When Peter crested the top of the stairs he located his group, or what was left of it. Two cores were now missing. The undead faction rookies had apparently used the rare card ‘double tap’ in addition to the ‘gang up’ epic cards on both Multiple and Magic. Neither of them were there or anywhere else in the large hall. He felt his stomach roll. Not like he was close to them, but them dying this early was definitely on him.

  He could not escape that feeling. He recalled a memory from when he was a child and broke a neighbor's window. He had of course run away, and only later did he hear that someone else had been blamed for the incident. In reality the blame for the window likely did not mean much, just one more incident attributed to an already troubled teen, who had done worse.

  Still it had always bothered Peter when the affair of the window was mentioned among the others when adults were grumbling. He had of course never come clean, now stuck in another world… he never could. The situations were not quite the same, but someone else getting eliminated… killed due to his actions…. He had antagonized the undead rookies, and already he was stirring the pot interacting with a millennial and trading with black listers. Both of which could call down even more heat.

  Sure statistically many rookie cores would not last the next few decades. He had just brought deadly attention to them a bit early, but wasn’t that true with life in general. Unless you were immortal, death was always something that would come somewhere down the road. Technically the cores were immortal, but in practicality they weren’t. They would be culled sooner or later, at most he had likely just hastened their demise.

  Peter looked at those remaining in his group. Predator, Gabriel, and Elyra were still present, but for how much longer? It was already enough of a challenge for him to do what it took to get to the end. It was unlikely that all 4 of them would last a century.

  Peter breathed in deeply, steadying his mind. It was not all on him. They were all in this struggle. Elyra was using her prized card type to make killer trades to eek out an advantage. Plus she was clearly down with antagonizing the major factions even more than himself. Even Predator and Gabriel had card types that would invite challenges from certain factions. They were doing what they could to survive, only banding together for a bit of cover.

  Gabriel did not seem like the kind to turn on an ally, but Peter held no misconception of the other two. Luckily they had or would have a multitude of enemies, so that possibility was probably non-existent at least until they were all centurions. Peter took another minute before putting a smile on his face and making his way over.

  “I take it we were successful in pissing off two more of the big factions,” Peter said, taking a seat.

  “Mine was a success,” Elyra said with her ever present smirk. “I double tapped the butterfly core. Someone had given her a spare. Pretty stupid of them. If they really wanted to keep her alive they should have given her two.”

  “Ahhhh, so you caused true enmity with them then,” Peter said, bringing his hand to his face. “Do I dare ask where we stand with the demon faction?” Peter turned his gaze on Gabriel.

  “Who can say, I eliminated the Red fury core, but he did not even have a spare.”

  “He was a weakingling, even lost the tutorial,” Elyra cut in. “Best guess is that he was the third or fourth strongest from the demon rookies.”

  So the demon faction might not be gunning for us, Peter thought.

  “I was only able to manage a draw,” Predator said, continuing the status report.

  “And Magic and Multiple…?”

  “Eliminated,” Elyra said unhesitatingly. There was not a trace of concern about the loss in her tone or expression. The other two at least showed a modicum of sorrow, about the level of when someone they were not close to told them their grandma died. None of them were close but they had at least been together for hours last year while they watched the older dungeon divisions battle. Perhaps the three of them did not grow up in as soft an environment as he had.

  “Helen says we are on track for being on the lower side of the scale since it’s only year 3 and we are already down to 62 rookies. Most of the weaker non affiliated cores have already been eliminated,” Elyra continued, but her voice became background noise as he did the math.

  If there were only 62 rookies left, then that meant that 22 dungeons had been eliminated this year. That was eleven times the 2 eliminated last year, and nearly double the 14 that had been eliminated year 1. It was indeed quite a low number since rookies normally battled all the way until year 7 or 8, before they started to prepare more for their integration into the intermediate division.

  Fellette and Emma had indicated that normally at least 30 to 40 would last through the first decade, up to 50 for a real cautious group. They had said that down into the 20’s was fairly unusual, maybe occurring once or twice a century, yet they were already nearly half way there. Twenty two being eliminated was not even the full scope of it; there were apparently a handful more who had lost spare cores as well, meaning fewer dungeons had that life line.

  That being said, year 7 and 8 were the normal stop points for rookies. Their group had just kicked several hornets nests already. The rookie dungeons from the big factions had a bit less to worry about since they would find a modicum of protection when they joined the intermediate dungeon division. For all Peter knew he might get challenged all the way up to year 9. Peter broke from his musings as Elyra started talking about their year group peers. Something he was extremely interested in, since he knew little about most of them.

  “...There are a few other standouts we will have to compete with other than ourselves. Tombstone and Putrefy being only two of them…So Predator should only be slightly ashamed for only being able to manage a draw,” she shot Predator a reproachful look that she also turned Peter and Gabriel’s way.”

