The entirety of The Gate of the Feral Gods takes place in level five of the dungeon. This time around, the dungeon's layout seems to be designed almost specifically prevent the crawlers from organizing and cooperating like they did with the trains. In this level, the dungeon crawlers find themselves separated into groups of around 150, spread across 1,172 enclosed "bubbles." Each of these bubbles has four castles*, each in its own quadrant - Land, Sea, Air and Subterranean. Each castle has a stair to the next level, but in each bubble, all four castles must be captured before any of those stairways are accessible to crawlers. When all four castles in a bubble are captured, in addition to the stairways being accessible, the bubble's top pops open, allowing you to leave it, should you so choose. Once out of your own bubble, you can enter other bubbles to help... or attack and loot... other players in their bubbles. However, since crawlers can't enter or leave a bubble until all four castles are taken, it's questionable as to how much help - or for that matter, looting - could be done before a bubble's been popped.
While each small group consists of a strong Crawler or group along with low level Crawlers who probably shouldn't have made it this far - giving the skilled Crawler(s) little-to-nothing to work with - Carl manages to find himself in a bubble whose story includes (and revolves around) The Gate of the Feral Gods: a legendary magic item consisting of three pieces that, when properly used together, can form a gateway that opens to a location anywhere in the dungeon. It will even open a gate to another level, if you know how to set it properly. Oh, there is one hitch, of course (and the name sort of gives it away): using the gate has a really high likelihood of unleashing a banished god from the void into the area you just left. And gods banished to the void typically belong there... which means a non-banished god is also likely to show up and fight them and try to return them to the void. So, while the gate theoretically lets you travel anywhere in the dungeon, it also sentences everyone in the area you leave to a firsthand, front-row seat to "good god, bad god." Lots of destruction. Would not recommend.
Carl, Donut, Mongo and Katia power their way through the level, using a combination of their unique skills, magical abilities, winning personalities, a bit of subterfuge and more than a little bit of dumb luck. All the while, the AI running the show is becoming more and more unhinged, doing things like throwing everyone into the same mandatory escort mission quest... then throwing everyone into a quest to thwart that quest, for a huge prize. Will this sabotage mission with a huge reward lure the overpowered experience sniper Quan Ch into working against Carl, or will he finally come around and give Carl a hand? You'll have to read the book to find out, but this quest (you'll know it when you see it) was one of the (many) highlights of the book and I feel like this will have lasting effects in future books.
Most of the action in this series (well, that we get to actually see) is taking place in the televised parts of the dungeon, with a peek here or there into political goings on outside of Earth and its current Dungeon Crawl. We have also been getting that one bonus chapter about the Pineapple Cabaret at the end of each book. That's still unfolding in the bonus chapter, here, revealing that the awakened NPCs' target is, evidently, not the Dungeon Crawlers, as they are considering springing their whatever-it-is at a point that the Crawlers are usually all expired by. Right after the end of the level and before the Bonus Chapter, however, we are treated to an Epilogue chapter that reveals a bit of what it's like for those who remained on the surface, complete with the (re?)introduction of a few characters from the beginning of the series.
Do I recommend The Gate of the Feral Gods? Yes, both professionally, here on the website, and personally to my friends and family with any interest in litRPGs, RPG gaming and/or Fantasy. The Gate of the Feral Gods is packed with excitement and adventure, from a mysterious glass castle to dangerous treks through the desert... from high-altitude hijinks down to terrors at the depths of the sea. Of course, I recommend starting with book 1, but the ride up to this point has been a blast. I look forward to starting to read the next book. Today. I literally can't and won't wait to see what happens next.
* So, yes, it's a total of 4,688** castles to be captured for all of the Crawlers to make it to the next level.
** And, yes if you're doing the math, that would mean that this floor started with at least 175,800 Crawlers. Per the AI at the beginning of the level, there are 178,887 Crawlers remaining.
