Hanks

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Hanks (汉克斯)
Species/Race	Human; later exists as a True Spirit 174 341.
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Former agent of the Seven Kingdoms; later serves An Kai and Goodness Home 74 75 102.
Occupation/Role	Merchant, magic-stone supplier, spy, and administrator of Chaos City’s Outer City 9 60 78 91.
Profession	Trickster, a Heaven-Bestowed Profession 174.
Highest Documented Realm	Unity: Domain Integration, tenth level 341.
Spouse	Widow Wang 341.
Status	Physically deceased; summoned back as a True Spirit and reunited with Widow Wang within An Kai’s Domain 340 341 383.
First Documented Appearance	Chapter 9, “Transaction,” in the supplied excerpts 9.

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Tier Five — Trickster	174	Historical advancement revealed retrospectively. Reached Tier Five within three years of awakening Trickster; the process cost tens of thousands of lives. Disguised himself as a Tier Five Mage.
Tier Three, stage two	73	His stated strength during his Desert life, while outwardly displaying only Tier Two power. He had previously made himself forget his Trickster profession.
Tier Three, third level	122	A Detector identifies him as “Warrior/Unknown,” with Intelligence 106, Endurance 31, Stamina 21, and Strength 362.
Spirit Infusion — Trickster	174	Trickster reawakens one day after his apparent death. Accumulated resources and years beside An Kai allow him to advance directly to Spirit Infusion and return in his physical prime.
Tier Seven	241	Confirmed while he detects danger immediately before the Wolf King’s arrival. The intervening advancement method is not described.
Unity: Domain Control, third level	341	After being summoned as a True Spirit, swallows a Divine Godhead Fragment supplied by An Kai.
Unity: Domain Control, fourth level	341	An explicitly displayed intermediate stage during the same rapid enhancement.
Unity: Domain Control, tenth level	341	Reaches the peak of Domain Control as the fragment continues strengthening him.
Unity: Domain Integration, tenth level	341	Final displayed result of the fragment’s enhancement; one step below Ninth-Rank Divinity. An Kai does not give him a complete Godhead.

Background / History

Hanks was born to two Fifth-Tier Mages but possessed no Mage talent himself. His parents died in a war presented as a defense of their homeland; Hanks later discovered that the conflict had actually concerned magic-stone mining rights. After the Mage Association expelled him, he returned home to find his family’s wealth seized by the kingdom and embezzled by relatives. When he demanded its return, relatives severely injured him, leaving him unable to straighten his back 174.

He disappeared into dangerous forests, wildernesses, swamps, and oceans, where he fought magical beasts and matched wits with other people. During this period, he awakened Trickster and reached Tier Five. After investigating his parents’ deaths, he spent fifteen years preparing revenge, then manipulated their kingdom and its enemy into a ten-year war. Fewer than one in a hundred inhabitants of either kingdom survived. He beheaded the enemy royal family and displayed their heads on the wall where his parents’ heads had once hung 174.

The scale of the slaughter horrified him. With his revenge complete and no remaining attachments, Hanks considered death but was too afraid to accept it. Instead, he used Trickster to deceive himself into forgetting the profession, then withdrew to the Desert. His surviving instincts helped him become an agent for all Seven Kingdoms, serving whichever kingdom offered the most money 75 174.

An assignment to investigate Nameless Town’s mayor brought him into contact with An Kai. The mayor was a disguised personal guard of the deceased Bukelin king, and the kingdoms wanted to discover what secrets he possessed 174.

Appearance

• Elderly guise: Usually appears aged and hunched. His stoop originates in the injuries inflicted by his relatives, though An Kai also notices his habit of presenting himself as stooped 48 75 174.
• Declining health: Becomes noticeably thinner and eventually relies on a wheelchair as his lifespan approaches its end 48 160 172.
• Restored prime: Returns after Trickster’s reawakening as a vigorous middle-aged man 174.
• Trickster manifestation: Briefly appears in a fitted tailcoat and top hat, carrying a waist-high cane, before adopting the aura of nearby undead 175.

Personality

Hanks is profit-driven, adaptable, and quick to flatter anyone with the upper hand. As a spy, he follows the highest bidder; as a merchant, he attempts to undervalue goods and protects the secrets behind his magic-stone supply. Accurate bookkeeping does not prevent him from exploiting an advantageous exchange: he honestly reports protection-money revenue while concealing that the stones he supplies come from his own mine 64 75 80.

His caution competes with his greed. He warns An Kai about dangerous ventures, yet the prospect of a ten-thousand-gold-coin deal immediately renews his interest. He recognizes that political office can make him a target and tries to place a substitute in danger rather than accept the position himself 60 75.

