Carl is still trying to get familiar with his new strength(s) and abilities and is trying to min/max his build as much as he can, while Princess Donut is pleased that everyone has finally realized how magnificent and important she is and she's finally getting the recognition she deserves - on galactic television, no less!
Speaking of which, the fact that everyone's exploits are televised and highlights are shown to all of the crawlers means that those on the leaderboard are getting a bit of notoriety among the other crawlers, the home viewing audience, even cogs in the political machine operating above and beyond the (typical) sphere of Earth's influence. And that fame brings fortune, fans and enemies... some who could be very, very dangerous.
But, you know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well, I don't know what Carl's opinion of that last part actually is, but it seems someone with amazing video editing skills releases a fake sex tape that has Carl putting a political rival (well, a rival who is royalty and, hence, political) in a very... ahem, compromising position or two. So good, in fact, that the masses are questioning whether it's real or not... and who is behind it. It seems to likely be some political puppet-mastering from behind the curtains, because it leads to this prince being disowned and his brother seeking retaliation in a real and lethal way. Again, puppet-mastering turns this attempt against the prince and, interestingly in favor of the Borant Corporation. Hmmm...
With their arrival at the third floor, Carl and Princess Donut must select a race and class. There are a lot of cat variants, including battle-cats and monstrous things, that Princess Donut could have chosen, but, of course, she immediately selected "cat" as she had said she would, because "why would anyone want to be anything else?" Despite Princess Donut's suggestion, however, Carl didn't opt to become a cat. He wanted to stay mostly the same in appearance - to avoid losing rations, among other things - but ended up selecting something called "Primal," which was the original race of the first crawlers, but whose appearance has been lost to history, so it doesn't change the crawlers' appearance when they select it. Plus, it had some nice stat boosts and played into Carl's long-term build plan, which requires he put in a bit more training, but should result in a more powerful build in later levels. For his class, he selected "Compensated Anarchist" - something that helped out with his explosives nicely, because of course he would. Duh!
Princess Donut selected something called Former Child Actor, whose most important benefit is probably the fact that it comes with a manager. What that means in-game is that Mordecai, who was their trainer up to this point, would become Princess Donut's manager, giving them access to his advice, experience, and potion-brewing prowess. His advice can prove invaluable... even if the royal court of Princess Donut doesn't always take it.
Princess Donut's much loved dinosaur-chicken-thing pet grows quite a bit on level three (they grow up so quickly) and manages to actually become somewhat useful, as well. Additionally, the Royal Court begins to create some named tactics so they can start building a "play book" of sorts so they can... well... be on the same page when they have to think quick during battles.
The Royal Court of Princess Donut also discovers "Quests"... and discovers they can be hard to avoid, can interfere with much needed grinding/training, and can have puzzle and mystery elements, rather than being simply challenges of brute force. Additionally, as a favor to Hekla and Brynhild's Daughters, they agree to look after Katia, a Doppelganger Monster Truck Driver (well, now, anyway) who is trailing behind by like ten levels, as she was separated from the group upon moving down to the third level. In typical heroic Carl fashion, he manages to help save the people around him and even "sticks it to the man" a bit, with some well-placed explosives. Although, I have to say he might fare a bit better if he stopped infuriating the powers-that-be. There may be no such thing as bad press, but there is certainly wanted and unwanted attention.
I really enjoyed Matt Dinniman's second installment in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and look forward to continuing the follow the adventures of Princess Donut and her entourage in the upcoming books in the series. Highly recommended.
