Chapter Summaries

Merlin secretly brought Bamu to the Royal Gardens to strengthen the Eighth Prince’s forces before the royal hunt became a confrontation with the Fourth Prince. The Fourth Prince’s side launched the first attack with an Eighth-level Thunder Net, leaving the Eighth Prince calling on Mage Leo as the battle began.

• Merlin summoned Bamu to the Royal Gardens, gave him Elemental Crystals to recover his magic power, and told him to remain concealed for the coming battle.
• Buto XVI announced that whoever hunted the rare Elk King would win, and the Fourth Prince and Eighth Prince led their spellcasters into the forest.
• The Fourth Prince confronted the Eighth Prince on a slope, revealed that he had chosen the site as a burial ground, and dismissed Mage Leo as only a Sixth-level Spellcaster.
• Merlin sensed that Bamu remained hidden nearby and decided to wait for the most decisive moment to reveal him.
• Mage Morston cast an Eighth-level Thunder Net over the Eighth Prince and his forces, and the Eighth Prince turned to Mage Leo for help.

Mage Leo used the Dark Eye to hold off Tanning and Morston, while Merlin faced three Sixth-level Mages at once. Merlin activated Perfect Armor under their combined assault, and the armor expanded through the flames as the fight continued.

• Mage Leo dispelled Morston’s Thunder Net, and the Eighth Prince and Fourth Prince began fighting as the surrounding spellcasters joined the battle.
• Mage Leo used the Dark Eye’s Dispel to withstand Tanning and Morston’s Eighth-Level Spells, giving the Eighth Prince’s forces hope.
• Oden pursued Merlin, who used Instant Wind to intercept the Fourth and Fifth Mages.
• The Fourth and Fifth Mages attacked Merlin with fire and restraining hair while Oden launched an ice arrow from behind.
• Merlin activated Perfect Armor to endure all three attacks, and a huge earth-yellow suit of armor emerged from the flames.

Merlin used Perfect Armor to withstand the three Sixth-level Mages, then killed Oden with Annihilation Flame and Concentrated Flame. As the Fourth and Fifth Mages prepared to use their strongest methods against him, Morston and Tanning revealed their Water-type Magic Energy while confronting Leo.

• Merlin's Perfect Armor resisted the Fourth Mage, Fifth Mage, and Oden's attacks, while the Fourth Mage realized Merlin's power came from Pandora Demon Energy fused into spells.
• Merlin absorbed the fire spells around him and attacked Oden with Annihilation Flame and Concentrated Flame.
• The Fourth Mage tried to save Oden with ice, but Merlin's flames destroyed the ice and killed Oden; Merlin took Oden's ring.
• The Fourth Mage warned the Fifth Mage to reveal his true form and said they must use their strongest methods against Merlin.
• Morston and Tanning surrounded Leo and revealed white water curtains formed from Water-type Pandora Demon Energy.
• Leo struck Morston with Dark Eye's third form, but Morston stayed still and let the bloody light envelop him.

Leo’s Dark Eye could not break through Morston and Tanning’s defenses, while Merlin was trapped between the Fourth Mage and the Fifth Mage and endured their combined assault. The chapter ended with the Fifth Mage firing a storm of spikes into the flames surrounding Merlin.

• Morston revealed that he and Tanning had third-stage Pandora Demon Energy, which let their water spell withstand Leo’s Dark Eye.
• Morston disclosed that he had also constructed dark-element spells, then charged Leo with Tanning using their wind and fire magic.
• The Fifth Mage revealed her hedgehog true form as the Fourth Mage used the Obsidian Bracelet to amplify his fire spell before it shattered.
• The Fourth Mage restrained Merlin, allowing the Fifth Mage to slam into his Perfect Armor, which held after Merlin poured Magic Energy into it.
• The Fourth Mage’s amplified flames engulfed Merlin, and the Fifth Mage followed by firing her black spikes into the blaze.

Merlin defeated the Fifth Mage and gained the upper hand against the Fourth Mage, then noticed Mage Leo was in grave danger against Morston and Tanning. He ordered Bamu to intervene and, after the attackers unleashed devastating spells, confirmed Bamu was alive but could not tell whether Leo had survived.

• Merlin absorbed the Fourth Mage’s fire magic, turned it into mana, and burned the Fifth Mage to death with the Annihilation Flame.
• The Fourth Mage tried to flee, but Merlin intercepted him and began draining his mana with repeated attacks.
• Merlin surveyed the other battles and saw the Eighth Prince and Fourth Prince evenly matched while the Seventh-level Spellcasters remained locked in combat.
• Merlin saw that Morston and Tanning’s defensive Magic Energy had neutralized Leo’s Dark Eye, so he ordered Bamu to help Leo.
• Morston and Tanning unleashed powerful spells at Leo, and Merlin sensed through the Slave Contract that Bamu was still alive but remained unsure whether Leo had survived.

