“Should’ve built a wall of iron!” Taz shouted.

  Rud stood, leaning against his pick and giving the dwarf a look. Rud had spent the previous day maintaining the things within the grove, eager for Ban to awaken. But she didn’t, leaving him feeling aimless. It was the next morning within the mine. Taz’s system of drains had ensured it wasn’t flooded, and each new section of the mine he created was a bounty of ore and crystals. But he wasn’t impressed with the druid-inspired wall. And that was the only reason the druid had come to the mine.

  “Well, I think it’s cool,” Rud said, releasing his pick and heading for the entrance. As usual, the dwarf didn’t care. Maybe Hagsrise would be more interested in the creative use of druidic magic.

  The mortals that Dean had scared off didn’t return. Rud couldn’t find them, and he assumed his Farseeing skill was good enough to spot them. The situation with the dungeons hadn’t changed. As the druid clicked on his radio, flipping through the channels at random before settling on the one belonging to Hagrise, he documented what he saw.

  “Gladesbale to Hagsrise.” Rud clicked the button with his thumb, being as lazy as possible while taking his notes. “Hope you didn’t kill all your dwarves.”

  “Not all of them.” Hagsrise’s voice came back with a series of crackles.

  Rud was absolutely certain this wasn’t a real radio. But he had trouble remembering that sometimes. “Good to hear. Is everything good over there?”

  “Down here, you mean. Mostly. I didn’t confront the dwarves about their drinking problem. We had a series of monster attacks that threw me off.”

  “Really?” Rud’s sight snapped back into his eyes, leaving the frosted shores of that strange island. The sound of cracking ice he had imagined still lingered in his mind.

  “Yeah. We’re talking waves like I’ve never seen. We had to muster all the defenders within our grove to keep them back. Including Gug.”

  How did one muster a worm to defend anything? Rud imagined the spirit she was talking about was large. Maybe it rolled around on enemies, crushing them. He shook the thought away.

  “That’s weird. Because we’re having some monster problems of our own. We’ve had two new dungeons spring up in the past month. Make that four. I forgot the ones to the north.”

  Hagsrise was silent for a long while. Rud held the microphone in his hand, willing the radio to produce a message. He was so intent on that voice arriving but was startled when her voice crackled in over the radio.

  “This might be some information Bent needs.”

  “Interesting. But how do we get a message to him?”

  “First, it would be easier to relay the message if others had built Observatories. I’m certain at least one other grove has one, but they leave their radio off. Ugh. This is annoying.”

  A communication system for all the groves would be nice. Rud didn’t know why the Observatory didn’t come default with every grove. Then again, this was all some long-term experiment by Bent. The stag didn’t know what he was doing from the start, but Rud suspected an element of all the groves since he got here. Bent wasn’t trying to create the perfect grove. He was trying to recreate the elements present in his own. Perhaps that had distracted him, making all groves non-standard.

  Rud blew out a steady breath. There was a lot of work to do if this problem affected more than one grove. It meant that the problem would only get worse. Which meant it might be time to make good on wrapping those dungeons in brambles. At least until the mortals could get to them.

  “Do you have mortals supporting you? To clear the dungeons?” Rud asked.

  “Not really. We’re in this weird underground place. The caverns are connected all over the place, but the nearest permanent dwarf settlement is pretty far. We only have contract dwarves here. ”

  “At least you can take shelter here. If you really need to. I’m sure my tree could open a portal.”

  “You’re sure?” Hagsrise laughed. “Look at you. Wearing your big boy pants. Defending the groves.”

  “I’m just offering some warm tea and a place to stay. That’s all.”

  “How kind of you.” Hagsrise trailed off, remaining silent for quite some time.

  Rud checked on his dungeons while she was gone. There was just as much activity as last time. Several monsters had emerged, but Mint was keeping them at bay. But the druid could see where this was going. It was almost as if the dungeons were creating more dungeons to the north to distract her. That gave them time to attack the mortals.

  “You still there?”

  “Yeah, I was just thinking about something. We’ve been using callsigns.”

  “Oh yeah… I guess I didn’t notice.” Rud lied about that. Every time they used a callsign, he felt cool. Like he was a trucker on the open road.

  “Would you mind if I told you my name?”

  Rud felt his heart jump, but couldn’t figure out why. He recalled the time when he met Jim, another custodian. Before that meeting, he thought the other custodians were just people from this world. But another Earthling? That changed a lot. The reason he sat at the radio for so long was because Hagsrise was a familiar line back to that old life. He didn’t want to return to it, but there she was. A reminder of the past. Of the future? She was from the future, so that was weird.

  Rud shook his head, a crackle of static bringing him out of his stupor. “Yeah, yeah. That’s fine.”

