Rud scampered up a tree, resting on the boughs as Mint growled below. She had taken him to the western road that led out of the grove. The open fields stretched far in the distance, punctuated by the mountains poking over the horizon. After a few moments of waiting, a group of four figures appeared in the distance. The druid had to squint, but he could almost make them out. A few breaths later, and a larger group appeared behind them.

  “Is that Barrow?” Rud asked.

  “Indeed. They are being pursued by… something,” Mint said. She sniffed the air, shaking her head. “I can’t tell if they’re monsters or people.”

  “Why not both?” Rud asked. “Can you take them?”

  “Naturally.”

  The pair waited until Barrow was in shouting range. Rud shifted into his normal form. “Keep running, buddy! You got this!”

  Barrow screamed back, his voice quavering as he trudged over the uneven terrain. The others following behind him screamed just as loud. But as the group drew close, Rud could see more details about their pursuers. They looked humanoid, but he doubted they were human. Their features came into view, revealing green skin, muscular builds, and sparse clothing.

  “Orcs,” Mint growled.

  Rud heard something land beside him and looked to spot Nulsa. In a moment, both Sarya and Dean assembled by Mint’s side.

  “Observing or defending?” Rud asked the owl.

  “Defending if need be. I still don’t have my contract, but… why not? Who doesn’t hate the orcs?”

  Rud didn’t know what the orcs were or why he should hate them. But if the animals didn’t like them, he didn’t like them. Barrow and his group rushed past the line of wolves. The druid climbed down the tree, turning away from the battle that erupted outside of the grove. He didn’t care to see the orcs get torn to shreds. His plan was to ask if they were sapient beings later. The druid trudged over to the bedraggled group, preparing to weave his healing magic.

  “Welcome to Gladesbale. I’ll be your surgeon today,” Rud said, chuckling to himself. The entire group had sprawled on the wooden pathway, heaving breath. “Minor cuts and all that… Ah, this one got hit with an arrow!”

  “I think it was a sling. Or a blowgun,” the adventurer said, clutching their arm.

  Rud cast Nature’s Restoration, waving his staff through the air so the shimmering light left a pleasing trail. The adventurer breathed a sigh of relief, and the druid moved on to another patient. They weren’t injured so much as they were exhausted from running.

  “Thank you, great spirit,” Barrow said, once he had caught his breath.

  The human adventurer had seen better days. He had dark circles under his eyes, and hadn’t washed himself for days. Everyone in the group looked emaciated, and didn’t have the willpower to stand up. Once they were all healed of their minor wounds, Rud stepped through the bushes to get them some food and water. He returned with four bowls of soup and two buckets of enchanted water. Once the food was placed before them, they perked up and ate ravenously.

  “Tell me your tale, Barrow,” Rud said, sitting on the wooden path and wrapping his cloak around himself. His ears twitched as he heard the screams of the orcs. The wolves were taking care of it. And Nulsa, he guessed.

  Barrow looked up from his bowl, chunks of meat hanging in his beard. “The west sucks.”

  “We stumbled into an orc camp,” another adventurer said. “How long ago was that?”

  “Four days,” Barrow said. “We’ve been running ever since. They were relentless.”

  Rud gave the group time to finish their food. He considered what to say to make them feel better, but realized nothing he could conjure would ease their troubled minds. Food and rest would be better than anything, and they had plenty of that within the grove. Good thing Ban had taken the Root Spears upgrade. Just in case some orcs made it within the trees. If the orcs were anything like mortals, they would get lost. At least there was that.

  Once Barrow and his companions were ready to move, Rud led them down the road. There was no reason for them to stay on the edge of the grove, listening to the sounds of wolves tearing orcs apart.

  “What is an orc?” Rud asked as they walked.

  Although he had been healed, Barrow walked with a limp. Rud suspected there was a broken bone somewhere. But his spell wasn’t good enough to cure that.

  “They’re like beastfolk and monsters in a way. The traits they share with beastfolk are that they are like the other mortal races. They’re like monsters because they’re created by the system.”

  “But unlike monsters because they aren’t generated in areas of high magic. They’re the opposite,” another adventurer said. “They come into being where other mortal races aren’t.”

  Rud could breathe a sigh of relief. He had feared that the orcs were sapient. As long as they were magical things, he would rubberstamp the wholesale slaughter of the pack. Even setting that aside, they were chasing after the mortals. That was a seriously uncool move.