Bamu rescued Leo from Morston and Tanning, then joined him in facing the two Eighth-level Spellcasters. Though Bamu urged Leo to flee, Leo charged at Morston, unwilling to abandon his chance to obtain God's Tear and become a Seventh-level Spellcaster.

• Bamu appeared beside Leo and revealed that Merlin was his master, while Morston and Tanning closed in again.
• Leo considered escaping but decided he could not give up his chance to become a Seventh-level Spellcaster.
• Bamu fought Morston with his newly constructed Eighth-Level fire spell, initially overpowering Morston’s flames.
• Morston used water spells fused with Magic Energy, and Bamu concluded that he and Leo should retreat with Instant Wind.
• Bamu turned to use Instant Wind and saw that Leo had vanished and was charging toward Morston with his Dark Eye fully open.

Leo used the Dark Eye’s fourth form, Control, to strip Morston and Tanning of their elemental defenses, allowing Bamu to burn both Eighth-level Spellcasters to ashes and turn the battle in the Eighth Prince’s favor. After Merlin ordered Bamu to hunt down the Fourth Prince’s remaining strongest Spellcasters, he went to support Leo, whose life force had nearly faded and whose Dark Eye seemed to have come alive.

• Leo activated the Dark Eye’s fourth form, Control, trapping Morston and preventing him from using elemental spells.
• Leo used Control again to stop Tanning from casting, while Bamu attacked both Tanning and Morston with his powerful Eighth Level fire spell and burned them to ashes.
• With Tanning and Morston dead, the Fourth Prince’s followers lost heart and began fleeing as the Eighth Prince’s forces gained the advantage.
• Merlin and Bamu killed the exhausted Fourth Mage, and Merlin ordered Bamu to eliminate the Fourth Prince’s strongest remaining Spellcasters.
• Merlin went to support Leo and saw that using Control had left him gravely weakened, while the Dark Eye appeared to have awakened.

Mage Leo used the fourth form of Dark Eye to turn the battle in the Eighth Prince’s favor, despite the severe toll the cursed power took on him. After the Fourth Prince died, the Eighth Prince fulfilled his promise by giving Mage Leo God's Tear, and the victors set out to hunt for the Elk King.

• Mage Leo consumed Merlin’s dark-attribute Elemental Crystals and sealed the Dark Eye after its power nearly broke free, leaving him badly weakened.
• Mage Bamu reported that the Fourth Prince’s First Mage, Second Mage, and Third Mage had escaped, while Merlin and the others went to watch the princes’ duel.
• The Eighth Prince declared the Fourth Prince defeated, and the Fourth Prince accepted his loss before burning to death.
• Mage Leo demanded the promised God's Tear, and the Eighth Prince handed it to him in recognition of his role in the victory.
• The Eighth Prince led the group into the forest to see whether they could find the Elk King.

After the Fourth Prince died, the Eighth Prince secured his victory in the Royal Capital and praised Merlin and his allies for their help. He took Merlin to the royal palace, determined to use his promise to gain Merlin access to the Royal Spell Library.

• Buto XVI granted Marquis Wilson’s second son a non-hereditary viscount title for hunting the Elk King.
• The Eighth Prince told Buto XVI that the Fourth Prince had died after falling from his horse, and Buto XVI ordered the body buried in the Royal Mausoleum Garden.
• Buto XVI accepted the Eighth Prince’s explanation, knowing the princes’ struggle for the throne was beyond his authority to influence.
• The Eighth Prince praised Mage Leo, Mage Bamu, and Merlin, then rewarded the Spellcasters who had fought for him.
• Mage Leo left to use God’s Tear to address the hidden danger preventing his advancement, while the Eighth Prince took Merlin toward the royal palace.
• The Eighth Prince decided Merlin was worth spending his one promise on to secure entry to the Royal Spell Library.

The Eighth Prince brought Merlin to the Royal Family's hidden Spell Library, where Wizard Fusay initially barred the outsider from entering. The Eighth Prince invoked a promise Fusay owed his mother, securing Merlin permission to study spells inside for eight hours, and Merlin entered as the doors shut behind him.

• The Eighth Prince led Merlin through the palace to the concealed Spell Library, guarded by a Ninth-level Spellcaster and hidden behind a Rune Formation.
• The Eighth Prince opened the library's underground entrance and brought Merlin into its lavish hall, where he vowed to possess everything in the Royal Family one day.
• Wizard Fusay appeared and objected that Merlin was not a member of the Royal Family.
• The Eighth Prince reminded Wizard Fusay of the promise he owed the Eighth Prince's mother and asked him to let Merlin enter for a day.
• Wizard Fusay allowed Merlin to study the spells for eight hours, provided Merlin signed a contract not to share them.
• Merlin accepted the restriction, followed Wizard Fusay inside, and the library doors closed behind him.

