The Butcher's Masquerade, Chapters 19-24

this episode. So when I say it didn't go the way I expected at all, I'm like, first of all, I want to acknowledge, guys, that I that is actually kind of a small portion of what happens in this whole section, even though it was what I was particularly looking forward to coming into it. It's actually only like the first third of the chapters. But I had really overall kind of not been sure what to expect regarding

our friends seeing be again. And I'm just thinking back to like the openings of the book, right finding out what B had done to Carl and the baggage that he had surrounding that, and my feelings like regarding how

storytelling works. It was like I was sort of thinking it was likely that Bee was alive because she had been on that ship, and that the way that we were getting so much information about her and who she was, made it feel like Bee was probably still alive, and that was read at the beginning, and then as the story continued, I think I eventually came around to thinking

that she was definitely dead. And I don't remember when that transition happened, why it happened, if there was something in particular that caused me to sort of crossover, but

it just felt like there was. Maybe it's just that we had gone so far into the story without there being anything that involved the friends and family of Crawlers, and then we begin to get the information about how people's you know, dead family members are being brought into the game, and YadA YadA, and so my suspicions began

to be roused. But I will say that even back when I was thinking, well, maybe she was on that ship and thus escaped being flattened the way that so many people were, I didn't expect her to be in such bad shape. When we see her on the surface at the end of the last book, before she's even brought back up, she is not okay, you know. And I was wondering about the reaction she'd have at sea Carl and Dona again, and it just wasn't what I had thought we were going to get. And it's not

even a criticism. Really, it's so lacking in drama in one sense because they aren't permitted to really see each other for a long moment. They aren't given any privacy, and so the nature of how this all is forced to play out is just not what I had been

picturing at all. So when we start chapter nineteen, we're on stage, Odette does the intro and she's kind of doing a much more somber, heavy gravity tone to the way that she is delivering all of her like you guys aren't going to believe like who we found and what's coming up, because you know, she's trying to play it that she is respectful of the intensity of this

whole thing. And it's kind of funny because, like, I actually think she is respectful of the intensity of the whole thing, and it's just she has to do it a certain way that is less sincere seeming for the audience, which, like when you stop and think about it, is actually fucked up, but still kind of makes sense. And she is very very careful to like make it clear to everyone. I warned them this was coming. I Am not springing

them on this as a surprise. They know, you know, and we get this moment that I was so disappointed. She says, you guys are here because of your special connection. We're going to get right to it. Watch this. The screen appeared and it started showing something, but we couldn't see it. Zev says, sorry, guys, the censor won't let you see this. They're just showing scenes from the planet's surface and talking a little about the rules regarding humans

who didn't go down into the dungeon. They're explaining the details on something called the walk on List and the illegal practice of bounty hunters seeking out and finding survivors so they can sell them to the production. She says, I'm being called back to the office, so I won't be in the studio when you get out. I'll pinulater. And so the way that they're playing this is that the story is pirates who were doing this illegal bounty

hunting that Borran definitely doesn't approve of it all. They brought her b to Borrent, and Borrent refused to use her on the show because this is not allowed, and they're really trying to make it like we would never gasp, you know, like, which is the way it has to be played in order for all of the things to not completely implode and make them look like shit and ruin Odette's plans and all of that. And because like the information had leaked already, as we had found out

in the previous section. So Miss Beatrice appears, but she is a hologram and she doesn't understand that that's what things are. So she tries to embrace Carl and touch Donu and it doesn't work. Thin, long, straight hair, freckles, poudy lips. She'd lost weight, a lot of weight. She had a shell shocked and hollow look to her, and she appeared as if she'd aged ten years since I'd

last seen her. She wore a glittering red gown with an open back, and at one point she turns and he can see it scoops so far down that it exposes the top half of her ass. The poorly drawn tattoo of Princess Chancolat Donut's grandmother seemed out of place on her lower back. Her white skin was shockingly pale as if she had never seen the sun. She wore ridiculously tall, high heeled shoes, her ever present Aris anklet hung around her ankle. I don't know if it's ever

been mentioned that she wore an ari's anklet. It feels vaguely familiar for some reason. But uh, I just found that detail very funny for some reason. It's one of those things that, like you would think I would get a little bit more diffen siev about than I do. Whenever women who put a ton of stock in horoscopes get shit on as somebody who believes in horoscopes, I would say about like seventy percent. You would think that I would get like more annoyed by it than I do.

But I just understand why people think it's horseshit. I really get it, And my belief in it isn't even really something that I feel like defending. It's just sort of like, yeah, it's a fun thing, you know. I don't really put stock in it. When I was younger, I did a little bit more, and I was willing to like pick a wedding date based on the position

of the planets, because I could pick any date. Why not just pick something that seems like a good fortune type of day, you know, But it's just not something that I invent all that much energy. And in this way, there are some people who go very hard on like their astrological signs and getting tattoos related to it and bringing it up a lot in conversation, and that's just that's not me. So I feel distant enough from that type of personality that it doesn't feel like, you know

what I'm saying. But anyway, so she turns and sees them, and her eyes get really huge, and she I didn't realize, isn't prepared for Donut to speak, and Donut, for her part, is determined, absolutely fixated on pretending that she doesn't give a shit that this bitch is here. I have to say, it was not an approach I was expecting. I actually really admire it because I think it's just it works

