The behir was a true powerhouse. Before its death the beast likely had a power rating well above 6.0. It was surprising the goblins had even been able to take it down, but then Mark supposed that equipment was everything. After reanimation, the power rating had dropped down to 5.3, but jumped back up to 6.1 after being named and being appointed the third floor guardian. By Mark’s estimation the beast was still a good 10% slower and weaker than it had been when alive, but it was still plenty dangerous. Even by itself it could secure the third floor very effectively.

Dragon (Behir) Unknown (regular) Power lvl: 6.1 Morale: --- Strength 34 Attack: 7 Defense: 9 Endurance 38 Abilities/Skills Agility 35 Vitality 33 Intelligence 3 Wisdom 2

The defense and attack rating were several points higher than Mark had ever seen. Its attributes were well into the 30’s, which alone set it apart since Winnie and Bruce only had attributes in the low 20’s. Now that the beast was a reanimated corpse it would be even more bloody hard to kill.

Mark named the behir, Dragon. How intimidated would opponents be, when they saw the beast and read that in the status? Might be a little weird later on if they got an actual dragon, but for now the behir was definitely an apex predator. Once they filled out the rest of the defenders it would be a while before they would need to add onto their dungeon. The fourth floor only cost 50 DP, the same as the third floor. Which was a positive note. Everything was getting so expensive, their MP production would not be able to keep up. Luckily, they could focus on other aspects for now.

Another option had become available after getting the mining tech. They could use one of their dungeon floors to make an actual mine for 10,000 MP. It would be a slight hit to their defenses since they would have one less floor to use, but it would be a reliable source for stone, metals, and special resources. They could try to trade with the kobolds for iron or other resources, but that would mean a lot of logistics to get the resources to their dungeon unless they wanted to make another outpost building at the kobolds mine. Mark still had not made the outpost at the toxic essence source. 20,000 MP was a big expense for something that was not bringing in MP. The toxic essence would definitely be necessary but for iron…?

Contender capabilities was better than Mark had expected. Now they could link and monitor three different units or groups of units. They were also able to change each of the links once daily, and the units did not even have to be in their territory like they had before. Mark could connect to any surviving unit on the map. Even better, the tech allowed communication to the linked units, meaning Mark and Amelia could give directions in real time. While they had not really lost out in not having the tech earlier, going forward Mark could be far more versatile with their forces.

It was the final tech available until they leveled up. Mark had designated the 4 remaining RP from the last two days toward unlocking the healer class. A fifth RP from today would finish unlocking the unit. The remaining 2 RP would be put towards a new tech when they unlocked the level 2 today. Their MP was nearly at 100,000. Their dungeon would be a bit vulnerable for a couple of days, but the other dungeons were not gearing up for an attack. They were likely saving up for the same thing.

Today would be the day they pulled the trigger for level 2. An early lunch had only delayed the inevitable by a few more minutes. Mark and Amelia both waited for the last few MP to trickle in. Mark had control of the dungeon core screen, and as soon as the sixth digit switched to a one he mentally hit the dungeon upgrade button. The simple notice appeared on the dungeon core screen.

[Notice: Dungeon has been upgraded to level 2. New features are available.]

Mark shifted from the notice back to the first tab. Their MP was counting back up from zero, but more of note was the increase of daily RP and DP. Each had gone up by 1, meaning they were now getting 4 RP and 3 DP daily. Mark had been hoping for a bigger increase, but he would hardly complain. The other dungeons would get the same increase. It was probably better that upgrading the dungeon did not accelerate production by too much. The other noticeable change was that it would take a million RP to level up the dungeon again. Just like for level 2, it seemed so far off for now.

There was only one change to the floors tab. The cost for the next floor whether they built a mine or a standard floor had gone up by 10 percent. A punishment for progressing to the next dungeon level? Mark grimaced. The creators nickel and dimed them for every little thing. Another 5 DP to unlock the fourth floor did not seem like much, but there were already so many requirements on them already. He only delayed a few more moments before flipping to the tech tree. They had 9 brand new level 2 techs, one of which they had already unlocked.

Magic Energy Production 100 RP Intricate Design 150 RP Mapping 100 RP Masonry 150 RP Metal Casting 100 RP Siege Weapons 150 RP Dungeon Features II 100 RP Settlements II 250 RP Military Organization 150 RP (unlocked

The price tag for the new techs was far higher than Mark would have expected. Even the cheapest would cost 100,000 MP. It would take weeks to even unlock one of them. Perhaps the creators intended to slow the game down a bit. Mark now understood why a new purge of the weaker dungeons by the second level dungeons had yet to occur. It would take months at the very least for dungeons to really level up.

