Chapter Summaries

Roland received his promotion to Intermediate Lecturer and permission to sell courses, while his research team continued developing Seris spells. He began recording his first Oracle course at the Orvisto Wizard Tower.

• Roland told Froya, Skord, and Yvonne about his coming promotion, and Froya said she would soon be assigned to the incoming students.
• Lunifis reported that she had created the level 2 Seris True Word Spell: Shock and said that further progress would require more research and cooperation.
• Roland welcomed the new students arriving at the end of August and met those who wanted to see him.
• The Arcane Committee named Roland an Intermediate Lecturer, increased his spell quotas, and approved his Oracle textbooks for experimental teaching and course sales.
• Roland took Skord and Yvonne to a classroom, activated the recording equipment, and began teaching his introductory Oracle course.

Roland recorded and released a structured introductory course on Oracle, drawing on his knowledge of teaching and language statistics. Students and scholars across several Wizard Towers discovered the course and praised its clear explanations, while Gallo and Lunifis also began watching it.

• Roland used basic-word concepts and frequency lists to organize his Oracle lessons into a gradual, step-by-step course.
• Roland finished recording the introductory course, and the Arcane Committee's academic affairs department edited it into two lessons and put them on sale.
• Carl discovered Roland's course on the Magic Network, bought it, and felt driven to improve his professional rank.
• Ald and Ovesto watched the lessons and found Roland's teaching organized and systematic.
• Froya shared the course with students at the Orvisto Wizard Tower, and they bought it and praised its clear explanations.
• Gallo and Oksaya watched the course after hearing about it, while Lunifis purchased it and began watching in her room.

Roland’s Oracle language courses sold rapidly, but anonymous criticism stirred controversy over his terminology. He answered publicly, then limited his own lessons to natural language and invited other researchers to develop magical applications, earning widespread praise as they rushed to take up the opportunity.

• Roland discovered that his first two courses had sold over a thousand copies and earned him more than eight hundred gold coins.
• Skord alerted Roland to online attacks claiming his basic vocabulary and common characters lacked an arcane basis, while other users defended his work.
• Roland posted a dismissive statement urging critics to observe the results, and his supporters quickly turned the argument in his favor.
• Oksaya revealed himself as the anonymous instigator and fumed at the backlash, while Roland left the discussion without further comment.
• Roland recorded eight more lessons covering middle- and high-school material, bringing his total to ten courses.
• Roland announced that his courses would cover natural language but not magical applications beyond Light, and invited other researchers to develop those fields; readers praised his generosity and sought to claim a share.

Kevin redirected the Catona Education Company toward Oracle and Seris courses after learning Roland would not enter the magical instruction market. Roland mastered a Level 2 Seris spell, advanced Yvonne’s divination research, and saw the new spell and an Oracle paper published as Catona’s aggressive advertising began.

• Kevin won his family board’s support to invest in Oracle and Seris instruction, shifting resources away from Orthodox Runes and launching new courses through Catona Wisdom House.
• Roland successfully cast the Level 2 spell Seris True Word Spell: Shock, then applied for a casting permit without an exam and sought exemptions for future spells.
• Yvonne described her plan to develop divination that judged good or ill fortune, and Roland warned her about the dangers of magical experiments.
• On September 10, Seris True Word Spell: Shock joined the Magic Network, and Roland received permission to cast it.
• On September 15, Roland’s paper on Oracle conventions and semantics was published while Kevin’s company flooded the Magic Network with course advertisements.

Kevin Catona used a fearmongering advertisement and his connections to push Oracle and Seris into Yther Kingdom civil service examinations, sparking a sudden rush to learn the languages. After hearing about Kevin’s scheme, Roland chose to wait and see how far it would go as the new demand began spreading.

• A Catona Wisdom House advertisement portrayed a struggling child succeeding after his family bought its courses, prompting Roland to condemn its sales tactics.
• Kevin presented Jeffrey Isser with a proposal to make Oracle and Seris civil service examination subjects, and Jeffrey contacted the prime minister to advance it.
• Yther Kingdom announced Oracle and Seris assessments, and civil servants rushed to enroll in courses and buy study materials.
• Roland learned that Pano had completed the Mount Spell improvements, then discovered the new examination plan and recognized Kevin’s business opportunity.
• Roland asked Lunifis about Kevin’s proposal, and she advised him to wait and see whether it succeeded.
• The Seris craze spread as civil servants, mage apprentices, and families began treating language study as a route to secure work and social advancement.

Roland accepted an invitation from the Corlens Family to attend an Oracle-themed Arcane Salon in Sky City, where the family hoped to discuss cooperation and the spread of Oracle and Seris instruction. He arrived with Skord and Yvonne and was welcomed by Leon Pon Corlens and the faction’s gathered mages.

