Infinite Farmer

Chapter 44: Earth Giant

Time.

"I don't think so now."

Tulland looked around at the new space he found himself in. It was, luckily enough, daytime. For once, he found himself in a place that didn't seem to have any inkling of forest. Instead, he was sitting on sand. A glance behind his back confirmed that the sand belonged to what looked like a fairly conventional ocean, and in front of him he could see the sand giving away to what looked like a wide-open, tall-grassed field.

If everywhere else he had been seemed a bit claustrophobic, this was the opposite. He felt like a fly on the underside of an overturned glass bowl, exposed to everything.

The Infinite's summary of the level didn't help that vulnerable feeling much.

Tulland.

Quiet. I'm thinking about what I just read.

Be that as it may, the ground is shaking. That seems relevant.

Tulland pulled away from the level description, immediately finding that the System was right. It wasn't the rumbling of heavy footsteps, which would have made sense. Instead, the earthquakes the last floor had promised but never made an appearance seemed to be fulfilling themselves here. The sand on the beach was rolling over itself slightly as the whole land was vibrated, and then much more as a swath of soil hundreds of feet across suddenly lifted from the plain like the lid on a chest.

Underneath the soil, barely visible as it sat up in a cloud of dust and mud clumps, was the very biggest creature Tulland had ever seen.

Tulland read the description as he sprinted towards the giant, clearing huge strides of sand as he burst towards the tall grass of the plains.

You can't plan on fighting that as you are.

Of course not. I just need cover. That grass will give it.

Diving into the plant cover, Tulland slid a few feet on his belly and held perfectly still once he came to a stop. His hand instinctively grasped towards Botanica, his Ironbranch sapling plus Jewel Moss weapon, but before he could take it out of the pack, he was repelled by something like a static charge.

Oh yeah. Forgot I wouldn't be able to do that.

For a time, the sound of falling soil was still audible, followed by a period of silence before the Earth Giant got moving. Once it did, a new kind of loud filled Tulland's ears as the giant took its first few steps.

It's moving away. Phew.

It is. I would like to make clear that you are exceptionally lucky.

Lucky or not, Tulland was taking no chances. He laid for a half hour more than was needed for the sounds of the giant to fade to nothing, breathing evenly and slowly to keep his nerves in check. Then, rising to his feet, he got to work actually taking a look at his class.

Hmm. It really did simplify my skills. But they're not at level 0. Why? That seems like unearned strength.

It seems likely The Infinite thought your altered skills would be useless without at least a few levels in them. Considering the kind of targets you will have to combat in this level, it makes sense that a level zero combat skill might not be enough.

True. Well, let's put those levels to work.

If Tulland had read every single thing the Dungeon System had said correctly, he thought he had a pretty good handle on all the changes. His farming was now all tied to the Primal Growth skill, which didn't feel much different at all. His armor was now a function of the best stuff he could build out of plants for that dedicated purpose, and everything he had been trying to do with weapon building was now tied to his Farmer's Tool.

So long as he wasn't completely misunderstanding what had happened, that gave him an initial game plan.

Tulland's first task, as he saw it, was to load up his Farmer's Tool with farm-grown weaponry. That decision was made a little bit easier when he saw that the cool jewelled tip on the end of his previous weapon was hopelessly spider-webbed with breaks, presumably having taken some serious hits during the fight with the rogue. A quick rap with the butt of his knife shattered it the rest of the way, leaving him with a thick mass of semi-sharp wood. Pulling out his Farmer's Tool, he put the two closer and closer together until he felt a slight questioning force in his magic. Giving it the slightest class-version of a nod was all it took to bring up a prompt.

Reconstruct tool?

Sufficient material is present for both the tool head and the handle. Would you prefer to use Ironbranch Sapling for both, the handle alone, or just the tool head?

In future reconstructions, this prompt will only load if you desire it to. You may simply choose to apply materials to the applicable sections with intent if you choose to skip it.

"Both, probably."

What?

"I can reconstruct my tool with materials from my farm now. Right now, I don't have anything better than this wood to use. I'm using it for both."

Ah. I was allowed to listen to little of that meeting, but I gather you gained something that changes your Farmer's Tool?

