Mint's wolf form was sometimes too large to enter the threshold of a mushroom house. Rud wasn't convinced she had a standard size for that form, but he liked to think she dropped all the crap he ordered outside the building because of her size. Elm was taking magical readings or something when the wolf returned with all the things she would need… And more. The sofa, bed, and wood-burning stove were all appreciated. The set of children's dolls, pan with a hole in the center, and massive pile of logs were not so acceptable.

"Guess we have some logs," Rud grumbled, dragging the stove back into Elm's new house. Using his Shape Plant spell, he pulled the mushroom around the stove pipe and sealed it tight. Judicious use of the Lacquer spell sealed it up tight and ensured it was kinda heat-proof. "Hey, can you help me with this bed?"

"Uh, yeah," Elm said, tearing herself away from her notes. "Oof, we're gonna take that to the loft?"

Rud narrowed his eyes at the elf. "Taz, can you give us a hand?"

A few minutes later the dwarf appeared, rolling up his sleeves and wiggling his bushy brows. "Place a few more points into Strength, Rudy," he said, voice booming through Ban's clearing. He stopped, striking a pose as he flexed his muscles. "Or just keep calling on these bad boys."

"Oh, those are some bad boys," Rud said, nodding with agreement.

"The baddest," Elm put in.

It might've been a temporary house, but Rud knew Elm would be happier here. But only because she had a quick mount to get to the labyrinth. He didn't think she would appreciate being isolated all the way in the western reaches of the grove. If she stayed here, she could enjoy tea, food, and company.

Elm wiped her forehead clear of sweat after they moved the bed. It was a pain. When they got it half-way up the stairs to the loft, they had to turn it. That had almost sent Rud tumbling over the railing's edge and down to the hard ground below. Only Taz's strength saved them. Seriously, the dwarf was strong.

"This calls for some tea," Rud said, nodding to himself as he started a fire in the stove.

Elm hummed along as she found a seat, and even Taz stuck around. Of course, selecting a tea for them was of vital importance. Taz enjoyed the stuff that tasted more like chai while Elm had bought a few jars of his Suckerpunch Tea. To welcome her to her—temporary—stay at the grove, he selected the earthy-sour tea and got it brewing.

"When we gain access to the other groves, I'm gonna make so many new teas," Rud said.

"Yes, your tea is excellent," Elm said. "The effects are marvelous. Almost like encountering one of those demonic alchemists you see on the road. This one time, I was in this swamp…"

Elm told a fantastical story about a demon and lizardfolk in a swamp. While Rud nodded along, he didn't believe it. Flying cities, dragon hybrids, and powerful potions seemed a bit too unbelievable. Yet over a cup of his tea, any story would be fun to listen to.

A soft hoot came from the doorway, and Rud turned to see the wide eyes of Nulsa looking through. "I have not detected anything unusual since the excavation."

"That's good news, right?"

"Indeed," the owl said, flapping away without making a single sound.

Rud shook off the shivers crawling up his spine. "Well, I need to check in at the tower," he said. Of course, Nulsa was the one who had reminded him of his commitment to Hagsrise. Just as he didn't want Elm to feel too lonely, he wanted Maria to feel the same sense of comfort. "I'll see you guys at the longhouse for dinner."

"I'm making roasted meat!" Taz declared. "Don't be late. Saw mortals on the road and you know how they gobble it up."

Rud nodded, making all due haste to the nearest bush. He shifted into his squirrel form, appearing in the canopy of trees over his Observatory. The druid did circles until he landed on the top floor, skittering inside and shifting back to his normal form. There was a lot of work to do tomorrow. A new road meant a few days of work, but he was up to the challenge.

When he turned the radio on, he wasn't met with the normal static. Instead, he heard a voice that seemed faintly familiar.

"...seems normal though. The increase shouldn't be anything we can't handle," the voice said.

