Gladesbale Grove Book 2 - Chapters 46,47,48 (Patreon)

Chapter 46 Creamery The magical energies east of the grove have settled down for now. Rud sat in his observation tower and observed the swir

Chapter 46

Creamery

The magical energies east of the grove have settled down for now. Rud sat in his observation tower and observed the swirling bits of magic, making note of the incoming rain and the possibility of snow from the north. Most interestingly, he noticed the pinprick of magic that orbited his tower. He didn’t include this in his report to the mortal town, but he knew what it meant. There was some powerful magic weaving itself into his staff.

“Just like that?” Maria asked. “You fixed your frozen island with the power of an otter?”

Rud shook his head yet again. Maria had been hung up on how he had saved the day since he first told her the story. She had since asked him to recount it several times. He thumbed the button on his microphone. “That’s right, the power of an otter saved the day.”

“I’ve been around for quite some time,” Jim said, his voice coming through the radio in a series of crackling hisses. “I don’t think I’ve experienced as much strife as you have, Gladesbale.”

“Yeah, it seems like we’re experiencing a bit of a change around here,” Rud said, chuckling to himself. “But we’ve come out on top so far. There’s no reason we can’t keep everything going without a hitch.”

The druid’s confidence wasn’t unfounded. Sometimes he had to remind himself that his grove was arranged uniquely. The other groves could not talk to their sacred trees, and he didn’t think their guardians were as strong, but it was hard for him to tell. Sometimes it felt as though he was the lowest in the hierarchy, while at other times it felt as though he was right on top.

“More reports are coming in about system structures,” Maria said, cutting through the radio. “Everyone’s responding in their own special way. Do you have any progress on that supply portal, Gladesbale?”

“I think we’re actually pretty close on that,” Rud said. “We are working on w ays to tap into additional power sources, so it shouldn’t be long now.”

“If the tea you make is as good as you say, I can’t wait,” Jim said.

The conversation drifted on like that for longer than Rud had intended. He had a kitchen to build, but the conversation with the other custodians was always calming. When he was done, he wrote his report and handed it off to Dean for delivery. There might be rain in the mortal town by tomorrow, but that depended on how the winds blew from the ocean to the southeast.

Rud was unsurprised to see a scatter of wood-burning stoves resting in a clearing when he returned. Apparently, Mint had made good on her promise to find them enough for their cheese-making empire. They came in an assortment of sizes and shapes. The druid needed to express his gratitude to the guardian when he saw her again.

“Bright and early,” Taz said, appearing from nowhere as he looked at the stoves. “I see our fearless leader has come through.”

“Yeah, but you have to wonder where she gets all this stuff.” Rud said. The quality of the stoves is too good for her to have found them in an abandoned place. He was wondering if she was robbing the town itself.

“Best not to complain, my druid-y friend,” Taz said. “Instead, I think you should get to work on the building.”

Rud had considered a few locations to place the building. The clearing around the secret tree was wide, and there would be plenty of space to do that. However, for production-style buildings, he preferred to place them away from that area. There was a section to the east, just north of the bathhouse. He could place the kitchen there, and while it would share the road with the rest stop, there was still plenty of space to build.

Proximity to roads hardly mattered for anyone with a Thicket Travel upgrade. It was more about aesthetics and ease of access for the mortals if they needed it. He didn’t really mind if they were wandering around his buildings, so long as they left his cheese alone. Rud headed to the site with Taz, who wholeheartedly approved of the location.

“If this is the first thing the mortal sees about our little town, it’ll strike an impressive image,” Taz said. “It’ll appear as though we’re a bit more crowded than we are. How big are we going?”

Rud leaned over the edge of the raised road. There was space underneath where he could add some storage, and space above where he could add a second floor to the building with his newest ability. He could go wild with this, and it would only take him a few hours.

“I think we’re going big,” Rud said, rubbing his hands together. “Big enough that we don’t have to worry about expansion after the fact. We’ll just factor that into the construction now and never worry about it again.”

“Time for some division of labor,” Taz said, clapping his hands together. “I’ll go milk the animals, and you get to work on the building. How does that sound?”

“Perfect.”

Most buildings Rud had worked on were fairly simple. Even the rest stop felt rudimentary compared to what he could do now. Perhaps it was time to flex his newest power. The druid got to work, creating the frame of the structure first. It was far too large for what they needed, but he didn’t care. He felt the energy of the grove flow through him as he wove living trees together. When he erected the walls on either side, he allowed those trees to sprout leaves, adding more of a woodsy aesthetic to the overall look.

