Gladesbale Grove Book 1 - Chapters 31,32,33,34,35 (Patreon)

Chapter 31

The Final Boss

Rud blinked, wiping a strip of clay from his face. He spat on the ground, removing what pieces had been shot into his mouth by the rapidly moving pottery wheel. Somewhere in the distance, Sarya laughed. His only understanding of how to turn clay on a wheel was from a movie with a ghost, and that knowledge wasn’t helping. Taz had seen it done before and gave him a few pointers from what he remembered, but it wasn’t helping. The lump of clay on the wheel was still a lump. A jagged lump, as it had cast most of its mass off in various directions to paint the forest a lighter brown shade.

“I’m done,” Rud said, removing himself from the wheel.

A few steps into the forest and he was back at the wheel, a bucket of water and a pile of clay by his side. Kneading the clay, adding water, and tossing it on the wheel were as far as he could get. The moment he worked the foot peddle to get the wheel spinning, the clay went off balance and was thrown around the clearing. Just when he was certain that his hands weren’t suited for the job, he pressed his fingers into the oblong shape of clay and it rose. It took the vague shape of a cylinder for only a moment before slapping him in the face.

“Is the final boss of the grove seriously a hunk of clay?” Rud growled. “You will not defeat me.”

The process went on for hours with small steps toward victory. Rud took breaks by watering the stump forest and checking on Ban, who was burning through her energy at a concerning rate. That redoubled his conviction to sell delicious tea at Barlgore, driving him forward to create his first piece of pottery. It was wet, leaned to one side, and had protuberances sticking out of one side where clods of dirt had hidden in the clay. It was the single most hideous piece of pottery ever viewed by a person, but it could hold tea.

“Success!” Rud shouted, holding it above his head. No one saw the action, but it felt good.

The druid only stopped refining his technique when Taz came to see how he was doing. Fortunately, the dwarf brought five high-quality Arcane Crystal Fragments with him. Perhaps Rud’s efforts would have been better in the mine…

“You could just make them out of wood,” Taz said. “Since you can form wood with magic.”

Rud glared at the dwarf. “This wasn’t my idea.”

“Yet here you are. Caked with mud.”

“This is clay. Not mud. What, you don’t think the mortals would appreciate some pottery? It will look cute beyond anything they could imagine.”

“Yeah, but… wood is easy.”

Rud grumbled, not willing to admit the dwarf was right. A part of him enjoyed the challenge of forming the pottery, while another hated that Taz was right. His skill in shaping wood was far beyond his pottery abilities. Mint tossed a crate at his feet then moved on, going to stoke the campfire for the night. The denizens of the grove were assembling for their nightly feast. Dean lurked from the woods, arriving with Sarya just in time to watch the fire burst into life.

Settling down by the fire, Rud narrowed his gaze at Mint. He realized something important. “The mortals like pottery more than wood vessels, don’t they?”

“Of course,” Mint said, skewering a section of some dead beast and setting it near the fire. “Most are too superstitious to accept wood from a grove. That’s why they never cut into our area.”

“See?” Rud asked, looking at Taz. “Always trust Mint.”

“She could’ve said as much,” Taz said with a shrug. “Instead of sending you on a pottery side-quest.”

Dinner was as delicious as always. Rud spent some time on his pottery skills while the fire still burned. He moved the wheel to his mushroom house, settling it into his storage area to work until he was tired enough to sleep in his new bed. The crate Mint had delivered was filled with large cubes of wax. He knew that glazing pottery was a thing, but dipping them in melted wax might work, too. Or perhaps she wanted him to seal the top with wax. He didn’t know.

Drifting off to sleep was shockingly easy in the small bed. The only problem was the open windows, which let the chilly night’s air inside. Rud’s cloak helped with that, but his toes still got cold.

###

“That almost looks like a pot,” Taz said, giving Rud a brave smile. Perhaps the dwarf had noticed how much effort he was putting into the pottery, and had corrected his way of speaking. Dwarves seemed like people that got straight to the point. But Rud was used to that.

“That depends on how far to the left you lean,” Rud said, tilting his head.

“The mortals will find it charming,” Taz said, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand. “I need your eye for the mine. If you don’t mind.”

Rud nodded, agreeing to join the dwarf in the mine. The druid worked on his pottery skills from the morning when he woke until noon. Dean and Sarya gave reports that more mortals were going through the grove, which meant there would be fresh offerings at the tree. When he entered the mine, he saw Taz had reinforced every hallway. Those braces weren’t reinforced with metal, but they would do well enough for now.

“There’s access to the lower levels at the T junction, but I wanted your opinion,” Taz said. They stood in the hall near the dwarf’s bedroom. “We could use this hall to head south, and the other to go north. Might be more work, but it's safer.”

“Why is it safer?” Rud asked.

“If we hit any of the deep places, we want to do it in different spots. Makes it easier to defend when an army of spiders comes flooding through the mine. I’ll use an old dwarven technique for collapsing tunnels, but I think this is safer.”

“I trust your dwarven instincts. As long as it brings you closer to crystals.”

“That’s another thing. I’ll need to have more exploratory tunnels to find more crystals.”

Rud nodded. “The one bright spot is that you have the mining skill. Even if you don’t have the Miner class.”

“Exactly. I’m leveling that skill like my life depends on it. Because Ban’s life depends on it,” Taz said with a chuckle. He fiddled with his beard, nodding to himself. “Sorry about pulling your beard with that pottery stuff. Just seemed like a… like a silly idea at first.”

“I think it's still a silly idea. We’re both out of our depth here. And those mortals from Sparwyn are superstitious to the core.”

Taz laughed, slapping Rud on the back. “You’re right. My people would be happy to come and chop this entire grove down. Well, I’m certain they’d be eaten before they got close enough to do it. But they’d try!”

Rud felt better after the dwarf’s apology, and joked around with the guy for a bit. The druid got too focused on what Mint and Ban said without thinking about why they said it. As the custodian of the grove, he needed to be on top of things. That included understanding the culture of the local mortal population. What few mortals had passed through the grove had shown him they were valuable trading partners.

Rud left the mine when it was polite, reforming his tea garden to become something closer to a tea farm. He stretched the fence out, adding more area for him to plant. The Druidic Attunement ability allowed him to tone the manage usage down, resulting in a constant flow of work that was never stifled by the need for more mana. The area went from a ten plant capacity to a fifty plant capacity, following the curve of the forest and mostly blending in with the scene.

The squirrel army sprung into action, racing along the bank of the stream to find more tea plants. Rud wanted to expand his offerings of tea, but starting with something solid, like a sweet citrus tea, was a power move. The critters helped him source those plants, gaining piles of nuts in return before scampering back into the forest. Rud splashed double-enchanted water on the plants and watched them grow. It didn’t fill his entire farm, but it was a start. He collected more leaves and paused with them in his bag.

“Mint, could you get me another stove?” Rud asked.

She didn’t respond, but he assumed she heard the request. Rud stuck with the theme of mushroom houses and grew one of the delicious mushrooms to a respectable size. He had considered how he was drying the leaves and realized that his hot house was doing most of the work. If this was as profitable as Mint made it out to be, he wanted to work on his scale of production. He smoothed the interior of the new mushroom building out, leaving the area bare aside from a series of tall shelves. He would need a ladder to access those top layers.

A wood-burning stove appeared sometime between the drying building’s construction and its completion. Rud lugged the thing inside, sending the exhaust tube through the ceiling and sealing it away with his Lacquer spell. He got a fire going and spread his newly harvested tea leaves out on those shelves. The tea plants seemed willing to create an abundance of delicious leaves if he fed them enough water. They also displayed no desire to grow larger than they were, making them the perfect plant for collecting tea.

By the day’s end, Rud was producing pottery that looked more like pottery. He completed the first one before dinner started and etched ‘Gladesbale Grove Reserve’ on the front with a stick. The next morning, he was loading the mysterious kiln up with vessels and lids. Rud didn’t even ruin the first batch, and Taz helped him melt the wax down so they could seal the pots.

“Just do this,” Taz said, holding one piece of pottery over the pot of hot wax. He dipped it in, swirling the wax around the inside before dumping it out. “That way, they can see the exterior in all its glory.”

After dipping the pots and letting them dry, Taz helped him fill each one with whole tea leaves and seal the top with a lid and wax. The resulting product was messy. To Rud’s eye it had a charming aesthetic, but he didn’t know if it would pass the mortal sniff test.

“Go figure. They were up to something,” Taz said, gesturing to Dean and Mint as they approached.

“Are you prepared to visit the mortal town?” Dean asked.

“Do we have enough daylight left?” Rud asked, bobbing his head to catch sight of the sun. It was about noon.

“We do. Mint, Sarya, and I have cleared a path,” Dean said, bowing his head toward the guardian. “We can make the run in two hours now.”

“How does that work?”

“Climb on,” Dean said, laying so that Rud could climb aboard.

“Okay,” Rud said, stuffing the last of the tea in his bag. He grabbed his staff, stuffing it between his back and the backpack so it wouldn’t tumble away as they sprinted across the countryside. “Guess I’m going to see the mortals!”

