Chapter Summaries

Tang Qi and his companions fought four giant spiders in the Deepwell dungeon, with Dawn, Kuru, and Hope helping defeat them. After Hope treated her wound, Tang Qi revealed he was a bard and the group prepared to collect the loot and continue onward.

• Tang Qi spotted four giant spiders weaving a web and ordered Dawn to smash a bottle of Blazing Fire Glue, burning through the silk.
• Tang Qi distracted the spiders with [Verbal Abuse] while Kuru slowed them with [Frozen Ray] and Dawn killed or incapacitated three.
• The last spider ambushed Hope, but she survived its bite and killed it with her bloodline ability, [Infernal Rebuke].
• Hope asked Tang Qi about his insults and music, and he explained that he was a bard who had left the Poet Academy.
• Tang Qi said he hoped to make his name remembered and told the group to gather the loot before setting off again.

Tang Qi’s party fought Dragonblood Goblins on the Second Floor while he recorded material for his dungeon guide, then reached the waterfall and camped before the Third Floor. Hope agreed to continue with them, but Dawn sensed that someone else was watching their camp.

• Kuru kept the Giant Spider’s fangs after Tang Qi told him he could have them, while Tang Qi explained that he was writing a beginner’s guide to the dungeon.
• Hope warned that the deeper floors held stronger dangers and that the Red Scarf Gang might ambush adventurers, but Tang Qi’s party was attacked by Dragonblood Goblins around a tunnel bend.
• Dawn fought through the Goblins, while Tang Qi recorded their traits and searched their finely made weapons for loot.
• Tang Qi’s party reached a waterfall pool at the boundary between the Second and Third Floors and camped nearby with other adventurers.
• Hope agreed to travel with Tang Qi to the Third Floor and went to ask nearby adventurers for Antidote, while Dawn warned Tang Qi that someone unseen was watching them.

Tang Qi used his Resting Melody to soothe the unconscious fairy Little Rascal and befriended the forest rangers. After learning they were searching the dungeon for a flail snail’s footprints, he eagerly asked them to mark the Giant Snail habitats they had found.

• Hope returned to camp without buying Antidote, and Little Beard approached Tang Qi to ask for help with his unconscious companion.
• Tang Qi learned that Little Beard’s party had escaped the Third Floor with help from the Silver Medal, and that a hag’s psychic attack had left Little Rascal unconscious.
• Tang Qi played Resting Melody for nearly half an hour, easing Little Rascal’s mental trauma and restoring the party’s energy.
• Little Beard introduced his companions and thanked Tang Qi with gold and an Ebony Forest cookbook, while Tang Qi shared his name and introduced Dawn, Kuru, and Hope.
• Little Beard explained that the forest rangers had come to find a flail snail’s footprints, and Tang Qi asked him to mark the Giant Snail habitats they had discovered.

Tang Qi shared a meal and a map with Little Beard’s party before setting out with Hope, Dawn, and Kuru to explore the Third Floor swamp. After they crossed the wetland, Withered Vine Monsters ambushed them, and Hope discovered that her dagger was missing.

• Tang Qi ate swamp dishes with Little Beard’s party, shared Star Plum Wine, and received Little Baldy’s map of the Third Floor.
• Tang Qi learned that Little Beard’s group planned to head toward the Fourth Floor, then chose to continue exploring with Hope, Dawn, and Kuru.
• Little Rascal realized he had stolen Hope’s dagger, which was tied with a red scarf, but Tang Qi’s group left before he could return it.
• Tang Qi’s group crossed the suspension bridge and entered the Third Floor wetland, following the river toward the swamp.
• Withered Vine Monsters disguised as water grass attacked Kuru and Hope, but Tang Qi and Dawn burned or destroyed them and freed their companions.
• Hope said she trusted Tang Qi’s group, then noticed that the dagger from her boot was missing.

