The narrative includes a note from a past crawler warning against worshiping gods. In the present narrative, Katia repairs the gnomish biplane. Louis and Firas fly the balloon-house, allowing Carl to drop the plane off its edge. He narrowly avoids the ocean and gains altitude. Donut identifies Emberus’s location by heat.

They approach Orthrus, and Donut casts Heal Critter twice, restoring his health. The Meat Hooks scroll creates a foul stench attracting carnivorous pets. Donut casts it, and the smoke trail leads Orthrus to chase them into the Lacuna, the dark space between bubbles. The puppy tumbles onto solid ground.

The quest completes, replaced by another requiring them to reunite Orthrus with Emberus. However, a world quest simultaneously begins, offering massive rewards to anyone killing the puppy. Katia and Elle broadcast warnings.

As they fly between bubbles, Orthrus playfully bats at the smoke. Suddenly, his health plummets—he’s been attacked. Carl spots Quan Ch circling to finish the job.

Quan Ch refuses to stop attacking. When Donut’s magic missile hits his shield, Carl climbs onto the wing and throws a disco ball, covering Quan in sticky smoke. Donut fires while Carl detonates another explosive. Quan plummets.

Donut heals Orthrus, but the puppy resumes chasing. A dirigible attacks ineffectively. Ground crawlers also attempt harm. Quan returns and knocks Orthrus unconscious at 2% health. Carl dives and throws a healing potion, making Orthrus temporarily invulnerable.

Donut accidentally sends the plane into violent loops. Carl partially stabilizes it, but they’re spiraling. He accepts worshiping Emberus, stands atop the wing, and throws a celestial grenade at Quan. The grenade summons Emberus. Carl and Donut leap as the plane crashes into the god’s face.

Carl receives 60 seconds of invulnerability. They land in a popped bubble. Quan ambushes Carl, but his attacks are useless against the invulnerability buff. Quan then tries to flee. Carl grabs his arm and rips it off at the shoulder. Quan escapes. The world quest to kill Orthrus fails, but the quest to save him is completed.

Carl explains his sun tattoos are from worshiping Emberus. Mordecai reports a shrine to the god appeared in their safe room. Carl reviews the requirements: daily blood offerings, a 5% gold tithe, and church quests. Benefits include immunity to burning and a boon every five worship days. Emberus grants a constitution boost and assigns two quests: discover who killed his son (Orthrus’s master) before the 18th floor and kill his brother Hellik before the 12th floor.

At the stairwell, Carl loots Quan’s severed arm, obtaining three rings including Rockard’s Ring of Sniping, which reveals injured enemies and those wearing magical gear. He receives a chat telling him Louis rushed into their private bathroom, and Carl fears the party’s secret communication method—magical paper inside the toilet stall—will be discovered.

Inside the safe room, Carl coordinates with Imani to begin mass rescues. They’ll use the Gate of the Feral Gods to create portals from other bubbles, saving over 500 crawlers. While waiting, Carl opens reward boxes, learning a Ping spell that allows him to locate certain enemies on different floors.

Another note from a crawler, Priestly, describes the ninth-floor city of Larracos. After, rescue operations proceed successfully. One summoned god explodes while a giant turkey roams the Lacuna. Three real gods appear but leave. The crawler count drops below one hundred thousand.

A system announcement confirms that the crawlers’ method of popping bubbles to escape and reach the next floor is allowed, though they have limited their god-summoning chances to ensure there are no more apocalyptic risks. The announcement prepares them for sixth-floor features: class specializations, guilds, and record hunter participation. Hunters are dungeon outsides who will be allowed to participate and kill crawlers for enjoyment or money.

Carl and Donut return to bubble 543, greeted by a crowd. Florin the Crocodilian thanks Carl, saying their actions gave him hope. At the Desperado Club, Katia announces she’s forming her own party to protect others from joining Eva, Katia’s friend-turned-enemy who has killed over a dozen fellow crawlers and tried to kill her. Carl and Donut are sad but accept her decision. Louis, Firas, Gwen’s team, Daniel, and Florin will join. Carl gives Katia Eva’s lost sword.

