As always Peter woke up early in the morning following a congregation. Like a kid on Christmas he was ready to open his presents. Honestly, if it was not for the fact that he was always so mentally tired afterwards, he would have loved to get right to things as soon as he got back, but it was never just a quick process since he had to test each new unit’s capabilities as he went to see if it would change his decisions. Nope, it was better to wait till he was rested, less likely he would make rash decisions.

  Well he said that, but fact was that in the moment he usually got carried away anyways. How many years had he started with the idea of summoning a new powerful mage, yet he had not even replaced the catman mage or galactic warlock that he had lost 2 years ago. Sure there was Merlin, Michael, and Einstein who had proven themselves to be great picks, but they were not standard mages that blasted enemies into oblivion. Glenda had been left hanging year after year. Generally Peter supplemented her with new summons and their one offs when possible, but she needed better carryover. If he had a standard S tier mage and its B tier one offs he could really shore up things in the magic department. Today he was going with the standard mage or bust idea.

  Peter had given it a lot of thought over the congregation. He only had 3 S tier type cards to use. He would be better served using them one at a time to get things he needed. He could always go for another 2 SS tiers after the final rookie battle. Surely if they won against twice as many cores, he would get plenty of rewards to do whatever he wanted.

  Delilah was waiting with Boris in the headquarters room when he left his room. As an A tier she had far more stamina then she had before, not that she did not already far surpass him in that aspect. Regardless, she could probably go days without rest before needing a full night sleep. As it was, a few hours a night was usually more than sufficient. It would only get worse. She could be an S tier by the end of the year. A few years after that she would be at the peak of the tier. Assuming he unlocked the next rank for their shadow pool, she could even be an SS tier by year 12 or 13, although Peter was not quite sure on whether that would be the best move.

  Pretty soon he was going to get a host of new floors. There were likely hundreds of things he could use the upgrades for. The shadow pool was a great addition, and upgrading it even further would make it awesome, but he could just as easily make a second pool with different benefits for the amount it would take to bring the shadow pool up another level, or any number of things. As far as this year, he would use the 1 pinnacle upgrade to make a level 1 shadow garden to give them access to better herbs.

  Delilah hopped down to her feet from the desk she had been sitting on. “Mage or Bust?” she asked.

  “Mage or bust,” Peter echoed. A moment later they were all transported to the puddle room.

  Peter elected to use the random S tier type card first. He only had one, and it was the start of a new cycle so he could not be too surprised when he failed to get another restricted type card. Still it was not a bad option.

  S tier Necromancy type card (10:00)

  “Score!” Peter cried seeing the option.

  “Remember, mage or bust,” Delilah teased.

  “Shut up, I still have 2 more tries,” Peter retorted as he scanned his options, looking for the perfect combination for this card. A necromancer was not exactly a standard mage. It was more like the ritual summoner fairy, but it was a valuable capability. Every undead core seemingly had some, likely many gotten without the card type, but those built with the type card should be better.

  Peter could summon dozens of undead until one finally came around. Not yet at least. In a few years that might change as he built entire floors for the undead, but for now he needed to make this one count. With the wide variance of valuable things to invest in, who could say whether he would feel like taking another chance on an S tier necromancer.

  There were a lot of interesting possible combinations, like what would it be like if he combined it with the holy type card…? Peter found himself sidetracked as he imagined the many various possibilities, but when the counter got to the halfway mark, he recaged himself. He needed a good result for an S tier, which meant he should go with something a bit more reliable to get what he wanted. That left using a race card, since he did not really want to use an undead option. Fairy and dryad were out as were his new stone golem or demon race cards. He focused on the gnome or dark elf types. Of the two, the dark elf type seemed far more compatible, and he already had a dark wood realm. Might as well just go with it. Peter made the choice: dark elf necromancy, and design.

  Dark mage S: ATT: A (+), DEF: S (+), SPE: S

  Wraith raiser S: ATT: S, DEF: S, SPE: S

  Undead overlord S (+): ATT: S (+), DEF: S, SPE: S (+)

  “The dark mage looks like a standard mage,” Delilah added from behind his shoulder.

  Peter glared at her, but she just stared warmly in return. Too good of a smile for him to stay mad at her. He looked back at his choices. Of the choices he could immediately eliminate the undead overlord despite it being the strongest. The picture clearly showed a literal zombie dark elf. The creature’s facial skin was gone leaving fully visible clenched teeth and jaws with sinewy tendrils of muscle and tendons keeping things together.

