Lee had expertise in different sciences and 24th-century tech due to learning machines that could transfer an expert's knowledge.

He had the latest high-tech weapons. He had acquired the latest protective equipment. He was sixteen and got his great-grandfather's A.I., Anna, to find him a planet that had magic. His A.I. hacked a portal to take him there. He might have bitten off more than he could chew.

The planet Anna found was called Trace or similar in the local language. The language was not one of the known languages and dialects. There were no electromagnetic transmissions, but Anna had recorded groups and individuals flying without apparatus and the civilization appeared fairly advanced with fairly large cities and vibrant trade. Tiny surveillance drones had noticed strange phenomena all over the planet. Individuals appeared to make things happen when using strange words and weird arm movements. It appeared to be magic. Thus begins the story of the Lee's travel on the planet, Trace, as the Outlier Mage.

About the series: Lee felt like he spent his whole life in training. He wanted to experience life on his own—without parental influence. He explained to his father, his grandfather, and even his great-grandfather that he wanted to have exciting adventures like they talked about at family gatherings. He wanted to pioneer an unexplored planet like his grandfathers had done. He had the training and had accumulated the best equipment over the last two years. He could never get permission before, but now he was legally an adult, and they couldn't stop him—especially if they didn't know about it. Lee would never have found this civilization on his own. The world in question had only been found because of Anna (his great-grandfather's A.I. was getting bored with Lux). Lee was considered brilliant and that intrigued the A.I., Anna.

Lee wanted a world without the technology that would give him all the advantages of a simpler world. He could now live thousands of years with the new nanites unless he was killed by violence. He could portal to hundreds of worlds all over this galactic arm. Those worlds became familiar, and he functioned well with his escorts. He could speak over fifty different Earth and alien languages. He could talk with his synthetic companion, Anna, who manifested as a cougar, through his subdural communicator. He wanted to experience a world with magic, and Anna may have found one. He didn't speak the language and wanted to experience reality without everyone equal to him in technology. Lee hoped his training would compensate for his lack of life experience.