Recaps

Guildmaster Rukta ruled that Kana's Squad had completed its bounty mission and dismissed Guligus from the Adventurers' Guild. The squad then turned its attention to recovering as much of its bounty reward as possible, while Kana promised Dean a later conversation about Yue Sisi.

• After the other adventurers left to hunt goblins, Rukta kept Kana's Squad, Yue Sisi, Guligus, and the plump swindler in the hall to settle the dispute.
• Rukta declared that Kana's Squad had completed the bounty mission perfectly and brought back important intelligence for Blue Town.
• Rukta dismissed Guligus as hall supervisor and expelled him from the Adventurers' Guild, refusing him a pension.
• Yue Sisi winked flirtatiously at Dean, and Kana questioned him about it.
• Dean changed the subject to recovering the squad's silver coins, and Kana whispered that she would talk to him later about Yue Sisi.

Guligus and the fat merchant accused Kana's Squad of failing their Goblin task and demanded that the squad lose its rating. Dean stopped Kana from attacking them, while Guildmaster Rukta stayed calm as the argument continued.

• Guligus argued that Kana's Squad might only have driven the Goblins away, letting them return to the merchant's fields.
• The fat merchant called Kana's Squad frauds and refused to pay them any reward.
• Kana grew furious, but Dean stopped her and said the facts would speak for themselves.
• Guligus suggested that the squad might never have found the Goblins and had lied about the task.
• Guligus pointed to the squad's lack of proof and asked Rukta to lower its rating and make it start over.

Rukta revealed that events in Giant Python City had changed the balance of power, then took charge of judging Kana's Squad's work and directed them to hunt Goblins for a Guild bounty. He left the crooked merchant facing a threat to his farmland while the squad set out to claim the reward.

• Rukta told Guligus that he had killed the boy carrying his messages and hinted that Giant Python City had undergone a major upheaval.
• Dean explained to Kana and the others that even low-level Magic Talismans were worth at least ten Gold Coins.
• Guligus revealed that the dead boy was the nephew of Giant Python City's Lord, but Rukta said the city's situation had changed and identified Guligus's backer as one of the Lord's wives.
• The crooked merchant refused to pay Kana's Squad without proof, but Rukta reminded him of the Guild's Bounty Mission and warned him to return to his farmland.
• Rukta ordered Kana's Squad to clear out the Goblins for the bounty and promised them another Guild reward afterward.

Kana's Squad rushed out to hunt Goblins for their bounties while Guild Master Rukta confronted Guligus inside the sealed Adventurers' Guild. An hour later, Rukta had defeated Guligus and his Golden-Armored Demon Insect, while Kana's Squad hurried toward the Magic Beast Forest after other adventurers cleared out the nearby Goblins.

• Kana's Squad left the Adventurers' Guild in a hurry to claim Goblin bounties.
• Rukta sealed the Guild hall, drew his Dragon-Slaying Twin Axes, and confronted Guligus.
• Guligus summoned a powerful Golden-Armored Demon Insect, and Rukta ordered everyone else to leave.
• An hour later, the insect lay dead, Guligus was a shriveled husk, and Rukta left to find a priest for his wound.
• Kana's Squad found the Goblin remains gone and headed for the Magic Beast Forest as other adventurers rushed ahead.

Kana’s party discovered that Goblins were ambushing adventurers near Magic Beast Forest and chose to avoid the fight rather than risk a rescue. Meanwhile, Guildmaster Rukta recovered at the temple and revealed that he intended to face the Goblin Shaman himself.

• Kana used Eagle Eye Technique and spotted more than a hundred Goblins waiting near the forest’s edge.
• Dean detected a coordinated Goblin ambush, and he and Kana agreed that the party should approach cautiously and prioritize survival.
• Yanxi stopped the party after smelling blood, and Dean detected several groups fighting ahead with at least thirty Goblins still present.
• Kana’s party abandoned the rescue and followed a quieter route guided by Dean’s Life Detection Magic.
• Guildmaster Rukta met a Third-Rank Priest at the temple, who healed his wound as they discussed the Goblin uprising and the previous wave’s losses.
• Rukta said he planned to intervene and take on the Goblin Shaman with his Dragon-Slaying Twin Axes.

