Gladesbale Grove [druid, litrpg, town building, slice of life, cozy]

Rud had no desire to create anything extravagant for his store. The place didn't need a counter, or a place for employees. It only needed enough shelf space to hold his products, and a place for mortals to make donations. The druid wanted to keep the various donation boxes around the grove separated, allowing him to see which ones were the best money-makers… Crystal-makers, whatever.

Tapping his chin near the future site of his shop, Rud hummed to himself. It was west of the bathhouse's boiler room, and would hang over the edge of the main path. That required supports, which wasn't a problem thanks to the massive trees growing nearby. Using Shape Plant to pull in the foundation, the druid considered how big it should be. After doubling the size of the original floor plan, he was satisfied. Wood twisted together, drawn into braids and lacquered to give a smooth finish.

Rud squared off the edges of the building, drawing more material from the nearby trees to create the four posts that would act as the frame. He then wove wood around the edges, leaving room for windows without glass and the door. The best part about making buildings from trees—no matter how twisted they were from their original form—was the roof. After angling wood to create a sloped roof, he allowed the tree to sprout new leaf-bearing branches from the top. An application of Plant Growth later, and dense foliage sprouted from the roof.

For the interior, Rud favored a utilitarian appearance. After hanging a tree-hinged door, he pulled shelves into existence. That's when Construction Magic rolled over to Level 9. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to push his main class to Level 8. But he was getting close. Shelves dominated the center of the room. The druid marked the wood with his magic, detailing what should be on each shelf. He created a box near the entrance, labeling it as the donation bin.

It might have taken almost the entire day, but Rud stood outside the shop and nodded with approval. It was mortal-sized, with an entrance tall and wide enough to accommodate even the biggest of them. Shelves ran along the entire outside of the interior walls, with more organized neatly in the center. The outside looked something between a structure Basil would make, and a bit of Earth flare. The druid made a sign near the door, detailing the rules. He instructed the mortals not to take more than they needed and to pay whatever they wanted in donations. It directed them next door if they wanted a bath, although that would require them to find a spirit in the forest to get the bath going.

Rud wiped sweat from his forehead, letting out a breath. The wind blew from the north, stirring leaves underfoot and sending his cloak billowing. Although his enchanted clothes helped keep his body at an even temperature, a chill still soaked into his bones. This made the idea of a hot bath or some time by the fire in the longhouse more appealing. He chose the longhouse for tonight, eager to get some tea sorted for his shop, but hungry enough to put it off.

"Hey, Major," Rud said, also nodding to Taz as he entered. "You too, dwarf."

"'Dwarf?' Is that all I get from you?" Taz asked, shaking his head. "Now you're best friends with the bear, I see."

"You're both my best friends. I have no enemies," Rud said, plopping down on the bench and dishing out some soup. He noticed more was missing than normal. It was hard to stop his eyes from flicking to the bear.

"The soup is delicious," Major said, not bothering to hide who the soup thief was. Not that it was thieving… But a bear could eat a lot of soup. It took Rud a while to notice the small linen satchel on the bear's side. It looked heavy with nuts and berries.

"I see you've got your bag," Rud said, nodding to the bag.

"Mint got it for me."

"You mean that Mint robbed another poor village." Taz snorted a laugh.

"She gets the stuff from an abandoned village, apparently," Rud corrected. "Although I don't know how much I trust what she says on that matter…"

"She's telling the truth," Ban said, speaking into their minds. "I watched her do it. Just in case she was lying. We don't need trouble with the mortals."

"Trust but verify," Rud said, punctuating the thought by jabbing his finger into the air. "I like it."

"So, I've been practicing in the smith's workshop," Taz said, gazing into the delicious mixture before him. "Getting better… Dedicating myself to the craft, but still nothing."

"No subclass?" Rud asked.

"No, but I can feel something. Someone is reaching out, I just know it," Taz said.

"Are your senses for such things normally keen?" Major asked.

"You're asking me if I'm just imagining it, right?"

"Yes. Not that I meant to offend, or anything…"

"No offense taken. Dwarves have a certain kinship with bears, you know. I view this through the empirical lens."

Rud tapped his chin with his spoon, unsure what he thought about that. But it made sense to give a dwarf a subclass related to smithing. The druid would've been lying to himself and everyone around if he wasn't praying for Taz to get the class. He wasn't passionate about working the forge. No matter how useful it was, he didn't see himself as a blacksmith. But if he abandoned that, smelting, and mining, he would need another profession-based skill to get levels in his subclass. But that meant begging Ban to make a new building… Yuck.

