After the summons, Peter eyed all of his other support cards. As far as what he could use now, he had 3 epic pinnacle dungeon upgrades and 4 rare masterwork item cards. There was no use holding on to them. Peter decided to start with the dungeon upgrades since the item descriptions were not that great. He would need Merlin or at least Glenda to know a bit more.

  “Can you Krista and the others be situated?” Peter instructed Delilah before leaving. She gave a sly smile before glancing at Krista and stating ‘it would be done’. Nothing to read there… Peter departed toward the first floor of the battle dungeon’s exit, and then to the mini complex of buildings that represented his various colleges.

  Peter opened his interface to the dungeon features tab to floor 10. There were only three things that were upgradable. That is to say, they could be raised in level. There he saw a level 0 magic mine, dark wood forest (14,314 trees), and oddly enough his little fishing pond, although it was called the shadow pool. He had been quite surprised when it had appeared on the list. He had made multiple expansions to the pool over the last year. He was not even sure which one had gotten it on the list since he hardly referenced the list. Of course he could also edit anything, such as the various buildings and what not, but these were the interface recognized features specifically denoted with levels even if they were level 0.

  The essence cost for upgrading the magic mine to level 2 was 10 million essence. Luckily, the epic pinnacle upgrade could do it in one go. Quite a bit of bang for the buck since if he used the epic rarity dungeon upgrade for general purposes like building or editing dungeon floors he could only get 2.5 million out of it.

  The dark wood forest level 0 had no noted value since it would depend on how many trees he would want to include, including them all was an astronomical amount. Peter played around with it a bit, but quickly stopped frustrated. The pinnacle dungeon feature upgrade would only give up to 2.5 million essence worth of upgrade, which only included 75 trees. It did not sound like very many since there were more than 14 thousand. Then again a grouping of 75 trees that could produce higher tier wood or other materials could be quite a bit, when considering the fact that each tree was already at least 5 feet in diameter. Perhaps he could make a little ring of trees at some point.

  The pool of water, his fishing pond, had been on the dungeon feature page as a level zero feature for quite a while, but this was the first time he actually had the capability. Like the level zero dark wood forest however, it could not be upgraded without dungeon upgrade cards. The price had been set at 1,000 common rarity dungeon upgrades, but now one pinnacle upgrade would do the trick. He had 4 options for pool upgrades that were now available since he could potentially purchase them: development pool, manna rejuvenation pool, vitality recovery pool, and stamina bolster pool.

  Peter’s first thought was wondering whether his fishes could get bigger and stronger with the development pool. He read the description, smiling; it was exactly what the upgrade would do. The pool of water was currently level 0, but even a level 1 pool could be another force multiplier. His little F tier fishes could become true monsters in short order. The tier 1 development pool upgrade would provide 100 Development essence daily, and could upgrade units up to B tier. The points could further be used to take a unit towards the top of the tier.

  At first look it seemed a bit underwhelming. That many development points would only be enough to take 4 peak condition C tiers into the B tier in a given year. Not even enough to make more than 1 peak B tier unit. That being said, it was likely that it could be leveled up again. Presumably leveling it further might allow units to develop above the B tier, or at least mean more daily development essence.

  Peter glanced at the other options. Manna, stamina, and healing… They sounded like options that would only really be useful during a battle. Might be difficult to get units to and from them currently. In the future however, he could have the pools on his last floor and use teleportation to bring units back and forth. He would want teleportation regardless, so using it to get his best units back in the fight was not a bad idea. Regardless, he doubted he could use them effectively for now.

  Peter moved on to his mine. He for sure wanted to upgrade it today. Then he could consider making a development pool. Peter used a pinnacle upgrade to bring it from magic mine level 1 to level 2.

  [Magic Mine level 0 upgrade: Increases amount of basic (Tier 1-2) resources. Unlocks potential to find Intermediate (Tier 3-4) resources up to level 4. Max tier for Dark wood realm compatible resources increased from 3 to 5. Potential chance to find resources (Tier 1-4) not conducive to Dark wood realm changes from impossible to Severely diminished.]

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  That was it. The more you learn. Peter had somewhat known about the resource tiers, but had been off. He had assumed since level 0 mines allowed one to find basic resources that it meant the tiers 1 to 3 fell into the basic category, but apparently being built in a dark wood realm had extended what he could get into the intermediate zone while making it impossible for a host of other resources incompatible with the plane. Now he could get up to tier 5 or advanced level resources. Now he also had the possibility of getting things that his mine being in the dark wood realm had until now prohibited.

  The cost for upgrading the magic mine to level 2 was 25 million essence or 2 pinnacle upgrades. Seemingly the essence cost was shooting up far quicker than the amount of upgrades would indicate. Peter was more than glad that he had picked the epic card over his other choices now.

