Cat Core, Chapter 8.

 Next week I'll start posting the chapters of Tales From the Upgrade for you.  

Chapter 8. 

A few days passed and there hadn’t been any reappearance from the goblins and no further rat incursions, giving Florence time to plan the decoration of her home. She wanted something special, something that her new little babies would love. Most importantly, she wanted something that would protect them all. 

“You’ve been thinking for days, don’t you think it’s about time to act? Adventurers could be here any time now,” Doug whined. 

“I wanted to get everything just right before I started. Besides, we needed money to work with,” she told Doug as she got to work. Florence had thought long and hard about her so-called dungeon. To her it wasn’t a dungeon, to her it was a home, and she could think of nothing better to do with the space than to make it into a home. Starting with the entry room area, she changed the shape to make it a wide area covered in perfectly clipped grass. That was one of the weird things about decorating the dungeon, she could create just about anything she wanted, whether it was grass or the small stone pathway through the lawn that led up onto the porch. 

“What is going on here?” Doug asked. The little kitten pranced around the lawn while looking at the first room taking shape. 

“This is our home Doug, so this first room will be just like the first thing you see in a house, the yard and a walkway up onto the porch. This will lead adventurers to the porch and the door to the rest of the house. I’m just putting on the finishing touches,” she said proudly. Doug, to his credit, didn’t say anything further as she worked. The wood porch was whitewashed and had a pair of rocking chairs placed on it. She had a comfy cushion placed on each chair, which would give the cats somewhere to nap if they wanted to watch the entrance. The front door was a simple wood affair and would lead adventurers further into her home. 

“Intriguing, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it before. Sure, I’ve seen nature dungeons with grass and plants, but never have I seen a dungeon’s first room setup to look like the entrance to a real home. It’s rough, but there are some possibilities here. Our defenders can stand watch from the porch, the railing will make it hard for them to be seen. How about growing the grass a bit taller so they can stalk any invaders?” Doug asked. He actually seemed excited about this part. 

“I don’t want people to think my yard isn’t cared for, but I know the kitties do like to stalk about and pounce at times. How about a planter across the front of the porch? Yeah, I think that will work,” Florence said. The porch itself was raised three steps up from the grass and around the front, she created a simple brick planter, like the one in Nancy’s yard, only this one was more tastefully done if she did say so herself. Bushes grew up out of the planter and she carved out several spots for cats to hide in. Doug was actually useful in showing her some good spots. As an added benefit, the shrubbery helped block line of sight on any cats reclining in the rocking chairs. For a finishing touch, she placed an iron mailbox at the very entrance with her name Valentine on the side. 

“Ahh, a perfect trap opportunity. We should do something with that mailbox, I know the adventurers won’t be able to resist opening it,” Doug offered. She didn’t know about traps and all that nonsense, but since Doug had been somewhat helpful, she would let him play a bit. 

“Fine, how do traps work?” She asked. 

“Just like your defenders, traps require funds and those funds are reserved to reset the traps after they are triggered. Rewards are less generous than the rewards from our defenders, which is to say they will be horrible. In this case, I think a simple crossbow trap will suffice. The crossbow with a simple targeting enchantment will cost only $2 and will set the tone that this interesting dungeon is also deadly. Later, we can improve our traps as we level, but that will also improve our expense,” She could go with that, decorating the dungeon didn’t take too many funds since the creations were simple object she was familiar with. Funds poured from her core and the trap was created inside the mailbox. 

“For added fun, I’ll set it so that sometimes the crossbow isn’t there. They’ll waste time trying to locate and disarm a trap that doesn’t exist,” Doug said with a giggle. 

“How exactly does the whole adventurer thing work? What if a whole bunch come barging in at the same time?” Florence asked. That part of her memory had been pushed out when she had fought off those horrible thoughts earlier. 

“While some high-level dungeons can maintain multiple instances at the same time, our process is a bit simpler. When a group enters, the entrance will seal itself until they leave again, thus stopping too many entering at once. Like I mentioned before, our walls are extremely durable and anything short of sustained attack by siege engines will be resisted. The cap on the number that can enter at once is set by you, the default is ten individuals to give some leeway to parties trying to teach new adventurers the ropes. We can go with less than that though, since were new, I would suggest five,” Doug offered. 

Five sounded like a good number, she hated to have too many visitors over to the house at once. That Tabitha Long had come over once and brought a whole slew of her grandkids. Most unruly bunch she ever did see, knocked over and broke a picture. They also chased her babies around and durned near caused them to have a heart attack. Nope, she wanted no part of a large crowd rooting through her house. Florence found the settings for maximum occupancy, selecting a max of five. 

