That first year dragged on eventually he relented and opened up the seventh floor although he held up on the eighth. The seventh was still high D tier, but they were at the peak of the tier and their numbers along with lower rank and tier minions made the floor several steps harder than the previous one. There were enough higher level adventuring parties where he had needed to step up the game to cater to them. After that he continued with the expansion plan.

  Growth had continued, and things inside and outside the dungeon became less chaotic with the arrival of the government. The first thing the Dawn adventuring division did was to clear out the area from in front of his dungeon. They then began to build up a large complex.

  Which Peter felt bad about since he expanded to the other side of the hill and opened another entrance. The adventuring division simply started another smaller complex on the other side. They were making a major undertaking, Peter hoped he did not get wiped out for their sakes. It might take years at the very least for them to recoup their investment. They might be putting all their hopes in his continued existence, so Peter decided to take it easy on them a little bit and not make two more entrances on the sides for now as he continued to expand.

  Peter was not really following things closely, but the dawn government had started implementing measures. The first change was the concept of party sharing, which evidently well known by adventurers worldwide. Boris reported that there was less internal conflicts already. But of course the biggest change with the involvement of the government was taxes, or a cover charge for adventurers entering and leaving the second floor. The first floor as of now was still open access.

  Boris was eventually forced to increase the loot pay out from 1% to 2% to curtail the growing negative sentiment, but it was not really a loss for the dungeon since collectors were stationed at every down ramp. Peter smiled evilly each time he opened a new ramp down as he expanded the first floor. He tried not go to overboard with it, but there were now 11 ramps down to the second floor.

  Eventually he hit the cap of 500 daily ambient essence for the first floor and quit expanding despite being allowed to go 100% over the limit that he received ambient essence for. He could expand it further later.

  On the left and right flanks of the first floor, Borris had started making more difficult F tiers and E tiers to allow for weaker individuals to have a shot. The first floor was simply massive, now with a hundred plus caverns winding through the earth only occasionally connected to one another. If the dungeon was not some magical existence the whole hill would probably cave in. It made Peter also wonder if there was some space manipulation going on to allow him to make his floors as big as he wanted.

  Soon after he had maxed out the ambient essence collection for the next 6 floors as well. When he got back they would proceed with earnest on the eighth. In total he was collecting just under 3,550 ambient essence a day. However on average his dungeon collected 20,000 essence a day including all the deaths. They were averaging about one death almost daily at this point, yet people still came. He was no longer at or near to what he considered capacity, but with continued growth they would be there soon. By the end of the next year he would likely have nothing further to do for expansion until the next 40 floors were unlocked at year 10.

  Peter had to remind himself that his rapid growth could not continue for much longer. The older dungeons likely had their ambient essence collection maxed out at 50,000 daily from 100 floors. Peter could not imagine collecting much more than that on a daily basis from people, so a good estimate for now was about 100,000 essence for the centurion and millennial dungeons.

  As far as dungeon battle preparations, Peter had not made too many. He thought about unlocking the B tier for the exorbitant price of 500,000 essence, but he soon decided against it. He did not have enough essence. If he won the battle he intended to fight, he would likely do so afterwards. Then he would have the opportunity to collect B tier cards. Peter felt his progress might have been abnormally fast. He would likely unlock A tier soon after depending on the price.

  Then again, Emma and Fellette had warned him to have an A tier army ready by year 11, and hopefully an S tier or two, if he wanted to survive the integration with the other dungeons in the intermediate division.

  Once again, Peter blinked away from the interior of his core. He found himself in the familiar congregation hall, although he was by himself in some enclave on the wall. Peter did not hesitate. “Boris, do you copy.” he reached out mentally.

  “Loud and clear, dungeon master. We all can hear and are standing by,” Borris replied mentally back.

  “Good, speak up if you have advice or recommendations,” Peter said as he stepped out of the enclave.

  Peter had wondered why the other dungeons had acted so disinterested during the rookie battles last year. The battles might be far below them, but there might be dungeon types with cards they might be interested in. Plus intelligence on enemies was a standard in war. That was before he read the section about congregation accompaniment. Basically, he could have his staff seeing and working on his behalf.

  Borris along with his own 20 E tier clockwork staff were now situated in headquarters, a secondary room in his core space. They would be able to monitor and see everything that occurred as long as Peter was in the right location. Peter did not have to watch each and every battle, one of his staff members could do so for him. The only requirement was that they were locked onto his location. They could not see into every enclave or far corner, if Peter did not have a line of sight if he looked in that direction. It meant no sneaking up on other cores since they would have members of their own staff watching.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  It also meant that secret trades would be difficult to manage, without one of the hundred other cores in the great banquet hall noticing. His decision for secret rendezvous with black listed cores had become that much harder. Not that he was ready for that this year. After all if he was going to approach them it should be for the best cards that could be traded, A tier.

  Peter had several priorities for the day. First, his staff would identify and start to organize his list of other cores. They would categorize them according to their factions, but then they would also start an in depth analysis compendium on all of them. If and when he went to battle, he would want to know everything he could. As for him, all he had to do would be to walk around. If Borris needed something or had a recommendation he could let him know through a mental link.

