I stepped through into a fight.

  Correction, I stepped through into a slaughter.

  The Probes were already engaged with several filthy lightly armored humans, all of whom were toting some moderate but slapdash iron. Korvaith was already trying to smash them, having determined that his rifle was unnecessary. Many broken or fried human forms were scattered about, though the struggle wasn't quite over yet. The whining buzz of bullets zipping by, followed by the sounds of the Probes particle beams crackling filled the air. The very stench ridden air.

  Probius was in front of me acting as a shield but that also somewhat limited my field of view, but it did afford me the opportunity to scope out the area.

  Where were we?

  The dim early daylight showed that my feet were covered in garbage and foul water. The ground was soft and muddy. This was a major clue, but it was when I turned around that nailed the location down. We were at the base of one of the garbage mountains. This fucking place was a testament to the ridiculous lengths people would go to to ignore a problem rather than solve it. Make no mistake, the the Corpos had the tech to recycle most of this mess. But because it wasn't profitable enough all of this trash sat here rotting away.

  Oh sure, a few scavenger types would turn a tiny amount of this mess into something useful again. Hardly enough to make a difference. Every once in a while, some small company would open up and attempt to mine a modest profit out of this garbage, but most failed within a year. The rest crumbled within five years. It was hard to squeeze this stone for blood. Most of the problem again rested with the big Corps. If you actually started making a tidy profit out of this junk, they swooped in and demanded their cut. All of this trash was once their product they would claim, so of course you should pay them for it. Never mind that they'd already made money off of it. The court battles were a nightmare, and you'd be guarantied to lose, because the judges were all in the pockets of the Corps to begin with. Then the City government would predictably demanded their fees for permits covering this type of trash or that type of trash. Until your business was sucked dry.

  This was perfect. Because I'd no need to play by their rules. This was absolutely a problem I could solve, and greatly profit from. Or rather my Probes could solve, as using Purify would waste the value of this smelly materials stockpile. But it might just be a good idea to be sneaky about it, at least to start. If the Corpos came after us later, well it would be impossible to prove that the resulting blocks of Mineral or canisters of Vespene ever started existence as their products.

  The fight behind me was all but over. The junk runners weren't much of a threat to begin with. Copperheads and Buzzsaws weren't a serious problem for my Robo-Buddies.

  "Executor, the Enemies are defeated!" Probius' deep beeps pulling me from my musings. He was jubilant at their victory, as he should be. I however, found it sad. These people were just scraping by, only to get stomped out by our superior firepower. The price of living in or around Night City has been paid once again.

  "TG5-0, LB6-8, YS3-2 and FK4-3 start breaking down the local materials. DV1-9 start assembling a Forge. Once the Forge is ready, prepare a War Pylon. GRR-33 and MRR-67 begin a patrol of the area, full wartime protocols engaged. Korvaith can we clean this area up enough for you to root here, and would you be willing to do that?" I spit out orders rapid fire, I wanted to seize this opportunity while my ideas were fresh.

  "Yes." Korvaith growled. I supposed he meant yes to both.

  Okay, how to clean up a space for him? First was Purify... oh wait, that's right it'd evolved and split into two spells. Interesting. Well the obvious choice here was Remove Impurities. As I shaped the new spell, I could tell it was an order of magnitude more complex than Purify. And was a mana hog, though that wasn't really a problem right now.

  I started with the water that I wanted to keep, and simply guided the spell to get rid of what shouldn't be there. Sure casting the spell was a bitch, but using the spell was easy. It was as if it read my mind and just did what I wanted. Next, I stripped the rads, nanobots and heavy metals out of the soil, most weren't needed. After that I used Life Crafting to alter the ever present soil bacterium, into more useful strains. Hmm, some things in there could be good, but there weren't much in the way of beneficial nutrients left in this soil for the bacterium to work with. That wasn't really a problem, once the Forge was up we could convert some of the organic materials here into the substances Korvaith would need.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Now we had a circle roughly 100 yards in diameter that had very neutral soil. It wouldn't do Korvaith much good, but it wouldn't hurt him much either. Later, I'll spoil him with Moon Well water and Life Crafting. If I had my way, he'll become the largest, most magnificent Tree of War anyone had ever heard of in any universe.

  Korvaith stood at the center of the cleaned up soil and slowly shifted into his tree form. Which honestly wasn't much different, he even still had his arms. He just no longer had legs or feet.

  "Ugh, tastes bad." Korvaith's voice was even deeper now.

  "I'm sorry big guy, I'll make it up to you later." Reaching up I gave him a pat on his arm.

  "It's alright, just wasn't ready for it." He boomed.

  My BTC shook...