Rud grabbed fistfuls of fur, pressing himself against Dean’s back. The wolf rose, nodding to Mint once again. In an instant they were off, dashing at an absurd speed. The druid knew better than to lift his head from the wolf’s back. At this speed, the wind was as likely to knock him loose as the constant jumping and sprinting across the landscape. He caught flashes of the things that went by in those two hours. At one point, Dean jumped over a river. He dodged a group of monsters that threw rocks and wooden spears. There was even a brief tussle with a larger monster that Rud couldn’t build the courage to look at.

“There it is,” Dean said, not even panting.

They had stopped running and were now walking down a dirt road. The landscape was sparse. Small saplings rose from the grassy areas near the road, interspersed with larger trees that needed some druidic attention. The druid pushed down the desire to care for the plants, locking his eyes on the road ahead. In the distance, he saw a wooden wall that was pointed at the top. At this distance he could see dark figures standing on that wall, looking down at the road. A bell rang long before they reached the gate.

Rud held his special staff high above him, waving it even as a group of people wearing armor and waggling weapons at them approached.

“I am Rud! Keeper of the Gladesbale Grove!” he shouted, holding his arms wide. When Dean growled, the druid bonked him on the head.

The group shared a confused look. The soldier in front spoke up first. “No, you’re not. The keeper doesn’t ride a wolf.”

“I do now!” Rud proclaimed. “Behold. His name is Dean!”

“If you’re the keeper, why have you left the grove? Don’t you need to… keep it?” the same soldier asked.

“I come to sell tea.”

A ripple of whispers rolled through the group. Rud caught pieces of their hushed conversation. They had heard of his tea. A booming laugh erupted from the rear of the group. Mira pushed her way through, beaming up at the druid.

“Fancy mount you got there,” she said, approaching and waving up at Rud.

“His name is Dean, and he is fast.”

“Most folks in town will not want a dire wolf in town, Rud,” Mira said.

“He is a guardian of the grove,” Rud said, raising an eyebrow. “Surely you wouldn't deny a guardian respite in your humble town.”

“Come on,” Mira waved. “I’ll show you around.”

“Commander…” one soldier said.

“Deny the keeper entry to our town at your peril, Parn,” Mira said. “I promise the other guardian of the grove is much bigger.”

That was enough to give Rud entry into the town. Dean didn’t want to come in, but Rud forced him to come along. People scattered when they saw the wolf but they had to get used to it. There were a few things the druid wanted to get done while in the mortal town, and one of them involved a saddle for the wolf. The tea wasn’t a pretense, though. Gladesbale needed the mortals to trade with them if they wanted to keep Ban alive.

“This isn’t much compared to the grove,” Mira said, gesturing at the town.

She wasn’t lying, either. The paths were made from dirt—mud, really—and the houses were all made of wood. Their construction was shoddy, and everyone within the town looked downright dirty. But Rud spotted businesses lining the streets here and there. Those streets were winding things, snaking their way in random paths through crowded buildings.

“Just be ready for them to go crazy when they realize who you are,” Mira said, shaking her head. “I’ve been too busy with the reconstruction effort to do much of anything.”

“The town looks… Well, it doesn’t look damaged.”

“Hmmm. That’s one way to put it. So why are you here?”

“I want to sell tea,” Rud said, producing his hand-made pot of tea from his bag.

“Tea from the grove?” Mira asked, laughing. “Seriously? You’re doing exports, now?”

“I need to buy a saddle for Dean,” Rud said, looking back at the wolf. Dean was trying to look as small as possible, but was nervous. His slouched haunches made him look like a hungry wolf.

“Well, let’s get you sorted.”

Mira knew everyone in the town. There were likely a thousand people living here, all spread out over rolling hills and crammed into crappy buildings. A local dealer of herbs almost crapped his pants when Dean tried to get inside his building, but he bought the entire lot of tea when he learned it was from the grove. Sure enough, the handmade pottery was one of the biggest selling points.

“How much money is this?” Rud asked, jangling a sack of coins.

“A lot. Let’s get a saddle fitted for the dire wolf.”

“My name is Dean,” the wolf growled.

The group approached an area with a wide paddock and stables. There was a nearby storefront that claimed it belonged to a leatherworker. Rud wasn’t sure what kind of mounted beasts he expected, but there were no mules or ponies. There were giant flightless birds, horse-lizard hybrids, and even insect-like critters. The druid burned most of his money there. After the leatherworker calmed down at the sight of a dire wolf, he measured Dean and committed to a rush job on the saddle. It was fortunate that the man was familiar with making saddles that fit a canine’s frame. It was just the scale that was different.

The saddle drained half the funds, and twenty low-quality crystals drained the other half. Mira thought it was amusing enough that Rud wanted to be rid of the strange mortal money, which came in coins of various shades.

“This was easier than expected,” Rud said.

Mira watched with amusement as a small human child approached the group and bowed. She held a crown of leaves, woven together with sticks and sized perfectly for Dean’s head. He bowed low enough, nose touching the muddy road, for her to place it on his head. The girl scampered off before Rud could say anything, sending both him and Mira into a fit of the giggles.

“Told you it wouldn’t take long.”

Chapter 32

Visiting Town

Rud had fun hanging around the mortal town. Especially after the people there warmed up to him. It didn’t take long for someone from Sparwyn to accept Dean as a guardian, rather than the dire wolf he was. That attention came with some undesirable consequences, though. Mira led the way down one street, heading to the southern wall to catch sight of the sea in the distance when they were approached by a group. The man who led the group was massive, at least a head taller than Mira. And he wore intimidating armor in the shade of night.

Despite his appearance and scarred face, he wore a gentle smile.

“The Keeper of Gladesbale Grove arrives in my town, and I’m not informed? Commander Mira?” the man asked.

“Lord Feather,” Mira said, bowing. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Feather? Are you an adventurer?” Rud asked.

The man pointed at Rud and smiled, chuckling to himself. “He’s a quick one. You can call me Peter, if you like.”

Rud turned to Dean and nodded. “That’s an Earth name,” he whispered.

“We’re excited about this new partnership, keeper. Especially the aid you provided during the last monster wave.”

“Imagine if Dean had been there,” Rud said, patting the dire wolf on the side. “You guys have nothing to worry about now.”

“Oh? Is it Gladesbale Grove’s intention to protect the mortals?” Peter asked.

“That’s not our job, but if you guys need help we’re more than happy to provide it. Within reason.”

“Hmm. Well, it was nice to meet you. But I have business to attend to,” Peter said, performing the sign of respect and bowing.

Rud, Mira, and Dean watched as the guy walked away. There was something off about him that the druid couldn’t place his finger on. After a moment, he decided it was the same foreknowledge that both Mint and Ban displayed. A kind of coy superiority that was undeniable.

“Shall I bite his head off?” Dean asked.

“Not just yet,” Rud said.

“What?” Mira asked.

“Nothing. Let’s see this ocean.”

The area south of Barlgore was unremarkable until the coastline. Rud could see that coast from the battlements of the wooden walls, but only just. There was a thin strip of beach where a dock had been built. Ships were visible bobbing in the waves, just distant enough that they looked like specks on the horizon. That was the landing area the people from Sparwyn used to establish themselves on the continent. Rud suspected the dwarves had used a similar port. Instead of settling near the coast, they pushed inland to gain access to the mountains. How that worked was beyond him, and the only dwarf he knew didn’t seem willing to talk about it.

“Can I expect you in town more often?” Mira asked.

Rud looked around, wincing at the sight. He didn’t want to spend more time in this town. His honest reaction to that question was ‘absolutely not, you can keep your mudhole to yourself.’

“Absolutely. Especially since I made a fortune selling tea.”

“I’m not sure if I’d call that a fortune… but I get your point.”

This went about as well as Rud could have hoped. It was the proper first contact with the mortals near the grove. They had accepted him as the keeper, and even allowed a giant wolf in their town. But the longer the druid spent away from the grove, the worse he felt. Like the mortals entering the grove, he was missing something he needed. Some fundamental connection bound him to the place, ensuring he could never leave for long enough. The power he drew from Ban came at a cost and that was something he understood from the start. From the moment Mint presented him with the contract, he knew.

“I need to return to the grove,” Rud said, feeling that pressure growing by the moment. “But I’ll be back for the saddle.”

“Expect more adventurers. Especially after Barrow and his team return. I assume they made it through safely.”

“They did. Dean helped me escort them, so there were no problems.”

“Good. Take care of yourself, Rud.”

“Yup,” Rud said, mounting Dean. “Watch this!”

Instead of finding a gate, Dean just jumped over the wall and dashed away. Rud thought he heard Mira shout after them, but the whipping wind was too much. The crystals he collected would only equal around five high-quality crystals from the mine, but more stopgap measures were needed. Instead of relying on one source of fragments, the druid would focus on a bunch of methods. And the Energy Nodules expansion should go a long way to help with that. If Ban would stop making random buildings every other day.

