Cat Core, Chapter 15.

Chapter 15.

“Well these must be those new adventurers we saw rooting around by the tents earlier. With goblin rooms being built and licking skeleton’s popping in uninvited, I weren’t paying much attention outside,” Florence said, watching the party approach. They seemed a bit confused at the sign out front, but it didn’t stop them from entering. Florence had respawned both Obi and Shadow after resetting the mailbox trap. Sadly, the lich didn’t give her any cash during his visit, somehow avoiding the normal drain her home placed on visitors, what a cheapskate. At least he didn’t take loot, leaving her with enough cash to rebuild her forces.

“Dale, you go forward and search for traps. Those amateurs didn’t want to tell us anything about this place, so we’re not going to take any chances,” One of the adventurers said. The party was decked out a bit better than Shara’s group and all of them had some decent looking armor and weapons and whatnot. A pair of them had chainmail and shields, one with a mace and the other with a longsword. The one giving orders was dressed in robes, like a sissy. Another one was dressed almost the same, but her outfit weren’t quite so strange since she was a young lady. As far as the kid they were ordering around, a young’un about twenty or so, he had some leather armor on and a pair of shortswords in his hands. He looked nervous and didn’t seem in a rush to comply.

“Hey, get moving. You asked to join our party, that means you pay your dues. Jara will show you a few rogue tricks, but until you’ve got to pull your own weight,” the guy in the robe demanded.

“Oh dear, I’ve lost track of one, she must be using some kind of stealth ability,” Doug said. He was right, the sixth one, that had also been dressed in leather armor, was gone.

Florence watched as the hapless rogue approached the pathway to the front door. With a squeal of coming from her precious Obi, the missing rogue reappeared, driving a pair of daggers into her baby. The rogue was somehow able to stalk her stealthy kitty without being noticed. Of course, the rogue could only be in one place at a time and she had totally missed shadow, who even now leaped upon the hapless Dale. Dale screamed as claws raked through his armor like butter and the powerful jaws of Shadow clamped down on his shoulder, barely missing his neck.

The two armored adventurers charged forward to smash and hack at her remaining kitty, Shadow tearing a hunk out of Dale before succumbing to the blows. The others pulled Doug out from under the dead cat and the girl in the robes approached, her hands all glowy like Shara’s got when she healed up them other adventurers. Before she could apply the healing magic, the mailbox trap activated. The crossbow bolt slammed into the side of Dale’s head with a meaty thunk, killing him. A good-sized pile of cash poured from the dead adventurer and began flowing toward her core as a wave of euphoria hit her. She was going to have to kill more adventurers, it felt amazing and it also paid well.

“No, I’m not that kind of person, I refuse to take pleasure in the killing of another,” Florence said, pushing the feelings of euphoria from her. They were wrong, and she wasn’t going down that path, no siree.

“I think I’m glad to see that you’re not succumbing to the typical new dungeon trap. The bonus of energy gained from a death has lured many a new core down a path of excessive bloodshed that leads to their early demise. If you kill too many, you will find yourself a target. What just happened was a new adventurer not being cautious and his party are more to blame from his death than you are. They should have guided and supported their new member, but they callously pushed him forward to trigger any attacks or traps. It’s all too common in that line of work, I’m sorry to say,” Doug said. While she wasn’t seeking his approval, having someone validate she had done the right thing was good to hear, especially when the validation came from a cute little kitty assistant.

“Thank you Doug, I really don’t seem to care if someone dies in here, but I don’t need to feel happy about it,” Florence said, a bit concerned that she really didn’t care that this new adventurer had died. She’d have to keep a sharp eye on herself, or risk falling into the depravity that constantly beckoned her in this new life.

“Wow, that’s quite the kerfuffle going on in there isn’t it?” Florence said, her attention drawn back to the adventurers who were battling her babies inside the living room. Doug’s fireplace trap had also caught one of the armored attackers, charred marks covering the left side of his body and blistering the flesh wherever there was exposed skin.

