“Well that was disappointing,” Peter said as the four of them meandered back towards their own side of the banquet room.

  “Perhaps… not as much as you would think…” Gabriel said with a whimsical expression. The others looked at him. “Well not for next year, but for afterwards. We have not even conversed with them before, yet they would think about joining us. Perhaps other down and out cores might do the same provided we can survive long enough. We might be able to pull together a real coalition faction of the leftovers if we survive long enough.”

  “That would be a real revolution against the current order. If we rally all the unattached and smaller factions…” Peter trailed off as he thought of the possibilities. They made it back to their table and all took their seats.

  “Just sounds like non faction cores letting us take the hits while they hide in our shade. We would not attract any real powerhouses that already were not sympathetic to us,” Gretchen stated.

  “I suppose, we have already included one stray,” Elyra said, staring at Gretchen. The dark elf just glared right back with an insincere smile.

  “Enough! Lets focus on next year and not be petty,” Peter ordered.

  “The real question is whether we want to continue with the plan of taking on the entire insect group, or if we want to challenge individual battles,” Gabriel picked up.

  “We got to fight. We will look like idiots if we don’t. Everyone is already expecting it,” Elyra retorted.

  “True, but we don’t have to agree to a group battle. We could all challenge them individually.

  “Then they could just use ‘call ally’ to structure the battles however they want and we will not be able to get out of the battles since we were the ones that challenged them,” Peter said dismissively.

  “True, even a ‘Year off’ card would not work then, and we would all already be tied up in our own battles. It sounds like it's all or nothing. Do we really think we could hit all 9?” Gretchen said, wilting down into her chair.

  “Of course we can!” Elyra snapped.

  “No, we should think it through more clearly. I think we will all have to show all our cards and step it out,” Gabriel cautioned.

  “Works for me,” Peter said as he mentally went through the numbers, as did the others. They all remained silent for a few minutes. Peter initialized things.

  “I have 3 SS tiers and was thinking of getting another. That or I add 4 to the 10 S tiers I already have. I have quite a few survivors from this year's battle, along with free maelstrom and ‘user chose’ cards that I plan to use to increase my B tiers by almost 960 units. If I don’t use much of the essence I gained today on ‘Future prep’ then I will have just under a year’s worth of essence in addition to what I gain over the year. I think I can confidently say that I could take on the best 2 insect rookies and come out on top. Stretching myself thin, I could probably include another of them. That would leave 2 each for the rest of you.”

  “Its almost like you’re bragging," Gretchen said shaking her head in wonder before continuing with her own self assessment. “I only have three S tiers after last years battle although I have improved substantially and already prepared for a battle with insects. I would like to think that I could take on one of the insect dungeons on a one on one, but I doubt my capabilities could match any two of them. They would just overwhelm me with numbers. I don’t know… Maybe I could take on one and a half?”

  “Gabriel and I should be able to pick up the other half,” Elyra snapped, before Gabriel shot her a disproving look.

  “Like I said earlier, I have 8 S tiers right now. I can easily get 4 more of them based on my rewards. I doubt I have as many maelstroms as Peter, but after using the new free maelstrom epic cards and ‘user chose’ cards I got today I will be over 1,000. I met quite a few more conditions than I expected, but did not carry through as many survivors as Peter probably did. That damn demon mage killed too many of my elites early on, so I lost more than I had hoped. Still I think you could jot me down for two of them.”

  They all looked at Elyra. She sighed, she clearly did not want to admit to having less than Peter or Gabriel. “Fine, I have 5 S tiers. I have moved mountains to improve my capabilities, and like the free loader…,” she glanced at Gretchen. “I have two year’s worth of essence and resources saved up. I’m sure it would be enough to put me down for the remaining two and a half.”

  “So sounds like we are at least close to measuring up despite Elyra’s overconfidence…”

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  “Hey!” Elyra cried, but Peter continued.

  “So it sounds like we are good to continue preparations. I think at most we should prepare one attacking army, while we all focus on defense.”

  “Then I say we wipe our prime nemesis first. Worst comes to worst, at least he shouldn’t be allowed to continue his existence,” Elyra concluded.

  “Actually, I would say we should leave him be and increase our chances,” Gabriel stated. All three eyed him for that. “Just hear me out. What is Eli the best at?”

  “Being a little traitorous bitch,” Elyra stated confidently. Not the answer Gabriel had been hoping for.

  “Well based on our last battle, I would say he will conserve his resources, sending out a token disposable force allowing his allies to do most of the work.” Peter said.

