Rud sat near the communal fire the next morning. He held the Twig of Ban’tanthein in his hand, inspecting the description several times to find nothing. He had thought the branch would advance when the tree did. Since that was not the case, it fell to him to unlock the item’s mysteries. He pulled his Summerweave cloak around himself, doubling the effects of the fire. Today was another long day of working with the vines. It was a boring task, but a necessary one.

  “First things first!” Rud announced to exactly no one. “The tower!”

  For once, the tower was occupied. Rud found the massive owl Nulsa perched on the table, pecking at the radio. He turned his head, inclining it slightly when the druid entered.

  “Sorry you haven’t gotten your contract yet,” Rud said, standing near the stairs. He didn’t want to encroach on whatever it was the owl was doing.

  “I can wait. I can watch,” Nulsa said, releasing a faint hoot. Rud didn’t doubt that for a second. The owl was the most patient creature in the entire grove. “I come with information.”

  “Excellent.” Rud withdrew his writing material, sliding his chair away from the owl and finding a bare section of the desk. He prepared to write. “Let’s hear it.”

  “The mortals you scared away are from a settlement on the western shores. I flew there myself and found more mortals.”

  Rud squinted then shook his head. He couldn’t be sure, but it was only supposed to be dwarves from some unknown nation and the people from Sparwyn. He couldn’t recall being told that there were other interested parties on the continent. Aiswyn was supposed to be an uninhabited island-continent.

  “That’s troublesome. They had bad intentions when they entered the grove.”

  “Indeed. They’re massing a force for something.”

  “Even more troublesome. I guess we can’t rely on the good nature of the tree huggers forever, huh? Could you bring this information to Mint?”

  “Certainly,” Nulsa said. He gave the radio one last peck before hopping out the door and flying away.

  Rud was left feeling uneasy, but confident all the same. Any mortal that wanted to tangle with the grove would be in trouble. But this was the reason why he hadn’t completed the southern road. Those buttholes would keep approaching from that direction, and he didn’t want to give them a straightforward path. He preferred to watch them get lost in the woods rather than walk on a comfy road all the way to Ban.

  “Maria, how’s it going?” Rud asked, clicking the button on the microphone after turning the radio on. Static shot back at him, but gave him time to complete his notes.

  This was a question for Feather and the mortals in Barlgore. Who were these people, and why had they come here.

  After a long moment of silence, the radio came to life. “I’m here. Just scouting the surrounding tunnels.”

  “Has the monster problem gotten any better?”

  “Not yet. We’re working on it, but we can’t find anyone willing to run the dungeons.”

  Gladesbale Grove was having a similar problem. The mortals in Barlgore were already running the five dungeons, but they were taking them one at a time. Rud had spotted a camp constructed by those people and hoped they could get it under control soon.

  “Have we told Bent?” Rud asked.

  “I’ve tried, but our tree isn’t working with us. Your tree is sapient, right? Just get her to send the message.”

  “She’s ranking up. Which means she’s asleep.”

  “Wow. Trees go to sleep when they rank up? Who knew?”

  The conversation with Maria was as pleasant as ever. Rud excused himself after a while, heading off to work on the construction project instead. He spent the entire day working on the town’s defenses, exhausting himself to where he didn’t want to do anything else for the day. Dean helped him run back and forth twice, but each time the druid’s energy levels seemed to drop further. No amount of tea, Squirrel Grey or not, would help. He lay splayed out in the common area and gazed up at the ceiling.

  There were no adventurers passing through the grove right now. Feather must have put a bounty on the dungeons or something. He didn’t know how much authority the lord held over the people in his town. The groups that had left over the western road were gone and the druid knew exactly what they would find. They would discover a passage to the western shores of the island, and the people that inhabited that area. Or they were looking for something more valuable in the places between. It was hard to say.

  The only thing Rud was certain of was his blends of tea. Once the mortals got their hands on those, everyone would want to buy them.

  ###

  After finishing his morning reports, Rud went to the smelter to take care of some things for Taz. He lit the smelter and headed off to collect more Fairy Peat while he waited for it to heat. If there was another long stretch of rain, the grove would need the fuel stocked. He collected downed branches as he went, depositing those into the longhouse and returning to find his smelter hot enough to get to work.

  Rud accepted the Aspect of Aegael and got to work. First was the copper. Taz had been good enough to transfer the ore to the smelter, leaving it in massive piles outside of the north-facing entrance of the building. The druid wished for several bags of Dungeon Core Fragments to fall out of the sky so he could upgrade the building. With just one smelter, the process was slow. After the fourth pour, the pile seemed much lower. Although it had eaten away at the day, there wasn’t much else to do.

  “Oh. Sarya,” Rud said, stepping from a bush to enter the area occupied by the Sacred Tree. He patted her on the head, scratching her behind the ear. She kicked her leg, unable to control herself. “What are you up to, silly wolf?”

  “I am communing with the tree,” she said, following Rud.

