Upon arriving back at the cabin, Tec had him go through the large tome. Flipping from one page to the next. Having Tec as a partner in this new world would really be to his advantage. By the time he had gone through only about half of the tome, Tec had been able to decipher the language. Using the memory of his past language lesson with Eloisa as well as the tome, she had a large majority of the language down. There were still a few words she could not decipher their meaning, but it would be something they could pick up on the fly.

As for the knowledge, she was able to impart it into his brain. It was a kinda surreal experience. Being able to speak and understand a completely foreign language. They took turns speaking to each other in the tongue, going through simple idle conversations to get a better feeling to the actual spoken language.

She had also explained some more about the drone that was pretty much at his disposal now, and it's so-called goodies. Pretty much, it was outfitted with some type of printing suite. In goes raw materials, out comes finished products. There was some form of refinement as well. Among other processes, but Tec did not elaborate much on how, just what it could do for him. There were several smaller drones on board to collect the raw materials if he would designate them to collect a certain type. The powerplant was also some form of a miniature nuclear reactor, so the worry of it running outta juice anytime soon was out of his mind. The thought of it somehow going critical and causing a nuclear explosion took its place, though. Tec had assured him such a thing was not possible, though.

Callum, while during their speech training, had begun to tally how much munitions and supplies he had left. Overall he had around eight and a half magazines leftover from his firefight back in the Congo, which equated to two-hundred and fifty-five rounds give or take depending on how many were in the half-full magazine. Five high explosive 40mm rounds and two fragmentation grenades. With a small assortment of smoke for his M320 and just regular grenades as well as some regular smoke grenades. For his sidearm a Sig M17, he had only three magazines for a total of fifty-one rounds, plus one in the pipe. Plus some other gear, rangefinder, foodstuffs.

'This isn't a lot of ammo. Tec, do you think there is any way the drone would be able to fabricate me some more? I'm not really sure about the composition of smokeless powder, though. Also, if it can make some, can it store it as well?'

'Yes, it's possible the fabrication printer does have an extensive library of designs, dating back to even your era. You could always have a more modern weapon fabricated as well. Though it might take some time to find certain requisite materials or substitutes. As for storage, yes, it does have some space but not an overly large amount. ' Tec brought up an interface in his vision that responded to just a thought during her explanation.

The sheer amount of things that the drone could make was astounding, and the menu just went on and on. Getting back on track, Callum found the item he was looking for. 'Hey Tec, have the drone make 10000 rounds of some 62gr 5.56, it is better to have some more right now before I actually need it. I'll hold off on some advanced weapon for the moment and stick with what I know. Plus, I assume it might not be easy to find some of the materials readily.'

Tec nodded from her materialized chair, 'That is probably wise. So far, there has been nothing that the drone has seen or you have experienced, that shows we are in any danger, but it is good to be prepared. I'll have the drone get to work on the order, it should not take much time. The sensor suite will be able to pick up any of the chemicals and minerals we will need for the ammo. It should not take more than an hour or so. I'll just have the drone hold onto the ammo for now as well.'

With that taken care of Callum just decided to spend some time practicing levitating objects and moving them from one position to another while waiting for Eloisa, and Nym to get back. The plan was to get some information about this world from Eloisa when she returned and start making his way towards the Frontier.

It was his only real objective, and he was kind of having doubts about achieving it. For one, the distance was just so huge. Apparently, in the future, when he had more control, the magnitude of his abilities would be ridiculous. So who knows if he could actually negate that problem with some form of teleportation or transference. Hell, maybe he could go home, or have the ship send him back. For the moment, though, he was kinda screwed. There were also several large bodies of water between him and the Frontier. The drone had passed them on its flight in. So he would need to cross almost 24,000 miles as the crow flies to even get to the Frontier while crossing over seas or potentially oceans.

He would give it his best shot, and it would be his end goal, but he had to learn more about the world he found himself to be in. It seems it would be his home for the foreseeable future.

The drone had found out that they were pretty secluded here in this village, the nearest town being about thirty miles in an Eastern or Western direction, with endless forest to the North. The Western direction seemed to have sort of border as well. A large portion of the forest had been cut, almost like a large fire break running North to South. A small fort had been set up on the Western Side of the break, with a much more dingy fort in comparison on the Eastern Side. There was evidence of a recent skirmish, but the drone had only done a cursory glance over. The South was a heavy forest for only five to ten miles before becoming a sort of plains with sporadic spruces of trees cropping up. Not much of interest in that direction, at least as the drone had seen in its wide orbits with the village being at the center. To the east is a small town, much larger than Drewmere, but nothing like back home.

Callum glanced at his watch, taking note of the time. It had been well over three hours since Eloisa and Nym had gone into the village. They did not say where they were going, and going over the memory with Tec just to be certain he did just not miss something she had said about leaving. She must have had prior arrangments as she had just asked Nym to come with her when she had left her house.

'Say, Tec, is the drone close by?'