Rud wove the floor of the first floor and created a staircase down to the basement, enclosing it. Then, in the center rear of the first floor, he wove a beautiful spiral staircase that led up to the second floor. The purpose of the second floor was for storage. The first floor served as the workroom, while the basement was intended for storage and the aging of cheese.

To tie in the theme of the grove, Rud imagined a sloped roof from which tree branches thick with leaves and flowers grew. He ensured it was a carpeting canopy shielding the building itself from whatever sun would poke through the other trees overhead. The process took several hours, but when he stood back and looked at it, the kitchen he had created was magnificent.

“I think you may have gone overboard with this one,” Dean said, appearing from nowhere.

“I believe you’re wrong with that one, Dean,” Rud said, smiling to himself. “I even put some greenery inside so we could teleport directly to the kitchen.”

“I won’t lie, it is impressive,” Dean said.

“If you’re so impressed, you can help us haul the stoves in. I still have to hook those up.”

Pulling the stoves into the structure was difficult, but once they got each one in its place, Rud had no problem sending the exhaust pipes through the wall so they could vent outside. He reinforced the areas where the pipe connected to the wood to ensure he wouldn’t start a fire. Dean helped him check and double-check the accessibility and integrity of the building. They had concerns about the first floor getting too hot, so the druid opened some windows in the walls. They wouldn’t be able to close, but it shouldn’t have mattered.

“Looks like you’re ready to fire it up,” Taz said. Entering the building and looking around, he released a low whistle. “You really built this quickly.”

Rud barely heard the words as he studied the walls. He tilted his head to the side as something unexpected happened. There was a strange shimmering of energy that ran over the wooden surface. At first, he thought the building might have caught on fire because of the intensity of that energy, but it released a faint green glow that was thick with the energy of the grove.

“Do you guys see that?” Rud asked, moving close and touching the wall. There was a faint tingle in his mind that reminded him of when the system was telling him he could inspect something. But when he tried, nothing came.

“What is it?” Dean asked, crouching as though it was time for a fight.

“Didn’t you want to build this by hand because Ban was too busy?” Taz asked.

“That’s right, I didn’t want to distract her from dominating both the Labyrinth and the weird, haunted underground place.”

“This feels like the energy that comes off the buildings she makes,” Taz said, running his hand along the wall.

Somewhere distant, Ban giggled.

“What are you doing, you sneaky little tree?” Rud asked, narrowing his eyes and looking around. The energy only intensified until he felt it fulminate.

“All done,” Ban said. “Enjoy the building. I’m getting back to work.”

“You’re not going to explain what you did or why?” Rud asked, looking to the sky. There was no response, leaving the group to form their own theories about what had just happened. The sacred tree had always required a time of rest after constructing a building, but this time, that wasn’t the case. She had taken a building Rud made and turned it into one of her system-recognized buildings. He pressed his hand against the wall, feeling that familiar tingling in his mind. With a flash of willpower, he summoned the interface for the new building.

[Creamery]

Rank 0 Level 1 Sacred Tree Building

Upgrade Progress: 0%

Description:

A building dedicated to creating milk-based products.

Upgrades:

None

“What is a creamery?” Dean asked, growling as he looked around. “I don’t like that name.”

“I guess it’s a place where we can make cheese,” Rud said with a shrug. “I’m not going to complain. I’ve got plenty of materials we could use to upgrade this and get some bonuses. Hey, wait, could we make another building for my tea?”

“Integrating buildings you made with your new powers is easy. Go nuts!” Ban said.

“You sneaky little tree,” Rud said, looking around and shaking his fist in the air. “You could have told me this before.”

“Secrets, secrets!”

“She’s in a really playful mood today,” Rud said. “That’s okay; she can have her fun, and we’ll have our creamery.”

“I’m not sure we have enough milk to justify all these stoves,” Taz said, scratching his beard. “But we can get working on a batch.”

Rud’s mind was still in experimental mode with the cheese. He knew that if it was anything like his tea endeavors, he would need to find different methods to create various types of cheese. His goal, after all, was to create food that gave people buffs. The only way to achieve that was to create more than one type of cheese. The only problem was that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and the first sample of cheese he had created wasn’t even ready for testing. Right?

The problem with that line of thinking is that things worked differently in the grove. Stuff grew faster, food spoiled slower, and perhaps cheese aged at an advanced rate. It might have taken a normal wheel of cheese weeks, months, or even years to age, but in the grove, it could have been completely different. There was only one way to find out.

