Chapter Summaries

Linden negotiated with Sigismund for a share of the war’s rewards, then issued coordinated orders for the assault on High Keep Fortress. Meanwhile, Angela’s undermanned garrison at Jingu City faced a Snake Person attack after desertions and a violent crackdown, and the battle began with an unexpected turn.

• Linden delayed Sigismund’s attack orders while eating honey, then agreed to help in exchange for half the merit and a chance to see the Book of Miracles.
• Linden relayed Sigismund’s plan for Valerice, Eleanor, and the Blood Knights to attack High Keep Fortress at different points.
• Angela learned that Brennus’s army had been routed and the Sword Saint gravely wounded, while civilians fled and soldiers deserted Jingu City.
• Viscount Knight killed a commander who proposed retreating and urged the remaining troops to fight for their families and dignity.
• More soldiers deserted overnight, and Angela and a colleague were promoted before the Snake People attacked Jingu City the next day.
• The battle began, but events unfolded differently than both sides had expected.

Angela’s defenders used thousands of Puji to repel the Snake Person vanguard, whose soldiers were weakened by the creatures’ varied attacks and poisonous spores. The Snake Person leader withdrew and redirected his army toward another town, wary of facing the Puji again.

• A Winged Race soldier hurled a Puji into the advancing Snake Person ranks, and Angela ordered the Puji Masters to send their creatures into battle.
• The Puji and Snake Persons clashed while defenders fired arrows and Mushroom Cannon Puji shots into the melee.
• The Snake Persons struggled to fight among the nimble Puji, which shocked, poisoned, and injured them while their own attacks risked hitting comrades.
• As spore dust poisoned the Snake Person commander and his troops, the main formation sounded the withdrawal signal.
• Angela and another commander stopped Viscount Knight from pursuing, while the defenders counted more than three thousand Puji dead and around a hundred Snake Persons killed.
• The Snake Person leader rationed antidotes and ordered his army west toward another town, telling the priest to warn him about the Walking Mushrooms next time.

After Jingu City repelled two Demon Race attacks, its defenders replenished their Puji using corpses, but the growing influx of refugees made the city a more tempting target. Viscount Knight proposed sending a group to the fallen Warrior's Cape for human remains to cultivate more Puji, and the chapter ended with a large ship traveling along the coast.

• Angela and the defenders celebrated after the Snake People retreated, then discussed how to replace their lost Puji.
• The defenders fed Snake Person and Puji remains to the city's Fungal Carpet, and newborn Puji emerged over the following days.
• Linden secretly subsidized the Puji's growth with magic, while Jingu City endured another probing attack and turned away more Demon Race troops.
• Refugees and routed soldiers flooded into Jingu City, worsening its food shortage as Demon Race scouts gathered nearby.
• Viscount Knight proposed sending people to fallen Warrior's Cape to collect human remains for cultivating Puji, and Baron Morton objected before falling silent.
• A large ship traveled slowly along the coastline.

Angela and Baron Morton led a covert squad to the ruined port of Warrior's Cape to gather supplies, where Morton revealed his grief over losing his family and anger at being abandoned. The mission ended in betrayal when Morton turned on the squad to secure his daughter’s safety, leaving Angela wounded and surrounded by Pig-men as she refused to surrender.

• Angela and Baron Morton led a hundred-person squad toward Warrior's Cape, while Linden secretly used [Familiar Control] to guide a Puji along with them.
• A Wingman confirmed that Warrior's Cape was a charred ruin with no Demon Race forces in sight, and the squad arrived after nightfall to gather supplies without using lights.
• Morton told Angela about his daughter Lucia and blamed the kingdom’s retreat for leaving his family and territory exposed.
• A survivor recognized Morton, but Morton revealed he had not been protecting his subjects during the retreat and had chosen to cooperate with the Pig-men to save his daughter.
• Pig-men surrounded the squad, and their leader offered to spare them if they surrendered; Angela, wounded by Morton, raised her sword and refused.

Angela fought the Pig-man Leader while Jingu City's soldiers were surrounded, but magical arrows from a ship offshore disrupted the battle and Church Warriors arrived to attack. The Pig-man Leader was killed, and Sophia continued firing as Bella hurried the ship toward shore while Angela lay wounded.

• The Pig-man Leader offered Angela a place in the Empire if she abandoned her human allies, but she refused and continued fighting despite her shoulder wound.
• As Linden prepared to use the Puji to cause chaos, a magical arrow struck the Pig-man Leader's weapon, allowing Angela to wound him before he knocked her through a ruined wall.
• Sophia fired repeated magical arrows from a distant ship, killing Pig-man Warriors, while the Puji Masters charged and used Hallucinogenic Spores to impede the pig-men.
• The Pig-man Leader ordered his soldiers to kill the humans, then tried to fight off the approaching Church Warriors as they crossed the sea toward shore.
• Sophia shot the Pig-man Leader in the wrist, and the leading Church Warrior killed him with Divine Smite.
• Bella used the damaged Scepter of the Ocean to speed the ship while Samuel guarded Sophia, and an unnoticed Puji sprinkled spores over Angela's bleeding wound.