“I need some healing over here, the burnt adventurer called before moving up to support his ally who was trying to fend off both Midnight and Tater who were having trouble getting past the shield that the adventurer skillfully maneuvered to keep them at bay.

“No! Vernon, help Lilly or none of us are getting healed. The one holding off her cats hollered. The one called Lilly must have been their healer and instead of doing the whole glowy hand healing thingy, she was desperately trying to keep Bhargath’s fangs from her throat. The healer’s left arm had been shoved in the cat’s mouth to keep him from tearing out her throat, leaving the limb in bloody shreds as Bhargath tried to snap the bones before finishing off his opponent.

With a squeal of pain, Bhargath pulled away from the badly wounded healer, a shortsword blade working back and forth in his spine as the rogue appeared behind him. Florence had to learn how that girl did that whole disappearing in plain sight thing, her kitties could use that skill, though both Shadow and Obi seemed well on the way to developing something similar. Unable to reach behind him to strike at the rogue, Bhargath instead lashed out again at the healer, tearing bloody furrows though her abdomen as the robes she wore proved poor protection against the enhanced claws of her babies. Poor Bhargath didn’t stand a chance, once the burnt-up Vernon added his sword to the fight.

After that, a barrage of magic arrows were summoned and hurled at her remaining cats as the bossy guy in the fancy robe got into the fight. Between the two armored foes and the magic barrage, poor Tater and Midnight went down quickly. As her last kitty turned into a ball of glowing loot, the rogue went about the room checking for any further surprises.

“Is this whole place populated by cats? That’s just weird, and look at this wall of portraits, creepy,” Jara the rogue said, plucking the picture of Obi from the wall and dropping it down to the lime green carpet.

“I agree, this décor is disturbing, perhaps the work of some mage, what is this material anyway?” The mage asked as he felt along the plastic slipcover that protected her sofas from excess wear and tear.

“The loot nothing to write home about either, the cats only gave only dropped some low value coins. The reward box we found in the fireplace only had a simple dagger with a cat etching on it, and this strange cloth thing,” Vernon said, gathering up her rewards. Florence really wanted to get a look at the dagger with the cat etched on it, but the man dropped the dagger into a large bag along with the coins.

“Not very polite, are they. Look at how that one just dropped Obi’s picture on the ground, no respect from kids on this world either, I see. They even found the reward box, I what that other party to find it. That does it, no more reward boxes for a while,” Florence complained.

“Yes, well these are not exactly children, most look to be in their twenties or thirties as far as I can tell,” Doug replied.

“Like I said, kids, anyone under fifty is still wet behind the ears as far as I’m concerned,” Florence replied. She remained quiet, pouting a bit as she watched the party pour a small vial of red liquid down their healer’s throat. The girl moaned in pain as she slowly came to, the flow of blood from her wounds slowing, but not stopping completely.

“Lilly, you need to focus and heal yourself, I’m not wasting anymore potions on you. As it is, were not going to make much profit once we repair our gear,” the mage ordered.

“Korbo, aren’t you being a bit hard on her, I’ll give her my own potion,” Vernon said, pulling a similar vial from a compartment on his belt and pouring it into Lilly’s mouth.

“As long as you don’t think the party is going to reimburse you for it, waste it however you want,” Korbo the mage said. Florence watched the bleeding stop and Lilly was now able to concentrate enough to summon her healing magic. Several minutes were spent as she funneled healing energy into herself. The shredded arm slowly replaced the lost flesh and new skin grew to cover it and the myriad of other wounds she had acquired in her fight with the valiant Bhargath.

“Now, that’s just about depleted my mana, we need to be cautious if we decide to continue,” Lilly said as she finished healing herself and the worst of the burns on Vernon.

“We continue on, everyone just needs to be more careful, this dungeon shouldn’t be any challenge for us, we’ve fought in worse,” Korbo added, motioning them forward and into the hallway.