Perhaps that was a selfish thing to think in the wake of Taz's progress toward becoming a blacksmith. Rud trusted the dwarf's intuition for what he felt. He seemed sensitive to things related to gods, whereas the druid was completely numb to them. That was likely a fact borne from being a druid so closely connected to a Sacred Tree.

"I can handle the smelting, but if Taz covers the mining and blacksmithing… I need another profession," Rud said, sighing dramatically. "Please don't make a new building, Ban. I need you awake while we work on integrating the trees."

"You always get worried, don't you?" Ban asked, giggling politely.

"That's my job!" Rud said, sticking his chest out.

"You wouldn't like a building for Forestry, Farming, Wildlife Management, or another fun skill?"

"Don't you tempt me," Rud said, shaking his fist at nowhere in particular. "We need enough tree power to fuel you first. Then we can worry about another profession for my subclass. I'm not as worried about getting it to Rank 1 before my Druid class is Rank 1."

"A wise choice," Taz said with a nod. "There's no point struggling when you can't even hit the mark. I think you explained how that weird subclass works, but it's tied to the buildings, right?"

"Yeah, I would complain but Farseeing is such a useful skill… Ruh-roh, I gotta go make my evening report," Rud said, dashing from the longhouse with his bowl of soup. He had checked in with Maria briefly that morning, but the evening report was far more useful. As the sun dipped lower, the energy was at its most powerful. Flecks of the twin moons—apparently exploded by wizards at some point in history—poked over the horizon as daylight faded. The druid clicked on his radio after accepting the tower's aspect.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The night was swirling with magical energy. A powerful gust of magic blew from the frost-bitten island, washing over the massive lake to freeze sections solid. Wind magic gathered above, portending a storm or perhaps just powerful gusts. It was hard to tell with the wind. And dungeon magic swirled like dust devils in the south, sweeping from a place far southern still and stirring up future mayhem. But tonight was calm. The golden light of dusk filtered through the trees above, partially blinding Rud as he made his notes for the day. At least the adventurers had dealt with the dungeon problem. For now.

"Maria here. Was starting to think you wouldn't call."

"Awesome news to be shared," Rud said, tapping his pen on the piece of parchment. There were a few things he needed to note, but they seemed to have fled his mind after her voice came over the radio. "I discovered how to make peanut butter. So, you can have that jar of peanut butter you've always wanted."

"Really?"

"No. But I found some hazelnuts, and something I think is supposed to be salmonberries. Oh, and Basil gifted me some awesome plants that glow in the dark."

"That's not nearly as exciting as peanut butter. You know that, right?"

"How hard could it be to make peanut butter? I guess you'd have to find peanuts first… We don't even have sugar here. Unless I can process my sweet tea leaves into sugar."

"Sounds like you've had an exciting day," Maria said, releasing a labored sigh. "Meanwhile I'm getting more bored by the day. Funny since I was content for twenty years. Then this goofy Talen Por shows up and gives me hope."

Rud laughed. He was a goofy Talen Por, wasn't he?

"Don't tell me you didn't have hope before I showed up."

"I was happy to go through the motions. But you got me excited about visiting other groves. Just a vacation, you know? Maybe something along the seaside."

"Well, I have a boreal forest if you wanna come visit. Lots of swampy spots. Cold as anything. But the biting insects don't seem to be around… Perhaps because we're so cold."

"I'm not sure if you know it, but you're not selling Gladesbale to me."

"Hey, they didn't put me in charge of tourism. But I have a few tourists. Which is cool."

Things must have been very boring in Maria's grove. Rud wondered what kinds of things she got up to. Those day-to-day things that kept her busy. He was thankful for the freedom he had in Gladesbale. Being the custodian brought him a kind of freedom he could have never expected before being transported to this planet. The other custodians would experience the joys of the other groves before he was done.

The conversation rolled on for a bit. Rud smiled as he looked up from his notes, spotting Nulsa waiting to deliver his nightly message to the mortal town. The owl had become a fixture in the tower, although that was to be expected. Rud had met the Sacred Beast there for the first time. It might have been the allure of conversation, or the magical energies that flooded forth from the tower. When Nulsa took off, Maria followed.

Rud shifted into his squirrel form, jumping from the window and gliding through the forest. Rather than passing through the nearest dense patch of vegetation, he enjoyed the feeling of the cold air rushing over his fur. The shards of the moons glittered in the night's sky, struggling to light anything as they caught little of the sun's light. The grove's floor was a sprawl of darkness, light barely filtering through the dense canopy above. Insects had started their nightly song, filling the forest with a constant drone.

