Peter’s alarm went off 5 minutes prior. He was still a bit groggy, but with what was upcoming his mind sharpened on task. It was game time. By this point he was getting pretty good at manipulating things inside of his core space. A bed, a desk, whatever he needed. Of course this also applied to his clothes. Peter elected for a pair of jeans and a button up shirt. It might seem underdressed for what was basically a banquet, but based on clockwork and some other dungeon core descriptions he should be fine.

  As far as his physical body or avatar… Peter was not going to touch it other than to style his hair to Hollywood perfection. Then he was ready. A minute later he blinked from existence and simultaneously appeared in a large cavern-like room. Several football fields in length and width, although columns supporting the upper deck seemingly cut the open space in half. Against the walls deep enclaves existed throughout the room creating a hundred different locations for dungeon cores to potentially meet or trade away from prying eyes.

  Then there was the second level which was more open other than the large expense between the two sides where he now stood. At the back of the room on the second level were the 6 thrones. Each one occupied by the supreme existences that were the millennials that now eyed the fresh meat, with only a passing curiosity. Gathered around the railing of the second level on both sides was seemingly all the other dungeon cores. The ninety nine other new dungeon cores like him were looking around from the middle of the lower floor.

  An electronic voice spoke out from within his head. “Welcome to the 8760th annual congregation. This year is a decadal congregation so we will start off by introducing the new dungeon cores.”

  Quick and to the point, although Peter did not see a speaker. Clockwork had mentioned this though. It was the only time the interface spoke. Not one knew much about the entity or what was behind it. For everything else they had timers. For instance there would be a timer until the tutorial battle and so on.

  Peter’s interface came up on its own, but this time it was just a directive. “Please move to the indicated position.’ A yellow circle was highlighted on the ground in his vision. That was pretty gnarly, some mindlink implant that was able to highlight items in his vision, but then again he was the avatar for a giant oversized marble now, was this really anything special. Other new cores moved to their own indicated locations, lining them up in a matter of seconds.

  Peter found himself in front of a humanoid weasel that maybe came up to his chest. Behind him was another core that was probably taller than him if he were not hunched over. That guy behind him looked like the cross between a hunchbacked man and a toad. He had a severe underbite and clammy green skin, and warts…

  God… Peter thought, shuffling forward closer to the upright weasel. The procession started as soon as the last dungeon core was in place. Peter felt like the older cores were eyeing them all like fresh meat. A bit degrading for their start, but he supposed all of them had gone through this. Besides if Clockwork could be believed, they all had far more concerning matters than worrying about a bunch of weak new cores. Instead he focused on his direct competition.

  There were a few extremely interesting looking individuals. One guy was a muscular angel complete with white wings and beige toga. His blond hair gleamed as he stepped into the spotlight on the stone stage. He was introduced as Gabriel with the core type, Fallen. No details on what that implied, but it was clearly a concept type. Very possible that the two of them might be in the same faction, although certain concept types could fit into one of the other various factions. Who knows maybe they would be best pals.

  Others were interesting for other reasons. There was a cross between a walking corpse and a witch she had chosen the brine core type. Salt water…? I guess that puts her in the elemental faction…

  Of course the most interesting candidate for Peter would obviously be the attractive female candidates. Of the hundred a good third of them were humans who were by far the most common, but none of the girls had been particularly eye catching. However that was not to say there were not some other prospects from the other races

  The most alluring went on stage only three cores before him. A tall red skinned demon girl. With horn nubs on her forehead, and somehow her lips were a brighter shade of red making it stick out from her darker maroon skin. Long white hair flowed down her back. Exotic perfection… if not for the fact that it was fur from the waste down and instead of feet she had hooves. He could make them out under the animal hide kilt the woman wore. A real shame, definitely ruined it for him. Maybe she would be amenable in using her core powers to swap it for some human legs…?