  Wraith raiser looked to be the best actual necromancer choice, so Peter had to go with it. But was there a reason he should only take one. What was his new missed connection card for if not for something like this? He would get a necromancer and what sounded like a death focused standard mage. Peter also saw no reason why he should not use both his rare tier up increases. With a thought, Peter burnt a missed connection, two tier up increases, an S tier design type card, and a card type transfer to make the second S tier necromancy card from an S tier design card.

  The two options split into side by side views. Peter smiled when he saw that his normal design increase followed on both options. He left them alone now as he used the 2 tier up increases on each of the special attributes. Wraith raiser’s attribute went from S rank to SS rank, while the Dark mage’s hit the money, going from S (+) to SSS (-). There was only like a 10% chance for that to happen, and it could only happen if used on a (+) rank attribute. Still Peter felt he was due since last year he had one go the opposite way with the 10% to not tier up at all. Peter threw the smaller design increases on attack for the dark mage and special for the wraith raiser. Neither was enough to bring up the attribute’s rank, but Peter was already more than satisfied. Without even trying for it, Peter had gotten a fourth SS tier unit

  Dark mage SS(-): ATT: A (+), DEF: S (+), SPE: SSS(-)

  Wraith raiser S(+): ATT: S, DEF: S, SPE: SS

  That dark mage looked like a standard version of a dark elf, brown skin and white hair. The only difference would be the ominous midnight purple flare the eyes would undertake when he was using his magic. The wraith raiser was a living dark elf as well, but instead of the long white flowing hair, she was bald. A bit odd since the mage was clearly a female. Both came with/wore black robes commiserate with their position as mages.

  “I guess we will start with you Wraith raiser. Why don’t you show us what you can do?” Peter directed, wanting to save the SS tier for last.

  It took less than a minute for the S tier necromancer to display her capabilities. True to her name she could raise incorporeal wraiths around herself. She was only limited by available mana and the time required to raise them. It took mana to raise a wraith and mana to keep it in the physical realm. The amount of mana she put into it determined its strength as well as determined the amount of upkeep mana. The surprising fact was how quick she could do it. It took less than a minute to raise something up to the A tier. It took only another 20 seconds to bring it into the S tier although her ability to raise it further stalled soon afterwards.

  Half an hour passed as she performed various tests at Boris’ direction. Long story short the wraith raiser was awesome. She had a large enough mana capacity to carry an S tier and about 3 B tiers, or she could form around 7 A tiers. Regardless, it was quite an addition as long as he could keep her safe. The only downside was that they were tethered to her, in a way that it would be obvious to anyone who was looking. Yellowish tendrils connected each to her. The tether would also keep them from ranging too far, but the puddle room was too small to test the absolute limits of their reach although she said it would not be too much further.

  The real boon seemed to be that she recovered mana quite quickly, meaning that as long as her wraiths were not destroyed too quickly, she could simply replace them. Of course she would tire over time, so she was by no means an infinite army. More testing would be required to find optimal wraith loadouts.

  The B tier examples mirrored the original fairly closely, however it was clear that it would be difficult for them to spawn B tier wraiths since their mana recovery was far lower. Likely they would have to stick to mid C tier, so that they could manage a handful. Their tether’s were also smaller, so they would have to be up and close to the action. A problem since they were far more squishy. Still they would be a good addition to the backline defenses alongside units like the sigil master or space cessation mages.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Peter eagerly turned his attention to his new SS tier unit, the dark mage. “I guess it is your turn then.”

  The dark mage shifted uncomfortably. “Master, I control death magic. I’m afraid it would be difficult to adequately demonstrate my abilities without a large number of enemies.”

  The fact that he had said it would take a large amount of enemies to really get going sounded like a plus. “For now, just explain it then.”

  “Very well,” the dark elf said, nodding his head. “While I could cast any type of spell, the way to best utilize my abilities would be my death’s embrace skill.” A black orb of energy appeared before streaking forward toward a far column where it impacted seemingly harmlessly. “My death energy will kill living targets, feeding me the life energy required to make guards. The guards can fight to protect me, but I can also redistribute damage from them or drain them for energy.”

