New Freedoms recap

Max leads Tanila, Fowl, Batrire, and Cordelia from floor 19 through floor 39 while Golden Axe grows around their victories. Their route includes increasingly strange mechanical floors, an elite ifrit, the Mind Reaver, underwater trials, sea raiders, and a kraken. Tanila reveals that she is King Cervantes's daughter, defeats the Mind Reaver with her dangerous red skill, and becomes magically bonded to Max. Max and Dexic win a public Coliseum challenge that forces a temporary settlement with Enlightened Souls, but an assassin remains at large. Max's inner entity grows stronger and suspects that higher powers are interfering with the tower. Cordelia finally learns that Max is Seth Pendell, that his real name is Max Host, and that Consume lets him take abilities and attributes. After surviving a targeted red-portal trap and defeating the kraken, Max returns to Golden Axe ready for floor 40. An unknown attacker then abducts him into a sealed stone room.

Previously: Max, known to his companions as Seth Pendell, leads a tower-climbing party with Tanila, Fowl, Batrire, and Cordelia. Tanila is his partner, Fowl serves as the shield-bearing frontline fighter, Batrire is the healer, and Cordelia attacks from range. The group is supported by Golden Axe under Everett's leadership and trained by Tom. Max conceals unusual powers connected to a dangerous autonomous presence within him. The party has already restored two people who had been petrified by a Gorgon. As this volume begins, the group is advancing through the tower and carrying secrets that could attract powerful enemies.

Max's party survives an unusual floor-19 boss that revives through a purple cube, then claims powerful bonded equipment. An unidentified dragonkin has secretly spent power to improve Max's future item chances, while Max repeatedly senses an unseen observer near the tower. A manticore dungeon break interrupts the climb. Max directs new Golden Axe teams to protect civilians while his own party closes the dungeon, though two adventurers die. A practice match with Tom shows that Max can already contend with an established climber. On floor 20, fire-spitting insects and beam-firing dragonflies lead to a queen-bee swarm too dangerous to fight, so Max carries everyone to safety. He then negotiates a conditional alliance with the inner entity: it will help during crises, and he will permit limited opportunities that do not harm those he protects. The entity denies making the tower harder and warns that Max's continued growth will draw dangerous attention.

The party enters a metal city populated by armed goblins, dwarves, and self-repairing machines. Max's hidden Consume ability takes Alchemy, ranged weapon expertise, engineering, and power-core knowledge from defeated enemies. Everett agrees that the new crafting abilities must remain secret. The party then clears volcanic floors while preparing for a Coliseum dispute caused by an elven ambush on Golden Axe climbers. Dexic survives the ambush after staying behind to protect the others, and Max volunteers to fight beside her. Inside the tower, an elven delegation tries to force him out of the contest and brings stealthed assassins. Max kills one attacker. Tanila then exposes concealed royal authority by compelling the remaining elves, who reveal that members of her family are involved. The party nevertheless chooses an elite floor-25 portal and faces a fire-immune ifrit. Max permits his inner entity to take control during the final assault, and it kills the boss with power and precision beyond what Max normally displays.

The ifrit's chest gives the party exceptional equipment and more rare materials. Max crosses natural strength and constitution milestones and secretly gains a survival skill that can prevent a killing blow. Fowl and Batrire reaffirm their intention to marry in the dwarven capital. Golden Axe celebrates the party's rapid completion of twenty-five floors, and Dexic accepts Max as her Coliseum partner. The next tower levels contain coordinated ogres and trolls that bypass the frontline, use terrain, and attack in organized groups. Golden Axe grows as the party's reports and materials become valuable. An ant floor ends with a distressed queen whose hive mind has malfunctioned for unknown reasons. Max later creates his first charged power core, but his inner entity warns that the approaching boss is exceptionally dangerous. On that floor, a Mind Reaver takes control of Fowl, Batrire, and Cordelia. Max restrains them while Tanila crosses the creature's barrier alone after activating her own long-suppressed Mind Reaver power.

Tanila absorbs the Mind Reaver's attacks and identifies herself as the third daughter of King Cervantes. The encounter forces her through memories of her father's coercion and a possible future ruled by hunger for power, but she rejects that path and kills the boss. The reward gives Fowl, Batrire, and Cordelia protection against mind control. Max and Tanila join matching necklaces that combine their bonuses, cannot be separated, and will break if either dies. Max then uses his concealed engineering and magical crafting knowledge to forge a powered sword for Dexic. At the Coliseum, he expands the original team duel into three matches: he and Dexic will face a pair, after which Max will fight two more opponents alone without outside healing. Queens Macy and Molly confirm the terms. Max's aim is to make attacks on Golden Axe costly and to expose the elven queen to political consequences if her champions lose.

