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

The cold was one thing. After dealing with the ice storm on the island, Rud was used to that deep burning sensation that rushed over his skin. But this was something else entirely. This was a kind of cold that soaked into his bones, channeling deeper to sting at the edges of his soul. All energy flooded from his body and the dwarf went slack. Just as the sound went mute in the druid's ears, a different noise rose to batter it aside.

"How ya like me now!?" Sarya shouted.

The dim cave was filled with a rush of light. Ribbons of energy flowed off the wolf's body, lashing at the air as though battering against unseen attacks. She took on a form more akin to Mint's spiritual wolf form and launched forward, striking at something Rud couldn't see. A rumbling groan echoed off the tower and shook the bushes. Some of his previous vigor returned to him as the druid watched a battle he couldn't understand.

"Hold on, little ones," Sarya said, pivoting as a wave of green energy rolled from her body. In a snap, she snatched both Rud and Taz by the collar and dashed for the bushes. The trio tumbled forward, falling through space and arriving at the foot of the Sacred Tree in a blink. The dwarf groaned in pain, rolling onto his back to heave breaths.

"Okay, what was that?" Rud asked, looking around in panic. Whatever it was, he hadn't caught the brunt of it. Instead, that honor went to Taz, who seemed to have more of his life drained from him by the moment.

"What exactly happened?" Ban's voice came flooding over the clearing, washing away whatever stupor afflicted Rud's mind. Even Taz took in a sharp breath.

"Wizard ghosts," Sarya growled. "I killed them all."

"I'm pretty certain you killed none of them," Rud said, shaking his head. "Although that's not to diminish your rescue. I don't think we would have gotten out of there alive without you."

Sarya was still wreathed in the magical energy of her spiritual wolf form. Only after she was done growling at nothing visible did the form begin to fade. Eventually, she returned to her old timber wolf appearance, and her face softened as she turned to regard her two charges.

"Everyone is safe! Yay!" Sarya exclaimed, prancing around the clearing until she found a stick. She scooped it up, shaking her head a few times before bringing it over to Rud to throw. He was happy to do so. She deserved a far better reward than a few games of fetch.

"And now's the time you tell me what actually happened," Ban said, her voice sounding more curt than normal.

Although Rud didn't truly understand what had happened, he explained what he had seen: the tunnels leading downward into the earth and the expansive cavern. When he got to the part about the ruined city, he could feel the Sacred Tree tensing as though he had struck a nerve with her. She didn't say anything, though, and allowed him to finish the story.

"That may be more concerning than you realize," Ban said. "When we planted this grove, Bent himself scanned the area and found nothing. While I think it's impossible for something to have randomly teleported into a cavern, I can't believe he would miss something like that."

"It's a real head-scratcher, isn't it?" Rud asked, kneeling by Taz's form and applying his healing magic. He couldn't see any visible wounds on the man's body. Perhaps whatever damage had been inflicted was deeper than the surface level… Some attack against the soul or something like that.

"Indeed, this may explain our recent misfortunes, and I am sad to say we'll need to take care of it," Ban said. "But from your story, it seems the power of the grove is enough to banish away whatever it is."

Although Rud wasn't so sure about that, he would go with whatever the tree said. The logical course was obvious. They would need to expand the grove's influence underground, which he knew wasn't impossible, thanks to Hagsrise Grove. Mostly, he was just impressed with how Sarya had fought. He would never consider her the strongest sacred beast in the grove, but she had displayed incredible aptitude in using the power of Ban to her advantage.

Dean, Major, and Mint padded into view shortly after. Mint was, of course, in her spiritual wolf form, the pressure from her power pressing down on all those gathered. She growled and snarled as she looked around, but once it was clear there was no threat within the clearing, she calmed down. She too reverted to a mostly-normal wolf form. If a 10-foot-tall wolf could be considered normal, that is.

"I was in the middle of the labyrinth," Mint growled, looking at Rud as though it was his fault. "Ban sent out the emergency signal, but I'm happy to see you all here, safe and sound."

Yet it didn't sound like she was happy to see anybody, safe or not. Rud swallowed hard as he nodded, regaling the sacred beasts with the tale. He watched each of their expressions, trying to see if any of them had heard anything like this, but he was saddened to see that they hadn't. Not even Dean, who seemed the most well-traveled of any of the beasts, had anything to add.

"Perhaps you should recruit the elven wizard to take this job on," Mint said.

"The elven wizard is already looking at the island with the winter storm on it." Rud said. "I think she's probably a bit busy."

"None here have experience fighting wizard ghosts," Mint countered. "We'll need outside help for this one."

"Don't be too hasty," Ban said. "Not only are we not certain if they're the ghosts of wizards, but we also don't know if they're ghosts at all. The only thing we know is that the power of the grove repels them, which means the solution is quite simple."

" We only need to expand the grove's influence underground," Rud explained, picking up where Ban left off. "And it should dissipate whatever errant energy is down there. I'm no wizard, but I think it should work."

There was some debate about the best course of action, and Rud found it strange that everyone was jumping on this one. Perhaps they saw it as more of a threat than the storm on the island, but all members of the grove offered a solution. All members except Taz, of course; he was still lying on the ground trying to catch his breath. Although more light returned to his eyes by the moment, he was still down for the count.

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

"Someone helped me carry him back to his house," Rud said, poking at the dwarf. Of course, Sarya offered to be his mighty steed. The others helped him get up onto her back.

Taz had made his home in the mine. It was the one place that made him feel closer to home. When they arrived, the wolf dropped him onto his bed, and Rud tucked him in. He had no intention of leaving him until the dwarf spoke at least a few words, so the druid made a cup of energizing tea. When the scent filled the stony room, some life returned to Taz's complexion. After a few sips, he looked significantly better.

