When the introductions were complete, Peter quickly analyzed the rookie group. Those that ambled on listlessly were prime targets especially if their core type would land them in one of the bigger factions. The new Bone core was not among the group, she confidently marched up the stairs toward the undead faction, but Peter quickly scrambled, nabbing a few of the big faction scions in time.
Peter’s first target was the bleach flame. The new rookie core might sound like an elemental type, but Peter knew better from several conversations with Elyra and others. The bleach flame was a white spirit devouring flame associated with the second layer of hell. Peter quickly weaved himself in and offered a trade of just one D tier type card for one of the rookies. The rookie promptly accepted, not knowing better. Several older demon cores glared at Peter as he briskly walked away, but he just smiled in return. They had been a minute too late.
The other scion he managed to get in time was Wight, an undead race that was in all basic terms a zombie. It would be a perfect type for him since he planned to build his own undead armies in the future. Still rather than gloat in his success in snatching a type before their factions could incorporate them inside their protective bubbles, Peter continued on. There were a lot of new core types and they had scattered to the wind.
Peter was a bit self conscious about things, but he was far from being the only older core moving around. Gretchen was also flitting about with the same fervor as him. Others were targeting a specific type or two. Many older cores, the new rookie guides, had also located their young proteges. Peter shamelessly intruded on private conversations. Emma, the ember core, had a new protege. She had apparently successfully guided it into choosing something very beneficial to herself like Wing had done. Peter quickly intruded doing the minimal catching up before he snagged the new Heat type from the fresh faced core.
It was obvious that Emma and Fellette were a bit too preoccupied to search out for Clockwork’s new protege like they had for him. Emma had her own, and Fellette was more worried about his own survival once battles could resume next year. Still Peter had no clue which core belonged to his former guide despite his staff keeping a lookout for any. He could only hope they would find their own way despite being saddled with the same unhelpful guide like he had. Hopefully, they had asked a lot of questions, or perhaps they were one of the dozen cores still aimlessly wondering adrift. It did not matter, he had trades to make.
In the end, Peter managed to get 32 new types. Not bad for a first push although he hoped to get another 10 to 20 before they started to eliminate each other next year. He had just increased his options by about 50%. He could only shake his head in amusement, at the idea. If he survived another few decades he would likely have hundreds of options. Make it a century he would be past a thousand at this rate. With the rookies blinked away undergoing their hour preparation, Peter made his way back to the concept faction
The older intermediate cores just shook their heads at him, clearly a bit put off by his over eagerness. Elyra also sat there like a noble queen. Obviously, she expected them to make their way her way at some point after the tutorial battles or next year. Gabriel had clearly gone to nab a few, but likely had not gone as overboard as Gretchen and he had.
“Well, I guess we already knew you were a pretty lively bunch,” Psychic said dismissing their antics. “Sorry about earlier, Bell was a good friend. She tries to stop by when she can get away with it without getting me in trouble,” she explained.
Peter’s mind wondered during the initial portion of the meeting. Psychic was going into the need for an out of dungeon Terra presence, which Peter had unfortunately long ago been forced to incorporate. Peter could not help but to think about his current predicament and the newly introduced instability of Dawn and its potential implications.
Currently, nearly 75% of the essence accumulated by his collection dungeon was done from adventurers fighting and occasionally dying. Sure that percentage was about to drop to perhaps about 2 thirds once he added 40 new floors that collected the max of 500 ambient essence daily, but it still added up. Over the last few years, his dungeon had collected 13.5 to 14 million from adventurers annually. Of course he planned to add a few more floors available for them to delve, increasing that amount further. In contrast, he should get 10.5 million essence annually once he maxx’d out the 50 available collection floors. He would be bringing in less than half of what was expected from an intermediate dungeon.
Of course by design it could not have come at a worse time and Peter felt a bit helpless on what to do about it. He could not go out himself, so would be dependent on Delilah’s team led by N’tanner. He had to both rely on what information they could find out and bring back as well as for them to act on his behalf. It was a bit maddening that he had to be dealing with this, but from what he had gleaned it happened to most cores at some point since intercountry turmoil was pretty common provided they lived long enough. It was just that in his case, the situation had clearly been manufactured to coincide with his integration.
