Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi and Dawn discovered parasitic mushrooms controlling corpses in a sealed cave, and the fungi began growing on Dawn after she fought their host. Tang Qi used his lute to calm the mushrooms, and they seemed to ask Dawn a question.

• Tang Qi decided the mushrooms might belong to the homeowner and urged Dawn and Kuru to leave the cave.
• Dawn revealed that she could not control her body, then attacked Tang Qi under the mushrooms' influence.
• Tang Qi and Kuru restrained Dawn and spotted mushrooms growing beneath her neck, identifying them as fungi controlling corpses.
• Tang Qi proposed that Dawn communicate with the mushrooms, and she tried to reach them through their shared senses and souls.
• Tang Qi played his lute in time with the mushrooms' sorrowful murmurs, calming them until the cave glowed with their light.
• Dawn sensed that the mushrooms were asking her something.

Tang Qi communicated with the mushroom colony through Dawn and learned that its nightly wailing expressed sadness the mushrooms could not control. He persuaded them to try expressing their emotions through music, then asked about the person who had brought them to the house.

• Tang Qi learned that Dawn connected the mushrooms in a shared collective consciousness and relayed their thoughts.
• The mushrooms explained that someone had brought them to the cave and cultivated them, and that they could not stop their nightly wailing because late night made them sad.
• Tang Qi discovered that the mushrooms had joined in when he played a sorrowful tune, and proposed teaching them music so they could express their emotions differently.
• The mushrooms agreed to try learning music, and Tang Qi asked them about the house's owner.

Tang Qi questioned the spores living in the mushrooms, learned that they had fled an underground danger, and discovered that music helped ease their loneliness. The spores asked to remain in his companion’s body so they could keep talking with him, and Tang Qi agreed to teach them a cheerful song.

• Tang Qi learned that the mushrooms were houses for airborne spores, which had been brought to the dungeon and separated from their elders.
• The spores told Tang Qi that they had migrated from underground after sensing an unknown danger, and he added their migration to a list of mysteries alongside the Kobolds’ and Beastfolk’s movements.
• Tang Qi asked the spores to return control of his companion’s body, and they asked to leave one spore inside so they could keep talking with him.
• The spores explained that they had lost their elders’ ability to share happiness and that Tang Qi’s music had given them something to look forward to.
• Tang Qi reassured the spores that he had not rejected them and began playing a cheerful chord progression to teach them how to be happy.

Chuck comforted Mrs. Green about her suspicions, then told Wendy about Tang Qi, who had returned from investigating the mansion with a knight and Kuru. Wendy recognized Tang Qi’s skull-covered spellbook as the tome wielded by the necromancer who attacked her party.

• Chuck assured Mrs. Green that Ironhammer had not cheated on her, then admitted to himself that he had lied to preserve their marriage.
• Wendy told Chuck how a skeleton hunter had lured her adventuring party into a trap, killed the others, and forced her to flee through the Twilight Forest.
• Chuck told Wendy that the city’s martial law would end after the Spear Tax was collected and that Tang Qi had led three hundred refugees out of the forest.
• Chuck introduced Wendy to the exhausted Tang Qi, who returned from the southwestern mansion with a knight and Kuru after teaching mushrooms to sing.
• Kuru begged Tang Qi for books, and Wendy recognized the black spellbook with an ivory-white skull as the book she had seen in the necromancer’s hands.

Wendy learned that Tang Qi had killed the powerful Necromancer in Twilight Forest and tried to join his party, but he declined and said he planned to write a book about his adventures. Back in his room with Dawn, Tang Qi told her to remove all her armor and lie down, leaving her confused and shy.

• Wendy recalled how her first adventure with the Daughter of Wealth party had gone wrong in Twilight Forest and how surviving there taught her the Necromancer's power.
• Wendy asked Tang Qi how he had obtained the spellbook, and he explained that he had killed the Necromancer who demanded his head.
• Wendy asked to join Tang Qi's party or pay for the story of what happened, but Tang Qi declined and said she could read his book after Martial Law was lifted.
• Tang Qi told Dawn he planned to fictionalize their adventures for a novel, including an exaggerated hook about her body.
• Tang Qi brought Dawn to his room and ordered her to remove all her armor and lie on the bed, and she agreed but said he would have to help her.