Dean and his companions discovered that a goblin squad was carrying a Soul Stone and learned that its leader was a goblin shaman. The shaman ordered his guards to retreat toward the Nest, leaving the group uncertain about what the goblins were doing.

• Dean reported that more than fifty adventurers had died fighting the goblin force while hundreds of goblins had also fallen.
• Dean detected a goblin squad carrying something, and Kana led the group closer to investigate.
• Lamore spotted a tiny object in the goblin leader’s hand, and Dean identified it as a Soul Stone.
• Kana decided that the group would take the Soul Stone, and Dean identified its holder as a goblin shaman at least around level two.
• After scanning for enemies, the goblin shaman ordered his guards to leave for the Nest, and Dean felt uneasy about their retreat.

Kana’s Squad followed an elite goblin squad deep into the Magic Beast Forest, losing their bearings as they pursued the Goblin Shaman and its Soul Stone. They reached a goblin nest in a small canyon and camped nearby, unaware that the shaman had begun drawing patterns on the ground.

• Kana’s Squad struggled along the goblins’ treacherous forest route while keeping their distance, and Kana complained about being left at the rear.
• Dean said the goblin tribe’s nest should be close, though he concealed that his information came from the Infinite Eye.
• The goblin squad reached a small canyon filled with holes that served as goblin nests, and Kana’s Squad found no guards at the entrance.
• After night fell, Kana’s Squad camped at the canyon’s edge, shared hard dry rations, and complained about the goblins’ soup.
• The Goblin Shaman began drawing patterns on the ground while Kana’s Squad remained unaware.

Kana’s Squad watched a Goblin Shaman prepare a huge magic circle in the canyon, then slept while the Goblins guarded him. In the morning, the Goblins poured their strange soup into the completed circle, and a huge figure appeared and roared inside it.

• The Goblin Shaman drew a precise, twenty-meter magic circle while a young Goblin widened its lines into trenches.
• Dean guessed the circle could produce intermediate magic and told Kana’s Squad it would likely take until morning to complete.
• Kana’s Squad settled down to sleep, but Lamore’s question about how they would escape left Kana and Yanxi awake with worry.
• The squad woke the next morning, and Kana joined them for breakfast while the Goblins finished preparing the circle.
• The Goblins poured their boiling soup into the trenches, revealing a huge figure roaring inside the magic circle.

Dean identified the Goblin Shaman’s ritual as a Giant Spirit Summoning Array, which was drawing a level-four Giant’s soul into a Soul Stone. Far away in the Demon Abyss World, Stavago sent Dean information about the array, then consumed a human soul and fell into a long slumber.

• The Goblin Shaman completed the array’s preparations, and Dean recognized the spell as a Giant Spirit Summoning Array.
• The little Goblin placed a Soul Stone in the array as the enormous being roared in excitement.
• Dean explained how the array used the Soul Stone as a temporary vessel, while he and his companions feared the Goblins and the summoned Giant.
• Stavago watched Dean through a water mirror and transmitted information about the array to help him survive.
• Stavago consumed several hundred ordinary souls, savored a blue human soul, and fell asleep dreaming of its former owner’s life.

The Goblins summoned a Giant by sacrificing their own souls and blood, but the creature remained far weaker than a true Giant. Dean realized the Goblin Shaman was using a nested magic array to seize the Giant’s body, leaving its soul in agony as it was forced back.

• The Goblins sacrificed their elderly and weak members’ souls, then offered blood to give the summoned Giant a body.
• Kana and Yanxi watched the Giant appear, while Dean worried it might reach the fifth level and threaten Blue Town.
• Dean determined that the Giant could only reach the peak of the fourth level because Goblin souls were weaker than human souls.
• The Giant raged against the summoning array, but eight magical chains restrained it.
• Dean recognized that the Goblin Shaman’s nested array was forcibly taking the Giant’s body and sending its original soul back.

