[ Optional Challenge Complete - 2 Reward tokens ]

[ Lose none of your Team - 1 Hero Upgrade token ]

[ Slay Optional Boss - 1 Hero token ]

[ Save Morgan Blackhand - 1 Power token ]

[ You have completed the Mana Sink ]

[ Type: Historical Event ]

[ Starting Deviance 24.6% ]

[ Ending Deviance 76.2% ]

[ Major Impact - 5 Reward tokens ]

That was a lot to stare at. But it seemed like we had done well.

A Purple vortex appeared on the roof, it's pulsing energies beckoned us home.

I turned to Morgan. "Get out of here."

He didn't hesitate and hobbled into the last AV, I heard him tell the nervous pilot to take off.

I watched as the bulky vehicle sped off.

"We good here, Hoss?" Raynor asked as he cradled his totaled rifle.

There was nothing left to do here. "Let's go home."

Once again the transition was seamless. No sense of movement.

We were back. New Lordaeron.

No one was there to greet us, which was as expected. There had been no way to know how long the trip would take.

The once roiling Vortex was now a smooth shiny purple orb hovering over the ground. I could still feel it drawing mana from the environment, but the mana it was returning now was less nasty feeling. I needed to look into if there was a way to filter out the tainted element of the mana.

I turned to my team. "Great work everyone. Let's get some rest and chow. I'll see you all tomorrow."

They saluted and then went to enjoy their day. I think they could tell I wanted some time to myself.

That number 24.6% starting deviance, was bothering me. Most of that was Johnny Silverhand being dead before the run.

If I could trust the system's assessment that made the Dungeon a fairly accurate view of the event. At least before we got involved.

I raised the visor on my armor and sucked in a lung full of earthy, clean, mana rich air.

The corn field around me rippled in a refreshing breeze. My thoughts drifted away on that current for just a moment.

I was starting to love this place. Despite everything that happened or maybe because of it.

I guess my roots were getting a firm connection to the soil finally.

[ Quest complete ]

[ 5000 Company Points and 2 Random Supply tokens ]

[ Quest complete ]

[ 2000 Company Points and 1 Hero token ]

[ Quest complete ]

[ 5000 Company Points and 1 Building Upgrade token ]

This was how to get a ton of points and tokens. So it would be a good idea to take advantage of these Mana Sinks as often as possible. It wasn't lost on me that the power I had gotten earlier was also called Mana Sink. But I really didn't think of it much, as I didn't need to worry about magic wielding enemies.

That had changed. Anything could be on the other side of a Vortex.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Everything was useful. I should stop judging things solely on the needs of the moment.

Let's look at the loot.

Total rewards, 11 Reward tokens, which my BTC told me were completely random chance lotteries. Anything was on the menu. I could get a Theme or a Hero or something utterly new.

5 Hero Upgrade tokens which where exactly what they sounded like. They would raise the level of a Hero. Think about John with 5 more levels.

I shuddered. I saw the future of dead bodies everywhere.

No, realistically I should use them on Raynor and Jaina and probably the new Heroes I was going to get from these 2 new Hero tokens.

8 Unit Upgrade tokens which affected all unit of one type. If I used them for Probes all Probes would benefit. If I used them on a higher order of unit I would have a devastating army. The upgrade could be any of a number of factors. Health, Armor, Damage... and so on. It might require a lot of thought on how best to use these.

1 Building Upgrade token which took any building to its next level of technology. It had a note, it was best used on Prime buildings of a theme.

Another Power token, I was eager to see what I'd get this time.

This felt like a massive haul. But I'd wait until tomorrow and open the tokens with everyone else.

I checked my XP, it had soared to 154,829.

That was amazing and terrifying. How far could I go?

I was already at the heights of modified human levels. At least relative to this world.

What good would it do me to reach godlike levels of power? Unless I wanted to join in on some greater conflict. No, I really didn't want to get involved in anything that.

Though maybe exploring the Galaxy would be fun someday.