Dean made quick work of the ride back home. They arrived in the late afternoon, and Rud made sure to express his appreciation for the ride.

“Hopefully you don’t mind being my pony,” Rud said, chuckling as he scratched behind Dean’s ear.

“I’m getting used to it. Serving the grove has given me purpose.” Dean growled as Rud scratched. He started kicking a leg when the druid found the right spot. “To follow a powerful wolf like Mint is the dream of all who aspire to become Sacred Beasts.”

Rud let Dean run off to do whatever wolf stuff he had to do and found Taz working in the mine. He accepted the Aspect of Gug and lent a hand with some mining. He retold the story of visiting the town. While the dwarf listened attentively, he had some comments about ‘human towns.’

“Dirty places,” Taz said, swinging his pick and releasing a large chunk of stone from the wall. “Build your town in the mud, and you’ll cover yourself in dirt.”

“As opposed to a clean mine?” Rud asked, coughing as he inhaled powdered rock.

“More rock than dirt means you don’t get dirty!” Taz proclaimed, dusting his hands off. That just released more particulated stone into the air. “But at least they bought your tea. Might be a novelty for now, but hit that vein for all its worth.”

The pair worked on a new tunnel until the chill flooding into the area denoted night falling outside. They called it a day and sat down to have dinner with the group. Rud had a mouthful of food when a familiar voice filled the clearing.

“That took longer than expected,” Ban said, her voice lilting. “Could I have another fragment, Rud?”

The druid sprung up, stumbling over to the tree to shove a high-quality fragment into her bark. She shot from ten percent to twenty in an instant. A wave of relief spread throughout the tree. Rud remained by her side, making sure she didn’t need to be topped off any further.

“You said you were only going to do the nodules expansion,” Rud said, crossing his arms.

“I knew you would yell at me if I stopped to ask,” Ban said. “Once the Energy Nodules expansion works correctly, it won’t be a problem.”

“I’ll take your word for it, you slippery tree.”

“I see we gained a new member since I went down,” Ban said. Her senses spread over Dean. “What a powerful ally.”

“I am honored,” Dean said from the fire, bowing his head at the tree.

“Rud, go to the new building while I discuss things with Mint,” Ban said.

Rud rubbed his hands together, finding the nearest bush. Taz followed closely after him and they both appeared at the foot of a stone tower. It rose high above the trees, sloping slightly inward as it climbed. The druid stood there for a moment, taking the sight in. Only when the dwarf dashed to be the first to the top did he move, crowding into the tower and climbing the stairs. And there were a lot of stairs. The top of the tower was like a lighthouse, providing a view of the nearby forest. No tree was large enough to hamper his view, but they were too distant to spot the Sacred Tree. Especially in the dark.

“What’s the point of this building?” Taz asked.

“It lets us see events. Monster waves, weather, magical anomalies. Stuff like that.”

The top of the tower was a wide platform with a sloped roof above. A railing bordered the edge, preventing anyone from pitching over the side. A small idol glowed in the darkness, radiating the power of another spirit. Rud approached the idol and placed his hand on it. A message appeared.

[Aspect of Bent attained!]

Your Grove Custodian subclass has reacted to an effigy of Bent, the stag spirit.

The Stag Sacred Spirit has lent you some of their power. If you stray too far from the idol that granted you this power, it will dissipate.

It took a moment for Rud to notice anything different. He blinked a few times, thinking that the afterimage of the firelight had lingered in his vision. But it hadn’t. Glowing shapes moved on the horizon, some twisting and some remaining where they were. The druid focused on those spots, nearly falling over when his vision zoomed on a cluster of red shapes. The longer he stared, the more he understood about the cluster. It was a dungeon. Far in the distance. The longer he focused, the more information he felt flood into his mind.

“This is trippy,” Rud said, squinting to get a better view.

A moment later, it felt as though someone plucked his eyeballs from his head, and placed them hovering above the scene. He saw a group of bear monsters lingering outside of a cave. Most were sleeping, but some were prowling around the area. Moments later, his vision was sent back into his head and a message popped up.

[Skill Gain!]

You’ve performed enough actions in an Observatory blessed by Bent to earn the Farseeing skill! The Farseeing skill has been attached to your Grove Custodian subclass.

“New skill!” Rud shouted.

“Which one?” Taz asked, holding Rud steady where he stood.

“Farseeing. I can see. Really far.”

“That sounds useful… and self explanatory. So is that a skill or the tower?”

“Both, I think,” Rud said, focusing on another spot to the north. The impression he got from the mix of colors was one of turbulent magic.

Rud’s vision zoomed like it had done before and before long he was viewing a rocky section of mountain from above. At first, he couldn’t tell what was happening. But a light given form raced over the area, slamming into the mountain and causing a minor explosion. This was a concentration of magic that shouldn’t have been there. He zoomed out and refocused on where he thought the Sacred Tree was. With tears in his eyes from the strain, he watched as Mint talked with Ban. He couldn’t hear what they said, but he could see them.

“This is great,” Rud said. “We can keep track of the monsters from here. Looks like I have three… maybe four dungeons in sight.”

“That’s a powerful tool to have. What’s the range?”

“Dunno. Maybe a few miles. Maybe ten. Hard to say.”

“What's a mile?”

“Unit of distance. Call it… four-thousand dwarf-paces per mile.”

“Might as well measure it in squirrels…”

Rud was too enamored with his new ability to abandon the tower. Long after Taz was bored, he kept looking around the area. While he could teleport anywhere within the grove, he couldn’t observe the places before he teleported. And the tower gave him access to an area around the grove. After some searching, he found a camp left by Barrow and his adventuring companions to the west. He watched the logging camp to the east, and even the river to the southeast.

“So, was it worth it?” Ban asked, giggling into Rud’s mind.

“Oh, yeah. This thing is awesome,” Rud said, addicted to the sensation of his sight leaving his body.

“Each level in the skill will give you more distance. You’ll be spotting things all over the continent in time,” Ban said. “You should be able to see the entire Hornfen region by Level 10.”

“Neat. This sure beats sending the wolves to check dungeons out.”

“It consumes less energy than the smelter and the mine. I thought you would like it. Perhaps some memories of that dream will come back.”

Rud smiled to himself. “You didn’t have to do this for me.”

“You’ve been an amazing custodian so far. It would be foolish not to give you a treat.”

“Not to mention how useful it is. Holy crap, I can see so far. I want people to call me Farseer Rud from now on.”

Ban giggled again. Going under to create expansions took a lot out of her. He was happy that she was back to her old self so quickly. The druid imagined the Energy Nodules helped with that, but it might have just been a hope. When it got too late, Mint brought a bed for Rud to sleep in. She had predicted that he would want to stay within the tower. While it seemed unhealthy to separate himself from the other members of the grove, this new feature was too helpful not to explore. Half-way up the tower, there was a floor without windows. He settled down there for the night.

More mortals moved through the grove the next morning. Rud watched from above as a group walked over the living path. This gaggle of adventurers seemed greener than the last, moving in a tight group with weapons drawn. The druid shook his head, laughing to himself as they jumped at every shadow. A pack of monsters moved overland somewhere to the south, their bald humanoid heads reflecting the light of the sun. He only knew they were monsters and not sapient things thanks to the glow given by the watchtower.

Rud made a note of those movements and left the tower. He had eaten a breakfast of nuts and mushrooms, reminding him of when he first arrived in the grove. The grove of giant tea plants was flourishing, with the citrus-flavored ones growing slightly higher than the sweet ones. His Plant Care skill helped him look them over, ensuring that each one was doing great. And the building he made for drying the leaves was doing even better, creating entire shelves filled with the cut tea leaves all ready for packaging. For now, he stored them in a bin to catch up with Taz.

“Finally left your fancy tower?” the dwarf asked, tossing Rud a pick. “Come to put in the hard hours, not the lazy hours?”

“Come on. The tower is awesome.”

“The tower is amazing. We all love the tower. Let’s chip some stone.”

Just as Taz had claimed, he was working on a new downward staircase heading south. It was situated at the end of the long hallway near the dwarf’s bedroom, and was already impressively long. Rud watched, learning how to carve rough stairs in the rock as they worked. The technique wasn’t great, leaving uneven stairs that sometimes crumbled underfoot. But the stairs served their purpose, giving access to a lower level of the mine.

Rud helped create more support beams, although Taz hadn’t gone through his old stock. No matter how much the druid chipped away at the rocks his Mining skill wouldn’t budge. Along the way to the bottom floor of the southern wing of the mine, the pair had run across some deep seams. Taz’s Prospector class sang when they found the ore, giving him the sense that they would run deep. Littered inside of those seams were crystal fragments, some of which were glittering on the surface.

“Rich veins,” Taz said, nodding as he rubbed his hand against the wall. “I’m thinking deeper is better in this area. But we need as many exploratory tunnels as we can knock out.”

No matter how much Rud wanted the forest to provide for itself, he needed to push the mine deeper. Taz and his dwarven tendencies moved in that direction, so it was fine.