so well on so many levels. But if you had asked me the way I expected Donut to play it when this happened, finally, this wouldn't have been it at all, not at all. And I am sort of like, I'm proud and impressed, you know. So she we get a flashback to the conversation before, and he says, you can do this, don't give them the satisfaction. And she says, I don't think I'm strong enough. She's just an ex girlfriend to you, but she was everything to me, my

whole world. And he says, I know, and she says she was going to abandon me. Carl, I pretended not to know, but I new. I think I even knew before. I pretended for so long, and I don't think I can pretend anymore. And I should have paid more attention to him saying don't give them the satisfaction, because that's the crux of the way they approach this year. They decide, what we're gonna do is go into this fucking interview

and we are going to give them fuck all. We are going to drain every drop of drama out of the situation so that there is nothing exciting that can be clipped and shared. There won't be an advantage to having this like shattering moment at all, which truly is brilliant. And you guys, I cannot emphasize enough how I don't think I could manage it. I am a very open person. I share my thoughts and feelings on my face before

they even come out of my mouth. And I just don't see it that I could pull this off when I've been through everything that they've been through, and I'm seeing her for the first time after thinking she was dead. Everything about the the whole circumstances surrounding it would already have me so off balance and lacking in control in certain respects. I think that I would give Adebt exactly what she wanted, and I hate that, but like I really,

I just don't feel like I could. I don't know if I knew that I could kind of do, because what happens is Doughnut holds it in until after the cameras are off. So it might be that if I knew I could do that, I could manage it for now. Maybe I could do it, But I think I would be extremely tempted to just unleash on that person for my own satisfaction in the moment, without considering that I'm feeding the fucking beast. You know so, And this is like Bee says, Wait, they didn't tell me that she'd

be talking. Carl, what's going on? Why aren't you wearing pants? And Donut says, I really wish we had a live audience, O Debte, I mean, really, a live audience would have loved that line. And that's like the one thing I think that they can maybe clip and use. And when Carl's like, I thought you said she'd been briefed, Oette says she has. Apparently it didn't take, and I believe her, you know, but I'm wondering about, like, why didn't it take? Is that you can tell her something, but seeing it

in person is just a different thing. Is it that it just fully didn't sink in because she was not with it, Like, I'm curious about why she seems so taken off guard here. So she also and this is not intentional on her part, but b is also failing to feed into any of the drama that Odette was hoping for, and basically is just giving a very basic summary of what happened to her and is claiming to

not remember very much. And Odette circled back a few times so that supposed black mark exchange and shootout, but be claimed ignorance. It seemed to me that Odette was trying to poke holes into her own lie. That was interesting because you know, Odett's had to do this whole thing where born rescued you because they're decent. And I think this is her trying to make it clear to the audience that this story doesn't add up and to see through it. She's trying, I think, to tip everybody

off that this doesn't make any fucking sense. But b isn't really even cooperating on that front. And oh sorry, Saraphi was commenting a bunch of stuff. Something that I thought was why is she that big into the Greek god of war and had to consider for a few months before realizing it was horoscope thing that's funny. And my guess is she's just so out of it between the drugs, the memory fuckeray to sell Born's story in just general stress that she didn't register anything, and I

remember them mentioning, Carl mentioning that she's clearly drugged. I didn't remember memory fuckery. They actually went in and fucked with her memory. I thought that she was sort of just supporting this, like she says, my memory has holes in it, but I didn't take it as literally like

somebody's been messing with it. Donut says she gets like that sometimes too many dirty Shirley's Oh my god, but that would make sense as to why they would trust her in an interview, because otherwise, how do you control her just blurting out what actually happen in front of everybody, So messing with her memory would that would make much more sense than them just trusting her to uphold the lie, especially considering that she's clearly like not really okay, So

even if she agreed and fully intended to support the lie, she would not be reliable, you know. So finally, Odette's wrapping this up and says, Princess, is there anything you'd like to say? And Donut just says, have a good life, And then she gets as close as she gets live and says, also, if you ever get another cat, make sure you only purchase the wet food for her, and don't conspire to sell her once she gets a little older.

Don't pretend to love her when you don't. Don't make her feel special when you don't really feel that way about her, That is all. And she delivers this very like evenly and in control, and then Odette says, what about you, Carl, And he just says got nothing, which, honestly, when it comes to Carl and what his situation is like, this is kind of what I expected. He broke up with her with like little ceremony once he saw this

this photo, knew that she was fucking around. He was clearly completely unaware of her cheating on him to the level that she was. But this breakup that happened once he realized there was no drama to it, you know, he was just like, yeah, all right, we're done. So it makes sense to me that when he comes face to face with her, he's not going to fucking like

make it a thing. You know, even were they to meet face to face with none of the other whole apocalyptic shit happening, he would not do that so on screen in front of everybody. Extra, No, this definitely was in character for me. So Odette asked additional leading question questions, trying to coax info out of all three of us, and Bee was going to burst into tears any moment. Odette could sense it the host's side and said goodbye to us. The lights all turned on. Odette pulled off

her bug helmet. She glared at me angrily for a second before breaking into a smile. Well played, Carl, She said, not quite the explosive interview I hoped for? Was it Plus the timing is terrible, she sighed, But this was always destined to be messy. At least we scooped that Naga asshole. If he comes to you, make sure to tell him I said, better luck next time. And the timing being terrible, we find out later on why everybody

keeps saying that. So, if it hadn't been for Odette removing her helmet, I think there would have been a part of me that was suspicious. When Donut let's loose here that they are being recorded after all, it's that she has started to get out of costume that reassured me.

