Recaps

Evan reported potion side effects to Byron, then discovered the chained potion’s hidden trap and earned money and an Invited Expert armband from the Bolton City Police Department. Vic recruited him to investigate a spreading virus, offering resources and funding that could entangle Evan and his fellow Demon Hunters in the police department’s work.

• Evan reported the Anti-Moon and Eclipse Potion side effects to Byron, who privately revealed his plan to lure bloodthirsty bugs with an aberrant potion.
• Evan’s progress panel showed that reversing the Iron Blood Potion’s side effects improved his memory while permanently reducing his Willpower, and that reversing the potion chain increased Black Sun’s Wings and alertness to the Black Sun.
• Evan realized Byron’s potion chain concealed a conditional trap that could leave him dizzy and unable to move when he saw a particular Black Sun.
• Vic rewarded Evan with $1,011, an Invited Expert armband, and a folded-paper bird for contacting him, granting Evan independent authority on police tasks.
• Evan told Vic he could absorb and introduce certain viruses and admitted he had infected Alcott; Vic invited him to investigate the spreading virus and offered support and funding for Evan’s Demon Hunter faction.

Evan accepted Vic's offer to work as an Invited Expert, studied the secret Virus case files, and received a Crucible made from his own Copper Patina. After warning Richard away from the dangerous investigation, Evan prepared to brew his first Magic Potions without buying the costly Buffers.

• Evan read Gray's top-secret case files and memorized the key details of the Virus investigation.
• David gave Evan a personalized Crucible and tested an unfinished Iron Head Potion on him, which hardened Evan's head but made it difficult to blink.
• Evan told Richard that the Virus investigation involved a struggle between factions and asked him to stop pursuing it; Richard agreed and went to help Hill instead.
• David gave Evan ingredients for Purification and Energy Potions, and Richard worried that the gift lacked Buffers, but Erlong and David assumed Evan knew to buy them himself.
• Evan returned home, noticed the missing Buffers, and decided not to spend five dollars per batch on them before attempting to brew the potions.

Evan used his flesh-made crucible to brew an Energy Potion and a Purification Potion, relying on the crucible’s instinctive feedback to adjust the heat and stirring. After drinking the Energy Potion and reversing its negative effects, he successfully finished both brews and declared himself a Magic Potion expert.

• Evan started a fire in his cast-iron stove and prepared the ingredients for an Energy Potion.
• Evan brewed the Energy Potion, following the crucible’s pulses to lower the heat, stir faster, and remove the pot from the stove.
• Evan drank the unbuffered Energy Potion, reversed its negative effects with the Power of the Nine Dragons, and gained increased Spirituality and Mental.
• Evan considered how the potion’s effects could help protect him from mental attacks and how different methods of taking it would affect reversal time.
• Evan brewed a Purification Potion with less water, followed three more prompts from the crucible, and produced a pale-blue liquid that cleansed minor Curses and negative buffs.
• Evan celebrated his success with both potions and called himself a Magic Potion expert.

Evan gained one point of Spirit Vision after a dangerous potion-induced vision left him with a six-fingered handprint and a week-long Spirituality debuff. He discovered that contaminated mixed potions had no effect, then went to sleep as the Owl watched over him.

• Evan drank a Magic Potion and endured a vision in which a mysterious six-fingered hand seized his soul, earning him one point of Spirit Vision before he reversed the experience.
• Evan found a dark blue handprint on his neck and a debuff that reduced his Spirituality limit by twenty percent for 168 hours.
• Evan reasoned that the hand belonged to something stronger than a Blackwater Ghost and concluded that fast-acting potions could expose him to dangerous visions and grant Spirit Vision.
• Evan used the Crucible to concentrate potion residue washed from his pillow, but the contaminated mixture had no effect and reversal cost him 24 hours.
• Evan blamed Jack Alcott, decided to keep Magic Potions separate, and went to sleep while the Owl watched from the eaves.