The old Goblin Shaman transferred his soul into the giant, leaving his original body behind, while the tribe’s young successor took up the Goblin Scepter. The giant and most of the Goblins marched toward Blue Town, and Dean’s group crept toward the temple to get closer to the Magic Artifact.

• The old Goblin Shaman grafted his soul onto the giant’s body, though Dean estimated the transformation would last no more than ten hours.
• The little Goblin revealed the tribe’s Low-Level Magic Artifact staff and entered the temple as its new Shaman Heir.
• The old shaman led the giant and most of the Goblin Tribe out of the canyon toward Blue Town, leaving the old, weak, women, and children behind.
• Dean and his companions waited, then used his concealment spell and the bushes to sneak toward the temple, where the little Goblin had placed the staff in a Goblin Statue’s hands.

Dean and his companions confronted a young Goblin Shaman at a ruined temple, where Dean defeated him despite lacking an offensive spell. Afterward, Dean discovered that the Goblin Scepter rejected non-Goblin users and would be ordinary without its consciousness.

• The young Goblin Shaman challenged Dean to a duel, and Dean restrained him with Basic Binding Spell.
• The Goblin used Healing Technique through his scepter, while Dean admitted he had no decent offensive spell and Kana threw him her hand axe.
• The young Shaman exhausted himself using Healing Technique, and Dean killed him, experiencing his first time personally ending an intelligent being’s life.
• Dean picked up the Goblin Scepter, but it shook in his grip and rejected him; he explained that its consciousness had to be erased for anyone else to use it.

Dean realized the Goblin statue powered the hostile Goblin Scepter and turned to Undead Summoning as a way to deal with the situation. He completed a summoning array using the dead little Goblin’s blood and began the spell before its soul could dissipate.

• The Goblin Scepter struck Kana when she tried to pick it up, and Dean connected its power to the Unyielding Stone statue in the ruined temple.
• Kana wanted to smash the statue, but Dean warned that it would take months and might provoke its defenses.
• Yanxi and Lamore noted that the dead little Goblin had shown exceptional talent and could have grown stronger than his mentor.
• Dean used the Infinite Eye to learn Undead Summoning and chose a method requiring an object connected to the undead being and a summoning medium.
• Dean drew an array around the little Goblin with its blood and began summoning it as an undead before its soul dissipated.

Dean turned the young Goblin into a Lich by sacrificing the Goblin tribe’s Totem Spirit, then successfully summoned it as Lich Doge. He and his companions continued toward Blue Town, where the Shaman Giant was expected to attack.

• Dean used potions and a reincarnation array to prepare the young Goblin’s body for transformation into a Lich.
• Dean bound the Goblin statue and scepter, then sacrificed the statue to the Undead Realm as he reincarnated the young Goblin.
• Dean and his companions left the Goblin tribe and hurried toward Blue Town to help defend it from the Shaman Giant.
• Dean realized his Undead Summoning Spell had succeeded and called Lich Doge to appear before his companions.
• Dean confirmed that Lich Doge had perfect magical aptitude, enhanced by the Undead Realm’s gift in exchange for the sacrificed Totem Spirit.

Dean successfully summoned Doge as a Goblin Lich and learned that Doge could remain in the world for several hours by using his own mana. As the group traveled toward Blue Town, Doge summoned an undead mount that carried Dean while the others ran.

• Dean summoned Doge, a newly reincarnated Goblin Lich, and protected him from Lamore’s proposed Healing Magic experiment.
• Doge told Dean that he could stay for about half an hour on Dean’s mana, or five hours by spending his own fifty mana points.
• Kana, Yanxi, Lamore, and Dean reached the outskirts of the Magic Beast Forest after an hour of running toward Blue Town.
• Doge summoned his exclusive undead mount, and Dean rode behind him while the other three continued on foot.

