Chapter 8 of 48 · Book 1, Dungeon Crawler Carl

Chapter 8 — Rats and Scatterers

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl · Part: The First Floor · Previous: Chapter 7 — The Royal Court · Next: Chapter 9 — The Polish McDonald's · Floor: Floor 1 — The Tutorial · Series: the series

Opening

» Time to Level Collapse: Four days, 20 hours.

Summary

Leaving, Mordecai whispers that no exit is worth taking, 'Not until floor 12'. In the tunnel Carl tells Donut he is going his own way; she says she is sorry, that she is scared and needs him, and that she saw him on Craigslist looking at cat-friendly apartments to steal her from Bea. He had not admitted that to himself. Then a Bad Llama spits lava: Donut's missiles take an eye, Carl breaks his hand on its face and ruptures its glowing throat, the kill goes to Donut with an assist by her Royal Bodyguard, and the corpse drops two baggies of trailer-park meth. Rats and Scatterers, the first grind: Carl works out the experience split, and that Donut's mana returns about a point a minute to his point an hour. At level 3 come Foot Soldier and Smush, the latter read aloud by an AI that is plainly breathing hard. Donut is trying, visibly, to be less of an asshole, and is still a cat: she rubs against his legs while he rests and then asks 'What?'

The chapter ends as they step into the first safe room, a Scatterer nest just past its door.

Characters

• Carl — Level 3; Fatigued; punts rats into walls.
• Princess Donut — Level 2; Magic Missile to skill 3; 'take one for your princess.'

Locations

• The First Floor — The tighter inner hallways, green with lichen.
• Safe rooms — Found at the chapter's end.

Motifs

• The crawler count — Not yet: the count is read on the safe-room screen next chapter.