Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Viscount Paul sends Green Wilson to join three Anomalies Bureau agents—Peter, Shirley, and another newcomer—on the search for his missing cousin, Penny. Though the agents know Green only as a lucky newcomer, Paul trusts him to find her.
• During the carriage ride, Shirley questions Green about the recent Eerie incident at Wilson Castle. Green provokes her with an insulting remark, then swiftly pins her with a Bone Spike at her throat when she prepares to attack.
• Green withdraws the spike without harming her, explaining that he wanted the agents to understand his abilities and take the Bureau’s reputation seriously. The agents recognize his exceptional skill and become more cautious and respectful.
• At the Bureau’s office, Shirley retrieves a file identifying Minster Academy as the place Penny was last seen. The group sets out for the school.
• Green learns that Minster Academy is run by the Nature Church. Once known for peaceful teachings, the church has recently grown more radical amid industrial pollution and environmental destruction; it is suspected of links to sabotage and assassinations.

Character developments

• Green presents himself as cheerful and courteous, but deliberately uses intimidation to establish his standing. His Bone Spikes have grown exceptionally powerful, making him a serious threat despite his apparent status as an apprentice Necromancer.
• Shirley shifts from disdain and confidence to anger, then reluctant respect and curiosity after Green demonstrates his strength.
• Peter recognizes Green’s deliberate provocation and, after witnessing his skill, revises his assessment and addresses him more formally.
• Viscount Paul’s trust in Green is underscored: he insists Green accompany the Bureau agents because he considers him the person he can truly rely on.

Significant themes

• Power and status: Green forces the agents to reassess him, showing that reputation and rank can obscure real ability.
• Pride and cooperation: The Bureau agents’ condescension threatens teamwork, while Green’s demonstration—though abrasive—establishes a more balanced working relationship.
• Industrialization and nature: The Nature Church’s shift from benevolent teachings toward radical action reflects growing conflict between environmental preservation and industrial expansion.

Character interactions

• Green and Shirley clash when his insult provokes her, but his restrained use of force ends the confrontation and changes her view of him.
• Peter intervenes verbally to prevent escalation, then apologizes and adjusts his tone toward Green.
• The group moves from wary introductions to a more respectful, if uneasy, partnership as they pursue Penny’s trail to Minster Academy.

Plot points and events

• The Anomalies Bureau learns that Minster Academy, the last place Penny was reportedly seen, was founded by the embattled Nature Church. The connection raises suspicions that her disappearance may involve the church.
• Green, Peter, and their companions find the academy surprisingly tidy but empty: the students and hired teachers are gone, leaving only its elderly founder and principal, Principal Minster.
• When Peter explains they are searching for Penny, Minster angrily rejects the implied suspicion that he kidnapped her. He eventually lets them investigate, bitterly blaming government officials and muttering that they had worked with the Tower of Yin Spirits and ruined his life’s work.
• Several mercenaries arrive, also seeking Penny for the bounty. One, Fireman Tom, tries to intimidate the Bureau team but backs down when Shirley displays her credentials.
• Peter persuades the mercenaries to cooperate, promising they can share the bounty if Penny is found. He organizes the enlarged group into separate search teams.
• After searching two floors, Green returns to the assigned meeting room and finds someone already there, though he expected to arrive first.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains alert and cautious about the Nature Church, and his exceptional hearing lets him catch Minster’s revealing mutter about the Tower of Yin Spirits.
• Principal Minster appears defeated by the academy’s collapse but remains proud and protective of his work. He bristles at Peter’s questions, then permits the search, venting his resentment at the authorities.
• Peter handles both the principal and the mercenaries diplomatically. He takes charge of coordinating the investigation and turns potential rivals into temporary allies.
• Shirley uses her Bureau credentials to stop Tom’s attempted intimidation.
• Fireman Tom shifts from bluster to embarrassed retreat when he realizes the targets are Bureau agents; his rival, Silva Stin, witnesses and mocks his humiliation.
• The mercenaries accept Peter’s proposal, choosing a share of the reward over leaving empty-handed.

Significant themes

• Distrust and institutional conflict: The Nature Church’s poor reputation, government pressure, and the principal’s accusations suggest wider political tensions.
• Cooperation amid competition: Bureau agents and bounty-seeking mercenaries set aside rivalry for practical gain.
• Pride and loss: Minster’s anger and despair reflect the personal cost of the academy’s decline.
• Hidden danger and uncertainty: The academy’s orderly appearance contrasts with its emptiness and suspicious history; the identity of the person waiting for Green remains unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Green enters the classroom and is struck by a supernatural cold that makes him drowsy. He narrowly keeps his wits by biting his tongue, then escapes into the Graveyard and observes the room through his Six-Headed Snake Woman.
• The classroom is an illusion hiding a blood-drawn Magic Circle and a mass of rapidly multiplying, living cancer-like flesh. The mass is consuming the bodies beneath it for nutrients.
• The Snake Woman reveals that the neighboring classroom—and likely the academy as a whole—contains the same horrific setup. Green realizes the missing students were not dropouts but sacrifices, and that other mercenaries may have been killed or consumed.
• Green sends Ghosts to locate Peter, Shirley, and Keenant. The three Bureau agents have already uncovered the danger and moved to a new rendezvous point; the Ghosts find no trace of the other mercenaries.
• Green meets the agents ten minutes later, arriving with a squad of rifle-carrying Gun Skeleton Soldiers. Shirley is astonished that he has accumulated so many Contract-type undead.

