Chapter Summaries

Blade Tusk hosted visiting tribes and began negotiations that brought the six largest tribes into a pact and divided the medium-sized tribes between closer integration and alliance. Talks with the seven small tribes began, leaving their choices unresolved.

• The Tusk Tribe held a bonfire gathering where visiting warriors ate, fought, and mingled while Witch Doctors observed the tribe’s knowledge and customs.
• Blade Tusk and Meiya discussed creating a Troll art form from combat and hunting traditions, and Blade Tusk attempted to demonstrate a story through dance.
• The Tusk Tribe began negotiations with six large tribes, securing the Seven-Tribe Friendship Pact with terms covering trade, Food Coins, food storage, and exchange students.
• Blade Tusk sent the six large tribes home, then offered the medium-sized tribes a choice between joining the Rune Council’s sphere or signing an alliance pact.
• Thirteen of the thirty-two medium-sized tribes chose closer integration, while nineteen chose the alliance; the Tusk Tribe escorted the latter home.
• Negotiations turned to seven small tribes, whose Witch Doctors faced limited room to choose.

Blade Tusk absorbed seven small tribes with Witch Doctors and spent three years expanding the Tusk Tribe’s education, infrastructure, and influence. He advanced his cultivation, transformed his entire body’s skin into high-energy tissue, and used a brief moment during his breakthrough to reshape his appearance.

• Blade Tusk offered seven small tribes complete incorporation, and their Witch Doctors accepted after weighing the security it promised against the loss of independence.
• The Tusk Tribe escorted the treaty signatories home, then spent three years establishing educational exchanges, building ice-storage bases, absorbing nine small tribes without Witch Doctors, and training twenty new Rune Council members in the Meditation~Visualization Method.
• Blade Tusk focused on his advancement and his wife’s cultivation, completing the transformation of his epidermis into high-energy tissue after working on it for several years.
• Blade Tusk’s meditation space changed dramatically, strengthening his magic power, perception, rune precision, and connection between his visualization body and physical body.
• During a brief overlap at his energy-level advancement, Blade Tusk reshaped his face, ears, tusks, skin, and posture, while recognizing that his wife could make more thorough adjustments when she reached the same stage.

Blade Tusk tried to transform his visualization body into a Wind Wolf after his level-up, but the change overtook his physical body and subjected him to excruciating pain. The transformation finished with him fully wolf-like and too exhausted to move.

• Blade Tusk noticed that his height had increased to 3.4 meters and considered how his visualization body might respond to his stronger connection with his physical form.
• Blade Tusk entered deep meditation and began changing his visualization body from Troll form into Wind Wolf form.
• Blade Tusk felt pain, discovered he could not stop the transformation, and was dragged out of meditation by unbearable agony.
• Blade Tusk's bones, joints, muscles, hands, feet, and claws reshaped as purple fur covered his body.
• Blade Tusk's head transformed into a wolf's muzzle with sharp teeth, and after half a lamp-hour he lay on the ground unable to move.

Blade Tusk recovered from his painful transformation into a wolf and inspected his new form and remaining magic power. He learned he could return to his troll body, but his wolf form had major limitations that he hoped to improve through further research.

• Blade Tusk slowly regained his strength, adapted to moving in wolf form, and discovered he could no longer speak normally.
• Blade Tusk returned to his meditation space and learned he could transform back into a troll, though he was still afraid of the pain.
• Blade Tusk found that the transformation had consumed about ninety percent of his magic power and that his troll spellcasting methods would not work in wolf form.
• Blade Tusk examined his wolf form and discovered it combined Wind Wolf traits with troll traits, leaving it without many of a Wind Wolf's advantages.
• Blade Tusk accepted the limitations as problems he could address through future research.

Blade Tusk experimented with the cavity in his wolf-form visualization construct and discovered it could store runes for Wind Wolf spell-like abilities. He left the chapter able to activate three of them almost instantly while transformed.

• Blade Tusk moved rune inscription into the cavity in his wolf-form visualization construct and found that it greatly reduced the time needed to prepare spells.
• Blade Tusk discovered that the cavity could retain Windwalking Spell runes without his conscious maintenance, but activating them required him to imitate a Wind Wolf's howl.
• Blade Tusk linked the howl to the runes' vibrations and successfully activated Windwalking Spell in wolf form.
• Blade Tusk recalled the Sharp Tusk Shaman's meditation method and concluded that the visualization construct was designed to support Wind Wolf abilities.
• Blade Tusk tested Sharp Tusk Claws and Wind Blade, found that the cavity stored their runes too, and activated both with a wolf-like casting wind-up.