"What happened?" Taz asked.

"The jury's still out on that one," Rud said, forcing the dwarf to have another sip of tea. "But we think you were attacked by a wizard's ghost, a field of energy, or something else entirely."

"I've always wanted to be assaulted by a wizard's ghost," Taz said with a laugh. "It felt like something was draining my life force."

"I think that might be exactly what happened," Rud said, finding a seat on a wooden chair to sit on and shaking his head. "The underground area was a death trap, but our faithful wolf companion saved us. I think you picked the right sacred beast to accompany us."

"I know a certain spirit wolf who's getting extra deer bones tonight," Taz said with a hearty laugh. By the time he drained the cup of tea, he seemed like his old self again.

"I think I need to write that down," Rud said with a sly smile. "My magical tea can even cure the effects of a ghost wizard attack."

"You need to put that on the label," Taz said, punctuating his sentence by jabbing his finger in the air. "'Will ward off all ghost wizard attacks, seen or unseen.'"

###

Whatever ritual Elm was performing around the lake was expansive. Rud sat atop Dean as they thundered over the open landscape. The magical arrays she had drawn on the shore were now glowing, each with at least one person in a robe standing nearby. Although several days had passed, it didn't appear as though they had made much progress. The storm still raged in the center of the lake, and now deposited heavy snowflakes on the water.

The wind that blew from the storm was even colder than before. It was fair to say that the progression of the intensity was rapid. The duo circled around, eliciting surprised shouts from the wizards nearby. However, Rud spotted Elm in the distance near the northern shore, closest to the logging camp. He approached, blowing a sharp whistle to avoid surprising her. Daffodil perked when she saw the wolf and its rider.

"What a pleasant surprise," Elm said as Rud dismounted from the wolf. Dean sniffed around the area, on edge ever since the ghost attack. "We're still working on the storm. Too little progress for my liking, but that's magic for you."

"I see your people are hard at work," Rud said. "You don't need any help from the grove, do you?"

"Not unless you've stashed an archmage in there somewhere. Nope, this is just going to take time. But we are making slow progress," Elma reassured him.

"That's a relief. Unfortunately, we've contended with a situation in the grove," Rud said, trying to think of the best way to phrase it. "Have you ever heard of a ghost wizard?"

"A what?" Elm asked, blinking several times as though she had just been asked the stupidest question she had ever heard.

Rud had to take a few moments to think of the best way to phrase it. It was easy to get caught up in the childlike wonderment of the sacred beasts. They weren't the most elegant when expressing complex topics like magic. If they hadn't seen it before or didn't have a word for it, they boiled it down to its simplest parts.

Rud instead explained what they had experienced in the cavern. He reduced his story to only the important parts, focusing on things that would be relevant to Elm's area of expertise. Flooding her with too many details might give her the wrong impression.

"I can understand how you might think that was a ghost wizard, as you say," Elm said with an amused look on her face. "But it sounds closer to magical corruption to me."

There were details of the story that Rud had left out. He hadn't described the underground ruins, as he thought that might pull her off track. If Elm heard about that place, she would want to study it immediately. He wasn't opposed to the idea, but there was too much on her plate. Perhaps later.

"Could you give me the long and short of it?" Rud asked. "I'm eager to find a way to get rid of it."

"As you said before, the grove should act as a filtering agent. If your sacred tree can expand her influence to the area underground, you will diminish that power. More than likely, this power is being generated by an abandoned magical artifact. That artifact would have originally been designed to generate vast amounts of magical power, and if it has nowhere to send that magical power, it disperses into the air."

"Now that you mention it, there was this giant crystal we saw," Rud said. He had wanted to keep that out of the details he shared, but now it seemed relevant.

"Ah, that sounds like a mana crystal," Elm explained. "Depending on the size, it could be imbued with enchantments that allow it to draw power from the air. If it converts that power into a specific type of mana, then you could most certainly get some poisoned energy in the air. That would be my bet. With a corrupted crystal, your tree will need to wrap her roots around it and purify it."

"Wow, that's a lot more information than I had expected," Rud said, a smile finally returning to his face. He withdrew one of his enchanted ingots from his bag and handed it over. "You know, I really have to pay you more."

"Yet I don't expect payment," Elm said, looking down at the valuable ingot in her hands. "I won't decline, though."

"This is a little thing called greasing the palms," Rud explained. "I know I don't have to pay you, but you've already helped the grove so much. Think of this as an expression of our appreciation."

"I appreciate the sentiment," Elm said. "While I don't have definite answers for the storm, we're almost certain we're dealing with a cursed object. The exact function of that object might evade our grasp, but we're getting close."

"So what's the plan with that?" Rud asked. "Some kinda counter-spell or something?"

"Once we have an exact magical signature, we'll bind it somehow. Either through a suppression field, a barrier, or some other kind of seal. That should give you enough time to purify the object," Elm said. "I'm sure you noticed the various mages working on the problem. Truth is, they love it. None have seen anything this strange, and they're all excited to research!"

Good thing mages were fiends for magical research. They stood out here in the horrible cold and endured for 'research'. It would've been easy for Rud to make fun of their fervor, but he needed their arcane expertise. Instead, he had a plan to spread the love and show his thanks. The druid said farewell to Elm and headed to the first magical circle.

"Good sir," Rud said with his best bow and flourish. He withdrew a box from his storage bag, holding it out with a smile. "A gift to keep you warm in this horrid storm."

The human man took the box made from mushroom wood and blinked a few times. "Oh. Thanks," he said, looking down at the box. His eyes went from half-lidded, sleepy things to wide-open in an instant. "OH! THANKS! I didn't realize you were the guy who made the tea! I love this tea!"

"Enjoy," Rud said with a wink. Then he was off to play Santa with the other ritualists.