Chapter 430: New Growth

Rolly knew he shouldn't be arguing with a pregnant woman who already had eleven children, but Dora had a habit of getting on his nerves. First, she'd complained to him about the taste of the water after the wyverns took a bath in the pond. Then he'd spent half a day looking through the thickets looking for 'little baby Ferdy' only to find out she'd miscounted her offspring and named most of them 'Ferdy' after their father. That had started her latest series of complaints that Ferdinand didn't pay attention to her and didn't visit. Rolly believed her but made the mistake of pointing out that Ferdinand sired hundreds of calves. Eventually, when she demanded he let her move to the new pasture, he happily told her how to get there.

That had been a mistake as well, in two ways. First, she couldn't find the path, and second, she told half the pasture where she was going. The sedge beasts all decided that the lands beyond the Fae Portal were a better pasture and were complaining to Rolly that their path to 'the tasty new grass' was blocked. Eventually, Rolly had a large herd of sedge beasts following him as he led them to the hidden path to Suzette's Fae Realm. Only the path wasn't there.

Rolly stared at the close-set trunks of young oak and sassafras trees that blocked his way. "Damn, I just cleared a path two days ago. What the hell is up with this forest?" He'd been using the goats to trim back the foliage and eat the new saplings, but even they couldn't keep up with the accelerated growth of the forest. And more trees weren't the only problem. These were tougher trees, with thicker bark and wood that a normal axe or adze bounced off of. Somehow, the forest was leveling up.

He blamed both the druid's old magic and their ring of rune stones surrounding the city. The first function of the stones was to keep people out of Gadobhra. They did a good job of that. Contract workers could approach them, only feeling the effect if they got very close and were the first Tier. Other workers didn't feel the aversion that made everyone else turn and wander off in a random direction. This made the front gates the only viable entrance to the city, much to Billy's delight. He only had to use building points for an impressive set of guard towers instead of rebuilding the entire wall around the city.

Between the nearly impenetrable forest, the rune stones, and the high, crumbling rock walls, it wasn't easy to get into Gadobhra. Billy offered a quest to find another way in, with a reward of 100 gold pieces. Several adventurers had tried, and none succeeded. The Baron didn't worry about the walls and spent his building points on a formidable gatehouse with two tall stone towers, double gates with the ACME logo, and a portcullis. He wasn't expecting trouble, and gates were always open, but they made a statement to anyone walking into the city—especially the spies from other corporations. The murderous-looking automatons only added to that statement.

The second effect of the stones was to absorb mana and channel it into the old druidic spells that encouraged rapid growth and constant breeding in the sedgebeasts, along with the continual replenishment of the forest designed as another barrier to entry. Rolly had already noticed that his herd was increasing faster recently, he suspected it was from the runestones functioning better after they were connected to the Hermetic Shield.

The druid's spells added to the effect of his legendary Shepherd abilities, and the meadows were filling up with large herds of mutated cattle. The calves running and playing today would be adults and pregnant in two weeks. This wasn't a bad thing, but he needed to talk to Ozzy about increasing his rate of thinning down the herds. For now, his solution was sending the excess off to Suzette's discrete fractal dimension.

The first time he had visited her realm on his own, he found that his herds had preceded him, and so had the sedge grass. While the majority of the land he could see wasn't changed, a hundred acres near the portal was the deep green of sedge, with scattered bones of sedge beasts killed from eating too much poison, and dire lizards killed by the sedge beasts. The giant lizards that inhabited the fae realm were used to being the apex predators, but much of their power was drained when the old countess consumed the magic from her land during her battle. They were still horrible creatures with endless appetites, something they had in common with the newer arrivals, but a fight with an angry sedge beast didn't always go their way.

Just how much the two breeds of animals had in common became apparent to the Shepherd when he found a dozen calves with sharp claws, scaly hides, and elongated snouts or thick reptilian tales. The crossbreeds had no problem eating any of the foliage and enjoyed chewing on the bones or carcasses of poisoned animals. Rolly was happy with them, although he nearly lost a hand trying to look at their sharp teeth. "Better than goats, these things will eat anything, I bet."

So today, Rolly was moving a herd of five hundred sedge beasts to the small creek and through the portal. With the trail overgrown, the beasts wouldn't get there on their own. A quick whistle summoned his herding wyverns and for a few treats, they tightened up the beasts into a tight herd. Rolly rode the largest bull at the front of the herd and yelled for the rest to follow. His Crook of the Pathfinder opened up a trail through the forest that would last until the last of the herd passed by. Until he could find a solution to the fast-growing trees, he'd need to open up the path each time he needed to move the herd. Some of the more independent bulls were going to complain about the situation, but it couldn't be helped. With five hundred new sedge beasts in the pocket dimension, the life and death cycle that cleared the poison would accelerate, giving more pasture to the expanding herds. Rolly had no idea what the creatures would eventually look like, but he was anxious to find out.

After the runestones had been added to the mana system, the effect on the forests that circled Gadobhra was felt immediately by the lumberjacks. Jon, Cham, and four other workers attacked the forest every day, cutting trees from dawn to dusk, yet there were always more trees. In the last week, they'd been losing ground as the forest thickened, the trees grew faster, and anything near the walls grew taller and taller. The piles of logs were building up and workers from other areas were putting in overtime to help with cutting limbs, stripping bark, and hauling the timbers away. Many of the workers put in the overtime cheerfully. Swinging an adze increased their strength and gave them ranks in a weapon that was effective at killing creatures in dungeons. Like butchering in Gadobhra, it was treated like an event with barrels of wine and beer brought out each night, laced with Suzette's stamina potions.

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The two lumberjacks looked at each other, "Sounds like we need to sharpen our axes and get to work." They smiled and bowed, and got back to work, making the short run to the forest in only a few minutes.

"That went well. I like the deal for the bar.

"I agree, especially since we're actually at 210% and that doesn't take into account our increases when we move to Tier 4 next week."

"Under promise and over deliver, always a good way to operate." Jon's axe bit into a twisted trunk of a huge Rowan tree, which responded by kicking him with a root and knocking him back thirty feet.

"You dare attack Rowdy Roddy Rowan? I'll murderize you two tree-killers."

Cham cheered, "He's a level 15 Elite. That will give us the last enhancement points we need. Get off your ass and get swinging."

"Yeah, if we win! Watch his roots!"

"Even losing is a win. That gives us more bar time."

The pounding of hooves heralded Ben's arrival. "You guys ok? I'm sort of busy. Need to talk to Billy and get some wagons moving. And General Themis is looking for volunteer Contract Workers for a special job."

"We're in! Pick us up on your way back, we'll have this critter chopped into kindling by then."

"Or we'll be fertilizer. Be careful, I don't want to miss a big fight, it's more fun to die in those!"