As predicted, Elm did indeed flip. Perhaps she had some expectations as to what a wizard's tower in the Grove would look like. Rud suspected she thought it would be too many trees and not enough weird rooms that did specific things he didn't understand. Each floor was dedicated to some arcane concept, helping her channel, cast rituals, or otherwise do wizardy stuff to her heart's content. When the duo finally reached the top floor, her gaze seemed to pass over the Gate without notice. She then clasped her hands together, sending a silent prayer.

Rud suspected it was a prayer to the Grove itself.

"You might've missed the most important thing in your haste," Rud said, nodding to the gate.

Elm's face immediately twisted into an expression of confusion. A stiff breeze blew from the north, washing the top of the tower in chilled air. "Is that what I think it is?"

"You could just inspect the building to see," Rud said, shrugging.

"That's a Gate," she said.

Rud couldn't tell if she had inspected it or not, but whatever. She looked completely baffled.

"Yeah, Ban had a pretty sweet upgrade lined up for the tower." Rud let the information settle before he continued. Elm was running her hands on the Gate, inspecting the runes that had been etched on the surface. Ban already did all the linking of the towers behind the scenes, meaning it would just work. "You'll need to expend some amount of energy to establish the portal, and you'll need to use some of your own mana. However, it should be a reliable way to get you back and forth between the town and the Grove. This Gate is linked to another in your tower back in Barlgore."

"How did she make the connection between the two things that shouldn't be possible?"

"The problem is you're thinking with arcane magic. This is druidic magic, from what I understand. She connected to the Wild Way and linked it to your tower based on your conceptual connection there. That is to say, since you have a tower that's bound to you in the town, she was able to link these two together."

"I'm unfamiliar with the Wild Way," Elm said. "Is this like one of the Elemental Plane, or what?"

"Now, that one is outside of my pay grade," Rud said. "All I understand is that we can exploit it to move vast distances with little energy spent. It's the same method we're using to establish the connection to the other groves."

Of course, Elm was a mage at heart. A verbal explanation was fine, but that wasn't good enough for her. She immediately began testing on the Gate, prodding it with her magical senses and drawing arrays on the ground to take magical readings. Rud could only stand back and smile to himself as she ran through a series of tests.

"Between my tests and the descriptions provided by the system, the only downside here is that I'm the only one who can use it," Elm said with a weak smile. "I wonder if you wouldn't mind if I tested it now."

"The energy consumption should be minimal, but the distance isn't very far. Truth be told, this is the same method we're going to use to create a permanent Gate between here and the northern coast. So, this is a great test for us."

Elm's smile blossomed as she touched the Gate with her hand. She ran her fingers down the side and stood back, apparently giving some mental command for it to activate. In the same way the Druid's Gate had activated, this one did too. The energy formed, eventually coalescing into a pinprick in the center before a sheen of green magic spread across the surface. The elf gave him one last look and a nod before passing through. Only a moment later, she was gone.

"Did it work?" Rud asked, sending the message directly to Elm's mind.

"By the gods, you scared me," Elm said. "I'm standing here on the top floor of my tower, looking out over the town, when suddenly your voice floods into my mind. It was such a disorienting experience, Rud."

"Sorry about that," Rud said, "Sending his response back with a hearty chuckle, but it worked properly. You didn't turn inside out or something?"

"No. All my insides are still on the inside," she said. Rud could practically see her checking herself over to ensure nothing untoward had happened.

"Make sure you didn't grow an ear on the back of your head, just to be safe."

"No ear. I think we're good."

"How about the power consumption?" Rud asked aloud, looking out onto the grove and awaiting the shimmering response of the sacred tree. It didn't take her long to respond.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"The energy consumption was nominal," Ban responded. "This condensed version of energy is extremely potent, so she didn't even take 1% of my reserves."

"This was a good test for the gate link to the northern coast, right?" Rud asked. That was his suspicion, but he hadn't confirmed it yet. Although he had been crowned with the title of custodian of Gladesbale Grove, up until recently he didn't feel as though he fit the description. Only in recent memory had he come into his own, actually caring for the Grove and steering its direction in a meaningful way. Perhaps that was some kind of failing on his part, but the only direction he could look was forward.

"It will take even less energy as long as the outpost has a physical connection to this grove. Speaking of which, have you started working on that yet?"

"If I say no, are you going to yell at me?" Rud asked.

"Yes."

"Then, yes. I'm making some great progress," Rud said, gesturing northward with his staff. "By that I mean, Nulsa has scouted the path for me. I just need to grow a line of trees."

