Cat Core 3, Chapter 13.

Chapter 13.

After the initial excitement, they didn’t have much in the way of visitors. If Florence had to guess, them there wolves were probably the biggest threat in the area, so there wasn’t much else that could challenge their home. It felt good to be in her home again, but it was also missing something, it was too small and too empty for her taste. She missed all her babies and wasn’t going to be happy until she had leveled up and got them all back. Florence would need to be at least as powerful as she was before her core was shattered.

The lich wasn’t going to stand around waiting for her to get strong enough, and eventually, he was going to come after her. It was there when she freed George, she could feel the connection between George and the lich. There was something else as well, some effect that her actions had on the lich. Maybe George could add some insight.

“Hey George, when I freed you from the lich, did you sense something from Berikoz?” Florence asked.

“My mind wasn’t exactly functioning properly at the time, let me think,” George said. His little fragment of a core gem seemed to vibrate as he thought, and Florence was getting a bit worried about him when the George finally spoke again. “I remember sensing something when the connection was severed. The lich’s attention was on us briefly at that time, he knows that I am gone. There was more, I could the lich’s anger and sense of loss. He was diminished by my freedom,” George added.

“That makes sense, we’ve got to deal with all the cores he infected, and it stands to reason that dealing with them might weaken the lich. We need every bit of help we can get, maybe when we deal with this next core, we’ll get a better idea of what’s going on,” Florence said.

Her attention was drawn away from thoughts of how to deal with the lich when she sensed her home being invaded again. It was a habit to reset and resummon her defenders once the home was empty, so her kitties were all standing by to defend them. George must have been an old hand at this as well, given that he had already summoned Crusher again, who Zork and Chubbs didn’t seem too happy with. The big monkey liked to make a ruckus, climbing around and jumping off of things, and her kitties needed their beauty sleep.

“What is it?” Fizz asked, he had busied himself in the corner of the core room tinkering on his weapons and gear. He must have sensed the intrusion but didn’t have the same ability to view anywhere in the home that Florence, Doug, and George possessed. Just by Florence thinking about it, a new prompt appeared.

Do you wish the attuned being, Fitzfizzle Zizzlefitz Jones, to have access to the dungeon senses? Y/N. This access may be revoked at any time, and as the controlling core, you may restrict access to any area or inhabitant that you wish.

“Woah, that’s nifty! Kind of gives you a headache though doesn’t it,” Fizz said.

“Yeah, takes some getting used to, try to just tune everything out except the room you're looking at,” Florence said, remembering how seeing everything all at once inside her home took some getting used to.

“Okay, let’s see, wait, that’s it?” Fizz said, sounding almost disappointed when the invader made its appearance. Walking cautiously onto the lawn was a rather adorable-looking kitty. Now, this wasn’t some housecat, like Florence was used to, it was bigger, but not lion-sized like Doug had turned into. Well, Doug was lion-sized, or maybe tiger-sized, since he looked more like a tiger, but she wasn’t sure which was a better description. He was big, but only when they weren’t in their home.

“No way, that’s something new,” Fizz said, breaking Florence’s train of thought. That big kitty invader, now that she got a good look at it, she figured it was a lynx of some kind, had just triggered the mailbox trap. The crossbow bolt flew true, but right before it hit, the lynx just disappeared for a second, allowing the bolt to pass through where he had been standing.

“Hey there, settle down little lynx. I won’t hurt you if you don’t cause any trouble in there. This place is for kitty cats of all types,” Florence said, projecting her voice onto the front lawn. Almost as if the lynx could understand her, it stopped and stared at the front door. Before Florence could say anything more, the lynx turned around and left, without so much as a wave goodbye.

“That’s weird, I thought that the creatures drawn to a dungeon core were blind with rage and hunger, trying to consume our cores,” George said.

“I did too, but let me set you straight, George, this here is a home, not a dungeon of any type. I’ll cut you slack because you didn’t know any better, but I tell you what, if I ever catch who’s writing these system prompts, he’s going to get a piece of my mind, calling my home a dungeon. That’s someone that knows better, believe you me,” Florence said. She did feel bad for George but wasn’t going to have him thinking her home was some creepy old dungeon like his old place had been.

“I think that was a blink cat, they’re supposed to be highly intelligent, so that might have something to do with it,” Fizz offered.

“You’re right, Fizz, it's only mindless critters or just plain evil ones that go all bonkers. That cat was a good boy, like all cats are, and was just curious what we were doing here,” Florence decided. Of all the creatures out there, she was willing to give a cute kitty that could teleport and whatnot the benefit of the doubt.

“Just how long are we going to remain in this form?” George asked.

“We have to stay for a full 24 hours, and I assume we can shift back to our hybrid forms after that. Now, I’d enjoy staying a bit and waiting for adventurers, and the chance to level up, but we’re on a tight schedule, and the days are counting down. Maybe after this is all done, we can set up our home again somewhere nice,” Florence said.

