The next day, Tulland woke up to a truly monumental number of notifications of remote kills he had done almost nothing to earn. He read through them just far enough to get to the experience cap notification, then lost interest.
“I think that’s about it for me on this floor. No reason for me to stay here any longer. I’m capped and there aren’t any interesting plants. Not that we can’t stay as long as you need to,” Tulland said when he noticed Necia stirring awake as well.
Necia yawned in her smaller form, which looked exactly like how Tulland imagined a princess would look like in the morning.
“Then I’ll get the easy pickings. It’s still weird to me that you cap out so soon, for the record.”
“Well, that’s the nature of the class, right? It was meant for Farmers. Killing vermin is part of that job, but it’s not like they were ever supposed to level by fighting. They were supposed to farm.”
“You don’t do that much farming either.”
“Yeah. Well. That’s sort of the trouble. As near as I can tell, it was probably okay if farmers took forever to grow their levels. And they could grow huge fields of crops, sometimes. So they’d spend months and months growing thousands and thousands of plants, and eventually they’d get paid out in experience. One big harvest.” Tulland threw his hands wide to indicate how big. “I can’t do that here. Even when I overgrew a big portion of the whole first level, the experience I got from it wasn’t much.”
“I don’t understand, then. How are you leveling so far?”
“It’s a big combination of things.” Tulland stuck up his hand. “Killing things, just normal grinding, is a big chunk of it. Growing matters, even if it only matters a little. And the rest of it is weird stuff. Growing stuff I’m not supposed to grow, mostly. I think inventing a new plant is a much bigger deal for a Farmer than you might imagine.”
“So why not do more of that?”
“Because I can’t. Or at least I can’t do it on demand. The first time I did it, it was an accident. The second and third times, with the Giant’s Toe and Giant’s Hair, it was sort of on purpose. But I think I got lucky. Almost everything else has been from subjugating plants that don’t really want to be cultivated.”
“Seems to be working well enough.” Necia patted his hand reassuringly. “You’re carrying this floor, at least.”
“Yeah. But this is about as good of a situation as we could ask for. I’m going to need more than what I have to keep fighting. I just don’t know how to get it.”
Necia looked down at her sword arm, and smiled weakly. “You and me both. But I think we at least know our first steps.”
“Which are?”
“We get some of this grass.” She patted the useless, bland ground cover underneath them. “And as much dead slime as we can carry home for your farm. And from now on, we keep an eye out for the weirdest stuff we can. Together.”
They set out to do just that, but not before stopping to harvest hundreds of briar-fruit seeds, which Tulland enriched before they tossed them any place that wasn’t already in near vicinity to a patch of the killer briars. Tulland’s luck in finding living slimes wasn’t any better that day then it had been the last. They did find a large amount of their remains, enough to fill both their packs, but it was only an hour or so into their day when Necia went to go look for slimes herself, leaving Tulland to his own devices.
What followed was one of the most mind-bendingly dull days he had lived through in The Infinite. He went back to work harvesting fruits for their seeds, then pushed in one direction planting them until he finally hit an invisible barrier that kept him from going any further.
Zone End!
You have reached the outer borders of your current zone. Further travel in this direction is impossible. Be forewarned that this restriction on travel direction applies regardless of whatever emergency you may find yourself in. Gaining some distance from the impassable zone boundary wall is advised.
Tulland sighed, worked his way around the circle a bit further, then walked back towards the center, planting another line of briars as he went. Once he reached the center, it was another harvest of newly grown fruits and another walk to plant more.
Here and there, he would find a briar that hadn’t made it. Rather than being cut or ripped apart, these briars looked partially digested, like the slime had engulfed the plant and tried to consume it, getting close enough that both died in the process. Tulland assumed that any briars that had fully lost the battle would disappear. He hadn’t found any briars that weren’t either fully healthy or half-digested.
That’s good news, though.
Oh? Why?
Because it means they are attacking the briars. Probably to get to the fruits. And if they aren’t very successful at it, that means this is going to go much faster than I had hoped.
How long would it have taken otherwise?
Long enough to grow the majority of the space so Necia could take out the rest of them.
You would not have helped?
Oh, believe me. I’d like to. But I still haven’t seen a single one of these things. Are they avoiding me?
Not likely. You have nothing unusual on your person. However unlikely it might seem, the most probable answer is that you are simply incredibly unlucky at this moment.
That unlucky, though?
Someone has to be, or the term loses its meaning.
By the time Tulland had something like a quarter of the total space in the floor filled with clumps of his briars, it was time to knock off for the day again.
“Any luck?” he asked, as Necia walked up. “Getting anywhere near the cap?”
“Me? Absolutely not. I’d be lucky to do it in a few weeks here. And these slimes aren’t worth much in terms of experience. Honestly, just whip me up a batch of your quicker seeds tomorrow and I’ll help out. We can get out of here sooner.”
“You don’t want to tag along?”
“With your poison luck? Absolutely not. I said the slimes aren’t worth much experience, not that they aren’t worth anything. I’ll be just fine by myself, thanks.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
There was no hurry. So long as they were nestled in their own little instance of the sixth floor, no trouble could find them. But that safety, such as it was, was short-lived.
As the next morning dawned for another day of planting and semi-hunting for Tulland, The Infinite revealed its own priorities.
“Tulland?” Necia had appeared out of nowhere, her sword dipping with slime-goo. “How in the System’s name did you sneak up on me?”
