Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “For Whom Does the Death Knell Toll?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago confronts Bone Death Knell, the powerful higher-dimensional being Maflin, in the sky.
• Despite the overwhelming pressure of Maflin’s Mental Force Field and soul-freezing death knell, Dago refuses to retreat.
• Maflin mocks Dago as an insignificant “ant” and invites him to merge with the mass of souls under his control.
• Dago’s suppressed killing instinct awakens after three years without a true battle. He views Maflin as the ideal opponent: powerful enough to push him to the brink of death.
• Dago activates the second evolutionary trait of the Gray Sun Meditation Method: Brilliant Great Sun.
• This dangerous state dramatically enhances his perception, thought, prediction, inspiration, and Mental Force Field, allowing him to see the world as though it has slowed down.
• His mental power transforms from azure to brilliant gold, combining cold reason with unleashed battle madness.
• Dago gathers the surrounding ice elemental particles and creates the enormous ice blade Dance of Fine Snow, freezing even the wandering souls around him.
• He openly challenges Bone Death Knell, ending the chapter with the declaration: “For whom does your death knell toll?”

Character Developments

• Dago: Reveals his true nature as a battle-hardened seeker rather than a cautious scholar. His three years of restraint have sharpened his desire for combat, and he deliberately enters a dangerous overclocked state to maximize his power. He achieves a temporary unity between reason and instinct, signaling a major breakthrough in combat ability.
• Bone Death Knell/Maflin: Establishes himself as arrogant, predatory, and confident in his superiority. He views Dago as an insignificant creature destined to be consumed, but his surprise suggests that Dago’s defiance is unusual even among Second-Ring Wizards.

Significant Themes

• Defiance against overwhelming power: Dago refuses to submit despite facing a higher-dimensional existence.
• Reason and instinct: The chapter explores the balance between disciplined thought and primal killing instinct, presenting both as necessary for ultimate combat strength.
• Growth through danger: Dago believes true advancement occurs at the boundary between life and death, where the soul is forced to reveal its full potential.
• The cost of power: Brilliant Great Sun greatly amplifies Dago’s abilities but is compared to dangerously overclocking a machine, foreshadowing severe risks.
• Death as a challenge rather than an end: The death knell, normally a symbol of doom, becomes part of Dago’s confrontation and is turned back into a question directed at its wielder.

Character Interactions

• Maflin attempts to psychologically dominate Dago through mockery, pity, and an offer of eternal existence within his body.
• Dago responds without fear or verbal argument, expressing his resistance through composure and action.
• Their Mental Force Fields clash before the physical battle begins, making the confrontation both psychological and supernatural.
• The chapter concludes with Dago verbally reversing the power dynamic: instead of accepting Maflin’s death knell, he challenges Maflin to consider whose death it will actually announce.

Dago unleashed [Brilliant Great Sun] and used his amplified ice Domains to confront Skeleton Death Knell Maflin. Their clash drew Claire and nearby Third-Ring Wizards toward the battle as Dago’s ice blade struck through the ghostly tide.

• Dago ignited [Brilliant Great Sun], gathering water elements into a storm and strengthening his three ice Domains.
• Dago formed a colossal ice blade and split Skeleton Death Knell Maflin’s advancing tide of vengeful souls.
• Dago commanded the ice blade to slash at Maflin, and their spells collided with enough force to shake the surrounding buildings and ground.
• Claire saw Dago battling Maflin, called him a lunatic, sent messages using his Communication Stone, and rushed toward the fight.
• Two Third-Ring Wizards sensed the clash, flew toward it, and witnessed the battle’s vast spectacle of ice and ghosts.

Dago, a Second-Ring Wizard, drew astonished witnesses as he battled Skeleton Death Knell Maflin with powerful ice magic. Maflin unleashed a spectral storm, and Dago countered with four replicated Desperate Freeze Blades before the ghosts struck back with a soul-rending scream.

• Two Third-Ring Wizards recognized Maflin and were shocked to discover that his opponent was the Second-Ring Wizard Dago.
• Maflin recalled how he had poisoned his teacher and fought the teacher’s Second Circle disciple, then vowed to dissect Dago.
• Maflin unleashed a storm of resentful ghosts that tore through the frost and surged toward Dago.
• Dago expanded his Desperate Freeze Blade domain and Desperate Freeze Formation, using Multifaceted Prism to create four ice blades that clashed with the spectral storm.
• The ghosts’ black flames attacked Dago, and their converging shrieks sent soul-shaking sound waves rippling through the air.

Chapter Summary: Let the Death Knell Sound Once More

Key Plot Points and Events

• The undead army’s death knell unleashes a devastating sonic tsunami formed from the curses and wails of tens of thousands of dead souls. The sound waves damage both physical bodies and Mental Spaces, forcing the observing Third-Ring Wizards to retreat.
• Dago’s powerful ice-based defense—the six-pointed snowflake formation, four ice blades, and golden Mental Force Field—is gradually crushed by Maflin’s overwhelming numbers of undead soul servants.
• The observers assume Dago is about to be defeated and regard his clash with Maflin as proof that talent and temporary strength cannot overcome a vast difference in experience and resources.
• The battlefield suddenly fills with unnatural snowflakes carrying an intense, deathly cold. The undead sound waves abruptly fall silent as a deep-blue point of power blooms at the center of the battle.
• Dago reveals a far greater technique: the Thorny Snow Kingdom. It freezes the air, space, light, and seemingly even time, sealing Maflin and countless undead souls inside crystalline ice.
• Dago emerges unharmed as the absolute ruler of the frozen domain and condenses Yitai into a silver-white spear.
• Maflin attempts to break free by unleashing near-Late-Third-Circle power and burning his own origin, but Dago remains calm and unaffected.
• Dago declares, “Let the death knell sound once more, Maflin,” and throws the spear. It bypasses Maflin’s defensive force fields and pierces directly through his head.

Character Developments

• Dago: Initially appears overwhelmed and near death, but this proves to be a misjudgment. He reveals a terrifying hidden power, transforming from a struggling Second-Circle ice wizard into the unquestioned master of the battlefield. His calm execution of Maflin demonstrates immense confidence, control, and lethal resolve.
• Maflin, Bone Death Knell: His overwhelming undead army establishes him as a terrifying necromantic powerhouse, but his confidence turns to shock when Dago reverses the situation. Even his desperate attempt to burn his origin and escape the ice cannot save him.
• Claire and the observing wizards: Their fear and retreat emphasize the destructive scale of the battle. Claire recognizes that Dago may possess strength capable of rivaling or surpassing Maflin, while the others move from confidence in Maflin’s victory to stunned disbelief.

Significant Themes

• Hidden strength and underestimated talent: Dago’s apparent defeat conceals a decisive trump card, showing that visible weakness does not necessarily reflect a wizard’s true power.
• The limits of accumulated power: Maflin’s enormous stockpile of undead souls gives him overwhelming force, but sheer numbers cannot overcome Dago’s superior control and specialized mastery.
• The ruthlessness of the wizarding world: The observers view a fallen genius as little more than a research specimen, reinforcing the chapter’s depiction of survival of the fittest.
• Authority challenged and overturned: Maflin represents established power built over generations, while Dago represents an emerging talent who directly destroys that authority.
• Death and stillness: The chapter contrasts Maflin’s noisy, chaotic death knell with Dago’s silent Snow Kingdom, suggesting that true death arrives not through greater noise, but through absolute, irreversible stillness.

Character Interactions

• Claire and the other wizards observe the battle from a distance, initially fearing for Dago and acknowledging Maflin’s terrifying reputation.
• Maflin attempts to overpower and ultimately escape Dago’s ice domain, but Dago ignores his struggle and calmly approaches him.
• Dago’s final words serve as both a taunt and a sentence, transforming Maflin’s own “death knell” into the prelude to his execution.

