Infinite Farmer-Chapter 119 - 115: Arches

"No. Really?" Necia stepped up and put her hand to the stone. "Who could possibly find this, Tulland?"

"Anybody who was walking through this thicket. Although I don't know why anyone would," Tulland answered.

"Even if they did, it doesn't seem fair. If we had stepped through it, would we just have been warped to some other place? It's like a trap. There aren't supposed to be any traps on this floor. It's supposed to be safe."

"True, but who could stop The Infinite from doing it if it wanted to? It's not like there's a court we can drag it into." Tulland pulled his belt knife out and poked at the arch experimentally. "Thing is that I don't think that's what's happening here. When you can't see something but it's set up in a place where it's certain to surprise you, that's a trap. When you can't see it unless you look for it, it's hidden. You conceal a trap. You hide treasure. I just have to figure out a way to confirm that."

"Ask your guy." Necia pointed at her own head. "See what he says."

"You'd trust it?"

"I'd trust it if it had a way to get it to tell us without The Infinite stepping in."

Well? What do you say?

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There's nothing I can do to force The Infinite to do anything. At most, I could petition for you in a situation where you were being abused by its decisions.

Why haven't you been doing that then? Do that thing you said!

I could only do that if it was being unfair. It hasn't, yet, at least to a point where I could take exception. And besides that…

There was a pause. At this point, Tulland knew exactly what that pause meant.

You're afraid of it?

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Very much. At any rate, you likely don't need me involved for this. Have you forgotten that you can simply ask The Infinite in most cases?

Right. I'll try it out.

Hidden Reward Arch 1 of 5

The 10th and 15th floor safe zones contain a total of five hidden arch rewards. Each one is hidden in a different way from the others, and contains a reward unique from any other arch.

This arch reward has a theme of foundational wisdom. When entered, it will transport the entrant to a simulated dimension, complete with a top-tier class' with expertise in at least one element of your class. De-synced from time, the expert and the entrant will be given sufficient time to correct deficits in the entrant's understanding of that facet of their class to match what would normally be expected at their level.

The entrant will not be allowed to "stall" the process in any way, and must maintain a high level of effort and a steadily growing knowledge level or else be expelled from the arch. The information gathered will be purely corrective in nature, representing a remedy to deficiencies rather than a relay of secret knowledge.

Only one entrant may use this secret arch.

"Oh, frozen hells." Necia scowled at her system notification. "Just you. Not me."

"Wait, why me? You could use it. Someone else could."

"It's you, Tulland. It has to be. Think about it. As much as I want this, I had all the theoretical training I could want under my-father-the-king's tutors. It was the practical side where they failed me. White is a trained warrior. Brist is a natural genius. Potter is an obsessive scholar. What basics of their class do you really think they missed out on?"

"It still might be a benefit. And there's only one of these. Is it fair just to take it?"

"Tulland, absolutely nobody in their right mind was going to walk straight through this thicket like you did, and certainly not at an angle that would put them into the arch. You found this, you are the only one who could have, and you are the one that needs it the most."

"What if I don't get back in time?" Tulland looked away from Necia as he admitted the real reason he was worried. "If you end up hurt in the next floor without me, it's not worth it."

"De-synced time, remember?" Necia said.

Tulland put his hands on Necia's shoulders.

"Necia. You are very important to me, and I love that you think I know anything."

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"Oh, right. Backwards non-System world. I forget. De-synced time is a known thing. From my perspective, the arch will take the time it takes. An hour. A day. From your perspective, it could take anywhere from a few seconds to several years. The two durations aren't related," Necia explained.

"That can't be possible," Tulland stated flatly.

"It is. It's just rare. The point is, you'll be back on time."

Tulland shook his head and started walking out of the thicket.

"Where are you going, Tulland?"

"Back to the clearing. We are on a date, remember?"

"No. Absolutely not. Finding plant arches is a you thing. Nobody else can do that. Plenty of people can follow other people places and overhear what they are saying. There's no way I'm letting you leave this arch for a second before you go in."

Tulland was as into getting strong as anyone else, but he wasn't having any of that.

"Necia. Strength is important, right? The most important thing in this place."

"Pretty much."

"Well, let me tell you something. I need to get stronger. I need to get further in this dungeon. I need to figure out a way out of The Infinite. Not just for me, but for you too now. You know what, though? That's never going to be the most important thing to me. I won't let it." Tulland moved forward and wrapped Necia up in a hug. "There are some things that are more important. Time with you is one. We are finishing our date. If that means we lose this opportunity, so be it."