Character developments and interactions

• Green demonstrates caution and resourcefulness, using pain, his Graveyard refuge, and the Snake Woman’s illusion-sight to survive and investigate. His anger at the murdered children is quickly suppressed by the emotional coldness imposed by his Semi-Lichification, but his determination to punish the culprit remains.
• Peter, Shirley, and Keenant prove competent: they recognized the danger, used their Bureau training and anti-illusion supplies, and regrouped. They had assumed Green was dead and changed their meeting point without searching for him.
• Green is mildly irritated by their assumption and official-minded manner, but focuses on reuniting with them rather than taking offense. Peter prevents Shirley and Keenant from mistaking Green’s approaching skeletons for enemies; Shirley responds with curiosity and admiration.

Significant themes

• Institutional horror and sacrifice: The academy’s missing children have been secretly turned into fuel for a monstrous ritual.
• Reason versus emotion: Green’s undead transformation suppresses his rage, illustrating the personal cost of necromantic power, even as his resolve survives.
• Competence and trust: Bureau training helps the agents survive, while Green’s scouts and undead reveal his own strengths and the need for cooperation.

Key plot points and events

• Green’s display of his skeleton soldiers earns the approval of Peter, Shirley, and their colleagues. Shirley is more interested in touching the skeletons than being intimidated, and even asks to buy one.
• Shirley introduces Green to her wealthy friend, Elizabeth Windsor Hinarial, who reportedly spends heavily on contract undead. Green sees a chance to sell gun skeletons and earn money without giving up control: they remain linked to his graveyard and can be recalled whenever he chooses.
• Peter suspects the academy’s missing headmaster cannot be found and uses a compass to locate the strongest psychic-energy fluctuation—the likely center of the sacrificial ritual. He orders Keenant to summon the police and the Garrison Knights.
• Keenant relays the order through his unusual ability to create a wireless communication network. Police arrive quickly, led by a one-eyed veteran decorated with a rare Second-Class Sword and Shield Medal. He agrees to cooperate but insists his officers not be treated as expendable.
• A battalion of elite Gun Knights arrives as well. Peter briefs both forces on deploying the Anomalies Bureau’s isolation-barrier devices, which can seal off a large area and contain supernatural incidents.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows strategic confidence, using his skeletons to demonstrate strength while also recognizing their potential as a profitable, remotely controlled asset.
• Shirley is bold and playful, responding to the skeletons with fascination rather than fear. Her offer to introduce Green to Elizabeth opens a possible business connection.
• Peter acts decisively, organizing the search and coordinating civilian authorities and military forces.
• Keenant’s value becomes clear: though not a strong combatant, his communication ability makes him essential to the Bureau.
• The one-eyed police leader establishes his authority through his medals and protects the men under his command, prompting Peter to treat him with respect.

Significant themes

• Strength and perception: Green uses his undead to signal power, but Shirley’s irreverent reaction disrupts his intended intimidation.
• Practical cooperation: Containing the threat requires coordination among the Anomalies Bureau, police, and military.
• Control and commerce: Green’s proposed sales are lucrative precisely because buyers would gain use of his skeletons without gaining ownership or control.
• Hidden protection: The kingdom’s apparent peace depends in part on specialized infrastructure that keeps supernatural dangers contained and out of public view.

Plot points and events

• The Isolation Barrier seals Minster Academy beneath a dome, cutting it off from the outside. With the barrier active, the hidden flesh covering the classrooms and main building is exposed.
• Peter, Shirley, and Keenant use alchemical devices to send a shockwave at the flesh-covered building. It screams and begins producing acid-coated humanoid monsters.
• Peter identifies them as Mutant Maw Monsters—more dangerous than ordinary Maw Monsters, with corrosive acid and strength potentially matching an Intermediate Apprentice Knight. He orders Shirley to prepare to retreat and Keenant to call for reinforcements.
• Green intervenes by summoning forty-eight Gun Skeleton Soldiers. They fire a coordinated volley that kills the first group of monsters. Death energy carried by their bullets prevents the creatures’ wounds from healing.
• The building reacts violently and produces monsters faster. More than twenty gather, prompting Green to send his Skeleton Soldiers forward and summon Zombies and Ghouls rather than hold back.

Character developments and interactions

• Green demonstrates the scale and effectiveness of his summoned forces, but remains cautious rather than triumphant as the threat grows.
• Peter shifts from confidence to alarm when he recognizes the monsters, then responds with calm, practical orders. He is stunned by Green’s firepower.
• Shirley is deeply impressed. Having previously thought of Green’s Skeleton Soldiers as potential merchandise for Elizabeth, she now recognizes their true combat value and sees Green differently.
• Keenant is so startled by the Skeleton Soldiers’ performance that he forgets Peter’s order to call for reinforcements.
• Green’s actions temporarily take control of the encounter, but the group still faces a rapidly escalating danger.

Significant themes

• Concealed horror revealed: The barrier exposes the academy’s grotesque transformation and the monsters hidden within it.
• Preparation and adaptability: Alchemical equipment and Green’s summoned army prove more useful than conventional expectations as the situation changes.
• Power and reassessment: Green’s battlefield strength forces the others—especially Shirley—to reconsider what he and his Undead forces can do.
• Escalation and restraint: The first victory is not enough; the building’s increasing output makes Green’s decision to commit more forces essential.

Plot and events

• Green’s Skeleton Soldiers, supported by zombies and Ghouls, draw the ordinary Maw Monsters out from the flesh-covered building and kill more than twenty before they can reach the firing line.
• The building’s flesh forms the face of the seemingly benevolent Old Principal. He angrily vows revenge and expels a pulsing, three-meter blood sac.
• Keenant detects a high-frequency signal and estimates the emerging creature could be at the peak of apprentice rank. Peter judges it has not yet reached formal rank, while Green orders his forces to fall back.
• Gunfire cannot penetrate the blood sac. It bursts open, revealing a five-meter, five-ton Giant Rift Monster: a heavily armored Maw Monster built for strength and impact rather than acid attacks.
• Green begins summoning his Undead Cannon. At the same time, Peter, Shirley, and Keenant assemble the Bureau’s three-circle Spear of Evil-Breaking and fire it into the charging monster.
• The spear pierces the monster’s arm and chest and briefly knocks it back, but it survives by raising its arm to shield itself and charges again. Peter prepares to retreat when a deafening blast erupts.

