Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 Summary

The Butcher’s Masquerade Summary

Book 5 · By Matt Dinniman · Read · Watch

The sixth floor is the Hunting Grounds, and wealthy outsiders have paid for the chance to hunt the surviving crawlers. Carl and Donut enter with powerful enemies, a growing circle of allies, and little interest in becoming anyone’s easy kill. Even before the hunt gets underway, the organizers are pressing Carl to surrender the Gate of the Feral Gods.

An earlier bargain also ties the pair to the Butcher’s Masquerade, another production in which the dungeon expects them to perform. Between the hunters and the demands of the show, Carl and Donut need to prepare for threats that cannot all be solved the same way. The book brings the series’ dark comedy into a more personal contest with people who regard the crawlers’ suffering as a privilege they can buy.

Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 Video Summary

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Chapter 1

The sixth floor begins with seventeen days until collapse and only thirty hours before the hunters are released from Zockau. Carl and Katia are diverted into a meeting with Orren, who demands the Gate of the Feral Gods after the destruction it caused on the previous floor. The AI’s rules prevent the organizers from simply taking it away permanently, so Orren offers to return it when they reach Floor Nine. His alternatives would endanger the other crawlers by closing the floor or disabling essential equipment and abilities. Carl demands a lawyer before agreeing.

After the meeting, Carl reaches the class-selection area and discovers the others have already made their choices. Katia keeps Monster Truck Driver with a Hazmat endorsement. Donut becomes a Legendary Diva, gaining a bard’s song-based abilities while retaining important spells from Glass Cannon.

The Hunting Grounds occupy an overgrown version of the third floor’s broad layout. The hunters now start at level 50 instead of the level 30 Mordecai expected, and more can still register. Carl chooses Agent Provocateur over Mordecai’s preferred Guerrilla specialization because it will improve his Intelligence and give him access to an advanced bomb-making workshop.

Chapter 2

Carl emerges into the humid Selva beside a dryad settlement guarded by two enormous mushroom creatures. Before he can take shelter, invisible attackers paralyze both guards. His Protective Shell and a cloud of flour help expose one of the creatures, but it gets through his defenses and paralyzes him too.

The attacker is a Night Weasel Scout belonging to a hunter. These scouts immobilize prey before the rest of their hunting pack arrives. Donut and Mongo attack it, and Chris finishes it off before carrying the helpless Carl into the safe room. Katia handles another threat while Donut reanimates the dead scout and creates Clockwork copies to cover their escape. The guards recover and drive off the remaining visible weasels, but the attack proves that hunter pets are already a danger before the formal release.

Inside, Mordecai’s new body gives the exhausted group a moment of laughter. He is now a tiny Pocket Kuma who struggles with something as ordinary as opening the door. He is still their manager, and he warns Carl that the hunt has already begun for him. A knock interrupts them. Carl recognizes the delivery as the collateral he negotiated for the Gate.

Chapter 3

The story returns to Carl’s meeting with Orren. His demand for a lawyer brings Quasar, an abrasive advocate paid by the system. Quasar warns that refusing every compromise could get Carl removed and advises him to bargain for something the organizers would hate to lose. Carl asks for valuable collateral instead of money.

Back in the safe room, that collateral arrives as their former Club Vanquisher bodyguards: Bomo, the Sledge, Clay-ton, and Very Sullen. They are now contract mercenaries who can accompany the crawlers on this floor and regenerate if killed. Bomo remains with Carl, the Sledge with Donut, and the other two with Chris and Katia.

The arrangement also supplies two different travel abilities. Bomo can teleport the group to a stairwell of their choice, but its twenty-five-day cooldown makes it effectively a single use on a floor lasting seventeen days. The Sledge receives Zerzura, a spell Quasar describes as a way to provoke violence without yet explaining its full effect.

Katia has risen from level 44 to 52 as delayed experience from the Larracos flood reaches her. She prepares to join their allies farther south, while Carl plans his new workshop and Donut practices her bard abilities.

Chapter 4

Katia and Chris leave by caravan with their bodyguards to join the southern gathering. Katia promises to visit through the shared room and asks Carl not to do anything foolish. He agrees, already knowing he does not intend to keep that promise. Donut and Mongo are upset to see the others go.

The party has expanded its personal space, including Carl’s Advanced Bomber’s Studio. Its simulator lets him test an explosive against virtual targets without consuming the real item. He tries Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, the tiny sample of unstable explosive liquid he has kept in inventory, but the simulated blast whites out the scene. The actual bomb remains unused.

Donut works on songs that can strengthen the party, create decoys, or heal them, but she cannot yet reliably use her offensive songs. Mordecai cannot find the Shield spellbook or the enchantment that would help her sing accurately. Carl also has her practice Laundry Day, a spell that removes a piece of an opponent’s armor.

Mordecai recommends a cautious gathering trip. Carl instead takes Donut, Mongo, and Bomo outside, has Donut put Mongo in the carrier, and orders Bomo to teleport them to the Zockau stairwell, inside the city where the hunters are waiting.

Chapter 5

The Cookbook warns crawlers away from the city sheltering the hunters, but Carl intends to attack them before they are released. Bomo teleports the group into Zockau, where traps surround the public stairwell. Donut uses Puddle Jumper to carry herself and Carl beyond the perimeter while they are invisible. Bomo secures the Scuttlebutt, a real safe room among the city’s imitation refuges, while Carl plants explosives near the clubs.

Carl equips the Ring of Divine Suffering and marks a drunken hunter named Chin’Dua. A marked kill will increase Carl’s attributes, but until that hunter dies, Carl cannot heal. He uses Super Spreader to copy that healing restriction onto Xindy, a mantis hunter nearby, then attacks her with guided rockets while Donut fires Magic Missiles. Xindy’s shield fails and she dies, but Carl still cannot heal until his marked target is dead. He strikes Chin’Dua and escapes with Donut into the Scuttlebutt as explosions hit outside.

They cross into their personal space, where Bomo and the Sledge cast five-minute Shield spells on them, then return to the city. The blasts have destroyed the local Desperado entrance and injured NPC bystanders. Carl cannot stop to help them. He and Donut run for the forest under smoke cover.

The escape goes badly. Traps strip away their invisibility, and a hidden attacker fires bolts that break Carl’s shield and leave him bleeding. Donut kills a summoned bird pursuing them, but Carl is badly hurt by the time they cross into the Selva, beyond the city guards’ reach. Familiar voices find him as he collapses.

Chapter 6

Carl wakes in a cart with Miriam, the talking goat Prepotente, and their winged goat Bianca. Miriam treats him while Prepotente scouts ahead. Ordinary healing has not stopped Blood Trail, a debuff that keeps the wounds from the hunters’ ranged attacks bleeding and leaves a path for pursuers. Miriam says the hunters have been countering her treatment. Donut stays close and soothes Carl while they carry him toward safety.

Carl is now level 54 and Donut level 41. The rewards confirm that Carl killed thirty-four hunters, but the attack also caused more than 250 non-mob deaths, including over 200 NPCs. The Ring of Divine Suffering has begun increasing his attributes through marked kills, accompanied by a warning about unadvertised side effects. Carl tries to distinguish the NPC casualties from the hunters he meant to kill, despite his earlier concern for the dungeon’s inhabitants.

Miriam has become a vampire while retaining her Shepherd class. Her partnership with Prepotente depends on stacking damaging debuffs on enemies while she keeps him alive. Bianca, once an ordinary goat, became a Hellspawn Familiar through a pet biscuit. Miriam also still carries eleven unaltered goats from their former herd.

When Prepotente warns of a complicated trap ahead, Carl dismisses the need for a detour and uses his kerchief’s Tripper ability to trigger the traps. The noise and explosions terrify Prepotente and nearly provoke Bianca. Insults turn the shortcut into an argument, and Miriam insists that Carl and Prepotente apologize to each other. They reconcile with an awkward hug and another scream from the goat.

Chapter 7

Miriam and Prepotente leave Carl and Donut near a bugbear settlement that has already been bombed and looted. The damage shows that hunters have already attacked other settlements. After exchanging contact details with their rescuers, Carl and Donut enter a safe room and reunite with their friends through the shared personal space.

Mordecai is furious that Carl concealed his plan. The attack killed only a fraction of the hunters and warned the survivors what to expect. Carl admits he should have told Mordecai, but he still wants to fight back. He asks for honest disagreement without losing his manager’s cooperation. Mordecai orders him to open his rewards, renew his buffs, and move farther from Zockau before the hunters are released. Carl’s insistence that he could have used much larger bombs does little to settle the argument.

Chapter 8

Carl attempts to rest, but even his quiet moments have become opportunities to write Cookbook entries or plan attacks. When he stops, he feels a rushing stream inside his head that seems to quiet only during violence. He does not yet know what causes it.

His rewards include an elbow sigil admitting him to the Guild of Suffering, a churchlike organization Mordecai associates with a demigod and the trade in magical souls. The thirty-four Hunter-Killer Boxes provide gold and severed body parts to exchange for prizes at the Butcher’s Masquerade. The trophies cannot simply be passed to a friend: changing their ownership sends them back to the dead hunter’s body. Another reward raises Carl’s Fear spell to level ten, allowing it to affect an area.

The broadcast exploits the survivors’ suffering for entertainment, attaching an earlier laugh to footage of Katia’s destruction of Larracos. Katia reacts sharply when Eva appears in the rankings. Meanwhile, Louis and Juice Box discuss their wedding, and Donut reveals that she considers the cat Ferdinand her husband.

New rules limit parties to thirty and reduce stored private chat to thirty lines, while the organizers retain the right to broadcast conversations. Ordinary guilds offer a costly way to reconnect separated parties through shared rooms and common facilities. No one buys a charter yet.

The top fifty crawlers will be invited to the Butcher’s Masquerade with a guest each, alongside hunters and celebrities. Donut immediately wants to prepare for its costume, pet, and talent competitions. Carl worries about both the danger and the time involved. The invitation has not guaranteed their safety.

