Enough time passed for the eastern workercats to return with the proper amount of shinies.
“Alright, we have enough for the farm now,” Arden said. “I recommend building it on the eastern side off of the hallway the peons have been using to get to you. We can use this part of the dungeon for our starter buildings.”
“Do you think we should invest in the Monster Lounge, instead?”
“We don’t have any reason for it. They’re not fighting anyone yet.”
“Are you sure we don’t need the Recreation Center this early? That’s what I did last time and they were pretty happy about it.”
“I am 100% sure,” Arden said. She wasn’t going to bother re-arguing her point. Her decision about what they needed to do was final.
As if she sensed Arden’s unwillingness to budge, Minette squeaked a meek little “okay.”
One of the workercats halted in its steps. The others streamed by it, their focus intent on gathering more resources. A green circle appeared, signifying Minette’s Influence at work.
“Let’s go halfway down the corridor and take a turn. Create a hall that’ll take them five minutes to go down that will lead to the farm. It’s a good idea to keep the farm somewhat close to your Heart, so they can eat and then get back to work,” Arden said.
Minette obeyed, this time not opening her “mouth” to fight against Arden’s plan.
Building the farm was a relatively simple process, made so by Minette’s natural magic. The peon had to be involved in the sense that it was a conduit for the interactions to come. Its furry arms held up towards the ceiling, the workercat glowed as the walls fell away.
The expanse grew, transforming into an empty, doorless room. Floors materialized where there hadn’t been. Panels slid to cover the dirt wall like plated armor. Minette’s constant light over the dungeon burst with color around the room in progress.
A transparent bar floated nearby, lined with text that said:
[BUILDING PROGRESS:
8% complete.
This is a Farm.]
“I’m not getting a good feeling about something,” Minette piped up. “I sense someone getting grumpy.”
“Me?”
“No, one of my cats.”
“Let’s look at the Unit screen. Pull it up, please.”
[UNITS -ALL-
Name: Workercat 1
Unit Type: Peon
Health: 40/40
Energy: 86%
Morale: 94%
Name: Workercat 2
Unit Type: Peon
Health: 40/40
Energy: 88%
Morale: 92%
Name: Workercat 3
Unit Type: Peon
Health: 40/40
Energy: 71%
Morale: 77%
Name: Workercat 4
Unit Type: Peon
Health: 40/40
Energy: 89%
Morale: 91%]
“I don’t like it when my units are upset,” Minette said. Her words sounded as heavy as a drooping frown. “It makes me sad.”
“Workercat 3 is probably the one working on the Warp Gate project. There’s not a whole lot we can do for his Morale without a Recreation Center, but I can get down to his level and see if there’s anything else wrong.”
“Thank you.”
Arden wasn’t the bleeding heart type. She was more interested in preserving Morale scores for work-related reasons. She needed to do something before he (she decided to settle on that pronoun for the creature) acquired a nasty debuff. The workercat was sluggish as it was, considering the weight he had to bear. For him to deal with a debuff on top of that would mean that Warp Gate would never get moved.
She shut her eyes to withstand the transition from Minette’s Overview to her own eye level. A cold chill bit at her cheeks in spite of the warmth in the Dungeon Heart room. Switching viewpoints always seemed to mess with her temperature balance.
A part of her screamed not to bother with the workercat. Its percentages weren’t at a critical point yet. There was more work they could squeeze out of him first. These things had a tendency to build up, though, like a snowball rolling down a mountain. A 70-something Morale could instantly plummet to 40-something. Debuffs hurt, especially when they stacked.
What Arden feared the most was Minette taking actions on her own accord. What if she did something and managed to screw up what they were working on so far? Granted, they hadn’t done much so Arden could easily salvage things if it came to that. Hopefully, she would catch on to their destruction before Minette would lay complete ruin to everything.
It didn’t take long for Arden to catch up with the lumbering workercat. Flying gave her a movement speed far faster than even an unencumbered workercat. Workercat 3 had a sour expression that didn’t lift even as he regarded the dungeon pixie.
He dug his heels into the ground to get more leverage as he pushed the Warp Gate.
“How’s everything? You doing alright there, buddy?” Arden asked, not sure what to say.
We’ll have to research some sort of Projection or Possession skill for Minette so she can do these checkups herself.
Workercat 3 grunted. It grumbled at her presence.
Minette’s voice echoed in Arden’s head. “What are you doing? He’s getting worse!”
“If you zoom in, you’ll see that I didn’t do anything,” Arden said.
“Sorry.”
Arden shrugged, a sign of her indifference. “You know,” she said to the peon, “you can’t get out of this. Everyone else has their hands full. You’re going to have to suck it up. With the level that your Morale is, you shouldn’t be giving us any problems anyway.”
Workercat 3 proceeded to ignore everything Arden said. He stayed focused on his task.
“Okay, since there’s nothing really wrong with you, I’m heading back to the Dungeon Heart room.”
Minette screeched, “No! He’s still broken.”
Arden rubbed her ears. “You didn’t have to say that so loudly.”
“Sorry again. Look at his scores.”
