[Dungeon battle awards: enemy dungeon core eliminated

  Battle essence collected: 30,053

  Win Rewards: 1,000,000 essence, 50 support card packs, 1 support card unlock, 1 spare dungeon core, 10 C tier Dart frog cards (Card Type x2 due to eliminating another dungeon core).]

  The battle did not go as smoothly as Peter would have liked, but luckily he had won regardless. Apparently the dart frog core had lost its tutorial battle last year, meaning it did not have a spare core, so it was killed outright. The dart frog core was not the only one either, 13 other dungeons of their year group disappeared on their year group’s first anniversary.

  Peter decided to join Fellette and Emma at their table as he looked through his rewards. He had collected 30,053 essence from units killed inside of his dungeon. For longer battles you would begin receiving it 26 hours after they were slain, but anything not yet received would be lump summed at the end. Dungeons normally got 10% of the cost of units that entered and died in their dungeon in battle, so there was a benefit to staying on the defense especially if you did not anticipate winning the dungeon battle. In fact it was not uncommon for the time limit to expire and the battle to end in a draw due to one of the opponents turtling up.

  It had been hinted that he would receive at least half a million essence for a victory this year. Peter immediately used 500,000 to unlock the B tier. It was then that he saw the cost for a B tier type card, 10,000 essence. Quite a jump from the 500 for C tier, but then B tier units were a standard heavy hitter in even the centurion battles. For now however it meant he would only have enough essence to buy enough for 64. He had held 100,000 essence in reserve, to see if he would need it. Luckily, Harrice had been on the weaker side. A wonder on why the guy had so confidently picked a fight.

  “Quick and sloppy… It's always funny to watch young cores flop around,” Fellette said, revealing his ape canines in a smile.

  “Luckily, you are going to get to watch how real dungeons fight. Pay close attention since their fights will be the standard. The centurion dungeon battles will look much the same, just a bit better at it,” Emma said. Her eyes were focused on the screens that were still dark.

  “Who do we have battling?” Peter asked. He was still looking through things.

  “Pretty standard for a first year culling for the new intermediate dungeons. Six dungeons from the 11 year group going against a couple from the prior year groups. The last however is a bit unusual, the 41 year skeleton core is taking on the equestrian dungeon. Being double the other core in age is already pushing the rewards to be gained but four times…. Had to be a sanctioned call from the higher ups,” Emma said.

  “Equestrian was a standout for his year. Probably has a handful of spares, so he will be just fine,” Fellette explained.

  “How the major factions put young upstarts in their place,” Garrett the tiger core said, draining his cup and leaving presumptively to grab another.

  “Happened to him, if I remember right,” Fellette added again. Fellete was decades younger than Garrett so it must have been something the tiger core complained about well after the fact.

  “And me too,” Emma added. Her tone clearly held a frustrated pang to it. “Worst part is you don’t even get to take revenge, not really. Guy who farmed me in year 11 is still just fine.”

  “And you?” Peter said looking at Fellette. The ape man just gave a cheesy grin.

  “Some under achievers find a way to make the cut through the integrations,” Emma teased.

  The ape man’s grin turned to a scowl. “Hey quit pretending your something special.” He fought back.

  Peter only absently listened as they bickered back and forth. He continued to scan through things. He had gotten 10 dart frog C tier cards added to his inventory. Along with his 10 C tier Dark elf and 2 B tier clockwork cards, they were all he had left. He had burnt through all his originals and stock options. The fact that he would likely get 40-50 dart frog cards added to his stock seemed like a big haul, but they would be used up quite quickly. They would not be major players for him, but perhaps they could be used for auxiliary purposes.

  The spare core was his second. Not much too it, it would give him a little extra breathing room. What he really could not wait to open were the 50 support packs. Fifty new cards would go a long way, and hopefully this time he would get some cards other than common, not counting triplification that his specialty made common. He currently had 10 only possible options his packs could give.

  Peter knew the details of his 10 possible options by heart. He had five common cards: doublifications, triplifications (normally uncommon), equipment, increase aspect, and dungeon upgrade. Then he had 3 uncommon cards: replicator, free spawner, and Card transfer type. Finally he had 2 rare options: block challenge and resurrect.

  But Peter also had a card unlock which he could use to unlock an eleventh, which he would do first. He could unlock up to 20 cards in total and would then be allowed to start replacing weaker or unwanted cards. Normally the chance was 10% for an uncommon, 1% for a rare, and 0.1% chance for epic. Everything that wasn’t one of those ended up as a common, but just by adding cards the chances of the lower rarity would increase slightly. Of course Peter would start with unlocking an epic this year. Similar to the choice feature, he got 3 options.

  free maelstrom (E)

  duplicate (E)

  Gang up (E)

  Peter recognized the gang up option immediately. It was the card the major factions used to allow a second dungeon to join them in battle against someone they challenged or who challenged them. Powerful if used right, but it had the lesser rarity, rare card counter, call ally. If Peter got one of those, then he would be able to add someone on his side in an unequal battle provided they were willing to join, consent being the major factor. Regardless, gang up wasn’t for him. Using others' strength just would not cut it for him to reach his goals.