Chapter 9

With only a few hours before the hunt begins, Carl combines a recovered map with information from the Cookbook and his allies. A long river divides the region. He asks the other crawlers to destroy every bridge but one, hoping to restrict the hunters’ movement. Carl and Donut head toward a large Ursine settlement across the river, where they can reach Club Vanquisher.

Carl has also prepared a much larger wheeled bomb, Just Wait Until Your Daddy Gets Home. He intends to send Bomo back to Zockau through the personal-space exit he last used. Bomo would die delivering it and regenerate on the next floor. Donut refuses to treat their friend as disposable merely because he can return later.

She proposes making Bomo her personal minion so Clockwork Triplicate can create a mechanical copy to carry the bomb instead. Carl agrees to try if they reach the next safe room in time, but keeps the original plan as a fallback. They have not tested whether the reassignment or the copy’s route through the doorway will work.

Chapter 10

Leaving Bomo with the bomb, Carl and Donut travel toward the Ursine settlement and plant traps for hunters along the way. On arrival, they discover a long list of prohibitions, including a dinosaur ban and restrictions targeting several other kinds of dungeon inhabitants. Donut objects to Mongo’s exclusion, and Mayor Elmer responds with insults.

Carl offers gold to lure Elmer toward the settlement boundary, then pushes him down the riverbank. He expects a confrontation, but the fall kills the mayor. A horned, blue-skinned naiad emerges from the river and takes the body. Donut then fires a Magic Missile through the town gate, and the pair flee into a safe room with the guards now ordered to attack them.

Before they can finish testing the Bomo-copy plan, a knife carrying a message lands through the doorway. Vrah, the hunter whose sister Carl killed, claims the hunters now have protection against explosions and that Zockau’s guards have been made to worship Emberus, Carl’s own god. Carl decides another blast would mainly kill NPCs and could punish him for attacking fellow worshippers. He cancels the mission, keeping both Bomo and the bomb. The announcement follows that the hunters have been released.

Chapter 11

Following Elmer’s death, Donut receives the settlement’s leadership charm and becomes mayor, renaming the town Point Mongo. The charm replaces her old butterfly charm while equipped, improves her attributes, and gives her Snitch, a spell that can summon guards within a settlement. As mayor, she can also command those guards. Mordecai helps remove Elmer’s discriminatory rules while Carl arms the town against hunters.

One of Carl’s traps kills a hunter near the bugbear settlement, earning another trophy and devices that will alert him when future traps are triggered or disabled. Mordecai warns him against taunting the dead hunter’s family. Katia reports that their allies are still discussing a guild and pooling the money and facilities it would require.

A local cleric complains about dinosaur attacks and activates a quest called The Recital. The town can solve it by killing the dinosaurs or discovering and meeting their demands. Before they learn more, Mongo bolts into the jungle with Donut on his back. Carl follows and finds Kiwi, a female raptor who leads a pack and is far stronger than Mongo.

An attempt to retreat leaves Carl and Donut briefly immobilized. Mongo mates with Kiwi, and Carl persuades Donut to leave without attacking her and provoking the entire pack. Mongo stays behind.

Chapter 12

Back in a safe room, Donut shakes and struggles to breathe. Mongo’s departure has brought back her terror during a car accident with Miss Beatrice and her fear that everyone will eventually leave her. Her remarks also make Carl wonder whether somebody has contacted her through her social-media board. Before he can find out, Zev interrupts with news that their Odette appearance has moved to later that day and will have extra security.

Carl promises they will survive the floor together, then realizes Donut is also worried about the Enchanted Crown of the Sepsis Whore. Wearing it made her a member of the Blood Sultanate’s royal succession. Removing it did not free her from the rule requiring the royals to kill the Sultana and one another before descending from the ninth floor. Carl remembers sitting in a car with his father after his mother’s death, afraid of what his father might do. He promises that he will never leave Donut. He has no solution to the crown’s rule yet.

Mongo returns exhausted, and Donut gathers him into his carrier. Kiwi’s pack eventually leaves the outskirts of town. Donut agrees to reinstate the dinosaur ban while they investigate the quest. Carl suspects Kiwi may be pregnant, but nothing confirms it. He notices a strange glint in the trees, then receives a Platinum Fan Box for deliberate double billing to viewers. He does not yet understand what the billing means or what prompted it.

Chapter 13

One of Point Mongo’s guards shoots down a levitating hunter. Donut spots him caught in a tree across the river, surrounded by elite NPCs. Carl recognizes the arrangement as an encounter being staged for Vengeance of the Daughter, the secondary program following Signet’s revenge.

A flashback reveals another part of Carl’s negotiation over the Gate. He asked Quasar to extend the program through Floor Nine, hoping its producer would then have a financial reason to keep him alive. Borant accepted terms requiring an additional payment from the production company, Sensation Entertainment, but Quasar had bluffed about Sensation’s agreement. Carl still has no confirmation when he approaches the encounter.

Signet arrives with an ogre named Areson and a group of armored survivors of a High Elf invasion. They have been destroying bridges and want Point Mongo to control the remaining route into Liana. A giant caterpillar holds the wounded hunter, Bravvo. Signet offers Carl the kill and challenges his willingness to take it. Carl puts on the Ring of Divine Suffering.

Chapter 14

Carl kills Bravvo, gains a Dexterity point from the ring, and collects the hunter’s supplies. Signet again calls him soft. He responds by going through the body’s possessions with practiced detachment.

The giant caterpillar is Nadine, formerly a Chee teacher called Miss Science Fair. Signet blames Imogen for the attack that transformed Nadine while High Elf cleansers burned those who could not escape. Nadine retained her mind in the caterpillar’s body. Six of her pupils also survived, in different forms that allow them to change into beavers. Their dependence on her gave her a reason to continue after the attack.

Signet explains that she wants the crown of her mother’s family, whose territory is now controlled by the Blood Sultanate. Her mother was killed after a revolution. Her father, Finian, no longer rules the High Elves; Signet’s half-sister Imogen has taken his place. Signet also identifies the naiad who took Elmer’s body as her aunt.

Grimaldi escaped the circus disaster in dwarf form and brought Signet with him. Areson is Apollon’s brother; he escaped Larracos with her, while Apollon was in the Over City. Many of Signet’s companions died, but she is assembling a new force. Carl cooperates with the program’s next staged campaign, still hoping its extension will give the producers a reason to protect him. He also considers how to defend himself if Signet betrays him again.

Chapter 15

Areson returns with a hunter he killed after being shot with a poisoned arrow. Carl takes the dangerous arrow and the hunter’s map. The arrow carries a severe magical poison that remains contagious. The map divides the Hunting Grounds among different factions and identifies their targets. The Hive and Skull Empire are pursuing Carl and Donut; other groups have marked Katia, Elle, Eva, Lucia Mar, Miriam, and Prepotente.

The Dream has named only Louis as its target. Carl suspects this is connected to the stolen photograph and Juice Box’s earlier impersonation of the Dream faction leader’s mother. He shares the map’s warnings with his allies. Whatever the hunters’ precise motives, the pursuit is more organized than scattered encounters suggest.

Quasar finally reports that Sensation has accepted the terms for extending Vengeance of the Daughter, although signing must wait several days and poor ratings could still end the arrangement. Separately, somebody has offered Carl 150 million credits to carry out his larger plan. Quasar is investigating the offer and has not accepted it on Carl’s behalf.

Signet’s quest orders an assault on Fort Freedom, her mother’s former palace, to kill the Blood Sultanate confederacy’s leaders. Surviving allies will become more willing to follow Carl’s orders if the attack succeeds, and the victory will open the second part of Signet’s campaign.

Chapter 16

Two of Signet’s allies, Clint and Holger, escort Carl and Donut back toward Point Mongo in time for Odette’s show. They are ordinary NPCs, but they remember people from Signet’s summoned battle squad as former neighbors and companions. Carl considers how much freedom the dungeon’s inhabitants have beneath the producers’ direction.

The escorts give conflicting accounts of the disasters that transformed their people. They associate the High Elves with stolen magic, poisoned crops, and foreknowledge of Scolopendra’s attack, but disagree about the chronology and whether Imogen could have been responsible when the original curse occurred. Carl recalls yet another version from the Cookbook. He cannot reconcile these stories into a reliable history.

Invisible night weasels interrupt the journey. Clint and Holger locate them by sound and endure their attacks while Mongo’s Earthquake exposes the creatures on the ground. Carl and Donut help finish them off. Holger offers to help Donut sing, and the escorts promise support in the coming assault.

Mordecai has strengthened Point Mongo’s bridge defenses by the time they return. Carl then receives his final sponsor: the Apothecary. Donut receives the same sponsor, and party chat reports that several other prominent crawlers have been approached. The Apothecary’s intentions remain unclear. Zev tells them to get ready for the interview.

Chapter 17

After hearing Donut mention Signet, Samantha insists that Carl introduce them. She claims a family connection and believes Signet could provide a body to replace her existence as a severed sex-doll head. Carl agrees to bring her along next time. He cannot promise the body she wants or verify her claim that Signet’s presence would protect them from Samantha’s mother.

Carl and Donut transfer to a new security checkpoint aboard a ship above Earth. The glass floor exposes the ocean far beneath them, and armed gnoll mercenaries subject them to scanners and a rough search before allowing them onward.

At Odette’s trailer, Zev and Odette both seem unusually tense. Odette says they have unexpected news that can safely be discussed there: Beatrice is alive. Carl and Donut learn for the first time that Carl’s former girlfriend and Donut’s former owner survived the collapse.

Chapter 18

Odette says she took Beatrice off Earth to stop bounty hunters selling her to Borant, which intended to turn her into a country boss and use her against Carl and Donut. Odette planned to keep the rescue secret until the crawl ended, but a security breach exposed it to another program. She describes protecting her investment while insisting that Carl does not understand all her motives. Zev adds that Beatrice gives Odette leverage over Borant and a form of insurance for the rest of the crawl. Odette asks whether Mordecai has told Carl what she did to him, leaving that part of their past unexplained.

