Peter made his decision, he had 9 S tier design cards again thanks to meeting the rewards for summoning his first SS tier. He would go for the summoning 3 SS tier units as a rookie condition he expected existed. He had gotten 1 user chose card for summoning one. If he summoned 3 he would expect to receive 3 user chose cards. He had enough S tier cards to attempt it 3 more times in addition to 3 rare tier up cards.
Peter decided he would continue to use two elite type cards with a design card. He would take the 3 options and minor increase for his next 3 attempts over what he had just done. The chances should be fairly similar although often he would be forced to go with the option that was obviously more powerful so it was not much of a choice. He had wanted to use diamond for a while, and why not another abyssal fiend. The demon millennial would be very satisfied if he showcased two units of her card types. The others eclipse, void, black hole, they were all so similar they could assume their cards had been used on any one of his new units.
Glitter fiend S: ATT: S, DEF: SS(-), SPE: S(-)
Abyssal Crystal Construct SS(-): ATT: S(-), DEF: SS, SPE: S(-)
Blood Diamond Warlock S (+): ATT: S(+), DEF: S(+), SPE: S
Peter sighed. The blood diamond warlock was definitely one of the most awesome units he had ever seen, but could he really pass up a SS tier that did not even need the increases for it. The construct's defense was so good it brought up the unit's tier by itself. Peter had thought the collapsing star fiend would be difficult to kill. What would happen if he increased this thing's defense to SSS. Could it waltz right through a rookie dungeon? Peter selected the Abyssal crystal construct.
Peter used the design card to increase the unit's mobility. There was no change. He had hoped it would bring up attack or defense as was often the case with construct type units. It apparently was not enough. Pedal to the metal, he dropped the rare tier up increase on the unit's defense. True to its function it brought the defense up a full tier to SSS rank. The unit’s overall rank went up to SS even.
The unit appeared, hundreds of feet away. It was basically a giant midnight purple sea urchin with a handful of tentacle appendages. It was freakishly slow, moving by extending and retracting its various spines. Had the regular increase even done anything? Just how slow was the thing. It did not matter. What did matter, was that this thing could roll down a fairly large tunnel filling up the whole thing. Its spine like appendages would likely stab through things as it rolled. The appendage tentacles could also attack although their reach was barely any better than the spines at their longest.
The special attribute could generate new spines or tentacles if they were broken off. It was specific to the spines or tentacles, so damage to its main body would have to heal normally. Which along with his collapsing star fiend might be a problem, since holy energy or standard healing would actually have an adverse effect. A problem for later, Peter did note that this unit shared many of the same resistances as the other SS tier although not all were as high, making Peter assume it was a trait of the demon milleneal’s abyssal fiend type.
It was no wonder she had been able to beat a millennial at one point in time. Peter still did not know how he felt about that. Void had blown his mind with so many revelations. It would take a lot of fishing for him to think it all through.
Peter dismissed the thought for now, summoning a B tier one off. SS tier or not the one off had its stats reduced to be B tier. The abyssal crystal construct B tier was actually the size of a small compact car with its spines retracted. It was even slower due to its small size, making their utility questionable. Luckily, Delilah was a bit more imaginative.
“Oooo, I say we launch these things with the catapults!” She exclaimed excitedly.
Peter nodded. That was indeed a good idea. His other idea was to use them as a living and moving wall. Peter had not forgotten two battles ago, when his nightmarish creation moved down a tunnel protected by mages from behind. These things were potentially even better. Still he was more excited to move on.
For the next combination Peter elected to use design, diamond, and black hole. What Peter knew about black holes came from science fiction movies, basically the most basic definition. Something that is so dense that not even light could escape them. Wasn’t a diamond also dense and hard? Surely it would be a complementary combination.
Devastator worm S(+): ATT: S(+), DEF: S(+), SPE: S(-)
Dark Star S: ATT: S, DEF: S(+), SPE: S
Blue Diamond gravitron S(+): ATT: S, DEF: SS(-), SPE:S(-)
The other two looked like cool options, although Peter could not really tell what the dark star was, the picture just had a black ball. The devastator worm was likely huge, although he could not tell from the picture. However there were teeth all around that circular mouth, as well as a pair of antenna like appendages. What it had to do with the type cards used, Peter did not know. It happened occasionally. Peter assumed the special ability or something in the internals of the unit was related.