Chapter Summary: “Karmic Retribution”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Maflin is struck through the forehead by Dago’s incredibly fast silver-white spear before he can react.
• Breaking free from the ice restraint, Maflin attempts a desperate final spell. His body cracks open, releasing compressed curse particles that begin devouring nearby elemental energy.
• Dago prevents the spell from being unleashed by using Spatial Stasis. Metal tentacles formed from Yitai bind Maflin and freeze his movements, while Dago forcibly gathers the surrounding ice and Domain energy into Maflin’s body.
• Maflin is encased in a massive, spinning sphere of condensed ice. Dago then commands it to “Shatter,” causing a devastating spatial explosion.
• The blast destroys Maflin’s physical body, magical defenses, and nearby wraiths, reducing the wraiths to soul dust and leaving cracks in space itself.
• Dago discovers an unusual cowbell-like object among Maflin’s remains. When shaken, it releases preserved severed fingers bearing spatial rings, suggesting that Maflin harvested the possessions—and possibly the remains—of wizards he had killed.
• Maflin’s soul emerges amid the destruction, surrounded by the tormented souls he had imprisoned and abused.
• The collective spirits attack and drag Maflin into their mass, exacting revenge. His soul is ultimately seized by the ghost that appears to have hated him most deeply, seemingly a young man in life.

Character Developments

• Dago demonstrates overwhelming control over spatial, ice, and Domain-based power. He remains calm and precise, neutralizing Maflin’s final attack rather than allowing it to endanger the battlefield.
• Dago’s reaction to the cowbell and the severed fingers reveals his growing understanding of Maflin’s cruelty and the scale of his crimes.
• Maflin changes from a powerful, defiant enemy into a desperate and helpless figure. His attempt at mutual destruction fails, and he is forced to confront the victims he tortured and enslaved.
• Even after death, Maflin’s soul retains a survival instinct, pleading for help, but his victims show him no mercy.
• The imprisoned spirits gain agency, transforming from passive victims into the forces responsible for Maflin’s final punishment.

Significant Themes

• Karmic retribution: Maflin is destroyed by the very souls he imprisoned and mistreated, fulfilling the chapter’s central idea that cruelty eventually returns to its perpetrator.
• The futility of absolute power: Maflin’s curses, magical tools, and defenses are meaningless against Dago’s superior control.
• Consequences of exploitation: The severed fingers and captured souls reveal Maflin’s practice of harvesting others for power and possessions.
• Justice versus vengeance: Dago delivers the physical defeat, but Maflin’s victims provide the final punishment through their collective hatred.
• The persistence of life and hatred: Even in death, the souls retain their will to survive and their resentment toward their tormentor.

Character Interactions

• Dago and Maflin: Dago dominates the confrontation, first impaling Maflin, then immobilizing him with Spatial Stasis and destroying him with the Shattering technique.
• Dago and Maflin’s victims: Dago does not directly intervene when the spirits emerge, instead observing as they claim Maflin’s soul.
• Maflin and the imprisoned souls: Their relationship is revealed as one of tormentor and victims. After his death, the power dynamic reverses as the souls surround, seize, and drag him into the abyss.
• The most vengeful ghost and Maflin: This spirit appears to have a particularly personal hatred for Maflin and violently tears at him before pulling him into the collective mass.

Chapter Summary: Seat Activation and Preparations for Advancement

Key Plot Points and Events

• Maflin’s death causes the wraiths he had enslaved to turn on him, tearing apart his damaged Soul Body. His failed trump-card spell and loss of his physical body likely leave him unable to control them.
• The released soul particles from Maflin’s wraiths surge toward Dago. Dago absorbs them, pushing his soul power to the threshold between the Second and Third Circles.
• Dago undergoes a painful breakthrough reaction. A gray cloud of elemental and soul energy forms around him as his life level and power begin to transform.
• The witnessing Third-Ring Wizards are horrified and astonished by Maflin’s defeat. Maflin had been a powerful Mid-Third-Circle wizard and a major candidate for one of Isidore’s Prodigy Seats, yet Dago defeats him despite appearing to be only a Second-Ring Wizard.
• Dago’s victory convinces many observers that he is a hidden genius and likely Thorn Ring’s true trump card, while the previously publicized Four-Colored Crystal Baker may have been a deliberate decoy.
• A majestic pillar of light appears in the eastern Fairy Ancient City, signaling that one of Isidore’s thirty-two Prodigy Seats has been claimed. This intensifies the sense of urgency throughout the contest and warns the remaining wizards that the first stage is nearing its end.
• Dago tells Claire that he must find a safe place to attempt advancement to the Third Circle. The two leave the battlefield and locate a secluded ancient fairy structure resembling a large gray mushroom.

Character Developments

• Dago: Absorbing Maflin’s soul energy completes the power accumulation necessary for his advancement. He remains calm despite the severe pain and demonstrates increased confidence, self-control, and strategic awareness. Rather than immediately pursuing a seat, he prioritizes consolidating his strength by advancing to the Third Circle.
• Maflin: His death marks the collapse of a feared and influential figure. His own enslaved wraiths become the instrument of his destruction, emphasizing the danger and instability of his methods.
• Claire: His view of Dago changes completely. Previously underestimating him, Claire now recognizes Dago as an extraordinary hidden powerhouse and realizes that Baker’s earlier warning was sincere. Despite his embarrassment and shock, Claire reveals his fundamentally warm and loyal nature by volunteering to guard Dago during his dangerous advancement.
• The observing wizards: Their initial greed and curiosity turn into fear, caution, and reassessment. Dago is now regarded as a major threat and rising contender.

Significant Themes

• Strength overturning established hierarchies: Dago’s victory over a powerful Third-Circle wizard challenges the assumed superiority of rank and conventional power assessments.
• Pain as the price of advancement: The chapter presents suffering and endurance as unavoidable companions to growth on the path toward truth.
• Hidden strength and deception: Thorn Ring’s apparent weakness may have been a calculated disguise, demonstrating the strategic value of concealing one’s true capabilities.
• Competition and scarcity: The activation of the first Prodigy Seat signals that opportunities are limited and that the contest will soon become more dangerous and ruthless.
• Trust amid political manipulation: Although the Progress Society may be controlled by stronger factions, Claire’s willingness to help Dago suggests that genuine personal loyalty can exist within a manipulative power structure.

Character Interactions

• Dago and Claire: Dago honestly informs Claire that he intends to advance rather than reunite with the Progress Society immediately. Claire responds with concern, offering protection and advancement materials. Their relationship shifts from distant association and misunderstanding toward mutual respect and practical trust.
• Dago and Maflin: Their conflict ends with Dago’s victory and Maflin’s death. Dago not only defeats Maflin but also benefits directly from the soul power released from Maflin’s forces.
• Dago and the observing wizards: Though he speaks little to them, Dago’s performance forces the spectators to revise their opinions and treat him as a potentially dominant figure in the contest.

Chapter Summary: “Preparing for the Breakthrough”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago rests in a clean mushroom-shaped house within the Fairy Ancient City while the struggle for the thirty-two Genius Seats continues.
• A second stone pillar lights up, signaling that another seat has been claimed.
• Claire informs Dago of a crucial rule: the city’s surrounding light curtain is steadily contracting. Any wizard caught outside the shrinking area will be eliminated, forcing all contestants toward the thirty-two pillars and eventual confrontation.
• Dago recognizes that this rule is designed to pressure competitors into battle, reflecting Law Wielder Isidore’s belief that only extreme conflict can reveal genuine genius.
• Because Dago needs uninterrupted time to advance his life level, he tells Claire to leave him behind if the shrinking boundary reaches the mushroom house before he emerges.
• Dago returns inside, establishes defensive and spiritual-force-enhancing Rune Magic Arrays, and begins preparing for his breakthrough to become a Third-Ring Wizard.
• He examines the cowbell taken from Bone Death Knell Maflin. The artifact contains a powerful ghostly aura and still bears Maflin’s spiritual imprint, so Dago suppresses it rather than attempting to fully refine it.
• Reflecting on his victory over Maflin, Dago evaluates his true strength and concludes that, despite being only a Late Second Circle wizard, his purified spiritual force, powerful Domains, Soul Imprint, and Brilliant Great Sun state allow him to challenge stronger opponents.
• He acknowledges that Maflin’s arrogance and underestimation were decisive factors in the battle.
• Dago briefly mourns the destruction of his Eternal Night Frostmark artifact set before regaining focus and beginning his advancement.

