Cat Core 3, Chapter 4.

Chapter 4.

“I count eight of them, Florence, how do you want to do this?” Doug asked. Florence could feel old Doug was getting riled up. He was normally all hoity-toity and tried to act like he was a fancy pants gentleman, but she could tell he was itching to fight and wanted another chance to try out his tiger-sized body.

“I’m ready, let me at ‘em,” Fizz said, one of his hands rooting around in his pack while the other hefted the oversized wrench that hung from his belt.

“Hold on boys, let me be polite enough to give them a chance. Hey, you, yeah, you, the one with the poor dental hygiene,” Florence said to the guy with the spear. He shut his mouth at her comment, and she could see him getting all red in the face when she made the comment about his mouth. Sure, it wasn’t the nicest thing to say to someone, but it was the truth and everyone in Logan County knew that Florence Valentine wasn’t a woman that shied away from telling the truth.

“Kill the mouthy old bag and her friends,” spear guy said. Florence was expecting this and had already pulled her focus into activating Instant Dungeon for the first time. She wasn’t sure what to expect as the ability triggered, but the results were a pleasant surprise.

As the collection of this world’s version of hillbilly’s charged in, the forest trail near them disappeared and was replaced with the ghostly image of her living room. Their attackers stumbled through the walls of the illusion, looking around confused at the sudden and bizarre change of scenery. Florence didn’t waste any time, activating Empower Beast on Doug. As the mana flowed from her, Doug began to swell with muscle, his claws lengthened, and his teeth looked like the ones on one of them there sabretooth cats she saw on that nature show that played on the TV right before her stories started. She always tuned in early so she wouldn’t miss the beginning of her show, those TV writers sometimes like to put the good parts on first, which wasn’t really fair, given that a lot of their viewers were senior citizens that moved a bit slower and needed more time to get the TV turned to the right channel.

Her thoughts were distracted by a loud roar as Doug charged into the fight, but he wasn’t alone. While the Instant Dungeon ability had summoned an illusory room from her home, the critters inside it were real enough. Somehow, they were even able to stand on the railings she had so tastefully placed around the ceiling of the room, despite them being an illusion. Midnight and Tater leaped down onto two of the attackers, while Bhargath the Foe Render charged around the sofa, heading right toward the clown with the spear.

“Lookout Florence!” Fizz shouted, jolting her attention back to the fight at hand. Of course, she wasn’t distracted at all, she was just trying to work out the best tactics for them to use as they fought the medieval hillbillies.

A blow hit her from behind, and pain flared between her shoulders. Now, Florence was well acquainted with back pain, everyone knew she had dealt with it for years and them good for nothing county doctors just tried to push pain pills—which she refused to take—on her instead of doing something to fix the problem. A second blow cracked into her shoulder, tearing her from remembering them good-for-nothing doctors at the county hospital. Almost by instinct, she spun around with her cane leading the way.

With a crunch, her cane slammed into the head of one of their attackers, the man had been jabbing her with a dull and rusty knife this whole time. No wonder her back and shoulder hurt so much. Thankfully, being a core shard meant that she didn’t bleed, and instead she could see in her interface that her health percentage had dropped to 89%. She might not bleed, but the attacks sure did drop her health. Now, all of them attackers was just plain ugly, and if she was honest, the blow from her cane might have even improved the creep’s looks.

“Good hit, Florence,” Fizz said as he heaved a metal box with a handle on it toward the nearest attacker. Florence was a bit concerned the box was going to explode, but instead, it seemed to sit there.

“I think it’s a dud, Fizz,” Florence said.

“Nope, wait for it,” Fizz said. Even though he was telling her to wait for it, Florence couldn’t waste time gawking at gnomish contraptions, she had a battle to organize. It was a lot harder to keep track of things when she was in a body. Back when she was just a core, Florence could kind of see everywhere in her home at the same time. A pair of attackers avoided the area around the box, wisely not wanting anything to do with any strange device that a gnome had just thrown in their direction.

Florence channeled mana into another summons, this time Scylla, her little mage kitty appeared right next to Florence. Wasting no time, Scylla started casting spells. Her baby was only level one, but she could still dish out the hurt. Water condensed into several globs around the kitty, and at her command they shot forward, slamming with surprising force into the remaining attackers.

