Chapter Summaries

The Demon King defeated the scarecrow guards and butler in the Forgotten Mansion, then entered the Scarecrow Abyss's Fifth Floor. There, he confronted the Wicked Grass monster bound by a pact and began fighting it.

• The Demon King's slime forces consumed the scarecrow guards and carried the ruined butler through the Forgotten Mansion.
• The Demon King paused before a hidden magical lock after learning that three Puji had killed a slime he used to monitor the Hand of Passing.
• The Demon King unlocked the bookshelf and entered the Scarecrow Abyss's Fifth Floor with the Slime Python.
• A Wicked Grass monster demanded that the Demon King leave because the pact's term of three hundred and thirty-three years had not arrived.
• The Demon King called the monster a Pseudo-Soul, and the Slime Python attacked as magic and shrieks filled the dark core space.

Eleanor faced a worsening crisis as Sigismund's Delicious wine undermined her blood business, Kees disrupted her slave shipments, and her search for the Holy Scripture stalled. Meanwhile, Kiro and Tanaka crossed the dangerous sea without encountering Kees, and Tanaka questioned why their crew included Puji.

• Sigismund rebuilt his army with profits from selling Delicious wine while Mofulei's spies investigated his territory.
• Eleanor's high-end blood products lost customers to Delicious, and her attempts to uncover Sigismund's supply source failed.
• Kees swarms cut off Eleanor's sea route and destroyed seven of her slave transport ships.
• Eleanor's Holy Scripture search party returned after its tracking method gave shifting, unreliable directions, leaving her unable to focus on her business troubles.
• Kiro and Tanaka sailed through waters where Kees had attacked Eleanor's ships, and Tanaka asked why they had brought Puji along.

Belial tracked a suspicious convoy from High Keep Fortress into a forest, where he discovered that Hollow Ox-Horse Pujis were collecting its cargo and was exposed by a strange white creature. Linden later checked the materials for Fungal Fortress's defenses and wondered whether he could substitute Murloc Tears for rare items from the sea.

• Belial watched three unmarked carriages leave High Keep Fortress and followed their trail into the forest.
• Belial found the convoy unloading jars, then saw Hollow Ox-Horse Pujis carry the packages away through holes in the Fungal Carpet.
• A strange white creature revealed that it knew Belial was spying and taunted him about how the Delicious 'wine' was produced, so Belial fled.
• The Blood Knight heard movement in the forest but dismissed it as the wind as the convoy departed.
• Linden reviewed the city-defense materials for Fungal Fortress and considered using a Murloc Tear instead of a Mermaid Tear.

Linden sent Diving Puji into the Tidal Sanctuary to investigate the Murlocs and find materials for the Fungal Fortress’s Magic Array. After a corpse and a panel-less Carapace Monster revealed danger in the Dungeon, a Murloc emerged and confronted the surviving Puji Fish.

• Linden sent several Diving Puji through the Rift to scout the Tidal Sanctuary and seek the Murlocs who might help gather materials.
• The Puji Fish found a recently killed carapaced humanoid, which Linden brought back and decomposed, but it yielded no skill proficiency or soul.
• A panel-less Carapace Monster ambushed the Puji Fish in a corridor and killed one despite their infrasound attack.
• A Murloc emerged from a hidden passage, killed the Carapace Monster with a harpoon, and questioned the surviving Puji Fish.

Linden followed a Murloc through hidden passages to Gugulu’s Sanctuary, where he discovered Gugulu possessed a damaged Scepter of the Ocean. Gugulu offered the artifact after the invaders were defeated and gave Linden Siphon Worm Crystals, while Linden called the Mushroom Garden’s core members to join an undersea expedition.

• A Murloc led Linden through secret passages past the bodies of strange marine-creature monsters and brought him to the Murloc tribe’s Sanctuary.
• Linden recognized the damaged Scepter of the Ocean in Gugulu’s possession, and Gugulu offered it to him once the Sanctuary’s invaders were defeated.
• Linden asked Gugulu for Siphon Worm Crystals and Mermaid Tears, and Gugulu provided a basket of crystals but said there were no mermaids in the Sanctuary.
• Linden questioned Gugulu’s motives, then told the Murloc he would return after gathering help.
• Linden invited the Mushroom Garden’s core members to join an undersea exploration and seafood-gathering expedition.

Ming defeated a group of D-Rank personnel in Puji Dungeon, then eagerly joined Linden’s expedition to help the Murlocs fight invading monsters. Two days later, the team gathered at the enlarged Rift on the Seventh Floor and prepared to set out.

