Reeling with excitent, Tulland pulled out his pitchfork and allowed it to consu the Silver Sun, forcing all the materials towards the head of the weapon rather than the handle. The silver fruit turned into a mist and disappeared into the weapon, which began to glint brighter in the morning light.
Tulland swung the weapon back and forth, not sensing any real difference with it. From what the description had said, there should have been sothing. The Farr's Tool felt about how the old version of the weapon had, and while he was sure the tines would penetrate a bit better, he wasn't nearly as impressed as he had hoped he would be.
"Did it work?" Necia erged from the house, running her fingers through her hair to disengage the less stubborn of the tangles in it. "It's in the pitchfork now?"
"Yes. But it's not great." Tulland pulled up his farming screen as he talked. "Not a great weapon, but what it did to the farm isn't that bad."
Farm Status:
Total Points: 10789
"That's good!" Necia patted Tulland on the back, then picked up her shield off the ground, inspecting it for any flaws as she did every morning. It had never needed the attention, but Tulland loved the dedication to her craft. "Every little bit helps."
"Sure. It's just… nobody is going to be afraid of this."
Tulland jabbed the pitchfork towards Necia, using nowhere near the speed or reach he would need to use to actually reach her. She barely got her shield up in ti to block the strike, as it moved far faster and farther than Tulland had intended. It clanged off her shield, surprising Tulland so much he dropped the weapon and held his hands up.
"I'm sorry! I didn't an to!"
"Relax." Necia smiled, but kept her shield up. "I know you aren't trying to murder . Why did that happen?"
"I think… the pitchfork is supposed to be better now. More accurate, or sothing. It wasn't doing much before. But the description said it wants to take down enemies. I guess I have to be aiming it at sothing alive for it to work."
"Really? That's great. We should try to test it out. Go ahead and hit at full…"
Necia never finished. With the sun up, so impatient adventurer finally tipped the scales by registering his intent to advance and fulfilling whatever minimum the System had in place to move them forward.
With a shock, Tulland found himself in his white room, between places.
Well this is unexpected. It's been a while since I was here.
I was worried this might happen.
Really?
Yes. The Infinite can't be unaware you are examining things it would rather you not. A discussion was always in the realm of possibilities.
"That it was." A dark-skinned man in a robe appeared before them. "Oh, you aren't running this ti? I'm surprised."
I… I will stay. I'll listen. You can't make go.
"I never told you to, anyway. World Systems are so skittish these days. Or maybe they always were, and I just never had the ti to notice," the man said.
"You can hear my System?" Tulland asked.
"Of course. Just because I'm a Dungeon System doesn't an we don't occupy the sa kind of space, in many ways. It can hear , after all, and the way I talk to you is just an improved version of the way it would."
You can go if you want.
No. Thank you. But no. You need counsel. This is irregular in ways I can't begin to explain.
"It might be. Or maybe you just haven't spent a lot of ti here before Tulland. Even so, I'm allowed a conversation." The man turned his attention back to Tulland. In any case, he was looking right at him. It would have been hard for Tulland to explain how he knew which one of the people present The Infinite was addressing, but he did. "Tulland. You know, I think, that Kelsa gave you a bit more information than she was supposed to. She was like that, in life. She didn't like being told what to do."
"I picked that up, about her. I liked it, even if she was a bit of a pain," Tulland said.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"The problem is that she's put you in a bit of an awkward position. Because while what she was trying to let you know was very clear to her, it's not sothing your class will give you many clues about."
Ask him why not.
"I can hear you, you know," the man snapped. Tulland felt the terrified System shudder as it was noticed. "The reason why not isn't a secret. Her class was about listening to the will of the plants, maximizing what they were based on their own natural direction in the way of things. Yours isn't. She worked with the plants. You work on the plants."
"Sounds pretty close."
"And yet, there's a vast difference." The Infinite instance bridged its fingers across its eyes for a mont. "The point I'm making is that, with my word as a Dungeon System in play, you are unlikely to discover the secret she saw. It's not impossible, but it's improbable."
"System?" Tulland asked.
True, if he's brought his status into play. Probably true even with that.
"So what do want, then? If I'm not going to find it, I'm not going to find it. No harm, no foul."
"I'd like to say that's the case, but there's always that chance. And if you do find it, it's going to create a difficult situation for , and a complex situation for you. So we thought we'd make you an offer."
The Infinite waved his hand, and several objects materialized in front of Tulland. Five of them were seeds, each radiating more power than his Farr's Instincts had ever felt before.
