Cat Core 2, Chapter 12.

Chapter 12.

“So, what did I miss? I assume from the fact we’re all still alive that our forces were victorious?” Doug asked as the little kitten popped back into existence next to her rocking chair. I had nearly eaten Florence up waiting for him to return. She really wanted to make her upgrade choices, but a promise was a promise.

“Of course, we won the fight, and not only that, but I’m also up to level six and we’ve got a whole lot of decisions to make,” Florence said. Doug, as her advisor, could look back on the system prompts as long as Florence gave him permission to do so, which she did in this case. Doug was silent as he read, the pause becoming almost as annoying as waiting for him to respawn.

“Choosing level scaling for our home is what we had planned, you should lock that in so we can see if there are any defender placement adjustments we need to make,” Doug advised. Florence made the selection, opting to review her interface after making the rest of her choices.

“Well, hold up a minute. Before we too far into this, what in the heck was that thing that attacked us? The prompt when we won called it a fragment of a vermin lord core, you ever heard of that?” Florence asked.

“I never have, it looks like a new creature type that isn’t in any of the data I possess. From what it could do, I suppose it has the ability to create creatures, spiders in this case. We should be on guard for others, since if this was a ‘fragment’ that implies there may be other fragments out there,” Doug offered.

“What’s going to happen when the next one shows up, do we need to prepare for a creature that digs right into our core room?” Florence asked. She was curious what had happened to the core that this fragment came from, was this her fate if her core was destroyed again, turning into some mad creature roaming the depths?

“Our best defense would be in processing your upgrades and building our home up to defend us. Focusing back on our objective, what was your preference for our defender upgrade?” Doug asked. Florence took a deep breath in her mind, trying to focus on the task at hand and not about getting her core destroyed.

“What’s your preference on the defender upgrade?” Florence replied.

“I asked you first,” Doug countered.

“Oh, this is silly, let’s just go with Defender Classes, that sounds like the most fun and will give my kitties lots of ways to grow,” Florence said.

“Very good choice, I see merit with empowerment, but the gains from an ability like that are typically modest. Unlocking powerful classes could easily outpace any kind of blanket improvement of our defenders,” Doug replied.

“Then why didn’t you say so?” Florence asked.

“I didn’t say so because you can sometimes be quite a contrary person. By the mere mentioning of my preference, you might have chosen the opposite just to spite me,” Doug replied with a smug and self-righteous look on his face. It never ceased to amaze her how a kitten could have such a variety of facial expressions.

“Everyone knows that Florence Valentine is not a contrary person, I consider all sides of an argument. There was one time at the senior center, this is before your time on earth, when I got into it with Hilda Wellington over what show to watch. I was completely open to her argument and I even listed for several minutes before I turned the channel to the show I wanted. She who controls the remote, controls the, hey, Doug, where are you going?” Florence said as Doug wandered out of the core room, ignoring her and her captivating tale.

“I don’t wish to hear it, and until you’re ready to discuss our home, I’ll occupy my time somewhere else. You should be building and creating new defenders, not wasting time on stories, or reminiscing about television shows. Just make sure not to waste money on the core housing and protective avatar upgrades,” Doug said.

She didn’t need any kitten with an attitude telling her what to do, Florence would show him. She spent five hundred of her savings on upgrading both her core housing and the protective avatar. She could feel the magical shell over her core strengthen, its power would resist anyone who wished her harm. In addition, it would give a magical shock to anyone hostile that touched it.

Her cane also improved with the protective avatar upgrade, giving Florence the ability to imbue her weapon with her choice of elemental enhancements. To top things off, the cane would also hit harder and her Shake the Cane ability could now launch six strikes instead of five. It was a nice upgrade, but she also kind of wished she had enough to create more than a few kitties.

“Thank you for proving my point,” Doug said as he walked away. He must have seen their funds drop when she purchased the upgrades.

Florence wanted to ask Doug about being stuck with the undead core affinity, but there was no way she was going to try and ask him questions just yet. When she was good and finished with being mad at Doug, they could have a conversation about it, but for now, she’d just move on with building the second floor and populating it with whatever kitties she could afford. Pulling up her interface, it looked like she had more decisions to make, and some kitties to shuffle around.

Florence Valentine

Cat core, level 6

Experience: 117/6000

Funds: $55.88/$600

Defender expense: Scaling.

1st Floor. Level range 1-3 ($350/350). This floor can be assigned 1 minor champion and one champion.

2nd Floor. Level Range 3-5 (0/250). This floor can be assigned 1 champion.

3rd Floor. Level Range 5-6 (0/150). This floor will house the dungeon champion.

Dungeon affinities. Undead.

“Doug, you need to stop moping around and get over here to help, we’ve got a lot to do, and I need your advice,” Florence said. She really did need him to help, and she would be the bigger person and ignore their little spat from earlier.

“Fine, let me take a look,” Doug said, he got all glassy-eyed as he read the interface.