  “Exactly. We expected to encounter them. But that tribe was massive.” Barrow blew out a steady breath. “They spotted us before we could get close to their camp. So much for stealth.”

  “Did you learn anything valuable?” Rud asked. “What was the point of the trip?”

  “Scouting,” Barrow said. “I know there were other adventuring teams heading out. Have you seen them?”

  “I haven’t,” Rud said. “Should we be concerned?”

  “They might have gone a different way… At least the guardian will shred the orcs. The other teams will have an easy time returning to the grove.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Rud was content to listen to the stories the adventurers told as he escorted them back to the Sacred Tree. When they arrived, a fire and infinite soup was waiting for them in the longhouse. Each of them rushed inside, collapsing by the central hearth. Some fell asleep right away, while others stared with wide eyes at the ceiling.

  “Rest will sort them out.” Rud added some branches to the fire before he left. By the time he reached the door, everyone in the party was snoring away.

  The wolves had made quick work of the orcs. Rud appeared near the grove’s edge, watching as Sarya moved between the dead creatures. He suspected she was collecting Monster Cores, but realized he didn’t know enough about the topic. Could orcs produce cores? But a cloud of prismatic energy was rising from the field of battle. The orcs were evaporating into that light. Weird. The druid approached Mint, nudging her in the side.

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  “How did that go?” Rud asked.

  “The orcs were tired from their run. They posed little threat to the grove.”

  Rud doubted that. It wasn’t a matter of a single orc being too strong, but the quantity of the orcs that had approached the grove. If they were anything like fantasy orcs from Earth, they would have minds only for destruction. The druid found himself concerned, even if Mint’s words soothed his spirit. So long as she smoothed things over, he assumed the orcs were more dangerous than expressed.

  “Is this another thing we need to deal with?”

  “No. We’ll be fine within the grove.”

  Rud had the urge to run off to the tower and contact Maria. A soft hoot drew his attention to the branch of a tree. Nulsa had landed there and was looking down at the group.

  “What an interesting development,” the owl said.

  “Our newest non-member was useful in battle,” Mint said, not looking up to meet eyes with the owl. “Even if he isn’t a wolf.”

  “You cannot build your grove around animals bound to the ground. Those of us who can conquer the sky will aid you more than you could imagine.”

  Mint only offered a growl in response, eyes still locked down the road. Rud didn’t have the impression that Mint was a wolf-only kind of gal, but there it was. She would be even more angry when he tried to recruit the bear to their cause. Compared to the other groves he had heard about, the Gladesbale Grove was turning into a menagerie. One dwarf, three wolves, an owl, and a bear. Well, that wasn’t so bad. The animal-based Sacred Beasts in this world were powerful enough. And they were nice.

  This was a problem that sorted itself out quicker than Rud had expected. With Ban still down, he was happy with the way things had played out. Once Nulsa and Mint were done glowering at each other, he took the nearest bush to the tower. After accepting the Aspect of Bent, he used his Farseeing skill to scan through the grove. The mortals had taken out another dungeon. Monsters were tangled in one line of his bramble vines, and a group of adventurers were taking them out from afar.

  Rud clicked his radio on and thumbed the button on the microphone. “Rud to Maria,” he said. “Are you there?”

  The radio crackled back for a while. Rud set down the microphone as he scanned his vision over the grove. He centered his sight on the area where the orcs had been killed, finding a unique energy signature he could lock onto. He was surprised to see that it was a more noticeable color than the normal monsters, allowing him to do a quick scan of the forest. As he had expected, a few orcs had slipped past in the fight.

  “Nulsa, could you do me a favor?” Rud asked.

  The druid waited a beat before realizing that Nulsa wasn’t part of the bond with Ban. The other Sacred Beasts could hear him when he called them, but only because they had formed a pact with Ban.

  “Dean, there are a few orcs that slipped through. Could you snag them?”

  “Where?” Dean spoke into Rud’s mind.

  Three orcs had slipped into the grove. It was hard to see how they had done it considering how aggressive Mint was. But they had delved into the forest, finding themselves lost almost immediately. The creatures stuck together, skirting the edge of the western boundary. The newest wolf in the grove was on the case, breaking off from his current task to intercept the orcs. Every time Rud used the tower, he was reminded how awesome it was.

  “Thought I heard you hollering, Rud.” Maria’s voice came in over the radio, washing over the room with a wave of static. “What’s up?”

