Toby's heart beat faster and faster as he was running across the empty space of the Nowhere. Something was stalking him, but he couldn't see anything but an infinitely receding expanse no matter which way he turned. So he just kept running straight ahead. Running away from that Something, with no escape in sight.

The Something was dangerous, It wanted to harm him, To devour him. Turn him into another part of It.

Toby knew it in his heart, his instinct screaming for him to run, to get away. Away from a predator beyond his keen.

Toby jolted awake as the dream faded away, fear clutching his chest, making it hard to breathe.

He closed his eyes again and focused on his breathing, slowly calming himself down again. Getting back in control.

Yesterday's talk and subsequent quest had started to turn him paranoid. He slowly let his eyes drift around his domain, or rather his room.

Something had changed while he slept. There was something hard under his pillow.

Toby tossed the pillow aside, just to find a loaded gun with the safety on. It felt stupid, since in his domain, he was on the level of God, and he could not be hurt no matter what.

It was actually impossible to be harmed anywhere in the Nexus if you discounted mean words.

The System just didn't permit it. If you wanted to brawl, you had to agree to a mini-game.

It wasn't unusual for challenges to be given, and a mini-game to be started in order to facilitate a fight. Be it a round of strategy in the form of a real battle with troops, a duel with guns, fist fights, or even free for all bar brawls.

Toby had already done a couple of duels with Urist to help him learn a bit of combat, and found himself at a serious disadvantage. It wasn't in the form of physical stats.

The System equalized those to prevent any advantage from size. Urist had even given himself a handicap, by having them both play as humans.

But the sheer skill gap had turned it into an overwhelming victory for Urist.

Toby had done far better in chess. But he suspected that it was thanks to Urist never having tried it before, rather than him being bad at that type of game. Being over 2000 years old gives ample advantage in just about any category of gameplay one could think of.

Thankfully worlds usually had rule sets that locked those advantages away behind a skill system wall.

The system rewarded duels with credits as well. Toby had earned a nice lump of credits from all the attention their chess match had gathered.

He suspected that chess would be all the rage for the next couple of months. Nexus residents were always starving for new entertainment.

Pushing his rambling thoughts away, Toby prepared himself for the day.

Are Pixarians insects or mammals Toby pondered silently, while a trio of short slender girls with dragonfly looking wings, sauntered into the boardroom behind Urist.

They stood somewhere between 1 and 1,5 meters tall and were extremely slim. At second glance, one could easily see that their wings were made out of a thin, seemingly hard membrane stretched out between five thin long rays of bone, thus giving them their insect wing-like appearance, rather than actual insect wings.

As they got closer, he could easily hear them chatter among themselves. “is that the human?” ”Is he a mammal?” “I think so.” “He doesn't have wings.” “Shh. I think he can hear us.”

Toby regarded them carefully while they all seated themselves together at the right side of the table. It was really hard to tell them apart if one discounted their wildly differing hair colors.

Toby waited patiently for them to calm down a bit before he started the meeting.

“ Hi, I'm Toby, the guild master. And I'm very pleased to see you all here today.” He introduced.

“Thank you.” One of the Pixarians nodded. “I'm Aio,” The yellow-haired one said, “and these 2 are my sisters Iao and Oia.”

“I'm Iao”, the green one giggled. “Your cute for someone with no wings”.

“I'm Oia”, The Pink one chuckled. “Don't mind Iao, She's got a screw loose when it comes to boy's.”

“As if you are any better” Iao countered with a pout, apparently having quickly forgotten what they were here for.

“Girls, Shut it,” Aio said, smacking her sisters in the back of the head.

“Excuse my overly excitable sisters” She sighed. “I can assure you that we are some of the best world creators out there.”

“We're the best.” Iao and Oia exclaimed in unison, their wings almost vibrating behind them.

“They are apparently also the only team that we could get at such a short notice that fit our criteria,” Urist added, giving Ortho a long meaningful look.

“Very well.” Toby sighed, as he pulled a thin stack of papers out of his inventory before sending them around the table.

“In this meeting, we will be discussing the world requirements and mechanics”. He began, Kicking off the meeting proper.

“I've taken the liberty of setting up some basic requirements for terrestrial species.” Toby continued.

Preferably with one big continent rather than several smaller ones. We want to colonize the entire land area as early as possible."

”I also want there to be natural choke points and barriers, so that it is possible to have multiple competing empires from early on without enabling easy conquest.”

“We can give you a supercontinent easily enough.” Aio interrupted, “But are your species really that aggressive?”

"Yes and no,” Toby replied. “My kind are expansionists, empire builders if you will.”

Toby gave one of his best predatory gins before continuing. “Empires, as most people know, are built on the blood and bones of one's enemies.”

Urist gave Toby an approving chuckle, while the Pixarian triplets paled a little before Aio replied. “We understand. It will take some finagling with the plate tectonics, but we should be able to at least split the world into 3 or 4 main areas that are somewhat choked off from each other.”

From then on the discussions about how the world was going to end up looking went back and forth for quite a while until the triplet finally presented a rough sketch with a possible configuration.

