The day prior to the next congregation, Peter held what he deemed his end of year review. He was aware of most things already, but it was good to do a sweep through. He didn’t visit all the areas every day or even weekly. Today he would visit all of his main staff.

  Over the year he had collected just over 14.7 million essence in total. He had started the year at about 32,000 essence collected daily, but had averaged about 35,000 and was currently over 37,000. Which after building up his auxiliary forces, troop summons, and maelstroms only left him about 6 million to work with. Not that he did not have anything to show from the maelstroms themselves, they had contributed over a thousand C tier units.

  Stretched out before amidst the various lava pools standing upon the brown stone were nearly 5,000 troops, 2,000 undead soldiers, 2,500 gnomes, and 500 dark elves. Only about 20% of them had come from his maelstroms. The rest were summoned with an additional 2 million essence to beef up the numbers. Every one of them were equipped with the finest weapons and armor his dungeon currently had to offer. The turtle shell gnomes wore heavy plates and each carried a large plate shield. The dark mauler elves each had far less with plates covering their chest and back, and arm bracers that should be able to take blows from blades around their level.

  “Master, as you can see the troops are ready,” N’tuma said with a small bow. “As long as their flanks are protected they should be able to stop a charge by much of what they could encounter at least most C tier and below. They should hold up against B tiers decently, but I would expect most B tiers to be able to do some damage first. Hopefully forcers and mages should be able to keep damage to a minimum. We have trained in a few contingencies in case they are flanked or have to deal with powerful mages or the like, however they will still need a lot of support. They are only C tiers after all.”

  “You will have plenty of archers at the least,” Delilah said, glancing at Peter.

  “I plan to get some more mages and damage dealers in our final prep time before the battle. If we do end up going into battle against one of the undead cores, I will want to try and get as many holy type units as possible. How would the lines do against an A tier?”

  “Well we’ve tried it a few times, but even my hardened troops would find it difficult to deal with. I can smash right through their lines although it will take some time,” the six foot gnome by N’tuma said. The only visible part of the gnomes actual body was his greenish brown grotesque face. The rest was covered in heavy plate including a spiked shell on his back. In his mind, Peter thought of this guy as bowser, but verbally he called him turtle. Like every other humanoid race they had some weird naming convention. For the gnomes it was slurring several consonants together. Peter could not even begin to be bothered to attempt.

  The amount of metal alone, Peter could not imagine that this guy was not carrying several thousand pounds or more since he also carried a shield that was barely shorter than he was tall and a large war hammer. Peter felt sorry for the little C tier versions of this guy that had to attempt to stop his charge. Any C tier would find stopping this guy difficult, but he was not exceptional when it came to A tiers. Glenda would boil him in his shell.

  “What about the undead?” Peter asked.

  “Hahha,” Turtle chuckled. “Sorry to say, those C tier spectral warriors hold up even better than my guys, and that is in the physical plane. Can’t imagine how they would be in the other dimension where they are stronger.”

  N’tuma picked it up. “The ghastly soldiers are fairly equivalent to the dark mauler elves if they have a slight number advantage. They are both the same type of highly mobile light infantry troops, but once again, this is when they are in the physical plane. I imagine on the other side they would be far more useful.”

  “Unlike the spectral armor units, the ghastly soldiers' capabilities drop far more significantly when crossed over,” Delilah added.

  “Yes, but when they do come over they can flash across the field which can be extremely useful,” N’tuma finished.

  They concluded things there with that. A moment later they were on the other side of the dungeon core walking through the dark, although now a faint illuminance showed off to their far left providing far more light than there had been a year prior. It was the moon elf village hidden strategically behind the magic mine blunting the worst of the cultural lighting. Still far too much, as far asKhan or the other dark elves were concerned.

  “So what do you think? Think we will stand a chance if they have to fight off twice their number?” Peter asked as the two of them moved forward down the now well worn path on the earth.

  “Well if I had been able to hide behind those spectral armors last year, than I doubt I would have lost an eye, and the ghastly soldiers are scary in their own right. Supported by the dark elves and a handful of A and B tiers, I think we can lock down the alternate dimension at the very least,” Delilah said matter of factly.

  “And the turtle gnomes and dark maulers?”

  Delilah looked forward “Not as sure about them, although N’Tuma and the others trained them up pretty well. “That being said, I think you’ll be quite pleased with miss night light’s big reveal today.” she glanced with disdain at the audacious light in the distance.

  Miss night light was Delilah's nickname for her boss, the white witch moon elf. She called the lesser moon elves the little fireflies. It was fitting since the moon elves' skin shown with a luminance that was even more readily apparent on the dark wood floor. The nicknames were now a common slur amongst the dark elves.

