Recaps

The Lord of the Fallen introduced the Technology Laboratory, where users could experiment with Magitech Devices using materials that could be reproduced in reality. The group learned that the Fallen had joined the Technology God’s followers, and Viscount Rost began to suspect that the Lord of the Fallen was a god himself.

• The Lord of the Fallen explained that the Technology Laboratory could generate and modify materials, allowing successful experiments to be reproduced in reality.
• The Lord of the Fallen told everyone how to enter the laboratory and warned them not to use it while lying flat in bed.
• The Lord of the Fallen said the courtyard would provide plentiful food and drink to support users during their work.
• The Lord of the Fallen revealed that the Fallen had become believers of the honored god and would join the laboratory’s research efforts.
• Viscount Rost urged the group to give the Fallen a chance to reform, then wondered aloud whether the Lord of the Fallen was also a god.

The Lord of the Fallen revealed that he served under the Technology God and urged the gathered researchers to cooperate in advancing the era. As the participants introduced themselves, the Graycastle Engineering Association described the empire’s unusual plan to collect and disperse magic across a region.

• The Lord of the Fallen identified himself as a subordinate god under the Technology God and told the gathered people to share materials and help one another.
• Viscount Rost introduced himself, described the magitech research and factories in the Rost Territory, and presented the wild mage and the apprentice.
• A lady from the Graycastle Empire’s Craft Guild recognized the apprentice as the person who had taught her to use the Magic Net.
• The head of the Graycastle Engineering Association explained that the empire had adapted the wild mage’s ideas into a system that collected magic and atomized it across a wide area.
• The wild mage realized that the Graycastle system would create a Magic Anomaly Zone where magitech devices could not be used.

Roger saw a chance to use Self-Charging Magic Arrays to provide wireless Magic Internet access and ordered prototypes for a major upgrade. In the Technology Laboratory, Labuliekang then urged Rost to build schools to train knowledgeable workers, hinting that his expanding Druid Potion Workshop needed to hire them.

• The female president of the Gray Fortress Engineering Association suggested that traditional mages might have wanted the Self-Charging Magic Array to create an area rich in magic power rather than to power magitech devices.
• The apprentice proposed using the array to provide magic power across an area so devices could work without fixed lines, and Roger realized this could enable wireless Magic Internet access.
• Betty explained that a special magitech device could let Magic Net Rings transmit images, sound, and video within a coverage area, and Roger ordered samples and a rapid Magic Net upgrade.
• The participants discussed trade, magitech procurement, and weapons before Labuliekang told Rost that his growing Druid Potion Workshop lacked enough knowledgeable workers.
• Labuliekang argued that Rost Territory needed more schools to train workers, making clear that he hoped to recruit graduates for his workshop.

Roger introduced a detailed plan for literacy and general education to leaders in the Technology Laboratory, arguing that Magitech Industry would create the demand and incentive to educate the population. He left Betty to think through why the plan should not be published broadly on Reading.

• Geometric shapes shifted in the sky, and a book titled <Literacy Campaign, General Education, and Magitech Industrialization> appeared before Viscount Rost, Labuliekang, and the others.
• Viscount Rost opened the book and read plans for schools, workplace study groups, night classes, and peer-led literacy education.
• Viscount Rost praised the proposals and considered using his early lead to persuade other lords to support education, while Labuliekang urged him to provide meals for students.
• Betty questioned whether the costly plans would persuade nobles, and Roger explained that Magitech Devices would make literate skilled laborers profitable and necessary.
• Betty asked why Roger would not publish the book on Reading, and Roger told her to think through why doing so would hinder development.

Viscount Rost launched an ambitious modernization program for Rost Territory, including a population census, land surveys, factory expansion, and free education. As Rost Night School opened, workers eagerly gathered to learn literacy in exchange for a month’s wages, while children’s schooling was set to begin soon.

• Viscount Rost planned eight reforms for Rost Territory, including literacy education, a free school, expanded industry, and new administrators.
• Rost began implementing the reforms the next day, and within a week most projects were underway.
• Magic crystal lamps illuminated Rost Territory’s connected urban, industrial, and mining districts as factories adopted round-the-clock shifts.
• Workers headed to the opening of Rost Night School, where they learned they could earn an extra month’s wages by passing a literacy exam.
• Workers shared news that children over six would attend free school, and Rost’s supporters encouraged families to take part in the education programs.

