Chapter Summaries

Richard repaired a Magic-Stone Cannon on the collapsing front and extracted an incomplete blueprint while the Command Department refused to use the Great Disintegration Cannon. As the Mother Worm God gained the advantage over Great Wizard Black Tower, the Cross-border Teleportation Gate opened and a lone ice-bodied wizard arrived.

• Susanna ordered the Floating City's energy devoted to the Cross-border Teleportation Gate instead of the Great Disintegration Cannon, while the Old Wizard left Richard with cannon components and went to build a weapon.
• Richard repaired damaged Magic-Stone Cannons under fire and extracted an incomplete Lavoisier Type II Magic-Stone Cannon blueprint from one of them.
• Vladimir and several Old Wizards used a crude Small Disintegration Cannon to wound a War Giant Bug, but it took two minutes to kill one, and the defensive line kept collapsing.
• The Mother Worm God maintained her advantage over the weakening Great Wizard Black Tower and told him to take his followers and leave.
• The Logistics Wizards activated the Cross-border Teleportation Gate, and one azure ice-bodied wizard emerged and addressed Black Tower.

Great Wizard Clear Frost sealed the Mother Worm God, securing victory in the Bug Nest World, while Richard and Susanna exposed falsified wartime records. Susanna arranged consequences for the responsible fortress, but learned its commander's grandfather had died.

• Great Wizard Clear Frost joined Great Wizard Black Tower and froze the Mother Worm God in a seal expected to last five hundred years, though a ray of Golden Light escaped into the Void.
• Great Wizard Black Tower announced victory in the planar war, and the surviving wizards celebrated.
• Richard told Susanna that Fortress 351 had falsified its retreat records, and Susanna used a book spirit to confirm the discrepancy.
• Susanna confronted Legion Commander Andre, secured a contract, and reported that Fortress 352 would be rewarded while Fortress 351's commander would face military court.
• Andre told Susanna that Fortress 351's commander's grandfather had died.

After the war, Richard collected his rewards, studied the seal on the Mother Worm God, and learned that a resurrection mark had entered Reinhardt’s body. With Ulysses and World Mushroom guarding her, he kept Reinhardt alive for the chance to gain the Mother Worm God’s rules, while the wizards continued their conquest of Bug Nest World.

• Susanna gave Richard one thousand magic crystals and told him the coward who had fled before battle would face a military tribunal.
• Richard told Ivan and his squad that the deserter would be tried, and Ivan shared the news with the squad, whose members promised to help Richard in the future.
• Richard received five hundred magic crystals at a commendation ceremony, bringing his gains from the war to nearly three thousand magic crystals, and moved into a wooden cabin to study the seal.
• World Mushroom told Richard that a streak of Golden Light had entered Reinhardt, and Ulysses identified it as the Mother Worm God’s resurrection mark.
• Ulysses explained that the mark would activate only if the Mother Worm God died and urged Richard to keep Reinhardt alive so they could take the rules from her body; World Mushroom anesthetized and monitored Reinhardt.
• The wizards captured the last surface bug nest, drove the remaining Black Crystal Bug resistance underground, and began withdrawing the White Wizard Legion while Black Wizards took over the cleanup.

Thirty years after the final battle, Richard investigated Soul Snatching Canyon to study its earth-vein magnetic field and collect data for a mission. After a surge produced a beautiful aurora, a tiny Spatial Rift opened behind him and black-red mist filled the canyon, leaving Richard asleep as he awoke somewhere unfamiliar.

• The wizards reshaped the Black Crystal Bugs' history and made the new generation accept their status as a slave race.
• Richard accepted a mission to investigate Soul Snatching Canyon and said goodbye to Ellie as she prepared to return to the Wizard World.
• Richard reached the canyon, where Ulysses detected intersecting earth veins and warned that small Spatial Rifts might form.
• Richard adjusted his magic barrier, studied the canyon, and waited for the magnetic field to surge so he could complete his measurements.
• A magnetic-field eruption filled the sky with an aurora, and Richard began recording it before a Spatial Rift released black-red mist that made him collapse into sleep.
• Richard opened his eyes beyond the rift beneath a blood moon and wondered where he was.

Richard realized he was trapped in a nightmare built from his memories and escaped its first layer by jumping from his Wizard Tower, only to wake in another eerie landscape. Ulysses identified the new location as the Nightmare Wizard World and said Richard could not leave for now.

• Richard explored a mist-covered version of his Wizard Tower, where his magic and spiritual probing failed to work, and concluded the environment was pushing him toward fear.
• Richard encountered bizarre versions of Number One and Number Two, then recognized that the tower and its contents had been reconstructed from his memories.
• Richard jumped from the top of the Wizard Tower to shock himself awake and found himself in a hostile wilderness beneath a blood-red moon.
• Ulysses emerged from Richard's shoulder and told him he was in the Dream Dimension, in the Nightmare Wizard World corresponding to the Wizard World.
• Richard asked how to escape, and Ulysses admitted that he could not leave for the time being.

