Dungeon battle awards: Battle essence collected: 918,431

  Win Rewards: 2,500,000 essence, 50 support card packs, 1 support card unlock, 1 spare dungeon core, 5 A tier Salamander type cards

  Rookie battle condition met, ‘win 3 dungeon battles as a rookie dungeon’: 2,000,000 essence.

  Rookie battle condition met, ‘fight and win 3 consecutive years worth of dungeon battles’: 1 user choice card.]

  Peter stared at the rewards. Getting only 5 type cards wasn’t a surprise. He had not destroyed Temperance’s last core. Which he had already known since she had won the tutorial battle. He generally knew about the dungeon conditions, including the ‘win 3 battles as a rookie dungeon’, where the tutorial did not count. Most of the elite rookie dungeons would know and more than a few would likely get it. It was not much of an incentive, by year 2 dungeons would already be spending more than the 2 million the condition gave.

  However, the ‘winning 3 consecutive years’ condition, that was not something he had been told about. Peter had to flip his screen to the manual using a search function to see what a user choice card was. He practically hopped out of his shoes as he read.

  The user choice card would allow him to pick one out of any of his unlocked cards to receive, even those from the epic rarity. There were not even any conditions, so he could keep this in his back pocket until till he unlocked an even better epic card or to get him out of a dangerous situation. That being said, he knew he would use it as soon as the right opportunity arrived. Either to make a S tier unit or to make a maelstrom off of one.

  That being said he also could unlock another card, bringing him to 13 in total. Unlocking another epic card would be nice, but he already had 2. Since he had only 2 rare cards, he could not unlock a third until he grabbed a rare first. Another rare would be nice, currently he only had two: block challenge and resurrect. He hoped he would not have to use either of the one he had for each until far later. He chose rare and was presented with 3 options.

  Greater dungeon upgrade (R)

  Unique masterwork item (R)

  Call ally (R)

  The Dungeon upgrade was pretty self-exclamatory. He already had the common version. There was likely a version at every rarity. His common version gave 20,000 essence now that he was at the A tier. Which was kind of a loss since he had to pay 25,000 a piece for the 10 he was allowed to buy. The rare version would likely give something like 1 million or something. Not great, but then again he had opened only 120 card packs so far and had already gotten 2 rare cards. As his chances of opening a rare continued to increase, it could help recoup funds.

  The unique masterwork item was just that: a single piece of gear at the masterwork quality level. At epic the equivalent card would probably offer something at the artifact level. Those were the only two equipment qualities that were actually detailed in the manual, but based on an example told to him by Emma and Fellette, he knew he was a ways off of being able to produce something of that level.

  He already knew about call ally. It would allow another eligible dungeon to enter into a battle on his side when he was challenged. Of course the opponent could then play the counter gang up allowing another dungeon to take their side. Still Peter knew that the call ally side was the reason that there were not a lot more dungeon battles in the intermediate or centurion levels.

  Every Time they challenged a dungeon they were opening the possibility that another dungeon in their weight class or below could join in. They also had to take into account that they could be challenged the very next year even if they won. The counter gang up card was epic rarity so it would be harder to get someone to aid you if they were even so inclined. The downsides for both cards were that they depended on willing participants. Cores could not be press ganged into battle unless they were challenged.

  Call ally was a good card to have, but Peter could foresee that it would quickly become obsolete. How many times would he really want to even use it. For one calling an ally would reduce his own rewards, which defeated the purpose unless it was to save his hide, and if he was really in over his head, what were the chances that even someone like Elyra would be willing to throw in with him.

  There really was only one good choice unless the greater dungeon upgrade gave far more essence than he expected, the masterwork quality item card. Even if the item was not directly usable. It could be potentially useful for research purposes. Jump starting his research now might be more beneficial than anything else.

  Peter bought this years packs and opened all 60. He focused on the epic, but the counts all remained zero. He had gotten 2 rare cards. One of each of his others, giving him 2 resurrects and 2 block challenges. After that he got 8 uncommons, consisting of 4 card transfer types, 2 spawners, and 2 replicators. The rest were common. He now had more than 30 of everything except the dungeon upgrades which he normally used up soon after receiving.

  It honestly was hard to use up his common support cards, which was not a bad thing. When he got to the intermediate division he would not be able to battle every year, so would only get 10 card packs and his 10 triplifications a year. Battling 3 years in a row as a rookie was not unheard of but definitely unusual. He would likely soon be wishing he had so many support cards he could not possibly use them all.

  Peter took a moment considering what he should do next. He had more than 5 million essence so he could go make the deal with the dragon millennial. It was possible he could have even more essence after a victory in the future, but he already had enough for 57 A tier design cards. Just a pittance for someone like Dragon who had been around for 8 millenia. That was why Abyss had thrown out to shoot for 100, but even using 35 after his trade with Abyss should net him over 100 stock options. Peter was too eager to delay another year in hopes of a greater return.

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  Fifteen minutes later he was outside of the sectioned off area that was the dragon millennial’s domain. Just two closed partitions separating him from the Void millennial on his left and the undead millennial on his right. The back of a large marble throne and Dragon’s stubby tail hanging off one side was all that Peter could see.

  According to Abyss, Dragon was only sociable for about the first fifteen to twenty minutes of a congregation. Which was of course when every single one of the other cores tried to do business. Abyss did not recommend trying during this time since Dragon would not want a spectacle of him meeting a rookie dungeon. Of course other cores might also take offense if he cut in as well. Dragon supposedly became increasingly grumpy as he dealt with kiss ass after kiss ass from the cores in his own faction despite them being the ones collecting the desirable type cards on his behalf.

