Recaps

Juan presented Mage Armor products designed for sexual entertainment, shocking Margaret and embarrassing Jia Xiu, while Jia Xiu gained experience because the research became finished products. Juan revealed plans for additional products, bringing Jia Xiu close to leveling up.

• Margaret returned to the meeting and called Juan forward, while Jia Xiu struggled to suppress his laughter.
• Juan credited Jia Xiu for inspiring his vibrating, heated Mage Armor and offered to share the patent with him.
• Juan demonstrated the product, and Jia Xiu received 500 experience when the Sect Master recognized the research as a finished product.
• Margaret realized the product’s potential market and asked Juan how he planned to develop it further.
• Juan described two more products based on Mage Armor, triggering additional experience notifications that left Jia Xiu at 6400 out of 6500 experience.

Jia Xiu considered whether his low-circle Demonfolk mental spells could ease anxiety and stress, then arranged to test the idea on traumatized veterans cared for by the Church of Light. He arrived at Larven’s grand cathedral with Bubu and Da Huang, ready to begin the trial.

• Margaret asked Jia Xiu whether his spells could reduce negative mental states as well as cause them, drawing on her concern for traumatized soldiers.
• Jia Xiu checked the runes in his Magic Grimoire and concluded that the spells could theoretically be adjusted to reduce anxiety and stress, though they still needed testing.
• Margaret said the Church of Light cared for veterans with poor mental health and could provide someone to test the spells on.
• The next day, Jia Xiu brought Bubu and Da Huang to Larven’s largest Church of Light cathedral, with Da Huang as a gift for the people there.

Jia Xiu and Bubu tested a method for easing the war trauma of Undead soldiers at a church in Larven. After Morris agreed to trigger a flashback, the treatment let him remain rational, and he thanked Jia Xiu.

• Jia Xiu explained to Priest Milo that his group had come from Saint Delro Academy to test a treatment for war-related psychological trauma, and Milo warned them to avoid anything that might remind the patients of the Demonfolk or weapons.
• Jia Xiu met the volunteer patients, and Morris asked to be treated first so he could return to the battlefield.
• Jia Xiu and Bubu used an illusion to trigger Morris's flashback, then Jia Xiu cast magic to reduce his stress.
• Morris saw Jia Xiu as a Pit Fiend but remained rational, declared the treatment had worked, and thanked him.

Jia Xiu tested a desensitization spell on veterans suffering from traumatic memories and shared the treatment with Father Milo. After receiving the Holy Light's blessing, Jia Xiu discovered that Garbled Patron had apparently inspected and approved it first.

• Jia Xiu repeated the hallucination experiment with Morris and found that repeated exposure gradually eased his symptoms.
• Jia Xiu tested the approach with other veterans and concluded that his desensitization therapy could improve their conditions.
• Jia Xiu explained the treatment to Father Milo and shared his revised spell so Milo could continue the experiments and record the results.
• Father Milo promised to publish a letter of thanks in Larven newspapers and send a copy to Saint Delro Academy.
• Jia Xiu received the Holy Light's blessing, which increased his resistance to poison, illness, dizziness, and confusion after Garbled Patron's verification.

Jia Xiu wrote a paper on treating trauma-stress-disorder and tested the limits of his Holy Light-granted disease resistance by deliberately catching a cold. After submitting the paper, he leveled up to Warlock LV.5 and gained access to third-circle spells, an upgraded Detection Spell, a new blessing, and a new trait.

• Priest Milo reported that desensitization therapy had expanded across the diocese, though Jia Xiu might wait years for an honorary title.
• Jia Xiu named the condition trauma-stress-disorder and worked on a paper about treating it with mental spells and desensitization therapy.
• Jia Xiu asked Mia to infect him with bacteria, caught a cold, and concluded that his Holy Light-granted resistance to disease had limits.
• Jia Xiu suggested Mia look for useful bacteria on moldy oranges and share her research with Ram, and Mia decided to buy oranges.
• Jia Xiu submitted the paper and received 240 experience points, leveling up from Warlock LV.4 to LV.5.

After leveling up, Jia Xiu improved his abilities, upgraded Book Pact, and gained the Sage Time trait. He used Sage Time to study elementary Blood Clan Magic in the library, unaware that a legendary caster was watching him.