Richard learned that he had been swept from the Bug Nest World into the Nightmare Wizard World and needed to gather Nightmare Power to escape. After crossing a strange wilderness, he found a deserted village that came alive under the Blood Moon, where a Nightmare Spirit approached him.

• Ulysses explained that a Spatial Rift had carried Richard into the Nightmare World and that collecting enough Nightmare Power was the safest way to leave.
• Ulysses told Richard that Nightmare Power could be gathered by entering the dreams of Wizard World projections or by devouring Nightmare Creatures and Nightmare Crystals.
• Richard explored the wilderness, encountered a crying Face Flower, and nearly died after staring at the living Black Sun.
• Richard found a deserted village and waited until night, when strange creatures emerged from jars and pots.
• A Nightmare Spirit approached Richard and asked whether he had come from outside the village.

Richard entered the Nightmare World with Ulysses and discovered he could control dreams, frighten their owners, and refine the resulting Nightmare Power into Soul Origin. Ulysses suggested that gathering enough Soul Origin could let Richard break through his Spiritual Power bottleneck and find a way back to his body.

• Ulysses explained that Nightmare Creatures could mistake Richard for one of their own until he gathered Nightmare Power, and warned him that stronger creatures would recognize him as an outsider and hunt his soul.
• Richard entered a farmer named George's dream through a Dream Rift and discovered he could reshape the entire dream with ease.
• Richard turned George's white bread into rotten flesh, frightened him awake, and received a strand of Nightmare Power as the dream collapsed.
• Richard refined the Nightmare Power into a tiny amount of Soul Origin and learned that about ten thousand similar strands could raise his Spiritual Power by one point.
• Ulysses explained that enough Soul Origin could help Richard break through his Spiritual Power bottleneck and return to his body through the Sea of Souls, and Richard decided the Nightmare World could benefit him.

Richard studied Nightmare Spirits and discovered that their simple energy cycles held the key to their evolution. He forced the village’s spirits to surrender Nightmare Power, then used it to create a weak Nightmare Body whose potential he believed was immense.

• Richard tried to gain Nightmare Power by eating a Nightmare Spirit, found the experience revolting, and abandoned the method as inefficient.
• Richard spent a week studying Nightmare Spirits, using Energy Vision to examine their bodies, energy cycles, and evolution.
• Richard bound the village’s Nightmare Spirits with a mutated vine, declared himself their boss, and killed two spirits to intimidate the rest.
• Richard ordered the nearly five hundred Nightmare Spirits to hand over one-third of their Nightmare Power and collected one thousand strands.
• Richard used the gathered Nightmare Power to create a crude Nightmare Body built around the spirits’ energy cycles, despite Ulysses warning that it would be extremely weak.

Richard created a Nightmare Body and discovered that black dust from dead Nightmare Spirits could transform it into a Nightmare Creature. After testing the creature’s core, he concluded that Nightmare Creatures’ consciousness resided separately from their bodies, leaving the body usable when the core was sealed.

• Richard made a realistic Nightmare Body and harvested nearly five thousand strands of Nightmare Power from four villages, but absorbing the power did not strengthen it.
• Richard sprinkled black dust from dead Nightmare Spirits onto the body, causing its energy pathways to mutate and the dust to merge into its flesh.
• The Nightmare Body awakened, so Richard sealed it and found that its transformed portion had developed a core and black mucus.
• Richard removed the core and found that the body’s transformation stopped, then heard Ulysses recount a rumor that Nightmare Kings could be defeated by hiding their hearts.
• Richard returned the core to the body, let it transform completely, and sealed the core again; when the body remained intact, he concluded that Nightmare Creatures’ consciousnesses resided in their cores, separate from their bodies.

Richard gained control of a Nightmare Body, trained and organized the Nightmare Spirits to collect Nightmare Power more efficiently, and accumulated fifteen thousand strands over three months. Just as his body reached the level of an Advanced Wizard Apprentice, Ulysses warned him of a new threat: a mindless Nightmare Beast forming in the forest.

• Richard destroyed the newborn consciousness inside the Nightmare Body and used a Soul Seed to take control of its core, allowing the body to move freely.
• Richard poured Nightmare Power into the body until it reached the strength of a Legendary Knight, then taught the Nightmare Spirits how to frighten people more effectively and forbade them from fighting.
• Richard left Soul Seed avatars in five villages to maintain order and assign dreams to the Nightmare Spirits while he conducted research.
• Over nearly three months, the Nightmare Spirits improved their collection, helping Richard gather fifteen thousand strands of Nightmare Power and raise his Nightmare Body to the level of an Advanced Wizard Apprentice.
• Ulysses called Richard to the forest, where Richard saw a mindless Nightmare Beast forming from Nightmare Power seeping out of the earth.