Tang Qi removed Dawn’s armor and pulled the remaining mushrooms from her body, but their awkward encounter was interrupted by Catherine. After Catherine caught Dawn’s excuse about taking a bath, she shut Dawn outside and ordered Tang Qi to take a bath with her.

• Tang Qi removed Dawn’s armor and explained that he needed to pull the parasitic mushrooms from her body.
• As Tang Qi treated Dawn, she told him about rescuing women from a Beastfolk camp and hoped her story would earn leniency when he wrote about her.
• Catherine brought breakfast to Tang Qi’s door, and he hid Dawn under a blanket while claiming he was exhausted and ready to sleep.
• Tang Qi helped Dawn put her armor back on, but Catherine was still waiting outside; Dawn nervously claimed she had gone to take a bath.
• Catherine entered the room, locked the door after shutting Dawn outside, pushed Tang Qi onto the bed, and told him to take a bath.

Geya was kept awake by the Founding Day parade and decided to seek quiet at Moonlight Lake, where she hoped to learn about Tang Qi Weinberg’s past. She learned Bruto had withdrawn from the assistant instructor competition, while Tang Qi received three puzzling rewards.

• Geya complained about the noise from the Founding Day parade and recalled the spectacular Royal Theater performance she had helped create.
• Geya left the academy for Moonlight Lake, hoping to rest and find out more about Tang Qi Weinberg.
• Poets told Geya that Bruto had publicly withdrawn from the assistant instructor competition and had been gathering an unusual group of poets.
• Geya felt relieved that Bruto was no longer competing and wondered how to reward herself.
• Tang Qi received Resting Melody, Spore Replicator, and Specialty: Superb Energy, then wondered what kind of rewards they were.

Tang Qi examined his three rewards, testing a spore-powered clone that could help with writing while recovering from an exhausting day. As he ate a meal brought by Dawn, Chuck announced that an urgent visitor had arrived.

• Tang Qi received Resting Melody for helping lead refugees and examined the Spore Replicator, which created a temporary clone linked to his thoughts.
• Tang Qi tested the clone and found it could follow simple commands and write using his knowledge, then fed it mushrooms to restore its charge.
• Tang Qi received Superb Energy and called for Dawn to bring him dinner because he was too exhausted and hungry to get out of bed.
• Dawn delivered Chuck's Chicken Stewed Pie and recited its recipe, completing Tang Qi's challenge to repeat it without missing a word.
• Chuck called from outside and told Tang Qi that an urgent visitor had come to see him.

Tang Qi confronted Lord Mel, who tried to pay him to portray Melard as the hero of their journey. Tang Qi refused, and Mel’s armed guards began closing in as the conversation turned threatening.

• Tang Qi made Lord Mel come upstairs and mocked his manners, forcing Mel to suppress his anger and keep up a noble bearing.
• Mel offered Tang Qi two hundred gold coins, including an earlier debt, then proposed promoting Tang Qi’s book if Melard became its protagonist.
• Tang Qi rejected the deal because he wanted to build his own fame and refused to hand the book’s benefits to the Barry family.
• Mel warned Tang Qi to reconsider, while his guards quietly approached and took hold of their weapons.
• Tang Qi asked Lord Mel whether he was threatening him.

Mel tried to intimidate Tang Qi, but Dawn defeated his mercenaries and forced him to pay compensation and promise wine. Mel left vowing to block Tang Qi’s biography through the publishing houses, while Melard began standing up to his father.

• Mel ordered his guards to attack Tang Qi, but Dawn knocked down all six mercenaries in minutes.
• Mel offered Tang Qi 300 gold coins and, after Tang Qi demanded more, gave him an IOU for twenty barrels of Star Plum Wine and a bracelet for the inn damage.
• Mel tried to hire Dawn away from Tang Qi, but she refused, and Tang Qi rebuked Mel before he returned to Dragon Gold City with Melard.
• Mel promised Melard he would promote their account of the journey, but Melard urged him to stop opposing Tang Qi and called him a wild boar.
• Mel whipped Melard in the carriage, then decided not to publish his son's story and instead planned to pay off every publishing house to block Tang Qi's biography.

Tang Qi arranged for Chuck to retrieve Star Plum Wine and promote the Golden Oak, then planned a series of adventure guides to build his fame. Catherine returned with news about the seaside shop, leaving Tang Qi poised to hear what she had to share.