• Jia Xiu added attribute points to Intelligence and Perception, then used Detection Spell to learn that studying Vampire derivatives could help him investigate the connection between Blood Clan and human magic.
• Jia Xiu upgraded Book Pact to configure and invoke preset rune groups and spell circuits in his Magic Grimoire.
• Jia Xiu chose the Sage Time trait, which greatly enhanced his memory, comprehension, and mental processing speed for four hours once every 30 days.
• Jia Xiu went to the library, gathered books on Blood Clan magic and vampires, and activated Sage Time to study them with exceptional ease.
• An old man in a gray-white robe watched Jia Xiu study, while students noticed the legendary caster's red Caster Association ring.

After Sage Time ended, Jia Xiu impressed the legendary mage Aurelius by demonstrating that he had mastered Bloodline Magic despite reading at astonishing speed. Aurelius offered to take Jia Xiu as his student, then learned that Jia Xiu already studied under Margaret of the Capet family.

• Jia Xiu finished Sage Time feeling dazed but retained what he had learned from three books on Bloodline Magic.
• Aurelius introduced himself with a long list of titles, then accused Jia Xiu of pretending to study because he read too quickly.
• Aurelius challenged Jia Xiu to complete a spell diagram, and Jia Xiu filled it in and solved Aurelius's modifications.
• Aurelius ate the library book after losing his challenge, then asked Jia Xiu to become his student.
• Jia Xiu said his mentor was Margaret, and Aurelius was shocked that Margaret of the Capet family could teach someone like him.

Headmaster Nico learned that Aurelius had returned to Saint Delro Academy and went to Margaret's Laboratory to tell her. There, he heard a strange conversation, announced the news to Margaret and her students, and noticed an unfamiliar magical presence around Bubu.

• Nico received Aurelius's loud letter, threw it into the trash, and learned that Margaret's group had submitted a bacteria paper to Nature.
• Nico read a Church of Light letter thanking first-year student Jia Xiu for helping treat veteran patients' psychological condition.
• Nico teleported to Margaret's Laboratory and overheard Margaret and her students discussing an adjustable object before they hurriedly tidied the room.
• Nico told Margaret that Aurelius had returned, and Margaret looked miserable at the news.
• Nico noticed a strange magical power surrounding Bubu and asked who Bubu was.

Dean Nico tested Bubu’s unusual spellcasting and deliberately interfered with its magic, while Jia Xiu learned that Archmage Aurelius was his grandmaster and received the key to Aurelius’s Mage Tower. The chapter ended with alerts that Nico’s guidance improved Bubu’s understanding of spells, but the Vampire Mark then threw its magic into disarray.

• Dean Nico visited Margaret’s laboratory, announced that Jia Xiu and Mia’s bacteria paper was almost certainly accepted, and said the Church of Light had sent Jia Xiu a thank-you letter.
• Dean Nico asked Bubu to demonstrate its Healing Hair-Growth Spell and discovered that Bubu could cast spells despite unstable magic.
• Dean Nico deliberately interfered with Bubu’s spellcasting, and a bang followed as the spell went awry.
• Jia Xiu discovered that the eccentric library visitor was Archmage Aurelius, Margaret’s mentor’s mentor, and Aurelius gave him the key to his Mage Tower and a school amulet.
• Jia Xiu received a prompt saying Nico’s guidance improved Bubu’s understanding of spells, followed by another warning that the Vampire Mark had thrown Bubu’s magic into disarray.

Jia Xiu learned that a powerful Vampire had placed a mark on Bubu, restricting its magic and possibly intending to make it a Derivative. Dean Nico failed to locate the Vampire through prophecy, so Margaret suggested asking around Shadow Alley.

• Jia Xiu teleported to the laboratory and found Bubu safe with Dean Nico.
• Dean Nico explained that he had identified a Blood Clan inscription on Bubu that made the effects of certain spells uncontrollable.
• Dean Nico said the mark could be removed if the Vampire willingly lifted it or was killed, and he suspected the Vampire might have forgotten about Bubu.
• Dean Nico's prophecy failed to reveal the Vampire's location, though he thought it might have gone to another plane.
• Margaret suggested seeking a Vampire who recognized the inscription at Shadow Alley, Larven's largest black market.

