The sixth floor of the dungeon is identical in size and layout to the 3rd floor, but the same cities that were bustling with NPCs on floor 3 now lie in ruins and are infested with hundreds of years of overgrowth. This level is called The Hunting Grounds, and it features hunters that try to kill the crawlers in order to take their gear. The hunters use the gear to outfit their respective factions down on the 9th floor, and there are also freelancers that collect gear to sell to the highest bidder. The hunters all start at level 50, but they can kill NPC mobs to level up just like the crawlers do. After 17 days of hunting and killing each other, the level culminates in the Butcher's Masquerade, which is a party attended by the remaining hunters and the top 50 crawlers. What could possibly go wrong there?
This level also introduces the concept of guilds, allowing the crawlers to band together and share their personal spaces and upgrades with their guild mates. Even though Carl has been dedicated to organizing the crawlers from floor to floor, neither he nor Donut wants to run a guild, so they convince some of their friends to take on that responsibility. Most of their dungeon crawling allies join the guild and this allows them to work together against the challenges of the sixth floor. Despite this, a failed group quest causes a spell to be cast that spreads outward from a single point across the level and it winds up funneling all the surviving crawlers into the SE corner of the map where the Elf castle is. It is no surprise that this is the same castle that will host the Masquerade at the end of the season. This sets the stage for a chaotic ending where all the Hunters, Crawlers, NPCs, and quest lines will come together. Once again it gets overly complicated before it ends, but once it sorts itself out, it has a solid conclusion with clear winners and losers. This series remains quite entertaining and I do recommend it for any gamer.
Jeff Hays continues to do an amazing job on the narration of this series and without a doubt the production of the audiobook adds to the overall experience.