Cat Core 3, Chapter 11.

Chapter 11.

It was becoming harder and harder for Florence to concentrate, but some crazy core instinct kicked in and she wandered off the path, guided toward the “right” spot for her home to be rebuilt. Now, this here stretch of road was in a rocky, hilly area, and there wasn’t a good cavern, cave, or even a deep hole in the ground that was appropriate. Instead, she stumbled over to where two large boulders blocked the view of her from the road and sat down. Florence got all dizzy and then passed out, the last thing she saw was George having some kind of conniption fit and convulsing on the ground.

Vision returned and Florence found herself, well, she found herself home again. That’s right, her beautiful core gem was a floatin’ over her rocking chair like it had never left. Her cane was resting against the arm of the chair, ready for Florence to use on anyone who tried to bother her gem. The only thing different was a small green gem fragment floating around her own like it was a planet orbiting the sun or something.

“George, is that you floating around in circles around me?” Florence asked.

“I think so, if that large red gem is your core, then yes, my fragment does seem to be rotating around it,” George answered.

“Well, can you stop, or at least not fly around all spastic, you’ll give me a headache with all that nonsense,” Florence chided.

“I don’t know if I can help it, wait, okay, I think I’m getting the hang of this,” George said, his gem fragment slowing down and finally coming to a stop just over the arm of the rocker.

“Thank you, it’s kind of distracting to have something flash in front of your face every few seconds,” Florence said, feeling a bit sorry for having barked at George. Of course, anyone would have done the same in her situation, no, they’d have likely chewed him out worse, not showing any restraint like Florence had.

“Florence, it’s good to see you, while you’ve been resting, out our home has regrown itself. Take a look, it’s kind of nice to see a familiar environment,” Doug said. The little guy was a bit chipper, he really must have missed all his kitty friends.

“Wait, what happened to you, Doug?’ Florence asked. The little guy was little again. Instead of a giant white tiger, he had turned back into the fluffy white kitten version of himself.

“I have resumed my prior duties while you are in this current state, unfortunately, my diminutive size has also returned. Perhaps when we gain a higher level than two, I can resume my proper body type,” Doug said.

“Sorry to interrupt, Florence, but where are my gnomies?” Fizz asked, he looked a bit frantic, and must have been running through her home looking for the garage that housed the clan. While she didn’t condone running in the house, she understood his concern.

“Give me a minute Fizz, I’m still getting the feel for this place again,” Florence replied as she took stock of what her home had become. It was exactly as she remembered, but only a portion of the place had made the transition. She knew it was going to work that way, but it frustrated her that all the work she had put into building her home was placed on hold until she snagged a few more levels.

The entryway with the lovely pavilion was gone, as was Mo in his little pen. She didn’t like that one bit, that place had been intended to warn folks not to take on more than they could handle, and without Mo there to test them, she worried some newbies that weren’t ready would stumble in. Her front lawn and porch were still there, along with the mailbox trap. She was also happy to see that both Shadow and Obi were sneaking around, waiting for intruders. Florence had worried that the new version of her home would cut down on the number of defenders, but it looked like instead of cutting down on numbers, it just pinched off most of the house.

Her living room was cozy as ever and all the babies assigned to that room were playing and having a big old time. Baxter, Tater, Midnight, and Bhargath were all there, along with Doug’s fireplace trap. She could feel that it and the mailbox trap were detuned from their previous power, but they were at least still functional and would help in her defense. The hallway was next, with Buddy, Princess, and the spear trap standing ready to go. This part of her home was where stuff started going missing. The hallway doors leading to the sewing room, bathroom, and the gnome home were all missing.

“Sorry Fizz, it looks like we’re not a high enough level yet to rebuild the gnome home. If there was any way I could choose that as the first room build, I would,” Florence said. It was heartbreaking to watch poor Fizz just sit down in the hall where the door to his home would be. Doug sensed Fizz’s sorrow and plopped down next to the gnome. Florence knew that kitties could tell when their owners were feeling low, and they were always there to help. Even though he was just her companion and advisor, Doug still had a happy little kitty heart in there somewhere.