• Ming killed the defeated D-Rank fighters, and Riel gave him a potion and urged him to study magic instead of fighting.
• Linden approved Ming’s request to join the expedition and began assembling a team.
• Linden selected Piggy to lead the Puji Masters, assigned Norris to watch over Ming, and brought Little Black along after tempting her with pearls.
• Two days later, Norris, Louisa, and Ming announced their team names before the group entered the Rift, while Little Black forgot hers.

Norris, Ming, Piggy, Little Black, and a 300-soldier force entered the underwater passage, where experimental Puji helped them fight two carapace monsters. After friendly fire from an electric Puji injured three soldiers, the team discovered Linden was testing a water-adapted Fungal Carpet in the Rift chamber.

• Norris and Ming struggled to adapt to the water while Piggy moved calmly and Little Black rushed ahead, mistaking a murloc for prey before it became the team's guide.
• The force entered the passage with experimental Puji, and two carapace monsters followed the disturbance and attacked the rear of the team.
• Rock Armor Puji used [Gravity Field LV6] to pin the monsters, then pierced them with cone spikes; a Puji Fish killed the surviving monster with [Electric Arc LV7].
• The electric arc chained through nearby Puji and injured three soldiers, so Piggy arranged for them to be carried back to the Fungal Fortress.
• The returning squad found glowing, kelp-like mycelium in the Rift chamber, where Linden was testing how to lay Fungal Carpet underwater.

Linden and Piggy prepared to reclaim the Tidal Sanctuary, laying out seaweed-mode mycelia and planning reconnaissance based on Gululu’s map. As their scouts set out, a ship carrying Common Pujis and Snake Person Mercenaries arrived outside the dungeon entrance.

• Linden considered the limits of floating mycelia and settled for expanding the network while prioritizing the seafood monsters and the missing half of the divine artifact.
• Gululu gave Piggy a rough map of the Tidal Sanctuary, revealing its spherical maze, hidden routes, traps, and the monsters’ entrance from the true sea.
• Piggy questioned Gululu about the mapped areas and organized mixed squads to scout routes, map hazards, and assess nearby enemies.
• Norris and Ming went scouting and received Linden’s order to capture seafood monsters for mycelium-parasitism tests.
• Little Black wandered near the murlocs’ hideout with a Puji Fish while damaging the walls and chewing the Coral Throne, upsetting the murloc warriors.
• A ship carrying Common Pujis and Snake Person Mercenaries sailed toward the Tidal Sanctuary entrance.

Norris and Ming explored an underwater passage toward the Altar Room while Norris learned that Ming was a frighteningly powerful young fighter. Their conversation ended when their Murloc guide warned them that the Altar Room ahead held many enemies.

• Norris and Ming replenished their oxygen and proceeded through the dim corridor with a Murloc guide, Jida, and an Oxygen-Supplying Puji.
• Norris asked Ming about his life and learned that he trained by fighting deathmatches in the Colosseum.
• Ming told Norris he could fight several ordinary Gold Ranks or dozens of Silver Ranks, despite being less than a year old and only Level thirty-six.
• Norris mistakenly thought Ming's strength came from controlling Jida, but Ming explained he could control only twenty-three Puji and fought with his fists.
• The Murloc guide warned Norris and Ming that many enemies were entrenched in the Altar Room ahead.

Norris, Ming, and their Murloc guide were exposed while investigating Seafood Monsters desecrating a divine statue, and the group fought their way into the enemy horde. The chapter ended with Ming killing a Bone Blade monster after its blades shattered against his body, leaving Norris stunned by Ming’s toughness.

• The Murloc guide’s anger disturbed the currents, alerting more than thirty Seafood Monsters in the altar hall, so Norris ordered a retreat and launched a Puji that destroyed three enemies and disrupted the horde.
• Ming charged into the fight, killing a crustacean monster while Jida helped Norris fend off another attacker.
• A fast Bone Blade monster struck Jida’s Rock Armor Shield, then dodged Norris’s attacks as it rushed toward Ming.
• Norris hurled himself into the Bone Blade monster’s path, but Ming charged the enemy instead of retreating.
• The Bone Blade monster’s weapons snapped against Ming’s body, and Ming stabbed it through the head with a bloodstained bone spike.

After Norris, Ming, and Jida captured the last Seafood Monster, Linden noticed a strange flicker of a soul inside the God of Death’s statue. When the monster was transformed into a mushroom puppet, Linden was struck by a vision of a pitch-black land covered in coffins and a towering silhouette.