Offerings, mining, and tea sales were their only sources of fragments. As Rud worked in the mine, he thought about more ways to keep Ban alive. He understood that adventurers worked for-hire or were otherwise dispatched by local governments. The druid’s thoughts went back to Barrow and the way that man cleared the fire dungeon with the two elves.

Why not hire adventurers to take out dungeons? The dungeons were full to bursting with fragments and contained many other treasures within. Now that Rud had his foot in the door of the mortal town, it would be easy enough to approach them. Easier still to throw his weight around as the ‘keeper.’ 

Rud threw the idea around with Taz for a while. The dwarf shared what he knew about them. The most interesting thing was that they grew in power as time pressed on. If a dungeon was left unmanaged for too long, it would grow into a dangerous nexus of monsters. The Druid expected his ability to sense those things to increase as he leveled his Farseeing skill.

“Perhaps I should deliver some portents of doom. My saddle should be ready, anyway.”

“Sneaky little druid. How about you help me move this gravel before you go scaring the beard off of the mortals.”

Chapter 33

Bird Recruitment

Rud sat atop Dean, overlooking the wooden city below. After spending more of the morning taking care of wayward adventurers than he would have liked, the druid had approached Barlgore with his warnings. At the crest of a hill, he hesitated. The people below looked small, scurrying around the streets of the winding city as though they had no designation. Like an ant pile that had been stirred up, sending them scattering this way and that. Almost as though they were collectively searching for the disturbance.

“Are we going to stand here all day?” Dean asked.

Rud withdrew a single sheet of paper from his bag. It contained his scribbled notes about monster movements, and the locations of dungeons. Numbers, relative strength, and monster types were all written in poor handwriting. He sat on the edge of altruism and the need to protect his Sacred Tree.

“Do you think the mortals would buy this information?” Rud asked, tucking the paper into his coat.

“I understand nothing about the mortal world.”

“Let’s go.”

Dean jumped down the cliff, nearly rendering Rud unable to bear children. He dashed down the dirt road, slowing only when the pair approached the defended walls. The guards bowed their heads this time, performing the sign of respect before allowing them entry. They made a clean path through the town, which wasn’t difficult. Citizens darted in either direction, avoiding them not out of fear but respect. Word had gotten around about the ‘keeper’ and his wolf mount, allowing them easy access to the business that he had commissioned to build the saddle.

“What do you think?” Rud asked, turning to Dean and smiling.

Dean growled at the amalgam of leather, wood, and metal. “It looks uncomfortable.”

But it was a saddle perfectly sized for the massive dire wolf. Dean rested himself on the ground while the artisan helped Rud secure the saddle. When the creator of the saddle held his hand out for a tip at the end, the druid placed a single mushroom in his hand and winked.

Rud mounted the wolf, finding that he could do so even without Dean laying on the ground. He placed his feet in the stirrups, which were perfectly sized for his height, and sighed. The seat was plush. While it didn’t have reins for him to hold, there was a leather horn that allowed him to stay stable.

“This is less obnoxious than I expected,” Dean said. “I can barely feel you.”

“That’s quality craftsmanship for ya,” Rud said. “Here’s the fork in our road, Dean. Should we go see Lord Feather? Think he’ll buy my information?”

Dean growled at some passing children. “Maybe.”

Feather wasn’t a hard guy to find. Rud decided that the man was always walking through town with a few goons following close behind. Dean ran up on him, causing the group to wheel around in surprise. They released yelps of surprise, but soon bowed their respects.

“An unexpected visit,” Feather said, having to look up to meet Rud’s eyes. “Can I help you?”

Rud produced the paper from his coat and waved it in the air. “I have information to sell.”

“What was all that about not buying or selling anything? Dean asked. To the mortals, it sounded like an angry dire wolf growling.

Feather shared a look with his attendants, waving them away after a moment. “What kind of information?”

Rud explained what was on the sheet. Lord Feather’s subtle shift of facial expression passed the druid’s notice, but not Dean.

“He wants the information,” Dean said, sounding slightly surprised. “Mortals care about such things? It makes sense, I suppose.”

Feather looked at Dean with concern, eyes darting between the wolf and Rud. He cleared his throat. “That would be… helpful to our cause. You’re looking to sell it?”

“I don’t have a need for mortal money. Just high-quality crystal fragments.”

Feather stood there, thinking for a moment. “Come. We’ll discuss this somewhere private.”

The Lord of Barlgore led Rud through the streets. The druid had to dismount from the wolf before he could enter a well-maintained wooden building. Despite the lord’s objections, Dean squeezed through the narrow passage, catching the saddle a few times before standing in the sparsely decorated interior. Feather cleared his throat, gesturing for Rud to have a seat on a comfortable armchair. A fire was crackling in a red brick fireplace, and there was a familiar scent in the air.

“Are you a crafter, Keeper Rud?” Feather asked, preparing some tea.

“Yep. Kinda. Why?”

“That’s the primary use for those fragments,” Feather said, winking up at the druid. He handed a cup of tea over. “Although it would seem your skill in cultivating empowering tea is more impressive than anything you could craft.”

“Ah! You’re drinking my tea!”

Feather smiled again, shaking his head at the druid’s surprise. “My people aren’t fond of tea. You’ll see us drinking ale more than anything else. But your tea has an empowering effect I cannot get enough of.”

Rud sipped his tea politely, his toes lightly brushing the floor from his chair. He hoped Feather hadn’t lured him here to get more tea. More tea was coming, the mortals just had to be patient.

“Glad you like it.”

“We have a local mine that produces fragments. It’s a decent operation, though nothing compared to the dwarves. How did you scout those dungeons? Was it the wolf?”

“Yep. Dean is really fast.”

“I did nothing of the sort,” Dean growled.

“A single report is excellent. I just fear it's not the fortune you’re seeking. Could you provide regular reports?”

“Oh, yeah. I can send you daily reports,” Rud said. He cleared his throat, forgetting he was trying to play hardball. “So long as the fragments are good.”

“Let me see what you have written,” Feather said, holding his hand out. He noticed how Rud hesitated and nodded. He withdrew five fragments from nowhere and pushed them across the table. “I’m a man of my word.”

Rud handed the paper over, scooping the fragments into his backpack. Feather read over the report. It even included information about the local weather, which would be sunny for another few days. That part of farseeing was still difficult.

“This is extremely detailed,” Feather said. “You could provide a daily report of this detail?”

Rud thought about what he had to do to generate the report. He smiled to himself as fond memories of his first office job came back. He was so clueless that it was a miracle he did anything right. In his mid-forties, he was an expert at generating fluffy reports that made internal and external stakeholders blush. The report in Feather’s hands took about half an hour to make. That included time the druid had spent looking at frogs in the marsh, observing a badger he had never seen, and watching Taz scratch his butt for exactly five minutes without stopping.

The most valuable thing Rud had learned on Earth was setting expectations. One should never claim that any task given to them would be easy. Especially when the asker was in the dark. If a task would take a day to complete, one should always double the time, then add another day for good measure. When the task was done, that person should then finish it in the doubled time and claim to have worked their butt off.

“That might be too taxing on my spiritual powers,” Rud said, allowing his shoulders to slump. “I can try to get you a report every three days.”

“I think we can come to an agreement on that.” Feather placed the paper on the table, relaxing in his seat to sip his tea. “With that out of the way, I’ll say that we have no good way to track the monsters or the dungeons. When we find a dungeon, it's always a surprise. Those surprises lead to losses. Especially when a dungeon has been festering for too long.”

“Did you play this guy?” Dean asked. He sounded more surprised than he should have. “He just told you the mortals are dying.”

Rud cleared his throat. “We can ensure you won’t be surprised again.”

“We can spare five fragments for each report. But you know I need to confirm the contents of this one.” Feather gestured to the report on the table before taking a sip of tea.

“Of course.”

“One last condition. Please come to me first when you bring more tea.”

Feather had more to say about his town. Rud found that a vulnerable side of the leader was unexpected. But the position of lord was given to him as a jab for some past slight against Sparwyn. Like Taz’s journey away from the mountains, this was penance for a past transgression. It was a colony expected to fail. The Hornfen Region was a wild place brimming with magical energy. That magic caused the eruption of dungeons that plagued the area. The continent of Aiswyn wasn’t much better, and had been a no-go zone on maps for a while. But Lord Feather was making it work.

“And a grove pops up. Right near my town,” Feather said with a shrug. “You can imagine my surprise, excitement, and fear. But here we are. Drinking tea and talking amiably.”

“Is there a reason to fear the groves?”

“Only if another grove like Aegael’s pops up.”

Rud left that where he was. He had only seen Aegael, the Fire Aspect, once. But he took the spirit’s aspect to do his smelting and didn’t want to gain a poor impression of the spirit. They chatted briefly, but the druid was feeling the effects of the mortal world. Dean seemed to be drooping on the spot, ready to collapse into a deep sleep at any moment. He excused himself from the meeting, claiming grove business before heading outside.

Dean squeezed himself through the door, yawning and stretching out on the dirt road. “That was eventful,” the wolf said.

Rud stretched, then assumed his position on the saddle. “More fragments. That’s big.”

