Cat Core, Chapter 9.

Chapter 9.

Like before, the spiders stabbed at the front door with their spiky legs. Shadow, Obi, and the summoned kitties had done well, whittling the number of attackers down to two, with a third spider alive, but unable to move due to the damage to its legs. In the living room, Bhargath stood just inside the door, ready to engage the invading critters. Once the big guy had their attention, Tater and Midnight would leap down from the ledge over the door and smush them spiders good.

It didn’t take long for the two attackers to tear the door down and they wasted no time in charging toward the waiting prey. Florence watched Bhargath go to work, slashing at the two spiders as the others waited for their opportunity to strike. Bhargath drew them further into the room, and just when he was about to go down to a venomous bite, Midnight and Tater launched their attacks. Both cats landed on their targets, claws digging deep and their bites already crunching through the spider’s armor to get at the important bits inside. Within ten seconds, the final two spiders were down, and quiet descended over Florence’s home once more.

“Well, that was unfortunate for the elves, but their loss seems to be our gain,” Doug said. Florence took a quick peek at her information as she respawned their defenders.

Cat core, level 4

Experience: 649/1500

Funds: $276.88/$350

Defender expense: $110/$350

That was a lot of money for a pair of adventurers. Florence also had a slew of spiders and that scorpion critter keel over in her home, which would have added to the total. With the funds she now had, the rest of her home could be finished, and the defenders summoned. Her home would be rebuilt like it was, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long, Florence and Doug had plans for this here home, big plans. Another bonus of the last encounter was that her rocking chair and cane were finally back! Her gem now had a proper place to rest, and the cane would give a good shellacking to anyone that tried to cause problems in the core room.

“We need to get more adventurers in here as soon as we can,” Florence said, already digging into the task of building rooms and repositioning the ones she had already made. She wanted to keep pushing toward the tunnel exit, not wanting her beautiful home to be stuck inside some scummy cave.

“Oh dear,” Doug said with concern in his voice.

“Yeah, what’s wrong now?” Florence replied.

“I just thought of something, we’ve only had one party enter the dungeon and they met an untimely end. Though it wasn’t our doing, their loss will be recorded in the logs that the adventurers guild tracks. The problem is that our home now has a one hundred percent lethality rate. Given that our home is new and there has only been one delve so far, we may be alright. Should the trend continue, we run the risk of being considered overly bloodthirsty and when that happens, a kill team generally ensures our demise,” Doug said.

“It wasn’t us, it was them creepy crawlies that did those elves in, don’t try to put those deaths on me,” Florence replied.

“I know that and you know that, but no one else saw what transpired. We need to keep vigilant and if these arachnid invasions continue, we may want to see about trying to more actively protect any adventurers that enter our demesne,” Doug advised.

“Fine, I agree we should help a bit more if this happens again. I’m all for tearing up adventurers that have a fair shot, but I don’t want outsiders slaughtering them inside our home, even if we get to rake in the cash for it,” Florence said.

“Good, we shall endeavor to mitigate the undeserved demise of any adventuring visitors. We shall also see to it that any intruders are dealt with in an expedited and violent manner. That, my dear Florence, I leave in your hands. We have a plan, so continue on that path but I also require a bit more entertainment if you please,” Doug said.

“Fine, if it’ll keep you from bugging me and complaining, here you go,” Florence relented, created a variety of yarn balls for Doug to play with. The kitten advisor gathered the choicest of the lot and hauled them onto the rocking chair. Doug really liked to nap on that pillow, despite his complaints about her spending the initial money for the protective housing for her gem. After being resummoned, her defenders even joined in on the fun, the whole group playing nicely as Florence went to work.

Neither adventurers nor creepy bug things showed up while she worked, allowing Florence to recreate their old home, the way it was meant to be. The expansion also had the added benefit of granting them a bit more income as the coins trickled in faster with each room she added. As each room was completed, Florence had the pleasure of resummoning her old babies back in the home.

She couldn’t track how long the whole process had taken but it must have been several days given that her summon ability had reset. Florence gave a mental sigh of relief once the last room was created. Basic furnishings were in, but fine-tuning the details would wait until the traps could be reset. Given that Doug was upgrading his traps to the five-dollar versions instead of two-dollar ones, several would have to be left out until she leveled up again and increased her defender expense.

“Well, what do you think Doug,” Florence asked, waking the little guy from his nap. As her advisor, he didn’t need to sleep, but somehow, the lazy guy managed to do it anyway.

“Oh, I see, delightful to have our home whole once again and our defenders back at their labors,” Doug said. He couldn’t be bothered to walk through their home, but Florence could tell he was following along as she reviewed her home design and defenders.

The front lawn had extended further down the tunnel, and while she could see light peeking out the end of it, Florence couldn’t quite reach the exterior just yet. Designing the right first impression would have to wait until she could finally grow their home all the way to the surface. Shadow and Obi stalked around the lawn, occasionally coming up to the porch to relax in the oversized rockers she had built for them. The shrubbery and flowers planted in front of the porch partially obscured the view, allowing her babies to slip into the tall grass unnoticed if visitors showed.

The living room was now complete, and to reinforce her defenses, Florence resummoned the brawler kitty Baxter to join Tater, Midnight, and Bhargath. She also kept the fireplace trap as the location for random reward chest drops. The hallway was now populated with the lively trio of Buddy, Princess, and Mortimer. In the hall were two optional doorways, one leading to the sewing room where Bob and Stubbs waited, and the other opened into the bathroom where Charybdis and Scylla were patiently waiting for some victims. Florence had to nix the trap in the bathroom to save on her defender expense.

