Chapter Summaries

Ace planned the wizard school's first-year curriculum and arranged for apprentices to clear the dangerous northern mining area before mining resumed. He chose a site for the school and met Logan, the proposed language teacher, while Leon continued managing the territory.

• Ace and his Mirror clone planned to study the knights' resistance to mental control and outlined the wizard school's five first-year subjects.
• Ace told Leon to suspend mining in the Northern Mining Area until apprentices cleared the Demonic Beasts, and asked him to select a school site and a language teacher.
• Leon narrowly avoided a rolling log at a construction site and tried to conceal the mishap, though Ace had sensed it.
• Leon brought Ace three possible school sites and introduced Logan, a scholar with teaching experience and knowledge of language, barbarian humanities, and Demonic Beast guides.
• Ace chose an open plot west of town near the primeval forest and said his apprentices would use magic to build the school.

Ace recruited Logan as a temporary language teacher and promised him a chance at transcendence if he performed well, while defining access to wizardry as a reward for contributions to the High Tower Territory. He began preparing standardized robes and badges for the apprentices, and he and his mirror image developed a prototype charging rune array.

• Ace offered Logan a temporary teaching position and permission to audit logic and mathematics courses, with a chance at transcendence if his work satisfied Ace over the next few years.
• Ace assured Leon that hard work could also earn him an opportunity to pursue transcendence.
• Ace asked his mirror image to make one hundred standardized apprentice robes with four magical effects, while Ace planned to create apprentice badges with their own effects and rank indicators.
• Ace and his mirror image selected a passive-charging rune and named it the Lesser Charging Rune.
• Ace and his mirror image adjusted and optimized a prototype rune array for charging magic items.

Ace used the Mental Link Network to derive optimized lesser composite rune arrays, then prepared magic robes and badges. A week later, he gathered the apprentices for their assessment and announced the official founding of High Tower Primary Magic School.

• Ace organized the apprentices into a Mental Link Network and directed them to derive composite rune arrays, producing hundreds of viable combinations and several optimized results.
• Ace concluded that the network could simplify and alter runes through its collective computing power, then recorded the discovery in his Magic Book.
• Ace and his mirror clone began making magic robes and badges from Demonic Beast pelts and magified iron blocks.
• Ancesta and Arno worried about their inability to meditate or cast spells, while Betty lamented that she could not rebuild Apprentice Type 1.
• Ace arrived at the apprentices' gathering with Logan and announced that High Tower Primary Magic School had officially opened, making the apprentices first-year students for a five-year course.

Ace introduced the teachers and principal of High Tower Primary Magic School, distributed magic robes and badges, and announced assessments that would determine apprentices’ access to the Lesser Rune Library. The assessments began, leaving struggling apprentices such as Arno and Ancesta dreading the outcome.

• Ace introduced Bayern, Daina, Logan, and Sharp as teachers, and announced that he would teach the Lesser Meditation Method and serve as principal.
• Ace urged the apprentices to question authority and pursue objective inquiry, and Sulu considered befriending Valen.
• Ace gave the apprentices magic robes and badges, which they charged with magical power and wore.
• Ace announced individual assessments, promising successful apprentices access to the shared Lesser Rune Library and punishment for those who failed.
• The apprentices’ assessments began as Arno cried out in despair.

Betty passed Ace’s assessment with an impressive display of Magic Missiles and Magic Crystal Shields, while Arno and Ancesta could not cast spells or meditate. Ace announced new advancement and graduation requirements for the apprentices and explained his proposal for sharing wizard research through magic papers and journals.

• Betty volunteered first, fired nearly thirty Magic Missiles, and defended herself from their return with Magic Crystal Shields, passing Ace’s assessment.
• The apprentices took their assessments, but Arno and Ancesta could neither cast a spell nor meditate, despite their badges showing they had the magic power of Intermediate Wizard Apprentices.
• Ace announced that apprentices who passed would receive the secondary runes, while those who failed could try again next month and would be punished.
• Ace introduced Social Practice Points and Combat Practice Points, along with the requirements for advancement, completion, and graduation.
• Valen asked Ace about magic journals and papers, and Ace explained that papers would share research processes and theories while authors could keep their results exclusive or charge for them.

Ace investigated Ancesta and Arno’s heart force and found that they could use it to cast a limited range of spells, which he named Spell-Like Arts. They still could not meditate or absorb natural magic power, leaving their path to further growth unresolved.