• Roland taught his students about syntax, morphology, Oracle, and the planned introduction of Bronze Script.
• Aier showed Roland an invitation from Leon Pon Corlens, and Roland consulted Ovesto, who advised him to accept without becoming the family’s spokesman.
• Roland accepted the invitation and arranged for Skord and Yvonne to accompany him to the salon.
• On October 15, Roland, Skord, and Yvonne arrived in Sky City Nevis, where Leon greeted them and brought them to the Lainer Kingdom Hall.
• The Corlens faction’s mages welcomed Roland with a public ceremony, and Leon introduced him to the gathered Mage Legion officers and Arcanists, including Bruno and Pimiler.

Roland hosted a gathering of arcane researchers, where Bruno and Pimiler announced progress applying Oracle to magic. He then presented Bronze Script as a new writing system for magical inscriptions, arguing that its closer ties to spoken language could convey meaning more effectively despite lower resonance efficiency.

• Roland welcomed the guests, including Prince Silaire and Princess Rosa of the Lainer Kingdom, to the gathering.
• Bruno announced that he had converted Arcane Mark into Oracle and Seris incantations and submitted the result for publication.
• Pimiler described his research into Oracle magic array bases and said he had published its theoretical foundations.
• Roland introduced his plans to submit the Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions and explained how language and meaning changed over time.
• Roland demonstrated how meaning shifted as words accumulated in a sentence, then argued that Bronze Script could simplify Oracle and better convey intended meaning.
• The audience applauded Roland's presentation, and Princess Rosa clapped enthusiastically.

Roland discussed the future of colonial rule in the Lainer Kingdom with Leon, arguing that resistance would make the Corlens Family’s rule unsustainable. He proposed tributary trade and kingly transformation as a more dignified alternative, leaving Leon, Prince Silaire, and Princess Rosa eager to learn how it could work.

• Leon praised Roland’s arcane work and explored cooperation between his family and the Hilt Company in the Lainer Kingdom.
• Roland challenged Leon’s acceptance of colonial rule, predicting that the Lainer Kingdom could become a Mid-Magic civilization and eventually seek independence.
• Leon asked why colonial rule bred resistance, and Roland explained that oppression drained the rulers’ strength and made the system unsustainable.
• Roland advised Leon to arrange a dignified withdrawal through tributary trade and kingly transformation rather than continue colonial rule.
• Prince Silaire and Princess Rosa secretly listened to Roland’s advice and considered tribute preferable to harsher schemes of colonial control.

Leon welcomed Roland with a valuable Command Staff, and Princess Rosa and Prince Silaire later gave him a World Tree Leaf after asking about his ideas on tributary trade. As Roland bought a large Dimensional Bag and other supplies, he decided to compile the Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions and submit it at the hall.

• Leon gave Roland a seventy-five-charge Command Staff with a self-recharging Charm Monster spell as a welcoming gift.
• Skord rushed in with a newspaper, excited that he appeared in a photograph covering the Arcane Salon, while Roland read the favorable Magic Network response to his remarks.
• Princess Rosa and Prince Silaire asked Roland about the tributary trade system, then gave him a World Tree Leaf and requested his contact details.
• Roland, Skord, and Yvonne went sightseeing and shopping, and Roland bought the shop's most expensive Dimensional Bag for 10,500 gold coins.
• After returning to the hall, Roland decided to compile the Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions and submit it there.

Roland shared his Bronze Script research, met with Princess Rosa, and toured Atrelin’s Techno Magic Device Manufacturing Institute with her party. On the way back, attackers used a level-eight Maze Spell to banish the convoy’s middle section, including Roland, Silaire, and Rosa, into an extradimensional maze.

• Arcana staff learned that Roland had submitted the 2,420-character Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions, and Gallo and Oksaya recognized the growing influence of his work.
• Bruno and Pimiler visited Roland to study his draft, while other young Arcanists came to discuss their research directions with him.
• Roland spoke with Princess Rosa, and Leon explained that the Corlens Family intended to shape Silaire and Rosa’s views and support Silaire’s eventual accession to the throne.
• Roland, Skord, and Yvonne joined Silaire and Rosa’s party on a visit to the Techno Magic Device Manufacturing Institute, where they saw Atrelin’s advanced rune-array technology.
• Several figures blocked the convoy on its return, and a level-eight Maze Spell engulfed the middle carriages, banishing Roland, Silaire, Rosa, and others into an extradimensional maze.

Roland defended Prince Silaire, Princess Rosa, and his companions from assassins trapped with them inside a Maze Spell, killing one with Limited Wish after transforming into a juvenile Gold Dragon. After Leon rescued them and compensated Roland, a mysterious cloaked woman with elf-like ears and scales sensed the Gold Dragon’s scent and disappeared into the night.

