Cat Core, Chapter 6.

Chapter 6. 

“First the rats, and now these goblin thingies, why do more creatures keep coming in? I thought you said we would attract adventurers not every filthy creep in the county,” Florence said. Somehow her dungeon instincts craved adventurers to explore her home, knowing that for the most part, they didn’t intend her harm and would only seek to profit from the challenge. These things, well, they were unnatural and disturbing. Florence wondered if they had some kind of pest exterminators in this world. Maybe she could have them spray for goblins and the like. After all, she did have to call out the bug man that one time that those disgusting roaches showed up in her kitchen. Mind you, it was not due to the condition of her home, not one bit. Everyone knew that Florence Valentine kept a clean home. She suspected it was from those college kids down the street, the ones with the loud music, and the parties, and what have you. 

“Florence! You were drifting off again. I say, you are far to easily distracted by your memories. I think I realize why most new dungeons have their minds wiped in the creation process. The creatures nearby will be attracted to the energy of your core, should they destroy you, much of your power will be absorbed by them, granting them several levels. Intelligent beings realize that exploring a dungeon multiple times nets far more than a single large bump in power, but nobody has ever accused goblins of being intelligent. At this point, there isn’t a whole lot we can do, it will be up to our defenders until they make it into the core room and into range of your cane,” Doug explained. 

The goblins left the first chamber then continued to the long hallway room. Florence wished she could have created doors of something to slow their progress, but there just hadn’t been enough funds for it. That highfalutin administrator guy should have given her more starting funds, the cheapskate said he was going to give her extra, but $500 was even less than her Social Security check each month. 

“Grabshab ka yan kuari?” One of the little green monsters yammered as they walked cautiously toward the next room. 

“What are they going on about, do you speak goblin talk, Doug?” Florence asked. 

“Yes, and so do you, think about the word translation,” Doug advised. Florence did as he suggested, the man did have a good idea now and again. 

Translation options. Your default setting is off, do you wish to activate translations inside of the dungeon? Note that this setting will also allow those inside your dungeon the ability to understand any spoken or written language while inside. Y/N? 

Florence activated the translation feature just as the goblins started yammering again. While her powers enabled her to translate, they didn’t make them there goblins speak any clearer. Public schools must be in just a bad a state in this world of Aerkoth as they were back home. 

“Gabsug feelses power core thingy, we smash and takeses,” one of the goblins said. 

“Kiblib need caution, core defenderses are strong bad fighters, and bosses are even more stabby than other defenders is,” another replied. 

“Doug, I don’t thing translating helped me understand them any better,” Florence lamented. 

“Agreed, sometimes ignorance is bliss when it comes to understanding the lesser greenskin races. Oh, look, here comes Misty,” Doug said. Florence spotted Misty stalking toward the noisy goblins, she stopped at the doorway that the goblins were approaching, waiting as Tater and Bhargath the Foe Render crept up on the other side of the entry. 

One of the littlest goblins had been pushed ahead of the others, bullied into taking the lead. As the little goblin crept into the circular chamber, Misty pounced. The cat leaped high enough to slam into the goblin’s face, claws and teeth leading the way. The goblin let out a girly shriek as Misty tore into it. Front claws raked the goblin’s eyes, the little red orbs popping into goo under the assault even as Misty latched onto its neck with her teeth. 

“That’s disgusting Doug, is there some way to do this a bit more cleanly?” Florence asked, she was never one for gore and couldn’t for the life or her understand why people went to those scary movies to see all this nonsense. Doug’s only answer was a sigh of annoyance as he focused on the battle inside their home. The other goblins rushed to the aid of their fallen kin, not noticing the other two cats crouched on the opposite side of the doorway. With spears leading the way the goblins began to jab at poor little Misty. The cat had finished off the little goblin and wasn’t giving any ground to these monsters. 