• Ace announced that the Magic Book would list points tasks for social and combat practice in three days, and that the apprentices who failed would lose 10 Social Practice Points.
• Ancesta brought Arno to Ace’s residence to ask for guidance because their heart force prevented them from using spells and meditating.
• Ancesta and Arno pledged loyalty to Ace, who accepted their oaths.
• Ace observed the pair using heart force and found that it strengthened their bodies and wills but stopped their spiritual power from connecting with natural magic power.
• Ancesta and Arno successfully cast Mercy Missile and Courage Missile by infusing heart force into spell models, so Ace named their limited techniques Spell-Like Arts.
• Ancesta told Ace that they still could not sense or absorb natural magic power, even though heart force could activate their meditation spell model.

Ace examined how Ancesta and Arno’s Heart Power affected meditation and asked them to explain how their creeds formed. As Arno exhausted his Courage Heart Power, Ace observed a strange heart and a blurry Soul Rune beginning to emerge.

• Ace discovered that Heart Power blocked outside magic power and prevented Ancesta and Arno from meditating, and Ancesta said it recovered over time but could not grow stronger.
• Ace asked about the origins of creeds and their union with innate magic power; Ancesta described Mercy Heart Power, while Arno explained how his belief in courage had produced his own.
• Arno’s Courage Heart Power erupted as he spoke, obstructing Ace’s perception of his heart.
• Ace asked Ancesta and Arno to exhaust their Heart Power so he could observe the changes, and Ancesta offered his disciple Xavier as another subject for studying creed formation.
• Ancesta went to find Xavier while Arno used Heart Power techniques under Ace’s supervision; as Arno’s power faded, Ace saw a transformed golden heart and a blurry Soul Rune forming within his soul.

Ace began organizing construction of the High Tower Primary Magic School and planned its magic laboratory as the territory developed. He also told the mirror that he intended to include allied barbarian chieftains in the Administrative Office to balance the ruling factions.

• After three days of failing to understand the fleeting Soul Runes, Ace left to meet the apprentices at the school site.
• Ace assigned the apprentices construction tasks through the Magic Book, which replaced its old points system with Social Practice Points and Combat Practice Points.
• The apprentices divided into groups under Sharp’s direction and began building the castle-like school according to its blueprints.
• Ace planned the school’s towers, facilities, and schedule, including future combat drills and missions to clear Demonic Beasts.
• That night, Ace told the mirror he planned to bring allied barbarian chieftains into the Administrative Office after the territory had developed for a year.

Leon reported that several barbarian chiefs were secretly dissatisfied with their work and new customs, and Ace planned to expose and remove potential rebels before bringing the remaining chiefs into the Administrative Office. Meanwhile, Ace and the apprentices used magic to build a castle foundation, inspiring a vision of developing the town into a magical society.

• Leon and Betty overheard barbarian chiefs complain about their burdens, and Leon warned Betty not to act against them because they still helped govern the tribe.
• Leon reported the chiefs' resentment to Ace and proposed accelerating efforts to bring in more people from civilized nations.
• Ace ordered Leon to monitor the chiefs, planned to let potential rebels reveal themselves, and secretly removed the effects of Suggestion from the sleeping chiefs.
• Under Sharp's direction, apprentices used spells to construct the foundation of the future castle's basement.
• Bayern realized magic could transform production, and Ace declared the apprentices could use it to build a town, produce goods, and eventually establish a Wizard High Tower.

Ace used a staged expedition to expose and suppress a Barbarian rebellion, then announced citizenship requirements and a path for qualified citizens to pursue magic. The chapter left the territory’s free people with a route to advancement and Ace considering an attack on his manor and bringing his parents to live with him.

• Ace gave Bayern his hair and ordered him to impersonate Ace while leading the apprentices to clear Demonic Beasts from the Northern Mining Area.
• Ace disguised himself as a Barbarian chief while the former Great Leader gathered nearly three hundred people to rebel and escape north.
• Ace trapped the gathered Barbarians in an illusion as Leon arrived with armed Reserve Citizens and stopped the revolt.
• Leon announced a jury court’s verdict, sentencing the rebels to permanent guilty slavery and use as experimental materials.
• Leon announced that free people and Reserve Citizens could advance through civic requirements, with Formal Citizens able to earn a Lesser Permanent Mental Blessing and pursue the Wizard’s Path.

