This year, Peter had his post congregation council mid morning versus the evening of the following day. He wanted to leave plenty of time to summon new units. Honestly, he had wanted to the night before, but they were all weary and tired. If it was just summoning units he could have easily squeezed in summoning a bunch, but generally it took time to test the capabilities of each. Testing the capabilities before further summons was important since it might change how he was going to proceed afterwards.

  Every single one of his staff was on board with the ‘battling every rookie congregation plan’ at this point, even Khan. Perhaps he did not quite replenish the resources used, even this year when he had 25 million in cold hard essence, but the other rewards more than made up for it. The real question was who he would be potentially facing over the next few years.

  Peter could not be positive, but he had feeling about one of his 3 remaining rookie battles. He felt that it was almost certain that Bonefiend would challenge him during one of the 3 congregations the rookies had left. Bonefiend had perhaps been a bit hesitant to be the one to challenge him 2 years ago since he had displayed that he had dozens of holy type units. However, Peter had just fought two undead dungeons without showing off any new holy units. Plus Peter had only fielded about 100 elites this year. Sure he likely had more S tiers than any other rookie, but Bonefiend would likely easily field well over 200 A tiers if not 300 if he chose to battle next year.

  Bonefiend was not quite as cocky as he had been 2 years ago when he and Agatha had thrown down the gauntlet, basically giving them a year to prepare, but Peter was fairly sure the demon core would want to show that he was the best of the rookie core’s. Bonefiend had also just taken a year off from the battle. Either he would challenge Peter next year or continue to accumulate resources for the year after, while Peter battled someone else. Regardless, it would not hurt to summon a S tier elite that would be good against the undead and demons.

  The council had been pretty standard. There had really only been one new idea that even had Peter kicking himself, in wondering why he had not thought of it first. Based on his notes, Boris noted that Pip, their ritual summoner fairy had summoned 16 A tiers over the course of the battle. The miniature elite could not keep up the summon rate forever. Pip had rested for several multiple hour periods as it was, but according to Boris’ tests, the fairy could summon a good 20 to 25 A tiers per every day of battle. Already fielding 16 A tiers in a battle would be more good that having one weak S tier participate, so Peter was happy with the decision to choose the A tier summoner over the other two S tier mage options.

  Boris then drew a line to his unused uncommon replicator support cards. Peter had used one of the S tier design cards last time, but there was no reason he could not duplicate the unit with 3 of the same A tier cards. He would just have to use more card type transfers to make new fairy A tiers. There would just be a chance that some would fall into the B tier, but the chances would be on the lower side.

  Peter did not need convincing. His only question was, why had he not thought about this earlier? He would only be able to do it a couple times since he only had 23 magic stock options and 25 card type transfers, but he could still get 24 more. Twenty five fairies that could consistently summon even weaker A tiers, was ridiculously over powered. Apparently the interface agreed.

  [Condition met, ‘Discover Exploit patch (previously discovered)’: 100,000 essence]

  Peter chuckled despite himself. His dreams of ‘unfairly’ sending wave after wave of weak A tiers had apparently died in its cradle. Probably a good thing, from the looks of it someone had already tried mass producing summoner units. The 100,000 essence was a nice touch for literally being told no. Peter tried to think if there were any more exploits, but his mind ran dry. Obviously, he would have tried them, if he had thought of them previously. It had been a good idea, a 100,000 essence idea to be exact. Peter would have to give Boris some credit.

  Peter moved on. For his first summon, he planned on using his S tier Design card and A tiers for holy and Air.

  Archangel S: ATT: S, DEF: A (+), SPE: S(+), SPE: S(-)

  Radiant cloud elemental S (+): ATT: S, DEF: S (+), SPE: S(+)

  Pearl Dove S(-): ATT: S, DEF: A (+), SPE: S(+)

  Peter whistled. He had kind of been expecting something to do with angels. However by pure stats the radiant cloud elemental would be the better pick. He wondered for a moment whether he should just go with it and try for another angel. It was a shame he could not pause this while he tried some other summons. He waffled back and forth for a while, before finally going with the archangel anyways. He also decided to forego the tier up increase for now. Instead he used the design card increase. When that failed to bring defense into the S tier he tried again with the common increase support card. That did the trick bringing the archangel’s defense up to S (-).

