Fran realized she could use her machinery knowledge and the Steam Engine to meet the school’s requirements, and considered creating a complete spell system.

• Harbos told Fran that the Forge School's current Promotion Method was incomplete and gave her the ancient method, which required great Divine Power, creating or modifying a Spell, and proving her Spell proficiency in battle.
• Fran's Panel showed that she needed to complete three trials to become a one-star Mage.
• Harbos explained that Fran's Divine Power was exceptionally high but still below the ancient method's standard, while placing well in the assessment could satisfy the battle requirement.
• Harbos said Fran could use her machinery knowledge, written in a book, to replace the Forge School's Divine Power requirement, and create a Spell based on her Steam Engine to replace the Spell-creation requirement.
• Harbos warned that without a complete spell system Fran might not gain the specialty needed for higher-tier Spells, and Fran decided she could draw on Earth's knowledge to develop one.

Luosiqi learned that Belori had disappeared and debated reporting her connection to the Sword Chant School. Ka'erfu arrived as a newly appointed Alliance Investigator and announced that he would investigate Belori's disappearance, leaving Luosiqi worried about scrutiny of the Transmutation School.

• An apprentice told Luosiqi that searches across the City of Apprentices had found no trace of Belori, and Luosiqi decided to report her disappearance to The Alliance.
• Luosiqi recalled that Belori had planned to investigate the Sword Chant School and feared that the investigation could provoke a conflict between the schools.
• Ka'erfu visited Luosiqi and criticized the Transmutation School's teaching methods, which he had left behind to join the Necromancy School.
• Ka'erfu showed Luosiqi his Alliance Investigator badge and said he would investigate Belori's disappearance, including possible smuggling and unauthorized transmutation surgery at the Transmutation School.
• After Ka'erfu left, Luosiqi cursed The Alliance's rules and resolved to deal with the school's problems before Ka'erfu began investigating.

Fran visited the Best Weapon Shop guild to join as a commissioned Artisan, and requested a test for making Spell Rings. Keliqi and Bao'er agreed to let her try despite the guild's lack of experience with such high-end commissions, leaving Fran poised to use the work to learn other people's spells.

• Keliqi questioned Fran's ability to forge weapons but agreed to assess her after she showed him Hall's recommendation letter.
• Keliqi called Bao'er, who asked what kind of commissions Fran wanted to take.
• Fran chose Spell Rings, hoping to learn the spells stored in damaged rings while earning little from the commissions.
• Bao'er said Spell Ring work was too difficult and expensive for the guild to verify, so Fran offered to pay for the test materials.
• Keliqi and Bao'er allowed Fran to try, with the condition that the guild could end the arrangement after giving three days' notice.

Fran tested her Spell Ring crafting skills at the association, hoping its reputation would bring her customers. She successfully made a working Ignition ring, and Keliqi agreed to take a 10% cut of her commissions.

• Fran explained that she needed the association to help market her Spell Ring crafting because she lacked connections in the City of Apprentices.
• Bao'er supplied Fran with gemstones and ring bands so she could test her work, and he offered to cast Ignition for her.
• Fran used Telekinetic Hand to prepare the materials and had Bao'er cast Ignition while she attempted to record it in a ring.
• After one failed attempt, Fran successfully made an Ignition Spell Ring and Keliqi tested it.
• Keliqi praised Fran's skill and offered to take 10% of her commissions, which Fran accepted.

Fran set low prices for Spell Ring commissions through Keliqi’s association, confident in her ability to inscribe spells. Back at home, she tested her ring and successfully cast Ignition, gaining proficiency.

• Keliqi estimated a custom Spell Ring should cost about eight gold coins, but Fran set prices of three gold coins for basic spells and four for School-specific spells.
• Bao'er warned Fran that her prices were too low, while Keliqi accepted them and explained his association would take a 10% commission.
• Keliqi told Bao'er that Fran's low prices reduced the association's risk and could help it enter the Spell Ring market.
• Fran returned home, put on one of her rings, and successfully cast Ignition, gaining three proficiency points.

Ka'erfu struggled to find leads in the investigation of Belori's disappearance, then learned of her connection to Richter's murder and identified several new avenues to pursue. He planned to request the Transmutation School's records and a search warrant for the Sword Chant School while his squad continued searching the city.

• Ka'erfu learned that the only lead on Belori was an Apprentice who had seen her on Commercial Street, and he worried that the stalled investigation could keep him occupied for two years.
• The enforcement squad captain told Ka'erfu that Richter had disappeared after an assessment and that fragments of his corpse were later found on land handled by the Construct School.
• Ka'erfu learned that Belori may have been investigating Richter's killer and had recently clashed with people from the Sword Chant School.
• Ka'erfu considered investigating the Pharmacist Association but abandoned the lead after learning it had disbanded and its members had likely already been interrogated by the Transmutation School.
• Ka'erfu identified Richter's murder, the Transmutation School's investigation records, and the Sword Chant School as leads, and ordered his squad to await a search warrant while continuing its citywide search.