The remainder of our time in Drawgin passed shockingly quickly. While I was getting somewhat used to the training lifestyle, and I’d be sad to say goodbye to the city, it was at last time to leave: Our contribution points were running low, and I felt the need to see how things were going in Emer’Thalis.

We didn’t draw things out. Soon we found ourselves back in Agath’s office, making our request.

“Finally time, eh? Well, that’s that then. Come back some time, yeah? And I’ve been talking to your shadow pals -- everything’s all worked out.” She clapped the two of us on the shoulder, and I nearly staggered under the weight of her hand.

And that was it. Without further fanfare, she activated Diplomatic Visit, and moments later, the two of us were hurtling through the space between Drawgin and Emer’Thalis. Our time in the fighter’s city was truly over, and it was onto new things.

When we arrived, just as before, the sky was a gloomy black, and the city was a mass of rubble and ruins.

“Nice place you got here. Homey.” Cal surveyed the area, soaking in the dreary scene.

“Yeah, well, dark gods, am I right? Really know how to spruce a place up.” I doubted Emer’Thalis would currently be anyone’s top choice to settle down in, possibly excluding some hardcore goths, but the decor wasn’t in my control in this case.

We’d arrived right outside the city, and the barrier was still up, but it only took me a moment to access the settlement interface and add Cal to the list of those who could enter. With that done, the two of us ventured into the city.

My first priority was checking in with Hartha and the rest of the forest shadows. Past that, I needed to make sure that the builders had arrived from Ftheran, and to start preparing for the people from Drawgin.

It struck me then that I didn’t really know where anyone was. Hartha had at least told me that she was in the city, but I wasn’t sure exactly where. Without much of a better plan, I started for the center of the city with Cal in tow.

After only a few minutes of walking, however, something unexpected happened: A thin pillar of smoke began to rise into the sky in the distance.

“Well, guess that answers the question of where everyone is. Let’s check it out.” I steered us toward the smoke, and on we traveled through the rundown ruins.

Without any fully erect buildings to block my sight, I was able to see in all directions for a great distance. As such, we were still a long ways off from our destination when I saw something that stopped me in my tracks.

“Are those… trees?” I frowned, questioning my eyesight. As best I could tell, however, in the direction the smoke was coming from, there were trees growing.

Now, even one tree would have been an oddity in this barren wasteland. What I was seeing, however, was quite notably not just one tree.

It was a forest.

Why and how was there an entire forest growing inside the city?

Cal squinted into the distance and shrugged, her Perception too low to see them yet. Not knowing what to make of this new development, we walked on in search of answers.

Eventually, we reached the treeline, and things only became stranger yet.

On each of the trees were thick black veins. They ran up the trunks, thinned out when they got to the branches, and moved into the leaves as well. Somehow, they managed to make the forest even creepier than the surrounding ruins.

Readying myself for the worst, I summoned my armor and enhanced it. The regular forest was bad enough with its spiders. There was no telling what lurked in this one.

Cautiously, the two of us made our way through the dense foliage, continuing on in the direction of the smoke. We didn’t have far to go: only a few minutes later, the trees began to thin out until we found ourselves in a clearing.

At its center was a large fire over which hung a giant cylinder of meat and around which sat a number of forest shadows. Amongst these shadows, a few familiar faces stood out.

“Tess!” Hartha was the first to spot me, standing and rushing over before crushing me with a hug. “Welcome back!” She released me and turned to Cal. “And a friend! Welcome!” Despite never having met the mischievous rogue, Hartha wrapped her in a hug as well. Cal’s eyes bulged at the unexpected assault, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

I greeted Harth, and as I did so, another shadow lifted himself from his place in the circle. Though somewhat less energetically, Amak made his way to us before lightly bowing. “Protagonist. It’s good to see you well.”

I returned his bow and greeted him as well before quickly introducing Cal to the shadows and vice versa. Intros taken care of, I jumped straight to the main question “So? What’s up with the big forest?”

