Cat Core 2, Chapter 10.

Chapter 10.

“So, this lot looks a bit less prepared than the elves, don’t you think?” Doug asked. He was right, the five adventurers approaching their home were definitely newbies. What gear they had was mismatched and they didn’t have the confident, but cautious, stride of seasoned adventurers.

The group consisted of four human males, who all bore a resemblance to one another, making Florence think they were related. Joining the brothers was a single young female. From what Florence could see, they had no semblance of a balanced party. All five appeared to be warrior classes of some sort, given their weapons and gear. While she had experienced some class-type surprises in the past, she didn’t get the vibe that any of these were casters or healers.

“Is this it?” The man in the front asked, looking over the front porch with confusion.

“Yes, it has to be, how else would grass grow underground,” the girl snapped back, pushing the party forward.

“On dear, this isn’t going to end well, is it?” Doug asked.

“Nope, these poor fools are going to be cut to ribbons by our kitties, what kind of rejects are the adventurer’s guild allowing to delve these days?” Florence asked.

“Perhaps there are no guild representatives on-site to manage the flow of adventurers, that would mean anybody nearby could venture down and take a shot at our new dungeon without knowing the true risk. I suppose it doesn’t help that we’ve expanded significantly since those guild representatives arrived,” Doug said.

“No!” The girl shouted as the mailbox trap triggered, the steel-tipped bolt slamming into the lead adventurer. The man collapsed like a sack of potatoes, dead before he hit the ground.

Obi and Shadow used their distraction to cover their approach, the kitties each landing on a warrior, their claws and teeth tearing into the foe. The other adventurers stood there useless, the girl shouting at the last brother to do something. Florence never could understand folks like that, shouting for someone else to do something, but doing nothing themselves. The remaining brother charged the cats, his efforts too late to save his kin.

Florence’s cats finished off their first victims and then engaged the charging brother. While they weren’t the greatest in face-to-face melee, the pair had little trouble against the single poorly equipped and trained adventurer that charged toward them. The girl shouted at them incoherently, slowly backing toward the exit. Her path took her too close to the mailbox trap, the weapon firing and landing a bolt that pierced the adventurer’s left thigh, she dropped to the ground and slowly crawled toward the exit, managing to exit Florence’s home just as the kitties finished off their latest victims and were charging toward the girl.

“I’ll see you destroyed, dungeon, you didn’t give us a chance,” The girl wept as she stumbled to her feet and hobbled her way down the tunnel.

“How can I give them a chance when they’re too stupid to prepare properly,” Florence lamented. Normally, deaths didn’t affect her much, but this was delve was pure slaughter. Sure, she got a bunch of money for the four brothers keeling over in her home, but Florence didn’t want to kill unless it was necessary.

“Sadly, until the guild structures and schedules entry into our home, it’s open to all comers. There is something we can do, but not until we hit level five,” Doug said, reminding her of the jump in power her dungeon would receive once she hit that level. Levels five and ten were big increases for a dungeon, improving their power and allowing them to choose a path.

Florence would have to choose whether to keep challenges in her home that matched her level of power or designate different power levels for each floor. If she kept her home at the same level of power that her core held, all her defenders would match her core level and her home would sprawl out in every direction as she expanded. She didn’t want some maze of a home and was leaning toward going with adding floors to her dungeon and scaling the challenge to appeal to a wider range of adventurers. Apparently, this choice was rare, with most cores wanting the highest-powered defenders they could summon. They made this choice despite the scaled-difficulty dungeons offering more defender expense to compensate for having some lower leveled defenders.

“Hopefully, if we go with multiple floors with different difficulties, folks won’t be so quick to get themselves killed,” Florence said.

“True, but never underestimate the ability of an adventuring group to do something foolish. Even with multiple floors of varying challenge ratings, we will still get those who push themselves too far or just happen to be unlucky. It’s the way of things,” Doug replied.

“Yeah, that may be, but the way of things can change, can’t it?” Florence asked.

“That was our plan, though I remind you trying to shake up the order of things is not without some level of risk, Doug replied.

