Cat Core, Chapter 4.

“Florence, let’s talk about expanding your dungeon. A basic knowledge package should have been sent to you just now. Please tell me you didn’t do something foolish with it?” Doug asked. 

“Well Doug, if you mean those hateful thoughts that someone tried to force on me, I pushed those out. When I pushed them out, some of what I learned kind of, well, just might have been pushed out along with them. Make no mistake, I don’t regret it one bit. Florence Valentine will not be controlled by emotions of greed and gluttony. In fact, we are not going to call this place a dungeon. This is our home and we will not only call it that and we will treat it as such. Now, how do we expand? A one room home is not what I want to live in,” Florence replied. 

“Just like in your world, it costs money to expand your dungeon, I mean home. There is also a hard cap on how large the dungeon can be which is based on your core level. As you level up, you will become more powerful and able to expand your influence further. For now, lets have you try to build a new room,” Doug suggested. 

Florence remembered this from the information she absorbed, she pushed her will toward the cavern wall. As she worked, a stream of money flowed from her. This time it wasn’t much cash, just a steady progression of coins, mostly nickels and pennies. Still, by the time she had carved out a good-sized room, she had spent $10. The room she created was connected by a small ten-foot-long corridor to her core room. Florence found she could move her view between any of the rooms with a thought, an experience she found she enjoyed. She could spend hours looking into her core room and admiring her beautiful gem and the comfortable rocking chair, but she knew that more needed to be done. 

“Well done, Florence, I mean that sincerely. I had feared you wouldn’t have absorbed any of your basic instruction kit, but it seems you’re a natural at expanding your dungeon. The room you created can serve as our champion room, we’ll get to that later, for now, see if you can create two more rooms, try to vary the design if you can. While a large square room may be adequate for many of our needs, we will want some variety. We want the adventurers exploring your dungeon, excuse me, I mean our home, to be entertained by the experience. If we don’t want them to become bored, we must vary things up,” Doug advised. It felt good to have him acknowledge her newfound skill. 

Florence got to work, the next room she created as a large circular cavern with a high ceiling. She remembered the design from the Parasol Family Restaurant on main street, the one with the pink paint job and the better than average strawberry pie. After trying and failing to remember how pie tasted, she completed another room, this one was essentially a corridor around ten feet wide and thirty feet long. The next room was a rectangular room. When she finished up the last one, she felt fatigued and was shocked to see that she had spent a good chunk of her funds. She now only had a balance of $44.23, not that she regretted one bit the money she had spent for the chair and cane. Florence Valentine refused to let Doug take her on a guilt trip. No, she would just have to spend wisely from here on out. 

While she had a little space left to work, Florence could feel she was reaching the end of the area she could control. Another room and she would be right at the boundary. She held off on building any more rooms and took a minute to explore each of the ones she had created. Proud and what she accomplished. From the furthest most room she could see the glow of her core gem in the distance. She felt a pull to expand more, but held off, concerned about her dwindling funds. 

“Doug, how do I get more money?” Florence asked. 

“There are several ways. A small amount will trickle in automatically over time. The larger our home becomes, the more passive income we will gain. Our main source of income will come from the adventurers. As they explore, they will give off funds for you to collect. Should an adventurer die inside our home, the income is significantly more,” Doug replied. 

“That’s nonsense, how do people ‘give off’ funds as they explore, are we cutting holes in their pockets or something?” Florence asked incredulously. 

“Don’t blame me, you’re the one that didn’t want to hear about mana. If the overlay we’ve created to help you understand is frustrating you, well, you only have yourself to blame,” Doug said smugly. 

“Fine, we’ll stick with the cash analogy, you don’t need to get all stuck up about it. Oh, look at that,” Florence replied, as she watched the first trickle of income come in from her home. It wasn’t much, just a penny that seemed to pop out of the wall of her circular room. The coin flowed toward her core and was absorbed by her gem. Her total funds now stood at $44.24. 

With the initiation of expansion activities, your dungeon has been unmasked and will now be visible to the world. Create a connecting chamber to serve as your dungeon’s entrance in the next 24 hours or suffer a permanent penalty to your passive mana gain. 

“We’re running out of time; we need to create a final room at the edge of your control that will emerge outside our location. We also need to get cracking on with creating defenders and preparing rewards. Let’s start with the entrance, see if you can sense where the final room needs to go,” Doug told her. Florence tried what Doug suggested and she could sense where the entrance to their home needed to emerge from the ground. 

The previous rooms she had built all led toward the entrance area, she somehow knew where to go and had been guided by that there sub-unconsiouslyness thingy she heard about on one of her shows. It might have been that doctor show, the one in the emergency room where everyone that worked there was too busy flirting to take care of the patients. Pulling herself back from thoughts of television shows she didn’t really care for; A final room was created. 