Before getting to work on his cheese, Rud retrieves the one wheel they had created, bringing it back to the Creamery and placing it on one worktables. “Are you guys ready for the reveal?” he asked.

“I desire the cheese,” Dean said, eyeing the mushroom shell of the cheese wheel with hungry eyes.

Rud placed his finger on the top of the wheel and dragged it towards himself, using his prune spell to slice through the exterior and crack it open. The air was immediately filled with a creamy, cheesy smell. The outside of the wheel was a powdery, thick shell, but upon breaking it open, they observed the inside to be creamy and runny.

“Almost looks like brie,” Rud said, taking a deep breath through his nose. “We need to find some crackers.”

“You’re missing one important step,” Taz said, shaking his head. “Imbue the thing with your special magic first.”

“Oh, right,” Rud said, rubbing his hands together and rolling his shoulders. He cast his imbue-crafted item spell on the cheese. It shimmered with green energy, and the salty scent of the cheese doubled in potency in an instant.

He inspected the resulting item.

[Grove Brie]

Rare

Description:

A soft cheese with a hard shell. This cheese is perfect over crackers, with a little slice of sausage, or all on its own.

Effect:

Increase Strength.

Aspect Effect (Mint and Ban’Tanthein):

For the next day, all Strength-based actions increase in effectiveness.

“A powerful effect for a powerful cheese,” Taz said. Scooping up a piece and shoving it in his mouth, he visibly shivered as he chewed the cheese. “Oh, this is good.”

Rud got himself and Dean a piece, allowing the wolf to have his fill first. The texture of the cheese was a mix between a light crunch on the outside shell and an intensely creamy sensation on the inside. It was slightly salty with a condensed milk taste. While it wasn’t as good as some cheeses he had back on Earth, it was still pretty good.

“That is some fine cheese,” Dean said, licking his lips. “May I have some more?”

The group could have gone off to do something productive. Instead, they stood around the table and took turns eating pieces of the cheese wheel. Before they knew it, the entire wheel was gone, leaving a wet stain on the table and the split mushroom wrapper behind. There was not even a single crumb of cheese left.

“Boys, I think we need to take a moment and realize we have just become the most powerful grove in the world,” Rud said. His eyes locked on the spot where the cheese once was. “We crafted magical cheese… Magical cheese!”

“All shall know our power,” Taz said.

“We cannot be stopped,” Dean said, nodding with agreement.

Chapter 47

Casus Belli

Although cheese-creation was super-duper exciting, Rud had a bunch of other stuff to do within the grove. The most exciting thing going on for him today was tending to the tea farm. Now that he had received his class ability, the mana cost for his plant growth spell would dwindle to almost nothing. He ascended the ramp to his farm, clicking his tongue as he looked over what he now considered rudimentary construction.

“Well, this won’t do,” Rud said, shaking his head.

Some sections of the elevated platform he had created were sagging in parts before he grew his tea plants to full maturity. He reinforced the underside by planting new trees and wrapping them around the base. He allowed the branches of those trees to spill over the edges of the platform, shooting skyward to capture some of the sunlight above. However, it had to be partially exposed so the plants could receive adequate sunlight. When he was done fixing the mistakes he had made before his new ability, the druid grew his garden.

“Where has this ability been all my life?” Rud asked, waving his hand through the air and casting several versions of the spell at once. All plant magic felt as if it were at the end of his fingertips, ready to be called whenever he needed it.

Green magic surged over the farm, transforming stumpy clippings into full-grown tea plants in the blink of an eye. The farm changed from a patch of dirt with sticks poking out of it to a fully formed operation in moments, with plants that were larger and more robust than before. Drips of condensed mana fell from the leaves, turning to mist in the air.

“Now this is a farm I can get behind,” Mint said, ascending the ramp in her wolf form and letting out a low growl. “You’ve really transformed it, haven’t you?”

“What do you think?” Rud asked, placing his hands on his hips and looking over the sprawl of greenery with a wide smile on his face. “Working with plants is a lot easier with this new ability.”

Mint had nothing to say right away. She walked between the plants, sniffing at different ones until she found the spicy tea leaves. She took a bite of one and turned to him, nodding with satisfaction. “These are extremely aromatic. Far more concentrated than the old version.”

“If you shift into your human form and help me collect some, we can stuff it in my drying house. I don’t know if the system information will change on the completed tea, but there’s only one way to find out.”

“A tempting offer,” Mint said, humming to herself. “I suppose I could use a break.”