  Peter’s jaw dropped. With an attribute rank in the SSS tier, he had expected a lot, but it sounded like this guy could do it all. Kill units with ease while making new friendlies increasing his own power and defense. He really had not seen the capability of something in the SSS tier since the abyssal crystal construct had not participated in battle, and it was hard to see a SSS tier defense in action without seeing it get hit by something powerful. Then it occurred to him.

  “What about for non living units like golems, elementals, or even other undead?” Peter asked. Peter felt his exuberance fall. The undead after all would be one of his main opponents, god forbid he have a powerful unit that could not use its special ability on them.

  The dark mage shrugged. “Should still work, regardless of the type.” But before Peter’s excitement could rebuild the dark mage added, “But I doubt it would be as effective. Both in the deadliness of my attack and the energy I would have to make guards from, I think my ability would be reduced by half or more against undead or golems. I would not think that elementals would be much different from a living being since they are made of pure energy however.”

  It was definitely a black mark against the guy. Still even if it was only half as effective at SSS tier it should still be quite powerful, at least at the S tier level. Still not bad for the resources he had spent to get the guy. At least for the next battle, the guy should be hitting at full power. The insect cores were the least likely cores to have units that the dark mage would not be effective against. Regardless, both of these guys made him feel a bit better about the upcoming battle.

  “So what about the last one?” Delilah asked, breaking him from thought.

  “Are you able to fire your death spells at least 10 times the length of this room,” Peter asked the dark mage. The mage indicated that he could. “Great, then I’m counting it,” Peter said with a smile to Delilah.

  With the mage or bust goal met, Peter had a few options for his final S tier design card. He would definitely summon an A tier stone golem unit to be his annual infantry addition. Perhaps he would summon another alternate realm unit as well, but he did not feel he needed another S tier there. What he really needed was something powerful to add to his assault force. That meant either a beast or dragon. There was no question which of those would be better against a swarm of bugs. A fire breathing dragon sounded nice. One that breathed plasma would be even better.

  Plasma jet dragon S(-): ATT: S(-), DEF: A, SPE: S

  Celestial dragon S: ATT: S, DEF: S, SPE: S

  Plasma bather S: ATT: S, DEF: S(-), SPE: S

  Peter quickly studied through the 3 options. He was honestly a bit disappointed, not a single S (+) attribute on the board. The plasma jet dragon was likely exactly what he was looking for, but its defense had tiered down pretty significantly. It looked small and agile like the A tier blink dragon, which made Peter think that its actual defenses were even worse since most of the defense might come from its mobility. It probably had a good ranged attack, but Peter would rather have something more durable.

  The celestial dragon looked like a fine choice. Perhaps normally he would jump right on snaggin it, but after the summons of the last few years he held off. His forces were already pretty inundated with incorporeal types elemental or not. They were great fighters, but when used too often the enemy would prepare accordingly. Things that were effective against them like the spirit catcher dragon, were just too effective against them. No doubt his ether tearing dragon would have caught his future opponent’s attention.

  The plasma bather on the other hand did not look like a dragon at all, more like a horny lizard. The back of the lizard-like unit was a deep red that lightened turning into a light orange around the belly. Peter eventually decided to go with it. He threw the design increase as well as the common increase card specifically toward increasing the unit’s plasma capacity. It worked well enough since the special attribute went from S to S(+).

  The reddish orange lizard appeared a moment later. It was large, easily the length of an 18 wheeler’s trailer, although not near as tall. The legs were long, but they barely held the ‘lizard’ or maybe ground dragon off the ground. Peter and the rest retreated to the far side of the room. A good idea since when he asked the S tier lizard to showcase its abilities things went ballistic.

  Liquid plasma spewed from the sides of the lizard’s mouth before flowing back through channels until the whole body was just glowing. The heat was intense even from almost a thousand feet away. The lizard nimbly scrambled about its skin glowing white. Of course Peter lost sight of it after only about 10 seconds since all the pools of water near the creature started bubbling and steaming almost immediately. The room was a sauna in under a minute.

  After a good 30 minutes of allowing the room to calm back down Peter found that his new plasma bather could in fact shoot the molten hot liquid although its range was not far. The lizard also did not have a large quantity of it although it could regenerate the plasma quite quickly. The plasma spit attack sizzled as the glob evaporated into nothingness over about 15 seconds. Like the chilled glacier turtle, this guy was not something that played well with allies that were not of the same type.

