Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1
Dungeon Crawler Carl
by Matt Dinniman
Contents
Chapter 5
Overview
Mordecai unlocks Carl’s new dimensional inventory and helps Carl process the achievements, level-up, and loot boxes earned since entering the dungeon. Carl gains useful supplies, weapons, enchanted gear, dynamite, and a branded Goblin Pass, but the most important reward is an Enhanced Pet Biscuit from a Legendary Pet Box.
When Princess Donut eats the biscuit before Carl can decide whether to use or sell it, she undergoes a frightening transformation inside the safe guildhall. The chapter shifts Donut from helpless pet to an unknown magical variable, raising the stakes for Carl’s survival and companionship.
Summary
Mordecai activates Carl’s inventory and explains Borant’s new system: crawlers now have dimensional storage that can hold anything Carl can lift for several seconds, except living creatures, which die if stored. Mordecai gives Carl a standard healing potion, shows him how to store and retrieve it, and advises him to place potions on a hotlist so they can be used instantly.
When Mordecai checks Carl’s notifications, Mordecai is shocked that Carl has a Legendary Pet Box. Carl reviews the achievements earned since entering the dungeon, including damaging and killing mobs, killing an armed enemy barehanded, killing a higher-level mob, causing an explosion, reaching level 2, and improving Pugilism. Mordecai also explains that loot boxes can only be opened in safe areas, and that safe rooms appear on the map even through fog of war, though crawlers must keep moving because each level eventually collapses.
Carl opens all ten loot boxes at once. The lower-tier boxes provide pet supplies, healing and mana potions, gloves, a toad cudgel, a fireplace poker, antidotes, biscuits, and torches. The Silver Goblin Box gives Carl dynamite, a lighter, and a Goblin Pass, which brands itself onto Carl’s left forearm and even appears on his jacket.
The gold boxes provide enchanted apparel and a toe ring, frustrating Carl because he wanted shoes rather than jewelry. The Legendary Pet Box yields five hundred pet biscuits and one Enhanced Pet Biscuit. Mordecai urges Carl to feed the enhanced biscuit to Princess Donut immediately in the guildhall, explaining that its effects vary wildly and that a bad result in a safe zone would at least prevent Donut from attacking Carl.
Carl hesitates because the biscuit could be sold for thousands of gold and Donut seems like a liability in the dungeon. Before Carl can decide, Donut snatches the treat from Carl’s hand. Donut instantly splatters into a quivering mass of flesh, but Mordecai observes that because Donut was not teleported away, the result is a transformation rather than a purely negative outcome, and everyone must wait to see what Donut becomes.
Who Appears
- CarlLearns inventory rules, reviews achievements, opens loot boxes, and hesitates over Donut’s risky biscuit.
- MordecaiTutorial guide who explains inventory, safe areas, loot boxes, and the Enhanced Pet Biscuit.
- Princess DonutCarl’s cat; snatches the Enhanced Pet Biscuit and begins transforming into an unknown new form.