Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Leaving”

Plot Points and Events

• Green leaves Mentor Lilian’s laboratory and heads to the Mission Zone, following her advice to accept a long-term guard duty mission.
• The East Coast suffers from heavy magical radiation, which increases Wizard Aptitude among mortals but also creates dangerous Demonic Beasts. Stationed apprentices are needed to protect mortal kingdoms, though such missions are unpopular because they offer low rewards, reduced elemental concentration, and last three to five years.
• Green selects a five-year mission to guard the area near Darknight Forest, where he will eliminate Demonic Beasts emerging from the forest. The nearby duke’s territory should provide relatively comfortable living conditions.
• Upon accepting the mission, Green receives a Sub-Rune that functions as a life monitor and tracking device. The Academy can determine whether he is alive, and the rune will transfer to anyone who kills him.
• Green returns to his dormitory and opens a hidden storage compartment containing his resources: Magic Stones and a large supply of potions, including healing, antidote, mental power, purification, fire, and ice potions.
• He purchases additional supplies and spends several days producing more potions in Mentor Lilian’s laboratory.
• Rather than leaving immediately, Green decides to wait until the Pale Forest Trial ends and the Formal Wizards conduct their post-trial sweep, believing this will be the safest time to depart the Academy.
• While waiting, he observes the returning apprentices. Many are severely injured, and approximately one-fifth of the participants have not yet returned, with at least one-sixth confirmed dead. The trial’s danger is further revealed by accounts of Demonic Beasts, Black Wizard Apprentices, mechanical modifications, and self-destruction.
• By the end of the chapter, Green has finished preparing his belongings and is ready to leave the Academy.

Character Development

• Green demonstrates careful planning and caution. Although he believes he can survive encounters with Formal Wizards, he avoids unnecessary risks and chooses a mission location that is relatively secure and comfortable.
• His extensive stockpiling of Magic Stones, potions, and equipment shows his growing independence and preparedness for long-term survival.
• Green also becomes more aware of the broader dangers facing apprentices. Witnessing the trial’s casualties reinforces his skepticism toward reckless action and his desire to leave before becoming entangled in further danger.
• His melancholy while leaving his dormitory reflects an emotional attachment to the place where he spent several months, even as he prepares to move into a new stage of his life.

Significant Themes

• Preparation and survival: Green relies on careful resource management, intelligence, and timing rather than impulsive bravery.
• The dangers of wizard society: Even routine academy trials carry severe death rates, while missions involving mortal kingdoms expose apprentices to Demonic Beasts and hostile forces.
• The cost of advancement: Guard duty is seen as a waste of time by talented apprentices, showing the tension between personal growth and practical survival.
• Trust and institutional control: The Academy’s Sub-Rune protects apprentices but also monitors and tracks them, illustrating how protection is tied to surveillance.
• Transition and departure: Green’s preparations and farewell to his dormitory symbolize his movement away from academy life toward greater independence.

Character Interactions

• Green and Mentor Lilian: Though Lilian does not appear directly, her guidance determines Green’s decision to accept a guard duty mission. Her warning or instruction suggests that promising apprentices are being directed toward safer positions.
• Green and the Academy: Green interacts with the Mission Zone’s system to accept his assignment and receives the Academy’s monitoring Sub-Rune. His relationship with the institution is practical and cautious.
• Green and other apprentices: He does not directly converse with them, but he observes their injuries and overhears their accounts of the trial. Their experiences provide Green with evidence of the trial’s brutality and influence his cautious decision-making.
• Apprentices and hostile forces: The returning apprentices describe encounters with Demonic Beasts and Black Wizard Apprentices, emphasizing the deadly conflicts occurring beyond the Academy’s walls.

Key plot points and events

• Green leaves the Academy with his belongings, presents his Task Rune at the exit, and uses the Anqivia Goat’s vortex to return to the outside world.
• After three days of travel through the Pale Forest, he consults the Chip’s map and chooses a route through the Academy’s safer heartlands. He plans to rest his tireless, bloodline-modified horses in Black Stone City.
• At the city gate, a greedy soldier demands an inflated entry fee. The patrol leader intervenes, charges Green the customary copper coin, and chastises the soldier for judging him too hastily.
• Green finds Black Stone City squalid and dangerous, but eventually locates the Mercenary Inn, where he hopes to stay.
• As Green enters, a thief approaches his carriage. Green kills him with a thrown knife, frightening off the other would-be attackers. He has also placed Sorcery on the carriage to deter further trouble.

Character developments

• Green begins his journey beyond the Academy, showing practical caution by using the Chip’s route and seeking a place to rest.
• His calm demeanor contrasts with his readiness to defend himself: he avoids unnecessary conflict at the gate but responds decisively when his property is threatened.
• The patrol leader appears experienced and perceptive, recognizing that Green’s equipment and horses mark him as more than an ordinary merchant.

Significant themes

• Vigilance and survival: Travel outside the Academy brings both everyday hazards and direct threats.
• Power and deterrence: Green’s weapons, Sorcery, and swift violence establish that he is not an easy target.
• Corruption and hardship: The extortion attempt and the city’s poverty, filth, and lawlessness portray a troubled mortal society.
• Transition: Green’s departure marks the start of a new stage of life beyond the Academy.

Character interactions

• The first gate soldier tries to exploit Green, while the patrol leader corrects him and permits Green to enter for a fair fee.
• Green does not escalate the gate dispute, but his grip on his sword signals that he is prepared to defend himself.
• The attempted thief and the watching street crowd encounter Green’s force firsthand; his action deters further attacks before he enters the inn.