Dean’s group reached a battlefield where nearly a thousand Goblins were locked in a stalemate with adventurers, then joined the support unit at the rear. There, Lamore reunited with his mentor, and Sanderson questioned Dean about the enormous Undead Behemoth carrying him.

• Kana spotted the giant from the edge of the Magic Beast Forest, and her group headed toward the battle.
• Dean’s group circled the battlefield and found the Goblins and adventurers evenly matched, so they avoided intervening directly.
• The group slipped through the wheat field to the support unit, where novice adventurers treated wounded fighters.
• Lamore reunited with his mentor, a Third-Rank Priest, who scolded him for venturing into the Goblin Nest.
• Rukta returned injured, and the Priest and Lamore used healing techniques to repair his crushed arm.
• Rukta asked whether Dean was Sanderson’s new pupil, and Sanderson questioned Dean about the Undead Behemoth.

Dean introduced his Undead Lich Doge to Sanderson and the others, revealing that Doge had been the Goblin Shaman’s designated heir. As Blue Town’s adventurers struggled against the giant, Silianth asked to study Doge for clues to its weakness, and Sanderson stood between them.

• Doge explained that the Undead Behemoth had returned to the Undead World because summoning it had nearly depleted its mana.
• Dean told Sanderson and Rukta that Doge had been the giant’s heir, and Lamore confirmed Doge had received the Shaman Staff from the old Shaman.
• Doge worried that the others would take his staff, but Dean promised to protect it and explained that they might need Doge and the staff’s help.
• Sanderson publicly introduced Dean as his student, and Silianth asked Dean to surrender Doge for study to help defend Blue Town.
• Sanderson blocked Silianth and insisted that Dean was his student, while Lamore apologized and Dean reassured him that the situation was not his fault.

Dean and the others learned that Doge could use the Goblin Scepter to retrieve his former master's soul from the giant, offering a way to end the slaughter without sacrificing Doge. Doge approached the giant and spoke to the old Shaman, leaving Dean reflecting on the conflicting choices facing them.

• Silianth urged Dean to act as the giant continued injuring the adventurers, and Lamore treated a badly wounded shield-bearing adventurer.
• Doge explained that he could use the Goblin Scepter to collect his former master's soul from the giant and asked to keep the soul afterward.
• Sanderson confirmed the scepter held the souls of generations of Goblin Shamans, and Silianth agreed that Doge could return his master's soul to it.
• Doge approached the resting giant and spoke to the old Shaman in Goblin Language, causing the giant to kneel and reach toward him.
• Dean said he felt like a sinner toward Doge and the old Shaman, and Sanderson reminded him that choices looked different from different sides.

Dean and Sanderson discovered that the Goblin shaman’s possession of the giant had made him powerful, but the shaman’s soul was bound to the giant’s distant true body. After Doge’s attempt to negotiate failed and the shaman cast War Frenzy, the adventurers renewed their fight and agreed to hand Doge over as their last option.

• Dean told Sanderson that the old shaman had sacrificed Goblin and adventurer souls, used Goblin blood, and possessed the giant’s body.
• Sanderson explained that the shaman’s contract would let the giant claim his soul, but the Goblin Scepter might change his fate.
• The old shaman rejected Doge’s views, and his pounding and rhythmic growls drove the Goblin Tribe into a frenzied attack.
• Rukta readied his Twin Axes as Sanderson recognized the old shaman’s War Frenzy spell, which shrank the giant and weakened him.
• Rukta wounded the weakened giant, and Silianth demanded that Sanderson hand over Doge; Sanderson agreed, and Dean did not object.

Doge dispelled the old shaman’s War Frenzy, sent the Goblin Tribe retreating, and gathered the shaman’s soul into the Goblin Scepter before returning to the Undead Realm. A day later, Guildmaster Rukta announced that the Goblin Crisis had ended and promised Kana’s Squad a grand gift for their role in defeating the new shaman.