"These are the highest quality seeds you could have possibly made at your level, with your skills, and with an enormous amount of luck. To make one would have been a miracle. To have five at once would have been nearly impossible. Each of them is significantly better than the Chira Sleeve. Two of them are briar variants, each with their own special focus. One of them is a tree, one is a food bush with interesting dical qualities, and one is a nitrogen fixer."
"A what?" Tulland asked.
"A plant that makes soil better. It's difficult to explain, except that if you knew what it would do for you, you'd want it very much."
"And the box?"
"An improved splicer box. It has a much higher chance of creating variants, slightly increased limits on what kinds of seeds and stimulant materials it can cross, and five chambers instead of three."
"What's the catch?" Tulland knew that sounded too good, even if the seeds weren't in place. It was the kind of thing that would let him generate more problems for The Infinite, not less. "There's a catch there sowhere."
"I'm getting to that. The Infinite would have pre-approval on the plants it created. You'd never know it, but balance-breaking plants would be replaced by very good ones that did not break the balance whenever you would otherwise manage to build yourself a problem."
"My old splicer would still function?"
"It would. No changes."
"Huh." All this would be huge. Five great-quality seeds alone would be life-changing in this place. The splicer would let him get more new plants at a greater pace. Tulland was doing just fine, lately, but there was no telling when that would stop. This sounded like the kind of thing that would make him ever so close to overpowered. He wanted all of it. "I think I might…"
Don't. Talk to first.
"Can I have a mont?" Tulland asked. "A private mont, if you can do that."
"Fine. Of course." The Infinite looked reluctant, but waved its hand. "I can't hear him now. I give my word."
Okay. What's up?
I just wanted to make sure you knew what kind of deal you were making.
You think it's trying to cheat ?
No. Not quite. This is a massive treasure. I couldn't have done nearly this much back on our world, even in my pri. It would have built a legend out of the most diocre adventurer.
Then why stop ?
Answer this. Do you trust ?
Tulland hated this question. He knew because he asked himself that question every day. The answer was complex. He couldn't imagine a life in which he'd ever trust the System absolutely, but they had been through a lot together. There was sothing about the System that, these days, just felt different than it had on Ouros. Sothing about traveling with Tulland had changed it. Softened it. Where once he could feel the resentful edge on every word, now there was almost a familiar tone when it talked. If he hadn't known better, he'd say it was close to affection.
But it had still tried to kill him.
Sotis. About so things. I don't know that I can do better than that.
I wouldn't expect you to. I'm going to tell you this, and you can do with it what you will. What he's offering you will keep you alive for a long ti. Maybe years. You will send so much energy back to Ouros with that I'll be able to unseat the Church and revolutionize almost everything about life on that world. But I'd have to wait, perhaps decades. And anything could happen in that ti.
So I'd win, then you'd win. Sounds about right.
Yes, well, I'm not sure I'd call it a win for either of us, anymore. Let ask you another question. Do you rember when your every thought was of finding a way to beat ? To survive this, or at least to rob of my prize? To escape this place?
I still want that.
You hardly ntion it, if you do. I'm reminding you of it now. Because what The Infinite is offering you is incredible, but it's certainly not its limit. If you never find the secret of those vines, then you'll lose out. You'll die sooner, I'll still be rich in the ways that I consider rich. But if you do discover them, you'll get more.
How much more?
I don't know. But I know if there's a single scenario this dungeon has to offer that could get you what you wanted all that ti ago, it's this. Because whatever The Infinite offers then won't just widen your eyes. It will stretch the limits of what's possible.
The System really did go away then. Tulland tried to look like he was still talking to it, if only to get a mont to think. He was never going to have enough ti to get through every implication of what the System had told him, but he knew that the important bit was simpler to grasp. If he trusted the System on this, he had a hard decision. If he didn't trust it, the decision was much easier.
The man turned around. "Are you ready? I hate to put a ti limit on this, but you have one anyway. A minute or so longer, at most."
"I think… I'm going to turn you down." Tulland straightened his back. "No, thank you."
"Really?" The Infinite raised its eyebrows and motioned at the prizes. "You'd turn down all this? I can honestly tell you it would be the biggest single reward any adventurer has ever received at this stage, for any reason at all."
"I would. Sorry." Tulland smiled. "I sort of want to roll the dice."
The Infinite had other things to say, Tulland could tell. It had argunts to make and negotiations to participate in with him. In the end, it left them unsaid.
"So be it. Good luck, Tulland Lowstreet. I hope you survive until we can talk again."
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