  “Well… You have to promise to give me yours.”

  “Of course. You can call me either name. Shawn on Earth and Rud here.”

  “Ooooh. Your guardian gave you a new name? Gug tried to name me Glorp. Nice to meet you, Rud. I’m Maria.”

  “You too, Maria.”

  There was a human face in Rud’s mind now, but he knew that couldn’t have been true. “So, which body did they give you? Hopefully you’re not a worm.”

  “Oh, you’re going to make fun of me for this. I don’t want to say.”

  “Come on. When Mint came to gather me, I thought she was cosplaying as a samurai. I told her I wanted to be an elf because of that. She said they didn’t exist here. Well, she got me a Talen Por body.”

  Another long stretch of silence from the radio. After a beat, Maria came back laughing. “You’re not going to believe me. I swear to god I’m a Talen Por.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Rud laughed into the radio. He didn’t believe her, of course. “Oh yeah? If you’re a Talen Por like me, what are they called here?”

  “People of the forest,” she said plainly. “Or those who smell, depending on who you ask.”

  It was Rud’s turn to provide extended silence. He knew about the hippie part, but stinking? He didn’t stink. “You’re joking. Aren’t you?”

  “Sorry, fellow stinker. We’re a bit stinky.”

  “I take baths!” Rud shouted.

  “Bathe all you want. You can’t clean your ancestral stink away.”

  Rud felt his concern for the other groves grow after what Maria said. They chatted for a while, but he had work to do. The druid signed off, intending to rope Dean into helping him with the dungeon situation. The first leg of his work would be to encircle more of the mortal town with brambles. After that, he would do the same thing to the dungeons. Between those tasks, he wanted to practice his new healing magic. It would have come in handy when he was dealing with that injured bird.

  “I hope the dungeons and the sick bird aren’t connected,” Rud said, shapeshifting into a squirrel and burying a nut.

  Dean was essential for his plan to help Barlgore out.

  “Onward, my steed!” Rud clung to the wolf’s fur, regretting his decision to go with the squirrel form again. He had placed as many of the bramble vines in his pack as he could without destroying his hands.

  The duo approached the walls, and it was time for some inspection. The guards on those walls only nodded down at them, not assuming the same aggressive posture as they did the last time. Rud checked the health of his existing brambles using his Plant Care skill, finding them to have adapted to the area well enough. There was evidence that someone had watered the plants, which was good. It would be hard to overwater them as the large plants seemed thirsty. The druid was happy to see the locals taking an interest in the defense of their town.

  Right before Rud canceled his shapeshifting form, it hit Level 4. One more level until he got to see the upgrade potential of that skill. The timer was ticking. He got to work on the north-facing section of the town, finding that it had more bends and angles than the one on the west. With a few breaks, he was able to cover the entire length, and then some of the eastern wall. But the effects of being away from the grove were withering, forcing him back to safety.

  Rud clung to Dean’s fur, almost unable to keep hold of his fur. “Might have pushed it too far, buddy.”

  “But look,” Dean said. Rud could barely hear him over the wind whipping by. “They’re sending adventurers to the dungeons.”

  “That’s a start.”

  Dean brought Rud to the longhouse. Taz had been good about keeping the soup up. There was a hot bowl of soup and a warm fire waiting for him. The weather might not have been sour, but the wind whipped fiercely while riding the wolf.

  “Can I assume you don’t need me?” Dean said, edging toward the door.

  “Yeah. Thanks for the help.”

  Being outside the grove felt like something was drawn away from Rud. Like when he spent too much mana in too short of a time. There was something in his chest that needed to recharge, and only Ban’s calming aura could provide it. He recovered by the fire, feeling better within the hour, and headed off to check on the tree. After adding a few crystals, he inspected her.

  [Ban’Tanthein]

  Rank 1 Level 1 Sacred Tree

  Upgrade Energy: 0%

  Reserve Energy: 75%

  Energy Nodule Efficiency: 90%

  Upgrade:

  [Thicket Travel]

  Expansions:

  [Mining Workshop]

  [Smelting Workshop]

  [Energy Nodules]

  [Observatory]

  That’s how levels worked. Each time a person advanced to a new rank, they were sent back to Level 1. Nothing was taken away, this was just the system’s way of tracking progress through the ranks. Rud was certain there was some interesting perks that came with advancing in rank. He suspected he would gain access to Rank 1 versions of all his spells. Ban hadn’t selected the upgrade for her advancement either. If it was half as useful as Thicket Travel he would foam from the mouth to get it.

  “You’re doing good, tree,” Rud said. He looked around before leaning in to whisper. “But if you pick another expansion before I’m ready… I’m gonna be real mad.”