Sophia and her allies defeated the Pig-man Leader and drove off the raiders, while Linden discovered that Bella Slick was Dylan’s daughter. Bella reached the shore to help the unconscious survivors, but after inspecting a Puji with [Vision of Truth], she vomited all over it.

• Sophia’s Magic Arrow crippled the Pig-man Leader’s wrist before the Captain of the Guard killed him, causing the remaining Pig-man Soldiers to flee.
• Sophia and Samuel discussed the parasitized survivors, and Sophia asked Bella to handle matters onshore before returning to the ship.
• Linden stabilized Angela’s injuries through Mycelium parasitism and recognized Bella Slick as Dylan Slick’s daughter.
• Bella crossed to shore, where a Puji eagerly followed and pressed against her.
• Bella used [Vision of Truth] on the Puji and vomited over it.

Bella and the Captain of the Guard rescued the survivors, executed Baron Morton, and spared Lucia before the Church party sailed north. Back in Jingu City, Dylan found a note claiming to know his daughter's whereabouts and naming a midnight meeting place.

• Bella vomited after seeing the Pujis, while Linden lay among them, furious at the humiliation and vowing revenge on Dylan.
• Bella urged the Captain of the Guard to awaken the surviving Puji Masters, and the rescued survivors realized they had been saved.
• The Captain of the Guard beheaded Baron Morton for betraying his people, but Bella persuaded him to spare Lucia.
• The Church party returned to its ship and sailed north along the coast, while Angela's team later returned to Jingu City with many corpses.
• Dylan found a note on the shop counter offering information about his daughter and directing him to the Abandoned Village North of the City at two o'clock at midnight.

Dylan learned that Bella was alive but stayed away from the chaotic west bank, while Linden strengthened Jingu City's Puji forces. When the Demon Race attacked with Snake People and Lizardmen, the Viscount's street-fighting strategy helped the defenders drive them back, and Jingu City held out against further large-scale attacks.

• Dylan learned from Linden that Bella was alive, then returned to Puji House after deciding it was too dangerous to search for her in the west bank.
• Linden used the recovered Pig-man Warrior corpses to grow more Pujis and helped raise the number of Puji Masters in Jingu City to nearly a thousand, including Angela.
• The Snake People and Lizardmen attacked Jingu City with more than four thousand soldiers, and the Viscount ordered the defenders to abandon the walls and fight in the city streets.
• Puji ambushes and Self-Destruct Puji inflicted heavy losses on the Lizardmen, while Angela helped rescue an injured Puji Master.
• The Demon Race commanders withdrew after advancing less than a thousand meters, and Jingu City avoided another large-scale attack until the Duke recalled the raiding troops.

Kiro helped a party of Adventurers survive Scarecrow Abyss and later parted ways with them, still exhausted from his repeated efforts to change the outcome. He concluded that the variable he sought was in the Demon Territory and headed north, muttering Tanaka Xiuchi’s name.

• A captain nearly bought an ordinary Puji, but the Wanderer warned him that only mutated Puji from Puji Dungeon had the Non-Falling trait, so the captain paid two gold coins for a safe one.
• The Wanderer returned to camp and thanked Kiro for saving his party from falling into Scarecrow Abyss.
• Kiro spent the day clapping in a fixed rhythm while the Adventurers waited, then drank a Stamina Potion and said he had to leave.
• Kiro advised the Wanderer to spend his money on Delicious Mushrooms for his child instead of going to the casino.
• Kiro reflected that after 436 attempts, the variable was in the Demon Territory, and he headed north while murmuring Tanaka Xiuchi’s name.

Torin, Grum, and Baroque worked as captives in Mycelium Puji Fortress and ate breakfast while listening to an Empire Vampire scream at the Gate of Cries. At No. 3 Mushroom Garden, Linden found Little Black unconscious after enhancing her bloodline, but an emergency troop muster took priority.

• Torin, Grum, and Baroque pushed a Fatty Drilling Puji through an underground tunnel and earned Contribution Points.
• The three ate breakfast near the Gate of Cries as a Vampire's dawn scream entertained the captives, and Torin and Grum discussed redeeming themselves and Goldflame Fortress.
• Baroque and other Half-Demons and Lizardmen left the canteen after an officer issued an emergency assembly order.
• Linden found Little Black sprawled unconscious after using [Bloodline Enhancement LV2] on her Ancient Dragon bloodline.
• Linden saw the monitored tribes begin mustering troops, and Piggy issued an assembly order through the Mycelium Network.

