Chapter Summaries

After narrowly escaping spatial turbulence, Richard hid in the insect nest and consumed Life Origin and Soul Origin, with Ulysses taking a share. Richard awakened with greatly increased attributes and the Soul Talent Energy Vision, but an urgent summons interrupted his plans to examine the Precursor fragments.

• Richard escaped the dangerous tunnel, found another route out of the Source Sea Abyss, and hid in a concealed cavern.
• Richard agreed to give Ulysses nearly one-third of the Soul Origin so Ulysses could reach stable level two.
• Richard swallowed the remaining Soul Origin and Life Origin, then slept for thirty-two days while Ulysses guarded him.
• Richard awoke with Energy Vision, a new Soul Talent that let him see energy flows and circulation.
• Richard measured his increased mental power and constitution, then received an urgent summons through his Communication Crystal Ball.

Richard followed an emergency summons to a settlement where the Third-Ring Wizard Declan had turned the bugs into puppets, then reunited with Lawrence and Ellie as the other Black Wizards gathered. Declan called them to rescue captured Wizards from the Mother God Temple, but Lawrence warned Richard that Declan’s reputation made the mission suspicious.

• Richard and Ulysses followed the summons to a settlement and discovered through Energy Vision that Declan controlled its bugs with puppet sorcery.
• Richard identified Declan’s puppets by their unnaturally uniform movements, and Declan admitted the flaw before telling Richard to settle in.
• Over the next week, Black Wizards arrived, including Lawrence and the injured Ellie; Richard attached a living-flesh tentacle to Ellie’s severed arm.
• Declan announced that nearly five hundred captured Wizards had been taken to the Mother God Temple for a sacrificial ritual and ordered the gathering to rescue them.
• Lawrence told Richard that Declan was a notorious, profit-seeking coward, making him doubt Declan’s stated reason for the summons.

Richard, Lawrence, and Ellie infiltrated a major Black Crystal Bug settlement to rescue priests, using the Puppet Wizard’s detailed intelligence and Richard’s low-fluctuation communication devices. They reached the Mother God Temple’s outskirts as signs suggested the bugs were preparing for an unusually early decisive battle.

• Richard warned Lawrence that the emergency conscription might be a cover but said they would not be treated as expendable, while Lawrence believed Declan’s puppets had infiltrated the bugs’ command structure.
• The Puppet Wizard organized the wizards into four groups, and Richard, Lawrence, and Ellie followed their assigned tunnel while avoiding patrols using the detailed intelligence.
• The trio hid in an abandoned cave overlooking the bug city, where Richard noticed that Level Two bugs were scarce and Lawrence concluded the bugs were gathering strength for a counterattack.
• Ellie explained that the Black Crystal Bug Race could unite quickly under the Mother Worm God, making its decisive battle likely to come earlier and prove more dangerous than usual.
• Richard gave Ellie and Lawrence low-fluctuation communication Crystal Balls made by his Senior Sister, then joined the main force as it began infiltrating toward the Mother God Temple.

Richard and his allies infiltrated the city and attacked the Mother God Temple as part of a rescue operation, while Richard followed Ulysses's lead to seek Faith Power. Deep inside, Declan's group reached the treasury, where Declan was trapped by a Starlight Seal after touching Bug God's Egg.

• Richard, Lawrence, and Ellie slipped past the Moth Army's patrols and entered the city, heading for the Mother God Temple.
• Wizards attacked the temple's outer guards, and Ulysses urged Richard to find Faith Power, offering to hold off Mother Worm God's avatar in exchange for its purification.
• Declan led the Second-Ring Black Wizards through the temple toward the dungeon, where a Level Two Queen Bug Guard killed one wizard before a Metal Python crushed it.
• Declan's puppet, Number One, reported that the High Priest had been poisoned and the treasury left nearly unguarded.
• Declan entered the treasury and reached for Bug God's Egg, but a Starlight Seal and net trapped him.

The High Priest trapped the Puppet Wizard after uncovering the wizard’s puppet and removing the control crystal from a Golden Armored Warrior Bug. Meanwhile, Richard and Ulysses found a Faith Power source in the temple, realized the four apparent Mother Worm God Relics were fakes, and warned the retreating wizards that the operation was a trap.

• The High Priest freed the Golden Armored Warrior Bug from its Black Crystal control, then crushed the Puppet Wizard’s magic barrier with the Starlight Net.
• Richard and Ulysses reached a meditation room, where Richard discovered that the Mother Worm God statue was made of Adamantine and stored it in his Magic Pocket.
• Richard saw the Puppet Wizard trapped beside four apparent Mother Worm God Relics, and Ulysses identified them as fakes made with Faith Power.
• Richard concluded that the bugs had laid a trap for the wizards and used his Communication Crystal Ball to warn Ellie and Lawrence to retreat.
• The High Priest recounted how he detected poison, exposed a hidden puppet bug, and prepared his ambush, then sensed an energy fluctuation and called out to whoever was hiding nearby.

