Carl's Doomsday Scenario - Dungeon Crawler Carl 2

“Cats don’t shoot lasers from their eyes, either, but here we are, Carl. Mama needs a night off.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Trigger Warnings: Death, Violence, Apocalyptic Events

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SUMMARY

Characters

New Characters

Hekla - Leader of the Brynhild’s Daughters party (a large party of women from Iceland).

Katia - Member of Hekla’s party. Donut promises Helka they will team up with her and help keep her safe. Her race is human, her class is Doppleganger. She has to learn how to shape her body into what she wants it to look like. Not great at it, Mordecai helps her. Carl is leery of her at first but seems to trust her.

Daniel Bautista - another crawler. Carl and Donut had previously found some dead crawlers by the circus and they were related to Daniel. Carl tells him they killed the mob responsible and Daniel says he is in their debt now.

Carl - 27 year old, ex-US Coast Guard, working as a marine tech, living in Seattle.

GC, BWR, NW Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk - Carl's Persian cat who has won lots of awards and who enters the Dungeon with him.

Bea - Donut’s "real" owner, Carl’s (ex) girlfriend. Donut lets slip a few times that Bea has cheated on Carl more than once.

Mordecai - Carl and Donut’s guide in the Dungeon. The info box says is a “Rat Hooligan, Level 50” and that he is non-combatant. Once upon a time, he was a crawler after his world was taken over. He came into this game as a Skyfowl. He has a picture of his mom and brother but doesn’t want to talk about them. Says that after his season he can leave the Dungeon and go off into the universe, but he can never go back to his home planet.

Lucia Mar - 13 year old girl with a pair of Rottweilers.

Frank Q and Maggie My - Carl and Donut first meet them in a safe room where they try to attack them. Carl and Donut get away and set a trap for them. They find out later that Maggie’s daughter got injured by Carl’s bomb, and Maggie killed her. Maggie gets gifted a tracking spell from Maestro and implies she will hunt Carl down and kill him and Donut.

Meadow Lark Party - Brandon An and Chris Andrews (brothers), Yolanda Martinez, and Imani C who were all working in a nursing home and had evacuated it due a fire that Agatha (homeless lady with a shopping cart) had started.

Odette - Host of “Dungeon Crawler After Hours with Odette”. Used to be a crawler, was human-ish until she lost her legs in a battle. Now she uses crab legs to get around on her show or a little moving platform. Wears a weird get up for her show, Carl describes her as a “naked crab-taur wearing a bug mask”. Was Mordecai’s trainer when he was in the Dungeon. Appears to be on Carl and Donut’s side.

Zev - Carl and Donut’s PR agent. Works for the Borant corp but is on Carl and Donut’s side. Donut and her bond over Gossip Girl and other TV shows.

Mutka - takes over for Zev when she gets put in a “time out”.

Maestro - Host of “Death Watch Extreme Dungeon Mayhem”. Also Prince of the Skull Empire. Carl and him do not like each other and Carl vows to kick his ass when they meet on the 9th floor.

Li Jun - another crawler who Carl meets on Maestro’s show. Carl helps him and his friend, Zhang, escape from a trap.

Borant Corporation - Led by the Kua-Tin species. They are in charge of this season of Dungeon Crawler and they are currently in massive debt and hoping to get out of it with this season.

Mongo - The third member of the Princess Donut party. Donut rescues him and he becomes their pet.

There are six main bosses: Neighborhood Boss (who drop Neighborhood Maps), Borough Boss, City Boss, Province Boss, Country Boss, and Floor Boss. Once you get to the 3rd floor, you have Elites.

Carl and Donut's New Rewards/Purchased

Carl	Donut
Collection of paperback Westerns.	A large cat tree.
Earth Hobby Potion - Levels up a random Earth hobby to Level 3. Carl gets Cesta Punta skill.	Earth Hobby Potion - Levels up a random Earth hobby to Level 3. Donut gets Scutelliphily (by the end of the book we still don’t know what this is).
Single casino chip - worth 100,000 in gold. Cannot be redeemed but can be played at the Desperado Club.	Clockwork Triplicate Spell - Can only cast on pets or minions, makes 2 robot twins that last for 1 minute.
Upgrade to BigBoi Boxers - +5 Dexterity, +5 Intelligence, +3 to constitution, FreeBalling benefit - 100% damage bonus to all attacks from the legs/feet…. As long as he’s not wearing anything else other than his boxers. So no pants…no shoes.	Enchanted Anklet of the Fallen Oak (looted from a dead Crawler) - +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +3 to the Double Tap skill.
Fan box reward: Xistera - related to his Cesta Punta skill. Now he has a thing he straps to his arm that has a scoop extended from his hand that he can throw things (like bombs).	Enchanted Fang Caps - that she gives to Mongo. Increases melee bite damage by 50%. Each bite has a 25% chance to inflict level 5 poisoned status and 10% chance to inflict level 5 paralyzed status.
	Skill potion that gave her a level 3 in Acute Ears - improved her hearing and what she sees on the minimap.
	Reward from Fan Box: Framed picture of Bea.

