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

The spicy scent of brewing Deep Spice Galactic filled the longhouse. Mint danced in the corner, overly excited to have her first taste of chai. Rud had his equipment set out. A kettle to brew the tea, a pot to heat the milk, and an excited wolf spirit cheering him on. He had another kettle brewing regular tea for himself, as he doubted his taste for the spicy tea.

"I can't wait," Mint said, standing in her human form for once. She seemed to favor the wolf form more than anything.

"I am interested in trying the tea as well," Dean put in.

"This smells like a dwarven drink!" Taz shouted.

The two mortals—passing through on their way west—sat nervously at the table, spooning mouthfuls of soup and looking for the exit. Rud had a decent night's sleep, but was awoken by the excited wolf. She was convinced she had enough goat milk to make the tea. Of course, she didn't need as much milk as she collected. But perhaps they could riddle out how to make goat cheese. Mmm… cheese. The grove would be one step from pizza at that rate. Well, assuming they could buy flour from Barlgore. And tomatoes… and spices. Perhaps it was more than one step away.

Rud poured Mint's tea first, giving it an equal mixture of brewed tea and milk. He handed the mug over, pouring more glasses for everyone assembled. Including himself. The mortals accepted the tea with their sign of reverence, pulling the cups to their noses and taking a sniff. They recoiled, putting on nervous smiles. He wouldn't be surprised if they tossed it over their shoulder.

Mint took a sip of her tea, coughing at first. "I love it!" she shouted, although the face she made didn't seem as though she cared for it at all.

"This is a dwarven drink!" Taz shouted again, downing the entire cup of boiling liquid in one go. "Another!"

"Make it yourself," Rud said, shaking his head as he took a tentative sip of his own drink. It was far spicier than chai on Earth. More like someone had put a bunch of jalapeno peppers in water for an hour before heating it up. He looked to the mortals, who still hadn't taken a sip. "Hold on…"

Rud took half of the contents in their cups, dumping it into an empty pot. He filled the rest with warmed milk before sliding the cups back across the long wooden table. "There. Try that mix."

The first adventurer—a tawny-haired elven man—took a drink. His brow raised as he nodded. "That isn't bad, little spirit."

"Yeah, you don't want dwarf strength tea," Rud said, watching as Taz downed another full cup. He didn't dilute it with milk this time.

"That'll put hair in places you never wanted it!" Taz said, thumping his mug on the table. "Another!"

"I hate it," Dean said, barely lapping at his own mug. "It burns the tongue."

The mixed reaction for the tea was expected. Rud was most surprised with Taz's reaction, and he was certain Mint was faking her love for the drink. The druid switched to a mug of his favored tea, draining a cup of Mint's Reserve over breakfast. It was a mixture of the sweet and citrus tea, and always provided a boost to his energy.

"What's this project we're working on today?" Taz asked, drinking his tenth cup of tea. Good thing they never had to pee…

"I need to make a water heater," Rud said. "From metal, of course."

"Something to heat water? Like your bath? Why not use that?"

Rud shrugged. "I want to have a system that allows me to boil a lot of water. The question I had for you was about if I could do that. Make a big old tank with my smithing skill."

"Depends on how good the skill is. A skill smiths back in the mountains used involved fusing large metal plates together. It should be possible for you to do it, but I'm not sure."

That was the hardest part about making this project work. Rud needed a large, seamless water tank he could heat. His first thought was to make it out of infused iron, but copper would be easier to work with. He ate breakfast, sharing in the joy of tea before heading through the nearest thicket with Taz, arriving at the Blacksmith's Workshop. He accepted the Aspect of Aegael before entering the workshop and firing the forge.

"This is the problem you'll contend with," Taz said, gesturing to the forge. "The top is only so big. And you need to learn how to fuse metals. So we should start small."

"I appreciate the instruction," Rud said, laughing nervously. "Should've known my whole plan would rely on this."

"Well, I can only assume you've explored other options. I'm sure some mortal could whip up an artifice to handle the job in a second. But those are expensive, and we don't know any mortal artificers. Right now, you gotta start small. Let's learn how to weld two thin bars together."

Rud struck a pose, tossing a few ingots into the fire. He was thankful for the absurd temperature Fairy Peat burned at. When the ingots were glowing, he removed them from the forge and shaped them. After that refresher, he drew the material out into thin strips and practiced fusing them together. Like all things magical, it was as easy as imagining what he wanted to do, and striking the hammer down. The first few attempts were poor, but they expected that. After gaining a level in his Blacksmithing skill, things went better.

"No chance for an iron heater," Taz said, standing and giving instruction when it was needed. "But I think you can manage fusing copper by now."