  She was introduced as Elyra with the core type, phase. Hmmm another concept type, so she would be in my faction as well I guess. Peter missed the next few introductions including the weasel as he wondered. I wonder whether the demon millennial will feel slighted, or isn’t it kind of odd to have a demoness and an angel in the same faction.

  Then his interface indicated for him to move to the center stage. He did so and tried to not look down uncomfortably as the rest of the room judged him. Five seconds and it was over. Peter hurried off stage so that he could observe the rest.

  A few minutes later they showed the matchups. There would be fifty dungeon battles between the new dungeons. They would all occur simultaneously, so Peter would only really get to witness his own battle this year. The older dungeons could take a breather. They were not allowed to challenge other dungeons on decadal congregations. Then began the social hour.

  Peter could not help but to head straight upstairs… right for the food. He was starving. He could conjure anything inside of his core except apparently food that he could eat, and he was not about to spend his precious essence to eat when it might mean the difference of another E tier type card. Cheap he knew, but that was the kind of guy he was.

  As he helped himself to the strange foods. He thought of his opponent and started to determine a game plan. In the end he decided that nothing would change. He would allow the cores to settle in and start to socialize. His opponent was an ashen gray humanoid with a bald head despite being female. Her demeanor had seemed depressed, but what really mattered was the core type she had chosen, lightning. It would put her in the elemental faction, and would be a quite handy type to obtain. Which he would as long as he beat her in the battle. Battle winners normally received type cards at the very least for every battle, although the amount and tier varied. Clockwork had not mentioned what he would get for the tutorial battle victory, just that he needed to win if at all possible.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Peter decided to start with Clockwork. The hope was that his guide would introduce him to some other cores he was already friendly with. “I have met all requirements as your guide, young core. Best of luck.” That was all he got, being casually dismissed. How was this guy a guide? Already Peter could see other young cores meeting with other older cores and getting the introductions that he deserved. He got gipped.

  But then there was a positive change. An older dungeon core approached him. He was an orangutan of a man with brown fur and long arms. Peter analyzed him as he had so many already. “Fellette, ape, 170.”

  “I take it that you are Clockworks’ new young protoge.”

  “That would be me… Peter.” He introduced himself. Fellette did not reciprocate. Perhaps since they could just as easily analyze one another, introductions were not required.

  “Haha, don’t worry it happens to all of us,” Fellette said with a hearty laugh. “I was his protege 170 years ago, and there are a few others still around. Clockwork takes a new protege every decade, does the bare minimum. For each of us that survives the first decade, he gets a kickback. I guess he did the math. It’s logical,” Fellette mimicked clockwork for the last bit.

  Peter just sighed deeply. Now he was talking to a monkey… At least the guy seemed amicable.

  “Don’t worry. You will still get clockwork cards each time you unlock the higher tiers. 4 for D, 3 for C, 2 for B, 1 for A.”

  “Wait really,” Peter checked his card inventory. Sure enough he had 4 D tier cards on top of the 5 E tier cards. That was a welcome surprise. Then he remembered that clockwork had only given him a fraction of what he could for the E tier cards, had he gotten less for the rest as well?

  “Haha, I see you unlocked the D tier right off. A good move provided you win. Haha but I won’t mention the rewards. I’m close to one of his other proteges, let's see if the two of us can’t get you started.”

  A minute later Peter was introduced as Clockworks’ new prodigy. This time the core was a human lady, but with orange flaming hair. The system analyzed her as ‘Emma, Ember core, 310. “I see he got another one… You poor dear,” she said, actually pinching his cheek. “I take it that Fellette wants me to make a trade to supplement our stingy master. Sorry hun, but we can each only offer you two for one due to the interfaces’ balance rule.”

  Peter received the prompt.

  [Emma is offering 2 D Tier Ember cards for 1 D tier Design card. (2 E tier design cards will be converted)]

  Peter quickly accepted. Fellette made the same trade with him. A good start for sure. Although apparently other new dungeons that unlocked the D tier would potentially have maybe 8 D tier cards for free from their guide, so technically he might still be operating under a deficit. Apparently clockwork being stingy was not the norm for most guides.