It had all the features Toby wanted as far as the terrain was concerned, And both Urist and Ortho seemed pleased with the setup.

“Does anyone have any more questions and concerns to address at this point?” Toby asked as soon as the triplets were done presenting their solution.

“I'm happy as can be with that much mountains to play in.” Urist beamed.

“There is plenty of sites to plant a core tree.” Ortho nodded. “I really like those equatorial jungles below the 2 southern mountain ranges.”

“How about you Alice?”. Toby prodded.

“It does not really matter too much for me.” She replied. “My kind won't be part of the world.”

The stunned silence after Alice's statement was quickly broken by everyone starting to chatter at once, wanting to know why her kind wouldn't be one of the colonizing species.

Alice on the other hand just shrugged the questions off with a simple “There is no need.”

Toby clapped his hands 3 times to get everyone to quiet down from the hubbub, before pushing on with the meeting. It was getting late, and there was still one final matter he wanted to get out of the way before they were done.

“There is one final requirement that needs to be in place before we start making the world proper.” He began.

“One of this worlds functional rulesets is going to be magic”.

Toby could feel the concept being plucked from his mind, just like last time he presented something not quite translatable.

The looks on everyone's faces was worth the discomfort though, he chuckled to himself. Only Alice seemed completely unperturbed.

The triplets started whispering among themselves furiously, While Ortho and Urist gave him quizzical looks.

Before anyone else could say anything, the pink haired Oia raised her hand.

“You do know that this will make the world incompatible with all other worlds in the nexus?” she said.

“That is kind of the point” Toby nodded. “It gives us some extra grace time before the world is open for being invaded by other factions"

“That's quite clever.” Ortho smiled at him. “I like it a lot.”

“Is this foolproof?” Urist scowled.

“Not entirely” Toby admitted. “But only another magic based worlds population can transport over, and it prevents spaceships from falling out of the sky. It buys us quite a bit of time and home-field advantage.”

The discussion quickly devolved into details about how the magic system should work, and what kind of skill system would be employed.

Toby rather quickly tuned out the majority of it, only answering questions asked directly, and otherwise letting the others work it out between them. They seemed eager enough to do it.

“You have surprising ideas” Alice cornered him as soon as the meeting was over, and the world plans finalized.

“Do I?” Toby replied with an innocent smile. Wondering if Alice had seen through his reasons for making the world inaccessible.

“Yes you do.” she restated, pushing him into his office and closing the door behind them.

After taking a careful look at his trophy case, She turned back on him. “Someone has told you about the major factions haven't they?”

“Ortho might have said something about the Damonian Hegemony and Order of the bright light.” He confirmed.

“You didn't do anything overt did you?” She kept pressing him.

“The only thing I have done so far is to let Ortho discriminate a little on hiring candidates for the guild,” Toby answered, His mind on guard.

“Good.” Alice sighed.

“We can't afford to earn their full attention just yet.” She continued. “Their power base is too large.”

“I did have the impression that they are fairly aggressive” Toby nodded.

“I just can't afford to let humanity be run over by those who have a big head start like that.”

“My primary goal right now is to safeguard humanity for as long as possible, So that we may grow strong enough to protect worlds under our guard.” Toby Finished explaining his motives.

“Now what are your aims in all of this Alice?” Toby felt a strong need to know. How could he make sane decisions if he only knew his own needs, and not all of his friend's needs? Urist and Ortho were easy. Their motivations as human as real a human's motivations could be. Alice, on the other hand, was something of an enigma to him.

“I can't say exactly yet.” She looked Toby in the eyes.

“But rest assured, that my goals are not in conflict with yours as long as I know what you are doing.”

“What do you mean by that?" Toby pressed. Staring back into her Blue eyes, trying to find a clue to what she was thinking.

“I like you, Toby." Alice sighed, Giving him a careful smile. "And I have faith in you, but there are some things that would hurt you more than help if I were to involve you in it right now.” She said without looking away, Or even blinking. “You will just have to trust me on this, but I only want the best for you and your people.”

Toby sighed and broke eye contact.

Without her, the guild would not even have existed. She was the key to its success so far. It was she who made the successful meeting with the Draconian's possible. She was the one who found investors for setting the guild up, but he still wanted some kind of acknowledgment that they were working in the same direction none the less.

“Will you help me keep the biggest players off my world for now then?” Toby asked, looking back into her eyes.

She took hold of his hands and pressed closer, her nose just short of touching his as she kept their eyes locked.

“Yes, I will help you stay safe until you are ready to face them,” She whispered before slipping her hands around his waist and pulling him into a hug.

He could feel her warmth seep past his clothes while she held him, causing the tension in his body to subside a little. He had been too tense lately, Too paranoid. He'd already put his future in the hands of Alice several times, so if he couldn't at least trust her, then who he could he trust?

“I will have faith in you.” He replied a bit hesitantly while wondering what he meant to her, and what she would mean to him given time.

Would she ever trust him with the knowledge she was keeping away from him?

User:

Achievement get: Bronze badge Pixarian: meeting a Pixarian.

Achievement get: Silver badge Pixarian: Befriending a Pixarian.

Guild: Quest Destiny's dice update: 50% completed