  The archangel was about what he had expected. The skin was white and shone with illuminance the same as any one of the moon elves. Other than that the angel had curly blond hair and beige robes. The feminine facial features were sharp, like that of a warrior, but also extremely beautiful. Other than her luminous skin shine and having 2 pairs of wings instead of 1, she would have been a perfect match for someone like Gabriel. At least before his wing feathers started turning black at their edges.

  Peter saw Delilah side eyeing him through his peripheral vision. Peter played it straight, keeping his expression neutral. He had chosen the female angel over the higher stat elemental for legitimate reasons… Probably… She had two special attributes versus one. Then there was holy power and the fact that she was basically an airborne infantry. Besides who could say what capabilities she would bring to the dungeon. The angel as all units when first summoned, stood there waiting for instructions.

  “I think I will name you Krista. Can you explain what your capabilities are?”

  The angel, Krista, unfurled her wings studying them as if they were foreign to her. Her white wings beat down and her sandals feet lifted from the stone. She paused when she got a few feet up, hovering gently as her wings beat once every few seconds. Golden specks seemingly fell down from them as she continued to hover. A moment later she gently landed back on the stone, her wings compressing against her back.

  “I have holy power which I can use to fly and to empower my strikes. I can also use it to form an aura that should block any kind of attack other than physical ones and heal any of my own wounds,” she paused, closing her eyes. Her expression was contemplative as if she was once again not entirely sure of something. So far it sounded more than great. She would be extremely useful, speaking of over powered. Then came the limit.

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  “The only issue is that my holy power is limited. I could probably hover there like I was for hours, but if I was flying in battle and using my holy power for other things the timeframe would be far less,” Krista said with certainty.

  “You cannot fly without holy power?” Peter inquired. She nodded. Peter supposed it made sense, her wings had not beat near enough to keep someone like her airborne. It must have been those golden dust like particles seemingly falling down. From the sound of it a B tier army base off her would be extremely useful, but they would not have staying power, more of a strike force.

  Peter checked how much a maelstrom for her would cost. It was at 7.5 million. If he wanted he could easily buy 2 of them with essence. He would buy the maelstroms at the end, however. “Okay you can wait to the side with Delilah and I. I plan to summon at least a few more units today.”

  Krista moved to stand off to his right on the other side of Delilah, who turned to look at her. Peter did not see what expression Delilah made toward the angel, but the angel smiled… well angelically in response. Oooo… this might not go over well. His idea of getting a hottie to prod Delilah on was now basically in practice. Only time would tell how it would work out. Delilah looked back his way, but he snapped his face forward. He started preparing his next summon.

  Peter had at least 2 more summons planned. He had a powerfully new holy unit, but he wanted another. He also wanted a new powerful dragon to replace the two he had lost earlier. Other than using a S tier design card, it was the same triplification he had done to get the holy armor dragon, design, holy, and dragon.

  Dragonkin saint S(-): ATT: A (+), DEF: S (-), SPE: S

  Golden scepter mage S: ATT: S, DEF: S (-), SPE: S, SPE: S

  Saint Flame Dragon S: ATT: S, DEF: S(-), SPE: S (+)

  Peter’s eyebrows raised in surprise. The triplification had given him two humanoid options. The mage was a gray skinned humanoid. The only dragon influence appeared to be two small dragons wrapped around the scepter the mage carried. All of the choices were potentially useful, but Peter had been hoping for something like the holy armor dragon. The saint flame dragon was clearly the best in that regard, although it seemingly would be more closely in line with the armageddon dragon. That was fine by Peter, he needed a replacement for it as well.

  Peter used the design card’s increase to toughen the dragon’s hide. It was not enough to raise it in rank, but it should make the dragon more survivable. As far as the rare tier up increase, Peter would of course use it on the special attribute. Not only did it go up in rank, it went up by a full tier to SS(+). The dragon appeared a moment later.

  It was slightly smaller than the armageddon or holy armor dragons. The golden neck was more sleek. It might be lopped off in one go with a powerful enough strike. The golden scales continued down its back, but the belly and insides of its appendages more closely resembled the bottom of a turtle shell. On the more serpentine head was a pair of brownish horns twisted back to form a sort of crown.