• Tang Qi gave Mel's jeweled bracelet to Chuck, who put it around Lysa's neck, and Chuck explained his plans to bet on the cheese competition.
• Tang Qi asked Chuck to retrieve ten barrels of Star Plum Wine and help advertise the Golden Oak, and Chuck said he had recommended someone else for the advertising.
• Tang Qi and Dawn threw the unconscious mercenaries out of the inn, and the mercenaries left after regaining consciousness.
• Tang Qi planned to write adventure guides based on his travels and decided to publish the Twilight Forest material before exploring a dungeon.
• Catherine arrived with Anbi, Father Lynn, and Old David after arranging a shop rental, and she told Tang Qi she had good news about the shop.

Catherine discovered that the soil beside the Golden Oak might support Star Plums, giving her a chance to build an orchard and challenge Lord Mel’s wine business. Tang Qi offered to take the blame for her plans, and Gravel arrived with Black Snake’s fortune to help fund them.

• Catherine told Tang Qi that Holtz had found unusually fertile soil beside the Golden Oak that might grow Star Plums.
• Catherine resolved to plant Star Plums despite the risk of angering Lord Mel, and Tang Qi confirmed that the soil’s spores could explain its adaptability.
• Tang Qi revealed that Lord Mel already held a grudge against him after Tang Qi insulted him, fought his mercenaries, and took money and ten barrels of wine.
• Catherine explained that the orchard still lacked funding, and Gravel arrived with a chest full of wealth saved by Black Snake.
• Gravel said Black Snake had ordered him to give the fortune to Catherine if anything happened to him.

Tang Qi and Gravel shared black beer and discussed Tang Qi’s guide, Gravel’s possible future with the party, and his drive to keep adventuring. Gravel revealed that he had stayed with Black Snake because he owed him a favor, and Tang Qi asked whether it was connected to the [Great Desert].

• Gravel treated Tang Qi and Kuru to [Underflow Black Beer] and praised Tang Qi’s plan to write The Twilight Forest Guide.
• Tang Qi asked whether Gravel would leave their group, and Gravel explained that he had only been a traveling companion while escorting Catherine to Dragon Gold City.
• Gravel said he might consider joining Tang Qi’s party if he had not found another one by the time the guide was finished.
• Gravel explained that recent changes in the dungeon beneath Dragon Gold City had stirred his urge to explore, though he did not want to return to Ironforge.
• Tang Qi asked why Gravel had stayed with Black Snake in Star Plum Town, and Gravel said he had owed Black Snake a favor.
• Tang Qi asked whether Gravel’s favor to Black Snake had involved the [Great Desert].

Tang Qi pressed Gravel to explain what happened when the Minions of the Ebony Forest entered the Great Desert, and learned that the team had fled after seeing another adventurer die. Gravel and Tang Qi shared drinks and acknowledged their resolve to keep adventuring before Gravel left Dragon Tail Pass, while Tang Qi woke the next morning to news that the publicity expert had arrived.

• Tang Qi persuaded Gravel to tell him about the Minions of the Ebony Forest's expedition into the Great Desert.
• Gravel revealed that nine teams had died searching the ruins, while his team had fled after someone died on the third day; they had found no treasure and suffered lasting injuries and illness.
• Gravel explained that Black Snake had disbanded the team because its members were deteriorating, and warned Tang Qi not to enter the Great Desert without greater strength.
• Tang Qi insisted that he would explore the Great Desert once he was stronger, and he and Gravel toasted to their shared determination to keep adventuring.
• Tang Qi woke the next morning to find Gravel gone and heard that the publicity expert had arrived.

Tang Qi learned that newsboys could promote the Golden Oak tavern and spoke with Jasmine about advertising its cheap Star Plum Wine. Jasmine recognized the tavern’s connection to Star Plum Town and asked whether Tang Qi had seen her brother.

• Chuck gave Tang Qi mint leaves to sober him up after he drank fifty liters of beer.
• Chuck explained that newsboys shared information across Dragon Gold City and could advertise the tavern.
• Tang Qi met Jasmine, bought a newspaper, and asked whether she would promote the tavern.
• Jasmine warned that Dragon Tail Pass had many competing taverns, but Tang Qi described the haunted house and the tavern’s inexpensive Star Plum Wine.
• Jasmine learned Tang Qi had come from Star Plum Town and asked whether he had seen her brother.