Tulland was surprised to hear the System didn't already know all this. It seemed to be another case of The Infinite looking out for Tulland's rights for the sake of fairness. For the moment, he decided to keep all the profound details of the change to his class to himself.

"Yeah. Something like that." Willing the wood into the tool, Tulland watched as the wood turned into a cloud of unrefined magic then rushed into the pre-existing pitchfork shape. He was left with what looked like the same old spearing-and-scooping tool, except made completely out of the metal-hard lumber. "Oh, that's neat."

Maybe so, but if the tool can still morph, I'd advise you to avoid using the pitchfork for now. It's too delicate a shape for that wood. You'll snap the tines.

"Fair."

Tulland shifted the tool into the hoe shape, figuring he could use it more or less like a poor man's battleaxe for the time being. Giving it a few swings, he found it was heavy but far from heavy enough to be too cumbersome to use. The bigger problem would be the shape of the thing, which was very definitely not suited for fighting. He'd be solving that problem as soon as he could.

Without giving the System any chance to ask questions, Tulland cut the connection before taking a long and hard look at his vines. He still had his full armor complement of them with him, and if making them into actual effective gear to guard his body was going to be just that easy, then he was doing it. Any increase in function was worth it if it didn't come with tradeoffs.

Sadly, the balance wasn't going to be entirely in his favor.

Designate Hades Lunger Briars as Primitive Vine Armor Set?

All attack functions of the vines will be eliminated and the vines will lock to their current shape except when disrobing.

"No, that's no good." Tulland shook his head. "I need to be able to use at least some of them to attack. Can I do just a few of them?"

Designate Hades Lunger Briar x2 as Primitive Vine Armor (Chest) and Primitive Vine Armor (Head)?

That seemed like a compromise Tulland could live with. He gave mental permission to the skill and felt his Farmer's Intuition twinge and the briars stopped being mere plants and started being something else entirely. If nothing else, he could tell they were now very thoroughly dead. Still, they felt tougher somehow. More locked in place, and a bit more solid.

The other plants he had with him had another purpose, one that came with a much easier decision.

Designate Hades Lunger Briar and Acheflowers as combat primaries? All living and semi-living plants in these categories will be transferred to dimensional storage.

Tulland assented. Even if the designation didn't come with a big strength buff, it was almost worth it to have the Acheflowers somewhere safe where he didn't have to constantly command them not to explode. Even though he didn't seem to have to repeat commands he had made before he fell asleep, that alone was almost worth the price of admission.

The mental strain of constantly babysitting the temperamental little flowers was a huge load off his back, something Tulland felt as soon as both the flowers and his non-armor briars dematerialized into some unknown place.

"Now to get them out. Come on, briars." The briars suddenly appeared in his hands, all four of them gripped and ready to go. His Farmer's Intuition went crazy, again telling him something weird had happened to his plants. Exactly what was simply a system screen away.

Lunger Briars LV. 9, x4 (Combat Designated)

These briars are level capped and are making use of your high spirit and force stats to increase their own strength. They are exceptionally receptive to commands, able to follow more complex multi-sentence orders, and are significantly stronger than a non-summoned version would be.

These briars are responsive to Primal Growth, but will draw high amounts of magic when buffed.

Tulland decided to enhance just one of them, and felt relief that he hadn't done more, as just that one buff to the thorn-vine drained almost half his magical power. The results seemed worth it, though. Even considering the high cost. The vine was whipping around looking for prey, and felt much stronger and faster now.

A day ago, Tulland had been worried the briars were becoming irrelevant to any real threat. Now they seemed like they'd keep up for at least a little while longer.

That was all he could do for the moment. His seeds were already enriched, which was good considering he seemed to have lost a few levels in his ability to improve his seed-stock. And if he was going to get anywhere near strong enough to take down a giant here, he'd need to get them growing quick. With all his status-screen shenanigans done, he flicked back on the System.

Back so soon? Where are you headed?

To the soil that the giant popped out of.

You have an especially large interest in craters today?

No. In growing. The system description said that Earth Giant slept in particularly fertile soil, making it even better. I thought I'd see how serious it was about that.