Cat Core, Chapter 19.

Chapter 19.

Florence was excited for her visit the next day, and a bit concerned that the party might have spilled the beans to those two guild folks that came nosing around yesterday. Thankfully, it looked like the guild people left after only going into one of the shops for a short time. Florence loved how she could create food on a whim, and without any pesky dishes to do. She had to admit to herself that things had been getting harder and harder for her back in the real world, where preparing a simple meal was a task that left her exhausted and in pain. Despite the strangeness of this new life, there weren’t none of them aches and pains that constantly assailed her old body. The only downside was that she couldn’t eat, she really could go for one of the peanut butter cookies she had made for the adventurers.

“Oh, it looks like our guests are arriving, shall I escort them to your tea party?” Doug asked. He had been pouting for good long while, but after he got over the whole “you’re going to kill us all” routine, he appeared kind of excited about the whole thing. Florence wasn’t so sure why until she thought on it a mite, the little guy had never been to a party before. With the kitten’s excitement over just playing with yarn, this here shindig must seem like a big adventure for him.

“You go on ahead, Doug, I think Midnight will want to come along as well,” Florence said, setting her defenders and traps to neutral.

She liked that setting after discovering it in her interface. Passive mode had shut everything down, preventing her defenders from attacking and the traps from working. While in neutral, everything would stand down until threatened. If them adventurers tried to cause her any harm, everything would revert back to aggressive. She had also spent some time fiddling with the assigned room settings and with Doug’s help was able to create a panic mode where if she were in danger, all her defenders would head directly to her core room to defend her, killing any enemy that they found along the way.

As prepared as she could be, she watched the party arrive. The walked past the entryway and onto the front lawn, Roland glancing nervously at the mailbox as they passed. Shadow and Obi stood on the front porch, looking very elegant, Florence thought. Ox stopped the party from entering the front door, confusing Florence as to why he stopped them.

“This is home for the cat lady, we should knock before entering,” Ox suggested. The big dopey looking guy must have been raised right. The one called Vanderman knocked on the door and the party waited, Nala tentatively giving Obi a pat on the head, which he didn’t seem to mind.

“Welcome folks come on in, nothing’ll hurt you so long as you don’t cause any problems. Doug here will escort you to the party,” Florence said.

“Oh, hello there Doug, we’ve seen your picture, but haven’t met you in person yet,” Vanderman said, greeting the fluffy kitten. Doug, who wasn’t able to talk to them like she could, merely did a kitty bow and led them to the new dining room.

“Wow, looks like our host has created a new room for our tea,” Shara said, idly stroking Midnight’s fur as the cat followed her through the home.

“I certainly did and help yourselves to anything you’d like. So Shara, tell me a bit about yourself,” Florence asked.

“Not much to tell, really, all of us except for our new friend Nala grew up in a town called Haxley. We were all adventurers but didn’t really think we’d have a place to train up until Vanderman’s father found out about your dungeon opening,” Shara replied.

“As far as my own story,” Nala started. “I was working, in a larger town called Farnmouth when I decided it was time to leave and strike out on my own. On the road I met up with the merchant caravan heading here and then joined up with Vanderman’s group,” Nala told her before taking a sandwich that she seemed to enjoy.

“Hey, that’s not right,” Roland complained, looking at the picture of Chubbs standing in front of his body, the young man rudely talking with a mouth full of peanut butter cookie.

“Well, you’re the one that causes trouble, and if you’re not careful, old Chubbs will clean your clock,” Florence told him, trying to maintain some decorum and not snap too hard and the annoying man.

“Sorry, ma’am, I was just shocked to find a depiction of my own death,” Roland said reluctantly after Vanderman gave him a glare.

“Apology accepted, and I suppose the picture could be seen in poor taste,” Florence said. Heartened by the reluctant apology, she had the image of Roland removed from the picture.

“Woah, that was something I haven’t seen before, thank you. So, I hope you don’t take this wrong way, but what’s your story ma’am? I mean, you’re not like any of your kind that we’ve ever heard of,” Roland asked, the others in party looking very uncomfortable as they waited for Florence’s reaction to his probing question.

“I suppose it’s only fair, given I asked all of youns bout yer own story. So where to begin. As you know I’m Florence Valentine and I’m from Logan County, over on west side which as you know is the more respectable part of town. Don’t get no impressions that I’m some rich hoity toity type of person, we’re all good hard-working folks there. There were an accident, and I wound up here after Doug over there messed up,” Florence said, Doug looked a bit taken aback and the entire party looked confused.

“I’m sorry to pry, but what do you mean? Do the other cores live in a town somewhere before they’re summoned to their permanent location?” Vanderman asked.

“Oh no, I was as human as the rest of you, well, I was until I died that is,” Florence replied, watching the shocked look on the faces of her guests.

“You were human?” Shara asked.

“Yep, and from good old Earth, not whatever this planet is,” Florence replied.

“Florence, stop! The inhabitants of this world are not authorized to have dungeon origins revealed,” Doug shouted, panicked yet again.

“Bah, I’m only being polite, Doug, do tell me there’s some rule where I can tell the truth,” Florence replied. Doug looked confused, but still panicked.

“Umm, well, this hasn’t happened before, in fact, I don’t recall a dungeon core with as much self-awareness and the ability to recollect their past like you possess,” Doug replied. Florence noticed her guests were becoming uncomfortable in her silence, since he had been talking with Doug in her mind.

“I’m sorry, but this is incredible, I never knew dungeon cores were living beings. Conventional wisdom is that they were naturally created by magic and not at all what you just described,” Vanderman said.

