A dozen new Probes were commissioned for Project Underbridge.

They would create a waystation to the north of New Lordaeron which would allow troops and vehicles access to an underground road. This road would travel back towards the broken bridge and a new bridge across the canyon 500' down. The other side would then be aimed towards linking up with and expanding the tunnel the Probes from my Japantown Outpost.

I wondered why the quest wanted me to build another Outpost in Charter Hills which was right next to Japantown.

The waystation's path down would be a gently inclined spiral road, so it'd be easier to walk or to drive up or down. The bridge would be based off the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge in Arizona because it was the only canyon spanning bridge I remembered well enough.

That was a fun trip with my parents and sister, we saw a lot of the Southwest that summer. Though the real goal was to to see some band they were fans of. What bands were shared between this world and mine? Where was the deviation point? A good question though I'm not sure how useful it would be to find those answers.

The good news was once I conveyed my thoughts to the Probes, my input was no longer necessary. I decided to just take a walk to clear my head. Thanks to my Cleanse spell I never had to take off my clothes or armor. At this point, I was so wound up, so worried about hidden threats, that I wouldn't even take off my armor in the Valley.

I slowly made my way over to the farms contemplating whether we should start a few more. The Nomads would be here soon and I'd like to have enough food for everyone. Speaking of, I should expand our rations subscription, maybe triple the current amount? More folks would be coming later I'm sure. Always better to have too much and not need it than need it and not have it.

Enjoying walking amongst the already waist high stalks of corn, my eyes started to notice the differences. Mana was starting to saturate the area quite nicely, helping everything to grow not only faster but stronger. We would likely have the first crops within the week and future cycles would be even faster.

I started to consider what the cost of all this accelerated growth might be, but thankful got distracted by the farmers weeding and checking the plants for pests. They had mentioned before that there hardly seemed to be any of the usual bugs. Magic or just the wasteland's normal condition?

Expansions of the base farm buildings had already created a little complex at the heart of each farm. They had their own wells now, toolshed, composting bins, silos and barns. Also a few trees already bonded to wisps and each farm no matter the type had a chicken coup.

Apparently the Feralassian chickens were over populating the valley, so now new chicks were rounded up by the Probes and brought to the farms. The grubs that were the chicken primary food source had already found their way to the fields where they help aerate the soil.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Huh, starting to get the idea that I didn't need to be so worried about the logistics.

'Course that didn't last long.

I noticed the farm houses were big enough to house the farmers and any hands, but what about the builders and the laborers?

Alina assured me that housing was going up not only for the workers and the recruits but for visitors and guests and any new summons.

Though right now the main priority of the Lordaeron builders was a barracks. A mini fortress where footmen and later knights could be trained. I wasn't yet sure what the utility of these soldiers would be, but I was eager to find out.

Walking back to the Town Hall I saw Probes scanning each of the recruits while Raynor ran them through their drills. I waved at everyone as I continued back toward the Valley.

My goal was to hit the Company store for more rations and maybe some new farm stock.

Lumi met me at the end of the caves.

After we had some serious scratches, he got to his business.

'Small Brother, is it safe to start roaming outside the Valley yet?'

'Sure, just stay within the zone of the Pylon coverage and you should be fine. Let Faergin know as well if you see him, before me.'

The treant sure liked to roam around, possibly to find a place to root, or maybe to make up for lost time.

Lumi was already gone before I finished the thought. I guess he had his version of the zoomies.

"Ha!" I was quite amused by his antics.

I didn't manage to catch sight of Faergin but did stop to check on Meadran. I'd noticed he was quieter lately, I asked if he needed anything.

'No, Young One, it is the nature of my kind to spend long periods in slow thought. We are quiet by nature and find the pace of other folk dizzying at times.'

'Ah, should have thought of that. Sorry Meadran, I'll let you have some peace.'

'Thank you, Young One.'

I finally got to the Company Store. I was starting to realize just how bound, trapped I was to this system. Feelings of being exploited were bubbling. It might be a while before it gets to a boil but they were there. After all, I never asked for this.

Yet I had already accepted that helping folks was my responsibility, even if I didn't understand why I thought that way. Maybe this is part of what Meadran meant when he talked about the difference between knowing and understanding.

Since we were installing Moon Wells into each Farm, I went with rice this time. A nice sounding Pandarian Jade Rice for 500 CPoints.

Then I scroll through the beans options. I picked up a Hinterland Hardy Bean for 300 CPoints. Those require trellises but I was sure it wouldn't be a problem.

Let's see, I wanted some bacon. Bacon makes everything better. Well not really everything, but a lot of things sure. I choose a Camberland Pig for another 500 CPoints.

I doubled the subscription on the livestock feed for 200 more CPoints.

Lastly, I went with a bulk package of high quality rations for 1000 people for 500 a month. It rolled into my other subscription so I only spent 400 more CPoints.

Leaving me with just 300 Company Points.

I was really going to have to hustle and complete some of those quests before next month came around.

After making sure the Probes knew about the new crates. I went back to the Town Hall and summoned two more builders and laborer along with six more farmers.

I let Dughan and Raynor know about the new farms and supplies as well as explaining about the Nomads and how we were to treat them as honored guests.

Dughan gave his typical salute, "As you wish My Lord."

Raynor just laughed, "Tryin' to impress your lady friend Hoss?"

"What? No! I'm just trying to make sure there plenty of food." I grumbled.

They both got into giving me shit for the next hour.

Why me?