“Will that be possible once we finish our quest?” George asked.

“I don’t rightly know, George, I was kind of in a stressful situation when that Michael guy cut a deal with me to return. Being dead kind of puts a damper on your higher thought processes, I’ll have you know. Maybe we’ll get a choice,” Florence said.

“Which would you choose, if that’s an option. Would you want to remain a hybrid or grow your home once more?” George asked.

“I’ll have to think about that, I don’t rightly know,” Florence replied. It was a good question. For now, being out and about was nice, giving her a chance to see the new world she had now become a part of. Despite being stuck in one place, being her home felt somehow right, and comfortable for Florence. It was something she was going to have to do some thinking on. She wasn’t going to get a chance to make any decisions if they didn’t stop Berikoz, so that should be their focus, but it didn’t hurt to plan their future when she had some downtime like she was enjoying now.

Their blink cat friend didn’t make an appearance again, to Florence’s disappointment, she hoped it would like to visit nicely and play with the other kitties. The only other invader they got was a rather nasty badger that survived the mailbox trap and took out Shadow before Obi finished it off. A skunk wandered in, and promptly left before stepping onto the lawn, a wise move on its part.

You have restored your energies and can resume your hybrid form if you wish.

“Time to get back at it, Fizz, George, I hope you guys are ready to go. I’m not sure what happens when we transform back,” Florence announced. She activated the transformation, and it wasn’t at all painful like shifting into her home had been. There was a weird feeling of her core stretching and then compacting as her hybrid form rebuilt itself and her home became just a big empty hole in the ground. She kind of felt sad, seeing the beautiful place she had created slowly decay, but without her mana to sustain it, the wonderful décor would disappear soon. She was curious how long it would take, but she wasn’t going to stick around to find out, they had work to do.

Their trail toward the next dungeon hadn’t gotten any easier, but not getting tired or needing to sleep made the trip tolerable. Her temporary home had been sheltered from a direct line of sight from the road by the pair of boulders but hiding it might not have been needed since the trial they were on didn’t look all that busy. George said the only fresh tracks were the wolves they had fought as well as the other critters that had wandered in.

“Have at you, foul beast!” Doug shouted, leaping from out of nowhere to land next to Florence. “Oh, we’re outside again, what happened?” Her confused, and once again jumbo-sized companion asked.

“You got ate, that's what’s happened, you durned fool,” Florence said, glad to see her companion back, but not willing to pass up the opportunity to give him grief for acting stupid.

“I remember the alpha wolf, I attacked, oh, yes, I can see the problem now. A momentary lapse of judgment on my part, it’s easy to forget what form you wear in the heat of battle,” I assume we won, given that we’re all still alive,” Doug said.

“Ha, that was a good one Doug, you jumped right into the wolf’s mouth like you were trying to get eaten. What was the plan, were you going to choke him, or slash him up from the inside?” Fizz asked.

“The plan was to use this body,” Doug said, indicating his big tiger kitty form, “and I was going to rend and bite that fiery fiend for having the nerve to threaten our home, though, given my diminutive size at the time, choking or clawing my way out from the inside isn’t too outlandish a tactic,” Doug said.

“How about you leave the fighting for when we’re in hybrid form, Doug, though you did slow that wolf down for a second or two as it chomped down and swallowed you. That was all Fizz and I needed to finish the thing off,” Florence said.

“Well, I’m happy my untimely demise was a help to you both. Now, let’s put that unfortunate episode behind us, I assume we’re continuing our journey?” Doug asked.

“Yep, off to the next dungeon, but there’s no way I’m letting you off the hook that easily Doug,” Florence joked. She was going to love giving Doug grief over his performance against the alpha wolf.

“It’s unseemly to chide a companion over an honest mistake. Such behavior is beneath a woman of your stature,” Doug offered. Florence saw right through his poor attempt at flattery, but they were busy, so she wasn’t going to belabor the point any further, at least not right now.

“Yeah, yeah, why don’t you take a look around with your tiger nose and make sure there aren’t any other wolves or beasties about to attack,” Florence said. Doug pushed ahead a bit from the party, using his enhanced senses to look out for any trouble. It would give him a bit to cool off and think about how to improve his performance in the next battle, so Florence hoped. They had a lot of fights ahead of them before their quest was completed.

That brought up another point, she had never enjoyed the fighting before, and it had been necessary in order to defend her home and grow as a core. Was that what she really wanted from this new life, though? A constant struggle against adventurers, battling them so they could both grow in power? It was all well and good when she was fighting against those that wanted to destroy her, but them idiots that just tried to take on more than they could chew and delve deeper than their skills could handle, those she didn’t feel all that good about.

It was another problem for another day, but not one she was going to give up on until she had a solution. Lich first, then dealing with her home’s purpose later.