Character developments and interactions

• Green remains observant and tactical, pulling his troops back when he senses danger and weighing whether to reveal his Undead Cannon. He ultimately acts quickly when the giant monster charges.
• Peter displays composure and disciplined leadership. He corrects the others’ panic, helps coordinate the Bureau’s last-resort weapon, and chooses his team’s safety over pressing a failing attack.
• Shirley loses her earlier confidence when faced with a genuinely life-threatening mission, but briefly regains hope when the spear hits.
• Keenant contributes crucial information by identifying the signal and helps assemble the weapon.
• The Old Principal, revealed as the force behind the flesh-covered building, shifts from apparent compassion to open hatred and vengeance.

Significant themes

• Appearances can deceive: the compassionate Old Principal is exposed as a monstrous enemy.
• Preparation and teamwork under pressure: Green’s undead forces and the Bureau team use different tactics and weapons to face the threat.
• Limits of apparent victory: the spear lands a powerful blow, yet the monster survives, turning relief into renewed danger.
• Escalation: the battle moves from manageable groups of Maw Monsters to a much stronger, armored adversary.

Key plot points and events

• Green’s Skeleton Soldiers operate an enchanted cannon with startling speed and precision, shocking Peter, Shirley, and Keenant. Their firearms and disciplined drills make them far more dangerous than ordinary undead.
• The cannon shells batter the Giant Rift Monster. Green notices that it has human-like internal organs and orders the soldiers to concentrate fire on its wounds.
• After four shots, the final shell blows apart the monster’s head, neck, and upper chest, killing it.
• Peter and the others reassess Green as a powerful apprentice and recognize the cannon’s potential. Peter briefly considers seizing Green’s troops, but decides he lacks the strength and that doing so could provoke a powerful figure he assumes stands behind Green.
• Green has deliberately encouraged that assumption to deter threats while he grows stronger.
• Principal Minster’s voice again erupts from the flesh-covered teaching building. Rather than enter a dangerous, unknown area, Green proposes testing it with cannon fire. His priority is finding Penny, but he refuses to risk his life recklessly.

Character developments and interactions

• Green displays tactical judgment, confidence, and caution. He uses the cannon effectively while keeping others uncertain about the source of his power; he also draws a firm line between helping and sacrificing himself.
• Peter moves from astonishment to wary respect. Though tempted to take Green’s weapons, he recognizes the danger and futility of confronting him.
• Shirley is impressed by Green and sees his value to her influential friend Elizabeth. She eagerly imagines securing a reward, then shifts her attention back to the crisis.
• Keenant remains mostly quiet but signals support for Green through his attentive gaze.
• Shirley and Keenant look to Green as the group’s leading figure, while Green rejects the suggestion to rush into the building.

Significant themes

• Technology reshapes power: Firearms and artillery transform fragile undead into effective battlefield forces.
• Perception as protection: Green’s carefully cultivated image of a powerful patron helps discourage interference.
• Caution and self-preservation: Green is willing to act, but not to take suicidal risks for a mission that is not his own.

Plot points and events

• Green uses his Undead Cannon to bombard the flesh-covered main teaching building. The barrage brings down its weakened lobby, revealing that the building’s structure has been badly corroded from within.
• Inside, the group discovers the Heart of Nature, a gigantic artifact created through a forbidden Nature Church ritual that sacrifices living beings and lets the heart absorb and assimilate unnatural forces.
• Peter recognizes the artifact. Green realizes the ritual’s presence—and the Void Yin Spirit controlling Headmaster Minster—suggests a larger conspiracy involving the Nature Church and another hidden faction.
• Minster’s body, now overtaken by a Yin Spirit Parasite, appears. Before Green can attack, the Six-Headed Snake Woman warns him that Minster bears a Soul Mark, placed by someone powerful enough to be dangerous to provoke.
• The parasite dives into the Heart of Nature, which promptly shrivels and vanishes. The flesh covering the school retreats and its Evil Formations go dark, ending the crisis.
• Green declines to pursue the parasite and orders the Police to lift the isolation barrier. He recalls most of his troops but keeps hidden Ghosts searching the academy for Penny, fearing she may have been sacrificed but refusing to give up hope.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows tactical restraint: despite suspecting Minster is dangerous, he abandons the attack once the Soul Mark is revealed and chooses not to chase the parasite.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman’s knowledge protects Green from provoking a powerful, unseen enemy.
• Peter identifies the Heart of Nature and cautiously holds his fire, even when the parasite appears. Green had hoped someone else might trigger the Soul Mark’s consequences, but no one does.
• Shirley admires Green’s forces and tries to use the moment to ask him to introduce her friend Elizabeth to his teacher. Green ignores the familiar request.
• Green’s concern for Penny remains central to his actions: despite expecting the worst, he insists on searching for her.

Significant themes

• Power and hidden costs: The Heart of Nature’s immense strength comes from mass sacrifice and assimilation.
• Conspiracies and uncertainty: The artifact and Minster’s possession point to a wider plot, while the identity of the force behind it remains unclear.
• Caution before overwhelming power: The Soul Mark reminds Green that unseen protectors may be far stronger than their apparent targets.
• Hope amid loss: Green suspects Penny is dead but continues searching in case she survived.