Then Psychic said something that brought his attention back with a snap. “Now perhaps we need to discuss some factional moves. Nemesis, I hope you have a plan to keep our new blood alive,” Guinevere said, leveling her eyes at the intermediate leader.
Nemesis gave Peter and the other former rookies a disgruntled gaze as he sighed. “Well seeing as how they managed to upset nearly all the major factions it would be difficult, but I think the four of us can run some interference. Doll and I should be able to threaten annihilation on any of the cores year 50 and up after year one. Lower than that and it would be too harmful to our own prospects. Mirage likely is a bit weakened after battle last year, but Wing should be in a good position to ward off year group 40’s and below from ganging up on them.”
“I don’t see why I should,” Wing muttered under her breath, earning her a cold stare from Guinevere. Wing averted her eyes. “I’ll do what I can, but there are four of them and a hundred cores at our level that would love to be the one to take them out. I can’t work miracles.”
Peter was actually a bit surprised. He had not expected anything, but apparently the older intermediate cores would do what they could to keep some old monster intermediate from taking them out, well after the obligatory first year rookie crushing. Based on Nemesis’ reputation, it likely was not an idle threat. It would not be perfect, and using their shelter would pretty much be equivalent to ‘my big brother will beat you up,’ but it was pretty standard for the major factions. Nemesis just happened to be one of the biggest hitters in the division.
Still Peter could not rely on the top cover. Like Wing had said there were far too many enemy cores for the 4 older cores to run interference on all of them. Plus the four remaining older concept cores were strong for their year group, it was the only reason they were still alive. However, they were hardly the only heavy hitters. Nemesis was not even considered the strongest intermediate core. Most regarded Deathsworn (90) of the same year group as being stronger than him. The two had battled decades in the past, twice. Nemesis lost both times, once in the rookie division and once in the intermediate division.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The other heavy hitter normally put on the two’s level was Wyrm (80) who was a year group behind. Peter had seen Wyrm beat up on the gnome core which had been a standout two decades younger than the dragon type core, but the battle had been pretty one sided despite the Gnome core’s valiant effort.
From the group two decades younger than Nemesis, current year 70 cores, were the Hell borne trio. The trio of demon cores were not even the only threats from the year. The year group had two undead powerhouses as well as several from the reptile and insect factions. The year group below them, Doll’s year group was just as stacked with none of the top cores showing clear dominance. The year 60 group still had 31 cores, nearly double the amount that normally made it that far into intermediate division.
Hopefully all those threats were far above Peter’s level. They would get nothing from attacking him, but Peter could not help but to temper any expectations since any one of them could keep Doll or Nemesis in check.
As far as the cores at year 50 or below that would likely get something if only a pittance of rewards in regards to the cores in the older year groups, there were heavy hitters in each year group. Then there were the sleepers in all of the year groups; Cores that had not shown their true might. There were a good number of cores that had not fought since the rookie division or their own integration. While they would have not gotten rewards they would be swimming in accumulated resources. The intermediate division was simply full of dangerous opponents, and Peter was just the newest small fish trying to swim in the deeper waters.
“Hmmm, we'll introduce them to the two intermediate beast faction groups and the other cores we are close to,” Guinevere said casually.
“Might be a bit difficult… After all the insect centennials are doing as they please to their centennials,” Nemesis stated, clearly uncomfortable making what could be an accusation.
“We’re not as free to act as you might imagine,” Guinevere (750) replied coldly.
“Peaceful times,” Force (700) muttered despondently. “No one but the two of us were around during the last major centennial upheaval, when entire factions were wiped out.”