Rud showed her how to pick the tea leaves. It really wasn’t anything special. They simply had to find the best-looking leaves and pluck them from the plant. The most important part was to find those leaves that had overstayed their welcome and remove them without adding them to the bunch. The ones he was after were those with the right amount of green on the leaf. Not too young, not too old.

“How are things going in the labyrinth?” Rud asked, finding a wide sweet tea leaf and holding it up to the sun. He could see the veins of the leaf spreading from the stem, reaching toward the outer part of the leaf to create an intricate roadmap.

“I’m winding down in the labyrinth,” Mint admitted. “It is far deeper than I had anticipated. And worst of all, it has changed recently. Now all that work I did to map it is gone.”

“Was it the point to get stronger?” Rud asked.

Mint turned to him, flashing a smile in her human form that always looked a bit too wolf-like. “That’s right, and I accomplished that. The monsters on the lower full floors can be incredibly strong, and we’ll need to clear them often to ensure they don’t overflow. But the rewards are many: magical items, experience, and even dungeon core fragments, which I know you’re a fiend for.”

“That’s perfect,” Rud said. “With more buildings to take care of, I need more fragments than ever. It almost seems as though our energy woes are over. Ban is siphoning power from that labyrinth, and I’m sure she’ll do the same for the haunted underground city as well.”

“Yet you’re worried about the other groves,” Mint said, nodding as she plucked another leaf. “That’s an understandable position. But you’ve already taken steps to ensure their safety.”

“It just seems like everybody’s so disjointed,” Rud said. “Like, none of the groves thought to come together in their entire history.”

Mint let out a sharp breath through her nose. She crossed the distance between them and placed her hand on his shoulder. “You need to understand how special Gladesbale is,” she said, shaking her head. “We might seem incompatible, ‌but Bent did everything he could to make us perfect. We are the most powerful combination he has ever put together, and it shows. Our growth is unlike anything he has seen before. Even in his own grove.”

Rud put something together in that moment when Bent recently visited Gladesbale. He realized the absolute power and majesty of that sacred beast, but there was an imbalance of power. While he knew nothing about the custodian and sacred tree in the Progenitor Grove, he thought he could piece it together. Bent was too strong, and his two counterparts weren’t strong enough. If he compared it to his own grove, he could see that within Gladesbale Grove, there was harmony. Perhaps that counted for far more than the raw power of the Guardian.

“It’s just like nature, isn’t it?” Rud asked. He thought perhaps he had finally put it all together. “There has to be balance, even with the mortal peoples of the world.”

“That’s what I’m coming to understand,” Mint said, nodding as she smiled to herself. “Perhaps we represent three aspects of the world. Ban is nature. I am the wild, and you are the mortals. But I’m not sure if even Bent recognizes the correlation between those things or if he just lucked out.”

That was heady food for thought for such an early hour of the day. Rud didn’t really enjoy thinking about that stuff. He turned his attention back to the tea plants and got back to work. Although he told himself he wouldn’t think about it any longer, he had a smile on his face as he considered how well he worked together with his cohorts.

“Thanks for the help with the tea,” Rud said, plucking another leaf.

“Anytime.”

###

After setting his tea leaves out to dry, Rud felt something enter his senses in the distance. If it was a group of adventurers approaching from the east, that would be fine. People were always coming from the east. But the druid sensed a familiar presence coming over the western road. His grove-based senses weren’t nearly as good as Ban, but this was someone he had met before. A person he had expected to arrive much earlier.

“Dean, I need a hand,” Rud said, heading out from his drying house.

Dean was quick to burst from a nearby bush, skidding to a stop and looking around. “Are you in danger?”

“Not yet. A group of adventurers is returning over the road to the west. I’m eager for orcish news.”

“Climb aboard. Let’s go.”

Expeditions to the west were a common occurrence for the settlers in the local town. Rud had seen many of them off during his time as custodian of the grove, and the entire purpose of his road was to provide them with easy passage. Although this made their journey much easier through the grove, it would still take them anywhere from a few days to a week to make it all the way through.

He simply couldn’t wait that long to receive a report from them. Perhaps he could help expedite the message to the town.

Dean burst through a bush. Coming to a sudden stop along the road, he was close enough to the western exit of the grove to see the snow-capped mountains far in the distance. Before him was a gaggle of adventurers led by a lionkin named Tuft. Rud drew in a sharp breath, his brow knitting as he looked over the group.

It was bad.

Although the leader of the expedition stood proudly with his armored chest thrust out and his shoulders back, the others in his party were not faring as well. Two adventurers supported another between them, the man they held barely conscious. Others had superficial injuries that would need immediate attention, and even Tuft himself had a large cut across his face, with most of his armor either dented or destroyed.