Key plot points and events

• Green arrives at a noisy inn and pays extra for a quiet room, stable space, and food for his horses.
• He notices that people have been following him, suspecting they plan to rob him. Rather than worry, he sees them as test subjects for his Curse Sorcery.
• The inn clerk brings Green food, but Chip detects a sedative in it. Green avoids eating and takes a stamina pill instead.
• After meditating through the night, Green investigates screams from the stable. The clerk and two accomplices are suffering from a curse, apparently after attempting to drug and rob him.
• Green observes the curse’s three successive effects: unbearable itching, flesh-eating worms emerging from their bodies, and finally flames that reduce their remains to charcoal.
• He studies the results, notes that the effects should ideally occur simultaneously, and returns to his room to request his meal.

Character developments

• Green is calm, suspicious, and ruthless. He treats the attack as an opportunity for magical research, showing little concern for the victims and focusing on improving his spell.
• The clerk and accomplices shift from would-be predators to terrified victims, pleading for mercy. The clerk’s fear of a wizard’s power leads him to try to kill himself.
• The onlookers move from curiosity to panic and awe, too frightened to intervene.

Significant themes

• Power and intimidation: Green’s magical strength leaves the crowd helpless and fearful.
• Cruel experimentation: He regards suffering as data, prioritizing the curse’s performance over mercy.
• Deception and consequence: The inn staff’s attempt to drug Green leads to a far worse punishment.
• Magic as craft: Green analyzes the curse’s stages and considers how to refine it.

Character interactions

• The clerk initially caters to Green as a wealthy guest, then secretly serves him sedated food.
• Green responds to the attempted trick by letting his curse punish the clerk and his accomplices, briefly restraining them with Mental Power and prolonging their awareness with an Awakening Spell.
• The crowd gives Green a wide berth and watches in terror; afterward, everyone scatters while the inn staff remain behind, shaken.

Plot points and events

• Green spends several comfortable, undisturbed days in Black Stone City, refining his Curse Sorcery. The soldier who previously stopped him worries about the consequences of offending a Wizard, but nothing comes of it.
• Green resumes his journey, mindful that Wizards’ radiation can permanently harm ordinary people if they stay in one place too long.
• He reaches Darknight Forest, a dim, altered woodland changed by radiation from a battle between Second-Level Wizards. Mutated creatures sometimes appear there, so Wizard Apprentices are routinely assigned to the area.
• Near the forest, Green arrives at Wither City. Its duke, Rien, is preparing to welcome the newly assigned apprentice, wary because the previous one had been demanding.
• Duke Rien’s guard captain, Crado, recognizes Green as a Wizard because a lone carriage heading toward the city is unusual. Crado and his soldiers respectfully kneel, then escort him to the castle.
• Green learns that merchants flock to Wither City to buy mutated creatures from the forest. Locals believe eating their meat may increase the chance of having children with Wizard Aptitude. The chapter ends as Green reaches the castle.

Character developments

• Green remains composed and observant. He continues his magical work, reflects on the risks Wizards pose to ordinary people, and views local customs and defenses with practical skepticism.
• Crado is introduced as a capable veteran and formal Knight who is highly respectful of Wizards.
• Duke Rien appears anxious to please Green, shaped by his experience with a difficult previous apprentice.

Character interactions

• Green’s earlier encounter with the gate soldier continues to affect the soldier, who fears he may have offended a Wizard.
• Crado explains why he identified Green, introduces himself, and escorts him through the city while answering Green’s questions about local trade.
• Duke Rien prepares to receive Green and host him at a banquet, though they have not yet met in person.

Significant themes

• Wizards’ power and danger: Their status earns deference, while their radiation can harm ordinary people.
• Social hierarchy: Nobles and trained Knights retain advantages such as access to Breathing Methods, while Wizards command exceptional respect.
• Fear and reassurance: Wither City’s imposing walls offer little real protection against Demonic Beasts but help residents feel safer.
• Adaptation and belief: The forest’s mutations create economic opportunity and fuel beliefs about improving the odds of Wizard Aptitude, though Green recognizes that chance still matters.

Chapter Summary: “Knight’s Thoughts”

Plot Points and Events

• Green arrives at the heavily fortified central castle of Wither City, where he is welcomed by Duke Rien, the region’s ruler.
• Rien hosts an elaborate banquet in Green’s honor, hoping to make a favorable impression on the Academy’s resident Wizard, who will remain in the region for five years.
• The banquet is attended by the duke’s family, nobles, servants, and other important personnel. Everyone is tense around Green because of Wizards’ intimidating reputation.
• During the meal, Alicia, a young noblewoman, suddenly asks Green to accept her as an apprentice. Her mother immediately panics and apologizes, fearing Green may be offended.
• Alicia explains that she wants to control her own destiny and avoid becoming a political marriage sacrifice. Her situation appears tied to the duke’s political plans and the possible expulsion of her family from the castle.
• Green tells Alicia that she lacks Wizard Aptitude and therefore cannot become his apprentice, crushing her hopes.
• He then offers her an alternative: if she cooperates with his experiments, he may train her to become a Grand Knight. Alicia eagerly accepts, and Green promises to contact her once his laboratory is established.
• Green reveals that his true goal is to investigate how a Grand Knight might advance into a Holy Knight, a legendary stage for which the Storm Breathing Technique contains no instructions.

Character Developments

• Green remains detached and pragmatic. He enjoys the banquet without concern for social conversation and treats the nobles with indifference. However, he shows some interest in Alicia’s plight because it reminds him of Ashlyn, another young woman desperate to escape a forced political marriage.
• Green’s decision to work with Alicia is not merely charitable. He sees her as a useful research subject for investigating the evolution of Grand Knights and the mysterious Holy Knight realm.
• Duke Rien is extremely respectful and cautious toward Green. He compares him favorably with the previous Wizard and relaxes when Green rejects Alicia as an apprentice, but his threatening look toward her reveals his willingness to use her politically.
• Alicia initially appears frightened and hesitant, but she gathers the courage to challenge the expectations imposed on her. Her despair after being rejected turns into intense relief and hope when Green offers her a path to become a Grand Knight.
• Alicia’s mother acts protectively and anxiously, attempting to prevent her daughter from angering Green.

