Toby woke up from a pleasant dream about feeling safe and cozy, just to notice that something felt strange.

Something was lying on his arm and holding onto him tightly.

It felt as if a pair of smooth warm ropes had wrapped up his arm, and another pair his chest. There was definitely the standard set of arms and legs curled up against his side as well.

It took a little while before his head cleared enough to remember exactly how he ended up in this situation, and who this creature holding onto him was.

When Alice showed an interest in doing more than just talk last night, he had accepted without really considering the potential consequences of his actions.

Loneliness was definitely an enemy that had caused him to make a lot of mistakes up through the years.

He could only hope that this wasn't one of those mistakes.

His biggest worry this, was how this was going to affect their relationship.

This would change things, and the real question was if it was a good or bad thing.

As Toby lay there and mused over how to deal with the whole situation, Alice started stirring next to him.

Looking down at her face, he could see her green predator eyes with horizontally slitted pupils looking back at him.

“Good morning,” she said with a chirping voice before making a big yawn, giving him a disconcerting view of her small mouth filled with a row of razor sharp teeth that could make a shark jealous

She had pretty body though, Toby admitted while he watched her stretch her supple body. If it wasn't for the 2 pairs of tentacles coming out of the back of her head and neck, she could even have passed for a human at first glance.

Her blue tinted smooth hairless skin had an exotic attractiveness to it, and her rounded breasts and hips gave her that alluring look many men would find pleasant.

“Last night was very pleasurable.” She purred while stroking his chest playfully with one of her tentacles.“ we have time for a little more fun before we have to get up right?”

Toby felt an involuntary shiver of excitement run through him at the invitation. His ability to resist the temptation vaporized as morning dew before the sun.

Worries were for later he thought. Right now he just wanted to enjoy the moment to it's fullest.

Alice and Toby hurried in through the doors to the control room. They were the last ones there, and their emergence together caused a fair amount of raised eyebrows and snickering.

“I knew it,” Urist exclaimed. “Pay up girls.”

The triplets sighed in unison and gave Toby the evil eye before handing over a small lump of credits to Urist.

Toby was about to ask what that was about before thinking better of it and opting to pretend like he heard or saw nothing of that exchange.

“Good morning everyone.” He greeted. “Are we set to start our recon campaign?”

“We are ready to let the first team start character creation,” Aio confirmed.

“We haven't set any in world spawn-point though, so any deaths will put you back in the portal room for now.”

“That's fine,” Toby replied relieved that everything was appearing to go well for now.

“We aren't there to live yet, just to get a feel for the land and possibly find a couple of good options for starting locations.”

“I and Urist have taken a good look at the world through the map table,” Ortho reported.

“We think we have identified a few decent potential sites.”

“Aye!” Urist added while pointing at the point where the northern mountain range formed a T shape with the barrier mountains down the continent.

“This continental intersection here is bound to have a rich subterranean ecosystem.”

“It's perfect for us Dorfs, So I will be focusing on this area for the Dorfian embark.”

Toby nodded at Urists plan. It made some kind of dwarf fortress type sense to want easy access to the underground. Digging is hard work after all, and the less of it you have to do the faster you could expand your territory.

Toby shifted his attention to Ortho next. “How about you Ortho?”

“I've already picked a spot” Ortho replied while pointing at an area south of the southern mountain range.

“This strip of the tropical jungle here is perfect for my kind.”

“My plan is to embark exactly between the mountains and the sea along this river running down from the highest peak in the range.”

Toby took a closer look at the map. It was a very defensible area, with the mountain range forming an impenetrable wall sheltering the area from 2 sides, leaving only the open ocean, or a pair of relatively narrow choke points at each end as possible ways of entry.

Toby spent a little while considering his own options. Humans were flexible as far as living conditions went, but a fair climate would be very advantageous.

Long term, a capital should have easy access to both the ocean and the mountains by way of waterways.

Toby immediately excluded the eastern dry region, and then the inland temperate woodlands and grasslands. Expanding outwards would be tough without the benefit of fast travel by boat along a coastline.

The western coastline was well connected to the 'great spine' as Toby had started to call the central mountain range in his mind, so it would be the better place to start.

He let his eyes wander up and down the coast and mountain a bit to see if any terrain features spoke to him.

There it was, the perfect spot. 3 rivers meeting up just before reaching a V-shaped gulf, complete with a set of barrier Islands.

