-Chapter One-

James was quite overwhelmed by the cleanliness of the air around him. There was no need to wear a breathing device like one would have to when leaving the megastructures. This was pure bliss, a treat he would have no way to have experienced if not for the failure of the god. James lay in the grass for a while, taking in the sights and scents of the world around him.

There was no constant rumble of giant generators. No rumbling storms in the distance, and no hum of televisions or radios. It was a peace of mind that almost no one in the Earth he had just left would get to have. While he lay looking up at the sun, he felt it on his skin for the first time in his life and it was amazing. It was something that he would remember for the rest of his life.

Thankfully, his visor automatically adjusted to the sun, shielding him from the light that would have rightfully blinded him without it. Right now, he was in his Yggdrasil avatar. A High Human who was essentially immortal. In the last expansion, Humanity had broken through the space around the worlds, and explored the depths of space, along with various other species alongside them.

With it came the High Human race which was the product of humanity merging with magic and technology to functionally become demigods. It was a much needed expansion given that heteromorphic races, monster races, and nonhuman species had dominated the meta for a long time leading to many human players quitting outright and pressuring the dev team with accusations of favoritism of heteromorphic races and species.

As the saying goes, 'Your wallet speaks more than your mouth'. That was taken to it's logical conclusion when many human, human alt, and half human players boycotted the game and bit into the company's profits forcing the issue to the forefront.

While there was a split in the community, the human players and their allies eventually got the expansion passed through and it led to humanity as a competitive species on the meta charts again.

James raised his right arm up and looked at it. His body was muscled to the lean but thick degree and was much sturdier than it had been back on Earth. Small lines of magic ran through his arm, enhancing it to intensely powerful degrees. Also, his body was filled with nanomachines that reinforced his body to an almost natural armor.

All in all, he looked like a Englishman in his early forties with short graying hair. On his body was a gray suit with two metal curls around his neck that were clasped in the front. The suit was a light gray jacket and gray pants with gray boots. At his waist on his belt was a small square tablet that was folded to make it much smaller than it woulld be when fully extended.

Eventually snapping out of his joyful trance, James decided to see just how far his abilities given by the god went.

Instantly, a large amount of information flooded his mind. His visor filled with information.

An interface that seemed to be an overview of every resource he owned and the technologies available to him appeared on the visor, and he looked through it. It had tons of different types of resources neatly listed in a interface.

Crystals, Deuterium, Various metals, Gold, Silver, Food, Dark Matter, Nuclear materials, Wood, Stone, Water, Gasolines, and many other materials dropped down for quite a long list.

On a different interface that he accessed by thought showed the various technologies and energies he could eventually develop.

Ion tech, particle tech, Hyperspace tech, terraforming tech, fourth and fifth dimensional transportation, spatial and time manipulation tech, cloning and biological development, gene altering, artificial human creation, nanotech, artificial intelligence, space faring tech, ship building, city development, espionage and technological interference, gravity weapons and development, and a long list of various other tech trees.

Then, the building and ship making trees opened in another window.

Everything from colonization ships to Death Stars was there, be it land, water, or space, it was there.

Then, last but not least, lifeform trees.

The ability to create and alter various life forms at the sub atomic level.

Everything he knew from the various RTS and Space RTS he played was there in some form or other. However, they all required resources, and right now, besides the five hundred and twenty six million Dark Matter that showed up in the list, he had diddly jack squat.

Thankfully, with Dark Matter he could begin development of his empire, as Dark Matter allowed for creation of buildings, ships, and research without the required materials. However, before he went off and tried to build an empire on this planet he would have to find out the technological level of the planet, solar system, and eventually the galaxy. After all, beginning an empire in a claimed solar system could bring ruin down upon him before he could build up a proper fleet and planetary defense.

Deciding to take a risk, James spent five hundred Dark Matter on a probe ship that would scan the planet and local space for any friendly or hostile ships and planetary colonies.

Appearing in the sky in front of him was a forty meter wide and sixty meter tall disc that had various long tower like receptors on the top and bottom of the disc. Nigh instantly, the unmanned craft followed James's orders and shot up into the space around the planet to begin gathering intel.

Shortly after, the information gathered by the probe began broadcasting to him. From what the probe gathered, there were no ships in the local airspace on and around the planet. However, it did find that there were quite a few floating islands and one large landmass that was high up above the planet's surface. However, any attempt at contact went unanswered.

This meant a few things. Either the planet was so advanced, that the detection of the probe was blocked or hidden from, or this planet was not advanced enough for space travel.

Directing the probe to search the local solar system, James put his attention elsewhere.

Spending another five Dark Matter, he created ten land crawler probes to search the nearby surroundings for signs of life, Human or otherwise.

Instantly, in front of him, ten metal doglike robots spawned and ran off in different directions at speeds easily surpassing a jet. The information was being pinged directly to his brain in real time. Thanks to the fact that he was in his Yggdrasil avatar, his brain processing was much better than that of a human from back on Earth, so keeping track of them all at the same time was not a problem for him.

