Cat Core 2, Chapter 11.

Chapter 11.

“Get ready kitties, we got some unwanted guests to deal with,” Florence called out.

“Be wary, Florence, these aren’t your usual monsters,” Doug warned as creatures emerged from the cloud of dust. It was more of the spiders, the ones that had already raided her home several times. The problem was, the spiders kept coming, too many for her to count. To make matters worse, the invaders were right on her doorstep, with only the master bedroom between them and her core. Thankfully, the master bedroom was protected by her most powerful defenders.

Zork and Chubbs prepared for the attack with Zork already summoning the magical orbs he liked to hurl at the enemy. Chubbs hissed as the door to the room was knocked down, the big champion kitty doubling in size as he activated one of his abilities. Florence expected him to charge at the first spiders that were even now pouring into the room, but instead, he held back, a golden light encompassing him as Zork protected him with a magical barrier.

The dozen golden orbs circling Zork’s head flew out in a blur, each one striking the spiders as they poured into the room. As the last orb connected, Chubbs finally launched his attack, rolling into a fluffy ball of death that slammed into any spiders in the room that survived the magical onslaught that Zork had unleashed. With all the spiders in the room gone, Chubbs posted up near the door, swatting and biting at anything trying to enter.

Functioning as a chokepoint, the doorway allowed Chubbs to avoid being swarmed. His claws were like long daggers and his jaws could easily crush any part of a spider they bit down on. Florence’s champions were holding back the tide, but it seemed like there was no end to the number of spiders pouring into her home. Her other kitties were also starting to respond to the intruders, the three cats in the dining room were already making their to the master bedroom as the others ran to help.

“I need your core, I want to be whole again,” the creepy voice called out.

Florence could see the outline of a new figure make his way from the hall, striding toward the master bedroom. The red glow she had seen earlier had come from this thing, and it looked like something out of one of them stupid movies Doug liked to watch back on earth. The creature looked like a spider, just bigger than the others. Most disturbing to her was the thing’s head, it had a human face that continuously babbled nonsense at her.

“Now that’s just wrong, what’s with this crazy world placing human heads on monster bodies,” Florence said to Doug. It was just like that three-headed dog avatar thingy that had shattered her core the first time. The other one had a human head in the middle and was just as bonkers as this spider guy was.

“Those crystal shards embedded in the monster look familiar,” Doug replied.

“Hey, you’re right, those look like core shards, how did the spider man get those stuck all over his body?” Florence asked.

“I have no idea, and did you just refer to this creature as spider man?” Doug asked, her kitten helper began humming the spider man theme song.

“You know what I meant, I knew it was a bad idea to let you watch all them superhero shows,” Florence complained.

“All jokes aside, the crystals look like they have fused to the body, perhaps this thing destroyed another core at some point, which may have caused this mutation,” Doug said. The hard carapace of the spider body had small glowing chips of a core gem at various points, and the human head of the spider monster had a large shard sticking out of his forehead.

“Maybe that one in his noggin is what’s causing him to be all loopy,” Florence suggested. The spider thing kept up an incoherent babble the whole time he closed in on the master bedroom. Unlike the creepy three-headed dog thing, this guy just seemed genuinely bonkers and his words didn’t possess any magical powers, at least not any that he had revealed yet.

“Loony or not, he is about to engage Chubbs,” Doug said. The hallway attaching the stairwell to the second floor was placed as a small side passage off the master bedroom. If they made it past the champions, they would be right next to the door leading into her core room. At the opposite side of the master bedroom, the door to the dining room was placed and her first reinforcements were now arriving.

Sasha, Kirabell, and Cookie entered the master bedroom to help defend Florence. Kirabell faded from vision as she crept under the oversized bed, the perfect place to launch an attack by the commando kitty. Sasha, the big brawler tabby, charged in to join Chubbs at the door, ready to back him up if needed. Cookie was their little necromancer kitty, and she was already drawing on her mana to cast some kind of spell at the horde of creepy crawlies.

