Carl descends the newly appeared staircase into the dungeon with Princess Donut clinging to him. The warmth relieves the freezing cold, but his frostbitten legs and feet burn as they recover. At the bottom, Carl finds a massive carved door and discovers he can mentally open and close information boxes, including one identifying the carving as a Kua-Tin, the dominant species behind the Borant Corporation.

After Carl opens the door, Donut bites him and runs ahead. The entrance seals behind Carl, and a game-show-like dungeon voice welcomes him to the first floor. A countdown appears showing just under five days before the floor collapses. Carl learns that he is Crawler #4,122, that Donut is also registered as a crawler, and that both are level 1. Carl receives several sarcastic achievements and loot-box rewards for entering early, bringing a cat, having no supplies, wearing no pants, carrying no weapon, and arriving without human companions.

Carl tries to figure out how to access his menu and rewards, then heads toward a sign for “Da Tutorial Guild.” When Carl steps into the indicated alley, the dungeon declares that he has fallen into an obvious trap. A goblin-driven steam contraption called a Goblin Murder Dozer bursts out, forcing Carl and Donut to flee down the main tunnel.

At a junction, Carl avoids the too-obvious narrow dark passage and turns right instead. He spots a barely visible door marked “Tutorial Guild,” earning another achievement that makes official signage easier to see. The door is locked, and while the Murder Dozer struggles to turn, two goblins dismount and advance on Carl with crude weapons.

Mordecai, a rat-like guild attendant, opens the door only partway and initially mistakes Carl for a mob before realizing he is a crawler. Mordecai refuses to let Carl in because hostile mobs are directly outside, but he tells Carl that loot boxes are accessed through the inventory after completing the tutorial and can only be opened in a safe zone. As the goblins attack, Carl knocks one down, realizes dungeon combat uses health bars, and kills the injured goblin while the other retreats.

Donut slips through the partially open chained door into the guild, causing Mordecai to panic about breaking the rules. Carl uses the moment to demand entry before the Murder Dozer returns. Mordecai opens the door, and Carl escapes inside just as the machine rolls over the dead goblin outside. Carl slams the door shut after flipping off the enraged goblins.