Deciding to wait for his probes to finish their operation, James spent one hundred Dark Matter on creating a Tier One residence from OGame, a fun strategy game he played quite a lot.

Appearing in front of him in the plains from thin air was a large square three story residence that was made from thick metal with large reinforced glass windows on each floor.

Walking up to the entrance, he put his hand on the scanner, and the metal blast door slid open. Inside, it had the bare minimum furnishings. Two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, three bathrooms and a common room.

Taking a seat on a couch in the common room, James pulled the tablet off of his belt, and unfolded it. This was an entertainment device from Yggdrasil that had quite a few games and movies that he had loaded on to it.

Using his free hand, he tapped the right side of his visor, and with a small beep, the visor disappeared into a small cube at his temple, barely bigger than a quarter.

Entering his credentials, he connected the tablet to the feeds from the probes. Eight of them had only been met by long forests, lakes and fields. However, one of them came across a village that looked directly taken from fifteenth century England.

The other probe had found it's way into a small city and was listening in on as many conversations as it could. However, the language was not one James knew. Thankfully, translation wasn't that big of a deal, as once he researched artificial intelligence in one of his colonies or settlements, the language could be quickly processed and transferred directly to him.

The probes had complex enough artificial intelligence to perform tasks, but deciphering and processing languages was not one of their functions. However, the artificial intelligence in his visor was capable of doing it.

Recalling the land probes, James decided to get something to drink from the kitchen.

In the kitchen there was a refrigeration unit that held various foods and drinks. Deciding on some Guinness, he took the bottle of ale and uncapped it.

Drinking down the thick and cold liquid, his body instantly negated the alcohol and any toxins considered harmful from it, so he wouldn't get drunk or hampered in any way, but he did like the taste, and that's why he chose it over lighter beers.

After drinking the full bottle, he threw it in the garbage hole next to the refrigerator.

Shortly after, the probes returned. Leaving the house, James pressed the small cube at his temple and the visor re opened in front of his eyes. Connecting to the probes, he collected the data from the probes and ordered them to go inside the residence. The artificial intelligence went to work on deciphering the language.

Spending one hundred Dark Matter, James created a defense system for his residence consisting of a large wall that surrounded the house and underneath it too. Atop the residence, he created a tiny solar plant to gather power for the residence. Lined atop the metal walls were plasma turrets that were unmanned at five meter intervals.

It was enough to deal with what seemed to be simple warriors that wielded swords, axes and staves.

Finally, he spent ten Dark Matter on a Humvee that had a small plasma cannon, and a belt fed machine gun.

It was time for him to strike out and go to the village he had first saw.

He didn't want to go directly to the small city first, as he would likely require identification. Driving the Humvee in the direction of the village, he stopped near a forest on the side of the road.

Something stood in his way. Rather it was two things. He could notice them for what they were. Goblins.

The little green buggers were barely clothed and had crude swords in their hands. They were waving their harms at him and speaking in some unknown language hostilely.

Activating the heat sensor in the visor, he looked around him. From the edge of the forest, he saw six more goblins aiming at him with what he assumed were bows from their stances.

He didn't have time for this, so he got up to the machine gun turret box and opened fire on the goblins in the road who where shredded into a fine splatter, and then he turned and fired on the goblins in the woods. They must have believed they could take cover in the trees.

They were wrong.

The bullets tore through the trees and pasted those goblins. None were left when he was done firing, and the gun cooled down.

Finished with his work, he went back down to the driver's seat and continued on to the village unimpeded.

However when he arrived a few minutes later, it seemed that there was an invasion of the village happening. His assumptions about the technology level of this world was all but confirmed when he saw the swords and plate armor of the attacking men.

This village was insignificant in the greater scheme of things, and he didn't really care what happened to it. Besides, it didn't seem to have any value economically either. The buildings were poorly made, and there were no soldiers defending it, so James continued driving past it. It was one village out of many, and he could easily get more information elsewhere.

One of the attacking soldiers noticed him driving by and shouted at him, but he didn't care and continued on. There was no reason to get involved in matters not pertaining to him.

Moments later, the artificial intelligence in his visor had finished deciphering the language, and transferred it directly to his brain.

-Some time later-

Gazef Stronoff, the Warrior-Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom rode his midnight black steed steed down the road to the next Village that he assumed would have been torched and raided by the Baharuth Empire's soldiers.

Sure enough, when he arrived at the village, soldiers wearing the armor and colors of the Baharuth Empire were rounding up the townspeople and slaughtering them.

Only able to save some of the villagers, Gazef and his men managed to defeat the soldiers, and sent the remaining ones fleeing. He would have to make camp here for the night, and in the morning, he would continue on the trail of the fleeing soldiers that most likely set up camp not too far away.

He would do his damned best to protect his people, and those Baharuth soldiers would not get their way. Not if he could do anything about it.