Cat Core 2, Chapter 17.

Chapter 17.

“Who do we have this time?” Doug said, watching a fairly ordinary party make their way onto the front lawn.

“I don’t know, but with their gear, the first floor should be just about their speed,” Florence said.

The party had five members, the two in the lead sported leather armor reinforced with chainmail in the critical areas. She figured that armor design must be the most popular starter gear for the warrior and tank types. One of the pair had a longsword and shield, while the other held a two-handed axe in his grip. An older man in robes walked behind the pair, waving a metal ball on a chain. This wasn’t some weapon, at least not at first glance, it was some kind of incense burner.

“What’s the deal with the older guy, Doug?” Florence asked.

“I’m not sure, but if I had to guess, he’s some form of healer and that incense censer may be giving them a buff of some form,” Doug offered. It was logical enough, and she’d find out for sure once Obi and Shadow got to work. A woman in leather armor with a short bow at the ready was behind the incense guy, looking for targets. The final member of their party had disappeared from sight right about the time they crossed over the lawn, must have been another rogue.

“They’re well balanced as long as that guy is a healer, but they seem to lack a mage or any arcane support,” Florence said.

“Yes, but save for the older gentlemen, the others appear young enough to modify their classes as they gain experience, maybe the archer could into an arcane archer, or the rogue might acquire some hybrid mage skills,” Doug replied.

Obi and Shadow stalked their prey, each cat approaching one of the lead warriors. It wasn’t the most efficient attack, she would have preferred they focus on the squishier and less well-armored adventurers, but her level one kitties couldn’t be expected to form complex plans, cuteness didn’t equate to cunning. The cats waited, timing their attacks for when the mailbox trap triggered. It wasn’t going to happen this time as the party’s rogue appeared behind the mailbox after having successfully disarmed it.

“Doug, you’re going to have to change things up out there, everyone keeps disarming that thing,” Florence complained.

“I already have a plan for that,” Doug replied, too engrossed in the fight between the warriors and the kitties to elaborate.

Obi and Shadow managed to get their claws past the warriors’ armor, but once revealed, they fell quickly to the counterstrikes and arrows. The guy with the incense swung it faster, chanting as the wounds on the two warriors started to close before their eyes. When she concentrated, Florence could see waves of mana coming from the man, the censer acting as the foci for his magic. It was an area of effect healing energy that was a great way to handle multiple injured party members, but without a focused and more powerful direct healing spell, the party could be in trouble when pitted against a champion.

“So, they cleared the lawn, how far do you think they’ll make it?” Florence asked.

“I’ll say they make it to the library at most,” Doug replied.

“Yeah, I think that I agree with you. Unless he has some power or ability that we haven’t seen yet, that healer’s going to be out of mana long before they make it to the champion,” Florence added.

They had it almost right. The party fought their way through the living room, taking injuries from the fight, but the healing magic put them all back together again. Their rogue was able to locate and disarm the fireplace trap, her skills proving their worth again in the hallway when she figured out where cats would emerge based on the sound of the claws scratching on the wood as they made their way to their attack points.

Their thoroughness led to clearing the bathroom and sewing room, taking more damage in the process. Florence’s home confused the group, it wasn’t what most people would expect from a dungeon. It wasn’t her fault that the other cores were boring and didn’t have good taste in home design. She was a true A-plus rated home and things were only going to get better as she expanded and improved.

The party ended their delve in the laundry room, the warrior with the big axe charged in to reach the pair of caster kitties inside, only to nearly decapitate himself on the clothesline trap. With a few well-placed arrows, the archer took care of Arya and Q, but the damage was done. The group poured what looked like a healing potion over the warrior’s throat. Florence didn’t think that potions worked that way, but it seemed to do the trick, buying their healer enough time to get ahead of the damage. He was able to stop the worst of the bleeding, but after he was done, the injured man’s throat still had a gross-looking open wound as the healer announced that he had reached his mana limit for the day.

“Not a bad run, they did well enough and stayed long enough for us to collect some cash,” Florence said, her funds now up to $33.15 as the party left.

“With both this and Shara’s party making out without casualties, our kill ratio should start moving in the right direction. We’re becoming more powerful by the day, but I still wouldn’t fancy our chances against an adventurers guild kill team,” Doug said.

“I thought you said we had some time to make things right since we’re new?” Florence replied. She liked the fact the guild kept things organized and there weren’t ten groups trying to enter her home at the same time, but she wasn’t sure she liked the power they had over her home.

“That’s a worry for another day and I believe you have some new defenders to summon, don’t you?” Doug asked.

“Yep, let’s see,” Florence said looking over her home to see where the new additions would be placed. The second-floor master bedroom needed kitties, so Florence got to work summoning the three she could afford. Her ultimate goal for the room was to have five defenders, three of which would be commando kitties to utilize the trap doors and tunnels she had built into the place. She’d make the commando’s now and then add a brawler and mage to finish the place.