“Greetings, forest spirit,” Tuft said as though we were meeting in the longhouse for a nice cup of tea. “If you’re willing, my people require aid.”

With no need to be called, Sarya was there in only a moment, dragging behind her the cart they had fashioned to carry the dirt. The adventurers piled in, although there wasn’t enough room for Tuft. Instead, Dean offered to carry him. There was no time to exchange words. Rud applied his healing spell to those who needed it the most, triaging only those who wouldn’t make it to the center of the grove before sending his companions off.

The time he spent waiting for them to arrive was agonizing. Eventually, the cart thundered down the pathway, and Dean and Sarya arrived, panting with their tongues hanging out the sides of their mouths. Taz and Rud were waiting there with water, food, and makeshift bandages to care for the wounded. They got to work without hesitation.

“What happened?” Rud asked, applying both a healing and purification spell to Tuft. The leader of the expeditionary force’s eyes were downcast, his shoulders slumped as he took steady breaths.

“We couldn’t have predicted there was such an orcish force out there,” Tuft said. It took him a while to gather his thoughts before speaking again. “We were surveying the area when we were ambushed. From there, we fought for about a week without a break, desperately trying to get back to the grove.”

“Seriously? I didn’t see any orcs,” Rud said. “Did they break off or something?”

“They have learned their lesson about attacking the grove, apparently,” Tuft said. “They halted their assault miles before we even saw the border.”

The leader of the adventuring party recounted their harrowing escape. There were orcish encampments to the west, along with quite a few dungeons. This meant that general monster activity in the area was high, making it difficult to travel more than a few miles a day. They had slogged over the rocky slopes, fighting and killing their way west until they realized they were in too deep. Then it was a mad scramble back to the grove, and they almost lost a few members of their party several times. The druid was pretty sure that if he hadn’t applied his healing spells, one member of the party would not have endured the trip to the grove’s center.

As Tuft relayed his story, Rud took notes to gather all the information he could. He folded the notes and sealed them in an envelope addressed to Feather. He then requested that Dean deliver it as soon as possible. The spirit wolf was off a moment later, significantly cutting down the time to relay the information.

Just after Dean had finished, Mint appeared in the grove, offering whatever help she could. She might have been late, but it wasn’t her job to babysit the mortals. After all, that responsibility fell to Rud.

“Some of them still can’t walk,” Rud said, gesturing to those still prone on the ground. “If you could shift into your human form and help me carry them to the rest stop, we can get them settled in for the night.”

Between Mint, Rud, Taz, and Tuft, they carried all the wounded to the nearest rest stop building. Of course, it wasn’t enough to just set them up in a warm house and leave them to their own devices. They also prepared bowls of stew and hot cups of tea to invigorate them. The druid watched with enjoyment as a human man sipped a cup of tea and brightened immediately after the liquid touched his lips. It was a stark contrast, considering he was the one who had a hole punched through his middle.

“That’s some strong tea,” the man said, holding his cup up in salute to Rud for his efforts.

Tuft smiled as he looked down at Rud. The beastkin jerked his head to the side, inviting the druid to follow alongside. “I hope this isn’t disagreeable, but I have something to tell you that you might not like.”

“What is it?” Rud asked, having no idea what kind of bombshell was about to be dropped. As if he didn’t have enough things to worry about.

“The leaders of this expedition may determine that we must march an army, tough as it is to say. If that were to happen, could that army march over your roads, or does that go against your principles?”

Mint appeared behind the lionkin, slapping him hard enough on the back to make him wince. “Although it is the custodian’s decision, I believe we can accommodate you,” she said.

“Just so we’re clear, the orcs we’re talking about are basically monsters,” Rud said with a shrug. “Right?”

“Now, that is an excellent question,” Mint said, squinting as she thought about it. “They are a kind of beastkin, which means they’re derived from monsters.”

Rud had to do a bit of mental gymnastics to figure out how this aligned with Bent’s mission. He imagined that the stag spirit had a set of criteria for going to war with the sapient race. Even if the orcs were monstrous, they still had their own independent thoughts.

“What do the orcs think about trees?” Rud asked. “Are they clear-cutting or otherwise destroying nature in the mountains?”

“They are the most savage,” he said, his voice barely a growl. “They destroy everything they see and have only stuck to the mountains because of the power of the grove.”

“Casus belli!” Rud shouted. “We’re not directly involved in a war, but I can justify lending you the road for that reason alone.”