Jia Xiu and Margaret took Bubu to Shadow Alley to find a vampire who knew about vampire inscriptions, only to discover that the black market was an ordinary shopping street and the vampire owned a bathhouse. They entered Carol's establishment and asked to speak with her, leaving the meeting still to come.

• Margaret explained that Shadow Alley had no secret entry rules and that the Wild Boar Gang helped manage it.
• Margaret brought Jia Xiu and Bubu to Shadow Alley, where they found a bright shopping street full of ordinary-looking shops and black-market businesses.
• Margaret pointed out Carol's Bathhouse and explained that Carol was the only vampire there, while her derivatives did the work.
• Bubu tried to charge inside to rescue people it thought were in pain, but Jia Xiu stopped it and told it to observe first.
• A staff member welcomed Jia Xiu and Margaret, offered a student discount, and escorted them to meet Carol about vampire inscriptions.

Jia Xiu and Margaret asked the vampire Carol about Bubu’s inscription, and Carol agreed to help if Jia Xiu treated her friend Niga’s distress. When Jia Xiu’s spell proved useless against Niga’s wish for a handsome human spellcaster boyfriend, he and Margaret turned to Juan for help, and Juan confidently took the job.

• Margaret asked Carol about the source of Bubu’s vampire inscription, and Carol demanded help for her friend Niga in exchange for information.
• Carol exposed herself to sunlight to show how numb she was, then revealed that Niga had been unhappy and asked Jia Xiu to help her.
• Jia Xiu learned that Niga Skull-Crusher was an orc who wanted a handsome human spellcaster boyfriend from a prestigious academy, so his PTSD treatment spell could not help her.
• Margaret suggested cheering Niga up instead of finding her a boyfriend, and Jia Xiu proposed asking Juan for advice.
• Juan declared that he would take responsibility for cheering Niga up and strode off confidently.

Juan returned with money from Niga for the Mage Armor project and reported that Carol had dealt with Bubu’s vampire inscription and wanted to speak with Jia Xiu. Carol told Jia Xiu that the inscription belonged to Tatiana, an original vampire, and pointed him toward Csejthe Town, but Jia Xiu returned to question whether she was setting him up.

• Juan returned and explained that Niga had given him money after trying the Mage Armor prototype, while Carol had handled Bubu’s inscription and requested a private meeting with Jia Xiu.
• Margaret warned Jia Xiu not to fool around when he went to meet Carol at the Carol Bathhouse.
• Carol told Jia Xiu that Tatiana, a powerful original vampire, had left for the Court of Dark Erosion, also called Nikotos.
• Carol advised Jia Xiu to seek a commission concerning Csejthe Town, where one of Tatiana’s descendants might know how to reach Nikotos.
• After Jia Xiu left, bloody words appeared on Carol’s arm praising her, and she addressed an unseen master.
• Jia Xiu returned and asked Carol, in his thoughts, whether she was setting him up.

Jia Xiu suspected Carol was hiding the truth about Bubu and hired two vampire derivatives to help him research Blood Clan Magic. He uncovered a centuries-long pattern of vampire reports tied to Csejthe Town and received a research lead recommending an investigation.

• Jia Xiu asked Carol to hire derivatives who knew Blood Clan Magic, then selected two capable of casting third-circle spells.
• Jia Xiu visited the Adventurer Association to look into a withdrawn commission about vampire sightings in Csejthe Town.
• Jia Xiu used Bubu to persuade the association employee to provide the commission records.
• Jia Xiu found that similar Csejthe Town vampire commissions had appeared roughly once every ten years for three centuries, usually under different names and then withdrawn by their posters.
• Jia Xiu received a Detection Spell notification identifying Csejthe Town as a high-value research lead and recommending an investigation at level six or higher.

Jia Xiu continued researching Blood Clan magic in Aurelius’s Mage Tower before going with Ram and Mia to register for the Registered Caster examination. At the test site, Florence introduced herself, and Mia reminded Jia Xiu that she was the girl who had jumped during the earlier trial.