Mark wanted all of the Techs, but there were a few that really stood out. Mark would love to have mapping, so the black surrounding their territory could be unveiled. Metal casting was another great choice. Metal weapons would make a world of difference in battles. He would also love masonry, so that his units could start constructing a fortress. Gale must already have that one since she was already building stone walls. Mark dwelt on the possibilities for a moment more. In the end though he already knew which one he would be going with.

Magic energy production 2 was the obvious choice. Increasing their MP production was a must, but unlike settlements 2 it was one of the cheapest level 2 techs. It would take a couple weeks of them saving their MP to finish the tech, or they could designate their RP and unlock it in just under a month. Mark dwelt on it for a moment. He did not have to think for too long.

Increasing their MP was important. They would save their MP up for this one. RP could be used to unlock one of the other cheaper options. Mark would choose metal casting. Mapping would make things more convenient but it was not a must have for now, and metal weapons outplaced masonry as well. Having better weapons was a better defense in and of itself.

Mark shifted the screen to the units page. This is what they were both most eager to see. What new units would they get in their three different branches. Their humanoid tree was first on the page, with only one branch. Mark was dismayed to find that the goblin branch actually did not have any native options. He should have expected that. The legionnaires and red hobgoblins were the pinnacle of the goblin branch.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

However, there was one new unit available on the tree. A combination unit that would not have been available unless the requirements were met. In this case it required for them to have one of the humanoid branches and one insect branch unlocked. The goblin Arachne with a power rating of 2.7. It cost 22,000 MP to unlock and each unit would cost 1,400 MP.

Mark had always said the two branches went together well. Here was the evidence. Although it appeared that any of the humanoid branches would have worked. How powerful would an orc Arachne be? Nope this was good, an orc Arachne would likely not be unlocked till their dungeon reached level 3 since it would likely be over 3.0 power rating, which Mark assumed was the cutoff like 2.0 had been for level 1.

The goblin Arachne fell under the humanoid tree, which Mark assumed meant that the units would use the class system and not the beast bloodline system. There was however one downside, that Mark quickly noticed for the goblin Arachne. All of the capacities for level 1 units had gone up. The new numbers looked to be based on what you would get if you divide 250 by the units base power rating instead of 100. This meant their green goblin capacity went up from 333 to 833. However, it looked like the goblin Arachne was based on the original 100, meaning they could only have 37 of them. It was game balance at work. Dungeons could not just spam their most powerful units. They would have to send armies with all the unit types.

There were two new options on the humanoid branch available to unlock, Trolls and giants. But Mark could hardly get excited about them since it would cost 450,000 MP to unlock either of them. The base price for the branch was 300,000 MP which meant that there was a 50% increase in cost. With three branches at level 1, they had increased the branch cost by 50% twice over, meaning that one of the branch increases had been dropped after leveling up the dungeon. Regardless, they would be out of reach for a while. He would have to think about it more later.

Amelia was elbowing him to scroll over to the next tree. She was antsy to see what else they had unlocked, so Mark opened the beast tree. There were two new options. The weevil, which was a type of beetle with a 2.3 power rating. Then there was Violet scorpion with a power rating of 2.9. They cost 15 and 24 thousand MP respectively to unlock. Mark did not really know what to expect from the weevil, but getting a scorpion was very exciting.

Mark only delayed on the beast tree for another moment. Since they had not actually unlocked the tree they did not have the option to even see other branches. He quickly shifted to the plant tree. There were three new options under the flower branch. The branch continued the trend of each successive unit costing an additional 0.4 power rating more than the one before. At 2.0, they got the sunflower. At 2.4 they got the blood rose, and at 2.8 they got the Midnight lotus. Mark did not know what to expect from the flower class, but the blood rose sure sounded ominous.

Mark would be lying if he said he was not interested in seeing these new units. However, it would definitely be a bit before they could unlock all of them. The sunflower was the cheapest of the six new units, and it cost 12,000MP to unlock. It was a bit frustrating, but it would be a while before they would unlock any of them. Increasing their MP production and getting metal weapons were just more important in the short run.

Mark soon moved on shifting to the unit upgrade tab. Advanced classes like swordsman, archer, spearmen were unlocked. If there was a type of weapon there was an advanced class for it. The only note was that the overarching class like warrior or scout had to be upgraded to unlock the advanced class’ equivalent levels. It appeared that the advanced classes would give 15% per a class level instead of the 10% that the class archetype received. It would also focus them, meaning that boost was related to that weapon. Without their primary weapon a unit with an advanced class might only get a fraction of the 15% per level. The beast bloodline and germination paths were also supposedly unlocked further, but Mark could not see those options yet since they had not begun down them.

