Chapter Summaries

Richard and Steo joined Anthony and Aure to assess a Star River Mayfly nest, whose numbers and strength threatened their small group. Outside the Star River World, Great Wizard Kanon learned that Richard was among the wizards in Zone 4 and turned his attention to the battle.

• Richard and Steo reached the resistance organization's location, where Anthony tested Richard with an invisible spatial blade and Richard retaliated with a Radiant Barrage Cannon.
• Anthony introduced himself as a disciple of Great Wizard Flash-Void, and he and Richard exchanged praise before Anthony led Richard to Aure, a disciple of Great Wizard Clear Frost.
• Aure showed Richard a sealed Second-level Star River Mayfly and described a nest containing tens of thousands of First-level Mayflies, over a hundred Second-level ones, and an injured Third-level one.
• Richard decided to inspect the nest himself, while Anthony argued that the group could attack for points and retreat if necessary.
• Great Wizard Bronze Spear told Great Wizard Kanon that Richard was in Zone 4, prompting Kanon to ask whether he meant Richard.

Great Wizard Kanon revealed that Richard carried a mark from an Astral Dominator and had helped him obtain a damaged star map and an Astral Fortress. Meanwhile, Richard and Steo captured a patrol of Astral Mayflies near their hidden nest, then Richard began studying the living specimens and sold anesthetic to Anthony and Aure.

• Great Wizard Kanon told Great Wizard Bronze Spear that Richard bore a mark from the tavern owner of the Nightmare Wizard World and had brought him valuable discoveries.
• Richard and Steo approached the mayfly nest, identified its Light Energy Illusion, and waited for a patrol squad to come within reach.
• Richard used a damaged Magic Stone as bait, and he and Steo ambushed and sealed the patrol squad of Astral Mayflies.
• Richard returned with the captured mayflies, examined one, and concluded that their simple energy circulation suggested they were civilized creatures.
• Anthony and Aure each bought a bottle of Richard's anesthetic for one hundred Magic Essences.

Richard, Susanna, and Anthony joined Delis’s plan to destroy a Star River Mayfly nest, and Richard revealed that his Energy Vision could detect links between the insects. After Delis subdued Anthony for resisting his instructions, the Wizards began their operation while a mayfly General prepared Tai to preserve intelligence for the future.

• Susanna arrived and learned that Richard had defeated Belt, while Richard revealed to her that he had awakened Energy Vision.
• Richard warned Delis that the mayflies were connected by energy links as well as mental links, and Delis assigned himself to sever both kinds of connection.
• Delis assigned Susanna to interfere with the Third-level Mayfly and gave the Wizards detailed battle instructions.
• Anthony challenged Delis, who trapped him with shadows and warned that he would expel him from the competition.
• The Wizards set traps around the nest and started clearing its outer patrols.
• A mayfly General told Tai that the nest would lose and gave him a crystal, ordering him to gather intelligence for the day Supreme Lake reclaimed the world.

The Star River Mayflies emerged to fight the five wizards, using their shared mental and energy links to resist the wizards’ attacks. As Delis drew the swarm’s attention, Richard prepared to test a Magic Armor that he believed could weaken them.

• The Mayfly General rallied the Star River Mayflies to sacrifice themselves for their race and led them out of the lake to battle.
• Susanna tried to curse the Mayfly General, but he spread the spell across the swarm and then reorganized the mayflies to restore their connections.
• Delis and Steo used Chain Lightning to burn thousands of mayflies, while the Mayfly General formed a new formation and struck the wizards with a shared mental shock.
• Delis recovered first, became a Shadow Giant, and absorbed the swarm’s ten-thousand-Energy-Level beam; the Mayfly General then focused the swarm’s attacks on him after recognizing him as a Failed King.
• Richard awakened and asked Delis to distract the swarm while he tested a Magic Armor, then took out a pale mask with a black-red crystal in its forehead.

