Chapter Summaries

Roland studied the records of higher-tier advancement and devised a soul-rune system shaped around his unique resonance spanning universes. He prepared for the transformation and began merging runes from his Dreamscape into his soul, leaving the first essential runes in place.

• Roland read Ovesto’s personal advancement notes and learned how mages used magical mutations and organs to achieve higher-tier transformation.
• Roland used his Indexing Spell and Strategic Deduction to develop an advancement plan that replaced mutated organs with soul runes built from Seris Runes and his resonance spanning universes.
• Roland settled on the True Word Spell and Wish systems as the focus of his resonance and arranged to obtain the necessary materials and potions.
• Roland finished modifying the components of his plan and catalyzed his magic power until he could reforge his source.
• Roland entered the Dreamscape, plucked runes including “path,” “rune,” “law,” and “wish” from the World Tree, and merged them into his soul.

Roland refined Seris divine runes into a lawlike power and proposed a shared Seris Divine Kingdom and magic network for the school. As he entered arcane politics, a fierce split emerged between supporters of his runes and Professor Shagengs's Ingenious Automaton for the Arcane Star Award.

• Roland tested his Seris Divine Rune Art on Atali, immobilizing her with the rune for “Stabilize” and confirming his path as a Rune Controller.
• Roland explained his advancement method to Lie Yi and Blaise and proposed using resonance to share rune power through a Seris School magic network.
• Roland, Lie Yi, and Blaise outlined a Seris Divine Kingdom whose members would contribute during life and pass their wisdom and power on after death.
• Roland joined the Morningstar Award selection and received authority to cast votes for Lie Yi, Blaise, Morella, and others.
• The Elements School backed Professor Shagengs's Ingenious Automaton, leaving its supporters and Roland's Seris runes bloc evenly matched in the Arcane Star Award voting.

Roland rejected Ovesto’s suggestion that he wait until next year to pursue the Arcane Star Award and committed to competing against Professor Xiagengsi. After studying each other’s work, both men recognized the other’s strengths, and the contest remained uncertain until Lie Yi, Blaise, and the others published a practical application of Seris Runes.

• Roland learned from Ovesto that some people wanted to preserve Aziz’s record as the youngest Arcane Star Award winner, and he refused to yield the award to Professor Xiagengsi.
• Roland studied the Ingenious Automaton and considered combining it with his Indexing Spell to create greater intelligence, while recognizing that Professor Xiagengsi was a formidable competitor.
• Professor Xiagengsi praised Roland’s Seris Rune Compilation but believed his own Ingenious Automaton had an advantage through its immediate applications and the Level 9 Spell Intelligence Bestowal.
• Mages debated the rival achievements throughout June, with many favoring Professor Xiagengsi’s practical results and potential to aid advancement to the legendary ranks.
• Lie Yi, Blaise, and the others published Seris Runes and Soul Resonance in the Arcana Communications Journal, describing applications of Seris Runes and a meditation method for the Passing the Torch project.

Roland presented his work on the Seris language and its many magical applications to the Arcane Star selection committee, revealing the breadth of its potential and winning an enthusiastic response. Professor Xiagengsi’s presentation was delayed because he was developing a new model to improve the Ingenious Automaton’s intelligence.

• Professor Xiagengsi read about the Seris meditation system, sensed the World Tree, and used its runes to explore the connection between language, intelligence, and wisdom.
• The selection committee remained deadlocked between Roland and Professor Xiagengsi, so it arranged research presentations to help commissioners assess their achievements.
• Lunifis warned Roland that the presentation could lead to another vote, and Roland prepared to explain his work.
• Roland presented the development of Seris writing and its applications, prompting the committee to recognize the extensive value of his achievements and applaud him.
• Professor Xiagengsi failed to arrive, and his assistant said he was working on a model that could further improve the Ingenious Automaton’s intelligence.

Professor Xiagengsi used Seris Runes to improve the Ingenious Automaton’s intelligence and withdrew from the Arcane Star Award selection in support of Roland. After the committee verified his discovery, Roland won the award with 87 votes.

• Professor Xiagengsi developed a new semantic-network magic array for the Ingenious Automaton using Seris Runes.
• After running more than thirty minutes late, Professor Xiagengsi presented his discovery and credited Roland and the Seris School’s rune research.
• Professor Xiagengsi withdrew from the Arcane Star Award selection and endorsed Roland, angering Opani.
• The committee examined Professor Xiagengsi’s improvement and confirmed that Seris Runes had inspired and enabled it.
• Antonia announced that Roland won the Arcane Star Award with 87 votes, or 72.5 percent.

After winning the Arcane Star Award, Roland prepared to advance to the higher tier and tested whether his universal resonance could survive Atrelin Mage Tower’s protections. He drank Selsidano’s Sensation, stabilized the Divine Runes in his soul, and began casting the spell to advance to the seventh rank.