Tang Qi’s party entered a changing swamp cave to collect Giant Snail shells, where he killed most of the snails with salt before discovering that three survivors were actually Green hags. The chapter ended with Tang Qi asking Dawn to face the hags, and Dawn warning that fighting them alone would be suicide.

• Tang Qi and Dawn continued through the swamp, with Dawn carrying Kuru while Tang Qi used a clone to scout ahead and tied the party together with hemp rope.
• The party found a cave where their map showed wetlands, and Kuru’s wands detected illusion magic throughout it despite the cave seeming real.
• Tang Qi’s clone found seven Giant Snails in the cave, and Tang Qi spread salt around them before waking them so they crawled across it and died.
• Three Giant Snails remained unharmed, revealed themselves as Green hags, and attacked Tang Qi’s clone, which dispersed into spores.
• Tang Qi asked Dawn to handle the three hags, and Dawn replied that fighting them alone would be more like marching to her death.

Tang Qi and his companions fought a Green Hag Gathering after the hags exposed their disguise and blasted Dawn with three Lightning Bolts. Dawn fell unable to fight, and after Tang Qi identified the badly wounded Anna, she vanished; another hag paralyzed him.

• Tang Qi recognized the three old women as Green Hags, and Dawn charged as the hags and Kuru began casting.
• The hags combined three Lightning Bolts against Dawn, who survived by striking them with [Supreme Holy Slash] but collapsed, unable to fight.
• Tang Qi taunted the hags while Hope and Yiwu attacked; Yiwu tore through Kana's disguise, and Tang Qi used the hags' reactions to identify Anna as the one already wounded.
• Tang Qi struck Anna with [Combat Skill · Snake Fang], revealing her recent injuries, but Anna turned invisible and escaped his blade.
• Another hag cast a spell on Tang Qi, leaving him paralyzed.

Tang Qi and his companions defeated the three hags after Kuru stole and crushed the Hag’s Eye, freeing Tang Qi from the stasis spell. As the exhausted team prepared to recover, Little Beard warned Tang Qi that their guide belonged to the Red Scarf Gang and was conspiring with the camp’s third adventuring party.

• Hope broke free of her stasis and blocked Tracy’s attack on Tang Qi, while Kuru used fog to help them evade the hag.
• Kuru stole Kana’s Hag’s Eye with his invisible Mage Hand and crushed it, inflicting psychic agony on all three hags and breaking their concentration.
• Tang Qi killed Anna and Tracy, then killed Kana after she revealed that a flail snail was on the fifth floor.
• Tang Qi healed Yiwu and Dawn, and told Dawn that the party had survived because they worked as a team.
• Little Beard sent a bat with a warning that Tang Qi’s guide was a Red Scarf Gang member working with the camp’s third adventuring party.

Tang Qi exposed Hope as an informant for the Red Scarf Gang and learned how the gang screened and robbed adventurers in Deepwell. He forced Hope to help him signal the gang after the party rested, while he tended to Dawn and prepared to investigate the gang.

• Hope admitted that she worked as an unofficial guide and supplied the Red Scarf Gang with information about potential targets.
• Hope explained that the gang had planned to rob Tang Qi's party on the suspension bridge, using a signal flare once they were exhausted.
• Tang Qi showed Hope portraits of the gang members, but she could not identify them because they concealed their faces and recognized one another by marked daggers.
• Tang Qi ordered Hope to follow through with the signal after the party rested, then moved the group out of the swamp and tied her up at their campsite.
• Tang Qi treated Dawn's injuries, learned she had used spores to keep the swamp's mushroom network from invading her body, and decided to investigate the Red Scarf Gang first.

Tang Qi and his companions were ambushed by the Red Scarf Gang on a suspension bridge, but Dawn killed their sorcerer and drove off the attackers. When the gang escaped by gliding into the Abyss, Tang Qi decided to pursue them with Kuru’s Feather Fall spell.

