“I don’t know and don’t care what a radio is,” Taz grunted, his pick slamming against the hard stone wall.
Rud had tried to tell Taz the importance of having the number of another grove, but the dwarf was apathetic. No matter how many times the druid swung his pick, he wouldn’t relent. The only thing he was interested in was an underground grove populated by dwarves. Rud had to admit it was interesting, but found himself drawn more to the operator of the Hagsrise radio.
“Well, I think it’s cool,” Rud said, putting his back into the next strike.
Rud had whittled away at the day, taking care of minor things. There wasn’t much to do as long as the rain was still falling. The mortals were where they had to be, Oak’s team hadn’t returned, and Mint’s squad was finishing up with the monsters. The only thing he could do in the horrible weather was to work the mine. Taz’s foresight to the mine’s flooding problems was impressive, though.
The entrance to the mine was positioned in a way that allowed water to wash inside. Clever as he was, the dwarf had sloped all approaches, funneling the water to specific spots. It trickled through the area where Taz slept, cascading down the stairs to the exploratory tunnels. The dwarf had cut tunnels out to drain the water, pushing those passages into the dirt where it soaked in. While there was minor flooding, it was nothing that would cause a problem.
“You learned how to construct mines back home?” Rud asked, finally willing to shift the conversation away from himself.
Taz inspected a new seam he had discovered. The dwarf was obsessed with finding more gems. “That’s right. Worked a mine most of my life. Never had the honor of directing one, but I picked up a few things. When is this rain letting up, anyway?”
“The tower says it won’t stop for at least another day.”
Taz grumbled. “I might have sloped these tunnels right, but given enough rain… I might get flooded out anyway.”
Rud didn’t see that happening soon, but would trust the assessment of a dwarf. The idea of ice heaves brought the dangers of the mine into focus. Metal reinforcements couldn’t come soon enough, but the druid didn’t know if that would help. Perhaps there was another way to accomplish this. The druid found that Taz wasn’t so receptive today, so he finished up with what he could do in the mine. The dwarf didn’t want to push too far with his planned tunnels and wanted to explore the vein he had struck.
The wolf gang had finished with their various battles by the time Rud returned to the longhouse. He watched as the mortals sat far from the fire, keeping as much distance between themselves and the guardians of the grove. Mint was sprawled out in her wolf form, drying her fur by the fire. Sarya was doing much the same. But Dean sat upright, glowering towards the door.
“What’s up, Dean?” Rud asked, warming himself by the fire. The heat spread through his fingers, scouring away some of the cold. Combined with the rain, the cold seeped deep into his bones.
“We took care of the monsters,” Dean responded. “But we’re uncertain if we got them all.”
“I didn’t see them with my tower. I’ll sniff around tomorrow.”
“Your nose is too weak to smell for the monsters. Use your tower instead.”
Rud pat Dean on the head. “Good idea.”
With the grove in a standstill thanks to the weather, Rud found a comfy spot by the fire. He maintained the fire until the sun faded outside. It was already dark enough with the rain, but the night that set in outside the longhouse was beyond gloomy. The druid cranked the magical lanterns in the building while everyone came in for dinner, including Taz. The dwarf took over the fire, ensuring everyone was comfortable.
The skittish adventurers drew in on themselves as everyone else fell asleep. Rud snuggled into his bedroll near the fire, drifting off with ease.
###
The rain had let up more than Rud could have hoped the next morning. He wasn’t happy about it, but the adventurers departed before he could protest. The wolves had already left to scout for more monsters. They seemed unconcerned about the mortals and their struggle against the oncoming monsters. But taking the world into his protection would have been impossible. He warned them so that was good enough.
Ban was still asleep. Rud checked on her, topping her energy levels off as she achieved her new rank. Unlike the times when she went to sleep to create an expansion, her ranking rest was strange. Less energy was taken from her reserves than he expected and a constant stream of power flowed out of her. The druid’s magical abilities weren’t good enough to figure out what kind of energy that was, but it didn’t feel bad.
The tea plants were doing fine. They didn’t care about the constant rain or the ice that came with it. He plucked more leaves from them, taking the armful back to his drying house. Once the fire inside that building was going strong, he organized what tea had dried. While he felt his Plant Care skill twitch in response to the care he gave his plants, it didn’t level up. Packaging that tea was still the hardest part but pottery could wait for later. He was content with the amount of tea he had on hand, both for personal use and to sell.
