Chapter 34 of 35 · Book 3, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Chapter 34 — Tizquick and Brandy

Book: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook · Previous: Chapter 33 — Death Challenge · Next: Epilogue — Epilogue: the wheel · Floor: Floor 4 — The Iron Tangle · Series: the series

Opening

“I wish we could’ve used my bolt,” Katia said as we carried the portal cart, turned it and

Summary

Five hours. The Bolt of Ophiotaurus stays in Katia's inventory — 'more about sending a message to her brother.' The mimic drops the Map of the Stars, which adds bosses to a wide map. Elle: 'It's like you have one of those teacher's editions.' Donut: 'His name is Mordecai.' A second champion falls somewhere — 'there's all sorts of stuff going on out there that we're not part of.' The plan: fill the Nightmare with satchels and drive it into the abyss so enough Krakaren die at once to pop every remaining crystal. Fire Brandy refuses to leave. It is three babies now; after Tizquick she remembers — a boat's boiler, a castle's heating, one or two children each time, all named against the rules, all gone, and she always back. 'They won't use me like this ever again.' Tizquick will make her blow 'nice and big' at the bottom. 'Sometimes it's not always about the experience.' 'I understand what this is. You must help us […] we shouldn't be enemies in this.' 'No, we shouldn’t.' The train whistles twice and goes. Carl thinks of his mother, who tried to kill his father and herself as a birthday present and half succeeded, and of everyone who jumped into certain death for him: 'at the edge of the apocalypse, I finally realized how much I needed other people.' The notifications come: level 41, a fan box, generators exploding everywhere. 'Who do you think I am? Miss Beatrice?'

At station 36 the whole group has waited for them at the open stairwell. Nobody will buy a hat now; Carl does not tell Donut. Agatha arrives — level 8, human, no class, the flamingo still in the cart — and the stairs become a ramp; Carl stops Imani from intercepting her. Loita, Admin: Odette is waiting, and 'our new arrangement.' 'WHERE IS ZEV?' Then Carl's own entry for the 25th edition: the NPCs and the mobs are victims too, and killing them is the best thing we can do for them; all twenty-four editions before talked about burning it down — 'We need to start killing them, too […] They will not break me. Fuck them all. But I will break them. I will break them all.'

Characters

• Fire Brandy — Three children; remembers the boat and the castle; drives her train into the abyss.
• Tizquick — Rides the bomb down with her: 'I know how this works.'
• Carl — Level 41; the mother remembered; the 25th edition's vow.
• Princess Donut — 'Who do you think I am? Miss Beatrice?'; the hats are worthless now.
• Agatha — Level 8, still classless; makes the stairs a ramp and goes down ahead of Carl.
• Elle McGibbons — 'Teacher's edition'; a kiss on the cheek for a promised scroll.
• Loita — Takes over: 'our new arrangement.'
• Katia Grim — Keeps the bolt for later.

Locations

• The Abyss — The Nightmare Express, with two NPCs aboard, detonated at the bottom.
• The stairwell rooms — Station 36's stairs open; the group waits; Agatha's ramp.

Motifs

• The mobs are victims — Brandy's choice; Carl's entry: killing them is mercy, and the operators must die too.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Carl's signed entry in the 25th edition.
• 'You're not going to break me' — Rewritten: 'They will not break me […] But I will break them.'
• Staying human — 'How much I needed other people.'
• Agatha — Down the ramp again, after Elle and ahead of Carl.