An unidentified hunter watches the Coliseum and postpones an attempt on Max after failing to assess his strength. In the arena, Dexic kills one elven champion while Max kills the other, then defeats both solo opponents. During one fight he allows the inner entity to take control, producing a deliberately public warning to those threatening Tanila or Golden Axe. Macy and Molly later try to compel Max and discover that his hidden power resists them. Molly accepts his peace proposal: Golden Axe returns some spoils and bodies, while Enlightened Souls must stop targeting the faction or face repeated challenges. The party resumes climbing through mechanized goblin, ant, golem, and animal floors. Golden Axe gains wealth, recruits, protected housing, and plans for a secure crafting complex. The increasingly anomalous tower route troubles Max and Tom. In a dream, the entity is identified as the red-eyed double that appears to Max. It suspects that powerful beings noticed the unprecedented weapon Max crafted and may be influencing the floors, though it has no proof and believes any interference is limited.

The party crosses a long mechanized forest and then a trap maze before confronting a huge flesh-and-metal boss armed with electricity, incendiary launchers, harpoons, and self-repair systems. They blind it, exploit its repair openings, and survive its final explosion behind layered defenses. The five-person reward chest grants remarkable bonded equipment and large power crystals. Max receives boots that raise every attribute and can periodically reset all his cooldowns, along with black ore suitable for a future dragon-tooth project. He also creates a legendary bow that generates its own magical arrows. The group then begins a water-themed run of floors, fighting across shifting sandbars and training with Tom for underwater combat. On a submerged floor, armed merfolk escort the party to their fortified city. Their king doubts that they are genuine tower climbers and challenges Max to an unarmed duel in an underwater arena, revealing that the ruler is also the city's champion.

The merfolk king repeatedly increases his power and lands what should be a fatal strike, but Max's hidden survival skill saves him. Max forces the king to yield, then gives his former opponent a healing potion. The king accepts the party, offers to guide it onward, and rewards Max with bonded clothing that permits normal movement, breathing, and combat underwater. Max's survival makes further secrecy impossible within the group. He tells Cordelia that he has a black skill capable of taking abilities from those he kills. Tanila also explains that he is Seth Pendell and that his real name is Max Host. Cordelia accepts the explanation and joins the rest of the party in guarding the secret. Everett meanwhile warns that tower enemies grow sharply stronger at each tenth-floor band. The five climbers then enter another sea floor on a self-sailing ship, united by knowledge that remains concealed from Golden Axe's wider membership.

The party repels hundreds of sea raiders, assaults their fortress with the ship's cannons, and triggers a hybrid sea boss by destroying a flag. Fowl's reflected-damage aura delivers the killing blow while Batrire keeps the group alive through the barrage. After receiving upgraded equipment, the party returns to training and helps Golden Axe recruits develop their combat technique. Two undead dungeon breaks then occur at once. Everett sends Dexic with the other four party members while Max handles a separate break alone. Max enters an unexplained red portal and defeats a vampire, a lich, and a shadow-moving third opponent before escaping. His inner entity concludes that the encounter was a targeted trap arranged through another world traveler and warns that the hostile force remains active. Max nevertheless clears the second break as well and is publicly honored with a statue at the city gate, increasing the contrast between his celebrated position and the hidden campaign against him.

On floor 39, the party reaches an island arena where a rapidly regenerating kraken guards a puzzle of paired orbs and pedestals. Completing parts of the mechanism summons armed ships. Tanila develops a plan that combines those ships, explosive barrels, cannon fire, magic, and sustained burning to stop the creature from healing. Max uses the merfolk king's gift to move across the water, and the whole party coordinates the final attack that kills the kraken. The reward includes permanent-stat potions. Max gives his potion to Fowl and tells Cordelia that Consume also grants attributes, completing her limited understanding of his secret. The group returns to Golden Axe after clearing floor 39 and prepares to begin floor 40. Before that ascent starts, an unknown attacker abruptly transports Max away from the faction into a dark, sealed stone room. The party remains behind, and Max's location, captor, and immediate fate are unresolved.

Max, Tanila, Fowl, Batrire, and Cordelia return to Golden Axe after killing the floor-39 kraken. They have cleared the path to floor 40, and the whole party now knows that Max is Seth Pendell, that his real name is Max Host, and that his black skill Consume can take abilities and attributes. Golden Axe is wealthier and better protected, while Everett and Tom continue supporting its growth without knowing Max's central secret. Tanila remains magically bonded to Max and threatened by her royal family. The inner entity's origins and increasing strength are unresolved, as is its suspicion that higher powers have altered the party's tower floors. Molly's agreement has checked direct attacks from Enlightened Souls, but the wider political danger remains. The apparent assassination campaign also continues after Max survives a targeted red-portal trap. As the party prepares for floor 40, an unknown attacker transports Max away from Golden Axe and confines him alone in a dark stone room. His captor, location, and immediate fate are unknown.