Blade Tusk returned from wolf form to his Troll body and told Meiya what had happened. During their meal, he noticed that his appetite had shifted from meat to fruits and vegetables, so he decided to eat vegetarian food for a few days and observe the effects.

• Meiya found Blade Tusk in wolf form and recognized him, then checked him anxiously.
• Blade Tusk transformed back into a Troll, using less stamina and feeling less pain than during his first transformation.
• Blade Tusk explained the events that had led to his transformation, and Meiya comforted him.
• At their meal, Meiya noticed Blade Tusk was eating only fruits and vegetables, and he realized he had lost his usual desire for meat.
• Blade Tusk suspected his cultivation had changed his body's nutritional needs and decided to eat vegetarian food for a few days.

Blade Tusk reassured Meiya about his new wolf transformation, then visited Sharp Tusk to reveal that his transformation research had succeeded. He demonstrated the change and its spell-like abilities, leaving Sharp Tusk eager to learn more before the report meeting.

• Meiya asked whether Blade Tusk could safely turn into a wolf and said she wanted to learn the wolf form too, but Blade Tusk explained that he could retain only one additional state for now.
• After Meiya went to train, Blade Tusk cleaned up and left their treehouse to visit Sharp Tusk.
• Sharp Tusk was astonished by Blade Tusk's changed physique, and Blade Tusk confirmed that he had succeeded in advancing his training.
• Blade Tusk reminded Sharp Tusk of his proposed Druid transformation research, then transformed into a wolf with less pain and stamina loss than before.
• Blade Tusk demonstrated three spell-like abilities to Sharp Tusk.

Blade Tusk demonstrated his wolf-form abilities to Sharp Tusk Witch Doctor and urged him to adopt the new energy-advancement path. As Blade Tusk headed home, he worried that witch doctors were beginning to diverge from ordinary Trolls in both strength and appearance.

• Blade Tusk showed Sharp Tusk Witch Doctor how he transformed into a wolf and used Wind Walk, Sharp Tusk Claws, and Wind Blade.
• Blade Tusk explained that the transformation and abilities consumed much of his strength, while Sharp Tusk revealed that he and Rough Tusk had reached a bottleneck in their development.
• Sharp Tusk said he and Rough Tusk had avoided Blade Tusk's method because they wanted to explore new paths, but Blade Tusk urged them to adapt it rather than copy it wholesale.
• Sharp Tusk agreed to discuss Blade Tusk's method with Rough Tusk, and the two witch doctors talked over ways to combine their meditation methods.
• On his way home, Blade Tusk worried that witch doctors' growing differences from ordinary Trolls could cause problems, but he could not find a way to prevent it.

Blade Tusk finished studying his dietary needs and found that he still required some meat, then considered how to expand his meditation method as his body and spiritual power continued to grow. He chose to investigate the Troll body more deeply and planned to launch the Troll Cell Exploration Project.

• Blade Tusk's dietary experiments showed that he needed about ten kilograms of pure meat per month, making him an omnivore and saving the tribe around 250 kilograms of food monthly.
• Blade Tusk experienced intense daytime energy and irritability as his body grew stronger, while his strength and spiritual power increased after sleep or deep meditation.
• By the third month after his dietary study, Blade Tusk found that meditation no longer helped his cultivation because his method could not keep pace with his progress.
• Blade Tusk weighed adding new visualization forms, deepening the Troll visualization, and meditating on his energy-level transition, but set aside the third option because his excess energy already disrupted his life.
• Blade Tusk chose to deepen the Troll Body Meditation Method and named his planned research effort the Troll Cell Exploration Project.

Blade Tusk organized the shamans and warriors to prepare for the Troll Cell Exploration Project, overseeing equipment development and research planning. Two months later, the first captured external trolls arrived at the secret Cell Research Institute, where they were kept for the coming experiments.

• Blade Tusk presented the Troll Cell Exploration Project, and the shamans agreed to set aside their other work to join it, with apprentices later assigned as assistants.
• The shamans formed equipment and research teams, and Blade Tusk was chosen to lead the project as its self-appointed chief engineer.
• The equipment team developed microscope designs and experimented with making lenses from ice crystals while the research groups refined their plans.
• Moligan proposed using a nocturnal Magic Beast’s ability to sense things without eyes for the research, and Blade Tusk ordered warriors to capture the creatures.
• After two months, the warriors returned with more than thirty external trolls, who were secretly housed and cared for in the basement of the Cell Research Institute.

Blade Tusk tested the Ice Crystal Microscope and discovered he could see through 2600x lenses even though other Trolls could not, suggesting his eyes had unusual abilities. He ordered a microscope fitted with those lenses for himself and continued on to the Cell Research Institute late at night.