• Roland received the Arcane Star Award, a level 9 spell quota, and Selsidano’s Sensation, while Antonia said his promotion to professor could be finalized before year’s end.
• News of Roland’s award spread, and schools began seeking ties with the Seris School; Lunifis celebrated his achievement with him.
• Roland returned home, asked Atali to handle invitations, and arranged to enter seclusion in a protected Meditation Room at Atrelin Mage Tower.
• Roland tested the universal resonance inside the sealed room and found that the protections weakened but could not sever it.
• Roland drank Selsidano’s Sensation, gained heightened perception, and fused the Divine Runes into a stable resonance-sensing structure within his soul.
• Roland cast the prepared Multiring Concentric Dream Spell Array and began his advancement to the seventh rank.

After advancing to the higher tier, Roland discovered that his supernatural trait, Soul Resonance, let his rune spells impose true effects that bypassed resistance. He chose the level 9 spell Retrocognition as preparation for becoming a Legendary History Recorder, then began testing it.

• Roland emerged from three days of meditation as a higher-tier mage, having transformed his strongest attribute from Intelligence to Wisdom and gained the supernatural trait Soul Resonance.
• Roland manifested the Seris rune for “Stabilize” and used a true-effect spell on Antonia, bypassing his Legendary spell resistance.
• After resting, Roland found that his higher-tier status had upgraded his magic network access and increased his spell quotas, including a special quota for one level 9 spell.
• Roland told Antonia and Ovesto that he would choose Retrocognition instead of Wish or Interdimensional Gate, explaining that he planned to become a Legendary History Recorder.
• Roland began casting Retrocognition, hoping his Soul Resonance would enhance the divination spell.

Roland used Retrocognition to discover Atali’s family troubles and decided to help her by visiting his hometown with her. He returned to Whitepine Town in a grand procession, where his greeting to Atali’s father prompted the local lord to reveal that Morrison had become a court count.

• Roland used Retrocognition to watch Atali read a letter about a failed harvest and her injured brother, then stopped when the spell began hurting his eyes.
• Roland told Atali he planned to visit his family, and she said she would go wherever he went.
• Roland traveled with Atali, Gang Jide, and his entourage to Whitepine Town, where the townspeople and his family welcomed him ceremonially.
• Roland greeted his parents and brother, then accepted the local lord’s respects and praised his hometown.
• Roland thanked Morrison for raising Atali, and the lord announced that Morrison had become a court count.

Roland reunited with his family in Whitepine Town and learned of a suspected unusual beast calamity after Atali’s injured brother, Sida, urged an investigation. When Roland’s guards returned with a wolf corpse confirmed to be undead, he suspected illegal necromancy and ordered experts and military support brought in.

• Roland arrived at his family’s new mansion in Whitepine Town and reunited with them.
• Roland visited Atali’s brother Sida, who insisted that strange beasts in the mountains might have been corrupted by the Abyss.
• After learning that Sida’s patrol had suffered deaths and injuries, Roland sent Misius and Wofte to investigate with a local guide.
• Misius and Wofte returned with a giant gray wolf corpse that Roland’s group identified as an undead creature created through necromancy.
• Roland issued orders to nearby Mages’ Guilds and requisitioned experts from the Mage Legion in Angmore to investigate the illegal undead activity.

Roland used divination and strategic deduction to locate Shirem’s hidden base, where the Necromancer had spent fifteen years preparing an undead catastrophe. After the Battle Mages attacked the cavern, Shirem escaped through another exit, only to find Roland and his allies waiting at a valley.

• Roland used Retrocognition, weather records, terrain surveys, and Oracle Bone Divination to pinpoint where Shirem had turned a gray wolf into an undead creature.
• Battle Mages investigated the forest site and found signs that it was occupied by undead, prompting Shirem and his companion to prepare to unleash an Undead Catastrophe.
• Shirem monitored the production of enormous undead monsters in an underground ruin and learned that his fifteen-year project was nearly complete.
• Roland led an elite force in bombarding the concealed cavern entrance, while Battle Mages captured Shirem’s companion and fought the abominations and undead emerging from the base.
• Shirem used an illusion to cover his escape from the cavern, but Roland and his allies appeared at the exit of a valley and confronted him.

Roland defeated Shirem and uncovered evidence that a hidden organization was preparing an Undead Catastrophe in Larus Territory. The clues pointed to the Quagmire Plan, a conspiracy by empire-level powers that excluded Atrelin and sought to weaken it.