• A Maze Spell trapped Roland, Skord, Yvonne, Prince Silaire, and Princess Rosa while assassins attacked and killed two guards.
• Roland used Repel spells and Dragonkind Transformation to defeat one assassin, then killed the other with Limited Wish after the poisoned guard knight fell.
• Leon and a Grand Mage opened an Interdimensional Gate, rescued the group, and later gave Roland mana crystals as compensation.
• Prince Silaire and Princess Rosa thanked Roland and offered gifts, but Roland refused because they had already given him a World Tree Leaf.
• A mysterious cloaked woman left an inn in Nevis City undetected, sensed the scent of a Gold Dragon, and vanished into the night.

After surviving an assassination attempt, Roland and Skord learned more about the Tiniara Restoration Army, while Yvonne’s reconstructed turtle-shell divination revealed an ill omen. Roland went to sleep but woke in a strange tree dwelling, where an adult green dragon approached and transformed into an elf.

• Skord identified the Tiniara Restoration Army as an extremist faction opposed to the Lainer Kingdom’s royal family and colonial rule.
• Roland told Skord that he had used Wish in Seris to kill his opponent, and he wrote Grand Mage Watson about the spell’s unusual response.
• Yvonne demonstrated her reconstructed Turtle Oracle Method, which produced a cracked shell pattern that she and Roland interpreted as an ill omen.
• Roland returned to his lodging, considered hiring guards, and went to sleep.
• Roland woke in a leaf-built dwelling on a towering tree and watched an adult green dragon transform into a female elf.

Roland was pulled into a dream by the green dragon Trina, who negotiated a Pact to buy his Dragonkind Shapeshifting Ring. After waking, he sought protection against dream attacks and began preparing a way to avoid completing the deal, but Trina arrived at his door.

• Trina revealed herself as the ruler of Dragon Orb Dream Wallis and demanded Roland surrender the ring, then agreed to buy it for fifty thousand gold coins under a detailed Pact.
• Roland and Trina signed the Pact, and he learned she was not directing the Tiniara Restoration Army’s attack on Prince Silaire but hoped to exploit the resulting chaos.
• Roland woke and told Ovesto that he had become entangled with a green dragon; Ovesto warned that Trina might use the ring to cause trouble and implicate them.
• Roland contacted Ovesto, Lunifis, Rick, and Leon for ways to guard against dream invasions, then summoned Skord and Yvonne to carry out his preparations.
• An attendant told Roland that a lady calling herself Cuihua had come to see him.

Roland used a Planar Court summons to escape Trina’s attempted purchase of his transformation ring and return safely to the Mage Tower. When Trina sued him for breaching their Pact, Roland invoked ambiguities in the contract, and the court canceled it, leaving Trina unable to recover her gems without proof.

• Roland showed Trina his transformation ring, accepted ten gemstones as a deposit, and reported her abilities to Ovesto.
• When Trina returned to complete the purchase, Roland accepted the Planar Court’s invitation to testify in Ovesto’s case against Aixipu, delaying the transaction.
• While Roland was in court, Leon and the others drove Trina away, and Antonia explained that she was a green dragon empowered by Tiniara’s divine power and able to control the Dreamscape Wallis.
• Roland returned to the Orvisto Wizard Tower under Antonia’s protection, but Trina summoned him to the Planar Court and accused him of breaching their Pact.
• Nomos ruled that Roland’s absence resulted from force majeure, then accepted his argument that the Pact was ambiguous and canceled it.
• Roland claimed Trina’s gemstones had paid for seeing the ring, and the court required her to provide evidence if she wanted them back.

After Trina failed to recover her 50,000 gold, she tried to damage Roland’s reputation, while the Orthodox School used the scandal to unveil a competing pronunciation scheme based on Seris. Roland recognized the threat to his school’s influence and proposed testing whether the new scheme’s pronunciation deviations reduced spell efficiency.

• Roland ordered Aier to establish a charitable foundation and restructure his assets, while Trina vented her fury by poisoning a kobold camp and decided to seek funding from the Tiniara Restoration Army.
• Trina researched Roland’s reputation, wrote a batch of defamatory articles, and paid to have them published on the Magic Network.
• Roland realized the articles were a probe to find which rumors gained traction, while Oksaya and Gallo discussed using the scandal to draw attention to the Orthodox School’s nearly completed Ous Alphabet incantation scheme.
• On October 25, the Orthodox School announced that its Ous Alphabet scheme had adapted several spells, prompting Roland and Lunifis to recognize how easily it could compete with Seris Pinyin and gain institutional support.
• Ovesto warned Roland that the Orthodox School could profit from adapting his work even while paying royalties, and Roland reassured Pano, Bruno, and Pimiler that he would seek a solution.
• Roland concluded that the Ous scheme might accumulate pronunciation errors that lowered spell efficiency and proposed experimental testing to Lunifis and the others.