Character Development

• Dago: Demonstrates calm rationality by accepting the possibility that Claire may need to abandon him. He shows increasing confidence in his combat abilities while remaining analytical about both his strengths and weaknesses. He also begins to move beyond dependence on external artifacts, recognizing that true power must ultimately come from within.
• Claire: Acts as a responsible informant and ally, warning Dago about the city’s shrinking boundary. His complicated reaction to Dago’s willingness to be left behind reveals concern and emotional investment in Dago’s survival.
• Maflin: Though already defeated, Maflin’s character is further defined through Dago’s reflections. His arrogance and failure to recognize Dago as a threat contributed directly to his downfall.

Significant Themes

• Pressure as a catalyst for greatness: The shrinking city forces competitors into conflict, embodying Isidore’s philosophy that danger and struggle reveal true potential.
• Time versus strength: Dago’s greatest immediate need is time to complete his breakthrough, but the city’s rules deny him the safety and solitude he requires.
• Underestimation and deception: Dago’s apparent weakness allows him to surprise stronger opponents, turning his lower cultivation level into a tactical advantage.
• Loss and growth: The destruction of the Eternal Night Frostmark represents the sacrifices accompanying the pursuit of truth and power.
• Inner strength versus external support: Dago recognizes that artifacts are valuable but ultimately secondary to personal power and mastery.

Character Interactions

• Claire warns Dago about the contracting boundary and explains the deadly rules of the seat struggle.
• Dago responds pragmatically, instructing Claire to leave if necessary rather than risk being eliminated with him.
• Dago’s later reflections on Maflin serve as an internal interaction with the consequences of their battle, reinforcing how Maflin’s arrogance enabled Dago’s victory.
• The chapter ends with Dago withdrawing from the outside conflict and beginning the dangerous process of breaking through to the Third Ring.

Chapter Summary: “Claire’s Promise”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago begins advancing from the Second Circle to the Third Circle. He seals the Mushroom House by covering its window with Yitai, creating a completely isolated and secure environment for the breakthrough.
• Inside his Mental Space, Dago gathers his three pale-gold Soul Crystals and begins reshaping his spiritual power into a unified core. The process is portrayed as both destruction and rebirth.
• Claire stands guard outside the Mushroom House. A passing Third-Ring Wizard probes him with oppressive spiritual power, but withdraws rather than risk a confrontation.
• The shrinking light curtain continues compressing the Fairy Ancient City, forcing competitors into increasingly violent clashes. Five stone pillars representing genius seats are lit on the first day, an astonishingly rapid pace compared with previous competitions, where the first pillar took five days to activate.
• Claire reflects on how the current competition has become a “meat grinder,” filled with powerful and reckless participants. The gray smoke needed to activate the pillars comes from defeated geniuses, making every seat a symbol of accumulated destruction.
• Claire receives a message from the Progress Society but remains focused on guarding Dago. His sole commitment is to prevent anyone from disturbing Dago until the cabin door opens.
• Elsewhere, Havid observes the five occupied pillars and identifies several dominant competitors, including Michael of the Emerald Court, Vicky of the Chaos Secret Society, Gale of Psychic Dawn, and Ewakuai of the Elder Spirit Wizard lineage.
• Havid notes that the Ash Witch—powerful enough to fight Princess Michael evenly—was barred from entering. He fears that, even without her, the Progress Society’s chances of securing a place among the top thirty-two are extremely poor.

Character Developments

• Dago: Demonstrates calm preparation and formidable potential by attempting a major advancement in the middle of the deadly competition. His earlier victory over Bone Death Knell establishes him as an exceptionally powerful figure despite being only a Second-Ring Wizard.
• Claire: Shows courage, loyalty, and personal growth. Though initially viewing Dago with dislike, he has become deeply impressed and willingly acts as his protector. He acknowledges that Dago has effectively “conquered” him through strength and character. Claire’s resolve is firm: no one will reach Dago without passing over his corpse.
• Havid: Appears far less confident than before. The overwhelming strength of the leading competitors has left him anxious and burdened, revealing the immense pressure facing the Progress Society.
• The leading competitors: The occupants of the five pillars are portrayed as near-monster-level figures whose ambitions exceed merely earning a seat; they aim to dominate the entire competition.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and chosen duty: Claire’s promise to protect Dago becomes the chapter’s emotional center. His guard duty is not merely strategic but a matter of personal honor.
• Power and hierarchy: The chapter emphasizes the vast gap between ordinary geniuses and the terrifying figures at the top of the competition.
• Survival through cooperation: The Progress Society’s decision to unite reflects the necessity of collective action in an environment where individual pride cannot guarantee survival.
• Violence as advancement: The gray stone pillars are fueled by the remains of defeated competitors, turning achievement into a direct measure of destruction.
• Transformation and rebirth: Dago’s breakthrough mirrors the larger struggle in the city: individuals must be broken down and reforged to reach a higher level.
• Hope amid overwhelming odds: Although the competition seems nearly impossible, surviving such a brutal contest would make victory extraordinarily valuable.

Character Interactions

• A passing Third-Ring Wizard tests Claire’s strength with spiritual pressure, but both recognize that attacking without confidence in victory would be foolish.
• Claire reflects on his changing relationship with Dago, moving from irritation and distrust to admiration and devoted protection.
• Claire communicates with the Progress Society while maintaining his solitary post, showing that his immediate loyalty to Dago takes priority.
• Havid discusses the powerful competitors and the Progress Society’s desperate situation with the people accompanying him, revealing the organization’s declining confidence.

Chapter Summary: “Tracy’s Prank”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Havid and Baker of the Four-Colored Crystal discuss the Progress Society’s chances of securing a seat in the ranking battles.
• Baker argues that they must confront Korklau now, while the Progress Society is gathered, rather than wait until Korklau grows strong enough to advance into Miracle and become even harder to challenge.
• Baker invokes the deaths and humiliation of their former companions—especially Gweil, the founder of the Progress Society—to pressure Havid into pursuing revenge.
• Havid resists, warning that Baker is being consumed by vengeance and that the Progress Society’s plans cannot be decided by them alone.
• Their argument is interrupted by news that Dago Heka of the Thorn Ring is preparing to advance to the Third Circle, despite the dangers of the ancient-city battlefield. Baker is stunned, recognizing that this development is far more significant than their immediate dispute.
• Outside Fairy Ancient City, watching wizards observe pillars of light rising from within. These indicate that talented competitors are claiming positions on the path toward Isidore’s Innate Law Wielder Legacy.
• Tracy mocks the weak performance of “that stupid woman,” apparently referring to Michael, while praising the strength of the southern prodigies.
• When an Emerald Court wizard loudly declares that Michael will surely reach the summit and that no one can surpass Selena, Tracy punches him away.
• It is revealed that Tracy has forced the Emerald Court wizards to kneel and has written insulting remarks about Michael on their faces as a prank.

Character Developments

• Baker is shown to be driven by unresolved grief, humiliation, and revenge against Korklau. His calm exterior hides intense anger, and he is willing to manipulate Havid emotionally to force action.
• Havid remains more cautious and rational. Although he shares the desire for revenge, he fears that acting prematurely would amount to suicide and could destabilize relations between entire factions.
• Dago Heka emerges as an unexpectedly bold and powerful figure by attempting a Third Circle advancement in the middle of a deadly battle.
• Tracy displays her childish, mischievous, and domineering personality. She is fiercely protective of Michael, enjoys humiliating those who praise Michael’s rivals, and treats the intimidated Emerald Court wizards as toys for her amusement.
• The outside wizard observers reinforce the growing reputation of the younger generation, whose battles are beginning to reshape the established order.