• Jia Xiu moved his research into Aurelius’s Mage Tower, where he investigated Vampire traits and tried to modify an enchantment from their fangs.
• Jia Xiu’s forty-sixth experiment failed when magical light shot from a dog’s tooth and destroyed the enchantment target.
• Ram told Jia Xiu they could register for the Registered Caster examination, and Jia Xiu agreed to go with him and Mia.
• Jia Xiu, Ram, and Mia arrived at the Saint Dero campus test site and joined the applicants waiting outside its Mage Tower.
• Florence approached Jia Xiu and introduced herself, and Mia identified her as the girl who had jumped during the earlier trial.

After Florence thanked Jia Xiu for the trial that inspired her to leave the Kappa Sorority and focus on magic, Jia Xiu gained enough followers to establish the Jia Xiu School. He and his companions entered the registered caster exam, where the examiner revealed that their subject was Guidance.

• Florence thanked Jia Xiu, saying the trial had helped her find purpose in her studies, and told him she had left the Kappa Sorority.
• Mia and Ram discussed Florence's gratitude and Ram's memories of devoted circus fans.
• Jia Xiu received a notification that the Jia Xiu School had been established, unlocking functions that could reward him and improve members' academic abilities.
• Jia Xiu, Mia, Ram, and Florence waited through the line and entered a Mage Tower exam session with ten candidates.
• The examiner's phantom announced that the exam subject was Guidance.

Examinees began the registered spellcaster exam, which required them to modify Guidance while preserving its basic principle. Florence struggled to find an idea as she watched Jia Xiu, Mia, and Ram pursue very different approaches.

• The Phantom Examiner explained that examinees had ten hours to raise Guidance to at least second ring and add effects without merely strengthening the original spell.
• Jia Xiu asked to use his Warlock's Magic Grimoire, and Mia asked for materials, including bacteria; the examiner allowed both requests.
• Florence considered adapting Guidance to stabilize enchantments and improve her swordsmanship, but worried that her idea was too ordinary beside Jia Xiu's.
• Florence saw Jia Xiu writing and drawing in his Magic Grimoire without studying the spell circuit, and admired his apparent insight.
• Mia requested a well-preserved corpse, while Ram requested a blacksmith's forge and began hammering, leaving Florence bewildered by their approaches.

Ram created a Guidance spell that improved how machines worked and demonstrated it to the examiner, whose understanding of magic was shaken by the results. Jia Xiu wondered whether Ram had discovered Machine Spirit Joy.

• Ram built a miniature trebuchet and rapidly altered Guidance into a spell he said made machines work better.
• The examiner watched Ram activate the spell and struggled to understand the changes he had made.
• Ram demonstrated that the enchanted trebuchet threw farther and more accurately, then performed worse when the examiner dispelled the spell.
• Ram cast Guidance on the bellows and grinding wheel, making them work faster, while Jia Xiu watched in shock.

The Arbitration Committee deciphered Ram's unusual spell and approved it as an excellent result. As the examiners prepared to leave, Mia offered to submit her own spell.

• An examiner failed to understand Ram's spell and summoned the Arbitration Committee for help.
• The veteran mages struggled to decipher the spell while Jia Xiu asked Ram how he had made it.
• A committee mage recognized that Ram's spell used logic similar to Ogre spells, and the mages consulted an old book to interpret it.
• The Arbitration Committee concluded Ram had combined Guidance with a simplified Animate Object spell and passed him.
• Ram said he had not controlled which components the spell animated, but the mages took his answer as modesty.
• As the Arbitration Committee prepared to leave, Mia raised her hand and offered to submit her spell.

Mia presented Necrotic Flesh Augmentation, a Guidance-based spell that made a corpse’s muscles grow rapidly by restoring its cells and stimulating bacteria found in bugbear stomachs. After demonstrating the spell, she told the examiner to call the Arbitration Committee because he could not verify its unfamiliar biological component.

• Mia told the examiner that she was submitting Necrotic Flesh Augmentation, based on Guidance.
• Mia explained that bacteria in bugbear stomachs secreted a substance that promoted muscle growth and described how her spell used it to augment a corpse.
• Mia demonstrated the spell, transforming an ordinary corpse into a massively muscular figure.
• The examiner checked Mia’s runic sequence but could not assess how the spell acted on the bacteria.
• Mia told the examiner to call the Arbitration Committee, acknowledging that he could not figure out the spell.