Viscount Rost argued that factory workers and commoners needed basic education, and he began persuading the Grand Scholar that teaching them could benefit industrialization. At an urgent royal meeting, Bellion revealed that War God Church missionaries had formed armed groups in the Southlands, prompting the kingdom’s leaders to investigate the threat.

• Viscount Rost explained to the Grand Scholar that increasingly complex magitech machinery required workers who could read and do arithmetic.
• The Grand Scholar warmed to the idea of educating commoners and slaves and agreed to visit Rost’s night school and factories.
• A servant summoned Viscount Rost to the royal palace, where Bellion and the kingdom’s other leaders had gathered.
• Bellion reported that War God Church missionaries were forcing conversions, taking two-thirds of converts’ possessions, and recruiting serfs and farmers into Missionary Knights and Holy Crusaders.
• The Grand General demanded to know when the campaign had begun and why the Grand Duke of the Southlands had not reported it.

The Dawn Kingdom’s leaders debated how to respond to the War God Church’s thirty-six Holy Crusader forces, while the Graycastle Emperor chose to let the church weaken the kingdom before attacking. The War God Church then escalated its plans before the Dawn Kingdom’s army could reach the Southlands.

• Bellion reported that the War God Church had raised more than two hundred thousand Holy Crusaders, who were plundering nobles across the Southlands.
• The Dawn Kingdom Grand General proposed recalling Countess Lucina Herick, but Viscount Rost accused him of seeking control of the new territory.
• Bellion ruled that Countess Lucina Herick would remain in place and called for another commander to aid the Southlands.
• Viscount Rost urged the Grand General to lead the campaign against the Holy Crusaders and use their plundered wealth to motivate the army.
• The Graycastle Emperor rejected an immediate invasion and planned to attack after the War God Church had weakened the Dawn Kingdom.
• Before the Dawn Kingdom’s army reached the Southlands, the War God Church increased its forces and played its trump card.

The Duke of Highcourt learned that the War God Church had overrun the Southlands’ loyal families and turned to the royal capital for arms. Bellion and Viscount Rost arranged a major shipment of Mana Cannons, while the Church’s archbishop revealed plans to prolong the conflict and ignite a wider war.

• The Duke of Highcourt discovered that several allied families had been attacked or overrun and decided to buy arms from Rost Territory.
• Bellion asked Viscount Rost to supply Mana Cannons for the Southlands and the border, and Rost outlined production plans and redirected equipment originally meant for the Westlands.
• Viscount Rost judged that the Graycastle Empire would wait for its rivals to weaken and saw the crisis as a chance to spread military Magitech Devices.
• The War God Church’s archbishop explained that the Crusaders only needed to contain Highcourt City while the Church plundered the Southlands and expanded its influence.
• The archbishop said the Church intended to drive the Dawn Kingdom and Graycastle Empire into war, and that the Crusaders’ defeat or surrender would not matter once the treasures were moved.

The kingdom’s seven leaders agreed to send an eighty-thousand-strong army to suppress the War God Church’s uprising in the Southlands. Viscount Rost prepared his territory to meet the coming conflict by expanding arms production and stockpiling weapons, while Roger proposed distributing Second-Generation Magic Net Rings more widely.

• The seven leaders agreed to send eighty thousand soldiers into the Southlands, divide them among three independent forces, and close War God Church churches across the kingdom.
• Viscount Rost convened his territory’s senior officials and explained that Rost Territory would produce most of the army’s Magitech Devices while limiting how much of its capacity it revealed.
• Viscount Rost announced that he would build weapons reserves and develop new arms to protect his territory as war drew closer.
• The Magic Goddess observed the outbreak of war, and Roger said it could advance magitech industrialization and proposed widely distributing Second-Generation Magic Net Rings.

Roger and the Magic Goddess planned the Magic Net’s wider rollout and began developing mass-produced mechs to challenge the War God’s authority. As the Kingdom Army marched south, Holy Crusaders began plundering settlements, leaving Geyera questioning the Church of War’s orders and the gods’ love for the people.

• Roger explained plans to sell Magic Net Rings across the Dawn Kingdom and Elven Kingdom, while delaying mass adoption elsewhere until literacy and magitech industry expanded.
• Roger asked the Magic Goddess to help develop widely usable mechs through the Technology God Church, and she agreed to begin after the new functions were explained to the book.
• The Kingdom Army departed for the Southlands with Magitech Swords and Mana Bombs.
• Missionaries in the Southlands learned of the army’s departure through the Magic Net, and Holy Crusaders began attacking and looting human settlements.
• Geyera, bishop of the southern diocese of the Dawn Kingdom’s Church of War, witnessed the destruction in Blackstone City and began doubting the War God’s orders.