Peter would of course go with the Mech. Like Boris and the other clockworks or the A tier rift ripper he had used in his fight against the ghost core, this thing was straight up a robot. It was made of blue diamond, likely making it incredibly tough. Peter elected to use his tier up increase on the special attribute, thinking it would be the best to raise the unit's strength. It now left him in a predicament. The increase had only brought it up to S(+). There was only a 10% chance of that happening when using the rare support card increase on a minus ranked attribute. If he really wanted the SS tier he should have thought it through better. Peter dropped the design increase on special attributes. Boom it popped up to SS(-). The overall unit however was left at S(+) despite having two attributes at SS(-).
However, Peter felt vindicated when witnessing the units actual capabilities. Like the chilled glacier turtle, this robot had domain skill, gravity. Delilah was not near the strongest B tier, but she was crushed down to the stone unable to move. Stronger B tiers would be able to resist, but they would have a hard time fighting. Like everything else, the gravitron had an energy bar for the skill. It decreased fairly slowly, meaning this unit could rampage freely for a good time. The one downside of this unit was shared with the turtle and his new sea urchin–like construct, it did not play well with friendly forces.
The B tiers shared the gravity domain skill, but it was only powerful enough to make Delilah feel like she was wearing cement shoes. She could move and fight to an extent. Stronger B tiers would power right through it. Still the B tiers should be able to go toe to toe with the strongest B tiers they encountered, but their ability would likely prove more useful subduing lower tier units. He might not have got an SS tier, but the gravitron and its one offs would prove useful.
Peter prepared for his seventh and final S tier summon. This time Peter used card type transfer to make an S tier dragon and void cards. The options did not disappoint, pretty much wins across the board.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Nether Dragon S(+): ATT: S(+), DEF: S, SPE: SS(-)
Dreaded Dragon S(+): ATT: S(+), DEF: S(+), SPE: S
Ether tearing Dragon S(+): ATT S(+), SPE: S(+)
The dreaded dragon looked pretty standard dragon. Perhaps it had some sort of void attack, perhaps it didn’t. Peter had better options, so there was no need to chance it. The ether tearing dragon was the first unit he had ever seen with only two attributes. The picture clearly indicated the dragon was incorporeal. Presumptively it would survive off a mass of energy, dying if it ever was extinguished. Perhaps the ether tearing allowed it to replenish ether from enemies, like some sort of energy parasite.
The nether dragon was clearly a more standard dragon with void powers similar to the armageddon dragon. Except its reptilian hide was gray instead of black. Nether was basically the absence of ether. It could very well do the exact same as what he expected the ether tearing dragon of. Both units also had a decent chance of being alternate realm capable. Both units also should be easy to bring up to the SS tier.
Peter thought about it for a while. Either dragon as a SS tier would be dominant. The ether tearing dragon, probably a bit more so, although he had a great chance of moving the nether dragon’s special attribute into the SSS tier. The ether tearing dragon’s B tiers would add an additional flavor, but if something could counter them it would likely really counter them really well.
Peter went with the incorporeal option. He was still in the rookie division, where opponents did not necessarily have answers to every problem. If they did, it might be difficult to get them to the right part of the battlefront in time. Peter had two tough battles to look forward to. The tier up increase, only brought up the ether tearing dragon’s special attribute to SS rank, but his design increase pushed it up to SS(+). Unsurprisingly the overall rank of the unit followed the special attribute closely, going up to SS, clearly more weighted by that attribute.
The ether tearing dragon worked nearly as advertised. It could rip energy from magic shields, barriers, or unit bodies. The energy stolen however went straight to the void. The ether tearing dragon was replenished at a steady rate from the void. The replenish rate was just under the threshold of what it needed to keep itself in the physical plane, but not by terribly much. The rate required to sustain itself out of the void in the alternate dimension was quite a bit less, meaning this thing would have to live there.
Peter sighed. This thing was indeed an energy parasite, but it had major downsides along with its strengths. The thing could literally kill itself by fighting too much. It took void energy to steal regular energy sending it to the void. It would lose energy if attacked or to even sustain itself. The B tier one offs shared the same issue. They would not be able to do much in the physical realm at all. After killing and draining energy from a few units at their tier they would likely be forced to retreat back to the alternate dimension. Even in the alternate dimension they would need to retreat off the frontlines to replenish their void bars.
Not quite what he had hoped they would be, but could he really be disappointed in a difficult to kill SS tier that would likely be a good anti mage shield or barrier breaker among other things. They would be like a special short term strike squad, rolling in to devastate before being pulled back to recover. Not to mention he had been right.