Dean trotted down the dirt roads, leaving without dramatics this time. They passed through the western gate without seeing Mira. Rud wasn’t sure how they would find her, but couldn’t linger in the mortal world for much longer. He felt himself waning by the moment. The wolf kicked off the moment they cleared the gate, racing down the road at full speed. The druid held onto the horn. If that guy who made the saddle had online reviews, he would get five-stars. The comfort was one thing, but the way it moved on Dean’s back made it so that each jump didn’t come with a butt-breaking shock. 

The duo entered the grove’s boundary, passing through a thicket to arrive at the Sacred Tree. Rud removed the saddle from Dean, dragging it into his storage area to keep it out of the elements. Ban giggled at them, the way she often did, but kept whatever comment she had to herself.

“May I leave?” the wolf asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Rud said. “We’re done. Thanks for the help, Dean.”

“My pleasure.”

Of the things that needed to be sorted in the grove, the traveling adventurers were the most important. Some had filtered onto the road the day before, and were working their way through the various rest stops. Barrow’s team hadn’t returned, but Rud saw enough evidence of their travel to assume they were safe. Rud teleported to the tower and took stock of the adventurers in the grove.

The first group had blown past the Sacred Tree and were already exiting on the western side. Two more groups had entered, traveling together down that long road. Rud checked the magical energies in the sky. Clouds of glowing blue told him the current weather, and messages appeared to predict upcoming weather. It predicted it with low confidence, but it was better than nothing. No monster movement. No new dungeons within the grove. At least there was that.

A small bird landed on the railing to the tower, chirping away. Rud was never good with birds back on Earth. This one was small with a fat-looking belly and a stunted beak. It hopped on the spot as though trying to get his attention.

“Hey, buddy,” Rud said, swapping on his Clear Communication upgrade. “Is Timmy caught in a well?”

“Timmy? No Timmy. Sick! Bird sick!”

“Are you sick?”

“No! Bird sick. Not bird. There!” The bird poked its beak in a direction.

“Oh. You’re serious,” Rud said. He allowed his Farsight skill to take over, driven by the Aspect of Bent. “Fly on over there. I’ll watch you go.”

The bird took off without another peep, soaring through the forest. Rud kept his sight on him, finding the task effortless with his skill. The bird dodged through trees at an absurd speed, landing on a tree branch. His vision assumed the top-down perspective, giving him a view of the area. The bird had landed on a branch, and there was a nest. Rushing from the tower, the druid passed through a bush to arrive at the area. He climbed the tree, his new nimble body moving easily over the branches.

“Oh, hey,” Rud said, poking his head over the next. The same fat little bird was chirping constantly, spouting all kinds of stuff. Within the nest was another bird, sucking in breaths but otherwise motionless.

“Poor thing,” Ban said, speaking into Rud’s mind. “They were preparing to lay eggs.”

“In this weather?” Rud asked, shaking his head.

“For the spring. They prepare in advance.”

Rud scooped the injured bird up, cradling it in his hand. He looked for a way to descend from the tree, but couldn’t find anything. “Meet me near the Sacred Tree. Alright, dad bird?”

“Yes. Tree. Okay.”

Rud used the Thicket Transport upgrade to pass through a dense area of the tree’s branches. He almost tumbled when he appeared near the Sacred Tree, but maintained his balance. He brought the bird into his mushroom house, placing her on a table. There was nothing he knew about taking care of birds, let alone nursing them back to health. He poked at the bird for a moment until the other bird flew into his house, perching on a shelf.

“What’s wrong? Is she okay? Are you qualified!?”

Rud switched off his Clear Communication upgrade, pressing his cheek against the table to get a better look at the bird. He stared at her for a long time, finding nothing. Her wings seemed fine, and there were no visible injuries on her body. The area near her beak was devoid of anything that would indicate poisoning. But her breathing wasn’t improving, although it wasn’t getting worse.

“Any ideas, Ban?” Rud asked.

“Hmmm. Ask the other bird if they traveled from afar.”

Rud switched on Clear Communication, relaying the message.

“Afar? Yes. New here. New nest.”

“They must have nested too close to a source of magic before. If you had the Purge Magic spell you could help her,” Ban said.

“But I don’t.”

“Bring her to me. Nestle her near my root bed. I absorb negative magic through the soil, turning it into energy.”

Rud shrugged. He had no better plan. Scooping the injured bird up, he carried her over to the tree. The other bird swooped at him, screeching something about helping his mate. “I’m working on it, you crazy bird,” the druid grumbled.

Once the bird was placed between two sections of the Sacred Tree, Rud ran off to get some bedding material. He found dry leaves and sticks to pile around the bird. A few minutes between Ban’s roots had the creatures breathing more evenly. The other bird calmed down when he saw the effort was working. He took up a post nearby, tilting his head to angle one eye at his mate.

“This should work,” Ban said with confidence. “I can feel dark energy flowing into my roots.”

“Isn’t that uncomfortable?”

“No. It's delicious.”

A bird getting sick from some random magic outside of the grove was troublesome. “Hey. Mister bird,” Rud said, waving his hands to get the male bird’s attention. “Think you could sniff out other critters that have this problem?”

“Others? Okay. Where?”

“In the grove. Just go find them and tell them to come to the tree.”

“Okay. Yes. Alright. I can. I can do.”

The bird flew off without another word, and Rud appreciated that. The more he pushed his Animal Communication skill, the better things would get for the creatures in the grove. Searching for injured animals—even with the tower—was off the table. There was too much area to cover and not enough time. Before heading to pitch in at the mine, the druid checked on Ban and topped her off. The Energy Nodule Efficiency entry had increased from fifty to seventy-five.

Rud left the Sacred Tree, content with his work for the day. Dealing with the mortals was exhausting. Some light mining was the perfect thing to relax.

Chapter 34

Gems, Mortals, and Owls

Taz had roped Rud into more work in the mine. The druid knew this was an outcome every time he stepped into the mine. He didn’t mind helping the dwarf out, especially with how ambitious he was. The mine was coming along nicely, now holding several branches from that south-facing tunnel near the living area. It was filled with exploratory branches, shooting in straight angles to access veins.

Rud had woken the next morning, checking his tower and writing a report. When he checked, the sick bird had flown away on her own. With that bit of good news, he came to the mine as promised. It wasn’t just a day for striking at rock, but also one where they would smelt what ore they had found. The pair stood in the mine, Rud holding the Aspect of Gug. The vein of copper they had struck was filled with high-quality fragments, and something the druid hadn’t expected.

“Gemstones,” Taz said, holding up a shining green gem the size of a pea. “Now we’re in business.”

“Do mortals care about gems?” Rud asked, resting his pick over his shoulder.

“Oh, yeah. Dwarves love them. We encrust every available object with gems. Chairs, pots, hats… Maybe you should work on a road to the north.”

“I’ll think about it,” Rud lied. South was the next direction that deserved a road.

Taz’s idea of helping with the smelting for the day was bringing the ore to the smelting building. Rud stared at him with a flat look, even as the dwarf walked away from the building. With the crystal fragment situation in a stable place for the first time, the druid had plans to keep a lot of the ingots. But he wouldn’t push Ban to make a blacksmithing building. Once she was done resting, she had to ascend to Rank 1. Only then would he be comfortable seeing her make another expansion.

Rud accepted the Aspect of Aegael and started the smelter. He checked his stock of Fairy Peat, finding it lower than expected. He made a trip to the marsh while the device heated, digging up rectangles of the valuable material and returning them to a clearing. The watchtower had claimed the weather would stay sunny and dry, but he’d need to monitor any changes. With the smelter hot, he got to work.

“Working hard?” Mint asked. She was in her human form, leaning against the wall as she watched the druid work.

Rud looked down from his ladder, shovel in hand. “Living the dream.”

Mint lingered for a long time without saying a word. Rud had started with iron this time, determined to reduce the massive pile in his smelter. There were stacks of bars in the corner, all of which needed to be enchanted with the Imbue Crafted Item spell. Once the furnace was loaded and at the right temperature, he got to work on those. The dizzying effects of being low on mana hit him after the first stack. He cradled his staff and took a seat, allowing the warmth from the smelter to wash over him.

“I’m expecting another dungeon to pop up in the grove,” Mint said. “Think you could wrangle some adventurers?”

Rud looked up, half-asleep. “What? I’ve seen no sign in my tower.”

Mint hummed, looking at the sky outside of the building. “I haven’t been a guardian for long. But I’ve been a sacred beast for quite a few years. I’ve seen the signs.”

“Okay. Do you know where this dungeon is going to pop up?”

“Northwest.”

Rud smiled up at the wolf spirit. She wouldn’t give information unless asked. “How do you know there’s a dungeon coming?”

“You’ll learn to sense the energy of the world. It moves like the wind. And when it collects in one spot for too long, you know the storm is coming.”

