Chapter Summaries

Merlin returned to Wilson Castle after resolving the threat to the Wilson Family and reunited with Shirley and Celia. He told Old Wilson that he planned to build the family into a Spellcaster Family, but recruiting and binding talented outsiders would require costly Contract Paper.

• Merlin returned to Wilson Castle in the rain and reassured Shirley before showing Celia five Fireballs.
• Celia called Merlin Father and said she wanted to become a Spellcaster, while Merlin warmly encouraged her.
• Merlin told Old Wilson that the Wilson Family's crisis was over and that he intended to make it a Spellcaster Family.
• Old Wilson supported Merlin but pointed out that only Cole in the family had Spellcaster aptitude.
• Merlin decided to recruit talented outsiders and use Contract Paper to bind them to the family, despite its high cost.
• Merlin chose to visit Philinda the next day and returned to his room.

Merlin reassured Shirley about Celia’s future and helped Philinda begin learning about Spellcasters under Wizard Bamu’s instruction. He recorded the spells taken from defeated Wizards in Matrix and began testing whether data integration processing could produce a new spell.

• Merlin comforted Shirley over Celia’s lack of Spellcaster aptitude and suggested they could have another child.
• Merlin found Philinda eager to learn about Spellcasters and assigned Wizard Bamu to teach her foundational knowledge and assess her talents.
• Merlin sorted through the rings taken from defeated Wizards and decided to preserve suitable spells for the Wilson Family while adding the others to Matrix.
• Merlin commanded Matrix to record the Spell Models and tried data integration processing to see if it could deduce a new spell.

Merlin's attempt to derive new spells through Matrix failed because its database contained too few spells. After assessing his abilities and limitations, he set his sights on becoming a Third-level Spellcaster and began preparing to brew Mokola Potion at Wilson Castle.

• Matrix reported that its data integration task had failed because the database data was insufficient, and Merlin decided to collect more spells gradually.
• Merlin reviewed his combat strength and concluded that he could rival a Fifth-level Spellcaster but had reached a bottleneck until he advanced.
• Merlin assessed his five Pandora Demon Energies and decided not to cultivate Extreme Ice Finger to the second stage unless he found a better ice-type energy.
• Merlin set his immediate goal of increasing his Mental Power and constructing a Third-Level Spell, then planned for advancement to the fourth level.
• Merlin prepared to brew the hundred portions of Mokola Potion he had obtained from the Tower of Myriad Phenomena.

Merlin spent more than three months preparing Mokola Potion, improving his success rate and gathering twenty-eight doses, while building up the Wilson Family’s Spellcaster resources. As Merlin began preparing to consume the potions under Wizard Bamu’s protection, Snake Elder received Eighth Prince’s order to escort Merlin to the Royal Capital.

• Merlin failed his first Mokola Potion attempt, then succeeded on his fifth try and gradually improved his preparation rate.
• Wizard Bamu reported that Philinda had talent for Runology, while Merlin recruited more than a dozen children with Spellcaster aptitude into the Wilson Family.
• Merlin used all one hundred ingredient sets and counted twenty-eight successful doses of Mokola Potion, with his later success rate reaching forty percent.
• Merlin told Wizard Bamu to guard him while he consumed the potions and fell into a deep sleep, and Bamu agreed.
• Wizard Haisbo and Wizard Sakra delivered Eighth Prince’s order to Snake Elder, who led them to Merlin so they could escort him to the Royal Capital.

Bamu stopped Snake Elder, Haisbo, and Sakra from disturbing Merlin, while Merlin spent a month using Mokola Potion to greatly increase his Mental Power. He then began having Matrix analyze the Third-Level dark spell Dark Vortex, leaving the Eighth Prince’s urgent message unanswered.

• Bamu used his powerful aura to turn away Snake Elder and the two Spellcasters sent by the Eighth Prince, who then waited at Wilson Castle.
• Snake Elder told Haisbo and Sakra about Merlin’s strength and said they would have to wait until Merlin was available.
• After waking from a three-day sleep, Merlin learned that Snake Elder had come to see him but chose to keep taking Mokola Potion instead.
• Over the next month, Merlin took ten more doses, nearly tripling his Mental Power, while Bamu repeatedly kept the anxious visitors away.
• Merlin stopped taking the potion and ordered Matrix to analyze the Spell Model for the Third-Level spell Dark Vortex.

Merlin constructed the Third-Level dark spell Dark Vortex but worried that illusions would not affect Seventh-level Spellcasters, so he hoped Matrix could derive a new spell from a larger database. He agreed to travel to the Royal Capital to meet the Eighth Prince and gain access to the Royal Family’s Spell Library.

