The older cores continued their description of possible rewards as well as giving a few examples. It was clear the other four enjoyed reveling in the attention, like any accomplished senior. Peter and the others did not hold it against them, they were all too busy absorbing their words. Literally it seemed the sky was the limit in terms of the myriad possibilities available. Sure they had each seen countless examples of things being used in various battles, but now they were getting a look under the proverbial hood so to speak. The behind the scenes options that would make some of the more fantastical things they had seen make sense.

  Peter could not help but to feel that his carefully crafted plan was losing its value as the conversation went on, but he could not start revising it now. It was clear he would have to see what rewards he was given, and he would want to do it all quickly. Obviously, he would work on his collection dungeon first, using his massive essence savings to maximize his daily essence gathering potential, but even then he would have to proceed carefully since it seemed the majority of the opportunities would be more related to the collection dungeon than his battle dungeon.

  As far as the battle dungeon… Peter would have a full year, 420 days to figure things out. It was very likely he would not even add all the additional 40 floors since he would hardly be able to man a defense for a full 50 floors. He would just have to see how things fell out.

  Soon the hour was nearly up. “I guess it's time, Lets go join the centennial concept cores at the railing. Guinevere will likely have a few things to put out,” Nemesis instructed. Wing, Mirage, and Annalee all rose nearly at once. Peter and the other former rookies soon followed suit.

  It seemed that all the factions staked out a section of the balcony railing. Even the unaffiliated concept cores had a staked out position. Peter somewhat distantly remembered when he had first appeared as a rookie 10 years ago. He remembered looking around at all the older cores gathered around the railing. Back then they had looked down at Peter and the other rookies like they were ants, beneath their gaze. Peter could not blame them. Even after only 10 years as a core, he felt it would be difficult for him to see the rookie cores as much of a threat, Of course, he felt that there would never be a younger core capable of posing him any danger.

  Peter however would not look down in disdain as many of the other older cores would. They might not be a threat, but his humanity was not so far gone. They were like babies, baby cores that would have to learn how to walk and quickly run if they wanted to survive. Peter did not feel overly bad about the prospect. He never really had since the opportunity was after all a second chance after their demise in their prior life. In the end, he could not help but to greedily hope that he could acquire some new good core types.

  Guinevere, Psychic, 750, smiled warmly as they approached. Her colorful Romani like garb took center stage in contrast to the more subtle outfits of the three F’s: Force (700), Foresight (310), and Fury (240). “Good we all made it… That was quite something last year,” she said, eyeing the former rookies.”

  “So how many of you got selected to be guides this year,” Guinevere asked, looking them over.

  “Everyone but Mirage,” Nemesis said nonchalantly.

  “Good, with force and fury we have a pretty large input this year. Perhaps we will have a few promising cores to nurture then,” She said, whimsically.

  “Mine, chose to join the undead faction,” Annalee said matter of factly. Nobody seemed surprised. The doll core was not exactly a good advertisement to encourage a young core to head in their direction.

  Mirage took the role of saying a few things behind the lines for the former rookies. “Usually a good half of the concept cores that make it out of the rookie division have an older concept core as a guide. I guess you could say your group went against the grain, since none of you were one of our proteges. Then again, Nightshade may be wayward, but she kind of belongs to us. Still having so many in a year group is a good thing. There is a far better chance of some of them lasting to integration.”

  Guinevere expanded on the older intermediate core role of giving advice. She gave a few tips on what they should do with their rewards. However she was cut off midsentence with the arrival of another even older core.

  “Bell, lovely to see you,” Guinevere said. Peter turned to see that it was the blacklisted moon elf core. The luminescent humanoid flashed him a hardly discernable wink before taking her place at the railing beside the concept core faction leader. “Do you know who it is going to be?” Guinevere asked with a worried expression.

  “Not Void thankfully, he is likely to start the conquest on Ether (970) this year. The damn spider should also be prepping to take down the hourglass spider (930), so I doubt it will be her either. If Dragon was going to claim the honor, he likely would have already let me know by now, so it has to be one of the other three.”

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  “Thats a shame. I hope for your sake that it is either the undead or demon millennials,” Guinevere said with a solemn tone.

  “Me too, which likely means it will be the one I don’t want,” The moon elf core said staring out over the bottom floor.

  Peter could easily infer the meaning, but Mirage quietly detailed the exchange anyways. “If the millennials do not attack in the 800’s then they will almost always hit unaffiliated cores immediately on year 901. As far as Ether… The millennials usually will not allow cores to go much past year 950 since most centenarians that hit that point could delay their demise for a decade or two. Void usually allows him to go pretty deep into the century.”

