The Butcher's Masquerade

Carl and Princess Donut refuse to be prey on this level in the A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.” The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds. As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, a new, terrible threat looms. Outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are here and ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career. But their prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back. Dungeon Crawler Carl and Princess Donut return in book five of the acclaimed litrpg series.

Autorentext
Matt Dinniman is a writer, artist, and musician (well, he's a bass player) from Gig Harbor, WA. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

Klappentext

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Carl and Princess Donut refuse to be prey in the fifth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition!

*Attention. Attention. The gates are down. The hunters are loose.
Run, Run, Run.
*
A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.” But that’s not all.

Just when Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, think they’ve seen it all as they compete to survive in the galaxy’s most popular game show, the latest dungeon level introduces a terrible new threat.

The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds.

As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.

But her prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.

Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the sixth floor of the dungeon.

Leseprobe
1

Time to Level Collapse: 17 days.
Time Until the Hunt Begins: 30 hours.
Views: 512 Sextillion
Followers: 142 Quadrillion
Favorites: 23 Quadrillion
Leaderboard Rank: 1
Bounty: 3,000,000 gold
Congrats, Crawler. You have received a Platinum Venison Box.

Welcome, Crawler, to the sixth floor. "The Hunting Grounds."

Sponsorship bidding initiated on Crawler #4,122. Bidding ends in 45 hours.
Remaining Crawlers: 85,223
Remaining Hunters: 360

Grace Period begins now. All hunters have been transferred to the city of Zockau. They will be released in 30 hours.

Run.

Entering the Desperado Club.

I came into existence in a now-familiar office. The hooded figure of Orren, the grim reaper-like Syndicate liaison, sat at his cluttered desk, staring at me, hands steepled in front of him. I caught a glint of the glass under his hood. I knew there was a parasitic worm floating in there. A type of creature called a Gondii, but better known to the universe as a citizen of the Valtay.

The last time I had been in this room was after I'd killed Loita the administrator. This guy was supposedly a neutral third-party observer and fact finder, but based on recent evidence, I knew some of these liaison guys played a little fast and loose with the term "neutral."

Katia also sat in the room. It appeared she'd been here for a few minutes already, and she appeared bored. She was in her regular form. She looked at me and grinned, though I could see the worry in her eyes.

Donut: CARL, CARL, WHERE ARE YOU? WE DIDN'T COME IN TOGETHER! IT'S JUST ME, CHRIS, AND MONGO. WHERE ARE YOU! WHERE'S KATIA?

Carl: It's okay. She's with me. We're back in the vice principal's office.

Donut: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? I NEED TO PICK A NEW CLASS!

"Tell your companions you'll be joining them shortly," Orren said. "This won't take long."

Carl: Have Mordecai help you choose. I'll be there in a bit.

Donut: I DON'T LIKE THIS, CARL. WE'RE IN A LONG LINE WITH A BUNCH OF OTHER
CRAWLERS, AND MONGO IS SCARED.

Carl: Donut, everything is fine. I'm about to get a talking-to by the liaison guy with the fishbowl head. Put Mongo away, talk to Mordecai, and then make sure you get everybody near you into your chat.

"As I already told your friend, you can only see and hear me, but there are multiple entities in on this meeting," Orren said. "We have a representative from Borant, a few members of the Syndicate Crawl subcommittee, and a few additional interested parties listening in. In addition, there is a designated media representative. The media rep will not be permitted to report on anything that occurs in this meeting unless a law is broken."

"Wow," I said, turning to Katia, who suddenly had a sour look on her face. "All of this for us?"

She was about to say something, but the liaison interrupted her.

"Actually, it's all for you," Orren said. "Crawler Katia Grim is only here because she's the one who had it in her inventory. We asked her if she considered herself the owner of the item, and she claims you are the true owner. She will return to the staging area now."

"Wait," she began, but she popped away with an audible crack.

Carl: Are you okay?

Katia: Other than a headache, I'm okay. Carl, I think I accidentally got you into trouble. I didn't know what to say. They took the gate from me. I'm sorry. There was nothing I could do.

Carl: It's okay. See if you can find Donut.

Katia: I see her. She's chasing after Mongo. Be careful.

Orren waved his hand, and three items appeared on the desk in front of him. The two watches and the winding box, the three pieces to the Gate of the Feral Gods.

"Do you remember what I said the last time you were in here?" Orren asked. He reached forward and picked up one of the watches, idly spinning it in his hand.

I sighed. I was exhausted. My brain buzzed. There was so much to do, and a part of me would welcome it if they just decided to get it over with and squish me. If not that, I needed sleep, and soon. I shrugged. "I don't really remember."

"I said if it were up to me, I'd have you removed. At the time, the kua-tin wanted to keep you, and the Syndicate Council was indifferent. After this last little stunt, nobody is indifferent anymore." He put the watch down closer to the edge of the desk. "The Dreadnoughts have up and abandoned their stake in faction wars. You wiped out the entirety of their army. The war chief's wife got stung by one of those pain-amplifier jellyfish, and the chief himself had to kill her in order to stop the pain. She's recovering now on a sedative yacht. But they've given up, and now there's an open spot, one that nobody can take because they won't be able to field an army." He just looked at me as if waiting for a reaction.

The Dreadnoughts were large, humanoid creatures with red skin. They rarely did well in faction wars because their preferred method of fighting was to just hit everything in front of them, tactics and magic be damned.

"Good," I finally said. "That was pretty much the plan. To fuck up all the armies." I looked up at the ceiling. "You guys gave me the ability to do it. I'm just playing the game."

He nodded. He jotted something on a piece of paper. "Borant didn't intervene because they thought you were going to attempt a different type of attack. And they assumed you'd lose access to the artifact afterward."

I eyed the three items on the desk. If I so much as bumped the table, the first watch would fall into my lap. "And that's my fault?"

"It's not. They are upset, but"-he turned in his chair to look to his left, raising his voice-"you likely made them more mone…