Chapter 1 of 48 · Book 1, Dungeon Crawler Carl

Chapter 1 — The transformation

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl · Part: The First Floor · Next: Chapter 2 — The staircase · Floor: Floor 1 — The Tutorial · Series: the series

Opening

The transformation occurred at approximately 2:23 AM, Pacific Standard Time.

Summary

At 2:23 in the morning on the third of January every building on Earth sinks into the ground, and Carl — twenty-seven, ex–Coast Guard, in boxer shorts, a leather jacket and his ex-girlfriend's too-small pink Crocs, down on the sidewalk coaxing her Persian out of a tree — is one of the few people outside to see it happen. He watches his neighbour Mrs. Parsons, leaning out of her first-floor window to complain, crushed with the building, her head landing at his feet; and he understands within minutes that the ornate staircases opening in the streets are the only shelter left on a winter night.

The chapter establishes the narrator's voice (profane, practical, self-deprecating), the cat under his arm, and the exact indignity of his situation: no pants, borrowed Crocs, and a show cat that hates him. A male, robotic voice, not speaking English but understood, announces that under Syndicate rules the planet has been seized, that the Borant Corporation holds its regency, and that survivors have one hour to enter an eighteen-level World Dungeon.

Characters

• Carl — Outside in boxers and a jacket when the world collapses; freezing, he runs for the light of the nearest entrance with Donut in his arms.
• Princess Donut — Still just a cat: Bea's grand champion, clawing at Carl's neck.
• Mrs. Parsons — The first-floor neighbour leaning out of her window to complain; crushed with the building, her head at Carl's feet.
• Bea — Absent in the Bahamas; the reason Carl is outside at all.

Locations

• The Seattle apartment — The last surface location: a second-storey window cracked for a cigarette, and the tree Donut jumps into.
• The Dungeon — Announced, not yet entered.

Motifs

• The Syndicate — The first announcement: the planet seized under Syndicate rules, Borant its regent.
• Carl's bare feet — Established on page one: Carl goes out in Bea's too-small pink Crocs, which will not last the first chase.