Chapter Summaries

Richard prepared Bone to hunt the bounty hunters pursuing him and led an assault on Cross Town, where many of them had gathered. Bone survived the destruction of the town, collected the remains, and told the bartender that he was hunting on Richard’s behalf.

• Bone warned Richard that they were in the Nightmare Ring’s inner ring, where many bounty hunters were pursuing him, but Richard kept his plan to hunt them.
• Richard gave Bone Dragon Alchemy armor and altered it to cover his weaknesses, then Bone led him east toward a Lawless Land.
• At Cross Town’s Seeker of Death Tavern, Bone warned the Demon Bartender to close before Richard’s fireballs destroyed the town and its inhabitants.
• Bone survived the attack beneath the earth, collected the Nightmare Creature remains, and found that the bartender’s tavern had endured unharmed.
• Bone revealed his identity to the bartender and said he was hunting, acting as Richard’s hunting dog.

Richard reached the ruins of Cross Town, traded information with the Seeker of Death Tavern’s bartender, and attracted the attention of the Great Existence behind the taverns. After signing a Fate Contract that barred him from the taverns, he received an evolved Nightmare Artifact whose new abilities let him forcibly link Nightmare Creatures and drain their Nightmare Power.

• Richard collected the Nightmare Power Bone had saved from Cross Town and devoured it, gaining nearly a million strands.
• Richard negotiated with the bartender for information on the Nightmare Ring and maps, trading news that the Wizard World had ended its war and begun hunting the stars.
• The Great Existence behind the taverns appeared through the bartender, demanded a contract barring Richard from its taverns, and sent power into Richard’s Nightmare Artifact after he signed.
• Richard discovered that the evolved Pyramid could amplify innate abilities and link up to fifty Nightmare Creatures, even without their consent, to draw on their shared Nightmare Power.

Richard helped Munin understand the commanding mindset behind Dragon Alchemy, and Munin’s mental power unexpectedly revealed a Soul Sorcery spell model. A soul specialist determined that Munin’s memories could not return, though the spell model had been preserved in his subconscious from his former research.

• Richard returned to the Wizard World and found Munin struggling with Dragon Alchemy.
• Richard demonstrated how dragons impose their will on metal, helping Munin grasp the logic behind Dragon Alchemy.
• Munin’s mental power changed as he watched, and he wrote down a Soul Sorcery spell model he did not recognize.
• Richard brought Munin to a soul specialist at Black Tower Wizard Academy for an examination.
• The Old Wizard found that Munin had the soul strength of a Third-level creature despite his incomplete soul, and said his memories could not recover.
• The Old Wizard explained that Munin had embedded the spell model’s information in his subconscious to preserve research results.

Richard told Munin that he had once been a Third-Ring Wizard whose soul was twisted, and Munin chose to embrace his identity as Richard’s student. Richard returned to the Nightmare World and reached Three Wolf Town, where a traveler learned that Richard had slaughtered nearly everyone there half a month earlier.

• Richard gave the Old Wizard magic essence and received magic armor and potions for Munin, then revealed that Munin had once been a Third-Ring Wizard with a twisted soul.
• Munin studied soul studies and philosophy, then told Richard that he considered himself a new person and the past wizard dead; Richard accepted him as his student.
• Richard reopened the Gate of Nightmares and rejoined Bone, then fashioned a Spell Support Vehicle and traveled to Three Wolf Town.
• A traveler entered Three Wolf Town and asked the Demon Bartender why it was so quiet.
• The Demon Bartender explained that the town’s residents feared speaking of the person who had slaughtered everyone there except the tavern’s patrons.

Richard traveled to Graveyard City to secretly gather Nightmare Power, intending to avoid drawing attention while exploring the Lawless Lands. There, he met the city’s Tax Minister, Pyramid, a Nightmare Lord he had encountered before.

• Richard calculated that refining his stored Nightmare Power would take considerable time and continued following his map toward another Lawless Land.
• Richard and Bone entered Graveyard City on foot after he dismissed his conspicuous Spell Support Vehicle.
• A two-headed ogre demanded taxes from Richard and Bone, and Richard let it summon the Tax Minister rather than pay.
• Pyramid arrived in a black Pyramid carried by humanoid slaves, and its Coachman recognized Richard as his master.
• Pyramid greeted Richard as an old acquaintance, revealing that he was Graveyard City’s Tax Minister.

Richard met Pyramid in Graveyard City, then brought Ulysses back into the Nightmare World to discuss Pyramid’s offer to kill the city lord. Pyramid proposed making the Nightmare Artifact Richard had borrowed his reward if Richard prepared a powerful spell for the attack planned in three months.