Hartha was more than happy to answer. “I grew it! Or at least part of it.” She beamed at me, but I only grew more confused at her response.

A moment later, another voice entered the conversation, sounding from behind me. “Mmmm, I’d say it was a joint effort.”

I spun around, surprised that anyone had managed to sneak up on me with my enhanced Perception. Standing there was a woman partially connected to a nearby tree, her skin made from wood and her hair from long, green vines. “Elphaea.” The very same dryad that had given Hartha her new class now stood before me. “But how are you here? I thought you couldn’t leave your forest?”

“Well hello to you as well, young one. I came with the Heart.” She pushed me the description of a skill which I vaguely remembered Hartha mentioning to me.

Heart of the Forest

Where you go, the forest goes. All beings near you are considered to be within the forest, granting them any forest-related bonuses they may have.

I’d figured that skill would give nearby Foresters small boosts, not let a dryad travel through the deadlands. Still, I supposed it made more sense why Elphaea had given the class to Hartha in the first place.

“All right, I can understand how you got here, but how did you grow an entire forest in a few weeks, and more importantly why did you grow an entire forest in a few weeks?”

The dryad stepped fully out of the tree she was connected to, the wood closing behind her as if it were liquid. Roots slid through the ground as she walked closer to us. “I’m a dryad. Even in blighted areas like this one, growing trees is like breathing for us. I couldn’t keep the plants from soaking up some of the dark energy, but so be it. As for why, it was the young Heart’s idea.”

I raised a brow at Hartha, still not completely following, and she was all too happy to elaborate. “It’s for water and food! That’s why we’re all out here right now — we’re hunting so we can stock up. How were you planning to feed the builders otherwise?”

I mean, truthfully, I hadn’t been. This was likely why no one had ever asked me to be the mayor of a city or to stop a dark god before. Thankfully, I wasn’t in this alone.

“You two really killed it! Thanks!” Part of me wanted to hug Elphaea in appreciation, but I really didn’t think we were on that level yet. “You mentioned the builders. Are they here yet? What’s the sitch with all of that?”

To this, Amak replied. “I’ve been overseeing logistics in your absence, which is why I’ve made the journey here. The builders arrived yesterday. They’re staying in a small tent camp a short distance away. As it stands, they’ve yet to begin building.”

Nice. I’d been a bit worried that they’d get delayed or that something would happen with the kexids, but it looked like they were right on time. Hopefully they’d be able to whip up some basic housing in the coming weeks.

“Uh, I should probably talk to them, yeah? And make sure they know what the deal is and they’re set on what they need to build with?” For now, it looked like I had a few problems to solve that didn’t involve poking something with a spear.

Amak nodded. “That would be wise. I can take you to them if you’d like. You’re also welcome to relax for a while and have some food.” He gestured to the fire, and with the scent of the meat wafting in the air, I was tempted to take him up on it.

All things considered though, I was already pretty well fed, and it was time to deal with the city. “If you could take Cal and I over, I’d appreciate it.”

He readily agreed and beckoned me to follow him, but Cal stayed put.

“Gonna take a pass on this one. I doubt anyone would recognize me, but probably best not to let anyone from Ftheran see me like this, especially with the new nose piercing.” She grinned, sheepishly.

Well, couldn’t fault her for that. If she’d only ever made appearances dressed up like she was when I saw her in the king’s audience chamber, I could only imagine her new garb would raise some eyebrows. Admittedly, it would have been nice to have Ftheran’s princess standing next to me when talking to the builders, but that was up to her.

Before I could even nod, Hartha excitedly chimed in. “Perfect! Take a seat! Grab some food! Tell us about where you’re from!” The forest shadow grabbed the rogue and pulled her to the circle, an entirely startled expression on Cal’s face.

I chuckled and bid the two farewell. Likewise, I said my goodbyes to Elphaea who, sensing the conversation was over, had begun to sink back into one of the nearby trees. Then I followed Amak.

As the two of us exited the forest, I heard one last snippet of conversation between Hartha and Cal.

“So tell me. Is it really true that humans have twelve toes?”

