Chapters 195, 196, Epilogue. The End.

What if Katia became pregnant, wouldn't she be teleported out the dungeon, yes I know technically she can't but there have been so many things that have happened that shouldn't happen and it would be a way that she gets out, which is what Carl is trying to do?

Wild guesses on how Katia and Donut can get around the line of succession: 1) one or both of them can get sucked into the Nothing. We already know some entities can come back... but they come back changed/Feral. Samantha knows at least one ritual that can allow someone to come back. 2) Donut can ascend to become a lesser deity... it seems like a possibility and I'm guessing succession/rule for the Ascendancy over-ride the rules for the Blood Sultanate. 3) Complicated inter-marriage with some other line of succession removes Donut from the Blood Sultanate line of succession. Possible hint in the line about "rules of succession" for the new Princess Posse war band. 4) Special Case of number 3... is Ferdinand the last surviving royal member of Queen Imogen's family? is he now King Ferdinand? If he and Donut marry - how do the succession rules play out?

John L Briere

So when's the start of the next floor?

I recall that being setup now. Maybe she can spoof it by turning into a 100% perfect copy of Donut?

Bear C. Brown

Noooo! Not Katia. And they still have all those train conductor hats. Why didn’t she carry a backup!?

Bear C. Brown

Why were there velociraptors left? Shouldn't they have all been white dots when the spell happened and transported to the ninth floor?

jeremy south

All survivors of the Butcher’s Masquerade should have received Legendary Boss boxes. Is it not mentioned because nobody had gotten to a safe room yet?

Ilya Taytslin

I was wondering if you could share more about what the Great Race would have been, and what folk tale was it based on?

Finn Ryan

So. This makes me feel super bad for Katia. So when she first met Carl and Dounut that was the real her. Not her messing up the doppelganger tools. They made fun of her and said mean things she probably heard forever thinking it was her just messing up the sculpture. Even the a.i. labels her as "what the fuck" that poor woman. I'm ready to hear what happened to her before the dungeon.

william brown

Stay gold, Ponyboy

Andrew Webb

That epilogue just makes me so sad. I think if push comes to shove and one of them has to die Kaita’s own self hatred will make her end it. Two lines that hit like a jackhammer for me were "the blitzstick would oblige" and "I do that sometimes. I hurt those around me."

Why did you press the goku button

I'm looking forward to the crazy shit Mordecai (and Carl) can cook up with their crafting tables now that theyre (the tables, that is) effectively 2 levels higher than they were the last time anyone used them.... who knows what kind of crazy shit the cookbook has for Carl???

congolicious

She killed Hekla back on floor 4, which earned her her first golden skull

congolicious

Carl has a quest to kill a god. What happens if someone else kills Emberus first?

Ilya Taytslin

Katia had a golden skull for killing a bounty, is that an error to make it 2 flaming player skulls?

Derek Reilly

He dropped down to #3, I assume that's why

Erik Leiden

I’ve been so invested in this storyline, thank you Matt!

Dan Birkett

Literally says it in the story. Their sponsors are trying to get them to party up. The disbanding thing immediately after is basically a "fuck you" to them.

Adunk

What’s the point of donut ending up with all the sponsor gifts only to give them back to Pony. He was the one with the important starting location and background knowledge. There really wasn’t a need for donut to have them and then to have the three party together only to disband moments later

Dirty Dibbler

Oh, hey, thing I noticed on a re-read: On the 6th floor Carl's bounty was 3mm gold, but on the 7th Floor it was only 1.6mm gold. Did it deliberately go down or is that a typo? In chapter 109 it said that the bounty went up each floor.

David K. Storrs

Is... is Samantha the AI’s DMPC? Is the AI shipping the goddess of crazy girlfriends with Carl as projection of itself or self-insert?

Adunk

That was one hell of a floor, can't wait to see the aftermath of all of that

CentaureHeart

Can’t wait to hear this absolutely unhinged bullshit in audiobook format, what a ride, this is probably my favorite floor at this point.

The day Donut dies is the day Carl gives up and goes full doomsday.

The 49th Khan

By now Matt has demonstrated his willingness to kill off important and/or sympathetic characters. I suspect Katia will survive the ninth floor, and Donut will not.

Ilya Taytslin

Holy cow. Man I love these books.

Dan

Awesome. I'm looking forward to re-reading the whole thing in the PDF to get the final version. Congrats on finishing!

