Peter exchanged a little more personal information before the two of them split ways. Each had other things to accomplish before the initial pleasantries were over. He soon found himself running into another familiar face. It was Eli, the crustacean dungeon core. Another rookie that he had traded twice with already during their initial congregation. Eli had also won his first bout. He was currently a furry wookie-like existence. A walking mop of hair that Peter could not help but to contemplate his eventual change into an ocean bottom dweller over the next century. Of course they would both have to survive that long, but Eli like himself had at least won his initial bout.

  They sidebarred for a good ten minutes. The guy was friendly enough. Perhaps would never be his best friend, but there was no reason for the two of them to be hostile toward one another. It took very little for Peter to coax him into a similar information exchange. However, this time he was on the winning side, but not by much. Eli had a daily essence gathering in the late teens. He had not specified after Peter had said his, but Eli had also brought half a million to this congregation, barely. The guy had planned to have at least half a million and barely gotten there. He also had not unlocked the B tier.

  It was comforting, but not by much. It seemed most dungeons wanted to have a large amount of essence available. Maybe they all were not planning to challenge someone, but they each had to be ready. After all it might be tempting to develop your collection dungeon more to increase your essence gathering ability, but if you lost a dungeon battle it would not matter. Each of them was walking a delicate tightrope. Eli hung his mop like head as they parted. Peter had snagged a few more crustacean C Tiers in an even trade, but the other was clearly downcast after their exchange. Like Gabriel and himself he had also thought he had also done extremely well.

  Peter was beginning to recognize a pattern. They all had been scope locked for the last year. Every single one of them had worked hard and proudly believed they were something special. What was more worrying was that he had considered the 50 loser dungeons slated for extinction due to their poor start, certainly they would never be able to compete with him.

  Now that the rose tinted glasses were removed, he could see things as they were. Yes, the tutorial victory had given him a head start, but how much of one, maybe a month… two? Even if that were the case that would mean most of them were likely easily pulling in 15 thousand essence a day, unless they completely bungled things up. If they had an exceedingly good start they could even be at his level, or perhaps have even surpassed him. The tutorial loss was not a big enough hole that a determined core could not extricate himself from.

  Elyra was his next target. She was still hanging around with Helen, her guide. Helen was either a really good guide, or she was keeping a valuable dungeon core type close by. At 261 years, she would be building her strength to invariably take on one of the millennials. After a century cores likely did not battle every year or even every decade. Instead they gathered their strength to ensure victory when they did choose to battle. After 500 years or so, cores likely completely focused on their inevitable final bout and likely demise. A spare core would not save them. Millennials were old monsters. They would have the cards to put cores down for good. Emma had warned him about ever feeling comfortable, but even if the millennial did not use such a card they could just challenge them again year after year until the task was done.

  “Well, if it isn’t Peter, Mr. Design,” Elyra said smirking confiendly. The half red demoness half bovine did not look any different physically although a change would happen gradually over the years. However she had updated her wardrobe choice. She was now wearing a slip dress the same as Helen, her guide. Although her guide did not have hoofs and a cow body under hers. The blue skinned woman looked basically human, except for her skin tone.

  “Just been scoping out the competition, figuring out where I stack up. Was wondering if you would be interested in an information exchange?”

  Elyra laughed. “And why would I do that? My guide set expectations for me, and I’ve only exceeded them.” She looked down on him derisively, making Peter scowl. It made sense. A good guide would have given their protege a benchmark to work with. Peter did not know who Eli’s guide was, but he knew Gabriel had not talked to the dragonfly guide since the beginning of the first congregation since Gabriel had not chosen a bug type. Emma and Fellette, welllll, they did not remember the specifics of early dungeon core life. They gave more broad stroke advice.

  Peter looked at Helen. “And I don’t suppose you would share these benchmarks.” Helen laughed even harder.

  But just before Peter decided to give up and fish in other waters. She spoke up. “Okay young core. I will help you out once more. Tell us where you are at, and I’ll tell you how off the mark you are.”

  Peter glanced at Elyra. She had her ever present smirk, and her eyebrows raised, ‘Wellll.’

  He sighed deeply. “Still C tier. About 20,000 daily essence, and… I brought about half a million essence for battle today… Along with my other preparations,” he added the last part seeing that neither was impressed. Elyra even began laughing again. Maybe this was not such a good idea.

  Helen did not laugh. She had a curious yet calculative expression, “Go, on why don’t you tell us about your collection dungeon. Then I will tell you where you stand.”

  ‘In for a penny out for pound’, Peter thought, before giving a two minute synopsis on what he had encountered and how he had proceeded. Elyra no longer laughed; she carefully listened as well, curious what it had been like for someone else going through the same situation.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Well…” Helen said finally. I can tell you that you did pretty well, especially since the populace you started by were scattered around. Most dungeon cores have several thousand or more that can easily make a day trip right from the beginning. I would not say you're behind by any means. You might even be at the front of the main pack. That being said… I told Elyra to shoot for an average of 25,000 essence. There should be a handful like her who would have made it that far. As far as what you bought for battle, half a million is a decent amount. It is actually the benchmark I set for her if she wanted to battle someone. Most that do intend to battle will have about that much.”

