Discovering the secrets of casting spells like a real druid wouldn't come in a day. Rud understood that, and didn't allow himself to get frustrated when it didn't come to him right away. He and Nulsa went crazy, though. They didn't stop working on the line of forest until a few hours before dawn. It was hard to tell how far they had gone, but it was a sizable section they had done in such a short time.

Perhaps they would reach the northern coast sooner than expected. A week or two of similar nights and they would be done, according to Rud's estimations.

The next morning, Rud found himself slightly more tired than normal in the longhouse. It was nothing a few cups of strong tea couldn't remedy, though. But with his absurd Vigor, resting currently at 23 compared to his base score of 3, he thought he would keep up with Nulsa better. The advantages of rank, perhaps.

"You look chewed up and pooped out," Taz said, serving the druid an overly full bowl of soup. "Did you have a late night?"

"Yeah. Don't make friends with an owl," Rud said, accepting the bowl. "You'll be up all night."

"Duly noted." Taz paused for a long time. He scratched at his beard, lingering nearby. "Say, do you have any other giant crystals you need me to smash?"

Rud laughed. "Eager to use that pick of yours?"

"Absolutely! My baby is wasted on the soft rock in the mine. You should've seen me… Like caveshrooms before the knife, that stone fell! Massive sheets of the stuff falling with every swing. You'll need to pay my little mine a visit and grow those supports some more."

Taz was having a great time with his new tool, and Rud couldn't help but feel the infectious excitement. As he was working on his own big project, he understood the feeling of success. That hammer had come out to be something amazing, and there was no better wielder of it.

"I'll let you know the moment I find something that needs a good smack," Rud said. "And after I kill a few more cups of tea, I'll head down and reinforce your mine."

A devious smile lingered on the dwarf's face, but he just nodded.

Before heading to fix up the mine, Rud spent time at the table concentrating on stuff. His ability to focus on one thing for more than a few seconds wasn't great, but he did his best. There were concepts of nature and balance he considered, but no revelations came to him. He'd work within the confines of the system for now, hoping that one day he might understand what it all meant.

As expected, the fire within the forge was burning. Taz wasn't there, but Fairy Peat burned, sending tendrils of smoke snaking into the sky. The scent of the burning material was somehow nostalgic, even if it was something he had smelled for the first time in this world. After lingering around for some time, Rud headed into the mine where he expected to find the dwarf. He didn't hear the same clatter of a pick against stone when he entered. Instead, the thumping sound of the new tool reverberated through the mine.

After taking the path to the left, bypassing Taz's sleeping area to delve deeper into the stone, Rud entered an unfamiliar area. The dwarf wasn't kidding. He had gone absolutely insane on the formerly lowest section of the mine. After following down a wide staircase, he found his way into a massive room. Far in the distance, a lantern light burned.

"Ho there, Rud!" Taz shouted from afar, his voice echoing off the cave walls. "Might wanna get those supports up!"

Looking around, Rud had to agree. The ceiling of the newly formed cave was maybe thirty feet up. He couldn't tell exactly, as the light was pretty awful. He jogged over, pointing up. "How did you chip away the stuff up there?"

"Jumped really high," Taz said. "Nah, I worked from the top down. Left some pillars of stone as support, but I don't think they'll hold. Could use some underground trees instead."

Nodding, Rud looked around to size up the job. He figured the effort Taz had put into the task was already a big help. The biggest problem was that the ceiling lacked bracing supports and would need a nice lattice of roots to hold it together. Even if the entire thing didn't collapse, it was possible that sections would break away, putting anyone below in danger.

"I'll get to it," Rud said, eager to get this place safe before he died in a horrible accident. Perhaps he could also convince some of those glowing flowers to sprout. That'd take care of the darkness problem…

No matter how much material Rud pulled from the roots he had already run into the mine, they never seemed to run out. Although he had a sense they would eventually run out, the massive trees he had used the original roots from were large enough to handle the load. Weaving them into the large room was easy enough, and the roots obeyed his commands when he sent them along the ceiling. He created a powerful web that would prevent anything from falling.

Pretty glowing flowers sprouted from select roots, although there weren't enough to fully illuminate the interior. But it was enough to banish enough of the darkness. That gave Rud a better view of the area, and a new appreciation for the work Taz had done.

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"You did all this yourself?" Rud asked, still looking around in bewilderment. "How?"

"Been working on this for weeks," Taz said, waving a dismissive hand. "Just got through the hard bits with my new tool. Anyway, I found something pretty cool. Wanna see?"

"I love cool things," Rud said, rubbing his hands together.

The dwarf was a bit too overjoyed about showing Rud this "cool" thing. Taz held his lantern high, leading the way to the far side. The druid spotted it long before they approached. When he had been reinforcing the ceiling, he had ignored the distant shape on the wall. It looked like any other unevenly hewn bit of rock on the walls. But as they drew closer, he made out the shape of an archway.