Plus, I was already struggling with my self image. Don't get it twisted I liked being stronger, and loved having a goal, but I felt parts of me being shed away.

It was already so easy to jump to killing. So easy to hurt others for my mission.

I think it is time to get back to my roots, or at least as much as I could.

Some simple labor. Maybe working on some cars. I had that idea a while back to make an upgraded version of Amanda's car.

But even before that, it was time to search the company story for some fuzzy friends.

Several purchases later, we had squirrels and other little varmints running around. All of them with some magical quirk or feature. That was 400 points.

While some small critters were already running around thanks to the strange nature of Meadran's presence, I thought a few more conventional ones wouldn't hurt. Some people found squirrels adorable.

They scattered into the forest of the Valley. Good thing too.

Next I looked at fluffy murder machines.

I ended up purchasing two different clans of cats. One, a breed that reminded me of the Norwegian Forest Cat called the Temerian Deep Stalker. The other clan reminded me of the Sandcat, they were called Rostvian Shorthairs. They both had all kinds of tricks. Deep Stalkers could work shadow magic. Rostvians could play with earth based energies.

They ran me 800 points.

Both breeds were noted for being naturally friendly with humans. I figured why not, some people like cats.

The little psychopaths didn't have me fooled even if I gave them plenty of scritches, before they went off to explore their new home.

Cute is cute.

Then I started scrolling the canine options available now.

I damn near threw all my point at the store right then and there.

The assholes had filled the front images with the puppy version of every breed. They hadn't done that with the cats!

They were out to bankrupt me.

I was muttering about a Company conspiracy to drowned me in dogs.

I tightened my mental grip on my myself. Two types, I promised myself that I could buy two types of Doggos.

Though many were strictly speaking not Doggos. There were wolves and foxes of dozens of varieties. I could safely ignore those, since I wanted pets as much as working dogs.

Hmm.

They needed to be human friendly and at least other animal tolerant. Then they need to be useful.

Helpful on the farms and ranches. Yup, that was a good plan.

Oh, there was a breed that reminded me of Border Collies. An excellent herding breed. Their high energy and intelligence were great provided you had plenty of room and work for them.

Let's see this breed, the Adraigh Trap Dog, seemed to be a close match for the Border Collie in intelligence, except they were a hunting breed. They used a broad array of abilities to stalk and trap game. If improperly handled they could turn mischievous.

Maybe not. A hunting breed wasn't a good fit right now.

The Fae Coursing Hound was out for the same reason. Beautiful though. With their snowy fur and red tipped ears.

The Mana Hound was a versatile breed. Easy adaptive to any task. Human levels of intelligence. Though lacking many of the negative human traits. They were natural mages. Their fur would become stripped with different colors depending on what areas of magic they learned.

I looked at the picture of a wolf like pup with light blue fur and immediately bought the lot. 1000 points.

Six yearling dogs appeared. They were fairly large about the size of a full grown German Shepard. It was clear they still had a bit of growing to do.

They were instantly friendly and full of pep.

I spent a while playing with them, before summoning a Probe to guide them to the farms.

They seemed to understand right away what was expected of them.

Then something caught my eye in the list.

It was a individual puppy. He was a Seffiveelian or an Elven Dancing Dog. Glorious silver fur with undertones of black. Sharp slightly oversized ears stood proudly. His eyes were whorls of shifting colors. Mostly greens and blues.

He was the runt of his litter and was already the same size as a small horse. He would get much bigger.

They were used as mounts by the Elves of their homeworld. They had a smooth gliding gait which looked like dancing hence the name. The Dancing Dogs would often carry two Elves, one to guide while fighting in close and one to shoot.

"Mine!"

I slammed the buy button. 2000 points.

A head butted into me and even in my armor I fell back.

I felt a tickle in my mind.

'Hi, Hi, Hi! We play now?'

I bounced up and did my best to wrestle with the oversized pupper. All my issues and problems seemed to melt away.

It was a great way to kill the rest of the day.