Cat Core 2, Chapter 21.

Chapter 21.

“Oh, look at that, Mortimer can see them,” Doug said excitedly. It was true, since her cat could see them, Florence could see the invaders as well.

“How is he able to and none of the other kitties could?” Florence asked.

“Likely due his new class. I know you’re not sold on the whole undead affinity thing, but one ability that many powerful undead possess is the ability to sense life. That’s what Mortimer is doing now, sensing the lifeforce of the attackers, can’t you tell how everything about them looks different?” Doug asked. It was true, she was seeing the goblins, but it was in strange colors, the shades growing brighter on the more powerful Blivix.

Mortimer wasn’t fooled one bit, but he was sure putting on a good show, pretending to just walk around the graveyard all normal-like. Since the enemy was revealed, it was time to unleash her summoned kitties. Florence concentrated near Blivix, wanting her summoned babies to attack the biggest threat. The summoning felt different to Florence, and instead of three or four normal defenders, the minor champion, Loki, was summoned. Instead of being level three, the summoned minor champion matched her level of six. That was something she was worried about, the normal defenders were random copies of cats in her home, and it would be horrible if they summoned all level one kitties when she needed them most. It looked like that was one thing she didn’t need to worry about.

Mortimer’s vision seemed to extend to not only Florence and Doug, but also to Loki who activated one of his raider abilities, the cat charging in to swipe and bite at the nearest goblin, a normal rogue, unfortunately. The minor champion’s attack tore the goblin rogue in half. Loki’s class enabled him to jump back instantly, avoiding Blivix and the other goblin’s retaliatory attacks.

Blivix tried something new, throwing his daggers at Loki, who noticed the attack too late. Both daggers dug deep into the raider kitty and then did more damage as the enchanted blades returned to Blivix’s hands. Loki limped from the wound but still charged into battle, the summoned kitty was fearless in his attempts to stop these invaders. Loki was tough, he was a minor champion and his class, despite using hit and run tactics, wasn’t as fragile as the commando kitties.

“What’s up with Mortimer?” Florence asked.

“I have no idea, he’s using mana, but I don’t know for what purpose,” Doug replied.

Power gathered around the home champion, dark energy infusing him, but instead of blasting the bad guys and whatnot, Mortimer sent thin tendrils of dark mana out toward everyone. The tendrils ignored the summoned copy of Loki but were absorbed by all the goblins. Florence could see the tendrils, it was her dungeon, but the goblins were none the wiser. With that spell complete, Mortimer pulled up more energy, coating his paws in a sickly-looking combination of green, black, and mustard yellow energy.

While Mortimer readied his next spell, Loki struck down the last of the goblin rogues, leaving only Blivix remaining. The assassin had the upper hand, though, and his blades were slamming into poor Loki one after the other. Stacks of poison damage were draining Loki’s health at a rapid pace, and just as his health reached zero, the summoned kitty disappeared. It was Mortimer on his own against Blivix. The assassin was wounded, but none of his injuries seemed to slow him down much. Standing perfectly still for a second, Blivix then began to creep toward what looked like an unsuspecting Mortimer.

“That dummy thinks he’s invisible, doesn’t he?” Florence taunted.

“Yes, not the sharpest tool in the shed, that one. Cunning and dangerous, yes, but smart, not so much,” Doug replied.

With a hiss, Mortimer leaped at the assassin, who deftly avoided the necrocatster. A pair of quick stabs left poor Mortimer on death’s door, but they also hurt Blivix. When he struck, the necromantic energy covering Mortimer’s paws flowed up the weapons and into the goblin. Where the energy hit, flesh rotted, and muscles atrophied. Not giving up just yet, Blivix leaped back and threw his daggers at Florence’s last defender. Both daggers struck true, the range too long for Mortimer’s power to retaliate. Blivix wasn’t moving as fast as normal, but he was plenty fast enough to outrun the wounded Mortimer, kiting the poor kitty around while throwing his daggers whenever the skill was off cooldown.

“That’s not fair, Mortimer needs a ranged attack or something,” Florence said. She was disappointed in her home champion’s performance in the fight but wasn’t going to say anything since she didn’t want the little guy to feel bad. She was sure he was doing his best, but after the third toss of the daggers, Mortimer fell.

