Helen sauntered her way over to the rookie table. They were only ten minutes into the congregation, and already things were decided for the day. Only Peter and Gabriel planned to battle today. Peter had already challenged Stone golem, and Gabriel was set to eliminate Bonefiend for good. The other two were making preparations for next year's crawfish boil with a side of however many insect cores decided to jump on. Peter was not so engrossed, that he did not miss the nightshade core type as she approached.

  “Well all you rookies are hard at work I see. Word is that little Peter plans on taking on the Stone golem core today, and I assume one of you is prepping to finish off Bonefiend?” She nodded when Gabriel raised his hand.

  “Of course, my protégé probably has revenge on the agenda. Happening this year? No… after the integration then…?” Elyra just revealed her teeth. “You’re really going to attack all the way up until last year. The design core has corrupted you.”

  “Do you have any knowledge on the stone golem type?” Peter asked hopefully.

  “I’m afraid not. This is the first time I have seen it. Elite types like that apparently do not get offered as often. I have not seen one be reused during my time, although apparently it does happen over so many centuries. Whereas if you all get wiped out in the next few years at least some of your types will be offered, possibly picked on the next time around.”

  Peter signed. He honestly did not know much about his opponent. His card type and guide were all he had to go off of.

  “I can say though that I have seen a handful of Void and Dragon proteges over the years however. The proteges of all the millennials are dangerous, but those two super charge their proteges to absurd levels… But it will cost you a standard trade to hear the information,” Helen teased. All but Elyra willingly paid, since there was no issue for a 2 for 2 trade for normal cores with their own allies. Eventually Elyra’s curiosity got the better of her and she traded as well.

  “Good, now if you all get yourselves killed, I will have a bit to remember you all by. Dragon’s proteges are easily recognized, because they base their forces around dragons, regardless of what core type they chose. Even more than Peter uses. I’m pretty sure Dragon requires it. He will continually trade with them through their time as a rookie to ensure they have enough to showcase the ‘best core type’.”

  “Wow, they must be set with stock cards for life then,” Elyra said greedily.

  “Yes, they become the go to source for many cores outside the reptile faction to acquire the card type. Most non reptile or amphibian cores would not dream of approaching Dragon personally,” Helen stared pointedly at Peter.

  “It is a bit messed up that Peter has not offered us a trade for one,” Gabriel said, pretending he felt slighted.

  “Well If you offer enough type cards I will trade you one,” Peter said with a smile.

  “Peter rubbing off on Elyra… More like she is rubbing off on him. You want multiple cards for a stock card?” Gabriel stated aghast. This time he clearly did feel a bit slighted.

  Peter only replied with, “Wars are expensive…”

  “What if we offer card types you do not have? Say… like butterfly…?” Elyra asked.

  “Sure for two or three of them,” Peter replied, smiling at her.

  “Anyways,” Helen started back up with a smile. “Void goes to extreme lengths to make his protégé strong, I have seen restricted cards as well as developed dungeon capabilities that I would say go far beyond the norm.”

  “Void told me he traded him restricted cards. Not which ones though…?” Peter said. Helen clearly understood what he was getting at. She held up a finger indicating she needed a moment. Her staff was looking into it. The first time, Peter had seen this. Normally she seemed posed and ready to answer.

  “Yes, I saw that you and Elyra had an audience with some millennials. You will have to tell me about it, while you wait.”

  Peter gave a quick recount of the situation thrown together by the demon millennial as well as his private audience with Void afterwards. Obviously, he did not go into detail with things that would get him in trouble for sharing, but Helen was very intuitive, she probably could glean quite a bit with what he chose to share. Elyra’s story however was more basic.

  “The demon millennial asked for me to join her faction, you know me being a demoness like her and all. When I turned her down, she traded me as many A tiers of her type as she could, as well as a few other things.”

  “Tell me you charged her 3 for 1 of your cards,” Gretchen stated.

  “Don’t be daft. It was all one for one. I got 72 A tiers of her type as well as a few restricted types,” Elyra added.

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  “So you only milked her for elite type cards and some restricted ones,” Gretchen summarized, rolling her eyes.

  “It's my way of doing business. Even millennials need to stock up on dimensional type cards.,” Elyra said with a smile.

  “Probably doesn’t see the harm in it, thinking we will be beaten by the bugs,” Gretchen added from the side. A normally quiet presence, she often was left out of the conversations.

  “I would trade a dragon stock card for a restricted card type,” Peter offered.

  “Ha, you can offer me a stock card for dragon, void, and black hole for what I have,” Elyra countered with a gleeful smile.

  Peter sarcastically smiled as well. “Oh well, they probably are not as good as the two restricted types that I have access to.”