Better yet was the fact that the river network had a really large footprint in the terrain.

Giving waterway access to the foothills of 3 of the 4 major peaks of the great spine.

“What do you think of that place there?”

Toby asked looking at Alice. “Is it viable you think?”

“It's got some good points going for it if you plan on aggressively expanding into a big empire.” Alice nodded.

“The only issue is how exposed such an empire would be early on while the population is still low.”

“I have an idea for remedying that” Toby replied with a smile.

“We could buy extra population from earth to expedite population growth.”

“That would take a lot of credits Toby” Alice cautioned.

“How do you propose we get that?”

“I've done some research on potential customers” Toby replied.

“Band of Uncles and Anima alliance are acceptable additions.”

“You are taking a risk, Toby.” Ortho objected. “Some of the members of the band of uncles breed really fast.”

“And the species of the Anima Alliance are generally very strong,” Urist added.

“I like the idea” Alice interjected.

“The system will balance each species traits, so every species will be at approximately the same level once some time has passed.”

“Yes.” Toby nodded.

“It will be really tough at first, because of their breeding advantage, but once humanity hit's the iron age, it evens out, and the faster breeding species no longer pose such a threat.”

“And how do you intend a surface living species like yours to reach the iron age quickly?” Urist asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Trading with you,” Toby replied by pointing at Urist.

“If you embark at the source of this river here.”

Toby pointed at the starting point of a major river running down from Urist's preferred mountain.

“Then we can be in contact inside a generation or 2.”

“hmmm.. Probably even sooner.” Urist replied thoughtfully.

“What do you think our people would be trading in?”

“your favorite beverage, wood and other surface-related goods, in exchange for metal ores, tools, and weapons.”

Toby grinned. He knew Urist wouldn't be able to resist good brew, and neither would his people most likely.

“He got you Urist.” Ortho snickered.

“Aye.” Urist sighed. “It looks like a sound plan.”

“Alright alright” Aio interrupted.

“Do you all want to stand around all day jabbering, or get down there and take a look around?”

“Let's go get ready,” Alice replied, pulling the others along into the prep room. It was high time they got their characters made.

“I've prepared a suggestion for all of you.” Alice started once everyone had claimed a character creation booth.

“We have too many responsibilities micromanaging any empires.” she continued.

“So I've set us all up as priest class, except Toby, He should be an Arcane mage.”

“Why an Arcane mage?” Toby asked.

“Because the magic system is your brainchild.” She replied.

“We have to play the role of divine messengers rather than rulers, and being one will put you in a position to spread magic knowledge sooner."

“That makes sense,” Toby replied thoughtfully while he accepted her suggested setup.

She knew her stuff after all, and he doubted he could make a better character.

Besides, Mages are cool anyway.

Character sheet: Name: Toby Race: Human Class: Arcane mage Lvl 1 HP:100 MP:100 Elemental fire Lvl 1 Elemental water Lvl 1 Arcane magic Lvl 1 Elemental earth Lvl 1 Elemental wind Lvl 1 Staff mastery Lvl 1 Spellbook: Spell Range: Effect Burning hand touch A fistful of fire. water spray Short A squirt of water, useful for getting a drink or prank your friends. Gust Short wind to push stuff. Dust Medium Debuff. Blind your opponents by blowing it into their eyes. pebble Medium Launch a magical pebble to annoy your enemies.

Once everyone was ready, they moved into the portal room proper.

Toby could feel his pulse quicken. They were about to set foot in a new world, real or not, it was still exciting.

“We have set your destination to be on a hill overlooking the area for the suggested human embark.”

One of the triplets called out from the control room. Toby had no idea which one it was.

Without the color of their hair, it was impossible to know due to the fact all 3 of them sounded exactly the same.

“The destination is fine by us” Toby called back. “We are ready to go”.

“Engaging portal” one of the triplets called back.

In front of them the outer ring of the portal started to rotate clockwise, while the inner one rotated counterclockwise until a specific set of symbols aligned at the top, then a series of runes on the floor started to light up in sequence.

As soon as the light reached the portal, it's inside started to glow, then turn into a liquid mirror-like surface.

The shiny surface started to shimmer into a vortex of reflections before it stabilized as a circular opening into the new world.

The completed portal shimmered and churned along the edges, but it was only a short step to get through it and onto a patch of grass on the other side of it.

Toby gingerly stepped forward and into the portal with the others straight behind while his heart hammered with excitement.