Meadran spent the next few hours showing me how to cast spells. It was easier than you might think, he created the images and feelings of spellcraft directly it in my head. In fact, that made me consider why Meadran would known how to use mana well enough to teach me.

'Wait. Does that mean that you can cast spells too?' It was obvious in hindsight, but the words just spilled out of my mouth.

'Yes, but I have to be in my other form. Let us pray it does not become needed.' He had another form, that sounded awesome. Though from the feelings he sent my way, that form was for emergencies only.

Casting was all about shaping mana into specific forms, and then projecting it by will towards your goal. Shaping Mana was somewhat like shaping play doh but with hands that only existed in your mind. Mana's texture was springy, like a firm memory foam. It didn't like to change shape so you had to convince it, often through sheer stubbornness. As you managed to get it to change, the effect compounded, which meant that spells started slow but finished fast. This led to the phenomenon the further along a casting you were the harder it became to stop.

We spent most of this time casting Regrowth repeatedly. Meadran suggested that this spell should set the foundation to all my strategies going forward. Which was fine by me because Regrowth was fun to cast. I cast it on myself and on Meadran and on the grass all around us.

My arm branch had shivered several times, each time it showed me a listing for the spell.

[ Regrowth A minor healing spell that grows with the Caster

May be Channeled for increase potency

Also Cleanses minor pollutants, and poisons. ]

The repeated prompts had been annoying, but the branch seemed to calm down after a few repetitions.

The sensation of Regrowth being cast on me the Spell was like a rush of water flowing through me, it's green glow traveling from the ground up. My nerve ending tingled with a slight buzzing, a rather pleasant feeling actually. Meadran said it helped him to deal with some of the pollutants in the air and soil. According to him, it was some of the worst he had ever encountered, that wasn't purely demonic in origin.

That threw me for a loop. Oh, great, so demons were a thing. I could have lived a thousand years without know that tidbit, and I would have felt no loss over the lack.

Meadran's statement was reinforced when Regrowth was cast on the grass, which then visibly grew. I could even feel some of the crud gunking up the plants in the soil vanish. The spell gave me a rudimentary connection to its target, and their "nervous" system. This would, Meadran assured me allow me to diagnose issues in my patients.

Abilities could be used just by willing it, or even in some cases without any effort at all. Like Sense Mana, which allowed a rudimentary ability to both see and feel the energies of magic. It also made Shaping a lot easier. Meadran said that it wasn't absolutely required to work with mana, but it saved a ton of frustration. Without it gathering more mana was an exercise in gathering water with a sieve, while wearing a blindfold.

Thanks to my ability Ley Line Sight, I could see the faint muddy yellow Ley Line running across the valley. This freak me out at first, the line was visible through the ground which was giving me vertigo.

Meadran explained that Ley Lines were part of the complex exchange of living energy and mana, as well as acting as the life blood of an awakened world. A concept he didn't seem willing to cover yet.

This Ley Line seemed weak and almost exhausted, but where it passed the water from the Moon Well or Meadran's roots, it spark a bright golden color as if it was gaining strength. Meadran assured me that as life returned to the Valley, so too would the line gain strength.

After I seemed to develop my mana shaping skills to be able to cast every time I tried, Meadran called a stop.

'Here are your starting items.' The blue box, I had picked in the Desk Hell from before, popped into existence. I opened it to find, a set of blue cotton clothes and a heavier coat-like green robe with a voluminous hood. Meadran said both would act like minor armor, due to the mana woven into them. There was also got a rather nice looking staff. It was covered in vining patterns and stained a rich and lustrous shade of brown.

[ Staff of Beginnings

+1 Spirit

+5% Mana Regen ]

Apparently Spirit was the primary stat for Spellcasting and Rituals. Will helped to maintain concentration for Channeling or Long Rituals.

Speaking of Rituals, they were like spells but took a lot longer and you used props, such as circles and items called foci to carry some of the burden and mana cost. You could generally only perform a ritual once per set amount of time, and only at certain points in time. Some could only be used in certain places and yet others could only be used by certain people. There was some crossover with religious practices here. Though Meadran didn't think that adherence to any particular God was require for any of the rituals he knew.

He taught me the Ritual of the Bright Moon, which could be performed any time after the sunset, and only once every day. A simple circle is drawn or scratched into the ground, with the moon in all of it's phases drawn around the circle. You needed any mana infused object as a sacrifice. I used one of Meadran shed leaves. The ritualist and anyone within 25ft would gain eyesight that made the Night almost as Bright as Day.

Wow, it really worked, I could see the whole valley now. Oh snap, what's that? It looked like a brass colored pyramid with a blue Crystal floating over it.