If her babies could delay the attackers, the other cats would soon join in the defense. A powerful pair of slashes took down the last spiders between the spider guy and her cats. Not sure what to expect, Florence watched as the spider guy halted his advance, the bulbous abdomen on his spider body shot forward like they did when they were going to sting someone. Instead of a stinger, goopy webs sprayed out, catching both Chubbs and Sasha.

Her kitties howled in pain as the webs tightened around them, an acidic venom of some sort was secreted from the webbing. Chubbs was able to rip the webs off with his prodigious strength, Sasha was caught fast, and her health was dropping by the second. Chubbs was still in the fight, but ripping out of the webbing had delayed him long enough time for a pair of spiders to skitter forward and attack. Chubbs crushed one in his jaws, but the second spider landed both a bite and a sting, the large dose of venom working quickly on her big fluffball.

Chubbs crushed his attacker with a kick of his back legs, but the damage was done. The doorway was cleared of defenders and spiders poured into the bedroom, their attack met by the newly arriving defenders. Back in the hallway, the flood of spiders dropping into her home slowed, but there were plenty remaining to keep the reinforcements at bay. Kirabell shot out from under the bed, her claws tearing off one of the spider guy’s legs as her bite cracked open the thick shell over the abdomen of the monster.

“No, keep away, I need the core, I need it!” the spider guy shouted as Kirabell attacked. Several of the nearby spiders jumped to this aid, burying Kirabell in a pile of fangs and stingers. It was at that point when Cookie unleashed her magic, a dark cloud hovered over the spiders attacking Kirabell, and wherever the cloud touched, flesh and chitin corroded away. Florence wasn’t any fan of that undead necromancer magic, but old Cookie seemed to be doing much better at it than she remembered.

A pair of golden orbs slammed into the spider guy, causing him to squeal in pain as he charged for the door to the core room, sacrificing his other spiders to buy him time. In the master bedroom, her kitties had gotten the upper hand over the dwindling number of spiders, but that wouldn’t help her none if that spider creep got to her core. Florence really didn’t want to find out what he planned to do to her.

“You ready Doug?” Florence asked as she used her summon ability.

“Yes my dear, whenever your ready,” Doug said, the little kitten hissing and the spider creep, arching his back and spiking out his fur like a tough guy.

Enough time had passed while building out her dungeon that both the Summon ability and Deadly Doug were off cooldown. Four kitties emerged from the summons, each one the same for some gall durn reason. Four Sasha’s appeared, and four squishy mage cats were exactly the opposite of what she needed right now. With no time to cast, each of the kitties attacked the spider guy. The mages weren’t built for brawling and were only slightly larger than a house cat.

The spider guy tore into the summoned kitties, his spiky legs skewering two almost immediately. Florence activated Deadly Doug as another Sasha clone went down to a bite. Spider guy had transformed a bit, his mouth expanding as giant spider fangs appeared alongside his disturbingly human teeth. The final summoned kitty had enough time to cast a spell, dark energy coalescing around her front paws which she used to swipe at the nearest leg. The same necrotic corrosion occurred wherever she hit, but unfortunately, her paws were still pretty small.

Doug’s paws weren’t small anymore as he swelled to the size of a large lion. Letting out a roar, her normally cute little helper leaped onto the spider creep, his claws tearing plate-sized chunks from the monster. The creature squealed in pain, trying to scuttle closer to Florence as it bit down onto Doug’s shoulder. Doug roared in pain as potent venom was pumped into him. Her assistant wasn’t a quitter though, and kept a slashing and biting for as long as he could, dealing horrible damage and distracting the monster just as it stepped into range of Florence’s cane.

She activated Shake the Cane and instantly unleashed five blows on the spider guy. Each hit caved in chitin and caused the gross milky-looking blood these things had to squish out. Florence couldn’t control where her blows went and the first three cracked open legs on the monster, but the fourth hit was what she was waiting for. On the fourth swing her club connected with the human-like head of the monster. Unfortunately for whatever that thing was, its noggin wasn’t any tougher than that of a normal person. The blow caved in his skull, making the fifth hit on the thing’s abdomen unnecessary.

“Consarnit Doug, why’d you let that thing bite you?” Florence asked as Doug crawled out from under the monster’s corpse.