• Merlin had Matrix analyze Dark Vortex, selected a Spell Model, and successfully constructed the spell after six hours of focused work.
• Merlin spent the night using Elemental Crystals to build up Dark Vortex’s magic power, then sent Bamu to summon Snake Elder.
• Snake Elder told Merlin that the Eighth Prince wanted him to come to the Royal Capital, and Haisbo explained that the Royal Family’s Spell Library held the kingdom’s most complete spell collection.
• Merlin agreed to travel to the Royal Capital as soon as he had arranged the Wilson Family’s affairs, intending to use the Spell Library to fill Matrix’s database.

Merlin left Wilson Castle for the Royal Capital with Snake Elder and the Eighth Prince’s spellcasters, after entrusting the castle’s defense to Wizard Bamu. During the journey, he learned who threatened the Eighth Prince’s bid for the throne, then his group was attacked at their night camp.

• Merlin told Old Wilson, Shirley, and Avril that he was leaving for the Royal Capital and promised to return in a few months.
• Merlin ordered Wizard Bamu to protect the Wilson Family and said he would obtain Runology knowledge for Philinda after returning.
• Merlin joined Snake Elder, Wizard Haisbo, and Wizard Sakra, and the group left Pujias City in three carriages.
• After ten days of travel, Merlin learned that the Fourth Prince, the Ninth Prince, and the Thirteenth Prince were the Eighth Prince’s strongest rivals.
• Four strangers ambushed the camp and killed Snake Elder’s two subordinates; a hammer-wielding girl admitted that she had killed them.

The Fourth Prince’s forces ambushed Snake Elder and the Eighth Prince’s followers, with the Ninth Mage Oden launching a powerful attack. Merlin faced Wolf Girl Jiliena after she transformed into a giant wolf, and he countered her assault with black mist and Annihilation Flame.

• Wolf Girl Jiliena taunted Snake Elder for supporting the Eighth Prince, and Snake Elder deduced that a powerful Spellcaster was hidden nearby.
• The Ninth Mage Oden emerged and explained that the Fourth Prince aimed to eliminate the Eighth Prince’s allies, then attacked Snake Elder, Mages Haisbo, and Sakra with Forbidden Flame.
• Merlin evaded Oden’s Sixth-Level Spell, while Oden sent Jiliena after him and Snake Elder transformed into a giant python to resist the flames.
• Jiliena transformed into a giant wolf and used her speed and iron hammer to injure Merlin despite his Instant Wind escapes.
• Merlin stopped retreating and answered Jiliena with black mist and Annihilation Flame.

Merlin killed Jiliena and joined Snake Elder’s group against Oden, using Dark Vortex to briefly trap the powerful Sixth-level Spellcaster. Oden withdrew with his allies, leaving Merlin and Snake Elder’s group alive for now.

• Merlin killed Jiliena with Annihilation Flame after Dark Tide trapped her in an illusion.
• Oden recognized Merlin and sent three Fifth-level Spellcasters to stop him while he continued attacking Snake Elder and the others.
• Merlin broke through the three Spellcasters’ encirclement with Instant Wind and charged at Oden.
• Merlin used Dark Vortex to devour Oden’s Mental Power and briefly trap him, then attacked with Annihilation Flame.
• Snake Elder warned Merlin that Oden’s defensive spells and fused Magic Energy made him extremely difficult to kill.
• Merlin planned a combined attack, but Oden retreated with the three Spellcasters and promised they would meet again in the Royal Capital.

Merlin and Snake Elder escaped Oden and hurried to the Black Moon Capital, where Merlin was awed by the mysterious Black Moon Tower and learned of its extraordinary powers. They entered the Royal Capital to meet the Eighth Prince, whose position seemed increasingly precarious.

• Merlin judged that he had only barely rivaled Oden and urged Snake Elder and the others to keep moving after Oden withdrew.
• Merlin learned about the Highland Demons' rarity, their struggle to survive, and why clans like Snake Elder's pledged themselves to princes.
• Merlin and Snake Elder reached the Royal Capital and saw the Black Moon Tower, whose presence suppressed Merlin's Flame Law.
• Snake Elder explained that the Black Moon Tower dated from the Molta Empire and could protect the Royal Capital with mysterious power.
• Merlin followed Snake Elder into the Royal Capital to meet the Eighth Prince.

Merlin reached the Royal Capital and met the Eighth Prince, who valued Merlin’s role in bringing three city-states under his influence. The Eighth Prince prepared to discuss his plans with Merlin, who asked what the prince had wanted in return for protecting the Wilson Family.

