Just like last year Peter scheduled a post congregation meeting with his staff the evening following the night of his return. There was one major difference this year compared to years past. Right now he had essence to burn along with a host of original core type cards to choose from. In addition he had the Epic maelstrom card which he would use today. If he got a new high level S tier he might consider using it on the unit. If not he would make a second armageddon dragon maelstrom.

  Delilah was already in the puddle room, the final room of his battle dungeon's first floor when he arrived. She had been sitting by the edge of a water pool with her feet in the water, but she had sensed his arrival thanks to her spacial awareness. She had to twist all the way around since he was approaching from her blind side. She had a melancholy expression. It was actually one of the first times he had ever witnessed seeing her without a smug expression on her face. She apparently decided to wait there for him to approach her.

  “You alright,” Peter said, sitting a few feet away. A few moments later he had removed his own footwear and joined her, putting his feet in the pool of water. It was cold.

  “Well I didn’t lose another eye or anything,” she replied with a wry smile, but it quickly faded. Whatever mood she was in was too overpowering for her to break it for long. The best she could do would be to maintain a neutral expression. She looked away back over the pool of water. The pool was only about 40 feet in diameter. It was one of dozens in the final room. Units that did not want to get into the water would have to go back and forth to circumnavigate them one after the other.

  Peter just sat in silence for a few minutes with her. It did not take him much effort to really figure out what was really eating at her. They had just returned from the congregation, as well as a battle. A battle she had even participated in. She had always been a bit of a battle junky. Peter could often see the fight in her eyes. All the sentient dungeon units were built to fight, but most of the other auxiliary types seemed quite content with their ‘day jobs’.

  Khan was perfectly content studying and cataloging herbs and plants. He also enjoyed his side gig of being a general pain in the ass for Peter. N’terrin was perfectly content working with the animals. N’torra was perfectly content managing the crafters and general inventory of all his dungeon’s gear.

  Delilah was more like Glenda, the dean of the magic college in that she wanted to battle. Although the moon elf also enjoyed her work in the college of magic, whereas Delilah just did it because she had the time and wanted to be helpful. However Glenda also liked to rain down destruction. She had put a bit of effort to conceal her nature so she could be allowed to participate in the dungeon battles since she would have otherwise been restricted as a blacklisted unit type. The main difference however was that Glenda was actually a powerhouse with a rank S(-) in her special attribute. Delilah’s best attribute was also her special attribute at A (-), but it only allowed her to blink in and out of the alternate dimension faster than anything else Peter had seen.

  “I’ve been thinking about N’tuma,” Delilah finally said.

  Peter mentally chided himself. He had perhaps been completely off. N’tuma, the dean of combat, who had been summoned the same day as her. The guy who had trained the humanoid infantry. He had just died, yet here he was thinking about Delilah’s shortfalls. I’m such an ass, he thought of himself. He spent the next minute kicking himself, while she searched for the right way to say whatever she wanted to say.

  Then Delilah started talking again, and he realized he had been right the first time. Not to say Delilah did not care about her peers, but she was more internally motivated and less affected by things such as the death of a fellow warrior.

  “Even in our first battle we were already obsolete. I rode into battle against an A tier with one of our own A tiers and still lost,” She touched her eye. She was referencing the battle years ago against the ghost core.

  “Still at that point at least there were only a few A tiers on the field, by the next battle I was already relegated to commanding and doing what little I could with my bow. Then by the next battle, this one… there were even S tiers on both sides and far more A tiers. I could not even bring down the other elites only a few C tiers, and once N’tuma got in a desperate situation he could not even give a good account of himself. He died as easily as any of the other C and B tiers that die by the thousands. By the next battle what will I even be able to do…” she trailed off hanging her head.

  Peter just let it hang for a moment. It was the most emotionally open that he had ever seen of her. Normally she just joked and teased and flashed him a seductive grin. “All that said, what could he even say in return.” Everything she was saying was obviously true. Even now he had come here with the intent of summoning better elites for his dungeon. By itself a B tier really could not make much of a difference…

  “I know you would like to be in the thick of it,” Peter started, pausing as he searched for the right words. “I won’t lie and say that you are currently able to be where we are right now. However you have seen the more advanced battles. There is a good chance that with better equipment you could even bring down S tiers, and even if you can’t, your contributions as a leader on the field are already valuable enough. Plus you still have the best dimensional ability that we have seen up to this point including the A tiers that we have summoned.”

  Delilah just sat there silently in response, looking into the pool of water.

  “Look if you really need to feel better just look at me. I’m nearly useless once the actual dungeon battle begins. Like a chess master all I can do is to place my pieces and hope for the best. Even If you only kill B and C tiers, that is more than I could do. More of a contribution than I make in the battle. We all have our pl…”

  Delilah cut him off erupting in snorts and laughter. “Awwtahaha… you fight a C tier. That is like 3 tiers too high for you. I could see you taking on a F tier.” The thought apparently was humorous enough to break her mood. Nothing like seeing yourself compared to someone far more wanting.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  So much for comforting, Peter narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Was the thought of him fighting really such a funny thing? It was not like he was some shrimpy or overly fat dude. Self admittedly he was basically average, but as a man, even as one who had never really had the need to fight, he would like to think that he could still go out there and mess some things up. He agreed that even the weakest of C tiers would be beyond him. Still could she not at least give him E tier. Even some of the weaker D tiers might be manageable, but an F tier. Those were basically harmless.