That was a good enough explanation. She had nothing else to say, and simply lingered as Rud worked the smelter. By the early afternoon, the druid’s Smelting and Crafting Magic skills were both at Level 4. Both piles of copper and iron ore had been reduced significantly, and each pile of ingots had grown tall. Exporting those ingots was less important than holding onto them. Once they could form the metal into shapes, they would burn through most of them creating supports for the mine. Anything else could go into useful items. New tools were on the druid’s mind more than anything. The human-sized tools were annoying to use, although he dealt with it for now.

Like most things in the grove, Rud assumed that the Blacksmithing skill would bring with it knowledge. He wasn’t the best miner, or the best smelter, but the skill helped. It guided him through the early stages of learning, making it easier to do just about anything. Exhausted from the day, he returned to the Sacred Tree to check on Ban. He was making sure she hadn’t started another expansion, of course.

Rud didn’t expect to see a group of four adventurers praying by the tree. He paused on the forest’s edge, spotting a familiar face in the crowd. The bubbly, red-haired elf Oak was standing with the group. Her head was bowed and the druid could see her mouth moving in prayer. He danced on the forest’s edge, waiting for them to finish. Once they had placed their offerings by the tree, he sauntered over.

“Oak!” Rud said, waving his staff at her. “Where is your sister?”

Oak spun, spotting the druid and rushing over to grab him into a big hug. “Rud! There you are, you tricky little spirit!” She spun him around until they were both dizzy. The other adventurers looked on with puzzled looks. When she finally set him down, he stumbled on the spot. “Oh, you know Elmera. She was too busy with her research to come with me.”

Once Rud was steady enough to see Oak without toppling over, he nodded. “So what are you guys doing?”

“We’re scouting. Like every other adventurer.” Oak laughed, brushing strands of red hair from her face. She seemed more rosy-cheeked today. That last mission they were on was rough.

“I don’t know if you’re looking for more work, but we have a dungeon that’s going to appear in the grove soon enough,” Rud said, smiling nervously.

Oak thought for a moment, tapping her chin for dramatic effect. “Hmmm. How long until it appears?”

“About a day,” Mint said, appearing out of nowhere. She was in her human form. “Think your team can handle it?”

Oak bowed immediately, going completely rigid. “Yes, great spirit. I’m sure they would be honored.”

“Good. Get your butts in Rud’s village and wait for my signal,” Mint said, jabbing her finger back the way the group came. “Same deal as last time.”

Oak bowed a few more times before dashing off to inform her party. They had a look of confusion at first, but a ripple of excitement spread through them. Rud wasn’t too sure about how they would do, but had to trust their professionalism. The group departed after some discussion, heading back to the village near the Sacred Tree.

“Let’s get some food started for them.”

“Go ahead,” Mint said, walking from the clearing. “I have some things to attend to.”

Rud glared after Mint as she walked, but she didn’t care. A custodian’s job was never done. There wasn’t enough time to make something fancy like stew, so he got to work on a staple within the grove. Roasted meat and mushrooms. The druid took the work to his mushroom house, stopping at the mine only to get the meat he needed. He paused in the cold room, listening to the chatter of the bats overhead. How much food did the big folk eat? He had been nibbling on nuts and mushrooms long enough that he couldn’t remember and ended up grabbing the haunch of a wolf. He thought it was a wolf anyway.

Only moments after he started cooking the meat, Mint pressed her eye against a window. Rud could hear her sniffing long before she approached the building.

“Is there some for me?”

“This is for the mortals,” Rud grumbled.

Mint snorted a breath through the window, then scampered off. 

An open fire would have been better to cook the meat. He gave up on roasting the entire leg and cut it into pieces, placing them in a large pan to sear. There was nothing like unseasoned wolf meat… Rud tried to remedy that by adding the potonions and mushrooms to the dish, sprinkling water in when it seemed to burn to the bottom of the pan. He deemed it good enough when the meat was cooked through, if slightly burned. He hoisted the pan and found the nearest bush to step through.

Oak and her adventuring friends were already settled into a few houses in the village. Rud knocked on the door of an occupied one, finding an adventurer answering the door. He ran off to find Oak, returning only a few moments later. The druid hoisted the pan, shuffling through the building into the dining area.

“Foods up,” he said, placing it on the bare wood. “Eat up.”

Oak laughed, watching the druid struggle with the job. “You didn’t have to.”

“Nonsense. I can’t have mortals staying in my grove without food.”

“Would be better with some bread…” one adventurer quipped. He got a swift kick in the shin from Oak.

“Thank you for the hospitality,” Oak said. She clasped her hands together, smelling the dish. “It doesn’t smell bad.”

“It smells good,” another adventurer said, entering the building. She stopped, eyes wide as she bowed a few times.

Rud removed himself from the building before the adventurers fell over themselves to comment on mediocre cooking. He had a feeling they would be more kind than was necessary. The druid’s intent was for the adventurers to have something hot to eat, not to serve them food worthy of praise. He was unsurprised to see Mint roasting meat near the Sacred Tree. Taz, Sarya, and Dean were already assembled.

“We need a common area to eat,” Rud said, wrapping his cloak around himself as he sat by the fire. As always, Mint had fed enough branches to the fire to make it dangerous. That was part of her cooking technique.

“If only someone in the grove could create something like that,” Taz said, flicking his beard to one side. “Hmmm. Do you know anyone like that, Dean?”

“Can’t say I do.”

“How about you, Sarya?”

“Oh! Rud can do it!” Sarya shouted, her wagging tail beating against the ground.

“Woah, maybe we should ask him,” Taz said, turning his head slowly as he locked eyes with Rud. “What do you think, Rud? Can you do it?”

Rud waved the mocking away, too low on energy to put up a fight. Although he was exhausted, he couldn’t stop his mind from imagining the construction in his mind. If he created an extensive building with a large stone fire pit in the center, he could let a big old pot of stew cook. Maybe forever. People had mentioned perpetual soup in the past. With adventurers coming and going without warning, that would be the best option.

“Look, he’s thinking about it,” Taz said, poking Rud with a stick.

“Yeah, that’s a cool idea,” Rud admitted. “Wanna help me gather the stones for a big firepit?”

“Only if we can model it after dwarven aesthetics.”

“What are dwarven aesthetics?” Mint asked.

“Big fires. Stone everywhere. Swords, shields, spears, and so forth on the wall. And more beards than you can shake a tankard at.”

“You’re the only one with a beard,” Dean said.

“Ah. Can’t win ‘em all.”

But Taz had more input for the building. Rud picked up on his intent immediately. There was a tone of homesickness in his voice. When he spoke about the grand halls of his people, he did so while looking off into the falling night around them or deeply into the fire. The dwarves always had a central place to meet, and it always focused on a few things. Beer, fire, meat, and normally fights. Rud wouldn’t allow fights within the grove, but the other things were fine by him.

The pair discussed the elements they could replicate with the tree-based construction and the things they couldn’t. Taz convinced Rud to try lining the inside of the hall with cut stones. The dwarf didn’t have cut stone, or the means to create it. Perhaps that was a long-term plan. But they settled on a single long hall with chairs and tables scattered through the area. After they ate their fill of Mint’s cooking, they scouted an area nearby to create the building. Alongside the road made the most sense, and they found a section that required the least amount of forest destruction.

“We’ll call it Coalbranch Hall… if you don’t mind.” Taz held his hands on his hips, looking over the area proudly. Rud could almost feel the dwarf imagining the hall. “Just feeling strange lately. Grief for my lost home, maybe.”

Rud placed a comforting hand on Taz’s shoulder. “I get it, man.”

“I’m no man,” Taz glowered.

“I get it, dwarf. We can bring some dwarven culture to Gladesbale if it helps you feel better. More a medley than a full recreation, though.”

“That’ll work.”

Taz lingered by the build site. Rud would start working on that tomorrow. Despite his tiredness, the druid wanted to check from the tower before heading to bed. He passed through a nearby bush, arriving at the foot of the tower. He climbed the stairs as quickly as his legs could carry him. After a moment at the top, leaning over the railing to look below, he realized he wasn’t alone. A gentle hoot issued from behind him, causing him to spin around. An owl, brown and gray in color and roughly reaching Rud’s belly button, peered at him with sleepy eyes.

Rud toggled his Clear Communication upgrade. Birds liked the tower. Maybe because it was so high, allowing them to rest while searching the area nearby. “Hello.”

“Greetings,” the owl said, eyes still locked onto Rud.

Rud paused for a moment. There was a subtle difference between an animal talking through the Clear Communication upgrade and one that was on the verge of becoming a Sacred Beast. In both cases, the animal was expressing their thoughts through speech. But the more advanced creatures found it easier to say a single thing, or a single thought. The less advanced ones always babbled on.

“What’s an owl like you doing in a tower like this?” Rud asked, fumbling any sort of meaningful response.

“Observing.”

Rud leaned back over the guardrail, looking out into the forest. He let the Aspect of Bent and his Farseeing ability take over as he observed the grove. His goal was to check in with the various adventuring teams, making sure they hadn’t gotten lost. Everyone was where they should have been, and the monsters weren’t stirring. Night had fallen across the grove without a problem.

“Farsight is a powerful skill to hone,” the owl said.

