The entrances to Peter’s dungeon were only closed for the full day following the surprise attack. The next several days it was all anybody could talk about. A very notable event since 18 guards or adventurers had been presumably killed. Presumably… since the bodies and equipment had dissolved long before anyone entered to look for them.

  The prevailing theory seemed to be that a pack of high tier monsters had been drawn in by the dungeon. Either the high tier monsters still lurked down in the dungeon’s depths or the dungeon had killed them. All the adventurers proceeded more warily for days, but especially the parties who delved deeper. It took days before an adventuring party even braved going past the boss room on the fourth floor, but after nothing happened to them… It was business as usual soon enough.

  Still there were traces of some wilder theories. Many of them correctly assumed that insects from the weevil core dungeon had something to do with it. The dawn division had obviously discerned the nature of the monsters that had left the tracks.

  From there the theories started veering off into the conspiratorial realm. Many of these theories also attributed it as an attempt by the Warsaw government to destroy their dungeon, or something along that nature. Peter still did not understand the political situation in Terra, only that Dawn had broken away from the larger empire hundreds of years ago. Hopefully, Delilah would be able to find out more on her expedition. She left the dungeon four days after the attack on an information gathering mission.

  Already D tier elves were posted on all the nearby hill tops within the alternate dimension. Others patrolled around randomly through the settlements and surrounding hills. It should make it extremely difficult for an enemy to deal with them all without being noticed. Each D tier carried multiple varied colored smoke curtains that Greg and Glenda had made in a matter of days. Successive hill tops would duplicate the signal all the way until it made it to the watchers stationed at the dungeon entrances. They were in turn watched by a screen up in headquarters. At the very least, Peter should have an hour or two advance warning before another army was able to invade.

  Luckily, the D tier elves were so under tiered for being outside the dungeon that the dozens out at any one time cost less than 100 essence daily. In turn Delilah was costing at least that much, even while she was in the alternate dimension. If she transferred over to the physical realm the cost would be five times that. Peter understood why dungeons kept their reconnaissance teams to the lower tiers and to a minimum. The weevil core had likely burnt through millions of essence for his army to move outside for that long.

  Eventually his exploratory methods would get far more sophisticated, but they were just starting out. Denying enemy surprise attacks, making it difficult for dungeon units to infiltrate the nearby settlements and a handful of reconnaissance missions was a good start.

  A week after the attack, Peter finally felt secure enough to start spending his essence windfall. Logically there was no reason for the weevil dungeon to follow up with another attack, but people were not always rational. A few insectoid scouts had tried to sneak in a few days later, but the S tier spirit catcher dragon was back. It ran the enemy down easily enough. A few others had tried in the following days, and met the same fate, although this time it was at the talons of B tier blink and spirit catcher dragons waiting for the signal to hunt. That one S tier foray had been relatively expensive for a mere 10 minute excursion.

  The first thing Peter did was make maelstroms for his new S tiers. If nothing else, cementing an annual dividend of B tiers and maintaining the capabilities was of prime importance. Peter spent 15.1 million making 2 maelstroms for the S rank spirit catcher dragon. The first cost 7.2 million and the second just under 8 million. The spirit catchers would not be the strongest units of their tier, but the extra capability of taking down incorporeal beings was worth keeping. He was out of Resurrects right now, but if he got some, he would prioritize stronger units like the armageddon dragon or nightmarish creation to revive in the future.

  Peter also spent the 10 million essence to make the first S (+) rank Nightmarish creation maelstrom. Just like that half of his essence was gone, all to ensure that he received 360 B tiers each year from now on. As far as the guardian spirit, Peter held off on a maelstrom for it. It was difficult to kill anyways. The S tier had only had time to take one self formed body into battle, due to a 30 minute cool down before it could form another. The battle had barely lasted that long. That one body had not held up well since its defense had only be in the C tier. The guardian spirit would be far more effective with premade bodies over the course of a long battle.