Richard and Ulysses escaped the High Priest and Reinhardt inside the Mother God Temple while the wizards discovered the bugs had laid a trap. As the wizards tried to break out, small Mother God Cannons opened fire in the tunnel.

• The High Priest spotted Richard and attacked, but Ulysses knocked him aside and led him toward the temple exit.
• Ulysses bound Reinhardt with a black flaming chain, then guided Richard through a branching passage.
• Lawrence and Ellie followed Richard’s warning and left the battlefield outside the Mother God Temple.
• Bug forces deployed small Mother God Cannons in the tunnels to intercept wizards escaping the temple.
• Dozens of Second-Ring Wizards escaped a trap in the temple and led the other wizards into a tunnel, where bugs ordered the small Mother God Cannons to fire.

Richard and Ulysses led a group of wizards out of the Mother God Temple settlement before the High Priest’s Starlight Net sealed it. After learning that Richard had escaped Reinhardt before and grown stronger, the High Priest ordered her to capture him.

• The Black Crystal Bugs used small Mother God Cannons to drive the wizards back and collapsed the smaller tunnels to block their escape routes.
• The High Priest sealed the Puppet Wizard, fed the Starlight Net with energy from the Earth Vein Spring Eye, and sent it spreading across the settlement.
• Ulysses sensed danger, and Richard used Energy Vision to spot the approaching net and warn the wizards to flee.
• Ulysses burned through the Acidic Orbs while the wizards broke the bugs’ defenses, letting their group escape just before the Starlight Net enclosed the settlement.
• Second-Ring and First-Ring Wizards gave Richard business cards to acknowledge the favors they owed him.
• Reinhardt told the High Priest that Richard was the wizard she had pursued into the Source Sea Abyss, and the High Priest ordered her to take Queen Bug Guards and capture him.

Richard and Ulysses fought their way through the Black Crystal Bug Race’s pursuit toward the Source Sea Abyss, where Reinhardt cornered them with four powerful Queen Bug Guards. Just as Richard prepared for a last stand, he received word that the secret realm upgrade was complete.

• Richard and Ulysses continued fleeing through the tunnels, battling bugs as Reinhardt used Map Bugs to track their route toward the Source Sea Abyss.
• After days of pursuit, Richard and Ulysses approached the abyss while Reinhardt realized their destination and ordered her forces to intercept them.
• Richard and Ulysses fought through successive bug squads, but Richard’s exhaustion and dwindling mental power left him close to collapse.
• Reinhardt confronted Richard and Ulysses near the Source Sea Abyss with four Level Two Queen Bug Guards, while Ulysses warned that using his divine soul would alert the old bug.
• Richard prepared for a final gamble, but a Crystal Ball opened a Spatial Rift and a fungal tentacle delivered Big Mushroom’s message that the secret realm upgrade was finished.

Richard and Ulysses escaped into the secret realm, where the World Mushroom had grown stronger and captured Reinhardt and four Queen Bug Guards. Richard discovered that the mushroom had unlocked the Sacred Tree Elves’ bloodlines and created valuable mushrooms, then prepared to experiment on the captured bugs.

• Pom-pom alerted Richard through their Soul Contract, and Richard used the Crystal Ball to let the World Mushroom capture Reinhardt and four Queen Bug Guards before he and Ulysses entered the secret realm.
• Richard found that the World Mushroom had transformed the secret realm, increased its magic power, and removed the Sacred Tree Elves’ bloodline shackles so they could grow stronger.
• The World Mushroom gave Richard mushrooms that increased his Constitution and another that healed Ulysses’s soul injuries, but said mass-producing them would slow the secret realm’s growth.
• The World Mushroom explained that its expansion could eventually help the Secret Realm Fragment become a true world, so Richard ordered it to plant the fungi he supplied instead of mass-producing mushrooms.
• Richard approached the captured Reinhardt and Queen Bug Guards and considered which one to use as material first.

Richard dissected Reinhardt in the secret realm, learned that the swarm had tracked him through Faith Power in the High Priest's idol, and remained hidden as he prepared for the dangers outside. Nearly a year later, after reaching a physique of 99.9 and using the idol's Adamantine in his wand, he opened the secret realm and returned to the bug nest.

• Richard dissected Reinhardt while the World Mushroom kept him alive and conscious, then put him to sleep after Reinhardt begged to be killed.
• Reinhardt revealed that Faith Power on the High Priest's idol had guided the swarm to Richard, and Ulysses discovered that his injuries had blocked some of his memories.
• Richard stayed in the secret realm, meditated, and consumed Aldo Mushroom while avoiding the hostile bug nest.
• Over nearly a year, Richard's physique rose to 99.9, he dissected four Queen Bug Guards, and the secret realm continued to expand.
• Ulysses separated the Adamantine idol, and Richard extracted its Faith Power and fused its Adamantine into his wand.
• After making his preparations, Richard opened the secret realm and returned to the bug nest.