Plot points and events

• Green’s Ghosts fail to find Penny at Minster Academy, but discover a sealed underground chamber beneath the ruined teaching building.
• Green enters the chamber through a Ghost and finds an ancient, four-circle Magic Circle, a silver pot connected to the surface by an extremely fine Mithril thread, and walls made of magically charged stone. He suspects the pot may contain the energy of the Heart of Nature, which vanished underground during the battle.
• The chamber’s earlier Soul Mark has disappeared, making Green believe he has a rare chance to claim its treasures. He plans to wait until the Anomalies Bureau and Police leave before digging it out.
• Elsa, a senior Bureau agent who appears to know about the chamber, arrives with two subordinates and orders them to excavate it. Green realizes he will lose access to its contents if he waits.
• Green confronts Elsa. When she dismisses him and the excavation continues, he summons his undead troops, surrounding Elsa’s team as well as Peter, Shirley, Keenant, and the remaining Police officers. He declares that the battle’s spoils belong to him because he fought in it.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shifts from cautious opportunism to open confrontation. His excitement over the chamber’s possible wealth—and his certainty that he deserves the spoils—overcomes his plan to act discreetly.
• Elsa enters as an arrogant and forceful rival. She ignores Green’s appeal and proceeds with the excavation, suggesting she has her own claim or assignment.
• Peter and Shirley visibly dislike Elsa, revealing friction within the Anomalies Bureau. Peter nevertheless tries to calm Green once the confrontation escalates, emphasizing that Elsa is still a colleague.
• Green and the Bureau team move from negotiation to a direct standoff, with Green’s undead force giving him the immediate advantage.

Significant themes

• Greed and temptation: The chamber’s valuable contents and Green’s focus on their worth drive him into conflict.
• Power and entitlement: Green argues that his role in the battle entitles him to the spoils, while Elsa asserts the Bureau’s authority.
• Institutional rivalry: The Bureau’s internal tensions and its uneasy relationship with the Police complicate the aftermath of the battle.
• Mystery: The chamber’s purpose, the silver pot’s contents, and the disappearance of the Soul Mark remain unexplained.

Plot points and events

• Elsa confronts Green for surrounding Anomalies Bureau agents and threatens him with a Kingdom-wide bounty. Green refuses to back down, deciding the chamber’s potential treasures are worth the risk and implying he may kill the agents.
• Peter knocks Elsa unconscious to stop her from escalating matters, then tries to defuse the standoff by offering to leave with the others. Green refuses, worried they might later report or misrepresent what they saw.
• While Peter learns what lies below, the Bureau team waits nervously. Shirley considers using her one-time spatial-transfer pendant but hesitates, fearing both its cost and the feud it could cause.
• Green orders two Bureau agents to finish digging. They uncover enchanted white-marble slabs that resist attacks because their magical energy is interconnected.
• Green drains the slabs’ psychic energy into his graveyard. Once the connected enchantment is depleted, a Ghoul breaks through, opening the chamber.
• Rather than enter himself, Green sends Ghouls down to retrieve the silver pot and mithril thread, cautious of traps and hidden restrictions.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows determination and ruthless pragmatism: he accepts the danger, maintains a threatening front, and uses his knowledge of psychic energy to overcome the chamber’s defenses. His caution in sending Ghouls ahead contrasts with his willingness to threaten the Bureau.
• Elsa is revealed as entitled and reliant on her aunt’s authority. Her confidence falters when Green’s threat proves genuine; Peter’s sudden strike leaves her unconscious.
• Peter acts as the group’s practical mediator, restraining Elsa and attempting to negotiate with Green. He recognizes the danger more clearly than the others.
• Shirley is anxious and weighs escape against the serious consequences of using her pendant. The other Bureau agents defer to Peter after Elsa is incapacitated.
• The standoff shifts from Elsa’s bluster to Peter’s negotiation, while Green keeps the agents under pressure and directs them to help expose the chamber.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus risk: Green judges the chamber’s potential rewards worth the danger and refuses to retreat.
• Power and authority: The Bureau’s status carries little weight against a formidable Transcendent, and its agents understand that formal authority does not guarantee safety.
• Caution and strategy: Green avoids entering the chamber himself, using minions to test for danger; Shirley likewise weighs whether to spend her precious escape resource.
• Appearance versus experience: Elsa’s confidence proves fragile, while Peter’s composure and judgment make him the more capable negotiator.

Plot points

• Green and the Ghouls retrieve a silver jar and Mithril Thread without triggering any traps. Green absorbs nearly 5,000 units of Psychic Energy from the jar, awakening the dormant Yin Spirit Parasite, then stops before it fully reacts.
• He gives Peter the jar—containing the Parasite and the Heart of Nature—and keeps the Mithril Thread. Green has already taken most of the jar’s energy and hopes the handover will ease tensions with the Anomalies Bureau.
• Hado, a member of Elsa’s group, is revealed to be infected with Nature Church spores. He transforms into a fast-moving, part-human, part-plant creature and attacks Peter for the jar.
• The jar resists Peter’s grip, and a vine reaches for him. Peter throws the jar into the air and orders the Bureau agents to fire. Hado ignores the bullets, catches the jar, and tries to swallow it.
• The awakened Yin Spirit Parasite emerges as black smoke and attacks Hado, but Hado’s green light restrains it. The Nature Church’s plan was to use the jar and its Divine Arts to imprison the Parasite.
• Green realizes that the Church had prepared a countermeasure against the Parasite, while the arrival of Green and the others disrupted both factions’ plans. The Parasite is now weakened because Green destroyed its original flesh-and-soul vessel and it lost the Heart of Nature.

Character developments and interactions

• Green is pragmatic: he shares the jar to avoid conflict, but only after securing most of its Psychic Energy. He also recognizes that his intervention has reshaped the struggle between the Nature Church and the Tower of Yin Spirits.
• Peter remains composed under attack, keeping hold of the jar after being struck, then improvising by tossing it and directing the others to fire.
• Hado loses his identity to the spores and becomes a vessel for the Nature Church’s attack, focused entirely on recovering the jar and Heart of Nature.
• The Yin Spirit Parasite, roused by Green’s extraction and threatened with being swallowed, fights back but proves vulnerable to the Nature Church’s green light.
• Green’s exchange with Peter begins as a guarded bargain; it quickly turns into a shared crisis as Peter and the Bureau confront Hado and the Parasite.