  The B tiers were even less impressive at making their own bodies. Their use could become more prevalent in the future if Greg and Gearhead fashioned bodies made of metal instead of dungeon stone. But the reality is he would likely never need them in great numbers, Greg and Gearhead would already have to work hard to ensure the S tier elite had a slew of bodies for it to inhabit. Peter would never be able to support the B tiers in large numbers. It was better to put his effort in other areas.

  Peter also did not make a maelstrom for the ritual summoner fairy. It was unlikely the A tier would be killed anyways since it would be summoning units from behind enemy lines. The C tiers would be closer to the front since they lacked the manna to keep units in the realm for too long, but Peter could always summon more if they got caught up in the fight.

  Other than summoning D tier dark elf one offs and a good hundred C tier dark and moon elves, Peter had only replaced his mining force. He had 160 B tier ape type stock options, so he had plenty to use to summon a new force of strong miners. Peter summoned 100 at Greg’s recommendation. He would just need to summon more treasure tapir one offs to support the extra mining force.

  Peter checked his homepage. After the 3 maelstroms, he had just over 27 million left. It sounded like a lot, but he could easily spend it all. First he would have to summon new units. He would be paying 300,000 essence for each triplification since he had only stock options to choose from. As far as what to make… Peter had 45 different A tier type card options that he had access to. He had 8 other types he could get if he first bought a design card before using his uncommon card type transfer to change it into what he wanted. He had put a lot of thought into it over the last week.

  His first need was new infantry units that he could spam for both the alternate dimension and the physical realm. Peter eyed the 50 A tier Holy options. The undead and demon faction were two of the biggest enemies for himself and his group. Having more could only be a good thing. While it would not guarantee what he wanted, there were other good things he could get from the combination. Peter made his first combination with design, holy, and iron. He

  Heavy Plate Paladin A: ATT: A(-), DEF: A (+), SPE: A (-)

  E’wuni Longswordsman A: ATT: A, DEF: A, SPE: A (-)

  Hell gate stormer A (-): ATT: A (-), DEF: B (+), SPE: A (-)

  Peter had been hoping for basically a holy version of the spectral armor, but he had hit pay dirt in another way. All three options were what he had been looking for, which required some thought. By name and associated picture it looked like he could choose between getting a heavy, medium, or light infantry unit. E’wuni was apparently a pretty common divine race. They looked human for the most part, fair skin with platinum hair. He had gotten a few of them in prior summons. Of course they had soon died in the battle they had been summoned for. The other two were likely also divine races, although Peter did not recognize them.

  In the end, he went with the paladin. They likely would be too slow for attacking enemy positions, but Peter had so many options for doing that, many were better such as beasts or dragons. Peter had plenty of common increases, so he used one along with the design increase on the paladin’s defense, but the attribute stayed at A (+).

  The Paladin had access to holy power. Which it could use to basically stabilize its own wounds. If the guy lost an arm, he could keep himself from bleeding out. As a humanoid that was more likely to be dead than wounded, the paladin would likely use its power for its main use. The paladin called it, ‘empowering strike’, which essentially was him empowering it with holy power, so… it was basically a divine smite ability. Peter immediately spent 2.4 million essence to make 5 maelstroms of the elite.

  After a fresh success, Peter moved on to obtaining a unit for the alternate dimension. He decided he would continue with what he had been doing. Basically melee fighters, especially humanoids, just died too easily. He would continue to summon new elites to spam units off of. He would of course also make maelstroms for each, but he mainly needed current access for one to make one offs of. Eventually, he would have a vast army of varied units. For now, he just needed something to replace the spectral armor. He would of course use design and ghost. For the third card he would of course go with iron. It was the same combination he had used for the spectral armor.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Deathly chain wight A: ATT: A, DEF: A , SPE: A (+)

  Pale ghast A : ATT: A, DEF: A , SPE: A

  Iron hided Revenant A : ATT: A, DEF: A , SPE: A

  Peter thought about it for a bit. None of them had obvious access to the alternate realm. As always he was hesitant to summon undead, that could not be stored in the alternate dimension. He could keep the ghastly soldiers and the dragon variants there no problem. As ghostlike entities they could stay there indefinitely and get what they needed, but if he had a unit consigned to the physical realm it would make things more difficult. He of course planned to have an undead army himself some day. Of course at that point he would have planned undead floors to store them, keeping them in optimal condition.