Her home emerged from the side of a rocky hill. For the first time, Florence could see outside, natural light from a moon shone into the entryway. Just past the base of her hill, a small forest grew, blocking her view. Final bits of debris dropped from around the cave entrance she had created, clacking against the pile of rocks now strewn about the opening. The whole thing was unsightly, and she would have to see about cleaning things up. She also knew she should decorate her dungeon, images of other dungeons appeared in her mind, their cores creating an atmosphere reflective of their type. 

Florence kept her view positioned at the entrance, wishing she was back home with her kitties. She chuckled softly to herself as she thought about her old troublemaker Tater. That cat was not only the most devious and destructive she had ever had the privilege of raising, he could also be the sweetest, always ready to curl up next to her for a nap. Thoughts of her babies were forgotten as she heard something moving through the scrub brush at the edge of the forest. 

“Hey Doug, we got something a coming toward us, do you think its them there adventurer folks you was talking about?” Florence asked. 

“No, it would be far too soon for them to arrive as we are far from any major population centers. Now, if your done gazing at the world, we need to see to two important things. The first is my body, or lack thereof. You need to craft one for me posthaste. While you cannot leave our home, I will have that option. It’s dangerous, but I do feel desire to move about in my own form. Imagine that, a Dungeon Formation Specialist out on the town…” 

“Uh, Doug, sorry to interrupt you, but I think something is headed our way, what are those?” Florence asked, watching as three shapes left the scrub brush at the edge of the forest and began sprinting toward the dungeon entrance. 

“Oh, no, this is not good. We need some defenders created instantly. Hurry Florence!” Doug shouted. 

“Just hold on, stop yelling at me and tell me what those things are,” Florence demanded, she did not like being yelled at, and despite the things heading toward her, she wasn’t going to allow Doug to treat her poorly. No siree, that wasn’t going to happen. 

“Those things are looking for your core, some creatures are attracted by your core and will seek to consume our lifeforce. Now, hurry, and build some defenders!” Doug continued to holler at her. She was about to retort back when she noticed the trio of creatures approaching the entrance resembled something she hated even more than her ex-husband, they were rats and, and these were some biggens.

“What do I do? You didn’t teach me how to make defenders yet, I don’t want those things in here!” Florence shouted, she was terrified of rats and the thought of the three charging monsters scurrying over her was too much. 

“No, don’t tell me, one of the ‘thoughts’ you pushed away was how to create defenders? There’s no time to instruct you, goodbye Florence, it’s been a short and unproductive life,” Doug moaned. He was no help; she was going to have to take care of this pest problem herself. Growing up in the country, Florence knew a thing or two about dealing with pests. Normally for something this size, like them rabbits that used to rile up her kitties, she would get the old .22 rifle she had stashed in the hall closet. Sadly, she didn’t have no rifles in this new world she was supposedly in. No, she was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, she was going to give them a good walloping.

The rats ran inside her home, a pair of them losing their footing in the loose earth around the entrance. While the other two struggled climb in, the largest of the rats continued its charge without waiting for his kin. Her decision to build all the rooms is a straight line was proving to be a mistake, she realized, as those big ole rats—these monsters were the size of a small dog—made a beeline for her core room. Florence moved her view to follow the lead rat, readying her cane as they closed in. 

As the first rat approached her rocking chair, she could see its chisel-like teeth open up to take a hunk out of her precious gem. She swung her cane and the action was met with a disturbingly meaty thump as she connected. The rat squealed in pain and was hurled into the wall of her core chamber. The other two rats made their appearance, leaping at the same time. Florence was disgusted by the touch of their little clawed feet. She knew just what to do in this situation. 

Avatar ability unlocked, Shake the Cane. Prior experience in wielding your chosen weapon has opened up a special ability. Every thirty seconds the dungeon core’s avatar can now shake her cane at approaching foes. This ability unleashes a flurry of 5 blows on any enemies within a small area of effect. Targets are selected at random. Another avatar ability can be unlocked once the dungeon core reaches level 5. 

Power built in her cane as she began to shake it at her foes. A glowing overlay showed her the area of effect for her attack and Florence was barely able to fit both rats inside her weapons reach. Once enough power had built, Florence unleashed it at the rats. The cane flew through the air on its own, striking first one, then the other rat. The first rat had its head crushed by the blow, the cane lading a follow up blow that snapped the rat in half. Gore splattered over the room and Florence squealed and tried to duck as it landed on her chair and gem. With a mind of its own, that cane went crazy, whacking the other rat into a bloody pulp before returning to rest against her chair. 

The first rat scrambled to its feet, looked at its dead comrades, and fled from her core room. Just before it made it out of range, Florence got a final blow in. The rat hissed as the head of the cane landed on its tail, severing it from the body. With no way to pursue the intruder, Florence could only watch in frustration as the rat sauntered slowly from her home, pausing to look back at her before it finally scampered out and back into the forest. Florence didn’t like the gleam of intelligence in the eyes of the giant rat, she didn’t like it one bit. 

“And that is why you don’t enter a home uninvited, you filthy thing. Doug, how do we go about cleaning this place up, there’s no way I’m going to spend the rest of my days covered in rat gunk,” Florence said, grossed out, but still enjoying the fact her “mistake” at spending resources on her avatar turned out to be the thing that saved them. 