Geyera witnessed the War God Church's Holy Crusaders abusing Blackstone City's residents and enforcing conversion under orders from Archbishop Piel. Horrified by the church's corruption, he turned against his own clergy and attacked them.

• Geyera saw Holy Crusaders drag a shopkeeper from his home while his wife begged them to spare him.
• A low-ranking War God priest silenced the woman and explained that the church planned to seize property and force the Southlands to convert.
• The priest revealed that Archbishop Piel had arranged to plant heretical books to justify persecuting the family.
• Geyera struck the priest and sent the Holy Crusaders flying, condemning their invasion as a betrayal of the War God's doctrine of protection.

Geyera left Blackstone City questioning his faith as the War God Church drove the Southlands toward war. The Graycastle Emperor confronted the War Pope about the coming conflict, then summoned military leaders who were not War God converts to plan for the threat.

• Geyera recognized a family he had once known in Blackstone City and questioned whether the War God Church still upheld protection.
• Doubts spread among believers across the Southlands, while the War God continued urging them toward war.
• The Graycastle Emperor met the War Pope and warned him to guide Graycastle’s believers responsibly during the upcoming Celebration Day.
• The War Pope said the celebration would be the grandest in history and urged the Emperor to convert to the War God Church.
• The Emperor and the War Pope discussed the danger of war reaching Graycastle, revealing their irreconcilable positions.
• After the War Pope departed, the Emperor summoned selected military officers, none of whom were War God converts, to the palace.

Shadow reported that the War God Church had gathered powerful clergy in the War God Temple and was conducting a ritual with an atmosphere like the Dark Church’s. The War God Pope pressed ahead with a mysterious celebration by transforming into a Half-Divine Spirit, while armed Mana-Powered Tractors rolled out from Rost Territory toward the Southlands battlefield.

• Shadow told the Graycastle Emperor that more than ten archbishops, over a hundred bishops, and the temple’s missing penitential monks were connected to a mysterious ritual.
• Shadow said the War God Temple’s atmosphere resembled the Church of the Wine God’s headquarters, alarming the assembled Graycastle officials.
• The War God Pope dismissed Shadow’s visit and told the clergy that the Graycastle Emperor’s intentions had strengthened his resolve to proceed with the celebration.
• The War God Pope used the War God’s power to age and vanish into a soul-like form as he entered the gap between the mortal world and the Divine Kingdom.
• Armed Mana-Powered Tractors carrying six-barreled Mana Railguns and Mana Artillery Shells departed Rost Territory for the Southlands battlefield.

Caius inspected Rost’s Magitech weapons and charging technology for the front lines, while Viscount Rost offered customized equipment and invited him to join the Technology God Church. In the Goddess of Magic’s Divine Kingdom, Roger and the book prepared to release explosive news about the War God Church, but the Magic Goddess pointed out that the app needed authority to be trusted.

• Caius praised Rost’s Magitech Devices, and Viscount Rost described their potential and the hundred thousand Charging Runes prepared for the front lines.
• Viscount Rost explained the territory’s improved charging arrays and offered customized weapons, along with free standard equipment if Caius joined the Technology God Church.
• Caius said he might join the church and bring his subordinates after the war if the Magitech Devices satisfied him.
• The book told Roger it had finished a news app and had found heated revelations about the War God Church on the Magic Net.
• Roger and the book discussed how to publish the revelations, and the Magic Goddess said the news app needed authority for people to trust it.

Roger launched the Magic Net’s News feature alongside several other updates, aiming to spread the new generation of the network and influence public opinion during the war. Users quickly focused on a sensational report alleging violence and a cover-up inside a War God Church.

• Roger explained that News could host information on many subjects and said he would use special accounts to promote matters such as the War God Church’s unusual activity.
• Roger checked the new feature, corrected minor issues, and ordered the Magic Net update to go live with the Bounty Board, Database, News, and Second-Generation Magic Net rollout.
• Magic Net users reacted to the new features, discussing the Bounty Board, the Database, and expanded access for ordinary people.
• Users opened News after hearing it contained a report about the War God Church and found a headline describing a priest’s gruesome death and a cleric attacking a bishop.
• A Graycastle Empire night watchman’s report claimed he found the priest’s remains, saw the bishop order the matter suppressed, and encountered clergy who had lost their sanity.

