The first thing Zalia did was set up her Druid Grove. She had an intuitive feeling of what exactly it required, though said requirements were not listed under the ability. Thankfully, they seemed to all be things she had already done so all she had to do was perform a small ritual.

The ritual itself didn’t require any materials, simply needing her to walk from one end of the caves to the other before sitting down in the main chamber cross legged. There she closed her eyes and felt a presence growing outwards from herself.

The feeling was strange, like it wasn’t some magic expanding to fill the cavern but her very being. She could sense each and every plant, not just by the Harvester ability but by the Druid Grove. She could feel the little warm pinprick lights spreading through the caves, filling each chamber with a warm light.

She could feel when they stopped at the T intersection, going towards the entrance but not heading further towards the grey creatures. She could feel as a system of roots slowly grew out from beneath her as well. The room she was inside transformed, a large trunk growing from the centre of the room and splitting into many branches that spread across the ceiling. She could feel the decorative wooden edging grow around the pool in the room, turning sharp rock edges to soft wooden ones with depictions of Boreal and the starry night sky.

A bench formed along one side, the altar to the crow god became a part of the root system quickly growing underneath. Her herb garden grew a system of roots through it that formed gentle paths more like the sideways grown branches of a tree than the constructed paths of a city.

The tunnel leading towards the surface was turned from a treacherous and narrow path into a gently curving passage with wooden walls decorated similarly to the pool edging. A large reinforced door grew at the T intersection blocking the direction to the grey creatures and the passage continued towards the entrance chamber.

There, another bench grew from the floor and a patch of soft vines dropped from the entrance, blocking sight to the outside.

She could also feel the Healing presence that grew with the grove, the plants within all looking immediately healthier upon its contact. The feeling of safety that she had felt within the vault followed soon after.

All of this, she felt before she even opened her eyes. When she did, it was a space transformed. Gone was the purple light replaced by the warmth of the pinprick lights. While the purple glowing mushrooms still grew on the walls, their light was significantly dimmed. The caves were now warm and inviting with surfaces now made of soft wood that looked grown, not constructed. Various coloured flowers bloomed from the branches overhead and the floor was transformed to a soft loam with a comfortable mossy surface.

Zalia breathed out, looking over to Boreal who was looking around at the transformation in wonder. Zalia felt like she had an extra limb or an extra pair of eyes as she sensed and felt everything that was happening within the grove.

She hopped up from her seated position and went about exploring the new space. She found the newly transformed sleeping chamber above with a nice moss bed, the ceiling covered with the depiction of a sky with Boreal chasing the stars.

The herb garden was just as she had imagined it, the plants all looking healthy with a beautiful splitting path winding through the complex living rituals. She went up the passageway, now much nicer to walk through and built as if for her height. The wooden door blocking off the grey creatures section was sturdy and locked, even able to block her ability to move through solid objects.

She went to the entrance chamber and checked out what it looked like from the outside, finding that the vines covering the entrance camouflaged the whole thing to look like solid stone, the crack no longer visible.

She also noticed that the corrupting aura had a significantly lessened effect on her even outside of the grove. That was probably due to her resilience and vitality attributes having reached Bronze. She wasn’t certain if Juniper had had either of those bonded, though if she had she might have actually survived much longer against it. Thinking that though, she had been in a terrible state before coming here in the first place.

Zalia went back into the grove and walked through the comfortable space back to the central chamber. Something she had noticed was that the large trunk that grew up in the centre of that chamber had a doorway shape built into it that was extremely familiar. Without even needing to raise her hand, she commanded the vault to open and the portal came to life.

Inside was the rest of her Druid Grove just as she remembered it.

Unfortunately, she didn’t want to spend too much time dawdling around inspecting every facet of the new grove. There would be time for that later, at the moment she had some learning to do. Her Herbal magic ability would now be able to provide her insight into an additional six herbs and their uses in rituals. The elements of healing, fire, water, shadow, mind and adaptability were all available to her in their variety of uses with rituals. She had a lot of thinking to do.

First though, she needed to do one other thing. She was now able to transform all of her plants into their Bronze forms thanks to Harvester. That would hopefully increase the strength of the living rituals even more which would in turn make the grove a safer place. She also had an idea for the entrance defences that Herbal magic was already telling her was possible.

It took her a good while to upgrade all the plants but once it was done she could move on to her new idea. She altered the ritual that would create the defensive wall to include some Adastem. When she activated it, it created a defence that instead of being earthen, having taken out both Zephyr and Bitterbalm, was now adaptive.

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She wasn’t quite sure how the Adastem knew how to adapt, maybe it was part of the plant, maybe a part of the ritual itself but it immediately started changing until it was a sense protection. She knew that if they came under attack, it would change itself to become a physical defence. It slightly weakened the overall defensive capability of the ritual as a whole but it meant that no matter what type of attack came, it would be able to protect from it.