• Tang Qi and Dawn met the Red Scarf Gang on the bridge after Hope activated the signal flare, but the gang’s sorcerer trapped Tang Qi with Human Stasis Spell.
• Tang Qi used Silver Tongue on himself to help Dawn evade the spell, and she charged past the gang’s fighters and killed the sorcerer with Supreme Holy Slash.
• Tang Qi freed himself and defended against the gang members while Dawn fought Black Panther and his accomplices, revealing that she had no head beneath her helmet.
• Black Panther ordered a retreat, and the gang vanished into smoke before Hope spotted them gliding down into the Abyss with membranes hidden beneath their robes.
• Tang Qi ordered Kuru to cast Feather Fall and declared that they would jump after the gang.

Tang Qi and his companions pursued the Red Scarf Gang down a seemingly bottomless gorge, discovering the abyss was an illusion concealing a river and a cave. Dawn reached the cave first and defeated the gang members there, leaving one alive for questioning.

• Tang Qi stripped the dead sorcerer Nolan of his flying squirrel suit and belongings, then sent Dawn ahead in the suit while the party descended under Feather Fall.
• Tang Qi, Hope, and Kuru fell into the underground rapids, where Yiwu helped keep the panicking Kuru above water, and Tang Qi realized the abyss was an illusion.
• Dawn spotted a hidden cave landing and glided into it, where Black Panther and the injured Red Scarf Gang members prepared to attack her.
• Tang Qi anchored himself in the river, and Kuru used Earth Shaping to make footholds so the party could climb toward the cave.
• Tang Qi and the others reached the cave and found Dawn sitting atop the defeated gang, with one unconscious Ocelot People survivor left alive.

Tang Qi questioned Black Panther about Little Payton and learned that the Red Scarf Gang may have acted under a spell, while someone else had secretly supplied Tang Qi with stolen magic items. Using his Journal to verify his suspicions, he connected the events to Yiwu, the Dragon Egg, the Golden Country, and the Duchess, leaving him close to uncovering the truth.

• In a flashback, Little Payton told Black Panther and Nolan that he planned to get rich, quit the gang, and buy a flower shop for the woman he loved.
• Tang Qi questioned Black Panther, who recognized Little Payton's portrait but said Little Payton had been devoted to a courtesan named Ruth and had not known he was dead.
• Hope proposed that a spellcaster had used Suggestion Spell to make Little Payton provoke Tang Qi, possibly as part of an attempt to target him.
• Tang Qi wrote his theory in his Journal and confirmed that the Red Scarf Gang had been influenced by a spell and that someone had arranged for stolen magic items to reach him.
• Tang Qi connected the conflicting factions and their motives to Yiwu, then linked the Dragon Egg and Golden Country to the mechanical eye associated with the Duchess.

Tang Qi used a disguised Fair Contract to make Black Panther lead him and Hope into the Red Scarf Gang’s hidden base, hoping to investigate the [Duchess]’s connection to the magic items. Once inside, he discovered the gang was operating a vast underground fortress and supplying dangerous yaks to the dungeon’s Fourth Floor.

• Black Panther offered to guide Tang Qi to the gang’s records, and Hope produced a Fair Contract that Tang Qi and the others signed after Kuru disguised its true terms with [Illusionary Manuscript].
• Tang Qi freed Black Panther, and the group disguised themselves in the robbers’ flying squirrel suits before following him through the trapped tunnels to the gang’s entrance.
• Black Panther gave the password “Balance is eternal” and used Nolan’s short blade to get the group past the guards; Tang Qi avoided suspicion when the guard found Nolan unusually likable.
• Tang Qi saw that the Red Scarf Gang’s hideout was a reinforced fortress filled with masked members, then watched gang members drive a herd of crazed yaks through its corridors.
• Black Panther explained that the gang was taking the yaks to the Fourth Floor for adventurers to kill, leaving Tang Qi startled by the revelation.