There was one more section that was now available under the unit upgrade tab, skills. There were four base skills: dash, surge, soak, and pull. They actually were very similar to the beast bloodline aspects. Four basic skills that temporarily increased the attribute functions. While they did not increase the unit's power rating, Mark could tell how useful they were. Afterall, he believed he had seen Cedrick use a skill during the wasp battle. The gnome had been able to leap 20 feet into the air.

Dash increased agility and strength attributes for up to a minute. A unit could increase their speed by 50% for an entire minute, or they could use it all up at once, burning the skill at an exponential rate for an almost instantaneous lunge. It was like a street racer using NOS to give their car a boost of power for a short time. Then the skill would have to slowly recharge overtime. The rate reportedly depended on a variety of factors related to the unit's fatigue. How long ago they ate, slept, etcetera...

Surge increased the strength and endurance of a unit. It was pretty much the same thing as dash except for strength. The unit would hulk out and be able to deliver more powerful blows. Since endurance also was increased their survivability would also increase to a lesser extent.

Soak was a bit different. It increased a unit’s vitality and endurance. A unit using soak would take less damage, and be able to shrug off damage better. The unit’s wounds would also close and recover during the skill, which could last up to a minute, or it could be used up in a 10 second burst.

Pull increased the unit's intelligence and wisdom. The unit would get a burst of temporary mana to expend, and would also recover their own manna at a furious rate during the minute the skill was active. Unlike the other three, the pull rate could not be exponentially increased.

Each of the skills cost 25,000 MP to unlock. It was not too much for how useful they could be, but Mark did note the 200 MP it would cost to give the skill to a unit. It would be quite expensive to add the skill to a large group of units. It would be more expensive to add a second skill to the same unit. There was a 50% increase for the second skill. A 100% increase for the third, and a 150% increase for the fourth. Another note indicated that the most expensive skill would be the one increased. It did not mean much now since all the skills had the same cost, but if they unlocked more expensive skills it would.

The skills were a completely new feature for the battle. Mark could easily imagine just how much of a difference these skills could make. The only problem was that there seemed to be a million things for them to unlock. Techs, classes, bloodlines, germination, new units… Their resources would be stretched thin if they tried to do it all.

“I guess that is it,” Mark said hesitantly.

“Well actually there is something else,” Amelia said with a wide smile. Mark glanced through the screen tab headings. The only ones he had not hit were the store and the… the sponsorship screen.

Mark flipped to the sponsorship screen. “Unbelievable,” Mark said as he saw that there was something there, but there was only a heartbeat of excitement before he saw what it was. “A hot tub! What kind of reward was that,” he said in disbelief.

“Oh come on, it's something,” Amelia said. Her body was practically bouncing in anticipation. “Since we don’t have anything else, can I go ahead and build it?”

“Uhhh, I guess. Even if we do get something else we would only have to wait another week to get it,” Mark said dismissively. “Wait, did Cynthia say who gave it to us?”

On day 57, they received the ability to chat with their PR representative. It was a basic instant messaging format, and there were limitations on what Cynthia could say to them. She could not advise them or lead them to what they should be working on, and obviously she could not give information on the other contenders or the battle in general. Honestly, Mark was a bit unsure of the specifics since Amelia had quickly blocked him from the feature entirely. Mark never said anything about it, supposing Amelia needed the outlet for some girl talk. He had no idea what Amelia and the other woman chatted about, but he could tell when Amelia was doing it, because she would have a stupid grin on her face when she was doing it. It seemed the two were likely talking about all sorts of things and not just stuff that was battle related.

“Yes, she said it was from Crouses. Which is a chocolate company. The package is only level 1.”

Mark nodded. The screen showed what level the package was. There were five levels with different associated costs. A level 1 package was apparently something fairly useless, a care package, that would not even affect the battle. It probably was extremely cheap compared to the higher levels. Why a chocolate company would be giving them a hot tub, Mark could only assume it had some purpose like advertising. Or… maybe it was just from some rich pervert who wanted to see what they would look like in bathing suits. Mark shook his head. He tried not to think about things that were happening outside the battle. It might be a useless sponsorship package, but at least they had been noticed by someone for whatever reason. Perhaps if they kept doing well the packages would keep coming in and be far more useful.

A hot tub soon appeared in the core room. It was the size of any that he had seen at a hotel, easily big enough for the two of them. “You want to try it out,” Amelia said, stretching.

“Maybe later,” Mark said, standing himself. He felt like he had a hundred new things to think about. He felt there were dozens of potential routes they could travel going forward. He needed to decide on what would be their best course. He was confident that knocking down the two techs he had decided on was the best first move, but what about after that…