  Free maelstrom was self explanatory, and it was probably the card he would go for despite the fact, it would be a while before he would have occasion to use it. He would want to use it when he had a S tier unit where the resultant B tier maelstroms cost would be in the millions.

  Duplicate would allow him to duplicate a unit, obviously he would also only want to use it for a S tier unit. However, Peter had his own plans to build up his S tier forces, where every failure would mean just another powerful A tier. He had already proven twice that his triplifications could push the tier boundary, and that was only after having used a handful. Sure it would be harder at higher tiers since the tiers were ‘further’ apart, but he would get 10 triplefications each year automatically and would get more in support card packages quite easily since his specialization made them common.

  Peter teetered between those two for a bit before going with the maelstrom option. Now he had a potential epic card that he would get when he opened each support pack. The more battles he won the more cards he could unlock and the more card packs he would receive since he could only buy 10 of each year. An incentive to continue to battle. Not that Peter felt like he would need such an incentive.

  Peter went ahead and bought the next year's card packs for 25,000 a piece, giving him 60 in total. He was eager to get his hand on his new epic card despite not being able to use it in the near future, but he had never been overly lucky. This time wasn’t any different.

  Peter opened them all at once allowing them to sort on his interface page. He still had 3 increase aspects and 3 equipment cards in addition to next years 10 triplfications. Peter quickly calculated his hauls. He got 52 new common cards: 9 doublifications, 11 triplifications, 14 equipment, 10 increase aspects, and 8 dungeon upgrades. For uncommon he got 7 cards: 2 replicators, 4 free spawners, and 1 card type transfer. For rare he got 1 card, a resurrect.

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  All of the common cards were useful, the dungeon upgrades were as good as 5,000 essence a piece now that he was B tier versus the 2,500 at C tier. Not worth it for the ones where he had bought a pack for 25,000 but it was something back. For his uncommon support cards he really only liked 1 of his 3 starting options, card transfer since it could be used to transfer a design card into any other card type he had used before. An easy way to get an additional card of any type as long as he had gotten it before. Downside was it was not an original card so did not give stock options.

  Replicators only worked if you could burn cards of the same type that you had used to summon a unit. You would get copies of what you had summoned, but ranks and tiers were not guaranteed. It meant that even if he used a combination card to get a S tier, and had the cards to burn he would possibly only get A tier copies since he would likely have used A tier cards to get that S tier.

  The free spawners, he would use, since it was most useful during a dungeon's early years, but it would not be for long. It could only be used on C tiers and below. Still C tier spawners were already in the tens of thousands of essence so he would use them for his lower floors replicating C tiers for the strongest adventurers.

  Still like replicator, he would try to get rid of the free spawner card sooner than later. It would be difficult since he had to have 20 cards unlocked first. He would have to win 10 battles to even get to that point… that was quite a bit down the road, still if he could replace most of his common and uncommon support cards he would get far more rares and epics, something to strive for.

  The battles began just a few minutes after he was finished. Six pairs of screens popped on at the front of the room. Each screen would show a televised version of the assault on the dungeon. No one was sure what determined what was shown. What angle, vantage, etc… What they did know was that it generally focused on the major skirmishes in the battle or the battle as a whole, so as long as a unit was not partaking in a major battle action it could remain hidden unless caught in the background of another shot.

  The first battle of interest was the air elemental core, 31, against the holy core from year group 11. The holy core was choosing to not send out an assault force as were all of the new intermediate dungeons. They all just wanted to weather the assault, and hopefully survive. In the second battle that Peter actively watched, the flower core, 11, chose to do the same thing against its opponent the drake core, 21.

  The last battle seemingly worth watching was the year group 11 standout, equestrian against the skeleton core, 41. The other 3 cores from year group 11 were clearly not going to be able to fight their opponents who were also all from year 21. Not a single core from year 11 sent out a force to attack.

  Peter would love to say if in the same situation as one of the year group 11 dungeons he would try to win the battle, at least for the four dungeons set against only a year 21 dungeon, but after seeing the armies coming into their dungeons Peter could not blame them for playing it safe. They were new intermediate dungeons trying to get their feet under them. Peter immediately started analyzing dungeon units in mass. There were whole armies of B and C tier units led by A tiers elites.

  Peter of course focused more intently on the skeleton army to personally watch since it was the oldest core in the battles. The clockworks would document all the rest. After several hours he finally saw it, an S tier. The unit was a normal sized skeleton that wielded a mace. The unit was decked in armor that hung across its gaunt frame, but with one blow it shattered a charge of a squad of B tier mentaurs. They were sent flying. The S tier was only on screen for a few seconds before it was lost from view, but it had certainly made an impression stopping a charge by itself.

