C+2

  Your rage has increased by 1.

  Flor woke up on the rough wooden plank. Again she had kicked off the blanket, but in this iteration, she woke without the pillow. The bed was unusually hard compared to the soft luxury bed she had fallen asleep in just over five hours ago. Fast travel by bed. Not the strangest of concepts.

  She called out Kester, who let out a big yawn as if he had also been sleeping. “Good morning,” he said. “Interesting day yesterday. I believe you made more progress on petting cats yesterday than any day previously.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Nine in a day. Strangely, I didn’t get an interface increase with petting nine of them.”

  “I have a theory on that. Geometric expansion.”

  Flor considered. “So, each interface update will come as double the number of the previous?”

  “I haven’t analyzed it, but we could plot it out. If you like.”

  “No. I’m not saying I prefer ignorance, but I’ve got a busy morning before I meet with Sparks around nine.”

  “Do you think it is wise to go to the carillon without him or her? I wasn’t so clear on pronouns. But isn’t that something you want to do together?”

  “First, she’s playing a male, and I think she doesn’t want just anyone to know she’s female, so let’s stick with ‘he slash him’ until told otherwise. But, our agreement was just for cats. I still have a cat map that Mida had her scribes prepare, so we have some locations that will be new to me. And I haven’t gone cat hunting here since the city corruptions were removed from the city interface, so maybe they’ll be easier to find.”

  “You’re the boss. So brekkie then carillon then to the gate to meet him?”

  “Yeah. Then we’ll hike back to the monument later today to see about a few other cats and solve that puzzle. Hopefully, I can convince Sparks to go to the lighthouse with me tomorrow, or at least the day after I beat the monument.”

  “Before you go, you might want to check your cat interface.”

  “You won’t just tell me?” she said as she pulled it up and clicked over. She started down the line, recognizing most of the names she had on the list from petting them previously. Then she saw the cats she had unlocked yesterday, including the sand cats, monument cats, and cliff cats. Then she saw two she didn’t recognize: Orchid and Peony.

  “What are those?” she asked distractedly.

  Kester said, “Likely cats pet by…your party…yesterday.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, as you are in a party with…your party…the things your party accomplishes extend to your accomplishing them, also. It’s how you gained the city achievement without having done the city slider puzzle.”

  Flor thought about it for a moment. “So even though we’re doing different things, I still have to experience his progression?”

  Kester brightened up, then calmed. “I. You could do a couple of things, but yes, that’s generally it.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, you could disestablish the party.”

  “Yes, let’s do that.”

  “OR…” said Kester quickly, “you could just mute him.”

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  “What’s the difference?”

  “Probably that if you disestablish the party, you won’t get the benefits of what he accomplishes, and therefore you’ll remain here until you do. Likewise, he could leave the party, and you’d be in the same place.”

  “But if I just mute him?”

  “Then if he chats with you, you won’t get a notification and it won’t appear in your chat history.”

  “I have a chat history?”

  “Limited, but yes.”

  “How limited?”

  “It goes back a day. So I have all your chats with Sparks.”

  “Can I add Sparks to a party? Will I lose other progress?”

  “Your party size is currently limited to four. You are currently in a party of two. I’m uncertain if Sparks has unlocked the party availability yet.”

  “Something to ask later.”

  Sparks was waiting at the north gate when Flor approached. She waved, and Sparks waved back. He had been talking to one of the guards. Flor waited until he finished the conversation and then walked to meet her.

  Flor said, “Sorry I’m a bit late. I met an unusually challenging rabbit at the carillon.”

  “That’s where you farm your money here?”

  “Yeah. I’ve only made it through the second floor by myself. Perhaps it’s self-doubt about my abilities preventing me from going higher. Let’s just go after cats, as we discussed. Or a bit of both.”

  “I appreciate your willingness to do this. You’ve helped me quite a bit already, getting out of my tiny part of the world and into something much larger and amazing. When you come back to Widow’s Siege tomorrow, I’ll show you how to beat it, then we can go explore the lighthouse together.”

  Flor nodded. “That raises a good point. Are you able to join a party?”

  “Is it an interface? It’s not obvious.”

  “Maybe it’ll unlock after we get you some more cats. So, unfortunately, I didn’t mark on the map where any specific cat was. Also, did you want to go to visit any of the other sites?” Flor asked as she started walking. The Mayor’s Compound ran along their left side as they walked down the street. It looked cleaner than the first time Flor had seen it, which was maybe another benefit of completing the city.

  “Maybe it would be nice if you could help me beat the city, and maybe I’d like to visit the temple. I’m not overly inclined to visit the university or the markets, but if we can find a cat there, then sure, why not?”

  “Alright. Although I’m not overly sure how beating a location again works.”

  “Truthfully, I’m not either. But I’ve thought about it a bit. It’s probably just instances.”

  “Instances? Like we do it once and it resets? How does that work when I’ve beaten it and you haven’t? Are you experiencing the city the same as I am, or does it look dingy and gross like it did to me before I beat it?”

  “Hard to tell through the rain. It seems gray and gross to me, but I cannot vouch for your experience so perhaps my gray and gross is more or less cheerful for you.”

  “Did anything change when you finished the monument?”

  Sparks thought about it. “There was a cutscene that used to happen in the morning but now happens in the afternoon. So, maybe there is a temporal aspect of things that happen differently here.”

  “I know there was a cutscene that happens around sixteen hundred, but that’s still hours away.”

  “Might be worth experimenting with, as long as we’re not wrapped up in other things.”

  “So, about that. Ahead of us is the common. I’ve petted at least one cat here, maybe two if you could the kitten with the momma.”

  “Then let’s get started on hunting.”

  “It was under the bridge over there.”

  Sparks went to explore. Flor considered that that must have been the first cat she and Alastair found together. Flor wandered through the common greens until she arrived at a large tree at the center with a few benches surrounding it. She sat and cracked her neck. A mew sounded above her. Flor looked up, and sure enough, there was a gray and white cat, tiny, which looked like it was stuck.

  Flor climbed until she was level with the cat. Her hand darted out and she grabbed it by the scruff and pulled it close. She worked her way back down the tree and then continued to pet the cat.

  Congratulations! You have pet a cat.

  You have met Odysseus. {Odysseus is a gray and white male Aegean cat, aged eight months, who is extremely overconfident until he realizes it is easier to go up than down. Perhaps he gets stuck in that tree every…single…day.}

  Congratulations! You have unlocked Maps 2!

  Oh, wow! What does that do? Flor made a note to ask Kester, but didn’t want to scare him or Odysseus until after Sparks also had a chance to pet the cat.

  A few minutes later Sparks strolled over with a happy look.

  “Looks like you were successful?”

  “Oh, yes. Just like you said. Two of them. A momma and kitten.”

  “Well, I’ve got a surprise for you. One more, right here.” Flor held up Odysseus and handed him to Sparks, who took the kitten and cuddled him.

  “Three in five minutes. You look like you’re on par with what I showed you at the monument.”

  “Odysseus there is new to me, so this has been useful to me also. Let’s see if we can keep up this pace.”

  “There should be at least one down by the pier, but I’ve only seen it there once,” said Flor as Sparks put down Odysseus.