• Roland summoned a holy Angel and unleashed holy light against Shirem’s undead army.
• Roland used Command Undead to turn Shirem’s armored skeleton guard against him, and the guard killed Shirem.
• Roland and his companions destroyed the remaining undead with holy water, blessed weapons, and holy light.
• Roland reflected on how institutional failures could create people like Shirem and warned that Atrelin’s education system left many talents without opportunities.
• Roland found correspondence showing that a mysterious High Mage called the Mentor had supplied Shirem’s organization with spells and resources to trigger an Undead Catastrophe.
• Roland recognized that the organization was connected to the Quagmire Plan, a conspiracy among empire-level powers to sabotage Atrelin.

After investigating Shirem’s necromantic research, Roland learned that the Mentor had likely given him incomplete runewords and left the search for the mastermind to the committee. Back in Nevis City, Roland met Anna Corliss, an astrologer from the Gnosis School, who asked him about Seris’s astronomical terms and constellations.

• Roland gave most of the recovered documents to the committee and explained that Shirem’s bone plaques bore ancient Destel Script used to enhance undead magic.
• Roland shared Shirem’s research with Professor Xiagengsi, who concluded that the runes were fragments of a more complete teaching likely provided by the Mentor.
• The Larus Territory rewarded Sida for helping avert a disaster, while the committee reported that it was searching for the Mentor and urging territories and kingdoms to investigate.
• Before leaving Whitepine Town, Roland advised Halls to move the family’s businesses to the Larus Territory’s capital and arranged transfers for several relatives and associates.
• After returning to Nevis City, Roland received Anna Corliss, who explained that the Gnosis School wanted to offer Seris as an elective language for astrologers and asked about its seasonal and celestial terminology.

Roland discussed a joint Seris-astrology terminology project with Anna Corliss, who planned to establish astrology courses and a resident mage presence at Seris Academy. As their academic partnership grew closer, Lunifis urged Roland to pursue Anna as a suitable wife, while both Roland and Anna secretly tried to divine whether they were destined partners.

• Anna Corliss proposed a joint terminology project and said she would bring arcanists to the East Lainer Mage Tower to establish astrology courses at Seris Academy.
• Roland discussed Anna’s proposal with Lunifis, who explained that Anna represented only her own lineage within the Gnosis School and urged Roland to marry her.
• Roland rejected Lunifis’s advice, saying he would rather pursue legendary status and immortality than an arranged marriage.
• Anna continued visiting Roland, and their academic discussions brought them closer as she became impressed by his knowledge.
• After Atali remarked on Anna’s growing interest in Roland, he used a Strategic Deduction equation to divine whether she was his destined partner.
• Anna secretly created an intricate magic array and began calculating whether Roland was her destined partner through her astrology method.

Roland and Anna overcame their awkward secret divination contest and hosted an Arcane Salon to plan a collaborative translation project between the Seris and Gnosis Schools. Roland’s proposed Translation Hall gained publicity and support, but some Gnosis School mages opposed the project as funding applications began.

• Roland and Anna struggled to divine each other’s fate, pushed their spells until both disrupted the other’s magic, then concealed their efforts to avoid being caught spying.
• Anna invited Roland and his companions to a Gnosis School Arcane Salon, where astrologers and scholars discussed translation work between their schools.
• Roland proposed a collaborative Translation Hall with specialized roles and shared standards, drawing agreement from the salon attendees.
• Anna praised Roland’s experience compiling the Lainer Encyclopedia, and his saying about standing on the shoulders of giants spread through the media as a famous quotation.
• Froya began recruiting a translation team while Roland and Anna applied to the committee for state funding and publicized the project.
• Some Gnosis School mages criticized the Translation Hall, arguing that translation should remain under individual masters and questioning Roland’s knowledge of their Arcana.

Roland and Anna discussed Arcana, computational divination, and a teaching method that would help Anna identify gaps in Roland’s knowledge. As Anna prepared to establish a Translation Hall in East Lainer, Roland’s promotion to Eighth Rank Arcanist and appointment as a Professor were confirmed, and Anna began organizing a celebration.

• Anna told Roland that his Arcana grounding was weak and offered to teach him astrology and dream interpretation.
• Roland proposed teaching Anna so she could correct his mistakes, then explained her Format-School Constellations theory and computational divination.
• Anna identified mathematics, especially probability and statistics, as areas Roland needed to study and promised to help him catch up.
• Anna announced plans for the Formalist School to establish a Translation Hall in East Lainer and offer astrologer courses at the Seris Academy.
• Roland’s promotion to Eighth Rank Arcanist and appointment as Professor were finalized, and Anna began arranging a celebration.

At Roland’s celebration, Anna Corlis proposed combining their methods into a new occultism, and the idea drew public attention and fierce opposition from traditional schools. The chapter ends with Roland and Anna receiving notice that the Arcane Committee would hold a hearing on East Lainer’s education funding, threatening their plans.