  Now he was faced with a decision. He only had 2 more pinnacle upgrades. He wanted a development pool, but presumably the cost of upgrading the pool from level 1 to level 2 would likely also jump up to 2 pinnacle upgrades. It was either the pool or making his mine level 2. The old game strategy would definitely be to advance in one area far faster than any one else possibly could, to get a serious edge. Peter sighed. Stronger metals and other resources should be its own kind of force multiplier.

  [Magic Mine level 2 upgrade: Increases amount of basic and intermediate resources (Tier 1-4) resources. Unlocks potential to find advanced (Tier 5-6) resources up to level 6. Max tier for Dark wood realm compatible resources increased from 5 to 7. Potential chance to find resources (tier 1-6) not conducive to Dark wood realm changes from impossible to Moderately diminished.]

  All in one go, he had increased the mine’s ability to get intermediate and advanced resources, and dark wood realm specific resources were at whatever stage was above advanced. For his masterwork items he had gotten only up to advanced tier materials. He could ask the older dungeon cores, but that would be showing his hand. Once again, Peter was a bit weary of showing off his good fortune and potentially souring any relationships. They might still only be ripples as far as the older cores were concerned, but he was making waves.

  Some he could not prevent like showcasing potentially more S tiers than any rookie ever had. Helen had said 7 was the most she had ever seen, which she had likely monitored over her 266 years. Peter already had 9. Then there was the fact that he had battled and won every year, and the fact that he had already taken down 2 dungeons. The cores only a few year groups ahead would have to be crazy to not already be a bit weary of him. Regardless, he would do what he could to not stand out in other ways, maintaining as low a profile as possible. He could easily just wait to see what came after advanced materials once he actually found some.

  Upgrading magic mine 2 again to level 3 would not be something that could not be done in the near term. The cost to upgrade for a third time was 50 million essence, or 4 pinnacle dungeon upgrades. Peter would likely feel the need to spend them well before he could ever save that many. Getting 3 all at once like he just had, would probably not happen often.

  Peter found himself near the building he expected to find Merlin. It was the newest one, to house his new artificer college. Peter quickly made his rounds, but failed to find the causality wizard. However there were plenty of C tier one offs around. Peter just grabbed one of them.

  “Here, I’m about to summon 4 items. Can you help me figure out their specifics,” Peter asked.

  The C tier wizard sighed, clearly frustrated that of all the possible people, he had been the one selected. That changed however when Peter summoned the first Masterwork item. A saber made of tier 4 sun agate appeared on the table. The dozen C tier causality wizards huddled up for a closer look. Apparently, they had not understood that he was summoning masterwork quality items. They certainly all had the same crabby demeanor as the original. Merlin also looked irked when Peter tried to pull him away from research for something. One would think they should be happy to help out the master of the dungeon.

  The saber was not much better than the spear he had summoned last time. Peter tried again. He got a second sword, a double edged one this time. The broadsword was made of celestial steel, which was a tier 5 resource. The wizard Peter had picked out explained that it looked like Celestial steel was in line with holy units, or was a divine metal type. Well that would be quite nice for the next time they fought an undead or demon dungeon. Perhaps this would be a good sword for Krista?

  Peter moved on to the third item. This time the item was not made of metal or other materials. It looked like a giant pill, although it was brown in color. Peter’s eyebrows raised. He had not even known getting a consumable alchemic product was possible.

  [Shell strengthening pill; tier 6 resource (prepared)]

  The wizard hurriedly took it from Peter. He examined it for a bit before chanting a quick spell, causing the pill to flare once with a blue light. “ I could not say exactly by how much, but it should permanently strengthen a shell or exoskeleton, likely raising a unit’s defense.

  ‘Oh really, your little spell told you that,’ Peter almost voiced out loud. The item's description had told him at least that much. Peter checked himself however, since no one other than him could analyze anything other than other units. Perhaps being able to determine its purpose in seconds was quite good. Then again Merlin would have gotten a far better idea of its capabilities.

  Peter put the pill aside using his fourth and final rare equipment card. This time a scroll appeared.

  [Scroll of fey; tier 5 resource]

  The wizard once again flared his little ‘identify’ spell. “Huh… this scroll casts a spell. It would create something similar to a domain, if I were to guess. Could not tell you what kind of domain.” The wizard handed it back.

  “I’m assuming it is a single use…? Can you tell me how long it would last?”

  “Sorry, I’m sure Merlin could determine greater specifics. Perhaps if we unrolled it, I could find out more, but that might cast it…”

  “So, we will wait for Merlin,” Peter said frustrated. The wizard nodded, but they all still eyed it along with the rest. “Okay, I’ll leave these with you guys. Tell Merlin, he can distribute them how he sees fit. I would like more copies of the scrolls and the enchantments assuming we can recreate them at some point.” With that Peter left them to it, going on his happy little way. No way would he hang out waiting for Merlin. The guy might be over with Khan or God knows where for hours.