Chapter 14

Carl prepares for the Hunt to begin in 3.5 hours, with over 1,000 hunters now in the dungeon. He coordinates with his team to map the floor and plan defensive positions, while devising a massive bomb to be deployed via Bomo into the town near the bridge crossing—though Donut proposes an alternative using a clockwork version instead.

With the Hunt timer ticking down, Carl reviews the massive scale of the tenth floor (roughly 100,000 square kilometers, similar to Iceland) using a map Katia compiled from gate coordinates. The floor is bisected by a winding 500-kilometer river with at least a dozen bridges. Carl orders all bridges except one knocked down to control hunter movement. Miriam reports that Team Meadow Lark safely reached the main southern road, which is kept clear of traps and mobs by regular caravan traffic using anti-trap spells. She identifies a large Ursine settlement on the far side of the river, about 40 kilometers south. Carl circles this location as a possible base of operations. Carl has constructed an enormous wheeled bomb called "Just Wait Until Your Daddy Gets Home," a five-foot-tall thermobaric device filled with Nitro Sludge (an explosive amplifier) that simulates flattening everything within a third of a mile and severely injuring targets for another half mile beyond. He plans to send Bomo out through a saferoom door to detonate it near the hunter-occupied town when roughly thirty minutes remain on the Hunt timer. Donut objects to using Bomo as a suicide bomber, but Carl notes Bomo will respawn on the next floor. When Donut raises concerns about hunters waiting at the saferoom door, Carl and Donut discuss whether a clockwork copy of Bomo could be made instead—Donut confirms he can create one if Bomo is reclassified as Donut's minion rather than a party member, though Donut must be present in the saferoom during the conversion. Carl and Donut decide to attempt reaching the Ursine town within three hours; if successful, they'll execute Donut's clockwork plan instead of sacrificing the original Bomo.