Carl’s unopened Platinum Fan Box will send him to a fan event where a rival show intended to reveal Beatrice. Odette asks to arrange a remote reunion first. Carl objects, but Donut insists that the choice belongs to her and accepts. She thanks Odette for keeping Beatrice out of the dungeon.

Carl threatens Odette if the reunion hurts Donut, and Zev privately warns him against violence on air. Before they leave the trailer, he asks Zev about the family pictures she once promised to show him. The interview and reunion are still ahead.

Chapter 19

Beatrice appears remotely for a prerecorded interview, visibly traumatized and dressed for the sponsors. Odette presents a polished account in which Beatrice was forced to sell herself on a black market and Borant refused to take an unwilling participant. Beatrice remembers a raid, fighting, and eventually seeing Odette, but gaps in her memory prevent her from explaining how she reached safety. Her fragmented account does not confirm Odette’s version of the rescue. Odette declares Beatrice a citizen and says she cannot return to Earth.

Donut remains composed for the recording, offering pointed advice about pet food and giving animals away. When Odette stops filming, Donut refuses another take. She tells Beatrice she knew about the plan to get rid of her and understood how much Carl had been hurt. She still loves and misses Beatrice, but Carl is her person now. Carl also ends the relationship while saying he is glad Beatrice survived.

A system notice removes Valtay as Carl’s sponsor because of a conflict of interest, while leaving his previous prizes intact. A Syndicate court has separated Borant Corporation from the Borant government, triggering a rule that gives Valtay majority ownership of the company. Borant will continue operating the crawl under existing contracts, but its government no longer owns the planet or production. Odette calls the decision a revolution.

Chapter 20

During a brief lapse in monitoring, Odette’s assistant Lexis passes Carl a warning. Queen Imogen is a country boss created for this season because of his involvement with Signet. She will attend the Butcher’s Masquerade, and the top fifty crawlers will be transported there whether they agree or not. Lexis suspects a trap and warns that incoming management may target established stars such as Carl.

Donut reveals that she has already passed information about Valtay agents to Zev and the Borant Emancipation Front. Carl begins to understand that Donut and Zev have been communicating privately about more than her public fan board.

Back in their personal space, Mordecai explains that a takeover can change rules, although the AI limits how much management can alter an ongoing season. Point Mongo has repelled another attack and gained stronger walls. Their allies have also bought a guild space and persuaded Imani to lead it. Katia asks Carl to lend money for a headquarters that would allow Mordecai to accompany the larger group. Exhausted by the reunion, Carl and Donut fall asleep beside one another before the next broadcast.

Chapter 21

The recap shows Vrah’s hunters killing crawlers and collecting their heads. It also shows Lucia Mar in hellhound form apparently reflecting a dinosaur boss’s damage back at it. Carl is alarmed by the ability. Elsewhere, Katia’s coalition raids a town whose inhabitants Eva has magically charmed into attacking them. Imani counters the glamour, but Eva has already left by the time the coalition reaches the town.

The administrator announces more rule changes, including a field preventing hunters from communicating directly with people outside the dungeon. Katia arrives to complete the guild arrangement and leave Carl’s party while keeping their wider alliance intact.

Carl opens his Fan Box and receives a compulsory appearance at CrawlCon. His schedule includes an art contest, a history panel moderated by Circe Took of the Hive, and autograph sessions. The appearances will happen virtually through a production facility. Donut is hurt to learn that only the selected crawlers may attend and that Carl cannot give her his place.

The Royal Court joins Safehome Yolanda, the guild Imani has named for her dead friend. New doors connect their personal space to common rooms and pet stables. Donut activates an upgraded bed that restores its user in a minute and grants temporary attribute bonuses. An explosion interrupts the preparations: Clint reports that elves are firing poison bombs into Point Mongo.

Chapter 22

Poison artillery damages Point Mongo. Carl, Donut, the mushroom guards, and their were-castor allies can resist the poison, but Mongo goes into his carrier and the Ursine inhabitants shelter inside. Samantha is also resistant and far tougher than her single hit point would suggest, although Carl’s first attempt to launch her toward the attackers fails.

Carl uses a Levitation potion to rise above the canopy and a brief Intelligence boost to extend Ping’s range. He locates two hunters in a clearing and launches Samantha at their position. One hunter dies; the other is knocked unconscious. Carl retrieves Samantha while she is still clamped onto the survivor’s ankle.

The prisoner is Alkand, a Moon Elf artillery specialist with the Dream. Carl removes his Constitution bracelet before restraining him, and Donut heals him for questioning. Alkand confirms that the Dream is hunting Louis to avenge an insult to its leader’s mother. He says he is an accountant who won a fantasy-hunting contest and expected an easy reward. Carl confronts him with the destruction of Earth, then marks him with the Ring of Divine Suffering. Alkand is still alive when Carl learns that Constitution is his highest attribute.

Chapter 23

Carl executes Alkand brutally enough to disturb Donut and their companions. The kill raises him to level 55 and gives him one Constitution point. The ring announces that future marked kills will now award two attribute points. Carl puts it away, but Donut tells him his growing anger is frightening her. He acknowledges the problem and promises to make future killings cleaner.

Donut equips Alkand’s bracelet on her front leg, gaining Constitution, Dexterity, fire resistance, and a Fireball ability. Another upgrade would have a fifty-percent chance of breaking it.

Samantha rolls around threatening a local cleric and biting buildings. Mordecai believes she is growing stronger rapidly. Carl still intends to bring her to Signet’s attack, but her increasing mobility and aggression make her harder to control.

Chapter 24

A Cookbook entry warns Carl that elite NPCs can be more dangerous than hunters and describes using powerful enemies against one another. Carl also receives a temporary divine boost to fire-spell damage, but none of his current abilities qualifies for it.

He searches the second artillery hunter’s body and finds a photograph of Louis, then collects the Enchanted Venomous Elven Rock Chucker. The magical siege weapon can collapse into a small package for storage and send poison-producing projectiles toward distant targets. Carl keeps it for later use.

Preparations for the assault and CrawlCon leave him little time. He grows suspicious that Sensation’s delayed contract signing may mean Signet is supposed to die before her story can be extended. Imogen’s planned appearance at the masquerade does not guarantee that Signet will survive long enough to face her. Carl fears that he could be sacrificed with her, but has no proof of a scripted ending.

Carl, Donut, Mongo, and Samantha head through the forest toward Signet’s camp. Lightning, smoke, and fleeing creatures interrupt the journey. Their map shows bodies and a hunter surrounded by Signet’s allies, but they have not yet learned what happened.

Chapter 25

Clint explains that three Skull Empire hunters attacked Signet’s camp. Two died when their magic rebounded from the all-tree, whose local roots protect nearby forest inhabitants by reflecting hostile spells. Signet’s allies captured the third hunter. Carl and Donut collect the dead hunters’ belongings, including Lightning scrolls and an unfamiliar credit chit that Donut finds while looting items individually.

Signet recognizes Samantha as a cousin but postpones helping her find a body until the naiad and High Elf campaigns are over. Carl doubts that she intends to fulfill the promise. Samantha still agrees to help with the assault.

As the group approaches Fort Freedom under a concealment spell, Katia reports that Quan has killed Langley and his guild. A separate notice about a dead champion leaves Carl worried about the Popov brothers without confirming what happened to them. Carl marks and kills the captured hunter, then Signet summons her paper army.

Carl throws Samantha into the river with a device intended to distract the defenders. It plays Wonderwall instead of the planned alarm, but the fortress alarm sounds anyway and the concealment fails. Signet’s force advances while Carl and Donut remain with Areson, Nadine, and a few others.

Chapter 26

Inside Fort Freedom, Samantha reports neglected rooms and pursuing guards while the song echoes through the ventilation. Carl had told her to demand an audience as a relative of the rulers, hoping to confuse them. Donut identifies Samantha as the goddess of unrequited love, which still leaves much of her history unexplained.

Areson offers a harsher version of the political conflict. He says Signet’s family was killed for helping the High Elves, and describes the government that replaced them as corrupt and chaotic. He also says Signet’s tears are a curse connected to the High Elf king’s death. Because the tears make submersion painful, she rides summoned protection as her force enters the river.

Bodies begin surfacing, and Signet’s paper army suddenly vanishes. Samantha reports a trap and says she has freed herself. Carl prepares to enter the water as Nadine rushes toward it despite being unable to swim. He warns Samantha that he is bringing her back, then stores his Xistera throwing attachment to trigger the recall. He has not asked what might be holding onto her.

Chapter 27

Recalling Samantha also brings back the enormous creature that swallowed her. Claude Sludgington the Fourth lands on the riverbank with an unconscious Holger inside him. The boss fires lightning from his eyes and has a huge Constitution bonus while rooted in place. Carl realizes too late what his recall has brought into the group.

Claude kills Nadine and a bush elf with lightning. Areson climbs onto him while Carl tries to roll the creature with Protective Shell to expose its vulnerable underside. The spell has grown stronger with Carl’s Intelligence and launches Claude into the air instead. Donut magically restrains him in a tree, burns through his vulnerable belly with Fireball, and enlarges the wound with Magic Missiles. Mongo enters the opening to attack from inside, while Holger is expelled and regains consciousness.

When the restraint ends, Claude falls onto Carl, crushing him into the wound. Mongo accidentally cuts him during the struggle. Carl escapes badly injured, heals himself, and coughs out a bead belonging to Signet. Claude dies and bursts apart. The survivors have won in seconds, but Nadine is dead and the bead has not yet explained Signet’s fate.

Chapter 28

The system announces that they completed a quest before receiving it and gives them no reward. Holger reveals that Clint died inside Claude. He grieves for his companion and for Nadine, who had become a mother to him. Carl blames himself for recalling the monster; Areson argues that Nadine would have drowned trying to rescue the attackers anyway.

