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World Dungeon · Floor 2
Floor 2
Floor Two continues the opening dungeon’s corridor-based training, now under live audience attention. A shorter-than-expected deadline and a growing population of corpse-eating grubs complicate Carl and Donut’s efforts to help Meadow Lark escape.[1]
Choose Book 1 or later above to read this section.
A shortened training floor
The floor lasts six days instead of the ten expected by the tutorial guides. The administrator says the low number of survivors justifies the minimum permitted schedule. Its countdown begins when Floor One collapses.
The layout still consists of corridors, safe rooms and boss territories. Carl finds a kobold kennel and fighting arena, along with an industrial-kitchen refuge containing a freezer and a Mana Toast dispenser. Guides remain available to advise crawlers before the coming race and class choices.
Live audience figures begin updating. The Meadow Lark rescue attracts viewers, and Carl and Donut are taken out for interviews between exploration and training.[2]
Choose Book 1 or later above to read this section.
Grubs, pupae and Vespas
With janitor mobs absent, corpses produce one to fifteen grubs each, up to five thousand per quadrant. Killing the larvae leaves more bodies for replacements. Burning corpses stops larvae leveling on them without preventing new ones from spawning.
The smallest grubs offer little experience and follow crawlers when no corpses remain. Larger forms and pupae gather near the route out. Once Brindled Vespas emerge, Carl uses his slingshot to bring them down so Donut can finish them with Magic Missile.
Production later halves the Vespa population, changes its spit damage and reduces newly spawned grubs’ chance of reaching pupation to fifty percent. The floor’s creatures are adjusted while crawlers are still dealing with them.[3]
Choose Book 1 or later above to read this section.
Safe rooms and enforced movement
The Rage Elemental cannot harm the party inside a safe room, but it waits outside and traps them there. Opening the door to provoke an attack makes the room’s defenses expel it, giving them a short escape window before it returns.
The administration announces that safe rooms and safe areas will close one hour before each floor collapses. A separate timer appears, and occupants will be ejected when it runs out.[4]
Choose Book 1 or later above to read this section.
Bosses, animals and pet rules
Kobold Riders use Danger Dingoes as mounts. Pet biscuits can make the frightened, injured animals in their kennel friendly, changing the coming fight. Its Neighborhood Boss is Ralph, a small but extremely fast Frenzied Gerbil, rather than the elaborately dressed kobold handling him.
The reward area offers a pet, but Mongo remains hostile after Donut chooses him. Hunting together and caring for him build trust. She must complete their bond before he can descend with her.
The guides explain possible races and classes before the floor ends. Carl and Donut use their remaining time to improve relevant skills, then make the actual choices after descending.[5]
Choose Book 1 or later above to read this section.
History
Book 1
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Meadow Lark’s moving refuge
While Carl and Donut train, Meadow Lark’s caregivers work on moving the residents toward Floor Three. Chris suggests joining wheelchair platforms into a train. Brandon designs it, and the group connects it with Pig Harnesses and Yog’s Special Chain.
The train travels well through the halls but is too wide to fit through safe-room entrances in one piece. Meanwhile, the growing grub population makes staying in the same place increasingly dangerous.[6]
The Rage Elemental
The administration threatens to send a Rage Elemental after any human-born crawler who deliberately uses the halls as a toilet. When the confused resident Jack begins to urinate, Yolanda shoots him to prevent it. His dying body still urinates against the wall. The level-ninety-three elemental appears, kills Randall and Yolanda, and drives the survivors into Big Shot Chicken.
Carl’s Protective Shell briefly holds the elemental back, but its Reverse Gravity spell reaches through. The creature regenerates faster than ordinary attacks can hurt it. Carl spots a weakness while reviewing footage of the fight: fire can injure and delay it long enough to help them escape.
Carl and Donut provoke the safe room into expelling the elemental, then use the brief opening to flee on their modified chopper. Near the stairs, Donut casts Puddle Jumper to carry them clear. The elemental falls down the stairwell and disappears under the rules governing mobs and descent, giving them no kill experience.[7]
The residents leave; the rules change
The caregivers replace their train with three large carts. Thirty-six residents survive to reach the stairs, and Imani follows the last of them down. Carl and Donut remain to train and attend an interview.
The administrators subsequently change the stairs so that non-sapient mobs disintegrate as soon as they enter, closing off Carl’s tactic. They also adjust the Vespas and grubs.[8]
Ralph and Mongo
Carl feeds pet biscuits to the kennel’s abused dingoes, winning their help against the kobolds. One swallows Ralph, but the gerbil kills it from inside. Carl stuns Ralph with his gauntlet and crushes him underfoot.
The boss’s defeat opens the pet reward room. Donut chooses a pink Mongoliensis, names him Mongo and spends the remaining days hunting with him. Saving him from a grub finally completes their bond. With six hours left, Carl, Donut and Mongo set off for the next floor.[9]
Choose Book 1 or later above to read this section.
Sources
References are to Matt Dinniman’s novels. Book links open our recap guides.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapter 31.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 31, 41, 47.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 37, 40, 44, 47.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 38–40.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 41, 44–47.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 31, 37.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 31, 38–40.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 41, 44.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Chapters 45–47.