Alex and company continue their adventures in the volume. Our story restarts moments after the previous book ended with Claygon uttering his first words.
Yes, he has indeed gained sentience and everyone is delighted to meet him!
Spoilers below!
<Spoiler>Drestra confronts Alex and he admits he is the Fool. Things don't explode. Then he tells Cedric and Hart, that doesn't go as well... Claygon is very protective of his Father.
They get it together, raid the hells, then Alex upgrades the 3 heroes. The Saint is left out of the fun as the others explain he would immediately lock up the Fool.
Alex buys the decrepit bakery across from Shale's using his massive influx of cash after gaining a Junior Crafter position and starting a Chaos Golem crafting plan with Shale.
The old baker was similar to his old boss and he is able to help the last assistant with a bit of revenge before putting him in charge of the whole operation.
Alex and Thundarr plan a crazy raid on another of the hells to go find The Traveler's artifact. This is the climax of the book and it is a doozy.
Her (Hannah Kim) artifact is her phone! She was isekai'd into another realm before she was 15. She gained fabulous powers there, saved the world, but lost her friends along the way. Then she went traveling. Eventually she came to Thameland and created a home. She never told anyone her name, just went by The Traveler. Then a new cycle started and she got marked as the Saint.
She became friends with the Fool and when they were about to destroy a dungeon core the Fool found they could control it! Then the priests tried to kill the Fool.
Hannah teleported their heads away, saved the Fool, and told the others she died.
Eventually the Ravener was defeated and she was able to "retire", meanwhile she and the Fool (of her time) worked to understand things.
They found out about a secret arm of the church. That the Fool's mark was "patched" at some point to make it like it is currently. They briefly removed the Fool's mark, but doing so obliterated her soul. Hannah was very sad about that.
When the next cycle started a dungeon appeared in her sanctum and she died.
But that's not the end! Her other worldly powers continued to work on the other side. When Alex and others began to pray directly to her, she gained divinity!
Alex uses her phone to translate her book, finds a ritual and summons her. They have a brief conversation, she blesses him with more power, and he resolves to get stronger.
Then we find the Ravener and others freaking out about the Traveler's power being activated again. The Ravener reaches out to the First Apostle (of the secret arm of the church) and they begin a plan.
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I'm excited to see what comes next!
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