While Samantha scouts the castle, Carl disarms traps and improves Find Traps. One recovered trap can summon guards or minions, giving him a possible way to use the party’s authority over Point Mongo’s defenders.

Samantha discovers a group of dead inhabitants on the far bank, with enormous tracks and a large pink feather nearby. Signet returns alive and identifies the feather with Big Tina, a dinosaur known for her feather necklace. The Recital quest now asks Carl and Donut to find out why Tina’s group attacks towns and resolve the cause, or kill her.

Signet says the people inside Fort Freedom were killing one another and consuming the eggs of those they trapped. Her first quest completes, making the surviving allies more willing to follow Carl. The next orders them to kill Imogen and destroy the High Elf stronghold. Its description confirms Finian’s death and promises access to the castle’s treasures, including a rumored defense against Scolopendra. Before continuing, Signet stops to mourn the people she lost.

Chapter 29

Edgar uses Nadine’s remains to create a new tattoo on Signet. Its image changes from a caterpillar into Nadine as a young teacher, with Clint depicted as a child peeking from behind her. Signet explains that these figures are blood-and-ink elementals made from remains and her memories. They are living likenesses, not the dead people’s souls. Holger touches the image to say goodbye, and Signet promises to care for the memory.

Areson recognizes another tattoo as Di-We, the three-headed being whose death created him, Apollon, and Herman. Each ogre received part of Di-We’s knowledge when the original body split into new lives. Signet kept that original body’s likeness after Di-We died protecting her from her sister’s agents.

Signet’s remaining force moves southwest to prepare for Imogen while Carl and Donut cross the river toward a safe room before his convention transfer. They reach Alucarda, a settlement whose protection hides its inhabitants on the map. At the safe-room entrance, Carl learns that Lucia Mar has taken over the town. He is transferred away before he can confirm that Donut and Samantha are safely inside.

Chapter 30

Carl waits at the orbital security checkpoint, unable to contact Donut. A gnoll guard eventually searches him and mentions that his granddaughter Lix will attend Carl’s panel. Carl agrees to treat her well, and the guard becomes gentler with him.

At the production facility, Carl briefly receives messages indicating that Donut fought Lucia. Zev confirms that Donut is now safe in the guildhall, but cannot explain under constant surveillance. Their trailer is inside a Valtay ship on Earth’s ocean, and the new owners have removed the access that previously gave Zev more freedom.

Zev reviews Carl’s convention schedule and emphasizes that he will return to the exact point where he was taken, bringing back party members or pets who are elsewhere. Carl suspects she is trying to communicate something important through the rules, but does not yet understand. He prepares to judge children’s artwork while still worried about Donut.

Chapter 31

Carl judges children’s artwork alongside two celebrities. Some children are shy or talented; others repeat their parents’ prejudices or predictions about his death. One brings a picture of her dead mother. The contest treats the crawl as family entertainment while Carl remains one of the people fighting for his life inside it.

Three goat children belong to the Plenty, whose unfamiliar bodies and culture attract the other judges’ contempt. Carl remembers their connection to the tunnel system and his new sponsor, the Apothecary.

To fulfill his agreement with the checkpoint guard, Carl bargains with Hurk, the Desperado Club’s designer, for a high score for Lix. In return, he promises to praise the club during his next panel. Lix wins. Hurk warns that the result will upset another faction, then tells Carl that the panel’s moderator is the mother of a hunter he killed.

Chapter 32

Zev identifies the moderator as Circe Took, Xindy’s mother and a former hunter herself. Vrah is another of her daughters. Zev still cannot explain Donut’s encounter with Lucia, and admits that the takeover has left the staff frightened. Some employees have disappeared, and her own family has already been punished for her defiance.

Carl receives a temporary bed and an advanced training room to compensate for his time away from the dungeon. He can keep knowledge learned there but cannot carry out the things he builds. A trainer helps him practice explosive craftsmanship, and Carl improves Powerful Strike. The exercise reveals that equipment bonuses become less effective beyond skill level fifteen; he cannot simply add every bonus together.

He also meets Dr. Ratchet, a visitor demonstrating training equipment. On the way to the panel, Carl crosses an area where dungeon enhancements stop working, then enters a studio where they return. He sits alone in the physical room while the other panelists attend remotely. His guards smoke nearby despite warnings that the event will be hostile.

Chapter 33

The other panelists expect Carl’s confrontation with Circe to become a popular clip. Their remote projections look real, but Carl is physically separated from them. When Circe lashes out through the table at his apparent position, she cannot strike his actual body.

Circe dominates the history discussion until a robed woman in the audience orders her to let Carl speak, citing his sponsorship agreement. The woman represents the Apothecary. Carl meanwhile feels his inhibitions dropping and realizes that vapor from one of his guards has affected him. Both guards have disappeared. He suspects the confrontation has been arranged, although he cannot prove everyone’s role.

Carl asks the audience how he can kill Vrah. Spectators supply information about her family, equipment, and weaknesses. They tell him another member of Circe’s family remains in Zockau outside the warrior group. Circe threatens to kill anyone who harms another daughter and leaves. Carl delivers his promised praise of the Desperado Club before the broadcast ends.

Back in the studio, Donut warns him that Lucia is waiting in the safe room and can hurt him there. Hunters are also waiting outside. Carl finds a gifted Automaton Table and Dr. Ratchet’s guide, takes them, and begins preparing instructions for Donut before his return.

Chapter 34

Carl recalls the audience’s tactical advice. Vrah is vulnerable to poison, but has an antidote ring and protection against poison clouds. A contact poison would need to act before the ring could counter it. Other spectators suggested attacking her neck, exploiting sensitive hearing, and turning rival hunters against one another.

The panel also identified the robed Nebular hunters. Their collective professes beliefs against scarcity and competition, yet sends a well-supported team into the dungeon to hunt crawlers. Miriam and Prepotente are among its targets.

Donut now explains that Lucia used transportation traps while stalking her and killing townspeople. Donut killed one dog and narrowly escaped to the guildhall. Samantha admits that the hunters tried to force Carl’s return location out of her. She gave them a slightly wrong answer, but a dryad corrected it.

Katia cannot reach them in time. Carl also cannot take a potion before his transfer because he is outside an area where he may remove inventory items. He asks Zev to watch over Donut if he dies, then prepares to act the moment he arrives.

Chapter 35

Carl reappears against the Alucarda doorway and immediately uses invisibility, smoke, and Tripper. Hunters attack the return point while he climbs away with Sticky Feet. Their overlapping attacks and the triggered alarms turn rival groups against one another.

Donut sends out two Clockwork copies of the Sledge. The first triggers Lucia’s transportation trap and lands among the hunters. The second carries a stuffed cat dressed as Donut, drawing Lucia outside with another transport spell. The trap can operate through the safe-room boundary because its actual mechanism is outside. The hunters turn on Lucia while the real Sledge waits to help Carl escape.

Carl marks and kills three injured Nebular hunters, gaining Intelligence through the ring. During his flight through a temple where Lucia has murdered the congregation, he falls against the shrine and breaks it. Vrah confronts him wearing severed crawler heads, including Langley’s and Bodgon’s. The heads suddenly animate and attack her. Carl uses the opening to stab her neck with the magical poison arrow he took earlier. Vrah’s magical armor throws him away. Donut joins the attack with missiles aimed at the same spot, keeping the defense active to drain Vrah’s mana.

Carl and Donut reach the safe room, roll their retained wheeled bomb outside, and shut the door. The blast kills the remaining warrior mantids except Vrah, as well as nearby NPCs and mobs. Vrah and Lucia both escape. Carl believes Vrah must either endure the contagious poison or pass it to someone else. He prepares a letter offering protection to a mantis representative who has remained in Zockau, asking the recipient to bring the hunters’ collected equipment.

Chapter 36

Bomo carries Carl’s letter through the Zockau doorway and waits for a response. Carl reunites with the guild while Donut warns that Lucia may return. Elle reports that Chris is traveling with Li Jun and Li Na.

His rewards distinguish Lucia’s murder of the temple’s worshippers from his own destruction of its shrine. Breaking the shrine weakened Diwata, and a new tattoo marks him as her enemy. Her followers will attack him outside Club Vanquisher. The mark also increases his damage against them and can only be removed by killing Diwata or her chosen.

Further rewards replenish his invisibility potions and provide patches that improve his attributes, projectiles, and explosive abilities. Katia sews them onto his jacket. Carl finally connects Donut’s detailed knowledge of patches with her previously unexplained hobby, scutelliphily: collecting patches.

Crossing a base-Strength threshold gives Carl a permanent choice. He selects Swole, which doubles future Strength gained from level-up points. It does not retroactively double his Strength or the bonuses from equipment, and he does not yet know whether the ring’s gains qualify. His growing internal pressure continues despite the reunion and new rewards.

Chapter 37

The broadcast finally shows Donut’s fight with Lucia. Lucia had been placing transportation traps around Alucarda before Carl and Donut arrived. The traps can send a victim to a chosen location or exchange positions with the caster. Donut repeatedly escapes by using Hole to drop through the floor and break the transportation spell’s anchor, then combines decoys and invisibility to keep moving.

Lucia pauses to demand milk and argue with someone Carl cannot see. She mentions former friends, an elf named Ferdinand, and stolen points while striking her own head and changing voices and forms. Mordecai explains that children who are too young for the dungeon have youth assistants elsewhere, but cannot account for everything Lucia says.

The footage shows how Donut killed Lucia’s dog Cici: she trapped the dog’s head through a Hole and closed it. She then used a fire distraction to escape Lucia’s other dog, Gustavo, and reach the guildhall. Gustavo remains alive. Carl apologizes for questioning Donut’s decisions during the replay. The broadcast had also falsely shown Carl enjoying refreshments at the convention, making Donut think he was relaxing while she fought for her life.

