Chapter 10

Carl leads a dangerous assault on the city of Zockau by setting explosive traps and marking a drunk hunter named Chin'Dua with the Ring of Divine Suffering to draw out the city's mayor. The operation causes massive destruction but goes sideways when invisible hunters attack them, forcing Carl and Donut to flee the city into the jungle with poisoned crossbow bolts embedded in their bodies.

Carl, Donut, and Bomo arrive invisible in Zockau, a city controlled by bear-headed humanoids where three hunters are already present. Carl plants remote-detonated explosive barrels throughout the street between multiple pubs leading to the Desperado Club. When a flying hunter named Xindy detects them via spell, Carl marks the drunk draconian hunter Chin'Dua with the Ring of Divine Suffering, infecting himself with the debuff "Left to Fester" that won't lift until Chin'Dua dies. He simultaneously uses Super Spreader to mark Xindy with the same debuff. Carl's rockets kill Xindy, then he kills Chin'Dua, whose death triggers all the barrels to explode, destroying much of the city block. Carl, Donut, and Bomo take shelter in the Scuttlebutt saferoom where Mordecai and the Sledge help protect them. They re-emerge into chaos and escape town with invisibility potions, but trigger alarm traps that alert nearby invisible hunters. A level-70 hunter (revealed to be the city's mayor/Grand) shoots Carl with poisoned crossbow bolts with barbed, umbrella-like tips that cause severe bleeding and cannot be healed away normally. Carl and Donut collapse just beyond the city border entering the jungle (the Selva), where blue-dotted crawlers emerge from the woods. A woman's voice offers to help Carl, mentioning multiple debuffs and instructing someone named Pony not to touch the bolts.