Evan learned that his Fast-Acting Potions improved his resistances and other traits more strongly, then accepted a job to locate the Poison Blade Gang’s source of disease. After connecting the gang to the Niyo Clinic and Mrs. Kemi, he chose to postpone investigating them and went with Hill to the Tavern to obtain more potion ingredients.

• Evan discovered that the Fast-Acting Energy and Purification Potions produced stronger reversed side effects, and he suspected Professor Byron had modified the Purification Potion to create the Anti-Moon Potion.
• Evan reviewed his improving Panel statistics and decided to prioritize making Fast-Acting Potions to strengthen his Silver and Electrical Resistance.
• McRae hired Evan to find where the Poison Blade Gang was getting its diseases, offering him ten dollars for the location.
• Evan recalled Gray’s records linking the strange infections and Brass-Skinned Humans to an abandoned Mine Shaft, the Healing Church, and Niyo Clinic’s Mrs. Kemi.
• Evan decided to watch Mrs. Kemi rather than investigate her immediately, and focused on obtaining more potion ingredients to address his weaknesses.
• Evan rode to Maverick Square with Hill, who said she needed to introduce him to the Tavern, and told her he was only halfway through preparing his potions.

Hill brought Evan to the Lucky tavern, where he met its residents and learned that its proprietor, Mr. Franchi, was an eight-hundred-year-old Lord-Class Bloodthirsty Species. She then showed Evan the regulated underground market, where he recognized a Snake Person who had once feared him.

• Hill and Evan entered the Lucky tavern after giving its guards a password and confirming Evan was a Demon Hunter.
• Hill introduced Evan to Juan and Mr. Franchi, whose gaze stirred Evan’s blood.
• Hill told Evan that Mr. Franchi had overcome sunlight, survived an attempt by her Ancestor to hunt him, and now operated the tavern after abandoning his castle.
• Hill explained the tavern’s underground market and bounty area as she showed Evan the stalls and Monster materials.
• Evan spotted the Snake Person he had defeated over the Border Ghoul, and the frightened Snake Person hurried away after seeing him.
• Hill and Evan continued shopping in the licensed market, which operated with the Authorities’ backing and oversight.

Evan bought potion ingredients, learned about the Dreamlands from Hill, and brewed seven successful potions at home. After a purification potion broke a hypnosis, he woke in a strange barn, where a hunched creature bound him and identified him as a member of the Mason Family; Evan realized his Immortal Witch ancestor had come for him early.

• Evan bought ingredients for seven potions and Hill explained that the Dreamlands were a dangerous higher plane where Beyonders could travel and retrieve objects.
• Evan returned home, brewed all seven potions successfully, and drank Energy and Purification Potions before studying and going to sleep.
• The Purification Potion broke a hypnosis, waking Evan on a living meat grinder inside a barn in an unfamiliar wilderness.
• A hunched creature appeared, called Evan a sacrifice, and used a bell to thwart his attack before binding him with a whip.
• The creature asked which generation of the Mason Family Evan belonged to, and Evan realized his Immortal Witch ancestor had come for him ahead of the invitation.

Evan survived an encounter in his Ancestor’s territory by poisoning her servant with his Toxic Blood, then woke in the Dreamlands and discovered benefits from reversing a contaminated potion’s side effects. Back at school, Lane warned him that the Red Gloves had joined the Mine Virus investigation and said Professor Byron wanted to see him.

• Evan let the servant taste his Toxic Blood, which corroded the man from within; he then took the Copper Bell and killed him with the cleaver.
• The servant’s remains dissolved into the ground, the territory shook, and Evan heard strange whispers before waking in his own room with Spirit Vision increased by one.
• Evan concluded that he had poisoned his Ancestor through the servant and found that reversing the contaminated Mixed Potion’s side effects had improved several attributes.
• At lunch, Lane warned Evan that the Church leadership was handling the Mine Virus investigation and had deployed the Red Gloves.
• Lane told Evan that Professor Byron wanted to see him after lunch, and Evan said he planned to go test another potion.

Evan gained the Intuition trait from reversing potion side effects, then concealed his reaction to the Black Sun symbol during Byron’s test. After Byron arranged another meeting to observe the Chain Reaction’s effects, Professor Mons summoned Evan and Morales for what Wright said was good news.