Carl and Donut's New Race and Class

Carl	Donut
Primal - human looking. All skills are unlocked and able to train to level 20.	Race: Cat
Compensated Anarchist - +1 Bomb surgeon skill, +1 to trap engineer skill, +1 to unarmed combat skill. -25% damage when using blades. +25% mana cost for damage-dealing spells. +5% skill progression speed in all trap and bomb making skills. +2 in Hide in Shadows skill. +Fear spell, +1 intelligence, +5 Charisma, +5 to Find Trap skill, +5 Backfire skill, +5 to Escape plan skill, access to Desperado Club (he already had it) and Naughty Boys Employment Agency. Also must choose a subclass when entering the 6th floor.	Class: Former Child Actor - Earth class based on jack of all trades subclass. Immunity to all poisons and diseases, Level 5 cockroach skill (guaranteed one free lethal fit a fight), +10 to Charisma, +15% faster growth on Charisma based skills, Manager benefit. She can pick a new specialty on every floor. She picks Artist Alley Mogul as her third floor specialty. Which means +5 to Dexterity, 15% bonus on money earned from sales, Enhanced Dodge skill. New benefits: Night vision, Slash attack, Cat-like reflexes, 9 lives
Stats after: Intelligence: 5; Constitution: 19; Dexterity: 11; Charisma: 25; Strength: 13-16	Stats after: Intelligence: 29; Constitution: 6; Dexterity: 21; Charisma: 70; Strength: 20

Crawler count at start of 3rd floor: Approximately 700,000

Views: 371.5 Trillion; Followers: 7.8 Trillion; Favorites 1.1 Trillion

Crawler count at the end of the book, along with Carl and Donut's stats, are at the end of the summary.

Carl and Donut get transported to Mordecai on the 3rd floor. He is now an Incubus so he’s human looking and apparently, hot. Mordecai tells them it's time to pick their race and class. Donut is hard set at staying a cat so she just needs to pick her class. She picks Former Child Actor based on the advice Odette gave her which is that this class gets her the Manager Benefit. Which means - Mordecai will be with them for the remainder of the game, teleported to every safe room they go into. He’s also restricted on what he can tell them as a game guide, but as a manager, he isn’t. He’s also really good at potions. Mordeaci isn’t very happy about this because he wanted to go to the magic guild. Carl and Donut also don’t tell him that this was Odette’s idea. They act surprised about the manager's benefit when he explains it to them.

The 3rd floor is called the Over City. Cities appear every 3 floors. Mordecai says it’s basically an illusion. They are still under the surface of Earth and it's basically a set. Like a movie. The plot is that there’s a massive volcano and these levels are inside of it. The Over City is the top of 6 layers. There’s a monster at the bottom, that breathed out poisonous gas, and killed/transformed 90% of the volcano world. The survivors live in the villages, the monsters live in between the villages in the ruins. The sixth floor is the second layer and it's called Hunting Grounds. Also has villages but the NPCs are wealthier. Also, tourists from the galaxy can go there and hunt Crawlers. Apparently, the 18th floor is where the rich beings in the galaxy go to party it up. Carl’s confused because that’s the last level and shouldn’t it be the hardest? But as Mordecai reminds him, no one has ever gotten that far.

There’s the individual Crawler storylines but now there are other stories going on in the background to entertain viewers. It looks like a town - it has shops and lots of NPCs wandering around. Mordecai tells them that most of the NPCs have been made by the Borant Corp and that every season they get regenerated, their minds wiped clean, new memories implanted.

Mordecai tells them that this village is a small one and they need to make their way to a bigger one down the road, so they must venture out into the ruins. There are mobs in the ruins, not too bad of ones during the day but Carl and Donut should not be out at night. In the villages, it's safe during the day, and at night only on the main roads. There are guards in the villages so don’t cross them or do anything to draw their attention, there is no jail - just death.