Significant Themes

• Revenge versus reason: Baker’s desire for justice conflicts with Havid’s concern for survival and long-term strategy.
• The burden of the past: The deaths of Gweil and their former companions continue to influence the Progress Society’s decisions.
• Rising generations and changing power structures: The advancing competitors represent the collapse of the old order and the emergence of new legendary figures.
• Ambition amid danger: Dago’s advancement highlights the extreme risks powerful individuals are willing to take to grow stronger.
• Loyalty and factional rivalry: Baker and Havid’s shared history unites them, while tensions between groups such as the Progress Society, Venomous Mask, Emerald Court, and others shape the conflict.
• Humor and cruelty: Tracy’s prank provides comic relief, but her treatment of the Emerald Court also reflects the harsh, hierarchical world in which strength determines authority.

Character Interactions

• Baker and Havid: Their conversation is a tense confrontation between revenge and restraint. Baker challenges Havid’s courage and commitment, while Havid rebukes Baker for allowing hatred to control him.
• Baker and the memory of Gweil: Although Gweil is absent, his death acts as a powerful emotional link between Baker, Havid, and the Progress Society’s original purpose.
• Havid and Claire: Claire’s message delivers the surprising news about Dago’s advancement and changes the direction of the conversation.
• Tracy and the Emerald Court wizards: Tracy mocks, attacks, and humiliates them for praising Michael’s rival, demonstrating both her loyalty to Michael and her playful tyranny over weaker opponents.

Summary of “Eyes Fixed Like Tigers”

Key Plot Points and Events

• High above the Fairy Ancient City, the black-robed elder Jennifer reassures an anxious Miracle Wizard from the Emerald Court that she can remove the marks left on their people. Her real priority, however, is Tracy, the Phoenix family’s sole heir.
• Jennifer emphasizes Tracy’s immense importance, claiming that Tracy is more valuable than all ten of the Emerald Court’s royal descendants combined. The Emerald Court wizard responds with fear and submission, revealing the Phoenix family’s overwhelming power and prestige.
• As more stone pillars throughout the city illuminate, powerful wizards continue fighting and exhausting themselves in pursuit of advancement.
• A massive black stone giant named Nuss rampages through the city, crushing numerous fleeing Third-Ring Wizards. Its rider, a gray-shrouded youth, treats the slaughter with childish calm and complete disregard for life. Afterward, they ascend a lit stone pillar.
• Gellman transforms into living lightning and effortlessly destroys several Third-Ring Wizards and their magical defenses. He openly invites the remaining survivors to challenge him at the seats before departing through another pillar of light.
• Rufus appears in a grotesque, skinless demonic form created through extreme bodily modification. Driven by an insatiable desire for blood and slaughter, he unleashes his technique, “Boulder Peak,” and soon vanishes as another pillar activates.
• When eighteen pillars have lit, the city’s energy reaches a critical, oppressive level. At this moment, Ang awakens inside a fairy mushroom house filled with tangible darkness.
• Ang identifies the Emerald Court as his target and expresses excitement at the prospect of publicly killing one of its princesses before the gathered geniuses. He then disappears without leaving any spatial or elemental trace.

Character Developments

• Jennifer is established as a terrifying representative of the ancient Phoenix family. Beneath her gentle reassurance lies ruthless favoritism and an absolute disregard for ordinary lives.
• The Emerald Court Miracle Wizard is shown to be deeply intimidated by the Phoenix family, behaving like a frightened junior before a superior elder.
• The gray-shrouded youth demonstrates overwhelming physical power and a disturbingly innocent attitude toward mass killing.
• Gellman displays mastery over lightning elementalization, confidence, and a kingly presence. He is not merely surviving the conflict but actively seeking challengers.
• Rufus has abandoned humanity almost entirely, reshaping his body into a monstrous weapon devoted to physical strength, bloodshed, and primal violence.
• Ang emerges as a calculating and sadistic predator. His calm, playful demeanor conceals intense killing intent and a specific plan to target the Emerald Court’s princess.

Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: The Phoenix family’s status places it above even the Emerald Court, forcing powerful figures into submission.
• Dehumanization and violence: The contestants treat other wizards as disposable obstacles, emphasizing the brutal nature of the competition.
• Transformation for strength: Gellman becomes lightning, Rufus becomes a flesh-and-blood monster, and Ang merges with darkness, showing different paths toward transcendent power.
• Predator imagery: Several characters are depicted as hunters or beasts, especially Ang, whose focus on the Emerald Court resembles a predator selecting prey.
• Rising tension: The lighting of the pillars and the city’s increasing energy signal that a major confrontation or advancement is approaching.

Character Interactions

• Jennifer comforts the Emerald Court wizard while simultaneously reminding him of the vast gap between the Phoenix family and the Emerald Court.
• The gray-shrouded youth commands or guides the stone giant Nuss, calmly ending its slaughter when it is time to advance.
• Gellman confronts fleeing Third-Ring Wizards indirectly, sparing them while challenging them to face him later at the seats.
• Ang has no direct interaction in the chapter’s final scene, but his declared intention to kill an Emerald Court princess establishes an impending conflict with the court and its royal descendants.

Chapter Summary: “Advancing to the Third Circle”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago successfully advances from a Late-Stage Second-Ring Wizard to a Third-Ring Formal Wizard, reaching 1% progress in the new realm.
• During the breakthrough, a fourth Soul Crystal forms within his Mental Space. The process causes severe spiritual agony as embryonic rule-patterns develop inside it.
• His Mental Space expands dramatically, and his existing Soul Crystals grow several times larger, becoming powerful organs linked directly to his will.
• The advancement creates a violent overflow of Mental Force in the mushroom house, producing an unnatural vortex, freezing dust in the air, and pressurizing the room.
• Dago awakens transformed, surrounded by a golden Mental Force Field and possessing greatly enhanced control over his power.
• He tests his new fourth Soul Imprint, [Iceflame], by transforming ice into a strange blue-white flame that absorbs heat, freezes its surroundings, and partially violates ordinary natural laws.
• Dago realizes that [Iceflame] does more than strengthen frost spells: it allows ice to acquire flame-like properties, hinting at deeper interactions between opposing elements.
• He considers developing a combat technique combining extreme cold with explosive force, though its effectiveness must be proven in battle.

Character Development

• Dago reaches a major new stage of life and power, becoming substantially stronger in both Mental Force and Soul Force.
• His Mental Force is roughly ten times stronger than before and may rival that of an ordinary Mid-Third-Circle Wizard, though he remains cautious rather than arrogant.
• His increased Soul Force resolves a previous weakness: he can now control powerful spells with much greater precision and no longer suffers the sluggishness or strain caused by overloading his soul.
• Dago demonstrates greater maturity and discipline by suppressing his excitement after advancing and rejecting the temptation to pursue the still-inaccessible fusion of ice and fire prematurely.
• His long-term ambition and identity as someone walking the mysterious Golden Path are reinforced through his reflections on the Gold Eater’s prophecy.

Significant Themes

• Transformation and the price of advancement: Reaching a higher realm requires physical and spiritual agony, representing a fundamental sublimation of life rather than simple accumulation of power.
• Power and control: True strength depends not only on the amount of energy possessed but also on the ability to control it precisely.
• Rules versus elements: Wizards do not merely manipulate matter; they alter or exploit the rules governing it. [Iceflame] exemplifies this by giving ice the spreading and devouring qualities of fire.
• Opposites and synthesis: The chapter explores the potential unity of ice and flame, cold and heat, and yin and yang, while emphasizing that such truths remain beyond Dago’s current understanding.
• Knowledge and ignorance: Dago recognizes that deeper truths are obscured by ignorance and that insight must be gained gradually rather than through reckless ambition.
• Preparation for conflict: His breakthrough is framed not as an end, but as preparation for imminent battles and the testing of new tactical possibilities.

