Cat Core Chapter 5.

The glowing ball of cash on the floor in front of her slowly took shape as the body for her first cat defender. With a final flash of light, a delightful fellow sat upon the floor, cleaning his paws. Her defender was larger than any cat she had seen, except for old Misty, the mangy cat that Lauren Louis had. She couldn’t say no to the poor thing, and really overfed it to the point it looked like an overfilled, hairy balloon and could barely walk. No siree, this here cat in front of her would be a bona fide blue-ribbon winner in the county fair. He was sleek and muscular and when the cat extended its claws, she could see they were much longer than a normal cats’. A lazy yawn revealed an impressive set of teeth, just perfect for dispatching any more of those rat things that invaded earlier. 

The cat had a short grey coat with a white bib and paws. He reminded her of the little troublemaker Tater. A pang of sadness hit as she remembered her real-world babies. What had happened to them? Her dungeon-ness stuff kicked in and she promptly brushed off her grief. This cat deserved a name and she knew the perfect one. 

“You’re going to be called Tater, yep, that suits you perfectly,” she cooed to the cat. Tater must have approved, the cat sauntered over and began to rub on the side of the rocking chair, giving her kitty hugs as she called them. 

You have named a dungeon creature. Named creatures will respawn with any memories they had previously experienced and often develop combat abilities beyond what their levels would suggest. Naming a defender requires a significant investment, doubling the cost to $10 per cat. Do you wish to retain the name? Y/N. 

“No, don’t even think about it, Florence. Having named mobs is a trap that only foolish dungeons fall for. We require numbers at this stage of our development, and the small increase in power that a named defender provides will never make up for the fact they cost double what a regular creature does,” Doug warned. She could definitely see the appeal of having more kitties running around, but something about the cat in front of her made her think. 

Cat’s had their own individual personalities that begged for a perfect name for each and every one. She couldn’t go about calling them all cat or defender, could she? Nope, these here little ones needed names and she was going to give them each a perfect one. It would also make the loss of one to an adventurer a little easier to swallow given the same cat could be recreated exactly. She confirmed the named defender option. 

You have selected named defenders, please confirm, this decision cannot be changed. It should also be noted that if you fail to name a newly summoned defender in a reasonable amount of time, a random name will be assigned to them.

She had her first little pet, Tater, and he was just about everything she could hope for. Old feelings of contentment filled her, reminding her of the first time she owned a pet. She pulled herself from reminiscing about her old pets, there were more cats to create. With the named creature option enacted, she could only summon two more defenders. Three cats in total wasn’t that many, but it was a start. She began to think that this new existence just might have some upside after all. Florence spent the cash required for her next defender, and in a few minutes, the glowing cash ball flashed, dropping a sleek, black cat onto the floor. The cat looked up at her expectantly, waiting for something. 

“Hmm, I think I’ll name you Midnight, I had a kitty just like you long ago,” Florence decided. Midnight walked around her chair for a bit, distributing a fresh batch of kitty hugs. Midnight gave a look of disdain at the small fluffy kitten body that housed Doug before wandering off to explore her new home. 

“Wow, Midnight, how original,” Doug whined. 

“None of that Doug, they’re my cats so I get to name them,” Florence rebuked. 

“Technically, this is my home as well, you didn’t ask me to name anything,” 

“Fine, Doug, you old grump, I’ll let you name our next cat, here we go,” Florence said as she pushed the funds needed to create her third defender. The newest addition was an adorable orange tabby cat with long fur that immediately started grooming himself. 

“Well, what’s it going to be, Doug?” Florence said, waiting to see what her assistant would name the newest adorable addition to their home. 

“This cat shall be called…Bhargath the Foe Render!” Doug proclaimed. Florence tried to suppress a giggle as Bhargath let out a tiny meow after he was named, not the fierce render of foes that Doug claimed. 

“Little Bhargath is adorable, even if his name isn’t,” Florence said as the foe render left the core room to wander around his new home. 

“With that complete, and my superiority at naming our defenders now firmly established, we should do something about the layout of our home. You did a good job with varying the room shapes, but all the connecting passages are lined up in a row, giving any attackers a straight shot into our core room,” Doug advised. 

“How can I change that, and more importantly, just how do you think we can afford it?” Florence replied. Looking at the meager balance of $4.34 in her account. 

“Thankfully, changing the layout of the dungeon is not that difficult or expensive. The main cost of a room comes from creating the shape we need it to be and compressing the unused material. That brings up another point you should be aware of, the walls of our dungeon are incredibly durable. By creating a new room you’ve compressed several feet of earth and stone into a nearly indestructible barrier. No enemy can just dig their way in, they’ll have to follow the path we send them on. To adjust things, just concentrate on moving the existing room, pushing through the soil as you go,” Doug told her. 