Rud and Ban talked for a while about the logistics of creating a straight line of forest towards the northern coast, but the druid jumped with fright when the portal sprang to life. Elm stepped through a few moments later and noticed the surprise on his face. She laughed, slapping Rud on the back.

"I won't get over this druidic portal magic, or the power of being a Champion for that matter," Elm said, pulling Rud into a surprise hug. Then, holding him by the shoulders and shaking him with more excitement, she added, "I don't know what I expected when you proposed the position of Champion, but this is perfect. I can live both lives now."

And that was the point. Rud hadn't picked her for any other reason than she was a person worthy of that title. She was smart and had the potential to become very powerful. Sure, he could have recruited a person who had a higher rank. It might have taken a while to find one, but he could have done it. But it was the potential in her that he saw—the potential to change and adapt and become something like Gladesbale Groves's Archmage. One day, maybe. For now, they were all just muddling through, trying to make this work with almost no information.

"If you'll excuse me," Elm said, rubbing her hands together. "I've got a new tower to marvel at."

Unable to stop himself from laughing, Rud clapped her on the back and departed from the tower. The line of trees he was expected to create was a big project, but first the druid stopped by the observatory to check if anybody had heard from Kiara. He checked in with Jim, who hadn't heard anything, and then flipped through all the channels broadcasting the name of his grove, waiting at least five minutes for each response. This gave him time to reflect on the progress he had made recently, and he had to admit that things were going well. He knew the underground city was still a problem, but at least they had moved forward on that. When it was proven there was nothing to be heard over the radio, he gave up on it and was unsurprised to find Nulsa waiting for him outside on the balcony.

The owl preened on the banister as though he had been expecting Rud to come out at any moment. He gave a soft hoot and gestured with his beak northward. "So, are we going to begin working on the path or what?"

"Are you volunteering to accompany me?" Rud asked. "Don't you need your beauty sleep?"

"As I've said before, as my attributes rise, particularly my vigor, I need less and less sleep. I've been getting away with only a few hours here and there. So yes, I'm here to help. I'm here mostly to guard you in case you get ambushed by orcs."

"Well, I have to tell you one thing, Nulsa, my old boy. I certainly am not going to land as we're planting these new trees."

"Now you're going to tell me ravens can cast magic?" Nulsa asked.

Rud had done it before. He hadn't meant to do it, but he had cast magic while in a shapeshift form. He couldn't even recall how it felt. Magic was something that came naturally to him. He pulled it from a place of instinct, rather than the studied way that mages used their spells. It came as no surprise to him that his druidic magic would've come out while within his squirrel form.

Now he just had to do it on purpose, rather than by accident.

"Where there's a whip, there's a way," Rud said, gesturing in the air with a dramatic flair. "We'll figure it out on the way."

"Ah yes, the age-old practice of self-flagellation to achieve shape-shifted spellcasting," Nulsa said with a sharp nod. "I'm quite familiar with this one."

"Great. Make sure to bring your whip, and we'll make it happen."

Whether they were still speaking in metaphors or not was beyond the druid, but he shape-shifted into his raven form, and the pair of them were off. Instead of flying into the nearest bush and taking a shortcut to the north, Rud instead flew through the grove itself. It gave him a chance to get used to the feeling of trying to cast spells while in this form. The one advantage he had with the spell he planned to cast was that it required no ingredients. If he had to balance a leaf on his head and carry a gigantic pile of acorns in his talons, things might get dicey. But the Plant Growth spell cost only mana.

The second problem was that the magic he used relied heavily on the power of the Grove. Rud felt like that wouldn't be as much of an issue as he expected. Before long, he was doing drive-by casts of his spell, watching as his mana dropped by 40 and then crawled up by two every second. The effect of his artifact staff was truly powerful, and he could imagine himself flying in a straight line, casting the spell repeatedly, and gaining quite a lot of skill levels and a line of trees for his efforts.

"Now for the real test run," said Rud, banking northward and giving his wings a few good flaps. Nulsa was right there behind him, following in his wake and hooting softly with approval.

One part of the plan the pair had to work out before heading north was the distribution of seeds. Rud had reached a solution, but he wasn't sure what Nulsa thought of it. The owl had a small brown satchel slung over his neck. Inside was an assortment of pinecones, acorns, and other seeds Rud thought looked neat. The druid swapped positions with the owl, trailing far enough away that he could cast his spell after the seeds hit the ground.

"Ready to see if your plan will work?" Nulsa asked.

"Ready," Rud said, pulling the Plant Growth spell to the forefront of his mind.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.