  After that Peter started focusing on the battle as a whole and not analyzing every powerful unit that he saw. He saw what the older dungeon core’s meant. What was being shown were two armies fighting against one another. The front line continually shifted as the weaker defending armies continually got pushed back floor by floor. Brief flashes to the alternate dimension showed that it was the exact same there, except usually worse.

  The difference was that the equestrian core was quickly being overrun in the alternate dimension. The result was that the undead could quite often open spacial tears and appear behind the lines in the physical dimension. The equestrian dungeon had been holding up quite well in the physical dimension, but it was clear he would lose anyways due to not being strong enough to hold the line in the alternate dimension. The equestrian core was spamming hundreds and thousands of the same C tier units in the alternate dimension, but the skeleton core had A tiers in there.

  This was the level that he would need to prepare for… In fact he would need to prepare for beyond this in a hundred years time, but that was too far off to worry about. But he could be in the same position as these year group 11 dungeons in just 10 years. In a hundred years he could be facing dungeons centuries older than himself. As far as the equestrian core, it was over for one or more of his spare cores. The battle had been completely won in the alternate dimension giving the undead free reign there. The physical dimension did not last much longer. The two other year 11 dungeons he had been watching were still resisting admirably. Their core or spare core fates remained to be seen.

  “So what did you think of a real battle,” Emma asked teasingly. Garrett and Fellette also looked amused. Emma just stared at him, her flaming hair waving in a non existent breeze.

  “I honestly don’t even know where to begin. The scale of it…”

  “Haaha…” Emma softly laughed. “Hon, just take it one step at a time. Build and expand your collection dungeon to the max. Although you will need to restrict access to at least one of the floors. Build a mine, a forest, and a settlement. It will cost essence later to move that floor down and make something else your tenth, but you need to get research and resource collection started as soon as possible. Hopefully you have obtained some other sapient race types. You will have to use them to collect resources, forge weapons, research magic spells, enchantments… the list goes on.”

  “All the while build your army,” Garrett said, flexing his tiger striped fur arm repeatedly making a black line wave… Despite the gravity of what lay ahead he could not help but to be slightly amused by the party trick?.

  “I got some dark elf cards. What about before I hit year 10? How many more battles should I be in? Any other advice?” Peter asked. Year 10 would be the tutorial year for the next decadal year group, so he would both be unable to challenge or be challenged. After that he would have to survive the integration with the intermediate dungeons.

  “You should do at least another battle or two, but it depends on the resources that you expect to expend versus what you would gain. You can’t afford to run to much of a deficit even if it is to get more of the other rewards. Although I don’t think there is an older core alive that would not recommend maxing out your available support card purchases at any level. I would not recommend them last year, since you need to spend the essence to further increase your essence collection, but you should hit a wall with that this year.”

  Peter nodded. As a rookie dungeon he could buy 10 packs each year for 25,000 a piece. He had already used 250,000 to buy his year two packs, and still failed to get the epic.

  “All that being said… you’re going to have to start hanging around with dungeons your age,” Fellette said. “Not saying you can’t stop by. You better, so that we can trade and get back some of the little investment we have put into you.”

  “Its for your own good. Being around us after the first year or two will only make you stand out more,”Emma added.

  “Find safety in the herd… Won’t protect you from true tigers like me, but you will be harder to target,” Garrett finished, once more with a gleaning toothy smile

  Peter nodded. That made sense. Every dungeon core here was watching one another seeing who associated with who and so on. He gave a cheesy grin. “What do you think about expanding your investment?”

  “You whipper snapper,” Fellette chortled. Garrett broke out in booming laughter.

  Peter got 2 B tiers from each of them for only one of his own. He started looking for who else he could trade with. Borris started making suggestions as well as updating him on which of the 14 cores from his age group were no longer present.

  Gabriel and Elyra had both won their battles. Eli had apparently chosen not to participate this year. He had skulked off soon after talking to Peter earlier, probably hoping to avoid being challenged. Something that probably would not work after today and everyone else knew who was who. Oddly enough Gretchen had survived her own reptile challenger. The reptile faction core had apparently even been a winner from the first year since it was not fully eliminated. Once more proved that tutorial losers could still make a comeback against those who had won.

  The half sized furball was currently off at a table. Peter chose to try his luck with her first. She was highly amenable when he approached her, but her funds were lacking so he could only get 1 B tier. After that got a 2 for 2 trade with Gabriel, and a 1 for 3 from the far more stingy Elyra. Deciding that would be enough for now. Although A tier cost 5 million essence, he would likely unlock it this year as Helen had suggested. There was no point in bottoming out his resources when they could give finishing his dungeon expansion a jumpstart.

  Peter found his own corner of the room to finish the rest of the battles. The holy dungeon core was the only dungeon to last nearly a full day. Whereas the other dungeons from the year 11 year group lost quite soon comparatively. The equestrian core lost a spare or spares as did the holy dungeon, but the other 4 including the flower dungeon he had been rooting for were eliminated for good.

  Oddly enough there were no centurion battles this year, so once the battles concluded, there was a 1 hour winding down time frame before the congregation was over.