Tang Qi learned that Deepwell’s dungeon was managed as a system by Dragon Gold City and the Red Scarf Gang, which planted treasure and manipulated adventurers to keep the city’s economy thriving. After finding a report linking Hope to the robbery of Xingchen, Tang Qi discovered she had vanished and attacked Black Panther when he tried to lead him into danger, then fled with Dawn as pursuers approached.

• Black Panther explained that the Red Scarf Gang collected stolen goods, replanted treasure, and used obstacles and monsters to control adventurers and keep Deepwell operating.
• Tang Qi concluded that the dungeon and Dragon Gold City formed a carefully managed economic cycle, with the Red Scarf Gang balancing its treasure and monsters.
• At the Archive, Tang Qi found a report stating that Little Payton’s gang had robbed Xingchen and paid Hope to guide them.
• Tang Qi realized Hope had disappeared and decided to return to the surface to investigate Xingchen through Starlight Mage Academy.
• Black Panther gave Tang Qi directions to the dungeon exits, but Tang Qi inferred that the gang was preparing an ambush and stabbed him.
• As pursuers approached, Tang Qi ordered Dawn to activate Swift Aura so they could escape.

Tang Qi, Dawn, Kuru, and Hope fled through the bunker while Red Scarf Gang members pursued them, eventually reaching a drainage channel that seemed to offer an escape route. As they prepared to leave, the Masked Lord appeared with the repaired Construct and sent it charging at them.

• A Red Scarf Gang spellcaster tried to stop Tang Qi’s group with grease, but Dawn carried Tang Qi and Kuru over it as they fled through the bunker.
• Tang Qi and Dawn fought off pursuing wanderers and damaged the Construct, but more gang members converged on them.
• Hope used [Traceless Powder] to hide the group, revealed that she had studied the bunker map, and led them to a locked escape passage.
• Hope blocked the pursuers with a Potent Force Field Bead, and Dawn helped turn the wheels that opened the drainage channel.
• A torrent of water knocked Hope away from the channel, and the Masked Lord appeared with the repaired Construct and ordered it to attack.

Tang Qi and his companions fought the Masked Lord and the Construct Guard while trying to escape through a flooded passage. Tang Qi discovered the Masked Lord was a doppelganger and used his last Poet's Inspiration to destroy three Magic Missiles, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Dawn dodged the Construct Guard's attacks while Tang Qi's insults disrupted it, and the Masked Lord cast Earth and Stone Eruption, injuring Tang Qi as Kuru froze the passage entrance.
• The Masked Lord used Control Water to break the ice and flood the room, forcing Tang Qi's group to abandon their escape plan and try to interrupt his concentration.
• Hope revealed her Magic Blast ability and knocked the Masked Lord back, but he maintained Control Water and trapped her in a crushing whirlpool.
• Tang Qi attacked the Masked Lord with Snake Kiss, but the target changed height and revealed himself as a doppelganger.
• The doppelganger fired three tracking Magic Missiles at Tang Qi, who used Guardian Sword Dance to destroy them and exhausted his last Poet's Inspiration.

Tang Qi and his companions escaped the Doppelganger and its Construct by fleeing through a pipe, with Hope revealing she had deliberately led them toward the fifth floor. As she guides the injured group toward a safe room on the way to the sixth floor, she asks Tang Qi whether he wants to pursue the Dragon Hoard.

• Tang Qi insulted the Doppelganger through several stolen forms until Hope used [Misty Step] and [Infernal Rebuke] to break its concentration and free the group.
• Tang Qi used a [Force Field Bead] to block the Doppelganger and Construct, letting the group escape into a pipe that Hope said led to the fifth floor, not the Third Floor.
• Hope admitted she had planned to take Tang Qi deeper underground, and the group slid through the pipe and landed in a crystal room.
• Tang Qi treated Kuru and Dawn while Hope explained that pursuers could follow them and led the group toward a safe room connecting the fifth and sixth floors.
• Hope told Tang Qi that a greater reward awaited them underground and asked whether he was interested in the Dragon Hoard.

