Place · from book 1
The Dungeon
The eighteen-floor structure that replaces the surface of the Earth at 2:23 in the morning, into which some thirteen million people descend: a maze of quadrant-sized squares, safe rooms, tutorial guilds and boss lairs, run as a broadcast for an interstellar audience and collapsing a floor at a time on a timer.
First appears: Book 1
Series arc
As of book 2. Eighteen floors, three seen. Book 1 gave the structure — quadrants, safe rooms, guilds, boss tiers, a timer per floor — and the hint that floors three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen and eighteen are one linked setting. Book 2 drew the map: the Over City on three, six and nine; the tenth's own rules; Divine Guardians on twelve; Sheol on fifteen; a resort on eighteen. Stairwells hide behind quests from here on.
Through book 1
Two of eighteen floors seen. Book 1 supplies the structure (quadrants, safe rooms, guilds, bosses in six tiers, a timer per floor) and one structural hint about the rest: floors three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen and eighteen exist simultaneously and are one linked setting (B1 ch. 44). The series' plot spine — floors, not books — starts here; floor pages arrive with book 2.
Through book 2
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 39/48 | 1–10, 12, 14–15, 18, 20–23, 25–30, 32, 35–48 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 17/26 | 1–3, 6–8, 10, 13–15, 18–21, 24–26 · the book's own page |
By book
The Dungeon in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
Named and explained in the first three chapters: eighteen floors under the surface, the first three a tutorial designed to drown crawlers in loot and kill them, floors collapsing on a timer (ch. 1–ch. 3); just under 13 million entering, and under 10 million left when it seals (ch. 4). The first floor is a condensed Seattle in a grid of squares (ch. 15); the second is cinderblock and grubs (ch. 30); the third onward, everyone says, is where it gets strange. Zev's parting hint (ch. 44): floors three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen and eighteen exist at once and are one linked setting.
The Dungeon in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Book 2 adds the shape of the whole: floors three and six are one volcano-world (Over City, Hunting Grounds), the fourth and fifth are random (ch. 3), and its capital sprawls on the ninth (ch. 18); the eighteenth is a billionaires' retreat and the fifteenth is Sheol (ch. 3, ch. 24); the tenth has rules of its own (ch. 15, ch. 24); a Divine Guardian guards a fire gate on the twelfth (ch. 7). Stairwells now hide behind quests (ch. 12), and the door at the bottom says 'Mind the gap' (ch. 25).