Chapter Summaries

Charles visited Professor Loran to learn about the Abyssal Grimoire and the demon bloodline in his body. Loran explained how the bloodline could aid his cultivation, and Charles left her laboratory resolved to study hard.

• Charles met Professor Loran, who noticed his Demonic Beast aura and examined his blood with a crystal ball.
• Loran identified a faint demon bloodline in Charles and offered to study his organs, but Charles refused.
• Loran explained that the Abyssal Grimoire taught bloodline modification, demon summoning, planar travel, and abyssal witchcraft.
• Loran said Charles’s stable inherited bloodline could boost his magical power and physical strength, and might awaken witchcraft-like abilities.
• Charles asked about the danger of summoning demons, and Loran said a proper contract would prevent backlash, though he could summon only a demon worm for now.
• Loran encouraged Charles to study under her, and he left her laboratory imagining having one of his own someday.

Charles studied the Abyssal Grimoire and bought Loran’s insights and the Gloomy Eye Meditation Technique, then met his classmates Joseph and Jody. The chapter left Charles and Joseph on friendlier terms after Jody insulted them.

• Charles bought Loran’s Abyssal Grimoire cultivation insights and asked her for advice on changing meditation techniques.
• Loran explained the Pain, Gloomy Eye, and Chaotic Touch Meditation Techniques and their disturbing cultivation requirements.
• Charles chose the Gloomy Eye Meditation Technique, and Loran sold him the scroll for 130 Magic Stones.
• After class, Joseph introduced himself to Charles, while Jody insulted them and left.
• Joseph told Charles that Jody came from a wizard family and that his own grandfather was a First-Rank Wizard Apprentice; Charles praised Joseph’s family and prospects.

Over half a year of training, Charles reached the threshold of a Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice and continued learning zero-ring spells while capturing goblins. He had made no progress finding Molly, and Joseph had devoted himself to spell experiments.

• Charles spent his days attending Loran's classes, training, capturing goblins for Magic Stones, and visiting Erika, while he continued to wonder about Molly.
• Charles used the Gloomy Eye Meditation Technique and broke through to become a Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice.
• Charles reflected on his progress and continued meditating, noting that Jody had advanced earlier by consuming many more potions.
• Charles learned and mastered numerous zero-ring spells, which he used in battles against goblins.
• Joseph focused on modifying spells and conducting experiments, a path Charles did not approve of.

As the Shadow Nightmare Realm approached, Loran was ordered to leave Isata and garrison a city, forcing her apprentices to choose whether to go with her. Charles initially planned to stay, but Loran offered to lend him cultivation resources and teach him more witchcraft if he joined her, and her final offer left him tempted.

• Loran told her apprentices that she had to leave Isata because of the approaching Shadow Nightmare Realm and gave them two days to decide whether to accompany her.
• Joseph warned Charles that traveling outside Isata during the intersection could expose them to dangerous shadow creatures, so Charles decided to stay.
• Loran asked Charles to become her assistant and go with her, but Charles refused because he feared he would be little help as an apprentice.
• Loran offered to lend Charles resources until he became a first-class apprentice, help him inscribe a rune array and contract an Abyssal demon, and teach him Zero-Ring witchcraft.
• Charles asked how much support she would provide, and Loran offered resources equal in value to what Jody bought from her each month.

Charles agreed to accompany Teacher Loran on a five-day expedition and met the four other apprentices she had recruited. When the group left the tower, they encountered a formidable Blood Ring Knight and his armored, scaled warhorse, leaving Charles curious about the knight’s rank.

• Charles accepted Loran’s offer to join her and prepared to leave in five days.
• Charles explained the trip to Erika without revealing its true purpose.
• Charles met Quake, Sal, Golder, and Jody at Loran’s office, where Sal mocked the second-rank apprentices and Jody challenged him.
• Loran stopped the apprentices’ quarrel with a display of pressure and led them out of the tower.
• Charles saw a Blood Ring Knight and his unusual warhorse, and Quake identified the knight’s rank.