Significant Themes

• Freedom versus political control: Alicia’s plea reflects the conflict between personal choice and the obligations imposed by noble society.
• Power imbalance: The nobles fear Green because of his supernatural authority, while Alicia’s fate depends almost entirely on whether he chooses to intervene.
• Pragmatism and manipulation: Green helps Alicia, but primarily because her potential as a test subject aligns with his research goals.
• The pursuit of knowledge: Green’s interest in Holy Knights shows his willingness to investigate unexplored forms of power, even when established traditions and records provide no answers.
• Lost inheritances and mystery: Holy Knights once existed widely on the Osfield Continent but mysteriously disappeared, leaving Green to uncover the reason and possibly recreate the lost advancement.

Character Interactions

• Green and Duke Rien: Rien welcomes Green with elaborate courtesy and a banquet, while Green responds politely but remains emotionally distant. Their relationship is defined by Rien’s caution and Green’s superior status.
• Green and Alicia: Alicia makes a desperate appeal for apprenticeship. Green rejects her Wizard potential but offers her a chance to pursue knighthood through experimental training, creating a new alliance based on both necessity and research.
• Alicia and her mother: Her mother tries to silence and protect her, but Alicia ultimately asserts her own wishes.
• Green and the nobles: The entire gathering is intimidated by Green, resulting in a restrained, uncomfortable atmosphere until Alicia breaks the silence.

Chapter Summary: “Knight Experiment”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Green leaves the banquet early, prompting everyone’s attention to shift toward Alicia. The woman Alicia defended embraces her in gratitude, revealing a mother-daughter-like bond.
• Duke Rien is furious that Alicia defied him but cannot punish her because Green is present. Forced to acknowledge Green’s influence, he must improve Alicia’s treatment within the castle.
• After ten days, Green requests and receives a secluded residence near the Darknight Forest. Because Wizards emit dangerous radiation, he cannot remain around ordinary people for long.
• Green moves into a newly built mountaintop villa, establishes a laboratory, and resumes his routine of meditation and magical experimentation.
• He is close to advancing to First-Class Apprentice and intends to achieve the breakthrough before returning to the Academy.
• Green begins experimenting on Alicia as part of his research into advancing a Grand Knight to the Holy Knight realm. He plans three phases:
  1. Strengthen Alicia’s body so it can withstand greater magical radiation.
  2. Use Symbiotes to improve her constitution.
  3. Control her Life Force and stimulate her Life Seed with externally supplied energy to encourage rapid growth.
• During the initial examination, Alicia becomes frightened and imagines being transformed into a monster. Green notices her distress and reassures her that he is not a cruel Black Wizard.

Character Developments

• Green: Demonstrates emotional detachment, discipline, and a strong commitment to magical research. He prioritizes meditation, knowledge, and experimentation over comfort or social life. His research also reveals his ambition to uncover the secret of Holy Knight advancement.
• Alicia: Shows courage by standing up to her father but becomes vulnerable and frightened when subjected to Green’s experimental procedures. Despite her fear, she proceeds with the experiment, indicating trust or desperation.
• Duke Rien: Is exposed as a controlling and resentful father who views Alicia as a political tool rather than a daughter. Green’s presence forces him to restrain his anger and alter his treatment of Alicia.
• The rescued woman: Her tearful embrace of Alicia suggests that Alicia’s earlier intervention had a deeply personal impact and strengthens the emotional significance of Alicia’s defiance.

Significant Themes

• Power and social hierarchy: Green’s presence immediately changes the duke’s behavior, showing that magical power outweighs aristocratic authority.
• Alienation and isolation: Green must live apart from ordinary people because of the harmful radiation produced by Wizards, emphasizing the physical and social distance between Wizards and common humanity.
• Science versus fear: Green treats Alicia’s body as an experimental subject, while Alicia experiences the procedure emotionally as a terrifying unknown.
• Ambition and the pursuit of knowledge: Green is willing to conduct dangerous experiments to overcome the limits of natural advancement and discover a path to the Holy Knight realm.
• Family without affection: Alicia’s relationship with Duke Rien lacks love, contrasting sharply with the compassion shown between Alicia and the woman she protected.
• Ethical ambiguity: Green’s calm, clinical approach and invasive experimentation raise questions about consent, danger, and the moral limits of magical research.

Character Interactions

• Alicia comforts and embraces the woman she defended, reinforcing their bond.
• Duke Rien silently confronts Alicia through his angry glare but is unable to act against her because of Green’s authority.
• Green relies on Duke Rien for a secluded residence but maintains emotional distance from the aristocratic household.
• Green and Alicia interact as experimenter and subject: he examines her clinically, while she reacts with embarrassment and fear. His brief reassurance reveals that, despite his detached manner, he recognizes and manages her emotional state.

Chapter Summary: “Advancement”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Green uses a specially prepared pigment and runes on Alicia’s body. The potion-infused pigment accelerates her physical growth, while the runes improve her ability to withstand elemental-energy radiation.
• Alicia leaves the villa completely wrapped in cloth to hide the colorful runes covering her body. She must return periodically for the runes to be reapplied.
• Green spends the following year largely isolated, devoting himself to meditation and preparing for a mental-power breakthrough.
• His mental power reaches its critical point at 27, prompting him to begin preparations to advance from a Second-Class Apprentice to a First-Class Apprentice.
• Green drinks a Meditation Potion, a costly potion with minimal side effects, to accelerate his mental-power activity during the breakthrough.
• While meditating, he completes the final fragments of his Psychic Rune Sphere. The process becomes increasingly difficult as the potion begins to wear off, but Green forces himself to continue.
• Once his mental power reaches 28, a qualitative transformation begins. The completed Rune Sphere absorbs elemental particles, converts them into energy, and rapidly expands Green’s Psychic Space.
• After successfully advancing, Green’s attributes improve: his mental power rises to 32, while his physical statistics increase slightly.
• Green realizes he must raise his mental power to 37 before preparing to become a Formal Wizard. Exhausted and suffering the potion’s delayed headache, he decides to sleep.

