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

Steam rose from the surface of the bathwater. Rud ran his fingers through the hot bath, nodding in satisfaction. A group of adventurers had come from the east and had requested a hotter-than-normal bath. The druid was happy to oblige. Each action he took with mortals made him feel a twinge of progression with his custodianship skill for his subclass.

Rud regarded the people outside his bath with a smile on his face. They looked dirty and tired from the road, and each eye flitted to the space behind him as he emerged from the threshold. "It's all ready for you guys," he said, giving them the thumbs up, "and feel free to enjoy the rest areas while you're here." he turned intent to tend to other tasks for the day.

The group of adventurers moved excitedly past him, jumping into the hot water without hesitation, But as he was leaving, a system message appeared, one that he had been waiting for.

[Skill Milestone!]

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

This one was going to be a hard one to pick from. Rud headed to the longhouse, found a seat at the table, and went over his options. The custodianship skill was all about making the lives of people in the grove easier and the upgrades reflected that. He thumbed through the list of options, marking a few that were interesting enough, but he settled on a single one that caught his eye. It was interesting and had big implications for anybody visiting the grove. But the druid inspected the upgrade.

[Transient Guest]

Custodianship Upgrade

Description:

Only those marked by the grove may pass throughout.

Effect:

Grants you access to an interface where you may mark mortals visiting the grove. These mortals will experience none of the damaging effects of the grove. You may toggle this on and off at will and at no cost.

At first, the ability didn't seem all too powerful, since Rud had created the roads that would allow the visitors to pass without issue. He hadn't thought much about it, but first-hand accounts from those people made it clear it wasn't easy or fun to pass through the area, even with the structures. He didn't plan on giving this to everybody, though. It made sense to keep a certain level of trepidation interwoven into the idea of the forest. But people like Elm, Oak, and Barrow would benefit greatly from this upgrade. They were honored guests as far as he was concerned.

Rud accepted the upgrade and found that it was at the tip of his mind right away. With a thought, he summoned the interface. It presented him with an option to add mortals to his whitelist based on his own knowledge. A large list of existing mortals appeared. He added those he thought were trustworthy enough, and that was that. Perhaps one day they would have a sort of ceremony to induct people into that hallowed list, but that sounded like a lot of work.

As the druid was pushing himself to his feet, intent on starting his transplant project, his favorite resident dwarf entered the hall.

"Didn't you say something about a bunch of caves underground?" Taz said, pointing an accusatory finger at Rud.

"Who, me?" Rud asked, pointing at himself. There was nobody else in the longhouse, so the dwarf must have been talking about him.

"Yeah, I was thinking that might be an opportunity to get myself some more metal," Taz said, walking up to the table and leaning against it. "Want to go on a trip?"

"Well, if the esteemed Taz wants me to go, who am I to decline?" Rud said with a smile. "But you have to pick which spirit beast we take with us. I don't think Major was happy the last time I forced him to go."

"We should take the young wolf," Taz said. "She was perfect for the digging project."

Rud couldn't disagree there. She was a hard worker who never gave up. And she wasn't terrible in combat either. She was, after all, being trained by Mint to be a guardian of the grove. But before they left, the druid wanted some more specifics. This was an oddly impulsive thing for the dwarf to do, and Taz was anything but impulsive.

"So, we're not looking for anything specific?" Rud asked. "Just metal for you to smelt?"

"Well, you never really know when you're going to find some dwarven artifacts," Taz said with a booming laugh. "I assume you're free today, so why not?"

"That was a good point." Rud was happy to drop everything to help the dwarf out, but they had to round up Sarya first. He brewed all three of them a cup of energizing tea, placing two portions in two fresh cups and one in a bowl for the wolf to drink. When she arrived, she lapped it up eagerly.

"Is today an adventure day?" Sarya asked, looking between Taz and Rud with excitement in her eyes.

"We're going cave diving," Rud said, withdrawing the lantern from his bag. He lit it and made sure the other two were ready. They really didn't have to prepare much. As long as they could find more bushes underground. When the group was ready to depart, he led them to the nearest bush. Provided other grove members were close by, when he used thicket travel, they would all come along. It was a nice perk of the upgrade.

The sudden transition from light to dark was striking. Rud closed his eyes as they passed through the bush. The sounds of the whispering forest around them faded. The howling wind, driving through the endless sprawl of caverns, arrived an instant later. Sarya padded forward, apparently undeterred by the sudden change in the light. Taz did the same. They could both see in the dark, while the druid could not.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Let's wait here for a second," Rud said, preparing a spell. "I'm going to check to see if we've got any baddies around here."

The druid cast his Detect Life spell, and pinpricks of creatures far in the distance flooded into his vision. They were too far for him to be concerned, but he couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary around here. When he was satisfied, he gave the command to press forward. Taz ran his hand along the cavern walls as they walked, muttering words about the striations in the rock to himself and looking back every so often to offer a smile.

"There's a strange scent in the air," Sarya said, tilting her head to the side as she took in deep lungfuls. "I do not recognize it."

"Is there anything we should be concerned about?" Rud asked.

"Not yet," she said, shaking her head. "But I would like to find the source of the smell."

There would be plenty of time to investigate phantom scents later. For now, Rud kept his eyes peeled as he searched the area, awaiting a monster attack that never came. He drew his cloak tight as they delved deeper into the caverns. Taz and Sarya reached a compromise, working their way toward the source of the smell while he prospected for new ores. The first leg of the journey, which took about two hours, produced nothing. Rud felt like little more than a glorified lamp post, even if the light he shone was useless for the others.