Richard escaped Hive Twelve after sensing that the bugs were preparing a counterattack, then reached a White Wizard War Fortress. He told its commander that thousands of wizards had been killed in the hive a year earlier.

• Richard entered the hive to withdraw, fought and killed an old silver-armored Warrior Bug, but failed to break through his physical evolution bottleneck.
• Richard found the surface hive heavily fortified and charged through an exit, evading the small Mother God Cannons as he fled.
• Richard detected and skillfully bypassed the Magic Array traps surrounding a War Fortress, startling the White Wizards inside.
• The White Wizard commander asked Richard what had happened below, and Richard revealed that thousands of wizards had died in Hive Twelve a year earlier.
• The commander took out a Recording Crystal Ball and asked Richard to recount the details.

Richard reported the failed Mother God Temple rescue and was questioned by the Command Department about the missing Black Wizards and the suspected betrayal or death of the Puppet Wizard. After learning that Ellie was safe, he left to obtain active flesh from Gerald, who told him that his senior brother Eric had died.

• Richard gave Ivan the details of the rescue operation, and Ivan sent the intelligence to Command while suspecting the Black Wizards had gone dormant and that the Puppet Wizard might have betrayed them.
• Richard passed examinations at the 372nd War Fortress and Floating City Fortress, then was escorted to the Command Tower for questioning.
• Susanna questioned Richard about his mission and assured him that Ellie was safe because her phylactery had not activated.
• Great Wizard Black Tower dismissed Richard, ordered that he receive a reward, and told Susanna to assign him safer missions as the insects prepared to counterattack.
• Richard asked Gerald for one hundred kilograms of active flesh for Ulysses, and Gerald gave him a Magic Pocket before revealing that Eric had died a month earlier.

Richard mourned Eric’s death, prepared Ulysses’s Level Two body, improved his Alchemy Golem, and received orders to defend a war fortress as the insect counterattack began. The chapter ended with the High Priests of thirty-five Bug Kingdoms rallying the swarm to reclaim their world.

• Gerald told Richard that Eric had died behind enemy lines and explained that Eric could no longer use his phylactery.
• Richard bought alchemical materials and used Gerald’s active flesh to begin constructing Ulysses’s new body while studying crystal fragments from the Precursor Ruins.
• After half a year of research and refining, Richard transferred Ulysses into a Level Two Black Crow body and upgraded his Alchemy Golem with an enchanted Blue Mushroom Iron shell.
• The Command Department ordered Wizard 7531 to assist War Fortress Number 372 in the Third War Zone with its defenses.
• The High Priests of thirty-five Bug Kingdoms gathered at the Mother God Temple and rallied the Insect Tide to counterattack the wizards.

Richard joined Ivan’s War Fortress as a combat support wizard and discovered that the attacking insects were hollow decoys meant to drain the fortress’s ammunition. The insects withdrew again, but Richard and the defenders realized their supplies would not last if the tactic continued.

• Richard reached the War Fortress during an insect assault and learned from Ivan that more than twenty million insects had gathered across the war zones.
• Ivan assigned Richard to combat support, where he transported Magic Stones and cooled two Lavoisier Magic Stone Cannons.
• Richard released Ulysses to retrieve an insect corpse, and Ulysses returned with one after evading the battlefield’s fire.
• Richard examined the corpse and realized the insects were hollow props, not first-level creatures, and were intended to deplete the fortress’s ammunition.
• The insects withdrew after another attack, leaving the wizards worried that they would soon run out of supplies.

Richard and Ivan struggled to keep the War Fortress operating as the bugs relentlessly attacked, while the Moon-White Priest Bug relied on intelligence extracted from captured wizards to predict the cannons would fail first. Richard finally received a message from the Command Department: a supply convoy carrying a Curse Virus would arrive in twelve hours to deal with the bugs’ cannon fodder.

• Ivan worried that the bugs’ nonstop attacks would exhaust the fortress’s Magic Stones and damage its Alchemy Magic Stone Cannons before help arrived.
• The Moon-White Priest Bug revealed that the High Priest had extracted intelligence from captured wizards and used it to predict the cannons would melt down before the bugs ran out of cannon fodder.
• Richard’s attempt to send Ulysses against the swarm failed when Priest Bugs sealed Ulysses and Warrior Bugs attacked him, forcing him to retreat.
• Ivan feared the Command Department had gone silent and said the wizards might have to abandon the fortress if no message arrived within three days.
• Richard repaired Ivan’s Communication Crystal Ball with the Universal Repair Method, and it lit up with word that a supply convoy carrying a Curse Virus would arrive in twelve hours.