“Sorry, I think you’ll have to resummon me,” Doug muttered as he succumbed to the venom flowing through his body.

“I got you buddy, don’t you worry one bit,” Florence said, choking up when she saw Doug transform back into his little kitten form after dying to the venom. She could bring him back, resummon him like a defender, but his tiny corpse was a pitiful sight that would have made her cry if’n she still had eyes.

It was only now that Florence realized that when the spider creep had died, all the other spiders keeled over dead as well. That made things easier and also contributed to a large bump in income. She pulled up the menu to resummon Doug, spending the exorbitant sum of fifty dollars to bring the little guy back. A timer counted down the fifteen minutes it would take for her kitten advisor to return. While she waited, Florence respawned her defenders and read the system prompts that had appeared as soon as she had won the fight.

You have defeated the fragment of a vermin lord core. Bonus experience has been awarded for absorbing parts of a rival core.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 5.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 6. Please open your summary sheet to review changes and to make selections for your core’s evolution.

A rush of energy filled Florence as she leveled up twice in a row, something she didn’t know was even possible. Pulling up her interface, she reviewed the improvements as well as a few choices she could make for her core. True to the agreement they had made back on earth, Florence would wait for Doug to be resummoned and get his input before finalizing everything, but for now, she could at least see what was unlocked.

Florence Valentine

Cat core, level 6

Experience: 117/6000

Funds: $555.27/$600

Defender expense: $350/$600

You have reached level 5 and must now choose a core path for your dungeon. Please choose from the following.

1. Level scaling. Your dungeon challenges, including defenders, traps, and environmental hazards, will vary on each floor of your dungeon. This option will assign a set defender expense limit for each floor as well as a maximum level range. Overall, your defender expense limit will be greater than that of a core matched dungeon, but many of your defenders and challenges will be of a significantly lower level than your core.

2. Core matched. The dungeon challenges created by you are matched to your core level. You have some variance but typically your defenders will need to be within two to three levels of your core gem level.

Core Upgrades available. An affinity is now available for your dungeon. While your core type cannot change, an affinity will guide how the defenders inside will change over time. Note that your restrictive core type limits your choice of affinity.

A core affinity has been assigned. Due to the nature of your agreement with the being known as Berikoz, you have been assigned the undead affinity for your dungeon. The undead affinity will open several class options for your defenders. Given the nature of your dungeon, your defenders will choose their own path but will be lured toward choices favoring necromancy when appropriate.

“Oh, no, I’m not going to agree to this. That licking skeleton has gone too far this time. I do not want and stinky undead things in my dungeon, and I won’t have my kitties traipsing around with zombies and the like,” Florence yelled. The freshly respawned Cookie let out a sad meow and covered her face with her paws.

“No, I don’t mean you Cookie, you’re a good girl and do that necromancer stuff the way it should be done,” Florence cooed to her baby. She didn’t like it one bit, but she also didn’t want any of her kitties feeling bad about who they were. Florence took few deep breaths to calm herself. She wanted to finish reviewing her options before Doug came back.

Core housing upgrade is now available for $250.

Protective Avatar upgrade is now available for $250.

A new defender upgrade is available, please choose from the following.

Empowerment. This upgrade will make all your defenders stronger, smarter, and more resilient. The changes will be geared toward their individual subtypes. Empowerment will be automatically upgraded at level 10 and every five levels after that.

Defender Classes. This is a further evolution of the defender subtype, allowing your defenders to unlock powerful classes. Since your core has chosen the defender individuality and named defender trait, there are many more options for your defenders to explore, including the chance for some of them to unlock powerful elite and prestige classes.

The following core abilities have improved.

Summoner. Your summoner ability now has a chance to spawn a copy of one of your minor champions instead of several normal defenders.

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 requires $50 to activate.

Florence had a lot more to work with now, given the expanded defender expense and the large income boost from defeating all of them spider critters. She knew what she wanted to choose, and first on the list would be the upgrades to her rocking chair and cane, but she held off, waiting for Doug’s respawn timer to tick down to zero.