Merlin used his eight-hour visit to the Royal Spell Library to have Matrix scan its collection and attempt to derive a new fire-element Fourth-Level Spell. As Fusay escorted him out, Matrix reported that the integrated data processing had succeeded.

• Merlin found that the Royal Spell Library held authentic, extensive spell collections, including a complete copy of Dark Nightmare, and instructed Matrix to scan every book.
• Matrix scanned 35,489 spells in an hour, then required Merlin to bind his Mental Power before establishing a derivation task.
• Merlin ordered Matrix to use the database to derive a brand-new fire-element Fourth-Level Spell.
• Merlin waited while Matrix processed the data, and Fusay returned when the eight-hour limit was up to escort him out.
• As Merlin left the library, Matrix announced that integrated data processing had succeeded, filling him with joy.

Merlin left the Black Moon Royal Family's Spell Library with Matrix having deduced 239 highly compatible fourth-level fire spells from its collection. After signing a contract not to reveal the library's spells, Merlin departed with the Eighth Prince, while Wizard Fusay withdrew from the promise he had owed the Princess Consort.

• Matrix reported that it had deduced 239 fourth-level fire spells, most of them powerful offensive spells tailored to Merlin's existing magic.
• Merlin considered whether Matrix's spells would allow him to fuse second-stage Magic Energy, but could not test this until he became a Third-Level Spellcaster.
• Merlin emerged from the library and told the Eighth Prince that its collection rivaled those of large Spellcaster Organizations.
• Wizard Fusay made Merlin sign a contract forbidding him from passing on the Royal Family's spells.
• Wizard Fusay told the Eighth Prince to inform the Princess Consort that he no longer owed her any promises, then vanished along with the stone stairway.
• The Eighth Prince acknowledged the cost of using Wizard Fusay's promise and led Merlin out of the royal palace.

Merlin discovered that Matrix consumed the Flame Law when deriving new high-level fire spells, forcing him to stop its Fifth-Level spell task and reconsider how to obtain Law Power. The Eighth Prince then delivered more than a thousand Mokola Potion ingredients, leaving Merlin with ample supplies and a lead toward another law in the Book of Vastness.

• Merlin ordered Matrix to derive a Fifth-Level fire spell, and Matrix began consuming the Flame Law in his Sea of Consciousness.
• Merlin canceled the task after realizing Matrix had already used Flame Law to derive Fourth-Level spells and that exhausting it could endanger his Annihilation Flame.
• Merlin recalled that collecting all three volumes of the Book of Vastness could lead him to another sealed law.
• The Eighth Prince visited Merlin and gave him a ring containing enough Mokola Potion ingredients for over a thousand potions.

Merlin consumed his remaining Mokola Potions and broke through to fifth-level Mental Power, then chose Royal Family spells rather than spending scarce Flame Law on derived spells. After constructing the final three Third-Level Spells, he became a Third-level Spellcaster, while Mage Leo remained in seclusion with no sign of overcoming Dark Eye’s flaws.

• Merlin summoned Mage Bamu to guard him while he consumed Mokola Potions and slept through repeated doses for more than a month.
• Merlin took his final two Mokola Potions at once, slept for ten days, and awakened with fifth-level Mental Power.
• Merlin questioned Mage Bamu about Mage Leo, who had not emerged from seclusion, and learned that Bamu doubted God's Tear could fully resolve Dark Eye’s flaws.
• Merlin decided to conserve his Flame Law and selected Shadow Wind Spell, Ten Thousand Thunder Spell, and Frozen Space from the Royal Family’s spells.
• Merlin used Matrix to analyze and construct the three spells, becoming a Third-level Spellcaster when Frozen Space completed his Spell Models.

Merlin reflected on the need to find ice- and lightning-element Magic Energy as he waited for Leo to resolve the hidden danger of the Dark Eye. When violent dark-element fluctuations erupted at Leo’s courtyard, Merlin and Bamu joined the Eighth Prince to watch, and the first signs of God’s Tear appeared.

• Merlin concluded that his Third-Level Spells needed ice- and lightning-element Magic Energy and considered seeking it through the Dark Spirit Domain or the later volumes of the Book of Vastness.
• Bamu told Merlin that Leo had shown no movement and that he had turned away the Eighth Prince, prompting Merlin to worry about his mentor.
• Dark elements surged through the manor, so Merlin and Bamu hurried to Leo’s courtyard and found the Eighth Prince and a crowd gathered outside.
• Bamu explained that Leo was using God’s Tear to resolve the Dark Eye’s hidden danger and warned everyone not to disturb him.
• White light emerged amid the dark elements, and Merlin recognized the holy aura associated with God’s Tear.