• Pyramid asked Richard how the Nightmare Artifact was working, then invited him to his residence to discuss a matter.
• Richard returned to the Material World and asked Ulysses to accompany him back into the Nightmare World as backup.
• Ulysses sealed his soul before passing through the Gate of Nightmares, then took a body Richard made for him.
• Coachman allowed Richard and Ulysses into Pyramid’s residence but stopped Bone from entering.
• Pyramid proposed cooperating with Richard to kill Graveyard City’s city lord when the Nightmare Knight awakened in three months.
• Pyramid offered Richard the repaired Nightmare Artifact as his reward if Richard prepared a powerful spell.

Richard refused Pyramid’s original deal and escaped Graveyard City after resisting Pyramid’s Nightmare Domain with Ulysses’s rules. Pyramid learned that wizards had largely left the Nightmare World and returned to negotiate, offering Richard the secret to becoming a Nightmare Lord.

• Richard admitted he had taken Pyramid’s Nightmare Artifact as his own and resisted Pyramid’s attempt to pull him into a Nightmare Domain.
• Richard left Pyramid’s palace with Bone and headed for the outskirts of Graveyard City after spotting Nightmare Power channels beneath the inner city.
• Pyramid sent a servant to the Seeker of Death Tavern and bought intelligence revealing that wizards had begun an expedition into the sea of stars and rarely visited the Nightmare World.
• Pyramid decided Richard might be the only active wizard in the Nightmare World and sent a messenger to reopen negotiations.
• Pyramid’s messenger offered Richard the secret to becoming a Nightmare Lord in exchange for making a real contract.

Richard traded a ten-thousand-Energy-Level alchemical bomb to Sefer for knowledge about becoming a Nightmare Lord, then spent ten years traveling the Nightmare Ring and gathering Nightmare Power. After returning to the Wizard World, he broke through to become a Third-Ring Wizard, drawing a crowd of concerned wizards to his tower.

• Sefer explained that becoming a Nightmare Lord required secret knowledge and agreed to trade it for a spell of roughly ten thousand Energy Level; Richard signed a Fate Contract under the name Sefer.
• Richard made a spherical alchemical bomb and traded it to Sefer for a saliva-covered scroll containing the knowledge he wanted.
• Richard left Graveyard City with Bone, traveled through the Lawless Lands for ten years, and gathered four million strands of Nightmare Power while rumors spread that an ancient Nightmare Lord had devoured Graveyard City.
• Richard sealed his Nightmare Body in a coffin, left Bone to drive the Spell Support Vehicle, and returned to the Wizard World through the Gate of Nightmares.
• Richard broke through the shackle holding back his Third-Ring advancement, drawing magic power from within fifty kilometers and alerting nearby wizards.
• Richard flew out of his Wizard Tower to explain the disturbance and found a crowd of wizards staring at him.

Richard advanced to the Third Ring, learned that Master Vladimir had died, and returned to find his secret realm transformed after twenty years of stitching. He inspected the Sacred Tree Elves’ new disguises and told them to wait for better models before making humanoid shells.

• Richard confirmed his Third-Ring advancement to Gerald and received congratulations from the Black Tower’s Third-Ring Wizards.
• Gerald told Richard that Master Vladimir had died two days earlier and that the funeral would begin in one week.
• Richard told Munin about Vladimir and explained his grief to Ulysses, who revealed that the secret realm had finished being stitched together.
• Richard explored the expanded secret realm and learned from the World Mushroom that the Sacred Tree Elves could disguise themselves in mycelium shells.
• Richard gathered the Sacred Tree Elves and told them not to model their shells after his statue until he brought them a batch of better statues.

Richard learned that the World Mushroom could accelerate mineral-vein growth at the cost of slowing the secret realm’s expansion, then attended Vladimir’s funeral at Clear Frost Academy. Afterward, Richard approached Vladimir’s grieving student Toshio and offered to honor his promise to look after him.

• Richard learned that the secret realm’s Jabir Metal vein could be enriched, but declined because doing so would slow the realm’s expansion.
• A week later, Richard and Gerald attended Vladimir’s funeral at Clear Frost Academy with wizards from several academies.
• The Frost Legion’s Legion Commander eulogized Vladimir, and the gathered wizards buried him and delivered speeches in his memory.
• At the banquet, Richard introduced himself to Toshio and explained that Vladimir had asked him to look after his student.
• Toshio told Richard that he researched Enchanted Architecture, including battlefield fortresses and Wizard Towers.

