Chapter Summaries

The Engineering Association president learned that the Second-Generation Magic Net Ring let people without magic power access the Magic Net and discovered its new Bounty Board and organization-management functions. He saw an opportunity for the association to expand its task business, while Magic Space users argued over ordinary people joining the network.

• A student rushed to the Engineering Association president to report that Hedy the Coffin Bearer was selling Second-Generation Magic Net Rings that worked without magic power.
• The president took his student's ring, activated it, and learned that its miraculous stone enabled him to use the Magic Net despite having no magic power.
• The president found the Bounty Board, recognized that it could threaten the association's local task business, and realized it could also help the association take on tasks across the kingdom.
• The president opened Magic Space and saw users debating whether ordinary people should be allowed on the Magic Net, with some threatening to quit.
• The president scoffed at the threats and challenged the claim that anyone could truly leave the Magic Net.

As ordinary people joined the Magic Net, organizations and nobles created forums, while the Engineering Association president published its library’s materials online. Roger explained how users from different walks of life could answer one another’s questions, then announced that the Second-Generation Magic Net’s new administrative functions would reach other regions after testing.

• The president of the Engineering Association created forums for engineering discussions, and other guilds, knightly orders, and nobles created forums of their own.
• The president published much of the Engineering Association’s library on Magic Encyclopedia and Reading, angering its higher-ups while arguing the materials would attract customers.
• Book reported that new forums and online knowledge had multiplied, and Roger said users from different social classes could solve problems by sharing their different perspectives.
• Book told Roger that mages outside the Dawn Capital resented the Second-Generation Magic Net’s additional functions.
• Roger announced that the new functions were still being tested and would be rolled out across all Magic Nets once they were stable.

Viscount Rost used the Second-Generation Magic Net’s Database to reorganize territorial and factory management. Roger realized the records might help unlock other authorities and could even make future prediction possible.

• Viscount Rost ordered his subordinates to record every resident’s details and number everyone in the territory.
• Viscount Rost sent another subordinate to survey cultivated land, advising him to obtain measuring tools and take guards in case landowners resisted.
• Viscount Rost asked the Wild Mage about applying the Database to factory management, and the Wild Mage proposed tracking workers, supplies, sales, and finances.
• Roger watched Rost and the Wild Mage quickly devise new uses for the Database and marveled at how much they understood from a few examples.
• Betty asked whether the territorial records would strengthen Roger’s Data Authority, and Roger said they might instead help unlock other authorities and allow him to predict the future.

Roger explained how collecting and analyzing data could eventually grant him the authority to predict the future, then described his plan to build a Void Technology Laboratory for safer, faster experimentation. He left the Magic Goddess and Betty puzzled by his ideas while considering how the laboratory could advance magitech industry in Rost Territory.

• Roger explained to Betty and the Magic Goddess that analyzing data could let him predict future developments and eventually grant him an authority.
• Betty asked whether Viscount Rost’s reforms would disrupt production of Truth and Grand Truth, the two mana cannons Roger had given him to produce.
• Roger argued that the reforms would improve efficiency and wished Rost would teach workers and residents to read, but said he would wait until he had built the Technology Laboratory.
• Roger described a Void laboratory where followers could experiment without risking scarce materials, then reproduce recorded results in the mortal world.
• Roger concluded that the laboratory could help advance magitech industry, though limited computing power and the Magic Energy Network meant he would initially have to sustain it with divine power.

The Technology God summoned Viscount Rost, the Wild Mage, and other key figures to a new space called the Technology Laboratory. After they marveled at its blueprints and gathered courtyard, the god welcomed them and described it as an experimental ground for everyone who had helped advance Magitech Devices and industry.

• Viscount Rost, the Wild Mage, and the Mage's Apprentice were overcome by sleep, and Magnemite told the apprentice that the Technology God was summoning him.
• Viscount Rost, Lucina, Labuliekang, and other important figures awoke together in the Technology God's Divine Kingdom.
• Viscount Rost recognized familiar faces, while Lucina asked whether they were in the Divine Kingdom and the group took in their surroundings.
• The group saw countless Magitech blueprints in the sky and a courtyard lined with numbered rooms, then a long table of food appeared.
• The Technology God welcomed them to the Technology Laboratory and called them contributors to the spread of Magitech Devices and Magitech Industry.

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.