Chapter 44 of 48 · Book 1, Dungeon Crawler Carl

Chapter 44 — What Donut overheard

Book: Dungeon Crawler Carl · Part: The Second Floor · Previous: Chapter 43 — The Maestro explains himself · Next: Chapter 45 — The kobold boss chamber · Floor: Floor 2 — The Second Floor · Series: the series

Opening

» Time to Level Collapse: 3 Days, 14 hours

Summary

Trap Modules from Donut's box; Mukta never comes. Donut, small-voiced, says she heard Mordecai tell Carl to leave her before the ninth floor, and Carl does not answer. The recap: Le Mouvement wiped out by a Jell-O city boss, Imani flipping off the ceiling as she enters floor three, the count under a million, and Experience Denied replayed. Borant closes the stairwell exploit and turns on the Accounts tab: four kills, one gold coin per kill, a 25% deposit fee rounded up.

Zev returns, censured and cleared, to explain the Maestro's show belongs to Crown Prince Stalwart of the Skull Empire, that Borant commends Carl's 'proper respect,' that every third floor is one linked setting, and that a flawless, anonymous, explicit fan video — the Pork Boy Snick — has doubled Carl's appearance fee and made the Party very happy. Donut leaves the room shouting that he sure squealed a lot.

Characters

• Zev — Back; the politics of the Skull Empire; the snick.
• Princess Donut — 'I heard him.' Then the squealing joke.
• Carl — Decides to face Maggie rather than run.
• Prince Maestro — Now Carl's Naughty Little Piggie.
• Imani — The middle finger on the recap.

Locations

• Safe rooms — The industrial-kitchen room with the toaster.

Motifs

• The Skull Empire — Stalwart, their unnamed father, 'not known for their measured responses to insults'
• The show — The snick; 'There's no such thing as bad publicity.'
• The crawler count — 990,303.
• Borant — 'three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, and eighteen, all come into existence at the same time'