Richard recognized the potential in Toshio's Small Floating City research and agreed to sponsor it after reviewing Toshio's blueprints. Three hundred years later, Richard declined a vice-dean position at Black Tower Wizard Academy and chose to follow Great Wizard Kanon into the study of physical evolution.

• Richard praised Toshio's choice to study Enchanted Architecture, and Toshio explained his research into Small Floating Cities.
• Toshio showed Richard his optimized Small Floating City blueprints after they signed a Soul Contract, and Richard agreed to fund the project.
• After Vladimir's funeral, Richard gave Toshio a consultant position and invested ten thousand magic essence in his research.
• Richard spent three hundred years studying the Yuris Black Crystal and his spoils from the Academy War to improve his knowledge and combat strength.
• Richard told Gerald he would not become Vice Dean at Black Tower Academy and would instead follow Great Wizard Kanon to explore physical evolution.
• Gerald accepted Richard's decision and assured him that Black Tower Wizard Academy would always welcome him.

Richard decided to leave Black Tower Wizard Academy for Kanon Wizard Academy, where he planned to study body evolution. After showing Vice Dean Jimmy his Aberration Rule, he was welcomed into the academy and learned about its harsh northern home and unusual student admissions.

• Richard invited Ellie to live with him in a Wizard Tower near Kanon Wizard Academy, and she agreed to join him once it was built.
• At the Tower of Truth’s Colosseum, Richard told Jimmy that he planned to study body evolution at Kanon Wizard Academy.
• Richard demonstrated his Aberration Rule, which caused unpredictable cellular mutations, and Jimmy welcomed him as a master.
• Jimmy led Richard north, explaining that mortals had survived the region’s deadly conditions for generations and that Great Wizard Kanon had come from there.
• Richard saw that Kanon Wizard Academy occupied a mountain and admitted children aged ten to fifteen who climbed to its gate on their own.

Richard joined Kanon Wizard Academy to study physique evolution, met Great Wizard Kanon, and received an introductory book on the subject. After discovering the depth of its freely shared knowledge, Richard proposed holding seminars so wizards could solve problems together, leaving Jimmy taken aback by how radical the idea was.

• Richard learned from Jimmy that Kanon Wizard Academy's wizards used powerful Sealing Techniques improved by the Dean and that they could be exchanged for contribution points.
• Jimmy introduced Richard to Great Wizard Kanon, who welcomed him after recognizing his youth and examining his Aberration Rule.
• Great Wizard Kanon explained the Academy's contribution system and officially accepted Richard into Kanon Wizard Academy.
• Jimmy took Richard to the Academy Library, where librarian Elisa brought them The Path of Evolution, an introductory book on physique evolution.
• Richard praised the book's freely shared knowledge and suggested seminars where wizards could discuss problems, leaving Jimmy stunned by the proposal.

Richard chose a tundra site in the Far North for a Wizard Tower and planned to establish a human settlement there using a cold-resistant mushroom. After commissioning a Small Floating City design from Toshio, he began testing whether cells could be mutated to resist the radiation from Ulysses’s Flame of Annihilation.

• Jimmy showed Richard around Kanon Wizard Academy, where Richard learned that wizards had no residential district and that the Academy could help him obtain Wizard Tower materials cheaply.
• Richard selected a Far North tundra site for his Wizard Tower and asked Toshio whether it could also support a human city.
• Richard showed Toshio a cold-resistant mushroom cultivated by the World Mushroom, and Toshio agreed that it could make settlement on the tundra feasible.
• Richard chose a balanced Small Floating City blueprint, and Toshio agreed to build it within two years.
• Richard discovered that the Far North had no Nightmare Lord and that he had accumulated enough Nightmare Power to advance into a Nightmare Knight.
• Richard used his Radiation-Constraining Rune Array and the Aberration Rule to test whether cells mutated to resist the Flame of Annihilation’s radiation would become stronger.

Richard moved into his newly completed Wizard Tower and set up his laboratory, where he examined Ellie after she reported strange changes to her body. He discovered that her condition was not heat but a Dragon's Pseudopregnancy caused by the bloodline she had fused with.

• Richard left the academy and moved into his Wizard Tower, which Toshio had built with a larger-than-planned town around it.
• Richard inspected the tower's spacious underground levels, then moved his experimental equipment into the laboratory with help from the Fire Lizards.
• A month later, Ellie arrived with a fever, heightened cellular activity, and patterns appearing beneath her skin.
• Richard's tests suggested Ellie was in heat, but Ulysses sensed an Abyssal aura and identified her fused bloodline as originating from a dragon-Abyssal hybrid.
• After scanning Ellie, Richard realized she had entered a Dragon's Pseudopregnancy.