Charles traveled with Loran’s convoy by carriage and river ship, then learned from Quake how Blood Ring Knights were created and how powerful they were. Quake asked why Loran had recruited Charles, and Charles explained that his goblin-catching work had impressed her.

• Charles traveled with Loran’s convoy for over half a month before boarding a ship that sailed upstream.
• Charles asked Quake what a Blood Ring Knight was, and Quake explained that wizards could modify talented Great Knights into fighters who rivaled one-ring wizards.
• Quake asked why Loran had invited Charles to join her assistant team and why he had accepted the mission as a Second-Rank Wizard Apprentice.
• Charles said Loran had recruited him after he attended her classes and sold goblins he caught to her laboratory.
• Quake was surprised to learn Charles had been catching goblins in the sewers since he was a Third-Rank Wizard Apprentice.

Charles told Quake that he knew thirty zero-ring spells, astonishing him with how much he had learned in a short time. Quake explained that he and other apprentices had joined Loran’s team because she offered to share her experience advancing to a first-ring wizard.

• Quake offered to exchange answers with Charles, who asked what conditions Loran had offered him to join her assistant team.
• Quake said Loran had promised to share her experience advancing to a first-ring wizard, and he suspected Sal and Golder had been drawn by the same offer.
• Charles revealed that he knew and could proficiently cast thirty zero-ring spells, leaving Quake stunned.
• Quake said that after ten years in Isata, he knew fewer than forty spells, and explained that learning spells took time apprentices also needed for meditation and earning Magic Stones.
• Charles reflected that his unusual learning talent and access to the Wu Duo Duo Mall had helped him master spells far faster than most apprentices.

After a long journey, Charles arrived with Loran and the other apprentices at a manor near a city in the Wizard Continent. Loran asserted control over the local wizard-apprentice families and ordered them to prepare for threats from the converging Shadow Nightmare Realm.

• After speaking with Quake, Charles recognized his strength and learned that his many mastered spells made him unusually capable among apprentices.
• Charles traveled by river and carriage with Loran's group for about a month and a half before reaching the manor.
• At a banquet gathering, Charles spoke with local apprentices while Jody kept apart from the others.
• Loran entered in a black robe, announced that the local families had to obey her, and ordered each to provide one Great Knight and ten knights by the next day.
• When an old apprentice questioned the order, Loran sent him flying with a look and warned the families to prepare for Nightmare Beasts and infected people.
• Loran promised monthly lessons for the local apprentices, who thanked her as they accepted her commands.

Loran organized apprentice patrols and explained the dangers of the Shadow Nightmare Realm’s coming convergence. After studying her materials, Charles was suddenly transported to a strange, hazy place.

• Loran assigned apprentices to patrol in pairs and told them to report powerful Shadow Nightmare threats to her.
• Loran explained the Nightmarespawn Parasites, Nightmare Beasts, and Shadow Nightmare warriors, then distributed reference booklets.
• Charles returned to his room and read that the two realms converged naturally, forcing their inhabitants into deadly encounters.
• Charles learned that knowledge of the Shadow Nightmare Realm could aid his future advancement as a wizard.
• After finishing the booklet, Charles found himself surrounded by a hazy veil and panicked over where he had ended up.

Charles became trapped in the decayed Shadow Nightmare Realm and searched the manor castle for a way back to the Wizard World. After a passage vanished and he found no other people, Danger Sense warned him of something lurking in a fireplace, where a pale arm suddenly burst out.

• Charles found the manor castle ruined and discovered that a candlestick-sized passage to the Wizard World was too small to enter before it vanished.
• Charles cast Misaligned Phantom, Danger Sense, and Lesser Arrow Defense, then cautiously searched the castle for another way out.
• Charles found a room that seemed recently occupied and recognized it as Quake's, but found no one inside.
• Charles felt Danger Sense warn him and spotted something moving beneath the ashes in a fireplace.
• A pale human forearm burst out of the fireplace as Charles cried out a warning.

Charles encountered a grotesque monster made of an oversized man's head and a long, many-fingered arm emerging from a fireplace. He fled through the castle, restrained the creature with webs, and began testing spells to kill it.

