I fly back to Pando after letting a few people take off on flying vehicles to try and get at least one or two basic titles of their own. That includes the guy that was enamored of the girl I found near the coast, though I had a feeling that he would be flying back here every chance he got in the future, assuming he didn’t move somewhere nearby, after all, we would need people all over to world to interface with the locals.

Though it pains me slightly, it comes to me that I need to set up a structure to trade mana even amongst the inner circle. Unrestricted conscientious use might be an ideal to aspire to, but in practice, it would likely be a disaster. At least that is the lesson that I learned from history which is a problem that would only be made worse as more and more people entered our organization.

And anything beyond a few miles on flying vehicles that come one culd provide from their own stores became a serious business considering their cost. The economics surrounding them is closer to jets in that sense rather than cars while people were low leveled.

And as the analogy builds in my mind it becomes even more fitting. Flying for a couple of hours on a private jet might make sense for someone rich because a few hours saved here and there make up the cost of the investment, but that was the exception given that a few hours' trips cost more than most people’s yearly salary.

Still, a small stipend of mana and a few coins beyond what was needed for their jobs for most members wouldn't hurt our budget. I had a plentiful supply by relying on the regeneration of tens of thousands of rabbits and everyone working ‘for me’ should get a commensurate reward. They were after all under my loose direction working to expand Pando’s village and help everyone on Earth. It would be short-sighted to not properly compensate them for their work.

I race back at a leisurely acceleration. It takes me quite a bit from me to hit those high speeds, but I get there and surpass the speed even from the fastest hypersonic experimental vehicles of old Earth. Best of all, instead of reaching top speed and burning up all the fuel in seconds or minutes, I keep steadily if very slowly accelerating.

Ohh, the wonders of the inner world, it just keeps on giving.

After I approach the growing original heart tree, I touch down and greet Pando. Even though I had been in contact with him several times throughout my journey, being back here is different. Almost like the difference between a video call and an in person meeting even if I know that for this particular case, it isn’t all that different.

Just about everyone in the world takes a step out carrying the equipment for the small village that they still hadn’t installed or that they made in this last month while I was flying.

With a defensive perimeter as impressive as our village back on the instance and room for thousands, we are prepared for just about anything.

Though so far, only a few very weak mobs were attacking without any coordination. And from the half dozen mobs, Onix managed to get to the one wolf attacking us to switch sides after a week. It took many confrontations, proving beyond all shadow of a doubt that the level 18 wolf could not stand against the horse sized Wolf.

In the heat of battle, we probably can’t expect something like this, but when we have the chance we should take it. Although as I look at the new addition through my perception field, I get a sense that this was not the same type of wolves we encountered in the instance.

There is a distinct Old Earth flavor to him. It felt like home. Like he was simply transformed instead of being infected like the ones in the instance.

------------------

Headquarters of Earth’s invasion.

I wait around for the meeting to start, anxious about the news that I will have to give. Everyone in here was so much higher than me and I didn’t want to become the headless messenger.

I glance at my boss sitting beside me. The highest Arch Druid of the Elves that was sequestered by the system for the next half a millennia to serve in the main invading force along this corridor of this galaxy.

“So how close to that unruly forest are we dropping? I mean it should be dead, but the animals that were helping protect it are still around and I doubt that Earth’s inhabitants will be totally clueless. If we drop the ball they might develop into a strong opposing force. They might even be able to resurrect a version of Pando.”

“I..” My voice cracks as I try to talk slowly but then I gather my courage. The news won’t change and my best shot to survive is to make myself a useful message, not a bubbling fool who would be worth more with his head chopped and ground into nutrition for mother nature. So I say: “Roughly 25 thousand kilometers away.”

“Ohh, why so far? Didn’t we request the closest possible spot to it? Wait, that is not possible, we have a priority slot after getting the Aether from Pando.”

“I don’t know, but something has changed since we left the planet. All the rules seemed to have changed not just the time frame. We can’t be certain on the actual month, but the people in the instance have stayed for a record breaking time.”

“Probably not the actual record. But they seem to have an Aether wielder and if he is a good one we will be able to take a few of their planet’s resource spots. They might even have beaten our record for this galaxy.”

“I wouldn’t know about anything outside.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Go on...”

“The distribution of the expected initial invasion force along with the allowed magic is… strange. I don’t know how to even conceptualized what led to it. And that is why I came, the portal is available, we can send people over right now, but….”

“Allowed magic tech? I’m not following you. Also, why didn’t you follow standing orders and send anyone yet?”

I cringe a little but stick to my message and my reasoning followed for not immediately sending the ready platoon.

“Given the circunstances… What we can take is a lot different from any guidelines from previous invasions. We are talking about being allowed to take incredibly advanced static defenses and in the following waves even a decent static offense, but absolutely nothing mobile. I don’t think we will be able to even build anything mobile on the other side in a reasonable time frame. That combined with a quite low level of troops, well, it may simply preclude any meaningful attacks. They are gonna have thousands to one in numerical advantage.”

“Ohh, shit.”

“What?”

“I this sounds familiar. I only heard of this once and it wasn’t even in our galaxy. It was a long time ago near the Heartland..” he starts and I feel fear mixed with excitement at some kind of opportunity. “I mean we are positive they have an Aether wielder and that bloody tree grove could use it. But they must have cheated and somehow consolidated all the territory around it.”

“I don’t think that it is only around the grove. I got from a source with the goblins that the same happened to them and they were going after another place that would might have developed into a troublesome Aether Icon for them in the long term. A pyramid of some kind. And they are some 15 thousand kilometers away.”

