"Casting is an instinct," Rud reminded himself.

"Having some stage fright?" Nulsa asked.

As much as Rud wanted his spells to come to the surface, his first few passes had been lacking. Nulsa had selected the perfect line for the forest, and the pair had already begun their journey. But the moment the druid left the borders of the Grove, he felt himself cut off from that power. That had given him enough of a shock to waylay his ability to cast spells. Now they waited near the forest's edge, trying to coax it out of it.

Rud started by casting the spell while within his raven form and inside the Grove. He remained on the ground, and found it wasn't too hard to make it happen. Technically, he was still holding his staff while in this form, so he got all the benefits. Unfortunately for him, that didn't do anything to remove the mental block.

"Think of this like the time you were manipulating the elements," Nulsa said.

Rud gave him a flat look, cawing and flapping his wings. "I'm still no good at that," he said. "How about another analogy?"

"You're no different than you were before," Nulsa said. "And you still get the benefit of the Grove if you're within a certain range of the border. Focus on that and not flying."

That was easy enough for a creature that spent all his time in an avian form to say. When Rud was in his raven form, the only thing he could think about was flying. At first, he thought his issue was that his feet weren't touching the ground. He focused too much on that concept of grounding, tripping himself up and making it hard to move forward. When he finally took the owl's advice, he broke past that barrier right away. But perhaps not in the same way Nulsa had expected.

Rud plunged from high up, almost crashing through the canopy of the Grove as he descended. He wasn't focused on flying and casting his spell at the same time. Instead, he was focused on falling and casting his Shape Plant spell. And then subsequently the shapeshifting spell to prevent certain death. The druid landed, a broad smile on his face after another successful move.

"You're an idiot," Nulsa said. "You can't just cancel the shapeshift form, cast your growth spell, then shapeshift again."

"Why not?"

"Because you're going to die," Nulsa said with a heavy sigh. "Why are you acting up? Where is my whip?"

"Hey, you were responsible for bringing the whip," Rud said.

Yet this solution wasn't something Nulsa could accept. The owl was determined to delay the project until Rud did it right. There might not have been a literal whip, but there certainly was a proverbial one.

"Try again!" Nulsa shouted, his voice carrying more authority than Rud had ever heard it carry. "Stop thinking about flying. Just cast the spell!"

Rud thought he could never be urged into doing something he couldn't do before through yelling, but the owl's words and threats were actually motivating. Before long, he found himself almost able to cast the spell, and over the course of four hours of practice, he finally got it—casting it adeptly within the borders of the grove. That didn't solve the problem of casting it outside, but it was progress.

"I'm glad I didn't have to pluck your eyes out with my powerful talons," Nulsa said. "Now, I've placed a line of seeds outside the Grove's borders. I want you to grow them. Come to me if you need a hint."

Although Rud knew he could be clever. He also understood that now was not the time, especially not when it meant showing his butt to Nulsa, who seemed to be in a mood. Instead, he took the practice seriously, remembering the hints that had already been dropped and putting them to use. He started by flying in his raven form, coming to the border of the grove, and then just outside it before casting the shape-plant spell. Thanks to all the practice, he could cast it easily enough. Gliding about 20 feet above the ground and targeting the first in the line of acorns, the spell went off without a problem. Then he banked around, circling and watching below as the plant grew. As expected, it was still infused with the power of the grove, although he was not directly within the borders.

He was just close enough to still draw on that power.

"Wow, did you actually listen to me for once?" Nulsa asked, flying behind as Rud went to make his second pass.

"Believe it or not, sometimes I can wrangle enough brain cells to pay attention for more than 15 seconds," the druid said. "I must be in a mood."

Although the key was to cast the spell just outside the border of the grove, there was more to it. Now, when Rud grew the trees within the confines of the forest, the roots naturally sought out the roots of the others, becoming part of a contained system. But he noticed something interesting as he made his second pass. As the roots of the second tree connected to the first, he felt the familiar brush of the grove's presence in his mind. The trees he was growing outside the forest were connected to it and were an implicit part of Gladesbale Grove.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"This is new, isn't it?" Rud said, banking back again and trying to understand his confusion. "Am I expanding the grove?"

"I believe you are," Nulsa said. "I think it's a combination of the extra energy the sacred tree has gathered and your own advancement within your class. Since the trees you grow are all now connected, they are part of the Grove."

This was a fact that had frightening implications. Rud wasn't sure he could contend with it right now. That meant he could expand the size of the grove in any direction he wanted, which was something that had been impossible before. The way it worked before was that if Ban grew in rank, the forest expanded in all directions. But if he could now direct the growth, there was no limit to what they could do. Why stop? Creating a line of trees to the north was nice. But why not do it in every direction? Why not consume the sea and suffuse the sky with an endless canopy…

Rud pushed the thought from his mind. Putting aside how difficult that would be, he wasn't sure that was the way forward. For now, he'd focus on his nice line of trees.

