Cat Core, Chapter 22.

Chapter 22.

Florence thought about adding another room with her addition funds but felt the layout of her home was fine after the addition of the bathroom. When she grew again, maybe it was time to think about a second story? Now she weren’t going to do it just to put on airs, but she did feel an almost painful need to grow. The hilltop above her could house a half dozen or so rooms, so she would go up before she started building down. That lich skeleton guy was down there somewhere, and she weren’t wantin’ to bust in on his house and cause him to get all angry.

There was a little bit of defender expense left; she had only spent $213 of her new $250 limit and she knew just where to spend the rest of it. The dining room was undefended, and it shouldn’t be. That place was the last chance to stop adventurers before they fought the champions. Florence created the first of three defenders, a brawler type. Her new kitty popped into being, it was a pretty tan and white tabby with black stripes.

“You’re a cute little one, how about the name Sasha? Yes, I think that fits you,” Florence said.

“I believe I get to name the next one,” Doug complained.

“No, you just named two in a row, and with at least kinda weird names, so, I’m taking all three that are going in the dining room. You can name more after we hit our next level, so long as you don’t make them anything too strange,” Florence said. Doug shrugged it off and headed to the sewing room to liberate more balls of yarn.

The next kitty was going to be a commando, she wanted to have one of each type in this room to see how it worked out. Her newest cat was a light tan with cute brown ears, tail and feet. She had a kitty like that once called Kirabell, that would fit this one nicely. Kirabell shot off, playing with Sasha before finding all her new hiding places. The agile commando was hidden from sight in no time, ready to ambush adventurers.

Her last kitty was going to be a mage. When the cat was summoned, she had a dark brown coat with splotches of black here and there. For some reason, the cat’s coloring reminded Florence of a cookie, which also happened to be the perfect name for cat in the dining room. She named her newest addition who played with the other two in the room before trying to find the perfect spot to settle into. On the wall under the pictures of her champions was a narrow buffet table. On top of the table was a large silver serving bowl that Cookie plopped down in, curling up for a comfortable nap. One thing about her newest kitty was a bit confusing, Florence had no idea what kind of magic she specialized in.

“Hey Doug, it shows that Cookie here is a necromancer, what does that mean?” Florence asked.

“Oh, I see that some of magic types are also part of the information you pushed out of your mind. Necromancy is a type of death magic, specifically, it specializes in crippling enemies and raising the dead to fight or serve the caster,” Doug said.

“No way, this little cutie here isn’t going to be making no dead monster things in my dungeon,” Florence said, she weren’t happy about this one bit.

“While she could raise a dead foe as a zombie to help in the fight, I think most of her magic will be focused on damage spells or debuffs. Don’t worry, even if she conjures up some undead, they will disappear when the spell ends,” Doug advised. Florence still wasn’t happy, but maybe it wouldn’t be too disgusting. She had enough of that to deal with considering she had a goblin tribe living in her home.

“So long as we don’t have no creepy monsters lurking around and staining my furniture,” Florence mumbled. She had to spend some time concentrating on repairing the lawn at the entrance that the invader’s spell tore up. She was kind of surprised to see that Korbo and his party weren’t about to enter, they had been queued up when them dog folks pushed on through, maybe they had some other problems going on or poor Lilly got hurt more than she thought.

“Hey Doug, you want something to do?” Florence asked, thinking of something the cat could do.

“Well, I stand ready to serve as always, Florence,” Doug replied.

“I was a thinkin that we should mix up the family portraits. You know, we can add something to confuse folks coming in so they can’t figure out what’s still a waiting for them inside our home,” Florence said.

“Wise choice, I had hoped you would remember that. Why don’t we mix things up, changing the order of the pictures of our actual inhabitants and adding a half dozen or so others in random places. Do I have a free hand with this?” Doug asked.

“Well, sure, I guess, so long as you don’t mess with the actual portraits of my babies,” Florence said. Doug got to work, adding a couple that could be plausible, and making sure there weren’t anything too outrageous, save for one. He added an actual picture of the swarm of goblins waiting in their home, and a picture of Gabsug riding Spud. To throw them off, he had a picture of a giant scaled lizard creature with cat-like features and a cat with a scorpion stinger instead of a tail. For his finale, Doug made a lion-sized cat with three head, one of which was spitting flame.

“Hey, not bad, I think that will keep them guessing,” Florence said. She could detect the little guy standing up with a dignified look on his kitten face as she praised him. Things were quiet for a while, they had the afternoon to themselves with Korbo’s group taking the day off. There was some excitement later in the day over in the town and Florence passed the time watching a new caravan of a half-dozen wagons arrived. Supplies were offloaded into the newly constructed buildings and it also appeared there were at least two more groups of adventurers.

“Look at that Doug, it looks like we’ll have more guests soon,” Florence called out, the kitten advisor had been busy fine tuning the portraits on the living room wall.

“Let me get a look, yes, it does look like there are two new parties of adventurers here, and one should be visiting very soon, based on the fact they went into the larger inn.

“Why’s that?” Florence asked.

“My dear, have you not been paying attention to what’s been going on out there. This is a guild sanctioned dungeon, and that means there will be a queue to visit us. Since both our current adventuring parties seem to patronize the larger, and might I say, less shabby, inn. It stands to reason that it is the location of the guild queue for dungeon visits. Our current guests have been falling into a pattern, Shara and her group likes to visit early in the morning after they’ve had their breakfast, but Korbo’s teams usually delves in the afternoon. With our power rating, I don’t thing the guild will allow more than three or four delves per day, which means they will start more of randomized rotation with their visits,” Doug told her.