“I didn’t. I think you got teleported to me. Or vice versa. Which probably means…”
Floor Completed!
You have completed the sixth floor, managing to stem the teeming tides of slimes and driving them to extinction before they could overwhelm you.
“Were there really that many?” Tulland asked. “I still haven’t seen a single one.”
“Anywhere you weren’t, yes. Now be quiet, Tulland. I’m reading.”
In addition to simply completing the floor, you managed to do so in a much-below average period of time. The benefits of this quick clear apply to both members of your party.
Rewards: Experience Pack 1x, Equipment Pack 1x, Lesser Stat Potion 2x
“Whoo, that’s a lot.” Necia immediately activated her equipment pack as soon as it materialized, then her experience pack. Both of them and the stat potions arrived in the form of little gold tokens, each with a picture of an arch and a representation of what they were for on opposing sides of the coin. “Oh, hey. New helmet. And it’s much better.”
“Yeah? Well good. It’s nice to know your head is covered, at least.”
“That’s not how that works, Tulland. Each piece reinforces the others. How do you not know this?”
“I’ve never really had to. Most of my equipment breaks when it gets hit.” Tulland lit up his own equipment token, which immediately disappeared before four smaller tokens dropped into his hand. “What are these?”
“No idea. There should be a notification about them, though.”
There was.
Equipment enhancement tokens.
Each of these tokens will apply a +5 stat buff to a piece of equipment. The stat enhanced will be chosen at random.
“Oh, dang. That’s not great, actually.”
“What?”
“It’s an enhancement token for armor, but I can’t really use it right now. All of the stuff I wear is pretty non-permanent. When I fought the Cannian Knight, he more or less shredded it. This is all stuff I’m going to be replacing as soon as possible.”
“Huh. Yeah, I could see that.” Necia snapped her fingers. “What about the stuff you wear underneath, though? Your manual labor clothes.”
Tulland blinked. He had actually forgotten those were anything special, since they barely did anything for him.
“Would that work?” Tulland asked.
“I don’t see why not if it’s system equipment. I always thought it was a little weird it let you wear them under your armor, but your class is weird in general. If there was any problem with it, The Infinite would probably warn you about it before you cashed in the token anyway. Give it a try.”
Tulland shrugged, picked up one of the tokens, and thought about using it on his gloves. They were the most advanced piece of equipment The Infinite had ever given him, and some of his initial fears were dashed when it turned out the Dungeon System did treat them as a unified piece of armor.
Enhance Farmer’s Gloves?
Enhancing your gloves will give them a permanent five point buff to a random stat.
Tulland gave it permission, and instantly felt a bit stronger. Checking his status screen confirmed where the points had gone.
Tulland Lowstreet
Class: Chaos Farmer LV. 35
Strength: 40 (+5)
Agility: 40 (+5)
Vitality: 50 (+10)
Spirit: 65
Mind: 35 (+5)
Force: 70
Skills: Primal Growth LV. 14, Produce Armament LV. 11, Market Wagon LV. 5
Passives: Broadcast LV. 10, Botanical Engineer LV. 9, Strong Back LV. 6, Fruits of the Field LV. 3, Farmer’s Intuition LV. 5
“Nice!” Tulland immediately picked up the other three tokens, intent on putting them into his shirt, pants, and shoes. A thought occurred to him, though, something that made him hesitate. “Actually, I wonder if I shouldn’t put these all in my gloves.”
“Why?”
“Because I might get better equipment later, right? A better shirt, better pants. That kind of thing. And then the enhancements would be a waste. But if I can stack them all on my gloves, then anything better I get on the other three pieces of equipment would be pure gain. Am I thinking about that right?”
“Probably? It would have told you if you couldn’t. And it will tell you if you can’t. The Infinite isn’t cheap like that, from everything I learned back home.”
Tulland nodded, picked up the next three tokens, and willed them into the gloves. The gloves took them, applying them to vitality, strength, and dexterity to complement the enhancement to his mind.
“Not the stats I would have chosen,” Tulland grumbled.
“Sometimes those are the best ones. Your gloves are bolstering the parts you wouldn’t choose to spend many points on yourself. One of my teachers once told me it’s the stats you ignore that get you killed.” Necia started talking in a voice clearly not her own, apparently doing her best teacher impression. “Many’s the mage, girl, who took one soft hit and found out too late he needed a point or two more in vitality.”
“Yeah, I suppose. Although I have to say, I’m more excited about these stat potions. Those are going straight to force.”
Tulland cashed in the potion at the same time he absorbed the bonus experience.
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
After distributing the points, he did feel a little stronger. Each individual point was a lower and lower percentage of his overall strength these days, but every single one of them was still something he could feel. He felt better just looking at his status.
Tulland Lowstreet
Class: Chaos Farmer LV. 38
Strength: 40 (+5)
Agility: 40 (+5)
Vitality: 50 (+10)
Spirit: 70
Mind: 45 (+5)
Force: 80
Skills: Primal Growth LV. 14, Produce Armament LV. 11, Market Wagon LV. 5
Passives: Broadcast LV. 10, Botanical Engineer LV. 9, Strong Back LV. 6, Fruits of the Field LV. 3, Farmer’s Intuition LV. 5
Signalling for Necia to give him a minute, he turned to the other lingering notification about the challenge he hadn’t read yet.