The trip to the builders’ camp was short, likely owing to the fact that the forest was where all the food was currently coming from. Still, the distance was more than enough for Amak and I to chat for a while.

With a start, I realized that I knew very little about the man despite having had him peripherally around me for weeks. I considered trying to pry some personal factoids out of him, but before I could make the attempt, he decided to cover more pressing concerns.

“Protagonist, to what extent are you caught up on the plans from here on out? I know that we’ve been handling most of the logistical side of things and want to ensure you don’t have any blind spots.” Had it been Rock saying that, I would have taken the words to mean “you’ve been running around while putting all the hard detail work on our backs,” but with Amak, it was just a statement of fact.

“Uh, it’s pretty much just waiting for everything to get built and people to show up, yeah? Then we can open the portal and Ephesis will do whatever it is Ephesis is going to do.” As I thought about it more and more, I realized I was kind of spotty on how this was all going to go down. I would have felt a bit bad if I hadn’t just successfully recruited hundreds of people from two major cities, but I’d had my part to play, and thus far, I thought I’d actually done a pretty decent job.

The forest shadow frowned at my words. “Largely true, although I must emphasize that we will not be opening the portal until well after this priest character wakes up. We have no idea what will happen when it opens, and considering what’s trapped inside, it’s best for us to have a long conversation with this ‘Ephesis’ prior to rushing into anything. Your quest implies that he’ll wake up once the conditions are met for the portal to open — it doesn’t imply we actually need to open it.”

That was… more than fair. With how weakened this dark god was supposed to be right now, and with the barrier around the city, we were supposed to be pretty safe from another one of those dark blasts I’d seen in the vision crystal. The barrier was, after all, blocking the Cloying Darkness debuff. None of that would really matter if the god somehow just hopped through the opened portal though.

“As for the rest of it,” he continued, “you are correct, although you may benefit from some specifics. I’ve had time to look through the settlement interface you gave me access to, and it appears that to open the portal, we need 250 residents and 5000 settlement energy. The first will soon be taken care of. The second will take some time.”

This time, it was my turn to frown. I’d kind of thought that as soon as the folks from Drawgin arrived, we’d be able to boot the portal up and get everything over with. Hopefully generating “settlement energy” wouldn’t take too long.

“So we build, we wait, we hope that Ephesis wakes up once I finish the quest he gave me, and then we take it from there?” It felt like a rather loose plan the more I thought about it, but then again, I doubted there was a Vanquishing Dark Gods for Dummies book to pull from. A lot was hinging on the fact that my quest claimed Ephesis would help us.

“Precisely. It’s important that you’re aware of all this, as you and I are the only ones who currently have the authority to open the portal. As long as you know not to do so, we’ll spare ourselves any accidents.”

From there, the conversation devolved into more mundane chatter. We didn’t have to keep it up for very long, as in a matter of minutes, we made our way to the builders’ camp. On arrival, I was fully surprised by how orderly it looked despite having been erected only the day before.

Not having had time to build any housing, the builders had put up a fair number of tents. Unlike those of the shadows, these tents were much larger, not meant for a single person or even a family, but rather for a large group. As best I could tell, each probably held around 20 people, and I counted five of them. Additionally, a few smaller tents stood to their side, possibly showers or housing for the bosses. While the tents were mostly arranged in two lines, some were slightly out of place to avoid the surrounding ruins.

Not many people were out and about, but I did spot a few of the builders relaxing outside or moving from tent to tent. I scanned a few with God’s Eye, finding that a number of non-builders were present as well. Some were guards, presumably to keep the builders safe on their journey through the kexid-infested plains. Others, however, had unrelated classes or no classes at all. Whether they were relatives of the construction crew or had come for some other reason, I wasn’t sure.

“I’ll take my leave here, then.” Amak bowed. “If there’s anything else you’ll be needing, don’t hesitate to ask.”

I returned the man’s bow, and he left, headed back towards the forest. Left to my own devices, I strode into the builders’ camp with purpose. It was time to get a city built!