In the somewhat narrow passageway, the party placed one of the armored warriors in front and the other at the rear. The less well armored members of their party were safely housed in the middle of their column. Their rogue pushed her way out front, examining the various spots that could be opened for Florence’s kitties.

“I’m not sure what these openings are for, but I’m not detecting anything that looks like a trap,” Jara advised. As the rogue examined the next section of hallway, an oversized cat door opened in front of her and Buddy rushed out, claws lashing out at.

“Wow, she can really move,” Florence said as the rogue did a backflip and avoided the cat’s attack. The armored warrior who she hadn’t heard the name of yet, moved to face off against Buddy. A volley of magic bolts flew unerringly into her cat, pummeling poor little Buddy. In response, Princess leaped down from where she had hidden herself on a ledge, landing with all four paws onto that annoying mage who kept hurting her kitties.

Unfortunately for Princess, a blue field appeared around the mage and her claws skittered off, causing Florence’s defender to fall to the ground. Korbo pointed his finger at Princess and a stream of ice shards pelted the cat, punching holes in her pretty fur and slowing her as frost appeared on the floor around her. Their healer swung down with her mace, shattering poor little Princess.

“These two didn’t really put up much of a fight,” Doug started, “I had hoped the restrained quarters of the hallway would give them a bit more impact. What room do you have queued up for them, Florence?”

“While I would love to sic my new goblins on them, I think we should save them for a bigger threat. These here adventurers seem a tad annoying and disrespectful, but I’m not afeared too much that they’ll try and kill us. Let’s have old Zeus take a crack at them,” Florence said as she set the doorway to link with the library. The party recovered another bag of coins and a bundle of arrows from her dead babies as they opened the door at the end of the hall.

“This is intriguing,” Korbo said, admiring the shelves of scrolls and books. Florence weren’t real sure what all the titles were, the place kind of completed itself to a certain extent once she made her will known. Little Zeus poked his head up from where he had been napping on the desk chair. A spark appeared in his eye as Florence’s little magic kitty unleashed a small bolt of electrical energy across the room where it slammed into Vernon. The warrior merely grunted and convulsed as his armor conducted the electrical charge.

The mage, Korbo, responded with another blast of frost magic, but Zeus was smart enough to duck behind the desk, protecting him from the return fire. He popped his little head around the corner of the desk and shot another bolt of electricity from his eyes before charging forward. The other warrior was struck and was twitching all over like that one named Vernon.

Sparks crackled over little Zeus’ fur as he leaped on Vernon who struggling to stand. The power that her kitty had gathered flowed down into the warrior causing even more violent convulsions than before. After unleashing his last blast of energy, Zeus scratched ineffectively against the warrior’s armor, only to be dispatched by a single swipe of the rogue’s blade.

“Poor Zeus, why did he just charge on in like that, he was zapping ‘em good from behind the desk,” Florence asked.

“Our defenders are low leveled, which reflects in the magic capacity of our little spell caster. Two or three spells are about all he can do until he’s out of juice, as your people would say. He really needs some more melee-based defenders to support him. With a strong cat to hold back the enemy, the little mage could turn the tide of battle in our favor,” Doug advised. Florence nodded her agreement. Even though she didn’t have a head anymore, Doug somehow knew what she was doing.

“Hmm, this is the first good piece of loot we’ve seen. It appears to be a simple flame blast spell, but it’s one I don’t currently know. I’ll be taking this as my share of the loot,” Korbo announced as he grabbed the scroll that had appeared from Zeus’ corpse.

“Fine, you can hold it for now, but we’ll divide up when we get back, everyone needs to agree before we take anything as our own,” Lilly ordered. Korbo started to complain, but Florence could see that the mage recognized he had no support with the others for taking the loot early.

“Very well, we’ll dispense with this argument for now, let’s continue on,” Korbo said. They ventured into the kitchen next and Florence was torn. She didn’t necessarily like that there Korbo, but all in all, they weren’t being too disrespectful. In the end she went ahead and set the table with her healing tea instead of the harmful one she had access to. She was a bit curious about what would happen when someone did partake of the poisoned tea, but that particular entertainment would have to wait for some other party.