  When asked to demonstrate its saint flame attack. The S(+) swept its head back and forth sweeping the opposite side of the cavern with white flame. Peter could feel the heat, but it was not as hot as it perhaps should be. Peter looked at Delilah. The dragon was still going, apparently having far more of a supply than the armageddon dragon’s void energy.

  “My guess would be that it is quite a bit weaker than the void beam, at least to regular units. There is an odd energy in there as well. My guess would be holy energy,” Delilah in turn looked at the archangel.

  “Something similar to holy energy,” Krista affirmed.

  “So I have a nice new surprise for Bonefiend if he does challenge me,” Peter said, watching as the last of the flame winked out. The dragon could keep it up far longer than the armageddon dragon could. Peter guessed it was a trade off. Peter ordered the dragon to go lie down at the back of the chamber, and then checked the maelstrom cost, unsurprisingly it was pegged at the max, 10 million essence for the first one. He would definitely use his epic ‘free maelstrom’ cards for something like this.

  However at the end it was still a S(+) rank. Peter was not exactly going for a SS tier unit, but the fact that he had not, with S tier cards and tier up increases, made a SSS tier seem that much more difficult to manage. Still he had two more S tier design cards to spend. Then he would have 4 user choose cards and his maelstroms to burn. Next Peter would add a fifth beast unit. It had been a while since he summoned an ape elite. It took him a moment as he reconsidered what should be paired with it. It was either one of the metals or the concept fury card, he had gotten from one of the 3 F’s. He eventually went with the fury card. The metals would seemingly always be easy to use.

  Black Crested Gibbon S (-): ATT: S, DEF: S(-), SPE: S(-)

  Storm bringer S (-): ATT: S(-), DEF: S(-), SPE: S(-)

  Ape Berserker S: ATT: S, DEF: S(-), SPE: S

  Other than the berserker, his other two choices looked to be on the smaller side. Since he mainly picked beasts to be a fast paced assault force and it was the strongest choice overall, he went with the berserker. It would be easy enough to add mage types later on. He used a common increase, which did happen to bring up its defense a rank, making it mid S tier across all its attributes. It appeared.

  Nothing surprising about it. A giant 15 foot brown gorilla-like brute. The ape’s special ability was a general strengthening enrage ability. Not really anything actually special. The first maelstrom was at 8.5. More expensive than the archangel one but still quite a bit off from being at the max of 10 million. It was the best indicator of how powerful or useful something was without seeing it in action. Still it was a good addition to his beast forces. Peter had it wait at the back of the room with the dragon.

  For his fourth new S tier, Peter elected to use one of his 9 A tier phase options with the only statue type option he had gotten.

  Heroic tribute S: ATT: S, DEF: S, SPE: S

  Mirror soldier S(-): ATT: S(-), DEF: S(-), SPE: S, SPE: S(-)

  Marble elite S(-): ATT: S(-), DEF: S(-), SPE: S(-)

  Looking through the options there was really only one choice since he was aiming for an alternate dimension fighter. It was a rank below the more awesome looking heroic tribute, which looked like a stone Greek hoplite. The mirror soldier however looked like a featureless human made of mercury. Peter used the design increase on the units attack, which was enough to bring it to S rank. He then used the rare tier up increase on defense. It notched it up to SS(-). The unit's overall rank moved from S (-) to S.

  Peter had pictured something like the bad guy on terminator 2. The mirror soldier was something like that. A solid metallic figure with a flowing shimmering skin. The arms could elongate into swordlike weapons. It plus the B tier one offs should be a great addition to his forces. The maelstrom was 9.2 million, so the interface seemed to agree that the one offs would be quite strong.

  Peter had 24.3 million essence left. Just enough for him to buy 3 B tier maelstroms. Along with the 3 free maelstroms he had gotten from packs and 4 user chose cards converted to the same, he could buy 10 in total. Peter decided on 4 for the Saint flame dragon, and 2 for the other 3. Another 1,200 B tiers, which would bring him to nearly 2,000 in total that he would receive every year. Those were numbers that most rookies up to this point would have a hard time fielding, although each year the range was growing. For now it was a good start toward his next year’s battle since he should get them all for it.