Significant themes

• Hidden agendas and shifting alliances: Both the Nature Church and the Tower of Yin Spirits had plans for the Parasite, and outside intervention throws them into disarray.
• Power gained at a cost: Green’s destruction of the Parasite’s original vessel prevents its evolution, leaving it far weaker than it might have become.
• Control and transformation: The Church’s spores turn Hado into a weapon, while the jar and green radiance are tools for containing the Parasite.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Yin Spirit Parasite is trapped by the green Light Screen and, desperate to survive, attacks the nearest person in an attempt to possess their body.
• It charges at Green, but the Six-Headed Snake Woman—hidden in her giant python form—intercepts it with a spectral snake head.
• Green follows up with a devastating barrage of Bone Spikes infused with Death Psychic Energy, severely injuring the parasite. The python then bites and swallows the Yin Spirit whole.
• The treant created by the Nature Church’s spore parasite attacks Green in revenge, claiming the Yin Spirit belongs to the Church. Green destroys it instantly with his Ghost Cannon.
• Green’s overwhelming strength shocks Peter and Shirley. Peter becomes suspicious of Green and decides to request a formal investigation into him.
• Green gives Peter the recovered Decamoros’s Jar, allowing Peter to return with at least some results despite failing to find Penny or uncover the truth behind Wilson Castle’s disturbances.
• Green informs Viscount Paul about Elsa, Deputy Director Starks, and the Nature Church. Paul reveals that he has contacted Bobby, Starks’s rival for leadership of the Landon City Anomalies Bureau.
• Paul recommends that Green join the Anomalies Bureau, explaining that it offers Transcendents better benefits and advancement than most supernatural organizations.
• Green declines to join immediately, believing the Bureau is currently too embroiled in crises involving the Blood Eye, Void Club, and Nature Church. He prefers to wait until the Bureau is weakened rather than become expendable manpower.
• The search for Penny continues, but despite an increased bounty, there are still no useful leads. The chapter ends when an unexpected visitor arrives with extremely important information.

Character Developments

• Green: Demonstrates power far beyond the Apprentice Rank, effortlessly defeating both the Yin Spirit Parasite and the treant. He also shows strategic caution by refusing to join the Anomalies Bureau while it is at its most dangerous and politically unstable. Secretly, he is delighted because the Six-Headed Snake Woman benefits greatly from devouring the Yin Spirit.
• Six-Headed Snake Woman: Reveals her giant python form and proves crucial to defeating the Yin Spirit. After consuming it, she returns to the Graveyard and enters a deep sleep, likely preparing for significant growth or an increase in combat power.
• Peter: Becomes increasingly wary of Green after witnessing his extraordinary abilities. Although Green helps him recover the Decamoros’s Jar, Peter plans to investigate Green upon returning to the Bureau.
• Shirley: Is openly stunned by Green’s strength, recognizing that it greatly exceeds her expectations.
• Viscount Paul: Continues supporting Green and attempts to secure his future by recommending him to the Anomalies Bureau. He also pragmatically agrees with Green’s decision to wait.
• Penny: Remains missing, and the likelihood of her survival appears to be decreasing.

Significant Themes

• Hidden power and deception: Green appears calm and motionless while secretly relying on the Six-Headed Snake Woman, concealing the true source and extent of his abilities.
• Pragmatism over loyalty: Green refuses to join the Anomalies Bureau out of principle or idealism, choosing instead to assess its political situation and avoid being used as cannon fodder.
• Political rivalry and institutional instability: The conflict between Deputy Directors Starks and Bobby reflects the Bureau’s internal power struggle, while multiple supernatural factions worsen the crisis in Landon City.
• Growth through consumption: The Six-Headed Snake Woman’s devouring of the Yin Spirit highlights the story’s recurring idea that powerful supernatural beings can evolve by absorbing other entities.
• Uncertainty and escalating danger: The failure to locate Penny, the appearance of the Nature Church, and the involvement of several hostile organizations suggest that the broader mystery is becoming increasingly dangerous.

Character Interactions

• Peter warns Green about the Yin Spirit’s possession attempt, but Green defeats it before Peter can intervene.
• Green’s spectacular attack leaves Peter and Shirley both shocked and suspicious of him.
• Green gives Peter the Decamoros’s Jar, maintaining a cooperative relationship despite Peter’s growing distrust.
• The treant verbally condemns Green for stealing the Nature Church’s Yin Spirit before Green destroys it.
• Green reports the incident to Viscount Paul, who responds by discussing political protection, the Anomalies Bureau, and a possible recommendation for Green.
• Green and Viscount Paul reach a practical agreement to delay his recruitment until the Bureau’s situation becomes clearer.
• The chapter concludes with an unexpected visitor arriving to provide a potentially decisive lead in the search for Penny.

Key plot points and events

• Green spends nearly all of his accumulated psychic energy expanding the graveyard: he builds an Evil Spirit Tower and a Magic Guild, recruits new undead, and upgrades ghosts into evil spirits. His undead population reaches 164.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman awakens after consuming the Yin Spirit Parasite and advances from a tier-three to a tier-four hero, showing Green that heroes can level up by devouring powerful souls.
• Impressed by the Undead Cannon, Green decides to order more from Old One-Eye. He also realizes he can buy ordinary skeletons and convert them into gun skeletons with the graveyard’s psychic energy.
• At the Mages Association, Green buys 24 skeletons from two struggling novice necromancers. The transfer process proves slow and difficult, but he successfully upgrades the skeletons into a squad of elite gun skeletons. He considers hiring apprentices to supply undead on a larger scale.
• Green finds Old One-Eye’s shop shuttered and wonders whether the merchant has fled or expects trouble in Landon City.
• Back at the castle, Green is surprised to find Lola returned. She has been cured of her vampiric bloodline by blessed holy water from the Church of Light, bought in the Royal Capital for 10,000 gold pounds.