The Arbitration Committee deemed Mia’s corpse-strengthening Guidance spell compatible with the bacterium but agreed to withhold it from public release while considering a yellow restriction. As the examiner checked the remaining candidates, Jia Xiu announced he was submitting a spell called “Sun’s Grace,” leaving the committee to assess another potentially incomprehensible creation.

• The Arbitration Committee discussed whether Mia’s spell could encourage necromancers to rob graves and decided to report it to the Association for possible yellow restriction.
• The committee told Mia that her spell would not appear in the Association’s public announcements, and Mia accepted the exam result.
• The examiner inspected the remaining candidates and found their work understandable and ordinary until he reached Jia Xiu’s rune-filled Magic Grimoire.
• Jia Xiu announced that he was ready to submit “Sun’s Grace,” and the examiner asked the Arbitration Committee to stay.

Jia Xiu demonstrated Sun's Grace, a Guidance spell that left its blessing unchanged but tested targets’ knowledge of the Sun God and forced those who failed to display repentance. The apprentices ended the demonstration with their hands raised and tears streaming, while the examiner realized the spell was far stranger than it first appeared.

• Jia Xiu explained that Sun's Grace added an elaborate piety test before granting the Sun God's blessing.
• An Arbitration Committee mage checked Jia Xiu's Magic Grimoire and confirmed the spell was not dangerous, then brought apprentices in as targets.
• Jia Xiu cast Sun's Grace, filling the exam hall with warm, calming light.
• Sun's Grace quizzed the apprentices about the Sun God and forced those who failed to raise their hands or shed tears.
• The examiner watched every apprentice appear to repent unwillingly and was stunned by Jia Xiu's bizarre version of divine grace.

Jia Xiu’s Guidance spell alarmed the examiners and Arbitration Committee when they realized it could control and test the devotion of followers of any god, so they assigned it an orange restricted-use rating. Inspired by Jia Xiu’s unconventional approach, Florence redesigned her weapon enchantment around random, rapidly changing effects, leaving the examiner wary as she prepared to submit it.

• The examiners and Arbitration Committee recognized that Jia Xiu’s Guidance spell held apprentices in a hard-to-dispel group control effect while granting its blessing.
• Jia Xiu explained that the spell’s divine questions could be adapted for any deity and expanded with larger question banks, prompting the Committee to impose an orange restricted-use rating.
• Florence judged her ordinary weapon-enchanting buff inadequate and conceived a design that used random, short-lived enchantments to make each strike unpredictable.
• Florence revised her work and prepared to submit it, while the examiner noticed her unusual, messy new design.

The Caster Association debated how to classify Ram, Mia, and Jia Xiu after they passed the registration exam, while Jia Xiu’s unusual reputation made every field reluctant to claim him. In Larven, Arnold learned that Mia’s spell had made a corpse as strong as an Orc and rushed off to find her, hoping she could help him grow bigger.

• The Arbitration Committee classified Ram’s spell as magical engineering and Mia’s spell as druidic magic after heated disputes.
• The committee argued over Jia Xiu’s specialty, with each field wary of claiming the spellcaster.
• Arnold read the Larven exam list and asked his team’s Sorcerer about Jia Xiu, who had taken the same exam.
• The Sorcerer told Arnold that Mia’s spell had made a corpse as strong as a cow and similar in appearance to an Orc corpse.
• Arnold learned Mia was a student of Saint Dero and ran off to find her, hoping for Orcification.

Mia discovered a way to make money from Bugbear Growth Bacillus through approved livestock experiments, while still hoping to test it on people. The chapter ended with Arnold volunteering for a risky human experiment and Mia beginning the Jia Xiu School’s Biochemical Warrior project.

• Jia Xiu worried that the Caster Association had deliberately listed him as skilled in every field to sabotage his reputation.
• Mia returned to the laboratory and explained that she planned to monetize Bugbear Growth Bacillus by testing it on livestock.
• Ram suggested that someone might volunteer for human testing, but Mia dismissed the idea because the substance’s side effects were unknown.
• Bubu told Jia Xiu that a warrior had arrived, and Jia Xiu discovered Arnold had come to visit Mia and become bigger through her spell.
• Arnold showed Mia that he had Association approval and signed the liability waivers despite the risks.
• Mia accepted Arnold as a test subject, activating the Jia Xiu School’s Biochemical Warrior project with Mia as its researcher.