  [ Tree of War Options

  Summon Archer - 5 minutes (Limit 5)

  Summon Hunter - 15 minutes (Limit 1)

  Summon Red Wisp - 1 minute

  Summon Elder Nightsaber - 1 day (Limit 1) ]

  What pray tell is a Nightsaber? What does a Red wisp do? So exciting! I wanted them all. I queued up five Red Wisps to test and then see if they could merge. Then I went with the Hunter and two Archers, before going with the Nightsaber.

  Unfortunately, the Probes weren't done setting up the Forge yet, so I sat with my back against Korvaith and waited.

  The Red Wisps were full of energy, and a bit more aggressive than their cousins. They could build two types of structures a Hunter's Hall and a Sentinel Tower. Those would be a major boon as the Hunter's Hall was the Kaldorei's equivalent of the Forge. The Sentinel Tower was just as it sounds, a watch tower. However, it could be enhanced with several useful upgrades, including a few different automatic defense options.

  I queued up the remaining Archers and then spammed the Red Wisps. Sure it would be a day later, but I didn't even need to see the Elder Wisp version of them to know these angry little balls of light were my favorites. I wrangled them into starting the Hunter's Hall, placing it over by the Forge. Then I showed them where to build a couple of the Sentinel Towers to help defend Korvaith.

  Now the Forge was done, but the Hunter had also arrived. Wow! She was... kind of hot. Alright, there was no kind of to it. Dark purple locks braided into a long tail. Light mauve skin that seemed to sparkle slightly. Rich blue and green tattoos emphasized rather then hide her beauty. Deep silver glowing eyes peered at me. Her aquiline nose slightly scrunched at the scent of the air. Her bow shaped lips parted revealing sharp lustrous fangs...

  "Ishnu-alah, young soul. I'm Lunaria Swiftarrow, huntress of Elune, and late of Ashenvale. I must admit my keen eyes are troubled, what a puzzle you are! Deep on the Path of Nature, yet not the slightest touch of the Emerald Dream is upon you. How could this be?" Lilting and lyrical her smooth rich voice was both calming and compelling.

  Her tall and lithe form slinked towards me, bonelessly. Any cat I'd ever known would have been jealous of her stalking gait. Her hunting leathers doing not a thing to hide her shapely curves from my suddenly very hungry eyes. Did you know eyes could be hungry? I sure didn't until just that moment.

  I tried to speak, but I couldn't quite form words yet.

  She reached out her fingertips barely leaving a ghost of a touch upon my cheek. "A Druid, moonstruck by me, say that it is not so." Her smile was a terrible thing, it broke my heart into pieces. Yet it was wonderful, and my heart came together again. Now, I knew what beauty was.

  I swallowed and tried again. "Hello, I'm Ryan Crestwood. Arch Druid of Renewal and currently struggling to form thoughts."

  "Crestwood is a proper name though odd, yet what kind of name is Ryan for a Child of the Stars? Another mystery about you." She danced away spinning. "Worry not young Ryan, those who have never known the touch of Elune are often rendered addled at it's beauty." She looked around.

  "What a poor place for a young Tree of War, Druid." A slight chastisement in her tone, "Yet, I suspect a necessity." She continued looking around pausing for a long moment on the sight of Probius and then the Probes. "What strange constructs." Then she took in the Trash Mountain and was herself now struck speechless. Her shock didn't last long, as the Hunter's Hall was finished and she went to examine it.

  The two Archers had been summoned as well. One was Gawis Starstrike, an elven man cloaked in all black. The other was Thessia Heartshot, and her cloak was a dark blue. While I wondered at the differences I left my questions unasked for now. I'd have time to get to know all of them later.

  While I struggled with my infatuation of Lunaria, the thought that there might be some manipulation going on, helped me pull myself together quickly. I reminded myself that I was a long way away from being a kid that could be controlled by a pretty face. While I admit there was a magical quality to Lunaria, as Thessia was simply pretty, that didn't excuse my lapse. I kept finding weaknesses in myself. They must be purged.

  Why was she so full of life, when most other summons were far more subdued. The seed of a suspicion began to grow, I'd seen this kind of behavior before. Maybe I could mitigate the fallout this time. Hmm.

  The War Pylon was finished, it had been place above Korvaith's crown. I noticed vines were already growing from those top branches towards the Pylon. Fascinating.

  The two Sentinel Towers had also been finished. Which made this a good time to explain everything to the newcomers. I gave them the quick version.

  "What a grand tale, young Ryan. So you wish us to stand guard for Korvaith and the "operation" to clean this land up?" Lunaria seemed distant now as if she was remembering the far past. "It is our duty to help, of course."

  Momentary insanity now set aside, I turned my attention toward the Forge.

  It was time to see what the Omnimechanic Class could do.