Archbishop Beta found the bishop of a War God Church dead in a gruesome state and tried to blame the Dark Church, but Magic Net reports had already exposed similar deaths elsewhere. The War God Church’s leaders feared the revelations would undermine their faith and expose the ritual planned for Celebration Day.

• Archbishop Beta entered a War God Church and found its bishop reduced to a mass of flesh beneath the shrine.
• Beta told the clergy to claim that Dark Church heretics had attacked, though he knew the bishop was truly dead and could not return from the Divine Kingdom.
• A bishop showed Beta Magic Net News posts reporting similar incidents at churches in other regions, along with comments questioning the War God Church.
• Beta realized that other faiths and the Transcendents and nobles would soon learn the truth, while the War God Temple panicked that its Celebration Day ritual had been exposed.

The Graycastle Emperor investigated the deaths of eight War Priests and suspected the War God Church was carrying out a larger plan. In the Dawn Kingdom, Geyera realized the danger and suffered a sudden attack, while Viscount Rost saw the Magic Net’s new Database function as an opportunity to upgrade his Internet Public Opinion Brigade.

• The Graycastle Emperor ordered Shadow to monitor the War God Church and report all unusual intelligence after learning that eight War Priests had died.
• Shadow began entering past intelligence into the Database for centralized management.
• The Graycastle Emperor suspected the deaths formed an eight-point pattern tied to a plot by the Church of War, and Prince Wilson wondered whether it involved blood sacrifices.
• Geyera recognized the pattern’s significance and prepared to warn people, but a wave of agony struck him and sent him falling into the fire.
• Viscount Rost studied the new Database function and realized it could give his Internet Public Opinion Brigade a new opportunity.

Viscount Rost created a detailed plan for using the Magic Internet’s News function to shape public opinion and assigned the work to Con Artist Megan’s brigade. Megan agreed to expand the operation, with members traveling throughout the Dawn Kingdom to report local events.

• Viscount Rost wrote a guide explaining how the Public Opinion Brigade could build authority and influence nobles and the wider public.
• Con Artist Megan read the guide and recalled how Rost had rescued her and her companions from poverty by hiring them.
• Megan asked whether the brigade should use the News function to share reports and knowledge until readers trusted its posts.
• Viscount Rost said he would add more collaborators and send brigade members across the kingdom with travel permits to gather local reports.
• Megan offered to accept the danger, and Rost promised a substantial allowance for those who traveled.

Viscount Rost appointed Con Artist Megan president of the World Economic News Agency and tasked her with building a network of reporters across the Dawn Kingdom, eventually expanding across the continent. A day later, Megan’s former underworld associates gathered in a town building, transformed into respectable-looking citizens.

• Con Artist Megan considered the possible effects of Rost’s news-gathering network, while Viscount Rost explained that reporters should initially collect only public, fresh news.
• Viscount Rost appointed Con Artist Megan president of the World Economic News Agency and gave her funding and authority to recruit people and expand the organization.
• Con Artist Megan embraced the role, vowing to leave her old reputation behind and become News King Megan.
• Viscount Rost judged Megan the best choice to lead the agency because of her underworld connections, experience, and influence over the Public Opinion Squad.
• The following day, Megan’s former underworld associates gathered at a town building, dressed and groomed like successful free citizens.

Con Artist Megan told the former royal-capital thugs that Viscount Rost had secured them free-citizen identities and jobs as reporters for the World Economic News Agency, which would gather and verify news for the Magic Net. The new agency would fund their work as an independent company, and its recruits eagerly accepted the chance to earn money and rise in status.

• Con Artist Megan announced that the group would receive legal identities as free citizens and become reporters for the World Economic News Agency, where she would serve as president.
• Megan explained that reporters would gather and verify news in other territories, send it to scholar editors through the Magic Net, and receive operating funds and end-of-year pay and bonuses.
• Tom the Dwarf welcomed the job because it let him use his experience trading information while the agency covered his travel, meals, and lodging.
• Megan clarified that the World Economic News Agency, rather than Viscount Rost, would pay the reporters' expenses as an independent company publishing information on the Magic Net.
• The recruits recognized the agency's arrangement as a buffer between Viscount Rost and work that could draw criticism, and they accepted it without objection.