Character developments

• Green grows more ambitious and resourceful, planning ways to expand his army beyond what the graveyard produces naturally. He also learns more about how hero units develop.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman becomes substantially more powerful, reaching tier four after consuming a high-ranking soul.
• Lola has returned to human condition, but the cure has cost her nearly all her savings.

Significant themes

• Power has a price: Green spends nearly all his psychic energy to strengthen his forces, while Lola pays an enormous sum to undo her transformation.
• Experimentation and adaptation: Green looks for practical ways to scale up his army, even when buying and transferring undead is inconvenient.
• Unexpected growth: The Snake Woman’s advancement reveals that consuming powerful souls—not ordinary combat or psychic energy—can develop heroes.

Character interactions

• Green bargains with two novice necromancers, buying their skeletons while witnessing the physical strain of repeatedly summoning undead.
• Green returns to the castle expecting no visitors and is reunited with Lola, whose return and restored appearance surprise him. She explains the costly cure, and Green recognizes the holy water’s power.

Plot points

• Lola tells Green she has found information about Penny’s disappearance. In exchange for a favor, she gives him an address in the Lower District, warning that Penny may already be dead.
• Green goes alone to avoid giving Viscount Paul and Vincent false hope if the lead proves useless.
• At the address—a closed tavern—Green senses the same repulsive aura he encountered at Minster Academy and suspects a Nature Church hideout.
• A defensive magic circle alerts whoever may be inside, so Green abandons stealth and has his undead break in. The tavern appears deserted, but a search reveals a cellar sealed beneath earth and stones.
• Green’s evil spirits find more than a dozen recently deceased bodies. The ghouls uncover them, and Green identifies one as Penny. She has been dead for some time; divine magic has preserved the corpses.

Character developments

• Green is protective of Penny and acts quickly, but keeps the news private until he can confirm it. His initial hope that the Nature Church’s presence means he has found a viable lead gives way to grim certainty.
• Lola is pragmatic and confident in her bargaining, but becomes solemn when warning Green about the possibility that Penny is dead. She declines to accompany him.

Character interactions

• Lola approaches Green with a calculated offer: information about Penny in return for a favor. Green accepts without haggling, trusting her character.
• Green chooses not to involve Paul or Vincent, preferring to verify the lead himself.
• Green’s forceful use of undead frightens nearby residents and patrol officers, who keep their distance.

Significant themes

• Money, favors, and moral compromise: Even religious authority can be bought, while personal favors become a form of currency.
• Hope and uncertainty: Lola’s lead offers Green hope, but her warning—and the hidden bodies—make the search increasingly grim.
• The cost of secrets and power: Lola’s determination to escape her vampire bloodline hints at a deeper, undisclosed motive.
• Death and preservation: The divine magic keeping the corpses intact makes the discovery more disturbing, not less.

Key plot points and events

• Green finds Penny’s corpse and closes her eyes, grieving her death and blaming the Nature Church. The killer was Peter Pan, a former mage turned High Priest who sought a life-extending divine art. He had also exploited Headmaster Minster and sacrificed the academy.
• The graveyard identifies Penny as a recruitable undead. This suggests the bodies were prepared to preserve their souls, possibly as part of a hidden corpse-cultivation scheme. Green suspects Peter Pan may have had help from a Necromancer.
• Of the other corpses, three retain traces of souls, but their minds are almost entirely gone. Green fears Penny may be in the same condition.
• When Green contacts Penny, she responds clearly and recognizes him. She explains that she had recently advanced to Intermediate Apprentice Knight, but Peter Pan captured and killed her after she went looking for trouble with the Tower of Yin Spirits.
• Green tells Penny he can raise her as an undead creature and asks whether she agrees. She accepts, and Green recruits her into the graveyard.

Character developments

• Green is shaken and angry over Penny’s death, but acts cautiously and respects her right to choose what happens to her. He also begins investigating the possibility of a larger necromantic conspiracy.
• Penny retains her memories and personality despite being dead. She is disappointed that her newfound strength did not let her help Green and her uncle, but chooses undeath so she can remain with Green.
• Peter Pan is revealed as a former mage who joined the Nature Church to prolong his life, and as the likely orchestrator of the academy’s sacrifice and Penny’s death.

Significant themes

• Choice and consent: Green will not turn Penny into an undead being without her permission, even in his grief.
• Death, identity, and memory: The condition of the other souls shows that undeath may preserve a body without preserving the person; Penny’s intact response makes her case exceptional.
• Ambition and its cost: Peter Pan’s pursuit of longer life has led him to monstrous acts, while Penny’s pursuit of strength brought her into danger.
• Loyalty and belonging: Penny accepts a changed existence because it means staying with someone she trusts.

Character interactions

• Green gently tends to Penny’s body and reaches out to her mind, carefully gauging her response.
• Penny recognizes Green and confides her fear and regret. Green offers undeath, explains that it is irreversible, and confirms her decision before proceeding.
• Penny affectionately teases Green for worrying too much, reinforcing their close, familial bond.

