I had gotten swept up by all of this. I wasn't putting much though into my actions because, it was easy to lose track of just what was going on. So many new and fascinating things had been presented to me. Magic was real, and I could now make little Robo-Buddies! Very exciting.

It almost made me wish I had played whatever games they were from.

Amazing as all of these things were, none of it changed the fact that I had been at the very at least stolen from home. Maybe I had even died, and this was all some twisted version of an afterlife. Or possibly, it was all a fever dream while I was in a coma.

Yeah, I remembered what the Desk Thing stated. That I hadn't died, but how could I know that was the truth?

Then there was the constant worrying about people I'd left behind, and the things I had left undone. What was my family doing? Was my Sister okay? Was George? Sure, Lumiar said Ruger was being taken care of, but how would I know that? Even if he was being properly cared for, I still missed him. What would happen to my business and my house? What about all my customers?

I was on the verge of tears, but I choked them back, that was no way for a grown man to behave. I had to get a hold of myself. The only thing left for me to control right now was myself, so I tried to hold it all together.

I started gulping air rapidly, uncontrollably. What was this? Some kind of panic attack? I forced my mouth closed and gritted my teeth. I bore down on my breathing and tried to steady its rythym, once I had begun to calm down I tried taking long deep breaths. My diaphragm muscles kept spasming. I started getting dizzy, light headed.

I did the best I could to cast Regrowth, thinking maybe it would help. Perhaps the worse Regrowth I had cast to date washed over me. My breathing slowed and my head seemed to clear.

Shaking myself off, I chastised myself. Yeah, this behavior wouldn't do. Whatever any of this meant, whatever was going on, I had to face it on my feet, and with a rational mind.

I had to be more like those Khalai Alina had shown me, no fear, no hesitation. What was it they said, "My Life for Aiur." Awesome, complete dedication to getting the job done. If I wanted to take control of my situation again, that's the attitude I had to cultivate.

Of course, they had something to believe in. Something to fight for. What did I have?

I'd like to think Meadran, Lumiar and I were getting along pretty well. I could also see the theoretical importance of cleaning up a World. To be fair, I lacked any connection to this world, and its people. That should be one of the first things I changed. Was that going to be enough? It would have to be, at least for now. I'd make it work, I'd always managed to find a way to fix things before.

I could do this. I started walking again.

The air was even thicker with Mana by the time I got back to the Tree of Life.

Lumiar was resting with his head on his paws, eyes closed. His breathing was soft and untroubled. I found myself jealous of his canine sensibilities. To them their was no reason to worry about the future.

There were little balls of light dancing through the air. The patterns they forms were complex, even appearing random at first. Yet continued observation revealed an organized system. Mesmerizing. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it. I was only half successful.

'Young One, I trust all went well with the Nexus?' I explained what I found there. 'Ah good, we shouldn't need to cross purposes. It is time to teach you about Wisps.'

A long story made short, the Wisps were kind of like the Kaldorei version of a Probe. They were Mana formed with purpose, or maybe even cleansed spirits of departed ones. The Kaldorei themselves had never reached any kind of consensus on the matter. They seemed whimsical, almost childlike. Yet they had no problem performing repetitive tasks, with consistent results. They seemed friendly, but had no problem leading enemies to their deaths. They could and would fight for their forests.

The Golden Wisps were for growing trees and harvesting wood. Four of them could combine together to form a tree. A Golden wisp could form a bond with a tree over time to slowly but safely harvest wood from it. The tree even benefited from this by growing larger and faster than it would have otherwise. Once there was harvested lumber the Wisps could build Kaldorei structures and buildings, as if by instinct. Later they could be trained to build other types of buildings.

Sometimes the Trees they formed would become Treants or Tree People, but it was rare maybe a 1 in a thousand chance of it happening. Later as our abilities improved, they would gain the power to turn trees into Treants or "wake them up" as Meadran put it.

The Silver Wisps would work with stone and could entangle, with a kind of ethereal root system, already established mines for Gold and Other Metals. I could see some synergy there with the Probes, the Probes could find and build a mine, and the Wisps could wrap it up. While slower than conventional mining, it was far more ecologically sound. Elder versions of these Wisps could even slowly regrow metals, though no one understood how they did it.

Silver Wisps could build infrastructure like cobblestone paths, the stone lights and even gateway frames. Later, they would be able to build certain important command structures.

Ten silver Wisps could combine into a new Moon Well, to spread Mana and water. Magical Irrigation, what a boon that would be for farming

Five could combine into a kind of moving statue. While they were rooted in place, they could throw minor Mana Bolts at things. So a defensive structure then? That could be useful. Also, other Wisps could bond with the Statues to change their effects and make them stronger.

