Peter ended up only summoning four beasts and making 5 maelstroms of each, to start his respawning beast army. He then chose to save the rest for the upcoming battle. He had gotten a different idea. Perhaps it was due to all the units he was now accumulating from his maelstroms. His dungeon was currently producing 9,720 C tiers, and 720 B tiers each year. Sure a good number of maelstroms were brand new, but most had given out their full output for the year. It was the equivalent of almost 12 million essence or about 70% of what a rookie could bring in, in a year. Not to mention he had not even touched this year’s essence, and had nearly 5 million from his Weevil battle haul. Top it off with better equipment and potions, he was feeling pretty confident.

  Peter departed like a man on a mission. He immediately checked in with his group, but surprisingly Elyra was electing to try and take a year off assuming she was not challenged. Perhaps it should not be surprising since she had lost all her units and the battle last year against the bonefiend core, but he had still thought she would be ready to battle. Predator and Gretchen also wanted to take a year break if no one challenged them. That left Gabriel, who had also seen the better conditions winning consecutive battles had to offer. Probably why he did not take much convincing. “Want to go wipe out the undead dungeons with me?”

  “Of course,” the angel said, rising from his chair. Peter briefly paused as he noticed that the edge of Gabriel’s feathers had started turning black. Only on the outermost feathers for now, creating a dark edge at their end. Gabriel caught him looking. “I expect in a decade or so, they will be fully brown or black,” He said, his smile fading a bit. “I’ve decided to fight the changes in other areas.”

  Peter nodded. Most rookie cores were starting to show at least hints of their core type. Others like Gretchen or the undead were hurrying up the changes. Gretchen might be indiscernible from a dark elf in a matter of years. Right now she looked awkward with the hair on top of her head covered with white streaks. The hair on the rest of her body was nearly gone, receded to the point where it could have been considered fur. She was already 5 feet tall.

  “Quit checking her out,” Delilah had warned when his eyes lingered on her for too long. Not that he was interested in anything more than the progress of her rapid change.

  Less than a minute later, Gabriel and Peter had made it to the undead rookie table. There were only 3 left: Bones, Putrefy, and Tombstone. The other two weaker undead dungeons had lost to cores from the reptile faction. Wiping out the weaker dungeons of other major factions was apparently permissible, or some deal had been struck. Or the undead faction had just had such a poor showing that they were fair game. Peter did not really care. Hopefully they could knock out at least two of the three in battles today.

  “I was half expecting you to rechallenge me,” Peter taunted looking at the tall, even more gaunt man. Tombstone’s forehead was either getting bigger or he was losing hair, because what had been a normal head of black hair now looked more like a badly placed toupee.

  “I think they have realized that they are too weak by this point. Obviously we agree, which is why we are here. How would you like to do this?” Gabriel picked up, glancing at him. Peter barely noticed. Allister’s eye was twitching. Putrefy looked like he was ready to spring on them. Bone’s expression was indiscernible since his jaw was nearly completely exposed as his skin and sinew receded back. Peter’s eyes darted away.

  “If they will agree to it. I would be willing to try 2 on 3. If not I would say you take Putrefy since he has been winning and I’ll take on the other two losers.”

  “What you will challenge both,” Gabriel said surprised. It threw a wrench into the intimidating aura he had been going for. Peter just ignored the question.

  “So what’s it going to be,” Peter said. He offered the 2 on 3 challenge. Gabriel accepted quickly enough. However the 3 undead cores did not immediately decide. Other than a 1 on 1 challenge there was no counter that would make acceptance automatic for another challenge without support cards.

  Allister glanced at Putrefy. It was clear that they were both on more of an even footing ever since tombstone had lost a dungeon battle and putrefy hadn’t. Bones however waited, to see what they decided. “I kind of wonder what makes him so confident that he can take on 2 of us despite him having battled every year, and Bones and I having 2 years worth of resources. He was stretched pretty thin by the end if I cannot remember,” Allister shot Peter a derisive look.

  Putrefy basically looked like a zombie at this point. Open festering wounds and even exposed bone in some places. Still his voice was clear, although a bit raspy. “I will take on the angel then. I’m sure the two of you can finish things early enough to watch the end of our battle.” Putrefy snickered but it turned into a hacking cough.

  Once again, Peter had to wonder why someone would willingly push such changes forward. The only thing he could think of was the core wanted to get it over with. Gabriel glanced one final time at Peter, his finger hovered in the air. Putrefy had likely just sent the challenge. Peter nodded.

  “I was just kidding,” Peter said, with a devilish smile. He challenged only the Tombstone core. “If you want to fight 2 on 1 you will have to find a ‘call ally’ card. Don’t try to go 3 on 1 though, or I’ll just add another to my side.”

  Allister was clearly furious. Was he scared about facing Peter alone? Would his pride allow him to actually call Bones to his aid? Peter did not know. He kind of hoped Allister would. What kind of conditions could he get for defeating 2 dungeons? Then again, he would be just as fine if the Tombstone core went into battle alone. Several years of resources or not, Peter was fairly sure he would stomp him into the ground.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “That was a dickish move,” Gabriel said, smirking. “What if he does add Bones to the battle?”

