Ethan Cole stood on the balcony of his San Francisco office wondering how he would survive another quarter of founders who talked like visionaries but built like interns He had reviewed nine pitch decks that morning and each one promised to change the world yet none of them could survive a five minute due diligence call He rubbed his eyes took a breath and reminded himself that early stage investing was always a gamble one that he used to love before cynicism slowly replaced excitement He walked toward the conference room to meet another founder when the air changed around him The temperature dropped the sound of traffic vanished and the windows flickered like water touched by a finger The next moment the entire room twisted out of shape stretching then collapsing like a folded sheet and Ethan fell through the flickering air He did not scream he only muttered a tired of course because his life had finally reached the level of absurdity that matched his job When he landed he felt stone beneath his hands and heard wind echoing through open skies The city was gone The skyscrapers the noise the endless rush all replaced by a vast landscape filled with green plains rising cliffs and a distant city of towers built from white marble and glowing runes Ethan stood brushed off dust and looked at the sky which shimmered with floating symbols that shifted like cloud patterns but carried meaning he did not yet understand His head spun but he forced rationality to take over This was not a hallucination The sensory detail was too real He took slow steps toward the road where strange carts moved without wheels floating a few inches above the ground Powered by glowing crystals embedded along the sides They drifted silently pulled by an unseen force like magnetic levitation but organic He whispered a long quiet wow A group of robed individuals walked past each carrying staffs etched with symbols that pulsed like heartbeats One of them glanced his way eyes glowing faint gold Ethan raised a hand and the robed man stopped staring at him with cautious curiosity Stranger you carry no mana signature Where is your conduit Ethan answered carefully I dont have one The mans brows lifted as if Ethan had just stated he could breathe underwater Then how do you cast spells Without mana no one functions Ethan looked at his own hands I dont cast spells The robed man exchanged confused glances with his companions before saying Then you must be a traveler from beyond These plains sometimes draw wanderers from distant realms His tone shifted to polite warning Be cautious traveler The city ahead welcomes innovation but it also fears what it cannot measure Ethan thanked him and continued walking toward the city The closer he came the more details emerged The towers had platforms where mages lifted heavy materials with spells runes glowing around their hands Market stalls sold potions artifacts and moving parchment that folded itself into shapes on command While he watched a young mage demonstrated a spell to a crowd shaping fire into a floating bird that delivered letters to customers waiting on distant rooftops A fireball courier business Ethan murmured Underdeveloped chaotic with no safety protocols but ridiculously high potential The old thrill returned the one he used to feel when discovering founders with raw ideas He saw opportunity not danger He saw inefficiency screaming for structure He saw a market without competition regulations or even fundamental concepts of valuation He saw a blank canvas Ethan Cole Silicon Valley venture capitalist had found what no investor ever could An untouched frontier He stepped into the city of Astravar and whispered to himself Maybe this world needs its first accelerator and maybe thats my job Whether he liked it or not a new ecosystem was about to be born