Richard explained Ellie's false pregnancy and began building a mortal city as the foundation of his Nightmare Territory. After a year of welcoming Snowland tribes and resolving the settlement's early problems, he left the city growing steadily, with Bone being trained to become a Nightmare Knight.

• Richard told Ellie that her constitution had triggered a false pregnancy, explained its risks and how to avoid gathering more high-level life information, then took her to see her laboratory.
• Richard welcomed the Lalake tribe to his city, arranged rations and housing, and gave a literate elder a guide to planting crops.
• Snowland tribes continued to arrive, filling the city and helping Richard's Nightmare Territory grow; Richard praised Bone for managing Nightmare Spirits and ordered him to become a Nightmare Knight.
• The city filled within three months, and Richard had Toshio build more houses as additional tribes arrived.
• Richard spent a year addressing food shortages, sanitation, polluted water, and feuds between tribes, though some problems would take time to fade.

Richard overcame a decades-long dead end in his research and discovered how to develop cells that resisted the blue light, greatly increasing his physique. With body enhancement now underway, he turned his attention to improving his combat skills and considered returning to the Mountain Secret Realm.

• Richard spent more than thirty years failing to find Reinforcement Cells, and Ellie urged him to set the experiment aside and study her bloodline.
• After flying for two months to the edge of the world, Richard realized he should use the Aberration Rule to encourage cells to mutate rather than mutate them directly.
• Richard changed his experiment to supply energy and stimulate the life core, then tested cells taken from higher-level lifeforms.
• During his three hundred and seventy-second experiment, Richard found a cell that resisted the blue light and fused it into his body.
• Richard spent three years multiplying the resistant cells and ten more replacing his original cells, raising his physique by ten points.
• Richard decided to improve his combat skills and planned to check the mission board for a chance to enter the Mountain Secret Realm.

Richard returned to Kanon Wizard Academy, accepted two cultivation missions, and discovered how cheaply he could access secret realms and valuable knowledge with contribution points. Over soup with Steo, he heard that the Dean’s scouts had found a small world tied to The Lost Ones, potentially setting up an Academy Plane Expedition in one or two hundred years.

• Richard selected missions to cultivate a powerful humanlike arm and magma-growing algae.
• Richard learned that the Mountain Secret Realm cost twenty contribution points for ten years of access and that Kanon’s valuable techniques were available in the Contribution Store.
• Richard reunited with Steo in the Academy cafeteria, and they shared Mountain-Moving Barbarian Bull soup and other dishes.
• Steo told Richard that the Dean’s scouts had found a small world containing a possible inheritance from The Lost Ones, which could lead to a Plane Expedition in one or two hundred years.
• Steo explained that wizards could find world coordinates through brute-force exploration, Astral Contracts, summoning Otherworldly Creatures, or divination, stirring Richard’s curiosity about the Dean’s methods.

Richard cultivated mission items over fifty years, advanced his constitution, and tested a powerful arm made with third-generation Reinforcement Cells. After delivering it, he followed the one-armed wizard’s advice and entered the Mountain Secret Realm to study the Myriad Transformation Battle Body.

• Richard tasked the World Mushroom with cultivating special algae and found that Ulysses had begun preaching the Miracle Order to Snowland people in North Extreme City.
• Richard warned Ulysses that religions in the Wizard World attracted the attention of Wizard World Guardians, then registered the church with enforcement wizards under a Soul Contract and accepted a permanent supervisor.
• Over fifty years, Richard cultivated three generations of Reinforcement Cells, raised his constitution to 225 points, and made a replacement arm whose maximum punch approached 6,000 Energy Level.
• Richard delivered the arm to the one-armed wizard, who advised him to study the Myriad Transformation Battle Body to improve muscle structure.
• Richard used contribution points to purchase ten years in the Mountain Secret Realm, and the female wizard opened a Secret Realm Rift for him.

Richard returned to Long Mountain Temple after more than six hundred years to improve his combat skills, training with the abbot while studying the Heart of the Mountain and the temple’s inheritances. After ten years, he finally defeated the abbot by a single move and left when his time in the realm ended.

• Richard reunited with the dwarves and the abbot at Long Mountain Temple, where he asked to train his combat skills for ten years or longer.
• Richard began sparring with the abbot and observing the Heart of the Mountain each day, while also studying the temple’s inheritances.
• Richard gradually improved, enduring more of the abbot’s punches before being defeated and absorbing techniques from the temple’s combat masters.
• After ten years of training, Richard won a sparring match against the abbot by a single move.
• A female wizard announced that Richard’s time was up, and Richard exchanged farewells with the abbot before leaving.