"What the hell is that!?" It looked alien in origin, though I was only going off of some half felt instinct. Aliens! I mean Magic was real, so, why wouldn't there be Aliens.

Meadran could sense my disturbed thoughts. I could felt him moving his awareness around the Valley. It felt like thousands of little gnats hit your skin all at once. 'Ah you can see the Khalai Nexus, now. Yes, you'll need to go activate it after you get your companion. Sadly, like as with the Kaldorei, much will be restricted to you.' Sometimes, I only understood a fraction of what he said, but I was getting used to feeling lost. I decided to wait and see.

'Here is your Companion.' A giant golden wolf appeared. Giant, like I could almost ride him big. Golden like his fur was actually made of some type of golden metal. Wolf as in...awesome!

'Hello, Small Brother. I am called Lumiar.' He chuffed a greeting while sitting. Correction, giant golden TALKING wolf! This day was really shaping up to be amazing. Magic and trees and wolves and aliens. It was a lot to take in, but I had to admit I was getting more excited by the minute. What other wonders would I see?

Stolen novel; please report.

Then my thought turn to Ruger, alone, probably wondering where I was. My heart sank, and I could felt the beginning of a deep depression stirring inside my mind.

'Worry not Young One. Your former companion will be well cared for.' Meadran tried to ease my troubled heart.

Lumiar added, 'He's probably getting belly scratches and all the crunchy bones he can handle right about now, from beautiful Kaldorei Huntresses. I'm Jealous.' Yeah, if I was a canine I'd be jealous too. For some reason, I couldn't yet understand, I trusted these two to not lead me wrong. Not that I seemed to have other options right now.

I offered Lumiar ear scritches, and he accepted.

'Well this isn't so bad.' His mind voice rumbled, 'You've obviously done this before. Nice. Still, I like the ladies, so don't get any ideas.' He huffed, with a canine grin. We all looked at each other and laughed, each in our own ways.

Yeah, I guess this wasn't so bad.

Meadran sent me off to the Nexus, right around the time the Sun was starting to lighten up the sky. It took longer for my eyes to adjust to the new light levels, because of the Bright Moon ritual.

The ambient mana levels had risen, and Meadran now had enough Mana stored for the next step. He had me queue up 15 Wisps, so that they would be ready when I got back. 5 of a golden variety, 5 silver and 5 blue ones. He said there would be even more types later, but it would be a while before we could get to them.

Lumiar decided to stay and talk to Meadran, while I traveled to the opposite end of the Valley from where I started. To tell the truth, I was getting the impression that Lumiar didn't really like me. At least, not in the way most canines seemed to, but maybe I was just imagining it. With so many things going on at the time, I filed my concerns away for later examination.

The Pyramid was a lot taller than I had at first thought, a few hundred yards, maybe. That irregular Blue Crystal on the summit shone brightly in the early morning sun. I was a little worried it would attract attention.

I hadn't noticed until I gotten closer, but the Nexus was flanked by two large crystals encompassed by rotating brass colored rings, floating about 30 feet off the ground. The crystal seemed to glow on their own. My approach made me aware of yet another type of energy surrounding me. The crystals seemed to be the source of it. The energy wasn't mana though there were some similarities. This energy felt lighter, more diffuse, but more active. Perhaps it could have been described as similar to the difference between a liquid and a gas. Mana being the liquid in this cobbled together analogy.

The Branch on my arm twitched a couple of times but didn't do anything else. No screen appeared. Hmm. That made me antsy.

This whole area made me a little nervous. The zone around the Moon Well and Meadran was comfortable, alive and vibrant. Natural. This place felt more cold and empty, despite the more buzzing sensation of it's energy. It felt all too... constructed. My senses warned that these buildings didn't belong here.

At the base of the elaborately styled Nexus, the path lead to a recessed area, that held the door. Two panels slid out of the way to reveal a mostly empty space inside. At its center a small floating crystal similar to ones outside but only the size of a basket ball. There was a large panel of transparent material bounded by a thick brass frame. It reminded me of a monitor, so maybe this was the control center?

My mind quickly made the connection that I was suppose to touch the crystal. There didn't seem to be anything else to interact with. I looked around again. Nothing. Again years of training argued against touching strange objects, but Meadran worked out to be a positive experience. "Fuck it." I placed my hand on top of the Crystal.

[ Adjusting... ] My branch was trying to sync up with something, it's shaking was subtle but distracting.

'En Taro Adun, Executor!' A feminine voice entered my mind. 'This Outpost stands Ready.' En Taro what now? Lost again, but I did grasp that this was an outpost. Whatever that meant.