Next, she used Frozen Heart, a herb she had gathered on her very first day in Endaria, to set up a small living healing ritual in each room. They weren’t much but were also mixed in with some Adastem to create an adaptive healing ritual, adding another layer of healing to the grove.

She was very happy to have found Adastem and started by inspecting it and all its possible uses first once she was done with those few ideas she’d had immediately. It had… a stunning variety of uses in conjunction with all of her other herbs. Basically any ritual she could create, Adastem could be added to. It would slightly weaken the resulting ritual but in turn would make it significantly more complex and varied in what it could accomplish.

She spent a few hours delving into the possibilities with the Bronze rank herbs she had on her and tried to come up with some unique things, the types of rituals that Herbal magic wouldn’t instinctively tell her about until she basically asked whether they were possible or not.

She came up with a few stealth and light oriented rituals that used the glowing purple mushrooms and a variety of utility and combat focused rituals using the others. She did feel like a combination of the Living trapvine and Frozen Heart would have a healing effect on trauma, something she was excited to show to Ember when she got back.

Some of the combinations between the new Bronze herbs and Bitterbalm were… disturbing. The water lily would cause a desiccating curse, the cavern mushrooms would cause blindness and even Frozen Heart would cause, well, essentially cancerous growth in the target.

None of those would have much of an effect on the undead, or so she thought, but they were still terrifying to consider. Unfortunately, she had no new ideas for traps that she could make with the living rituals. She would have to find something with an element of trap or something of the kind. Of course, there were a myriad of harmful rituals she could set up but those she would have to activate herself.

She was interrupted by Boreal coming up and nudging her.

“What’s up?” Zalia asked.

Boreal looked up at her with wide eyes, looking oh so bored.

“I know, I know. Zalia sitting here thinking about plants isn’t interesting. Would you like to go see the god maybe? I’m hoping I can use some of this living trapvine to maybe heal the gods mind, though I’d like to talk to Delphi about it first,” Zalia suggested.

Boreal perked up, bouncing around in victory.

Then, she froze in place.

Your bonded ally, Boreal, has reached Bronze rank.

“Boreal!” Zalia exclaimed.

Boreal started looking whoozy and out of it, presumably having just accepted the ascension immediately without thought. Zalia, though, wanted to check out the new ability transformation she would have just received.

Predator and Partner

Tin - you can use your cuteness to make others less aggressive towards you. Alternatively, you may instil a primal terror instead.

Iron - you’re able to slightly affect the actions others take in regards to you. Additionally, you can cause others bodies to betray them, causing them to freeze or run in terror.

Bronze - You become the embodiment of fear in the animal kingdom, radiating an aura of dominance and terror that can influence even the most ferocious of beasts. Wild animals will instinctively avoid confrontation with you, and you can call upon them to aid you in times of need. Additionally, particularly cowardly enemies may turn on their allies when confronted by your presence in battle.

Zalia raised an eyebrow, looking at the admittedly large but still very cute feline friend she called Boreal. The subject of her gaze was also currently stumbling around like she was drunk.

“Boreal?” Zalia asked.

Boreal tripped over with a weak ‘mreow’.

Zalia just shook her head, looking at her in wonder.

She started pushing healing into Boreal, hoping it would help with the adjustment. Thankfully, a few minutes later she seemed more or less back to normal.

“Your new ability is interesting,” Zalia commented.

Boreal turned to Zalia and she did have to admit, there was something… different about her.

“Boreal strong!” Boreal exclaimed.

“Yes, you certainly are. You are also apparently a prime example of a terrifying beast, if your ability has any truth to it,” Zalia replied.

“Am scary,” Boreal proclaimed.

“Maybe to the chopped meat in a kitchen under the gaze of a distracted chef you are,” Zalia said.

Boreal managed to look a little offended.

“Look, all I’m saying is you’re going to have to work on your intimidation with an ability like that. Sure, you are quite scary when you fight but outside of it you’re a little bit of a goofball all the time,” Zalia explained.

Boreal looked hesitant but didn’t argue.

“We can work on your scary face another time, maybe,” Zalia promised.

That seemed to satisfy Boreal.

“Now, should we go see Ro?” Zalia asked.

“Ro!” Boreal shouted into Zalia’s head.

She then bounced around a little bit on the mossy floor.

Zalia raised an eyebrow.

“My point stands,” Zalia told her.

“Delphi, we’re going to go see Ro and the god. Want to come along? We have both just reached Bronze and I have a new ability I’d like to test. It might help the god heal,” Zalia projected her thoughts towards the collective.

“I’ll be up soon,” Delphi replied.

Zalia sat down on her newly grown bench to wait, finding it remarkably comfortable. What a life.