Tulland didn’t have time to contemplate the possibilities just then. He had long since lost Necia in all the randomness of battle around him, something he suspected bothered her much more than it did him. By himself, he finally gave his regeneration skill a run for its money as his farm tanked damage that would have otherwise put him down and healed him enough to keep moving for the duration of the fight.
And then, when everything was at its most panicked and dire, a filthy, dirty hand came out from the cloud and clutched his pitchfork in place. Tulland, exhausted, gave a yank back to try to reclaim the weapon and found he couldn’t. Whatever had his weapon was much stronger than he was.
“Whoa there, kid.” Brist moved close through the cloud of irritant, wiping his eyes. “Just letting you know you can stop stabbing now. This stuff’s pretty miserable to fight in, but even you must have noticed there’s no one left.”
Tulland looked left and right. Brist was correct. There were people all around laying on the ground healing from wounds, but no new dead bodies beyond piles and piles of dirt on the ground, marking where their soil-based predecessors had fallen.
There was no question of whether or not he deserved it that time. Tulland was as unsurprised as everyone else when he took the highest overall reward for the level.
This time, The Infinite seemed to have learned its lessons. Tulland walked away with tons of experience, one new enhancement to his soil bucket, and almost nothing else.
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Tulland Lowstreet
Class: Chaos Farmer LV. 85
Strength: 60 (+5)
Agility: 60 (+5)
Vitality: 60 (+10)
Spirit: 110 (+5)
Mind: 70 (+10)
Force: 170
Skills: Primal Growth LV. 23, Produce Armament LV. 22, Market Wagon LV. 19
Passives: Broadcast LV. 20, Botanical Engineer LV. 21, Strong Back LV. 18, Fruits of the Field LV. 18, Farmer’s Intuition LV. 20
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Soil Bucket Plus (Farmer Class Item)
This bucket fills with high quality soil three times per day. When not in use, the bucket can be stored with Market Wagon and does not count towards your total storage capacity. Being stored in this manner will not affect its refilling schedule, and the bucket will still replenish itself as normal. If the soil is not emptied by the next cycle, it will remain full but will not create more soil until emptied and the next regular filling time.
This bucket has been enhanced to increase its soil production, and to slightly customize the soil produced to the needs of the plants you intend on using it for.
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These were big increases, if not life-changing. Being able to produce three times as much good soil meant that his entire farm’s soil quality was getting better by leaps and bounds. He gave a full two buckets to the Dark Steel Cedars. They weren’t quite to the height he’d need them to be to harvest yet, but they were close enough that it was almost a sure thing they’d be done by the next day. He could almost taste it.
In the meantime, he was being feted. Somehow, he didn’t suspect anyone was thinking of him as the kid anymore. After coming in clutch in three successive floors, he was everyone’s big hero, even if he himself didn’t think that way.
“I think I have a good enough read on you now to know how you feel about how that floor went, and it’s wrong.” White appeared to Tulland’s side as he watched the party in the meeting place continue apace. “And I can tell you how to tell, if you want.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Shoot.” Tulland said. “I’ll take it if it’s any good.”
“You are thinking something like, I failed these men. I could have done more for them. A few of them died. But look around at the treasure they got, Tulland. Look at what prizes they brought home this time.”
Tulland did as he was told. Some of the men were showing off the same old stuff, the new shiny boots or chest plate that would keep them scaling. The rest, though, had different kinds of things. They had magic flagons that produced alcohol, or special rations that were good for unlimited food for an entire day. Brist had even walked away with a small amount of meat, by his standards. It was a mountain by anyone else’s, and had fed all of them until they were entirely full.
“That’s them giving up. Not entirely, don’t worry about that. Not one of them is going to stop helping you to the fullest until they fall. But the fact that they could get those prizes is both them and The Infinite acknowledging that they’ve fallen behind the power curve. Their contributions to the next several floors will be a little less, but the group itself will dilute the lack of power. And then, on the next floor that requires them to go solo, they’ll fall,” White explained.
“I don’t understand how that’s supposed to make me feel better.”
“Because knowing that, I want you to look at their faces.”
Tulland did. They were smiling. Not fake, forced smiles they were putting on for show. They were beaming ear-to-ear.
“Neither you nor Necia ever faced death before coming in here, except to the extent she did when she jumped through that arch. But most of these people? Tulland, they faced it every day. Every day of their long lives. Nobody is left now who wasn’t an old man before they came here, and not a one of them thought they’d get this far. Including the few who fell on the last floor that you are telling yourself you couldn’t save.”
“I kind of get it.”
“Then get it harder.” White smacked him softly on the back of his head. “Most of these men are sending back a bounty greater than their world has ever got. Flat out. New records for just about all of them., if not all. Each one of them is getting exactly what they wanted, except you are giving them a little more of it. It’s a good day, Tulland. Enjoy it.”
He tried to. Necia had gotten levels and an upgrade to her shield that she couldn’t adequately explain in language that Tulland understood, but had something to do with making her foes recoil from blocked strikes in a way they’d like less. The prizes he had obtained were all especially good, especially as far as keeping ahead of the power curve went. Somehow, even with the explanation White had given him and what those prizes must have meant, he still had a horrible feeling.
As soon as he politely could, he begged some time away and went to his farm, just sitting in the center of it with his plants and relaxing. Somewhere along the way, beyond just using his farm as a sort of safe room where he could rest while guarded by carnivorous plants, he had gained a bit of a peace just being in the garden itself. It calmed him in a way that other, more sure kinds of safety couldn’t do.
Before he left, he had told Necia what he was going to do and secured a promise from her that she’d stay and enjoy the party for as long as she reasonably could. All alone, he laid on a bed of his own gentled plants, wondering why he didn’t use the stronger of his vines as a hammock more often.
You seem disturbed in a way I can’t quite put a finger on.
You don’t have fingers.
I have fingers.
Really?
By many definitions of really, I have fingers.
For all that his genuinely decent friends had tried to make him feel better that day, they had failed. It was like all their comfort was building up against a dam that kept it from reaching where it needed to be to do its work. Now, that dam broke. It burst open and flooded him with relief so sudden it was ten whole minutes before Tulland was able to stop laughing and sobbing in the center of his farm.
Are you calming down now?
Yes. I’m sorry, too. It’s fine that you have fingers. It’s just that I didn’t expect you to.
How could you? You’ve never seen me. I doubt you even thought there was a me to see.
I didn’t. It makes sense, though. The Infinite is a System and I can see him.
I hate to point it out, but you didn’t answer my question before. About why you seem so disturbed.
It’s the rewards I got.
Very good ones, I thought.
Yeah, me too. Enough to carry me floors after this. So why don’t I feel better?
That seems like what I’m asking you. Why don’t you feel better?
I think it’s the idea that I’m doing fine. It doesn’t feel that way.
All the data I’ve seen suggests you are.
“I know it does, okay!” Tulland found himself thankful for his home’s privacy screen, which would block any sound to the outside as he yelled despite himself. “I know it does. It’s just that, somehow, it doesn’t feel that way. It’s like I can tell everything is grinding to a halt for all of us. That all of us are coming to the end of our journey in this tower. And there’s nothing I can do about it. Absolutely, positively nothing.”
There would be no way for you to know that.
Tulland checked with his gut on that statement. Logically, the System was right. There were no indicators out there that this was so, no screens from The Infinite hinting at doom. But he could feel the end closing in, either way. He hadn’t thought about it much, but back on Ouros he had the same feeling without the dread. When the System told him he was heading to a new place to do new, exciting things, he knew it was true.
There isn’t. But it’s true anyway.