  “ Maybe more than you. Gabriel stomped down red furry, mid level as he was, but she said you only won based on your opponent’s glaring deficiencies…”

  “Trying to do as much as possible with as little as possible,” Peter said, shrugging.

  “She’s quite haughty. Wish she had picked a demon type, then we could challenge her using all those holy cards,” Delilah quipped. Peter just ignored her.

  “If you say so,” Elyra finally huffed.” I guess we should start discussing our plans for next year.”

  “We could all go to challenge other dungeons. You know before the undead challenge us… As much as I want a rematch, most of their cards don’t combine well with mine, so I have little to gain,” Predator posed.

  “I don’t think that would work. The undead rookies already had ‘gang up’ cards this year. I’m sure they could get more. Even if we challenged one of the weaker unaffiliated dungeons there is nothing to say they would not add themselves into the battle. Unless the dungeon you challenged was confident it could defeat one of us, it would likely gladly accept,” Gabriel thought out loud.

  “The undead is probably the weakest of the major factions for our year group, and Predator you should have thought about that before you picked a card type that clearly only goes well with certain others.”

  Predator scowled at her. Elyra smugly returned his stare. Gabriel broke the stalemate.

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

  “I think the bigger problem is if they double up on one of us again. I think any one of us would have a difficult time taking on two. Do any of us have the ‘call ally’ card?” Gabriel asked. Elyra just ‘Hmmph’d’ in response.Peter shook his head.

  Predator gingerly raised his hand, “I got it as a part of my initial 10 cards, but I’ve only gotten one so far.”

  “Oh,” Elyra exclaimed. “So you went with the pack hunter speciality?” Predator just stared at her, but did not confirm.

  Peter had not remembered what cards any of the specialties went with, but he had written down the gist of every specialty that he could recall and what it did. He only wished he had thought of taking notes during the preparatory day before the tutorial, of the 58 specialties he had barely half of them. Really only the ones that had left an impression for one reason or another. Even then he only knew the general idea behind them. For pack hunter he only remembered that units of a similar type were stronger when fighting near each other. Not a real surprising pick for a core type like predator. In fact it was likely a pretty common pick for a lot of cores that focused on one specific type.

  “One card will not give us too much to work with,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. The card would perhaps allow Predator to have someone join his battle, but he would have to trade it to someone else if they wanted to use it otherwise.

  “Not to mention the other side might just use another gang up to add a third or even a fourth dungeon to the battle,” Peter stated. The possibility was always there, but it did not occur for the same reason that 91 year old dungeons did not challenge brand new intermediate dungeons. The rewards would be basically nonexistent. Not worth the expenditure, even if it would be an easy win.

  “How are they getting all these epic and rare cards,” Predator asked frustrated with the situation.

  “They trade for them. Older dungeons probably have more than they could ever use so don’t mind trading them down to juniors,” Peter said dismissively before changing the subject to something far earlier.

  “Elyra, you mentioned there were other top contending rookies for us to watch for?” Peter had been able to collect the battle results for all the rookie cores, but had not actually got to see any of them fight since he had battled every year so far. He was eager for more information than what Emma and Fellette could give.

  “Correct, Tombstone and Putrify are notable for their faction, but like I said, Helen is not particularly impressed by our year group's undead. Might have been another story if someone had not dealt with ghost so early on. Likely, the other rookies only got a few A tier ghost cards if any at all. A pretty big hit since they are usually dominant in that realm. A good first move at least,” Elyra gave him a slight nod.

  “Still,” Elyra continued. “Even then they would not be our biggest challenge. Even the other elites from the major factions are nothing exceptional compared to other year groups. Unfortunately, we just got unlucky to have two millennial protégés in our year group.”

  “What?” Peter and Gabriel exclaimed at the same time, both clearly stunned. Peter had not really considered the idea of millennials being guides. For some reason he had thought they would be above that.

  “Oh yeah, you both had crappy guides, so I guess it's understandable that you don’t know. Anyways there are only like 400 older non rookie cores. Only two groups cannot have proteges in the next decadal group: the rookies themselves and the former rookies joining the intermediate division. If there are not enough volunteers to be guides then the rest are selected randomly. The millineals are also forced to have a protege if they have gone too long without having one.”

  “Most of the spots are filled by volunteers,” Predator picked it up. “That is how the factions ensure they get the core types they want to cycle back into their faction.”

  “Ahhh, so that’s why O’ooo bug head ditched me, when I didn’t want to go with one of the spider options,” Gabriel interrupted.

  “Exactly,” Elyra cut back in giving Predator and Gabriel a glare. “The dragon fly core would have been far more helpful if you had even pretended like you were interested in joining the insect faction. Anyways, the millennials only have a protege once or twice a century, so two in one year group is pretty unusual.”