And this is when Donut turns to be and says you vile, disgusting bitch, and b is truly shocked, and Dona says, you danced with me, you sang to me, you made me feel loved, I didn't do anything wrong, and you were going to give me away, and b just says what again, which I'll admit is very unsatisfying. There isn't a sensation of her like getting it, because she's so stunned and startled about everything that it's just like not sinking in, which makes sense on the one hand,

because this is a very crazy situation. Anne, she's drugged, but I wanted to feel like she was hit by it, and you don't get that in this scene, really, and that's not what it's about. It's about Donat getting to say what she needs to say. It's not about b I just personally wanted to see that, you know. But I also know that in life that's frequently how it happens.

You have to be satisfied with getting your opportunity to make your stand and say what you're gonna say, and then you have to let it go, and you often either don't get the reaction you were hoping, or you don't get to see their reaction at all, or the reaction that they have still feels inadequate. Even if it's like you got your point across and they heard you, they'll often still not seem like to really take responsibility

or hear you. You know, it's just often not very satisfying to confront assholes because they are such assholes that they don't hear anything you're telling them. That's what makes them a person that you're having issues with to begin with. So I didn't do anything wrong. You were the only person I ever knew I was born and you were there. I loved you. You were my world, my whole world. I know you had a bunch of cats growing up, and maybe I was just nothing to you other than

a way to win more ribbons than your mother. But you were the only human I ever knew, and to me, you were everything. And I was so stupid because I thought since I loved you, that meant you loved me. Odette muttered something under her breath, which is definitely that. Oh sure, now she says it, I have to imagine. And you were just awful to Carl and even though

he's big and dumb, he didn't deserve that. And this was I was gratified, because you guys know that I was sort of like, what the fuck donut with her constantly like throwing that shit in his face. He's not perfect. I know he snores and has all these disgusting habits and smelly friends, but what you did to him is not okay. I know I make fun of him sometimes I can't help it. I'm a cat, That's what I do. Plus, I mean, let's be honest here, he walks right into

it most of the time. But you actually betrayed him. We don't do that to people we love. And you know what, Miss Beatrice, you don't deserve how sad I feel right now. I still love you, I still miss you, and I hate myself for it. You don't deserve to get to explain your side of the story. You lost

that chance. But I'm glad you escaped because if the world ends and none of us survived except you, I think that's an even more fitting fate because you're gonna be all alone, and maybe then you'll finally understand how you made me and Carl feel. You're not my person anymore.

Carl is He's always been, and I really liked that he's always been, because like the little flashback that we had gotten about him arguing with B about giving Donut away, he was the one being like, you can't fucking do that, are you serious, and so Donut saying to Carl, like, B, but she was my person. There was a big part of me that sort of was like, I don't think she was, and now Donut is seeing, yeah, no, she wasn't, and that sucks. It just totally sucks. I hated this

so much. And B just says to Carl, she doesn't even respond at all to Donut, which is so insulting. She just says Carl, and he interrupts, I'm glad you're okay. Truly, I wouldn't wish our fate on anybody, not even you. But what we're dealing with right now is so much more important, so much bigger than this drama bullshit. It's stupid that it was even a thing. I'm glad it's finally over. I think Donut said everything that needs to

be said. We're done, finally, goodbye, Beatrice. I looked at Odette, get her out of here, and just like that, she was gone. I am really curious because, you know, b having this kind of breakdown on the surface felt very much linked to like deep regret over like cheating on Carl and getting caught, and then Donut being gone. All of it felt like she only just started to begin to value both of them in any way because everything

was ripped from her. And I'm wondering if having this moment of real closure, because it is, does anything to change her state of mind regarding the two of them. I will say the whole thing with Gravy Boat, I am super not looking forward to finding out what's going on there. I'm dreading that part. We'll have to see where that fucking goes. And they both like feel better after this, but you know, Odette didn't get what she wanted. It's very funny. And then Donut says, Odette and zeb

are right. The timing is awful. And this was so delightful because it turns out Donut knows more than Horl about some things, and he never even suspected, and neither did I. I knew that her and Zev were in communication, but I figured they were in communication in a very like social comforting each other, being support to each other kind of way. It never entered my mind that the two of them were doing something. You know, as she says,

vive la revolution. It just never occurred to me that Zev would risk it or that Doughnut would be interested on that level. And I am extremely thrilled for this development is super super fun. So they get an ADMIN message due to a system regency change, a conflict of interest has a risen, resulting in one of your sponsors being removed effective immediately the valte he does get to keep everything they gave him for prizes, but they are

no longer his sponsor. And then Planet wide message. The Born Corporation, not to be confused with the Borrant System Government, has been declared an independent non governmental entity by a syndicate court. As a result, a previously filed court ruling was automatically executed, granting the Valte Corporation fifty one percent ownership of the Borran Corporation. The Boring Corporation remains in charge of this crawl, and as far as most of

you are concerned, nothing will change. This is nothing more than a courtesy notice. All previous legal contracts will be honored, including indentured contracts. However, the Borrant System Government no longer has any stake in either the planet, the resources, or the production of Dungeon Crawler World Earth and regency has been granted solely to the Borring Corporation and their new