• The witch doctors concluded that 2500x was the Ice Crystal Microscope’s limit because Trolls could not see through stronger lenses.
• Blade Tusk tested the 2600x lenses and saw a clear image, while Balikun and the other witch doctors saw nothing.
• Blade Tusk confirmed that he also could not see through 2700x lenses and suspected his eyes could detect a broader range of light.
• Blade Tusk asked Balikun to reserve a 2600x microscope for him and focus production on 2500x lenses.
• Blade Tusk left the temperature-controlled microscope room, admired the fireball being fed charcoal to light the tribe, and headed toward the Cell Research Institute.

The shamans analyzed a Blind Bat’s Magic Core and developed the Ultrasonic Detection Technique for close-range examinations. With the spell, equipment, subjects, and testing site nearly ready, Blade Tusk’s research was close to beginning.

• The shamans extracted a sound-wave spell from the Blind Bat’s Magic Core and studied its rune group.
• Blade Tusk proposed that spell-like abilities had evolved from ordinary abilities, though he acknowledged the theory needed verification.
• The shamans identified runes for producing, directing, and receiving sound, including ones that controlled sound-wave frequency.
• Blade Tusk coined the term “ultrasound” in Troll Language and added sound-wave measurement to the tribe’s research plans.
• The shamans combined their findings into the Ultrasonic Detection Technique, which worked at close range and suited medical research.
• Blade Tusk reconsidered his reluctance to use the spell as preparations for the research neared completion.

Blade Tusk coordinated the Troll organ research projects as their proposals entered the research phase, then studied their reports and discovered how differently Troll anatomy worked compared with human anatomy. The chapter ended with a detailed account of how the Disease Organ System detected and removed toxins.

• Blade Tusk approved the blood circulation project, and the other research groups submitted proposals until the Brain Group became the last to enter the research phase.
• Blade Tusk organized research schedules and allocated apprentices, facilities, instruments, records, and test subjects while adjusting plans when accidents disrupted the work.
• Blade Tusk reviewed the groups’ reports and found that Troll organs differed greatly from human organs, including a digestive system divided into digestive and storage zones.
• The Witch Doctors’ reports described the Disease Organ System, including the Immune Master Gland, Detoxification Master Gland, Generative Cavity, and Response Body.
• The reports explained how the Generative Cavity detected harmful substances and how the Detoxification Master Gland and brain coordinated the removal of toxins through blood circulation and the ureteral passages.

The Witch Doctors studied Troll organs, proposing that Trolls originated in volcanic magma and mapping major brain regions and their functions. Their first brain-group report suggested Trolls were originally hearing-centered, while Blade Tusk remained unsure how much of the research was speculation.

• The Witch Doctors found that Trolls had an eight-chambered heart and tiny, dormant hidden lungs whose cells relied on waste gases to survive.
• The Witch Doctors proposed that Trolls originated in volcanic magma, citing the widespread fire resistance in Troll tissues.
• The brain group submitted its first report after dividing the brain into regions and testing their functions through dissection, sensory restriction, and local anesthesia.
• The brain group concluded that hearing dominated Troll sensory processing and that the midbrain directed movement through its connection to the posterior tectum.
• Blade Tusk considered whether Trolls' strong hearing and his own sensory preferences supported the theory, but recognized that the evidence remained uncertain.

Blade Tusk decided to reform the Tusk Tribe’s writing media after the growing volume and weight of clay and ceramic records made research difficult. He assigned Vine Tusk and Creeper Tusk to develop a lightweight, dye-absorbing plant-fiber medium, and they began considering woven fibers.

• Blade Tusk concluded that clay and ceramic tablets had become cumbersome as the tribe’s written records and research materials grew.
• Blade Tusk reassigned Vine Tusk and Creeper Tusk from their plant research projects to develop a new writing medium.
• Blade Tusk specified that the material should be lightweight, absorb dyes, resist corrosion, and support large-scale production, with fire and water resistance as secondary goals.
• Creeper Tusk proposed crossing plant fibers like woven cloth and controlling their density to create a suitable material.
• Vine Tusk remained silent, thinking over the problem while Blade Tusk waited for his response.

Blade Tusk discussed a new fiber mixture for recording dye-based writing, reassured leaders whose research groups were being reorganized, and returned to the underground library to review daily reports. He continued directing the tribe’s research while relying on the library’s catalogs and project repositories to manage its growing records.