  “Which two are they?” Peter asked, getting the same glare from Elyra. She clearly did not appreciate getting interrupted.

  “The demon and Void millennials. Their proteges are the bone fiend and the stone golem cores. Sure you can guess which one is still in good with their guide. Then again the types that Void would accept are pretty rare so perhaps he just didn’t have the option. That being said, stone golem is still a pretty strong dungeon core having the ability to tier up like voids own, Dragon or even hive from our year group.”

  “Not to mention the Void cards, those are near impossible to get your hands on. Panther said that not only do the millennials contribute the max amount, but the other older dungeons in the same faction will give them good deals for the first decade. They would take it as an embarrassment to have their faction leaders' protege wash out so soon.”

  Peter thought about the news as Elyra once again glared at the small wiry core that continued to steal a step on her. He had known that Hive was a type that could tier up, it had been one of his 100 core type options. It had of course been gone by his second look through, not that Peter would have picked it since it would basically have tied him to the insect faction. However the millennials having protégés and stone golem being a strong core type was new.

  Peter had kept himself from smiling when Predator mentioned how hard it was to get Void cards. He had nabbed some not 5 minutes ago. Peter now wondered if Abyss had been one of Void’s protégés. Seemed incredibly likely. The guy still had Void original cards 100 years after their fallout. Since Void really only traded with his own faction, which currently only had 4 other members, all of them had likely received 100’s of Void cards.

  Probably one of the reasons Abyss had been blacklisted. Unlike Dragon, Void seemed to be more of the type to not want inferior cores to get a hold of his cards. It was possible Void would be more upset about his cards getting out than someone trading with someone he had blacklisted. Peter supposed it did not matter. He would have to be careful.

  Elyra finally continued. “But they are not the only heavy hitters in our year group. All the major factions as usual have a core or two that are standouts. The elementals have the Brine and starlight cores. The reptiles only have one, Cobra. Not surprising since snakes are often their heavy hitters for year groups, unless they have a dragon subtype. The insect faction however has 3: Hive, fire ants, and long leg spider.”

  “Panther, my guide, says that the hive dungeon type is the one to watch out for,” Predator cut in. Once again earning Elyra’s ire. Predator just smiled and continued. “Taking out butterfly was a good move to weaken the insect faction, perhaps if our leader had been more daring she would have taken on hive. Who knows she might have been able to win since she also had a S tier.” Predator clearly did not appreciate Elyra’s somewhat oppressive need to control.

  Elyra responded with her voice seething, “It's called strategy. I don’t know what short rock place you’re from, but taking out the healer is a basic strategy I would expect even you to understand, especially important for the insect faction who likes to drown their opponents with unending waves.”

  “Hive is just as dangerous if not more so,” Predator shot back. The two looked like they actually might break out in a fight. A bit of a mismatch since Predator was a short wiry human and Elyra was tall and muscular

  Delilah clearly agreed. “As hard as it is for me to say, I kind of want to see them fight although I would have to bet on the demoness. I guess your group is full of guys who like to challenge stronger women.”

  “Haha…” Peter thought sarcastically. The dark elf had basically demi god strength, something she liked to throw in his face.

  “Okay calm down,” Gabriel said. His angelic white wings shrugged up and unfurled, revealing his also Demi god physique.

  “Well I guess there is one exception,” she corrected.

  “Enough,” Peter replied. It never felt good when a girl you were interested in replied on how attractive some famous guy was in your presence, and guys were just supposed to accept it. Not like he or any other guy could do the same and expect the same.

  Elyra sighed. “ Anyways the final two elites are Cobra and bone fiend,” she said clearly now disinterested in the matter.

  Now that it was over, Peter finally registered the last comment Predator had made.Hive and likely Elyra both seemingly already had S tiers. Here he had thought he would be a step ahead hopefully having a S tier or two himself before the next congregation. At least two other dungeons had beaten him to that milestone, not inconceivable, potentially others had unlocked strong epic support cards and had better luck than himself in actually drawing one, that being said Elyra and Hive were clearly at the front of the pack so it would be wrong to attribute it to, ‘they got lucky’.

  He would have a lot to think about. Other than S tiers, Elyra had also just mentioned 8 new rivals in their own year group, along with the 3 undead elites and his own group that made 15 elites for their year group. Not to mention any potential sleeping tigers that had as of yet not revealed themselves.

  According to Elyra, Temperence the salamander core was maybe mid level as was Red fury, Gabriel’s opponent. The real worrisome aspect of this for Peter was that these were only the powerful dungeons in his own year group. Every year group would have similar elites. Then by the time they were all centurions only the best of best would be left . There should not be any easy to exploit vulnerabilities like using only air units to blitzkrieg through someone’s dungeon. Once again he felt how seemingly impossible his task of making it up there and taking on one of the millennials would be.