[UNITS -SELECTED-
Name: Workercat 3
Unit Type: Peon
Health: 40/40
Energy: 70%
Morale: 67%]
“It dropped that much?” Arden couldn’t believe it. Was her presence that draining?
“He’s probably lonely, like I told you earlier. Workercats are social creatures. They don’t like being alone for a long time.”
Arden sighed. “They’re peons. It doesn’t matter if they’re social creatures. Their whole point is to work around the dungeon. They’re not here to play or to hang out with their friends.”
The Restart Token should have scrubbed out any behavioral issues in Minette’s peons. Unfortunately, it appeared that something had carried over from the last time. Their laziness and propensity to loneliness had been ingrained, sealed within their blood.
She wondered if it was possible that the same workercats from last time somehow got reincarnated, personalities and all.
“I know how my peons work,” Minette said. “You have to be gentle with them.”
Arden crossed her arms. As frustrating as it was, she couldn’t deny that Workercat 3’s Morale continued to drain. Just him standing around made it tick down from 67% to 66%.
Making the other workercats travel to Workercat 3 would cut into their building and resource gathering time. Stopping Workercat 3 wasn’t an option that Arden wanted to go with.
She reviewed her Specials menu, which contained her skills and traits:
[SPECIALS:
Disguise: Allows the pixie to mimic the appearance of something or someone for a limited time. Costs 50 mana points to use and drains mana points while active.
Cast Hallucination: The pixie can cast a false image of an object or one of the dungeon’s monsters. Costs 25 mana points to use and drains mana points while active.
Teleport to Room: The pixie can disappear and reappea
r in a dungeon room. Costs 25 mana points to use.
Psychic Link: A promissory bond with a dungeon. Currently attached to Minette Ashes Max Felixia, the Organic Feline Beast Dungeon.]
Arden had to resist smirking at her own bout of cleverness. If Workercat 3 thought he saw another peon, maybe his Morale-related woes would end.
It was worth a shot.
She flung her hand out to the side, her palm filling with energy as she conjured the hallucination. Arden concentrated on creating a duplicate of the peon. She made sure to replicate him down to the slight bend in his whiskers. Soon enough, a doppelgänger formed behind the workercat, as round and fluffy as the original.
Arden whistled for his attention.
Upon seeing his double, the workercat’s face lit up in surprise. He let go of the Warp Gate and waddled over to his clone.
“It’s working,” Minette said. Arden could practically hear the excitement bouncing off her.
Arden glanced at Workercat 3’s Morale score. Just the mere presence of the second “workercat” improved his mood. He jumped up and down in place, shaking his fists as he went. Arden stepped back so she wouldn’t get hit.
“Great, what’s the status on the farm?” she asked.
“It’s on its way. I guess it’s almost done.”
“I need exact numbers.”
“Hold on, it’s about… Hey! What’s going on with Workercat 3 now?”
“Nothing. He’s got a friend. He’s good.”
The workercat approached the fake one, taking deep sniffs of the air. Ears twitching, he tilted his head in what looked like confusion. He walked closer to it. His eyes widened. Arden whistled again to get him to return to the Warp Gate.
“Back to work!” she barked.
Instead of listening, Workercat 3 continued to approach the hallucination. He swiped his paw through it. It split, turning hazy from the contact.
Like he knew who was responsible for the trick, the workercat set his beady-eyed glare on Arden.
“What did you do?” Minette asked. “Look at this.”
[UNITS -SELECTED-
Name: Workercat 3
Unit Type: Peon
Health: 40/40
Energy: 70%
Morale: 58%]
Arden choked at Workercat 3’s sharp decrease in Morale. She cleared the hallucination spell. Her mana sat at 170 out of 200, a chunk of her points gone for Cast Hallucination’s usage and subsequent maintenance.
Workercat 3 whined, then slumped to the floor. His dejected body language broadcasted his unwillingness to work loud and clear. Arden refused to look at his statistics menu. Seeing his numbers would bring his likely debuff to life. It was like a painful cut that didn’t start hurting until it went noticed and acknowledged.
She had to go with Plan B. The idea of it made her skin crawl—and not in a good way. Arden flew away from the workercat, her butterfly-like wings flapping rapidly.
As soon as she was further down the hallway and out of the peon’s sight line, Arden used her Disguise spell.
When she returned, she was 50 mana points lighter. Her Disguise turned her into a tubby workercat, a reflection of Workercat 3. She did her best to move like any ordinary workercat, keeping in mind their gait. Although she was able to perfectly match their appearance with her spell, mimicking their mannerisms was all on her.
Arden never forgot the time she did a jig as a fire ant. She’d gotten excited over a completed objective and started celebrating before releasing her spell. The other fire ants descended upon her, ready to rid themselves of the broken monster in their midst. Conformity had been instilled in them. Anything going against that needed to be destroyed.
Luckily, she teleported away before they devoured her alive. Ever since then, she’d been especially careful of her actions while disguised.
The workercat didn’t openly cheer when he saw her. His experience last time gave him cause for suspicion.
