Chapter Summaries

Merlin and Mage Luse explored a strange Plane inside the Sloth Beast, where three suns, fragile space, and a spatial storm defied expectations. After finding a primitive group that spoke the language of Spell Casters but consisted of Mental Power Users, they waited for the group’s elder to arrive.

• Merlin and Mage Luse explored the barren Plane and found that a powerful force prevented them from traveling through space.
• A spatial storm swept across the Plane, then stopped and allowed the damaged space to begin recovering.
• Merlin and Mage Luse heard voices speaking the language of Spell Casters and flew toward them.
• The pair found a primitive-looking group who mistook them for powerful Mental Power Users and sent for their elder.
• Merlin recognized that the strangers were Mental Power Users rather than Spell Casters, and he and Luse waited for their leader.

Merlin and Luse met Elder Fuba, who recognized them as Spellcasters and brought them to the Gigula Tribe. After the tribe’s elders confirmed their identities, Fuba began explaining Sloth Beast World and its dangers.

• An old man confronted Merlin and Luse as suspected outsiders, but Merlin demonstrated his powerful mental power and reassured him.
• The old man, Elder Fuba, learned that Merlin and Luse were Spellcasters and excitedly said they were the first to arrive in Sloth Beast World in over eight hundred years.
• Merlin and Luse followed Fuba to the Gigula Tribe, where he told them that spatial storms came regularly and outsiders were growing more numerous.
• Fuba introduced Merlin and Luse to the tribe’s three other elders, who probed their mental power and asked their Spellcaster levels.
• Merlin identified himself as a Seventh-level Spellcaster and Luse as a Ninth-level Spellcaster, then proved it by casting a Fireball.
• After the elders accepted their identities, Fuba began telling Merlin and Luse about the world.

Merlin and Luse learned that no one had escaped the Sloth Beast World, where the elementless environment left spellcasters vulnerable to other races. As they waited with the Gigula Tribe for other outsiders to arrive, Merlin studied its advanced Mental Power methods and began seeking a path toward mastering illusion.

• Fuba explained that the Sloth Beast World had no elemental energy and that other races preyed on spellcasters.
• Fuba said no one was known to have escaped, but outsiders like Merlin and Luse might know more, and he asked them to help bring the Gigula Tribe to Spellcaster City.
• Merlin and Luse agreed to stay with the Gigula Tribe while Fuba sent word to nearby tribes about their arrival.
• Merlin learned that the tribe's Meditation Arts and Mental Core methods had been refined over thousands of years, though the system reached only the Ninth Level.
• Merlin began investigating the essence of Mental Power by focusing on mastering illusion as the first step toward affecting the Material Plane.

Merlin tested a powerful Mental Power illusion on Luse just as the Two-headed Tribe attacked the Gigula Tribe. As the aliens began slaughtering the tribespeople, Merlin ordered Luse to protect them and vowed to leave none of the attackers alive.

• Merlin trapped Luse in a convincing illusion and explained that his Mental Power had improved.
• Luse alerted Merlin that aliens had arrived, and the elders saw hundreds of Two-headed People led by ten Three-headed People approaching.
• The Three-headed People discussed capturing Spellcasters to feed their king, who was nearing the growth of a fifth head.
• Elder Fuba and the other elders planned to send Merlin, Luse, and the tribe's promising young people to safety while they held off the attackers.
• Merlin and Luse emerged, and the elders urged them to flee with the children as the Two-headed People charged into the tribe and began killing its people.
• Merlin told Luse to take care of the attackers and leave none alive.

Master Luse demonstrated the power of a Spellcaster by destroying the Two-headed attackers, and Merlin and Luse met Blue Rock Ancestor, an ancient Spellcaster who offered to sell Luse a flying tool. As Luse accepted the trade for five hundred Elemental Crystals, another old man warned that the tool was junk.

• Master Luse burned two hundred Two-headed People and ten three-headed ones to ash, impressing Elder Fuba and the Gigula Tribe.
• Merlin detected a concealed visitor, and Elder Fuba identified him as Blue Rock Ancestor, a powerful Ninth-level Mental Power User who had founded the Blue Rock Tribe.
• Blue Rock Ancestor revealed that his Spell Models had sustained his life for over two thousand years and offered Luse his boat-shaped speed-type casting tool for Elemental Crystals.
• Merlin let Luse make the purchase, and Luse agreed to pay five hundred Elemental Crystals for the tool.
• An old man in a gray-white mage's robe appeared and warned Merlin and Luse not to waste their Elemental Crystals on the tool.