The administrator announces a redesigned seventh floor and says early descent will improve a crawler’s starting position. Attendance at the masquerade remains compulsory for the top fifty. A frightened mantis arrives in the shared hallway asking for Carl.

Chapter 38

Bomo has brought Edict, a mantis merchant, from Zockau. Edict says he was hired to manage trade rather than hunt. The equipment he has collected is already bound by contracts, so killing him would not give Carl unrestricted ownership of it. He also explains that the Hive, its Burrower ruling family, and the Dark Hive company are different organizations.

Edict needs shelter because Vrah wants to mate with him and pass on the magical poison. His contracts place his family at risk if he refuses, while mating is expected to end in his death. Carl had hoped to exploit Vrah’s condition, but lets the terrified merchant into their personal space. Mordecai warns that a guest cannot be detained and could report what he sees, although Lucia’s tavern trap cannot work there.

Vrah arrives injured and burning, then enters through a one-time invitation. Carl taunts her, and she lunges at Edict. The room’s protections punish the attack by stripping her possessions and teleporting her away. Carl and Mordecai gather what she drops. Edict keeps his sanctuary, but Vrah has been removed rather than killed.

Chapter 39

Carl’s new enemy mark makes Diwata’s worshippers attack him on sight. A hostile mayor can command otherwise neutral town guards against him, making travel through dryad settlements dangerous. Carl and Donut instead capture two small Ursine towns, naming them Ferdinand Peak and Nipton, with Donut taking office after Carl kills their rulers.

Further fighting brings Carl to level 56 and Donut to 45. Mordecai asks him to copy the automaton guide into his scratchpad so they will not lose its knowledge if the book is taken away.

They then find a town whose protective living wall surrounds an undisturbed massacre. Bodies have remained longer than usual, suggesting a preserved quest scene. The town belongs to Prepotente, and one victim’s label identifies Big Tina as the killer. Miriam does not answer Carl’s message. A dead safe-room proprietor has left a claw in the doorway, making Carl question whether the refuge protected him. Carl reaches the guild before his next convention transfer without learning what happened to Miriam.

Chapter 40

Carl meets Maxim and Dmitri Popov in the production room. Both are alive. The twins share a two-headed ogre body, but have distinct personalities and classes. Maxim is protective of Dmitri, who misses his newly acquired pet cat. They explain that they were fraternal twins on Earth.

Their cramped accommodation and poor food anger Carl, especially as the convention prepares to sell autographs and premium access to them. Zev advocates for Carl much more forcefully than the twins’ liaison does for them.

Carl learns that his replacement sponsor was the original auction winner whose payment had failed. A production decision has restored its place, and its identity will be announced during the signing. For now, the crawlers prepare to meet the fans remotely from their production room.

Chapter 41

The signing mirrors Carl’s and the Popovs’ actions to the convention, where a liaison handles the merchandise. Fans turn the crawlers’ battles, losses, and relationships into questions and costumes. Carl hears that Vrah intends to endure the poison, while fans ask whether Dmitri killed Bodgon deliberately. Maxim denies it, but later tells Bodgon’s friends that the victim deserved it.

Two Princess Posse members bring a message for Donut and describe their fundraising. Carl is disturbed to learn that their campaign to preserve native species means exterminating cocker spaniels. Donut’s jokes about dogs have acquired a dangerous audience beyond the dungeon.

The sponsor announcement reveals the Plenty as Carl’s replacement sponsor, distinct from the Apothecary. He receives a Benefactor Box to open after returning.

A naga reporter named Nihit accuses Carl of cheating and sedition, then threatens to buy a criminal warrant against him in the future. Carl connects him to the rival program that intended to reveal Beatrice. He stabs Nihit with his signing pen. The mirrored interaction causes a real injury at the convention, and the feed abruptly ends.

Chapter 42

The guards confiscate the pens and separate Carl from the Popovs. Zev says Nihit has been healed and wants to press charges. The studio falls under Syndicate law, so the assault carries consequences beyond a dungeon punishment.

Zev explains that charges could wait until Carl leaves the crawl, then become a labor warrant that another organization can buy. His fame might attract competing buyers, but would not free him from the sentence or its costs.

Nihit’s brother has married into the Blood Sultanate and participates in Faction Wars. The connection makes Carl think again about Donut’s crown: armies could die protecting royals whom she must eventually kill to descend. He still believes Donut is the only crawler who has worn it.

Chapter 43

Donut tells Carl that the Princess Posse has hundreds of chapters and that she has approved merchandise without knowing how much money it raises. She dismisses his objections to its campaign against cocker spaniels. Mordecai also reveals that he once testified against Odette at a trial, without explaining the act at the center of their history.

The new sponsor gifts are unsettling. Donut receives a silver bracelet from the Apothecary that protects against vampirism and lycanthropy and strengthens magical attacks against intelligent undead. Carl’s Plenty box contains a patch with the same benefits. Mordecai suspects the sponsors are cooperating to prepare them to fight Miriam. Carl refuses to accept that as their purpose.

The Apothecary also sends a Charm Animal recipe with Mongo’s photograph. Mordecai has wanted the recipe for many seasons, but tailoring a potion to Mongo’s species would require a substantial amount of his blood. Donut refuses to betray his trust, even with sedation and healing available. Before they resolve the argument, Miriam messages Carl: she is trapped and will not survive the coming dawn without help.

Chapter 44

Miriam gives Carl her location and explains that Prepotente is petrified while holding her. Breaking any part of him could shatter him. The elite enemy involved is dead, finally allowing her messages through, but the paralysis has lasted far beyond its expected duration. She has spent two days using blood potions and Revive to survive the sun and cannot sustain another day.

Carl chooses to help. He sews on the protective patch while Mordecai prepares holy-water potion balls in case the vampire danger requires them. Donut reluctantly agrees to collect Mongo’s blood at stops along the journey so Mordecai can brew the animal-charm potions.

At the ruined town, the barmaid Prudence is hiding with her two sons. She explains that the Ursine were once ordinary bears and that the mothers secretly taught their children ballet despite a religious ban. Eight-year-old Tina was preparing a solo when her cleric father discovered the recital. Her mother struck him to stop his intervention; he retaliated by attacking her, pushed Tina aside, and broke the girl’s wand. Scolopendra’s attack interrupted the violence, transforming the mothers into dinosaurs and Tina into Big Tina. Kiwi is Tina’s mother.

The claw lodged in the pub doorway begins to move. Its description identifies it as part of a victim killed by a vampire, now a minion of Big Tina. Such pieces can join into powerful undead bodies. Carl realizes Tina has also become a vampire, a separate condition from her much older dinosaur transformation.

Chapter 45

Miriam confirms that she fought Big Tina and spread vampirism to the dinosaurs. She had intended to stop the outbreak before becoming trapped. Newly infected creatures are temporarily vulnerable, but that window is closing.

Carl brings Prudence and her sons into the guildhall before continuing the rescue. Outside, scattered body parts begin joining into larger undead creatures. He disrupts them with explosives while Donut lights the area, then the party escapes in its chariot. Destroying some fragments does not end the outbreak.

Other crawlers report infected animals. Gideon’s cleric removed his infection after a bite; Tserendolgor has been burning mobs and gaining levels. Carl encourages her to reach the top fifty, expecting they will need allies at the masquerade.

At a dryad town, worship of Diwata makes Carl an immediate target. He reaches a safe room while Donut remains able to move outside. They prepare to collect Mongo’s blood, but have not done it yet.

Chapter 46

Donut collects blood from the sedated Mongo, and Mordecai heals him while brewing the first Charm Animal potion. Carl leaves the hostile town under invisibility as Donut attacks its mayor. A second stop at one of Prepotente’s settlements lets them make another potion. Mongo wakes and continues with them.

Near Miriam’s flare, Carl uses Levitation to search above the forest. Sierra, an enormous flying vampire creature, grabs him. She belonged to the dead hunter Viscount Fog. Carl uses Fear and a holy-water potion ball; Donut’s light ignites the coating. When he falls, his last Half-Splat potion keeps the impact from killing him.

Sierra survives terrible injuries while Donut fights with Clockwork Mongo copies. Carl finds her exposed, still-beating heart and stakes it to finish her. His new patch protects him during the contact with her remains. Donut keeps Mongo from eating the body, and they resume the rescue.

Chapter 47

Carl and Donut reach Miriam with less than an hour until dawn. She gives Donut Get Out of Jail, a spell she has unlearned and turned into a book. It can remove Prepotente’s petrification, but Carl stops Donut from using it until Miriam explains why freeing him would still be dangerous.

Miriam describes her life on the farm and the goats she considers her children, especially Prepotente. She also explains that she is the originating vampire for the recent outbreak. If she dies before the infection has lasted a month, the creatures infected through her can be cured.

Prepotente tried to move her vampirism to Viscount Fog with a Community Pool scroll. He intended to make Fog the new originating vampire so killing him would cure the infection. Fog reflected the spell. Prepotente’s protection prevented him from becoming infected, but their defensive items kept bouncing other effects back and forth. The resulting conditions petrified the combatants. Fog later died because his altered curse made darkness lethal.

Prepotente accidentally activated his Ring of Divine Suffering during the confusion and marked Miriam. He now has one hit point, cannot heal while she lives, and will shatter if damaged. Removing the petrification would not remove the ring’s mark. Miriam fears he would die trying to save her and asks Carl to kill her before he wakes.

Carl refuses to kill either of them. He stays until sunrise and promises to protect Prepotente and the other goats. Without striking Miriam, he quietly marks her with his own ring. Dawn turns her to dust as she speaks to Prepotente, calling him her beautiful boy.

Chapter 48

Miriam’s death cures the recent vampire infections, including Big Tina’s, and releases Prepotente from his healing restriction. Carl receives Intelligence from his own ring’s mark even though he did not deliver a killing blow. Miriam has left supplies for Prepotente and permitted Carl to take a few items for helping him.

