Matuscarantos

  [ Optional Challenge Complete - 2 Reward tokens ]

  [ Lose none of your Team - 1 Hero Upgrade token ]

  [ Sy Optional Boss - 1 Hero token ]

  [ Save Morgan Bckhand - 1 Power token ]

  [ You have completed the Mana Sink ]

  [ Type: Historical Event ]

  [ Starting Deviance 24.6% ]

  [ Ending Deviance 76.2% ]

  [ Major Impact - 5 Reward tokens ]

  That was a lot of information to stare at. But it seemed like we had done well. I was unpleased by these events that the Dungeon had presented to us, but I was very pleased by the rewards.

  A Purple vortex appeared on the roof, it's pulsing energies beckoned us home. I turned to Morgan. "Get out of here. Don't wait for us." He didn't hesitate and hobbled into the st AV, I heard him tell the rightfully nervous pilot to take off. I watched as the bulky vehicle sped away.

  "We good here, Hoss?" Raynor asked as he cradled his totaled rifle, like it was a sick child.

  There was nothing left to do here. "Let's go home. I don't want to see what comes next." If the Dungeon would even let us.

  Once again the transition was seamless. No sense of movement to upset our bance. We were back home. New Lordaeron. I was coming to realize this very much was my home now. A pce more dear to me than the home I grew up in, or the one I'd left behind. It was a painfully sweet feeling.

  No one was there to greet us, which was as expected. Our town had a lot of growing to do, and there had been no way to know how long our trip would take.

  The once roiling Vortex had now transformed into a smooth shiny purple orb hovering over the ground. I could still feel it drawing mana from the environment, but the mana it was returning now had a far less nasty feeling. I needed to look into if there was a way to further filter out the tainted elements of the mana.

  I turned back to my team. "Great work everyone. Let's get some chow and then some rest. I'll see you all tomorrow to go over our gains." They saluted and then went to enjoy their day. I think they could all tell I wanted some time to myself. Time to review the information I'd just recovered. That number, 24.6% starting deviance, was bothering me. Most of that was Johnny Silverhand being dead before the run. If I could trust the system's assessment that made the Dungeon a fairly accurate view of the event. At least before we'd gotten involved.

  I raised the visor on my armor and sucked in a lung full of earthy, clean, mana rich air. Is till hadn't managed to solve the sweaty person in a tin can problem. At least not completely, I was more than a little ripe.

  The corn field around me rippled in a refreshing breeze. My thoughts drifted away on that current for just a moment. I was starting to love this pce. Despite everything that happened or maybe because of it. I guess my roots were getting a firm connection to the soil finally. That feeling of being home reared up once again, and I could think of no good reason to fight it. Even if I could, I no longer wished to return to my former version of Earth. To my old boring life.

  [ Quest complete ]

  [ 5000 Company Points and 2 Random Supply tokens ]

  [ Quest complete ]

  [ 2000 Company Points and 1 Hero token ]

  [ Quest complete ]

  [ 5000 Company Points and 1 Building Upgrade token ]

  This was how to get a ton of points and tokens. So it would be a good idea to take advantage of these Mana Sinks, these Dungeons, as often as possible. It wasn't lost on me that the power I had gotten earlier was also called Mana Sink. But I really didn't think of that power much, as I didn't need to worry about magic wielding enemies. That disinterest had officially changed. Anything could be on the other side of a Vortex. It just went to show that everything was useful, that I should stop judging things solely on the needs of the moment.

  Let's look at the loot.

  Total rewards, 11 Reward tokens, which my BTC told me were completely random chance lotteries. Anything was on the menu. I could get a Theme or a Hero or something utterly new. 5 Hero Upgrade tokens which where exactly what they sounded like. They would raise the level of a Hero. Think about John with 5 more levels. I shuddered. I saw the future with dead bodies scattered everywhere. No, realistically I should use them on Raynor and Jaina and probably the new Heroes I was going to get from these 2 new Hero tokens.

  Then there were 8 Unit Upgrade tokens which affected all units of one type. If I used them for Probes, then all Probes would benefit. If I used them on a higher order of unit I would have a devastating army. The upgrade could be any of a number of factors. Health, Armor, Damage... and so on. It might require a lot of thought on how best to use these. 1 Building Upgrade token which took any building to its next level of technology. It had a note, it was best used on Prime buildings of a theme. So the Town Hall, the Nexus, and so on.

  I'd gotten another Power token, I was far more eager to see what I'd get this time. This felt like a massive haul. But I'd wait until tomorrow and open the tokens with everyone else. They should be allowed to see the fruits of their bors.

  I checked my XP total, it had soared to 154,829. That was amazing and terrifying. How far could I go? I was already at the heights of modified human levels. At least retive to this world. What good would it do me to reach godlike levels of power? Unless I wanted to join in on some greater scale of conflict. No, I really didn't want to get involved in anything like that. Though maybe exploring the Gaxy would be fun someday. What wonders and terrors were out there?