As they are venturing their way to the next village they stumble upon something new for this floor - Quests.

The first Quest has to do with a circus and an Elite named Signet. Carl lies to her and tells her that they can meet up the next night. The next morning, they are trying to make their way to another village, when Signet knocks them out. Carl wakes up and Signet says he can get Donut back once he helps her. There’s this whole side story going on but the end result is that Carl helps Signet, gets back to Donut in time to see that her and Mongo are being attacked, and then saves both of them.

Brandon sends Carl a chat telling him that they are trying to get all the older people to pick something that's not human so that their physical and mental abilities will increase. He says he stayed human but Chris and Imani did not.

Carl and Donut get approached by an orc named GumGum and she asks for their help. Mordecai tells them it's just another quest and they don’t have to accept them.

The next day, they go shopping and sell some of their inventory. The most important thing they get is a pet carrier for Mongo. He can be put in the pet carrier and stored in Donut’s inventory to stay safe.

They run into GumGum again and she tells them that she keeps finding dead women, all hookers, who have been drained of blood. They don’t agree to the quest but tell her they will see what they can do.

That night they go to the Desperado Club. Mordecai tells them that once they enter the members-only area, they are in the same room as everyone else in the whole dungeon. But when they leave, they leave where they came in. They meet Quint, a drug dealer, and buy a starter kit (because Mordecai says so) - everything they need to start their own drug making business. Quint also tells them that Mordecai will be “immortal” on the 4th floor, thanks to being their manager. He won’t die if he gets attacked, just removed from the game. He’ll still get to retire from the Dungeon when this season is over and he’ll still be free. He also gets paid way more money now as a manager than he would have as a guildmaster. Carl can’t figure out why he was so upset to be chosen as Donut’s manager and Mordecai won’t tell him. He does tell him that it's not anything personal.

Mordecai leads them to Silk Road - kinda like a Farmers Market. Carl buys some more explosives from a stand.

It's dark when they leave and they let Mongo out of his kennel on the way back to the safe room. But Mongo leaves the main road and goes down an alley. Even though it's not safe off the main road at night, they follow. They find GumGum the Orc dead and they encounter Krasue. Krasue is basically a flying decapitated head that’s a vampire. Hanging out of their necks are all their organs. They can be killed by destroying the head but it will come back until you find the dead body and destroy it. They also encounter an Elf, who tries to kill them, so Carl kicks him in the nuts and Donut fires a missile at his head. He’s wearing a shirt that says “201st Security Group - Magical ops”.

They loot money off of him and then they find a Gate Pass and a Mysterious Letter on GumGum. Carl takes both.

Carl takes the Elf’s shirt and shows Mordecai later. Mordecai says that the Elf belonged to a gang and the “201st Security Group - Magical ops” is what they call themselves. They believe that Skyfowl (which this city is full of) are angels and should be protected and that everyone who isn’t a Skyfowl or in their gang wants Skyfowls to die. Mordecai says they are extreme conspiracy theorists who are crazy.

Carl and Mordecai examine the two letters GumGum had. The Mysterious Letter is written in a weird language and they don’t know what it says. The Gate Pass is like a Get Out of Jail Free Card with the guards. They basically just look the other way when you’re breaking the law.

The next show they’re booked on is “Danger Zone with Ripper Wonton”. They are guests on there with Manasa (a Naga and a famous singer), Tucker (human comedian who Carl dislikes immediately), Princess D’nadia (race called the Saccathians, Princess of the Prism), and Helka. Helka is another Crawler who was the leader of the Brynhild’s Daughters. She tells them that they all separated upon arrival to the 3rd floor and that one of her team members is near Carl. She asks Carl and Donut if they will help her and Donut agrees very quickly.

Ripper (the host) tells Carl that Prince Maestro has been disowned by the King. The Skull Empire people have been showing their unhappiness with the current administration and Ripper wants to know what Carl thinks about it. Carl says well on Earth, we would just overthrow a government and make our own. Some of the audience cheer, some look shocked or uncomfortable. Manasa’s hologram all of a sudden blinks out and she’s gone. Everything goes haywire for a minute and when everything restores, except for Manasa, they find out that she was close by on another ship (remember when they do interviews, they are taken to Earth’s surface on a ship) and it got blown up. There’s a statement that Ripper shows from Prince Stalwart of the Skull Empire (Maestro’s brother). Stalwart says that by the time people see this, Carl and Donut’s boat will have been attacked and they will be dead. Except….Manasa was in the boat that Carl and Donut were supposed to be in. Within minutes, the Valtay destroys a Skull Empire yacht, but Stalwart wasn’t on board. Maestro and Queen Consort Ugloo were.