“Now, pretty gem, it’s just you and Blivix. I think you’re all outs of catses, I do. No more defenders, how sads for youse. I promise to make your death painless, Blivix is nice like that sometimes,” the assassin said as he limped his way toward the gravediggers shed that served as their core room.

“You ready to fight Doug. Draw him in good and close so I can whack him with my cane. It’s just you and me little guy,” Florence said, steeling herself for the fight to come.

“Well, I don’t think we’re quite alone, look,” Doug said. Mortimer stood back up, only it wasn’t the scrawny little kitty from before, it was a gooey zombie version. In addition, the four goblin rogues did the same thing, turning all zombified and moving in front of Mortimer to protect him as they advanced.

“Tricksy core, I’m tired of fightings. Go away dead things,” Blivix said as he raised his daggers in the air.

“Oh my, it seems the goblin has some powerful ability he’s trying out,” Doug said, concern creeping into his voice as hundreds of daggers rained from the sky, peppering the zombified home champion and his zombie helpers.

“No more trickses, now I kill you slow and painfuls for wasting my dagger storm thingy,” Blivix said, the goblin visibly drained from using what must have been a daily, or perhaps even weekly, ability.

“Impressive, look at Mortimer go, you can’t keep a necrocatster down, it appears,” Doug said. Mortimer and the four goblins rose once more, but this time, all the flesh sloughed off their bodies as they stood. The skeletons moved a bit faster than the zombies, and the goblins were on Blivix in a flash. The rogue tried to swipe his daggers, the magically enhanced blades doing damage and snapping bones, but Florence knew that even with the magic, a piercing and slashing weapon, like a dagger, did reduced damage to skeletal creatures.

“He sure can stay in the fight, can’t he,” Florence said, proud of her Mortimer.

Blivix tried to stealth again and again, but unless he could mask his lifeforce somehow, Mortimer knew where he was. Skeletal goblins dug their claws into Blivix, who kept fighting, blasting bones from his attackers with each strike. His struggles ended when Mortimer pounced and landed atop the goblin assassin. Dying seemed to make Mortimer stronger and his claws dug deep into the invader. At the same time, her home champion seemed to draw the life right out of Blivix. A few whimpers of pain were heard as the invader finally fell still.

“Who’s a good boy, Mortimer is, that’s who,” Florence cooed to her brave baby. Mortimer stood up straight, Florence lavishing praise on him as she reset their home. Unfortunately, she still had to shell out money to respawn Mortimer. It looked like if he died even once in the battle, he needed to be resummoned. What a rip-off.

“Florence, look at your interface,” Doug said. It was all there in black and white. She had hit level seven.

“How’d we go up a level after only a couple of delves?” Florence said. Not that she was going to complain, she just didn’t understand it.

“It’s not too hard to figure out. Those four Paladin’s had a long run before dying inside our home. The death of four adventurers that were somewhat higher level than the average is a windfall. When you add to that all the goblins that died and that Blivix scoundrel, we’ve had quite the haul. That assassin was the highest-level adventurer we’ve had inside, and he died, giving us a huge boost,” Doug advised.

“Uh oh, what about our kill ratio? Are these guys going to be added to our score?” Florence said.

“Unfortunately, yes, I can only hope we have more successful delves before the guild gets around to looking more closely at our numbers,” Doug said. Florence was worried, but there was too much to do now that she had leveled up. She pulled up the interface to dig into the changes.

Florence Valentine

Cat core, level 7.

Experience: 119/8500.

Funds: $700/$700

Defender expense:

1st Floor. Level range 1-3 ($340/400).

2nd Floor. Level Range 3-5 (230/300). You may now summon or promote a minor champion for this floor.

3rd Floor. Level Range 6-7 (100/150).

Summoner. Your summoner ability has been upgraded and the chance to summon a minor champion instead of several normal defenders is increased.

Deadly Doug. The Deadly Doug ability now allows your advisor to choose from several classes when the ability is activated, fine-tuning and improving his ability to defend you. Due to the individuality upgrade, the advisor will be the one to decide on a particular class, and the core cannot influence his decision. The ability now lasts for up to two minutes and thirty seconds. Deadly Doug can only be activated once every 24 hours.

