Chapter Summaries

Kana and her companions ambushed three sleeping goblins, but the Goblin Elite’s cries alerted a far larger force. Dean detected dozens of approaching lives and led the party in a desperate escape.

• Kana, Dean, Yanxi, and Lamore silently took positions around the sleeping goblins, each choosing a target.
• Dean trapped the goblins with an enhanced Basic Binding Spell, and the Goblin Elite accidentally cut one of its companions in two.
• Yanxi wounded the Goblin Elite in the thigh, while Kana killed the spear-carrying goblin with an arrow.
• After the Goblin Elite’s roars raised suspicion, Dean used Life Detection Magic and sensed twenty-eight approaching lives.
• Dean grabbed Yanxi and Kana and fled as Lamore ran ahead, while a crowd of goblins converged on the tree.

Dean and his team escaped a horde of goblins and reported the danger to the Adventurers' Guild, where Kana’s Phoenix Token prompted President Rukta to act immediately. The team collected its reward and left Kana’s background unexplored, while the goblin threat remained beyond their hands.

• Dean led Kana, Yanxi, and Lamore away from at least a hundred goblins and hurried back to Blue Town.
• The farmer who posted their commission demanded proof, but Kana said they had a more urgent matter to report.
• Kana showed the Phoenix Token to President Rukta and relayed Dean’s warning about the goblin horde.
• Rukta accepted Kana’s report and hurried off to send people to investigate.
• Kana led the team to collect their payment, and the four adventurers each received five silver coins.

Kana's Squad submitted its Goblin bounty mission without the required evidence, and the Guild approved a seventy-percent reward while promoting the squad to an official First-Rank Adventurer squad. The farm owner objected, demanded to pay far less, and insinuated that Kana and the clerk had an improper relationship with Dean.

• Kana told the clerk that her squad had eliminated the Goblins but could not collect their left fangs as evidence, and she swore on the squad badge that the mission was complete.
• The clerk cited Kana's Squad's reputation and mission record, announced its promotion to an official First-Rank Adventurer squad, and approved seventy percent of the reward.
• The farm owner rejected the Guild's decision, argued that the squad deserved only ten percent, and accused Kana of having an unspeakable relationship with the clerk.
• Lamore warned Dean that the farm owner seemed intent on damaging the squad's reputation and dragging down the clerk's reputation as well.

A guild hall supervisor named Guligus used his authority to challenge Kana's team's reputation rating, despite Yue Sisi's objections. Dean and his companions protected the team's badge, leaving the dispute unresolved.

• A portly swindler accused Yue Sisi of favoring Kana's team while denying that he was criticizing the Adventurers' Guild.
• A flamboyantly dressed old man arrived and rebuked Yue Sisi, revealing himself as Guligus, the guild hall supervisor.
• Yue Sisi defended Kana's team's eligibility for Level-One status, but Guligus ordered its reputation rating lowered to level three.
• Dean, Yanxi, and Lamore shielded Kana and her team badge from the worker tasked with reassessing it.
• Yue Sisi warned that she would challenge Guligus's decision at the next guild meeting, but he dismissed her and insisted his authority applied immediately.

Guligus tried to strip Kana’s team of its reputation while threatening Yue Sisi with demotion, but Kana refused to surrender the team badge. Guildmaster Rukta intervened and announced an unlimited bounty for goblins from the Northwestern Magic Beast Forest.

• Guligus threatened to request Yue Sisi’s demotion and ordered Kana to hand over her team badge.
• Kana doubted whether her team amounted to anything, but Dean, Lamore, and Yanxi reminded her of how much they had learned and accomplished together.
• Kana refused to surrender the badge, and Guligus ordered the young employee to erase the team’s reputation and return it to level one.
• Guildmaster Rukta stopped the young employee and announced a bounty of one silver coin for each adult goblin killed in the Northwestern Magic Beast Forest.

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.