Back at base, Carl opens two new benefactor boxes while Mordecai examines mushrooms Carl stole from the Town Hall basement. The mushrooms are identified only as Mairmei Mushroom alchemy material, and Mordecai is interested because he has never seen that strain before. Mordecai also comments that an anti-crawl group sending Carl a silver benefactor box is unusual, suggesting they are either wealthy or taking a serious risk on him.

Carl opens the bronze Valtay box first and receives another neural enhancer pill. Despite initial disappointment, he takes it and gains a permanent interface upgrade that can display his current speed and elevation. Carl experiments with the new settings until he figures out useful readings: he is roughly 92 kilometers below the planet’s surface level and about 8,932 meters above the Water Quadrant’s sea level, which emphasizes the enormous scale of the Necropolis of Anser. That realization strengthens Carl’s desire to support Gwen’s team below, because if the tomb team fails, Carl’s group may have to enter the deadly crypt themselves.

Carl then opens the silver box from the mysterious anti-crawl sponsor and finds only a rare toraline root vegetable. Its system description mocks the item as disgusting and nearly useless, but Mordecai recognizes it as a rare alchemy ingredient used in some specialty healing salves and possibly other recipes. Carl gives Mordecai both the root and the mushrooms to research further, while also planning to check his own cookbook for possible uses.

After the storm passes, Hump Town survives but shifts into a siege mentality. Guards question everyone about gnomes and grulke toads, and Carl estimates the gnomes will soon confirm the hostage collateral is dead and begin bombing within hours. Using Mordecai’s help and his upgraded sapper’s table, Carl prepares four modified missiles that might be able to reach a high-flying target, hoping to test them in a way that could also benefit Gwen’s team below.

Katia and Donut return from the Desperado Club, with Donut cheerfully focused on prizes and another sponsor box while Carl stays fixed on the coming crisis. Katia reports on her meeting with the subterranean crawler team: they now have maps, but they are overwhelmed, trap-ridden, and too dependent on a single trap detector named Bobby. Carl and Katia worry the tomb raiders are stalling in hopes that Carl’s team will eventually help them clear their quadrant, so Katia lies that the Air Quadrant probably will not be finished soon in order to push them forward.

While they wait outside, Katia spots the approaching target on her map. Carl explains what Juice Box told him: the creature is Ruckus, a giant steampunk cyborg buzz-ard that roosts nearby each night after storms and is feared enough that even camel patrols avoid it. Despite Katia’s alarm, Carl intends to stay at a distance and use Ruckus as the perfect test for his new missiles, setting up the next move before the gnome bombing begins.