There might have been value in applying enchanted water to plants while it was raining, but Rud viewed it as a waste. He found the nearest bush and headed off to his tower to make his reports. Before calling Hagsrise, he observed all the changes in the area. There was no sign of the monsters that the wolves fought. The monsters that had been moving toward the mortals were out of sight as well, leaving the druid blind as to their location. But the brightness of the dungeons in his vision had dimmed, and he made a note of that. As with all reports he planned to give to the mortals, he couched the statement in vague terms.
Rud scanned the grove for a while but was startled when his radio crackled to life.
“You there, Gladesbale?”
Rud leaned over to the radio, taking the microphone while searching through the grove. He could multitask well enough. “I hear you, Hagsrise,” Rud said, thumbing the radio. “Just dealing with a minor crisis in the grove.”
“When aren’t we dealing with multiple things going wrong?” Hagsrise said with a chuckle.
Rud directed his sight in a grid pattern, searching the farthest he could see to the northwest, cycling between top-down and his normal vision. It was easier to see the tower-generated colors with his own eyes, but harder to get details. There was something within the grove, moving through from south to north, but he couldn’t pinpoint it. He set the microphone down.
“Mint, I might have your monster. There’s this old stump—looks like it was hit by lightning. South of my tower by a few miles,” Rud said.
“I’m on it,” Mint said, speaking into his mind.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Gladesbale? You there?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rud said, finding the microphone again. “I’m here. I’ve got a monster running around my grove.”
The druid once again split his attention between the radio and his farseeing. He felt the skill working through him as he pushed it back to that burned-out stump. Mint entered the area, sniffing the air and taking off in a random direction. He tracked her.
“Woah, really? I guess I remember those early days. Working a new grove is hard.”
“No kidding. We have about ten-billion dungeons around us. Between them and the mortals, everyone has their plates full.”
“Sounds like you have it rough. The dwarves thought we were gods. Well, they still do. They worship me and the giant mushroom.”
It was awesome to have someone to talk to while Rud searched the grove. After he confirmed Mint had killed the rogue monster, he checked on all his mortals. Oak and her party were emerging from the lightning construct dungeon, so he directed Dean to go escort them to the longhouse. He chatted with the Hagsrise keeper and was surprised when his Farseeing skill leveled up. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but it flooded his vision as he was observing the mortals move to the road.
[Skill Gain!]
Your Farseeing skill has increased to level 4!
“Hey. Another level in Farseeing,” Rud said.
“Oh, to be Rank 0 again. I can’t imagine being that weak.”
“Hey, I’m trying my best here. I wasn’t exactly given solid information on what I should be doing.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Hagsrise said, giggling into the radio. “I’ve got some urgent matters of my own to attend to, Gladesbale. But I’m really enjoying our chats, so don’t vanish on me. Alright?”
“And abandon the chance to talk with another person from Earth? Never.”
They both signed off, allowing Rud to focus on Farseeing for a while. The level he gained allowed him to see slightly further into the lake, although it wasn’t close enough to see the island. The rain wasn’t helping with that, though. He could see far enough to the southeast to find signs of battle. Acting on his information, the mortals had engaged the monsters. Signs of a scuffle, abandoned weapons, and monster parts were left behind. He was relieved to find no bodies.
Rud transferred the quick notes he had made to be more understandable. He stowed them in his backpack so they wouldn’t get wet and returned to the longhouse. The druid had tracked Dean’s progress for a while, making sure the adventurers arrived in one piece. As he entered the longhouse, he found them all snuggled around the campfire. Some members of the party displayed burned sections of skin and they were all nursing bowls of soup and cups of tea with a distant look in their eyes.
“Hey, Oak.” Rud approached the group, startling one of them.
“Rud!” Oak said, brightening up. “That was an adventure. And we have a present for you!”
The elf produced a burlap sack. The contents jangled as she placed it down on the table. Rud didn’t need to inspect the contents to know it had some Dungeon Core Fragments inside. From the state of the party, he was certain they wouldn’t have made it out without a healer like Oak. She offered him a pick of the items they pulled out, which he accepted at first. That was part of their agreement, but he found nothing that suited him. There was some unimpressive fighter gear, and nothing like that amazing staff he got last time. Not taking anything, he made it appear it was a bonus for their hard work.