His affection for Widow Wang is more dependable than his commercial honesty. He protects her during attacks and accepts the hazardous Seven Kingdoms trade mission chiefly because the promised tax income can support her even if he dies. Their frequent insults conceal a lasting attachment 72 103 108 109.

Hanks eventually becomes one of the few people who can speak irreverently to An Kai without damaging their relationship. In old age, he accepts that the transformed world no longer feels like his own and chooses a shared natural death with Widow Wang over undead immortality 340 341 383.

Abilities & Skills

Trickster

A Heaven-Bestowed Profession centered on deception, impersonation, and manipulation. Hanks used it to orchestrate the destruction of two kingdoms and even conceal his own profession from himself 174.

• False identity: Presented himself as a Tier Five Mage despite lacking Mage talent 174.
• Self-deception: Erased his awareness of Trickster, genuinely living without knowledge of the hidden power until it reawakened 174.
• Aura imitation: Reproduced the chaotic, decaying aura of skeletal undead closely enough to be accepted among them 175.
• Binding restriction: After his return, An Kai requires a new Contract forbidding concealment or deception when communicating or working with him 174.
• True-spirit cost: Part of Hanks’s true spirit fused with the profession, leaving it incomplete. This prevents him from having children and makes the Divinity Breeding Center unusable for him. An Kai cannot strip the profession away, though he leaves open the possibility of a future solution 383.

Espionage and Intelligence

Hanks’s service to the Seven Kingdoms gives him extensive political knowledge and useful contacts 74 75 108.

• Explains the Five Great Continents, the Wasteland, and the circumstances behind the Orcs’ movement into the Desert 74.
• Speaks Shak and translates Shak-language material for An Kai 75 79.
• Draws on old connections to complete the trade mission after realizing that Malken is not protecting the expedition 108.
• Identifies all twenty-one imprisoned descendants of Seven Kingdoms factions and prepares information and ransom prices for them 110.

Bargaining and Administration

Hanks handles both individual transactions and large-scale resource collection 9 78 80.

• Buys Reed and his three companions for 55 lower-grade magic stones after bargaining with An Kai 9.
• Exchanges 800 gold coins for 800 lower-grade magic stones and supplies a free Storage Ring with the deal 60.
• Organizes Outer City collections, keeps detailed accounts, and appoints Reed and Polpi to public leadership positions 78 80.
• Negotiates loot shares, though An Kai repeatedly forces him to accept less favorable terms 23 61 63.

Improvisational Bluffing

Hanks survives encounters with vastly stronger beings by exploiting what they already believe 177 187.

• Persuades the Divine Court giant that An Kai is its god, then reprimands it for questioning that claim 177.
• Maintains a “divine envoy” persona during his time with the creature later named Goudan 186 187.
• Gains valuable information about Skywalking, high-tier cultivation, and magic-stone veins through these exchanges 178 179 187.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Storage Ring — Conceals food and other supplies within his clothes; recognizes An Kai’s ring and advises him not to display it openly 9 23.
• Detectors — Uses devices to assess others’ strength. Deliberately alters one so that it falsely identifies him as a Tier One, Stage One Mage 16 54 72.
• Mountainbreaker Gang Retainer badge — Wears the badge while sponsoring An Kai’s registration 21.
• Magic-stone mine — Secret source of his stock and exchange profits. He conceals ownership because he expects An Kai to covet it 80.
• Inner City insignia — Gives An Kai an insignia capable of teleporting its bearer to Chaos City’s Inner City 60.
• Solid-Gold Coffin — Receives a gold-coin coffin after his apparent death, fulfilling his old wish for a house made from gold coins 173 174.
• Divine Godhead Fragment — Consumes a fragment provided by An Kai, raising his True Spirit to Unity: Domain Integration, tenth level 341.

Relationships

• An Kai — Merchant partner, later superior, and enduring friend. Their partnership combines bargaining and mutual suspicion, but Hanks becomes one of An Kai’s rare emotional anchors. His recorded loyalty reaches 91 out of 100 9 60 140 340 341.
• Widow Wang — Wife and foremost personal attachment. They choose to die together and are subsequently reunited as spirits in An Kai’s Domain 108 340 341.
• Reed — Purchased slave and worker, later appointed nominal City Lord by Hanks. Reed often resents Hanks’s treatment and takes satisfaction when An Kai outbargains him 9 11 20 78.
• Polpi — Appointed Deputy City Lord and used to enforce Outer City protection payments; later greets Hanks deferentially as City Lord 78 88.
• Wayne — Fellow member of An Kai’s circle. Provides royal support for Hanks’s proposed pardon, attends his first funeral, and hosts the couple’s later funeral 102 173 340.
• Nurnexius — Initially competes with Hanks for standing as An Kai’s closest underling. Their rivalry diminishes after both lose that role 102 109 173.
• Goudan — Divine Court creature persuaded that Hanks is a divine envoy. Accompanies him out of the secret realm and ultimately becomes An Kai’s contracted subordinate 186 187.
• First lover — Worked in the Bounty Tower’s reward-exchange office and died after Hanks attempted a magic-stone resale scheme 60.
• Parents — Fifth-Tier Mages whose deaths and posthumous dispossession drive Hanks’s revenge 174.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Merchant Partner and Desert Guide