Shaking her head, she looked up at him, 'It went pretty far away to gather some of the materials for the ammunition, and will take some time to return. I mean, if you are worried about those two, you could just go take a look yourself. She didn't ask you to stay here. Though it wouldn't have made much of a difference.' she finished with a small smirk.

Shaking his head, Callum stood up and grabbed his gear. Donning his carrier and helmet this time. He was about to reach into his pack and retrieve his night vision as it was getting progressively darker out. Until he remembered his new enhanced vision. He felt like a million bucks since the nanite injection, much better than the aches and pains that had accosted him when he had woke up earlier in the day. He was just about to leave the cabin when he heard a group of footfalls coming up the trail towards the cabin.

Deciding to just take a seat, he took off his helmet again and rested it on the table, rifle perched up against his knee.

Opening the door, a middle-aged man in some form of plate armor entered the room swiftly, followed by Eloisa and Nym. With what looked like several other men staying outside. The middle-aged man was not much taller than Eloisa, who only stood at 5'2" or so. His armor was a deep black, a Lion with crossed swords served as a crest on the front of his breastplate. Callum even sitting down almost rose to the same height as the man, considering he was around 6'1".

The man walked with the utmost confidence in to the room and apprised Callum the minute he stepped into the room.

Glancing back at Eloisa and acting like Callum was not there, "So, Witch, he does not speak a lick of common, eh?" The tone was not exactly the friendliest. Nym just stared at the floor, keeping her head down, while Eloisa held a posture showing no subservience to the man.

Deciding to rectify the situation now, Callum spoke up, "Well, I do now. I am a bit of a fast learner."

Both Nym and Eloisa looked startled, the man just chuckled as he turned back towards Callum, "So he does speak then."

Eloisa regaining herself slightly, "How? You were barely able to understand the most basics of common earlier?"

The man simply looked at Eloisa out of the corner of his eye before looking back at Callum, talking before Callum could open his mouth. "Well, I am not too worried about how at the moment, Eloisa. This does make it easier to get answers to our questions, though. Now Callum, was it? How did you come to find yourself in the Black Forest at a time like this?"

Callum had thought of this type of question would be asked. Frankly, he did not have a good answer to give. Without knowing this world, there was no real way to lie and be convincing. Deciding to just be vague, he began, "Well, I do not really know. I actually do not even know where here is. One minute I was back home, and the next, I was here."

The man didn't seem to react, simply staring at him, "Do you know who we are, boy? If you did, you would know it would not be wise to lie to us."

"No, I do not know you. If you knew me, you'd know it is not wise to threaten me." Callum returning the man's stare, his hand moving to his sidearm. His fingers tightening on the grip of the pistol.

'Callum, the ring on his finger.'

Callum's vision flicked, switching into an enhanced version of his normal vision. The particles once again becoming visible to him. On the man's left hand, a ring pulsed in a myriad of colors, influencing the particles in a string along with the air to Callum. The motes of light circled around him, changing colors as the interacted with one another.

The man noticed Callum's gaze and just smirked, "Oh no, I would never do such a thing. There does seem to be truth to your words, despite how absurd they sound."

He turned to Eloisa and Nym, who had been hiding behind the older woman. "Also, you seem to have been speaking the truth, not an ounce of mana in this one. Truly peculiar, though I suppose he fits right in with you old wench and that half breed." The last words coming out in a venomous snarl.

"Truly a waste of my time, and here I thought we might have found ourselves an Arkadian scout. He is interesting, but I have much more pressing tasks to attend then ponder how this young man became the victim of some mage's trick. Do come talk to me, Callum, perhaps when we return from the border. I would like to learn more about your circumstances." The man putting emphasis on circumstances.

Without further ado, he turned half step and left the small cabin slamming the door on the way out. Eloisa let out small sigh, built-up stress seemingly leaving her shoulders and patting the small girl on the head. Nym had a small stream of tears running down her face but otherwise remained quiet.

"So, what exactly is happening here?" Callum asked, slightly confused at the rather short altercation.

Eloisa bent down and whispered in Nym's ear. Nym taking off towards the back room. She then moved and sat opposite Callum, taking a little bit to finally start speaking.

"That was Sir Baynard. He is a Knight under the King of Tusia. The Kingdom of Tusia being the Kingdom we are currently. His troop came into the village earlier when you were still asleep. The came as apparently the Arkadians to the west had attacked a fort on the border. We had gone into the village earlier to talk to the village elder. To reassure him that you were not a whisper of the forest."

"So if I am getting this right, this Sir Baynard was dispatched to check on this fort? While he entered the village, he heard about someone being found in the forest and assumed I might have been some scout for this Arkadia? Also, what is a whisper of the forest, and why did you assume I was one?"

Eloisa just looked at him for a moment, a small smile crossing her face. "How about a deal? We will go question for question. Now that we can actually communicate, and yes, you are correct about Baynard."

Callum gave it a moment of thought before assenting. "The least I could do is answer some questions for you. After all, you did take me into your home."

Her grin simply growing wider, "It's good that a youngin like you has some respect for your elders. Especially when they go out of their way to help you. Now shall we begin?"

Callum nodded, hoping to be able to find out more about this new world.