I had gotte up by all of this. I wasn't putting much though into my as because, it was easy to lose track of just what was going on. So many new and fasating things had beeed to me. Magic was real, and I could now make little Robo-Buddies! Very exg.

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

  Amazing as all of these things were, none of it ged 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 a.

  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 stant w about people I'd left behind, and the things I had left undone. What was my family doing? Was my Sister okay? Was Gee? 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 ers?

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

  I started gulping air rapidly, untrolbly. 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 Khai Alina had shown me, no fear, ation. What was it they said, "My Life for Aiur." Awesome, plete dedication to getting the job done. If I wao take trol 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 ing up a World. To be fair, I cked any e to this world, and its people. That should be one of the first things I ged. Was that going to be enough? It would have to be, at least for now. I'd make it work, I'd always mao 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 e sensibilities. To them their was no reason to worry about the future.

  There were little balls of light dang through the air. The patterns they forms were plex, even appearing random at first. Yet tinued observation revealed an anized 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 expined what I found there. 'Ah good, we shouldn't o 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 sed spirits of departed ohe Kaldorei themselves had never reached any kind of sensus oter. They seemed whimsical, almost childlike. Yet they had no problem perf repetitive tasks, with sistes. They seemed friendly, but had no problem leading eo their deaths. They could and would fight for their forests.

  The Golden Wisps were frowing trees and harvesting wood. Four of them could biogether 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 beed from this by growing rger and faster than it would have otherwise. Ohere was harvested lumber the Wisps could build Kaldorei structures and buildings, as if by instinct. Later they could be traio build other types of buildings.

  Sometimes the Trees they formed would bee Treants or Tree People, but it was rare maybe a 1 in a thousand ce 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 fold and Other Metals. I could see some synergy there with the Probes, the Probes could find and build a mine, and the Wisps could it up. While slower than ventional mining, it was far more ecologically sound. Elder versions of these Wisps could even slowly regrow metals, though no one uood how they did it.

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

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

  Five could bio a kind of moving statue. While they were rooted ihey could throw minor Mana Bolts at things. So a deferucture then? That could be useful. Also, other Wisps could bond with the Statues to ge their effects and make them stronger.

  Blue Wisps existed to spread Mana. They could do this slowly by just dang 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 bio 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 being 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 produ sitting idle. 'I spawn Wisps on my own every so often, but nowhere near as fast as under your dire. Of Course, I order the Wisps to build things, and if you give permission I even order the Probes and the Nexus.' Yeah, that robably a good idea.

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

  'Nexus you read me?' eg through the Psifield geed 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 iing. Everything about her seemed less cold and meical, when filtered through that lens.

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

  'Aowledged! Wele ander 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 dey 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 bck 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 trao, "Build Assimitor. Works Automatically. vert Hydrocarbon into Vespene." So you don't have to babysit it? That's good.

  'Executor, an air vehicle has beeed within sense.' 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 gover or military agents ing to iigate straivity on their nd. Aing 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 bihe blue Wisps into an Elder Wisp yet. Damupid of me.

  'Meadra'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 dow's hope it wasn't too te.

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

  'Executor, stru of a Fe will allow stru of the Photon on, a potent deferucture. 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 Assimitor... ' 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 Assimitor. My face robably 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 Fe, set it up right by the Nexus. Then build a Photon on at the best ao cover the air above the Outpost.'

  'By your and.' 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. Acc 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 h over the Valley. It was bd grey, with an e stripe and the words, "Kang Tao". Sounded ese, was I in a? 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 pany not a gover. Which wasn't a better sario in my opinion. Corporations were a mena my world, I had no reason to believe they would be different here.

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

  Awesome, I wanted one! I wa now! I wao take it apart and make it better. I was ughing, why was I ughing? My sanity was iion, but I was hardly surprised by my owion. I loved cars, and enjoyed w on them.

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

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

  'Meadran, 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 pany must have surrouhe valley with a Veil. A type of stealth magic. However, experieells me, it either won't st, 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 't see us? That's crazy. I guess we should ighem for now?' Though it was almost impossible to ighe 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 rger blue Wisp came to hover near me, just about the time the Assimitor was dohe structure had started w. I could easily feel its energies moving, but I couldn't hear anything from i. Wait, there was a very faint hissing noise. Ohat made me a little unfortable. 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 focused and dependable than it's kin.

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

  I had seen in the videos Alina had showhat Probes use their zappers to fight. It wasn't much of a on iruggles the Khai had been involved in, but maybe here it would be more devastating. If fact havihem core through solid ro seds lead me to believe that them would be quite the little powerhouses. I had Alina queue up five more Probes. If nothing else, they could help hold off any trouble until we could get ser ons online.

  I'd started making my way baeadran. 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 pced the Statue just across the pond ao the bridge entra was at least twice as rge as me, maybe a bit more. It looked like a taur, 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 iing it was of no immediate help, so file that away for ter.

  The Statue radiated a stable, solid strength and a radiated a soft blue glow. It actually bowed its head to me, very slowly. I returhe 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 o rest, but I o set up more buildings pns first.

  I bined folden Wisps into a tree, this one had brown bark but golden yellow leaves. The st of our currently active golden Wisps started rotating around the ree, it was leaving sparkling trails of mana behind it as it did. After just a few seds, 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 atue on the opposite side of the pond from the current one. I had seen that while the main North-South path didn't ect back there, A path led up into the western mountains. So I had them build right where that path ended by the pond. A silery 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 ve of safety right now.

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

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

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

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

  Sleep crept up, and took its due.