  “You can come back if you win today, and we can both give you C Tier, whoops,” The lady brought her hand up to her mouth. Peter could not tell if it was actually on purpose or accidental, but he did not miss it. Potentially one of the prizes for winning today would be unlocking the C tier for him. A pretty big deal since it would cost 25,000 essence to do so via the interface.

  “Can you tell me others that might be open to trade. Clockwork explained about the millennials and the factions, but not much else.”

  “Oh Fellette, he is adrift with no clue…” she said pretending to be concerned. “Don’t worry hun, Fellette and I can coach you up real quick. Can you tell us what he told you.”

  Peter quickly did so, running through everything Clockwork had told him in the course of a few minutes.

  “Oh my, I think he is getting even more efficient and doing an even worse job at guiding. I got like ten times that.”

  “Yeah, no kidding,” Fellette said, laughing heartily again.

  “Really its a wonder, that that guy used to be a living being,” Emma said shaking her head.

  “Wait… What?” Peter was shocked. What person would willingly become a robot…

  “Oh dear…” This time Emma actually chuckled along with Fellette. “Okay hun, so you see how my dungeon type is ember and my hair is simmering, or how Fellette is an ape?”

  “Yes,” Peter said hesitantly. “So, can’t you all just design your avatars however you want?”

  “Well I suppose that is exactly how yours will work, so you don’t need to worry, but for the rest of us our avatars slowly become something closer to our dungeon type although we can resist or influence the change. I for one did not want to become some sort of fire coal monster, but I could not keep my hair from being like this or my skin from being hot to the touch.”

  “Ohhh…” was all Peter said. I guess I dodged a bullet there. What if I had picked skelton or something? He would have lost all his organs, his skin, and other things… Damn Clockwork why had he not mentioned such a thing. Probably would rather his proteges pick something they would succeed with for his benefit than to have that consideration and pick something for another reason.

  “Anyways, Clockwork was a regular living being at some point. He also had a name at least when Emma met him, although he had changed it to his ‘card’ type before I came along. Not the strangest move since nearly half the dungeons here go by their core type anyways, but most personalities don’t become so uh… warped.”

  “Normally the change in personality is not quite so drastic. But that isn’t something you need to worry about since nothing too drastic should happen to you.”

  “Yeah, don’t rub it in,”Felllete said, scowling, or what Peter thought was scowling. It was kind of hard to tell when looking at his ape-like face.

  “Anyways, there is a little more that you should know, before you go off to try and trade. First of all, most of the older dungeons won’t give you the time of day. A D tier ‘card’ is hardly something worth catching their notice…and most won’t be willing to help you out without some tie to them, but you should certainly try your luck with the other new dungeons.”

  “That being said, there might be some more inclined to help you based on factional relationships. The undead and insect factions are practically untouchable to non members, unless you want to offer them a hell of a deal or defeat one in battle. The demon’s are not quite so close knit, but more than not lean that way as well. The reptile faction are a hit or miss. You have to really catch their interest in what you are doing for them. Dragon is the worst of them, although he rarely trades. Elemental,” Fellette indicated Emma. “Beast,” he pointed at himself, or “concept” he said pointing at Peter, “Those 3 should be more amenable. Other types like the humanoids and the golems… you know what, never mind the golems or mineral types, they make the worst of deals. Humanoids and other factions I haven’t gotten to are more generally pretty easy to trade with.”

  “What about my faction, is there going to be a concept faction meeting or something?” This earned Peter a laugh from each of them.

  “No, hun nothing like that… at least not yet,” Emma said finally.

  “Other than the factions such as the undead,” Fellette indicated a cluster of undead at the back of the room on their side. “Or the insect faction.” Across the room the insect faction took up an even bigger section of the room. “Most of us are on our own, although you will see small groups of like cores.