Character Developments

• Green: Demonstrates patience and discipline by meditating naturally for an entire year rather than relying heavily on potions. His successful breakthrough marks significant progress toward becoming a Formal Wizard. He also shows caution by preserving his remaining Meditation Potions to avoid drug resistance and mental contamination.
• Alicia: Begins a long-term enhancement process designed to improve her growth and resistance to elemental radiation. Her regular return visits suggest that her development will continue over an extended period.
• Green and Alicia: Their relationship remains primarily practical and experimental, with Green acting as Alicia’s enhancer and researcher while Alicia cooperates with the procedure.

Significant Themes

• Advancement through discipline and preparation: Green’s breakthrough results from a year of meditation combined with carefully timed use of a potion.
• The risks of shortcuts: Potions can accelerate growth, but frequent use leads to drug resistance, physical damage, or mental contamination.
• Scientific and magical experimentation: The chapter emphasizes the systematic use of runes, potions, data analysis, and bodily adaptation.
• Progress toward greater power: Green’s advancement establishes a clear progression system, with the next goal being the mental-power threshold required to become a Formal Wizard.
• Endurance and controlled risk: Green succeeds by pushing through physical exhaustion and mental strain while avoiding unnecessary dangers.

Character Interactions

• Green applies the growth-enhancing runes to Alicia and monitors the long-term process.
• Alicia repeatedly returns to Green’s villa for rune reapplication, but otherwise remains absent during his year of meditation.
• Green interacts with the Chip throughout the breakthrough, rejecting its offer to interfere with the potion and relying on his own judgment.

Chapter Summary: “Symbiote”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Green meets Alicia in the villa’s study to assess her health after earlier experiments.
• Alicia reports feeling completely healthy, and Green confirms through the Chip that her physical abilities have improved:
  • Strength and speed: 1.3
  • Constitution: 1.8
  • Mental power: 1.5
  • Status: undergoing continuous low-level energy-radiation evolution.
• Green decides Alicia is ready for the experiment’s next stage. He instructs her to finish her drink and report to the laboratory.
• Alicia hesitates because her previous experiments and her growing knowledge of wizards have left her psychologically afraid, but she agrees to obey Green.
• In the underground laboratory, Green prepares a syringe filled with red liquid containing countless microscopic Symbiotes.
• Alicia arrives naked, mistakenly believing Green will need to draw runes on her body as before. Embarrassed, she lies on the experiment table.
• Green paralyzes her by sending electricity through the nerves in her neck and explains that the paralysis is meant to prevent her from resisting.
• He injects the Symbiotes directly into her heart. The organisms spread through her bloodstream and attach themselves to cells throughout her body.
• The Symbiotes insert genetic material into Alicia’s cells, strengthening them and allowing them to absorb the radiation energy emitted by Green.

2. Character Developments

• Alicia has undergone dramatic physical changes from Green’s previous experiments. She is stronger, healthier, more muscular, and physically mature, with enhanced constitution and recovery potential.
• Despite her improved body, Alicia remains psychologically vulnerable. Her fear of experimentation and loss of bodily control is evident, though she suppresses it and continues to obey Green.
• Green remains detached, methodical, and focused on experimental results. He views Alicia primarily as a test subject and is satisfied by the measurable success of her transformation.
• Green also displays cruelty or sadistic amusement when emphasizing that the syringe will pierce Alicia’s heart, showing his lack of concern for her terror.

3. Significant Themes

• Scientific experimentation and bodily transformation: Alicia’s body is altered through radiation, genetic manipulation, and Symbiote implantation.
• Power and lack of consent: Green controls every stage of the process, paralyzing Alicia and proceeding despite her fear. Her obedience suggests a deeply unequal relationship.
• Fear versus duty: Alicia is terrified but chooses to submit because she believes obedience is expected of her.
• Evolution through unnatural means: The Symbiotes strengthen Alicia’s cells and enable them to absorb radiation, suggesting the creation of a new, artificially evolved form of human life.
• Detachment and morality: Green’s clinical attitude contrasts sharply with Alicia’s pain and fear, raising questions about the ethical limits of his experiments.

4. Character Interactions

• Green calmly questions Alicia about her health while she enthusiastically demonstrates her improved condition.
• Alicia responds respectfully, calling him “Lord Green,” reinforcing their hierarchical relationship.
• When Green announces the next experimental stage, Alicia briefly shows fear but promises to obey.
• In the laboratory, Green’s instructions and Alicia’s compliance emphasize his authority over her.
• Alicia’s terror during the paralysis and heart injection contrasts with Green’s cold explanations and amusement.
• The chapter ends with Green observing the Symbiotes’ effects inside Alicia’s body, while Alicia becomes the living host of the experiment.

