Your Final Ranking: 2
Bounty: The bounty system is no longer active.
Remaining Crawlers: 23
Entering Parade Float Staging Area.
Warning: The safe room rules of this area have changed. This area is now considered a safe room.
I landed back in our garage, still reeling from my short, bizarre meeting with Quasar. He’d been harried and refused to tell me what was going on. He showed me the paperwork showing the one and only offered deal. It was basically freedom after a single season.
But then he’d said he wouldn’t trust it, but he would understand if I took it. He also said he’d just received notification that there wouldn’t be an offered exit at the end ofthe eleventh, but therewouldbe at the start of the twelfth. And then he added, “I wouldn’t trust that, either.”
He’d been visibly shaking, distracted. I’d asked him what was going on, but he refused to answer. I told him I wasn’t going to take a deal, and he’d fled the meeting. The whole exchange had taken maybe three minutes, and it left me deeply concerned for his well-being.
But then I saw that number, and I sobered.
Twenty-three crawlers. We were entering the eleventh floor with twenty-three crawlers.
Holy shit.So many had died on the previous floor.
I still didn’t have a player-killer skull. I was pretty sure I was the only one left who didn’t.
Donut suddenly appeared, zapping into existence next to me.
“Carl, Carl!” she cried, running in circles. “Your psychotic wife tried to make me take a deal! She said the deal was so good that she was accepting it for me, and I said no, and she said she had accepted it anyway and all this stuff popped up, but then she got some notification that made her scared, and she went away. The whole thing took, like, two seconds! It was really weird!” She paused, panting. “Oh, thank goodness. You’re not a dog anymore.”
I scratched my junk. I still had an overwhelming urge to lick myself. I’d made sure the Eye of the Bedlam Bride had returned to its proper place. It had.
She gasped. “Number three? I ended as number three on the leaderboard? It doesn’t even say who number one is! Carl, was it you?”
“No. I was number two.”
“What? Who is it? Do you think it’s Prepotente? This isn’t fair!”
She gasped again.
Donut: MORDECAI! HELP ME PICK A CLASS!
Mordecai: Okay, Donut. Welcome to the eleventh floor. I don’t think I’m going to be much help to you guys. At least not physically. But I can still talk via chat.
Donut: WHY? WHAT DID YOU TURN INTO?
Mordecai: I’m an animistic spirit.
Donut: A WHAT? THEY MADE YOU A RACIST? REALLY, MORDECAI. I DON’T THINK THE DUNGEON CHOOSES HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THINGS.
Mordecai: Animistic, Donut. Not anti-Semitic. I have a non-corporeal form that occupies physical objects. It’s not the first time I’ve been one of these things. Now, let’s take a look at your classes.
The garage had gotten huge. The truck sat there, looking as if it had already been perfectly repaired, not that we’d received much damage in that final heat. The next slot over sat the One Fine Pig APV, and after that, Onikuma the bear snuffled on the ground. And after that stood Old Shuck, the large black wolf dog thing that had been the mount to the Jugglers. His ears were pinned to his head, tail between his legs, shivering.
And then I saw the two gremlins. Hedy and another one I didn’t know. The other one was rubbing the giant dog’s leg while he talked to Hedy. She saw me staring and waved.
Imani: Everybody, check in. Elle and I are here.
Prepotente: I am here with Jurgen.
Florin: I am with Lucia.