They did not need to mention the specifics. Both the plant and beast factions had been wiped out almost to the core. Elm (790) was the lone survivor from the two factions, where one of his battles led him to defeating one of Fire’s golden boys two centuries older than himself leading to his blacklisting. Eventually he had just been left alone, for the millennials to deal with at some point. The beast faction had built back up a presence over time since new cores regularly picked beast types. It had been impossible for the major factions to keep them completely down, but the plant faction was now still fairly non-existent throughout all divisions centuries after the fact.
“Still we should be able to throw our weight around some,” Foresight (310) said with a blissful expression.
The psychic core finally shrugged. “Very well, we will put some pressure on the insects. We have indeed been quiet for a bit too long.”
“The entire centennial division has been too peaceful for far too long,” Force said with a gruff smile. He was clearly eager for battle.
The meeting ended soon afterwards. Nemesis allowed Wing to lead the four former rookies toward the minor beast faction group while he went to the upper intermediate beast faction group. With seventeen beast cores in the intermediate division, they had split into two different groups. The groups were basically like the minor and major leagues, with some variance between the year groups. Once a minor beast group faction member proved themselves they were called up to the main group. It was regardless of year.
Equestrian had already gotten the call even before he hit year 20. In contrast, the minor beast faction group was still being led by Nightingale who belonged to the year 70 group along with the demonborn trio. Most were surprised that she had lasted as long as she had based on her strength. Most also doubted that she would ever make it to the next division, that was not necessarily the thought belief for the other minor beast faction members who were all from year 50 or younger. Most just had yet to prove themselves. Once they did and were considered good prospects of making it in the centennial division, they would get the call.
Many of the other factions also had multiple groups inside the intermediate division although the criteria was different. The demon and undead factions had three groups based completely off their year groups. The reptiles were a bit odd in that they would even incorporate the rookies. Smaller groups such as theirs would seemingly formed randomly, although most proteges fell in with their guide groups.
The insects and elementals were the odd ones. The insect faction was more of a swarm with all of them together. Weaker cores or the actual insects were pushed more to the periphery while the stronger cores kept to the middle. However, the spiders, scorpions, and other arthropods formed their core. As far as the elementals, those in Fire’s inner circle would stay with him in his section of the back of the room. The rest were pretty splintered. Some like Emma, the ember core, even cozied up to other factions.
“Will the centennials throwing their weight around really make much of a difference?” Elyra asked, clearly skeptical.
“Maybe not directly since there are only four of them, but I would not say they would have no effect. There are other major players such as the material or golem groups who could also use the opportunity to start making moves. That alone will force the major factions to be more weary and less free to prey as they have.”
“Plus… even I have not seen Psychic fight. I hear she is truly fearsome. Force, foresight, and fury are also supposedly quite formable, so we should at the very least be in for quite the show… Provided you guys are still around,’ Wing added the last part with a smile.
“Wing,” The Nightingale core exclaimed, quickly rising to hug Wing.
“Nightinggale,” Wing replied with a neutral tone accepting the hug before pushing for separation. Their relationship was clearly unequal. Nightingale clearly looked a bit discombobulated, like a mental patient with schizophrenia ticks. Her eyes darted back and forth even as they remained wide open like she was not all there. Wing on the other hand seemed to just consider her a preferred trading partner, for obvious reasons for them both.
“These are our new cores. I’m sure none of you could have missed them in the rabble… since there literally is no rabble left from their year group.”
They stayed and chatted for a bit, before it was off to the next group. There was still after all a decently sized material faction to meet with as well as the pair of intermediate division golem faction members. The 32 new core types he had snagged were just the beginning. Peter soon pressed his record for new core types closer to 60 as he traded with them all.
Peter saw why most of the older cores disregarded the tutorial battles. Even compared to his battles the simple dungeon design and fighting E and D tiers were about as interesting as toddlers. The battles were just mob slug fests. Still Peter’s staff would collect intel on all of them, while Peter sat back and closed his eyes. His mind sifted through what he had learned about the post division rewards. He could not really make plans without seeing what he had gotten, but he could think of new ideas, have it fresh in the mind for when he returned. Return he soon would, perhaps it was by design but the decadal congregations were extremely short, being only 5 hours long.