"Right. Rud is normally here by now," Maria said, sounding impatient. "Maybe we just clear the air for a minute."

"No need!" Rud announced, clicking the button on his radio. "Heard you people talking smack, so I made my way to the tower."

"Thank god," Maria said. "Thought you'd miss the one time Jim was around."

"Oh! Jim!" Rud said, finally remembering where the voice was from. It was Jim from Cliffs of Mog. The custodian for Basil. "Maria said you had a tower, but I was starting to doubt it."

"Yeah, yeah. I have a family over here, ya know? Anyway, we're talking about strange energy readings Basil detected today. Lots of swirling magic crap, so he made me man this station." Jim ended his sentence with a heavy sigh. "I'm almost done with my report… Once Maria stops talking."

"Come on. You know how much it sucks being underground, right?"

"Anyway, we had some weird readings here," Rud said. "Got a mage to come check it out and she found a freaking labyrinth."

The sound of Jim choking on something echoed over the radio. "Excuse me? She found a what!?"

"A… labyrinth?" Rud said, asking it more as a question. Ruh-roh.

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"Oh, that sounds bad," Maria said.

"Yeah, like really bad if you don't manage them," Jim said. "You gotta stay on top of that, Rud. If you let that thing out of control, you're in for it. Don't slip up."

"Okay. Now that I'm scared for my life… What else is going on?" Rud asked.

"Well, now I'm concerned about random system dungeons or labyrinths showing up," Jim said.

"Oh, well!" Maria said. "Rud is working on a portal thing, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Not much progress, but we'll get there!"

Chatting with another person was weird. Rud was used to this radio channel being his private chat room with Hagsrise. Having Cliffs of Mog on the line made it awkward at first. But once the group got the hang of going back and forth, the conversation flowed naturally. Until Jim was yelled at by his wife, Sarah, who dragged him off the line and forced him to come have lunch.

Rud forgot the other groves were in different parts of the world. While Maria was in the same time zone, Jim was not. When he signed off, that left only the two of them.

"I'm not as concerned as him," Maria confessed. "We deal with all kinds of weird stuff like this, and it never keeps us down for long. And now, guess what we have?"

"What?" Rud asked.

"Teamwork! Other groves to bounce ideas off of. Imagine if we can send our guardians through portals. Any problem any grove has won't be an issue… Oh! And we can see Bent!"

"That would be wild," Rud said with a sigh, leaning over the desk as he thought about it. As the progenitor of all the groves, Bent was kinda a celebrity. All the spirit beasts knew about it… Those of them in the grove program, anyway.

The conversation went on like that for a while. Rud was happy the discussion went back to two participants. It was much easier to keep track of. They both signed off and he shifted into his squirrel form, jumping out the window and sailing, through Thicket Travel, to the longhouse. The scent of roasting meat was heavy in the air. A plume of smoke rose from the chimney, adding the smell of burning wood to the mix.

Eating food in the longhouse had become a great joy for everybody in the grove. There were usually a few visitors who were passing through, taking advantage of the free food the grove provided. Somehow, Taz had become the grill master. Perhaps it was because he was so good at it, or that none of the spirit animals were interested in learning how to work the massive grill with their paws.

When Rud entered the longhouse, he spotted two adventurers he didn't recognize on one side of the table and a gaggle of spirit animals lingering close enough to the fire to take advantage of its warmth. Elm and Taz were on the other side of the massive fire, cutting pieces of meat off a roasting section and talking amongst themselves. The druid sauntered over, taking his seat and feeling happy with the way things had gone with the ritual.

"You look mighty happy for a man who needs to collect 12 cursed objects," Taz said with a laugh.

"That's the thing, though. Now I know where they are. That was half of the problem before."

"You should have seen those giant bugs," Taz said, leaning in to elbow Elm gently in the ribs. "We could barely manage those things."

"Tell me of these giant bugs," Elm said, cutting a strip of meat off and placing it in her mouth. She nodded, chewing with satisfaction. "This is fantastic."