principal owners, the Valte. If you have any questions about how that might affect debts or obligations, legal counsel is available free of charge. Have a great day, and free has an asterisk next to it, and Odette is like, well, they didn't cancel contracts. That's great and for Mordecai it's good news. But you guys, that fucking sucks and I was like what. So Donah says she did it, she did it, and he says what happened, and this is when she says, Viva lover revid Lucien Carl. So that's

the end of that chapter. When we jump into chapter twenty, Donah is back to talking about b and we don't get details on this enough at all. Let's see but Papa Odette told them to keep quiet about the interview until after it airs. And this is when Lexus comes in and Carl starts to like push Dona into being like, no, you have to tell me what the fuck's going on, and then is like, never mind. Actually it's too dangerous even here. So this is when Lexus comes in and says,

wait for it, and then the lights flicker. There. It is the handoff. The system's transferring from mud Skipper control to Valte. It'll take a minute or two. No sniffers will be online, so I've got to speak quickly, shut up and listen. Do not speak of this, as it will be construed as cheating. Queen Imagen of the High Elves is a country boss. She's a new character this season. Nobody has seen her yet. A sure sign she's going to be a repurposed human. They're saving the big reveal.

Obvious choice is Beatrice because of your ties with the vengeance of the daughter storyline. Don't know who it'll be now. Best guess is the elf won't appear until the Butcher's maskarade. The top fifty crawlers will all be transferred to the party, whether you like it or not, it's thet It'll be in the high Elf Castle. There'll be a party, contest, prizes, you mingle with remaining hunters. I don't know how that'll work.

The party will end with a big battle. They're setting it up to zero out the top crawlers and Carl's like why, and she says, I can't fully explain. But they don't have full control. They have fifty one percent, but the collection action is in limbo. Think of the worms as the new babysitter, or better yet, step Dad, and he's just as strict, but in a different way. They want total control. They are going to take be like apex predators taking over a pride, wipe out everything

and start fresh. They'll want the top ten to be crawlers of their own. Choosing and Donut was like, but they sponsored Carl and she's like, yeah, because he was fucking up the whole jam for the mud Skippers. But now he's going to be fucking their shit up and that's not what they want. And she says, let's see what do you think is gonna happen. Now, we'll go down the stairs early. Then we'll get down before this

ball thing. That would be Odet's advice as well, Lexus said, I suddenly realized this is all coming directly from Odeppa. She was filtering it through Lexus because of how dangerous this information was if we got caught, she had plausible deniability. What about everybody else? Donnut ask, even if Ellie and Kachia and all the others go down, they'll just use the next fifty top crawlers, and those guys will be even less prepared. Plus I already started training Wongo for

the beauty pageant. I love that she brings that up. The system will reboot in ten seconds, you'll be transferred out in fifteen. And then Donut says, this is most distressing. I certainly would never have smuggled all those Valtae secret agent guys to Zev and the boring emancipation front if I'd known this was going to happen. What what, you guys, This is not Denneman publishing like side stories from Donuts

Perspective on his Patreon or something. Please tell me yes, because I mean what I exchanged an incredulous look with Lexus, who stared at the cat open mouthed, and the whole like vibe here that I really like is even when you are trying to like get like monsters out of power, oftentimes the only other option that is positioned to take the reins are also monsters, because they have to have a certain level of power already in order to make that transition, and if they have any level of power,

usually they also suck in some way. So this makes sense, you know. It's I think really really exciting story wise though, because Carl being number one in the top ten did give him a huge advantage in terms of the dungeon

itself wanting to keep him alive. And so now that they're like, oh, we want all the top tens gone because we want to pick, that makes the stakes change around completely and puts him in the fucking direct crosshairs of people who are in control of stuff, and that is so much more interesting, you know, very excited about it because there are so many ways this can go. So Michael says the Olivia slash Ivy thing from the previous book was a big hint as to how Matt

from Matt asked how Donah and zebr communicating. Zev is probably using a number of different fan accounts with avatar names that were for you to obscure earth media plots to post messages that might show up on the social media board and don't would We're going to mention something related to said plot to let Zev know she saw the message. I would love for Magic create in post donuts chat logs, but those would be five times longer

than the actual DCC series. Probably, Yeah, I just like that would be such a fun little bit of like additional content, and I'd imagine would be super fun to write. Also, you know. So they appear back in their safe room and Mordecai is like, you guys, get this news. I don't know how this is gonna work out, Like usually our contracts get frozen, but it seems like maybe nothing

is really going to change. And he's looking through like his interface and the maps and stuff, and he says, yeah, this is all looking unchanged and acknowledges that, like the valte their aesthetic is usually juristic androids, hover cars, laser

pistol pistols, mechanical death machines. But like, we're so far into the game and everybody has races and abilities that revolve around this, like medieval fantasy world, that if they were to switch up the aesthetic, it wouldn't make any sense, and half of the stuff people have gotten or that they can do wouldn't even work anymore. So I think they're probably just going to keep the aesthetic as planned originally.

So we're thrown back into the game itself here and the Ersigine are finally convinced, like they're complaining nevertheless, but they're understanding that the hunters are a danger to them and the where casters are working on the walls, and he says something about they work fast, especially when they've turned, which, considering what beavers do, makes sense. I really enjoy that. And let's see. We awakened in time to watch the recap, and upon watching it, I found myself wishing I'd stay asleep.