  Another figure appeared beside them almost on cue. “Khan,” he acknowledged the other. “how much progress have you made this year?”

  “Well I’ve catalogued nearly 600 different plants, over the last year and a half. Practically one a day. A few of my assistants have used my findings to come up with a handful of basic potions. We should be able to heal minor wounds and combat various poisons. Not to mention the poisons,” Khan paused to showcase a wolfing smile.

  Khan could not be bothered to stop cataloging new herbs to make something like a healing potion that his forces needed better of, but Peter was tracking at least two poisons the guy had personally developed.

  The first he called, dark paralysis which could currently numb even A tiers. C tiers might fully lock up, unable to move, if a large enough dose got delivered. The second he called, lights out. It was a neurotoxin that worked to shut down the nervous system. Actually made from one of the C tier dart frogs natural secretions. It was by far the stronger poison, but the other could be said to be a work in progress. Based on one of the ingredients being a C tier unit's bodily fluids, Khan doubted he could improve the second.

  Khan continued. “The dryads have increased crop yield by nearly a full cycle, and the trees… Well, their growth time has been cut in half… Oooo and I helped the nightlight with a special concoction.”

  “Not bad, I guess it's good that you’re all working together.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Let's not go that far. She asked if I could do something which of course I could. It was honestly a bit insulting that she thought I couldn’t in the first place,” the old elf held his nose high into the air.

  Several minutes later they arrived in Glenda’s office. The office was as pristine as the moon elf’ features. The white witch looked up from several pieces of paper “Dungeon master, here for the year end review. Very well, come after me.” she got up and gracefully exited.

  They entered a sort of workshop. On a long table were a few pieces of equipment.

  “This first item is one of those turtle warrior’s shields,” with little to no effort she flipped what must be about a 100 pound shield over. It was frustrating how much stronger everyone else was compared to him.

  “We have discovered 318 various magical symbols. I’m pretty we have figured out all the basic elements and many of the material symbols. The concept symbols however, well I’ve figured out all the ones in my field of study,” Glenda said looking pointedly at Delilah, who just flashed a fake smile in return.

  Peter had seen at least this much. Enchantments were basically a bunch of symbols written and used like some sort of computer code. Then there were also various geometric shapes, circles, stars, that could shift the meaning slightly. It was all rather complicated, he could not blame Delilah for her lack of progress. Her powers were innate, so it was not like she had anything to start or to work off of. Although she understood more now thanks to Glenda and the other moon elves who had come in with some knowledge of the theory.

  “Anyways, we have already started putting together various combinations and some basic enchantments. It's not perfect, but we have even developed a system to rate and rank the enchantments. For example the weakest defensive enchantment we have designated as level 1 enchantment as the lowest denomination. Level 2 would be twice as strong and so on. This shield that we have mass enchanted for all of the turtle warriors already has a defense of plus 3. If I was to compare it to unit ranks I would say not quite one full rank yet…”

  She moved on. “This standard issue sword has two enchantments. Sharpness and reinforce material enchantments. Using the same base scale, they are both only 1. Multiple enchantments on the same item are more difficult since they overlap and affect each other. Still a force equipped with these swords should do marginally better than just having regular steel. Nothing game changing yet. All our current forces are outfitted, and we have some spares for units that you will summon during the congregation.”

  “Finally, this is a dark crystal. Pulled from the dungeon mine. Basic enchantment inscribed using a light spell that allows me to zoom in for miniature etchings. Have not quite gotten it to work yet, but should be able to store extra mana. In the future maybe even infuse spells. Think of a division of foot soldiers that each carried a heal spell or even a magic attack.”

  “Wow, that would add some interesting possibilities…” Peter said thoughtfully.

  “Now for the special surprise,” Glenda said, throwing back her head and imbuing a potion. Her skin's natural illuminance faded. A moment later she cast some sort of white light. Peter blinked. Glenda’s skin was darker. With her natural platinum hair, she now did not look too far off from a dark elf. “What do you think? The luminance inhibitor will last for several hours, but I can continually reapply it. Put on one of their outfits and it would be pretty close.”

  “So… you sidetracked Khan for however long so that you could participate in battle yourself?”

  “Of course,” Glenda said, not showing a hint of emotion. Peter was not sure he had ever seen the woman smile or seen her angry. The exception was when she looked down on the dark elves. She was not near as combative as Khan about it, but she clearly considered them inferior.

  “I figured what I could bring to bear on the battlefield would be far more beneficial than whatever potion or tincture he would have been working on…” Once again she stated it as a matter of fact, only smiling at the end due to the opportunity to put a dark elf down.