Richard and the wizards at War Fortress No. 352 used Curse Viruses to devastate the insect swarm’s cannon-fodder, but the bugs launched a desperate counterattack. The fortress’s defenses held against an assault of Arc Acid Balls, until a gigantic mutated Transport Bug emerged onto the battlefield.

• Ivan explained that Curse Viruses combined Potent Viruses with Curse Plagues and fired one into the insect swarm.
• The Curse Virus sickened the bugs’ cannon-fodder, so the Priest Bugs used Holy Water to cure them and ordered a full counterattack.
• Richard helped maintain the Magic Stone Cannons as the bugs attacked continuously, while Ulysses flew out to destroy approaching Warrior Bugs.
• The bugs brought Mother God Cannons forward on Transport Bugs and fired Arc Acid Balls at the fortress.
• Ivan activated the fortress’s integrated Magic Arrays, which formed a barrier that withstood the Arc Acid Balls.
• A mutated Transport Bug as large as a small mountain emerged from the insect nest.

Richard and Ivan’s wizards fought to hold their fortress against a swarm and a colossal War Beast while the Third War Zone Command repeatedly extended their orders to stay. Just as Ivan entrusted Richard with evidence of the battle, Susanna ordered all Third War Zone wizards to retreat to the Floating City.

• Richard learned that the neighboring fortress had withdrawn and the Command Department ordered Ivan’s forces to hold for six hours until reinforcements arrived.
• Richard revealed his connections to General Headquarters and convinced Ulysses to secretly immobilize the Giant Mutant Transport Bug with Faith Power.
• Ulysses stopped the War Giant Bug, while Richard and the White Wizards fought off the advancing swarm around the War Fortress.
• The Command Department extended the hold order by another three hours, and Ivan told Richard to retreat with a Crystal Ball containing the battle’s information.
• Susanna broadcast an order for all wizards in the Third War Zone, black and white, to retreat immediately to the Floating City.

Richard's squad retreated to the Floating City as the wizard army suffered devastating losses and the Mother Worm God entered the battle. The Floating City received orders to hold its fortress as the decisive battle began.

• Richard and the White Wizards dismantled their weapons and used a rapid transfer formation to escape the advancing insect swarm and reach the Floating City.
• A logistics wizard assigned Ivan's squad to fortify the residential district, while Richard was placed under the Command Department's deployment.
• Richard reunited with Ellie and Lawrence, who had escaped the Bug Nest World, and learned that the First War Zone had lost more than a dozen War Airships in battle.
• Over ten days, successive forces withdrew to the Floating City, bringing reports of collapsing defenses and the Mother Worm God's intervention.
• The final First War Zone troops retreated under the protection of a Black Robe Wizard, while the Mother Worm God blocked his powerful spells with the aid of the world's origin.
• The Floating City ordered its wizards to hold the fortress, and the decisive battle began when a fireball struck the edge of the Insect Tide.

The White Wizards fought to hold the Floating City against the endless Insect Tide as Great Wizard Black Tower considered opening a Teleportation Gate. At a damaged gun emplacement, Richard discovered he could extract the technique needed to repair its Magic Stone Cannon.

• The White Wizards used artillery and defensive barriers to repel the Insect Tide while their aerial defenses battled the Moth Army.
• The Mother Worm God empowered the swarm and blocked Great Wizard Black Tower's spells, prompting him to ask Susanna to prepare to open a Teleportation Gate.
• Richard, Ellie, and Lawrence fought bugs that had broken through the defenses and helped Ivan's squad protect its gun emplacement.
• A Magic Stone Cannon melted down, killing the squad's Alchemist Wizard and threatening to leave a gap in the defensive line.
• Ivan went to seek another Alchemist Wizard while Richard examined the cannon and found he could extract the technique to reconstruct its Magic Conduction Circuit.

Richard repaired Magic Stone cannons across the battlefield under Master Vladimir’s direction, learning Battlefield Alchemy and earning the title Master Richard. As his strength failed and the insect swarm continued, War Beasts from the Third War Zone finally appeared on the front line.

• Richard repaired a damaged Magic Stone cannon with an Alchemy Array, and Master Vladimir replaced its component and introduced himself as the legion’s chief artificer.
• Vladimir gave Richard introductory knowledge of Battlefield Alchemy, requisitioned him as an assistant, and took him to repair artillery emplacements.
• Richard used a Palm Alchemy Array to repair a complex Tesla Type V cannon component, while Vladimir learned that Eric had been buried behind enemy lines.
• Richard and Vladimir repaired more than a dozen Magic Stone cannons, and Richard grew skilled enough to earn the title Master Richard.
• After exhausting his mental power, Richard saw colossal War Beasts emerge from the battlefield after thirteen days of advance.