Rud had fun hanging around the mortal town. Especially after the people there warmed up to him. It didn’t take long for someone from Sparwyn to accept Dean as a guardian, rather than the dire wolf he was. That attention came with some undesirable consequences, though. Mira led the way down one street, heading to the southern wall to catch sight of the sea in the distance when they were approached by a group. The man who led the group was massive, at least a head taller than Mira. And he wore intimidating armor in the shade of night.

  Despite his appearance and scarred face, he wore a gentle smile.

  “The Keeper of Gladesbale Grove arrives in my town, and I’m not informed? Commander Mira?” the man asked.

  “Lord Feather,” Mira said, bowing. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  “Feather? Are you an adventurer?” Rud asked.

  The man pointed at Rud and smiled, chuckling to himself. “He’s a quick one. You can call me Peter, if you like.”

  Rud turned to Dean and nodded. “That’s an Earth name,” he whispered.

  “We’re excited about this new partnership, keeper. Especially the aid you provided during the last monster wave.”

  “Imagine if Dean had been there,” Rud said, patting the dire wolf on the side. “You guys have nothing to worry about now.”

  “Oh? Is it Gladesbale Grove’s intention to protect the mortals?” Peter asked.

  “That’s not our job, but if you guys need help we’re more than happy to provide it. Within reason.”

  “Hmm. Well, it was nice to meet you. But I have business to attend to,” Peter said, performing the sign of respect and bowing.

  Rud, Mira, and Dean watched as the guy walked away. There was something off about him that the druid couldn’t place his finger on. After a moment, he decided it was the same foreknowledge that both Mint and Ban displayed. A kind of coy superiority that was undeniable.

  “Shall I bite his head off?” Dean asked.

  “Not just yet,” Rud said.

  “What?” Mira asked.

  “Nothing. Let’s see this ocean.”

  The area south of Barlgore was unremarkable until the coastline. Rud could see that coast from the battlements of the wooden walls, but only just. There was a thin strip of beach where a dock had been built. Ships were visible bobbing in the waves, just distant enough that they looked like specks on the horizon. That was the landing area the people from Sparwyn used to establish themselves on the continent. Rud suspected the dwarves had used a similar port. Instead of settling near the coast, they pushed inland to gain access to the mountains. How that worked was beyond him, and the only dwarf he knew didn’t seem willing to talk about it.

  “Can I expect you in town more often?” Mira asked.

  Rud looked around, wincing at the sight. He didn’t want to spend more time in this town. His honest reaction to that question was ‘absolutely not, you can keep your mudhole to yourself.’

  “Absolutely. Especially since I made a fortune selling tea.”

  “I’m not sure if I’d call that a fortune… but I get your point.”

  This went about as well as Rud could have hoped. It was the proper first contact with the mortals near the grove. They had accepted him as the keeper, and even allowed a giant wolf in their town. But the longer the druid spent away from the grove, the worse he felt. Like the mortals entering the grove, he was missing something he needed. Some fundamental connection bound him to the place, ensuring he could never leave for long enough. The power he drew from Ban came at a cost and that was something he understood from the start. From the moment Mint presented him with the contract, he knew.

  “I need to return to the grove,” Rud said, feeling that pressure growing by the moment. “But I’ll be back for the saddle.”

  “Expect more adventurers. Especially after Barrow and his team return. I assume they made it through safely.”

  “They did. Dean helped me escort them, so there were no problems.”

  “Good. Take care of yourself, Rud.”

  “Yup,” Rud said, mounting Dean. “Watch this!”

  Instead of finding a gate, Dean just jumped over the wall and dashed away. Rud thought he heard Mira shout after them, but the whipping wind was too much. The crystals he collected would only equal around five high-quality crystals from the mine, but more stopgap measures were needed. Instead of relying on one source of fragments, the druid would focus on a bunch of methods. And the Energy Nodules expansion should go a long way to help with that. If Ban would stop making random buildings every other day.

  Dean made quick work of the ride back home. They arrived in the late afternoon, and Rud made sure to express his appreciation for the ride.

  “Hopefully you don’t mind being my pony,” Rud said, chuckling as he scratched behind Dean’s ear.

  “I’m getting used to it. Serving the grove has given me purpose.” Dean growled as Rud scratched. He started kicking a leg when the druid found the right spot. “To follow a powerful wolf like Mint is the dream of all who aspire to become Sacred Beasts.”

  Rud let Dean run off to do whatever wolf stuff he had to do and found Taz working in the mine. He accepted the Aspect of Gug and lent a hand with some mining. He retold the story of visiting the town. While the dwarf listened attentively, he had some comments about ‘human towns.’

  “Dirty places,” Taz said, swinging his pick and releasing a large chunk of stone from the wall. “Build your town in the mud, and you’ll cover yourself in dirt.”