Blue Wisps existed to spread Mana. They could do this slowly by just dancing in an area, or rapidly by exploding. The explosions were quite potent for such a small thing. That could be a useful tool for defense as well.

Five Blue Wisps could combine into an Elder Wisp. These were more focused. They could travel and leave their forests. Best of all they could go unnoticed for as long as was needed. Only a potent Mage or Druid could sense an Elder Wisp, if it didn't want to be found.

That lead me to a decision that these would be some of my first backup troops, as I explored the World. Something I was rapidly becoming more eager to do. If I could have a higher degree of safety, all the better.

I asked Meadran if he could direct things while I explored, after all, it would be ridiculous to waste that time with production sitting idle. 'I can spawn Wisps on my own every so often, but nowhere near as fast as under your direction. Of Course, I can order the Wisps to build things, and if you give permission I can even order the Probes and the Nexus.' Yeah, that was probably a good idea.

I had a burning itch to leave soon to find out more about where I was. To fully understand the scope of the task before me.

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'Nexus can you read me?' Connecting through the Psifield generated by the pylons was a simple act of will. It was almost too easy.

'Executor. Awaiting Orders.' Feeling the psychic voice of Alina through the Psifield was interesting. Everything about her seemed less cold and mechanical, when filtered through that lens.

'Add Meadran to the Command of Nexus resources.' I tried to emulate the steady voice of the leaders I had witnessed, in the history of the Khalai. Fake it until you make it, right?

'Acknowledged! Welcome Commander Meadran.'

"HO HO!" Meadran rumbled out loud. He seemed greatly amused by the oddities of the situation.

"Beep, Beep." One of the Probes had floated up while I was talking with Meadran. "What was that?" I asked. It repeated its beeps, "Found Hydrocarbon Source. Show?"

"Lead the way, Little Buddy." Well, maybe I'd have to delay my trip for a little while yet.

Turned out that the Probe had found oil. At least I think that's what it was, it was oozing out of the ground like black ichor out of a wound.

"Okay, what now?" I had no clue how to proceed. Sure, I knew oil was valuable, but how did we utilize it?

The beeps this time translated to, "Build Assimilator. Works Automatically. Convert Hydrocarbon into Vespene." So you don't have to babysit it? That's good.

'Executor, an air vehicle has been detected within sensor range.' Alina's psychic voice cut into my previous musings. Could this be a good thing? No, I doubted that possibility. It was most likely some government or military agents coming to investigate strange activity on their land. Any meeting with such people likely wouldn't go well.

To say I distrusted any form of authority, would be accurate. History revealed that the worst enemy people face was usually their own leadership.

'Options? Defenses?' Damn, I hadn't even made one of the Wisp's Statues yet. Nor had I combined the blue Wisps into an Elder Wisp yet. Damned stupid of me.

'Meadran, let's get a statue up to defend you. Also get some Elder Wisps going, queue up more of the blue and silver Wisps.' Shit, I got caught with my pants down. Let's hope it wasn't too late.

'Of Course, Young One.' He was calm, likely he knew something I didn't.

'Executor, construction of a Forge will allow construction of the Photon Cannon, a potent defensive structure. However, we would need more Vespene gas to begin the process.' Alina chimed in. That sounded like just what we needed.

'Have a Probe build an Assimilator... ' The Probe beside me, zapped the air over the oil seep. A lightless void surrounded by blue energy appeared. I was just going to assume that will turn into an Assimilator. My face was probably as expressionless as my heart was empty. I felt foolish for not getting started on infrastructure sooner. I had gotten too absorbed in the wonderous nature of my new surroundings.

'Ooookay, once we get enough gas to build a Forge, set it up right by the Nexus. Then build a Photon Cannon at the best angle to cover the air above the Outpost.'

'By your command.' Wait, that sounded like...nah, no time to worry about that. My paranoia at AI running rampant could wait until we were safe.

I didn't have an attack spell. The Blessing of Nordrassil increased my ability to heal, which was no help here. According to Meadran, I could throw raw or barely shaped mana and it would do a bit of damage, I supposed that would have to be better than nothing. Once I got to whatever passed for civilization around here, I'd have to arm up as best I could.

About that time, I became aware of a boxy looking transport vehicle hovering over the Valley. It was black and grey, with an orange stripe and the words, "Kang Tao". Sounded Chinese, was I in China? No, of course I wasn't. It wouldn't be written in English characters, or at least, it was much less likely. I had never heard of Kang Tao but I was going to guess it was a company not a government. Which wasn't a better scenario in my opinion. Corporations were a menace in my world, I had no reason to believe they would be different here.