  Plus, I was already struggling with my self image. Don't get it twisted I liked being stronger, and I loved having a goal, but I felt parts of me being shaved away. I'd changed so much, and I worried about how much more of myself I could lose. It was already so easy to jump to killing. So easy to hurt others for the sake my mission. I'd thought it was high time to get back to my roots, or at least as much as I could. Perhaps some simple but useful bor. Helping with the farms could be good, or maybe working on some cars. I had that idea a while back to make an upgraded version of Amanda's car. I still needed to get me a real beast to run around in.

  But even before that, it was time to search the company story for some fuzzy friends.

  Several purchases ter, we had squirrels and other little types of varmints running around. All of them with some magical quirk or feature. That was 400 points. While some strange small critters were already running around thanks to the strange nature of Meadran's presence, I thought a few more conventional ones wouldn't hurt. Some people found squirrels adorable. They all scattered into the forest of the Valley. A good thing they had too.

  Next I looked at fluffy murder machines. I ended up purchasing two different cns of cats. One, a breed that reminded me of the Norwegian Forest Cat called the Temerian Deep Stalker. The other cn reminded me of the Sandcat, they were called Rostvian Shorthairs. They both had all kinds of tricks. Deep Stalkers could work shadow magic. Rostvians could py with earth based energies. They ran me 800 points. Both breeds were notable for being naturally friendly with humans. I figured why not, some people like cats. The little psychopaths didn't have me fooled for a moment, even if I gave them plenty of scritches, before they went off to explore their new home.

  Cute is cute.

  Then I'd started scrolling the avaible canine options next. I damn near threw all my point at the store right then and there. The assholes had filled the front images, in the store, with the puppy version of every breed. They hadn't done that with the cats! this was a conspiracy, they were out to bankrupt me. I was muttering about a future where the Company tried to drowned me in dogs. I tightened my mental grip on my myself. Two types, I promised myself that I could buy two types of Doggos.

  Though many of the options were strictly speaking, not Dogs. There were wolves and foxes of dozens of varieties. I could safely ignore those, since I wanted pets as much as working dogs. Hmm. They needed to be human friendly, and at the very least other animal tolerant. Then they need to be useful. Helpful on the farms and ranches. Yup, that was a good pn.

  Oh, there was a breed that reminded me of Border Collies. An excellent herding breed. Their high energy and intelligence were great provided you had plenty of room and work for them. Let's see this breed, the Adraigh Trap Dog, seemed to be a close match for the Border Collie in intelligence, except they were a hunting breed. They used a broad array of magical abilities to stalk and trap game. If improperly handled they could turn mischievous. Maybe not them. A hunting breed wasn't a good fit right now.

  The Fae Coursing Hound was out for the same reason. Truly beautiful though. With their ethereal snowy fur and blood red tipped ears.

  The Mana Hound was a versatile breed. Easy adaptive to any task. Human levels of intelligence. Though cking many of the negative human traits. They were natural mages, and their fur would become stripped with different colors depending on what areas of magic they learned. I looked at the picture of a wolf like pup with light blue fur and immediately bought the lot. 1000 points.

  Six yearling dogs appeared. They were already fairly rge about the size of a full grown German Shepard. It was clear they still had a bit of growing to do. They were instantly friendly and full of pep. I spent a while pying with them, trying to let go of some of my own darkness. Then I summoned a Probe to guide them to the farms. They seemed to understand right away what was expected of them.

  Then something truly unique caught my eye in the list. It was a individual puppy. He was a Seffiveelian or an Elven Dancing Dog. Glorious silver fur with undertones of bck. Sharp slightly oversized ears stood proudly. His eyes were whorls of shifting colors. Mostly greens and blues. The store notes said that he was the runt of his litter and that was with him already the same size as a small horse. He would get much bigger. The breed had been used as mounts by the Elves of their homeworld for ages. They were know for possessing a smooth gliding gait which looked like they were dancing over terrain, hence the name. The Elven Dancing Dogs would often carry two Elves, one to guide while fighting in close and one to shoot.

  "Mine!" I smmed the buy button. 2000 points. I simply must meet this wonderful canine.

  A head butted into me and even in my power armor I fell back. I felt a tickle in my mind. 'Hi, Hi, Hi! We py now?' I bounced up and did my best to wrestle with the oversized pupper. All my issues and problems seemed to melt away.

  It was a great way to kill the rest of the day.

  The new mountain of fluff and I fell asleep on the comfy grass by the Company Store. My power armor wasn't the best thing to sleep in, but it wasn't too bad. If you ignored a back cramp or two.

  I had the Probes bring us some breakfast. I had some bacon and eggs and the pupper got a whole side of beef. He crunched the carcass down fast and then drank from the nearby stream. He dispyed all the typical puppy behaviors. Which would make him instantly charming to most people. I could tell that the local Mana Density was actually benefitting him. The Store had been sparse in describing the origins of Dancing Dogs, only that the World they came from had a standard Mana Density level of 5. Whatever that meant.