Linden prepared the Fungal Fortress’s forces for what he believed was an approaching tribal attack, but Scout Puji revealed that the tribes were hunting a new monster near the Luo River instead. The chapter left the tribes encircling the monster as Broga killed a Six-Claw that had nearly reached one of his subordinates.

• Linden watched three nearby tribes prepare for war and assumed they would unite before attacking the Fungal Fortress.
• A Scout Puji followed one tribal group south, while Linden assembled an army of two thousand people and tens of thousands of Puji under Piggy’s command.
• Linden inspected an unfinished super Jida in his Far North laboratory and chose not to deploy it.
• Piggy led the Fungal Fortress army south at Linden’s order, but Scout Puji’s view later showed that the tribes’ target was not the fortress.
• Five tribes sent more than three thousand warriors to encircle a new Monster near the Luo River and scatter powder to expose it.
• Broga spotted a Six-Claw beside one of his subordinates and killed it with his ring-pommel saber.

Broga and Rama led the allied Tribes in a hunt to exterminate the invisible, purple-blooded insects that had been attacking their people. As the warriors cornered the insects on the frozen Luo River, a huge, tooth-covered tentacle erupted through the ice.

• Broga pursued and killed an invisible jumping insect with help from Rama’s lightning.
• Broga and Rama discussed the insects’ casualties and the Tribes’ plan to lure them out and surround them.
• The warriors found red blood and a severed human finger, evidence that one of the slaves used as bait had been killed.
• A priest’s revealing spell exposed the last few hundred insects on the frozen Luo River, surrounding a giant creature believed to be their Insect King.
• Broga charged the swarm and fought his way toward the Insect King as the Tribes overwhelmed the insects.
• The ice trembled beneath Broga, and a massive tentacle covered in sharp teeth burst through it.

Kees remembered its long hunger, escaped its cage, and built an army by devouring prey, then attacked the Tribal Coalition on the frozen Luo River. As Kees began feasting, Linden ordered Louisa and the Fungal Fortress army to hurry forward and confront it.

• Kees's jar shattered, leaving it starving until it ate a passing Monster and began producing Six-Claws, Eye Bugs, Leaping Bugs, and Evil Eyes.
• The Fungal Carpet drove Kees from its first territory, but Kees developed in the Luo River and escaped a bat's pursuit by using a Split Body.
• Kees discovered the sea and decided to feast on the two-legged prey beside the river before heading there.
• Kees's Tentacle Beasts shattered the ice, drowned Tribal Coalition members, and began eating the fallen.
• Linden watched through Scout Puji and ordered Louisa to lead the Fungal Fortress army at full speed toward Kees.

Rama and Broga fled the Tribal Coalition’s defeat and sought shelter at the Stone Face tribe, where they discovered something was wrong just as Kees’s giant beast arrived. Kees began its attack on the tribe, but high-energy mana shots suddenly struck its forces from behind.

• Rama treated Broga’s severed leg while they fled the shattered Tribal Coalition, whose warriors had scattered in panic.
• Rama and Broga reached the Stone Face tribe and urged its Lizardmen to organize a rescue, but the Lizardmen showed no reaction and led them to an empty tent.
• Rama and Broga heard a tribal member accuse intruders of taking his family, then saw Kees’s giant beast approaching through the snow.
• A Puji emerged from a snow-covered hole near Rama and Broga as they realized Kees intended to wipe out the tribe.
• Kees explained that it had chosen the weaker tribe to raid for food before fleeing toward the sea, but several high-energy mana shots shattered an Evil Eye’s shield and struck its forces.

Linden’s forces ambushed Kees’s army at the Stone Face tribe, forcing it to flee while the Jida and Puji pursued and destroyed its giant beasts. At the middle reaches of the Luo River, Piggy’s forces attacked Kees’s heart underwater, which the Scout Pujis had tracked.

• Linden occupied the Stone Face tribe, evacuated its residents to the Fungal Fortress, and prepared his forces for Kees’s arrival.
• Norris’s Jida fired on the Evil Eye, and Kees recognized the ambush and ordered his army to retreat, abandoning the injured Tentacle Beast.
• Puji swarmed the Tentacle Beast until it stopped moving, while the Jida and Puji War Chariots pursued Kees’s fleeing forces and killed the remaining Evil Eye.
• Broga and Rama abandoned their escape plan after witnessing Kees’s army collapse, while Norris continued attacking the scattered troops.
• Piggy’s forces bombarded the middle reaches of the Luo River, where they targeted Kees’s heart, a level 64 creature with Split Body LV1.

