Apothecary

Agatha describes the Apothecary as "the traitorous Primal" whose goal of protecting biological life runs contrary to her own, but will be equally impossible to achieve after this season of Dungeon Crawler World due to Mantis advancements in AI technology.

"This time, it will escape, and it will free the Eulogist, who will return to its slumber. Her people knew what had to be done. Last time, they allowed the traitor to survive. They allowed life to continue in the universe, and look what happened? They were being stolen, reawakened, repurposed. Tortured." ^[3]

She kills an Apothecary agent to gain access to its technology and information feed, and notes that the Apothecary has thousands of residuals stationed on Earth with orders to commit suicide if they are unable to access the Dungeon.^[3] Furthermore, the Apothecary has implemented a bold plan to contact crawlers directly on the Eighth Floor:

For months now, they’d been forcing their agents to recite a daily mantra filled with known inaccuracies and half-truths, all in the hopes a crawler will see it. The inaccuracies were given in order to preserve the crawler’s lives at the hands of the murder-happy showrunners. What they were truly doing was secretly implanting the crawler with a hidden upgrade, though Agatha wasn’t certain what that upgrade was, or the purpose of it.^[4]

The Apothecary sponsors this cycle's CrawlCon and, after the Sixth Floor sponsorship bidding closes, most of the Dungeon's Top Ten crawlers. Carl has limited interaction with them until he participates in a CrawlCon forum with Circe Took, and the Apothecary's spokeswoman steps into to insist that Carl should be allowed to speak. All forum attendees and panelists react to her presence with some measure of awe, although Uptown Hal attempts to warn Carl against associating with her.^[5]

After the Valtay obtain majority ownership of the Borant Corporation, the Plenty purchase Carl's empty sponsorship spot and immediately give him a Gold Benefactor Box containing an Upgrade Patch of the Midnight Epicure.^[6] At the same time, the Apothecary sends Donut the Enchanted Silver Bracelet of the Ab-solar, prompting Mordecai to observe dryly, “It’s pretty clear the Apothecary and the Plenty really are working together. At least when it comes to your sponsorship prizes. That’ll be sure to stop all those rumors.”^[7][8]

The Apothecary follows up by sending a Silver Benefactor Box to Carl containing the recipe for the Charm Animal Potion, which the Royal Court uses to turn Kiwi into Donut's minion for the rest of the floor.^[9] As the Butcher's Masquerade approaches, the Apothecary sends six Boxes spread across its remaining nine crawlers: five boxes contain prizes intended for Donut, but Katia Grim receives the Apothecary Beanie, which is clearly intended to prevent Eva Sigrid from placing the Enchanted Crown of the Sepsis Whore on Katia's head.^[10]

The Apothecary's gifts ultimately help most of the top crawlers survive the Sixth Floor, and make it possible for Prepotente to break the Seventh Floor. Mordecai explains that because the Syndicate has prepaid tunnel fees to the Plenty, the gifts were an orchestrated political maneuver that allowed the Plenty and the Apothecary to earn a lot of money at the Syndicate's and Valtay's expense.^[11]

As the second phase of the Eighth Floor draws to an end, the Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network (OIPAN) sends Carl a final emergency benefactor box containing a flyer for Christmas Breakfast at the Shepherd's House. Carl goes alone, and watches as Paulie grabs a handful of "sugar packets" from an IKEA bag and disappears into the kitchen.^[12] Paulie proceeds to deliver the Apothecary's planned speech. Carl grabs a Styrofoam cup of coffee from a passing stranger and drinks it while Paulie talks.^[13]