Character Interactions

• Dago has no direct interaction with other characters in the chapter.
• His development is shaped by his remembered encounter with the Gold Eater, whose words about the Golden Path and the Golden Throne continue to influence his thinking.
• The Gold Eater’s past prophecy acts as a psychological and philosophical presence, encouraging Dago to view [Iceflame] as part of a broader path toward mastering interconnected and contradictory powers.

Dago emerged from seclusion transformed and joined Claire as the Fairy Ancient City’s shrinking barrier forced them to leave the Mushroom House. When they encountered Feilie Galong pursued by three Third-Ring Wizards, Dago intervened and killed their leader with a single spear thrust.

• Dago appeared before Claire as the barrier rapidly contracted, and they escaped its reach.
• Dago thanked Claire for guarding him, while Claire explained that only seven seats remained and that Baker was gathering wizards to fight Korklau.
• Feilie Galong fled toward Dago and Claire with three Third-Ring Wizards pursuing him.
• Dago appeared between Feilie Galong and the pursuers, then killed their leader with a spear that pierced his defenses and pinned him to an ancient building.
• The pursuers, Feilie Galong, and Claire stared at Dago in shock.

Chapter Summary: “Korklau’s Obstruction”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago kills a Third-Ring Wizard who had been pursuing Feilie Galong. He uses his spear and Iceflame to destroy the wizard, causing the Fairy Ancient City to expel him and leave behind a soul orb.
• Dago absorbs the orb, though it provides him with only a minor increase in power. His spear then transforms back into his Silver Ice armor.
• Two other Third-Ring Wizards flee immediately upon seeing Dago’s overwhelming strength.
• Feilie Galong recognizes Dago as a fellow Second-Ring Wizard who had entered the Fairy Ancient City’s final struggle against the odds. However, while Feilie has been reduced to hiding and scavenging weak soul orbs, Dago has advanced to the Third Circle and become powerful enough to slaughter opponents of the same rank effortlessly.
• Dago saves Feilie without acknowledging him and immediately heads toward the most dangerous area of the city, where several seats marked by pillars of light are being contested.
• Realizing that he no longer belongs among the strongest competitors, Feilie gives up and leaves the Fairy Ancient City voluntarily.
• At the contested stone pillars, a powerful wizard named Korklau blocks access to four unlit seats. He is surrounded by immense gray clouds formed from the souls of countless defeated opponents.
• A powerful fire wizard attempts to exploit an opening in the green energy defenses and activate one of the pillars, but the enormous skulls guarding the area destroy him. His soul orbs are absorbed by Korklau, further increasing his already massive power.
• The other Third-Ring Wizards accuse Korklau of violating the rules by occupying four positions and preventing everyone else from competing.
• Korklau dismisses them as “trash,” claiming they should become nourishment for him rather than waste the precious seats. He arrogantly promises that they will share in his glory once he reaches the summit.

Character Developments

• Dago is established as an extraordinarily powerful and detached Third-Ring Wizard. His calm, effortless defeat of a peer demonstrates that he has become far stronger than ordinary practitioners of the same rank. He shows no interest in gratitude, recognition, or emotional connections.
• Feilie Galong experiences a painful realization of the gap between himself and Dago. Once equally ambitious Second-Ring Wizards, they have diverged completely: Dago has risen into a dominant powerhouse, while Feilie has been forced into survival and retreat. Feilie abandons the struggle, accepting that the final stage is no longer meant for him.
• Korklau is revealed as an even more terrifying force than Dago. His enormous accumulation of soul power, mastery of the deadly battlefield, and contempt for all other wizards mark him as a near-tyrannical figure. He views competitors not as equals but as resources to consume.

Significant Themes

• The brutal hierarchy of power: Advancement depends on defeating and consuming others, and those who fall behind are eliminated or reduced to prey.
• The gulf between genius and mediocrity: Feilie’s reflections emphasize that courage and ruthlessness alone cannot bridge the difference between an ordinary wizard and a true prodigy.
• Survival versus ambition: Feilie chooses to leave rather than remain as a stepping stone for stronger competitors, while Dago and Korklau continue advancing through relentless violence.
• Isolation at the top: Dago’s indifference and Korklau’s contempt suggest that overwhelming strength separates individuals from ordinary human relationships and morality.
• Power corrupting perception: Korklau’s belief that others exist to nourish him reveals the dehumanizing effect of unchecked strength and ambition.
• The path of truth as a narrow bridge: The struggle is portrayed as one in which only a few can reach the summit; everyone else must fall, retreat, or be consumed.

Character Interactions

• Dago and Feilie Galong: Dago rescues Feilie but treats the act as insignificant, offering no reassurance or acknowledgment. Feilie is grateful yet crushed by Dago’s disregard and superiority.
• Dago and the fleeing Third-Ring Wizards: His presence alone terrifies them into retreat, showing how his reputation and aura now dominate weaker opponents.
• Korklau and the fire wizard: The fire wizard attempts to challenge the battlefield’s defenses, but Korklau benefits from his defeat by absorbing the resulting soul orbs.
• Korklau and the surrounding Third-Ring Wizards: They confront him over monopolizing the four seats, but Korklau responds with open contempt and declares that they should sacrifice themselves to fuel his ascent.

Chapter Summary: The Strong’s Spoils of War

Key Plot Points and Events

• Above the ruins of Isidore’s Fairy Ancient City, Korklau attempts to claim four of the thirty-two Genius Seats represented by the gray-white stone pillars.
• More than twenty pillars have already been activated, but their occupants can still be challenged under the rules of the competition. Korklau exploits this rule to eliminate competitors and seize their qualifications.
• His presence alone overwhelms the dozens of Third-Ring Wizards surrounding the pillars, provoking a mixture of fear, jealousy, and anger.
• One wizard attacks first, acting as both a test of Korklau’s strength and a signal for the others to join him. Several Third-Ring Wizards launch a coordinated assault, believing their combined power can defeat Korklau.
• Korklau effortlessly counters them by multiplying the skulls surrounding him and firing corrosive death rays. His necromantic energy destroys most of the incoming spells.
• He then forms an immense Domain around himself, crushing the few attacks that penetrate his first defense. His absolute superiority causes many wizards to retreat.
• Korklau turns from defense to offense, creating a gigantic skeletal hand that smashes through one wizard’s shields and magical artifact, severely injuring him.
• The remaining attackers flee, but Korklau’s skeletal hand tracks them down and defeats them one by one. Their bodies are forcibly teleported from the arena, leaving behind glowing spheres that Korklau collects as spoils.

Character Developments

• Korklau is established as overwhelmingly powerful, ruthless, and utterly confident. His frightening beauty contrasts with his grotesque necromantic magic, reinforcing his inhuman and predatory nature.
• His contempt for the competition’s rules becomes clear: although his actions are technically legal, he deliberately uses the system to crush weaker competitors and remove future rivals.
• The unnamed Third-Ring Wizards initially display courage and ambition by cooperating against Korklau, but their confidence collapses once they witness the gap between their strength and his.
• The stronger wizards already occupying Genius Seats become more cautious observers, studying Korklau as a potential rival rather than immediately challenging him.

Significant Themes

• Power and domination: Korklau’s strength allows him to control the battlefield and determine who is permitted to pursue higher truths.
• The cruelty of competition: The Genius Seats embody the Wizarding World’s law of elimination, where advancement requires defeating or destroying others.
• Arrogance versus confidence: The attackers interpret Korklau’s behavior as arrogance, but his effortless victory proves that his confidence is justified.
• Predator and prey: The imagery repeatedly portrays Korklau as a superior predator confronting helpless “ants,” emphasizing the vast imbalance of power.
• Spoils of victory: The glowing spheres taken from defeated wizards symbolize how the competition converts other people’s failures and futures into resources for the victor.