  However Abyss recommended approaching him during an extremely boring matchup during dungeon battles. Which right now was just Holy, 13, fighting Frost, 33. It looked like Holy was holding a lot back since he appeared to be doing even worse than last year. Peter had to assume the guy was holding some resources in reserve now that he had a pair of spare cores to fall back on. Still he had to at least make a show of it, so that hopefully he would get a weaker opponent next year.

  Peter waited for about 10 minutes before he heard the dragon millennial grumble. Maybe that was a good sign? Peter took one deep breath before proceeding forward until he was even with the throne. He only glanced at Dragon out of the corner of his eye. Dragon was basically a pudgy mini non winged dragon. Maybe 10 feet tall if he actually stood up. Honestly he was more of a fat lizard when compared to the dragons he had seen in battles so far.

  Dragon was laying sideways on the giant throne. He leaned over on the side Peter had approached. His head was braced against the throne arm rest, with only his arm in between. He was sprawled out across the throne with his tail hanging off the other side. There was no cushion which would make Peter think the throne would be uncomfortable, but only the demon millennial actually had anything of the sort. The others bodies were perhaps beyond needing the padding.

  “A little baby core comes to pay me a visit,” Dragon spoke. His voice was deep and rough. The tone of his voice showed he was more surprised than irritable. Which was a good sign. Abyss had mentioned that if Dragon was in a bad mood it would not matter how he presented the deal. Peter took that as a good sign to proceed. Still Dragon did not bother turning to look at him. But before Peter was able to get himself to talk. “Right after you witness a dragon's brilliance in battle you come rushing to get some. Understandable… still pretty brave considering you just defeated a rookie of my faction...”

  How had Peter forgotten that? Peter froze for a second due to the realization, before he recovered. Dragon cared very little about his faction, especially the non dragon types like salamander or dart frog. If anything he had sounded slightly amused. A second later he was able to push out the words. “I only responded to her challenge, and of course I was very impressed. That golden dragon assaulted one of the three paths all by itself, whereas groups went down the other paths. I did not even end up killing it despite quite a bit of effort to do so.”

  Without hesitation Peter held out the A tier design card. Might as well finish his pitch before the dragon came to a hasty decision. If the dragon told him to go away that was the end of things, he was the stubborn and obstinate type and did not need anything so bad that he would ever take back something he had previously said, even if it was in his interest to do so. “Of course I wanted my own. I think you might find my own card type interesting…”

  This time he only gave a brief pause. “Use one with a combination card and you could either get 6 choices based off the other cards it was combined with or be able to increase 2 aspects. Use two design cards with another and you could look at up to 12 choices or get 4 increases. A little more choice into what you get, maybe get something you haven’t before.”

  With that dragon turned towards him, his big snouted head only rotated slightly where now it was his chin resting on his braced arm instead of his cheek. “Hahaha I see someone has coached you up. You know exactly what I would be interested in. I wonder who it is that helped you…?”

  Peter gulped. He did not have a response prepared for that. If he said a name it would likely be him throwing them under the bus, and he had done a little too much of that already roping the other concept rookies into a feud with the undead.

  However, it turned out that Dragon did not actually care all that much. He breathed heavily through his nose. “Alright, fine, I’m bored anyways. Seeing the undead and fiends forcing others to fight people far weaker than them is a crime against my sanity. You at least show some backbone. How much do you have?”

  Peter was taken aback, but he went with the mood. “I have enough for 57 A tiers.” He had been thinking of rounding it to either 50 or 55, but he decided to follow the mood and get as many as possible.

  “Haha, fine, get out of here,” Dragon said.

  Peter balked, but a second later the deal appeared.

  [Dragon is offering 57 A Tier Dragon cards for 57 A tier Design cards. (5,700,000 essence will be converted.)]

  Peter’s eyes widened but he quickly accepted. Just as quickly, he got the hell out of there. He would not say that Dragon was in a good mood, but the millennial seemed to want a diversion. A diversion that his design cards might fill very well. Peter could not believe that he had just received 57 A tier cards from a millennial. He was almost guaranteed to get about 200 stock cards even after his trade with Abyss.

  However just as soon as that thought occurred to him he made it to the back stairwell. He quickly retreated down and across the first floor. Unknown to him a figure had been watching the exchange, Peter’s eyes flashed wide for a second as he saw the familiar blue figure wearing a black trench coat and duster hat. It was August, the abyss core. August flashed a smile as he slowly descended, having obviously ensured the two would cross paths. He nodded for Peter to proceed since Peter had to initiate the trade.

  Peter had not been expecting to cross paths with August so soon. August had agreed for 4 of his own cards for each Dragon card Peter was able to trade, which he had tentatively set at 10. Peter had added on trading 5 more dragon originals and 5 other cards of interest, so that he could also get 5 Void cards from the blacklister. Peter would likely find getting them himself an impossible feat. The only problem was that Abyss had really only shown interest in Gabriel's fallen cards from what he had available. Peter only had 2 Fallen originals. He scanned through his other options.

  Peter decided, putting up the 2 Fallen type cards along with 3 moon elf cards and the 15 dragon cards. Abyss obviously received the prompt, because he paused a step. His blue face wrinkled in indecision. He sighed and the smile returned. A moment later he accepted it and continued on past with a, “Do another signal when you are ready to deal again.”

  Peter paused for a moment. He had just secured 3 powerful cards types in a matter of 5 minutes. For two of them he had more than 40 or more origionals, and even the 5 from void were nothing to sneeze at. He felt a wave of heat sweep through his body as he thought about the possibilities.