Tang Qi stopped Dawn from telling Jasmine that her brother had become a living corpse and died because of Dawn’s actions, asking her to wait until the tavern’s advertising was done. As Tang Qi read the newspaper, rumors about Star Plum Town’s ruins and the Dragon Egg Kuru had worshipped made him wonder whether the council might target him next.

• Jasmine described her missing brother, and Tang Qi realized he had seen him as a zombie at the camp.
• Dawn insisted on confessing her responsibility for the brother’s death and making amends, but Tang Qi persuaded her to wait until after the tavern opened.
• Dawn thanked Tang Qi for respecting her wishes, and he reminded her she was his teammate, not his subordinate.
• Catherine got up to discuss advertising with Jasmine while Tang Qi read the newspaper’s reports about Melard, land ownership, dungeon mushrooms, and Beastfolk rumors.
• Tang Qi read that Star Plum Town’s ancient ruins might be the real reason behind the council’s public-ownership policy, then wondered whether he would be targeted next.

On the Golden Oak’s opening day, Jasmine’s song drew customers away from Copperbeard’s Sewer, while a newspaper story prompted Copperbeard to urge Gravel to seek a paid expedition to find a dragon’s hoard. The chapter ended with Tang Qi watching Yiwu struggle to learn Breath in the Mushroom Cellar.

• Jasmine promoted the Golden Oak by singing its jingle through the Deep Well District, and Copperbeard complained that she was taking his customers.
• Copperbeard bought Jasmine’s newspaper and read about a dungeon chamber containing part of a Giant Dragon’s treasure and a reward for locating it.
• Copperbeard found Gravel drunk in the Sewer and told him about the newspaper’s 500-gold-coin reward for confirming the hoard’s location.
• Gravel objected to joining another inexperienced party until Copperbeard told him Wendy was hiring veteran adventurers for twenty gold a day, so Gravel decided to apply.
• Tang Qi watched Yiwu attempt to vomit and wondered whether Breath was difficult to master.

Tang Qi helped Yiwu unleash its first powerful Breath by feeding it an enormous cake, then hid the sleeping dragon and returned to the newly expanded Golden Oak tavern. The tavern prospered on opening day, but a customer’s sudden outburst interrupted Tang Qi’s meal.

• Tang Qi used overeating to help Yiwu gather and release the energy in its upper stomach, and Yiwu blasted a crater into the cavern wall before falling asleep.
• Tang Qi soothed the complaining mushrooms, hid Yiwu in his room, and returned to the crowded Golden Oak.
• Catherine turned away a customer who demanded Star Plum Wine, then persuaded him to order a signature Black Snake cocktail and add his name to the tavern’s board.
• Tang Qi praised Catherine’s idea and said he would try again to find a publisher for his book in Dragon Gold City.
• Tang Qi began eating pork chops and rice in the kitchen, but a commotion from the bar interrupted him.

Catherine defended her tavern from a drunk adventurer who tried to force himself on her, while Tang Qi watched to see how she would handle the trouble. After she stabbed and knocked the man unconscious, his companions crowded around her, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• The Worm offered Catherine increasing sums of gold to sleep with him, and Tang Qi held Anbi back so Catherine could respond on her own.
• When the Worm grabbed for Catherine, she stabbed his palm to the bar with a knife hidden in her boot.
• The Worm tried to rush behind the bar, but Tang Qi made his wrist twist and sent him crashing to the floor; Catherine then knocked him unconscious with a bottle.
• Catherine apologized to the customers and offered each table a glass of Star Plum Wine, then asked the Worm's companions to carry him out.
• The Worm's companions crowded toward Catherine and accused her of mistreating their friend.

Catherine refused to pay the Red Scarf Gang after its members threatened her tavern. Tang Qi intervened as the gang tried to leave, using a magical curved blade to attack them.

• The Red Scarf Gang demanded one hundred gold from Catherine and threatened her tavern and helpers when she refused.
• Catherine rejected the gang's demand and told its members they would receive no gold.
• As the gang left, Tang Qi approached them with a friendly song and pretended to be an old friend of the man carrying the Meat Worm.
• Tang Qi used the gang member's confusion to cut his throat, then struck another loach with his Snake Kiss.
• A loach's sword broke against Tang Qi's magical blade as the mushrooms' music turned fierce.