Peter had wanted to review the rookie list that was now completed, thanks to Borris and the 20 other clockworks collecting information on his behalf. In fact Peter suspected he had almost identified all the cores by this point. There were fewer than he had estimated, only 518 in total, and this was when all the 100 rookies for the current decade were still in the running. Today after some of them along with some of the older cores changing divisions were gone they would likely be under 500. No telling how many other dungeons not a part of those groups would decide to act.

  Fortunately or unfortunately Peter no longer had to consider which dungeon to choose for battle. He stared dumbly at the pop up window along with the bug eyed man that had challenged him.

  [Harrice, dart frog, 01: has challenged you to dungeon battle. Dungeons are from the same year group no multiplier applies. Dungeons within the first year group special rewards apply.]

  Peter quickly recovered. The guy looked like one of those rodent-like monkeys with the bulging eyes that hung from trees somewhere in the rainforest. Peter could not recall. The guy even had short brown hair and a wore a t-shirt with brown cargo pants and sandals. He either already looked a bit like his core type, a frog with eyes starting to bulge, or was already an awkward young man. Peter had never hit anybody in his life… in his prior life, but with this guy laughing only two steps away in front of his face he was extremely tempted to give it a try.

  It did not help that there were plenty of others in his group of reptile faction members doing the same, snickering a short ways off. He just was able to keep himself in check. Probably had not kept the frustration and anger from his facial expressions though. His next opponent mistook the meaning of his anger and continued with the taunting.

  “Hahaha, you should have skulked around the outer wall and been careful of what company you keep,” Harrice said, he had barely been able to speak since he was still laughing. Had they seen him talking to Gretchen, seriously weak by association? Peter almost started laughing himself, but he kept himself in check.

  “You mean Gretchen?” he said carefully.

  “Yeah,” the guy said. He was still laughing.

  “Why did you not just challenge her?” Peter could not help but to ask.

  “Oooo, someone else already claimed that ball of fur, so I just went for the next best thing,” the guy was not laughing anymore, but he was clearly still tickled with himself.

  “Very well, see you then,” Peter said, turning away. If that bug eyed prick wanted to have his core destroyed so bad then he would be sure to help him. Had the other core won last year? Did he have a spare core? Guess he would see.

  Opponent decided, Peter decided to start planning both his defense and attack. Dart frogs… made him think of poison and small squishy bodies. Very well, he checked his type card inventory. Still not too big of a selection. He had 1 C tier granite original, he had picked up from Gabriel who had gotten it from his opponent last year. Then he had 9 D tier bone stock cards. Glass might work, he had 1 D tier original for that. His first order of business was to try to pick up some more cards from the material or golem factions. Poison should not have an effect on something that did not have a biological body.

  It would not be his only preparation. Unless he was an idiot… Well he should at least plan as if Harrice the dart frog core was not an idiot. He should anticipate likely counters. Surely the guy would realize the idiocracy of only having one type of unit, then again apparently it was not altogether uncommon. Even the guy's faction leader, the dragon core, reportedly used dragon unit types exclusively. Still there was no reason, Mr. Dart frog could not combine his dart frog cards with something else, that would shore up his weaknesses and give him unexpected capabilities.

  Thirty minutes later, Peter had completed his rounds. Trading was still a bit difficult, due to only having C tier and below, but he had found a few older dungeons willing to trade provided that he gave them a deal. Still his worst had been 3 design cards for 1 Vine type card. It was the one plant type option he was able to acquire since they were fairly rare. Perhaps vine type units would not be as effective at killing the frogs, but they should also be poison resistant and would offer something new to his side.

  Then Peter also made a deal with the crystal core, garnering 2 C tier cards of that type for 2 of his own. Crystal was in the same year as him, so trading C tiers was easy. Then Peter got a single C tier card from both bronze and iron for 2 of his cards for each.

  Completed with his task he retreated back to the table where Fellette and Emma sat with another one of Fellette, the ape core’s, faction members, the tiger core. Well wouldn’t that be a nice thing to acquire. The guy was a bipedal humanoid tiger man with orange, black ,and white fur, and haunting amber eyes. “Thought you would have stopped by sooner,” Fellette said.

  “Ahhhh, Clockwork’s newest protege,” Garrett, the tiger core, 221, said clearly amused.

  “Told you he would stop by, Fellette and I, simply spoiled him last year. I’m sure he is back for more,” Emma, the ember core said. She was also clearly amused.

  “Well if you're offering…” Peter said sheepishly. “I would definitely like to get some B tier’s after I win today.”

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  “Provided you win,” Emma corrected. “Have you selected a target yet?”

  “Yes, well he challenged me, the dart frog core. Any advice.”

  “Hahaha,” Garrett laughed, his voice booming. Several nearby cores looked their way.

  “The reptile faction is always a tricky bunch,” Emma started pausing to think how to explain. Technically frogs were amphibians, but Peter was not going to say anything. Nobody cared they threw them into the reptile category the same as slimes. It was also true for other factions like insects that included spiders or scorpions. Most of the factions accepted various concept cards that went well with their faction.

  “Well I’m sure you have seen them roving around in their packs. Kind of odd since that isn’t something Reptile’s do in nature, at least back in my old world or on Terra.”

  “Does that mean I’m going to get on the Dragon Core’s bad side?” Peter asked tripidly. Supposedly Dragon was a bit more primal. He would not wait to cull a dungeon early if they crossed him. That and he was supposedly one of the strongest millennials. He was also the oldest.