  “If any of them did unlock B tier hoping that would help them to victory they will be sadly mistaken. I haven’t seen a single new dungeon win a battle in year 1, after having done so. They just won’t have enough forces and B tier’s are not so elite that they can take on a swarm of C tiers. Although I have heard of guides that make such a suggestion for a good laugh. However, if you plan to battle next year, bring your A game.” Helen said, clearly done with the matter.

  Peter thought about what she had said. Seemed like he was well equipped for battle today, but it would likely not be an easy win.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t destroy you today,” Elyra said, smirking. “Master is interested when your cards hit A tier, so we will let you swim about.” That last bit earned her a disapproving look from her master, but Helen was not too perturbed. “I’ll offer the same deal, 2 design for 1 provided you unlock B tier before the congregation is over.”

  “Cool,” Peter said, dismissing himself. Well at least he had learned a good deal from the short exchange. From the sound of things Elyra was likely one of the elites from their year group, so her knowing his information probably would not make much of a difference.

  “Master, we have a rookie dungeon of interest. From the look of things they are actively seeking out trades, Dark elf,” Boris came from inside of his head.

  “What point them out,” Peter exclaimed. Obtaining humanoid units was one of the priorities for trading. Even better if there was one from his year group. He wanted them for a variety of reasons, but the practical reason is that humanoids were the best smiths, crafters, and so on. Last year he had technically listened to all the introductions, but he would have been lying if he said that he had been in a state of mind to retain all the information.

  After he had settled down a bit after his battle he had been a bit more observant. Humanoid dungeon types had one hard rule. If there was a race on Terra, the dungeon world, then it would not be available as a dungeon unit although there usually was a corrupted copy of them. There were elves in the real world so dark elves were available in dungeon units. Since humans had various shades of skin, the dungeon variant was gray men. It had actually been one of the core types for him to choose although he had passed it up. No one else had apparently taken it either.

  He also remembered seeing a moon elf core last year. The core had of course been a elf, albeit male, but of course he had noticed, it was one of the blacklisted cores after all. The guy had been 890 years old, 891 now, so he probably would not be around for too much longer. Then there had also been a dueger dwarf variant somewhere in the 500’s. Both had looked like incarnations of what their summoned units would look like, but the core Boris indicated did not make Peter think of dark elves.

  “What really, that hairy thing…? It looks like a troll, or a monkey.” he had been talking to himself, but Borris answered in the affirmative. The core looked like a troll or half size gorilla but with more fluff. Surely he would have remembered something like that, but sure enough when he analyzed it. Gretchen, dark elf, 01. The little troll-like thing was getting ignored by a group of snickering reptiles from year groups 01 to 71. According to Boris, the core had tried approaching several different groups. A core without a clue, recklessly running around solicitating other cores. Still Gretchen had something he wanted.

  “Are you by chance looking for someone to trade?” Peter said, catching the other core between groups.

  “Oh, yes,” a female voice said. The hairy half sized thing looked him up and down sizing him up. “A concept type, I haven’t gotten one of those so far this year.”

  “Uhhhh, have you just been going group to group trading cards this whole time?” Peter asked hesitantly.

  “Oh yes, that is what we are supposed to be doing after all.”

  “And that has been working?” Peter asked.

  “Well sorta, sometimes I get rejected. Sometimes I don’t, although sometimes it just seems like they are just trying to get rid of me,” she added the last part clearly a bit self consciously.

  “Is that what your guide told you to do?” Peter asked. Helen had indicated that guides sometimes misled new cores for their own amusement.

  “Well no… my guide was not very helpful. Honestly, they just told me how to access the interface and get the manual. Then they just said that I could figure everything out myself, and that if I did not say I was satisfied, they would ensure I got taken care of.” Peter did not have to ask what manner taken care of meant.

  Older cores pressuring or convincing other dungeons to take out cores in their weight division was common enough. Still it was shocking that her guide had been somehow less helpful than Clockwork. Even the dragonfly core had helped Gabriel out well enough, until it realized he would not enthusiastically pick a core type to join the insect faction.

  “Wow, that's pretty messed up… Did you not figure things out last year though?” Peter asked.

  “Well no, I lost my battle, and was feeling a bit down and slightly intimidated, so I only made a few trades with cores in our year group.” Gretchen said reluctantly. Not real surprising, Peter determined he needed to get as many dark elf cards as he could now. This core probably would not be around after today. Seeming desperate and weak here was basically like putting blood in the water. The sharks were sure to come. Other rookie’s looking for an easy win would be sure to jump at the chance

  “Ahhhhh… So nobody told you about factions?” Peter asked, but he got no response. The female hairball seemed confused, so he gave her a quick rundown all the while wondering whether he should pick her as his opponent? Peter did a quick run down on the various factions, even as he considered it.

  “Ooooo… That makes a lot of sense,” Gretchen said. “I just thought it was one of those similar species like being around each other… thing.”

  A minute later Peter concluded the meeting, he had offered an even exchange for 10 C tier cards. A good number that should meet his purposes for now. Even if Gretchen was slain today, he would have a decent supply. Plus there would be other humanoid types out there. In fact Peter ran into a core with gnomes only seconds later. From year group 41, the gnome told him to come back when he had at least A tier, and he would deal. Like he had been told most dungeons would not bother with anything less than A tier.