“Excellent, what do you have in mind for the next room? Oh, this might be a problem,” Doug said as he found the newly created front door blocking him off from the rest of the house. Being less than a foot tall and not possessing any opposable thumbs, Florence could see how he and her babies might have difficulty. 

“I got this, easy fix,” Florence said, creating a large pet door at the bottom of each door so her babies could move about the house at will. 

“Perfect, works great,” Doug complemented after running through the door a few times for research purposes. After the fifth time through, Florence reached her patience limit and locked the pet door, giggling as little Doug bonked his head. 

“Ouch, that was painful and rude, my good woman, though I must admit, being able to lock the door may prevent some shenanigans from the more unruly adventurers,” Doug said.  

“Next we have the living room,” she advised as she went to work on the next room. The large rectangular space was perfect for living room. Florence recreated the lime green carpeting from her house and beige sofas with the protective plastic covering. Florence made sure to drape a couple of blankets over the couches for the cats to sit on. End tables and lamps were placed near the sofa and a rollaway wooden cart with a television was created. The only problem was, she couldn’t get the stupid system to make a television. 

“What kind of primitive backward world has magic and dungeons but can’t make a television,” She grumbled. 

“Ahh, yes, tech levels on this world preclude us from using certain things from your home planet of Earth. Might I suggest a fireplace instead, they can make for serviceable traps in a pinch when funds are available for it, even if it is a bit of an obvious placement area,” Doug advised. 

“Bah, we’ll just have to do with a fireplace instead,” she grumbled as she created the fireplace. In a burst of inspiration, she fashioned some walkways along the ceiling, for her cats to use. The roof of her home was still made from the dark stone that was natural to the cavern, she wasn’t going to waste resources on painting the ceiling, after all. One finishing touch was a row of pictures on the wall, each picture was of one of her babies and she even included a shot her from her human days. Lastly, she added a picture of Doug, not wanting her little kitten advisor to be left out of the family portraits. 

“Not bad,” Doug said as he walked around the living room, pausing to try out the comfy blanket draped across the couch. 

On to the next room, this one being the long corridor that she had created. It made for a perfect hallway. Once again, she placed walkways near the ceiling, wide enough to block out some of the view from below, making it hard to spot any of her babies up there. The walls from the floor to halfway up were made of the decorative wood paneling that she had fallen in love with during the seventies and had never had a reason to change. The upper half of the wall was covered with wallpaper, a tasteful floral print. 

“Despite the questionable decorative decisions, you’ve done well with the walkways. Might I suggest an opening in the ceiling of each room to enable our defenders to traverse easily from above as well as below,” Doug offered. It was a good idea and she created little cat doors on each walkway. Playing around she found that she could carve out a small compartment behind the wall paneling, enabling a kitty to launch itself at an invader from below as well as above. 

“There, and I even did an upgrade you didn’t think about. I won’t mention your insult as to my design decisions, what would you know anyway, you never even had a body until now,” she told Doug. 

“Oh dear, did I offend you by pointing out your dated home décor? Remember that I have existed for millennia and have learned a thing or two over years,” Doug said defensively. 

She ignored him and focused on the next room, the round chamber that she had created. For this one, she covered the floor in linoleum, it was good with spills which she was mindful of since this would be the kitchen. Once again, the primitive yahoos that inhabited this world prevented her from making modern ovens and such, but she made do with a cast iron stove and several banks of shelves. A refrigerator was out of the question, so she had to settle for an old-fashioned icebox. She didn’t mind the stove and icebox as much as the tv, why her granny had done well enough with them for most of her life. 

Save for the doorways, the walls of the room were packed with cabinets, prep tables, and the crude stove and icebox. The center of the room had a round table with a simple tablecloth. She set the table for five and, on a whim, had a teapot with all the fixin’s. Florence was excited she could create tea, cookies, milk, sugar, and the like. The china was the simple set that her mother had handed down to her, complete with chips in the right places. 

With the requisite walkways and plenty of hiding spaces inside the cabinets, this room could be full of surprises for any adventurers to enter. To be polite, she would have her babies not attack anyone that sat down to enjoy the tea she had set out. Doug watched her work and didn’t interrupt until she had set the passive mode for the table. 