  “Just had some orcs roll up on my grove. I was wondering if you had any information on them.”

  “Oh! You’ve seen orcs now, huh? What do you think?”

  “Not much. Looking for any information I can find on them.”

  “There aren’t many orcs underground, buddy. All I know is what I heard from others.”

  Maria explained what she knew, which wasn’t much. She said the same things he had been told before, shedding no light on the situation. Rud spent his time listening politely, but split his attention between the conversation and his Farseeing ability. He watched a group of adventurers fight a bear monster outside of a dungeon and wondered how a person could tell the difference between the monster version and a real one. The monsterized one—generated by the dungeon—moved just like a real bear. There might have been a shimmer of magic on their fur, but it was hard to tell through the confusing view provided by the tower.

  “Hard to say if orcs around your grove mean anything, though. We’ve been dealing with system-generated races like that for twenty years.”

  “Good to know this is permanent,” Rud said.

  “Both your guardian and your tree are going to level. You’ll be fine!”

  Rud knew he would be fine, but the reassuring words meant a lot to him. Every time he talked to another custodian, he felt better about his situation. Looking out over the forest made things even better. He chatted with Maria for some time before letting her go. She had her own fires to put out anyway. But the druid only had his tea plants to tend to. He shapeshifted into a squirrel and left the area, returned to Ban and half-expecting her to wake up as he approached. When nothing happened, he got to work on the Toeknocker barrier.

  The problem with Toeknocker mushrooms was that they wanted to grow in dark places. Rud had to find the darkest spot near the clearing to plant the mushrooms, and even then it was questionable whether they would survive. The extremely hard mushrooms grew in rocks, but those rocks were surrounded by soil. It was the only way he could transport them out of the cave, but their ability to adapt to the new environment was questionable.

  Rud worked his magic for a few hours, growing and shaping the mushrooms to create a wall. He started near the south-facing section of the clearing. Instead of removing the trees that got in his way, he used his Shape Plant spell to weave the two plants together, creating even stronger fortifications. It wasn’t long after shaping the first few mushrooms before the druid saw how damaging direct sunlight was for them. The sections of the mushroom exposed to the sun withered away, releasing a strange goop that smelled like broccoli.

  The only way to keep the Toeknockers from wilting away was to seal them with Lacquer, which was easy enough to think about. But finding ladders high enough to cover his mushroom walls was a pain. It took another hour, but the druid had formed one-quarter of the total wall he needed. For now, he was happy to supplement what he had with some bramble vines, which were very easy to work with. The vines would grow with direct sunlight or no sunlight. The hearty little plants didn’t care. Well, they weren’t little anymore. Not after a few applications of Plant Growth.

  Rud placed signs around the brambles, hoping that no unwitting mortal would fall into them. The next step for these defenses would be to make the vines living. But the spell still hadn’t come. That was fine with the druid. He returned to the longhouse when the day was getting late. While Barrow was awake and stoking the fire, the other adventurers were still out. He stood upon seeing Rud, sneaking across the room and holding a finger up to his lips.

  “I hate to think what would have happened without you,” Barrow said, urging Rud outside. “Sorry. They need sleep.”

  “No worries. I’m sure you need the rest.”

  “I can’t sleep anymore,” Barrow said, stretching. “What a misguided adventure. I should have figured we’d be in trouble the moment we stepped out of the grove.”

  “Hopefully, someone pays you for that information.”

  “Absolutely. We’ll be handsomely rewarded. I might suggest we place a settlement on the far side of the grove.”

  “Good plan. Maybe a fort.”

  “That’s even better!”

  “Wait until you see what I did to Barlgore,” Rud said, leaning against the building casually.

  Barrow had a fearful expression on his face for only a moment. “What happened?”

  “I encased the town in thorny vines. Gave it some druidic flare.”

  “Ah. So long as you didn’t burn it to the ground.”

  “And why didn’t you tell me Elmera had a fancy tower? Is she important?”

  “Very important.” Barrow closed his eyes, nodding with a smile on his face. “It never came up.”

  Rud was certain of one thing. His manic behavior of staying ahead of stuff had served him well. Gathering fragments for Ban and searching for baddies before they came had worked well. There was no reason to let up. Even if there wasn’t a problem in sight, he would do everything he could to forestall future problems. No matter what happened, he would defend the grove.