Roland recognized that Ous Incantations could undermine Seris Pinyin through coordinated attacks and decided to establish the Seris Language Research Society. His supporters enthusiastically joined as pressure from Gallo and Trina’s allies pushed them to defend the Seris system.

• Lunifis found that Ous Incantations worked best in utterances of three to thirteen syllables and planned to test them against a Level 3 True Word Spell.
• Gallo celebrated praise for Ous Incantations but urged his colleagues to expand their system beyond its current limits and replace Seris Pinyin.
• Trina received three hundred gold coins in funding, bought intelligence about Roland, and studied information about Ous Incantations and its supporters.
• Trina and the Orthodox School helped promote anonymous articles attacking Seris Incantations, and Oksaya encouraged allies to amplify the discussion.
• Roland concluded that he could not defeat Ous Incantations quickly on arcane grounds, so he chose to establish the Seris Language Research Society and unite his supporters.
• Roland announced the society, and arcanists including Pano, Bruno, Pimiler, and Lunifis responded enthusiastically.

Roland organized the Seris Joint Research Association and discussed its finances and charitable foundations with Ovesto, who advised him on managing money, alignment, and debt. The association’s establishment application was submitted, and supporters quickly pledged more than six hundred thousand gold coins.

• Aier gave Roland the list of sixty full members, and Roland promoted her to steward while asking her to hire clerks and accountants.
• Roland decided to send Grand Mage Watson an invitation to join the Joint Research Association despite Watson’s ties to the Orthodox School.
• Ovesto advised Roland to establish a finance department and explained how the association’s institutional status could help it accept donations and conduct business.
• Roland outlined three proposed Seris foundations, and Ovesto advised him on charitable spending, religious donations, and ways to manage his assets.
• Ovesto revealed that he had donated his assets to the Sals Kingdom’s Royal Family and owed one hundred million gold coins, warning Roland not to imitate his arrangements before gaining sufficient rank.
• On November 3, Roland submitted the association’s establishment application, and Lunifis, Rick, the Mages’ Guild in Rune City, and other supporters pledged over six hundred thousand gold coins.

Roland tested Oracle Bone Divination, advanced to level 1, and met with Rune City’s mages and merchants to discuss the Seris School. At a banquet, he promised to restore Rune City’s prominence through Seris-based advances in magic and rallied its influential residents behind him.

• Roland successfully cast Oracle Bone Divination and received a result indicating no ill influence.
• Roland traveled to Rune City, passed the spellcasting license examination, and received a level 1 mage badge.
• Roland, Rick, and Huo Daofu discussed cooperation between the Seris School’s Joint Research Association and Rune City, including research, training, and the spell Limited Wish.
• At a banquet, Roland accepted the creation of a Seris School branch in Rune City despite expecting Rick and Huo Daofu to hold most of its practical power.
• Roland argued that a fully Seris-based magic system could revive the Runes School and help Rune City overcome its geographic disadvantages, then called on the guests to make Rune City great again.

Roland secured Rune City’s support for bronze-script research and related alchemy projects, while his paper was accepted and he began preparing language lessons. In hiding and desperate for money, Trina learned that Roland’s new research association had raised six hundred thousand gold coins and contacted the Orthodox School, offering to help oppose him for a fee.

• Roland presented Rune City’s nobles with plans for bronze-script alchemy, Portable Ghost Sound, and low-cost magical armor, and Huo Daofu and several mine-owning nobles pledged support.
• Roland returned to the Orvisto Wizard Tower, told Pulia that investors in Rune City would support his Mage Armor research, and Pulia hurried to share the news with his research team.
• On November 10, Pulia’s team reported that their investment agreement was settled and their experiments were progressing, while Roland learned that his Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions had been accepted for publication.
• Roland considered how Seris language and culture could attract a broad community and began preparing recorded lessons.
• Trina, hiding in a forest and eating moss to save money, discovered that the Seris School’s research association had raised six hundred thousand gold coins and messaged Orthodox School contacts offering paid help against Roland.

Roland’s bronze-script lessons and Kingsley’s favorable commentary sparked widespread interest in the writing system, pushing attention away from the Ous Incantations. Trina’s attempt to recruit Gallo and Oksaya failed, and their replies cost her ninety silver coins before they blocked her.

• Gallo and the Orthodox School members discussed the Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions, while Kingsley’s commentary praised its durability and potential for magical adaptation.
• Roland recorded lessons introducing character components and radicals, then received praise from students who found the new lookup methods useful.
• Kingsley’s commentary and Roland’s course drew public attention, and people began exploring bronze script and creating their own characters.
• Trina checked her messages and found Gallo and Oksaya’s indignant replies, then discovered they had blocked her after her payment was taken.
• Trina roared in anger over losing ninety silver coins and left her temporary hiding place disguised as a female elf.