Chapter Summary: “Uninvited Guest”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Green completes the second stage of his experiment on Alicia by injecting an unknown red liquid into her body. He immediately heals the injection wound and restores her control over her nervous system.
• Alicia is told to wait for further instructions and hurriedly escapes the laboratory.
• Green examines the connection between the Symbiotes in his body and those implanted in Alicia. Through their shared bloodline, he can track Alicia’s location.
• Green has modified Alicia’s Symbiotes to alter and strengthen her genes rapidly. To prevent genetic collapse, he has also programmed them to maintain genetic backups that can restore her body if the experiment fails.
• A lavish convoy belonging to Duke Rien arrives at Green’s villa. The duke appears terrified, and the other carriages deliberately keep their distance from the central carriage.
• Crado leaves the convoy and informs Green that an unknown First-Class Wizard Apprentice has seized the duke and forced him to bring Green out.
• Green investigates with the Chip and discovers that the intruder is only an ordinary First-Class Apprentice, significantly weaker than himself. Confident in his ability to handle or escape the situation, Green goes outside to meet the convoy.
• Duke Rien apologetically delivers the visitor to Green before fleeing from the carriage. The unknown wizard then begins to emerge, leaving the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Green: Demonstrates increasing confidence in his experimental abilities and strategic advantages. He has successfully developed a method for tracking Symbiotes and is using them to enhance Alicia’s physical capabilities. His calm reaction to the hostile wizard reflects his growing strength and self-assurance. He also begins considering the creation of his own wizard artifact.
• Alicia: Remains frightened and obedient after the experiment. Although she regains control of her body, she is too afraid to act without Green’s permission, showing the psychological control he holds over her. Her body is now undergoing potentially dangerous genetic enhancement.
• Duke Rien: Is portrayed as powerless and terrified after being captured and forced to transport the unknown wizard. His relief when Green acknowledges him emphasizes how desperate his situation has become.
• Crado: Acts as a messenger and warns Green that the visitor has hostile intentions.
• Unknown Wizard Apprentice: Introduced as an aggressive outsider who has violated the authority of White House Academy territory by coercing the duke. Despite his boldness, his measurable strength is considerably below Green’s.

Significant Themes

• Scientific experimentation and bodily control: Green treats Alicia’s body as an experimental subject, using Symbiotes to reshape her genes while attempting to control the risks through biological backups.
• Power and fear: Alicia, Duke Rien, and the soldiers all respond to Green or the unknown wizard with fear, illustrating the rigid power imbalance between ordinary people and practitioners of magic.
• Confidence versus recklessness: Green’s superior abilities make him confident, but the stranger’s unexplained hostility raises questions about whether his apparent weakness hides another motive or danger.
• Innovation and preparation: Green’s tracking method, genetic safeguards, and plans to create a personal wizard artifact show his constant effort to improve and prepare for future threats.
• Authority and provocation: The intruder’s treatment of the duke and arrival in Academy-controlled territory represent a direct challenge to the established magical order.

Character Interactions

• Green controls Alicia throughout the experiment, then gives her instructions before allowing her to leave.
• Crado reports the crisis to Green and helps him understand that the duke has been coerced.
• Green and Duke Rien exchange a brief but meaningful interaction: Green reassures him with a nod, while the duke desperately escapes after delivering the visitor.
• The chapter ends before Green meets the unknown wizard, setting up their confrontation.

Plot points and events

• A mysterious, heavily veiled figure steps from a carriage and begs Green to save him. His apparent decay and terrible stench disgust the onlookers, so Green clears the area and purifies the air.
• Once alone with Green, the figure suddenly attacks with a Negative Energy Arrow. Green had anticipated the ambush because his Chip detected the attacker’s energy fluctuations.
• Green counters with Death Flower Sea, trapping the figure in a hundred-meter field of hostile plants. The attacker responds by breaking a bottle of Toxic Mist, which rapidly kills the vegetation and poisons the ground.
• Green dispels the mist with Natural Purification, then strikes the attacker with lightning. Though the figure appears to die, Green’s Chip indicates he is still alive, so Green follows up with a Lesser Energy Fireball.
• The attacker survives the explosion but is badly injured and caught again in the flower field, where petals and constricting grass worsen his wounds. Green keeps his distance, sensing the enemy still has energy—and likely a final trump card.

Character developments

• Green demonstrates caution, tactical preparation, and control. Rather than trusting the plea for help or assuming the fight is over, he uses his Chip to detect danger and confirm the attacker’s condition before acting.
• The robed attacker is revealed to have feigned helplessness and used a grotesque appearance to deceive Green. Despite being trapped and severely wounded, he remains dangerous and desperate, preserving some unknown reserve of energy.

Significant themes

• Deception and appearances: The attacker’s plea and decayed disguise conceal an ambush.
• Preparation versus surprise: Green’s detection tools and careful follow-up prevent the attacker from gaining the upper hand.
• Life and corruption: Green’s life-based magic clashes with the attacker’s toxic mist and apparent decay.
• Caution in combat: A seemingly defeated enemy may still have the means to strike back.

Character interactions

• The soldiers and bystanders recoil from the attacker’s appearance and smell, then leave when Green signals them to go.
• The attacker first appeals to Green for help, then immediately attacks him.
• Green responds with a sequence of defensive and offensive spells, while the attacker counters with Toxic Mist and continues resisting despite mounting injuries.

Plot points and events

• The black-robed man, Mance, unleashes a powerful Storm spell against Green. Though it tears up the Death Flower Sea, Green’s Life Barrier withstands it.
• Mance uses Negative Energy to free himself from the plants, worsening his already severe injuries, then casts a Lightness Spell and flees into the forest.
• Green’s Chip identifies the Storm’s strength as seven degrees and detects an Apprentice Level magic artifact, which likely amplified the spell.
• Green reveals that his earlier attacks had concealed his real plan: Symbiotes hidden in certain red flowers entered Mance’s body. Green collects Mance’s blood and uses it with the Symbiotes to cast his newly developed Flesh Out-of-Control Curse.
• The curse produces an image of Mance’s head, which Green infects with Black Smoke. The smoke then drifts away, allowing Green to track it back to Mance.
• As Mance runs, the smoke enters his body. He grows exhausted, coughs, and collapses, vomiting blood mixed with wriggling, maggot-like creatures.

Character developments

• Green remains controlled and strategic. He lets Mance escape because the Symbiotes and curse give him a way to track and attack him indirectly. He is also testing a new sorcery he developed.
• Mance shifts from confidence to panic and regret. Injured and weakened by Negative Energy, he realizes he underestimated the White Wizard apprentices and is unable to escape Green’s curse.

