"How wrong? Long term debuff?" Necia put her hand on Tulland's arm, as if gripping it would tell her what she needed to know about Tulland's overall condition. "A curse?"
"You could say that." Tulland opened his farm screen and winced as it confird what he had seen. "You know how I need a farm to survive?"
"Yes." Necia looked worried now.
"Well, I don't have one right now."
Farm Status:
Total Points: 0
System, how is this possible?
It's simple, isn't it? You are tethered to the strength of your ho farm for the first forty-eight hours after you enter a new zone. That's usually a great strength. But not today. Soone has destroyed your farm.
I understand that. And that I'm in trouble. I'm asking how it's possible. Soone would have to know that destroying the farm would hurt in this way.
Or just be incredibly angry at you.
Yes, but even so, the privacy and security enhancents I bought should have kept everyone out. Unless The Infinite was wrong about "impenetrable to entrance or inspection," nobody should have been able to get in.
Almost nobody.
What do you an?
Think, boy. Dammit. You of all people shouldn't be this naive.
The truth of it hit Tulland suddenly, making him feel sicker and weaker than the loss of his farm had.
"Tulland? You look terrible. What happened?"
"It's Ley. Ley Raditz. He betrayed us." Tulland almost threw up just thinking about it. "Burned my farm."
"Not Ley. No way." Necia shook her head. "He's been reliable, Tulland."
"Up until now. Maybe Halter caught him and forced him. Maybe he got paid off. I don't know. But who else could get into the house? Who else could know what burning my farm would do to ?" Tulland asked.
"I an… yes, nobody else should have been able to. But The Infinite is a big place, right? There might have been a way. You could try asking."
"Who?"
"The Infinite," Necia said. "There have legends of adventurers making appeals to The Infinite and being heard."
"You think it would answer?"
"If you put it the right way, probably."
Tulland focused for a bit, sending his thoughts towards the greater Dungeon System. It didn't take it long to respond.
Complaint Considered! (Legitimacy Rejected)
Your purchase of Improved Privacy for your fifth floor safe zone residence grants you the right to appeal for a refund should the product fail to et its promises in any significant way. In this case, The Infinite examined the entire performance of the product from purchase until the present mont to determine if it did, in fact, display any defect in either form or function compared to what was promised.
To date, no entry to your ho was granted to anyone not given permission to enter via your own express will. Unless carried by an authorized entrant, the sa is true of any objects. None have been carried, thrown, dragged or otherwise moved into your ho, and certainly no harm has co to any object inside the ho outside of that done intentionally by one authorized to do so.
"The Infinite is confirming nobody got in there. Or threw anything in there that could do this," Tulland said after reading the notification.
"Then how would this even happen?"
"Because it's only confirming that for anyone I didn't give permission to enter. And that's you and Ley."
"And you know it's not ." Necia nodded. "Because I'm with you."
"No. Necia, I know it wasn't you for other reasons. But we can't talk about this any longer." Tulland looked at his farm and dumped every bit of magic he had into making it grow. It wouldn't be enough, but it would give it a head start. "We need to leave. Now."
"Why?"
"You read the notification. When any sphinx born, they get information on where they should look first from the last sphinx. There's one headed right at us, right now. And we can't let it catch us."
"We took the last one out."
"Necia… I don't think you understand. Everything I do runs off the strength of my farm. All my plants get most of their power from other plants. Without it, they are defanged."
"And your weapon?"
"It's supposed to be about how good the ingredients that went into it were. But at least so amount of that calculation seems to co from the farm, too. My regeneration is tied to the farm. Everything, Necia. Everything I can do is weak now."
"That doesn't make sense."
"No. But it's true. Listen. We have to get moving. Unless you think you can take one on your own, that is."
Necia flexed her healed arm, which had just finished knitting while they talked. "But once your garden grows, we can fight?"
"It's not that simple." Tulland looked to the farm, where several briars were already big enough to be pushing points to his overall farm value. "I'm still zero. Which ans The Infinite ant it when it said I would be tethered to the last farm's value for 48 hours. I'm stuck."
"For two days?"
"It looks like that."
"Then yes. We need to get out of here." Necia strapped her shield back on. "Let's go."
—
"We're in trouble," Tulland concluded.
It had taken the sphinx less than five minutes to find them. In that ti, they had covered miles and miles of territory, miles that Tulland had hoped were enough to get them temporarily away.