Chapter Summary: “Not a Zombie After All”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Green recruits Penny into his Graveyard, expecting her to become a Zombie. When she does not appear in the Rotting Crypt, he realizes that, as a Hero Unit, she should manifest near the ruins of the Hero Hall.
• Penny emerges as a powerful Corpse Witch, wearing a dark green gown and wielding a massive Reaper Scythe rather than becoming a normal Zombie.
• Green deduces that the necromancers behind the basement experiments were not creating ordinary Zombies, but attempting to refine rare Corpse Witches. This explains why so many corpses were sacrificed for only a few successful results.
• As a Hero Unit, Penny retains her intelligence, memories, and personality. She also understands that Green’s Graveyard is a private Netherworld and recognizes the secret behind his unusual Undead forces.
• Green recruits the three other corpses. They also become Corpse Witches, though their damaged souls leave them less intelligent than Penny. The transformation nearly exhausts the Graveyard’s Psychic Energy.
• Green plans to use the Corpse Witches primarily as spellcasters and battlefield support. Their abilities—casting defensive spells, strengthening Undead troops, removing negative effects, and creating Bone Shields—fill a major weakness in his army.
• Green returns to Wilson Castle and tells Viscount Paul that Penny has died, directing him to the tavern where her body was found. Paul is devastated by the news.

Character Developments

• Penny embraces her transformation instead of mourning the loss of her human body. She is thrilled by her newfound magical power, having always wanted to become a mage but lacking the talent to do so as a human.
• Penny’s continued self-awareness confirms that Hero Units are fundamentally different from ordinary Undead. She remains cheerful, curious, and emotionally attached to her former family.
• Green initially feels concern and guilt over Penny’s transformation, especially after seeing her altered appearance. He is relieved when she shows no regret and becomes increasingly enthusiastic about the military value of the Corpse Witches.
• Green also demonstrates sensitivity toward Penny’s family by agreeing to tell Viscount Paul that she is simply dead, protecting them from the truth of her Undead existence.
• Viscount Paul reacts with profound grief, revealing how deeply he cared for Penny.

Significant Themes

• Transformation and identity: Penny’s physical death does not erase her personality or desires. She considers becoming a Corpse Witch a fulfillment of her dream of wielding magic rather than a tragedy.
• The difference between life and appearance: Though Penny looks inhuman and is biologically dead, she retains more humanity than ordinary Undead creatures.
• Sacrifice and experimentation: The low success rate of the original experiments shows the extreme cost of creating advanced Undead such as Corpse Witches.
• Power balanced by emotional loss: Penny gains magical strength and a new role, but loses her former appearance and the possibility of openly returning to her family.
• Secrecy and protection: Green must conceal the Graveyard and Penny’s true condition, while Penny chooses to let her family believe she has died.

Character Interactions

• Green and Penny share a warm, familiar relationship. He worries about her transformation and jokes about Corpse Witches being preferable to filthy Zombies, while she reassures him and proudly displays her new abilities.
• Penny reveals that she had already suspected Green possessed a hidden power and that Viscount Paul’s family had speculated about a powerful Necromancer behind him.
• Green and Penny discuss how to explain her fate to Viscount Paul and Vincent. Penny decides that they should simply be told she is dead, sparing them the painful truth.
• Green’s final interaction with Viscount Paul is more somber: he delivers the false version of Penny’s fate, and Paul responds with intense sorrow.

Key plot points and events

• Three days after the massacre at Minster Academy, the kingdom’s leaders have intervened, bringing an unusual calm to Landon City. Green trains while failing to reach Old One-Eye about buying more cannons.
• Lola visits with Agent Peter, who is revealed to be her cousin. Peter invites Green to join the Anomalies Bureau.
• Green realizes Lola also intends to join the Bureau, having decided to change her life after nearly dying and becoming a vampire. She has used expensive holy water to purge her vampire bloodline.
• After consulting Viscount Paul, Green accepts the opportunity and visits Deputy Director Bobby with Paul’s letter. Bobby offers to present Green as an agent he had secretly deployed during the Minster Academy crisis and to seek a captain’s rank.
• Green completes the paperwork. Once higher approval arrives, he will officially join the Bureau. On the ride home, he considers visiting South City Prison and exploiting its imprisoned Transcendents as a source of psychic energy.

Character developments

• Green weighs the benefits of Bureau membership and accepts a path that could give him both authority and independence. He also continues thinking strategically about ways to obtain psychic energy.
• Lola resolves to stop drifting through life and pursue a more purposeful course after her near-death experience.
• Bobby presents himself as a generous ally, but his offer also serves his own ambition: by claiming Green as a covert operative, he can take credit for Green’s role in the crisis.
• Peter acts as the link between Lola and Green and brings the Bureau’s interest in Green to the surface.

Significant themes

• Ambition and self-interest: Green, Bobby, and Lola each pursue new opportunities, though for very different reasons.
• Power, status, and patronage: Green’s noble connections and Paul’s support help secure a promising military rank.
• Reinvention after crisis: Lola’s decision to change follows her brush with death.
• Moral ambiguity: The Bureau’s recruitment narrative is partly fabricated for political advantage, while Green’s thoughts about imprisoned Transcendents raise ethical questions.

Character interactions

• Green questions Lola and Peter’s connection, then correctly infers that Lola plans to join the Bureau.
• Peter invites Green despite their uneasy cooperation at Minster Academy.
• Green consults Paul before approaching Bobby, whose friendly reception masks an attempt to improve his own standing.
• Bobby’s secretary helps Green complete the enlistment paperwork, and their conversation introduces South City Prison as Green’s next possible target.

Key plot points and events

• As Green travels through Landon City, a tremendous burst of psychic energy erupts from City Hall. A pillar of white light pierces the sky, opening a route toward the Beyond the Void.
• Green recognizes the aura as belonging to a void yin spirit’s true body, not merely a parasite. He realizes a summoning ritual is still underway despite the destruction of the Tower of Yin Spirits, suggesting a hidden group is behind it.
• Fearing the catastrophe and the powerful factions converging on City Hall, Green returns to Wilson Castle rather than intervene.
• The spirit’s influence drives people in the Lower District into madness. The Upper District is better protected by defensive magic circles and security forces.
• At the castle, Viscount Paul reveals that he had been forbidden to speak about the conspiracy: Solomon’s cursed runes would have killed him—and endangered his children—if he broke his oath. As the runes suddenly disappear, he is free to talk.
• Powerful human Transcendents and Eeries rush toward City Hall. Among them are Anomalies Bureau Deputy Director Starks, the Eerie that previously attacked City Hall, and Elizabeth Franton, the woman who gave Green his meditation method.