Character interactions

• Mance attacks Green with the Storm, but Green’s barrier holds.
• Green does not pursue Mance directly; instead, his hidden Symbiotes infect him, and the curse begins to incapacitate him from afar.

Significant themes

• Preparation and deception: Green’s apparent defense masks a carefully planned counterattack.
• The cost of power: Mance’s use of Negative Energy worsens his physical condition, while his amplified spell still fails.
• Fear and reversal: The confident hunter becomes the hunted, confronting the consequences of underestimating his opponent.

Key plot points and events

• Mance realizes Green cursed him using blood from their fight. He drinks a Purification Potion, but it cannot stop the rapidly spreading Flesh Out-of-Control Curse.
• Mance’s body mutates grotesquely as bloodred insects grow inside him, draining his strength and disrupting his energy. He loses control of his body and explodes, releasing the insects.
• Green follows his Symbiote’s report to the scene and uses a rune to inspect one of the insects. The rune confirms the Symbiote’s findings, and Green retrieves the memories it collected.
• From Mance’s memories, Green learns that the war over the Kroensa Mountains’ magic stone mine has shifted in the White Wizards’ favor. The Black Wizards, facing defeat, have begun sending apprentices on missions to kill White Wizard apprentices.
• Both sides’ leaders appear to have accepted these missions as a way to test their apprentices. The conflict remains limited to apprentices, with higher-level forces staying out of the fighting.

Character developments

• Mance moves from panic and attempted self-treatment to helpless terror as the curse overwhelms him.
• Green is calm and methodical. He confirms that the Academy’s situation is stable, evaluates his curse’s effectiveness, and recognizes that it still needs protection against effects that target the soul.

Significant themes

• The cost of war: The apprentices are exposed to lethal violence even as the conflict is treated as a trial.
• Preparation versus sudden danger: Mance has a countermeasure, but the curse strikes too quickly for it to help.
• Experimentation and control: Green treats the curse as a design to refine, viewing its effects and the memories it yields as useful information.

Character interactions

• Mance and Green’s earlier fight continues to shape events: Green uses blood from it to curse Mance, while the Symbiote tracks and kills him.
• After Mance’s death, Green interacts with the Symbiote through the rune, extracting its gathered memories and learning about the war’s changing strategy.

Plot points and events

• After Mance’s attack, Green stays in his villa, protected by warning sorcery and the Chip’s surveillance. He spends his time studying, but finds little left to read and cannot pursue new experiments because Wither City lacks materials.
• Green reflects that his rapid progress has left him with unusual spare time. His research into the Holy Knight must wait until Alicia becomes stronger.
• Alicia visits with news from the duke: a Demonic Beast in Darknight Forest has attacked caravans, hunters, and a quarry, causing deaths and disrupting trade.
• Interested in seeing a wild Demonic Beast, Green accepts the assignment and asks for an escort to be ready in three days.
• Green and an elite troop of Knights, led by Crado, ride to the quarry. Crado reports that the beast is a seven-meter Poison Mist Centipede whose toxic spray killed workers. Green identifies its weaknesses: its shell resists physical attacks but offers little protection against sorcery.
• At the quarry, Green examines green corrosion on the rock left by the centipede’s poison. The group follows him toward the evidence.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains cautious after Mance’s attack but is confident in his protections. His frustration at having too little to study gives way to curiosity when the Demonic Beast offers a new challenge. He shows his knowledge by identifying the creature and how to defeat it.
• Alicia appears more self-assured physically, though she still seems uncomfortable with Green: she visits only to deliver the duke’s message and shows disgust when mentioning him.
• Crado treats Green respectfully and supplies details about the attacks while accompanying him and the troop.
• Green and Alicia’s relationship remains uneasy, while Green’s authority over Crado and the Knights is clear.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus practical experience: Green’s research has stalled, and the hunt offers an opportunity to apply his learning in the field.
• The limits of progress: The Chip enables rapid theoretical work, but Green’s advancement and lack of resources constrain what he can accomplish.
• Power and vulnerability: The centipede is formidable against ordinary weapons but vulnerable to sorcery, underscoring how strength depends on the opponent and method of attack.

Plot points and events

• Green investigates signs of the Poison Mist Centipede and discovers a freshly dug tunnel leading to its underground lair.
• A scan reveals the centipede is more than twenty meters below ground and is gathering energy to molt. The process leaves it vulnerable, and it has been hunting for food to prepare.
• Green chooses to capture it rather than destroy it, since he needs specimens for his research.
• He has soldiers seal four of the lair’s five exits, then pours lamp oil into the remaining tunnel and ignites it to drive the beast out.
• The centipede tries to escape through its other exits, but the blocked tunnels force it toward the burning entrance. As it emerges, Green freezes it with blue energy before it can fully leave the tunnel.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains calm and strategic, using the Chip’s scan and the centipede’s molting weakness to plan the encounter. He prioritizes preserving the beast for research.
• The soldiers are frightened by the tunnel and the creature’s movements, but follow Green’s orders. His reassuring gesture to the first soldier and his clear commands help keep them organized.
• Crado approaches Green respectfully for instructions, while Green directs the soldiers through each step of the trap.

Significant themes

• Preparation over brute force: Green wins by learning his opponent’s condition and controlling its escape routes rather than confronting it head-on.
• Knowledge as an advantage: The Chip’s scan reveals the centipede’s vulnerability and shapes Green’s plan.
• Power and confidence: Green’s overwhelming abilities, combined with careful planning, make the fight decisively one-sided.

Key plot points

• Green freezes and kills a giant Poison Mist Centipede in Darknight Forest. Its unusual back spines prompt him to inspect it.
• The Chip reveals that the creature is an artificially created hybrid, with highly stable genetic modifications and at least twelve generations of cultivation—evidence that a Wizard’s work has been hidden in the forest for years.
• Green takes the corpse to his villa for study rather than investigating the forest immediately.
• By the fourth year, he has spent two and a half years analyzing the centipede. Though he cannot reproduce its complex gene-fusion process, the Symbiote extracts several of its genes.
• Green keeps genes that strengthen illusion and poison abilities, discarding the one that enhances the carapace. His Elemental Affinity now boosts his life, fire, illusion, and poison Quasi-Sorcery.
• Nearing his Mental Power limit, Green plans to return to the Academy and seek the resources to advance before considering an exploration of Darknight Forest.