"Naturally," Taz said, straightening his back and allowing a smile to spread across his face.

Rud took charge, describing what had happened with the cursed object that created the giant bugs. Elm listened along, nodding dutifully, until the information became too great. She withdrew a notebook and scribbled a few things down.

"That's an interesting interaction between cursed objects and mundane creatures," Elm said, scrawling a few more things before leveling her gaze at him. "I would be incredibly concerned."

"That's a problem with cursed objects though, isn't it?" Taz asked, "You never know what you're gonna get."

Rud was eager to see what would happen when an object was completely purged of its cursed energy. But of course, that was something that would take more time. With the labyrinth's appearance, he now had more than he could contend with on his plate. The only thing that made it easier was so many other people—spirit beasts included—helping him out.

Although Elm now knew a bit more about the cursed objects, she didn't know enough to help Rud. Unfortunately, that made him the de facto expert on the objects. That was only because he had his purification spell. It was a spell gifted to him by the Great Spirit of the River. The spirit that gave him healing-based spells, which had been absurdly useful, especially with helping the population of wild animals.

"The issue with the labyrinth is that it will be harder to get adventurers to run it," Elm said after stuffing her face with a fair amount of food. "Dungeons are an easy sell, but labyrinths… they're another story."

"We actually have an advantage there," Rud said, smiling to himself. "If Mint can enter the labyrinth, that means she can run it. I wouldn't want to send all of our spirit animals down there, but a few wouldn't hurt."

"Hey, wanna run a dungeon?" Taz asked, looking at Rud and wiggling his eyebrows.

"Only if you want to die," Rud said. "I mean, actually, I might make a decent support healer, but my healing spells aren't actually that great."

"What level is your healing magic skill, anyway?" Taz asked.

"Only level 5," Rud said. "I don't use the spells as often as I'd like."

"I thought you'd be Rank 1 by now," Elm said.

Yeah, that was a bit of an embarrassing thing for Rud to endure. He was still rank zero, which was confusing and annoying. From what he understood, he had to get three of his skills attached to his main class to level 10 before he could hit rank one. There might have been a ritual, some special thing he had to do to hit that rank, but for now, he was just focusing on leveling those skills. Perhaps his problem was that he went so wide with his skills. His duties within the grove were so varied that he needed to lean on all of them to make things happen.

Mint shifted into her human form and padded over to the table, taking a seat. No matter how human she looked, she still moved like a wolf, gliding through the room with a predatory intent that was always difficult to get used to. She sat, cutting herself a strip of meat and slapping it on a wooden plate.

"I'm gonna run that labyrinth," Mint said, flashing a deviant grin to the others gathered. "I'm gonna run that labyrinth so hard."

Elm nearly choked on her food, and Taz boomed with laughter.

Rud would say something about her shirking her responsibilities to the grove, but she deserved to do something fun. Now that they had three other spirit beasts to protect the Grove, it wouldn't be horrible if she left. The druid wasn't certain he could defend against a threat as bad as the giant bugs, but they also had Elm here, and she was no slouch. The elven woman was an accomplished spellcaster who specialized in destructive magics that would give them a leg up against any threat posed against the grove.

"Do you think it'll give some interesting loot?" Rud asked, steering the conversation away from laughing at Mint for being so overeager.

"It will be an excellent way to increase my power," Mint countered, nodding to herself. "Finding so many weak enemies doesn't give me much, but if I can get deep enough into the labyrinth, I could finally get a challenge."

"I've always wondered how spirit animals gain strength," Elm said, writing some more stuff down in her notebook. "Perhaps you can give me some information on that."

"Perhaps I'll keep the secrets of the grove to myself," Mint growled.

"Yep. Understood," Elm said, snapping her notebook shut. "More meat, please."

"Right away," Taz said, laughing as he cut into the hunk of meat with a knife.

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