Leo used the God's Tear to try to remove the Dark Eye's hidden danger, but the attempt failed and left the Dark Eye changed. He refused to tell Merlin the curse's specific flaw, and Merlin went to meet the Eighth Prince after Gelind summoned him.

• The Eighth Prince had three Seventh-level Spellcasters guard Leo's courtyard while Leo used the God's Tear against the Dark Eye.
• The God's Tear's light weakened as a blood-red giant eye formed from darkness elements, showing that Leo's attempt had failed.
• Merlin and the Eighth Prince entered the room and found Leo pale and shrouded in darkness elements; Leo said the God's Tear could not resolve the Dark Eye's hidden danger.
• After the Eighth Prince left, Leo told Merlin that he believed the Dark Eye carried cursed power but withheld its specific flaw.
• Bamu said only spellcasters who had cultivated the Dark Eye could know its exact flaw, and Merlin returned to his courtyard.
• Gelind summoned Merlin to the Eighth Prince, and Merlin left with him while Bamu stayed behind.

Merlin learned that the Holy Light Empire might launch a Crusade War and declined the Eighth Prince’s invitation to join unless he could grow stronger. After half a month brewing Mokola Potions, Merlin was summoned by Leo over urgent information from the Dark Spirit Domain.

• The Eighth Prince told Merlin that the Holy Light Empire had massed troops at the border and might soon begin a Crusade War.
• The Eighth Prince offered to grant Merlin Blackwater City if Merlin supported him, but Merlin declined to commit because he planned to return to the Dark Spirit Domain and feared the war’s dangers.
• Merlin decided to strengthen his Mind Power enough to construct a Fourth-Level Spell and used the ingredients provided by the Eighth Prince to brew Mokola Potions.
• After half a month, Bamu interrupted Merlin’s brewing to report that Leo had received urgent information from the Dark Spirit Domain.
• Merlin left with Bamu to find Leo.

Wizard Leo and Merlin returned to the Dark Spirit Domain after Wizard Helsius urgently summoned Leo, and learned that Black Sand Castle had called an early exchange conference to organize Spellcaster Organizations against Osum. The chapter left them facing a major conflict that was being prepared across the Spellcaster World.

• Wizard Helsius sent Wizard Leo an urgent message, so Leo and Merlin left the Royal Capital and returned to the Dark Spirit Domain.
• Wizard Leo told Merlin that Didimos had fallen asleep while helping the Dark Spirit Domain's Ninth-level Spellcaster control the Rune Formation.
• Wizard Helsius revealed that Black Sand Castle had called an exchange conference one month away, two years earlier than scheduled.
• Wizard Helsius explained that Black Sand Castle was representing several large Spellcaster Organizations in a plan to unite many organizations against Osum.

Mage Leo told Merlin that Black Sand Castle had claimed to find Osum’s lair and would host an exchange meeting in a month, where Dark Spirit Domain hoped to outperform its rivals. After leaving Helsius’s tower, Merlin learned about the Rune Tower and went with Leo to challenge it, where three other spellcasters hurried inside after seeing him arrive.

• Mage Helsius asked Mage Leo and Merlin to attend Black Sand Castle’s exchange meeting, and Leo agreed to go in a month.
• Mage Leo explained that Archmage Fidel had built the seven-floor Rune Tower, whose deepest floors still held treasures no one had claimed.
• Merlin decided to challenge the Rune Tower, and Mage Leo accompanied him.
• Mage Sarah, Mage Enweiya, and Mage Ilman prepared to use their Rune Disc to overcome the fifth floor and reach the sixth.
• Merlin and Leo arrived at the tower, and Enweiya’s group entered ahead of them, anxious that Merlin might claim the treasure first.

Merlin entered the Rune Tower and easily passed its first three layers before reaching the Fourth Layer, where he prepared to face the Black Giant Wolf. The chapter ended as the Fourth Layer’s guardian appeared and Merlin began his trial.

• Merlin entered the Rune Tower and learned that its guardians grew stronger with each layer, with the later trials designed to test powerful Spellcasters.
• Merlin defeated the First Layer’s black dog with Frozen Space, then passed the Second Layer’s fat squirrel and the Third Layer’s white spider with ease.
• Merlin reached the Fourth Layer and watched three Spellcasters led by Wizard Enweiya defeat the Black Giant Wolf and advance toward the Fifth Layer.
• Merlin stepped between the Fourth Layer’s pillars, and the Black Giant Wolf appeared as his guardian.