Character developments and interactions

• Green recognizes the scale of the threat, reasons that a larger organization is responsible, and chooses caution over involvement. At Wilson Castle, he presses Viscount Paul for an explanation.
• Viscount Paul is revealed to have been connected to the hidden affair but constrained by the curse. Its disappearance brings him visible relief.
• Vincent watches his father warily, sensing that Paul knows more than he has shared.
• Elizabeth Franton’s sudden appearance among the rushing powerhouses raises questions about her role in the crisis.

Significant themes

• Hidden conspiracies and misdirection: The Tower of Yin Spirits may have been a decoy for a broader summoning plot.
• Power and helplessness: Green understands the danger but recognizes that the conflict exceeds his abilities.
• Fear, control, and collateral damage: The spirit’s aura strips ordinary people of their reason, while the cursed oath threatens not only Paul but his family.
• A gathering of dangerous forces: Human and supernatural powers converge, foreshadowing a major confrontation.

Plot points and events

• Ms. Franton passes Wilson Castle, exchanges a smile and glance with Green, and continues toward City Hall, where a pillar of light marks the Void Yin Spirit’s attempted arrival.
• Green realizes the gathered Transcendents have likely planned to destroy the summoning passage and harvest the psychic energy sustaining it. They attack the pillar together, making it shrink as energy fragments spray out and are collected.
• The Void Yin Spirit, trapped beyond the laws of the void, cannot retaliate directly. Once the summoning is doomed, it unleashes a tremendous burst of power, collapsing the pillar in a massive explosion.
• The blast devastates City Hall and damages nearby buildings, killing and injuring residents, though the city is spared total destruction. The shattered pillar releases a rain of pure psychic energy.
• Green summons the Six-Headed Snake Woman, reveals her to nearby witnesses, and has her take the form of the Xignos Giant Python so she can carry him into the sky. There, he gathers psychic energy far faster, adding more than 1,500 in under two minutes.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows opportunism and resourcefulness: he abandons secrecy when it serves his goal and uses his powerful undead to reach the richest energy.
• The Six-Headed Snake Woman proves both formidable and useful, serving as Green’s transport and enabling his rapid harvest.
• Viscount Paul is startled by Green’s hidden strength and feels relieved that he treated him well and that Vincent befriended him.
• Elizabeth Franton recognizes Green’s unusual ability to control a Formal Rank spirit and is intrigued, though she cannot investigate further because of other obligations.
• Deputy Director Starks, injured by the explosion but enriched by the harvested energy, recognizes the source of Green’s confidence. She dismisses him outwardly but feels envy and resentment at his power.
• The Transcendents act in coordinated self-interest, destroying the summoning passage while competing to collect its energy.

Significant themes

• Power and opportunism: The attempted summoning becomes a planned harvest, with powerful figures exploiting a catastrophe for personal gain.
• Consequences of ambition: The Void Yin Spirit’s failed arrival ends in a destructive outburst that harms the city and its residents.
• Hidden strength and reputation: Green’s concealed capability changes how others judge him, drawing both admiration and envy.
• Moral contrast: The Transcendents’ pursuit of psychic energy continues amid the city’s widespread suffering.

Key plot points and events

• Green’s Six-Headed Snake Woman form carries him through the air long enough for him to gain over 3,400 psychic energy. He considers revealing her a calculated risk: he expects to gain protection by joining the Anomalies Bureau, and believes he will have other trump cards in the future.
• Viscount Hillwost’s failed attempt to summon the Void Yin Spirit ends catastrophically. The furious spirit’s corrosive black substance spreads from beneath City Hall, and Hillwost is transformed into a grotesque, tumor-like creature. The Garrison Knights ultimately destroy it with sustained cannon fire.
• Half a month later, Landon City remains devastated, with at least 5,000 estimated dead and enormous economic damage. Green has avoided further risks while stronger forces dominate the aftermath.
• Green has officially joined the Anomalies Bureau as a captain, with Deputy Director Bobby’s support, and now commands a small team. His only active teammate is Lola Claudi; their assigned veteran, Allent, is hospitalized.
• After finding nothing of psychic value among City Hall’s bombed-out ruins, Green takes Lola to visit Old One-Eye’s shop in the Underground Black Market.

Character developments and interactions

• Green shows himself to be calculating and cautious: he accepts the risk of exposing a powerful ability for psychic energy and future institutional protection, but refrains from further reckless moves after the crisis. His new rank gives him authority, though his search of the ruins also reveals his continuing interest in collecting psychic energy.
• Viscount Hillwost is revealed as the desperate architect of the summoning. His fear of death led him to pursue survival through the Void Yin Spirit; the failed ritual turns him into its victim.
• Lola resents being placed beneath Green despite joining the Bureau around the same time. She follows his orders, but their new superior-subordinate relationship is tense.
• Viscount Paul recognizes Hillwost and expresses disbelief that the respected former mayor would go so far. His reaction highlights the contrast between Hillwost’s public reputation and his desperate private scheme.

Significant themes

• Ambition and desperation: Hillwost’s pursuit of survival leads to his ruin.
• The cost of supernatural conflict: The city’s destruction and heavy casualties show that the crisis harms ordinary people as well as its central figures.
• Power and protection: Green weighs the risks of revealing his abilities against the advantages of psychic energy, allies, and official status.
• Rank and hierarchy: Green’s rapid promotion contrasts with Lola’s low-level appointment, shaping their strained partnership.