We watched his raw and a unit of four other mantis creatures swooped in from the air and decapitated a group of crawlers. They rode down a heavily wooded trail on the back of a cart and she takes their

heads and it's just like really awful. Then there's a bunch of crawlers that get mauled by animals, and then there's one that gets skewered in the eye by a spike, and it's by a fungus that he is trying to pick, which Mordecai is like, oh, yeah, if you see one of those, grab it for me, but just don't touch the top. And I love just all that, Carl says is christ Mordecai. He's just so very much like it's nothing to worry about. You just don't touch that part.

Fucking Jesus. And then the dinosaur encounter, and then we have Lucia mar She cast her weird damage Reflects spell and the dinosaur is crushed by damage inflicted on her dog. The show portrayed Lucia cackling maniacally as she pulled out the now dead boss's eyeball with her bare hand and bit down on it like it was an apple. Yeah, that's normal, Dona said, I firmly believe that this is

doing something specific. That she is laughing because she succeeded in getting something that they were like trying to keep from her or something. I really do think that Lucia is being framed in the same way Karl is, and that maybe there's something off with her as well, but that she isn't nearly as crazy as they make her look, and that probably there was some weird shit she was set up to do, like cutting off the hands of

that one guy. Karl had to do it a million times, and like that doesn't look good either, but there was a reason for it, you know. So we also chicken with Eva, and we get to see this raid that was being headed by Kacya. She's got Flora and Batista with her and they try to like keep her pen

in this village. She gets away, but she like enchants the people to fight against the crawlers, and luckily somebody has like an ability to take that enchantment off, and the others are really sad explaining like I'm so sorry that we did that, you know it Just like Eva sucks, I just really she sucks. I do not like her. And then we get another of like another one of

the system messages from that really excited. Hello, Crawlers, there's a lot of rumor and speculation about what that Last World announcement means for you, and then we get something very specific. But I was like, as some of you know, this particular crawl has been my personal life project. I had been working on it for a very very long time and I am going nowhere. And there was a tone to that delivery in the audiobook that felt like

a threat. It's very interesting because it, you know, when you're just reading it in text, it doesn't necessarily come across that way, so you can interpret it that way, sure, but it doesn't necessarily feel you know, And I don't know. But speaking about the hunters, we have good news everybody because of the public concern and outcry from a new

court injunction we fully support. We've implemented a few changes and it stops them from communicating with people outside, hoping to put a bit of a chokehold on the cheating overall. And then Patch notes the hot springs weren't hot enough, so we upped the hotness, which did result in us boiling some of the crawlers. Sorry about that. In a related note, lava tubes are also active. Alosaurus mobs have been split into two mob types to accommodate a newly

generated quest. We've been forced to temporarily disable the fuck those Trees in particular spell as it didn't work as intended on this floor. I'm very curious about that, but probably we'll never find out. And then a new feature, the Butcher's Masquerade. Because people don't know where they stand in the rankings, they have decided that they will make a board of everybody in the top thousand so that they can see how they are positioned to maybe be

able to attend. And they talk a little bit about the masquerade and how it could possibly work that the hunters can mingle with crawlers and not fight. You know, there's going to be something in place, obviously, And Katchia doesn't know that Bee was on the show. She's just like, how did it go? And they say, we'll tell you about it later, but we don't actually see that moment. I don't think in these chapters in general at all,

although I may be forgetting. And this is when Carl opens his fan box and it's a badge to be in a at crawl con It's all these fans of Dungeon Crawler World and he's going to meet them and take pictures, and he will be at three events, and I think, do we get the like, yeah, art contest,

a panel, crawling through the ages, and autograph and keepsake session. Now, Carl is a very against this and just kind of disgusted at the whole thing, But I have got to be honest, this feels like the prime opportunity for somebody on the outside who is planning some shit to get to talk to him and pass him some information. And I would not be at all surprised if this were a fix that came in from somebody wanting to speak to him, that they managed to like get this particular

reward to him on purpose to do this. He is, he's just not seeing that aspect of it, because we know that there are some folks on the outside that are like specifically rooting for him in his whole mission here, but he doesn't know that at all, so it's not occurring to him, you know, as far as he is concerned.

The only one of them that has anybody sort of working with things on the outside is Donut with Zev, which he only just found out, but I think that probably this is some kind of setup for him to meet someone specific, and it's probably also why it's him that's going and not Donut, because she's just not going to be the one that people see as the revolutionary. We know now that she is, but doesn't look it on a lot of levels and has a cultivated, a

very specific persona. But I can understand why they would be leaving her out of it. It's just to him, this just looks like I'm going to mingle with people who are rooting for our deaths. That fucking blows. I don't want to meet them, and like Donut would be just better at this whole schmoozing thing overall, which yeah, true,

but it is what it is. And carl Is or Mordecai is like, oh wow, three events, Like I got sent for the autograph session, but I he says, I only ended up signing three items, So yeah, they're trying to keep them there for something. I think. I think we'll see. Of course, Dona desperately wants to go, but it's like, you know, there's there's something else happening, probably for her eventually, so let's see. Oh, right, This is when they start to deal with Katya actually leaving their