Richard used nightmare erosion to infect the Star River Mayfly swarm through its Mind Network, helping Delis and the other wizards defeat the swarm’s attack before it self-destructed. After learning he ranked second in the competition, Richard discussed the mayflies’ possible origins with Delis, who left troubled by the prospect of a Civilization War.

• Richard used the Nightmare Mask to infect a Star River Mayfly and spread nightmare erosion through the swarm’s Mind Network.
• The Mayfly General recognized the mental virus, severed links to infected mayflies, and shifted the swarm’s attacks toward Richard, while Delis and four wizards protected him.
• The Star River Mayflies compressed themselves into a pseudo-spell formation and detonated, but Richard escaped through a Secret Realm Rift and Delis survived the blast.
• Richard learned he had 350 points and ranked second on the division and overall leaderboards, while Delis held first place.
• Delis exchanged contact information with Richard and discussed the mayflies’ unusual strength and possible connection to another civilization.
• Richard said the mystery might be solved in the Sky Garden, and Delis left contemplating the prospect of a Civilization War.

Richard was forced from hiding by the shifted competition grounds and fought off a group of wizards before reaching a desolate former battlefield. His thoughts about the land’s wasted potential led him to consider whether bloodline witchcraft could create sub-human races able to advance in colonized worlds.

• Richard learned that the competition grounds had shifted far from his hiding place and traveled toward the new zone.
• Richard defeated six of seven wizards who ambushed him, replenished his mana, repaired his armor, and continued onward.
• Richard entered the final competition grounds and recognized the scorched plain as a former battlefield with little value to wizards.
• Great Wizard Kanon discussed Richard’s ideas and the Spell Support Vehicles with Great Wizard Bronze Spear, who acknowledged his own arrogance.
• Richard wondered whether bloodline witchcraft could create sub-human races that the World Origin would recognize and allow to advance into first-level lifeforms.

Richard and Jimmy concluded that the Wizard World had encountered another civilization and discussed preparing for the coming war. At the Sky Garden, Great Wizard Bronze Spear confirmed that the Star River Mayfly Civilization had emerged and that war would begin soon.

• Richard considered how sub-human races might gain status in the Wizard World, then set the idea aside for the future.
• Jimmy and Delis found Richard watching the final competition, and Jimmy drove off an attacking wizard before asking Richard about the suspected Civilization War.
• Richard cited Delis's assessment, changes to the competition rules, and the emergence of other life in the Astral Realm as evidence of another civilization.
• Jimmy decided to prepare an investment plan, while Richard warned that a Civilization War could leave Third-Ring Wizards as cannon fodder.
• Richard earned 421 points, ranked seventy-second, and qualified to enter the Sky Garden with the other top wizards.
• Great Wizard Bronze Spear confirmed that the Star River Mayfly had emerged and that war with the Star River Mayfly Civilization would begin before long.

Great Wizard Bronze Spear revealed that a Civilization War was approaching and inducted the selected wizards into the Wizard World Development Department. He questioned Richard about his ideas on war potential, and Richard proposed expanding the population and using idle wizards as teachers, alongside restoring the Wizard World.

• Great Wizard Bronze Spear assessed the wizards’ reactions to the coming war and selected nineteen for the talent program and forty-two for its reserve list.
• Great Wizard Bronze Spear warned the wizards not to spread news of the war, then gave them Development Department badges and explained their benefits and rules.
• After dismissing the others, Great Wizard Bronze Spear asked Richard what he had meant when he called the arena plain a pity.
• Richard proposed that the Wizard World increase its population to expand its supply of potential recruits, and Great Wizard Bronze Spear noted the limits imposed by education and resources.
• Richard suggested that idle wizards could teach and urged the great Truth Wizards to prioritize repairing the Wizard World through the Ecological Restoration Plan.

Richard learned that the Wizard World’s mana decline was deliberately controlled by the Truth Council, then received strategic-grade Magic Armor blueprints from Great Wizard Bronze Spear. At a wizard gathering, he discussed improving the Annihilation Bomb and heard a suggestion for concentrating its energy.