There. Let's see her argue with that.

It's a very good speech.

Necia pulled back from the hug just far enough to look at Tulland's face. Her eyes were twinkling. Tulland was momentarily dazzled by it.

"That's the sweetest thing I ever heard, Tulland. It really is." She squeezed him a little tighter. "I wish I could agree with it, too. I just think there are a few things you are overlooking that change the conclusions."

"What?"

"That what you just said is very stupid, and I'm much stronger than you."

Before Tulland could react to that statement, Necia gave him a quick peck on the lips, picked him up, and chucked him through the arch.

—

Training Zone Entered!

Training zones are simulated worlds. They possess danger levels high enough to facilitate the training in question, but no more risks than necessary to encourage growth.

This training zone is time de-synced and built around the acquisition of knowledge. Its overall safety levels are similar to The Infinite's safe zones, and your basic survival and sanitation needs will be met during your stay, if applicable.

You may exit the zone at any time, but only relative to your perception of the passage of time. No matter how long the duration of your training, you will exit at the same time from the perspective of an observer outside the arch.

Any less than an earnest attempt to locate the simulated trainer and begin the learning process will result in expulsion from the zone.

"Dammit. She knew I was trying to skip this."

Were you? That strikes me as incredibly foolish.

"You were the one that said to keep her safe. What if some idiots trigger the next floor before I get back?"

Tell me this, first. What if you didn't go through the arch, missed an otherwise available increase in strength, and failed to protect her because of that.

"Ah. Touche."

I'm glad to see you understand. Now get moving. There's no telling what The Infinite considers to be stalling. You wouldn't want to run afoul of its definitions.

Tulland started walking. The first thing that struck him was how green everything was. There were some parts of the island he was born on that were greener than others, that got just the right amount of sun and ran to thrive. Everything here was greener than even the greenest of those.

For a while, that was all he noticed. There were no real paths to be had where he was, so he just walked on a bit before he started to get a sense that the plants here were not only healthy. They were also, if he had to put a name to it, arranged. They weren't in rows, or organized into big monolithic fields like crops. But there was a sense of proportion to where each plant sat relative to the next, a kind of planned balance that just couldn't have happened by accident.

Walking for another thirty minutes showed him nothing more organized than that to guide him in the right direction, but he did start to see some other signs of human involvement. The plants were very slowly changing as he walked. In the area he started, there was a particular set of bushes, trees, and grass. The further he got from that point, the more different those plants became. The color of the leaves shifted, the size of each individual plant slowly changed relative to other plants, and gave sense of an evened-out evolution of sorts, a biome change happening much too quickly to make sense.

Then, finally, without ever finding a signpost or path, he reached his goal. For once, it wasn't that much different than he expected it to be. Bent over a bush and making minute cuts in its branches with a small pair of one-handed trimmers was an ancient woman in a long-sleeved dress and the very largest hat that Tulland had ever seen. She hummed to herself as she worked, in such an obvious good mood where Tulland hated to be the one who interrupted her.

"Oh, don't be like that," the woman spoke without looking up. "You only have a limited time to get me teaching you, correct?"

"You know that?" Tulland asked.

"Of course."

"I wasn't sure how it would work. Are you… real?"

The woman finally turned her head.

"Would you be uncomfortable if I wasn't?"

"I don't honestly know."

"Then it's probably best not to dwell on it too much. What I know is that I lived my life, once. Whether I'm real or not, it seems to me that the time I've been given outside of that life is for the purpose of helping you. And if you don't mind, I'd like to make sure we put that time to good use. I've always wanted to get this set of bushes just right, and I ran out of time in my first go-round. Maybe you can help me in the second."

"Sure. So long as I'm learning." Tulland was impressed enough to feel confident he would, give what his Farmer's Intuition was insisting was a masterpiece of carefully planned growth all around him. "What should I call you?"

"Oh, whatever you like, I suppose. Back home, my friends and family called me Telsa. People who knew me real well."

"What about everyone else?"

"Oh, silly things. I can't even remember half of them." The old woman stood up. Somehow, without any way to explain why, Tulland felt a tinge of intimidation looking at her. In her dress and hat and with no apparent attempt to menace him, he could tell she was a force beyond what he understood. "The one name that they gave me and that I do remember always made me laugh."

"What was it?"