“I want more adventurers in here, but I’m not sure about a line outside my door day and night,” Florence said.

“Don’t worry, while we can’t close our doors indefinitely, we can keep them closed for a time after each delve if you feel you need a breather. I think you’ll find that as we grow, you’ll have a much higher tolerance for the number of visitors we attract, especially once you see the funds and experience that rolls in,” Doug replied.

“Why it looks like we do have a team of real go-getters here,” Doug added, watching as the first new party that had entered the inn were now heading toward their entrance.

“Wow, they look even less prepared than Shara’s group did on their first run,” Florence said, noticing the lack of gear this group had, not to mention the fact there were only four when the other groups had all had five.

“I agree, it is rather ill advised for them to attempt our home without a full party and miserable equipment levels,” Doug added. She could see that two of the adventurers were burly looking young men with spears and wooden shields, but no armor at all. Another was a young girl, holding tightly to a pair of knives that looked like they belonged in the dining room and not in a battle. The final member was a frightened looking young man wearing homespun garb and holding a axe handle as his only defense.

Florence watched as they paused at the entrance before steeling themselves to enter. As the dungeon closed behind the, the party jumped, startled at the ominous sound. The bantered among themselves trying to come up with a defensible formation. It was apparent they knew each other but hadn’t put much thought into actually working as a team.

While they sorted themselves out, Obi and Shadow were creeping closer in the tall grass, their new commando ability making them harder to spot. The party was oblivious to the approaching danger and moved forward with the two spear wielders in front with the other walking closely behind. The cats waited, perfectly positioned for their prey to move just a bit closer.

“Oh dear, this isn’t going to end well,” Doug said, and Florence agreed. The mailbox trap triggered, and the bolt slammed into the small woman with the two kitchen knives. Her cry turned to a gurgle as the bolt lodged in her throat. The man with the axe handle dropped his weapon and immediately began channeling the golden light that indicated healing. He placed his hands on the wound, trying to stem the tide of blood.

“Pull the bolt Cameron, she won’t heal with it still in there,” one of the spearmen said.

“I’ll knock over the mailbox, it looks like the trap is trying to reset,” the other spearman said as he walked over to the trap that was indeed going through the motions of rearming.

It was at that moment that Obi and Shadow attacked, the pair leaping on the man that was heading toward the mailbox, their prey separated from any help. To his credit the man reacted quick enough to bring up his shield and deflect Obi’s attack, but Shadow slammed into him from the other side, her claws tearing bloody furrows in his back as teeth latched onto the back of his neck.

“Derek! The other spearman shouted, charging to help his comrade. It was too late for the adventurer called Derek, Florence thought as Obi launched another round of attacks, the target having dropped his weapons at the shock of the other cat tearing him apart.

The girl with the bolt in her neck tried to scream as the man healing her pulled the bolt out before resuming his healing efforts. The adventurer called Cameron thrust his spear at Shadow, who easily dodge the blow and countered with a swipe of her razor-sharp claws. Barley blocking with his shield, the surviving spearman backpedaled toward the others of his party, smart enough to not let the cats surround him.

“We need to leave, now Klaus!” Cameron shouted at the healer.

“I have to heal Corrine,” Klaus replied.

“Just stop the bleeding and drag her out, I’ll hold these off,” Cameron said. Florence couldn’t tell if the girl Corrine was still bleeding or not, there was already too much blood all over her. Whatever her condition, Klaus began dragging her back to the entrance as fast as he could, Cameron trying to cover the helpless pair as the cats closed in.

“I’m stopping this,” Florence said, her babies fighting a fair fight was all good, but this was pure slaughter.

“Agreed, since they’re attempting to exit, you would be perfectly justified in activating passive mode, just be ready to unleash our cats if they try to take advantage,” Doug said. With the cats set for passive, they stopped where they were, ready to retaliate if the unfortunate adventurers were stupid enough to attack once more.

“I think they’re letting us leave,” Cameron said as they made it the last few yards and the dungeon opened to allow them to leave. Once outside, Klaus placed Corrine on a soft patch of grass and continued his healing efforts, sweat on his brow as he tried to keep his friend alive.

“Head to the town and get another healer, I’m almost out of mana,” Klaus said through gritted teeth. Cameron sprinted back to town, entering the main tavern as the last of his mana flowed out. A trickle continued as the man tried to keep his friend from death’s door. Cameron finally passed out from the effort, blood running from his ears and nose as he collapsed.

“And that is what happens when you push past your mana limits,” Doug informed her. Florence felt bad for the group, but also was a bit disgusted with herself. Even as she called off her kitties, she could feel a hunger to kill and consume the entire party when they were at her mercy. Florence Valentine was a good person, as anyone in Logan County could tell you, but she had come far too close to giving in to those feelings.

Lilly, the healer from Korbo’s group ran back with Cameron, her higher-level healing ability able to keep Corrine alive and with help from some of the other adventurers, they carried her and the unconscious Klaus back to the inn.

“You handled that well, Florence, word of your mercy will spread among the adventurers. While a few may try to take advantage of it, most will remember that when they stand in front of your core gem trying to decide whether or not to destroy us,” Doug said.

“They didn’t stand a chance, heck, even our level zero version of that there front porch would have done them in,” Florence said, curious as to what newly minted adventurers could have done.

“Yes, the smart thing, and what I hope they do now, is to join up with some of the more seasoned adventurers. That way they can gain experience and gear while facing much less risk. It’s a slow way for them to improve and it requires finding others who will let you join for a while, but it is the smart way to delve a dungeon as a brand-new adventurer,” Doug told her. She surely hoped this experience had done and slapped some sense into the fools, she made a decision not to restrain herself if they made another foolish choice.