Florence held her breath as ten dollars flowed from her core and the first kitty appeared. She had specified commando kitties for these three, but that didn’t guarantee she’d get what she wanted. What she really didn’t want was more of them undying kitties. Sure, she’d love her undying babies as much as the others, but she wanted cute fluff balls, not haggard-looking ones. The first kitty resolved into a sleek white and grey tabby commando.

“This’n will be Marshmallow,” Florence said with confidence as she started on her next creation. Another ten dollars poorer, she had a dark brown shorthair cat that jumped around like she was on a sugar high.

“My turn?” Doug asked.

“No, you get the next one, this here cat is going to be Brownie,” Florence told her advisor. Doug gave a huff of disgust for her naming choice, but Florence ignored him since his annoyance was only jealousy over her naming skills. A brown and black tabby appeared for her final commando kitty.

“Oh, how about KitKat, those always looked delicious, and I really wish I could have eaten chocolate back on earth,” Doug lamented. She couldn’t tell if the little guy was pulling her leg or not, but the name stuck and it was pretty good considering the room had other food named kitties inside, so she was happy enough with it.

“Go on, go meet your family and get to your places,” Florence told the newest trio of babies.

They played in the trap doors and room tunnels for a bit, they seemed to enjoy popping out from under the rugs to pounce on their friends. While everything was fun and games now, one look at the level six commando kitty claws told Florence that her babies were ready for trouble. Their play did reveal a problem in the room design, the rugs got all rumpled after a kitty jumped out of the tunnel they were hiding in, making each exit a one-use proposition for the battle.

“Doug, what should we do about those rugs?” Florence asked.

“Oh dear, I think we should pay attention to the tunnel rather than the rugs at this moment,” Doug replied, drawing her attention to the main tunnel. The party that had just left her dungeon had stopped out there to bandage their remaining wounds and allow the healer to use the last trickles of his mana to repair the worst of the remaining damage.

Out of one of the nearby side tunnels, more of the scorpion creatures emerged, claws and stingers tearing into the rogue who had wandered around a bit, exploring while waiting for the others to finish. The girl only gave a short squeal of pain before one of the creatures dragged her body back into the dark side tunnel. Reacting quickly, the warriors readied the weapons, the one with the two-handed axe was having trouble moving his head, the wound hadn’t been completely healed and Florence could only imagine how much a slashed throat would hurt when trying to fight.

Five of the scorpion monsters exited the side tunnel, but who knew how many more of them bugs were hidden deeper in the tunnel. Florence’s vision was blocked just past the side tunnel entrance, and she suspected that was due to another of them vermin lord core fragment thingies. None of these bugs had glowing gem shards stuck in them, so their boss must still be hiding away.

Blocking a stinger with his shield, a warrior hacked off a claw that was trying to clamp onto the axe wielder. His attempt to help his buddy turned out pretty bad for him as another of the scorpions worked its way behind the warrior and lashed out with its stinger. The axe guy hacked the new attacker, his powerful blow caving it the head of the big creepy-crawly, killing it in one blow. It was too late for the other guy thought, the venom was already going to work and while the axe guy had been fighting, another scorpion scuttled out of the tunnel and drug the now partially paralyzed warrior away.

The archer didn’t have time to use her bow and was instead trying to fend off a single attacker with her shortsword. Sadly, the healer didn’t last for more than a second being both unarmored and armed with only a small dagger he pulled from his belt. With the healer being dragged down the tunnel, the axe man and archer were the only ones left. They faced off against one scorpion each, but more were even now running from the side tunnel to join in. Their fight backed them closer and closer to Florence’s home, she wished they would cross over, then her kitties could help.

“If they make it back here, I’ll designate them as neutral so the cats will focus on the bugs,” Florence told Doug.

“Good call, it looks like they just might make it,” Doug said. His words seemed to jinx the pair, as the archer fell just after he said them. The remaining warrior didn’t have long before the dog-sized scorpions flanked him, so he turned and charged back onto the front lawn. A pair of stingers stabbed through his armor, paralyzing the man as he stumbled the last few steps into Florence’s home.

A pair of scorpions shot onto the lawn, lancing their stingers in the paralyzed man to finish him off, unaware they were, in turn, being stalked by her defenders. Florence's kitties were only level one, but coming from stealth, their attack power was multiplied. Defender claws and teeth crunched through arthropod exoskeletons, the dying bugs leaking gross stuff all over her pretty lawn. The remaining scorpions didn’t seem like they wanted to tangle with her defenders and instead, ran back to their side tunnel, dragging any corpses or pieces of the fallen that they could get ahold of.

“This isn’t good, It might have been better if the poor chap had died outside our home. Now, we’ll be credited with his death, and perhaps even the deaths of the entire party,” Doug lamented.

“Nah, them bugs got to em, and nobody can blame us for that,” Florence said.