“Indeed. If the orcs were powerful enough, they would push into the grove,” Mint said.

“Not to mention their human allies,” Rud grumbled.

“Human allies?” Tuft asked.

“Oh, I suspect there are some naughty humans to the west trying to cause trouble. Ninjas, wizards, or ninja-wizards. We’ve chased them off before,” Rud said.

“That is even more concerning. We encountered no other mortals in the west,” Tuft said.

“These humans are settled to the southwest, I think. Along the coastline,” Rud said.

Tuft took a deep breath, closing his eyes and allowing the air to drain from his lungs. He growled again. “It would appear things are getting more complicated.”

“Yeah, but we made cheese. Want some cheese?” Rud asked.

Tuft raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Note to self. If I want to take over this world, I only need cheese, Rud thought, beckoning for the beastkin to follow him.

Chapter 48

Weird Staff

Tuft reclined, patting his belly as he and Rud looked over the shell of a wheel of cheese. “A Strength buff for eating cheese… never thought I’d see the day,” the lionkin said with a predatory smile. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“Just wait. We’re gonna start production in the creamery. Our cheese will be on the shelves of every store in Barlgore.”

“I look forward to the day,” Tuft said, wiping cheese from his beard. “Once again, I can’t overstate my appreciation for your hospitality. You have an ally in me if ever you need one.”

Gotta catch ‘em all, Rud thought, dabbing his lips with a napkin.

Not only had they eaten some delicious cheese, but Rud had given Tuft a tour of the new creamery. Sure, he didn’t have any upgrades for the building yet. But the place was impressive, especially with all the pots and wood-burning stoves. Once this thing went into full swing, the cheese would flow out of the front door like a tidal wave.

“Pardon if this isn’t appropriate, but may I ask about your weapon?” Tuft asked. “I inspected it last time—I know, a sneaky move—and it has since changed. I’ve never seen an item lose its description from the system.”

“Oh, yeah. I leveled it up so now people can’t see the description,” Rud lied, tapping the butt of the staff on the ground. “Can’t be too careful, you know?”

“Indeed.”

Tuft had little else to talk about. Rud knew the guy was stoic at the best of times. He was likely only entertaining the conversation to be nice. But the comfortable silence they fell into was nice. A breeze blew through the creamery, whistling over the open windows and bringing with it fresh forest air. With it came a fresh wave of grove-based energy that always brought with it a sense of deep comfort.

“I’ll draw you guys a hot bath tonight,” Rud said, patting Tuft on the back. “Dunno if it has healing properties, but just like my tea it reduces fatigue.”

“My people would appreciate it,” Tuft said.

With all the excitement today, Rud barely noticed the noon hour progress to the late-afternoon. He knew dusk threatened to come by the scent of grilled meat in the air. Taz was already cooking a boatload of meat for both the grove’s denizens and those visiting adventurers. That gave him just enough time to check in at the Observatory, make his evening report, and maybe banter with Maria.

As Rud made his way through the grove—guiding his way with his staff—he felt the energy inside that item changing. The system said it would take a few days, but he felt that power blossoming like a flower. Before long it would burst, revealing whatever artifact powerful enough to draw the attention of Bent.

“Gladesbale to Hagsrise,” Rud said, thumbing the microphone’s button. He smiled, nodding to Nulsa as the owl alighted onto the banister outside. He gave a hearty hoot in response.

“Mog here,” Jim said, coming in clean over the radio. “Maria is dealing with a situation.”

“Hey, Jim. Aren’t we all dealing with some crap?” Rud asked. “Hope you and Basil aren’t having it as hard as the rest of us.”

“Of course not. Basil has always been keen to establish powerful defenses,” Jim said. Static finally entered the dead air between their messages. Before then, it had been strangely clear. “We have some monsters, but with our passive doctrine around defense, we’re doing fine.”

“Good to hear… I think. Mint has a very active way of defending the grove. She’ll conquer the labyrinth before a single monster escapes.”

Maria never joined the nightly call. This only reminded Rud how important it was to expand which custodians joined their sewing circle. When he was done having his chat with Jim, he flipped through the channels. There weren’t any interesting magical developments, so there was no need to send a report to Feather. Some channels on the radio seemed interesting, as there was more than just the sound of static. But whatever whale song nonsense he heard there was not enough to hold his interest, and the druid soon shifted into his squirrel form and glided away.

Nulsa joined him in the air, soaring alongside him with far more grace.

