Everything settled Peter returned to his group. The other four rookie cores were already there, including Gretchen. Helen, Elyra’s blue skinned guide, was also present. They all looked at him with interesting expressions as he approached. He slinked into his seat under their gaze.

  “How did you get 2 S tiers?” Elyra blurted out.

  It was clear his battle and showing two S tiers was quite the spectacle for a rookie dungeon. It was Helen that actually answered. “Based on the unit types I would say it was based on the cards and increasing aspects. Still the armageddon dragon attack has to at least be S (+) rank or maybe double S?”

  That last part was a question, which Peter would not answer.

  “Fine…” Helen said with a pretend pout. “Still what is perhaps more impressive is that you got Dragon to trade with you. Then… I could see why Dragon would be interested in your card type. Still you might want to be careful. You might make other cores jealous, or even worse you might inspire more young dungeons to try and approach Dragon. He would probably find that upsetting.” Helen said the last part with a smug smile.

  Peter blinked at the idea. That at least had not occurred to him. Him being blamed for what other cores did unrelated to him…. He sighed. While the analytic woman was here he might as well try to learn something. So far most older cores had long forgotten what it was like when they were in their first decade or kept track of statistics beyond a general impression. Helen seemed to be the type to collect and sort all the data she could get her hands on. “Is 2 S tiers really all that unusual? How many do most dungeons get a year?”

  “Haaaaa, haa,” she chuckled. Peter did not miss that the other rookie cores leaned in slightly, hopeful for an answer as well. Elyra was of course the exception. The lucky dungeon core had hit the guide lottery. Helen had shared plenty of benchmarks and metrics for her to measure her progress by, and she was far less willing to share with them than Helen might be. Elyra still probably considered them rivals, but as rookies they were well beneath Helen’s notice since she had 260 years on them.

  “Fine, I’m in a giving mood. Although I would like to get a trade from you. For any rookie who wants to listen I will trade you 2 nightshade cards for 3 of your own. Elyra will tell if you try to circumnavigate the deal by telling each other later.”

  Peter and the others readily agreed. Paying an extra A tier card was by no means a bad deal to obtain 2 of her type cards in addition to the information. She began once the deals were done.

  “Normally, the best of the rookie dungeons get maybe about 2 S tiers before the end of their first decade, although a small majority get zero and a handful will do slightly better. The most I have seen is 7, but that was from a dungeon type like Dragon or Void. Their type cards made it quite a bit easier. Still 2 over one year is a bit eye raising,” she said looking at him, but she soon continued.

  “As dungeons get older they of course find it easier as they get access to better support cards and more type cards. Still they also have access to more essence so are summoning more, although then usually type or support cards will then become the limiting factor. There will not be much difference between an older intermediate dungeon and a centurion in most cases. But I would say that by about 40 or 50 the best intermediate dungeons can average 5 or 6 over a decade. Of course the more battles and cards you unlock the better that number will be.”

  Peter was pretty sure he could hit that mark with what he had right now, which was of some comfort. That and there was the thought of just how many S tiers the millennials would have… That was a demotivating thought. Predator asked the question first.

  “And the true elite intermediate or centurion dungeons?” Gabriel prodded.

  “Can produce about 1 a year,” Helen said with a hard tone. She saw their expressions fall so she added, “But I don’t think there is more than a core or two each century that can manage that.”

  “What about SS tiers or even SSS?” Peter asked, which got her laughing again.

  "Haa, ha ha… aiming pretty high aren’t we. Just be careful kid. You display one of them and that will put a target on your back. You know the one offs for them are still only B tier right?”

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  Peter nodded. He did indeed know. S, SS, and SSS were all counted as tier S. One off or maelstrom units would still be tier B. At best they might be a touch better than his B tier armageddon dragons. While Peter would love to have a SS that he could summon A tiers off of, or SSS that he could summon S tiers off of, this was a good thing. The millennials and a handful of centurions had SS and SSS. If they could spam powerful units, what chance would he even have.