“I don’t know what Doug did to make my core, it could have been magic, some computer thingy, a miracle, or more likely a curse. Now, as for all them other cores out there, I can’t speak to their origin,” Florence replied.

“Good save by telling them you might be unique and other dungeons might be created through different means,” Doug whispered in her mind.

“So, were you like a powerful mage or something of the like in your world?” Roland asked.

“No, don’t be silly, there aren’t any mages on Earth, ‘cept in the stories and whatnot. I was a simple retired woman who minded her own business and took care of my babies,” Florence replied.

“You were a mother, how many children did you have?” Shara asked.

“Oh no, not those kind of babies, I never had a child, I meant my kitty babies,” Florence said.

“That makes your home’s defender selections a bit more understandable then,” I’m sorry you passed away and were brought here,” Shara said. Florence was touched by the concern in her voice. She could see the others had all quieted down as well, contemplating Florence’s transformation and what effect it might have on them.

“Thank you, I’m sorry as well, or I should be, but things change a bit when it comes to regrets and sorrow when you’re a core gem,” Florence replied, not bothering to go into how her new life suppressed many of her feelings.

“I can’t imagine going through that, so here’s to Florence and her new life. May it be everything she wants it to be,” Vanderman said, raising his teacup for a toast. Florence appreciated the sentiment, but the conversation had left her feeling a bit down, which weren’t something she had felt much since her transformation. In fact, she could feel her dungeon stuff pushing against the feeling, but she held onto it, the feeling wasn’t a pleasant one, but it was something real.

Her guests stayed for a bit longer, chitchatting with her, but she could tell they knew she was just being polite. They left shortly after, Florence reminding them that she weren’t in no way going to play her favorites when they came inside. Her cats would kill them dead as a doornail if they could, that was just the way things were, and it was a bit of knowledge she weren’t able to push away.

“Florence, I’m sorry to interrupt your introspection, but it appears there is some kind of disagreement between the adventurers on our doorstep that might require your attention,” Doug said, rousing her from her funk.

Looking out of her home, she could see the other adventuring party gathering for their afternoon delve. The pattern was consistent, one party would enter in the morning and the other would make a run in the afternoon. This time, instead of taking their turn through her home, Korbo’s party was engaged in a heated argument with four rough looking customers. That there new party didn’t look like they cared, ignoring Korbo’s protestations as they pushed their way past.

The newcomers were dressed strangely compared to the other adventurers she had seen. One wore thick leather pants but was bare chested, odd drawings and patterns painted onto his bare skin. Like the rest of the new group, he wore a long beard. For weapons, the man had a fistful of sharp sticks that were decorated with paint and feathers and whatnot. While she wasn’t sure how effective a decorated stick would be in a fight, Florence could detect that the man possessed some other power, leading her to believe he wouldn’t spend his time in the dungeon whacking her cats with sticks. Two of the others were dressed in similar leather armor, studded with metal rings and also painted in strange designs. One of the pair wielded two razor sharp axes, with smaller versions tucked into his waistband. The other carried a huge club that had animal teeth and various bits of metal sticking out of it. Beside their differing choice of weapons, the two were identical, in fact, if’n she were a betting woman, which Florence Valentine most definitely was not, she would bet the two were twin brothers.

Unlike the other three, for whom she felt an instant dislike, the last member of the new party filled her with an intense hatred. It wasn’t like Florence to hate man nor beast, but somehow this one did it for her. The man was a short and smarmy looking fellow, skinny, but not weak looking. He wore thick leather pants like the others but instead of any armor he wore a simple shirt. His long, greasy black hair was tied up behind his head, and Florence could see the scars that were all over the man’s face. Oddly enough, most of them looked too uniform and perfect like to have occurred in battle, no siree, this here man had done it to himself. In one hand the man held a leather whip, sharp pieces of bone tied to the end of it, but it was what he held on the other hand that had raised her ire. In the other hand was a long leather leash to which a growling and oversized dog was attached.

This dog weren’t like some normal dog. It was a head taller than that Doberman Hubert Johanson had owned for years. Unlike the lean and sleek Doberman, this thing was built like a tank. Scarred brown and black fur was crusted with filth and she could see more muscles than a dog should have rippling under its hide. The mouth was as big as you would expect, and the jaws were so thick it looked like one of them professional boxers could slug it a good one and not even phase this dog. This was no pet, nope, this dog was a down and dirty killer just a pullin’ on that leash and looking for his next victim.

“Stop, there’s a guild sanctioned queue for this dungeon, sign up and get your place in line like the rest of us,” Korbo hollered at the group as they pushed past. The dog bowling over their healer Lilly, causing the armored adventurer next to her, who’s name Florence had never heard yet, to draw the shortsword belted to his waist. Before anything else could happen, the man with the sticks, shouted a word that hurt Florence to hear it, and threw a stick into the ground. Around Korbo and his party, vines grew up from the earth below, ruining her perfectly trimmed lawn as they wrapped themselves around the adventurers, who were struggling helplessly against the plants.

“Tabak goes where he pleases, no guild controls my people. Today we take the power inside this place as our own, leave now, after we’re done there will be nothing for you here,” the man growled at the helpless adventure party.

“Oh my, this doesn’t bode well, Florence, I believe we’re about to be visited by the ‘wrong’ type of adventurer, go all out, hold nothing back because these men seek to kill us and take your core’s power for themselves,” Doug said as Florence tried and failed to close off her dungeon before they made it inside.