  Sure I get that we are probably somewhere between level 2 and 3 here in the Valley, and just over level one in the town. However, I had no idea what the ramification of these levels were. The BTC couldn't or wouldn't give me all the answers. Even Meadran, perhaps the most knowledgeable being avaible, could only expin so much. The question remained, why was a lower density of mana helping him? I could conceive of a few answers, but I didn't like the implications.

  The puppy chased a giggling wisp. A bouncing rollick in action. 'Py? Pretty light, py?' The Silver wisp circled the pup several times before getting distracted by something else and floating away between the closely packed trees. 'Aw... '

  "You're going to need a name."

  'Oh! I know names, they are the wind calls that the small brights use.' The puppy came bouncing over next to me again. He radiated happy energy. I ughed. 'I told I not need wind call, too small. The small brights took from mama. Gave to big brights. Then sleep, then here.' That didn't sound so great. Hopefully, I can give this good boy a better life.

  So far, my naming scheme for dogs had been to name them for some personality trait or quirk. Babble? No definitely not. Bounce? Eh... no. I could go with the cssics and name him for a physical trait. Silver? Maybe? Change. No. Shift. Nah. Whorl. Nope. Hmm.

  Name him for what I hoped he would become? Brave? Noble? What if he didn't want to be either? Perhaps, I was making this harder than it had to be?

  Silver was pretty good. Wait what was the name for silver in all the fantasy books. Miril... no Mithril. Mithril. It had a nice ring to it. I could call him Mith for short.

  "Do you like the name, Mithril?" Saying it out loud felt good.

  'Oooooo. What means?' He had a posture of barely contained exuberance.

  "Silver, I think, like your fur." I hoped I'd remembered that right. I wouldn't want anyone to make fun of the pupper.

  'Like, like. Yes. I Mithril!' The oversized puppy bounced around with joyful hops. 'We run, soon?'

  "Sure, Mith, we can go running soon. We need to meet up with my friends, anyway. They are good people so don't be scared."

  'Me good, me brave, not scared.' I gave him a good scratch behind his ear. Given his size, I barely had to gentle it up for him, even with the armor. After pying with him for most of an afternoon, I'd learned a few things about him. His bones and muscles were extremely dense, maybe on the same proportional level as a wolverine. Despite this, he was also graceful, as much as most felines, taking puppy awkwardness into account. He was obviously smart, but still easily distracted. He could channel nature mana, and once I showed him the pattern for Regrowth he could repeat it fwlessly. All in all, Mith promised to be an excellent companion and future friend.

  "Lets go, Mith. You can meet the other people that live here, and we'll get some more food."

  'More crunches, more tasties!' Oh, he was very much the pup.

  We ran as fast as we could from the CStore to the Town Hall. Despite my stats, Mith bzed past me several time before bouncing back to me, because he didn't know where we were going. It was a bst. Mith was a fire that chased away the shadows that had taken root in my mind.

  Everyone trickled in to the Town Square over the next hour or so. There was a buzz of excitement. the new furry addition to the town had already been noticed. As should easily be predicted, Mithril was a hit with everyone he met. The fact that he was the size of a Morgan horse, didn't put anyone off at all. He got all the attention a greedy pupper could want.

  John showed up and had a Mana Hound trailing him. There was also a Deep Stalker wrapped around his shoulders. I raised an eyebrow at him.

  "Yeah. I like animals." He said it ft, but I could see the nascent smirk.

  I chuckled. "I hope everyone had a good rest." I called out. The Team and I, spent the next thirty minutes detailing the Mana Sink and the events therein.

  "Wait. You went back in time?" Amanda blurted out. She had a stunned look on her face.

  "While I don't think we should take anything for granted here, I don't think we literally went back in time. This seemed to be a snapshot of an alternate way the events of that night could have gone. I mean Silverhand was dead before it even started." I shook my head, "What worries me is that the system rated the deviance for the actual history. How does it know? If it knows that much, what else does it know? Everything? Most things?" I pointed out to the waste, "Does the Company know all of this? If so what is the point of me being here? Entertainment? Punishment?"

  "There is no way to know." John chimed in. Short and matter of fact.

  "Right. Hoss, this is like dealing with far off governments, but worse. There is no telling what they are pnning, no telling what they do or don't know. So we keep on doing the best we can. We help you and you do what you think is best. Worrying about the rest is a recipe for going batshit insane." Raynor had either gotten a new rifle or had his old one repaired.

  'Too jumping, mind sight.' Mith thought.

  "One problem at a time." Amanda was staring into the distance.

  From there we had quite a bit of debate about what everyone wanted to do next. Help other people, fuck over other people. There was no solid consensus.

  "Nah, we examine each group and decide whether or not to help on a case by case basis." I spoke up. "Some people suck, some are monsters, others are good folks in a bad pce. Painting people with a broad brush, especially before you talk to them, rarely works out in the end. We might not end up helping any group and just make deals with certain individuals. But first, we have to get to know them, it's hard to do that from out here." I said it, but I knew I did the painting myself sometimes. "It will take time to figure all of this shit out. How about we switch to something more fun?" I raised my arms dramatical. "Rewards are waiting to be opened!"

  It was time to open some loot.