“Get out of here boys, we’ll deal with these freaks later,” one of the three surviving hillbillies said as they ran back into the woods.

“Did you hear what they called us, Doug? Freaks, huh, maybe they should look in a mirror sometime,” Florence bemoaned. If there was one thing that she hated worse than somebody insulting her, was when the person doing it was too much of a coward to stick around for her reply. At least they ran off before her summons and the Instant Dungeon ability expired. Things could get a bit hairy if the fights they were in went on for a long time and all her summons disappeared just when they were needed the most. At least when she eventually leveled up, they would stick around a bit longer.

“Well, I think we’ve run them off, how far do you think it is to this dungeon?” Fizz asked, gathering up his dud of a trap. Florence pulled out the map and they took a good look at their surroundings.

“Not exactly close, are we. When the teleportation happened, I got some kind of message that the magic might not work as advertised on a core shard person like myself,” Florence said. Thankfully, the magic map showed their current location, or they would have no idea what direction to head in. They had popped in just southeast of the dungeon, and while she still didn’t quite get the scale of things on the map, Fizz said he could figure it out in a minute. The gnome dug through some gear in his bag, running different things over the map and jotting down notes on a scrap of paper.

“If we leave now, we should hit the dungeon sometime in the middle of the night,” Fizz told them.

“While I have no desire to stay in a tavern near the dungeon since it has a reputation for its guests getting murdered, I have to say it might beat the alternative, which is to camp out here in the dark, with that band of hooligans running around. Something tells me there are more of that lot infesting these woods,” Doug said.

“I think you’re right Doug, and while I don’t think you and I get tired, Fizz here will need a rest eventually. Are you good to keep going until we get to the dungeon?” Florence asked the gnome.

“Yeppers, I’m actually feeling pretty good. Must be something to do with being a resident of your home, I’m not getting tired, hungry, or thirsty as quickly as I normally do,” Fizz told them.

At Doug’s insistence, they made a quick check of the fallen, and it turned out that they weren’t exactly rolling in dough. They found a total of fifteen copper pieces among them, and all of their weapons were junk. Sadly, that one with the magic spear, the one weapon worth a spit, had run off. Well, he had run off, or he had died and another of the yokels had picked up the spear and run off. Them filthy hooligans all kind of looked the same to her.

The crummy gear that had been left behind was so bad that even Fizz declined to take the blades as scrap. With the coppers gathered, they moved out, keeping up a brisk pace, one that kind of felt good to Florence, not having moved this fast in many years. Occasionally, they heard noises in the woods, but nothing came into view and the small path they were on remained hillbilly and wandering monster free for the most part. Doug did start squawking something fierce when a bug dropped on his back, but he was just a big chicken. Fizz came to the rescue and flicked the bug off before Doug had a heart attack.

“So, Florence, did you receive any experience for our little scuffle?” Doug asked. It was a good question, she needed to level up as quickly as she could, but Florence doubted that smacking around some scumbags was going to be seen by the system that ran this place as a huge accomplishment.

Florence Valentine, Hybrid Entity.

Core Gem/Catomancer (Domestic Housecat Subtype), Level 1. 11/2000.

Health: 91%

Mana: 100/100.

Core Shard Restrictions: As a hybrid, core shard entity, you will need to revert to your dungeon state every seven days and remain in that state for at least 24 hours before changing back.

Core Shard Traits:

1. Indomitable Will. You have survived multiple lives with your mind and sanity intact. It will be difficult for anyone to influence your mind through magical means or with natural abilities.

Catomancer Restrictions: When you are transformed into a dungeon, the majority of your catomancer-based spells and abilities are unavailable.

Catomancer Traits:

1. Companion: The entity known as Doug has been selected as your companion. His level will match your own, and Doug will select his abilities and powers as the pair of you level. Should Doug perish in combat, you may resummon him after 24 hours have passed.

Hybrid Class Abilities:

1. Instant Dungeon: This ability can be used once per day and lasts for one minute per level. The ability is only available in your hybrid form, and when activated, Instant Dungeon will anchor you in place, re-creating a random room from your dungeon in the are around you. The room will be populated with the defenders and traps that were present when your core controlled the dungeon, but the other items inside will be illusions. Your current level will affect which room is randomly selected. As you level this ability will improve.

Magic: You have access to the following spells.