Richard fought a wave of Nightmare Knights and devoured their fragments through his Nightmare Body, triggering its evolution into a First-Ring creature with a hidden, cloak-like Nightmare Talent. He learned that a Nightmare Lord would soon send someone to investigate, and planned to recruit the visitor by force.

• Richard trapped a Nightmare Knight in reinforced stone and studied it while more Nightmare Knights formed in the forest.
• Richard fought the Nightmare Knights, realized his Nightmare Body could devour their fragments without nausea, and consumed the remains to gain nearly forty thousand strands of Nightmare Power.
• The surge of Nightmare Power transformed the Nightmare Body's energy circulation and core, then gave it a cloak-like Nightmare Talent that concealed everything inside.
• Richard entered the evolved Nightmare Body and found it had reached First-Ring strength, while Ulysses warned that a Nightmare Lord would send someone to investigate within days.
• Richard said he would recruit the Nightmare Lord's envoy.

Richard named Bone and made him the village patrolman after learning that the Black Knight was a ravenous creature with no consciousness. When Puppet Billy arrived to investigate the Black Knights on behalf of Lord Demon Sword Amad, Richard confronted him and demanded his name.

• Richard discovered that the Nightmare Spirits feared the Black Knight, then named the clever spirit Bone and formed a power-sharing connection with him.
• Richard appointed Bone to patrol the village and spent three days studying the Black Knight, whose core held only endless hunger; devouring it yielded nearly ten thousand strands of Nightmare Power.
• Puppet Billy arrived at the village and questioned Bone about the Black Knights while claiming to serve Lord Demon Sword Amad.
• Bone stood his ground and said Richard had dealt with the Black Knights near the village.
• Richard approached Puppet Billy, confirmed that he had killed a Black Knight, and demanded to know where Billy came from and what his name was.

Richard, posing as Black Robe Charlie, agreed to join Demon Sword Amad after Puppet Billy explained the consequences of remaining outside Amad’s territory. As Puppet Billy brought him to Amad City to meet Amad, Richard quietly gathered information about the city’s Nightmare Crystal production and the territory’s potential income.

• Puppet Billy confirmed that Richard had killed three Black Knights in the forest and marked the battlefield on a map before confronting him about occupying Amad’s territory.
• Puppet Billy offered Richard the village and possibly nearby villages if he joined Amad, warning that refusal would make Richard an enemy; Richard agreed to go meet Amad.
• On the carriage ride, Richard asked Ulysses about Nightmare Knights’ territory income and considered how subordinates might exploit a lord’s finances.
• Puppet Billy brought Richard to Amad City and revealed that its millions of Nightmare Spirits produced several hundred thousand Nightmare Crystals each year.
• Richard followed Puppet Billy into the Mayor’s Mansion after its Level Two guards opened the gates.

Richard entered Demon Sword Amad’s territory, learned that wizards had abducted Lesser Nightmares there years ago, and accepted a mission to investigate new attacks on border villages. After tracing the attackers’ magical remnants, he identified their retreat and decided to approach the wizards himself.

• Puppet Billy introduced Richard, disguised as Black Robe Charlie, to Amad, who accepted him as a subordinate and sent him to the administrator.
• Richard learned about Amad’s territory and its taxes, then had his village recorded on the administrator’s map.
• The administrator tasked Richard with investigating Lawless Ones who had killed and abducted Lesser Nightmares, and gave him a page that could temporarily use the administrator’s Nightmare Domain.
• Richard recognized the past Lawless Ones as wizards from the Material World after reading that they had used fireballs and possessed similar talents.
• Richard reached a village recently targeted by the attackers, followed their surviving magical traces, and set out to meet the wizards.

Richard followed a suspicious magical trail into a cemetery, where a Spider Wizard attacked him before he could explain himself. After defeating and questioning the wizard, Richard learned that the Dreamwalker Club had lost a companion to Demon Sword Amad nearly ten years earlier.

• Richard prepared Life Energy Shields, Life Blast rings, and a Spatial Teleportation Scroll before entering the cemetery.
• The Spider Wizard attacked Richard with Banshee's Wail and summoned an army of undead, which Richard countered with life energy and fireballs.
• Richard sealed the Spider Wizard with a Demon Sealing Nail and explained that he was not a Nightmare Creature.
• The Spider Wizard said Demon Sword Amad had taken one of his companions nearly ten years earlier, using an avatar to defeat the group.
• The Spider Wizard identified his group as the Dreamwalker Club, which researched the Nightmare World.