“It’ll happen automatically, just watch,” Doug said. Indeed, as she watched the rat’s carcasses, along with all the accompanying blood and gore, slowly dissolved into the floor. In their place a handful of coins began to float toward her core. 

“That’s handy, sure could have used that most of my life,” Florence said, impressed at how it all worked. The total cash had taken a hit after making the final room, but with the extra coin gained from the dead rats, she was up to $39.31. 

“We’ve survived the simple incursion from those creatures, but there will be more. In addition, the adventurers will soon find us and begin exploring your home. We need defenders, but now that we have a bit of a reprieve, perhaps you can create my body?” Doug asked. She supposed him being able to trot around the home would be better than him galivanting about in her mind all the time. Not sure how to begin, Florence found one of the fancy text boxes was able to tell her the basics of how to proceed.  

Available Summons. Increase in level to unlock new defenders and improve upon the ones you already possess. 

1. Assistant. 

2. Defenders. 

3. Champion creatures. 

She selected the assistant option, and she liked that Doug’s title indicated that she was the one in charge. Now, Florence Valentine wasn’t a woman that tried to control others, she was definitely not like that Bethany Gordon from the senior center. That woman had been keeping her husband under her thumb since the day they wed. Why, Clarence wasn’t even able to go to the store without her permission. Her musings were interrupted by another batch of prompts. 

You have selected to create a physical avatar for your assistant. While in physical form, your assistant has the ability to leave the dungeon for short periods of time but will eventually need to return since the cash created by the core is its only sustenance. When you achieve your next level, you will be able to select a new option, until then, the form size you select now will be locked. The assistant can engage in combat but has a limited skill set unless upgrades are purchased. Upgrades to assistant combat abilities are unlocked at level 5. 

Small. $5. 

Medium. $10.

Large. $25.

Huge. $50.

Gargantuan. $100.

She sure as shooting wasn’t going to spend $100 on Doug even if she had the funds available. He wanted her to keep a tight budget, so she selected the small version for $5. That would be good enough for him. Her mind felt the now familiar tickle of being searched again as more text appeared. 

Small form factor selected for your assistant, reviewing compatable physical characteristics. Dungeon type template applied; your physical assistant will now be created. 

She ignored the mumbo jumbo text and watched as five dollars was pulled from her core and began to form a small ball of light on the ground in front of her chair. A final flash revealed Doug in all his glory. He was amazing, he was more than she could have hoped for, he was so painfully cute. 

“Aww, look at you little guy. Here Douggie, come to mama Florence,” she called to the cute kitten that was shakily standing on its feet for the first time. Doug had a bright white coat of that soft, bristly fur that all kittens seemed to have, and his little green eyes looked about the core room with wonder. His first attempt at standing resulted in a stumble, but the little guy looked like he was starting to get the hang of it. 

“You are just so darling. I’m glad I picked the small form for you. If only I had some of my yarn for you to play with, do you want to play little one?” Florence asked. 

“No, I do not wish to ‘play’. You may also dispense with the baby talk; I am a fully mature entity, even though I am trapped in this ridiculous body. I don’t know how you mortals function in these things. Thank the dungeon creation guidelines that I don’t have to perform any bodily functions,” Doug said. Sadly, his voice was the same and certainly didn’t match his physical appearance. Still, it was nice to have a kitty around, even if was Doug. 

“We need to work on defenders, but give me a moment if you will,” Doug said as he began to get the hang of walking around the core room. He eventually started to run, his little claws clicking on the stone floor as tried to gain traction. A few leaps in the air were made before he finally stopped and lay back on the ground, slowly twitching his little tail. “That was a rather interesting experience, I begin to see the allure of a physical form. This one is sub-optimal, but it will suffice for now, provided I’m not required to engage in any combat activity. Carry on with creating a few creatures while I take this body for bit more of a test drive, as I believe your memory calls it,” Doug said, happily running and leaping around the various dungeon rooms. Florence looked at her interface—that was the name of text thingy, she recalled—this time selecting the defender option. 

Defender Forms. Your selection of domestic house cat for your dungeon type severely limits the variety of creatures available to you. As you level, you may unlock new defenders from related trees, but for the time being, your sole choice of defender type will be the domestic house cat. Defenders reserve a small portion of your income, enabling them to be respawned should one be destroyed. The reserved fund requirement limits how many defenders you may produce and control. Try and find a balance between reserving funds for defenders and having cash on hand to improve and upgrade your home. 

Domestic house cat, level 0. The core created house cat is larger and more durable than the natural variety. Averaging 40lbs, these creatures are agile and good at ambushing unsuspecting foes. The claws and teeth of your cats are stronger and more durable than their natural kin, able to even damage light armor, given enough time. Each house cat requires you to reserve $5 from your available balance. Defenders can be assigned to a specific room or allowed to roam freely in the dungeon. You may also give them simple instructions. At higher levels, advanced combat strategies may be incorporated into their behavior. 

It was time for Florence to make some kitties!