Introducing a potential rival in love, had potentially been the best idea he had. Well at least as a dungeon core. He had thought up the idea all the way back in year 4. Actually realizing it had not been on purpose, but Delilah no longer felt the need to slow roll the whole courtship phase. Nope, like a land run she had wanted to stake claim to her territory. The fact that Krista seemingly played along just to infuriate the dark elf, worked even further in his favor. The only downside was that Delilah had been taking full advantage of what she expected was the last of her free time outside the dungeon. She had merely been stopping back for brief pit stops in between expeditions.

  There was no doubt in Peter’s mind where at least his next 3 pinnacle dungeon upgrades would be going, but even if he only upgraded the shadow pool once, Delilah could potentially use it to increase her strength toward the top of the B tier. Getting 3 of them might not happen in a year, perhaps not even two, but Delilah was doing everything she could to ensure that no other alternative ideas crept to the forefront. Her persuasiveness was far more seductive than Khan’s or anyone else's good ideas.

  Delilah better just make it back in the next few days, or she would miss the next congregation. Peter was already going over things, making final preparations for his next battle. His opponent had been selected. He knew Bonefiend would challenge him during one of these congregations. He might as well just prepare for the battle and challenge the guy first.

  As far as elites actually out there challenging each other, Bonefiend was clearly at the top. Stone golem might have been a contender as the only other millennial protege, but he had not fought a single battle since the tutorial. There were several insect core elites, but most of the insect types had lost their tutorial. Which was quite common, but it still meant you could not really say any of them were undefeated. Cobra had fought several battles, but was clearly picking weaker opponents including Newt from his own faction this last year. Newt had offered up his core right from the get go, which was a common enough tactic. Newt had done it in prior years even.

  Frustratingly enough it did not affect rewards in a negative way since often the tactic was done for a weaker core to preserve resources. However, where was the balance rule when he needed it? The two were allies… Apparently, the interface did not see it that way since spare cores were typically pretty rare. Of course, Newt had started out with the 9 live specializations and 9 of them. Already several of his very own allies had capitalized on it as well as enemies. Apparently, no one was double tapping him either since it was a free give me they could keep in play. Of course Peter was sure if he challenged Newt, Cobra, Temperance, or one of the other 3 remaining reptiles would jump in.

  “Do you have to do that? You are scaring away the fish,” Peter demanded, frustrated.

  “Oh come on, I’ve seen you catch fish, even while I’m doing this,” Krista said as she attempted several rotations on a jump. Peter had no idea how she had gotten the idea, he had certainly never mentioned it to the archangel or anyone else, but she was gliding across the water like an ice skater.

  Krista used just enough holy power to propel herself forward and to keep her from breaking the water’s surface tension as she went. It was quite a bit different since she got far more air, incorporated some sword forms into the maneuvers, and used her wings for some quick fall glides, or to adjust her center of gravity. Occasionally, she misjudged and went under.

  Supposedly it helped her practice what a chaotic battle would be like. Constantly adjusting, shifting, and regulating how much holy power she emitted and in what direction it was applied would allow her to be more flexible in battle. At surface level it sounded legit, however it really just looked like she just enjoyed it. In general Krista and the lesser B tier versions seemed to just enjoy various games and activities. Often most of them involved flying. They even often incorporated the dragons, helping N’terrin train them.

  Krista seemingly only came more often to do the more solitary water skating when Delilah was expected back from an expedition. Honestly, Peter enjoyed the angel's playfulness and company more than most of the other units he had summoned. He had already introduced dozens of different games. It sometimes he could not picture them going into battle, but then he had also witnessed them flip the switch. Like Delilah or many of the others there was a desire for battle. When it came time to get serious they went hard. Too hard, they often caused more wounds in the many mock battles than other similar forces. Luckily, Michael and others were always on hand anyways.

  Preparations were pretty much completed. He had added a few more unit types and corresponding maelstroms since the first few days of the year.

  Trench Tiger (Design, Predator, Earth) A: ATT: A (+), DEF: A, SPE: A (-)

  Charger Elephant (Design, Pachyderm, Force) A+: ATT: S (-), DEF: A, SPE: A

  E’wuni guard (Design, Holy, Force) A (-): ATT: A (+), DEF: A(-), SPE: A (-)

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Angelic Slayer (Design, Holy, Fury) A(+): A (+), DEF: A, SPE: A (+)

  Two more beast types to add along with the new S tier Berserker ape to further bolster his beast assault force. With the 2 berserker ape maelstroms producing B tiers and 10 more producing C tiers his annual beast forces had grown by over 50%. Excitedly, he had finally gotten an elephant, while combining it with a force type card. The success had led him into using the Force type again for his next summon.