  “As opposed to a clean mine?” Rud asked, coughing as he inhaled powdered rock.

  “More rock than dirt means you don’t get dirty!” Taz proclaimed, dusting his hands off. That just released more particulated stone into the air. “But at least they bought your tea. Might be a novelty for now, but hit that vein for all its worth.”

  The pair worked on a new tunnel until the chill flooding into the area denoted night falling outside. They called it a day and sat down to have dinner with the group. Rud had a mouthful of food when a familiar voice filled the clearing.

  “That took longer than expected,” Ban said, her voice lilting. “Could I have another fragment, Rud?”

  The druid sprung up, stumbling over to the tree to shove a high-quality fragment into her bark. She shot from ten percent to twenty in an instant. A wave of relief spread throughout the tree. Rud remained by her side, making sure she didn’t need to be topped off any further.

  “You said you were only going to do the nodules expansion,” Rud said, crossing his arms.

  “I knew you would yell at me if I stopped to ask,” Ban said. “Once the Energy Nodules expansion works correctly, it won’t be a problem.”

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  “I’ll take your word for it, you slippery tree.”

  “I see we gained a new member since I went down,” Ban said. Her senses spread over Dean. “What a powerful ally.”

  “I am honored,” Dean said from the fire, bowing his head at the tree.

  “Rud, go to the new building while I discuss things with Mint,” Ban said.

  Rud rubbed his hands together, finding the nearest bush. Taz followed closely after him and they both appeared at the foot of a stone tower. It rose high above the trees, sloping slightly inward as it climbed. The druid stood there for a moment, taking the sight in. Only when the dwarf dashed to be the first to the top did he move, crowding into the tower and climbing the stairs. And there were a lot of stairs. The top of the tower was like a lighthouse, providing a view of the nearby forest. No tree was large enough to hamper his view, but they were too distant to spot the Sacred Tree. Especially in the dark.

  “What’s the point of this building?” Taz asked.

  “It lets us see events. Monster waves, weather, magical anomalies. Stuff like that.”

  The top of the tower was a wide platform with a sloped roof above. A railing bordered the edge, preventing anyone from pitching over the side. A small idol glowed in the darkness, radiating the power of another spirit. Rud approached the idol and placed his hand on it. A message appeared.

  [Aspect of Bent attained!]

  Your Grove Custodian subclass has reacted to an effigy of Bent, the stag spirit.

  The Stag Sacred Spirit has lent you some of their power. If you stray too far from the idol that granted you this power, it will dissipate.

  It took a moment for Rud to notice anything different. He blinked a few times, thinking that the afterimage of the firelight had lingered in his vision. But it hadn’t. Glowing shapes moved on the horizon, some twisting and some remaining where they were. The druid focused on those spots, nearly falling over when his vision zoomed on a cluster of red shapes. The longer he stared, the more he understood about the cluster. It was a dungeon. Far in the distance. The longer he focused, the more information he felt flood into his mind.

  “This is trippy,” Rud said, squinting to get a better view.

  A moment later, it felt as though someone plucked his eyeballs from his head, and placed them hovering above the scene. He saw a group of bear monsters lingering outside of a cave. Most were sleeping, but some were prowling around the area. Moments later, his vision was sent back into his head and a message popped up.

  [Skill Gain!]

  You’ve performed enough actions in an Observatory blessed by Bent to earn the Farseeing skill! The Farseeing skill has been attached to your Grove Custodian subclass.

  “New skill!” Rud shouted.

  “Which one?” Taz asked, holding Rud steady where he stood.

  “Farseeing. I can see. Really far.”

  “That sounds useful… and self explanatory. So is that a skill or the tower?”

  “Both, I think,” Rud said, focusing on another spot to the north. The impression he got from the mix of colors was one of turbulent magic.

  Rud’s vision zoomed like it had done before and before long he was viewing a rocky section of mountain from above. At first, he couldn’t tell what was happening. But a light given form raced over the area, slamming into the mountain and causing a minor explosion. This was a concentration of magic that shouldn’t have been there. He zoomed out and refocused on where he thought the Sacred Tree was. With tears in his eyes from the strain, he watched as Mint talked with Ban. He couldn’t hear what they said, but he could see them.

  “This is great,” Rud said. “We can keep track of the monsters from here. Looks like I have three… maybe four dungeons in sight.”

  “That’s a powerful tool to have. What’s the range?”

  “Dunno. Maybe a few miles. Maybe ten. Hard to say.”

  “What's a mile?”

  “Unit of distance. Call it… four-thousand dwarf-paces per mile.”