• Merlin entered the Royal Capital, where the Black Moon Tower’s pressure further suppressed the Flame Law in his Sea of Consciousness.
• Snake Elder, Haisbo, and Sakra met the Eighth Prince and explained their delay, their attack by Oden, and Merlin’s strength.
• The Eighth Prince decided to meet Merlin before confronting his Fourth Brother, whose forces had begun ambushing them.
• Merlin met the Eighth Prince, thanked him for protecting the Wilson Family, and asked why he had sent Snake Elder to Wilson Castle.

Eighth Prince explained that he wanted Merlin to contact Mage Leo for help against Fourth Prince, offering a valuable item in return. Merlin secured a promise to collect his potion ingredients and, if Mage Leo resolved Fourth Prince’s threat, to gain access to the Royal Family’s Spell Library; he then contacted his mentor.

• Eighth Prince admitted that Fourth Prince was closing in on him and said he hoped to recruit Mage Leo, whose true Dark Eye and battle record made him a powerful ally.
• Merlin agreed to contact Mage Leo but warned that he could not influence his mentor’s decision.
• Merlin asked Eighth Prince to gather the materials on his Mokola Potion list, and Eighth Prince ordered Snake Elder to search the Royal Capital and royal treasury for them.
• Merlin asked to enter the Royal Family’s Spell Library, and Eighth Prince offered access after Mage Leo helped resolve the conflict with Fourth Prince.
• Merlin used the Dark Spirit Ring’s runes to contact Mage Leo, who appeared and asked whether Merlin had encountered a problem.

The Eighth Prince used God's Tear to persuade Wizard Leo to come to the Royal Capital in ten days, then gave Merlin powerful Third-Level Spell Models. With conflict between the Eighth Prince and the Fourth Prince looming, Merlin chose to construct a fire spell to strengthen himself.

• Merlin introduced the Eighth Prince to Wizard Leo, who refused the invitation until the Eighth Prince revealed God's Tear and promised to visit the Royal Capital in ten days.
• The Eighth Prince explained that God's Tear was a Divine Crystal whose power might weaken flaws caused by cultivating the Dark Eye.
• The Eighth Prince gave Merlin a book of powerful Third-Level Spells and offered him a safe place to stay at the manor.
• Merlin avoided taking Mokola Potions in the unfamiliar manor and decided to use his accumulated Mind Power to construct another Third-Level Spell.
• Merlin chose the fire spell Concentrated Flame and ordered Matrix to analyze its Spell Model.

The Fourth Prince sent Els to kill Merlin, while Merlin trained with Concentrated Flame and investigated the Black Moon Tower's strange full-moon effects on the Flame Law. As Merlin headed back to the Eighth Prince's estate, he sensed danger from a lean stranger in the crowd.

• Oden told the Fourth Prince that Merlin's dark spells could be countered by strong Mind Power, and the Fourth Prince ordered Els to eliminate Merlin.
• Merlin used the Flame Law to gather fire elements and formed a powerful pale-white Annihilation Flame with Concentrated Flame.
• Five days later, the full moon intensified the Black Moon Tower's suppression of the Flame Law, so Merlin went to observe the tower.
• Merlin saw the tower glowing blood-red and felt the Flame Law react more strongly as he approached, but he turned back without entering.
• A dangerous feeling struck Merlin on his way back, and he spotted a lean man in the crowd wearing a strange smile.

Merlin fought the Fourth Prince’s Seventh Mage, Els, in the Royal Capital and killed him with Concentrated Flame after narrowly escaping his spells. Merlin recognized that his defenses were inadequate and decided he needed to construct a third-level earth spell, just as the Royal Capital’s enforcement guards arrived.

• Merlin tried to flee Els’s wind net, but Els’s immense Mental Power broke Dark Vortex and revealed that he was the Seventh Mage sent by the Fourth Prince.
• Els trapped Merlin with shrinking wind restraints and attacked him with ice spells, leaving Merlin with almost no room to evade.
• Merlin charged through Els’s frigid spell and unleashed Concentrated Flame, which overwhelmed Els’s defensive spell and burned him to death.
• Merlin took Els’s ring and concluded that he needed a third-level earth spell to defend himself against stronger mages.
• The Royal Capital’s enforcement guards arrived after detecting the spellcasting.

After killing Els, Merlin returned to the Eighth Prince’s estate, where the prince welcomed him and discussed the threat posed by the Fourth Prince’s incoming Eighth-level Mages. Merlin reflected on the danger of his fight with Els, decided to strengthen his spells, and drank a Mokola Potion before falling asleep.