• Richard deduced that the Wizard World’s mana concentration had fallen again, and Great Wizard Bronze Spear explained that the Council was preparing for a century-long Age of Dharma’s End before mana returned.
• Great Wizard Bronze Spear gave Richard secret strategic-grade Magic Armor blueprints and sent him back to the palace complex.
• Richard studied the blueprints, considered adapting their Annihilation Bomb design, and decided its small killing radius made it poorly suited to wizard battles.
• Richard found a radical Thunder Exoskeleton Armor design and considered adapting its physical enhancements for his own armor.
• At the wizard gathering, Richard became a focus of the Alchemy School’s circle and described the Annihilation Bomb’s limitations.
• An Alchemist Wizard suggested reducing the elemental energy and concentrating and restraining it to address the bomb’s small killing range.

After completing a compact Annihilation Bomb, Richard learned that the Star River Mayfly Civilization could soon go to war with the Wizard Civilization. Overwhelmed by his many projects, he remembered the Small Floating City and extracted a Star Wraith Power Core blueprint to restart its development.

• At the wizard gathering, Richard accepted Eugene's suggestion to constrain the Annihilation Bomb's energy and later spent three months designing a compact, armor-piercing version.
• Richard showed the Star River Mayfly specimen to Ulysses, who explained that the civilization had weak individual World Lords but enormous strength in numbers and that the coming war could be difficult for the Wizard Civilization.
• Richard asked Ulysses to train Hogg, then gave the Fire Lizard Artisans the Annihilation Bomb and its blueprints to assess for production.
• Sulina and Carrion said they could simplify the bomb and credited Hogg with teaching them Dragon Alchemy; Richard also gave them other wizards' Exoskeleton Armor designs to study.
• Richard reconsidered his many priorities, remembered the Small Floating City, and used the Miracle Furnace to extract the Star Wraith Power Core blueprint.

Richard studied the Star Wraith Power Core and discovered that its Ghost Artisan-made fuel could not be reproduced in the Wizard World, so he sought help from Great Wizard Kanon. Kanon recognized the design’s importance and agreed to help Richard create a Nightmare-based power source, beginning by opening a gate to the Nightmare World.

• Richard drew the Star Wraith Power Core’s blueprints and partially learned the Ghost Artisan Forging Technique, using the Radiation Rule to alter a metal ingot’s properties for several seconds.
• Richard learned that the core depended on twelve Power Wraiths that only Ghost Artisans could create, and Ulysses suggested using the Nightmare Rule as a substitute.
• Richard adapted the core’s design into a wizard-style blueprint over ten years and brought it to Great Wizard Kanon at Kanon Wizard Academy.
• Kanon recognized that Richard’s design could make Small Floating Cities possible and praised his alchemical talent.
• Kanon explained that the core needed a Nightmare Domain-like energy source and opened a Teleportation Gate to the Nightmare World to obtain what they needed.

Richard and Great Wizard Kanon created and tested the first Nightmare Power Core, opening a new path for magical engineering. Installed in Richard and Toshio’s Small Floating City, the core powered the city as it rose above North Extreme City, marking the beginning of a new era of planar warfare.

• Great Wizard Kanon entered the Nightmare World, captured a newly risen Level Four Nightmare Lord, and brought its Nightmare Rule back for Richard’s power-core project.
• With Kanon’s help and materials, Richard built a prototype Nightmare Power Core that contained the Nightmare Lord’s mist and successfully lit a Magic Lamp.
• Kanon recognized that Richard’s design introduced a third path for Rule Magic Equipment: using Magic Armor to assist Rules.
• Richard and Toshio installed the Nightmare Power Core in their Small Floating City, and its output met the required standard.
• Richard and Toshio jointly ordered the Wizard Tower to rise, and the metal city ascended into the sky above North Extreme City.