party and getting set up with the Guild. And Dona is of course really sad about Katya, but Ktya is like reassuring her I will absolutely still be around. But we really do need to do this, because every time y'all get a quest I get it too, and I'm off doing my own fucking thing, you know, like it's just we can't keep it like this anymore. So they become part of the Guild safe home Yolanda and Carl, you know, recognizing Yolanda's name, and just like the overall

it's just a really it's a memorial. Emani is the guild master. The guild is level seven. There are six parties with a total of sixty three crawlers. You have multiple upgrades available for your personal area, and there's a pet stable and Orcai says, don't place anything yet until after Katscha leaves the party, and Donut says, there's a pet stable. A pair of barn doors appeared to the left of the new exit. Your beds have been upgraded

to the instacat sixty. What did I just say, Mordecai demanded, God damn it, I mumbled. The instacat was the second best bed on the market. It refreshed us after sixty seconds of sleep, but it also changed our good rest bonus to great Rest, and it imparted a whopping fifteen percent bonus to our stats for the day. Still, I hated the idea of it. I absolutely hated it. I completely get it. It's really I really get it. You know.

It's creepy, and it just really does feel like, probably this is having some kind of effect that we just don't detect and don't care about, because you guys don't care about us, you know, trying to utilize as much of the time that we exist to generate content, and it's gross. On the other hand, there have been so many days where I wished I didn't have to sleep because I had so much to do or things that I just wanted to do and I had to sleep,

and I was really sad over it. So there's a part of me that is like, kind of I wish I had one of these, you know. But yeah, so let's see, oh right, this is when Clint shows up and he's in his little beaver form adorable and let's see, oh right, This is when Carl says, I had a sudden idea, a ridiculous idea. Hold on, I need to go grab something, and he ducks out, and there is this attack happening, and a big part of it is poison,

which Carl is immune to. But he's still keep getting like tons of notifications you've been poisoned, poison negated, over and over across the screen. Samantha is also immune, and she could bite now too. She chumped pretty good on my hand when I went to fetch her. It didn't hurt, but she had enough force to actually latch on. Her fangs bent harmlessly when any pressure was applied. I could

pull my hand free with a little yank. So what he decides to do is use the she Sarah attachment that throws her and jam a explosive into her mouth because as a sex doll, her mouth opens really wide. And it's very funny because he's like, make sure not to open your mouth until you're over there, because that triggers it. And of course she immediately does that and sets it off and almost blows them all to shit. But he is able to chuck it and it actually works.

It's super fun I am enjoying Samantha in the audiobook, especially the accent and voice that the narrator has decided to give her, is so funny, and it's just it adds something and makes her feel so distinctive and so weird. It works really, really well, And I really wonder if I would feel the same about her if I were only reading the text. I'm not sure. So let's see he uses paying, he flings her. I could love Samantha fifty plus kilometers, so I had to be careful with

how hard I threw. That's Banana's fifty plus kilometers. Holy shit, that's like what like thirty eight miles something in there. Yikes, dude, that's crazy, and then get her back right away like insane. You could use her to like transfer messages that fit in her mouth, if you were able to like write stuff down, if you could get your aim really good, send her off to someplace far away, have them stuff a message in her mouth, and then retrieve her again.

That could be a pretty like good way to communicate without things being in actual like in the chat, you know, or just like send each other stuff if it's small enough. So let's see, uh oh, right, this is when he drinks this potion of levitation, and he is able to touch the slider that makes him go like up and down as far as he need to, And he says it's like stepping on as if he were standing on glass.

Mordecai emphasized how dangerous these potions were. He said, it wouldn't stop me from dropping if I had enough momentum. They were not a suitable alternative to featherfall. We couldn't use these to keep from plummeting to the ground unless we took them before we jumped. Treat it like you're standing on thin ice, he said. So he drinks the major Charlie potion, which gets his intelligence up so that this thing will last longer. Casts Ping chucks her and

let's see, I paused my descent. She didn't veer off like I'd hoped, but continued her forward momentum. I tried not to throw her too hard, but it looked as if I had. But then she shot down at a right angle, just as something shot from the ground up at her, a fireball trying to knock from the sky. The slow moving projectile missed, and Samantha disappeared into the trees past the clearing just as I lowered myself fully

to the ground, I could hear the distant detonation. Yes, I cried, I got one of those fuck sticks as the experienced notification rolled in and then Samantha is yelling, bring me back fast, and he does, and her hair is on fire. But she has brought something back. She has clamped the ankle of an elf. The thin, pale

elf was unconscious. And the fact that she's able to bring back a whole body it didn't even occur to me as I was saying what you could transport before, because I was saying it had to like fit in her mouth. But evidently not. As long as she's biting it, it comes back, So that's even more useful. Like that's as long as she can clamp down enough rad okay, And he's conscious Ackland moon elf and she wants it

as her kill. But Carl is like, yeah, no, this was mine, sorry about it, and he says, heal him, but I want to talk to him first, and puts on his ring and again this ring, it's being used so casually, Carl, sweetheart, baby, I don't like it. Ackland. It's not supposed to be like this. How is it supposed to be what you heard me, How is it supposed to be We weren't even hunting you. The Dark hiven Skull Empire of Both League claimed, but you're in