“How come I got stuck with that stupid undead affinity, I didn’t choose or want that. The licking skeleton shouldn’t have been able to make that decision for me, it’s my core,” Florence complained.

“Yes, about that, I’m sure it’s only a result of the method of preserving your memories, not anything more. Now, let’s put that aside and take a look at what we have to work with. Well, the level scaling seems to have given us a nice boost to our home’s total defender limit. With a third floor to house our dungeon champion, we should see about building out both floors now that we have a chance. Our home hit a milestone level when we reached level five, so we have the ability to close things off for some time while we make changes,” Doug advised.

“Fine, but I’m going to want to change out our dungeon affinity as soon as I find a way to. It looks like all my kitties were assigned to the first floor, but I get the feeling we can move them around a bit if we want to,” Florence said.

“Yes, you can do that, the critical aspect is that before we reopen, you’ll need to have champions assigned, and at least some defenders on each floor. Now, would you rather promote one of your cats to be the second floor and dungeon champion, or should we create new ones?” Doug asked.

“That’s kind of a tough decision. I’m kind of fond of having everyone stay where they are on the first floor, they like it here and even have their pictures on the living room wall. As for a second-floor champion, I think Spud should get a crack at that if he wants to. Besides, the extra distance might keep the two of you from bickering so much. I’m not sure about a dungeon champion, though, I’m going to rename that position to Home Champion. You’d think the interface could get it right that this is our home and not some creepy dungeon. It’s like it tries to do the right thing sometimes, but other times, it just insults me with calling this glorious place a dungeon,” Florence said.

“I agree with the decision on Spud, the farther away the better, but I don’t want him to be our home champion, that would give him too much power. The dungeon, excuse me, I mean the home champion will be an order of magnitude more powerful than a floor champion. They are meant to be an epic encounter that many will refuse to attempt even if they are at the appropriate level. Correspondingly, the home champion will drop the best loot our home can produce, with a chance at legendary items that are influenced by our home’s theme,” Doug advised.

“Okay, Spud will get moved from the garage to the attic, and we’ll create some new kitties to replace him. What about our minor champion here on the first floor, somebody gets a promotion or should we create something new?” Florence asked.

“Let’s wait and see. We can’t promote Spud until the floor is built and once we do that, there is a chance the system will pick a minor champion for us, just like it did with Spud,” Doug said.

“Fine, we’ll hold off on trying anything more until I’m done building. For our third floor, we’ll make that backyard we had planned. With a limited defender expense, it will likely just be a warmup encounter and then the big champion fight,” Florence said. They had the expense limit, but not the funds to make enough kitties to populate her expanded home just yet.

The natural trickle of funds that came into her home had improved by a noticeable amount after gaining two levels. Given the time it took to build rooms, her balance would grow even while spending some on construction efforts if she didn’t worry too much about décor just yet. It wasn’t a lot, but it would help. To start with, she repaired and finished up the stairwell leading to the second floor. The creeps had gotten in through a natural side tunnel that skirted where she intended to build, causing Florence to make sure she reinforced the walls anywhere near the tunnel’s path.

Once the stairwell was complete, Florence got to work on the second floor. It wasn’t as large as the first floor, having only seven rooms in total, though the great room was pretty huge on its own. For now, the rooms were just roughed in, with Florence only creating interior items if it was absolutely necessary. She had an idea with the two bedrooms leading off the bath. She would make them an either-or proposition. The system seemed to agree with her efforts allowing the door to only open to one of the rooms. She would change the bedrooms occasionally, mixing up the challenge and throwing a twist to the parties that went the same way each time.

The second-floor master bedroom was done in a modern style she saw on one of her shows. It wasn’t a style she would want to live in, but for her home here on this world, it would be rather unique. Instead of the comfortable carpet in her other bedroom, this one would have bamboo floors with tasteful rugs placed in key areas. Those places would also open up into hidey holes for her kitties, allowing them to leap out from under a rug to launch their attack. For now, she just dug out a dozen hiding places and created the tunnel system linking them together. The adventurers exploring this room would need to have eyes in the back of their heads to watch every possible point of attack.

With a smaller space, the walk-in closet presented some design challenges. She was even contemplating making it a trap-only room given the adventurers would face the floor champion in the next room. Spud seemed to like his garage, but Florence felt the attic space would capture the dark and musty environment he seemed to prefer. She was kind of curious how his powers would change once he accepted his new position as floor champion.

Her final touch was to create a small window on the side of the attic, one of them emergency fire escape ladders would be kept underneath it, giving the adventurers a place to climb down to the third level of her home, the backyard. There wasn’t much to do for the backyard, it would be a large lawn with some planters to break up the line of sight, and a shed that her boss might use if they chose to. The ladder from the attic would leave the party at the small side lawn, where she would place any additional kitties that she wanted for this level. She would decorate things after summoning her kitties, and by the time she finished roughing out the backyard area, she had built up to $98.11. The basics were done, now, it was finally kitty making time.