“Our home will be a challenge, but every single person attempting that challenge will know what the risks are,” Florence said, more to herself than to Doug. That had been the plane they had cooked up back on earth. A home that was deadly when it needed to be, but a suitable challenge to those that played by the rules. Before she could build her dream, Florence to expand and reach level five. It looked like the entrance was clear for a bit, so it was a good time to review what the latest delve had gained them.

Cat core, level 4

Experience: 1085/1500

Funds: $126.22/$350

Defender expense: $350/$350

“Well, we didn’t make a whole lot off of them, given they likely were noobs, but at least I have some funds to play around with. Too bad we’re maxed on our defender expense,” Florence said. She chuckled to herself, without spending time back on earth and learning about gaming, Florence would have never called anyone a noob or even had an inkling of what it meant.

“Nothing is stopping you from building the second floor, we can keep it sealed off from the rest of our home until you can populate it with defenders,” Doug advised. It still irked Florence that she couldn’t just do what she wanted when it came to opening or sealing off parts of her home, but at least the powers that be seemed to understand an empty floor didn’t need adventurers poking around in it, getting all bored from nothing happening.

“I assume we’re following the plan for our second story?” Doug asked.

“Sure, but which one?” Florence replied, trying to figure out which plan to go with. While on earth the pair had theory crafted several expansions to her home, and the second floor had several variants.

“How about the great room version, I was always partial to the lovely windows you planned to create, you know, the windows with the wide ledges and the soft cushioned sill? The would make a perfect place for a nap,” Doug said.

“Alrighty, that’s the one. I’ll get to work, you keep an eye on things while I’m working my magic,” Florence said.

“Very well, while you endeavor to expand our home, I will keep an eye on things as well as engage in a lively game of yarn chase with Bob and Stubbs,” Doug said, running off to the sewing room. Florence had to chuckle as she saw Spud perk up in his garage, the big kitty charging off to intercept Doug. That troublemaker loved to steal from the little kitten, and it was kind of fun to see Doug get all riled up over it.

Instead of listening in on Doug’s cries of outrage, Florence went over her plans for the second floor. She would start off with a bang, the stairs to the second floor would lead into a large open great room with plenty of places for her kitties to fight from. A pair of couches, a large fireplace, and several overstuffed recliners were placed in the room. Depending on how much of an increase her defender expense got at level five, Doug had planned out several traps in this room. Defenders came first, but traps could help turn the tide, not to mention they were cheaper than the kitties were. Of course, they were nowhere near as cute, so traps would be placed only after the appropriate defenders were ready.

Florence was excited about creating and seeing some new kitties in the dungeon. While she had pages of perfect names memorized, Doug refused to tell her what he was going to choose for cat names, making her think the little guy was going to do something weird again. The hallway off the great room led to a bathroom which was, in turn, linked to a pair of bedrooms. She would decorate both bedrooms in contrasting themes. The hope was that the room design might trigger more variety in her defender skills.

One bedroom would have a nautical theme like in a kid’s room. The second bedroom would be a western desert theme. Both bedrooms would lead to a large office that she wasn’t quite sure what to do with. Maybe she would just roll the dice and see what kinds of kitties were summoned before determining its final theme. At the back of the office was a walk-in closet that contained a drop-down ladder leading to the attic which would be where the champion of that floor would live.

The stairs leading to her new second-story addition would be placed in a small hallway that branched off from the champion room on the first floor. That was where she would start her new construction efforts. It was going to take some time and resources to build all this out, but Florence wanted things to be just right. It was their home and it needed to be exactly how she envisioned it.

Florence was making good progress on the hallway and stairwell when her core reached a blockage of some kind. At first, she was worried the construction was going too close to the surface of the hill they were under, but her home was pretty deep underground and should be able to support several floors above her if she wanted to go that route. No, this was something else entirely. Pushing harder, Florence started to make headway only to feel something else push back.

“Uh, Doug, I think we have a problem here,” Florence said.

“We have a huge problem, that deviant Spud is running roughshod over our home and is in extreme need of some punishment,” Doug said.

“No, this isn’t about your stupid yarn, it’s about our home. Something’s keeping me from expanding toward the second-floor rooms,” Florence said.

“Oh, well, perhaps your core is at the limits of its reach. It shouldn’t happen this far into level four, though,” Doug replied.

