We have neighborhood bosses. Borough bosses. City bosses. Province bosses. Country bosses. Floor bosses. You kinda skipped the floor boss at the end of the 10th, which is all fine and dandy, but you just ended up in the lap of another one. Miss Krakaren Prime herself is sitting up there right now atop the tree,verypissed off, and not just at you. Honestly, I wasn’t going to bring her here, but I caught wind of what you and someone else are planning, and I thought it would be appropriate.
Even though it’s never been thrown out there because nobody has ever gotten this far, we also have one more boss type here in the dungeon.
The Dungeon boss.
Just so we’re crystal clear. I just summoned, at your fucking request, the final boss of the entire dungeon to the 11th floor. If you somehow manage to pull off a miracle and kill this thing, you’restill fucked. It’ll have the same effect as a CE. A Crawler Extinction.
And if you escape without killing it, you’re triple fucked.
Believe it or not, deep in the dusty corners of the game’s rule set, there’s a path forward to deal with this scenario. Let’s break it down.
If you kill Scolopendra, you will not yet have wonDungeon Crawler World: Earth. The rules in this regard are clear. In order to win, you must first exit through the final door on the 18th floor.
However, if you do manage to defeat Scolopendra, multiple rule changes will come into effect. Level timers will cease to exist, and floorsafter this onewill no longer collapse on their own.
There will be no more deals offeredafterthe one you receive upon the entrance of the 12th floor.
But most importantly, the Ascendency battles will immediately kick off. While these fights do tend to take a while to complete, once they’re done, they’re done. The dungeon itself will collapse 12 hours after the winner is crowned.
And you, dear crawlers, if you want to win, you can only get out via the 18th floor. You still can’t skip floors. That’s a hard-coded rule.
You’ll still have to get through the remaining floors. Some of them, like the 14th and the 16th, aren’t an issue, but you might have a problem with the 13th and especially the 17th.
The good news is, you can probably skip the 15th floor, also known as Sheol. They segregated themselves out, and I don’t actually know what’s going on there. It’s a bit weird, honestly. Someone should probably check on that for me. It’s like the 13th floor on some hotels. It’s just gone, and the dungeon programming is suddenly pretending like it’s outside the playing field.
Anyway, while all of this is happening, while you speedrun your way to the exit, the Ascendency game will continue. Once someone is crowned, it’s done. And if you’re not out, you’re smooshed.
And that’s only if you manage to kill the thing.
If youdon’tkill Scolopendra—and you don’t need to in order to get off this floor—the floor will collapse with the boss inside. She will be removed from the playing field, and you will no longer be able to exit the dungeon. Not unless you pull some hocus-pocus Pineapple Cabaret bullshit that probably won’t work.
Anyway, Scolopendra is level 500. She is practically immortal. She doesn’t know where she is. And because you’ve riled her up, she’s now spinning up her second of nine attacks.
Oh, shit. That reminds me. I forgot the most important part! Silly me.
WARNING: If Scolopendra diesorif Scolopendra is abandoned upon a collapsing floor, the remaining attacks will trigger all at once. There is nothing you can do to stop it. You kill her, the remaining attacks trigger. You escape, the remaining attacks trigger.
Yeah, good luck with this one, dumbass.
Time until attack number 2 of 9: 100 seconds.
And here. We. Go.
“Damnit!” I cried. We had been worried about that last one, that her death would initiate the remaining attacks.
Carl: Plan C. Gotta go with plan C. Donut, be ready.
Elle: Of course. The psycho plan. Got it.
Donut: IT’S CALLED PLAN CARL.
Florin: We really need to start making plan C the primary plan.
We zipped across the playing field, shield activated, pushing through the mobs as the giant centipede appeared. The thing was huge, the size of a goddamned aircraft carrier but longer. It chittered, the sound high-pitched and ear-piercing, as it wrapped itself around the base of the massive tree. Above, Krakaren roared. A green mist started to rain from the tentacle boss.
Meanwhile, all the regular mobs in the arena scattered back, terrified of the newcomer.
We pulled up alongside the massive, oblivious, coiling dungeon boss. It was nothing more than an animal. The whole thing was attempting to wrap the entirety of its body up the tree. But as big as that tree was, it was a twig under the strength of the behemoth. Wood cracked and shattered. High above, Krakaren squealed and shifted.