Chapter Summaries

Kronos posed as a traveling warlock in a village and used spells to clear its fields, earning the villagers’ admiration. He stayed to accept their hospitality while Gner arrived to buy cured meat, and Kronos left the villagers eager to seek his help.

• Gner watched Kronos practice his mystic act from a hillside while roasting a rabbit.
• Kronos introduced himself to the villagers as a warlock and agreed to clear the weeds from their fields.
• Kronos used his Weed-Clearing and Levitation Spells throughout the morning to clear more than three hundred mu of farmland.
• The villagers thanked Kronos and invited him to eat, while Gner arrived to purchase their volcano-smoked cured meat.
• Villagers brought food and heirlooms to the chief’s home, but Kronos found nothing valuable among the objects and offered to help them for free.

Kronos and Gner staged a performance to win the village’s trust while Gner bought its volcano-smoked cured meat. After Kronos demonstrated several spells at Gner’s challenge, the villagers believed in him and his potion digestion advanced.

• Kronos warned Gner with a look, and Gner persuaded the village chief to show him the underground smoking pits by promising to buy all the cured meat.
• Kronos used the Eye of Time to tell the villagers that Gner had once been a soldier from Backlund whose fate intersected with theirs.
• Gner returned, agreed to buy all the cured meat, and joined Kronos and the village chief for lunch.
• Following their plan, Gner called Kronos a swindler and challenged him to demonstrate spells in front of the villagers.
• Kronos made fire, lightning, water, and wind at Gner’s request, convincing the villagers and advancing his potion digestion.
• Gner admitted he was wrong, and Kronos reassured him while keeping up his Warlock act.

Kronos and Gner returned to the harbor with five carts of cured meat, which Kronos purified before it was loaded onto the ship. After resting and buying an Adventurer's Handbook, Kronos waited for the ship to depart for its next stop and continue his search for treasures.

• Gner bought the village's cured meat while Kronos used his mystic act to read two villagers' pasts and futures, then escaped invisibly.
• Kronos changed his appearance to Klein and waited for Gner, who arrived hours later with five full ox carts of meat.
• Kronos explained that the cured meat carried traces of the Spirit World and arranged for the villagers to unload it near the harbor.
• Kronos performed a purification ritual on the meat, and Benjamin sent workers and carts to move it onto the ship.
• Kronos bought an Adventurer's Handbook, returned to the ship, and slept until morning.
• After breakfast, Kronos read the handbook on deck while waiting for the ship to depart for its next stop.

Kronos ordered the fleet to bypass Bansy Harbor because of its extreme dangers, despite the captains’ protests, and warned Gner to stay away. After reaching Tiana Harbor, Kronos had made no progress in finding materials for time spells and left his room to look for opportunities.

• The fleet sailed past Bansy Harbor, and sailors mocked Kronos’s decision as rumors of his dislike for the port spread.
• Benjamin worried about the growing complaints, while Kronos told Gner he would tolerate the fuss unless it interfered with work.
• Kronos warned Gner that Bansy was dangerous enough to avoid until he became an angel, and Gner resolved to stay away.
• Kronos spent the voyage testing materials for time spells, found no responsive materials, and considered investigating the Marauder Pathway if his research failed.
• The fleet reached Tiana Harbor, and Kronos left his room in a miserable mood to ask about opportunities.

Kronos and Gner prepared to explore Tiana Island, with Kronos collecting a map and local information while Gner asked around at bars. Kronos learned about remote mountain villages and persuaded a bookstore owner to mark their locations for him.

• Gner told Kronos that his potion was digesting quickly, and Kronos gave him the Sequence 7 Weapon Master formula to watch for its ingredients.
• Kronos sent Gner to gather information in bars while he searched for a detailed map and planned to meet him at the harbor that afternoon.
• Kronos visited a bookstore and recognized its owner as a Beyonder connected to the Church of Knowledge.
• The owner described Tiana Island's mountains, iron mine, settlements, and the deep-mountain villages where he sourced wild delicacies.
• Kronos claimed he was an adventurer and a believer in the God of Steam, then asked the owner to mark the remote villages on his map.

Kronos gathered information about three struggling mountain villages and a mysterious illness in Saint Luo Village, then planned a rushed expedition to investigate them. He and Gner entered the mountains, where Gner shared his wilderness knowledge as they headed toward the first village.

• Kronos got the locations of three mountain villages from Boss and left him ten pounds for the information.
• Gner reported that people in Saint Luo Village had fallen ill but recovered after spending three days outside it, leading Kronos to suspect a supernatural cause.
• Kronos planned a three-day route through the mountain villages and Saint Luo Village, then assigned Gner to buy outdoor supplies while he gathered food and other necessities.
• Kronos and Gner rode to the mountain entrance at dawn, left the horses, and continued on foot.
• Gner explained the terrain and likely dangers as Kronos struggled to keep pace and listened to his wilderness advice.

Kronos realized his long-distance plan was unrealistic after struggling through the mountain trail with Gner, but continued toward the first village. There, he accelerated the growth of the villagers’ butterfly trees, then fled when they began treating him as a god.

• After three hours of travel, Kronos admitted his plan was too ambitious, but set off again with Gner to reach the next village before nightfall.
• Kronos arrived near the first village and heard the villagers’ requests, until a child asked him to help their parents’ butterfly trees grow.
• Kronos cast a Rapid Growth Spell and transformed the villagers’ young butterfly trees into mature trees in minutes.
• When the villagers knelt and called him their true god, Kronos cast an Invisibility Spell and disappeared.
• Gner laughed at Kronos’s predicament, while Kronos complained that he had not expected the villagers to take their reverence so far.

Kronos and Gner camped in the wilderness after a tiring day of travel, but Kronos failed to keep a proper watch while Gner slept. A black panther crept up and killed Kronos with a single bite.

• Kronos and Gner stopped halfway between villages and made camp before nightfall.
• Gner caught two unfamiliar animals, and he and Kronos cooked and ate them.
• Kronos used a sleeping potion and rested while Gner kept watch through the first half of the night.
• Kronos woke around one o’clock and took over the watch, while Gner went into the tent to sleep.
• Black Panther crept toward the distracted Kronos, then lunged and crushed his head in its jaws.

Kronos survived an ambush by an Evil-Patterned Black Panther and worked with Gner to kill it. As they moved camp, Kronos reconsidered his recklessness and resolved to be more cautious in the dangerous world around him.

• Time Reload revived Kronos after Black Panther killed him, and Kronos struck the panther with the Lucky One Cane.
• Gner joined Kronos, and the two fought Black Panther with the cane and spells until the panther faked a powerful attack and fled.
• Kronos flew after Black Panther and immobilized him with thorns, and he and Gner killed the panther.
• Kronos identified the creature as an Evil-Patterned Black Panther and agreed with Gner to move camp and bring the valuable corpse with them.
• Kronos set up a Wall of Spirituality while Gner slept, then reflected on how the ambush had exposed his carelessness and changed his approach to survival.

Kronos sent Gner back to the harbor with the Evil-Patterned Black Panther so he could continue the journey alone. Gner reached a bookstore run by a Church of Knowledge informant and began processing the panther, while Kronos headed toward the second village.

• Kronos insisted on traveling alone and told Gner to return to the harbor with the Evil-Patterned Black Panther.
• Gner agreed, left Kronos, and followed his instructions to seek help at the bookstore near the harbor.
• The bookstore owner agreed to process the panther in exchange for one-third of its remaining meat and bones.
• Gner drained the panther's blood and skinned it while the owner purified the blood with a ritual.
• Gner carefully removed the panther's head and spine intact, and the owner prepared to extract its brain and spinal fluid.