  The tea plants needed some attention. Rud had been too busy bolstering the defenses of the mortals, and had neglected them over the past few days. Even the fire within the drying house had gone out, forcing him to kick-start it with some Fairy Peat. He cut leaves from the tea plants, placing the bundles into his bag as the wolf stuck close behind.

  “Think she’ll wake up soon?” Rud transferred the dried tea leaves to containers, intending to blend and package them later.

  “I don’t know. Do you?”

  Rud shook his head. He wanted some tea before he got back to smelting, so he headed for the longhouse. Sarya followed along. Squirrel Grey was the best blend of tea for him, so he fixed a pot of that on the communal fire. Taz had set up an iron stand with hooks, allowing anyone to hang a teapot above the fire. After allowing the water to boil, the druid introduced the tea leaves and allowed them to steep for a long time. He enjoyed strong tea more than anything, especially with the earthy-sweet blend. The tea with the citrus leaf could be overwhelming if left for too long, hence why the citrus and earthy blend was called Suckerpunch.

  Sarya didn’t care that Rud didn’t have an answer for her. She was content to sit by the fire. Her advancement to Sacred Beast status would take a while. There were elements of her personality that screamed ‘wild beast,’ but others that showed kindness and dedication. Those things would take a while to come out, and Rud had to question Mint’s decision to induct the wolf into the grove. Not because he didn’t like her, but because of how powerful the guardian was.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Power draws power. That’s something Rud remembered reading, but he couldn’t remember where.

  “Ah. The mistress calls,” Sarya said, springing up and scampering away. Rud watched as she nudged the door open with her muzzle before dashing away.

  Rud got back to work in the smelter as soon as he was done with his tea. He labored away, creating stacks of ingots of questionable usefulness. They had a surplus that defied their needs, even if they had a blacksmithing building. But the druid loved to stockpile things, looking over the large piles of ingots with appreciation. He enchanted what he could without overly draining his mana.

  Working on the last of the copper pile, Rud was startled by the flash of a message he wasn’t expecting.

  [Skill Gain!]

  Your Smelting skill has increased to level 5!

  That came with the familiar list of upgrades to pick from. After Rud finished with the batch he was working on, he sat down to review the list. Finding a good upgrade was about looking for synergy or something that would make life easier. With his druid skills, he tried to focus on the synergy aspect. But both upgrades he had taken for his Grove Custodian subclass were about utility. He narrowed the list down based on that idea, only finding one with any amount of synergy. The druid examined the first skill—the one based on synergy rather than utility.

  [Flow of Ore]

  Smelting Upgrade

  Description:

  Why import when you can produce?

  Effect:

  Ore that has been mined locally will produce higher quality ingots.

  This was a selection because they only smelted ore that was local. There had been no importing of ore, and Rud had no plans to do that in the future. The only problem with this upgrade was the vague effect. The ingots he produced already seemed of a high quality. Perhaps someone that worked with metal would know the difference. He moved to the next selection.

  [Bound Furnace]

  Smelting Upgrade

  Description:

  Bigger smelter! Why not!? Much better!!!

  Effect:

  You may select one smelter to bind to yourself. That smelter grows based on the level of your Smelting skill.

  That smelter receives a larger ingot tray, growing with the size of the smelter. This tray cools poured ingots faster.

  One upgrade allowed him to make better ingots while the other would make more. Going with Bound Furnace satisfied an immediate need, while Flow of Ore would satisfy a future one. Rud’s plan was to use most of his ingots to create utility things, like braces for the mine. Which meant he didn’t care about some mythical quality of the ingots, only that he had more. He promised himself to pick the Flow of Ore upgrade upon the next upgrade and went for the Integrated Furnace upgrade.

  After selecting the upgrade, Rud touched the coolest part of the furnace. The tall metal smelter rumbled. There was still molten ore in there, but the upgrade didn’t care. The smelter shot out in every direction. It got wider and taller, rattling as it expanded. It was over in a moment. The druid inspected the built-in ingot tray, finding it to already be too hot to handle. But it was nice, and more than doubled the amount of ingots he could pour at a time.

  “No time like… right now.”

  Rud used the new ingot tray to pour some bars. They cooled far faster than before, allowing him to knock them out of the mold quickly. Eager to test how much ore he could load into the smelter, he cleared out the copper and grabbed his shovel. Scoop after scoop of iron ore went into the smelter after the slag was cleared away. The capacity of the smelter had more than doubled, though.

  There were some magical shenanigans going on with the smelter, though. Rud studied the way it heated, finding that it came to the right temperature slightly faster than the old one. For such a massive hunk of magical metal, that should have been impossible. The ore inside heated more evenly, making it even easier to bring a whole batch to temperature. If he had to guess, this reduced the time he would spend working the smelter by half.

  After marveling at the way the smelter now worked, Rud touched the coolest part of it yet again to inspect the item.

  [Rud’s Smelter]

  Rank 0 Growth Smelter

  Bound to: Rud

  Description:

  A magical furnace bound to Rud.

  Effect:

  Decreased heating time for all Rank 0 ores.

  Decreased slag production for all Rank 0 ores.