• Evan’s potion reversals increased his resistances and willpower and granted him the Intuition trait, while several progress bars cleared.
• Evan reassured Lane that he would resist if he felt uncomfortable, then drank Byron’s improved Eclipse and Anti-Moon potions and reversed their side effects.
• Evan feigned dizziness when Byron showed him a Black Sun symbol, leading Byron to schedule a meeting for six the next evening and give him extra money.
• After Evan left, Byron No. 2 celebrated that he had hidden a Beyonder Characteristic’s side effect in the Chain Reaction and used it to control his test subject; Byron No. 1 conceded his genius.
• Evan suspected Byron planned to observe the Chain Reaction’s side effect when it fully took effect and resolved to be cautious.
• After class, Wright led Evan and Morales to Professor Mons’s office because Mons wanted to see them.

Professor Mons gave Evan and Morales recommendation letters to begin studying and gaining practical experience at the Medical School, where Doctor Furim had requested them to help investigate strange diseases. They arrived at the Medical School and met Furim and the students they would assist on a dangerous sample-collection assignment.

• Professor Mons recommended Evan and Morales for early Medical School training, praised their work, and warned Evan to stay away from Byron.
• Evan and Morales reported their arrangement to the Director of Education, then boarded a northbound Streetcar for the Medical School; Morales asked Evan to handle the White Bone Plate, and Evan agreed to take it for free.
• On the way to the Medical School, Morales told Evan that his father had seen no strange illnesses at his clinic, though the new sores and lesions seemed unlike ordinary diseases.
• Evan and Morales reached the Medical School and reported to Doctor Furim, who had just reprimanded three students over contaminated samples.
• Doctor Furim introduced Evan as an experienced young man who would accompany the students to collect more samples, surprising the student with glasses when Evan revealed he was a first-year.

Evan joined Saddam, Tom, and Morales on a medical-school trip to collect samples in gang-controlled Poke Street. He subdued two diseased gang members and helped the students collect blood and urine, then absorbed pathogens from their blood.

• Freem assigned Evan, Saddam, Tom, and Morales to gather samples in Poke Street and told the students to follow Evan's lead.
• The group traveled by carriage to the dark, dangerous neighborhood, where Saddam warned them about the gang members who had chased his team.
• Evan approached two sickly young men emerging from Poke Street and revealed that he had broken their associate Little Jack's finger.
• The two men attacked Evan with knives, but he dodged their strikes and knocked them unconscious by smashing their heads together.
• Saddam, Tom, and Morales collected blood and urine samples from the unconscious men while praising Evan's fighting skill.
• Evan tasted blood from one man's wound and absorbed Treponema pallidum and Rickettsia mooseri.

Evan discovered that the Bone-Eroding Plague Worm was a fragment of Mordiggian’s power and concluded that Ghouls worshipping the Grim Skeleton King were spreading the plague through Bolton City. While collecting samples from Poison Blade Gang members, he uncovered a second parasite and gained a new Beyonder Characteristic by consuming it.

• Evan learned that the Bone-Eroding Plague Worm spread through viruses, consumed its host’s bones, and could turn victims into Skeleton Puppets.
• Evan connected the plague, the Ghouls, Mordiggian, and earlier attacks, concluding that Ghouls were secretly spreading the infection.
• Evan frightened one gang member into providing a urine sample and carried off a larger enforcer to obtain another.
• A Skeleton Claw emerged from an unconscious young gang member’s forehead and nearly struck Evan’s temple.
• Evan cut open the young man’s forehead, pulled out a bone-bodied parasite, and swallowed it.
• The Panel identified the creature as a Mutated Y Virus Parasite and granted Evan 0.5% of the Mist Brain Plague Beyonder Characteristic.

Evan learned that Mist Brain Plague could strengthen his mental defenses and attack minds and souls, then confronted Pierson, a Red King Laboratory Specialist, on Poke Street. After the spores Pierson used increased Evan’s progress, Evan pretended they had weakened him and prepared to retreat while hoping Pierson would follow him to Gooding Street.