But of course the group brought back a decent amount of decent-quality crystal fragments. Rud accepted those without hesitation, and extended the hospitality of the grove for as long as the group needed it. Their plan was to recover before heading back on the road. They must have had some dimensional storage just like his backpack, and didn’t need to run to Barlgore before heading out again. It was the rain they were waiting for.
Rud had made a silent promise to Ban before he upgraded his Observatory. The tower was something she wanted for him, but the Energy Nodules expansion was for her survival. He wanted to upgrade that expansion after taking care of his farseeing platform. The druid stood near the double doors to the clearing and hesitated for a while. He hobbled out into the rain, pinching his cloak tight over his chest. His intuition on where to upgrade the nodules was correct. He placed the first one against Ban herself, and it melted a moment later. He gained the notification signaling that the expansion had leveled up.
Five more Dungeon Core Fragments and veins of light shot through the ground like lightning. It spread far into the distance. After far too long, Rud realized he was watching the extent of Ban’s root system. He didn’t have long to admire the way her roots glowed, as the upgrade message soon crowded his sight. He was given a list of options to pick from. Unlike some upgrades, each one would be useful. And unlike the other expansions, this one had less options to pick from.
Rud considered the purpose of the Energy Nodules expansion before making his selection. They were a way for Ban to store power, but they also collected power. More power storage was interesting, but he decided that generation was far more important. There were two upgrades that fell in line with that idea and he considered both.
[Nutrition Magnet]
Energy Nodules Upgrade
Description:
Why grow your roots toward nutrient-dense soil when you can bring it to your roots?
Effect:
Increases the efficiency of energy collection with the Energy Nodules expansion by 50%.
Nutrients are drawn toward your roots.
Increasing the amount of efficiency the nodules could produce was great, and drawing nutrients in was a welcome upgrade. Reading this upgrade showed Rud the problem with the energy nodule expansion, though. The ground wouldn’t produce infinite nutrients for Ban to absorb. Given time, it would run out. That rubbed the druid the wrong way. While he was excited to take the upgrade at first, it had sent him searching for other options. Among the ten other upgrades, another stood out. He couldn’t decide if it was outright better than Nutrition Magnet, but found himself gravitating that way.
[Energy Flowers]
Energy Nodules Upgrade
Description:
Root-based nodules are fine, but what about pretty flowers?
Effect:
Reduces the efficiency of the nodules on your roots by 15%.
Energy Flowers appear on your branches. These flowers absorb mana from the air, adding that energy to your Reserve Energy.
Energy Flowers seemed like a dud at first. Reducing the efficiency of the root nodules was bad. But when Rud considered how little energy Ban got from her root nodules, he realized the way forward. The air was beyond rich with mana. He didn’t know if it was the grove or the surrounding area, but the mana was strong enough to generate a constant flow of dungeons. On days when it was high, he could almost feel it stinging his skin. Anyone with attunement to magic could likely feel that sting too.
Ban might not appreciate him making this decision without her, but he selected the Energy Flowers upgrade. Rain fell through the dense leaves above, resulting in a fine spray that penetrated through the druid’s cloak. He watched as small flowers formed on the tree’s branches. Blue buds formed all over her, some opening and other remaining closed. They twinkled in the darkness, flecks of mana visibly being drawn into the center of the flowers.
“That’s a sight,” Rud said, staring up at a shimmering field of blue. Before long it formed into a cloud that rivaled the haze left by the constant rain. The druid hardly noticed how numb his toes had gone as he watched the spectacle.
“What did you do to the tree?”
Rud turned, finding Dean staring up at the Sacred Tree. He didn’t have a response for the wolf. While he could answer that he had purchased a new upgrade, the mundanity of that response made the sight above seem cheap. Instead, he said nothing. Before long, Mint and Sarya were there to watch. The cloud that hovered just under the branches was sucked up by the flowers. Dancing orbs of light traced an intricate pattern through the leaves, only to find themselves on the petal of a flower.
It was a shame that Ban couldn’t watch the display. Although the more Rud thought about it, the more he realized she didn’t have eyes. Perhaps she couldn’t see at all. For all the spectacle of the upgrade, the druid tested to ensure the tree was sucking in a decent amount of energy. While the upgrade wasn’t drawing enough energy to rival that produced by the crystals, it still brought in more than he expected. After an hour of observation, the flowers had gathered about two percent of her reserve energy.
Rud was satisfied with his selection. After sealing another letter for the people of Barlgore with wax, he teleported to the stump grove. The rain wouldn’t last forever. Would it?