The cure does not destroy the undead bodies assembled from victims’ remains. Without their vampire controller, some fall under the influence of a plant threat. A mandatory world quest, The Creeping Apocalypse, marks fifty Odious Creepers and thousands of Shambling Berserkers across the map. The plantlike Creepers can absorb other creatures and must be destroyed before sunset. Whoever does the most damage receives kill credit, with attribute gains, levels, and an additional prize encouraging crawlers and hunters to compete.

Donut casts Get Out of Jail. Prepotente wakes, removes his ring, and swallows it after considering destroying it. He collapses beside Miriam’s ashes. Donut comforts him and promises that she and Carl will deal with the approaching creatures. He mentions an emergency sponsor box as Kiwi’s pack appears at the clearing’s edge.

Chapter 49

Carl and Donut use one of the animal-charm potions on Kiwi. Donut draws her close so the brief effect catches the pack leader rather than another raptor. Kiwi becomes Donut’s minion, while the rest of the herd becomes allied rather than individually controlled. Some of the cured animals retain a temporary condition that weakens them in sunlight but strengthens them otherwise.

Prepotente opens his emergency sponsor box inside a short-lived protective bubble. It supplies a special spray device and a Creeper treatment recipe that works only through that device. He asks Carl for healing potions in exchange for the Size Up potions Carl took from Miriam’s supplies, and Carl agrees.

Bianca emerges larger and stronger, ready to carry him. Prepotente says he cannot imagine life without Miriam, but intends to make others feel his suffering. Carl and Donut promise to see him at the masquerade before he flies away to attack the Creepers. They suspect the sponsors wanted Miriam’s death, without knowing the full plan.

Chapter 50

Donut struggles to manage Kiwi, Mongo, and their mechanical copies around the pub. The herd waits outside town, while Prudence and her children remain safe in the guildhall. Global announcements show Prepotente and other crawlers killing Creepers as Carl’s group prepares its own attack.

Katia arrives and reports that Li Jun had been infected, then cured by Miriam’s death. Mordecai has produced a treatment for the plant creatures, but it must cover the whole target. Louis can spray it from the Twister using his extermination ability, though only at short range.

Carl looks for a way to deliver the treatment from farther away because the Creepers can fire poisoned darts and tear apart people or equipment that come too close. His first design consumes substantial resources. They have not yet tested it against a living Creeper.

Chapter 51

Carl discovers that the captured Elven Rock Chucker can disperse Mordecai’s treatment through its Poison Cloud effect. Donut climbs above the trees to direct the shots when Ping cannot reliably locate the target. After adjusting their aim, they kill a Creeper. Donut receives the credit as spotter, gaining levels and Strength, while Carl receives none for the kill.

As they approach another target, an escorted rhino carrying a curtained passenger interrupts them. The protected encounter contains Queen Imogen’s familiar. Its speaker demands that Donut attend the masquerade in a proper dress, while the High Elf guards tell the crawlers to leave the nearby Creeper to them.

Carl asks the hidden passenger to pass a message to Signet. Lightning strikes toward Mongo, and Kiwi intercepts the attack. Carl uses Protective Shell during the resulting fall, but Donut is badly hurt and survives through her Cockroach ability. Carl heals Donut, and she later heals the dinosaurs. The protected entourage leaves.

Donut recognizes the familiar as Ferdinand. She believes his memories have been changed and that the organizers intend to make her fight him. Carl sees another attempt to use someone she loves against her.

Chapter 52

Carl wants to take the nearest stairwell and leave the floor. Katia reminds him that NPCs are depending on their help, and Imani asks whether Donut has agreed to go. Donut refuses: whatever Ferdinand once meant to her, she now has Mongo and responsibilities here. Carl accepts her decision. Katia also asks to speak with him privately about something other than Eva, but does not explain yet.

Kiwi brings Big Tina, an enormous dinosaur wearing a tutu and carrying a depleted star wand. Miriam’s death cured Tina’s vampirism but did not undo the ancient transformation. Kiwi keeps her daughter from attacking Mongo. Donut decides they need to let Tina finish the interrupted recital.

The world quest fails with two Creepers still alive in hunter territory. A new blood bar now drains while crawlers and hunters stay in safe rooms. When it runs out, they are expelled; they must kill to replenish it before returning. Earlier kills do not count, so even people who fought during the quest begin without protection.

Gehena Bramble spreads from the surviving Creepers, threatening to engulf the floor. Its thorns drain the new bar and can kill anyone who touches them, while small areas around stairwells remain clear. A hunter suddenly falls out of a safe room near the raptors.

Chapter 53

The expelled hunter is Iota, a Crafter Alliance broker who expected to handle business rather than fight. Kiwi has taken his leg. He says a legal notice has placed the crawl under external law until the floor ends. He interprets the AI’s increasingly literal enforcement as a move toward independence. Carl has only Iota’s account of the wider arrangement.

Carl removes one of Iota’s enchanted rings and marks him with his own. Donut repeatedly objects as the questioning continues. Iota offers little resistance and says he would probably act the same way in Carl’s place. Carl kills him before he finishes speaking, gains Intelligence, and advances the ring to larger rewards for future kills. Donut remains disturbed by his behavior.

Chapter 54

A Cookbook entry explains different kinds of castles, including settlements that transfer ownership and taxes when conquered and the throne-centered strongholds used in ninth-floor Faction Wars. Carl collects Iota’s remaining supplies, including healing potions, enchanted piercings, and blitz sticks. The kill refills his blood bar.

The bramble now threatens the village they have committed to helping through the Sledge’s Zerzura spell. That spell can only be cast on the floor’s final day, and preparing the route takes time they may no longer have. Katia says the village lies near the High Elf castle, beyond the approaching growth.

Carl proposes gathering near the castle and locating the remaining stairwells with Bomo’s help. Other allies are being expelled from safe rooms as their bars empty. Alongside the escape preparations, he tells Katia they now have Tina’s recital to arrange.

Chapter 55

Signet meets Carl’s group as Edgar prepares protection near the High Elf castle. She believes the elves are guarding a source of bramble sap and preparing a way to resist the growth. She warns Carl to avoid all-trees, which will alert Diwata to her enemy’s presence.

Carl examines Iota’s enchanted piercings. He equips one that reduces fall damage and persuades Donut to accept another for its Constitution bonus by promising her a valuable potion.

A benefactor box provides Pawna’s Cries, which raises a chosen skill or spell by three levels and must be used before the floor ends. Carl still has Pawna’s Tears. A hidden message signed P. Hu tells him that Circe sponsored Diwata, that Donut needs a secret level-fifteen ability, and that help from Prepotente, Imani, and Samantha may matter. Carl does not yet understand the whole plan. He intends to train Donut’s Magic Missile to twelve before using Cries to reach fifteen. The message also tells him to save toraline, the expensive material used for Chris’s cure.

Chapter 56

A flashback reveals what Quasar told Carl about Zerzura at the start of the floor. The spell moves a town and its inhabitants to a later floor, leaving crawlers, stairwells, and special rooms behind. The destination cannot be chosen. Quasar warns that arrival causes destruction, killing residents and the caster before raising them as powerful revenants. A past user gained levels through repeated deployments before those revenants destroyed him. Carl has been trying to find a way to save the changelings without repeating that outcome.

The organizers announce another floor change: the redesigned Great Race will now be Floor Eight, while the original eighth floor moves ahead of it. At the masquerade, hunters and crawlers will occupy separate protected ballrooms. The announced rules prohibit attacks, weapons, traps, and magic while allowing inventory access. The top fifty must attend and may receive transferable invitations for guests, provided they keep their places in the rankings.

Donut’s singing act and Mongo’s pageant entry are accepted, but Tina cannot be the principal performer because that role must belong to a crawler or hunter. NPCs and pets may appear only as permitted assistants in the talent event. Carl studies the castle’s map, with the hunter and crawler ballrooms on different levels and Imogen’s throne room above them. He asks allies to reduce the surviving hunters’ numbers before the party.

Chapter 57

Carl learns that Katia and Bautista are dating. Bautista had mistaken Carl’s closeness with Katia for romantic interest, but Carl says she is like a sister. While sorting his summoning toys, Bautista explains that a benefactor supplied slate-butterfly figures in return for a future commercial. If released, the butterflies seek nearby light and consume it.

Prepotente arrives much stronger after his recent fighting and gives Donut I Take It All Back, a potion that removes Scolopendra’s Transmutation. Its instructions specify that Donut must use it at the right moment and that it must not be given to Tina. Carl warns her to keep it hidden because several allies would want the cure.

Elle receives another Apothecary gift intended for Donut. The group heads back to speak with the changelings and examine it. Neither the transformation cure nor Pawna’s Cries has been used.

Chapter 58

Carl needs to reach changeling delegates on the hunters’ level of the Desperado Club. Clarabelle explains that its different floors separate patrons and that the blood bar must be full to enter, though it does not drain inside. Donut pressures her into revealing a hidden stairwell through the women’s restroom. It grants the detour Carl needs, but will not let him continue down to Larracos.

On the restricted floor, Carl kills a hunter merchant before he can raise an alarm, takes his possessions, and conceals the body. Carl worries the killing may violate the special arrangement Quasar negotiated for him.

He finds Pearson and another disguised changeling. With bramble ruining their existing escape plan, Carl proposes moving a town near the High Elf castle through Zerzura. Before they can settle the details, the assistant manager Astrid confronts him. Her blood magic incapacitates Carl, then a sleep spell makes him lose consciousness as Pearson begs her not to hurt him.

Chapter 59

Carl wakes with Orren nearby. The changeling delegates have been permanently ejected from the club, and Pearson took responsibility for the blocked doorway. Orren says he will leave at floor collapse and return for Faction Wars, although his people remain on Earth and could still be recalled.

Orren explains that liaisons are often recruited because they disagree with their own governments. He admits sympathy for Carl without promising to become his ally. His connections and seniority kept him employed through the takeover.