Rud nearly jumped out of his skin again. He had forgotten the owl was even there. “Yeah… I like it,” he blurted.

“We watch the grove with anticipation,” the owl said. It released one last hoot before flying off into the night. When it went, it went without a sound.

“Nothing like a creepy owl to spice things up.”

Chapter 35

Badgers Are Cool

Rud wasn’t happy that Mint’s predictions came true. He couldn’t see the gathering of the dungeon energies last night, but as he stood by the fire he realized it was true. Mint, Dean, and Sarya had been off before dawn, battling against another series of elemental creatures at the new dungeon entrance. The druid watched the group fight from his tower, already having breakfast. These new dungeon creatures were made of electricity, interlaced with metal and stone holding them together.

“Not much we can do, huh?” Taz asked.

Rud allowed his vision to snap back into his head. “Yeah. Except to organize the adventurers.”

“Is that your job?”

“Anything related to the mortals is my job.”

The reason Taz had followed him into the tower was one of selfish excitement. Before the wolves had even run off to fight against the monsters, the dwarf was clearing a section of the forest away. He had become part of the grove enough to count those trees, which Rud would plant later. With his curiosity about the new dungeon satisfied, the druid departed from his tower. He felt the Aspect of Bent fade as he arrived near the construction site.

“How big is this hall meant to be?” he asked, looking at the swathe Taz had cut.

“Big. Think about an enormous meeting hall, then think of a bigger one.”

This wouldn’t be a building made of a single tree. Rud imagined the structure in his head. He would need to stitch together a few trees to make it work. While he wanted to be upset with the work, the idea was really neat. It was close enough to the village that people could walk down the street to get breakfast. The hall would be central enough to the Sacred Tree that the members of the grove also had easy access.

Rud excused himself from the work site, pointing out the stumps that still needed removal. As expected, Oak and her people were lounging around in the vast yard of the village. He approached, waving awkwardly and guiding his path of the gravel with his staff.

“Hey. So, the dungeon popped up,” Rud said, handing over a sheet of paper. “That’s everything I observed regarding the dungeon.”

“Oh! Thanks,” Oak said, taking the paper. She looked contemplative for a moment, as though her thoughts drifted away from the idea of the dungeon. She snapped out of it after a moment. “I suppose we’re ready. I’m not sure if we’re excited about lightning monsters.”

“We aren’t!” another adventurer shouted. That got a laugh out of the group.

“But we’ll make some decent coin!” put in another.

“Right. Coin,” Oak chuckled nervously. “Thanks, Rud.”

“No problem. Seriously, I did nothing.” Rud turned, leaving the mortals to their mortal contemplations. The dwarven hall was the only thing on his mind now. Although it wasn’t really a dwarven hall. He couldn’t imagine a dwarf building anything out of wood. Unless it was created to be burned.

Taz had made quick work of what few stumps were in his path. He had even marked the general area for the hall with stones, and had piled more stones up off to the side. Clearing the work area was necessary, since it was unlikely that several trees would line up enough for the plan to work. The dwarves might have accepted a crooked building, but Rud wouldn’t. He started by planting seeds and watering them with double-enchanted water. That brought them to the early sapling stage, thanks to his Druidic Infusion upgrade. It took a few hours to get all four trees to the proper stage, even with the Plant Growth spell. Taz complained for most of the duration. He also brought suggestions.

“The entrance should be right here,” Taz said, gesturing with his hands to draw a line between an invisible building and the road. “Connect the road directly with the building. And we can put some traditional dwarven statues outside.”

“What makes a statue traditional?”

“Normally they depict dwarves. But some holds have a favored animal. And other times it comes down to the individual artist. Once a dwarf gets an appreciation for a lovely spider, they can’t get that thought out of their head. That’s all they’ll carve from that day on.”

“You’re doing the carving. What lovely little creature do you like the most.”

Taz let out a long sigh, his eyes fluttering slightly. “Badgers. I adore badgers.”

“Badgers are cool,” Rud agreed. “I think I’m growing partial to wolves.”

“Bah. Badgers are better.”

“Nuh-uh.”

With all four trees grown well enough, Rud started the shaping process. That’s when he realized that four trees wasn’t enough, and he expanded out to eight. This ate a few more hours of the day, but Taz insisted that it was right. Whatever that meant. This wasn’t the druid’s first time merging two trees together, but it was his first time attempting such a massive building. It wasn’t that the building was tall. Such a feat might be impossible for his current skill level. But the floor plan was a rambling thing that stretched too far in any direction.

###

Taz’s longhouse idea was a bit of a pain to work on. Rud wouldn’t have considered such a massive gathering space if the dwarf’s eyes didn’t twinkle when they looked upon the construction site. There were no absurd techniques that went into the building, though. The druid found it easy enough to weave the eight massive trees together. He had marked the weird owl as ‘strange but within the parameters of the grove’ in his mind the night before and threw himself into this new project. The floors had all joined and most of the walls were complete. His only challenge now came from the chimney-like thing above the massive fire pit.

Lacquer would prevent the interior of the structure from burning outright, but Rud wasn’t confident that it was enough. Taz had already outlined the size of the firepit. The druid could take ten big steps from side-to-side, which made the exhaust of the monstrosity even more difficult. A series of temporary stairs and catwalks clung to the walls and ceilings of the building, giving him access to those high places. He swallowed hard as he looked down at the dwarf, twenty feet to the ground at least.

Rud worked his way up through the exhaust chute, which he had formed out of the tops of the trees. He pulled stairs out from the wall, the leaf on his head burning through mana as he walked. Once the roof of the chute was formed to prevent rain from soaking in, he paused at the top and considered the best step forward. The thought of his tea business came to mind. That kiln Mint brought to the grove could endure some extreme temperatures.

“Mint?” Rud asked after descending through his maze of stairs and walkways. He waited for some time, finally spotting the wolf lope through the entrance of the building. She had led the adventurers to the dungeon, which should have freed her from her duties guarding that dungeon. “Could you get me some heat-resistant bricks? And mortar?”

“Oh! Good idea!” Taz said, bouncing with excitement.

“Certainly,” Mint said, turning and dashing away. That was that. No formalities.

“If I’m not back before she finds the brick, you can start on that horrid chimney.”

“Up there?” Taz asked, poking a grubby finger toward the ceiling.

“You want a big fire pit? You gotta do the work.”

Taz grumbled, but said nothing more.

Pet projects like the longhouse weren’t Rud’s only duties. His core tasks related to the grove and its health. Everything else was secondary. That meant collecting as many fragments as possible, as Ban was planning to ascend to her second rank. The druid started with some farseeing, writing his observations on paper given to him by Mira. The monsters were moving eastward, heading for Barlgore with intent. The blue skies were also shimmering with magical indicators. Rud inspected those for some time before he understood. Rain was coming. Likely tomorrow.

Rud folded his paper neatly, heading back to his mushroom house. The pot of wax he had used to seal his ceramic tea jars had long-since cooled. The druid placed it on his stove and waited for the wax to heat once again. A principle of tree shaping that Basil had taught him was the concept of fine control. While the wax heated, he worked on creating a stamp for a wax seal. The first few attempts were failures, but by the tenth one he had something resembling a cartoon wolf stamp. He sealed it with Lacquer, finding that both the Shape Plant and Lacquer spell worked on recently dead plants. After that, he stamped his letter shut by drizzling wax on a spot and pressing his stamp into it.

“Oh, that’s just adorable,” Rud said, smiling to himself. He passed through some bushes, arriving in the stump grove. He removed a few letters from his mailbox, and a pile of high-quality fragments.

The first letter was from Feather, who confirmed their deal. The second was from Mira, who claimed she would be busy with another project and couldn’t visit the grove. At least she had the courtesy of leaving a letter. Before heading out from the stump field, Rud checked on the house he had built for the loggers. They kept it immaculate, but were currently away. He grew more trees for them to cut down, zipping between the enchanted pond and the fields.

Another group of adventurers was approaching the grove by the time he was ready to get back to the longhouse. They bowed at a distance when they saw him and remained there. Since the group was a mix of beastfolk and humans, he assumed they were Sparwyn natives. The superstitious type that wouldn’t interact with spirits unless they absolutely needed to. Rud got out of their way, heading to check on Taz’s progress.

A series of colorful dwarven curses issued from within the longhouse. Rud snuck into the building, watching as mortar splattered to the ground below. The dwarf was standing on a walkway high above, clutching onto the rail and shouting. Mint was below, laughing up at him.

“Help me, you wolf!”

“This is much more fun!” Mint shouted back. “You’re not even trying!”

Rud excused himself, finding the nearest bush before either person detected him. Thanks to his staff, his mana had been topped off since his shaping effort on the longhouse. He found the massive pile of ingots and got to work, imbuing each of them with his druidic power. The Druidic Attunement ability attached to his class made this easier. The copper bars didn’t need the full power of the Imbue Crafted Item spell, allowing him to halve the cost during casting. This resulted in the entire stack of copper bars being enchanted, and a sneaky level in Crafting Magic.