Character Interactions

• The surrounding wizards collectively react to Korklau with fear, resentment, and envy, but one outspoken wizard attempts to rally them by appealing to their equal spiritual power and the fairness of the rules.
• Several wizards temporarily cooperate, combining Domains, spells, and magical implements in an effort to overwhelm Korklau.
• Korklau responds not through negotiation but through overwhelming violence, destroying their attacks and then personally hunting down those who flee.
• The interaction between Korklau and the seated geniuses is largely indirect: they observe him, assess his threat, and reconsider whether he might become an opponent capable of challenging their own positions.

Chapter Summary

• Korklau dominates the battlefield: As Korklau’s gray-cloud Domain overwhelms the mountain peak, most combatants retreat toward other stone pillars rather than challenge him. His overwhelming power easily defeats ordinary Mid Third Circle Wizards, establishing him as one of the strongest competitors.
• Baker confronts Korklau: Despite warnings from Havid and the Progress Society, Baker charges into Korklau’s Domain using five powerful spell crystals. He destroys the crystals one by one to force his way forward, but Korklau’s spiritual pressure ultimately stops him several meters away.
• Baker’s revenge is revealed: Korklau recognizes Baker as someone who survived their previous battle. He captures Baker with a skeletal curse hand and mocks his attempt at revenge. Baker’s metal mask falls away, exposing the horribly corrupted, pockmarked half of his face—an injury Korklau inflicted on him in the past. Baker admits that he is not challenging Korklau for pride, but seeking revenge.
• Dago rescues Baker: Just as Korklau is about to kill him, a silver-white streak pierces the Domain. Dago Heka, clad in advanced metallic Yitai armor, appears and effortlessly extracts Baker from Korklau’s grasp. He moves through Korklau’s supposedly impenetrable Domain with extraordinary speed and precision, leaving Korklau enraged and humiliated.
• Dago takes Baker’s place: After returning Baker’s mask, Dago tells him that Korklau is too much for him and calmly declares, “Leave it to me.” He then advances toward Korklau, preparing for battle without making any dramatic claims.
• Claire reveals Dago’s achievement: Claire arrives beside Havid and the Progress Society, confirming that the mysterious rescuer is Dago Heka, the Thorn Ring wizard from Baker’s academy. When Havid asks why Claire now supports Dago after previously opposing his membership in the Society, Claire explains that Dago killed Skeleton Death Knell Maflin before even advancing to the Third Ring. The revelation leaves Havid and the others stunned.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Baker demonstrates courage, determination, and deep emotional trauma. His attack is driven by hatred and a desire for revenge rather than ambition. His helplessness before Korklau contrasts sharply with Dago’s intervention.
• Korklau is portrayed as supremely confident and cruel, treating Baker like an insignificant experiment. Dago’s intrusion into his Domain finally provokes genuine alarm and anger.
• Dago emerges as a highly capable, rational, and composed combatant. His rescue of Baker reveals both overwhelming ability and a quiet willingness to protect his companion.
• Havid and the Progress Society are torn between concern for Baker and fear of Korklau. Their shock at Dago’s achievement significantly raises their estimation of him.
• Claire shifts from skeptic to supporter of Dago, suggesting that Dago’s past actions—especially killing Maflin—proved his value and changed Claire’s judgment.

Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: Korklau’s Domain represents absolute strength, while Dago’s ability to penetrate it suggests that the established power ranking may be misleading.
• Revenge versus rationality: Baker acts from pain and vengeance, whereas Dago responds with calculated efficiency and emotional restraint.
• Trauma and humiliation: Baker’s disfigured face and mask symbolize the lasting consequences of Korklau’s cruelty and Baker’s unresolved past.
• Hidden strength and reputation: Dago’s seemingly understated presence conceals a remarkable achievement, emphasizing that true ability may not be immediately visible.
• Loyalty and protection: Dago’s intervention transforms the relationship between himself and Baker, showing that Baker’s earlier support of Dago has been repaid through action rather than words.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Korklau, an arrogant and overwhelmingly powerful necromancer, dismisses Dago as weak and demands that Dago reveal the technique he used to save another wizard.
• The battlefield around Fairy Ancient City is nearing its climax. Of the thirty-two stone pillars, twenty-six have been activated, while Korklau controls four remaining pillars and has made the area around them too dangerous for others to approach.
• Dago refuses Korklau’s offer of “charity” and declares that he would rather claim what he wants himself than sit beside Korklau.
• Dago launches an attack, using extreme speed and spatial movement to appear above Korklau’s Domain.
• Korklau counters by summoning two enormous skeletal arms filled with resentful spirits, intending to crush Dago effortlessly.
• Dago activates the evolved trait of the Gray Sun Meditation Method, Brilliant Great Sun, unleashing enormous mental power.
• He simultaneously summons numerous powerful ice spells, each containing Domain-level properties. These spells combine and resonate, astonishing the watching wizards because such multitasking appears to violate the limits of wizard ranks.
• The spells transform into a vast Absolute Domain called the Thorn-Iceflame Snow Kingdom, an ecosystem of freezing flames, ice spikes, frost waterfalls, and deadly snow.
• Although Korklau’s skeletal hands begin crushing the Domain, Dago reveals that this vast display was only preparation.
• Using the principle “All things can return to one,” Dago compresses the entire Snow Kingdom—its cold, energy, light, and Domain power—into a single immense deep-blue sphere.
• Dago announces that Korklau is the first person to witness his newly created arcane art: “Dago Heka’s—Winter Star in the Palm.” The chapter ends as he presses the condensed attack toward Korklau.

2. Character Developments

• Dago shifts from appearing like an underpowered target to revealing extraordinary control, mental strength, and innovation. His calmness shows that he is not merely trying to survive but testing and perfecting a new technique.
• Dago demonstrates a major breakthrough in spellcasting: he can summon and coordinate dozens of Domain-level ice spells without chanting or gestures.
• His new arcane art represents a fusion of immense elemental power, mental computation, spatial compression, and conceptual understanding.
• Korklau remains confident and arrogant, relying on his reputation and overwhelming brute force. He treats Dago as insignificant and assumes that the Snow Kingdom is only a fragile, decorative attack.
• Korklau’s confidence may be becoming a weakness, as he fails to recognize the purpose behind Dago’s elaborate Domain.

3. Significant Themes

• Arrogance versus innovation: Korklau depends on established superiority, while Dago overcomes the power gap through creativity and a newly developed technique.
• The limits of conventional magic: Dago’s ability to wield so many Domains simultaneously challenges the accepted laws governing wizard ranks and spellcasting.
• Unity and transformation: The principle that “all things can return to one” turns countless separate spells into one concentrated force, emphasizing synthesis over accumulation.
• Power concealed beneath appearances: The beautiful Snow Kingdom initially seems like Dago’s final attack, but it is actually the raw material for something far more destructive.
• Verification through battle: Dago is motivated not only by victory but by the need to test whether his newly created arcane art truly works against a powerful opponent.

4. Character Interactions

• Korklau verbally humiliates Dago, calling him a “bug” and offering him a place beside him only if Dago surrenders his technique.
• Dago rejects both Korklau’s offer and his worldview, calmly stating that he does not want to sit beside him.
• Their exchange establishes a contrast between Korklau’s condescension and Dago’s controlled confidence.
• Their confrontation escalates from verbal provocation to a direct clash between Korklau’s necromantic skeletal force and Dago’s ice-based Absolute Domain.
• The chapter ends with Dago taking control of the encounter by unveiling Winter Star in the Palm, placing Korklau in the position of witnessing—and potentially suffering—the result of Dago’s innovation.