Rud wasn’t surprised to learn how prepared Basil was in his own grove. After sailing around for a while, the druid made his way back to his mushroom house. He settled in for the night, getting a decent fire going to keep him warm. The magic around the island might have mostly abated, but there was still a chill in the air at night. Perhaps the seasons were shifting.

###

Morning in the grove meant leftover food and freshly brewed tea. Rud didn’t have his newest batch of tea ready, but there was enough of every mixture to keep everyone satisfied for a few lifetimes. They might have exported a lot of tea, but the druid had a hoarding problem. He couldn’t wait to hoard some cheese.

While he was heading to the Observatory to make his report for the morning, a light drizzle swept through the grove. Rud pulled his hood over his head and pulled his cloak tightly around himself. The butt of his staff squelched in the mud when he passed through a bush. After accepting his aspect he shook the water off his cloak and took his report for the morning.

“That rain is coming in harder than I expected,” Rud said, leaning out the door and squinting against the rain.

Nulsa hooted. “More rain is coming after this, I think. Perhaps you should keep a closer eye on the livestock.”

“Taz is helping me with that again,” Rud said. “I’m gonna get everyone involved in caring for those things before long.”

Nulsa was silent for a few long moments. He tilted his head from one side to the other, focusing his eyes on the druid’s staff. “Are we going to talk about that?”

“My staff?” Rud asked, waving it in the air. “The system said it would be a few days before anything happened.”

“Perhaps that time draws closer than you originally thought,” Nulsa said. “The energy is gathering quicker by the moment.”

Even through his Observatory-aided sight, Rud couldn’t see it. No more than normal, anyway. “You sure?”

“I’m certain.”

Rud clicked his radio on, holding the microphone button down. “Hagsrise, Mog, I’m gonna be absent from our chats today.”

Silence came back followed by the hiss of static. Eventually, someone’s voice came back through the radio.

“Hagsrise here. Understood. Is everything good?”

“Yeah, my staff is just acting weird. Good luck with whatever weird stuff you’re doing. Gladesbale out.”

By the second, the energy gathering around the staff was increasing in intensity.

“Slightly concerning,” Nulsa said. “I suggest you retreat to a remote area. Just in case.”

“Not a bad idea,” Rud said, shifting into a squirrel form and jumping into the nearest bush. He picked a section in the southern reaches of the grove where there was literally nothing. This was the place where the dungeons seemed most likely to spawn. So if he was going to go out in a fiery ball of magical death, this seemed like the best place.

Nulsa flew through one of the nearby bushes and landed on a branch above, leaving Rud below to consider his fate with the staff. The magic continued to grow until the seams of metal that ran through the staff shone with an intensity that was blinding. No system message appeared when it was completed. The appearance of the staff changed little, but even without a message, he knew he could finally inspect it.

“Let’s see what we go,” Rud said, inspecting the item.

[Custodian’s Twig]

Rank 1 Artifact Staff

Bound to: Rud

Description:

A piece of the Sacred Tree Ban’tanthein, imbued with the power of a shifting artifact. This staff will grow alongside its owner.

This item is only inspectable by its owner.

Effect:

Restores two mana every second, even while in combat.

Attributes:

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Vigor: 1

Mind: 1

Affinity: 1

“Wait, why does my staff have attributes?” Rud asked, scratching his head as he inspected the weapon.

The staff didn’t appear to be much stronger than its previous form until Rud discovered the attributes section. He wasn’t certain if he was reading it correctly, but it seemed as though the artifact had attributes of its own, which made little sense. After some exploration in his interfaces, he figured out exactly what was going on.

“Holy crap,” Rud said.

“What is it?” Nulsa said, on guard.

“I really don’t know why, but my staff has its own attributes, and all those attributes get added to mine.” Rud said he summoned his own attribute sheet to confirm the information.

[Rud]

Main Class:

Rank 1 Level 1 Druid

Subclass:

Rank 0 Level 6 Grove Custodian

Attributes:

Health: 122

Mana: 170

Strength: 3

Agility: 6

Vigor: 6

Mind: 12

Affinity: 11

Titles:

[Keeper of the Gladesbale Grove]

One free point in every attribute was like a free five levels, as far as Rud was concerned. He didn’t feel much of a change in himself, but then again, he wouldn’t decline those free points. One thing was certain: the artifact in the staff was unpredictable. He couldn’t tell if it would gain more levels or different effects. All he knew was that it had jumped a rank and given him five free attribute points and one mana per second above what he already had.

Nulsa seemed equally confused about the situation. “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening,” the owl said, “although I interact little with the mortals of the world. So perhaps this is a normal occurrence.”