Character developments and interactions

• Green’s display of power impresses and unnerves the soldiers, especially Crado, who cautiously asks what to do with the creature.
• Green remains curious and ambitious, recognizing the centipede’s genetic technology as valuable to his research. However, learning that the creature was still juvenile makes him more cautious.
• Rather than risk a dangerous investigation as an apprentice, Green chooses patience and further study. His decision reflects growing discipline and awareness of his limits.

Significant themes

• Scientific curiosity and discovery: The centipede offers clues to advanced genetic engineering and an unknown secret in the forest.
• Ambition tempered by caution: Green wants to uncover the secret but understands that his current rank makes the attempt too dangerous.
• Knowledge gained through analysis: Even without fully understanding or replicating the technology, Green turns his research into practical improvements to his abilities.

Key plot points

• Alicia arrives at Green’s villa terrified of the final phase of his experiment, having grown stronger from the earlier stages but feeling an unsettling connection to Green.
• Green uses the Symbiote to control Alicia’s body and guide her through a Breathing Method. With large quantities of potions, he rapidly advances her from Knight Apprentice through Formal Knight to Grand Knight, forming a Life Sapling.
• Green then channels energy stored from three hundred Magic Stones into Alicia. The intense radiation damages her cells, causing her hair to turn white and her face to age.
• Under Green’s pressure, Alicia’s Life Sapling absorbs the energy and grows into a Life Tree. Green discovers that her Life Force is flowing to her brain and improving her Wizard Aptitude.
• When Alicia’s cell damage nears a critical level, Green supplies more Life Potions. Her aptitude rises from below the threshold for Wizardry to Fifth-Class. Once the Life Tree reaches its Perfect Stage, it stops consuming her Life Force and begins restoring her body; her youth and golden hair return.
• Green concludes that becoming a Holy Knight can improve Wizard Aptitude, but the process is extremely costly and dangerous. Without precise bodily and mental control, outside energy, and abundant Life Potions, a candidate could be drained to death.

Character developments and interactions

• Alicia undergoes a dramatic physical and magical transformation, but she is entirely unable to control her body or resist Green’s mental Sorcery. Her fear and distress contrast with her eventual advancement and survival.
• Green treats Alicia as a research subject, controlling her body and mind without hesitation. His concern is focused on keeping the experiment from failing, while his discovery fills him with excitement because the method may improve his own Wizard Aptitude.
• Their relationship remains deeply unequal: Alicia is powerless under Green’s control, while Green directs every stage of the procedure and interprets its results.

Significant themes

• The cost of advancement: extraordinary power and aptitude come through pain, danger, and immense material expense.
• Control and bodily autonomy: Green’s experiment overrides Alicia’s will, raising the moral stakes of his research.
• Ambition and discovery: Green’s scientific drive turns a dangerous breakthrough into a potential path for his own advancement.
• Risk behind apparent success: the Holy Knight transformation can enhance Wizard Aptitude, but a failed or unsupported attempt may be fatal.

Key plot points and events

• Green’s Life Tree experiment restores Alicia’s original appearance and rapidly forces her into the Holy Knight tier. The transformation succeeds, but because her mental power has not developed alongside her body, she lacks elemental control and has only a Grand Knight’s Life Barrier.
• Green recognizes the experiment’s real value: it could enhance Wizard Aptitude and attract the attention of powerful factions. Since the chip and Symbiote were essential to the method, he fears exposure and prepares to conceal his involvement.
• He extracts most of Alicia’s Life Force and Symbiotes, absorbing them into himself and gaining a small increase in physical strength. He stops before draining her completely, leaving her at Knight-level strength so she can protect herself.
• Green uses the chip to erase Alicia’s memories of the experiment and destroy the soul-based aptitude she had gained, restoring her Wizard Aptitude to its former level. He then implants a coherent false account of an ordinary body-enhancement trial.

Character developments

• Green proves both his scientific ambition and his ruthless pragmatism: he achieves a breakthrough, takes the benefits for himself, and carefully removes evidence that could expose him.
• Alicia is left physically diminished compared with her Holy Knight state, but still strong enough to defend herself. She loses both the memories of the experiment and the enhanced aptitude it gave her.

Significant themes

• The cost of progress: Green’s breakthrough depends on forcibly accelerating Alicia’s growth, which leaves her abilities incomplete and her body and mind unbalanced.
• Knowledge as power and danger: The experiment’s potential makes secrecy essential, as discovery could lead to Green being hunted or dissected.
• Control and exploitation: Green treats Alicia’s body, memories, and soul as things he can alter for his purposes, while preserving just enough strength for her survival.
• Identity and manufactured truth: The chip’s seamless false memories show how easily personal history can be rewritten.

Character interactions

• Alicia is Green’s test subject, though the passage gives little indication of her active participation in the events themselves. Green controls her body and mind, extracts her Life Force, alters her soul and memories, and leaves her with a fabricated explanation for what happened.

Plot points and events

• After completing an experiment on Alicia, Green leaves her in the care of a maid. Alicia wakes stronger but has fabricated memories of the procedure as routine injections, so she thanks Green without knowing what he really did.
• Green estimates that his own Holy Knight breakthrough will require at least 3,000 Magic Stones. He also plans to absorb Life Force from three more people of Alicia’s level to approach his physical limit, a project expected to cost at least 5,000 Magic Stones.
• With his posting over, Green leaves Wither City. The nobles panic at the loss of their resident Wizard, while Alicia also departs with a merchant caravan.
• After more than half a month on the road, Green reaches a hidden Wizard Market. He locates it using the Chip and a handful of responsive white powder, then passes through a magical barrier into the bustling marketplace.