Misty leaped in the air toward the nearest goblin, only to give a pitiful wail of pain as her furry body was pierced by several of the crude spears. Florence would have wept if she still had eyes. Nobody wants to see their babies hurt. The cries of pain from Misty proved to the be the trigger for both Tater and Bhargath to launch their own attacks. Both cats slammed into their targeted goblins, knocking the small creatures down and tearing into them like Misty had. 

Bhargath was living up to his name, Florence had to give him that. The big orange fur ball shredded the goblin he had landed on, while Tater’s foe had managed to get the spear shaft in front of her kitty’s snapping teeth, preventing a fatal bite to the neck. Still, even without its fangs in play, Tater was going to town on the goblin with his claws, the front ones were shredding the goblins face while his rear legs were kicking like a rabbit, each blow tearing a strip out of the goblin’s stomach. Green blood flowed onto her floor and Florence found she was no longer worried about the mess, the dungeon side of her helping to suppress her disgust at the carnage. In fact, she was silently urging on her babies, willing them to brutally defeat their foes. 

Misty was fading fast, but the attacks by her brothers gave her a short reprieve, allowing her to crawl forward and latch onto another goblin’s leg, doing damage, but lacking the strength and speed she once had. The goblin she was latched onto yelled in pain as he stabbed Misty repeatedly. After a few blows, her precious baby expired, poor little thing. The death of their sister only seemed to enrage Tater and Bhargath, causing both to redouble their efforts. Bhargath finished off his opponent and charged another goblin. Tater finally was able to kill off his target but took several blows from the surrounding goblins before he could seek another target. 

“Run, flee, dungeon monsters is too strongses!” One of the goblins shouted as it sprinted toward the exit. The others looked about confused, unsure whether they should flee the furry balls of teeth and claws assaulting them, or if they should press the attack with their numerical advantage. Another pair fled, including the one with the leg torn up by Misty. Bhargath took down his latest foe while Tater was struggling to close with a pair of goblins that were keeping him at bay with their spears. 

A lucky spear to the eye ended the fight for Tater, giving a burst of confidence to the remaining goblins as they started to surround a hissing Bhargath. Bhargath wasn’t going to go down easy, the brave kitty taking several spears in the back as it leaped to attack another goblin. Even as more spears pierced its furry body, Bhargath fought like a demon, ripping apart his final target and leaving the goblin bleeding out on the floor even as the valiant cat expired. 

“They didn’t do too bad, considering they’re level zero creatures. Thankfully, goblins aren’t the best fighters and even the fact they were a level higher than our cats, didn’t overcome the inherent toughness of a dungeon creature,” Doug told her as the surviving goblins looked around. They were down to only four goblins, one of which was sporting several deep scratches it had acquired at some point in the melee. The four looked conflicted, one pointing further into her home while three others slowly backed away.

“Fineses you cower not strong oneses. Gasbug will leaveses with you and we comes back with more stabbers to deal with scratch cats,” the goblin that Frances assumed was Gasbug ordered. The remaining goblins ran out of her home, constantly throwing glances behind them as is if expecting a fresh swarm of feline fighters to emerge from the dark. 

“I think we’ve been given a bit of a breather. Not only that, we’ve made a bit of coin off the battle,” Doug advised. Florence watched as her home absorbed the bodies of the dead goblins and her little babies. Coin emerged from the bodies and followed the trail of light to her core. The transformation occurred quickly and in no time her balance was back up to $21.88. The strange rules that governed this place somehow knew the goblins were a bit more powerful than the rats and returned more coin that they had. Her attention was drawn to her three deceased babies, the cat bodies were gone and, in their place, three glowing balls of light hovered. A notice popped into view when she focused on them. 

You need to set the reward level for your dungeon. Please choose a reward percentage from the options below. Note that the reward levels can only be changed once every seven days and are the same throughout your dungeon. Achieve level 1 to unlock the ability to assign individual rewards.