The skill rose to Level 5, unlocking his first upgrade for that school of magic. Rud flicked through the list of options, doing what he had done before. He singled out a few of the upgrades, certain that these were the best. His theme had been synergy, and that boiled down to finding upgrades that worked with his status as a custodian. The magical energy that pervaded the grove was often reflected in various upgrades, and there were two within the Crafting Magic skill that took advantage of this.

[Resonating Magic]

Crafting Magic Upgrade

Description:

Crafting Magic spells resonate within Sacred Groves.

Effect:

All items crafted with materials imbued with Crafting Magic gain a resonation effect.

Resonation increases the power of one effect on a crafted item.

This upgrade was interesting to Rud because it drew on the power of the grove, but wasn’t restricted to the grove’s powers. The items crafted with materials he imbued would become more powerful by default. That would allow crafters to tailor their end-result to be more powerful. But his other pick was more tempting. Not because of the implications of power, but because of what it represented.

[Mint’s Blessing]

Crafting Magic Upgrade

Description:

Crafting Magic spells gain additional power from the Guardian Mint.

Effect:

All items crafted with materials imbued with Crafting Magic gain an additional effect.

These effects are related to Mint, the guardian of Gladesbale Grove.

Most mortals saw the guardian of a grove as the leader. For most groves, they were right. Gladesbale might have been different, but anyone who bought crafting materials from them would go nuts for Mint’s name on an item. Rud had spent a lot of time thinking about the aspect that the wolf spirit represented. Her power made him think she was a war-like aspect, focusing on combat rather than anything else. But these were the early days of the grove’s development.

Rud selected the Mint’s Blessing upgrade. He enchanted a bar of iron and inspected the result.

[Spirit Iron Ingot]

Epic

Description:

An iron ingot infused with the power of a Sacred Tree.

Aspect:

Ban’tanthein

Bonus Aspect:

Mint

If Mint showed up as a bonus aspect, and the upgrade’s description claimed that Mint’s energy would infuse any crafted item with a bonus effect, Rud could draw conclusions. Ban’s aspect would add one effect and Mint’s would add another. While he didn’t know the pipeline for crafted items yet, he could assume that this would create some insanely powerful items. The druid took a moment to reflect on how out-of-place that seemed. If his grove could produce metal that would rival other producers within the world, the scenario seemed absurd. But crystals were crystals and he needed a lot of them.

Fortunately, the stockpile of crystal fragments within the grove was growing. Rud checked on Taz—he was still working on the chimney—and instead headed off to work on his pottery and tea. The massive shelves within the tea drying building had made the process simple. The tea farm was expanding daily, resulting in an increase of production. Since the tea was simple to dry with the new building, the druid just cut the leaves and left them to dry. Adding fuel to the fire was the hardest part, but even that was simple enough.

After firing twenty pots for selling tea, including cute engravings on the front, Taz approached his work area. The dwarf’s beard was thick with mortar, smears of the gray material across his shaven head. “Gonna need to fire it, but I’m almost done.”

“Very nice,” Rud said, finding his skin similarly matted with clay. He washed his hands in his water bucket, getting some of the clinging clay off.

Rud and Taz traveled together, finding piles of furniture of all sizes outside of the longhouse. Mint had delivered what she could scavenge, and it got the druid curious. With his tower, he might be able to spot the place where she stole all this stuff. But now was a time for details within the longhouse. The duo worked on cleaning things up. No dwarven longhouse was complete without at least two sets of massive double-doors. Rud found those harder to make out of the living wood than regular single doors, but a few failed attempts was all he needed to make it happen.

“These will have to do,” Taz said, hoisting lanterns for Rud to see. Between his teeth were a few nails and in his other hand a hammer.

Rud took the glass lantern from the dwarf, shaking his head. “I’ll hang these. With magic, instead of nails.”

“Suit yourself.”

The lanterns were interesting. Rusted iron frames with glass—often cracked. There was a dial on the bottom of the lanterns to turn them on and off. Instead of taking fuel to do the work of lighting, they sucked mana from the air. He had no idea where Mint had found them, but wouldn’t complain. Any more fire within the longhouse and there would be a problem. Rud shaped the walls of the building, creating delicate loops to hold the lights. He lined the exterior walls with them, and hung some along the ceiling.

At half-power, the lamps all seemed to function without the need to charge. Taz insisted that the lights were dim enough to capture dwarven ambience. The duo approached the massive stone firepit, which now had a scattering of chairs surrounding it. Long tables ran along the length of the building, chairs pushed into those as well. Rud watched as the dwarf crumbled Fairy Peat, sprinkling it over thick branches in the fire pit. A few swipes of flint on steel and the fire roared to life. It leaped to the ceiling, licking the bricks for a moment.

Rud held his breath, clenching his teeth as he expected his hard work to burn down in an instant. But after removing the protruding stairs and catwalks, all that was left on the ceiling was heat-resistant brick. The smoke drew upward, but the heat radiated from the fire. Within a few minutes of the duo basking, the fire calmed down to fill the area with comforting warmth.

“This fire will burn from this point,” Taz said, pounding his fist against his chest. “Until my dying breath.”

Rud bowed his head, unsure how to answer the dwarven prayer. The reverence the dwarf had for the fire was overwhelming. Excitement built visibly in Taz’s body, forcing him to fidget on the spot.

“Feels like home!” Taz shouted at the ceiling. He cleared his throat after a moment. “Except for all the wood.”

“Feels like home!” Rud shouted, trying to match the dwarf’s enthusiasm. “Are ya gonna sleep here?”

“I might. Just need a few beers and a brawl to make it feel more like home. Wanna fight?”

“Not even a little,” Rud said, waving the thought away. “Hey Mint! Taz wants to fight!”

“Oh, no. I didn’t say that,” Taz said, holding his hands up defensively.

But Mint had already appeared at the door in her human form. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she locked eyes onto the dwarf. “Let’s tussle!”

Rud removed himself from the longhouse before things got out of hand. Once Mint had beaten Taz’s butt, the dwarf was supposed to make some perpetual stew. But the druid had to sate his curiosity. He passed through a bush, arriving at his tower. He checked for owls before assuming the Aspect of Bent. Then he began searching, scouring the landscape for that lost town. The mortals wouldn’t have pushed too deeply into the area. They had likely created a town near the lake. That was at the edge of his viewable range, but with his skill increasing by the day it wasn’t that hard.

The first sign of civilization Rud saw was a small path. He mistook it for a game trail at first. After following that road, he saw his first ruin. A wood and stone building had collapsed in on itself. Scattered things sat around it, most of which had been reclaimed by the forest. This place was outside of the grove to the southeast. Parts of the town were on the edge of the lake, but it sprawled from that point to the west. The druid allowed his gaze to shift from a zoomed-in view from his perspective to the top-down perspective.

During his viewing session, Rud’s Farseeing skill hit Level 3. That expanded his range enough for him to see some of the lake. He used his top-down view to spot a ruined dock resting at the lake’s bottom. The cold weather had preserved it well enough. If he squinted hard enough, he could see something looming on the surface of the lake. Far enough in the distance that he couldn’t make it out, and layered behind a sheet of fog. With his new range, he scanned for more interesting things but found nothing. The ruined town lingered in his mind, as it was well-preserved for such an old place.

Rud wondered if the mortals even knew about it. Those superstitious folks might think it was a bad idea to investigate such a place. At least they sailed on the lake. Perhaps one of them would know what the shape in the lake’s center was. It was directly in their path if they were sailing from the southern shore of the lake to the northern shore. The druid stretched and yawned, slumping against the guard rail and allowing his vision to refocus.

“I’m ready to upgrade,” Ban said, speaking into Rud’s mind and startling him.

“Really? Are you sure?” Rud asked. He ran an inventory in his mind. They had about twenty-five high-quality fragments. He knew that was more than enough for her to upgrade, even if she had to get from Level 6 to Level 10 to hit Rank 1.

“I’m sure. The Energy Nodules expansion has helped me immensely. I feel far less strain on my body, and the increased rank will reduce that further.”

Once again, Ban knew best. Rud nodded, heading down the stairs and through the thickets. He arrived at the Sacred Tree, finding his supply of fragments and approaching Ban. He hesitated as he drew closer, but slapped his freckled cheeks. “Let’s go!”

Rud placed fragments against her bark and watched as they vanished. The tree glittered with energy as she shunted Reserve Energy into Upgrade Energy. Eighteen fragments later, and a pulse of power spread out from the tree. It was strong enough to send the druid tumbling back onto his butt. He wrapped his cloak around himself as the pulses of light grew quicker until Ban was glowing with multi-colored light.

“This might take a while,” Ban said. Her voice sounded distant, as though whispered from a far part of the grove. “Make sure my energy levels are topped.”

“That’s my job, ma’am. No need to fear.”

Rud put on a brave face. But the moment he felt the tree fade from the grove, he dropped the act. His surplus of fragments had dwindled in a flash. Something deep inside him said the grove was now vulnerable. Ban had said something long ago when he had expressed concern for her. She could defend herself. Well, not when she was sleeping.