"Next step?" Rud asked, twirling his hammer. He nearly dropped it on his foot.

"I want you to draw the copper ingots into perfectly square sheets," Taz said, nodding to the stack of infused copper. He clapped his hands. "Get to work, worm!"

"Ew, I'm not a worm," Rud said, tossing in some more copper and pulling a hot ingot out. He struck it with the hammer, feeling the soreness in his arm spread to his shoulder. But with each hit, he drew the material out until it was a thin sheet. Then he worked on shaping it into a rough square plate. "How about this?"

"Good for a first attempt, scum," Taz said.

"Disgusting, what's with the insults?"

"Dwarven tradition," Taz said, gesturing to the plate. "That's good, but you've got some issues with the thickness."

This was nothing like mundane blacksmithing. Rud couldn't imagine doing any of this back on Earth. There was something about the way the copper moved in this world that defied everything he knew. It was more like working clay than smithing, and he wouldn't complain. The real skills required to make something this complex would likely take years to hone, if they were possible at all.

Half-way through the morning, they took a break. Rud gained another level in his Blacksmithing skill, but that wasn't surprising. Levels came quickly at first, slowing down at Level 5 and climbing in complexity as one approached Level 10. Rud spent his break talking to Maria through the radio, snacking on food, and lamenting the difficulty of the task.

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"You chose this," Maria had chided.

She was right, of course. Rud didn't pick projects because they were easy. Perhaps he only picked them because they were hard. He returned to the workshop, getting back to it. Before night fell, he was able to create a decent copper plate. It wasn't perfect, but Taz claimed it was good enough for the job.

"Now, let's work on fusing. Forge welding something big enough to fill a bath is gonna be hard," Taz said. "May I suggest an alternative?"

Rud nodded. "Please."

"Not one tank, but a bunch. Connected with copper pipes and gates. You can flood ten smaller tanks with water, heat them all, and send them off into your bath." Taz placed his hands on his hips. "Because there's no way we're getting a massive tank to heat over the furnace."

Rud could imagine what Taz was talking about. Instead of making the big boiler he had planned, they could easily do ten smaller ones. Based on the maximum size they could get away with using the forge welding technique Taz had described, the copper boilers would be between fifty and one-hundred gallons. Which meant they didn't need to fire each boiler for the bath, instead heating only the ones they needed based on capacity.

"Since we have metal, we can also create little fire boxes to contain the blaze," Rud said, nodding along. "I like this plan!"

"Of course you do. Now, let's work on making the first boiler…"

As Taz had explained, it was hard to fuse the panels together. But because he had forced Rud to practice so much making those copper plates, it wasn't as devastating when he messed it up. The technique was simple. He placed the section he planned to attach to the box onto the fire along with the box itself. The area where he would fuse the two metals together would heat up thanks to the extreme heat of the Fairy Peat, then he could smack them together on his anvil using magic.

But this technique was impossible to use without a hand. After three panels attached, it was too heavy for Rud to lift. He thanked the spirits that Taz was such a beefcake.

"One box," Taz said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "What do you think?"

Rud looked over their first box. It had an open top, and a circular hole on either side for filling. Smacking the holes out was the strangest thing. Rud just tapped the area repeatedly until a hole appeared. Magic. He was thankful for that magic, though. They had their first boiler, and it would only take a few days for them to complete the rest. As long as Taz kept his schedule open…

"Time for a meal, I think. And more of that spicy tea," Taz rubbed his hands together. "I don't care for the milk, though."

"Mint seems to like it."

"Does she?" Taz asked, grimacing. "Seems like she was forcing it down more than anything."

"Well… She likes the idea of it, anyway."

After eating, Rud did a quick check-in at the Observatory. He recorded everything for his report and sent it off with Dean. Maria didn't have any interesting hypothetical questions to pose for the night. Thank goodness.

Before turning in to bed, Rud wanted to test his new water heater. He propped it up on rocks, filled it with enchanted water—because why not—and set a fire underneath. The copper was durable enough to withstand the intense heat from the Fairy Peat, and before long the water was hot enough to make a comfortable bath. The boiler was hard enough to move around as it was, but he had no plans of moving it once it was in place. He would build an area attached to the bathhouse to contain each boiler.

With visions of a massive bathhouse dancing through his mind, Rud lit a fire in his house and settled down to sleep.

It took an entire day to get the next nine boilers made. Rud worked the morning after the next, heading off to the longhouse for some breakfast and tea. Not only had he created the boilers to heat the water, but he had also worked on the pipe and gate system. The pipes would send water between the boilers—and the source—while the gates would prevent water from escaping. It was a simple system made of copper plates that could be raised and locked into place by hand.