  “Before finishing them off and being the traitorous bitch,” Elyra concluded.

  “What Peter said,” Gabriel said, ignoring the demoness. “If we let Eli be, he will stay huddled up in his own dungeon, making the fight more like a 8 on 4 battle. I think the insects will allow him to as well. He is an outlier to their group. They mainly just allowed him to join to slight us, knowing if they did not let him join, there would be no way the… ‘traitorous bitch’ would actually go through with stabbing us in the back.”

  “Fine whatever, we would win regardless, but I would not mind saving him for the end so that I could savor the experience,” Elyra said acquiescing.

  “Only one more consideration,” Peter started. “Most of the insect cores should not have that many spare cores, so we would likely be fine with double tapping most to eliminate them for good. However, Eli is different. He should have at least 2 spare cores since he got one as a reward in the tutorial and…”

  Peter did not have to finish. The crustacean core would have gotten the rewards for their side winning. By what could be known, there really should not be many spares among the insects. Most of them, including Hive, actually lost their tutorial. A majority of insects did in every rookie group, since resources were limited and they could not produce endless swarms. Even if they forewent the D tier upgrade initially, their weak E tier swarms would not stand a chance against much of anything. Bugs had a harder time fighting up through a tier difference than most. That is why they relied on numbers since even “in-tier" they had difficulty.

  “A good point… I think if we ask for a core burnthrough the insects should gladly accept. Most of them will likely die if they lose regardless. I doubt they would want to give Eli any reason to betray or not be helpful when it came down to it.”

  The congregation continued on for a good week's worth of time with long battles in both of the upper divisions, so they talked about everything ad nauseum. By the end they were all ready to be gone. Pachyderm could not block this year’s challenge. Neither did he have enough spares to survive a double tap. After Garret the tiger core, it was the second beast centennial to be eliminated during Peter’s existence. It would remain to be seen whether the centennial insects would continue culling the beasts next year.

  Peter received periodic updates from his staff on their progress through the week. His collection dungeon might be frozen in place, but his staff could still think and experiment. The biggest takeaway from the battle was Einstein's subordinates' work with teleportation. The teleportation to no man’s land was a bust. Apparently it was impossible. Matter could not be teleported, nor could sound be sent between a dungeon and ‘No man’s land’. However it was not to say that communication was hopeless.

  The break came from one of his latest unique masterwork items. Peter had gotten 7 last year. One had been something called a repeater book. Basically something written in the book would replicate on the accompanying board or book the repeater was attached to. The repeater would then just replicate anything drawn or written. It was crude, but it was something. His allies had been excited since it would allow them a way to pass orders through without having a connection.

  There were downsides. The book took mana to operate. Mana that did not restore for units or items while in no man’s land. The draw was substantial enough to make it an issue. He would either have to have mages in No man’s land with the ability to rotate out into a dungeon, any dungeon, or he would have to just have them activate it periodically. There also was only one copy, and not even Merlin could figure out a way to make another. It meant communication was one way. It also meant, his attacking army would not be able to communicate back which would be useful… He was getting beyond himself. One way comms with no man’s land was already a game changer.

  As far as the teleportation into an enemy dungeon experiment... Well they had been completely successful. His subordinates had managed to set up one on the first floor as well as the second and completed experiments on both before the dungeon was destroyed. The third had been in progress but the conquest had finished too early to yield any results, but luckily it did not seem required. Einstein had all the data and came to the conclusion that it was only slightly different than teleportation within their own dungeon.

  After some minor alterations with the two sets of ruins, units could move back and forth. Traveling through all 10 floors of his own dungeon was already mana intensive enough. Going from dungeon to dungeon would increase the cost even more. Subsequent jumps to later floors in a different dungeon would bump the cost even more, but not by nearly as much as dungeon to dungeon. It should work with ally dungeons, but to go from one tenth floor to another, would likely require SS tier levels of mana.

  Still during the prep hour before battle next year, Einstein’s subordinates would set up ruins in all the ally dungeons. If they all made mana batteries it made bringing reinforcements possible to a minor extent.

  Other than that most were business as usual. Delilah apparently threatened to beat Khan up if he would not quit whining about Peter and the other core’s foolhearty ideas. A feat that would be pretty easy for her, now with her peak A tier strength. Boris kept Peter apprised of the situation. Then came days of Delilah mimicking the crabby elf’s witless comments. The minor amusements that helped pass the time, because Peter was itching to get back and start preparations. He did not have as much to play with, but he was feeling amped up with all the battle talk they were doing. He was ready to just do it.