  Peter was a bit sad not to have some plasma spewing dragon, but this guy was pretty lethal. Enemies would probably die just due to being in close proximity to the guy, and the lizard was quick enough to make keeping away from it difficult. Those legs could also act like springs shooting the large frame a good 30 feet into the air, so obstacles would have difficulty in keeping this guy out. Luckily when the lizard was not ‘bathing in its own plasma’ the creature could not be said to be more than a bit hot blooded with skin warm to the touch, so Peter would not have to arrange a special method to move this guy in and out of position.

  To keep the good times rolling, Peter went ahead and summoned the few other things he wanted this year. He used an electricity stock card with a design and stone golem. After using the increases on speed, he ended up with...

  Thunderfist Golem A(+): ATT: A, DEF: A(+), SPE: A (+)

  Peter had hoped to duplicate one of the A tiers he had seen during his last battle. The other golem had used a Thor-like hammer, but Peter was happy enough with what he had gotten. The thunderfist golem was a bit slower than most of the other infantry types, but it was also more powerful and durable without the requirement for equipment. Plus the electricity attacks were powerful when used directly against something, but even those close by to the target could find themselves stunned briefly. Despite being one of the first type cards that Peter had obtained through victory in battle, he really underutilized the type.

  Peter moved onto summoning a new beast unit to add to his assault force.

  Star Stallion (Equestrian, cosmic, design) A: ATT: A (+), DEF: A (-), SPE: A

  The idea was to shoot for a magic caster that was still fast. The black stallion with illuminated white hoofs met the idea. The horses actually used star fall the same as Glenda although their attack was clearly less powerful. Still they streaked out of a diamond white symbol on the horse’s back and could fire quite quickly until the stallion was out of mana. The A tier’s starfall was powerful enough to do some damage against an unguarded B tier. Pretty good since the star energy streaked out at a constant rate.

  With all the units summoned, Peter moved on to maelstroms for the year. He used essence to make the sanguine rose fairy since the cost was only 6.6 million essence, which he had on hand. Peter also used essence to make 5 maelstroms for the thunderfist golem and star stallion for 2.6 and 2.0 million respectively. That left Peter with just over 3 million essence from this battle’s haul, so much for saving it up to buy units. It sure went quick.

  Peter moved on to the free maelstrom cards. With the 5 user chose cards, he could make 8. He immediately made 2 for each of the necromancers and the plasma bather. He then used one for the Guardian spirit. Now that he had a large amount of resources being mined, he could easily make bodies for the 120 annual spirits. He could guarantee that they at least all had an A rank defense, which would make them powerful B tiers. For the last one, Peter threw another on the archangel bringing him up to 3 in total. Krista and her subordinates had proven effective in the last battle thanks to wielding maces versus swords. Regardless, it showed that they were an effective aerial unit.

  Before they could go… “How about we use the replicator support cards to make new pup familiars for the mages,” Delilah suggested.

  “Ooo… that's a good idea,” Peter said, reopening his interface. He had named the dark mage Ganon and the wraith raiser Wren. A familiar pup might not be that much of an addition to their S tier strength but it might mean another guard or wraith. Plus the familiar’s could support them. How had he not thought of it?

  “While you’re at it perhaps you could make me one as well,” Delilah said with a neutral expression, but Peter froze anyway. He had not failed to sense the undertone. “How many hints do I have to drop? Seriously, I’ve mentioned my dead tigers one hundred times, yet you could not pick up that I wanted something that couldn’t die…”

  Peter summoned a familiar for all his spell casters including the three present, Michael, Einstein, Merlin, and Pip the fairy. The familiar pup had been a combination between magic and canine, which Peter had plenty of stock cards for both. The downside was that the 7 copies of the 2 A tier type card combination would drop his essence down to 1.55 million, but boosting his troops was not a bad move.

  It proved to be a better idea than he had thought. The original familiar pup was only a B tier, but the replicator card caused what was basically a reroll of the stats for the same unit. This time it worked obscenely in his favor. Peter’s cheeks burned as he received 7 A tier familiar pups. He doubted that Glenda would give up her familiar for a stronger one, but not one of the others had tier’d down. The downside was that the maelstrom capability was still tied to the original, which meant only D tiers for maelstroms or one offs. Peter went ahead and bought 2 for little over a hundred thousand essence. It might not be much, but boosting C tier mages a bit might help keep them in the fight a bit longer. He was a real dolt sometimes.