Secret Master

Secret Master is a neutral Beyond Grade A Mage, a member of the Ancient Ones, and one of the powers overseeing the Galactic Black Market. His mastery of runes, secret arts, and luck magic makes him an influential figure within both magical society and the later Beyond Grade A institutions.

Biography

The Flickering World

Secret Master's reputation precedes his direct involvement: Silver Shadow pays him to inscribe a dense network of magical circuits, illustrating both the quality and expense of his work. He attends the Meeting of the Gods as a black-market protector, then pursues the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy after divination and black-market intelligence point him toward it. He prepares a theft from Ravenlaude, only for Han Xiao to steal the sealed energy from him in turn. Secret Master fights to preserve his dignity and tries to reduce Han's luck, but discovers that Han's measurable luck is already extraordinarily low. Although frustrated, he later supplies intelligence warning Han that Hila is in danger. After Gorutan's capture, he also grants asylum to Gorutan's organization and marks its members magically to prevent unauthorized desertion, expanding his influence under the cover of protecting an old rival's dependents. (Chapters 995, 1007, 1030–1037, and 1060–1068)

Intelligent Plague and the Association

The Intelligent Plague places Secret Master's black-market interests in the Ancient Star Desert directly in Han Xiao's path. Han's emergency takeover disrupts those businesses, and Secret Master angrily confronts him after the lockdown, though he understands that the universal civilizations would have imposed control regardless. He subsequently works within the Beyond Grade A Association, contributing both information and access to clandestine trade. When the universal civilizations impose sanctions, Han proposes using the Galactic Black Market as the association's logistical core; Secret Master accepts a central role because the resulting integration strengthens the network he already helps administer. His exchanges with Han remain prickly, but repeated cooperation gradually replaces their initial struggle over the mysterious energy. (Chapters 1112, 1132–1146, 1172–1173, 1224, and 1279–1299)

The World Tree War

Secret Master joins the explored universe's defense against the World Tree while openly refusing to treat service as an obligation to die. He provides divination, mysticism, teleportation, and magical analysis, warning when the enemy's defenses prevent supernatural tracking and when an assault would waste the Beyond Grade As' lives. His predictions are practical rather than infallible: he reads death omens and can shift misfortune, yet also accepts the limits of those methods against the World Tree. He survives the war, helps open a transportation gate for the new Supers Holy Land, and becomes assistant to Milizaus in its Mage Department, converting his long-standing independent authority into a formal role within the new civilization. (Chapters 1330–1376, 1391, and 1446)

Appearance and personality

Secret Master is a tall man who wears a purple robe. Every exposed area of his skin is covered in intricate, faintly glowing magical runes, giving him the appearance of someone tattooed from head to toe. He usually maintains a cold, expressionless demeanor and speaks with blunt confidence. He is acquisitive, calculating, and protective of his reputation, with an almost compulsive desire to collect rare magical objects. At the same time, he is cautious enough to avoid pointless sacrifices and dryly humorous enough to acknowledge when confronting Han Xiao would be unprofitable. (Chapters 1030–1035, 1132–1173, and 1334–1358)

Abilities and class

Secret Master is a renowned Beyond Grade A Mage and an authority in Rune Studies, Alchemy Studies, and especially Secret Studies. Forbidden Spell-grade runes across his body provide extensive physical and magical enhancements, while his repertoire includes teleportation, concealment, explosive rune traps, close-range magical reinforcement, large-scale gates, and enchantments durable enough to be installed on another Beyond Grade A. He can multitask between spellcasting and hand-to-hand defense, but prepared spatial restraints can obstruct his teleportation and deny the escape plans built around it. (Chapters 995 and 1030–1036)

His most distinctive arts combine foresight, fortune-telling, soul study, and mental magic to perceive and influence luck. He can quantify the fortune surrounding a living being, foresee potentially beneficial events, read ominous trends, and transfer misfortune to another target. These methods provide useful warnings rather than complete knowledge, and targets with extremely little luck give him almost nothing to reduce. The World Tree also possesses targeted defenses that prevent him from locating it through mysticism, establishing a direct limit on his divinatory reach. (Chapters 1030–1037, 1334, 1347, and 1373–1376)

Relationships

• Han Xiao: Han outmaneuvers Secret Master over the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy and later disrupts his black-market operations. Their rivalry becomes an argumentative but functional partnership in the association and the World Tree War.
• Gorutan: Secret Master regards Gorutan as an old rival and grants asylum to his organization after Gorutan is captured, while imposing magical controls on those under his protection.
• Milizaus: Secret Master serves as Milizaus's assistant in the Supers Holy Land's Mage Department.
• Hila: Intelligence supplied by Secret Master helps convince Han Xiao that Hila faces an imminent threat.
• Silver Shadow: Silver Shadow commissions Secret Master to inscribe extremely dense magical circuits across his transformed body.

Items

Secret Master collects high-quality magical objects and uses equipment such as a magical axe and rune-armored forces, but the supplied corpus does not establish a single persistent named personal item. His body-covering enchantments are lasting magical modifications rather than separate possessions. (Chapters 995 and 1030–1036)