Also, I was starting to get worried that way too many things seemed to be able to speak in my head. I mean I didn't think I would be embarrassed by anything going on in there, but why take chances?

[ Khalai Nexus has been connect to the Great Tree Network

Options:

Choose Class

Raise Level

Create Probe ]

Probes? The aliens had probes. I couldn't help it, I started laughing at the absurdity of that realization.

"Should I build Probes?" My voice vibrated with my chuckling amusement.

'It is not for me to dictate strategy to you, Executor.' I was getting the impression the voice was like an AI, mostly cold and remote feeling responses.

"What do I use to Build probes?"

'All Khalai construction is centered around minerals and vespene Gas. This Outpost has 500 Minerals Stored. Further resources must be harvested by Probes or converted from native resources. Probes need enough energy from Pylons to be activated but are autonomous after that.'

I nodded, alright, this was making sense. Whereas Meadran's folk were magical, these Khalai were technological. Even though I could barely grasp how crystals would be responsible for all of this. The Pylons, the AI mentioned were probably those large brass ringed crystal things outside. The probes needed them to activate, did that make them an energy generator?

I found myself eager to find out. A new type of technology to play with fascinated me.

I queued up two Probes. That used up 100 Minerals. Now we are cooking with gas. Heh. Well not yet, but we'd get there.

A blue light hologram appeared of a somewhat round, almost fish like shape. Fish like because that's what the fins reminded me of. I had nothing else to compare it to. The construction process finished pretty quick, just a few minutes. It had almost been like watching my old 3D printer work.

The Probe was obviously a robot, with a single large blue eye like sensor. It could float, which was interesting, how did it do that? There were no noticeable signs of a propulsion system. The Probe made a noise that I could tell meant, "Ready." Though I had no clue why I could understand it. I wanted to take it apart to see how it worked. I actually started reaching for it, before I managed to restrain myself.

"Okay Little Robo-Buddy, can you look around for these resources that we need to build things?"

It beeped at me which I thought meant, "Sure thing!" and zoomed outside much faster than I would have thought. I repeated the command when the next Probe was finished. I had no clue if I should make more now or wait, but maybe I should try to satisfy my curiosity.

"Outpost can I get schematics for the Probes?" That way, I wouldn't have to take apart one of the Probes. Which for some reason, seemed like a cruel idea now.

'Placing on screen now Executor.' The images I was looking over meant almost nothing to me, their methodology was too alien to my training. If I wanted to learn what made them tick I'd have to spend ages learning to decipher the Khalai approach to tech. So I was back to the disassembly option. I queued up three more Probes. When they were done, I started to reach towards them.

NO! They were too cute, I couldn't do it. With a sigh, I sent them off to help their friends.

Then I asked the Outpost AI to show me any lessons on the History of the Khalai. I had to admit that was pretty epic stuff. They seemed like real badasses. I wondered if I could get some of them to help me out? I asked the AI who I had started calling Alina, if that was possible.

'Negative Executor, there are no Khalai within detectable range. We will be limited to robotic units only.' Well the Khalai seemed to be excellent in the field of robotics, so that would be great.

"What is the detectable range?"

'A five mile radius around the Pylons. Until construction of a Fleet Beacon is completed. Then we will have scanners capable of reaching out several hundred light years.' She continued to explain how the Pylons worked. Void field disruptions created some kind of friction in the fabric of reality, then some form of harmonics was utilized to capture and convert the energy released. Yeah, that was the part that I sort of understood. The rest was way beyond my ability to process.

I was a little bummed out by not being able to call on the aid of a squad of Khalai, a handful of those awesome warriors she had shown me could probably conquer half of my old planet before breakfast.

One of the Probes returned, it beeped at me. "Found something useful." I followed it to a modest hole in the ground, it flew inside. I managed to squeeze through, the space thankfully opened up into a cave system. I didn't want to go exploring just now, though I was tempted. I had always enjoyed visiting caves back home. Still, I needed some spelunking equipment before I started played at journey to the center of the earth.

The Little Robot knew the way, so I followed. A couple of minutes later, we came across the rest of the Probes. They were zapping, what looked like a large Quartz formation, with plasma? Something like an arc welder maybe? No, the zaps were too sustained for that.

I asked the Probe that led me here, "Are these the minerals we need?"

It sounded out a longer series of Beeps, "No, but these materials can be converted at the Outpost."

I nodded. "Alright, four of you harvest this up, maybe widen and improve the path to get to here between trips. One of you keep looking for the gas we need or something we can convert into it."

Yeah, this was really starting to be understandable. I was digging it. Haha!

I decided to head back to Meadran and Lumiar and check out what the Wisps could do.