[Rookie battle condition met, ‘Summon 3 SS tier units as a rookie’: 3 user chose card]
Just like that he had 10 user chose cards, which meant he could build 14 B tier maelstroms since he also had 4 epic free maelstrom cards. Peter thought for a moment on whether he wanted to keep any. Perhaps a few more pinnacle dungeon upgrades might seriously increase his combat strength, but he dismissed the idea. He could increase his auxiliary capabilities just fine naturally. Neither did he need more S tier elites, he already had four times as many as any other rookie. That left increasing his annual free B tiers.
“Mehhehe,” Peter rubbed his hands furiously together. He had 16 S tier maelstroms already producing 1,920 B tier units a year. Now he could make that an even 30 which would produce 3,600 B tier units every year. That was the equivalent cost of 36 million essence, pretty much what it would take a full 2 years for a rookie dungeon to gather.
Peter was currently bringing in 17 to 17.5 million essence a year. After year 10, he would add 40 new collection floors which would net an additional 8.4 million essence through purely ambient essence collected. Centurian dungeons would get an additional 10.5 million due to an additional 50 floors. Of course most intermediate dungeon dungeons brought in more essence from adventurers than rookies through extra advanced level floors. Still already he was freely getting what it would take a centurion a year to gather.
It was not perfect. Other cores were also building maelstroms, just not at as furious a rate as he was. There were also other force multiplying methods. He knew of a few. His development pond would allow him to increase the strength of weaker units. Cores like his own guide, clockwork and the rest of the golem faction were able to make their own golems and bring them to life through magic cores. Other types had other methods. There was always something balancing the gains, whether materials or time required, but it meant things were not so clear cut. Peter just needed to do everything he could with his own forces.
For now that meant building more maelstroms, luckily he had just enough essence to build one of the weaker ones using essence. It would take weeks, but he would be able to buy a second one as well which would put him at 32 B tier producing maelstroms. Peter had netted a bit over 14.9 million essence during the battle. Two million of it had been used to replace the mining apes, gnomes, and other auxiliaries he had lost immediately upon return. It had not replaced them fully, but it was enough to get production up to an acceptable level. Then he had spent another million essence through trade, obtaining all those sweet card types.
The space cessation mage’s maelstrom only cost 6.3 million essence. He could buy one now, and another in a few weeks. Peter was sure he would be using them like Michael. They would make excellent defenders against magical attacks, along with their other uses.
The next cheapest unit was the sanguine rose fairy at 6.6 million essence, However, Peter had decided to keep the fairy off the field if he could manage. It would be another cheap maelstrom he could buy in the future with essence. He was also planning on not playing the Abyssal Crystal Construct in the battle. Both units did not seem like good matchups for the stone golem, so he would rather keep them hidden. Peter decided however he would go ahead and buy one of the abyssal crystal construct maelstroms priced at 10 million. He could just let them accumulate for the year after’s battle. The bug cores loved smaller tunnels feeding into the main tunnel to allow their numerous bugs to ambush. They might find it difficult to get past the spined constructs that could expand their spines to fill the whole space.
Still he would only go with 1 for that unit for now. It was not only the new units he wanted maelstroms for. He would prioritize units that should be effective against stone golem since that would be his opponent. Peter elected to build 3 more for the berserker ape, giving him 5 in total. If he had metal gauntlets made for them, they would easily smash some stone golems.
Next was the collapsing star fiend, his first SS(-) rank unit. Peter built 3 of them. They probably were not as good as berserker apes against stone golems, but they should be pretty good. With their plasma energy they should be effective against almost any enemy, so Peter wanted to ensure he had a decent showing of them.
The next was the blue diamond gravitron. The gravitron B tiers would increase the stone golems substantial weight even further by increasing gravity. They were then well suited for killing them since they would then pummel them with their already gauntleted fists. Peter built 3 of them as well. They were another unique capability that would always be useful.
That left only 5 more free maelstroms. Peter made 2 for chilled glacier turtle and 2 for Ether tearing dragon. The last he used on Abyssal Crystal construct, although he would not use them for the upcoming battle. In a few weeks he would buy the second maelstrom for space cessation mage and have 32 B tier maelstroms total. As tough as the upcoming battle might prove to be, Peter also decided he would build 5 more for 2 new A tiers he planned to summon. That should leave him with about 10 million essence to use for the day of battle.
“Muhahahha,” Peter laughed again, much to Delilah’s displeasure.