• Charles saw a pale forearm with ten fingers and three eyes in its palm emerge from the fireplace.
• The arm lunged at Charles, revealing a huge, bloodied head with writhing tentacles and a feeler in its mouth.
• Charles cast Serpentine Glide and outran the pursuing monster through the castle corridors.
• Charles hit the monster with three Web Bombs, entangling its arm and head.
• Charles struck the monster with Bone Needle Bee, then cast Ice Spike Spell and Pus-Blood Bomb to test their effects.

After killing a monstrous head, Charles explored the manor and found no way back to reality, then set off for the city, believing its buildings might offer a route home. He reached the city gate and hesitated before entering, only to hear strange laughter approaching from behind.

• Charles killed the monstrous head with repeated attacks and felt his mental and magic power begin to recover and grow.
• Charles searched the ashes, fireplace, manor, and castle but found no passage back to reality, and he avoided a strange tree with writhing branches.
• Charles left the manor and headed toward the city, deciding its many buildings might provide shadows needed to return to the Wizard World.
• Charles avoided a massive breach in the city wall and walked for over an hour to find the city gate.
• Charles stopped before the open gate, lit by blood-red flames, and heard strange laughter from behind him.

Charles survived the Shadow Nightmare Realm’s eerie wind by sheltering in a city gate watchman’s room, though it left three needle marks on his eyelid. He continued searching the deserted town for a passage back to the Wizard World and watched a monster attack a man who shouted in the street.

• Charles fled the dangerous wind into a small room in the city gate tunnel, where a whisper about sewing eyelids left him with three needle-prick marks on his right eyelid.
• After the wind and strange laughter faded, Charles left the room and searched the town’s buildings for a passage to the Wizard World.
• Charles spotted a terrified middle-aged man shouting for help in the street and feared the noise would draw a monster.
• A twisted creature made of broken dishes and intestine-like tendrils burst from a building and wrapped itself around the middle-aged man, cutting into his flesh.

Charles searched the Shadow Nightmare Realm for a way back to the Wizard World while avoiding monsters and the effects of assimilation. He found a viable passage beneath a fallen bell tower, but a nearby monster spotted him just as he began casting a spell.

• A mass of intestines killed a middle-aged man, copied his last words, and was snatched away by a flying creature, leaving Charles to search for an escape.
• Charles found a narrow passage formed by a stair railing's shadow, but it was too fragmented to cross and vanished before he could use it.
• After spending more than a day in the Shadow Nightmare Realm, Charles noticed that the monsters seemed less frightening as the realm began assimilating him.
• A colossal pterosaur-like monster flew over the city as a three-headed giant charged through the streets and hurled building debris at it.
• The giant toppled a bell tower, revealing a broad shadow passage back to the Wizard World, and Charles rushed toward it.
• A twisted monster escaped the giant's destruction, spotted Charles, and prompted him to begin casting a spell.

Charles fought and killed a Man-Headed Dog while escaping the Shadow Nightmare Realm, then returned to the real world through the clock tower passage. He discovered that the Shadow Nightmare Realm was available for proxy representation and confirmed the request.

• Charles used moths, red-eyed rats, and defensive spells to distract and evade the Man-Headed Dog as he ran toward the clock tower passage.
• Charles trapped the Man-Headed Dog beneath collapsing timber, set the pile alight with Foxfire Spell, and killed the monster.
• Charles reached the passage and forced his way out of the Shadow Nightmare Realm, then vomited beneath the clock tower as his surroundings returned to normal.
• Charles noticed gray smoke and faint whispers rising from his body and feared the Shadow Nightmare Realm was assimilating him.
• Charles found a request to represent the Shadow Nightmare Realm Mall in the Wu Duo Duo Mall and confirmed it.

Charles returned from the Shadow Nightmare Realm and traded his account of the experience to Loran for three zero-ring spells and a box of magical eyeballs. After leaving Loran’s laboratory, he encountered Quake, who eagerly asked about his disappearance.