  The three had nearly identical attributes so Peter went based on the picture. At least the ghast had a chance. They were normally gray, overly strong and vicious brutes. The picture for this one showed a bald muscular figure only minimally concealed by what was basically a loin cloth. The mouth was frozen open revealing sharp teeth. Black nails elongated from each finger into blackened claws… Iron fingernails? Potentially it would at least have a chance.

  Peter breathed out a sigh of relief within seconds after the summoning. The figure was unnerving to be around, far more than the ghastly soldier’s, but the interface quickly showed the figure was indeed capable of crossing over. As far as its capabilities, the ghast was as quick as the ghastly soldiers. However, it was perhaps a touch more durable, its uncovered skin being less vulnerable than one would assume. It was also ridiculously strong. The reach of its iron claws was a detractor versus the reach provided by a sword.

  Neither apparently could the ghast carry one… or wear armor. The thing was basically anemic to the metal… or any metal. Just touching it made its skin sizzle. The claws were just black bone not iron like he had assumed. Being vulnerable to metal was a detractor, but it did not mean the unit was useless. The thing was strong, agile, and ferocious. It could probably do extremely well against nearly anything else. Enough that he thought they were worth keeping. He made 5 maelstroms of it. Still they were not exactly what he needed so he would try again.

  Peter did not have a problem during the second attempt with the same combination. He was easily able to make a selection. Not only was the unit capable of traversing the dimensional boundary, it was also an A (+) rank. Peter used an increase and was able to bring its attack from A (+) to S (-). Peter immediately built 5 maelstroms of it as well.

  Skeletal wraith knight A (+): ATT: S(-), DEF: A , SPE: A (+)

  Peter was quite happy with the 3 summons, but he still had 19 million essence. Now he could move onto his next need. He needed a mage he could spam the field with. He was tired of having disposable mages fill the role of his back line along with Glenda, but he also wanted to try his hand again with his only restricted type card, dream. Peter finally used the first of his 12 uncommon ‘card transfer type’ cards to convert a A tier design card to the dream type. Peter scanned the list for another card type.

  Peter had 3 card types that he thought would give an extremely good chance at getting a mage unit: Cosmic, magic, and psychic. The brief former group member, Magic, was gone, but Peter had 24 stock options for it. He only had 3 for both the other two, resulting from equally bad rolls for 2 originals a piece. Psychic was the current leader of the pure concept faction. Cosmic was in the intermediate division. Peter had been able to do a standard trade with both of them, and likely would in the future as well. He finally settled on psychic. He could not even remember what had been summoned from either of the 2 originals during the attack on his dungeon.

  Dual reality wolf A(-): ATT: A(-), DEF: A(-) , SPE: A (-), SPE: A

  Telekinetic dark being A: ATT: A (-), DEF: A , SPE: A (+), SPE: A

  Causality wizard A: ATT: A, DEF: A , SPE: A, SPE: A

  The dual reality wolf picture showed 2 wolves. One like a holographic picture, one would appear real for a moment while the other was faint. However a second later it would shift. The telekinetic dark being was a black humanoid form made of energy. The causality mage a gray skinned human with civil war style mutton chops. All three options looked and sounded cool, but Peter's eyes were drawn to the causality wizard. The guy was the most unassuming, but causality. What would that even mean…?

  Peter decided to go with it. It was a wizard after all, and that was what he wanted. He threw both increases on one of the special attributes.

  A mid-sized wizard looking man with a blue robe and hood appeared in front of Peter. The guy’s skin was gray, and he stared up at Peter with disinterested brown eyes.

  “Okay, can you explain what you can do?”

  The man just stared evenly at Peter for a moment. “I, young master, am a scholar of quantum field theory, and I guess… I do what you order.” The older looking man hung his head on that last realization. The fact that the guy called him young master was not lost on him. The only other that did that was Khan. Oh great…

  “But what specifically…like for battle. You are a mage aren't you?” Peter prodded. What he received in return was a garble of smart speak, he could not begin to follow or process. Peter had considered himself on the smarter side, despite not pursuing higher education, he had been in the upper half of his class in high school, and that was without much effort.

