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

The gang had all gathered in the longhouse for dinner that night. None of the Sacred Beasts, Taz, or Rud had taken the news about weird magic and coming doom as serious. But Elm had taken it hard. Her forehead was pressed against the surface of the table. Every so often she let out a groan of disappointment while the others celebrated.

"You know what?" Taz said, having just finished showing off a really cool dwarven dance. "We need to hire a group of bards. Have them play music in our little tavern every night!"

"What a splendid idea!" Mint shouted, slamming her mug of tea on the table. "Another round!"

Rud laughed, pouring her another cup. "Take it easy. I'll cut you off if you get rowdy."

"I can handle my tea, little druid," Mint growled, downing the cup in one go.

Although he was in high spirits, Rud couldn't help but think about what this all meant. Everything within the grove had been in-hand for quite some time. There was nothing they couldn't handle, so long as they worked on it. But the labyrinth presented a challenge he didn't know whether they could overcome. And the other groves were experiencing the same problem.

This road led them to one destination. Monsters spawning within the grove itself. Rud might have been confident in the sacred beasts, but it was hard to say if they could handle something like this. With a swig of tea, a bite of soup, and a steady breath, he reassured himself. What was the point of worrying about it when he had cheese and tea to make?

"Oh, what do you think about tea cheese, Taz?" Rud asked.

"If you put tea in the cheese, I'm revolting," Taz said.

"No tea in the cheese. Got it. We're gonna put some nuts in the cheese, though."

"How about mushrooms?" Taz asked. "I've seen that done back home."

"Sure, why not? Mushrooms, nuts, dried fruit, berries… whatever!"

Everyone seemed tired tonight. Although Taz did a few more dances, the party wound down faster than the druid had expected. Although Elm wasn't happy about the developments with the labyrinth, the members of the grove weren't as affected by the news.

Although the night was winding down and Rud had already given his nightly report, checking in with the other groves, he made his way to the observatory anyway. As he climbed the steps, he heard the familiar sound of the owl alighting on the banister. Nulsa usually napped during the day and stayed up all night. He was the sentinel within the grove. But the owl didn't say anything as the druid assumed his seat in the chair. His senses widened as he probed for the dungeons in the southwest.

The adventurers who cleared the dungeons were voracious. They were tearing through the existing dungeons, weakening the magical energies day by day. Rud appreciated this. The more damage they inflicted on that overflowing magic, the better it was for the grove. He had originally invited them there to protect the grove against rampaging monsters, but now, with the gathering energy above the labyrinth, he took a moment to pat himself on the back for his foresight.

"How many more dungeons do you have to collect?" Nulsa asked. He seemed to sense Rud's exact thoughts.

"At least four," Rud said, shaking his head. "I think these dungeons are quite young, and the adventurers are ripping through them faster than if those dungeons were given time to gain strength."

"You're faced with an interesting dilemma, aren't you?" Nulsa asked. "Power, like you could have never imagined, is on your doorstep. Do you feel the excitement to collect that power?"

Rud released a sigh, pushing back in his chair and staring up at the ceiling. "No, the only reason I've been rushing to collect them is so that they don't repair their dungeon cores before I absorb their souls. Frankly, the only thing I'm interested in is getting more mana so I can shape more trees. Even then, we're already at a pretty ridiculous level."

"This is an interesting test for you," Nulsa hooted. "Perhaps this was a way for the progenitor of the groves to assess you. Had you thrown everything away and sought this power for your own selfish reasons, maybe you would have failed."

"Do you really think this is some kind of test by Bent?" Rud asked. "I don't think he's petty enough to worry about us." But did he really believe his own words? Not really.

"We are his first grove in 20 years. He considers the others before us not exactly failures, but not successes. They're something in between."

And that was the truth of it. No matter how he sliced it, Rud had to face the fact that they were under great scrutiny. There could have been tests all along the way that they were completely unaware of. Now he considered all the trials he had faced and wondered if he had passed. But he knew he was doing well with this latest trial. He wouldn't snatch power for the sake of it, but to protect the grove. To ensure the investment Bent had put into the world, he would do anything. Whether that was for the love of nature, those around him, or perhaps even mortal kind itself, Rud didn't care.

Those other groves weren't exactly failures. Rud didn't think so anyway. There were kind people there. He thought about Maria and Jim and how they were living their lives and their respective groves. Maybe this whole thing was just a test to get everybody together. Perhaps it was something Bent himself couldn't do, as he wasn't a true mortal. No, that stag was anything but mortal. It was an eldritch thing that might not know how mortals experienced time.

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"You're oddly pensive tonight," Nulsa said, breaking the silence that had settled over the observatory.

"I'm glad you're here to put things into perspective." Rud didn't know how I was going to phrase it, but that's what the owl had done." I believe I am true to the ideals of the grove, and I think I've done a good job so far."

"Perhaps you've missed the most important part. You're true to the ideals of the grove because the grove's ideals are your ideals, and they align with both Mint and Ban. That's the entire point of this project: to find three souls that have interlocked so tightly that they attract other similar souls."