The next phase of their plan to reach the next floor starts. Changelings escape to the sixth floor. Imani and Elle give Carl the gate pieces and descend. Carl, Katia, and Donut share a farewell hug.

A note from a crawler named Porthus describes his servitude and a mysterious enemy. After, Carl sets up the gate’s winding box, beginning a five-hour countdown. He plans to open a portal to the ninth floor and send the NPC Juice Box through it with the remaining pieces of the Gate artifact; this would result in a feral god appearing on both sides of the portal, doing immense damage to the dungeon. Juice Box agrees to the plan if Carl promises to try and bring her fellow changelings safely to every lower floor. Carl receives a chat informing him that a lawsuit was opened against his plan, as it would damage certain sponsors’ armies or fortifications in the dungeon. The showrunners defend Carl and Donut but send him a direct message informing him that further plans attacking sponsors won’t be tolerated in the future.

A feral demon named Slit appears, wielding a chain whip and screaming for Psamathe, the mythical figure trapped in a doll’s head that the group has been calling Samantha. Carl receives an expensive emergency loot box containing a head-throwing attachment, which he suspects his sponsor already had made for a plan on the next floor but was forced to send now to keep him alive. He brings Samantha outside, attaches her head to the device, and hurls her over 50 kilometers. Slit chases. A god appears, rips Slit apart, and vanishes. The device magically returns Samantha’s head to him, and she says the god was her mother, with whom she has a complex relationship. Slit and her sisters all hate Samantha due to a past misunderstanding over their lovers.

With under an hour remaining, Carl calls out Maggie, hiding in the sand using Chris’s burrowing ability. Using a phase potion, Carl extracts the Maggie worm from Chris’s head. It burrows into Carl’s arm before a healing potion forces it out. Mongo eats the worm, killing Maggie.

Carl reveals his real plan to Juice Box: they’re keeping the gate. He sends her to tell the ninth-floor NPCs what she knows about the dungeon and their existence as NPCs. She reveals she and Louis are in love and flees to the portal. Zev texts urgently that Carl’s new plan is unacceptable, as it will destroy the level and kill all remaining NPCs in the market. The NPCs can’t be remade, and the market where magical gear is bought and the Desperado Club where sponsors gamble—both crucial revenue streams—will be cut off. Knowing this, Carl enacts the plan, promising Zev that what he does on the next floor will make the Syndicate hesitate before punishing him for his actions.

The gate opens in the Water Quadrant. For 20 minutes, ocean water, bombs, and sharks flood Larracos, destroying faction markets. Carl, now top-ranked, declares war on all hunters.

The president of outreach for the pacifist network that sponsors Carl, Dr. P. Hu, is revealed as Porthus, the author of one of the notes who accepted one hundred seasons of servitude to the Syndicate. He tells a colleague they’re going to wholeheartedly support Carl.

On post-apocalyptic Earth, bounty hunters Sadir and Gennrik search for a target called Gravy Boat from the illegal Walk-on List—corporations hiring hunters to kidnap surviving natives from colonized planets. They track the cat to New Queen Anne, a survivor settlement.

In a tent, Brad watches Bea, Carl’s ex-girlfriend, sleep with the stray she calls Ferdinand. The stray is revealed to be Gravy Boat, the bounty hunters’ target. Brad resents not entering the dungeon.

Sadir and Gennrik raid the tent. Lexis, working for Odette, arrives and kills Gennrik. Brad grabs a weapon, and Lexis shoots him. Lexis reports to Odette, who instructs her to frame Sadir for Gennrik’s murder and Brad’s shooting, staging the scene as a fight over the cat. The plan: leave Brad to die, have Sadir arrested, and then buy his warrant to ensure his cooperation. The cat goes to Borant for the bounty. Odette will keep Bea for a different purpose.