  “She has a point there,” Delilah mumbled, not at all concerned about such overarching slights. Peter agreed, the white witch had a S tier special stat. No specific ability, but she had quite a bit more magic power than flame flinger, who had killed at least 3 A tiers during the last battle.

  “Not worried that she will steal your thunder on the battlefield?” Peter asked as they left for their next destination.

  “So what, not like that cold fish could outdo me in the areas that count,” she said playfully.

  True the white witch was rather all business. A great dungeon subordinate, but not the most pleasant company, Peter thought. Their last stop was the college of engineering.

  “Ughhh… I hate walking in this direction,” Delilah said, asking a show of squinting as they walked. The moon elf village was blocked out by several things, but the dark elves still complained about the light intrusion into their environment. It was a bit funny to Peter since they were not all bothered by bright lights when they did not intrude into their home environment.

  “Like 30 minutes ago, we were on a floor with literal magma and fire…” Peter could not help but to point it out for the thousandth time. Delilah did not reply, likely since he used that point far too often, every time one of them complained in fact. The dark elves liked their dark wood eh… dark.

  Greg the dean of engineering was waiting for him. The dirty brown, yellow, wrinkly face looked up as they approached. He put down what he had been working on, but he did not have to explain what he had been working on. Several dozen giant balasta were lined up in the middle of the warehouse. Each was a good seven or eight feet long and nearly as wide. Then they sat upon their own personal platforms, ball bearings at the base would allow the ballista to swivel to either side or up and down. On the edge of the table lay several massive bolts each a good five feet themselves.

  Peter picked up one. It was pretty heavy. At the end was a eight inch spiral bolt head. That looked like the frame of a large but narrow sea shell. Beside it were several other

  “We have several different bolt types. The one your holding is a corkscrew shot. Doesn’t penetrate as deep, but if pulled out which enemy units will want to since it is also the most effective poison delivery bolt. It is reinforced to hold up when hitting things from the front but the coils will break from the force required to pull the bolt free, leaving the pieces of this spiral metal bulb and the poison inside the wound. Then there is the standard straight shot and regular barb head,” Greg said as he cleaned his hands with an old rag.

  “How far will it shoot? And how often could it fire?” Peter asked examining the other two bolts.

  “As far as you could make a dungeon floor, and it would still carry enough power to pierce through one of our standard turtle soldier shields and kill the unit behind it. As far as fire rate, someone well trained could fire several times a minute,” Greg scratched the back of his head as if he was unsure.

  “We’ve tested it. Two of my D tier elves can easily get off two in a minute, almost three. The crank to draw the string back is the limiting factor,” Delilah added. As far as hitting something… Well they could get a bolt through the dungeon entrance opening from the opposite side of a room… Not quite at the point where we can target specific units.”

  “Can we bring them into the alternate realm?” Peter asked.

  Delilah snorted. “No way that thing weighs more than Turtle with all his armor. Even if a unit could carry it, it would be hard to take it through. Taking our equipment through already makes things slightly more difficult for each of us. Maybe that vine thing that can take other things through.”

  “Don’t mean to interrupt but these things can’t be moved all that easily. If a unit carries it then the ballista could come off track. I have a few carts that can be used to move them, but they still wont hold up to bouncing about. Once in location you will probably just have to abandon them if forced to retreat.”

  “Got it, so definitely not taking one of these babies on the assault,” Peter sighed. Greg shook his head in agreement.

  “I could always make a large crossbow, for a larger unit to carry, but I doubt I could finish one by tomorrow, definitely not since I would have to make bolts at the same size.”

  “What about gearhead, does he have anything ready?”

  “Over in that corner,” Greg said pointing. Peter looked to find what looked to be a sliding blind, like something for paint ball. On closer inspection he saw that it was just a thick heavy piece of metal on top of wheels. The back looked like a bunch of connects that propped up the large front shield. Behind the back of the front shield, Peter noticed a familiar defense 3 enchantment.

  “Now that could be used for an assault, Actually a bit lighter than it looks, easy to move mainly due to an effective use of center of gravity on level ground. might not fully stop one of the ballista bolts, but its twice as thick as our standard issue shields.”

  Peter tried to imagine how this could even be used… probably not tomorrow at least. He had not seen them working on this. He had seen the clockworks working on some steampunk like guns and other stuff, but as far as he knew they were all still a work in progress.

  “They also were working on a line breaker. A large pole-like contraption that could be used to break through an enemy shield wall, like a battering ram. It…still needs a lot of work.”