• Evan discovered that Mist Brain Plague could carry Viruses to affect the brain, mind, and soul, and inferred that the Red King Laboratory had created the letter-numbered Viruses.
• After Saddam collected the urine sample, Evan asked the Burly Man to introduce him to his Gang Leader, and Morales led the others away to collect water elsewhere.
• Pierson emerged from Poke Street and used Mutated Root Spores on Evan, increasing Mist Brain Plague's progress by 0.3%.
• Evan deduced that Pierson's spores and the Gang's illnesses were connected to Red King Laboratory experiments, then decided not to risk going farther into the street.
• Evan staged a coughing fit and accused Pierson of harming him, hoping to retreat and lure Pierson to Gooding Street.

Evan escaped Pierson's attack, reported the Red King Laboratory's suspected role in the plagues to Freem, and arranged a hospital placement. When Pierson followed him to Gooding Street, Evan prepared to fight and exploit the spores for experience, leaving Pierson poised to attack his darkened apartment.

• Pierson tried to trap Evan with roots, but Evan broke free and fled Poke Street.
• Evan told Freem about Pierson, the Red King Laboratory, and his suspicions, then persuaded Freem to arrange a hospital placement.
• Evan returned home, took potions, and prepared to keep a low profile while wondering whether Pierson would pursue him.
• Pierson secretly approached Gooding Street with two Magic Artifacts, and Gust warned Evan of the incoming Treant Pathway Apprentice.
• Evan feigned weakness and hid the Secondary Brain with a drop of his toxic blood, planning to use Pierson's spores to gain experience.
• Pierson reached Evan's apartment roof and dismissed its lack of security before preparing to attack.

Pierson infiltrated Evan’s apartment to kill him with spores, vines, and a magic artifact, but Evan defeated him with disease and discovered a Mutant Virus Parasite hidden in his arm. The parasite phased into Evan and was dissolved by his blood before he ate its remains, raising his Mist Brain Plague Progress Bar to 5.4%.

• Pierson entered Evan’s apartment through a window, filled the room with spores, and attacked him with vines and the Withered Wood Sword.
• Evan revealed that he had anticipated the attack, resisted the spores, and incapacitated Pierson by infecting him with several diseases.
• Evan used Spirit Vision to find the Mutant Virus Parasite beneath Pierson’s right arm, then cut it free.
• The parasite phased through Evan’s skin and burrowed into his arm, but his Blood Toxicity dissolved it into black liquid and granted 1% progress.
• Evan ate the parasite’s remains and chose to feed them to the Mist Brain Plague, gaining 3% more progress.

Evan defeated Pierson, learned about the Red King Laboratory’s Y Virus Parasites and Pierson’s work on Poke Street, then spared him and proposed an alliance. Pierson agreed to hear what Evan wanted next, and Evan offered him survival and a steady supply of the virus in exchange for more Y Virus Parasites.

• Evan forced Pierson to reveal that the Laboratory was mass-producing about a hundred Y Virus Parasites and that his team cultivated them using Poison Blade Gang members’ bodies.
• Pierson tried to use a hidden vial of concentrated Monster bodily fluid, but Evan crushed his spine and stopped him before he could take it.
• Evan admired Pierson’s unusual method of administering the enhancement serum, then used his virus ability to cure Pierson’s plague symptoms.
• Evan proposed working together, offering to help Pierson kill his abusive teacher in exchange for access to more Y Virus Parasites.
• Pierson asked what he had to do, and Evan said he needed more parasites while promising Pierson his life and a steady supply of the virus.

Evan made Pierson cooperate, took a drop of his Spiritual Blood, and extracted his memories about the Y Virus Parasite. The memories revealed the Red King Laboratory’s parasite experiments and ended with Pierson seeing a human face on the Primordial Sage tree.