Ace established a path for freemen to advance through citizenship and magical training while the settlement adopted new clothing and names. During a search, Donna and Ancesta found a strange Demonic Beast that could devour another creature and take its form, and Bayern was ordered to capture one for study.

• Ace watched freemen debate whether the territory’s advancement system was trustworthy and waited for its promises to prove true.
• Donna detected a camouflaged Demonic Beast, and Ancesta cut it in two with an Azure Arc Slash.
• The divided creature turned into liquid and tried to burrow into Ancesta, but he drove it off with mind power.
• Bayern tested the liquid with a dead Demonic Beast, and it devoured the corpse, took the form of a red-eyed rabbit, and later dissolved after being killed.
• The Mirror clone told Bayern that Ace wanted similar Demonic Beasts captured in cages of pure magic crystal.
• The settlement’s residents began adopting new clothing, names, and Common Tongue as they pursued the promised advancement opportunities.

After the Northern Mining Area was cleared, Ace planned to arm the mortals and use gunpowder weapons to defend the settlement. When marmot-like Demonic Beasts attacked the reclaimed fields and killed residents, Ace slaughtered them, but his rage brought back the whispers before his Mirror Image calmed him.

• Bayern and the others returned after clearing the Northern Mining Area, and Leon sent a mining team there with ten wizard apprentices to protect them.
• Ace considered smelting iron and making black powder so mortals could defend themselves against Demonic Beasts.
• A horn summoned help from the reclaimed fields, where marmot-like Demonic Beasts attacked the ditch diggers and killed the boy’s mother after biting him.
• Ace attacked the beasts from the air, then used enhanced magic crystal weapons to kill or drag up those that tried to burrow away.
• Ace’s rage triggered whispers urging him to kill and eat, but his Mirror Image cast Calmness and Mechanized Mind to settle him as the survivors cheered.

After a Demonic Beast attack devastated the reclaimed fields, Ace healed the survivors but could not save a mother who died pleading for her son. Later, the Book Spirit awakened and explained the Sea of Reality and Illusion and the beings that inhabit it.

• Ace used the Nourishment Technique to treat the dying mother, but she passed away after asking him to protect her son.
• Ace healed the injured boy and other survivors, then ordered Leon to return everyone to the settlement and said wizard apprentices would help guard the fields the next day.
• Leon blamed himself for failing to prepare for the attack, but Ace reassured him and told him it was not his fault.
• The Book Spirit awakened, and Ace questioned it about the strange ocean and the aura that had felt almost like truth.
• The Book Spirit told Ace that the Sea of Reality and Illusion surrounded the world and described rule-like, dream, and void creatures as its native inhabitants.

Ace developed mimicked Courage willpower and used it to create a rune that transformed hearts into golden hearts while rejecting magic power. After testing the dangerous effect on Demonic Beasts, he began preparing a comparative experiment on human slaves.

• Ace inferred that courage or creed willpower was a key part of Arno's Heart Power and hypnotized himself to imitate it.
• After repeated experiments, Ace combined mimicked Courage willpower with innate magic power to produce mimicked Heart Power and trace the rune.
• Ace found the rune resisted entering his Soul Secret Treasury Space and instead transformed a Demonic Beast's heart, causing the beast to dissolve into blood.
• Ace tested the rune on more Demonic Beasts and found their golden hearts eventually shriveled and lost their color.
• Ace selected slaves, raised three to Mental Overclocking, and prepared them alongside three ordinary slaves for a comparative experiment.

Ace studied the Courage and Mercy Runes, discovering how mimicked Heart Power could aid meditation and resist mental control. He created a badge that used mimicked Heart Power to suppress the whispers’ influence, containing the danger for now.

• Ace recorded his experiments with the Courage Rune, which strengthened mortals but harmed people with magic power and eventually faded.
• Ace discovered that the Courage Rune’s disappearance let Heart Power absorb magic power, and Ancesta and Arno used a nearby Meditation Method Rune Structure to meditate again.
• Ace found that mimicked Heart Power and Virtue Runes resisted mental-control spells, while mimicked Heart Power could merge with magic power to form new Heart Power.
• Ace and his mirror image crafted a Faceless Badge with runes that detected emotional fluctuations, strengthened will, and sealed the mind against mental influences.
• Ace tested the badge by provoking intense emotions and hearing the whispers, and the badge suppressed their influence.