Rud spooned himself some soup, smacking his lips after taking a few bites. Taz was getting better at making it, and it showed. Everyone spent their meal times within the longhouse, sucking down both tea and soup. The druid had a mental checklist of things he needed to do, rolling over the items to plan his day. The bear was getting close to being cured so that would take priority if he were to wake. Ban would be back at any moment, which was a cause for celebration. But the bathhouse took priority unless either of those things happened.

Thanks to Maria's comment, Rud took less soup than he wanted to. He would complain, but the demands of a custodian had him constantly active. Perhaps that would offset some excessive soup consumption…

Rud walked through the uncompleted bathhouse, pulling mass from the trees to create a solid floor. He pushed that material down, creating impressions deep enough to hold a decent amount of water. After lacquering the entire floor, he punched holes in the sides of three baths. All the plumbing would need to be attached underneath, giving the interior a seamless look. Before hooking up the copper lines, he raised a plus sign shaped wall to give privacy between the three baths and got to work on the boiler room.

Attached to the west of the main bathhouse building, Rud created a simple room where he could place all ten of his boilers. Dean was helpful in bringing them in, giving the druid time to run a water line from his enchanted water source. He drove cylindrical roots into the ground, leaving the center hollow to carry water. The trees he selected for the job worked with him more than normal. They seemed eager to be the ones that gained access to an infinite supply of the revitalizing water.

This plan wouldn't have worked if the landscape didn't slope from that water supply to the baths. Rud waved his staff through the air, channeling mana as he Freecast his Shape Plant spell. When the root finally burst through the ground near the boiler room of the bathhouse, he sat and rested while his mana regenerated.

"This is going according to plan, right?" Dean asked.

Rud nodded, gesturing to the walls of the boiler room. Both the bathhouse and the additional room sat about five to eight feet above the ground. Anything off from the main road experienced a sharp drop unless it had been cultivated by him. "Hook up the water to the boiler room, assemble the boilers, get under there and hook up the plumbing… Then we're done."

"An interesting design," Dean said, shaking his head. "Too much work for nothing, if you ask me."

"You think a bath is nothing?" Rud asked.

"I don't mind being dirty."

"But you're not a mortal. Imagine you're traveling the road all day, smelling like a goblin's dirty butt, and you just want to relax. A bath is going to do wonders for their morale."

"If you insist."

Although Dean doubted the effectiveness of this plan, he still helped. The powerful wolf was needed to move the large boilers around. The pair placed each boiler atop a stand, which rested on a reinforced copper plate. That would reduce the chance of burning the tree underneath. Combined with the Lacquer spell, the tree wouldn't be harmed. Rud fit the copper pipes connecting each boiler before running the water line into the building. It would empty into the first boiler, which would fill the next and so on. He took care of the plumbing underneath, double-checking before releasing the enchanted spring water into the boiler assembly.

"This seems more industrial than a druid should need," Dean said.

"True, but we're not a normal grove," Rud said. The sound of water rushing out from the roots and splashing onto the first boiler was pleasant. He pulled a small copper box from the room's corner, placing it under the last boiler in the chain before closing its connection to the rest. "This is our fire box. If it melts the copper, we need to go back to stage one."

Rud lit a Fairy Peat fire under that last boiler, adding as much as he estimated was needed. It shouldn't have taken much to get the water going, and he didn't want to burn through his new copper vessels.

"The water will cool the copper… won't it?" Dean asked.

"I hope so," Rud said, poking the fire with a stick. He shook the branch when it caught fire, then poked his finger in the water. It was still cold, but not as cold as when it came from the spring. "The point of this experiment is expansion. I'm making our buildings to expand or change them. We could swap this whole boiler system out if we needed."

"Was this something you did back on your planet?" Dean asked.

Rud had to think about that for a second. "Not exactly. Not the physical side of it. But my job was to organize people and projects, so I know what to look for while considering the future."

"A wise move," Dean agreed.

The last boiler in the chain was… boiling. Rud slid the firebox out from under the first, allowing the peat to burn out on its own. There was an open section on the far side of the room's floor, allowing him to open the gate. It would use the same technique of chained flooding as the boilers. Water rushed into the first tub, filling it about a quarter of the way. But it worked.

Rud did a little dance before checking below to make sure the leaks were minimal. There were plenty of leaks, but not enough for him to do anything about it. Without rubber or something goopy to seal the seams, he could do little to stem the tide.

"It worked!" Rud shouted, coming up to pose for Dean. The wolf nodded his head. "Let's get a bath going."

"Feel free to bathe. I am not interested," Dean said.