Tang Qi questioned Hope about her motives, and she explained how her failed attempt to steal a Saint's Sword Sheath led her to the [Dragon Hoard]. The pair rested on the Fifth Floor cliff while Hope warned that the [Silver Medal] might reach the treasure first.

• Tang Qi and Hope chose to camp on a cliff near the [Dragon Hoard], while Dawn meditated and Kuru studied spells.
• Tang Qi asked Hope to explain her identity and goals, and she said she wanted the treasure before the Red Scarf Gang and its adventurers claimed it.
• Hope recounted how the [Collector] hired her to steal a [Saint's Sword Sheath] from [St. Andrew's Cathedral], but other adventurers launched the [Cathedral Raid] before she could take it.
• Hope traced the sheath's journey to Dragon Gold City and said she had joined Tang Qi's group because she could not explore the Deep Well Dungeon alone.
• Hope showed Tang Qi her map and explained that the [Silver Medal] might already be nearing the hoard, prompting him to ask why the Red Scarf Gang chose the recently formed group.

Tang Qi and Hope formed a wary alliance to reach the Dragon Hoard, agreeing that Hope could take one item while Tang Qi kept the rest. After resting, Tang Qi woke to Dawn’s warning about a flail snail and recognized it as an unexpected opportunity.

• Hope explained why the Red Scarf Gang was helping Wendy Silver Shield and urged Tang Qi to claim the hoard before another party arrived.
• Tang Qi and Hope signed a Fair Contract banning them from attacking or sabotaging each other and giving Hope first choice of one treasure item.
• Hope showed Tang Qi her Rune Pact pendant, and they discussed their magic and the party’s tactics.
• Tang Qi and Hope decided to rest before descending farther into the dungeon, with Dawn keeping watch.
• Dawn woke Tang Qi after spotting a colorful flail snail crawling through the cave, and Tang Qi recognized it as a windfall.

Tang Qi and his companions reached the Sixth Floor, a blinding crystal maze, and began marking a route through it while the Red Scarf Gang pursued them. Elsewhere, Wendy Silver Shield’s party found a map hidden inside a Crystal Golem.

• Tang Qi traded the gang members Dawn had killed to the spores for the Flail Snail’s anti-magic shell.
• Tang Qi woke Kuru and Hope, and the group descended to the Sixth Floor before their pursuers could catch up.
• Hope explained that the Sixth Floor was a maze she could not map from memory and proposed marking their route and checking each right-hand path.
• Tang Qi lent Hope the Slaver Pen, which had infinite ink, and the group set off to search the maze for the Dragon Hoard.
• Rumi wondered whether someone had been helping their party, but Gravel dismissed his suspicions.
• Wendy Silver Shield spotted parchment inside a Crystal Golem, and Gravel recognized it as a possible map.

Wendy’s party followed a detailed map through the Sixth Floor maze, found signs that another group had advanced ahead of them, and reached the Dragon Hoard’s sealed doors. Xingchen exposed Tang Qi’s ambush, and Wendy realized he had been waiting for her party to open the vault.

• Wendy, Gravel, Rumi, and the sleeping Xingchen followed the map toward the Dragon Hoard while Wendy wondered whether the dungeon’s challenges had been arranged for her.
• Rumi found the Red Scarf Gang’s corpses, and the party followed the other adventurers’ trail deeper into the Sixth Floor maze.
• The group found signs of powerful enemies, including skinned Displacement Beasts and ashes left by a [Disintegration Spell], but Wendy chose to continue.
• Wendy discovered that the stone slab from the beginning of their expedition fit the Dragon Hoard’s doors, while Gravel urged her to open them quickly.
• Xingchen cast [Fireball] at Tang Qi, who was hiding nearby, but a Flail Snail absorbed the spell and released a force-field surge.
• Tang Qi attacked Gravel with Dawn’s help, and Wendy recognized him and concluded that he had erased the trail and waited for her party because he lacked the vault key.