Chapter 37 of 48 · Book 1, Dungeon Crawler Carl

Chapter 37 — The janitors

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl · Part: The Second Floor · Previous: Chapter 36 — Zev · Next: Chapter 38 — The Rage Elemental · Floor: Floor 2 — The Second Floor · Series: the series

Opening

Mordecai shrieked in rage.

Summary

Mordecai punts the grubs that fell through the guild door back into the hall and explains the janitors: every corpse spawns up to fifteen, capped at 5,000 a quadrant, and Carl's 750 caged grubs and 85 clurichauns have hit the cap. 'You've fallen into a trap.' Carl and Donut carve a path back toward Meadow Lark, firebombing until it seems a waste of good moonshine.

Meadow Lark arrives as a parade float: thirty-nine residents on wheelchair-wheeled platforms chained together with Imani's 300-foot Yog's Special Chain, pulled by Chris and Imani in pig harnesses. Mrs. McGibbons propositions Carl from the last car. 'If we get to the point where we don't help each other anymore, that's when we stop being human,' Carl says, and coughs, and Zev asks him in his head to say it again without coughing. Then Jack stands up and unzips.

Characters

• Mordecai — Explains the spawn cap.
• Brandon — The float; the mind-horror boss they killed for wood.
• Chris — In harness.
• Imani — In harness; the chain was her scroll.
• Elle McGibbons — The tunnel of love.
• Jack — 'Bring that pussy over here' — then the wall.
• Zev — 'Can you say that for me again, but this time, don't cough.'
• Carl — The line about staying human.

Locations

• The Second Floor — The grub-choked hallways to the stairs.

Motifs

• Brindle grubs — The trap sprung: 5,000 of them.
• The residents' train — The float.
• Staying human — The line, and the focus group that calls it dead weight.
• Entertainment as machinery — Zev's note.