“Do we at least have flying vehicles?”

“No. The system’s initial rules of engagement say that we can steal theirs, but I’m not trusting they will be useful.”

“Well, most of the planets that develop flight either bypass the system, which we might be forced to imitate or they rely on some type of ground effect which is only barely better than running if they use small single seaters. We can’t rely on stealing them for any meaningful portion of our forces. Only for scouting efforts and started raids if we are lucky….Unless they are really stupid.”

“I’m not betting on that.” I agree.

“They will realize we are stealing to use them and cut off the flow at all costs even if it restricts their movements. Plus they may already have some fundamental security system we can’t bypass. Remember the Gresh Trolls that powered their planes with chemical energy from their bodies?”

“Ohh yeah. My first real fight. Still, we might learn something. New planets like this seem to be the perfect breeding grounds for innovation, even if most aren’t useful for us.”

“Ahhh, even in the worst case scenario, we can still take over vast swathes of land far from their main territory and fortify just that. Or even just the strategic resource reserves. In fact, with what you told me, we are probably very well positioned for the first part of my plan when we can start building on the other side. As long as it makes economic sense, we can continuously send in stronger troops at a rate they won’t be able to keep up. It’s too early to tell, they might just have been lucky and we are planning an assault on a sand castle, but better prepared than not.”

A voice from a green skinned being around the table interrupts:

“We aren’t assaulting a sand castle and this isn’t simply luck. Even a few surface level hints I got by studying the movements of our adjacent deployments in the instances make that very clear. The goblin troops over there were pulling all the tricks they could for a long time. A decent chunk of humans even crossed the 2 year mark though after that I don’t have reliable information.”

That shuts up all the smaller race’s representatives as they attentively listen to each word. I hope I didn’t screw this up and as the back and forth starts in earnest, with only the occasional question for me, I’m grateful for the impromptu way this meeting developed, even if there were a pair of people pissed that they arrived ‘late’ for this initial ‘briefing’.

No head being chopped off today, now I just need to worry about the future.

-----------------------------------

Nash’s POV

“Nash, Nash.” A new comms operator approaches me in a run nearly panting.

“Take a breath and speak.”

“I.. was looking over our network. I mean, mostly idle scrolling, but I noticed something strange just off our eastern coast some 25 thousand kilometers away. I need your help to see what is going on in that void.”

“Isn’t Pando working on eliminating these gaps?”

“Yeah, but there are still a lot of places like that and he can’t focus everywhere at once, nor is the system only passively fighting him. Now the important bit: I think this place is hiding an invasion, I just need you to check it.”

“Ohh. Then why haven’t you rang the alarm?”

“It might be a false alarm and 2 minutes to confirm shouldn’t make a difference. Now come on do it already, please. We don’t have a second to waste.”

I gaze over one of a dozen small projects, all aiming at deepening my understanding of magic and getting used to some of the intricacies discovered by the other mages in the centuries they had to experiment and I find the pursuit lacking. At least when compared to what he requested.

Without another word, I send my perception field tens of thousands of miles away. The hints of claustrophobia are still there, the limitations of my human mind and a sense of wrongness as I stretched my will beyond the ordinary for a mortal. But all of that is so much fainter than anything I experienced in the instance. These roots are centuries old directly taken from Pando and I had grown used to him.

Mentally ruffling through the ‘satellite’ pictures in the network we had taken of this particular place, I find a small island a little too far away from me to directly see with the perception field. A void that is 7 kilometers in its narrowest point and then I realise what he was actually referring to.

The water was moving. The pressure on the roots underground could just barely detect movement, but and it wasn’t somewhere where I could just grow a camera or something.

Then extending my perception field, a tridimensional view, akin to a colored and extremely detailed x-ray reveals what is causing those ripples in the water.

Hundreds of elvish looking beings pass overhead swimming with basic floating satchels holding their weapons and other metal implements.

Without taking my eyes off them, I connect to the inner world and the network from my rebuilt house and say:

“Enemy detected. Likely elves. At 25 thousand kilometers and so far moving on foot.”

All hell breaks loose, as hundreds of people take off in drilled responses. I thought we might have a longer time frame before invasion. Maybe even a real respite, but that doesn’t look to be the case. At least the enemy doesn’t look all that tough.

I keep staring at their muscles and sense the tiny electric sparks that prompted their muscles to move. The smallest pressure gradients as extended and contracted tendons vary with each arm stroke. Their fluid moves and the blood pumping to replenish oxygen starved muscles.

The highest leveled elves seem to be around and even their Arch Druid shouldn’t be too much higher.

All of that assumes however that their stats lean towards physical aspects, given that I have no way real way to judge stats like intelligence or wisdom. If a significant portion of them have hybrid classes, then the calculus becomes a lot more complicated.

I think over the rough level that they would have to eventually face if I hadn’t brought a decent number of level 200 people along with nearly a thousand in the 150 range. That along with myself, and the knowledge and organizational capabilities that we provided. We had contacted and taught a swath of the world’s population in days instead of months or years. Knowledge, that came from half of humanity a year into integration.

If before our village in the instance, was growing to as the standard in many ways throughout all the instances, now that Pando from day one was helping, I could only imagine the results. We were growing defenses for half of humanity and most ambivalent places were quickly coming over to our side even if only to acquire our products and update on the information we brought from the instance.

It had been just a week, but the enemy was going to regret trying to take us on.

We just need to throw a surprise party to ensure that message.