• Purchases Reed’s group, offers An Kai work, and guides him through Bounty Tower membership and missions 9 12 13.
• Supplies a map to a ruined Mage Tower and asks An Kai to recover a letter while keeping its other resources. His directions deliberately omit additional beasts at the nearby oasis 14 16.
• Sponsors An Kai’s Mountainbreaker Gang membership for a ten-gold-coin reward, then joins his plan to exploit the gang’s weakened defenses 21 23.
• Helps lure wealthy auction participants into the Desert for robbery. After the operation, Chaos City posts separate 1,000-gold-coin bounties for Hanks and An Kai 61 62 63 64.

Outer City Administration

• Returns to Chaos City hoping to secure a comfortable future for Widow Wang. An Kai rescues his six-person group and charges him 2,400 gold coins 72 73.
• Takes operational control of Outer City collections under an 80/20 split favoring An Kai, placing Reed and Polpi in the public leadership roles 78.
• Reports 5,463 gold coins’ worth of money and goods after two months, exchanging An Kai’s stated 4,371-gold share into magic stones 80.
• Briefly worries about residents’ food shortages before An Kai reminds him that their operation is robbery rather than responsible government. Later flees when two Tier Four Orcs threaten the Outer City 81.
• Returns during An Kai’s absence and plans to keep the protection money himself 88 89.

Seven Kingdoms Trade Mission

• Accepts a mission to reopen trade in return for a permanent ten-percent share of city tax revenue, transferable to Widow Wang 103.
• Leads a fifty-person expedition through the kingdoms’ unrest. Malken’s apparent escort is withdrawn, forcing Hanks to rely on his own experience and contacts 103 108.
• Completes the mission despite severe losses. An Kai rescues the returning survivors from a Tier Four Horned Lizard, then confirms Hanks’s revenue share and magic-stone exchange role 108 109.
• Uses his knowledge of noble families to appraise An Kai’s twenty-one captives, but refuses to personally deliver the dangerous ransom demands 110.

Decline and Trickster Reawakening

• Is swallowed by the Chaos City Lord’s Earth Burial ambush, prompting Widow Wang to reveal her Tier Five strength 116.
• Survives years of declining health with help from Elf Race life-giving items, whose effectiveness eventually dwindles 168.
• Apparently dies in Widow Wang’s arms. A Necromancer Class Advancement Certificate fails to revive or transform him, and the city holds a funeral 172 173.
• Returns the following night after Trickster reawakens, reveals his hidden history, and signs a renewed Contract with An Kai 174.
• Becomes trapped among the Divine Court’s undead, bluffs the giant into accepting An Kai as its god, and eventually returns with Goudan after nearly five years 174 177 187.

Final Death and True-Spirit Life

• After a life spanning roughly two hundred years, refuses undead immortality alongside Widow Wang. An Kai accepts their decision and orders a grand three-day funeral with magically maintained rain 340.
• Is summoned back as a True Spirit, strengthened with a Divine Godhead Fragment, and reunited with Widow Wang in An Kai’s Domain 341.
• Later seeks help from the Divinity Breeding Center, only to learn that Trickster’s true-spirit cost is the cause of his infertility 383.
• Remains with Widow Wang inside the Domain. When mist prevents them from leaving their palace safely, he repeatedly calls for An Kai’s assistance without receiving a reply 416.

Notable Quotes

“An Kai, my boy, you know me. My honesty is famous far and wide!” 16

“For the first half of my life, I lived for revenge. In the second half, I met you.” 340

“Your humanity has never disappeared. You're just too wary of everything around you.” 340

“We weren't born together, but we'll die together.” 340

Trivia

• Not every “Hanks” is Hanks: An Kai uses his name as a false identity, including when rescuing Sally Bukelin and introducing himself to the God of Light’s doppelganger 33 404 411.
• An Kai frequently disguises himself as Hanks’s deceased father. Hanks eventually asks him to stop because the resemblance makes him feel that his father has come to collect him 73 124 140.
• Hanks requests white mourning decorations after remembering An Kai’s explanation of funeral customs from his homeland 172.
• After returning from his first apparent death, he insists that he will not return the funeral’s red-envelope gifts 174.