• The law enforcement guards let Merlin go after learning he served the Eighth Prince, and the Fourth Prince decided to wait for Mage Tanning and Mage Morston before striking again.
• Snake Elder brought Merlin to meet the Eighth Prince, who praised him for killing Els and told him to recover safely at the estate.
• The Eighth Prince asked three Seventh-level Mages about Merlin, and one warned that Leo’s Dark Eye might not be enough to defeat the Fourth Prince’s two Eighth-level Mages.
• Merlin concluded that he needed a Third-Level earth-element spell to protect himself from confinement spells, but first needed more Mental Power.
• Merlin drank a Mokola Potion and gradually fell asleep.

The Eighth Prince learned that the Fourth Prince planned to attack during the royal hunt and assigned Mage Leo to face the two powerful mages Tanning and Morston. Merlin constructed Perfect Armor, greatly strengthening his defense, just as the Eighth Prince arrived with three Seventh-level Mages to meet him.

• The Eighth Prince told his Spellcasters that Tanning and Morston had joined the Fourth Prince, who planned to attack during the royal hunt.
• The Eighth Prince ordered his forces to prepare for a decisive battle and said Mage Leo would face Tanning and Morston.
• Merlin completed the Third-Level earth spell Perfect Armor, bringing his total to twenty-one Spell Models.
• Merlin tested Perfect Armor and found that Molten Earth Demon Energy made it nearly impossible for attacks below Seventh Level to break.
• The Eighth Prince arrived at Merlin's courtyard with three Seventh-level Mages.

The Eighth Prince enlisted Mage Leo to restrain the Fourth Prince’s two Eighth-level Spellcasters and promised Merlin access to the Royal Family’s Spell Library in exchange for taking on two of the Fourth Prince’s mages. On the Royal Family’s annual hunting day, Merlin went to meet the Eighth Prince as the princes prepared for their decisive confrontation.

• The Eighth Prince told Mage Leo that the Fourth Prince planned to make his move during the royal hunt and asked him to deal with Tanning and Morston.
• Mage Leo agreed to restrain the two Eighth-level Spellcasters in exchange for God's Tear.
• The Eighth Prince and his three Seventh-level mages assessed the Fourth Prince’s remaining forces, including the Core Mages.
• Merlin volunteered to face the Fourth Mage and Fifth Mage, asking the Eighth Prince to arrange his entry into the Spell Library after the conflict.
• The Eighth Prince promised to help Merlin enter the Spell Library, then left to prepare for the confrontation.
• On the morning of the royal hunt, Merlin answered the Eighth Prince’s summons and prepared to join the decisive contest.

Mage Bamu raced toward the Royal Capital under Merlin’s orders while the Eighth Prince and his allies gathered for the decisive contest with the Fourth Prince. As the Fourth Prince arrived at the Royal Gardens, Merlin still waited to see whether Bamu would reach the city in time to help Mage Leo face two Eighth-level Spellcasters.

• Mage Bamu exhausted his stored Magic Power using Instant Wind, then crushed hundreds of Elemental Crystals to replenish his strength and continued toward the Royal Capital.
• The Royal Gardens were secured for King Buto XVI’s gathering of nobles and powerful Spellcasters, held as the Eighth Prince and Fourth Prince prepared for their decisive contest.
• The Eighth Prince arrived at the gardens with Mage Leo, Merlin, and his other followers, then took his seat as the first Royal Family member to arrive.
• Merlin monitored Mage Bamu through the Slave Contract and planned for him to restrain Tanning or Morston so Mage Leo could face less pressure.
• A guard announced that the Fourth Prince had arrived, and the Eighth Prince opened his eyes as the square fell silent.

The Fourth Prince and the Eighth Prince faced off at the royal hunting ceremony, where Merlin learned that King Buto XVI’s Crown of Kings could protect him even from an Archmage. As the ceremony began, Merlin sensed Mage Bamu nearby and left the gardens to find him.

• The Fourth Prince arrived with Tanning, Morston, and Oden, and he and the Eighth Prince silently challenged each other as their Spellcasters swept the square with Mind Power.
• King Buto XVI arrived under heavy guard and took his seat wearing the Crown of Kings, which Mage Leo identified as a powerful treasure from the Molta Empire.
• The princes watched Buto XVI with longing because the king was expected to abdicate in four or five years, and Princess Caini warned the Eighth Prince to be wary of his rival.
• Merlin sensed the Slave Contract with Mage Bamu trembling and asked the Eighth Prince to leave the ceremony briefly.
• The Eighth Prince allowed Merlin to go, and Merlin left the gardens to find Mage Bamu.