I had no fucking clue how it was flying up there, those thrusters I saw didn't look like they'd be able to generate enough lift. But I could sure hear them though. So maybe they were outputting enough thrust, by just dumping a lot more power. Seemed inefficient. That and a lack of an aerodynamic design, they were wasting a lot of fuel. But if it worked, who was I to argue with success, when we were talking about a FUCKING FLYING CAR!

Awesome, I wanted one! I wanted it now! I wanted to take it apart and make it better. I was laughing, why was I laughing? My sanity was in question, but I was hardly surprised by my own reaction. I loved cars, and enjoyed working on them.

Well, I guess I'd found an additional goal. It still wasn't much, but it was another thread to tie it all together.

By this time I'd noticed that the air vehicle was moving slowly, back and forth. As if it was searching. Nothing in its motions suggested it had found anything out of the ordinary.

'Meadran, can they not see us?' I mean giant tree with bright purple leaves, and a huge brass pyramid with a massive bright blue crystal on top. All of that screamed, "Notice me." They'd have to be blind not to have found us by now. Something else must be going on.

'Ah, The Company must have surrounded the valley with a Veil. A type of stealth magic. However, experience tells me, it either won't last, or it will leak some of the energies we are using. Maybe both options will prove to be true.' He seemed a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought about the possibility sooner.

'So they really can't see us? That's crazy. I guess we should ignore them for now?' Though it was almost impossible to ignore the loud metal box overhead. It's noise was starting to grate on my ears. At least it would give us more time to prepare.

A larger blue Wisp came to hover near me, just about the time the Assimilator was done. The structure had started working. I could easily feel its energies moving, but I couldn't hear anything from inside it. Wait, there was a very faint hissing noise. One that made me a little uncomfortable. I couldn't have told you why I was nervous, only that the sound made my skin crawl.

The what I presumed was an Elder Wisp, slowly circled me. I thought it was trying to guard me. Good. It certainly felt more focus and dependable than it's kin.

The Probe that had started the Assembler ran off, probably to start the Forge. It hadn't been very long still we had first seen the intruding vehicle, even though it felt like an eternity had passed. This meant that building the Forge shouldn't take very long.

I had seen in the videos Alina had shown me, that Probes can use their zappers to fight. It wasn't much of a weapon in the struggles the Khalai had been involved in, but maybe here it would be more devastating. If fact having seen them core through solid rock in seconds lead me to believe that them would be quite the little powerhouses. I had Alina queue up five more Probes. It nothing else, they could help hold off any trouble until we could get some larger weapons online.

I'd started making my way back to Meadran. I was getting a good workout with all this hiking up and down this Valley.

'The Statue of the Keeper is ready. It should a little more security.' He had placed the Statue just across the pond and next to the bridge entrance. It was at least twice as large as me, maybe a bit more. It looked like a Centaur, but the animal parts were less like a horse and more like a deer. The torso was heavily muscled and the head was narrow with long pointed ears, like an elf with deer like antlers. I thought it reminded me of an elf but the ears were just crazy long, so perhaps it was something else altogether.

The Kaldorei were some kind of elf-like people? While interesting it was of no immediate help, so file that away for later.

The Statue radiated a stable, solid strength and a radiated a soft blue glow. It actually bowed its head to me, very slowly. I returned the gesture, it would've been rude not to. For some reason, I wasn't in the slightest shocked by a moving statue at the point.

The flying vehicle seemed to give up and took off to the west.

Oh, thank goodness. Suddenly, I was exhausted. The adrenaline had run out, and I needed to rest, but I needed to set up more buildings plans first.

I combined four golden Wisps into a tree, this one had brown bark but golden yellow leaves. The last of our currently active golden Wisps started rotating around the new tree, it was leaving sparkling trails of mana behind it as it did. After just a few seconds, I could almost see the tree growing. I threw a Regrowth on it and another on the soil below it, thinking that anything might help and it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Another five silver Wisps had been produced, I sent them to make a new Statue on the opposite side of the pond from the current one. I had seen that while the main North-South path didn't connect back there, A path led up into the western mountains. So I had them build right where that path ended by the pond. A silent sentry to guard Meadran's back.

I'd have to explore that path in a little while, I was betting that it led out of the Valley. The wider world awaited me, but I was too exhausted to venture out of safety right now.

Five more blue Wisps became a second Elder Wisp. Which began to circle me as well.

I queued up a mix of Wisps types to be formed for later, asked Meadran to handle making more when they were done, and to setup some more defense at key points.

My yawn almost staggered me, as it was I wobbled. My eyes were burning slightly and kept closing on their own.

I laid down next to Lumiar, who was still napping, on the soft purple grass. It's faint minty scent was calming. It was also far softer than grass had any right to be. Nice.

Sleep crept up, and took its due.