Dungeon Crawler Carl characters

Appears from the start

A Coast Guard veteran in his late twenties who steps outside in boxer shorts and a pair of borrowed Crocs to retrieve his former girlfriend's runaway show cat, minutes before every building on Earth is collapsed by the alien Borant Corporation. Entering the dungeon underdressed and shoeless, he finds the game's System treats his condition as a running novelty and rewards it with unusual bonuses. Practical, stubborn, and slow to anger, he favors his fists and feet, explosives, and careful planning over flash, and from the first floor he refuses to perform cruelty for the watching audience or abandon weaker survivors, a stance that begins to define his reputation.

Also known as Donut, Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk

Appears from the start

A pedigreed Persian show cat belonging to Carl's former girlfriend. An item from one of her first reward boxes raises her intelligence far beyond a normal animal's, and she soon speaks, casts spells, and, on the strength of her superior stats, insists on formal leadership of their two-member party, the self-styled Royal Court of Princess Donut. Vain, imperious, and devoted to her own comfort and status as a champion show animal, she treats Carl as staff as often as partner, yet the two quickly become inseparable and each repeatedly risks everything for the other.

Also known as Bea

Appears from the start

Carl's former girlfriend and Princess Donut's owner, away from home when the surface world was destroyed. She never enters the dungeon, but her absence leaves her prize cat in Carl's care and sets the whole story in motion.

First appears in chapter 2

The gruff non-player manager of a tutorial guild hall near the spot where Carl and Donut enter the first floor. After making Carl prove himself against the local goblins, he takes the pair in, walks them through the dungeon's rules, menus, loot, and dangers, and coaches them on how to build their characters. His advice is blunt and transactional at first, but he steadily becomes their most trusted source of guidance.

First appears in chapter 22

A caregiver from the Meadow Lark elder-care facility who entered the dungeon alongside a large group of elderly residents and fellow staff. Calm and quietly formidable, she leads the effort to keep dozens of vulnerable people alive, and her group's alliance with Carl and Donut carries both parties through a major boss fight on the first floor.

First appears in chapter 28

The alien host of a popular intergalactic interview program who brings notable crawlers onto her show between fights. Shrewd and theatrical, she takes an early interest in Carl and Donut, and her questions and off-air advice give the pair some of their first real insight into how the game and its audience actually work.

Also known as Elle

First appears in chapter 31

An elderly, sharp-tongued survivor traveling with the Meadow Lark group on the second floor. Carl helps her reach a safe room during a monster attack, and she repays the debt with loyalty, humor, and open flirtation. Despite her age she is a genuine fighter, and she becomes one of the pair's lasting allies.

First appears in chapter 35

A public-relations liaison assigned to Carl and Donut by the game's operators once the pair start drawing serious audience attention. Zev manages their show bookings and sponsor contacts and explains how crawler appearances on Syndicate programs work, and despite working for the other side becomes genuinely fond of the team.

First appears in chapter 42

A prince of the Skull Empire, a porcine galactic monarchy whose citizens follow the crawl as entertainment. Carl and Donut first encounter him as a celebrity presence on a rival dungeon program, where he torments human crawlers for sport. Carl's willingness to defy him on the air plants the seed of a dangerous grudge between the crawlers and the Empire.

First appears in chapter 46

A juvenile pack-hunting dinosaur that Donut claims from a reward room near the end of the second floor and, after a fraught taming period involving several bites to her nose, adopts as her beloved pet and mount. Ferociously loyal to Donut, he rounds out the Royal Court as its animal muscle.