“Good idea, adding a passive mode to reward players who behave themselves. I didn’t think you would have retained that little tidbit of information granted by the system. If you really want to do it right, you can add a small healing element to the tea, not much, just enough to give a group that’s had too rough of a time a chance to prepare for the final fight. Little things like that can endear us to a party and make them less likely to attack our core. After your miserly rewards, we need all the help we can get. In a pinch, you can change the tea’s composition to something mildly poisonous,” Doug suggested. She like the idea for the tea and was able to infuse it with some healing energy. It cost a nickel to do so, but wasn’t all that much in the scheme of things. 

The last room before her core was what Doug had called the champion room. This would be the final challenge a party would face in her dungeon. There was one room left she needed to have, so she fashioned this into a bedroom. An oversized bed was placed in the center and one wall held a dresser and vanity. Several overstuffed pillows were placed on the bed, making a good hiding place for a fluffy cat. A shelf with decorative glass cat figurines was made and with that, she felt she was finished. Florence Valentine looked back on her home and felt a swell of pride at what she had created. 

“Well Doug, I think this will do nicely. The only thing I want to change is our entrance, it’s an eyesore. You know, like Frank Legitt’s house down the street from me. He bought the nice two story and never mowed his lawn. Well, I heard that Tabitha Long went up to him at the Kroger and told him to get his yard in order. You know what Frank did?” Florence started, only to be cut off by Doug. 

“No, I don’t know and will never care what Frank did. To answer your question, we have some limited control over a small area around the entrance. Most dungeons will setup an entry point that blends well with the rest of the dungeon theme. Have at it, just remember that funds are low and we still need to create more defenders. Though it pains me to say it, well done Frances Valentine, you’ve created something unique,” Doug said, his complement somewhat offset his rude interruption. That man, kitten, or whatever, was a confusing one. 

Florence looked over the hillside where her home was located. It was an ugly gash in the side of the hill and just wouldn’t do for the curb appeal of her home. Nope, she was going to fix her right up, she was. Funneling the last of her funds, Florence created an actual curb in front of the opening, complete with a small patch of perfectly trimmed grass. A pair of the little trees with them bright pink flowers that bloomed in spring flanked the entrance. Of course, them trees usually dropped sticky flowers all over her Buick, making it hard to keep clean, but since her Buick was back on earth, she though they would be okay. As an added bonus, she could keep the trees blooming the whole time, despite the season. 

A small, waist-high, white picket fence surrounded the entrance at the limit of her influence, which was about fifteen feet from the opening in the hill. The entrance had a matching whitewashed beams framing it instead of the ugly bare rock. She made a cute little gate in the fence and created a concrete path leading into the dungeon. As a final touch, she placed a small sign near the gate, along with a doormat. 

Welcome to the Valentine residence, please wipe your shoes before going in. No solicitors. 

“There, that’s just right, I think,” Florence said, with a contented sigh. 

“Hmm, sorry to disagree, but the sign clearly states this is the Valentine residence, but I happen to be a resident as well. While I have no choice but to accept the name of Doug that you have saddled me with, I most certainly have an option and will retain the right to choose my own surname, thank you very much. Perhaps a modification of the welcome sign is in order?” Doug whined. 

“Bah, you’re just causing trouble and complaining because you can. Worse than the quilting circle over at the senior center I tell you. Fine, what do you want for your last name Doug?” She asked. It was going to take some pondering to figure out how she wanted to fix the sign, she didn’t want to give the wrong impression and with the whole Bhargath the Foe Render thing, she wasn’t exactly sold on his naming ability. 

“I think, well, I do believe, no, that’s not it. Hmm, I find myself in a bit of conundrum. A surname is a powerful thing that follows you and your line through eternity, so I may need some time on this one, Florence. Still, while I contemplate my name, perhaps you can at least acknowledge my existence to the adventurers?” Doug asked. He was impossible, wanting her to give him credit on their sign with only a first name. Hmm, yep, she had just figured out the perfect way to add old Doug. 

Welcome to the Valentine residence, please wipe your shoes before going in. No Solicitors. 

Beneath the main sign, she hung another, much smaller one. 

Beware of Doug. 

“Lovely, you’ve really outdone yourself there Florence,” Doug said in a huff, moving off to the bedroom to curl up on the floral comforter. While the little guy didn’t actually sleep, he sure liked to pretend he did when he was pouting. 

“Wake me when our savings balance is sufficient to create some more defenders, we’re woefully understaffed and we still need to create a champion,” he mumbled. Their balance was down to $3.18 so it might be a while. The only bright spot in their finances was that her home did seem to trickle in a few extra coins with the newly redecorated interior. Maybe the money she spend inside meant she was earning a bit more interest? Oh well, she had the time to tweak a few decorations while she waited.