Arden had to make the first move. She licked her paw, a move she had seen one of the workercats do earlier. Pretending to preen herself, she took her time to ruffle up the fur on top of her head. All the while, she wanted to gag. The feeling of fur on her tongue wasn’t something she ever wanted to feel again.
Workercat 3 lifted his head to watch her.
She shuffled over to the Warp Gate. As her spell was only a disguise, she couldn’t interact with the object in the way that the workercats could. Her role in the dungeon was regulated to being a pixie assistant to Minette and not much more than that. Because of that, she had to pretend like she was getting ready to push the Warp Gate.
The workercat joined her in her non-efforts. Her presence inspired him to get back to work. Maybe, he knew what it was like to toil alone and didn’t want to see it happen to his fellow workercat. Their teamwork granted him a second wind.
He purred when their arms brushed, almost like he was thanking her for being there.
Partway through the tunnel, a green circle appeared below the workercat’s feet. He let go of the Warp Gate and turned towards the wall. His powerful claws reached into the dirt. They carved away the packed material, opening up a new tunnel for them to traverse.
Arden followed him as he moved along. The hallway lengthened as he worked. She was glad he was too busy to see her covering her mouth and nose. The clouds of dust billowing everywhere stung her eyes. She wiped away the water forming in them.
Workercat 3 stopped abruptly. Minette’s Influence cradled him once more and he rotated to dig the wall beside them. A flurry of dirt clumps kicked up all around him, his arms resembling windmills. As he made turns and took steps, his arms never stopped moving.
When he finished, Arden realized that she was staring into a room. It was the perfect place to stash the Warp Gate, at least until they built up their defenses.
She went back to the Warp Gate, the workercat trailing after her. He got behind the Warp Gate, his body straining as he pushed it into the newly created room. Arden patted him on the shoulder for encouragement, her other arm staying on the Gate to keep up the illusion of her helping.
Her Disguise drained her. The edges of sleepiness crept up on her. Their silent voices told her to end this charade and take a nap. Moving the Warp Gate had taken so long that her mana had slipped under its midpoint. She’d have to rest in the Dungeon Heart room to speed its recovery. Otherwise, it could take over an hour of rest to fully regenerate.
A notification “ding” bounced off of the walls.
“The farm’s ready,” Minette announced. “It looks like he’s super hungry.”
Arden nodded, wanting to tell her that the timing was perfect. Workercat 3 crossed the threshold with the Warp Gate. It wasn’t until the Gate reached the center of the room that Arden dropped her hands. The workercat followed suit.
To ward off any potential Morale drops, Arden copied his earlier dance. She jumped around, her fluffy belly jiggling every time her feet met the ground. Workercat 3 joined in on the dance. The dancing also functioned as a victorious cheer for having completed their objective.
“Glad to see you getting into the spirit. We should have dance parties all the time,” Minette said.
They could have all the dance parties they wanted if they got their work done first.
Minette’s Influence lit up under Workercat 3. He scurried off or at least did the slower-paced workercat version of scurrying.
Left alone in the room, Arden was free to deactivate the Disguise spell. She readjusted to her body by flying circles around the room.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she noticed something wet shimmer along the walls. When she took a closer look, it no longer existed. Had it ever been there at all?
Shaking her head at the strangeness of it all, Arden cast her Teleport to Room spell.
Chapter 5
The farm was unlike any Arden had ever seen.
A cluster of tall grass swayed in the corner of the room, pushed by Minette’s internal breeze. The gra
ss was roughly where the normalcy ended. Rows of plants took up the rest of the room. Wooden planks provided walkways between the rows.
Arden grasped the nearest stalk. Hard bits dotted the vine. She scraped them into her palm and rolled them around.
“Some of the cats prefer dry food,” Minette said.
“Is that what this is?” Arden marveled at the kibble. “What’s in it?”
“Nutritional goodness that makes them super happy. The plant naturally produces pieces for them to eat. If you like those, you should check out the wet food plants. There’s a pâté and shredded section, featuring a wide variety of meats.”
What Arden guessed were wet food plants resembled round-headed Venus fly traps. The wet food plant’s mouth bulged, its lips shut tight. Below the head were two sets of leaves that sprouted from its stem like tiny arms. Arden could’ve sworn that one of the hands waved at her, but she realized it was probably a trick of the light.
She reached for its mouth. It opened wide, a distended sac resting where its tongue would’ve been. The sack was thin and fleshy. The closest thing she could compare it to was a meat-stuffed intestinal ball.
“I don’t have to touch it, do I?” Arden shuddered. “Okay, I think I’ve had enough show and tell for now. I’m good.”
The wet food plant shut its mouth, covering up its offering to her.
“One farm will feed 25 of our units,” Arden said. “We won’t have to think about building anymore until we go past that point. Can you show me the information for the next set of buildings we can build?”
“Sure thing!”
[BUILDING CREATION -RECENTLY UNLOCKED-
Name: Cattenery
Type: Room
Health: 1000
Cost: 200 shinies
Requirements:
- Farm
Usage:
- Spawns cattens for 25 shinies.
The Trash Tier Dungeon Page 4
