Story so far
In the floor's climax Carl executes his true plan. He bait-fights the burrowed Maggie My (controlling Chris via the Scree worm), drinks a Phase Lava Rock potion to reach into Chris's head and pull the worm — which burrows into Carl until a double-heal potion ejects her from his neck and Mongo devours her, ending the Frank-and-Maggie saga and freeing Chris. When the harem demon Slit arrives hunting Samantha, the NFC rushes him an Emergency Platinum box — a head-throwing xistera extension — and he hurls Samantha 50 km to duel Slit, whom Samantha's own mother-god then rips in two.
Then the reveal: the Gate pieces Katia handed off at the Desperado were decoys; Carl kept the real Gate. Rather than send a god to Larracos, he sends Juice Box through and floods the ninth-floor city with seawater, timed bombs, sharks, and jellyfish — gutting the faction-war economy by drowning its markets and NPC merchants. Now the dungeon's #1 crawler (double million-gold bounty), he publicly vows to hunt and kill every hunter who shares his floor.
Appearance
A big barefoot human in patch-jacket and bandana, sun tattoos glowing on his hands, a fresh, healed puncture at his neck, holding aloft the Ring of Divine Suffering.
Role
Protagonist who ends his oldest hunter, guts the enemy economy, and declares open war as the new #1.
Relationships
Maggie My — The hunter he finally kills, freeing Chris.
Juice Box — Sent through the real Gate to Larracos as he floods the city.
Larracos — The ninth-floor city he floods to wreck the faction-war economy.
Psamathe — The god-head he flings to fight the demon Slit.
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
Sources — 26 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
- The #3 crawler and secret Dungeon Anarchist, arriving on the fifth floor's air quadrant with a doubled bounty on his head.
Chapter 2
- The #3 crawler tallies his floor-four loot — a legendary skill potion, a spider-climb toe ring, and a face tattoo marking him as a species-killer.
Chapter 3
- Carl rallies the bubble's scattered crawlers and, ambushed by gnome planes, resolves to build an armored anti-aircraft dune buggy.
Chapter 4
- Now the #2 crawler, Carl builds the tracked Royal Chariot and, watching Lucia Mar murder a healer on the recap, resolves to put her down.
Chapter 6
- Carl infiltrates Hump Town's city hall, uncovers a changeling conspiracy and the caged gnome hostage Wynne, and gains the Necropolis map.
Chapter 10
- After a failed heist, Carl kills the cyborg boss Ruckus, gains a pacifist sponsor, learns Chris is in the bubble, and races a 75-minute clock to save Hump Town.
Chapter 14
- Carl weathers the AI's gerbil tantrum, then faces the gutting discovery that his friend Chris is a puppet worn by the killer Maggie.
Chapter 16
- Carl learns the Gate's true cost, flies a scrap biplane up to the last flying castle, and kills the magic-nulling goose boss to take the air quadrant.
Chapter 17
- Carl strips the flying house bare, tames its soul crystal, learns his looted watch signals Henrik, and turns his mind to the land quadrant and a risky new plan.
Chapter 18
- Carl executes his first deliberate assassination, murdering handler Loita on the sealed Veriluxx infomercial sub by weaponizing the self-destructing robot toy.
Chapter 19
- Hauled before a Syndicate liaison who knows exactly how he killed Loita, Carl bluffs, refuses to confess or name his source, and walks free — spared only because he's too profitable.
Chapter 20
- Carl reaches the land quadrant, reckons with being dispensable, and rigs the sandcastle's lightning-rod door to storm the sand-mage's fortress the hard way.
Chapter 21
- Inside the glass castle, Carl seizes the winding box and the god-summoning truth: the mage was duped into loosing a lesser deity now riding the necropolis ghost.
Chapter 22
- Carl kills the sand-ooze boss by ceiling-walking over its core with burn gel, then is flushed with Donut into the deadly water quadrant.
Chapter 23
- Carl swims Donut clear of shark-infested water, kayaks to shore, and studies the mage's note that lays bare how the Gate works — and a scheme forming in his head.
Chapter 24
- Carl inherits a talking possessed sex-doll head — the deity Psamathe's true half — and quietly interrogates Mordecai about the ninth-floor faction war and the sixth-floor Hunting Grounds.
Chapter 25
- Carl leads a dive into the drowned submarine Akula to shut off the pump flooding the necropolis — and comes face to face with the ghost of Quetzalcoatlus.
Chapter 26
- Carl loots the third Gate watch off dead Henrik, learns the ghost's true nature, and gets the whole submarine swallowed by the city boss Lusca.
Chapter 27
- Carl kills the city boss Lusca from inside her mouth, then uses the completed Gate of the Feral Gods to teleport out — summoning a feral god into the bubble.
Chapter 28
- Carl reaps huge loot from the city-boss kill, learns the feral god he summoned is the blind fire-god Emberus hunting his lost dog Orthrus, and realizes crawlers are dying for it.
Chapter 29
- Carl liberates the final quadrant by sending the doomed tomb-raiders to connect the lightning cable, killing the ghost — and inherits a group quest to save the giant puppy Orthrus.
Chapter 30
- Carl pilots the ramshackle biplane out of the popped bubble to heal Orthrus and lure him into the Lacuna with a Meat Hooks scroll — sparking a world-wide quest to kill the puppy.
Chapter 31
- Carl worships Emberus and hurls a celestial grenade to summon the god onto the dying puppy — reuniting them, gaining invulnerability, and ripping off Quan Ch's arm.
Chapter 32
- Now an Acolyte of Emberus with two church quests, Carl loots Quan's rings and launches the mass bubble-evacuation, ferrying 500 crawlers out via feral-god-summoning gates.
Chapter 33
- As the mass evacuation saves ~1,500 crawlers, Carl endures a farewell from the freed Florin and the gut-punch of Katia announcing she'll leave the party.
Chapter 34
- Carl kills Maggie, frees Chris, secretly keeps the real Gate, and floods the ninth-floor city Larracos with water, bombs, and sharks — vaulting to #1 crawler.