Gabe

Thinking about it, I would say that making a floor a deathtrap would not be allowed by the AI, it has to be 'fair'. Instead, my take would be that it's all about getting the crawlers to work together. Why have guaranteed safe paths only 1 person can use? To get the crawlers to fight each other. The whole floor could be designed to sow discord.

Greg Tolley

Awesome book. The entire masquerade sequence runs smoothly and clearly despite it being so chaotic. It’s an impressive bit of writing. Thanks.

George McFly

Brilliantly well done Matt! Loved it. Would have liked to see the great race, it sounds amazing but eagerly looking forward to the 8th floor now.

Deepak Kamlesh

Ok I missed the fact that they are skipping an entire floor

Martin Knudsen

Damn what a tearjerker and a nice dramatic end

Deinos

Oh my god, watching Katia self destruct is going to hurt.

I wonder why skipping the 7th floor was so important. Was it a deathtrap, or are the sponsors just taking a convenient opportuntity to increase the odds of the 9th floor playing out like Carl intends? Also wondering what the implications are in terms of difficuty. Did they just skip a whole floor of experience and equipment they might need for a greater challenge in the 8th? Maybe the AI will adjust difficulty or compensate a bit with some achievments for this madness. Propotente at least has a crazy box coming his way.

Not sure on that. There is some sort of balancing, it is possible this starts putting them ahead of the curve on the curve for the "impossible" floors, or sets up a mass celestial prize box chain or something.

David Burchfield

Well done, Matt. I was afraid the ending would feel rushed as there were so many loose ends, but that chaos worked so very well. Thanks for all the fish.

I hope not, I really like her and I hope they find some bullshit way around the crowns effects.

Reborn

what the fuck

MatrixM

Good lord, what a wild finale. It was so hard to keep up with it all, but I think that chaotic feeling just made it feel even more real. Fantastic book, thanks Matt. Can't wait to see what's next.

Thank you very much for all your hard work. Your story is simply amazing. It's so different from everything else I'm reading, and the quality and creativity is much greater than other web serials I've been exposed to through Royal Road. I am really impressed with your world-building. While so many things are happening simultaneously, you have a wonderful talent of not over-detailing and letting your readers think for themselves. Thank you again.

MAS

Damn, that was hotter than Circe’s cooch

Quinn Hamm

Holy shit. Awesome book, Matt. Sooo glad I found your work. Well done and keep on keeping on

David Willis

Rad

Wow! Small typo, "Blood misted in the air. I could barely breath" - breathe.

Gavin

Thank you Matt for creating such vivid images and pictures. I was able to follow along and picture every step without getting bogged down in the details. Incredible!

Melodee Glatzel-Smith

The scene with Prepotente talking to himself was really moving, I misted up then and for Donut's sad song, feel like I'm going crazy

DannyK

Damn It You Gods!!!

Thian Eng Low

We all knew something like this was gonna happen but still...damn.

Goddamnit.

David K. Storrs

I’m pretty sure I’m experiencing traumatic mental injuries from these last chapters.

Robert Gunnlaugsson

Goddamnit Matt!

Oh, damn...this is going to leave a lot of Crawlers really underleveled for the the 8th floor, though there will at least be many more on the 8th floor now than there would have been otherwise. Poor Katia, she's been in a bad way for a while now and we didn't even realize. I hope she and Donut will both make it past the 9th floor somehow.

Jon

Thank you Matt for the rapid drop of final chapters and for making a sentence i didn't know i needed to read,"A baby mantis was halfway out of her body, screaming and waving its arms as it was cooked alive by the flames from her blazing genitals."

If you're talking about that private moment with Daniel, the cocoon was probably too tight around him.

Cyclic Addict Recovering

Wow, amazing simply amazing. Thank you!!!!!!

Craig Carey

You twisted motherfucker!

Darnell Maxwell

Okay I need a loophole for that ending because I cannot handle this.

macrocode

I had a bit of trouble understanding the last bit, how was she hurting him?

Martin Knudsen

MF! I need to wait till 3 am to be sober enough to re read this.

Will Mill

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

James Van

Whoaaa what a roller coaster ride. Love what you did with the 7th floor. That was really neat.

The Lost Pages

I have no fucking words. Dammit Matt, I won't be able to sleep now, thanks to you.

Thibaud Argenone

well i guess that's the end of katia

Jason Hornbuckle

God damn amazing, sad about that maze tho. Sounded so cool

Whale

Oh. Shit.

Adam Barnes