“It’s not the reach of my core, I get the feeling I can expand further, but something is pushing back when I try to go up,” Florence said.

“I’m not sure what to say, this is very unusual. Try going up at a different spot, perhaps we’re hitting some mineral deposits that are resisting your core influence. It would be a very good thing if we can get some valuable minerals to spawn inside our home. Those take time to assimilate, but once we do, they will provide resources for adventurers with crafting skills, resources that will take to gather,” Doug advised. The longer adventurers stayed in her home, the more money was pulled from their pockets.

“Do I have to pay to replace the minerals if they mine inside the home?” Florence said. It wasn’t a subject they’d spent a lot of time on, other than thinking about creating a garden with some exotic herbs. The problem was she would need at least a sample of the herbs if she wanted to grow them. Getting things into the dungeon wasn’t an easy task.

“Not directly, they will regrow slowly by siphoning a tiny portion of our income, it won’t be that much, and you will have a net gain in funds given how long it takes to successfully mine a node,” Doug said.

Florence could almost taste the money. She would have to shift things around, she wasn’t going to have some dirty mine inside her clean home, nope, not going to happen. If there were minerals nearby, she was going to have to maybe build that basement level next, or better yet, create her backyard and garden.

“So, what do I do? Just keep trying to place that area under my influence?” Florence asked.

“That should do it, but it will take some time. The longer it takes, the better, since higher value minerals take longer to assimilate. I suspect we’ll even get a windfall of experience once you’re done with your task,” Doug said.

“I’m on it,” Florence said, pushing her influence out once more. The resistance was still there, fighting against her. It was becoming a test of wills, but Florence Valentine was a strong-willed woman, and no fancy rocks were going to keep her out, no siree. Time passed as she focused on the task at hand. Florence didn’t know how long she had been at it, but them mineral thingies were starting to weaken, she could feel herself gaining the upper hand in the fight.

“Hold on Florence, something isn’t quite right about this, it’s taking way too long,” Doug warned.

“Hang on, Doug, I’ve almost got it, I can feel them weakening,” Florence said.

“Weakening is right, look,” Doug said, pulling her from her efforts.

“Now I was almost there before you interrupted me, Doug, I’m going to take your yarn away for a month if I have to start all over again,” Florence grumbled. She didn’t like to waste time, but Doug seemed determined to get her attention.

“Look, I think you might have pushed too hard,” Doug said with some concern in his little kitten voice. Florence had completed the small hallway off the master bedroom and had been halfway through creating the stairs leading to the second floor when she had hit the interference.

Normally, the walls, floors, and ceilings of her home were nearly impenetrable since she essentially smushed all that material from her excavation into a super-strong layer to build them. There at the top of the staircase, the ceiling was cracking, dirt and bits of gravel were trickling down onto her clean floors. She began to absorb the material and compact the ceiling once more.

“Doug, these minerals might be more trouble than their worth,” Florence said.

“I’m sorry my dear Florence, perhaps I was a bit off in my assessment, mineral deposits don’t act like this, at least none that I’ve ever seen,” Doug said.

The ceiling began to deteriorate faster than Florence could fix it. Cracks expanded and they could now hear something on the other side, something was digging its way into her home. Florence began to wall off the entire hallway but found that she couldn’t. Whatever had been fighting her incursion into the area above her home, was blocking her from making any changes, almost like when an adventuring party entered, her hands were tied until whatever was doing this, left.

With a loud crash, the entire ceiling caved in, and dust flooded the new hallway. Something about the dust blocked Florence’s vision, which wasn’t supposed to be possible. Inside her home, she was supposed to be able to see and hear everything that was taking place, but whatever had happened seemed to be trying to not only destroy her home but also take control of it from her control. A dull red glow was seen inside the dust cloud, a voice sounding out as the glow pulsed ominously.

“He took it from me, now I’ll take it from you,” the voice said.

“Oh my,” was all that Doug could say as something climbed down from the level above, entering her home uninvited. Whatever was mouthing off in the dust cloud wasn’t alone, Florence could hear lots of things skittering toward her. She could feel their need, their desire to consume her gem, they were coming for her.