  “No, Dragon hardly cares for the faction since they aren’t dragons. The reptiles just sort of flock under his banner,” Fellette said.

  “You will be fine with Dragon as long as you don’t personally cross him,” Emma added.

  “But the rest of the reptile faction will care if you make a habit of it. They probably won’t care too much for a squabble among rookies,” Garrett said with his deep voice that reverberated through his own vocal cords rolling the words slightly.

  “You don’t need to worry. Reptiles are a pretty common core type. There are 9 just in your year group,"Emma comforted. “They really only band together, because unlike Dragon they are so weak,” she added with a wink.

  “Tear through enough of them, and they will leave you alone,” Garrett agreed, showcasing his teeth.

  The older cores gave him a bit more on what he could expect, but then left him alone as he went internally to start preparing for battle. All three said they would be willing to trade B tier cards provided he had them by the end of the day, but he got 4 more ember C tiers right now. He would need them for the battle.

  The first five floors of his dungeon were all based off his first floor that he had heavily modified. All had various elements of a normal cavern like tunnels and pools of water with secret passages through the pools of water. Unfortunately, the environment would likely actually aid his opponent, but luckily his sixth and final floor for this dungeon battle was the opposite. It was a floor of flame, complete with magma pools. He considered for just a few more minutes before he started. He had 10 triplifications. They would be his 10 strongest units. Hopefully he could even snag a B tier.

  First thing first, he had the C tier phase original he had gotten last year. Dart frog type or the reptile faction was not something that should have a heavy presence in the alternate dimension, but if Harrice summoned a 1,000 plus C tier units there was always the chance that he might get a few with the ability. If not, the unit would be an advantage for himself. Peter chose to pair it with the design and iron cards. He chose the choice feature so he got 3 options.

  Tetratron C(-): ATT: D, DEF: C(+), SPE: C (-)

  Malleable iron C(+) ATT: B(-), DEF: C, SPE: C(+)

  Rust fume elemental C: ATT: C, DEF: C (-), SPE C.

  Only the tetratron, floating blocks of metal, looked like it might have the ability to go into the alternate dimension, but it clearly was not the strongest fighter. He checked he got 3 phase cards added to his stock and 4 to iron. In the end, Peter could not help but to pick the malleable iron and increase its special stat even further, bringing it to B(-) rank.

  It was basically a putty iron slime that was the strongest and most interesting of his available options. Although the fume elemental did not sound half bad, it might do something cool like an area ability that would rust weapons and armor. Might have been the better choice if he was not facing a more standard army. Unfortunately he did not get to see what the abilities did before making his decision, so had to go by the name, the attribute rankings, and a thumbnail picture representation.

  Peter tried again with Design, Phase, and lightning.

  Armored lightning C ATT: C, DEF: C (+), SPE: C

  magnetic bat C: ATT: C (-), DEF: C (-), SPE: C

  Charged runner C(-): ATT: C(+), DEF: D(+), SPE: C(-)

  The armored lightning was a stats wise, not to mention the sample picture was the coolest looking unit he had seen so far. Similar to the unit the lightning core had used in its assault against him in the tutorial battle, it was a suit of armor with a lightning being inside. He used the increase on its special ability, but it did not upgrade in rank. Thankfully, the special ability did indeed allow it to enter the alternate dimension.

  Peter used up the other two phase stock cards, and added two more units that could move through the alternate dimension. The two plane monkey was perhaps the best for that purpose of the three. It was still only a top C tier unit, but the waist tall beige haired monkey with a red face could flick in and out far quicker than the other two that had to slowly open a portal for themselves.

  Although the shifting vine was more interesting, the low C tier unit could move other units weaker than itself over to the alternate dimension. Of course said units would degrade as the dimension rejected them, but they should be there long enough to fight.

  Peter continued using up the triplifications. He got 3 high C tier crustacean bosses and the resulting 9 stock cards he received he immediately used to summon general C tiers. Then he used 3 iron C tier stock cards with his last 3 triplifications, getting 2 high C tiers and finally 1 B tier. The B tier he had combined with the dragon fly to make the iron fly guider: ATT: B(-), DEF: B(+), SPE: (C). He put the increase on the units speed hoping to push it across into the A tier threshold, but it did not work. The unit looked like a metallic drone with wings split x-wing style, followed by the long tail.

  With the 10 triplifciations used, Peter went on to build respective armies. The B tier iron fly guider would be one of the core pieces of the assault force. Peter had received 10 stock cards with a 6/reroll followed by a 5. He bought each for 500 essence and used them all, adding 10 other C tier dragonfly variants. Bugs might not be the best things against frogs in the natural world, but that would not necessarily translate to the two dungeon species.

  Also on the attack would be 14 other various C tier iron units including the 3 elites he had made using the tripplification. Other than them, Peter would send a various army made from random D and C tier summons. He planned to use up most of his D and C tier original and stock cards for this battle. Having a variety of weaker cards. He could always get more. Besides it was mainly the upper card tiers that he needed to carefully amass.

  For his defense, would be the crustacean army for the first 5 floors along with various C and D tier summoned units, and The ember C and D tiers would hold the sixth and final floor. He would have 38 of the ember specific units after using up all the stock cards. For his first five floors he would mainly hold the entrance and exits since the water routes would only help the enemy circumnavigate a defensive line.