Florence tried to do as Doug asked, finding that she indeed could move the rooms at a painfully slow pace. A trickle of cash flowed out, a few cents per minute, as the room moved. She had to spend a bit more money to realign the connecting passages, but this was something she could do as the pennies trickled slowly into her account. 

It took her the better part of two days to move the rooms around. She varied the exit point for each and even had to spend extra cash to extend the connecting passages in a few places. Once she was satisfied with the placement, she took a break to let her funds slowly recover. Florence passed the time by watching her new babies go about their day. While they were supposed to be these powerful animal defenders, they behaved just like any old housecat would. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to need to eat or drink, and Doug told her that they were supported by the energy that her core gem gave off. While she was disappointed that she couldn’t slip them a few treats now and then, she was happy that there wouldn’t be any more emergency trips to the grocery store. An additional benefit was that there was no litter boxes to clean. 

“Hey Doug,” Florence called, interrupting her assistant as he stalked one of the other cats. She had teased him over the last few days as he began to exhibit some feline traits, completely out of character for the fancy pants way he spoke at her. 

“What is it now, I’m busy trying to, what was I trying to do?” Doug asked, looking about confused. 

“This place is boring; how can we decorate and spruce things up a bit. For a home, this looks worse than one of the abandoned shacks that the vagrants in town break into when the weather’s cold. Did I tell what happened to Beatrice that one time a few winters ago?” 

“No, and I don’t want to hear about it or Beatrice, ever. To answer your question, you can and should begin to decorate and prepare our home, but we aren’t exactly swimming in mana, I mean cash, at this point, are we? Hmm, maybe if a certain dungeon core I know had kept from spending all our money on a chair, we might have a lovely place to call our own,” Doug lamented. She was getting tired of his sarcasm but redirected her attention to decoration. She hadn’t been one of them folks that always needed to be doing something to their house, like Ethel Graeme did. That woman wouldn’t let a week go by without moving furniture or buying some new knickknack she saw in one of her decorating magazines. No sir, Florence Valentine kept a well decorated home, but once she set it up the way she wanted, she kept it the way it was. 

Now it was time to start setting up her new home the way she wanted. Since he had to live there, she might even let old Doug design one room. It would have to be a room like a garage, nothing important or anything. Her funds had creeped up to $6.28 while she had watched her cats play over the last few days, not much to work with. 

“For now, you might want to think about your setup so you can implement your plan once the funds are available. I will bear the burden of designing traps and the like, since it looks like you lack even the most rudimentary knowledge of defending a fixed position,” Doug told her. 

“Just you hold on a gall-durned moment. I can defend my home just fine, you can take your fluffy little kitten body into corner and leave the home design to the adults in the room. If you’re good, I might even create a ball of yarn for you to play with little kitten,” Florence replied. She knew that she should at least listen to Doug’s ideas, but she was a strong-willed woman and making demands on her was the best way to get her to ignore you.  

“A ball of yarn, that seems strangely entertaining. One shouldn’t cost more than a penny, so why don’t...” Doug’s words trailed off as he received the same notice that she was getting. 

Intruders have entered your dungeon. Currently, the defenders are set on autonomous mode and will wander the dungeon until they are able to hear, see, or smell their opponents. 

“This isn’t good, I was hoping for some adventurers, not more creatures,” Doug said as they both watched a small gaggle of ugly little green creatures begin to move about the entryway room. The vile creatures walked around like they owned the place, thankfully, she hadn’t decorated yet or their filthy hands would have left stains on everything they touched. 

“They’re low level, but there are a good dozen of the goblins. Let’s hope your named cats are up to the task, since I think a dozen level one goblins are more than a match for your cane,” Doug said. 

“What’s a goblin? Are they dangerous? They aren’t going to hurt my kitties, are they?” Florence asked Doug in a panic, only to have the strange words appear to answer her question. 

Goblins: The lesser of what are commonly referred to as the greenskin races, goblins are devious and destructive. Being physically weak, they try to overcome their foes with sheer numbers. At higher levels, goblins can be devious trap builders, in some cases, creating ingenious killing devices that are highly prized by those needing such things. 

She could make out a small green bar over each of the monsters when she concentrated. Above each bar, the name goblin and level 1 appeared. The goblins wore a tattered loincloth belted around their waist, thank the Good Lord for that, and carried crude wooden spears with stone tips. Many had small pouches tied to their belts, and some had various bones and polished rocks decorating their gear. Why, one of the ugly critters even had an animal pelt on its head as a makeshift cap. She didn’t like these rude intruders, didn’t like them one bit.