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

Now that things had calmed down in the grove and Jim joined the daily custodian chat, Rud felt inspired. If you thought about it, the only thing stopping the groves from being connected was him. His efforts to provide the sacred tree with enough power would be the defining action that brought them all together.

That's the way he justified it in his mind, to work even harder.

"If you were to gain a rank," Dean said, watching as Rud felled more trees, "perhaps you could do this quicker."

"Do you know anything about the ranking system?" Rud asked, using his Prune spell to cut deep into the trunk of another large tree.

"I know it will make you stronger. I know that's part of the reason why Mint is obsessed with the labyrinth," Dean said, snorting hard enough to disturb the leaves beneath the spot where he lay, "Other than that, I don't have access to the same ranking system."

Of course, the wolf was right. Gaining a rank had been on Rud's mind for a while now, and he was actively working on it. In fact, one skill had just hit rank 1, and there were only two more to go. Both were incredibly close to rolling over. It would happen any day, so long as he kept up with his practice. Holding light conversations with whatever animals would come near, and casting Growth Magic on just about everything he could see, would ensure the druid's skills were sent to the new rank.

Chopping disease trees down was the perfect task to increase that school of magic, though. For every tree he felled, he planted a new one and grew it as far as his magic would allow him. This resulted in the clear-cutting of large swaths of the forest that were then regrown in the blink of an eye. And even though Rud's magical senses weren't as good as they could have been, he could feel the air clearing around those spots in the grove. Each breath he drew came with a fresh scent and the pressure had subsided.

The druid whittled away most of the day, going between chopping trees and working on the road, and he made the time pass faster when he swapped between the tasks. Before the nightly check-in at the observatory, though, an expected system message appeared.

[Rank Up!]

You've performed enough actions with your Growth Magic skill to gain a new rank!

Growth Magic is now Rank 1, empowering the skill even further…

Your Growth Magic skill has reached a milestone! Please select from the following upgrades…

"Huzzah!" Rud shouted… Although there was no one around to hear.

The first upgrade for Growth Magic Rud had taken was called Spiritual Infusion. That upgrade fell in line with the others. The druid had targeted it to draw on the power of the sacred tree to make his growth magic more potent. In practical terms, this meant he grew trees faster than before. Although the description talked about imbuing effects into plants, he had only seen it operate in a way to make stuff quickly sprout from seedling to fully grown plant in only a few casts.

Now he was faced with a long list of potential upgrades, and of course, he felt drawn to the ones that would make his life as a custodian easier. There might have been a path he could have taken to become some sort of combat-based druid, but ‌he was in too deep. He was a custodian through and through, and so he narrowed it down a single upgrade. At first, he had considered another upgrade… Until he found the one he eventually picked.

[Radiant Plantlife]

Growth Magic Upgrade

Description:

From the earliest stage, plants grown within the grove thrive to aid it.

Effect:

Plants grown with Growth Magic within a sacred grove you are bound to act as beacons. These plants will radiate latent energy at a much higher rate, going through stages. The first stage will release a low amount of energy, then more, and so on.

There were a few things to take away from this new upgrade. It would only affect new plants grown from a seed. That would limit its reach, but with how many trees are cut down and replanted, this ability made sense. However, it was the expanded description that really attracted him. Now, the plants he grew would put off more energy than before, which meant Ban could collect more energy. It was perfect for his purposes. Even if the upgrade worked in stages which weren't defined by time, it would be worth it in the long run.

Rud made his way to Ban's clearing to celebrate, starting with a poorly executed jig.

"Now that's an upgrade I can get behind," Ban said, her soft voice flooding through the clearing like a calming summer breeze.

"Now you're awake again," Rud said, striding over to the base of the tree and placing his hand upon the surface. He felt the warmth from within flood outward, filling him with a sense of renewed hope. "How are things going with the labyrinth?"

"Not as well as I would have hoped," Ban said, producing the sound of a sigh in his mind. "I've successfully interfaced with it, but I'm not sure if I can draw any power from it, which, as you might have guessed, was the original intention."

"Hey, you leave the power generation to me," Rud said, striking a heroic pose. It seemed as though it was harder to impress the sacred tree with his poses as of late, but he supposed she had a lot on her mind. "This new upgrade should go a long way to helping with that. Also, drawing power from a labyrinth sounds dangerous."

"Only if I'm clumsy about it," Ban countered, "And I am anything but clumsy."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While that was fair enough, Rud didn't think they had enough information to make that decision. He sighed, nodding along as he considered the way the system structure that spewed monsters could harm the grove. And yet, he couldn't stop his mind from wandering to the idea of meeting up with other custodians whenever he wanted. That was the dream, even if it was still fairly far away.

"What other structures or upgrades do you need to make the portal?" Rud asked.

"I can create a portal structure," Ban said, "which isn't as costly as you would think. Again, the biggest problem is going to be power generation, which we're working on. But I can create the structure within a day when we're finally ready."

"That's encouraging," Rud said. "Now, does it need a connected portal in the other grove?"

"Take your trip to the Cliffs of Mog as an example," Ban said. "When you went there, we didn't have a permanent portal on this end, but Basil had one on his."

"So we can send a portal to any other grove whenever we want? And the reason Basil doesn't do it is because it costs a lot of mana?"

"That's exactly right," Ban said. "The energy cost is about half if the other side has a portal structure ready."

