Chapter 23 of Dungeon Crawler Carl follows Carl and Princess Donut during the training before the borough-boss assault portion of the Earth crawl. The chapter advances the immediate survival plot while introducing rules and relationships that continue beyond the First Floor. Carl has promised a plan for the stairwell boss without actually having one. The Meadow Lark fighters need higher levels and practical combat experience, while the residents remain vulnerable to both monsters and other crawlers. Carl and Donut must train, hide the route to the encampment, and test whether their current teamwork can handle another boss room. Carl paints over directional signs so hostile crawlers cannot easily find the elderly group. He and Donut cross neighborhoods, kill increasingly strong rats, and discover that the earlier resident corpses have been consumed. They enter troglodyte territory and identify level 2 Pygmies, level 3 Bashers, and level 4 Virtuosos with long poison-inflicting tongues. The pair refines coordinated movement: Donut fires from Carl's shoulder, hides behind his gear, and adjusts Magic Missile power to conserve mana. After hours of grinding, they locate a gym-shaped Neighborhood Boss chamber that cannot be attacked with the same remote-cart tactic. Carl conceals the encampment because information that helps allies can also guide predators. He selects a known neighborhood for training instead of wandering toward another unknown staircase. Donut resists claw fighting because blood and injury threaten both her comfort and self-image, but Carl continues to insist that she needs a non-mana option. They choose to enter the gym because failing against a First Floor neighborhood boss would mean they are unprepared for the borough boss. Rats grow stronger after feeding on crawler corpses. Magic Missile allows variable mana investment at higher skill levels, creating a choice between damage and endurance. Troglodyte variants share a species but possess different size, attack, and poison traits. Party coordination can become partly nonverbal through repeated practice. Boss-room architecture may prevent an explosive solution used elsewhere, requiring the party to adapt rather than repeat one tactic. Carl lights one of his last cigarettes and enters the twenty-four-hour gym with Donut. The automatic door closes behind them, committing the party to another boss sequence. They have trained effectively and found the chamber, but the identity and strength of the boss remain unknown. The training raises Donut's spell control and Carl's melee skills before the borough maze. Concealing the signs protects Meadow Lark from opportunistic crawlers. The gym encounter forces Donut into close combat and nearly kills her, proving Carl's warning about mana dependence while also demonstrating how far their coordination has advanced. Carl, Princess Donut, the Meadow Lark residents by reference, rats, Troglodyte Pygmies, Bashers, Virtuosos, and the unseen gym boss appear.
- Dungeon Crawler Carl
- Carl
- Princess Donut
- First Floor
- Crawler and Party Mechanics
- Dungeon Crawler World Broadcast Feed
- Previous: Dungeon Crawler Carl Chapter 22
- Next: Dungeon Crawler Carl Chapter 24
- Novel: Dungeon Crawler Carl
- Chapter index: Book 1 Dungeon Crawler Carl