“So, no new abilities, just upgrades for what we have, more defender expense, and whatnot. We’re also going to get another minor champion for the second floor. The level range for the third floor also increased, but the others look like they stayed the same,” Florence said.

“Yes, eventually we’ll have to expand more to keep the level ranges from being too wide for each floor, but it will be a while before we have to worry about that. As far as new abilities, you’ll see those less often as we level, but the ones we do get will generally prove to be more impactful. As we go forward, look for big changes at level ten and then at every five levels after that.,” Doug advised.

“That’s fine, the extra defender expense will help with you creating those traps you wanted, and I can finally create the last of our defenders,” Florence said.

“We need to spend something soon, our balance is maxed out and every moment it remains that way means we’re losing the normal trickle of income our home provides,” Doug advised.

“Then go ahead and build your traps, and I’ll see about finishing up that new area I wanted in front of the lawn. I’m going to call it the welcome center,” Florence said. Being a frugal woman, she liked having a full bank account, but she knew there was a time to spend money and that time was now.

Florence started by pushing out her home past the front lawn. She wanted to create a safe area before a party started in her dungeon. The goal was to give everyone that visited a fair warning of what they could expect and even give new adventurers a chance to test themselves on an easy encounter. The front lawn was now set apart from her new area by a waist-high fresh white picket fence with a gate. Her new area was covered with short-cut grass. It was a comfy lawn, the kind you just wanted to lay down on and take a nap. People wouldn’t even have to worry about bugs and mosquitos biting them out here.

Florence had planned to have the front entrance to the tunnel system as her home’s main entrance, but with her power was still being blocked by something out there, she would just make do with this new area. A portion of the new area near the cavern wall was surrounded by another picket fence, and inside that area, she created a new kitty for the first floor. Cash flowed and there sitting proud as you please inside his little pen, was an adorable long-haired black and white brawler kitty with markings that made it look like he was wearing a tuxedo.

“Why aren’t you the sweetest little thing. Okay little kitty, you’re going to have a dangerous but very important job. The odds will be stacked against you, but I think you’re a tough little guy, aren’t you?” Florence asked. The kitty meowed and sat proudly to display his bravery for all to see.

“Oh, I believe it’s my turn for a name,” Doug said.

“Nope, this one reminds me of a kitty I used to have, this is going to be Morris, or Mo as I liked to call him,” Florence pronounced. Mo prowled around his pen, then leaped over the waist-high fence to go meet everyone else in the home. For this one area, Florence set it as neutral. Mo wouldn’t mess with anyone that didn’t mess with him. He would also stay inside the assigned fenced-in area, at least she thought he would. A Gazebo was placed on the other side of the cavern, with lots of seating for adventurers to relax on while they healed up or discussed their plans.

When adventurers showed up, they would see the gazebo to their left and Mo hanging out in his pen to the right. A flower-lined path led through the area and stopped at the front gate to the main lawn. A glowing sun-like light source was placed on the cavern ceiling to give the place the feel of an early spring afternoon. She needed to make a couple of signs to let adventurers know what was going on. She started with one where the welcome center met the rough stone of the tunnel floor.

Welcome to the Valentine Residence. This is a neutral area where you can rest and plan your delve. Please use caution and wipe your feet before entering the home.

Beware of Doug.

There, that would do it. A way to announce this was where her home started. but the next sign, which was placed in front of Mo’s pen, would take a bit more finagling to get right, it was something Doug had helped her with earlier.

Remember, adventurer, this is a dangerous place that you shouldn’t enter unless you’re in a balanced party with appropriate equipment. The further into my home you progress, the greater the dangers are that you will face. Mo here will be a good test of your skill before you enter. Try your strength against him before deciding to delve through the main home.

To finish things off, Florence placed a picnic basket inside the gazebo. It held some sandwiches, regular ones, not the fancy ones you had with tea. Bags of chips, some pickles, apples, and a big jug of sweet tea would be found in the basket. These refreshments were delicious, but Florence could also enhance them with buffs for parties that needed a little extra help. Of course, she could always make the food do something bad to anyone that ate it, but that particular version of a picnic was reserved for those that meant her harm.

She felt better about her home now. The place was just as dangerous as before, but now she knew that she had done her best to warn away those that shouldn’t be here. If they ignored her warnings, well, she was still a core gem and would gladly accept the rewards that came when someone croaked inside her home.