  Mirage continued. “The elemental millennial would likely be one of the worst matchups for Moon elf since the millennial does not use many flesh and blood units.”

  “Wouldn’t the flame elemental be a bit type locked since his core type is… you know flames?” Elyra asked in a not at all quiet voice.

  Mirage’s face took on an annoyed expression, before he replied more quietly. “Not at all, Fire has armies of water, wind, earth, metal, you name it… Although from what I hear the flavor of the bulk of his forces often shifts in accordance with his current followers. I don’t know, I have only seen the demon and undead millennials fight so far.”

  Elyra’s face took on a troubled expression, apparently she still thought a bit more simply that core types would determine exactly what you would find if battling one of them. It was usually not the case with the insect cores being the most recent obvious example. However the elementals made it far more obvious.

  The thoughts blinked from mind as one hundred white swirls formed on the lower floor. Seconds later the swirls blinked away leaving 100 wide eyed rookies, who scanned the room in wonder. They were of all races, with humans being only one of the larger minorities in the mixup. Seconds later they started scrambling, as the interface gave them directions to line up. Peter watched in amusement as they all uncomfortably got into line before the one by one on stage procession began.

  Peter scanned each in turn eagerly, even as his staff began new files. Peter did not expect to ever be threatened by a core younger than him, but who could say. Perhaps one of them would ally with other cores in a battle someday. It was better to be thorough like Helen rather than disregard them like many of the older cores did. Based on interactions, Peter could tell that most of the older cores had not paid him much mind until he took down Tombstone on year four or perhaps Agatha on year five cementing himself as a potential concern for those closer to his age.

  “This one is mine,” Wing noted in triumph. A small rodent-like creature made its way on stage. It looked the complete opposite of what Peter would expect based on the core’s choice of Hawk as its core type.

  “Seriously, what did you convince it to pick its own natural predator,” Mirage said aghast. Wing smiled wickedly. “Gosh to think the poor thing will slowly turn into the very thing it probably hates…” Mirage muttered, turning his attention back to the stage. The next core was already making its way up from the side.

  Peter could not help but to agree with the sentiment. The hawk core would undergo a change likely as drastic as Gretchen had. It would certainly be interesting to watch. Wing had likely pushed the timid looking rodentkin to make the selection for her own benefit. Then again perhaps the choice of hawk would serve it well if combined with Wing’s card type. Hawk was not a concept core, but the beast faction was probably the next best thing since the two factions normally had a good relationship.

  The next core claimed by the group was by Nemesis, although Peter was not sure whether Force or Fury would say anything based on their demeanor. Nemesis’ protege had chosen a concept type, weapon. An interesting choice for the hairless black skinned reptilian. A card from that type would likely make better units with whatever weapon they used. More innate talent with a weapon was not something to be looked down upon. Gretchen had immediately perked up, seeing the core. Still it would likely take better resources and time for the core to develop to a true powerhouse. The core might have difficulty surviving the tutorial and first year, like many of its kind.

  Peter could not help but to mutter “huh,” seeing Doll’s protege. She had said it had chosen an undead. She had not mentioned that it was a repeat from their own year group. The bone's core type had been revived. Peter could not help but to reminiscence when 10 years ago, he had traded with the bone type core before the factional curtain closed. He had been pretty reserved, easily choosing to follow Tombstone as his right hand. However the female human with pale skin and dark hair smiled confidently as she took the stage.

  The bone type core was not the only repeat either. Only two cores later a new fire ant core walked across the stage. It was a bit funny to see that a second former rival core type had been repeated, but it made sense. The insect and undead were perhaps some of the pushiest on new proteges in getting what they wanted.

  Near the end another repeater glided across stage, although Peter’s staff had to remind him of the fact since during his own rookie run the core type had been quickly eliminated on year 1. Peter was certainly interested because it was another race core, Draken. They were some sort of dragonkin race. Peter moved that core to the front of his priority list. He needed to make sure to acquire as many types as he could. Today might be the one and only chance to acquire some of them, since the factions would soon roll them up into their fold. Some core’s like the former bone core had picked something that did not go along with their guide and were left floundering.

  Many older cores felt it was beneath them to actively pursue the rookies to gain new core type options, but Peter could care less whether it was unbecoming. He wanted as many options as possible, and he did not particularly care whether his own type was spread around. Then again his core type almost required other types to make the best of itself. Others were far less inclined with all but a few.