Con Artist Megan organized the World Economic News Agency’s reporters, assigning them regions and sending them out as the Golden Merchants' Guild expanded across the kingdom. Viscount Rost decided to delay the agency’s major reports until news from distant regions arrived, so it could establish itself as an impartial and credible source.

• Con Artist Megan distributed official certificates and Second-Generation Magic Net Rings, explained reporters’ salaries and subsidies, and let them choose their regions.
• Con Artist Megan told the reporters to find and recruit suitable newcomers as they traveled.
• Tom the Dwarf and several dozen others left Rost Territory, while a new group of scholars joined the World Economic News Agency.
• The Golden Merchants' Guild continued spreading through the kingdom, drawing merchants with clear contracts, cheap goods, and support from participating lords.
• Con Artist Megan asked whether to publish reports about Rost Territory, Magitech Devices, and Druid Potions, but Viscount Rost told her to wait for news from farther places and delay some coverage of the Elf Kingdom.

Roger and the Magic Goddess examined a map tracking the spread of the Magic Energy Network and magitech across the mortal world. They discovered Dragon Island had a small network of its own, and Betty suggested Dragonkind might need a custom-made Magic Net version.

• Roger showed the Magic Goddess a map that tracked Magic Energy Network coverage and magitech industrialization across the mortal world.
• Roger highlighted Rost Territory’s extensive magitech infrastructure and Count Grano’s weaker network spread throughout its agricultural lands.
• Roger celebrated the network’s growth across thousands of cities and territories and considered connecting the regions into one network.
• The Magic Goddess noticed a faint Magic Energy Network on Dragon Island, though it appeared on neither the Magic Net IP Map nor the faith map.
• Betty suggested the Magic Net might be too small for Dragonkind, prompting Roger to propose making custom versions for Dragonkind and giants.

Roger and the Magic Goddess settled on offering adaptable Magic Net devices for races that could not use standard Magic Net Rings, while Roger outlined his plans for expanding network coverage. The chapter ended with Roger asking Betty why she had come over.

• Roger proposed giving users customizable Magic Net Stones and letting races adapt them to their needs.
• The Magic Goddess agreed that users could modify the devices themselves, and Betty realized she had been trapped by overly narrow thinking.
• Betty noticed the Magic Energy Network’s growing coverage and asked whether they could prepare for a full upgrade with images and videos.
• Roger said Wireless Transmission should come first and described plans to bring network access to major cities, lordly territories, towns, villages, and roads.
• Roger asked Betty why she had come over.

Roger and the Magic Goddess saw the Magic Net’s news feature spreading advertising and drawing users into the mortal world. A post revealing the War God Church’s crisis over Archbishop Geyera forced its Missionary Knights to consider seeking reinforcements, while Geyera met an old friend.

• Betty told Roger that the news feature was running smoothly and that she had put Book in solitary confinement for being annoying.
• Roger and the Magic Goddess read news about a writers’ conference and repeated promotions for the Golden Merchants’ Guild, and Roger explained that advertising showed the Magic Net was becoming profitable and indispensable.
• Missionary Knights in the Dawn Kingdom’s Southlands questioned a witness who said Archbishop Geyera had attacked Holy Crusaders, then concealed the accusation and planned to judge him as a deceiver.
• A knight told the Missionary Knights that the Magic Net had exposed Geyera’s betrayal, leaving nobles and extraordinary individuals watching their response and prompting them to consider requesting reinforcements.
• Lava General Geyera encountered an old friend.

The Lava General explained to the Black Knight, Caius, that the War God had rejected him after he defied the Church, and that he continued to fight its forces to protect his homeland. When War Brutes surrounded the weapons convoy, Caius prepared unfamiliar Magitech Devices to meet their attack.

• The Lava General showed Caius his wounds and demonstrated that the War God no longer answered his divine arts.
• The Lava General explained that he had opposed the Church’s plundering and attacks, and vowed to keep sabotaging its operations despite losing his divine power.
• Caius considered whether to recruit the Lava General but decided against consulting the royal capital.
• War Brutes attacked the convoy, and the Lava General warned Caius that their numbers could overwhelm the convoy’s weapons.
• Caius refused the Lava General’s offer to hold off the attackers and ordered strange Magitech Devices set up in front of the soldiers.