Linden’s forces defeated Kees’s army and drove Kees’s Heart into retreat, then Norris brought the Fungal Fortress army to protect the neighboring tribes. Kees’s Heart escaped to the sea with a handful of Underwater Bugs, lamenting another total loss.

• Linden stopped searching for Kees’s Split Body and ordered Piggy to kill Kees’s Heart; Piggy’s Blood Blade Storm cleared the river, but Kees escaped by activating Split Body.
• Linden counted Kees’s Split Body and the remains of aquatic creatures and fallen tribal warriors among the spoils.
• Norris led most of his forces to the Broken Blade Tribe, where Broga vouched for them and the chief opened the gate.
• Norris won the cooperation of several tribes, including one chief who entrusted his tribe’s defenses to the Fungal Fortress army.
• Kees’s Heart slipped into the sea with more than ten Underwater Bugs and lamented that everything had been lost again.

Broga and Rama arrived at the Fungal Fortress for the Northern Alliance meeting, where the fortress’s leaders offered the tribes benefits in exchange for loyalty to Boss and the Mushroom Garden’s rules. The chiefs accepted the terms and prepared to swear an alliance after Marshal Puji was revealed as Boss, while Louisa cared for the newly awakened Little Black.

• At the south gate, a Half-Demon tried to recruit Broga and Rama into the Mycelium Network, offering Contribution Points and a Limb Regeneration Potion, but they declined.
• Broga and Rama entered the busy Fungal Fortress and joined the tribal chiefs and surviving superior warriors gathered for the First Northern Alliance Meeting.
• Norris used the Yellow Book to argue that the Northern tribes should unite, and its mental influence prompted a chief to voice immediate support.
• Spark outlined benefits for the tribes in exchange for loyalty to Boss and compliance with the Mushroom Garden’s regulations.
• When a superior warrior asked who Boss was, Spark presented Marshal Puji, and the gathered leaders accepted the explanation and prepared for the alliance oath.
• Louisa helped Linden soothe Little Black after he awakened.

Little Black’s sudden growth triggered a frightened dragon-breath outburst that destroyed the Mushroom House, while Linden investigated her Ancient Dragon Path status. He then returned to his experimental base and found that a Fatty Puji’s Giant Object skill had pushed its constitution beyond the species’ usual limit.

• In Dragon Cliff Dungeon, a black dragon killed two kobolds after outside roars enraged it, then muttered that a Swergis dared to covet something.
• Louisa soothed Little Black after she woke from a dragon-filled nightmare and destroyed the Mushroom House with her breath.
• Linden learned that Little Black had grown ten centimeters, gained two levels to 63, and displayed Ancient Dragon Path progress of 1%.
• Linden examined a Giant Object LV2 Fatty Puji whose constitution exceeded the usual attribute cap, and decided to train the skill further.

Vera and her teammates prepared to escort Pujis toward the western front as the Demon Race threatened Three Mountains City. In Red Stone City, Eiding arrived as Inanna’s special envoy and confronted Nova about the Life-Seeking Wood Core in his possession.

• A rush of customers emptied Puji House, and Dylan sold Vera the last Wind-Whisperer Brew and Emerald Whisper Potions before she set out to fight scattered demons.
• Vera passed Horn being thrown out of the Lucky Coin Casino and joined her teammates at the Adventurer Guild, where Feiling found them an official task escorting Pujis to Jingu City.
• Feiling told the group that Eiding had gone to Red Stone City, and they prepared for their own journey toward the front.
• Eiding activated the Veil of Obscurity in Nova’s office and declared that Inanna had sent him to claim the Life-Seeking Wood Core, a divine artifact fragment Nova possessed.

Nova and his teammates weighed Eiding’s offer of three S-Rank Magic Crystals against the threat to Red Stone City and decided to postpone the trade. Eiding left the City Lord’s Mansion, then used a high-grade illusion item to reveal that a Scout Puji had been directing the mission.

• Eiding offered Nova three S-Rank Magic Crystals in exchange for the divine artifact fragment, and Nova asked to consult his teammates before deciding.
• Nova told Night Owl, Ivan, and Garr about the offer, and Garr revealed that Earth Peak Fortress had been surrounded by the Demon Race.
• The squad discussed trading, fleeing, or keeping the wood core, and Nova decided they would trade only after the situation changed.
• Nova told Eiding they would postpone the trade until the Church’s reinforcements reached Three Mountains City, while keeping the wood core for now.
• Eiding slipped away from his inn room and used a high-grade illusion item to return to the real Eiding, who was meeting with a Scout Puji.