  “Might as well measure it in squirrels…”

  Rud was too enamored with his new ability to abandon the tower. Long after Taz was bored, he kept looking around the area. While he could teleport anywhere within the grove, he couldn’t observe the places before he teleported. And the tower gave him access to an area around the grove. After some searching, he found a camp left by Barrow and his adventuring companions to the west. He watched the logging camp to the east, and even the river to the southeast.

  “So, was it worth it?” Ban asked, giggling into Rud’s mind.

  “Oh, yeah. This thing is awesome,” Rud said, addicted to the sensation of his sight leaving his body.

  “Each level in the skill will give you more distance. You’ll be spotting things all over the continent in time,” Ban said. “You should be able to see the entire Hornfen region by Level 10.”

  “Neat. This sure beats sending the wolves to check dungeons out.”

  “It consumes less energy than the smelter and the mine. I thought you would like it. Perhaps some memories of that dream will come back.”

  Rud smiled to himself. “You didn’t have to do this for me.”

  “You’ve been an amazing custodian so far. It would be foolish not to give you a treat.”

  “Not to mention how useful it is. Holy crap, I can see so far. I want people to call me Farseer Rud from now on.”

  Ban giggled again. Going under to create expansions took a lot out of her. He was happy that she was back to her old self so quickly. The druid imagined the Energy Nodules helped with that, but it might have just been a hope. When it got too late, Mint brought a bed for Rud to sleep in. She had predicted that he would want to stay within the tower. While it seemed unhealthy to separate himself from the other members of the grove, this new feature was too helpful not to explore. Half-way up the tower, there was a floor without windows. He settled down there for the night.

  More mortals moved through the grove the next morning. Rud watched from above as a group walked over the living path. This gaggle of adventurers seemed greener than the last, moving in a tight group with weapons drawn. The druid shook his head, laughing to himself as they jumped at every shadow. A pack of monsters moved overland somewhere to the south, their bald humanoid heads reflecting the light of the sun. He only knew they were monsters and not sapient things thanks to the glow given by the watchtower.

  Rud made a note of those movements and left the tower. He had eaten a breakfast of nuts and mushrooms, reminding him of when he first arrived in the grove. The grove of giant tea plants was flourishing, with the citrus-flavored ones growing slightly higher than the sweet ones. His Plant Care skill helped him look them over, ensuring that each one was doing great. And the building he made for drying the leaves was doing even better, creating entire shelves filled with the cut tea leaves all ready for packaging. For now, he stored them in a bin to catch up with Taz.

  “Finally left your fancy tower?” the dwarf asked, tossing Rud a pick. “Come to put in the hard hours, not the lazy hours?”

  “Come on. The tower is awesome.”

  “The tower is amazing. We all love the tower. Let’s chip some stone.”

  Just as Taz had claimed, he was working on a new downward staircase heading south. It was situated at the end of the long hallway near the dwarf’s bedroom, and was already impressively long. Rud watched, learning how to carve rough stairs in the rock as they worked. The technique wasn’t great, leaving uneven stairs that sometimes crumbled underfoot. But the stairs served their purpose, giving access to a lower level of the mine.

  Rud helped create more support beams, although Taz hadn’t gone through his old stock. No matter how much the druid chipped away at the rocks his Mining skill wouldn’t budge. Along the way to the bottom floor of the southern wing of the mine, the pair had run across some deep seams. Taz’s Prospector class sang when they found the ore, giving him the sense that they would run deep. Littered inside of those seams were crystal fragments, some of which were glittering on the surface.

  “Rich veins,” Taz said, nodding as he rubbed his hand against the wall. “I’m thinking deeper is better in this area. But we need as many exploratory tunnels as we can knock out.”

  No matter how much Rud wanted the forest to provide for itself, he needed to push the mine deeper. Taz and his dwarven tendencies moved in that direction, so it was fine.

  Offerings, mining, and tea sales were their only sources of fragments. As Rud worked in the mine, he thought about more ways to keep Ban alive. He understood that adventurers worked for-hire or were otherwise dispatched by local governments. The druid’s thoughts went back to Barrow and the way that man cleared the fire dungeon with the two elves.

  Why not hire adventurers to take out dungeons? The dungeons were full to bursting with fragments and contained many other treasures within. Now that Rud had his foot in the door of the mortal town, it would be easy enough to approach them. Easier still to throw his weight around as the ‘keeper.’

  Rud threw the idea around with Taz for a while. The dwarf shared what he knew about them. The most interesting thing was that they grew in power as time pressed on. If a dungeon was left unmanaged for too long, it would grow into a dangerous nexus of monsters. The Druid expected his ability to sense those things to increase as he leveled his Farseeing skill.

  “Perhaps I should deliver some portents of doom. My saddle should be ready, anyway.”

  “Sneaky little druid. How about you help me move this gravel before you go scaring the beard off of the mortals.”