• Evan demanded a drop of Pierson’s Spiritual Blood as a precaution, then learned that the orange-yellow medicine was purified Black Dryad extract.
• Pierson healed his injuries and explained the powers of his Antler Crown and Withered Wood Sword, which Evan returned to him.
• Evan used the Silver Key to extract Pierson’s memories about the Y Virus Parasite and implanted a mental suggestion that Pierson keep quiet about him.
• Pierson left after promising to find suitable candidates for the parasite, and Evan reviewed the memories in his apartment.
• Evan saw that Pierson’s teacher had used the parasite’s spores to torture him and that the Red King Laboratory grew viruses at a secret Sanatorium to feed the parasite.
• Evan watched memories of Pierson’s parasite implantation, which damaged his Spirituality and showed him that the cultivated Primordial Sage tree had grown a human face.

Evan survived an encounter with the Primordial Sage’s influence when his great-grandmother’s Familiar rescued him and explained that he was safe from the Master until he became a Master. The chapter ended with Evan back in his apartment, followed by an author’s note about schedule changes.

• Evan’s Mist Brain Plague devoured the Formless Mind Seed’s tendrils, but he was then confronted by another vision of a vast tree and its descending hand.
• Evan called on his great-grandmother, who transported him from the tree’s domain to Ancestor Mason’s farm.
• A Familiar told Evan that the Master had saved him, was pleased with his potential, and would not threaten him until he became a Master.
• The Familiar identified the being Evan had glimpsed as the Primordial Sage and warned him against investigating powerful Gods and their memories.
• Evan asked for the Demon Hunters’ God’s name, and the Familiar sent him back to his apartment on Gooding Street.

After suffering severe magical debuffs from glimpsing the Old Tree Man, Evan learned that Wilens Sapp and Kaini planned to exploit his vulnerable week. Evan then began his hospital internship, where Doctor Furim assigned him to investigate strange supernatural incidents at Sage General Hospital; Evan set out to handle them that night.

• Evan woke soaked and discovered that Sin of Peering at the Gods had reduced his success rate for magical activities by 1,000% for sixteen hours.
• Kaini told Wilens Sapp that Evan would be at his weakest for seven days, and Wilens planned to make him desperate and indebted.
• Evan went to Sage General Hospital with Doctor Furim, who explained that patients and laboratory staff were suffering from mysterious supernatural effects.
• Doctor Banner showed Evan the staircase where strange cries were heard and the balcony where patients had fought, fallen, and left chalk marks associated with people inexplicably losing money.
• Evan received his hospital ID and access pass, then declared that he would investigate both troubled areas that night.

Evan discovered that Willens Sapp had imprisoned two plague-tainted spirits in the hospital stairwell and agreed to help him perform a ritual after sensing a hidden danger in the money Willens offered. The chapter ended with Evan planning to use the Sin of Peering at the Gods against Willens during the ritual.

• Evan reversed the Potion Chain’s side effect, ate a huge dinner, and frightened the hospital staff by pretending to flee from the stairwell ghosts.
• Evan inspected the stairwell and found two bound Evil Spirits and a Magic Array made from One-Dollar Bills.
• Willens Sapp revealed that he had contracted with the spirits to guard the hospital entrance, then used money to contain one while the other began undergoing Beastification.
• Willens discussed his charitable work and warned Evan about Eldin, while Evan questioned his motives and probed for information about her.
• Willens offered Evan a hundred-dollar bill to help turn the unstable spirit into his debtor, and Evan sensed the Money Corrosion and Money Curse in his body resonate with it.
• Evan agreed to assist with the Spirit-Driving Ritual and resolved to use the Sin of Peering at the Gods against Willens.

Wilens attempted to bind Evan with a modified Spirit-Driving Ritual, but the ritual failed and summoned the Primordial Sage’s influence. Wilens died from the encounter, while Evan secretly harvested the Root Tendrils and stole Wilens’s wallet.

• Wilens linked his Spirituality with Evan’s and began a modified Spirit-Driving Ritual designed to make Evan his debtor.
• The ritual failed when strange whispers and Root Tendrils disrupted Wilens’s chanting, and the Primordial Sage’s power struck him through an enormous Tree Root.
• Wilens used a torrent of bills to sever the Root Tendrils, but the Primordial Sage’s domain overwhelmed him and he died after eating Black Quicksand.
• Evan called for help and secretly used the Mist Brain Plague to devour the remaining Root Tendrils inside Wilens.
• Evan stole Wilens’s black wallet while pretending to mourn him.