  Still the units by themselves would be invaluable. His armageddon dragon had only one SS rank attribute, and it could crush through A rank resistance with ease. If he could skillfully use several of these high tier units then it could definitely make up some difference when facing older dungeons.

  “ You will see some SS tiers in many centurion battles, although not many of them. I doubt even the best dungeons have more than a handful. As far as SSS, most dungeons never get something like that. I have never even seen one used, except for Dragon, he loves putting his on display. I think I have seen him use at least 3 different SSS tiers.”

  Helen stared pointedly at Peter as she talked about dragon. She was perhaps a bit jealous since Dragon rarely traded his cards outside his faction, and his followers would never trade off on of his originals.

  “Of course all of our black listers have a few,” Helen added mischievously. “In another decade or two, when one of the millennials decides it's time you will get to see a few.”

  Helen did not have to go into details. While there were a few dungeons in the 900’s they all belonged to one of the millennial factions. The moon elf core, currently 894, was the oldest non affiliated core. She was also one of the 3 current blacklisted cores. Peter was not sure how or why. She was too old for most of the cores to know the reason why, but likely it was because she had made waves. Gabriel the fallen core beat him to the question.

  “Did the blacklisted dungeons get their status because the millennials consider them a threat or did they really just piss one off,” Gabriel asked quietly.

  Helen’s black lips curved into a smile and she leaned forward. They all did as well. “Truth is none of us are sure. They either consider them a threat and are just putting on a show… or not,” she added shrugging. Leaning back, but then she leaned back glancing around. “You all are obviously the type to set your goals high and challenge the status quo. The millennials are represented as some godlike impossible existences. But have you read your dungeon core manuals properly,” she gave them each looks.

  “It's the support cards right?” Predator answered. “They aren’t able to buy them.”

  “Precisely,” Helen said, smiling. “And they won’t get them from battle either since they are several times older than all of the dungeons they cull. They might have gotten them initially as new millennials, but now the only way to get them is to trade for them. But there is one other thing…” She left it hanging as she looked between them. Peter had read that manual 20 to 30 times cover to cover, but he had not picked out that detail, nor could he think of others.

  “They also can’t use spare cores,” Elyra quickly answered.

  “You’re spoiling my fun, Elyra,” Helen said, giving the girl a look. It was playful, but Elyra shied back anyways. Now Peter was pretty sure he had seen no indication of that piece of information in the manual.

  “I don’t remember reading that,” Predator answered.

  “It’s just a rumor,” Helen said leaning back. “But it does make sense and has been religiously passed down through the generations. Just think, do you think that Dragon and Void could cull all the other dungeons before they made it. They were both a part of the first two year group, so picked two of the strongest core types offered. But do you think they were the only ones? Do you think there have not been more millennials? Just think the insect Millennial is over 4,000 years younger than Dragon. Either they failed to cull him or decided there just wasn’t a point in trying.”

  That was true. Dragon was 8,764 years old. Void was only 10 years younger at 8,754. The insect millennial was only 4,644 years old, with the rest all falling somewhere in between.

  Helen sighed and got ready to leave. “You rookies should continue to be daring. The millennials may seem impossible to overcome, but think about it. They each cull a dungeon once or twice a century and get practically nothing for doing so, and the cores that can survive long enough to fight them are no slouches. I’ve seen a few put up a fairly decent fight against the inevitable,” she paused as if she was remembering. “That is to say that they don’t have thousands of years of resources just accumulating.”

  With that Helen left them. Peter did feel a bit more hopeful against the before seemingly impossible task. If the core rumor was true, then at least that meant he would only have to beat one once. It was definitely a positive that they could not continue to easily accumulate support cards. They would have a difficult time getting rare or epic cards traded to them even from members of their faction, so likely had to get their S tiers through only use of combination and increase cards.

  Peter had a feeling that meant they could build fewer S tiers than even the average centurion core could. Them using up resources every century or so was also a good point. How many hundreds of millions or perhaps even billions would they expend in even one fight with an older centurion dungeon. They likely did not even get any of that back since most dungeons likely just put up a defense, hoping to somehow at least eek out a draw.