  Peter made his way to the second deck. There was once again a full buffet of food. He would pick at it through the day, but it was of no consequence now that his resources had increased. He could summon and eat whatever he wanted for a negligible amount of essence. Now he felt more like a secret agent attending a gallery full of other likely hostile people, snacking, mingling, and watching for opportunities.

  Peter immediately ran into a friendly face. “Peter..” the suave voice said before initiating a hug. Peter awkwardly received the hug from the angel man awkwardly.

  “Gabriel, how are you doing?”

  “Just fine, just fine,” Gabriel said, clapping him on both shoulders. “Its really good to see you. I’ve only had a few clockworks and this one weird talking bug to deal with for the last year. I can’t thank you enough for suggesting the clockwork trade. A bit dry, but better than nothing. I thought I was going to go crazy.”

  “Well perhaps you want to catch up for a bit, before we both move on to take care of business?” Peter suggested. All of the dungeon cores were in competition with one another, but there were bigger fish to worry about, so alliances and friendships should not be an issue. They could not be forced to battle one another from here on, so it was better to find other cores to work with. The factions were the overhead protection, close friendships were for the near peer protection. Other than rookies, Peter did not see many intermediate or centurion cores running alone.

  Of course like any good movie or comic series, there were chances for team ups. There were support cards that would force things like a 2 on 1 dungeon battle and so on, but there were also answering cards, like ‘call ally’. Gabriel might very well fight alongside him at some point. Although both cards were more rare than the common ones he had received so far. Peter understood he had not even scratched the surface of what was possible after reading the manual in its entirety.

  “How about we cut to the chase, then,” Gabriel finally said after a few minutes of conversation. He was speaking in a more quietly and conspiratal manner. The dungeon cores could watch everywhere at once, but it didn’t mean they could hear everything.

  “Very well, what do you have in mind,” Peter said, hoping the guy was not going to challenge him to a battle. In that case any chance at a possible friendship would likely be down the drain. They both had a spare dungeon core, but… there was also a support card that allowed dungeons to destroy extra cores. He was never completely safe.

  “I don’t know about you but I’m planning on a dungeon battle today.” Peter swallowed hard. “Don’t worry, not with you,” he said chuckling. “I want you as an ally, and I think you feel the same way.”

  Good it seemed Gabriel was of the same mind. “So then what are you wanting.” Peter asked in the same hushed tone. They were a fair distance from anyone, but there was no harm in being careful. Who knew what capabilities other dungeon cores were capable of.

  “Some personal information. Of course I will repay in turn. I’m sure you are also wondering the same thing. How do I stack up against the other rookie dungeons.”

  Peter did indeed know what the other guy meant. He thought he had absolutely nailed the development of his collection dungeon and had progressed as much as he possibly could in a year, but there was always some uncertainty. From their brief conversation, he could tell Gabriel thought the same of his own progress. Peter nodded.

  “Okay, good. Since it was my idea I will go first, and remember there is no reason why you should be hesitant to share. It is in my best interest to have allies and already 3 of the biggest factions are against us.” He was of course speaking of the undead, demon, and insect factions which were against all the others, although they did not target the other millennials until later.

  “Okay, I will share the same information that you share with me,” Peter said nodding. Gabriel did not seem like a duplicitous character, but then again even if he was, Peter was confident that at the very least he would not be too far behind the best of the rookie dungeons.

  “Good, then let's start with an average daily essence collection… 24,000.” Gabriel said with a broad smile.

  Peter twitched. Maybe he had not done as well as he had thought, but he made no effort to conceal. “20,000”

  “Haha ha…” Gabriel laughed for a good long moment. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you… but my own hubris. I had such a grand opinion of my accomplishments. I thought I would have blown out even the best of the other tutorial battle winning cores. I had such a good start, after all being spawned next to such a big city.”

  Peter nodded. It hurt to be on the losing end, but it was not so bad. This guy had started next to a big city when he had been stuck out in the boonies? How was that fair? But he had thought long and hard about it. He had a good start, if he had started next to a city perhaps it could have been better, but he would have had to progress in a different manner.

  “Okay, I'm still at C tier,” Gabriel admitted.

  “The same,” Peter said more confidently.

  “Good, good, I could have unlocked B tier, but I was worried about not having enough essence if I did so.

  Peter nodded. “Then I’ll start the next one. How much essence did you bring ready for a battle today? 530,000,” Peter gave his own answer first. This was perhaps the most important consideration for the day. If Gabriel said over a million than he might have to rethink things.

  “Beat you there,” Gabriel said excitedly. “I saved up 640,000.”

  Peter nodded, he hoped that Garbiel did not turn around and declare a battle with him, but the other dungeon core took on a more contemplative look. He had apparently also assumed himself to have brought an insurmountable amount of essence to the congregation, but he only had a good 20% more than Peter did.

  It was a sizable difference, but not enough to make for an easy win. It made Peter wonder whether a battle would even be worth it if he had to spend a half million essence to pull out a victory. Gabriel was clearly thinking the same thing, but according to Emma and Fellette he should battle if he could. Winning a battle was almost always worth the expenditure assuming you were at or around the same year group as your opponent.