The duo entered a familiar pattern. Nulsa dropped the seeds on the ground, arranging them in a pattern that would create a thickly forested area. Rud came along behind him to grow those trees. It wasn't good enough to have just a single tree in a line; it needed to be a decently thick forest to carry all the energy they intended to transport. Four trees wide was the minimum, but the Rud wanted to do things right, so they settled on between four and eight, which significantly increased the time it took for them to finish.

"If you don't do it right, don't bother doing it at all!" Rud shouted.

But even if the work was hard, Rud could look down at what they were doing and smile to himself. After only an hour of work, a long stretch of trees cut through the hills. The druid had already mastered this technique of casting while within the air, and could rapid-fire shoot his Plant Growth spell off. It was enough to gain notice, earning him the Rank 1 version of the spell and increasing his efficiency even more.

At 40 mana per cast, and 349 mana available to him, Rud could cast the spell 8 times before he had to wait. And the wait was only three minutes long thanks to the effect of his staff. Since he was constantly regenerating mana, he even got some of that back while he was casting the subsequent spells. That gave him enough time to either circle back and prepare for another run, or find a nearby branch to rest. Casting so many versions of a Growth Magic spell caused Rud's associated skill to shoot up to Rank 1 Level 3.

Even with all these advantages, it would still take him quite a while to create the line of forest between the Grove and the coast. But at least he had Nulsa for company. He was surprised to see the owl have advice for helping him make his casting more efficient. When switching to freecasting mode, it allowed Rud to tune the spells both up and down in power. According to Nulsa, this was the true way to cast druidic spells, which cast off the system's shackles and allowed him to summon the power of nature to its fullest.

"You have taken the first step on the path to casting druid spells in their true form," Nulsa said as they both took a well-deserved break. There were still a few hours of daylight left, and neither seemed eager to abandon the effort. Although they planned to rest once the sun went down, they both knew they could work late into the night, making great progress while the others slept. "But tapping into the full potential of nature is still beyond your grasp. I can't determine whether that's because your rank is still low or because you're not truly throwing yourself into it."

"How can I get better?" Rud asked.

Nulsa released a hooting laugh. "That's the point. This isn't something you can get better at by leveling up. This is something you attain by understanding. Understand the connection between what you're doing and nature."

"What's the result, though?" Rud asked. "What's wrong with the way I'm casting spells right now? I mean, look at the forest we've already created. The squirrels are frolicking, and they're picking the acorns and eating them. This seems like harmony to me."

"What we're doing here completely neglects the concept of balance," Nulsa said. "Yes, we're doing something to achieve an end, but we're not considering how this will affect the local ecosystem. Casting spells and performing druidic acts center around the concept of balance. And what is the end goal, you might ask? Well, I suppose you could think of it as power—the ability to manipulate nature in a way you simply don't understand yet. Taming that talent of yours won't happen overnight. But when you finally see the truth behind your connection with nature, you'll cast those spells without the system."

That was a lot to chew on. Since Rud had arrived in this world, he felt like he was a part of the Grove. But he never truly felt like he was part of nature. Wasn't their purpose here to create something that was above nature, so they could protect it? Perhaps that was his problem. Were they truly above nature, or should he be trying to fall closer in line with what the natural world would want? There might've been a riddle in Nulsa's words, since that's the way he worked.

"Balance, huh?" Rud asked, scratching at the branch with his talons. "Do you think I have it in me?"

"Absolutely. That's why you're here," Nulsa said. He took a breath as though he had more to say but stopped himself. "This is a lesson you need to learn on your own."

"Does that mean you're my teacher?" Rud asked.

"Indeed. I'm here to guide you."

"Okay. So, what do you call this form of spellcasting?" Rud asked.

Nulsa flapped his wings once. "Druidic casting. True casting. Instinctual casting. Whatever you call it, you first need to connect with an aspect and master it."

"Well, my aspect is plants, right?" Rud asked. "Can't be anything else with how much time I spend with plants."

"Exactly."

Rud pinched his eyes shut, spreading his wings and grunting a few times.

"What are you doing?" Nulsa asked.

"Trying to be more like a plant," Rud responded. "I'm photosynthesizing."

"You might want to hurry. The sun is going down," Nulsa said.

Rud's eyes opened. He couldn't tell if photosynthesis was truly part of the process. He closed his eyes again, intent on absorbing as much of the sun as he could while it was still poking over the horizon.

The owl laughed.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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.