Carl believes they were set up and that maybe Borant wanted the Skull Empire to kill Manasa to piss off the Valtay so that the Valtay would attack Skull and Borant could just be forgotten about for a bit (since they owe a lot of money to Valtay).

Back to the quest and this is a long one - basically takes up the rest of the book and we’re only at 70% - so here’s the quick facts.

-Helka’s friend, Katia Grim, finds them and she joins their party.

-Carl blows up the town official and becomes Magistrate of the Medium Skyfowl Settlement. He will lose this title when he goes down to the 4th floor.

-After blowing up part of the building, they go in to check it out and find a lot of dead women: human, elves, dwarves, orcs. This is where the Krasue are coming from. In the center of the room, is Magistrate Featherfall. He’s been gone awhile so Carl didn’t kill him. Carl did kill Miss Quill, his assistant, who was the real Magistrate (secretly).

-One of the women wakes up and tells them that Miss Quill was the real ringleader and she took them to her husband, Remex, across the street. He’s not alive, but he’s not dead, and he’s doing something with a big spell.

-Remex is a Soul Leech Capacitor. He says a lot of things but basically that Miss Quill was trying to get an army to complete The Final War. It would kill everyone on the level except for the Skyfowl.

-Carl and Donut finally complete the quest without killing Remex and then they get another one. A Group Quest.

-All Crawlers within 45 kilometers automatically get this Quest. Donut’s party are the leaders and unlike everyone else, cannot opt out. There’s going to be a really big explosion and everyone in the blast area will die unless they get to a safe room in 60 seconds from the announcement. Oh and they have 7 minutes before the boom.

-There’s a soul gem in the room with Remex. Carl puts it into a Sheol Glass Reaper Case he stole from Miss Quill. It wouldn’t go into his inventory until it went off, which nothing happened, and then he could put it in there.

-Unfortunately, Remex is now going to explode (the game AI really wants an explosion to occur). There will be 4 minishocks before the big bang. Each shock will do something different to their magical items. Every Crawler who is still outside of a safe room starts running towards the stairs. Mordecai tells them to take everything magical off and put it in their inventory to be safe. Everything magical is taken off except for Donut’s tiara. If she takes it off, it will appear in the Dungeon somewhere else, and if someone else puts it on, that's another person they will have to kill. Her and Carl are arguing about it but the minishock makes her decision for her and it turns to dust on her head.

-There’s still two days and 18 hours left on the floor but they head down the stairs anyways (it's this or die). Carl had put a bunch of dynamite in the building where he found Remex. He had given the detonator to Katia and he tells her to hit the button before they go in the doorway of the fourth floor.

The fourth floor door says “This is where the real fun begins. Mind the gap.”

Epilogue - When a Crawler goes down the stairs when there are more than 6 hours left on the timer, they just hang out in limbo until 6 hours are remaining. To them it feels like no time has passed but the two days and 18 hours still passed anyways. They have to go to Odette’s show prior to getting to the 4th floor.

On Odette’s show, they find out that the explosions worked. Which Borant didn’t like, they shouldn’t have worked because the minishocks took out the magical items. They filed an appeal against the game’s AI and a Syndicate Court said too bad, so sad. They also said Carl and Donut should receive all their achievements and rewards for the explosion. But Borant gets one veto a season and they used that veto on this. They have NEVER used it on the 3rd floor before, they save it for later floors. So they did not get any rewards.

Only one Crawler managed to open a reward box (a Celestial box, extremely rare) as almost everyone else went down the stairs and was in limbo.

After the show, Odette warns Carl about Helka. Helka wants Donut to join her party….without Carl.

Crawler count at the end of Floor 2: Approx. 600,000 (last update was 649,433)

Views: 43.1 Quadrillion; Followers 677 Trillion; Favorites 158.1 Trillion

End of Floor 3 Leaderboard

Name	Level	Bounty
Lucia Mar	29	1,000,000
Helka	28	500,000
Carl	27	100,000
Donut	26	100,000
Li Jun	25	100,000