Rud thought about it for a moment. The type of sacred beast they attracted to the grove was closely related to the three aspects of the grove. Nulsa was right. Sarya, Dean, Major, Taz, and Nulsa were all hardworking, upstanding souls who had a keen sense of justice, as well as fairness. They got along well because they were all similar.

"Want to join me on a late-night walk through the grove?" Rud asked, looking at the massive owl with a smile on his face. "Who knows, maybe we'll eat a few dungeon souls."

"Something to cleanse the palate, perhaps," Nulsa said, stretching his wings and giving them a good flap. "Certainly. I shall defend you, fair custodian."

###

The adventurers were tireless beings. At first, Rud was impressed by the work they had accomplished that day in the grove. The two parties he had originally spotted had grown to ten and then fifteen. Those small campsites he had constructed for them were crowded, and by the next morning, every single dungeon was cleared. At least all those he had detected.

Rud only gave a brief morning report on the radio that morning. He hastily scrawled his message to the town before going to inspect the work of those adventurers. He had spent a few hours the night before traipsing around the forest with Nulsa, absorbing dungeon souls. There were six for him to gain, and the attributes they provided made his body swell to where he almost passed out.

The results of his dungeon-eating adventure were substantial. 3 Strength, 2 Vigor, 1 Agility, 5 Mind, and 2 Affinity. Rud now held three ranks of attributes in his staff, which was a more frightening thought than he had expected. He reviewed his attribute sheet to get a better idea.

[Rud]

Main Class:

Rank 1 Level 1 Druid

Subclass:

Rank 0 Level 6 Grove Custodian

Attributes:

Health: 143

Mana: 218

Strength: 10

Agility: 8

Vigor: 13

Mind: 20

Affinity: 15

Titles:

[Keeper of the Gladesbale Grove]

Looking at the sheet only reminded him how he hadn't followed Ban's advice. In his squirrel form, he watched as the adventurers moved down below. Perching on a high branch and spying on them had become something of a hobby, but he could turn this into a moment where he gained experience. The druid jumped from the branch and moved in a tight circle, coming to rest on the pathway before turning back to his true form.

Even now, as the mortals gazed upon him with surprise, he could feel his body bristling with power. Rud smacked the butt of his staff onto the wooden walkway and smiled.

"Greetings, mortals. You have passed my first trial," Rud said, putting on his best wizard voice. "But there may yet be more dungeons for you to conquer."

A murmur spread through the crowd. Interested voices called out, asking what the next trial could possibly be. Of course, Rud hadn't thought that far. He wasn't willing to send them into the labyrinth yet. Mint was still plumbing those depths, getting a better feel for the strength of the place. In truth, the labyrinth was dangerous because it was expansive. If the adventurers went down there without the proper supplies, they would likely not make it out because of starvation or dehydration.

Yet, as he held his staff in a dramatic pose, Rud could feel it begging for more dungeon souls. He focused on the thread it presented and felt his heart skip a beat. Spreading throughout the grove was a tangled web of lines that shot in all directions. He tried to count the dungeons but couldn't. They were innumerable.

Are they? He thought to himself, narrowing his focus. No. It wasn't quantity. It was quality.

"There are more powerful dungeons deeper in the grove." Rud announced, "You will camp here for the day, and in the morning you will follow new paths that will have appeared overnight. Those paths may lead you to the tallest mountain or the deepest dungeon. But what awaits you are trials more troubling than you've experienced in your life. Giant chihuahuas, blood-thirsty baboons, and perhaps several geese with bad temperaments. Prepare yourself, adventurers."

As always, the adventurers had little to say to that. They muttered among themselves, giving Rud just enough time to shift into squirrel form and scamper away. He really wasn't sure what they would find, but he had concerns about where he sensed some of these dungeons. He grumbled as he climbed up a tree, gliding through the grove and following those instincts. A few hours of searching later, he spotted a measly three dungeons slightly deeper in the grove. He marked them and planned to create a path to them later. However, as he stood on one tree, he noticed a thread that appeared in his senses. It shot straight down through the ground.

"I should have figured there'd be a dungeon in the caves," Rud muttered to himself. "Once I get these sorted, I should also take care of those stupid cursed objects. What else is going to fall on our heads next?"

The druid searched around for a few moments, expecting an entire mountain to appear above him. But it didn't. Only the calming sounds of the forest around him greeted his ears. It was a welcome reprieve from the concerned worries spreading through his mind. Rud reassured himself that he was doing everything he could to keep it under control. He wasn't even fully relying on the other members of the grove. He had this under control, as long as he stayed ahead of it.

Rud emerged from a bush near the Blacksmith's Workshop. The sound of metal singing greeted his ears and he saw Taz within, hammering away at a piece on the anvil. Shifting back into his true form, the druid poked his head inside.

"Wanna go on an adventure?" Rud asked.

Taz's gaze dragged up from the dimming metal on the anvil. He raised an eyebrow. "Depends on the quality of the adventure."

"There are some underground dungeons in the grove," Rud said. "We gotta scout a path for the adventurers to take so they can clear them."

Taz took a few moments to think about it. "Reminds me of home… Fine. Let me finish this, then we can go."

"Excellent," Rud said, rubbing his hands together. "I'll just lurk around here like a creep."