"They can track." Necia ran beside Tulland, huffing under the weight of her armor. "By sll, or sothing. Maybe they can see our footprints."
"So we can't get away."
"Not in the normal way, no." Necia suddenly turned and squared up. "Here it cos. Get behind ."
"But…"
"Just get behind , Tulland." Necia growled. "Don't distract . Just do what I say."
Tulland hated it, but he did what she was telling him to. The sphinx dropped from the sky with all its terrible weight, impacting with just as much power as it had before. This ti, knowing it was coming, Tulland couldn't help but hear the bones crack behind the tallic impact. Necia's arm had broken again.
He jumped around her, attacking the downed Sphinx with everything he had. It did less than nothing. Necia grit her teeth and recovered much faster than before, clunking up to Tulland, pushing him out of the way, then hitting the sphinx with her broadsword. After a few swipes, it beca evident just how much Tulland's missing damage mattered. It was already starting to block Necia's attacks and entirely ignoring Tulland's. It wasn't going down in just a few seconds.
"Tulland, I can't. It's going to recover."
"I know. I can…" Tulland reached into his space and pulled out several Giant's Hair vines, letting them wind around the sphinx while it was still recovering from the effect of Necia's stun. "I can hold him for a bit. We need to run, though. Right away."
"I could try to fight."
"Without the ability to lift your shield? Necia, we have to go. Maybe we can take it down over ti. But I can't let you die for nothing. We need to run."
"Fine." Necia cradled her right arm as well as she could with her sword arm and trotted alongside Tulland, wincing with ever step. "But where, Tulland? It's not like there's much cover here."
What trees there were in the area weren't thick enough to bother sothing like the sphinx, and there weren't any bits of terrain he could see that looked like they'd have caves or holes to hide in. Necia's concerns were valid.
"We still have to run." Tulland pointed at the stream. "Let's run through that, first. Get distance before it recovers and breaks the vines. Maybe the stream will mask our scent."
A minute or two later, they were miles away. But that didn't matter when it caught up.
"Doesn't look like it had any trouble."
"No." Tulland put his hand on Necia's elbow and dragged her forward. "Almost healed?"
"Almost. I can take another hit. If I have to." She looked behind her back and imdiately spun. "Looks like I have to."
The sphinx was smarter this ti. On the first few swoops, it pulled away before making contact. Necia was smart enough not to burn her skill on the feints, and the sphinx was too heavy to make them less subtle. Eventually, it ca down to the sa monster-on-shield impact it had before. Tulland led the way as they ran again. And again. And again.
"The blocking skill. It's leveled twice." Necia grunted in pain. "Twice."
"Is your arm doing any better?"
"No. It's not like that. It doesn't make any better at blocking. But they'll be…" Necia stuttered and Tulland gripped her arm as she almost tripped. "They'll be stunned longer. Do you have food?"
"Not cooked."
"Doesn't matter. I'll eat anything right now. Regeneration burns a lot of calories."
Tulland glanced behind them, where the sphinx was trying to recover from its latest stun. "How long can you keep this up? I don't see how it's limited."
"It shouldn't be. If I can keep eating, and keep running, and they don't learn to do anything new, we can keep going."
"What about killing one? You might level," Tulland offered.
"I won't. I'm nowhere close. I can feel that much. But I might be able to kill one. It's going to take a lot of tries, but if I hit them once every ti, it's possible."
"Then let's do that. We might get a longer break that way, right? Give your regeneration a better chance." Stay updated via My Virtual Library Empire
"Okay. Just… make sure I only hit them once. I'm pretty angry at these things. I might get carried away."
The next few tis Necia knocked the senses temporarily out of one of the animals, she took her swipe, and Tulland didn't even need to pull her away. The animals did heal between bouts, but only slowly. After several bouts, she finally managed to take a wing off one.
And that ended up being the mistake that almost took them down. What neither they nor the sphinx had really thought of was how much faster they were on the ground than hefting their barely air-worthy bodies through the wind. And they hadn't considered what a big difference getting to Necia a minute or so earlier would make.
But this ti, with the sphinx sprinting towards them with only one wing, Necia began to panic.
"Behind ."
"But I can…"
"Behind now." Necia squeezed every word through her closed teeth as she forced her broken arm up. "I'll take care of this."
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