Merlin and Luse learned that Elemental Crystals were essential for spellcasters to survive in the elementless Sloth Beast World, and that the Giant Clan controlled the rumored Vortex Mouth exit. They left the meeting with a possible way out in sight, though reaching it meant confronting the world’s strongest faction.

• Merlin paid the Blue Rock Ancestor five hundred Elemental Crystals for a casting tool, and the Blue Rock Ancestor explained that spellcasters conserved crystals because the Sloth Beast World had no elements.
• Elder Yani warned Merlin and Luse that casting tools were nearly useless there, Elemental Crystals were scarce, and some spellcasters might try to seize them by force.
• Five Mental Power Users from Spellcaster City arrived and joined the Blue Rock Ancestor and Elder Yani in meeting Merlin and Luse.
• Merlin asked whether anyone knew a way out, and the Blue Rock Ancestor described the dangerous Vortex Mouth and rumors that powerful outsiders might open it.
• The spellcasters revealed that the Giant Clan controlled the Vortex Mouth and was too powerful for their factions to challenge.

Merlin learned that Ditas had once raised the Spellcasters to dominance by advancing the Mental Power System, and Eldo offered access to Ditas's ruins in exchange for Elemental Crystals. Merlin agreed to pay ninety thousand crystals on the condition that the Gigula Tribe could move into Spellcaster City.

• Merlin questioned Eldo about the Spellcasters' weakness, and Eldo explained that they had lost access to elemental magic and later suffered attacks from other races.
• Eldo told Merlin that Ditas had developed his mental power enough to rival a Legendary, but died before completing the Mental Power System.
• Eldo offered Merlin and Luse access to Ditas's ruins if they each supplied the nine Ninth-level Mental Power Users in Spellcaster City with ten thousand Elemental Crystals.
• Merlin agreed to provide ninety thousand Elemental Crystals, on the condition that the entire Gigula Tribe be allowed to move into Spellcaster City.

Merlin and Luse arrived at Spellcaster City, paid its nine rulers the promised Elemental Crystals, and learned that some of the Ninth-level Mental Power Users might try to take more. Eldo warned them to be cautious and led them to the Ditas Ruins, where nearly twenty Mental Power Users had gathered.

• Eldo and the other four Ninth-level Mental Power Users brought Merlin and Luse safely to Spellcaster City and explained how its Rune Formations and shared rule worked.
• Merlin gave the nine Ninth-level Mental Power Users ninety thousand Elemental Crystals, ten thousand to each, in exchange for their help.
• After Eldo led Merlin and Luse away, the other eight Ninth-level Mental Power Users discussed their interest in the pair's remaining Elemental Crystals.
• Eldo warned Merlin and Luse not to meet Ninth-level Mental Power Users alone because desperate Spellcasters might attack for Elemental Crystals.
• Eldo led Merlin and Luse to the Ditas Ruins, where nearly twenty Mental Power Users with Mental Cores were gathered beneath a towering stone monument.

Merlin studied the Illusion Stele and learned Ditas's three stages of illusion, deepening his understanding of Mental Power. After half a month beneath the stele, he left with new insight and heard Didimos the Black Cat awaken.

• Eldo explained that the Illusion Stele shared Ditas's insights with Mental Power Users, and Luse chose to wait outside while Merlin entered its domain.
• The stele flooded Merlin with Ditas's theory, which described the Illusion Realm, the Illusion Heart Realm, and the Illusory Plane as stages toward turning illusion into reality.
• Merlin learned that Ditas had mastered the Illusion Heart Realm and gained strength comparable to an ordinary Great Legendary, though he had not reached the third stage.
• Merlin spent half a month beneath the Illusion Stele, improving his understanding of the Illusion Realm and concluding that Ditas's theory gave him a clearer direction than Oseus's Ninefold Strike.
• Merlin left the stele and heard Didimos the Black Cat awaken, asking to be taken to Zado for food.

Black Cat Didimos awakened inside the Sloth Beast World, and Merlin told him they might escape through the Vortex Mouth. Eldo agreed to guide Merlin and Luse there with two other Ninth-level Mental Power Users, and the group set out toward the Giant Clan’s territory.

• Black Cat Didimos woke after digesting one of Sith's Laws and learned that Merlin and the others were trapped inside the Sloth Beast.
• Didimos asked to see the Sloth Beast, and Merlin said the Vortex Mouth might provide a way out if Didimos helped.
• Merlin and Luse went to Eldo and declared their intention to travel to the Vortex Mouth despite the Giant Clan’s strength.
• Eldo consulted Spellcaster City's other elders, then returned with two Ninth-level Mental Power Users and explained that they wanted to protect the Elemental Crystals.
• Merlin accepted Eldo and the two elders as guides, and the five of them left Spellcaster City for the Giant Clan’s territory.