• Norris and Ming recovered oxygen after the battle while the wounded Murloc treated its severed arm and mourned the damaged statue of Nephrela.
• Norris warned Ming not to provoke the Murlocs over their faith, and Ming agreed to follow Boss’s instructions.
• Linden observed that the statue of Nephrela contained a flickering trace of a soul, unlike the statues of the God of Light he had seen before.
• Norris, Ming, and Jida brought the last captured Seafood Monster back to the room with the Rift entrance, where mycelium transformed it into a mushroom puppet.
• As the mycelium parasitized the monster, Linden saw a vision of a barren black land filled with rows of coffins and a vast silhouette in the distance.

Linden’s forces prepared to retake the Tidal Sanctuary entrance while he tested the murlocs’ willingness to accept mycelium. Above the entrance, Kiro persuaded Iron Jaw’s mercenaries to continue despite the danger, warning Tanaka that their mission could cost them their lives.

• Linden gave Piggy a mushroom puppet, and she used reconnaissance reports to plan an expedition to retake the Dungeon entrance while capturing monsters alive.
• Ming led the mixed Tidal Sanctuary Expeditionary Force along Piggy’s mapped route.
• Linden reattached a murloc’s severed hand and observed that Gululu continued to cooperate with mycelium parasitization.
• Iron Jaw confronted Kiro about the danger near the mist wall, then accepted an additional payment and signed a supplementary contract.
• Kiro warned Tanaka to follow his instructions exactly because Temperance could not prevent every accident.

Tanaka used [Sloth of the Seven Sins] to send a duplicate into Tidal Sanctuary with Iron Jaw’s mercenary group while his original followed a hidden passage. The duplicate was killed by combat-ready Puji, and Kiro began preparing another attempt.

• Tanaka created a duplicate and sent it with Iron Jaw’s team toward Tidal Sanctuary while keeping his magic items on the duplicate.
• Iron Jaw’s group fought through monsters and mana disruptions at the Dungeon entrance, losing a Snake Person to a Bone Blade monster.
• Tanaka slipped through a hidden wall after the third room and followed Kiro’s directions through a side passage.
• Tanaka killed an ambushing Murloc with [Memory Wipe], then complained that Kiro had not warned him about it.
• Tanaka encountered Half-Demons and armed Puji; the Puji pierced the duplicate, leaving its magic tools to sink as Tanaka cried out aboard the ship.
• Kiro clapped his hands and began round two as Tanaka exchanged magic tools with another duplicate.

Kiro discovered that parasitized Murlocs could sense one another, explaining why Tanaka’s clones kept getting cornered in Tidal Sanctuary. Tanaka finally slipped past the search parties, but Louisa’s army discovered the Snake Person mercenaries and began to surround them.

• Tanaka’s clones repeatedly encountered Murlocs and Half-Demon patrols, and Kiro tried different routes and timings to get one into the dungeon.
• After the twelfth attempt, Tanaka described white filaments emerging from a Murloc’s wound, and Kiro realized parasitized individuals could sense one another nearby.
• Kiro concluded that the Murloc tribe had been parasitized earlier than it had in the original course of events, marking another deviation.
• On the thirteenth attempt, Tanaka knocked out the ambushing Murloc without killing it and escaped through the Secret Passage without alerting the search teams.
• Louisa’s scouts investigated the unresponsive Murloc, while Tanaka’s avatar moved farther away through another Secret Passage.
• Louisa’s forces spotted Snake Person mercenaries spying on them, and she ordered units to encircle their position.

Iron Jaw’s mercenary group discovered an organized Imperial force in the secret passage and tried to retreat, but Louisa and the Expeditionary Force trapped them at the Dungeon’s gate. Louisa offered Iron Jaw a chance to escape by defeating her, and he prepared to fight her and take her hostage.

• A wounded Snake Person Mercenary reported that Half-Demons, Murlocs, and Combat Pujis had ambushed them in a force that fought like a regular army.
• Iron Jaw abandoned the wall-breaking mission and used a stolen glowing bead to open a Rift that swept away pursuing Pujis and blocked the passage.
• Iron Jaw led his mercenaries toward the Dungeon’s gate, where Louisa sealed their exit with Blood Manipulation and the Expeditionary Force surrounded them.
• Iron Jaw pleaded that his group had stumbled into the area by accident, but Louisa offered to let them leave only if he defeated her.
• Iron Jaw accepted that a fight was unavoidable and resolved to capture Louisa, while she revealed her Magic Crystal Battle Armor.

Louisa tested her new battle armor against Iron Jaw, a Hall Level Snake Person, and revealed its terrifying Blood Crystal defense and her own hidden power. She killed Iron Jaw after surviving his Rift, while Piggy faced an angry Knight Puji demanding a chance to fight.

