Carl, Donut, Mongo, and the injured Ricky Joe stay hidden on a rooftop until sunset after the temple fire and street fight. Mordecai angrily complains over chat that Carl and Donut have pulled guard aggro, which means they can no longer move safely through town during the day. While they wait, Carl questions Ricky Joe about the destroyed temple. Ricky Joe says the place always sounded and smelled strange, that someone cried for his mother every morning, and that a female skyfowl regularly visited just before dark and then left with groups of out-of-town women. That information strengthens Carl and Donut's suspicion that the temple was part of a larger operation.

After climbing down, Carl and Donut stop at the Silk Road to buy more explosives and upgraded smoke bombs, then return to the One-Eyed Narwhal. There they meet Katia Grim, the crawler Hekla wanted them to help. Katia looks uncanny because she is actually a doppelganger trying to sculpt herself into a human form, and Mordecai explains that the race is difficult, painful, and badly suited to a novice. He also explains that Katia's Monster Truck Driver class is essentially a Juggernaut tank build: she has enormous Constitution and good durability, but poor overall combat utility and a dangerously low level. Carl gives Katia a mirror shard so she can practice shaping her face, and despite his doubts, he and Donut agree to add her to the party at Hekla's request.

While they talk, the recap show announces a fake feud between Donut and Lucia Mar's dogs, using Donut's drunken insults to set up a future arena-style spectacle. Lucia Mar appears on-screen and openly threatens to kill Donut and Carl in the dungeon. Mordecai says the producers will likely try to force that matchup later, not yet, and uses the moment to explain a broader shift in the crawl: Borant is warning merchants not to antagonize crawlers, and the system AI appears to be compensating for shortened floors by giving crawlers stronger rewards and more elaborate quests. Because Carl and Donut have angered the town guards and still need to finish the magistrate investigation before sunrise, Mordecai sends them out again after a short rest while he stays behind to train Katia.

Late that night, Carl and Donut move through the sleeping town toward the magistrate's building. In the alley below, they fight Shadow Leaks, ghostlike monsters that are easy for Carl and Mongo to damage with magical attacks. The battle gives unusually high experience, and Mongo reaches level 13, growing from dog-sized to nearly pony-sized. Carl and Donut then climb a nearby building and prepare to jump across with Donut's Puddle Jumper. Carl remembers that he previously hid dynamite and a remote detonator inside hollow shelves in Miss Quill's office, directly above the area they want to breach.

Before triggering the blast, Carl uses a discovery Mordecai made earlier: the mysterious letter taken from GumGum was actually a used Suppurating Eye scroll, marked with the caster's blood and functioning as a spying device whenever it is out of Carl's inventory. Carl and Donut deliberately speak near the scroll as if they plan to jump to the magistrate's roof, break into the office, and loot valuables, hoping whoever is listening will react. Donut then creates two clockwork copies of Mongo, Carl throws smoke curtains to obscure the roofs, and one decoy Mongo swallows the spy scroll and leaps onto the magistrate's roof to sell the deception. As krasue move toward the decoy position, Carl and Donut stay low at a safer distance, and Carl detonates the hidden explosives, ending the chapter with a blinding blast over the magistrate's office.