Evan appeared innocent after Wilens died from a mysterious attack, while the Primordial Sage’s roots traced the incident back to Sapp. An investigation cleared Evan of suspicion, but Sapp confronted him about the Silver Key.

• Doctor Furim took charge after Wilens collapsed, and Evan said he had only spoken with him while the bodyguards confirmed they saw no attack.
• At Sapp Manor, Formless Mind Seeds followed Wilens’s connection to Sapp, and Sapp’s Dryad employees performed a ritual that made the roots disappear.
• Doctor Furim questioned Evan, who suggested the two souls might have carried contamination, and reassured him that Sapp would not dare attack Doctor Armitage’s Disciple.
• Sapp, Vic, Doctor Furim, and Evan met after their investigations found that Wilens had set Evan up and produced no evidence that Evan was involved in his death.
• Sapp asked Evan whether he had the Silver Key, and Evan pretended not to know what it was.

Evan convinced Sapp that he had lost the Silver Key and shared evidence linking the plagues to the Red King Laboratory and possibly Ghouls from the Dreamlands. After a day of hospital work, he returned home eager to investigate the Mist Brain Plague, only to find Professor Byron waiting in his living room.

• Evan told Sapp that the Silver Key had fled into a marmot burrow, and Sapp agreed to stop pursuing him and treat the stolen wallet as compensation.
• Vic checked the wallet, confirmed it was a Fourth-Level Magic Artifact without tracking spells or curses, and returned it to Evan.
• Evan told Vic that plague samples were linked to the Red King Laboratory and proposed that Ghouls from the Dreamlands were spreading the viruses using Corpse Poison and Bone Marrow Parasites.
• Vic praised Evan's theory and asked him to continue investigating the Ghouls while he pursued the matter from another angle.
• Evan worked in the hospital laboratory until late, then returned home and found Professor Byron standing in his living room.

Evan unlocked the first stage of Mist Brain Plague, gaining a protective mist around his brain while suffering reduced Self-Awareness and Physique. As he prepared to meet Morales and Hill, Gust secretly shielded his apartment, and two plague-afflicted young men searched for a victim as they awaited the Bone Saint Child.

• Professor Byron visited Evan, collected his potion side-effect report, gave him two more potions, and paid him twenty-five U.S. dollars before leaving through a wall.
• Evan unlocked the first stage of Mist Brain Plague and gained brain-enveloping mist that greatly increased his mental resistance, though his Self-Awareness and Physique decreased.
• Evan reviewed his updated stats, failed to cleanse his lingering debuffs, and planned to collect a White Bone Plate from Morales and meet Hill.
• Gust sensed Evan taking potions without protection, placed an earthen dome around his apartment, and slipped away.
• Two young men discussed using Demon Hunter blood to contain more Virus and searched for a victim while anticipating the White Bone Saint Child's arrival.
• Evan bought a black three-piece suit for fifty-two U.S. dollars, then realized he had dressed up just to ask Morales about a Magic Artifact.

Evan collected the White Bone Disc from Morales and learned that a canning factory might be linked to the plague. He met Hill at McRae's Detective Agency, and she identified his two magic artifacts, revealing their abilities and dangers.

• Evan collected the White Bone Disc from Morales, whose father told him that plague patients had all eaten canned food from the Puke Canning Factory.
• Evan went to McRae's Detective Agency, where Hill joined him for a small detective job in the Dock District.
• On their way, Evan asked Hill about Gust and gave her the Delicate Wallet and White Bone Disc to identify.
• Hill performed an Identification Ritual and explained that the Delicate Wallet held cash and soft goods but required five dollars' worth of care each week or it would consume its owner's possessions or flesh.
• Hill identified the White Bone Disc as the Ghoul Amulet, which detected Ghouls within a kilometer but attracted them and could expose Evan to attacks through the Dreamlands.