• Iron Jaw attacked Louisa underwater and spread venom through the water, but her speed and toxin resistance kept her safe.
• Louisa activated her armor, which pierced her body with barbs and encased her in Blood Crystal, then shattered Iron Jaw's water blades without taking damage.
• Louisa's blood-coated greatsword severed Iron Jaw's right arm and killed a Snake Person Mercenary behind a distant pillar with its slash.
• Iron Jaw released his final Rift pearl, and Louisa's Blood Crystal armor repaired itself as the Rift's suction cracked it and Iron Jaw charged at her exposed face.
• Louisa petrified Iron Jaw with a ray and killed him with her greatsword; after the Rift closed, Knight Puji turned its attention to Piggy for missing its chance to fight.

Louisa defeated Iron Jaw and captured the surviving Snake Person Mercenaries, while Linden's forces pursued Tanaka through the Tidal Sanctuary. Tanaka briefly damaged the Demon King's seal before escaping, and Linden ordered the troops to search for the Snake Persons' ship, but Louisa found only open water and mist.

• Louisa gathered Iron Jaw's blood after killing him, and the remaining Snake Person Mercenaries surrendered or were restrained by their companions and the Pujis.
• Louisa's overloaded A-Rank Magic Crystals crumbled after she powered down her Magic Crystal Battle Armor.
• Tanaka repeatedly used [Memory Wipe] to escape Ming, but Jida stopped him with [Gravity Field] and a tentacle.
• Guided by Kiro, Tanaka reached the core, damaged the seal, and lost his right hand and half his forearm when Linden intervened.
• Tanaka vanished before Linden could capture him, so Linden ordered Louisa to lead the troops out and find the Snake Persons' ship.
• Louisa's troops suffered casualties crossing the mist outside the Tidal Sanctuary, and she found only the Open Ocean and distant mist.

Iron Jaw’s crew unknowingly abandoned the underwater mission and sailed away, leaving Louisa stranded as Tanaka recovered from his injuries. Kiro’s nightmare showed the world’s future defeat by Louisa and the Mushroom Garden, while Linden scolded Louisa for killing a valuable combatant and failing to find the ship.

• Iron Jaw led the mercenaries and Tanaka’s clone into the Dungeon, while the crew left aboard turned the ship around and sailed away after encountering monsters and growing uneasy.
• Louisa emerged from the Dungeon to find only mist and an empty sea, while Tanaka clutched his severed arm and asked Kiro who controlled the Puji.
• Kiro reflected that an unknown will commanded the Fungal Carpet and Puji, and that his repeated use of Temperance was draining his lifespan.
• Kiro dreamed of a future in which Blood-Mad Louisa and the Mushroom Garden’s army attacked humanity’s last fortress, where the Demon King was defeated and the world faced ruin.
• Linden scolded Louisa for smashing Tanaka’s head instead of preserving him as a Hall Level combatant and for failing to find the ship.

Hai and the other Snake Person prisoners were bound, while Linden investigated the damaged seal in the Tidal Sanctuary. A faint spell emerged from beneath it as a Slime-folk phantom, which reacted with surprise to seeing Puji in the sea.

• A Half-Demon soldier recognized Hai from their old tribal days and explained that Hai had missed the good times by choosing the Empire.
• A Diamond Rank Snake Person broke free of his restraints and exploded into fragments, warning the other prisoners not to try escaping.
• Linden judged that the damaged seal was still operating but could eventually collapse, and he summoned the old Murloc to inspect it.
• Linden, Knight Puji, Norris, and Ming sensed magic forming beneath the seal and prepared for an attack.
• A gelatinous phantom emerged through the seal, identified itself as a Slime-folk, and exclaimed that Puji had gone into the sea.

Linden and his companions faced the Demon King's phantom while trying to learn about the seal and the Empire. The old murloc used half of the Scepter of the Ocean to stabilize the damaged seal, causing the phantom to fade and leaving Linden eyeing the artifact.

• The Demon King's phantom identified Norris hidden inside Jida as human and questioned Ming about who had undone the seal.
• Linden used Voice Puji to pretend that the Empire had fallen into Mortis's hands and ask the Demon King for advice, but the Demon King saw through the ruse and deduced that the true intruder had been dealt with.
• Louisa arrived with an army of Puji, and the old murloc emerged through a secret passage as the Demon King examined them and the Magic Crystal Battle Armor.
• Linden prepared to reseal the Demon King if possible or fight him with Mushroom Garden's forces if the seal failed.
• The old murloc inserted half of the Scepter of the Ocean into the damaged seal, stabilizing it and cutting off the phantom's magic until it faded away.