  “Seriously, Elyra, you need to be more accommodating. At this point he as well as myself probably have more goodies than you,” Gabriel alleged.

  “Pretty sure everyone here does. Other than her greed for as many type cards as possible we probably all surpass her. You guys don’t even know what it was like trying to support her attack last year…” Gretchen added.

  “Hey, I have come a long way,” Elyra cried, her voice rising half an octave. Elyra was clearly not taking the lighthearted joking very well. Luckily, Helen was ready, or decided at this time to indicate she was ready.

  “I got it. Ooooowww, Void has given out some pretty nasty ones including Giant. I don’t have that one myself, but from what I hear it is basically an elite type card of the elite type cards. If used for a combination, it gives the highest tiering up capability of all the elite cards. Despite not battling and getting goodies, it is very likely, the guy will have a few S tiers. Thankfully, the restricted type restriction will keep him from having more than 6 or 7 of them.

  “Wait what restriction?” Peter asked.

  “Hahahaha… you have access to restricted types and card type transfers and haven’t encountered it yet.” Helen asked, amused. Clearly Elyra knew since she had a smug grin.

  “What is it?” Peter sighed.

  “You can only make one of each restricted type each year,” Elyra happily said.

  That stumped Peter. How had he not run into that yet? But it clearly checked out. He had only made the collapsing star fiend and the space cessation mage from the plasma type he had gotten. Apparently, he would have run into a wall if he tried to convert another.

  Not a big deal except…”Whoo,” he was in the clear. He could make another plasma card for this year, and at the next congregation make one for the next year, giving him 2 to potentially trade to get the two elemental cores interested in joining the year 9 battle. That was a concern for after this year’s battle however.

  Peter played it cool, shrugging,” I guess I just don’t depend on a single card type so I did not realize.” The others raised their eyebrows, they had all clearly witnessed his momentary panic. Peter just returned a sheepish smile. “Anyway, what other restricted types can I expect?”

  “Well as I’m sure you can guess, other restricted types are not so easy to discern since they are often combined with other things, however Void’s last protege was black hole. My staff apparently noted a possible use of ‘Might.’ The unit was a star crusher, only an A tier, but they were suspiciously powerful, enough to raise the suspicion.”

  “And what does ‘Might’ do?”

  “Well it is not an elite type, but in many ways is more worrisome. Honestly, I typically prefer the restricted types that aren’t elite types, because of what they offer… I digress. Might is a type card that adds an additional attribute, and no I don’t mean another special attribute.”

  That certainly surprised them all. Peter had a dream card that always gave two special attributes, or he could simply get two special attributes every 30 or 40 choices. Regardless, the idea of another attribute was intriguing.

  “Yeah, it's not a surprise, none of you had stumbled upon one. You can get a double special attribute once every 50 combinations, once every 500 times if you use only one type card. Getting a second defense or attack, however, is far more rare. I have not even got one without using a restricted type card.”

  “And it does…”

  “Oh, it's in the name. It adds a second attack attribute that empowers attacks. It's really just a nuance. You might see an A tier that can break a S tier defense easier than it should have. Of course, it goes without saying that it works better with some types than others… Unfortunately, if Void did give it to him, I can not imagine a better thing to combine it with than Stone golem. Black hole type represents a strong force, but it's intangible. Stone golem however should excel in brute force. Honestly, I would be more worried about the Might combinations than the giants you could face.”

  Helen explained, “The giant will be a bit more difficult to take down, but the one offs of it will give up in other aspects to keep them C or B tier units. For might however, the extra attribute is only another part of the calculation, so you will have C or B tiers that could be at the peak of their tier even without the ‘might factor’ factored in.”

  Peter’s head was swimming. Was she saying this guy could have forces of quasi B or A tiers based off A and S tier original units. That's the way it sounded. However, he also could not help but to think on the implications. There was always something else. He had gotten a unit with SSS defense. To think he had considered it nearly at the peak of what was possible. Now he had to consider there could be units with double attack or defense that would be even better. If only he could pick Helen’s brain for a few days. The rule book did not include even 10% of what was possible.

  “Other than that I could not say,” Helen said, shrugging. “Void likely has dozens of restricted types, maybe hundreds. Like Might and Giant, I would assume he would give ones that would be conducive to Stone golem's type. For some reason, Void likes to raise powerful cores.”

  That was not news to Peter. Void had told him as much. The millennial was eager for challenges. However, he wished the millennial had been a bit more forthcoming on which restricted types he had given out. Dream and Plasma were good for sure, but it was clear that he needed more. Unfortunately, it seemed he would be restricted to making one of each restricted type a year.