The courts have suspended nearly all crawl-related cases during an unusual review. Carl’s own appearance has been postponed, not dismissed. Orren must remain for a special meeting as Quasar arrives with a woman wearing Donut merchandise and her attached tentacled companion. Both visitors react emotionally to Donut, but their proposal has not yet been explained.

Chapter 60

Carl has copied the automaton recipes into his scratchpad and the Cookbook, preserving them even if he loses the original guide. With rare ingredients acquired at the club, he begins making Spider Stalkers, autonomous explosive devices.

Mordecai and Zev connect the court suspension to an attempt to strike down the AI. Council intervention stopped that action. Mordecai says collapsing governments and surrounding economies are eroding the crawl’s profits and spreading financial trouble toward Borant. Zev confirms the losses but stops the discussion. Carl still does not know whether the AI understands the crisis or can be replaced.

About two days later, with ten hours until the masquerade, he coordinates a raid against the remaining hunters. Donut’s costumes are ready, and Samantha receives instructions for a diversion. Carl has already served a penalty for killing a fellow Emberus worshipper, so he directs allies to handle hunters whose religion would punish him for attacking them.

The hunters are receiving stronger sponsored weapons despite their unchanged levels. Carl prepares Spider Stalkers for Donut and Samantha, then coordinates his trap-triggering and detection abilities with Imani’s support. The raid begins before any result is shown.

Chapter 61

The preceding raids have brought Carl to level 59 and Donut to 50. Further marked kills have increased Carl’s Constitution, and the ring now offers five attribute points for its next kill. Swole has also doubled the Strength he gains from ordinary level-up points.

The final raid begins with triggered traps and Donut’s Spider Stalkers. Samantha draws the anti-air weapon’s attention long enough for the devices to destroy it, clearing the way for Louis and Firas to attack from above. The other crawlers assault the settlement from several directions while Mongo and Kiwi catch fleeing hunters.

Most of the defenders die within minutes. The final hunter reaches a temple, and a warning announces Diwata’s arrival. Carl orders everyone away as the building erupts.

A Cookbook account also warns him about the Treasure Map left by a country boss. It reveals valuable equipment nearby, and an earlier victory ended with allies killing one another for the loot it exposed.

Chapter 62

Carl rushes toward Diwata and tells Donut to drink both reserved potions. She objects that they require a cooldown between uses. Before she takes either, the god leaves. A rapidly growing tree remains at the destroyed temple, and the last hunter is dead.

Witnesses describe the hunter swelling into a giant squirrel, followed by the emergence of a smaller antlered squirrel before Diwata departed. Mordecai asks them to collect petals and pollen from the temporary tree. Samantha explains that divine beings can change bodies and produce demigod offspring.

Carl suspects Circe arranged the visit so Diwata could reach Vrah and cure her infection. No one has witnessed the cure, but they must prepare for Vrah’s possible return. Meanwhile, Tina breaks away to eat passive mushroom guards, reminding them how little control they have over her.

Chapter 63

The allies gather near the High Elf border, with bramble only hours away. Signet intends to attack when the masquerade begins. Carl warns that her story may be a trap, then offers to lead the assault if she waits for his signal near the party’s end. He wants to improve her chance of survival while also using her attack as a distraction, and feels guilty about that second purpose.

Mordecai examines the Apothecary’s gifts for Donut, delivered through several crawlers. Alongside useful performance objects are an apparently unhelpful hammer and metal rod. Carl finds a coded message about the next stage, future allies, the Cookbook, and seven objects on the seventh floor. He begins to understand a purpose that remains hidden from the production team.

Katia receives a separate gift, a small knitted toy that increases her attributes and grants a powerful knockback spell. She absorbs it into her body, but still has not had the private conversation she requested with Carl.

Pets, hired attendants, and Samantha must enter the castle before the main party. While Donut practices, the guild prepares its evacuation and performance equipment. Carl tells her he has worked out another concealed preparation involving a toothpaste tube and Katia, without yet explaining its use.

Chapter 64

Carl records the coalition’s plan in the Cookbook, including his allies’ objections. They want to survive the masquerade, defeat Imogen, finish Tina’s recital, rescue the changelings, and acquire the castle as leverage for Faction Wars. They also have to account for Eva, Lucia, and the remaining hunters. Florin insists that Lucia is his responsibility.

The performer convoy enters separately, carrying supplies in inspected carts because the items must be removed from inventory. Pearson impersonates Signet to draw guards away from the other preparations. Bomo and the Sledge have separate assignments.

The printed map places the hunters’ ballroom on the second floor, the crawlers’ on the fourth, two attendant rooms below, security controls on the third, and Imogen’s throne room on the seventh. It also forbids inventory access in the main ballrooms, contradicting the earlier announcement. Their escort says guards can attack guests who cannot retaliate. Carl must plan around the stricter restrictions now in front of him.

A queen suddenly appears in his carriage. For a moment, Carl thinks she has the face of Florin’s dead girlfriend.

Chapter 65

Katia corrects Carl: Imogen resembles Iffechi’s twin sister, a woman Florin has already met, rather than Iffechi herself. Florin refuses to leave the floor despite Carl’s warning. The queen appears polite while making her contempt for the crawlers clear.

Carl’s plan depends on disabling the crystals that control the crawler rooms while preserving the separate overlay crystal. That would restore the crawlers’ abilities without giving the hunters the same freedom, while keeping people in different rooms visible to one another.

Imogen then reveals a more dangerous restriction. The masquerade is a divine ritual modeled on an ancient peace gathering that ended in violence. She is forbidden to harm its guests and must preserve the truce to receive a boon. Whoever breaks it first will be dragged into the Nothing. Carl realizes that restoring his spells will not make his planned opening attack safe.

Chapter 66

The ballroom overlay creates another problem for the performance. People on the shared stage can touch only the props associated with their own room; an object projected from the other attendant room would be visible but intangible. Carl arranges the equipment with Samantha below the appropriate stage, with Katia available to hold things Donut cannot carry while singing.

He tells his allies that nobody can strike first. Operations outside the party continue, including Signet waiting in the basement for his signal. Pearson’s disguise is expelled, but the performers enter. Donut uses her influence over the handlers to move the dinosaurs into the attendant room needed for the revised plan.

Inside, the system confirms that spells and inventory are blocked, violence risks banishment to the Nothing, and they cannot simply leave. Carl’s fallback is to restore magic and use Hole to reach the security floor before fighting their way out. He arranges protective equipment before inventory access ends.

Chaco runs the prize counter. D’Nadia appears remotely from orbit as a pageant judge and announces that she is now empress after her father’s retirement. She has also completed a buy-in whose role in the recent legal meeting is becoming apparent. Vrah enters alive, confirming that the threat has returned.

Chapter 67

While Vrah threatens Carl, Britney tests their concealed security tool. A stuffed butterfly from her costume jacket consumes a guard’s alert light, then returns to her hand. The apparently harmless toy can disable the signal without beginning a fight.

Personal grudges nearly upset the truce. Katia and Bautista restrain Florin as he approaches Lucia, while Carl separates Katia from Eva. Both confrontations could ruin the plan. Lucia seems frightened and withdrawn, which Florin notices is unlike her usual behavior.

Prepotente asks to join Carl’s party for the rest of the floor so they can descend together. He has gathered clues and wants to speak with Katia. Outside, the Sledge escorts changelings toward the castle while Bomo and the raiders carry out other assignments.

Apito suddenly brings Signet out of hiding and into the crawler ballroom as an invited guest. Carl has not caused the transfer. The ally he needed outside is now inside with the crawlers.

Chapter 68

Carl suspects Apito has deliberately surrounded Imogen with enemies to test her. Imani points out that Signet can no longer provide the distraction from outside. Carl thinks she may still draw Imogen’s first attack if the truce ends, but that would put Signet directly in danger.

Signet is delighted to attend and wonders whether Imogen’s promised reward is immortality. Then she notices that the judges’ projected bodies and auras differ from those of the guests. Carl tells her they are outsiders, physically elsewhere, who control the story she lives in. Signet goes to question them despite Zev’s anger.

Chapter 69

At the prize counter, Carl meets Zabit, a Beastmaster who admits killing twenty-five crawlers. Zabit says the winnings help his people retain their world without accepting an arrangement that would leave them indentured. He claims no pleasure in the killings, yet intends to return for another season.

Chaco again apologizes for the event that separated him from Mordecai. He cannot explain it, but claims that everyone, including Mordecai and his brother, would have died if he had chosen differently. He warns Carl about what survival can make a person become.

Carl spends trophies on a shrink wand, an eighth-floor lore book, music for A Song of Skedaddle, Feather Fall potions, and healing supplies. The ordinary prizes arrive in boxes that must be opened in a safe room, and there is no safe room inside the castle. Prepotente has already bought a seventh-floor Pole Position package and other upgrades.

Carl also studies the most expensive prize. It is a Memorial Crystal, which Mordecai explains contains a dead god’s or demigod’s memories rather than the ordinary power held in a Soul Crystal. The elves found it while mining, and Imogen normally wears it. The ritual requires her to offer her most valued possession. Carl does not have enough trophies to buy it.

Chapter 70

Mongo performs an elaborate routine with music, flares, mechanical copies, and a moonwalk. Even some hunters applaud. Donut insists she has already restrained her ambitions for the act. Ren’s small, fluffy familiar follows with a display that includes catching and eating missiles.

Outside, Bomo retrieves abandoned equipment from Zockau while the Sledge’s rescue convoy runs into flying mantis nymphs. The swarm threatens the stairwells and forces an attempted escape by air.

Mordecai concludes that Diwata has exploited a loophole in the time limit on divine visits: the god is still on the floor because an active birth spell has not ended. In mantis form, Diwata keeps producing the swarm. Mordecai believes that form limits the god’s other abilities, but has not tested the limit. Carl also learns that the hunter sacrificed in the temple was Vrah’s brother and that the summoning was intended to cure her.

Chapter 71

Florin appears to be confronting Lucia, but is actually comforting her. She embraces him and asks for her mother, then abruptly returns to her familiar hostile manner.