1. Summon Defender (Catomancer): This spell requires 25 mana and will summon a single random cat defender from those your created inside your dungeon. Your defenders will protect you for 1 minute per level and will have powers and abilities scaled to match your current level.

2. Empower Beast (Catomancer): This spell requires 25 mana and will infuse power into either your companion or one of your summoned cats. If cast upon a summoned cat, it will extend the length of the summoning as well as upgrade their skills and abilities by one level.

Combat Traits and Abilities (Hybrid Form Only):

1. Soulbound Weapon: Your cane has been selected as your soulbound weapon. This item cannot be stolen from you or permanently destroyed and will always reform within 1 hour. You have been granted proficiency with this weapon and your skill in wielding it will improve as you level.

2. Soulbound Armor: Your armor has been integrated into your clothing, and currently provides the same protection as Padded Armor. This armor cannot be permanently destroyed, reforming after an hour when necessary.

“We only got eleven experience for that riffraff. Maybe when we take out this dungeon, we’ll have a bigger boost,” Florence said, disappointed with both the loot they found and the experience they gained. As they walked, Florence fiddled with the interface, not wanting to be smacked in the face with every bit of information each time she wanted to check on just her experience, or heath and stuff. Once that was done, it was just a long and boring walk in the woods for the three of them.

It had been dark for several hours when Fizz announced that he couldn’t make it any further. The little guy told them that he had been stuck in that dumb parakeet mech for what seemed like several hours when they found him, and his attempts to get out must have tuckered him out more than they thought. Florence figured her influence would let the gnome sleep for less time than normal before he was rested up. While they waited, Florence and Doug practiced some of their abilities.

Florence figured out that multiple casts of Empower Beast were able to stack with each other, and after draining her mana with four casts, Doug turned into a hulking monster of a kitty. He was now the size of a horse, and his claws and teeth had a magical glow to them. Doug said he received a few new abilities as the empowerment raised his level, one allowed him to teleport instantly behind a foe, and another allowed him to add elemental damage to his natural weapons. So far, at max empowerment, it was only fire and ice, but the description hinted that more elements would unlock at higher levels.

Casting empower on a summoned kitty had the same effect, but she could only boost them three times since she had to use some mana to cast the summoning spell. She did try summoning specific cats and succeeded about one time in four. It didn’t take any extra mana, and if she could help call up the right kitty for the job, that would help their chances of winning a fight. Like most of her abilities, Florence suspected the cat choices would become less random as she leveled. No matter how many times she summoned her kitties, the minor champions and floor champions never appeared. She’d have to get more powerful before her stronger cats could be called up for duty.

After three hours, Fizz woke up, ate some of the rations, and drank his fill in record time. The glow of the sun was just starting the lighten the horizon when the trail met an actual road. Made from packed dirt, it was not a superhighway, but after walking single file on the narrow game trail they had followed, it was a good sign they were getting close to their destination. After a short time, they rounded a bend in the road and found their destination. A clearing had been cut away from the forest, and there, smack dab in the middle of the clearing was the small cluster of run-down buildings that Junior had warned them about.

“What a dump,” Doug proclaimed.

“Yep, but that at least means the dungeon should be nearby,” Fizz said, he was way too chipper this early in the morning. Just because Florence didn’t’ get tired anymore, didn’t mean she had somehow become a morning person.

“Junior said the place was shady, do we even want to go down there? I can feel the dungeon nearby, maybe we just head on in without stopping here,” Florence suggested.

“What about the adventurer’s guild, isn’t there usually a queue to enter the dungeon. I suspect one of those shops has the guild representative with the delving log,” Fizz said. Florence hadn’t thought of that, and neither Shara nor Junior had mentioned it. Was this some free for all of a dungeon, or were they about to get in trouble for walking in without proper whatever it was the adventurers guild granted to folks?

“I don’t think we should waste time. Normally, I’d suggest following the established procedure, but we want to be a bit under the radar, given our party’s makeup,” Doug said.

“What’s a radar?” Fizz asked.

“Don’t worry about it, just a saying from where Doug and I are from. Let’s find the dungeon and get on in there. If we run into trouble getting in, we can check out the town. I think that given this place’s reputation, the less interaction we have with them, the better. Lead the way, Doug, let’s see what this beast core dungeon is all about,” Florence said.