“I know it’s not your fault, Florence, just, well, just give me a minute please,” Fizz said. Florence left him alone and continued her review of the newly rebuilt home.

The single door at the end of the hall led to the library, and the laundry room and garage were missing. Inside the library were Zeus, Fluffy, and Fluffy Jr. Two hidden magic missile wand traps were also there, but Florence could feel that they were fairly weak and would take a long time to recharge for a second shot. Her game room was gone, which was to be expected given that it was one of the later additions to the home. The lovely kitchen was just as it should be, ready to welcome and reward good adventurers with treats, or poison the bad folks if they were dumb enough to stop for a snack while trying to kill her.

Florence was happy to see that the master bedroom still contained her floor champions, which were now also her home champions. Zork and Chubbs looked to be a bit preoccupied, both hissing and arching their backs at the new addition to the room. Standing in the corner, was a big old monkey. He didn’t seem concerned about the two hissing cats and instead seemed intent to drive his index finger all the way through his nose and into his brain.

“George, your monkey guy is grossing me out, get him to stop picking his nose. That bedroom was decorated with care, and I won’t have some ill-mannered monkey dirtying the place up,” Florence demanded. Sure, she could clean her home with a thought, but it was the principle of the thing. A core shouldn’t keep a mob that wasn’t housebroken inside as lovely a place as this, maybe that was part of the reason that George’s old dungeon was so basic, any fancy stuff would just get dirtied up by the apes, monkeys, and whatnot.

“Oh, I forgot he was even there, wow, it looks like Crusher isn’t exactly his old self, must be the low-level thing. I’ll see that he behaves,” George promised.

“Thank you, we all have to live with this arrangement, so we’ll make the most of it,” Florence replied graciously.

“Hey, Crusher, cut it out and behave, you’re a guest. Play nice with the kitties, you always wanted a pet, didn’t you?” George asked. The monkey, Crusher, didn’t exactly live up to his name. She suspected he was the champion that had charged out of the dungeon to attack the locals, but just like her kitties, his level two version wasn’t quite so impressive. Florence could only hope that the monkey, which was about the size and weight of a man on the shorter side of things, could fight.

Wanting to be a gracious hostess to her guests, Florence concentrated, spending some mana to expand the walkways near the ceiling, lowering them to accommodate Crusher’s height. She even created some handholds in the ceiling, her home’s version of monkey bars that Crusher took too immediately, flinging himself around the place and climbing up to explore his new home. Zork and Chubbs didn’t look too happy with the whole situation but they stopped their hissing and seemed to calm down and gaze at their guest with the casual indifference that cats like to use on just about everyone.

“We’ve got a ways to go before we’re where we need to be, but I tell you, it feels nice to be back in my home,” Florence said directly to George, not wanting to disturb Fizz and Doug.

“It feels even better to be able to think straight again, it was like I was stuck in a nightmare with my old core. I could sense Berikoz feeding off me, and there was nothing I could do about it. My core was diminishing a bit each day, and with it, my mind also faded. We’re going to stop him, though, and nobody else will have to deal with that again,” George said, his green fragment flashing with light as he displayed his determination.

“You know it, George, that lich won’t know what hit him, I tell you,” Florence said. She forgot what she was going to say next, distracted by the feeling of intruders nearing her home.

“I can feel that, are we under attack?” George asked.

“What in tarnation! Doug, get ready, we got company. Fizz, I know you’re sad, but we need to defend ourselves,” Florence said, watching as a wolf stuck his head inside her home. Unlike before, her home didn’t connect to the surface by a long entryway that was well decorated to welcome visitors, instead, her home started just after the cave opening. Outside, the opening just looked like a big dirty animal burrow that had been dug out under the two boulders she had chosen for their location. To make matters worse, there hadn’t been time to even try and prepare an entrance that matched the theme of the rest of her home.