• Blade Tusk and Vine Tusk agreed to test combinations of tree trunks, bark, and different grasses to make fibers that could absorb dye without letting it spread uncontrollably.
• Blade Tusk reassured the leaders of the Brain Research Group and the Spinal Cord Research Group that their projects would be reorganized rather than abandoned.
• Blade Tusk stopped rubbing his temples after recalling that Trolls had no special nerve clusters there, then stepped outside briefly to breathe the night air.
• Blade Tusk entered the underground library beneath his office, which organized records into Executive Government and Arcane Arts sections using catalogs and separate repositories.
• Blade Tusk reviewed daily progress reports in the Update Repository and directed the night-shift apprentices to record his feedback and retrieve detailed research records.

Blade Tusk coordinated the Witch Doctors’ research schedules through the night, leaving himself and Meiya only a short daily stretch of private time. After seeing Meiya off, he resumed his meditation and reconstructed a detailed Troll body, discovering that maintaining its circulatory system and organs pushed the limits of his mind.

• Blade Tusk reviewed the Muscle Group and Heart Group’s reports, then rearranged their project schedules and shared use of Microscopy Room Three.
• After finishing the night’s work, Blade Tusk sent the results to the groups’ dispatch rooms and returned home.
• Blade Tusk’s routine left him and Meiya only six light-hours together each day, which they used for time alone and conversation.
• After seeing Meiya off, Blade Tusk slept until day 6, completed his morning routine, and went to meditate.
• Blade Tusk reconstructed a Troll body in his meditation space, then activated its heart and circulation until the mental strain showed him he had reached a sufficient stage for now.

Blade Tusk’s meditation method had strengthened his mind by drawing his visualization body closer to his physical body, while Troll cell research revealed unusual traits in his muscles. As the research neared its end, he prepared to investigate his daytime berserk episodes, and comparisons showed that his stress muscles were unusually abundant and long-lasting.

• Blade Tusk distinguished the mechanical training of meditation from the fantastical cultivation that gradually brought his visualization body into correspondence with his physical body.
• After more than half a year of meditation and cellular research, Blade Tusk gained mental and physical strength and decided to address his daytime berserk episodes.
• The Witch Doctors classified Troll muscles by function, control, and response, distinguishing explosive stress muscles from slower long-duration muscles.
• Blade Tusk provided cell samples for comparison, and the Witch Doctors found that his stress muscles made up a greater share of his muscle bundles than those of ordinary Trolls.
• The Witch Doctors measured stress muscles at an average of 13 percent in Blade Tusk’s skeletal muscles, reaching 17 percent in his back and a maximum of 23 percent, while scans showed they remained effective longer.

Blade Tusk and the Witch Doctors developed an energy theory to explain how the Brute Force Spell and his unusual muscle composition affected muscle endurance. Using meditation to connect a detailed muscle visualization to his body, Blade Tusk prepared to deliberately increase the proportion of Stress Muscles, beginning with a back-muscle branch.

• The Witch Doctors found that the Brute Force Spell increased the duration of ordinary Trolls’ Stress Muscles, but that Long-Lasting Muscles became weak when the spell ended.
• The Witch Doctors proposed that Stress Muscles relied on a rapidly produced, highly usable energy transformed from energy consumed by Long-Lasting Muscles, and that Blade Tusk produced more of it than other Trolls.
• Blade Tusk compared his athletic ability in bright and lightless environments, both with and without the Brute Force Spell, strengthening the Witch Doctors’ confidence in the energy theory.
• Blade Tusk decided to encourage his Stress Muscles to grow in proportion, using meditation to accelerate changes he believed were already occurring throughout his body.
• Blade Tusk spent three days learning to reconstruct a muscle from cells to whole muscle in meditation, then connected the visualization to a back-muscle branch with 23% Stress Muscles under strong sunlight.

Blade Tusk tested whether he could use meditation to make Stress Muscle replace Long-Lasting Muscle, then worked with witch doctors to study how his muscles responded to missing fiber bundles. The experiment showed that Stress Muscle filled vacant bundle positions, though it did not restore lost muscle volume.

• Blade Tusk found that he could influence muscle cells only in tissues he had reconstructed from the cellular level, so he began building more muscles in his visualization body.
• Blade Tusk worried that the different lifespans of Stress Muscle and Long-Lasting Muscle might leave him weakened if the latter stopped replacing itself.
• Blade Tusk asked the muscle group project team to remove a cluster of muscle-fiber bundles while he meditated, and a witch doctor used Low-Level Healing Art to simulate an empty bundle position.
• Blade Tusk observed Stress Muscle cells divide to fill the vacant bundle positions, even as the new fibers reopened the healed wound.
• Blade Tusk concluded that the Stress Muscle would not compensate for lost muscle volume, but that replacing Long-Lasting Muscle bundles would still increase his physical attributes.