Richard and Toshio worked to make the Small Floating City combat-ready, testing the Wizard Tower’s flight systems and calculating the energy pipelines’ capacity. After Richard studied Precursor materials and began preparing a Mithril Alloy, Great Wizard Kanon summoned him to the Academy because the Alchemy Crown wanted to see him.

• Richard and Toshio repaired the Wizard Tower’s pipelines after its brief flight, and Great Wizard Kanon approved the project on the condition that the Small Floating City have practical combat value.
• Richard told Toshio to calculate the pipelines’ load capacity, including the power needed for flight, weapons, and the Shield Generator.
• Richard extracted the production process for the Land-based Floating Mother Ship’s Energy-Conducting Crystal, but found it too costly and complex to reproduce.
• Richard studied the crystal’s properties, ruled out using an inferior version for the pipelines, and began formulating a Mithril Alloy.
• A year later, Toshio sent Richard his pipeline calculations, and Great Wizard Kanon summoned Richard to the Academy because the Alchemy Crown wanted to see him.

Richard was summoned to present the Small Floating City materials, only to learn that the Tesla Merchant Guild would take over the project and that Shaping Crown would receive a share. As Richard traveled with Great Wizard Kanon, Kanon hinted that the dispute involved how to become a Truth Wizard.

• Richard checked Toshio’s Small Floating City data, gathered the revised blueprints, and flew to Kanon Wizard Academy after Alchemy Crown summoned him.
• Great Wizard Bronze Spear told Richard and Great Wizard Kanon that the Tesla Merchant Guild would take over the project while keeping their names among its creators and adding another contributor.
• Elizabeth introduced herself to Richard and proposed that her Tesla Merchant Guild branch partner with his merchant guild on a stronger Spell Support Vehicle, but Richard declined to commit and referred her to Master Gerald.
• Great Wizard Kanon took Richard through a World Guardian interdomain passage toward the Tesla Merchant Guild, while Great Wizard Bronze Spear warned Elizabeth not to use underhanded tactics with Richard.
• Great Wizard Kanon told Richard that a transaction between two Crowns meant Shaping Crown would receive a one-third share, then asked whether Richard wanted to know how to become a Truth Wizard.

Great Wizard Kanon explained how wizards earned the Wizard Rule’s blessing through contributions to their race, then brought Richard to meet the Alchemy Crown for compensation over the Small Floating City’s share. Richard left the choice to the Crown, who gave him a random reward that turned out to be a Special Case Staff.

• Great Wizard Kanon told Richard that Truth advancement depended on a wizard’s contribution to the wizard race and explained how the Curse Crown and Alchemy Crown had earned their blessings.
• Great Wizard Kanon warned Richard not to ask the Alchemy Crown for Great Wizard promotion qualification and advised him to accept the Crown’s choice of compensation.
• Great Wizard Kanon brought Richard to the Tesla Merchant Guild headquarters, where they met the Alchemy Crown in a wooden room inside the steel city.
• The Alchemy Crown offered Richard compensation for losing part of the Small Floating City’s share, and Richard asked him to choose a reward at random.
• The Alchemy Crown gave Richard a wooden ball, which he opened to reveal a Special Case Staff.

Richard received a one-use Special Case Staff that could shield him from investigation for prohibited experiments, while Alchemy Crown identified him as a Fate Entanglement Body. At the Tesla Merchant Guild, Richard clashed with Victor, then learned Victor’s secondary personality wanted to meet the wizard behind Richard’s Small Floating City designs.

• Alchemy Crown explained that the Special Case Staff could legitimize one prohibited experiment, and warned Richard that he would not protect him if trouble followed.
• After Richard left, Alchemy Crown told Great Wizard Kanon that Richard was a Fate Entanglement Body, and Kanon revealed that his incomplete star chart pointed to a likely missing Large World.
• Richard met Victor Tesla at the Research and Development Department and mocked Victor’s pride in his Tesla lineage, provoking him until radiation-leak alarms stopped their confrontation.
• Victor installed a chip that brought out his secondary personality, Victor Two, who reviewed Richard’s data and judged the Small Floating City blueprints outdated but valuable for research into classical designs.
• Victor Two asked to meet the wizard who designed the city and swore upon the Sea of Souls that he would limit their contact to research and discussion.

