Carl and Princess Donut leave Mordecai's Tutorial Guild with four days and twenty hours until the level collapses. Mordecai explains that he is now their registered guide and that future training guilds will return them to him until the fourth floor. Before shutting the door, Mordecai privately warns Carl that whatever offers come before floor twelve are “not worth it,” leaving Carl unsettled and doubtful he will survive long enough for that advice to matter.

As Carl and Donut head east, Donut insists they need to do something spectacular before the dungeon broadcast begins and that Carl needs pants for presentation. Carl, exhausted by Donut's insults and royal attitude, threatens to leave the party. Donut drops the act enough to apologize, explaining that her new intelligence has made her reinterpret her old life as a champion show cat while also remembering her affection for sitting with Carl; she admits she is scared and does not want to be alone. Donut also reveals she knew Carl had considered keeping her rather than returning her to Beatrice's family, which forces Carl to admit the truth to himself and continue with her.

Near a dark side passage, Donut senses something and fires Magic Missile before Carl can identify the target. The wounded creature charges and is revealed to be a level-three Bad Llama that spits lava. Donut runs out of mana after damaging it heavily, so Carl has to fight at close range. Carl punches the llama in the face and throat, rupturing the organ that produces its lava and killing it, though Carl breaks his hand in the process; his regeneration repairs the injury within minutes.

Because Donut dealt most of the damage, Donut chooses loot first from the llama corpse, taking skin and steak while Carl claims the remaining steak and meth. Both gain achievements, and Donut levels up. The fight convinces Carl they need caution, but Donut argues they need rapid leveling and leads them away from the main road into narrower, lichen-lit halls.

As Carl and Donut explore, Carl notices the dungeon's strange bathrooms, discovering that different doors seem to access the same human toilet room for him while Donut's version becomes a litterbox. Carl grows increasingly fatigued and begins looking for a safe room. They fight level-two rats, then more rats and cockroach-like Scatterers; Carl mostly kills them by kicking, stomping, and punting them, while Donut contributes one Magic Missile per fight to improve her spell skill.

The skirmishes bring Carl to level three and grant him the Foot Soldier and Smush skills, both enhancing his foot-based attacks. The disturbing, fetishistic description of Smush makes Carl uncomfortable, but Donut jokes that they should exploit any apparent favoritism from the dungeon system. With Scatterers becoming more frequent and a larger cavern nearby, Carl and Donut avoid pursuit and finally enter a glowing safe room.