Merlin and Luse infiltrated Giant Mountain to reach the Vortex Mouth, where a powerful Greater Giant attacked them. The giant declared that the Vortex Mouth belonged to the Giant Clan, leaving Merlin and Luse facing a dangerous confrontation.

• Merlin and Luse followed Eldo’s secluded route toward the Vortex Mouth while Eldo and the two Mental Power Users waited behind.
• Merlin and Luse passed several Intermediate Giants and reached the Vortex Mouth, where its crushing force destroyed their probing mental power.
• A Greater Giant over nine hundred meters tall struck Merlin, and his Dark Demon Spirit shattered while blocking the blow.
• The Greater Giant rose from the river, recognized Merlin and Luse as Spellcasters, and claimed the Vortex Mouth for the Giant Clan.

Merlin and Luse faced the Giant Clan at the Vortex Mouth, but Black Cat Didimos swallowed over three hundred giants and forced the rest to surrender. After the giants agreed to leave Giant Mountain and revealed that the Vortex Mouth might lead out of Sloth Beast World, Merlin and Luse prepared to investigate it.

• Merlin and Luse were surrounded by powerful giants after the 920-meter giant awakened the Giant Clan.
• Merlin sent Black Cat Didimos to devour the giants, and Didimos swallowed more than three hundred before falling asleep on Merlin's shoulder.
• The giant leader promised that the Giant Clan would leave Giant Mountain and never return.
• The giant leader told Merlin that the Vortex Mouth might lead out of Sloth Beast World, though passing through it would be difficult.
• Merlin and Luse turned toward the Vortex Mouth, and Merlin resolved to try to pass through it.

Merlin tested the Vortex Mouth and learned that neither his Dark Demon Spirit nor Didimos could affect it, leaving him unable to escape the Sloth Beast World. Meanwhile, the Blackfire Monarch asked Santo to save Merlin and invoked a promise between them.

• Eldo and two Ninth-level Mental Power Users discovered that the giants had abandoned Giant Mountain and saw Merlin summon the Dark Demon Spirit, which the Vortex Mouth immediately destroyed.
• Merlin told Eldo that Didimos had driven away the Giant Clan, then asked Didimos to test the Vortex Mouth; Didimos failed to affect it and went back to sleep.
• Eldo agreed to summon the Spellcasters to Giant Mountain, and Merlin sent Luse with him to help them.
• The Blackfire Monarch asked Santo to save Merlin, but Santo said even an Arcane Mage could not overcome a Sloth Beast and rejected the possibility that Merlin could complete the Mental Power System.
• The Blackfire Monarch invoked a promise Santo had made him, and Santo revealed that they were fellow disciples of the same master.

Merlin spent decades strengthening the Spellcasters and developing his abilities in the Sloth Beast World, but he remained unable to advance beyond the first step of Illusion. After ensnaring the Mental Power Users beneath the Illusion Stele, he noticed the stele itself seemed unreal and began to question whether it truly existed.

• Santo agreed to send a Spatial Avatar with Blackfire Monarch to search for a way to rescue Merlin, while his true body remained on the Xiling Plane.
• Over thirty years, the Spellcasters took control of Giant Mountain, and Black Cat Didimos grew powerful enough to rival a Legendary Spellcaster who had mastered two laws.
• Merlin obtained the final two pieces of the God-Sealing Disc and restored it, but it failed to suppress powerful members of other races.
• Merlin perfectly fused his fire, lightning, wind, and ice Spells, raising their power to the level of an Archmage.
• Merlin improved his Illusions enough to trap Mental Power Users beneath the Illusion Stele, then noticed the stele seemed unreal and wondered whether it was an illusion or reality.

Merlin discovered that Ditas’s Mental Power had trapped Spellcaster City in an illusion, then entered the Illusion Pearl and found Ditas’s unfinished Illusory World. Ditas revealed that he had begun creating the world but had not succeeded.

• Merlin confronted the loneliness stirred by the Illusion Stele and gained insight that strengthened his Mental Power.
• Merlin saw through the citywide illusion, removed the Illusion Pearl from the stele, and woke the people of Spellcaster City.
• Merlin’s Mental Power entered the bead and transported him to a world resembling Spellcaster City and the Sloth Beast World.
• Merlin called out Ditas, who appeared and confirmed that Merlin had reached the second stage of illusions and entered his Illusory World.
• Ditas explained that he had begun creating an Illusory World but had not completed it.