  Peter’s other goal was to provide a new unit to spam infantry with like he did every year. The result was the E’wuni guard. They were basically brutes from the divine race that would rather be equipped with spiked maces than swords. Unfortunately, even after increases he was only able to push the defense attribute back up to A(-) from where it had tiered down to at B (+).

  The angelic slayer was another single winged angel unit that manifested and welded their own flaming swords. They were capable of flight but far less maneuverable than the more nimble arch angels. The choice was made to armor them up, and have them fight for the most part like standard infantry. An infantry that could fly into location and then make a stand.

  In addition, Peter made 5 maelstroms for each of the four new units as well as for Gnther and the Tempest fowl. With the archangels, Peter wanted the sky gnomes and their mounts to always be a staple support for them. The expenditures would leave him with about 12.5 million essence for use on congregation day, assuming his essence collection was not affected during these last few days.

  New units were hardly the only new changes for the year. The mine had of course been one of the biggest changes. They had well over 30 metals over tier 2. Plenty for his smiths to experiment and improve vastly overall. The advanced metals were still on the more rare side, but his S tier guardian spirit now had multiple bodies made of tier 4 condensed stone which gave it a S (-) rank defence. Peter had even summoned 20 B tier versions each attached to a true silver body with a A (-) rank. The tier 3 material was not as strong defensively as many others, but would do exceptionally well against demons or undead.

  Other than for the inhabitable bodies all of the metals went toward better armament. True silver dark wood arrows and ballista bolts each with +10 enchantments. Swords and shields made of higher tier materials, most with divine energy enchantments. Even many of the beasts had basic armor plates made of steel. In order to produce it all, Peter had expanded the forge by nearly tenfold.

  The papermill was up and running. It was running at about a fifth of its available capacity, but they had built it far bigger than the current need. They would only need more and more. It only took harvesting and replanting a few dark wood trees to keep that thing running producing tens of thousands of tier 2 scrolls. It had not taken long to figure out the process thanks to Merlin.

  With such an influx in requirements, Peter had been forced to expand the magic college five fold. The enchantments were all only at the C tier level, but when every infantry and other sentient unit was given scrolls it added up. Merlin had even figured out a process to allow some to be used in the alternate realm, which was always a challenge for new items.

  It all meant that his 10th floor, his only auxiliary floor was beginning to feel a bit crowded. Already he had expanded it substantially to make more room as well as to start garnering more ambient essence that could be used for various tasks. It was more expansive to expand the 10th floor over the rest, but it was the one he needed the most space.

  Regardless, he was glad he was closing in on the tenth year where he would be able to expand into 40 more floors. His dungeon was like an infant getting close to taking up all the room in its shell. Already the first five cavern water based floors of his battle dungeon had become an impromptu wildlife preserve for his beast forces. The dragons mainly kept to the last five floors of the battle dungeon, but they were quasi intelligent so really just went wherever they pleased. As long as they did not fly near the breeding area, the chaos they could inflict was minimal.

  The expansions were occurring everywhere. N’terrin had expanded his breeding facility several times over. To save space, warehouses to stockpile finished products or resources were being carved out underground. The floor allowance was only about 50 feet, but that was plenty for a good 20 foot tall expanse with rhythmic column supports left as they carved out more area. In another year or two, he would not have the space on the 10th floor for anything else despite expanding it to the maximum. Already he was looking at expanding the first five floors on the battle dungeon that had been far from being maxed out unlike the later 5 lava based floors, but already the essence reserves he wanted for this year’s battle had dwindled down below what he wanted.

  Peter could only imagine what it would be like for older dungeons. It would not be surprising for there to be full cities, floor wide production facilities and warehouses.

  “I see birdbrain is doing it again.” Peter stood to find Delilah moving toward him through the trees. After a quick hug, she joined him looking out across the shadow pool.

  Krista skated up soon after doing one final jump and twirl before gliding down to the earthen bank. “Lila, you made it back in time. I worried you had been captured or something. Peter and I were beside ourselves with worry.”

  “Captured,” Delilah scoffed. “I wiped out an insurrection group and multiple enemy scouts, proving my worth. What have you been doing.”

  “Playing games with Peter, water skating,” Krista replied with a pose and a playful smile.

  To be fair, Peter knew and knew that Delilah knew that Krista was not being serious, but it was kind of nice to pretend that two girls were competing for him. Definitely had not really happened in his prior life.. ever. Then again there had not been much to fight over. Not like here, where he was the illustrious dungeon master. The emerging frontrunner of the rookie cores.

  “Game eh,” Delilah said looking at Peter who hurriedly hid the smile that had crept onto his face. Crap, that would make him look guilty. “Come on Peter,” she said tugging on his arm. “Let's go play some games.” Delilah led him away shooting a smirk at the angel. Krista with the assist.