  “Then I would fight them both. You can come with me if you want, I have one more stop to make.”

  Peter’s next stop was the centurion beast core group. There were still 6 cores. Pachyderm had lost, but apparently had enough spare cores to survive. However, the unfortunate centurion would get challenged again this year, and again the year after until he was gone. The major factions would not concede defeat so easily once a target was chosen.

  “This is my group mate, Gabriel. I’m sure he would like to trade type cards. I, however, am looking for double taps and perhaps a few others. I will pay the minimum price, if any of you are looking to convert some extra support cards to cash.”

  “Why would we give you such a good deal?” Pachyderm protested his fat walrus-like face wrinkling up. Clearly having a young rookie dungeon act so brazen was pretty off putting. Peter did not care too much. If they were extremely offended, what could they do? Their own future survival was always in question, so it was not as if they could put out a hit.

  “Because it is better to sell them to me for my type cards that you can actually use. It is not like any of you are regularly out challenging. I’m sure you all have support cards, namely ‘double taps’ or ‘resurrects’ that you no longer need. The minimum price for rare cards right now is half a million, so it is almost an even trade.

  “Even,” Pachyderm snorted. “Do you know how much I could get trading a double tap to another centurion?”

  Peter just looked at the others. If anything pachyderm should be looking to convert anything useless to cash that he could. The centurion cores did not exactly go around trading with other groups of centurions. They seemingly kept as segregated as possible. They normally only traded with younger dungeons, who likely would not be a threat, and often it was mostly with cores in their faction. As a rookie core, Peter was as unthreatening to them as a core could be. Since the beast factions were normally kept on the defensive, they were too worried about battling and then getting challenged the very next year, so there was a good chance they might have some.

  It was the bull dog looking canine core, 160, that spoke up. “I’ve got 3 double taps, I would be willing to make that trade. Peter immediately initiated the trade, 15 A tier design cards for 3 rare double tap cards. The canine core grimaced as he accepted it.

  Peter only wished he had decided on this sooner. When he had sold his spare core cards, he had been limited to receiving a bit over a million in return, but that was several years ago. The maximum he could request was on its way up., already he could get 1.35 million per an epic card like spare core. Peter had crafted another such trade to other core’s without actually sending it, to test how far the balance rule would allow him to go. It was the same for either centurion or intermediate dungeons, although to another rookie core the range could stretch in either direction more substantially.

  Regardless, the price had gone up. Which had led Peter to test his rare cards. Right now a half million for a double tap would essentially allow him to break even since he would be getting 5 extra A tier type cards when he used one. Plus unless they had acquired spare cores from other sources, he should be able to eliminate both Bones and Tombstone today. Bones may not even have a spare core, and Tombstone should have only one.

  Once the canine core made the trade, he got a few other offers. Unfortunately, no one would offer a resurrect, but Peter was not too surprised. After all they would all have S tiers they would prefer to use it on, rather than to get 5 original A tier type cards. Once more their battles likely lasted days, so there was a good chance a fallen S tier could even rejoin the battle.

  Peter walked away with 8 double taps in total. There were not really any other support cards the beast cores were interested in converting into cash, other than double tap and call ally. Peter was not particularly interested in Call ally, at least not before his battle. He thanked them and went on his way. Gabriel left with him. The other rookie had offered a standard trade to each of them, which had been accepted.

  “Wow it is like you and Elyra are trading places. You are going on the core elimination warpath, and she is just sitting back,” Gabriel said chuckling.

  “I can’t blame her. She likely lost nearly everything last year, and did not get any rewards. She likely needs a reset year. However, both of us know just how lucrative battling back to back can be.”

  “True,” Gabriel said with a knowing look. His smile widened. “So there are rewards past 3 consecutive wins?”

  Peter told the truth. “Not really for 4, but five was twice as good. You will want it. My guess is that seven will be the same, or perhaps 6 as well. Who knows, hopefully I find out.”

  “You really think you can take two dungeons on?” Gabriel asked with a more serious expression.

  Peter looked off into the distance. “Definitely couldn’t against 2 insect dungeons, but against the 2 undead I should stand a pretty good chance. However, I’m glad you took Putrefy on. He should have slightly more and better stuff.”

  “Happy to help,” Gabriel said, rolling his eyes. “I guess we will see if Tombstone can find a ‘call ally’ card, or… whether he can even bring himself to use one.”

  It took less than 10 minutes before Peter got the notification.

  [Allister, Tombstone (6) has called for aid. Bones (6) has answered. Dungeon battle will now be Design versus Tombstone and Bones. Rewards will be adjusted.]

  Peter felt his heart thump hard with the notice. It had just gotten real. If he won he would likely get double the rewards and meet even more conditions, but first he had to win. While he felt pretty confident, somewhere in the back of his mind he felt the prickle of doubt. Still it was already decided.

  “Boris, we are going with the plan. I’m going to start summoning units,” Peter said, receiving an affirmative. The 2 on 3 would have been fine, but would have required him and Gabriel to come up with a new plan. If he faced just Tombstone, things would have been even more simple. However, if he had to face 2 dungeons this year he had always planned on it being these two.