Richard joined the Dreamwalker Club’s planned operation against Demon Sword Amad through an avatar, then explored a vast graveyard and earned a Courage Badge after discovering and entering a grave marked with his name. He left to investigate the wilderness while Fuss brought his avatar to meet the club’s minister.

• Richard learned that a Third-Ring Wizard had organized the Dreamwalker Club’s operation against Amad and agreed to meet the minister through an avatar.
• Richard explored the graveyard and learned from Ulysses how Nightmare Domains impose strange rules and punish those who break them.
• Richard found a grave bearing his name and the current year, dug up its empty coffin, and lay inside it.
• A Courage Badge appeared and entered Richard’s soul, granting him protection from most fear spells; his name vanished from the gravestone and coffin.
• Richard collected magical plants and left to explore the wilderness, while Fuss brought his avatar to the Dreamwalker Club’s minister.

Richard joined the Dreamwalker Club’s plan to provoke a war between Demon Sword Amad and Black Dragon Kor Harlon so a Third-Ring Wizard could search Amad’s residence for the Crystal Gate. After Richard warned the Minister that a Black Tide was approaching, the Minister planned to alert the Third-Ring Wizard, while Richard’s main body faced dozens of Black Knights.

• The Minister refused to let Richard join the plan without signing a Soul Contract, but changed his mind after Richard explained that he was already investigating the Dreamwalker Club for Demon Sword Amad.
• Richard discovered that the Minister and Fuss carried a trace left by the Wizard World Origin because of their ritual, which made Nightmare Creatures sense that something was wrong with them.
• The Minister returned to the Wizard World and obtained the Third-Ring master’s approval for Richard to join the plan, which aimed to turn Amad and Black Dragon Kor Harlon against each other.
• Richard learned that the plan would earn him a small payment but saw a greater opportunity in the Nightmare Crystals the two sides might store for breaking through bottlenecks.
• Richard told the Minister that a Black Tide was about to erupt in Amad’s territory, and the Minister said he would inform the Third-Ring Wizard.
• Richard’s main body spotted dozens of approaching Black Knights and recognized that they posed a problem.

Richard killed a group of Black Knights with traps, devoured them to raise his Nightmare Power, and discovered that the Great Black Tide was approaching Amad’s territory. He empowered Bone to evolve and prepared to give him a mission as the tide drew near.

• Richard discovered that the Black Knights ignored his outsider soul, then lured them into a trap that killed the entire group.
• Richard devoured the Black Knights and gained enough Nightmare Power to reach the limit of a first-level Nightmare Creature.
• Richard sensed the Great Black Tide approaching Amad’s territory and returned to find the settlement’s Nightmare Spirits trembling.
• Richard gave Bone a pile of Nightmare Crystals, and Bone devoured them while Richard observed his evolution.
• Bone evolved into a robed, armored Nightmare Creature resembling Richard and knelt to receive his mission.

Richard sent Bone away with a coffin containing his clone, then followed Demon Sword Amad to war as the Great Black Tide approached. After spotting wizard Runes on Amad’s armor and suspecting a trapped soul had inscribed them, Richard left with the army while another figure prepared to loot Amad City.

• Richard used Bone’s new armor talent to entrust him with protecting a coffin containing Richard’s clone, then gave him an Orichalcum Greatsword and sent him into the wilderness.
• In Amad City, Richard learned that Amad had brought out his Demon Sword because the Great Black Tide was coming, and Puppet Billy warned that Amad’s wars brought years of increased taxes.
• Over three days, Lesser Nightmares gathered in the city while Amanda inscribed defensive Runes on Amad’s armor and reminded him of his promise to release him after ten years.
• Amad rode a Nightmare Power dragon toward the battlefield, and Richard noticed that the Runes on his armor formed spells.
• Richard followed Amad’s army while wondering whether Amad had devoured a wizard’s memories or imprisoned the wizard; after they left, a black-robed figure emerged to loot the city.

Richard infiltrated Amad City while Amad's forces fought the Black Tide, overcoming a fear ward and looting a mimic disguised as a treasure chest. After finding no other stores of Nightmare Crystals, he learned that a wizard had broken into Amad's residence and rushed there, suspecting the wizard was searching for the Nightmare Artifact.

• Richard entered Amad City's inner district under a Cloak of Concealment while Ulysses searched for likely treasures.
• Richard used the Courage Badge to resist the terror on an empty street and found a toy store containing a mimic disguised as a wooden chest.
• Richard pinned the mimic with an Adamantine spear, forced it to vomit nearly fifty thousand units of Nightmare Power in Nightmare Crystals, then bound and pocketed it.
• Richard searched more of the city but found no second warehouse of Nightmare Crystals.
• Ulysses told Richard that a wizard had killed two of Amad's guards and entered Amad's residence, so Richard hurried there to pursue the possible Nightmare Artifact.