• At a celebration for Roland’s promotion, Anna drunkenly praised Roland and proposed joining their schools’ methods into a new occultism.
• A few days later, arcane media reported Anna’s plan, and supporters welcomed the prospect of a new discipline.
• Astrologers from Pydos and members of the Witchcraft School criticized the proposed occultism, while Opani Aziz Ent attacked the Seris School’s research spending.
• Anna and Roland discussed how disputes over funding and influence shaped support for their work.
• Anna and Roland received an Arcane Committee memorandum proposing a hearing on East Lainer’s additional education investment.

Roland agreed to join Anna in opposing the Pydos Mage Tower’s effort to block their Occult Studies funding proposal. As the hearing began, Anna hinted that a major prophecy could help their case, and Roland and Anna arrived at the Atrelin Mage Tower to face Omifer.

• Roland recognized that Anna needed his resources to establish her own school and proposed that they join forces against the Pydos Mage Tower.
• Omichidit persuaded Omifer to oppose Anna’s project, using both the Pydos School’s standing and Omifer’s feelings for Anna as reasons.
• Roland and Anna considered seeking approval for a department instead of a specialized program, but the application was rejected for lack of funding, and a hearing was scheduled for September 30.
• Anna identified Omichidit and Omifer as former Pydos Mage Tower associates who had mistreated her, and she revealed that she had predicted a major event connected to Atrelin’s national fortunes.
• Roland developed his Strategic Deduction idea into a method he called Decision Theory while preparing for the hearing.
• Roland and Anna arrived at the Atrelin Mage Tower for the hearing and saw Omifer waiting there.

Anna defended her application to establish an occult studies program at the East Lainer Mage Tower during an Arcane Committee hearing, despite Pydos’s efforts to undermine her. She revealed a prophecy that the necromancer Rain Hurlengar was concealing his fate and preparing an Undead Catastrophe against Atrelin, prompting the committee to suspend the hearing and investigate.

• Roland and Anna arrived at the hearing, where Omifer questioned whether occult studies and its proposed funding were necessary and viable in Lainer World.
• Anna answered the committee’s concerns about the program, its instructors, and the transmission of occult knowledge.
• Omifer exposed that Doro, Mifir, and Tini had withdrawn their support, then questioned Anna’s ability as a diviner.
• Anna announced that her methods had uncovered a concealed threat: Rain Hurlengar, the expelled necromancer known as the Undead Dominator and the Quagmire Plan’s Atrelin-side ‘Mentor,’ was preparing an Undead Catastrophe.
• Antonia accepted Anna’s information for investigation and suspended the hearing, ordering committee members to deliberate while everyone else remained in the venue.

Roland and Anna joined the Pydos Mage Tower’s astrologers in a divination effort to find the Mentor and thwart the Quagmire Plan. When the Stargazing Chamber revealed unfamiliar extra starlight, Roland recognized the Big Dipper and realized his cross-universe resonance had caused the anomaly.

• Roland learned that Anna’s revelation had exposed the Pydos Mage Tower’s failure to predict the Quagmire Plan, while Anna welcomed the chance to challenge her former tower.
• Omifer reviewed Rain Hurlengar’s missing records and wondered whether Roland had withheld clues, but Omichidit dismissed the accusation and said the tower’s priority was finding the Mentor.
• Antonia brought Roland and Anna to a Stargazing Chamber, where the higher-ups arranged an astrological divination contest against the Pydos Mage Tower’s astrologers.
• Anna and Omifer detected unexplained starlight in parts of the array where no stars should have appeared, leaving both groups confused.
• Roland meditated through the Starlight Divination Array, recognized the Big Dipper among the strange stars, and realized resonance across universes had caused the interference.

Roland helped Anna correct the shifting star projections so she could locate Mentor Rain, while their exchange of Seris and local astrological traditions stirred wider changes in astrology. The Arcane Gendarmes found Rain’s stronghold and destroyed its undead forces, but Rain was captured as a Lich, leaving his hidden Phylactery as the key to stopping him for good.

• Roland used his soul resonance to guide Anna in correcting the anomalous stars, and she successfully predicted Mentor Rain’s location.
• Anna and Roland privately discussed how the Seris School’s terminology and beliefs might be changing astrology, while Omichidit warned Omifer to study the Seris School.
• Antonia ordered the Arcane Gendarmes to find and eliminate Rain, and the force located his stronghold in a mountain valley.
• Casters unleashed an enhanced Level 9 Meteor Burst, destroying Rain’s undead army and capturing or killing the fleeing necromancers.
• The Arcane Gendarmes captured Rain, whom observers identified as a Lich, but they realized they would need to find his Phylactery to make the capture permanent.