1. Miserly, 5%. 

2. Poor, 10%. 

3. Average, 15%. 

4. Fair, 20%. 

5. Generous, 25%. 

6. Extravagant, 50%. 

This was new, she realized that adventurers would be rewarded, but hadn’t been sure how that worked. Now it appeared that when one of her defenders passed on, she would recoup the money spent to create them, minus a small amount that would be converted into some kind of loot. Thinking on it a bit, Florence realized that it was bit like tipping a waitress in a restaurant. She was a frugal woman and didn’t believe in overpaying for any services. Her sister Lois, God rest her soul, had always insisted on a 20% tip, but Florence thought that was way too much and her sister was just trying to put on airs that she was rich or something. No, Florence didn’t agree with the term miserly, but the percentage felt fair to her. 

Miserly reward rates of 5% have been implemented. 

“What did you do now!” Doug hissed. In his little kitten form, he was kind of cute when he was angry. 

“Huh? I set the reward levels like I was supposed to,” Florence replied. 

“Are you trying to get us killed? Everything you do seems to be geared toward giving us the worst possible chance at survival that you can manage,” She wasn’t going to take this from a kitten, not in the least. 

“Mind your manners and don’t raise your voice at me Doug!” I made a conservative and financially prudent choice. After all, you’re always whining about me spending too much money on frivolous things, and I believe giving your money away to adventurers counts as frivolous,” Florence replied smugly. 

“No, you don’t understand. If you give out pitiful rewards like this, you’ll anger the adventuring parties. Make them mad enough and they just might decide that killing us is more profitable than running our dungeon,” Doug wailed. 

“Pshh, I don’t believe that. You’ll see, it’s a more than fair amount. Besides, we can’t afford to lose money when someone explores our home, can we?” Florence argued. 

“No, you’re right about that, but there is a balance. Too cheap and they get angry, too generous and they abuse the system. Okay, we’ve got a bit of time since it will take a while for adventures to find us. Hopefully it will take at least a week you’ll come to your senses and change the reward percentage to something reasonable like a fair 20%,” Doug argued. Florence wasn’t buying it and there was no way she would give away 20% of her efforts. 

Once the reward level had been set, Florence watched the funds return to her core. A small pool of light revealed the five percent she had awarded as loot. Doug recovered from his whiney state enough to advise her that after a certain amount of time, the loot would return to their account if it wasn’t claimed. In this case, since there were no adventurers involved, the loot almost immediately was reabsorbed. Apparently, creatures that wandered into her home uninvited weren’t given the same courtesies as an adventuring party, a sentiment she most heartily agreed with. 

She now had $51.93 in her account and it was time to spend it. First, she summoned her kitties once again, since $30.00 of her funds were already reserved for them. They seemed none the worse for wear and happily went about their business. True to the description, all retained their same names and she assumed they also had the same personality. It was too soon to tell how they would develop, and she was excited to see her little babies grow. Florence pulled up her information, wanting to see if anything important had changed. 

Florence Valentine

Cat Core Level, 0.

Experience: 37/100. 

Funds: $21.93/$100. 

Defender Expense: $30/100.

“Hey Doug, what’s this mumbo jumbo about experience and defender expense and whatnot?” Florence asked. 

“Oh, you’ve finally decided to review your stats. Let’s see how best to put this, experience is gained slowly when creating your home and its creatures, but more is generated in active defense against a foe, like with the rats and goblins. When you reach the experience indicated, in this case one hundred points, you will level up your home, giving us a larger savings account and increasing the area you can influence,” Doug said. 

“What about defender fund limit?” 

“The defender expense tracks how much you have spent on creatures and traps to defend our home. We can have a total of $100 worth of defenders and traps inside our home. Currently, with our three defenders respawned, we have used $30 and have $70 remaining, of course, we don’t have the funds available to hit our limit just yet, but we’ll get there. The cap is there to prevent us from creating more than we can afford to support with our current core energy. If dungeons were able to build as many creatures as they wanted, the defenders would slowly starve from a lack of core energy,” Doug replied.

“We don’t want any starving kitties, but we do need to make this place a home and not a collection of creepy cave looking rooms,” Florence said, ready to get on with decorating her home.