Chapter Summary: Winter Star in the Palm

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago reflects on the weaknesses of the Winter Star spell system. Its Ice-Cold Domain provides immense coverage and deep foundations, but its power is spread too thinly, giving it poor instantaneous destructive force compared with top-tier inheritances.
• During three years of meditation and experimentation in the Ascetic Attic of the Thorn Ring, Dago searches for a way to make the system more explosive. Inspired partly by the principles behind Ghost-Screaming Fish, he develops the idea of compressing an entire Domain into a single point.
• This concept produces [Winter Star in the Palm], a spell that condenses scattered ice-element power into a small, star-like orb capable of overwhelming defenses through concentrated force.
• Dago first tested the technique against Skeleton Death Knell Maflin, where it worked mainly as a crowd-control spell when combined with [Shattered Silver Ice]. It lacked the destructive power he wanted and risked collapsing.
• After advancing to the Third-Ring Wizard realm, Dago’s enhanced mental and soul power finally allow him to control the spell in actual combat.
• Against Korklau, chief inheritor of the Venomous Mask, Dago unleashes the newly realized technique. The deep-blue orb freezes the surrounding void and destroys Korklau’s seemingly indestructible skeletal hands.
• The attack severely destabilizes Korklau’s Domain, shattering his ocean of undead energy and forcing him to confront the possibility of death.
• Korklau desperately overdrafts his magic power, activates ancient runes and bone arm rings, reconstructs his Domain, and combines numerous skulls into a gigantic rotating bone disk to resist the spell.
• The blue orb and green skull disk collide, producing catastrophic energy waves that force surrounding wizards to retreat. Observers are stunned that a Third-Ring Wizard can unleash such power, and many begin reconsidering Dago’s place among the elite.
• Dago maintains control despite the danger. He recognizes that the spell remains an unstable prototype and that he is effectively holding an explosive mass of improperly balanced energy. The clash continues, with Dago watching Korklau’s fear and desperation like a hunter observing trapped prey.

Character Developments

• Dago demonstrates exceptional ingenuity, discipline, and patience. He transforms the central weakness of his spell school—its lack of concentrated force—into the foundation of a new technique.
• His breakthrough shows that his growth is not merely due to increased rank, but also to deeper understanding of ice-element laws, precise experimentation, and willingness to endure repeated failures.
• Dago’s mental power and soul strength have improved dramatically after reaching the Third-Ring realm, allowing him to wield a spell that previously threatened to collapse.
• Although calm and analytical during the battle, Dago is aware of his limitations. He understands that [Winter Star in the Palm] is still crude and unstable, and he carefully records data for future refinement.
• Korklau, previously arrogant and mocking, is forced into panic when Dago’s spell destroys his defenses. His expression changes for the first time to genuine shock, alarm, and fear of death.
• Korklau reveals considerable resilience and hidden power by forcibly rebuilding his Domain and activating the ancient runes on his body, but his actions also expose his desperation.

Significant Themes

• Concentration versus accumulation: The chapter contrasts broad, gradual power with the explosive strength created by focusing everything into one decisive point.
• Innovation through failure: Dago’s new spell emerges from countless failed experiments, destroyed drafts, and dangerous tests.
• The cost of power: [Winter Star in the Palm] is immensely destructive but unstable, showing that breakthroughs often exceed the creator’s current ability to control them.
• Growth and adaptation: Dago’s advancement to the Third-Ring realm gives him the precision needed to realize an idea that was previously impossible.
• Fear overturning arrogance: Korklau’s confidence disappears when faced with a genuine threat, emphasizing how quickly power dynamics can change.
• The limits of current achievement: Even while shocking the Wizarding World, Dago recognizes that the spell is only a prototype and that true mastery requires greater control and refinement.

Character Interactions

• Dago versus Korklau: Their battle is the chapter’s central interaction. Dago attacks with concentrated ice laws, while Korklau relies on undead energy, skeletal constructs, and desperate defensive measures.
• Dago’s spell destroys Korklau’s giant skeletal hands and destabilizes his Domain, forcing Korklau to reveal previously concealed abilities.
• Korklau responds by rebuilding his shattered Domain and forming a massive skull disk, creating a direct clash between the deep-blue ice orb and ghostly green undead power.
• Dago and the watching wizards: Though they do not directly intervene, the observers react with astonishment and retreat from the destructive aftershocks. Their view of Dago shifts as they recognize him as a potential challenger to established geniuses.
• The final interaction is psychological: Dago calmly studies Korklau’s fearful expression, adopting the detached mindset of a hunter who believes his prey has already been caught.

Chapter Summary: “A Dog in a Sorry State”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago releases Winter Star in the Palm, allowing its compressed ice-element power to explode outward in a devastating wave of deep-blue Iceflame.
• The blast freezes and destroys the surrounding area, shatters Korklau’s bone disk, and severely damages his defensive forces.
• Korklau counters by summoning a gigantic four-armed, winged skeletal giant through his Crystal Skull. The creature shields him from the extreme cold but is itself heavily frozen and damaged.
• Dago teleports beside Korklau and attacks through his protective force fields. Korklau retaliates with a mysterious black spectral ray fired from a bone spike.
• Although the ray tracks Dago’s soul and turns back after missing him, Dago narrowly evades it through an impossible bodily distortion, suffering minor internal injuries in the process.
• Dago uses the Yitai to activate Spatial Stasis, locking Korklau’s body and soul in place before sealing him inside a mirror-like spatial plane. Korklau overloads a defensive wizard tool to escape, but is badly wounded.
• Pursuing him, Dago transforms the Yitai into blade-like weapons coated in Azure Thawing Flame. He cuts through Korklau’s Mental Force Field, robe, and defenses, then severs Korklau’s arm—the one holding the bone spike.
• Korklau burns his mental power to flee and reaches a stone pillar, clutching his severed limb. Dago remains victorious in the air, while Korklau’s mysterious defeated “head” or energy is absorbed into Dago.
• The watching wizards are left speechless. Korklau, once feared as an unstoppable predator of weaker geniuses, has been publicly defeated and driven away in disgrace.

Character Developments

• Dago demonstrates overwhelming control over multiple powers: compressed frost, teleportation, spatial stasis, spatial shattering, Yitai armor, and Spellbreaking Blades. He remains calm and analytical even when confronted with Korklau’s unknown soul-tracking attack.
• Dago’s physical abilities are shown to exceed normal human limits. His desperate evasive maneuver damages his muscles and spine, revealing both his extraordinary adaptability and the physical cost of his techniques.
• His attitude shifts from simply fighting Korklau to openly hunting him. Once armored, Dago pursues Korklau like a predator pursuing prey, emphasizing his growing dominance.
• Korklau suffers a complete collapse of confidence and pride. His bone disk, skeletal guardian, defenses, and arm are destroyed, forcing him to flee rather than continue fighting.
• Korklau’s reputation as an untouchable and terrifying genius is shattered in front of the wizarding community.

Significant Themes

• The destruction of fear and reputation: Korklau has long represented helplessness to other wizards, but Dago’s victory proves that even an oppressive figure can be brought down.
• Power versus arrogance: Korklau’s confidence and cruelty cannot compensate for Dago’s superior technique, adaptability, and control.
• Unknown power and psychological shock: Dago’s ability to evade the soul-seeking spectral ray leaves Korklau more frightened than the destruction of his strongest spell, because it defies his understanding.
• Predator and prey imagery: Dago is repeatedly portrayed as a hunter, while Korklau—formerly the hunter of other geniuses—is reduced to fleeing like a wounded animal.
• The cost of overwhelming strength: Both fighters damage themselves and their resources, but Dago maintains control while Korklau is forced into a desperate escape.

Character Interactions

• Dago and Korklau engage in a direct, escalating duel: Korklau relies on the Crystal Skull, bone disk, skeletal giant, defensive fields, and spectral ray, while Dago responds with frost, teleportation, Yitai manipulation, and spatial techniques.
• Korklau’s shock grows as Dago repeatedly bypasses or destroys his defenses. His exclamation after Dago evades the spectral ray reveals genuine fear of Dago’s incomprehensible abilities.
• Dago remains silent and composed, contrasting sharply with Korklau’s increasing panic and rage.
• Their final clash is brutally physical: Dago’s blades slice through Korklau’s defenses, and Korklau’s attempted counterattack ends with the loss of his arm.
• The surrounding wizards serve as witnesses to the reversal of power. Their stunned silence reflects how completely Dago has changed Korklau’s public image.