Merlin learned that Ditas had sealed his incomplete Illusory World and memories in the Illusion Pearl, hoping someone would perfect his Mental Power System. Ditas claimed that reaching Turning Illusion into Reality could revive him, and Merlin left to verify the claim.

• Ditas explained that his seemingly complete Illusory World had failed to transform his Mental Power, and that he sealed it and his consciousness in the Illusion Pearl before he died.
• Ditas told Merlin that destroying the Illusion Pearl would collapse the world and disperse his remaining Mental Power.
• Ditas admitted he had deliberately guided Merlin to the Illusion Pearl because Merlin had entered the second realm of illusion.
• Ditas offered Merlin control of the Illusion World and asked him to perfect the Mental Power System, claiming that Turning Illusion into Reality could bring him back to life.
• Merlin withdrew his Mental Power from the Illusory World, saying he would verify Ditas's claim.

Merlin took control of the Illusion Pearl and learned that using its Illusory World would require far greater mental power, while Ditas hoped Merlin would eventually perfect the world and give him a chance to return to life. As Merlin remained trapped beneath the Vortex Mouth, Blackfire Monarch, Santo, and Zado reached the Sloth Beast just as it began to fall asleep.

• Merlin imprinted his mental power on the Illusion Pearl and discovered Ditas’s strand of power and the Illusory World within it.
• Merlin tried to summon the Illusory World against Didimos, but the attempt nearly exhausted his mental power without affecting the cat.
• Ditas explained that Merlin needed a Ninth Level Mental Core to summon the world and would eventually have to reach Illusion Heart and merge with it to use it freely.
• Merlin realized Ditas wanted him to perfect the Illusory World, but kept the pearl and continued studying Illusion while searching for a way through the Vortex Mouth.
• Blackfire Monarch, Santo’s Spatial Avatar, and Zado’s Law Incarnation reached the Sloth Beast after learning it had stopped and was about to sleep.

Santo used spatial law and Severance to tear open the Sloth Beast’s rear passage so Zado’s Law Incarnation could enter and search for Merlin. Inside the Illusory World, Merlin’s discussion with Ditas was interrupted by a disturbance that jolted him awake beneath the Vortex Mouth.

• Zado warned Santo and the Blackfire Monarch that the Sloth Beast had fallen into a deep sleep, preventing them from reaching Merlin through its mouth.
• Santo identified the beast’s rear passage as their best entry point and opened a gap in its vortex with spatial law and Severance.
• Zado sent his Law Incarnation through the gap, promising to find Merlin and bring out no more than five people.
• Merlin discussed the Third Step of Illusion and the Illusion Heart with Ditas, who said Merlin would have to rely on his own insight.
• A sudden boom shook the Illusory World and dispersed Merlin’s Mental Power, and Merlin woke to look at the Vortex Mouth.

Legendary Zado rescued Merlin, Mage Luse, and Black Cat Didimos from the Sloth Beast World with help from Mage Santo and the Blackfire Monarch. After learning Didimos had reversed the rules, Mage Santo took him to the City of Arcane for protection, leaving Merlin to promise he would come for him.

• Legendary Zado tore open the Vortex Mouth and brought Merlin, Mage Luse, and Black Cat Didimos through the passage Mage Santo had opened.
• Mage Santo let the passage close after the group escaped, and Merlin thanked his mentor, the Blackfire Monarch, for arranging the rescue.
• Mage Santo recognized that Didimos had reversed the rules and explained that such beings were exceptionally rare and at risk of being seized by other civilizations.
• Mage Santo imprisoned Didimos and announced that he would take him to the City of Arcane for protection.
• Merlin urged Didimos to go with Mage Santo and promised to come for him later and return with him to the Black Moon Kingdom.

After parting ways with Blackfire Monarch, Zado Legendary, and Mage Luse, Merlin returned to the Central Plane and went to the Curio Pavilion to buy supplies for rebuilding his Magic Energy. When he revealed thirty-two casting tools to cover the cost, Archmage Leto was left speechless.

• Blackfire Monarch warned Merlin about the dangers of the Void Realm and left, while Zado Legendary gave him a Law Incarnation before departing to cultivate the Earth Law.
• Merlin and Mage Luse reached the Central Plane, where they parted ways as Luse planned to settle down and work toward becoming an Archmage.
• Merlin visited the Curio Pavilion and asked Archmage Leto for six portions of Dissolution Water, six types of top-grade Fused Magic Energy, and the materials needed to cultivate them.
• Archmage Leto quoted a total price of sixty million Elemental Crystals, and Merlin said he could not pay in crystals but could trade casting tools.
• Merlin placed thirty-two casting tools before Archmage Leto, who stared at the valuable collection in shock.