The druid flew from the tower, back to his mushroom home. He had to climb trees to get height again, but enjoyed the nighttime trip. When he returned home, he lit a fire in his wood stove, shutting his door to trap as much heat as possible. Tomorrow would be a day where he used his drying building as much as possible. Dried meat, fruit, and roasted hazelnuts were on the menu. Assuming Major could collect a great deal of supplies, they would be in business.

The predicted wave of adventurers would be here soon, rolling through the grove to the western reaches. Rud snuggled into bed, listening to the sound of the fire crackling. A comforting warmth spread throughout the building, seeping through the covers and banishing away the chill that had settled in on his nose.

###

Rud spent his mornings the way he normally did. He started by tending to his crops, selecting leaves from the tea plants for drying. The lightbulb plants were doing much better than yesterday. Given a night to soak in the energy of the grove and recover from their forced growth, the plants had flourished. He selected a few choice limbs for propagation. Once the stock of lightbulbs was sizable, he could seed them along the path.

A fire crackled in the drying house shortly after Rud had placed all the tea leaves out. With no idea how to dry the Fish Berries, he found a tray and set them in the room. It might work, but there was no harm in experimentation. Thankfully, Major took his job seriously. The stacks of hazelnuts and berries in the shop were expansive, and there was no way he could hope to get through all of them without significant effort. With morning chores sorted, he made his morning report at the Observatory before deviating.

"Mira!" Rud shouted, gliding through the air in his squirrel form. He spotted the catgirl—a commander for the logging expedition from Barlgore—cupping her chin near the grove's edge. Just above her head, he shifted back into his true form and fell onto her, wrapping his arms around her. "Been a long time!"

Mira grimaced, patting Rud on the back after the pair had tumbled to the ground. "Yeah. Good to see you too."

Rud removed himself in time, standing back to assess the woman. She looked about the same, perhaps a little more tired than normal. "How is the logging business going?" he asked.

"Things are calming down in town," Mira confirmed, dusting herself off as she rose to her feet. "Care to explain the cursed trees you've created?"

"The trees themselves are not cursed." Rud turned gesturing to the cursed object prisons he had created. "The things inside are, though. Cursed objects."

Mira's jaw clenched shut, the muscles bunching near the edges of her face. "You're serious?"

"I'm purifying them, but it will take some time. Anyway, do you guys have enough trees?"

"We have enough for now." Mira couldn't take her eyes off the cursed trees, and Rud couldn't blame her. Even with the magic sealed away, they emitted a sense of foreboding. "Everyone is busy taking care of your dungeons."

"I lay no claim to such dungeons," Rud said, waving the thought away. "They are what they are."

Mira cracked a smile for the first time since the stilted conversation started. "That's good to hear."

"You should hike into the grove," Rud siad, jabbing his finger back toward the thick treeline of Gladesbale. The area out here was sparse compared to the inside. The trees were sparse, almost all grown by Rud himself. Considering that thought, there were a few trees that needed to be grown to full size. But doing so outside of the grove's sphere of influence was a pain, so he focused on growing those he could reach from within the sphere.

"That's a long walk," Mira said, offering a sheepish smile.

"We got a bear," Rud said. Bears were a good selling point. "And a bath."

"You've been busy, haven't you?" Mira asked. "I'm here to assess the state of the lumberyard, though. We don't need as much wood, but we still have demand. Especially with how cold it's been."

"Whatever you need, just let me know." Rud winked, tapping out a little dance. "My druidic magic is getting stronger."

"I see that." Mira made the sign of reverence for the spirits, bowing before making an excuse to leave.

It didn't pass Rud's notice that she was busy. Perhaps under too much pressure. It was hard not to think of himself back on Earth. Going through the motions of stress just to keep a job. If he could ever convince her to head into the grove, he knew she would relax. But it wasn't his job to force mortals to take a day off. Especially not when he didn't have the ability to take a day off. Not because he didn't have the time, but because those old workaholic habits just wouldn't die.

Instead of worrying about it, Rud grew a few trees near the grove, drawing on the power bestowed on him and sending them jabbing skyward. The Spiritual Infusion upgrade made the Plant Growth spell very powerful. He could draw on Ban's power to grow plants, causing plants to shoot through three or four stages of growth, rather than one.

With nothing else to distract him from his goals, Rud turned his attention to the trail mix. It was time to figure out how to roast hazelnuts.