"Let me mark this one," Taz said, withdrawing a piece of charcoal from his bag and marking the wall. "Got a decent vein under here."

"Will you be able to find your way back?" Rud asked with a sly grin."

Taz tapped his temple once. "I've got the memory of a dwarf," he said, "which is to say a very good memory."

Rud would have to take his word for it. They pressed on through the caves, now following Sarya's nose more than they were looking for ores. Taz had identified several veins that would take him quite some time to cut out. Of course, the problem would arise when he needed to come down here alone. He wouldn't be able to excavate anything without a guard, which limited his options. But that didn't dampen his spirits. Taz jigged along as they pressed even further into the caves.

"The stinky thing is up ahead," Sarya said.

"See, when she says stuff like that, I get worried," Taz said. "The last time we chased after a stinky thing, it turned out to be a big old pile of—"

"Just around this corner," Sarya said, darting into the next passageway.

To the left, the passage slipped downward. The scent hung heavy in the air, and Rud could finally identify it. It was a musty smell, that of rotting wood mixed with moisture. The sound of rushing water that came next made sense, but he couldn't have expected what he saw next. Sarya was standing stock still just ahead on a ledge. Taz trotted to a stop, his mouth hanging open, and the druid found it hard not to do the same.

Before them sprawled what could only be described as a ruined city resting at the bottom of an absolutely massive cavern. The area was illuminated here and there with spotty patches of glowing fungus. A large crystal shone from the ceiling, bathing the area in an unnatural blue light. In spots where those two sources of light clashed, they created a kaleidoscope of colors through waterfalls that fell from several places in the ceiling. The floor of the cavern was a mix of bare rock and pools of liquid that drained somewhere deeper.

"Excuse me, what am I looking at?" Rud asked.

"These aren't dwarfs in buildings," Taz said. Without warning, he withdrew a small axe from his bag. Rud felt the urge to do the same, but he was completely unarmed.

"I smell no living," Sarya said, sniffing the air.

Rud was quick to cast his Detect Life spell. As expected, there was nothing, save for a few fish living in the pools and a scatter of bats near the ceiling. The energy in the air was confusing. It was a strange clash of the grove's magic he was used to feeling every day and something altogether foreign. He couldn't help but think that this was related to the recent events in the above-ground world, and a certain worry settled into his chest.

"Wizards," Rud said out of nowhere. "Gotta be wizards."

"You'll have to run that by me one more time," Taz said, craning his neck in either direction to get a better look at the city below.

"Someone told me that wizards had destroyed the moon. So this seems like something they could do, right?" Rud asked.

"I wouldn't settle on the theory, but this is just weird," Taz said. "Look there, near the base of that tower. I see more bushes. Do you think we should descend and travel back to the grove?"

Rud had to roll the thought through his mind. The safer option would be to go back the way they came, but a checkpoint would have been nice. They hadn't seen a bush in quite some time and would need to march at least an hour to get back. He searched the nearby area, finding a ramped section of the ledge that led down to the rocky floor of the cavern below. It was about 100 feet down.

Before proceeding down the ramp, he activated his Clear Communication upgrade and spoke to the nearest group of bats. "Hey, are you guys awake?"

"Were asleep. Now awake… INTRUDER!"

"Now we're just passing through," Rud said, trying to soothe the chaotic creatures. "We're just really weird-looking bats, looking for bugs. Do you know where any good bugs are?"

"Good bugs down below," one bat said. "Straight down."

"You're talking to those bats, aren't you?" Taz grumbled. "You're making a bunch of weird squeaks. Ugh, I hate that."

Rud could only smile. It would be difficult to get the bats to tell him anything useful, but he had to try. They weren't as intelligent as most of the creatures in the grove, which reinforced his theory that the wild animals living within the boundaries of the sacred tree grew smarter over time. That was something he would test in the future.

"Have you fellow bats noticed anything strange around here recently?"

"Star shine," one bat said.

"New shine," another offered.

"Annoying shine."

Rud looked up again, spotting the massive crystal that seemed embedded in the rock above. It shone brightly enough like a star that he could be convinced they mistook it for one. All at once, he put it together. The crystal had started glowing recently, and in the mind of a bat, it meant the past few days. A week at most. He relayed his findings to the others who, like him, filed them away for another time.

"Watch your step over here," Taz said, almost slipping as he made his way down the ramp.

The wolf had absolutely no problem. She padded down the stone ramp, hopping from side to side and only stopping to sniff at the area she passed. Rud felt the tension in the air building as they walked. He wasn't eager to explore a gigantic city underground, but the bush was right there. They could make a break for it if they needed to.

The temperature dropped the lower they went. By the time they reached the bottom floor, he had to pull his cloak tightly around himself to stave off the icy chill. When he scooped his hand into one of the many pools dotting the area, it felt as though his fingers would fall off. It was so cold. Perhaps it was just an effect of the cave or something else entirely.

Viewing the ruined city from above revealed just how vast it was. The group approached the tower surrounded by bushes and looked up, each of them feeling dizzy as they took in its height. How or why someone would build something like this was beyond any of their guesses. They stood there for several moments until the chill that had been settling around them grew so intense that not even the dwarf could bear it.

Rud thought Taz was having some kind of involuntary spasm when the dwarf swatted at the air with his axe. Even Saria looked confused when the dwarf's flailing continued.

"Are you a good man?" Rud asked.

Taz turned, his face ashen with dark circles under his eyes. As he stared into Rud's eyes, a dark shape appeared behind him. "Run," the dwarf croaked.