“Well, I hope you are correct Florence, but we need to do something about these pests outside our home,” Doug said.

“Not much we can do, I can’t exert my influence into that side tunnel they’re hiding in, and it's not like we can send out kitties out there on their own,” Florence said, frustrated over the lack of options that she had for dealing with the constant incursions.

“If they keep attacking adventuring parties, eventually one of those groups will get the better of the arthropods. They may even seek to clear out the nest in hopes of some treasure,” Doug offered.

“I don’t think so, them bugs seem too strong for the ones exploring our home to handle,” Florence said.

“True, but the scorpion creatures weren’t all that powerful. The party they just killed might not have fallen if they were prepared, but the monsters waited until they had left our home when their mana was depleted and one of the fighters was sporting serious injuries,” Doug said.

“Well, Shara’s supposed to come back and visit, when she does, maybe we can make her an offer,” Florence suggested. There were a lot of things to be happy about in her new life, building a home and creating kitties and whatnot, but not being able to leave was kind of a downer. Sure, back when she first arrived here, that wasn’t a problem, but Florence had changed since then and had found that she enjoyed the company of other people from time to time.

“At least we did recover some income from the whole affair. Like it or not, we were recompensed for the adventurer dying inside our home, not to mention the two scorpion kills,” Doug advised. Her balance was up to $77.18 and maybe making more cats would take her mind off of things.

“Okay, Doug, let's finish up populating the second floor, we can worry about the guild and killing off the scorpion shard later, nothing we can do about it now,” Florence said. The plan was for six more cats on the second floor, the rest of that floor’s defender expense would be taken up by the traps Doug had planned for the place.

Two more kitties were placed in the great room bringing the total to five, both of these were brawlers, one a long-haired white kitty with one blue and one green eye. Florence named her Puddin. The other brawler was a tabby with brown and white short fur, this one was named Buttercup. She needed some extra support in each of the bedrooms, so she made one cat for each, these she had to let Doug name, unfortunately.

“Doug, you’re up. We’ve got a new kitty in the nautical bedroom, and she’s a doozy,” Florence said. The kitty was unusual in that her short fur had a blue tinge to it, a perfect fit for the room she was placed in. Maybe this system thing got things right once in a while.

“Oh, lovely, a water mage. This seems strangely appropriate for the room. Let’s see, how about Lusca, the Blue Death,” Doug pronounced.

“Poor baby, we’ll just call you Lusca if that’s okay,” Florence said as her newest addition made the rounds.

“It’s a perfectly good name, I derived it from sea monster tales from your world,” Doug argued after the cat had left the core room. Florence had held her voice until now, not wanting to make her newest little one feel bad.

“Well, just because it’s from my old world doesn’t mean I like it. You hated that one cat food I got for you, remember, the one on sale that you said tasted like dirt? I didn’t force you to eat it, no, I bought you the good stuff afterward, just to make you happy. You repay that favor with some obscure name for one of my precious babies,” Florence argued, none too happy the whole name for poor Lusca had stuck.

The next kitty was going into the desert-themed bedroom, and it was a tan shorthaired kitty with grey eyes, very cute. Her newest addition was a commando and her fur helped hide her in the sand-colored environment. Florence even spent a bit of time to redecorate a bit, adding a litter box in one corner for the new kitty to hide in if she wanted. It was time to name her new cuddle bear, and if she gave Doug this one, she’d be able to name the final pair in the second-floor master bedroom and she wanted to keep the naming theme of snacks that she had going for that room.

“Try this one, Doug, keep it normal,” Florence ordered.

“Oh, fine, let’s try this one your way, shall we? Where to begin, a cat with fur colored like the theme in the room. A new litter box in place, this is easy. Your new cat is Sandy,” Doug said in a mocking tone.

“Good, you did fine on that one,” Florence replied, making a point to ignore his tone, she had other things to do, namely, two more snack-themed kitties to conjure up.

Her first cat was a light orange tabby that was a bit on the big and chubby side. He was a brawler, so she supposed it sort of fit. The big boy made his way through the home to his assigned room while she conjured up the final cat for the second floor. This one was a sleek black mage kitty, showing a specialization in illusion magic. With three commandos in the room and lots of hiding places, an illusionist might be a perfect choice.

“Doug, meet Cheddar and Licorice,” Florence said proudly.

“Hello, you two. I suppose I should be happy that the room is complete. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing you create Granola Bar and Corn Flake,” Doug mocked.

“Don’t you worry about it, just get to work on them there traps. You’ve got twenty dollars of defender expense to use once the funds roll in. I want to finish out the floor before we summon the other cats for the backyard,” Florence told him. Doug perked up at the chance to implement his plans but was distracted by movement in the tunnel.

“Here we go, another group coming to try out our home, and these look very well prepared for the task,” Doug said. Florence watched the newest group of adventurers approach but couldn’t shake the feeling that the scorpion creeps were watching everything from the shadows, waiting for the right time to strike.