  Rud suddenly wanted a growth pickaxe. He wanted everything he owned to be a growth item. But he realized why another person wouldn’t take this upgrade. If a person ever intended to move, they would need to bring the smelter with them. That might not be so difficult considering magical means of transportation—of which he had seen none—but the problem still stood.

  Clearing away the pile of iron ore should have taken another full day. Rud cleared it out with a half-day of work. Some of that inspired smelting was driven by his desire to see his new smelter to work. Some of it came from his need to see the pile of iron go away. It wasn’t pleasant to look at, and represented his inability to get the ore smelted. The result was a massive pile of ingots, neatly stacked against one wall. Some of those ingots were even enchanted with his Imbue Crafted Item spell.

  He couldn’t wait to see the items he could craft once they had a smithy.

  Rud was cleaning himself up in a bucket of enchanted water, washing away the grime from the smelter, when he heard Taz call him.

  “Rud! I could use a hand over here,” the dwarf said, beckoning from afar.

  “Coming!”

  Rud shapeshifted into a squirrel and dashed over, gaining a glaring look from the dwarf. “You don’t have to change into a squirrel every chance you get. Ya know that, right?”

  “Oh, but I do!” Rud said. “If I shapeshift as often as possible, I’ll level my skill. Which means I might get access to more shapeshifting abilities. I’m hoping for a bird so I can scout things well.”

  Taz had stopped in his tracks, staring down at the squirrel with one bushy brow raised. “If you’re saying something, I can’t understand it.”

  Rud shifted back to his Talen Por form. “Nothing,” he lied, not willing to spill his excitement for shapeshifting again. “What’s up?”

  “I’m almost out of lumber, but I need you to hold some boards up while I set them in place.”

  Rud was happy to join the dwarf down in the mine. He spotted a pile of crystals near the entrance, along with more ore that needed to be taken to the smelter. There were even a few piles of gems that Taz had been collecting. The section of the mine he needed help with was the endless sprawl of criss-crossing tunnels down below. This was the southern section of the first wing, according to the dwarf. It was roughly hewn, and only intended to seek out veins of ore and crystals for now.

  “Once we get some metal supports, we’re going to widen these,” Taz said, gesturing to the stonework. “I’m relying on that building upgrade for now. The soft stone one.”

  “This is looking great,” Rud said, pressing both his hands against a beam to hold it against the wall.

  “I’ll get this side,” Taz said, grunting as he pushed the beam in place. It was another wedged beam, but it didn’t want to slide into place. The dwarf shoved his weight against it, finally hitting it with a hammer. Once it was wedged, he hammered a few nails in. “Good thing I built these to be our size. Imagine getting a ladder to do that.”

  “It’s bad enough when I need a ladder to do smelting…”

  “Say, while you’re here… could I get help with something else?”

  “What do you need, Taz?”

  “Just go have a word with those bats. They’ve been getting mad with me. Flying around and biting my ears when I go to get stuff from the cold storage.”

  Rud jumped at the chance to use his Animal Communication skill some more. “Sure!”

  While Taz joined Rud toward the cavern area, he didn’t descend all the way. He waited near the top of the slope, allowing the druid to activate his Clear Communication upgrade. The chatter of the bats hit his ear like a tide.

  “Fools! Befouler! No safe caves left in this world. How dare he!”

  “Hey guys!” Rud said, waving his hands to get the attention of the bats. “Can anyone explain what’s going on?”

  Hundreds of eyes turned to lock onto the druid, glaring from the darkness. The glittered, although there was no source of light. Only the Aspect of Gug gave him the ability to see them at all.

  “Disturbance in the cavern! Disease. Befouler. Death!”

  Rud scratched his chin, trying to piece together what the creatures were saying. The bats were too worked up to say anything that made sense. So he listened. As the bats rambled on about things, the druid figured out what was going on. There was something in the cave that had injured a fellow bat. He spotted that bat on the ceiling, hanging with one wing outstretched.

  “Come down here, you goofball,” Rud said, holding his arm out. He hoped the bat was smart enough to descend.

  “Do not go! He will eat you!”

  “I’m the druid here. I’m going to heal you.”

  There was some debate on if Rud was going to heal or eat the bat. After some back-and-forth, he convinced the injured bat to descend. It flapped through the air, having a sideways tilt to its path. When the creature clasped onto the druid’s arm, he realized how big they were. The bats were a foot tall with horribly long claws on their feet. Even their wings were tipped with sharp claws. It didn’t help that their faces were so hog-like, he had to wonder if they weren’t pig-bats.

  Rud cast the Nature’s Restoration spell on the bat. The room brightened with green light, forcing the bats above to shriek. After a few moments, the wound on the bat’s wing vanished. It flexed the appendage, seeming to nod with approval before taking off again.

  “Savior! He is our savior! Now he will slay the beast!”

  Rud turned his Clear Communication upgrade off, heading out from the mine. He might have saved the bat, but it was dinnertime. Whatever horror lurked in the cavern could wait until tomorrow.