Richard agreed to cooperate with Elizabeth on Spell Support Vehicle development and chose the Thunder Giant Battle Body Atlas, planning to use Hogg’s Six-Headed Dragon King bloodline. He then focused his research on Precursor Relics and physical evolution, considering whether a widely useful spell could earn him the blessings of the Wizard Rule.

• Richard learned that Victor Two had no restrictions imposed by Victor’s primary personality, exchanged Victor’s contact information, and left the office.
• Elizabeth persuaded Richard to cooperate with her branch, arguing that the coming war would expose the Spell Support Vehicle’s weaknesses and give Tesla headquarters control of its development.
• After waiting a week, Richard received Great Wizard Kanon’s offer to cover the materials for one Battle Body Atlas and chose Thunder Giant from the Contribution Store.
• Richard told Jimmy that Hogg was the offspring of a Six-Headed Dragon King, and Jimmy confirmed her bloodline was comparable to that of a Five-Headed Dragon King.
• Richard prioritized researching Precursor Relics and continued automated cell screening, while considering whether a spell that benefited all physical-evolution wizards could earn him Wizard Rule blessings.

After twenty years of research, Richard completed a new Spell Support Vehicle component and learned that the Star River Drifter Civilization’s army was approaching, meaning he would soon be conscripted. He visited Gerald to say farewell, warning that the coming war could determine whether the Wizard World rose or perished.

• Richard developed the Eye of Dimension, Mist Barrier, a powerful multilayer magic barrier, and upgraded armor while bringing the Thunder Giant Battle Body close to completion.
• Richard finished the casting component for the new Spell Support Vehicle, whose modified Fireball Technique reached an Energy Level of roughly one thousand, and learned that several academies and the Military Department had placed orders.
• Elizabeth told Richard that the Star River Drifter Civilization’s army had drawn close and that he would likely be conscripted soon; she also reported that the Small Floating City prototype was undergoing tests.
• Richard told Elizabeth to begin production of the casting component and said he hoped to use his design in battle.
• Richard visited Gerald, warned him that the Wizard World faced an unprecedented war, and Gerald urged him to visit Ellie and Munin.

Richard visited Ellie and Munin before the coming Civilization War, then fused a Cloud Giant bloodline to complete his Thunder Giant Battle Body. As a radiative glow began shining from his body, he froze in alarm.

• Ellie taught a public class before Richard arrived and took her away from the classroom.
• Richard told Ellie that Great Wizard Kanon would soon attain truth, and Ellie considered joining Kanon Wizard Academy to develop her bloodline.
• Richard visited Munin, gave him research materials to help him improve, and Munin later became a Vice Dean of Black Tower Wizard Academy.
• Richard returned to North Extreme City and fused the Cloud Giant bloodline into his body, completing the Thunder Giant Battle Body.
• Richard's body began emitting a faint radiative glow, and his expression froze.

Richard survived a sudden mutation caused by his Radiation Rule and Thunder Giant Battle Body, discovering that his new Radiant Giant form could absorb energy and wield radiation more powerfully. He then turned to researching how wizard methods could strengthen the Fire Lizard Regiment.

• Richard slowed his uncontrolled bloodline mutation with potions and stabilized his body using Life Origin, magic crystals, and Nutrient Solution.
• Ulysses explained that rules subtly influence their wielders’ bodies and bloodlines, making Richard’s mutation a normal reaction to the Radiation Rule.
• Richard tested his mutated battle body, finding that its energy cycle let him grow larger and absorb energy rapidly, while the Radiation Rule let him produce concentrated radiation streams.
• Richard named the new form the Radiant Giant and felt severe cellular exhaustion after deactivating it.
• Richard continued studying Precursors’ relics and strengthened the Fire Lizard Regiment, then considered applying wizard techniques to enhance the Fire Lizards.