Chapter Summary: “Taking a Seat”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago shocks the arena by defeating Korklau in a single exchange during the battle for the Genius Seats. Korklau, previously regarded as nearly unbeatable, loses an arm and most of his Soul Ash to the mysterious newcomer.
• The spectators are stunned because Dago is only at the Early Third Circle, yet he displays powerful ice and metal-element techniques, along with signs of spatial magic.
• Dago takes Korklau’s gray-white bone spike, the weapon responsible for a soul-burning attack, and stores it in his Spatial Ring for later study.
• Although Korklau is badly injured, he retains enough Soul Ash to light a stone pillar and remain eligible for the competition. He rapidly attaches a replacement arm and prepares to continue fighting.
• Dago approaches Korklau, intending to finish the battle, but the shrinking boundary of the first round creates chaos. With only three seats remaining, contestants rush toward the final pillars, triggering several clashes.
• Korklau threatens to settle the matter in the ranking battle, but both fighters postpone their confrontation because securing a seat is more important.
• Dago claims a stone pillar without resistance. He also helps Havid obtain a position, allowing two members of the Progress Society—including Dago—to enter the top thirty-two.
• Once all thirty-two pillars are lit, Fairy Ancient City becomes fully visible, then sinks away, leaving the thirty-two seated geniuses ready for the upcoming Genius Ranking Battle.

Character Developments

• Dago: Establishes himself as a powerful dark horse. His victory greatly increases his Soul Force, enlarges his fourth Soul Crystal, and brings him close to forming a fifth. He also becomes more confident and openly challenges the established genius Korklau.
• Korklau: Suffers his first major public defeat and loses his previous aura of invincibility. However, he remains dangerous, revealing resilience by replacing his severed arm and promising revenge.
• Claire: Though outwardly composed, Claire is deeply shocked by Dago’s strength. He realizes Dago may have achieved this victory without even learning third-tier spells.
• Baker: Dago’s battle appears to damage Baker’s fighting spirit. When offered help securing a seat, Baker declines.
• Havid: Grateful for Dago’s assistance, Havid offers to nominate him as president of the Progress Society after the competition.
• Michael: Remains one of the highest-ranking and most respected geniuses. Her calm, lofty gaze toward Dago hints at a future rivalry.

Significant Themes

• The overturning of established reputations: Dago’s victory destroys Korklau’s “unbeatable” image and demonstrates that hidden talent can suddenly challenge recognized elites.
• Strength and preparation: Dago’s success comes from concealed abilities, long-term endurance, and careful use of his trump cards, while Korklau’s response shows that powerful opponents often possess undisclosed reserves.
• Competition versus strategic priorities: Although Dago wants to defeat Korklau completely, he recognizes that securing a place in the ranking battle is more important than pursuing personal revenge.
• Power, recognition, and social standing: Dago’s victory causes the surrounding wizards to reassess him, transforming him from an unknown figure into a major contender.
• Alliance and advancement: Dago’s assistance to Havid and the Progress Society shows that individual strength can also improve one’s group’s position and influence.

Character Interactions

• Dago and Korklau engage in a tense exchange of threats and silent challenges, with Korklau promising a more brutal rematch in the ranking battle.
• Dago’s victory influences Claire’s assessment of him and leaves the surrounding factions speechless.
• Dago offers Baker a chance to secure a seat, but Baker refuses, revealing his shaken confidence.
• Havid thanks Dago for helping him obtain a seat and offers him future political support within the Progress Society.
• Dago and Michael exchange a significant, wordless stare. Dago interprets her composed gaze as a challenge and begins considering the possibility of confronting her in the future.

Chapter Summary: “Winners Rise, Losers Exit”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Dago surveys the thirty-two young wizard prodigies gathered at Cloud Summit, recognizing six obvious powerhouses:
  • Michael and Korklau
  • Psychic Dawn Gale, a steel knight accompanied by a winged unicorn-like beast
  • Vicky of the Chaos Secret Society
  • Ewakuai, heir to the Elder Spirit Wizard legacy
  • The strange gray-skinned youth connected to Boulder Peak
• Dago also notices an inconspicuous Mid Third Circle wizard with eerie red eyes. The man reveals himself as Ang Leo, someone Dago recognizes and apparently considers an enemy. Dago suppresses his urge to kill him.
• The ancient Rune Magic Array beneath the Fairy Ancient City activates, causing a massive white pillar of light and a stone battle platform to rise between the thirty-two pillars.
• The ranking battles for Isidore’s inheritance begin. The competitors are fighting not only for fame but also for the chance to become Chief Prodigy and inherit part of the legendary wizard Isidore’s true legacy.
• Two contestants are selected for the opening match:
  • Lan Boshi of the Mystic Energy Guild
  • A wizard from the

Shadowmoon Church

• Havid, president of the Progress Society and Dago’s neighboring contestant, mentally contacts Dago and provides information about the fighters.
• Lan Boshi possesses seven Soul Crystals compared with his opponent’s six, but his greatest advantage is his enormous supply of high-level spell artifacts.
• Rather than relying primarily on spellcasting, Lan Boshi overwhelms his opponent by throwing one Tier-Three Spell Artifact after another at him. The Shadowmoon wizard is eventually exhausted and defeated.
• Lan Boshi’s victory causes his stone pillar to rise and shine more brightly, while the defeated wizard’s pillar goes dark, symbolizing his elimination.
• Subsequent battles continue in the same brutal fashion: victorious contestants rise in status, while defeated contestants lose their positions and become spectators.

Character Developments

• Dago remains composed and observant, studying the strengths, equipment, and backgrounds of his potential rivals. His recognition of Ang Leo reveals unresolved hostility and a dangerous past connection.
• Ang Leo appears deceptively ordinary but displays a sinister personality through his unsettling smile and cryptic acknowledgment of Dago.
• Havid attempts to strengthen his relationship with Dago by offering useful intelligence and subtly seeking an alliance.
• Lan Boshi establishes himself as a formidable competitor whose power comes from both personal ability and overwhelming factional resources.
• The defeated Shadowmoon wizard demonstrates that refined spellwork is insufficient when faced with a major disparity in equipment and reserves.
• The wider group of prodigies becomes increasingly tense as they realize that victory depends on overall foundations—resources, artifacts, bloodlines, preparation, and factional support—not merely spellcasting talent.

Significant Themes

• Power as a combination of talent and resources: Lan Boshi’s victory shows that wealth, equipment, and factional backing can be as decisive as individual skill.
• Brutal social hierarchy: The rising and darkening pillars physically represent advancement and elimination, emphasizing the unforgiving nature of the competition.
• Recognition and legacy: The ranking is portrayed as a gateway to Isidore’s truth and a possible transformation of one’s destiny, making the contest far more important than ordinary prestige.
• Hidden threats: Ang Leo’s unremarkable appearance contrasts with his disturbing presence, suggesting that the most dangerous competitors may not be the most visibly powerful.
• Preparation and information: Havid’s analysis highlights the importance of understanding opponents before battle.
• Competition and ambition: The prodigies’ fighting spirit intensifies as they pursue the coveted Chief Prodigy position.

Character Interactions

• Dago silently confronts Ang Leo through exchanged gazes, with Ang Leo taunting him from across the arena and Dago suppressing his murderous intent.
• Havid contacts Dago through spiritual consciousness, offering background information on the first two combatants as a gesture of goodwill and possible alliance-building.
• The gathered wizards communicate privately with allies and companions, exchanging intelligence and preparing for their own matches.
• Lan Boshi and the Shadowmoon wizard engage in a violent, direct duel, with Lan Boshi’s artifact bombardment overwhelming the latter’s spells.
• The spectators react with awe, jealousy, discussion, and excitement, while the competitors watch the unfolding battles and assess the strength of their future opponents.