• Doge chose to use force against his mentor, and Dean gave him permission to begin.
• Doge dispelled War Frenzy and ordered the Goblin troops to retreat into the Magic Beast Forest.
• The old shaman’s soul entered the Goblin Scepter, and Doge returned to the Undead Realm at Dean’s request.
• Guildmaster Rukta announced that the Goblin Crisis and the recurring Goblin Uprising had ended.
• Rukta credited Kana’s Squad with defeating the new Goblin Shaman and promised them a grand gift.

Kana’s party returned to the inn and examined the valuable Guild rewards they had received. Dean was left trying to discover how to open the mysterious spellbook that his mentor had given him.

• Kana welcomed Dean into the group and showed him to his spacious but sparsely furnished room.
• The party examined the rewards: Lamore’s potion, Yanxi’s Magic Inner Armor, Kana’s Flame-Red Longbow, and Dean’s spellbook.
• Lamore explained that the potion could help him form a Magic Vortex, while the armor and bow were powerful equipment worth hundreds of gold coins.
• Dean tried feeding mana into the spellbook, but it passed straight through without opening it.
• Kana, Lamore, and Yanxi went to their rooms, leaving Dean alone with the unopened spellbook.

Dean discovered that mental strength, rather than magic power, could open his magic book, but the effort knocked him unconscious. The book’s hidden consciousness awakened, recognized Dean as its new owner, and found him unusually promising.

• Dean failed to channel magic power into the book and decided to try using his mental strength.
• Dean sent his mental strength into the book, which drained him until he fell unconscious.
• A triangle imprint appeared on the cover, marking Dean as the book’s owner, and its consciousness awakened.
• The consciousness dismissed Dean as too weak to meet it, then noticed unusual qualities in him and retreated into the book.

Dean discovered that the spellbook had become a small pendant he could open with mana, then visited Sanderson to continue his magical training. Sanderson began teaching him to inscribe Magic Runes, starting with Spatial Structure Runes.

• Dean found the spellbook in a tiny form and realized it had also appeared in his mind after he studied it overnight.
• Kana kicked open Dean's door to wake him, then hurried back to her room before he could respond.
• Dean visited Sanderson's courtyard, where Wooden Man told him to wait because Sanderson was still asleep.
• Dean used ten points of mana to open the spellbook and learned that it could function like a wand while reducing spell costs.
• Sanderson joined Dean for breakfast and announced that they would begin learning to inscribe Magic Runes.
• Sanderson chose Spatial Structure Runes as the first runes Dean would learn.

Sanderson taught Dean the basics of Magic Runes by assigning him repeated practice with twenty symbols. After drawing for the entire day, Dean became dizzy and could think of nothing but the runes.

• Sanderson explained how Magic Runes could alter objects and told Dean to practice drawing the basic symbols.
• Dean began the exercise, struggling with the intricate shapes and resolving to complete the repetitions.
• Sanderson watched Dean through his mental power, recalled his own training, and briefly fell asleep.
• Dean became absorbed in drawing and completed more than eight hundred repetitions, improving until his runes nearly matched Sanderson's.
• Sanderson judged Dean's intense concentration a success, and Dean stopped drawing as his vision blurred and his mind spun.

Dean recovered from exhausting his mental power and returned to Sanderson’s study to continue practicing magic runes. After seeing Dean’s improved control, Sanderson asked him to inscribe his first true magic rune.

• Dean woke in a cottage in Sanderson’s courtyard, where Wooden Man fed him porridge and gave him a sour pill to restore his depleted mental power.
• Wooden Man told Dean that each pill cost ten gold coins and that Sanderson would not give him spending money, disappointing Dean’s hopes of getting rich.
• After resting, Dean returned to Sanderson’s study and found Sanderson examining the magic runes he had drawn the previous day.
• Dean practiced drawing runes with smoother movements, and Sanderson approved of his progress.
• Sanderson told Dean to try inscribing his first true magic rune.