A month after spring arrived, Ace organized the wizard apprentices to use magic for farming and infrastructure across High Tower Territory. As High Tower Castle’s shell was completed and construction of the Northern City Wall advanced, Caroso reflected on Ace’s promise that even slaves could have a chance to become extraordinary.

• Valen showed Sulu how Hand of Magic could be reshaped for farming while apprentices sowed the fields and protected the workers from Demonic Beasts.
• Ace announced that the castle shell was finished and planned to use the awakened Book Spirit to study the Mysterious Stomach and spatial magic.
• Ace divided the apprentices into ten groups to lead ordinary residents in building infrastructure throughout the territory.
• The Northern City Wall reached one-third completion in three days as Caroso used Lesser Turn Mud into Stone until his spiritual power nearly ran out.
• Caroso remembered his life as a slave and his father’s death, then meditated while considering Ace’s promise of hope and opportunity for slaves.

Ace expanded Nightglow Town into a planned city for thirty thousand residents, using wizard apprentices and magic to build its infrastructure, housing, farms, and industries. Construction continued across Nightglow City, where Daina reflected on the magical society Ace hoped to create and wished her family could join her.

• Ace abandoned his original construction plans and ordered Nightglow Town built to accommodate thirty thousand permanent residents, assigning mortals to assist ten groups of wizard apprentices.
• Betty and other apprentices established a mining camp, where they smelted iron ore with fire spells and shaped the molten metal into blocks.
• Betty demonstrated a more efficient method of smelting to Lou Xilu, then organized the apprentices into teams to smelt ore and solidify iron blocks.
• Construction crews raised apartment buildings, villas, bridges, roads, and other districts as Nightglow Town took shape as Nightglow City.
• Ace designated areas for administration, housing, workshops, military use, and future development, and planned to arm mortals with muskets and cannons.
• Daina led apprentices paving a road to the Northern Mining Area and hoped that Ace's vision would let them build a magical society, wishing her family could be with her.

Three months after Nightglow City’s construction began, Ace completed its major facilities and developed the Seamless Extension Rune Array after studying spatial magic. At the city’s celebration, apprentices and their families discovered that the castle hall had been expanded into a vast gathering space.

• Nightglow City was nearly complete, and its residents began to regard Ace as the city builder.
• Ace’s castle used rune arrays to reinforce its structure, concentrate magic, and power magic-stone production and supply.
• With the Book Spirit’s help, Ace developed the Seamless Extension Rune Array and the dangerous Spatial Collapse Rune Array, though he could not yet control the latter reliably.
• Ace and his mirror image inscribed the stable Seamless Extension Rune Array in several castle facilities, including the training ground, plant garden, hall, and Demonic Beast facilities.
• Apprentices and their guests gathered to celebrate Nightglow City’s completion and were astonished by the expanded hall, where Ace served food with Advanced Magic Trick.
• Leon told Betty that he believed they would witness a dazzling future in the Age of Magic.

After floods devastated Nightglow City, Ace organized the wizard apprentices to build a reservoir and plan water supply and drainage systems. The dam was completed, the reservoir began filling, and Ace assigned Daina, Leon, and Betty to continue the work.

• Torrential rain flooded Nightglow City, and Ace led the apprentices in diverting water while protecting the farmland with embankments.
• Ace chose an elevated stretch of the Runlight River for a reservoir and directed the apprentices to excavate a vast basin using magic.
• Daina taught the apprentices her Crystal Shaping technique, and Ace appointed her to oversee the dam's construction.
• The apprentices built a massive stone dam with enchanted iron gates, then released the river into the reservoir.
• Ace assigned Daina to build aqueducts, told Leon to manage the reservoir, and put Betty in charge of the city's stone water supply and drainage network.

Ace developed plans for a ceramic-pipe water system and advanced his research into flintlock muskets and rifled steel barrels. The city’s water network was nearing completion, while Ace had begun making gun barrels with spiral grooves.

• Ace chose glazed ceramic pipes hardened with magic for household water lines and assigned Betty residents and wizard apprentices to make them.
• Betty and Daina planned four water towers outside Nightglow City's western wall and a network of pipes and distribution towers throughout the city.
• Betty led apprentices in building stone intake and drainage channels, while Lou Xilu and other apprentices reinforced fired ceramic pipes and studied runes.
• Ace devised a black-powder formula for ordinary soldiers and began crafting flintlock muskets with bronze springs and steel barrels.
• Ace magically refined three hundred steel rods and used crystal drill bits to bore spiral rifling into them.