  “Well I’m glad I was able to cheer you up,” Peter said, finally rolling his eyes. “Can we get to summoning new units now,” he added with clear annoyance.

  “Sure, sure…tckckh,” Delilah replied, doing her best to keep another round of laughter from breaking out. It took a minute for her to fully compose herself. All the while he stared at her with narrowed eyes. If he was honest, it was hard to stay annoyed at her when she looked so cute.

  “Okay go ahead let's summon more things for me to be in charge of… Just no attractive women,” Delilah said, indicating for him to get on with it.

  Peter flashed her an insincere smile in return before opening his interface. “Alright, our goals remain basically the same. We need more S tier units, but we also need a sapient healer. The holy armor dragon heals all friendly units in its area of effect, but we need targeted healing for more serious injuries as well as to push our capabilities forward in that field.”

  “But the main goal is to spend all our essence, before Khan gets a chance to hassle you with his far superior ideas,” Delilah added.

  “Exactly,” Peter affirmed.

  So Peter started with the Holy type cards. He still had 9 originals out of the 15 that he had traded for. That would not be the extent of it though. He already had 23 A tier Holy type stock options and would likely more than triple that using the remaining originals. He was not quite sure how far he would go. He was pretty determined to get what he needed today, even if that meant not being able to try for an S tier today.

  However he determined that it would not be a good use of resources to use his tripplifications despite currently having 41. The 100,000 he would have to spend on an A tier design card was far more limiting. A S tier healer would be great, but ultimately it would be a bit of overkill. It would be better to spend those resources to have a better chance at S tiers with better cards. For this case he would use the 43 doublifications he currently had with A tier design cards. He could purchase up to 34 A tier cards with his current essence. Which would give him 21 opportunities since once he ran out of holy originals he would be forced to buy their stock options as well.

  Using up the 9 original holy type cards was easy. When he had to start spending 200,000 per chance buying both a holy stock card and a design card it got harder. Peter had gotten several units that could heal injuries similar to his holy armor dragon and even the A rank Celestial toad that had a far better healing capability, but none of his first 9 tries had offered him a sapient healer to develop his dungeon capabilities. He proceeded with the tenth, cutting into the first of his 55 stock options. The last of the type cards he would ever have since the core was eliminated, unless he wanted to use a card type transfer.

  The eleventh try did not give Peter the healer he wanted, but one of the options was nearly just as welcome. The A (+) rank light crusader had fallen in its very first battle, yet now one of his options was the A rank Holy knight. It was technically a rank weaker than the light crusader, but the unit had legit holy power versus the light knock off brand the crusader basically had. Peter quickly chose it. He would build some more maelstroms and continue to increase his infantry.

  The twelfth and thirteenth attempts once again did not provide what he was looking for. Peter felt dangerously close to giving up, but he brought his feelings into check. Then finally on the fourteenth attempt he finally got something that could fit the bill, although perhaps not in the way he had expected. After his increase and an additional support increase he got…

  Vigil master A (+): ATT: A, DEF: A (-), SPE: S (-), SPE: A (-)

  Peter finalized things with the 2 increases and the fourteenth unit appeared before the previous 13 who all sat waiting patiently on the periphery or the room observing their dungeon master. The vigil master was the closest thing to a human that Peter had witnessed in a dungeon unit. It was a tan man wearing white robes with a blue sash about his neck and his waist. The guy's skin had an unnatural yellow tint, to keep him from being ‘too human’, but the most interesting thing were the blue tattoos that gave the guy a ‘Avatar the last airbender’ feel despite them not being arrows. What was visible were intricate tapestries of blue art work that depicted humanoids, beasts, and symbols.

  “Well, can you show us what you can do?” Peter asked.

  “That would be difficult, master,” the vigil master said bowing. “As I’m sure you have seen. I have two abilities. My weaker ability is my holy power. I can use it to heal among other things. My stronger ability,” the man moved his hands forming a visible symbol of golden light in the air. It looked like a symbol from ancient Egypt hieroglyphs, not that Peter was an expert in the matter. The displayed symbol was a circle above two parallel lines that flared out in opposite directions at the bottom. There was no bottom line, but if Peter had to give the symbol a name it would be ‘ball on top of chemistry beaker’.

  “My second ability is Vigils. I know hundreds of them. This is the vigil for health. Although not as powerful as me healing something directly this will continuously heal a unit or group of units as wounds accumulate. Its duration and power are based on what I put into it,” the vigil master said nonchalantly.

  Peter’s eyes widened more and more as he continued to explain the capabilities. The guy could make defensive vigils that stopped magical attacks or prevented something physical from passing through. Peter quickly summoned a C tier one off, and discovered that that unit, this time a female much to Delilah's dismay, could do the same although only at the C tier level.

  Peter could not believe it. This was far better than he had expected. They could heal as he had wanted, but they could do far more. They would devastate demons and undead, but they could be useful against any other force as well. A force of mini vigil masters could throw up a line of vigils that could stop a horde of charging beasts. The only limiting factor would be their holy power which would deplete and recover the same as manna. Still they would be a great addition to his forces.

  “I will name you Michael. You will be the dean of the healing college. You will work on expanding my capabilities in that field, as well as with your vigils. Then you and your subordinates will also fight in future battles.”

  “Your will, will be done, master,” Michael said bowing slightly. Other than being unnaturally yellow, like a character from the Simpsons, the guy was basically the caricature of some guru or monk from the orient.