Chapter Summaries

Caroso and Fake Teresa investigated the Wax Museum after a companion died, discovering that some wax figures contained human skin and snakes. Their investigation triggered the figures, leaving Caroso and Fake Teresa to hold them off while Nimel escaped.

• Caroso warned Fake Teresa that the Wax Museum was dangerous, took a blue potion, and agreed to investigate together with the adventurers.
• The group searched the starting room, and the leader found an Adventurers' Association reward label on a wax figure's pants.
• Caroso punched a wax figure and discovered that it was hollow, with human skin beneath its wax coating.
• Caroso urged Fake Teresa to cut open a girl-shaped wax figure, releasing two snakes that Fake Teresa and Fake Nimel froze before Caroso crushed them.
• The other wax figures turned toward the group, and Caroso and Fake Teresa prepared to cover the retreat while Nimel escaped.

Caroso and Fake Teresa cleared the monster-filled room while she struggled to conceal the ritual’s clues and keep the room intact. Caroso accidentally revealed a glowing opening, then burned away the wax statue and the clue that had produced it.

• Fake Nimel led the group out of the starting room as Fake Teresa’s storm drew the little snakes toward her.
• Caroso used Hurricane Armor and his flaming sword to blow the snakes toward Fake Teresa, who melted her Wax Armor and pretended to praise their teamwork.
• Caroso searched the room and destroyed a wax statue, then kicked another toward Fake Teresa despite her warning that she could handle it.
• The second statue struck the wall and revealed a glowing opening, exposing the clue Fake Teresa needed to preserve for the ritual.
• Caroso slashed the statue with his flaming sword and burned away the clue, while Fake Teresa claimed she had only been worried for his safety.

Teresa explored the dungeon alone and found a hidden space, while Nimel’s caution and weak magic disrupted the impostors’ plan to drain her mana. Caroso and his companions reached a hidden room, where Fake Teresa warned him that its contents might be traps.

• Teresa avoided searching the first room, broke a wax figure into a corroded section of wall, and entered the glowing space beyond it.
• Nimel followed the group to the second floor, then refused Fake Caroso’s demand that she use powerful magic to find a way through the corridor.
• Fake Caroso and Fake Teresa tried to make Nimel expend mana by attacking her, but Nimel’s weak Freeze Spells and confidence in Caroso thwarted them.
• Two adventurers turned into wax, and the remaining impostors struggled to keep Nimel deceived.
• Caroso and his companions entered a hidden room full of boxes, and Fake Teresa warned him not to trust any clues they found there.

Caroso opened a series of dungeon boxes, collecting strange substances and giving Fake Teresa a suspicious potion while the leader tried to steer the group toward the traps. The leader accepted five gold bars that were actually Iron Monsters and distributed them to his companions, leaving the party to continue through the dungeon.

• Caroso opened a box of white liquid, collected it in a bottle, and said he would study it outside the dungeon.
• Caroso bottled a frightened, slime-like creature from the next box while Fake Teresa warned him to be careful.
• Caroso gave Fake Teresa a sparkling blue potion that the comments identified as highly toxic, calling it a high-quality mana potion.
• When the leader complained that Caroso and Fake Teresa kept the good finds, Caroso offered him a box of gold bars.
• The leader recognized the bars as disguised Iron Monsters but accepted them under Caroso's watch and gave all five to his companions.

Caroso read a guard’s diary and learned how its writer lost both arms, married a fellow guard, and encountered the dead returning from their graves. The diary then recounted the group’s entry into the Wax Museum and ended as its writer witnessed his companions being mentally controlled.

• Caroso opened the final box, found a notebook and a key, and began reading the diary.
• The diary described the guard’s missions, the deaths of Number Seven and Number Nine, and the writer’s growing love for a new Number Seven.
• The writer and Number Seven married, but the former Number Seven crawled from her grave and attacked his wife, so he destroyed the corpse.
• The writer joined his wife, sister, brother-in-law, and other guards to investigate the Wax Museum.
• Inside the museum, the group was mentally controlled, and the writer watched helplessly as his brother-in-law violated his wife.