Rud froze, brows knitting as he looked upon it. He would say it a thousand times if need be, but he was no master of the arcane. Yet the symbols on that archway were clearly of an arcane origin that radiated power.

"Uh, Taz… What is that?" Rud asked.

"Fancy door," Taz said with a guffaw.

"A door that you carved, or what?" Rud asked, getting a better look at it. At first, he thought the stone blocked the center. But that wasn't the case. In the center was a sheet of impenetrable darkness. His instinct was to reach out and touch the veil, but he resisted.

"It was here. Ran into it by accident," Taz said.

"I'm not going crazy, am I?" Rud asked. "This thing looks dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Taz asked, his bushy brows knitting. "Nonsense! That's a Stoneweird!"

"A who-what-now?" Rud asked.

"A Stoneweird. Ancient dwarven artifact," Taz said, approaching with slow steps. Rud reached his hand out to touch the shifting space between the arches. The dwarf slapped his hand away, shouting. "Absolutely do not touch it. Not unless you want to summon some long-dead guardian or something from the deep."

"I have just one question, Taz."

"Yeah, what's up?"

"WHY ARE WE STANDING SO CLOSE TO THE DOOM PORTAL!?"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Taz said, holding Rud by the shoulders. "It isn't a doom portal… Just a near-doom portal. A giant deadly monster portal. A world-level threat portal."

"None of those options are better," Rud said with a flat tone. "If anything other than a fluffy bunny named Tim comes through that portal, it is bad. Got it?"

Taz rubbed his beard, looking between Rud and the archway. "That could be possible…"

Rud threw his hands in the air. "So what do we do about it?"

"Well, as long as no one touches it or thinks too hard near it, we should be fine." Taz placed a comforting hand on Rud's shoulder. "We find these often in the deep places of the world."

"So, do you dwarves have a way to deal with these?" Rud asked.

"Yup. Just need a Runepriest and we're good," Taz said.

Something had taken over the dwarf. Rud was certain of it. The druid rubbed his face vigorously, considering the gate with a concerned eye. His instinct was to wrap it in roots and leave it there forever, but the interaction between Ban's energy and the archway might end poorly. Getting a Runepriest anywhere near the Grove was unlikely, since they were dwarves and it was hard enough to get one dwarf. Two dwarves? The Grove might spontaneously combust.

"You've dug too greedily… Too deep," Rud said, allowing himself a slight chuckle. "So, we're gonna block this room and never look at it again."

"Best not to leave it alone until we get a Runepriest in here," Taz said.

Rud decided a few things at that moment. He doubted Taz actually knew much about these doom arches. If someone studied in dwarven runecraft could actually do anything about it was anyone's guess. There was also the possibility that this was some kind of cursed object. The conclusion he reached was that he didn't have enough information. Yet the person he wanted to turn to was saddled with enough work to keep anyone busy for a lifetime.

"Keep an eye on this thing while I look for information," Rud said. "Can you watch it without the world ending?"

"Yeah, of course," Taz said. "I've got this."

Although he doubted it, Rud trusted the dwarf for now. He grew himself a bush and dove into it, using Thicket Travel to arrive outside of Elm's new tower. Thankfully she was in, doing some magical stuff on the second floor. Although he couldn't hope to understand what she was doing, he nodded along as she explained the process. Once it was polite to do so, he asked for any texts she had on dwarven runes.

"Translated, if possible," Rud said, offering a sheepish smile.

"Dwarven runes?" Elm asked with a laugh. "I might have a few in my collection… Hold on, let me head over to Barlgore with my new fancy teleporter to check."

Rud was left in the magic room with nothing to do. The temptation to mess around with the fancy things scattered around the room was great, so he found a chair and sat on his hands. Fortunately, she was only gone for 30 agonizing minutes. She returned with a large stack of books and a broad smile on her face.

"I've got quite a few translated instruction manuals for dwarven runes. They range through the ranks." Elm groaned as she placed the hefty stack of books on the ground. "If you'll excuse me."

Rud was glad she didn't ask what he was doing. But he wanted to get better at handling these magical problems on his own, so he shoved the books in his pack, reserving one to read along the way.

The text was dense. Although Rud had selected the introductory book to start with, the contents seemed difficult to understand. After wandering toward the mine and descending into those depths, the druid finally understood exactly how hopeless he was gonna be with the runes. They were complex in a way he wasn't prepared for.

Looking up from the book as he walked through the massive cavern, Rud blinked a few times. In the distance, he could see the darkness of the archway's portal shimmer in a way he hadn't seen before. Taz, with his hammerpick held high, stood nearby.

"For the ancestral homes!" the dwarf bellowed.

Rud stood, wide-eyed as he watched the portal collapse. The blast that issued forth pushed the reinforcements he had created to their limits. A pair of gilded horns pushed forth from the place where the arch just was.

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