Character developments

• Green is increasingly focused on funding his ambitions: improving his physique, becoming a Holy Knight, and eventually advancing to Formal Wizard. His First-Class Aptitude and the Chip’s guidance make him confident in his prospects.
• Alicia has gained the strength of a Formal Knight, but the experiment’s true nature has been concealed from her through altered memories.
• Green thinks fondly of Mentor Lilian and feels reassured that she is unlikely to be in danger.

Significant themes

• Ambition and the cost of advancement: Green’s plans depend on large sums of Magic Stones and carefully staged breakthroughs.
• Manipulation and concealed truth: Alicia’s gratitude rests on memories Green fabricated, leaving her unaware of what happened.
• Institutional cruelty and protection: Green contrasts the Black Wizards’ exploitation of apprentices with White House Academy’s comparatively humane treatment.
• Security and power: Wither City’s nobles fear the gap left when no Wizard protects the city.

Character interactions

• Green treats Alicia after the experiment, but their relationship is shaped by his control of what she remembers.
• Alicia thanks Green and leaves the villa, later departing Wither City.
• Green reflects on his mentor, Lilian, and compares her Academy’s treatment of apprentices with the Black Wizards’ abuse of them.

Key plot points and events

• Green reaches a Resident Wizard Market on his return journey to the Academy. He pays the entry fee, obeys the administrator’s warning against causing trouble, and asks an information broker about the Kroensa Magic Stone Mine War.
• He learns the war ended about a year and a half earlier. White Wizard Apprentices won the mine, but Black Wizard Formal Wizards then launched a surprise attack that killed nearly half of the White apprentices still in the mountains. The Black Wizards withdrew afterward, leaving both sides weakened.
• Relieved that his teacher had sent him away before the attack, Green resumes his journey. The overgrown, monster-filled forest and the greatly reduced number of apprentices suggest the Academy suffered severe losses.
• Green enters the Academy by presenting his mission rune, then collects the reward for guarding Darknight Forest. The mission rewards have nearly doubled, confirming that the Academy is short of apprentices and offering greater rewards to attract help.
• At the Mission Zone, a badly burned man recognizes Green and identifies himself as Bru. Green is stunned by the revelation.

Character developments and interactions

• Green has grown more capable and confident since leaving the Academy, recognizing that he is now better positioned to travel and trade safely. He remains cautious, avoids needless trouble, and thinks strategically about the Academy’s changed circumstances.
• Green’s relief at having escaped the Black Wizards’ attack is mixed with a pragmatic awareness that fewer students may mean more resources for those who survived.
• The market administrator warns Green that misconduct would bar him from affiliated markets. Green accepts the rule without incident.
• The information broker gives Green the war’s history; Green thanks him with a Magic Stone.
• A scarred apprentice processes Green’s mission reward. Their brief, formal exchange reflects the Academy’s subdued state.
• Bru’s appearance and recognition introduce an unresolved reunion: Green does not recognize him until he gives his name.

Significant themes

• War’s lasting cost: The surprise attack devastates the White Wizards’ future apprentice ranks, while both sides pay a price for the conflict.
• Survival and fortune: Green recognizes that his teacher’s decision to remove him from the battlefield may have saved his life.
• Pragmatism and self-interest: Green considers how the Academy’s losses might benefit remaining students, while also using evidence such as increased mission rewards to assess the situation.
• Change and loss: The damaged forest, quiet Mission Zone, and Bru’s altered appearance make the war’s effects visible even after the fighting has ended.

Key plot points and events

• Green reunites with Bru, whom he initially fails to recognize because an accident has left him horribly disfigured. By matching Bru’s Mental Power, Green confirms his identity and learns that Bru has advanced to First-Class Apprentice.
• Bru explains that his injuries came from a battle over the Croensa Magic Stone Mine. After his team captured a Black Wizard Apprentice, the prisoner self-destructed, releasing fire-element radiation. Bru alone survived; Sain, Miter, and Aisha were killed.
• Bru blames himself for insisting that the enemy be taken alive. Green offers quiet company rather than trying to console him. Bru later accepts another mission and leaves, apparently using work to escape his grief.
• Green visits Mentor Lilian. Seeing that his Mental Power has reached its peak, she correctly guesses that he wants guidance on becoming a Formal Wizard.
• Green describes what he knows: Formal Wizards gain greatly increased Mental Power and a powerful defensive Innate Sorcery, while Transcendent Water is the only advancement method he has encountered.
• Lilian warns that Transcendent Water, once an excellent path to advancement, is now a trap. Its use requires more of the rare substance for later breakthroughs, but the Wizarding World’s resources have dwindled since a devastating ancient war. The East Coast can no longer produce the materials for Third-Level Transcendent Water, leaving most users unable to advance beyond the peak of Second-Level Wizard.

Character developments and interactions

• Bru is physically and emotionally scarred, burdened by guilt over his team’s deaths. His repeated missions suggest he is trying to numb his grief.
• Green feels deep sympathy for Bru and responds with restraint, recognizing that words might worsen his pain. He then turns to Lilian for guidance about his own future.
• Lilian acts as a knowledgeable mentor, testing Green’s understanding before revealing the long-term danger of the advancement method he had considered.

Significant themes

• The cruelty and cost of war: Bru’s injuries and the deaths of his companions show how quickly a mission can end in catastrophe.
• Grief and guilt: Bru believes his decision caused the team’s destruction, while Green’s quiet presence offers support without judgment.
• The decline of civilization and resources: The ancient war weakened the Wizarding World, making once-reliable advancement methods dangerous in the present.
• The risk of short-term gains: Transcendent Water can help an apprentice advance, but may permanently limit their future progress.