Caroso read a diary revealing how the Wax Museum dungeon had driven its previous investigators into betrayal and death, then confronted the adventurers as the group moved to the second floor. After trapping the others behind a door, he contacted the real Nimel, who was still exploring the second floor, and told her how to handle the remaining fakes.

• Caroso learned from the diary that mental control had led investigators to betray one another, and that the diary’s writer had repeatedly returned to the Wax Museum after surviving the fights.
• Two more people turned into wax, and Caroso confronted the Adventurer Leader before the remaining group went upstairs.
• Teresa found a dungeon map showing that she was on the second basement level and reasoned that the group’s encounters had taken place on higher floors.
• On the second floor, Caroso sent the adventurers ahead, used a potion to animate their gold bars, kicked Nimel and Teresa into the armored figures, and shut the door behind them.
• Caroso contacted the real Nimel, learned that she was on the second floor with two fakes, and warned her not to touch the wax figures on the first floor.

Caroso and Teresa realized the dungeon’s apparent floors were a deception and that their enemies were on the real first floor. As the survivors gathered and accused them, Caroso prepared to defend the group with cards.

• Caroso told Teresa that the hidden-room key could open either of two doors, and he joined her after she fought a mind-controlling monster.
• Caroso explained that a floor had been removed and the layout altered to mislead them, while the diaries might have been written by someone with a split personality.
• Nimel arrived, and the three waited as survivors emerged separately from the stairways and elevator.
• An adventurers’ leader blamed Caroso’s group for his companions’ deaths, while a ragged middle-aged man and four others also raised their weapons against them.
• Caroso warned the survivors to stop, then used Hand of Greed and Fair Trade to summon two Greedy Goblins.

Caroso used his overwhelming card combos to force the adventurers to hear him out and explained that they were on the dungeon’s first floor, where their apparent companions had been fake. He organized a group to recover and fight the dungeon master, then drank a green liquid that doubled his maximum mana and slowly restored it.

• Caroso summoned followers and displayed more cards, convincing the adventurers that he and his companions could defeat them if necessary.
• Teresa showed the group a structural diagram, and Caroso explained that they were on the first floor and had been deceived by fake companions.
• Caroso told the adventurers they could wait to escape or join him in recovering supplies and defeating the dungeon master.
• A priest, a Nature Mage, and the Adventurer Leader agreed to go with Caroso, while others hesitated or refused.
• Caroso directed the group to a hidden room and warned them not to take the gold bars.
• After the others left, Caroso drank a green liquid that doubled his maximum mana and began restoring it.

Caroso and his companions discovered that a strange liquid inside the ritual temporarily doubled their mana, then entered the dungeon’s second floor and attacked its priest. The priest revealed fifth-tier power, but Caroso charged forward, urging the others not to fear him.

• Caroso learned that the green liquid could double their maximum mana within the ritual, and he had Teresa and Nimel drink it.
• Caroso discovered that the substance came from plants processed by Krumen’s Juicer, a machine with a low success rate.
• Caroso led the party upstairs, where they found a faceless statue and a priest waiting in a magic array.
• Nimel summoned six Elements, Teresa and the others charged, and the Priestess and Nature Mage supported the assault.
• The priest used a fifth-tier card to restrain the attacking minions, but Caroso charged with his allies and warned them that the spell consumed the priest’s mana.

Caroso, Teresa, and Nimel fought the fifth-tier Black Robe Priest, using their minions and equipment to keep pace with him. The priest unleashed a powerful Shield Bash that sent Caroso crashing into a wall, leaving Teresa to face him.

• The Black Robe Priest summoned four Wax Figures, and Caroso and Nimel sent their minions to fight them while Teresa freed two Water Elements.
• Caroso and Teresa engaged the priest, who revealed his fifth-tier strength and knocked Teresa and the Adventurer Leader aside.
• Caroso copied Teresa’s armor cards with Wow, while Teresa donned her full armor set and joined Caroso and Nimel in battling the priest.
• Nimel slowed the priest with dragon breath, the Ice Elements broke free, and the group began to gain the upper hand.
• The priest activated Damage Absorption and used Shield Bash to smash Caroso into a wall, destroying the borrowed armor.