  The guy paused seeing Peter’s slack jawed expression. He sighed. “I play with time and reality to manipulate cause and effect.” It was clear the guy was talking down to him like he would a little child.

  Playing with time and reality sounded awesome, but Peter was still dumbfounded what this A tier mage could do. “What do your special attributes do?”

  The guy looked to the side, and performed another deep guttural sigh. “One of my abilities could be described as precognition although that is not quite right. The other ability is a bit more difficult to conceive, but basically I am altering the future reality based on what I see from the ‘precognition’.”

  “Uhhhh… that sounds pretty awesome, but could you give some examples on how you could use it… like in battle.”

  “Certainly, but perhaps I could get some information on my current existence, this dungeon, what I might be facing… It will help me tailor my response to be more helpful.”

  Peter gave a 30 minute summary of dungeons, the annual congregations, dungeon battles, and the various capabilities that he was aware of. The guy clearly kept going off on mental tangents as something Peter said triggered an idea. Peter had to stop more than a few times for anywhere from a matter of seconds to a minute, waiting for the guy to refocus. “That’s pretty much it,” Peter finished at the end.

  “Hmmm…” the guy said with a creepy grin, exposing yellowing teeth. “I’m probably not what you were hoping for as far as a standard mage, but I think I should be far more helpful especially in expanding your capabilities.”

  “And for battle?”

  “I will have to test myself, but I could make a few theoretical predictions of what I might be capable of.”

  “Oookay.”

  “I will give two possible examples. Say there is an enemy mage trying to throw a big ball of fire. Spells normally have a longer cast time the more powerful they are, as the mages take the time to gather their power. While the mage is gathering his power, say I make some alterations in the surrounding essence so that it explodes as soon as it physically manifests.”

  “Or say there is a necromancer or a summoner. While they are summoning or raising the dead, I could alter things so that the summoned beast or undead are not under their master’s control. Basically if there is a process that I can understand that leads to a desired effect, I can step in and make alterations before the process is complete. Not quite all I can do, but a good enough summation for now.”

  “So you're a good anti mage, what about for the rest,” Peter asked.

  The guy gave him a hard stare. “What I described are the possibilities. I cannot be sure, but due to the chaotic nature of battles I’m sure It would be hard for me to contribute to the level of your expectations. The flow of manna will not be as it would be in a static environment. It would be hard to account for it all while dealing with all the distractions.”

  Just as Peter began wondering whether he had gotten a total dub, the old wizard continued. “That is not to say I will not be invaluable. Understanding cause and effect is basically in my nature. As long as I know the process, I should be able to make items that would generically do what I said.”

  Peter’s eyes widened. He had Gearhead and Greg could build weapons and other equipment, but magic based items he was sorely lacking. Glenda had been able to reproduce the beast augmentation spike, but that was pretty much her copying from a generic template. The result was an exploding weak point that was not near as strong. As far as her own enchantments, they were still pretty basic. Which reminded him, Peter brought up his interface. How had he sat on this for a week. A second later he used his rare item card to summon a masterwork quality weapon, while the wizard stood by.

  [Shield piercer (masterwork); Magic item; Type: Spear]

  Just like with the beast augmentation spike he was quite dissatisfied with the description given by analysis. The causality wizard however studied it carefully. The shaft was sturdy but simple wood. Other than that there was just the blade which was wide and flat with a slight curve on the back. It all tapered down to a fine point. The mage did something and blue symbols flared into existence on the blades surface and the top of the shaft.

  “The craftsmanship is excellent,” the wizard said, guiding his hand along the shaft. “And the enchantment is not overly complex. If someone could build another sentinel spear like this, then I should not have any problem recreating it. If the materials are similar it would not even take too many adjustments.”

  The old man held the spear back toward him, but Peter motioned for him to hold onto it. “I think I will name you Merlin.”