The elves led Evan through winding forest paths and glowing streams until they reached a settlement built around giant living trees. Structures curled upward like spirals of carved wood but the wood pulsed softly like it was alive. Bridges connected the treetop homes and platforms in elegant networks of glowing vines.

Evan stared in awe. It looked like an elven city from fantasy games but far more vivid. Mana drifted in the air like fine mist and every elf he saw carried some kind of magical staff or instrument. But what surprised him most was how chaotic everything felt beneath the beauty. Spells flickered unevenly. Light crystals dimmed without warning. Mana currents shook violently when someone attempted complex magic.

The green robed elf who had questioned him before approached. “We have spoken and decided you may stay under observation. I am Lyriel Mana Sage of the Emerald Circle.”

Evan nodded. “I appreciate it.”

“You claim to see patterns in magic,” Lyriel said. “If that is true you may help us understand dangerous inconsistencies. But you must show proof.”

Evan looked around. “Do you have materials Paper Or something like a workspace”

Lyriel gestured and two elves led him to a chamber inside a large tree. The walls glowed faintly and a large wooden table sat in the center. Evan took a breath. He had nothing no laptop no software no digital tools. But he had his mind and habits built from years of analysis.

“Alright,” he said, “let us start simple.”

The elves watched as he gathered charcoal sticks and sheets of smooth bark. He observed the ambient mana for several minutes counting the pulses. He noted fluctuations graphing rough waveforms by hand. Then he observed the mana crystals lighting the room tracking brightness changes and estimating a crude baseline.

Lyriel leaned close. “You are drawing the shape of mana waves”

“Yes,” Evan said. “Where I come from this would be a dashboard. But here it is only sketches. Still it shows something.”

He finished the first chart and turned it toward Lyriel. The bark sheet displayed a wave pattern with peaks and dips. The elves stared.

“This is the mana heart of the tree” one elf whispered. “But we have never seen it visualized.”

Lyriel touched the bark gently. “If this is true then our entire magical understanding is incomplete.”

Encouraged Evan created a second chart comparing mana crystal brightness to ambient mana frequency. He drew bars for strength levels noting the instability in output.

An elf gasped. “The crystals weaken during the third pulse cycle That is impossible They should be stable”

Evan pointed at the dip. “That is what your intuition says. This is what the data shows.”

Silence filled the chamber. The elves stared at the simple dashboard drawn on bark like it was a forbidden artifact.

Lyriel finally said, “Can you create more visual representations”

“Absolutely. But I need data logs.”

“What are logs”

“Records. Consistent measurements over time.”

The elves looked at each other confused. Evan realized again how foreign this world was. Everything they did relied on instinct and centuries of tradition but no measurements no validation.

He stood and gestured toward the glowing walls. “Magic flows constantly. But you are not recording it. If you track rising and falling patterns you can predict failures or dangers. If you track spell success rates you can improve accuracy. If you record monster activity you can forecast threats.”

The elves whispered anxiously.

“Prediction That is near prophecy”

“Understanding monsters That is impossible”

“It is modeling,” Evan said. “Not prophecy. Patterns tell stories.”

Lyriel’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Show me another story.”

Evan drew a third dashboard this one predicting when mana crystals would dim based on earlier observations. He used rough calculations guessing intervals from his brief measurements. When he presented it the crystals dimmed exactly as predicted.

The elves nearly fell over.

One screamed. Another covered his mouth. Lyriel froze as if struck by lightning.

“How did you know the crystal would dim at that moment”

“It was obvious from the earlier cycles.”

“Obvious To who”

“Anyone who tracks data.”

Lyriel stared at him long before speaking. “Human, you are a danger to the unknown or a gift the world has waited for.”

Evan exhaled. “I just build dashboards.”

“That word again,” an elf whispered. “Dash board. What power does such a board hold”

Evan held up the bark sheets. “These are dashboards. But imagine them cleaner more detailed more accurate. Imagine if you had dashboards for every spell every magic tree every monster.”

The elves trembled.

Lyriel steadied herself and said in a low voice, “If your dashboards can reveal the truths of magic you will reshape the kingdom. But there will be those who fear this clarity. Not all elves want truth.”

Evan nodded slowly. “That is normal in my world too.”

Lyriel took a deep breath. “Then let this be the beginning. Today you create the first mana dashboard. Tomorrow we track spell performance. And soon perhaps the world will understand magic as you do.”

Evan looked at the bark sheets covered with crude hand drawn graphs. It was the most primitive dashboard he had ever built but also the most important.

For the first time in this strange world he felt something familiar. A challenge a dataset waiting to be uncovered a system asking to be structured.

He smiled faintly. “Let us build something great.”

The elves watched him with awe and fear.
They did not know it yet but the dashboards he built today would one day turn into the backbone of a global Data Empire.