After Caroso took a powerful blow, Nimel and Teresa unleashed their emotions and overwhelmed the priest. Caroso regained consciousness as the transparent Mirror Image that had helped save him collapsed.

• Caroso was struck down, and Nimel's grief awakened a surge of dragon power that strengthened her and her summons.
• Nimel's summons attacked the priest and the wax figures, but the priest flooded the floor with melted wax and trapped the Priestess.
• Nimel froze the wax across the floor, then collapsed from the strain of her outburst.
• Teresa attacked the priest with her greatsword, broke his shield, and severed both his arms.
• Caroso regained consciousness and saw the transparent Mirror Image that had taken the blow for him collapse.

Caroso survived the priest’s attack, and Teresa explained how intense emotions could unlock hidden strength after Nimel’s outburst. After the Wax Museum dungeon cleared, Caroso found himself in a strange black-and-white version of the museum, following a mysterious black-robed figure whose face he recognized.

• Caroso revealed that he had survived the attack because he had prepared a hidden retainer and judged the damage he could endure.
• Teresa rushed to Caroso and explained that rage and despair could awaken the power of emotion and uncover potential.
• The Wax Museum dungeon cleared with Caroso Kolia as the S++ clearer; seven challengers survived, including the Priestess.
• Caroso awoke inside a black-and-white Wax Museum and followed a black-robed figure as she inspected the wax figures.
• The black-robed figure created a ritual magic circle with a tap of her foot, asked Caroso if he had seen enough, and turned to reveal a face he recognized.

Caroso witnessed the Wax Museum’s past, including how its victims were stitched into a wax figure, then returned to the sealed tavern with the others. After learning the dungeon had advanced in rank, he prepared to pursue something important and was told to bring the exhausted Nimel with him.

• Caroso recognized the black-robed singer as Krumen and heard her warn him not to trust anyone offering him Surtur’s power.
• Caroso witnessed the Wax Museum’s past: a group of adventurers died, and the priest stitched their bodies together, covered the result in wax, and watched it collapse into ten figures.
• Caroso and the others returned to the tavern, where the headmaster, Teresa, Bai, Will, and Merlin were waiting; the priest healed the survivors and replenished their mana.
• The Adventurer Leader revealed that the dungeon had advanced in rank, shocking Merlin because the seer had not predicted it.
• Caroso asked Bai to take Nimel back while he handled an urgent task, but Bai told him to bring Nimel along so she could share in their victory when she woke.

Caroso met with Merlin and the others after the dungeon, then brought Nimel and Bai to Azure Wolf Restaurant to meet Alita’s father, Richard Salazar. Caroso confronted Richard about his troubled past and his reasons for adventuring, leaving Richard to admit that he owed his daughter.

• Caroso agreed to let Bai join him and discussed future cooperation with Merlin, who wanted something from his spoils.
• Caroso took Nimel and Bai to Azure Wolf Restaurant, where he arranged for Nimel to rest and asked the staff to bring a mechanic, a doctor, and the Water of Blessing.
• Caroso met Richard Salazar, showed him New Moon Gold and other dungeon spoils, and said he had personally entered the dungeon for Alita’s sake.
• Caroso recounted Richard’s failed businesses, debts, and estrangement from Alita, then accused him of adventuring to gain her support.
• Richard denied that he meant to use Alita and admitted that he owed her, while questioning whether Caroso judged everything in terms of gains and losses.

Richard told Caroso how his decisions had hurt Alita and her mother, while Caroso argued that joining Azure Wolf Province could give Alita security and a future as an S-class card maker. The chapter ended with Caroso accusing Richard of making choices for others without considering their wishes.

• Richard explained that he had left Alita because he could not afford to raise her, then admitted he had failed to give her and his ex-wife the love and support they deserved.
• Richard recounted entering a dungeon to send Alita gifts, losing his leg, and watching her spend two years repaying his debts.
• Caroso told Richard that Alita would serve Azure Wolf Province as an S-class card maker and promised to protect her and help heal Richard's leg.
• Richard objected that Alita would lose her freedom, and Caroso challenged him to consider what future she wanted and how she could protect herself.
• Caroso told Richard that he had always made decisions based on what he thought was right without caring about how others felt.