• Charles returned to the manor and told Loran he had been trapped in the Shadow Nightmare Realm.
• Loran offered Charles three zero-ring spells in exchange for a detailed account, and he described his journey and the giant battling a pterosaur-like monster.
• Loran checked Charles for lingering effects and kept him in the laboratory for two days while teaching him Surveillance Mark, Crow Divination, and Wailing Bottle.
• Loran gave Charles the promised cultivation resources, which turned out to be a box of magical eyeballs.
• Charles ran into Quake and told him he had escaped from the Shadow Nightmare Realm, exciting Quake’s curiosity.

After returning from the Shadow Nightmare Realm, Charles explained his experiences to Quake and Jody in exchange for recovery supplies and a wizard artifact. Jody and Charles agreed to patrol together, and Charles tested the Lightfoot Boots she gave him.

• Charles returned to his room, realized a shadow by the bed had carried him into the Shadow Nightmare Realm, and moved to a room away from the light.
• Quake brought Charles healing and recovery potions in exchange for hearing about his experiences, and Charles recounted most of what had happened.
• Jody gave Charles wizard artifact boots with the Lightfoot spell and asked him to share every detail of his experiences.
• Charles told Jody his full account, and she proposed that they team up for patrol; Charles agreed.
• Charles put on the boots and tested Lightfoot, finding that it made him feel lighter and would increase his speed.

Charles discovered that Wuduo could send him between the Shadow Nightmare Realm and the Wizard World, and he spotted a dangerous giant tree in the shadow realm. After ordering the ordinary tree corresponding to it cut down, he joined Jody’s patrol and wondered whether the shadow realm’s monsters were also projections of the Wizard World.

• Charles learned the Rat Domestication spell and reflected on how killing Shadow Nightmare Realm monsters had increased his magic power and mental power.
• Charles entered the Shadow Nightmare Realm through Wuduo, saw that the giant tree had grown to nearly forty meters, and found an entrance back to the Wizard World.
• After Charles returned, the giant tree’s branches and leaves burst into his room searching for him, while Wuduo showed a two-day countdown before his next visit.
• Charles considered using the Shadow Nightmare Realm to accelerate his cultivation, then resumed meditating with eyeballs.
• Three days later, Charles ordered an attendant to cut down the ordinary tree corresponding to the giant tree before joining Jody’s patrol.
• As Charles and Jody approached the city, Charles noticed similarities between its buildings and the Shadow Nightmare Realm and wondered whether its monsters were projections too.

Charles patrolled the city with Jody, then secretly returned to the Shadow Nightmare Realm to investigate the felled tree. He found a monstrous sapling growing from its stump, cut it down, and felt himself improve after killing it.

• Charles and Jody patrolled the city, inspected the clock tower passage, and found nothing unusual.
• After finishing five days on standby, Charles returned to the manor and later left secretly to enter the Shadow Nightmare Realm.
• Charles went to the manor in the Shadow Nightmare Realm and found that the felled tree was gone, leaving a huge stump.
• Charles discovered a person-sized sapling with tentacles growing from the stump and realized it had become a monster.
• Charles cut the sapling in half, and after it stopped moving, he felt the familiar improvement from killing a monster.

Charles entered the ruined city to hunt monsters, but a house’s doorframe attacked him after his mental scan failed to detect it. He discovered that Shadow-Stealing Spell weakened the immobile monster, destroyed it, and increased his mental power and magic.

• Charles left the tree stump alive to see whether it would grow another sapling, then found no new monsters in the manor castle.
• Charles crossed the city wall and saw that the Angry Giant’s rampage had left nearly half the city in ruins.
• Charles opened a seemingly safe house and narrowly escaped when its tooth-lined doorframe snapped at him and sent tentacles after him.
• Charles tested spells on the immobile doorframe monster, finding that Shadow-Stealing Spell drained it while his other attacks had limited effects.
• Charles repeatedly cast Shadow-Stealing Spell until the monster’s teeth and tongue fell off and its doorframe crumbled to ashes, increasing his mental power and magic.