our territory. The bridges are all out. We were going to take the city. He just wanted us to find the crawler that human besmirched Tag's mother's honor. I didn't want to get involved. I did well at Fantasy Hunter CA and I want a spot on the Faction War's army. I was supposed it was supposed to be easy. They offered me so much money. I'm not even a member of the family like the others. And he says, Carl's like, what is Fantasy Hunter Camp. It's so people can pretend

like they're on the show. The best players get to play in Faction Wars Wars. I did well and won a spot. I wasn't ever supposed to be in real danger, but they offered me money. And I'm just an accountant. I work with soy crop shipping manifests all day. I will like say, I do not feel about this guy the way that I did about the bounty hunter hunting down people on the surface, despite the fact that he hates all of this and he has to put food

on the table. He's participating. You know, this guy, he may just be an ordinary dude, but he is still doing something that is fully not necessary to his life. It is an extra for funzies. So I don't have the kind of sympathy for him that I had for the other dude. It doesn't seem like the same thing at all to me. And this is Carl does the whole like do you know what I do every day? And doughnuts like you can't do the fucking bad guy soliloquy.

But Carl really wants to get this established at least once. And he says, I couldn't hear myself think the river in the back of my brain, raged, flooding, filling all the empty spaces it could find. And he remembers his mother, this is my birthday present to you. I'm giving you a chance at life. I'm sorry it took me so long. This will stop it. It's so loud, Carl, it's so loud. Yikes, the fact that both him and his mom had this, Like,

is this just a straight up mental illness thing? Is this a result of abuse, which like also can be a mental illness thing. But you know, I'm talking about like a mental illness that you are simply born with, versus one that is created out of trauma. I am really curious about, like what all this this is, and I am assuming it's a trauma thing. But I don't understand why she thought her own death would stop it for Carl and make his life better. I like, I'm

giving you a chance at life. Why did she think her death would do that? I just I am assuming it's because she thinks that he feels like he has to stick around his shitty father for her sake, and that now he'll be free and able to do what he needs. But is that it or did she have something else in her mind about how this worked? You know, I'm very curious, like you know, exactly circumstantially what was

going on at this point. So yeah, he marks Ackland and then we have the end of the chapter, and the next one starts with congratulations murderer, and Dona is just like, dude, that was way too gruesome. It was absolutely not necessary, and you are really genuinely starting to scare me. And he says, I promise I'll kill them nice and clean from now on and I want to mention her saying that he's scaring her is in regular type, but then in all caps, well you have to add

a little flare. Maybe we can come up with a new catchphrase just for killing bad guys. So she just has her two modes, and you can see it in her type when she's being like sincere and vulnerable versus when she's just kind of making a joke out of things. And let's see, the guy had something equipped you'll like it's a bracelet and she reads it and at first it is like, ah, this bracelet is like kind of cuter, but and then she reads it and is like, oh shit,

obsidian bracelet of the raggle Rouser. This item has a fifty percent chance to permanently break if it's upgraded again. Fifty percent is a lot, uh. They bracelet ibuse plus ten to constitution plus five to dexterity plus fifteen percent fire resistance. Wharer may cast a level ten fireball spell once every twenty minutes. And I love him being like, don't use fireball in a tight space. It's a lot more dangerous. And she just says, I know how fireworks, Carl,

which he deserved that. So let's see. I'm trying to make sure because I'm like out of time here and I still have This chapter is really short. All of them are actually in this section. But he'll see Samantha growled and rolled away. She started barking at an ursine cleric and she says, he says, what in Pawna's name? And she says, pawn is a big liar. She plays all innocent and virginal, but she's into soaking. Look it up, which if you don't know what soaking is, it's really

not that exciting. But it's basically like laying on top of somebody and mimicking dry humping, except you don't move, and you have somebody jump up and down on the bed to make you move against one another so that you can technically have like plausible deniability that you were dry humping and it was just circumstantial to the fact that a person happened to be jumping on the bed.

It's a really weird like loophole for people who believe that any sort of action made in lust is wrong and extremely funny to me because it's just such a weird you know. So anyway, this is when Dona is saying, I'm worried about Samantha. Mordecai was never expecting her to get as strong as she has. She's like rolling around faster and stuff. And Carl actually really hears what Donut saying here and is like, huh, you may have a point. I'll keep an eye on her, but we like can't

ditch her right now. Now that we know she can bring stuff back with her, it makes her extra valuable, maybe Donut said, she sighed dramatically, I wish Kotcha were here. It's difficult being the voice of reason. That was her job. And she says that Samantha reminds her of the thing out of the movie Critters. I have never seen that movie,

so I cannot comment on this. So then finally chapter twenty four and we have this crawler entreat by Drakia, and we find out that some hunters actually explicitly go after elites, even though it's a super dangerous proposition and the payout it's like they get really good gear. But in the opinion of this crawler writing this entry, it's just like not really a smart move. And they are there, like thing that they are doing is setting traps to

bring elites and hunters together. When one values coin above life, you should target the coin for it hurts them more. And that is my food, my life, my god, hurting the Naga and everyone responsible for this nightmare. And when people value coin above life, you should target the coin. Is a fucking sermon, It really is. So we get Carl's boom from Embras and it sucks balls. It's a boost to fire damage spells, and he doesn't have any except burn and apparently that boost doesn't apply to burn.