Bai challenged Caroso to look beyond gains and losses in how he cared for Nimel, and he admitted he would protect and cherish her even without her talent. Nimel listened secretly from bed as Caroso wondered whether his feelings for her could become a weakness.

• Caroso arranged for the doctors to repair his leg with the New Moon Gold and explained to Bai why he had spoken frankly to Alita's father.
• Bai told Caroso that human relationships could not be understood purely through profit and loss, then asked how he would treat Nimel if she lost her power.
• Nimel woke and secretly listened as Caroso said he would support her if she became crippled because of him.
• Bai asked whether Caroso had feelings for Nimel, and he hesitantly said he would protect, cherish, and care for her even if she had no talent.
• Caroso asked whether Nimel could become his weakness, and Bai said that caring for someone could give him a reason to grow stronger.

Caroso tried to understand what he wanted from life, then returned to Nimel and reassured her after her desperate intervention in the battle. Nimel revealed her S++ rewards, while Teresa complained about the contents of her own reward pile.

• Bai told Caroso he lacked a personal anchor and promised to help him discover what would make him happy.
• Caroso asked his manager to investigate the black-robed elven singer and wondered why the comments found her familiar.
• Caroso returned to Nimel, brushed a kiss against her forehead, and told her she had earned the right to stand by his side.
• Nimel revealed her S++ rewards, including New Moon Gold and a fifth-tier legendary magic robe, which Caroso admired.
• Teresa opened her S++ rewards at the embassy, complained about the random items, and said she liked the sword carried by the priest.

Caroso brought Alita back into his circle after restoring Richard’s leg, and Alita reconciled with her father before agreeing to work as a card-making consultant for the Kolia family. As she learned that Caroso could deploy a division but could not yet fund it, she realized his ambitions required far more money and talent than she had expected.

• Caroso questioned Nimel about her fainting spell, then took her and Richard back to the school and went to Alita’s laboratory.
• Alita greeted Caroso outside the laboratory and agreed to work with him after he helped fulfill her wish and restored Richard’s leg.
• Alita urged Richard to stop taking risks, and Richard chose to work at the Adventurers’ Guild where his late wife had worked.
• Caroso offered Alita a consulting role with the Kolia family, and she accepted while continuing her school and Alchemy Alliance work.
• Caroso told Alita he could mobilize a division but could not yet afford its yearly operating costs, leaving her stunned by the scale of his needs.

Caroso recruited Professor Alita as a card-making instructor, and Grand Duke Osiris agreed to her contract and arranged protection for her and Caroso. Caroso returned to class, where Rayne revealed that Alita would begin teaching, and she considered cultivating a relationship with the new S++ instructor.

• Professor Alita agreed to teach at the academy while making clear that she would serve Caroso, not the entire Kolia family.
• Caroso sent a telegram to Grand Duke Osiris, who approved Alita’s conditions and ordered an investigation and protection for her and Caroso.
• Caroso recorded a limited account of what had happened in the dungeon and then returned to class.
• Elena asked Caroso about his time with Princess Teresa, and he said they had gotten along well.
• Rayne told Caroso that Professor Alita would teach regular fifth-year classes, then considered winning her support for the royal family.

Blank explained the Card Master Festival's stall rules and locations, and Elena urged Caroso to sell cards with her at the academy. After learning that the Royal Capital offered important events and a chance to meet Russell Heckmedia, Caroso decided to set up his stall there and research opening a card shop.

• Blank told the class that card makers could sell their own cards tax-free at designated festival stalls and showed them where stalls could be set up.
• Blank explained that students could work with experienced card-maker assistants and answered Elena's question about stall locations.
• Elena invited Caroso to set up a stall with her at the academy, while viewer comments urged him to go to the Royal Capital for special events involving Alita, Blank, and Russell Heckmedia.
• Caroso recognized Russell Heckmedia as the arms merchant his father had wanted to approach.
• Caroso declined Elena's invitation and said he would sell cards in the Royal Capital, research the market, and eventually open a card shop there.