The adventurers didn’t sit down for tea and were understandably wary of it. They spent an inordinate amount of time searching into every nook and cranny of the kitchen, looking for traps and kitties, Florence assumed. After satisfying themselves there was no combat or loot to find here, the party continued into the last room. Florence would finally get to see her champions in action.

“What is up with this place? This room looks like a strange version of some noblewoman’s bedroom,” Vernon said as the group looked about her impeccably decorated bedroom.

“Hey Doug, did you hear that, they think my room is decorated like the room of a queen,” Florence said, loving that she now had independent confirmation that her décor was noble.

“No, you’ve got it wrong, oh wait, here goes, Chubbs,” Doug said, stopping as the orange tub of a cat shot out from under the bed. He rolled across the floor and crashed into the Vernon’s knee. Sickening crunching and popping sounds were heard as the warrior’s knee bent in a way it weren’t never meant to. It was like that one-time that little Jimmy Franklin had crashed his bike on the street in front of her house. The little monster squealed like a stuck pig when he landed, and his arm bent all crazy like. There was quite a commotion as the kid’s mother rushed him off to the emergency room, that kid never did ride the bike again and had to wear a cast over his whole arm for the better part of two months.

“Florence! You’re drifting off again, you’re missing everything,” Doug shouted, bringing her back from her reminiscing. Indeed, she had missed Zork popping up from inside the pile of pillows. He had several of those glowing blue magic globes circling his head and every few seconds, her kitty would launch one at an enemy. The magic seemed to hit like a punch, denting armor and cracking bones when they landed. Korbo returned fire, keeping up a stream of ice at her kitty who was starting to succumb to the assault.

Their healer was down, Chubbs must have bowled her over. Now, her big ball of orange destruction was trading blows with the other warrior. His champion enhanced natural weapons didn’t seem to be faring too well against the chainmail armor of his foe. Sure, each strike that Chubbs landed broke some of the links, but the man beneath was unharmed. Each return blow that hit Chubbs had no trouble piercing his fur and hide, and the big guy was starting to slow down from the multiple strikes that the warrior was landing on him.

Zork hissed in pain as the rogue, Jara, appeared behind him, both short swords driving into Florence’s champion. While dungeon champions were tough, the low leveled kitty champ was killed by a combination of the two blades in his back and the lingering frost damage from Korbo. Poor Chubbs put up a valiant fight, but against five to one odds, he soon fell.

“Now this is a bit more like it,” Jara said as she gathered the loot that Florence’s champions had dropped. There were no items this time, just a pair of much larger bags that clinked with sound of coin. “It’s still mostly coppers, but there are quite a few silver mixed in, these must have been the champions,” Jara said, pawing through the coins.

“Yes, these were rather more challenging than the others we encountered. I think the only remaining room will be the core room. We won’t mess with the core, let’s head out and divvy up our loot, we can hit the dungeon again in a day or two once we’ve recovered,” Korbo said. Their healer was back on her feet but looked all done in to Florence. Her magic energy tank must have been empty because she could only heal Vernon’s knee enough to get him to stop squealing. With Vernon’s damaged limb still sticking out in the wrong direction, the party retreated through the dungeon, Jara and the other warrior trying, often unsuccessfully, to keep the wounded Vernon’s leg from banging on anything.

“That was both entertaining and profitable,” Doug announced. Florence looked at her interface and saw they were all the way up to $93.22. The dead adventurer and the long delve inside her home had given them quite a bit to work with. After respawning her defenders and resetting the traps she still had $81.52. The only downside was that she was at her defender expense cap. There wouldn’t be any new kitties to play with until they reached level two.

Florence Valentine

Cat Core Level, 1.

Experience: 196/250.

Funds: $81.52/$125.

Defender Expense: $125/125.