A thought crossed the druid’s mind as he stood there with the staff. He knitted his brows as he looked down at the weapon. The glowing metal embedded in the wood flashed green, just as he had thought about a spell.

“Did you see that?” Rud asked.

“I saw it. A flash of nature-based magic,” Nulsa said, tilting his head to one side as though to appraise the weapon. “Did you cast a spell?”

“I thought about casting a spell,” Rud said, “but I didn’t actually do it.”

“Why don’t you try casting a simple spell? Anything aligned with the nature element.”

With a shrug, Rud turned, holding the staff out toward a small tree. He took a steady breath as he invoked the plant growth spell. The power of the grove rushed through him, and the staff responded in kind. It released a blinding green light that bathed everything around him in that aligned energy. The tree shot up with barely a thought, going from a young tree to fully grown in an instant.

The difference was subtle, but the druid could detect it with the enhancement of his plant-based affinity. Rud’s ability to cast those spells had increased significantly, but adding the staff to the mix might have even doubled that effect.

“That almost seemed effortless for you,” Nulsa said, offering more of his appraising glances.

“I think this thing might be powerful,” Rud said, turning the staff over in his hand and smiling down at it. “I believe it empowered my spell, probably doubling it.”

“I suspect your new staff holds more secrets then we could uncover on our own,” Nulsa said with a hoot. “But I’m uncertain how to trigger the conditions to increase its power. Unfortunately, I’m not very learned in the ways of magecraft. I understand the simple tenets of druidic magic, though. Care to experiment?”

“Of course,” Rud said.

“This should be fairly easy. You need to channel the power of the grove through the staff. My suspicion is that your staff will absorb power in a specific way. Just like the buildings within the grove accept power through fragments and crystals, perhaps the staff could do the same with latent energy.”

Rud wasn’t sure how the owl had reached that conclusion, but then again, he wouldn’t question it. Owls were wise, after all, weren’t they? “So how do I do it?” the druid asked, waving his staff through the air as though that would catch some of that latent energy within.

“The first step is to focus. You need to pull the energy in actively. Sense it around you and then draw it in, as though you’re inviting it to enter the staff.”

Closing his eyes, Rud did as he was told. He attempted to invite whatever energies of the grove were around him into the staff. He felt something swirling, but it didn’t exactly feel like the power of the grove. The grove always felt so warm, yet this energy was hot, and not in a good way.

“Feels like the staff is sniffing something out.” Rud followed that thread but felt it vanish somewhere before him. “I don’t think I’m pulling on the energy of the grove.”

“Can you feel where it is?” Nulsa asked.

Closing his eyes again, the druid focused on that thread, feeling himself stepping forward. “I think it’s this way,” he said, allowing himself to be guided by the staff.

Nulsa made a disapproving hoot, as though he knew where they were headed. But Rud was in the dark. He just followed that strand of energy through the forest, weaving between the trees. He would stop on occasion, thinking that perhaps the staff was interested in the energy emitted by forest creatures or trees, but that wasn’t the case.

“Whatever it wants is up ahead,” Rud said, opening his eyes and blinking a few times. He could sense they were on the edge of the grove, pushing out toward areas where his potent plant magic wouldn’t work. Although Ban had expanded the borders of the grove in recent days, she hadn’t expanded them indefinitely.

“Just over that hill, right?” Nulsa asked, flying ahead. “Wait here for a moment. Let me confirm something.”

Rud waited like a good little druid, and the owl returned shortly after, hooting with excitement. “Well, I know exactly where this is going,” Nulsa said. “Quickly. This way.”

Rud shifted into his flying squirrel form and glided the rest of the way down the hill. He watched as Nulsa swooped downward. The druid felt ice flood into his veins when he spotted the object the owl angled toward. It was a dark collection of rocks resting along the wall of one cliff, right on the edge of the grove’s boundary. Inside ‌a rocky archway was a film of magic that pulsed rhythmically.

“I am not going in there,” Rud said, gliding to the ground and shifting back into his true form.

“It has been recently weakened,” Nulsa said, perched atop the archway. “Come, press your staff into the portal. See what happens.”

“Do you make a habit of putting your staff in every portal you see?” Rud grumbled. But he approached it and did as he was told. The staff sang, praising its owner for figuring it out. Good thing the staff didn’t know an owl had figured it out. A moment later, a system message appeared. “Ah. That’s… Interesting.”

[Absorbing Dungeon Soul]

Your [Custodian’s Twig] is absorbing a weakened dungeon soul. Maintain your focus until the process is completed.