  The statement was mostly a lie. Rud wanted a blacksmithing building in town. He had neglected both his Mining and Smelting skills in favor of Farseeing. Seeing far was more than that, though. It had become the thing he relied on every day. While he had no confidence in himself to swing a hammer—or make anything useful—he was excited for the building.

  Rud had the good sense to check the tower before heading off to add horrific brambles to the dungeons. Dean was fighting monsters in that area, clearing it out so the druid would have an easy time with the task. He waited in the tower for a while, looking at the radio and feeling the temptation to hammer that button on the microphone. But the wolf was done with his work, clearing the way.

  The dungeons had grown in a pattern along the southern edge of the grove. Considering the placement, Rud decided it wasn’t a coincidence. They didn’t run in a straight line, but might as well have. It was close enough for him to think they had been placed intentionally, hugging the edge of the grove as though avoiding the power within. The druid selected a spot near the first dungeon, which was farthest to the west. He planted his bramble vines right outside of the entrance then watched as the plant withered.

  “Too close?” Rud asked, scanning the area.

  The area around the dungeon wasn’t filled with dead plants. The plants that grew there were sparse, and the ground was oddly sandy. But for the bramble to have died so quickly, there must have been some magical nonsense going on. Rud selected a less valuable plant to transplant, finding the safe distance for his brambles to be about one-hundred feet. This presented a problem. The brambles wouldn’t catch the monsters as they were coming out of the dungeons. The best he could do was run lines of brambles north to south, hoping that the creatures got stuck as they marched for the mortals.

  Fortunately, it was far easier to create these defensive structures near the grove. He had access to the Grove Weaver upgrade, and drew on both that upgrade and Druidic Attunement to control the aspects of his spells. While he was unsurprised that his Construction Magic went from Level 7 to 8, he was shocked at how long it took. The road to get a skill up was growing increasingly difficult.

  Rud paused his work after finishing a line of vines. He waited for his mana to regenerate for a bit then had a great need to test the healing spell out. It took a lot to psych himself up, but he dragged his hand over a spike on the plants, gaining an impressively shallow wound.

  “I’m gonna die,” Rud said, wincing.

  “You barely scratched yourself,” Dean said, coming from nowhere. Because that’s what wolves did.

  “If I die, you can have my acorns.” Rud prepared to cast his newest spell, Nature’s Restoration. It was just as easy to cast as any druid spell. Orbs of green light flashed around his injured palm. The injury didn’t heal right away. But it stitched itself together over the course of minutes.

  Dean grumbled something, looking over the wound as it healed. “Interesting magic. Can you use it on me?”

  “Maybe. Got any boo-boos?”

  “Any what?”

  “Injuries.”

  The wolf turned, revealing a shallow boo-boo on his side. Rud had to wait for his mana to restore, but his staff made quick work of that. Not only did the spell cure the wound, but it regrew some hair! Neat!

  “If only I had the regenerative abilities of Mint. I’ve seen her flesh knit back together in moments.”

  “Fancy guardian stuff,” Rud said, nodding. He rolled his shoulders, eager to get back to work.

  While Rud gave himself a tough day with all the brambles, he left the easier stuff for last. It didn’t take long to form some vine barriers while being so close to the grove. He didn’t feel lightheaded as he went through the process, and Dean seemed satisfied with the placement of the walls of thorns. When he was done, Rud went to the Sacred Tree to check. But she wasn’t awake yet. He instead headed to the tower to make sure everything was calm.

  Rud heard footsteps ascending the stairs, turning when they approached the top to find Taz marching up. He had two bowls of soup, one in either hand, and a sheepish smile on his face.

  “Getting late, druid. Not sure how you manage those stairs all the time.”

  “I turn into a squirrel and run up the side.”

  “Of course you do,” Taz said, handing the soup over.

  The perpetual stew… soup—whatever it was—was normally delicious. Rud had been worried that being over such a hot fire would burn the bottom of the contents, but that never happened. Sometimes the dwarf would add something extra to the mix, sending the flavor off for a while. But it had been a boon to both the denizens of the grove, and traveling mortals. They had seen less of those people in the past few days, and Rud was getting worried about Barrow and his team.

  “So, are you happy with the grove? Happy with your class, at least?”

  “Happier than a dwarf in a mine.” Taz laughed, finding a chair and falling into it. “You don’t know much about being shunned by the gods, do you?”

  “Of course not. I’m a druid. No gods. Only trees and wolves.”

  Taz laughed again, choking on his soup. After he regained his composure, he continued. “I thought I was doing everything right. Working the mine. Worshiping when I needed to. Falling in with that group… Well, anyway I was branded an apostate for one transgression. You know what this grove means to me?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Freedom.”