It's like an exception, so lame. And they also like they kill another crawler, find another photo of Louis. It's a photo, not a drawing, and he's got like a filter on and make him look like a dog. And then let's see, oh right, they find a eleven contraption that's like a rock trucker. Uh, and the contraption has a ninety second cool down between each use. There's no counterweight, but the machine is made with the pair of magical

plates that wanted to come together like magnets. Upon closer inspection, the plates weren't magical, but some sort of high tech bullshit, something that was just as out of place as that photo of Lewis. The only quote enchanted part of these things was the wood. These assholes are still cheating, I grumbled, inspecting the postage stamp sized plate. It was covered with little diodes. I looked into the sky. Do you guys

see this? Well, it's mine now. I pulled the individual spikes and then picked up the trebuchet, taking the whole thing. A new tab appeared labeled siege equipment. So the fact that there is able to like smuggle stuff like this in it's not entirely unexpected, but like Christ, you know, getting caught this early on in things as well is like very embarrassing and sloppy to me. There's a point when Dona is just like, these guys are not good at their job, like the way that they keep getting killed,

and She's fucking correct. These dudes are just like they're not hardened. Because the crawlers are fighting for their lives and have been doing this a minute, and these assholes are just coming in here for the funsies. It makes some sense that even with them being higher level, their tactics are just poor and sloppy. And Samantha is like, why are you even taking that? Because you can throw

me way further than that stuff can throw anything. And Carl is like, well, yeah, but you might somebody get your body back, or I want to throw something really big. Plus this mbuse it with poison Cloud and she grumbles and rolls away and I love that. Like Mongo runs after her very excitedly, and later we see him just like chewing our like a chew toy that's honestly like a ball that moves around on its own. This is something you can actually buy on Amazon as a dog toy.

It has like a little weight inside it and it's like, you know, battery powered to keep your dog excited because it's like a living thing that it's chasing. So uh yeah, ideal. Perfect. They talk a little bit about why the Dream is so pissed over this whole thing with Lewis and that they clearly just like are very uptight, and Donut is like, yeah, if you get famous, you have to deal with thirsty fans. This is just a thing, Like I keep getting pictures

of this guy's tentacles. I don't know why, but I'm not offended. It's just a thing. Ugh, I love you, I love you, Donut. And this is when Carl is sharing I like that something has been bugging him about the story. Signete's goal was to kill her half sister, Imagen, but this same lady was also the big bad country boss that was that all the top crawlers were gonna

have to deal with on the third floor. My exploits with Signet weren't shown on the recap episodes because anything that happened with an elite was licensed to the owners of the elite's program. There was no way that Born or the valte or whoever was in charge would allow this floor's massive climax to be exclusive to some other program. Maybe that meant the vengeance of the daughter's climax was set to pop off before this party at the end

of the floor. If so, it'd be Signet versus a boss that wouldn't be allowed to be killed, which meant a tragic climax. And then he's like, but there's like the possibility at some point that maybe they don't want another season like that. You know, well, maybe this is the point, is that they are pretending and stringing me along with this whole thing when they're not even intending for there to be, which would be in line with like Valte not wanting Carl to be in the top

ten anymore either, eh, you know. And then we have this little bit where Karl is remembering an entry from Herod in the cookbook, who he thinks is like maybe a genius, and her talking about surrounding yourself with trustworthy, competent people and not too many, which I think is

always good advice, keep it tight. And as he's thinking this, like remembering this, we have just Samantha just screaming and like it's just you know, he's got a fairly wide net cast right now of the people that he's working with, and how many of them are competent and trustworthy? I mean, real question mark there, real question mark. We also get a little bit of the convo with the casters and Doughnut and her talking like asking whether that's where castor

oil comes from. And she mentions that Bee made her swallow some to make her poop before going into the presence of a judge, which evidently is like really bad for cats. It's like dangerous for them. I had no idea any of this was a thing, but yeah, and I love Samantha. She wouldn't shut up, so I was making her role She followed behind her head, happily growling and splashing through the mud and foliage. She could move quickly, but she couldn't jump or hop, which sometimes bogged her down.

She kept getting hung up in bushes and branches, and we were constantly rescuing her. At first, I was worried about her running off or disappearing into the darkness. She didn't. She hummed to herself merrily as we went, and cursed loudly whenever she bumped into something. She was frequently threatening trees. I'm sorry, but I love her. I love her so much. What a little weirdo. I am into it, low key, just keep her around. At first, I was very much like,

oh boy, where's this going? And he has managed to turn her into somebody that is just a really fun, strange little companion. And oh right, at this point, we have a lightning strike and I love this, Samantha. I'm on it. I'll kill him, Samantha said, rolling off weight. I hissed, but she was already gone. I was about to grab her, but hesitated. The whole plan was to use her as a distraction anyway, So she just rolls

off and just yells yoho, who's shooting? Oh god, So it's Signet and some of her people and they have caught another hunter. And it just ends with Samantha catterwauling because she got stuck and Carl going all right, come on, and that's the end of the chapter. So I am so overtime, I have to wrap. But yeah, this is a fun little section, full of surprises, full of surprises. It was a really, really good time. I'm enjoying this book so much more than the last one. And it

wasn't like the last one was terrible. It was just like, for me, a bit of a lull when I had been enjoying the first three and this one has gone right back up again. So yeah, thumbs up so far. All right, everybody, I'll see you next week. Until then, to the loo, motherfuckers. That was an unspoiled network