"Sounds like we're on track to make this thing happen," Rud said, nodding with a smile on his face. "The other custodians suggest we could create the portal structure and begin sending supplies as they're needed. With the way Taz is becoming an adept blacksmith, we can consider sending weapons to those that need it. I'm sure you're aware there are other groves dealing with system-generated structures."

"I am well aware," Ban said. "Aware enough that I know Bent is planning something on his end, even if he won't share with us what it is."

If the progenitor of all the groves was getting involved, things were serious. But Rud wasn't worried. As soon as they could send junk through the portal, he'd be giving everybody a care package of tea. Maybe that wouldn't help them fight against monsters, but it sure would brighten their day.

The druid was satisfied with the sacred tree's response. She had a way of looking at everything in the long term, which meant she left the day-to-day stuff to him. It wasn't his place to worry about what would happen in a month. No, he should only be concerned with what happened tomorrow.

Rud sniffed at the air, the scent of burning wood and cooking meat gracing his nostrils. "Taz is making food again," Rud said, scrunching up his face. "Why is he cooking every night?"

"His freezer is full," Ban said with a giggle. "Any new meat brought by the sacred beasts needs to be cooked right away, or it will spoil."

Rud had trouble containing his laughter. "Yeah, that was something the dwarf would do."

The sacred tree had a few more things she wanted to talk about, but it was mostly about the diseased trees in the grove. Although Rud had been doing a good job, there were still many more that needed to be replaced. She also wanted him to step up to deal with the various forest creatures. With Mint too busy with the labyrinth, the care of those animals fell to him. It wouldn't be as big a deal now that he had the barn building from the tree. The Animal Tracking upgrade would allow him to detect where any animal within the grove was. It included a small snippet about their current health.

The menu served at the longhouse might not have been varied, but Rud appreciated the freshly grilled meat that Taz had prepared. Unfortunately, there weren't any new adventurers in the grove today. He could vaguely sense some traveling on the road, but his connection with the grove still wasn't keen enough for him to make out any details. Unlike the sacred beasts, he mostly relied on abilities and skills to do his job. Mint could tell them exactly how many people were on the road, what they looked like, and even, to an extent, what their intent was.

It took the wolf quite a while to arrive at the longhouse. Mint entered, her shoulders slumped as she was in her human form. She waddled over to the table and sat down before once again pressing her forehead into the wooden surface. "The labyrinth is hard," she said after a long pause.

"I'm not sure if anybody ever said it was easy," Taz said with a booming laugh. He stopped when Mint's head shot up.

"Good thing we have had no monster attacks, otherwise we would have been in trouble," Rud said with a laugh.

"Yes, that is a splendid thing," Mint said, missing his sarcasm entirely. "The labyrinth is, well, it's a labyrinth. It's a maze with more twists and turns than I could have imagined."

"Oh!" Rud shouted, clapping his hands together. "I almost forgot to tell you guys, but I found some bushes underground. I can use Thicket Travel from above ground and head all the way down there. It's going to be very helpful when Major and I continue exploring the caves."

"You guys are exploring the caves and you didn't invite me?" Taz said, slamming his fists on the table.

"There are monsters down there," Rud said in a flat tone.

"Oh, carry on then." Taz said.

Like Rud, Taz was a non-combatant. He still had said almost nothing about his old life, but the druid was certain the man did no adventuring, and that wasn't a bad thing. The grove only needed so many well-trained fighters. The infrastructure was too important, and Taz had taken the duties of blacksmith off of Rud's shoulders, which was a great relief.

That left more time to grow and brew tea.

And that was the exact moment Rud realized something interesting about his newest upgrade.

How would Spiritual Infusion and Radiant Plantlife interact with each other? It might mean ripping all the current tea plants out of the ground and growing them once again, but Rud was willing to do so if his newest upgrade made his teas even more potent. When he got to thinking about helping the other groves, he could only fall back on what he was good at, and if that meant brewing specialized teas that would help them fight and defend their homes, he was happy to do it. He just needed to get to work on some new, empowered blends.

"I'm going to redesign the tea farm," Rud announced, allowing his thoughts to settle before making the declaration. He had to explain his newest upgrade and the need to start over again with the farm, not that that would be a bad thing. The farm's current location wasn't ideal, even if he had to evict some badgers to make it happen.

"So long as you don't stop production!" Taz said, his hearty laugh returning. "I can't get up in the morning without a cup of Suckerpunch!"

"Please do go on," Rud said, batting his eyelashes at the dwarf. And the dwarf did go on at length about how much he enjoyed drinking the tea. He claimed he had skipped his daily tea one day and dragged booty around the grove in a stupor. While the druid doubted that was the whole truth, he fanned himself the entire time.

"I see great potential in the teas," Mint said. Some of her vigor returned as she ate the meat prepared by Taz.

"I think a lot about tea," Rud said with a shrug. "They're powerful because those plants grew within the grove, right?"

"That's a decent theory," Mint said with a shrug. "All plant life within the grove is stronger than those outside."

And those plants would only get stronger when Rud hit them with his newest upgrade. He rubbed his hands together as he planned the new tea farm in his mind. Using his automated watering system was absolutely the best path forward. Then he could cross another chore off his list. Now, all he needed was a good place to build it…

"So, anyone up for a big project?" Rud asked, beaming at those gathered around the table.

Mint, Major, Taz, and Dean all averted their gazes.

"Oh, boy! I love projects," Sarya said, wagging her tail. "When do we start?