There was no link to the Home for Unwanted Goblins and Florence kind of missed the little stinkers. She left some room in her home layout to add the goblin home if she came across more goblins or other creatures that decided they wanted to join her. Without the goblin home, the hall now led directly to the laundry room. Arya and Quirigua hid in the laundry baskets to get the drop on any explorers. Florence kept the clothesline trap in the room, both defenders were mages and they needed a bit of time to get their spells off. Doug’s trap would hopefully gain them that time.

The laundry exited out to the optional garage where Spud made his lair. Her stinky minor champion went where he pleased but did seem to enjoy spending most of his time in the dark and dingy garage. Florence felt a little sad for her delinquent kitty when he scratched at the wall where the door to the Home for Unwanted Goblins used to be. Poor little guy missed his friend Gabsug. With the goblin gone, maybe he would a better friend to some of the other kitties? The minor champion wandered around, eventually coming into the core room to look up at Florence’s core as if to ask where his friend went.

“I’m sorry baby, I don’t make the goblins, and this is a new home. Why don’t you try and be friends with the other kitties? Maybe someday, other critters will join our home, but the goblins are gone,” Florence said. Spud gave a pitiful mew that made her heart break. Doug perked up and looked down from his pillow perch on the rocking chair, eyeballing the sad Spud.

“No, unhand that right now! Doug screeched as Spud grabbed ahold of two balls of yarn and then sauntered out of the core room.

“Calm down, he needs something to play with too,” Florence told the raging kitten.

“No that is completely unacceptable, if it wasn’t still on cooldown, I would demand you activate Deadly Doug so I can show that hooligan what for,” Doug said. Florence ignored him and went back to inspecting her home. The laundry and the garage both exited into the library. Zeus, the lightning kitty, and his two brawler protectors Fluffy and Fluffy Junior waited for any adventurers to make it into their abode. Florence also had Doug recreate his magic missile wand trap inside. Putting the kitten to work helped to distract him from Spud’s larceny.

Her game room came after the library and it was one of the newer rooms in her home, only getting its first real workout when the followers of Kunrax invaded. Inside the large room, Astrid, Jurgen, Milk Tea, and Clementine waited for adventurers to try their luck at the games. Depending on how much the adventurers wagered, anywhere from one to all four of the cats could emerge from hiding and attack. If the bet was large enough, a trap built into the roulette table would activate. Depending on how the adventurers handled the scaling challenge, Florence would create appropriate reward chests for them.

If adventurers continued their delve past the game room, they would have a chance for some respite in the kitchen. Those that were respectful could even count on a delicious tea party waiting for them, the brew and snacks granting various beneficial effects. If the adventurers turned out to be the gem smashing kind, well, she would just see to it that the tea and treats were doused with poison. It paid to stay on Florence’s good side.

Those that chose to press on, would face the dining room. Sasha, Kirabell, and Cookie would give them a good whooping before they took on her Champions in the master bedroom. Chubbs and Zork were a formidable pair and Florence was confident they would give any normal adventurers a run for their money. That left only Florence’s core room, where her cane and Deadly Doug stood as their last line of defense against anyone wanting to cause mischief.

“Not bad if I do say so myself, a true A+ home if you ask me,” Florence said, proud of her efforts. A lot of the décor was still needed given how many of the rooms looked a little bare. Decorations would have to wait since her funds were now exhausted, and Florence would have to make do with whatever trickled in while she waited for more adventurers to show up.

“You’ve outdone yourself Florence, I can’t wait for the next stage of our home’s development,” Doug said, giving her the recognition, she truly deserved.

“Yep, once we hit level five it’s time for the second story, the new backyard, and the entrance we’ve been working on,” Florence replied, picturing what they had planned out during their time back on earth. They had a rather unusual plan, and one that may rub some of the guild folks the wrong way, but it was her home and she’d run it any way she pleased.

“Do you miss it?” Doug asked.

“Miss what? Earth? Well, I’m not sure. I hope Tabitha and the kids at the game shop aren’t too sad at my passing, but something about this life as a purty core gem feels like the real me. Sure, it would be good to play a game or two of Dungeon Delve and go to another potluck at the senior center, but can any of that compare to creating kitties anytime I want to?” Florence asked, not quite sure if she would want to go back to her old life even it was offered at this point.

“I guess it doesn’t matter, either way, this is our new life, and we should live it to the fullest,” Doug said.

“Well, I’m stuck here, you can scurry off back to making core gems once you’ve served your time,” Florence reminded her assistant.

“True, but I’m not sure I would want to return to that task. I had been content there, but it was all I had ever known. Now, I think this mortal life of excitement might be more to my taste,” Doug said.

“Oh, you know you couldn’t live without me. Making stupid gems would bore you to death now,” Florence said, happy that her friend was at least considering staying the course with her. In truth, Florence wouldn’t know what to do without Doug. Back in the past, her kitties would have been enough, but now she needed more, she needed someone to talk to, and if she was honest, fuss at a bit.

“Oh, look, it appears your latest renovations are about to get a test,” Doug said, drawing Florence’s attention to the tunnel where a fresh party was making their way toward the front lawn. Her home was open for business, and her kitties were just waiting to take a crack at any visitors.