Florin says he spoke with Jill, a seven-year-old Dutch girl who knew recent details he could recognize. He believes several real people, mostly children, are sharing Lucia’s body through a mechanism involving a dog and someone named Alexandro. Carl has seen the sudden changes, but neither man understands how they work. Zev refuses to explain and tells Carl to stay out of it.

Florin now wants to protect Lucia instead of taking revenge. When Ferdinand’s projection appears on Carl’s shoulder, Carl signals Samantha to begin moving through the castle while the familiar is distracted.

Chapter 72

Small passages on the map are cat tunnels leading toward security. Samantha enters them while Donut distracts Ferdinand. A tiara, enchanted toothpaste, and other effects temporarily raise Donut’s Charisma high enough to influence the familiar despite his greater level. That influence has not yet made him her minion.

Outside, the mantis swarm captures the Twister. Changelings escape by turning into birds, while the Sledge, Bonnie, Prudence, and her children reach the roof. The Sledge retains the airship’s controller and proposes crashing it into the sentinel towers. Carl agrees despite Louis’s distress.

Drawn by Donut’s influence through the projection, Ferdinand leaves the queen’s room and physically travels toward the crawler ballroom. Carl had hoped to keep him near Imogen. He misses Samantha in the tunnels and settles near the judges. Samantha reaches security and finds five guards already dead. She has also handed away the sleep-potion ball meant to incapacitate them, so that part of the plan is unavailable.

Imogen arrives and seals the party against entry, exit, and outside influence. Carl briefly forgets that the potions he bought remain inside unopened prize boxes. Donut reminds him that they cannot use those supplies yet.

Chapter 73

Imogen orders Ferdinand back, but the sealed party prevents him from returning. She then drops Gideon’s severed body at Carl’s feet and claims to have killed him during the outside assault. His removal from Carl’s contacts confirms his death. The Sledge crashes the Twister into the towers, but Imogen remains protected inside the sealed ritual.

Samantha removes the crawler crystals, restoring spells and inventory without triggering the alert Britney disabled. Someone has already removed the hunter crystals and stolen the larger overlay crystal. Carl infers that Diwata entered first, intending to let the hunters attack before the overlay’s remaining power runs out. He orders Samantha to replace the hunter crystals and take away their restored abilities.

Nymphs overwhelm the approaches while bramble drives other crawlers toward the stairs. The Sledge reports that Prudence died protecting her children, who escaped with Bonnie. Carl considers breaking the seal by attacking Eva and sacrificing himself to the Nothing, but has not acted.

Samantha confronts Diwata and bites the stolen crystal. The explosion breaks through the castle floors and exposes the Nothing, yet leaves the divine seal intact. Signet says Edgar has died and that his attempt to preserve Grimaldi could not restore him. She explains that Tina must complete her dance with her mother present; she does not have to regain her original body. After hearing the outsiders describe their control of her life, Signet chooses to perform the Marauder ritual herself, taking the place of Carl’s proposed sacrifice.

Chapter 74

Donut drinks a potion prepared from her own blood to charm cats. Ferdinand officially becomes her minion, gaining the party connection that ordinary social influence could not provide. She sings a song Beatrice used to sing, drawing the audience into the performance before Tina begins her dance.

Kiwi uses the enchanted wand under Donut’s direction, creating an effect that makes the audience receptive to the recital. Bomo and Very Sullen lower a seascape while Mongo and costumed raptors support Tina. Carl distributes Feather Fall potions, and the Sledge begins casting Zerzura.

Signet announces that she will become a Marauder herself rather than leave only a memorial. Carl gives her the knife he once took from her. She sacrifices herself, and her rising blood attacks Imogen. The strike breaks the divine truce. The Nothing takes Signet while the ballroom’s protections end and the remote judges disappear.

Carl equips the Ring of Divine Suffering, marks Vrah, and fills the room with smoke. Signet’s decision has opened the battle without Carl carrying out his plan to attack Eva.

Chapter 75

Donut’s raptors attack the hunters while Mongo and Kiwi maul Vrah. Samantha joins the fighting, and Tina tears through the occupants of the hunter attendant room. Carl’s ring confirms Vrah’s death. He removes it rather than take on another mark that could prevent him from healing.

Signet’s tattoos have become independent Memory Golems. Di-We fights while Nadine comforts the child likeness of Clint. Nadine explains that the forms can persist, but retain only the memories they already hold. They have not restored the dead people or brought Signet back from the Nothing.

The incomplete body of Signet’s mother, Princess Lunette, is also left behind. Nadine says Signet wanted Samantha to have it and seek a Pulpmancer. Carl stores the body for her.

Donut calls Kiwi back to the stage and uses I Take It All Back on her. Kiwi becomes a pregnant bear again. Tina recognizes her restored mother but remains a dinosaur; the dance and reunion complete The Recital.

The Sledge finishes Zerzura. Carl explains how he obtained the Feather Fall potions: Prepotente let him into a temporary safe room long enough to open the prize box, in exchange for becoming party leader. Carl drinks a potion to slow his fall as the castle begins to transfer.

Chapter 76

The castle moves to Floor Nine with the changelings, Signet’s golems, restored Kiwi, and Tina. The crawlers, hunters, remaining enemies, and most pets stay behind, suspended where the building used to be. The AI announces a four-team fight: crawlers, hunters, Imogen’s force, and Diwata. Bramble closes around the arena, and everyone falls into the exposed pit when the freeze ends.

Diwata appears as an enormous mantis producing more offspring. Imogen’s attacks devastate the fighters and mortally wound the Popovs’ adult body. The crawlers try to maintain protection with shields, smoke, healing, and stuns.

Katia puts on a newly arrived sponsor beanie as the party coordinates its final spell boosts. Donut’s hidden training was for Laundry Day, not Magic Missile. She raised it to nine, used Pawna’s Cries to reach twelve, and now drinks Pawna’s Tears to reach her class’s level-fifteen cap. The earlier plan to combine other allies’ boosts had failed. Carl uses a Cookbook insight: Circe is the mortal wearing the divine mantle, and she can be targeted separately from Diwata. Laundry Day strips her borrowed protection. Diwata returns to the Halls of Ascendency, and the swarm kills Circe, ending the continuous births.

Carl kills the final hunter, Zabit, by triggering Zabit’s own mines. Imogen continues slaughtering opponents. Gwen dies, Tran loses his legs, and reflected lightning interacts disastrously with Britney’s light-eating butterflies, burning her and killing Firas.

Carl falls unconscious during the final assault. Prepotente delivers a close-range potion attack, and the system announces Imogen’s death and completion of Vengeance of the Daughter. The survivors will dispute who earned the kill.

Chapter 77

Carl wakes beneath the collapsing bramble. Ferdinand is absent but still in the party, indicating he is alive. Louis, Britney, and Tran have survived with serious injuries, while Firas, Gwen, and Gideon are dead. Donut has lost her collar. Osvaldo takes Imogen’s Memorial Crystal and teleports away despite Prepotente’s claim to the reward.

Katia goes after Eva beneath the debris. Later notifications confirm Eva’s death, but Carl does not yet know everything that happened between them.

The Popovs have survived the death of their adult body as two separate infant forms. Their chosen race splits at death according to its number of heads. Now too young for the dungeon, they are removed to the surface children’s facility. Zev says their guide selected the race knowing this could let them escape.

Carl and Donut become co-warlords of a new Faction Wars team, the Princess Posse. Outside fan fundraising financed the entry, and a notification confirms that the transferred castle’s troops have reached the ninth floor. They have not seen the arrivals’ condition or casualties, so the notification does not resolve Quasar’s warning about Zerzura. D’Nadia’s kingdom has taken another vacated slot. Each team receives a vote, and Carl proposes removing the safety protections that shield faction sponsors. The proposal has not passed.

Prepotente identifies the stolen prize as Apito’s Memorial Crystal, a troubling claim because Apito is supposed to be alive. Emberus updates Carl’s quest to require the crystal, which remains with Osvaldo. Prepotente chooses to descend immediately, leading Carl and Donut toward the next floor with his Pole Position purchase.

Epilogue

Despite the announced swap, Floor Seven is the Great Race. Carl, Donut, and Prepotente enter a glass Pole Position chamber while administrative attempts to freeze or stop them repeatedly fail. The AI insists on its own rules. Donut chooses Viper Queen as her new class before consulting Carl or Mordecai.

Prepotente recognizes the race’s connection to a fairy tale about a changing maze. His sponsor’s strange gifts and the public announcements supplied clues, and Carl’s lore book points to a different intended floor. Prepotente leaves the party, restoring Donut’s leadership, then uses the apparently useless enchanted rod, hammer, and a potion against the chamber’s rear wall.

A fissure spreads through the maze. Cascadia begs him to stop, but Prepotente invokes Miriam and destroys the entire floor. All the crawlers are pulled into portals for Floor Eight without running the race.

Carl and Donut arrive together in a selection chamber, now separate from Prepotente. Carl’s lore book covers the Bahamas, so he argues for that starting region. Donut selects the Florida panhandle instead. They are choosing a region of the dungeon floor, not returning to Earth’s surface.

A final return to Katia’s perspective reveals what happened beneath the battlefield. Supported by Bautista and Li Na, she confronts Eva, whose record now shows fifty-one crawler kills. Li Na prevents Eva’s wounds from healing while Katia removes her means of escape and fatally wounds her.

Before dying, Eva pulls out the Crown of the Sepsis Whore and places it on Katia. It instantly equips and disappears into her changeling body. A protective hat or the beanie worn earlier in the fight could have blocked the transfer, but Katia was wearing neither when Eva crowned her. Her later drug-fueled visions imagine rescuing the child Eva once was and avoiding the crown. Those imagined alternatives do not undo what happened.

Under the crown’s current rule, only one of Katia and Donut can descend from Floor Nine to Floor Ten. Carl and Donut do not know that Eva has left them this final trap.