“I suppose your core still attracts nearby wildlife and monsters whenever you’re transformed into our home,” Doug said as they watched the wolf walk cautiously onto the lawn where the beast began howling. More shapes entered the cave, and Florence was frustrated that her vision didn’t extend further outside like it had before. Who knew how many wolves and other things were queued up and ready to come and try to eat her gem.

“Seven, that’s a large pack, and here comes what I believe to be the alpha,” George said as a final wolf entered her home. This one was a biggen, a good foot and a half taller at the shoulders than the other wolves, who were about as big as you’d expect a normal ferocious wolf to be. The other wolves had the usual wolf colorings on their fur, but this one, the alpha George had called it, had red streaks and splotches in his coat. Now, she wasn’t talking about bloodstains or whatnot, these here streaks glowed in Florence’s sight, telling her this critter was enhanced with mana and not a normal wolf.

“Obi and Shadow will give them the business,” Florence said with confidence. At level two, her stealthy kitties were only a little bigger than a normal housecat, sure either of the pair would be the blue ribbon champion largest kitty in the world back on earth, but even the largest house kitty on earth weren’t close to as big as a wolf. Counting that alpha, she had eight of the nasty things invading her home. She just knew they weren’t housebroken and would start peeing everywhere in no time.

The lead wolf continued to stay ahead of the rest of the pack, and that earned him the crossbow bolt from the mailbox trap. The wolf yelped in pain as the bolt slammed into his side, the rest of the pack reacting instantly as they charged the offending trap. Obi and Shadow used the distraction to stealth their way next to the injured wolf, getting good and close before jumping into action. Smaller than the wolves or not, Florence’s babies had core enhanced claws and teeth that did a number on the already wounded critter.

As they were finishing off their target, the alpha, who had stayed behind and not charged off to tear apart the mailbox, entered the fight. Them red splotches of fur glowed brightly, and Florence could feel them giving off heat as he tore into her kitty defenders. Obi and Shadow tried to put up a fight, but they weren’t that powerful unless they were attacking from stealth. The wolf grabbed Obi in his mouth, shaking his head to jolt poor Obi from side to side like a ragdoll.

Her first defender was down, but Shadow wasn’t giving up the fight just yet. Jumping up and grasping onto the alpha’s back with tooth and claw, Shadow let go quickly, howling in pain as she was burned by the red fur splotches. The alpha dropped Obi and latched onto Shadow, finishing off the last front lawn defender. Florence’s front yard had been defeated, but there was a lot more of her home between the core gem and the wolves, not to mention a whole lot more kitty defenders.

Given that the wolves didn’t have opposable thumbs to open the doors easily, it was going to take them time to claw and bite their way through. Florence was safety conscious, and while she did have a front door that was decorative and matched the rest of the house perfectly, it was also sturdy to keep any of them ne’er-do-wells from breaking in while she was gone to the market. Her home here had matched the one back on earth, but the way things worked, just about anything could chomp their way through. Apparently, it was against the rules of being a core to lock yourself in completely. If she tried, mana would drain out of her home and all of them would starve eventually.

Luckily, her door couldn't be invulnerable, but it could be sturdy enough to delay the wolves. Her babies in the living room were already getting into position to defend their home. All four of the defenders were brawler types and they should give them wolves the fight of their lives. Bhargath and Midnight faced the door, ready to take on the first enemies to break through, while Tater and Baxter were perched on the ledge above the door, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Florence sat back and waited, enjoying that every minute the wolves wasted with gnawing at the door, she was gaining mana and experience from them. They could take as long as they liked, the delay would only make her stronger.

“Oh my, that doesn’t bode well, does it,” Doug said, ruining her mood and calling her attention to that big alpha wolf. Them red splotches on his coat were glowing something fierce and he was shoving the others out of his way so he could take a crack at the door.

“I don’t think that door is going to hold him very long,” Florence said, her confidence in their ability to defend themselves eroding a bit as the monster of a wolf closed in.