Infinite Farmer-Chapter 138: Guerilla Warfare

That wasn’t the only System alert for Tulland. There were an enormous amount of skill level up messages, something Tulland decided to get to after he learned what was going on with his armor.

Dark Steel Plate

You have created a plant specifically bred for the purpose of providing materials for armor. At your exceptionally high level, you were then capable of bringing the same plant to maturity, defying nature itself in the creation of a tree that is in all ways focused on a particular use.

In that use, it excels. The physical damage reduction of the Dark Steel Plate is rivaled only by the highest quality metal armor, while its synergy with your class means you can wield it effectively as far as the passive absorption of strikes is concerned.

As a living material, the Dark Steel Plate will attempt to self-heal from most forms of damage, and will in almost all cases be successful so long as at least forty percent of the armor is intact. This healing occurs more slowly the greater the damage to be healed.

As a special characteristic, the armor mimics some forms of nature-based warrior armor and exhibits a special focus towards the dissipation of energy. When struck by magical attacks, the Dark Steel Plate will greatly reduce the damage taken, surpassing what is possible for metal armors when not reinforced by active class skills.

The Dark Steel Plate amplifies the effect of your farm as it relates to your personal regeneration rate, channeling energy towards your own healing. The overall energy use is the same, and will negatively affect your farm as much for the same amount of healing, regardless of the pace.

As a top-tier armor, anything besides an armor deemed legendary will not be better.

Special Effects: Amplified Magical Resistance, Increased Regeneration Rate

System, a couple different questions.

Oh? I’m assuming about your new armor?

Yes. First, this is pretty good, right? Why is it so good?

Because you are a level seventy craftsman doing odd things. Generally speaking, Systems reward things based on how hard they are to do. A normal craftsman gets points for the difficulty of what he’s making, the circumstances under which he’s making it, for whom he makes it, and the materials used. If a normal crafter is improving, he’s busy and poor.

I carved some wood with a pocketknife.

Indeed. Very likely the best wood to have ever existed in any realm, or close to it, grown by your own hands, crafted with your own hands, for an adventurer in The Infinite.

Okay, I think I get that then. The next question is, why doesn’t it give me stats, then?

Stats are a function of class equipment, as a general rule. Most crafted equipment is stronger at causing or blocking damage, but doesn’t give stats. System-dropped equipment tends to give stats.

Why?

To keep the very rich from effectively buying levels. It’s balance. My suspicion about why you don’t get more dropped equipment with stats is that there simply aren’t any level appropriate farmer’s items that reward much beyond endurance, which is most of what a farmer needs. But not what you need.

So it wouldn’t be fair?

You would have been cheated if you received them, yes. Is that all?

Well, there’s just one other little thing.

I thought there might be.

Tulland Lowstreet

Class: Chaos Farmer LV. 85

Strength: 60 (+5)

Agility: 60 (+5)

Vitality: 60 (+10)

Spirit: 110 (+5)

Mind: 70 (+10)

Force: 170

Skills: Primal Growth LV. 27, Produce Armament LV. MAX, Market Wagon LV. 19

Passives: Broadcast LV. 20, Botanical Engineer LV. 21, Strong Back LV. 18, Fruits of the Field LV. MAX, Farmer’s Intuition LV. 25

Ah, they grow into world ending terrors so fast.

I don’t understand.

I barely do. You must understand, Tulland, that something like what you have done here is impossible. At some point, humans simply must be limited, but that limit can’t be hard. The Infinite has essentially decreed that at some point you may keep advancing, but that advancement is thereafter your business.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I still don’t understand.

From now on, everything you make will be about as good as it can be. You might design better things, and those would be better. You might use better materials, and the things you made from them would be better. But not because the System in charge of your local environment rewarded them more. It’s simply rewarding them as much as it is willing to, and the rest is up to you.

That seems bad.

In the sense that it’s the best anything can be, then yes. Don’t worry. There are a few loopholes that I can’t tell you about. Given the type of person you’ve become, I’m sure you’ll stumble into them eventually.

“Necia.” Tulland showed up in his full armor, hoping to get a reaction. “Look, I’m a tank now.”

“Don’t even joke about that.” Necia sat up from where she had been lying and winced. “Your pain tolerance is terrible. Just the worst.”

“Well, how can it get better when you won’t let me get hurt?” Tulland sat by Necia and stroked her hair. “You know everyone at home would make fun of me for that. Nobody would get it.”

“I get it. That’s enough.” Necia leaned on his armored shoulder. “So when do you think you are finally going to tell me what’s wrong with you today?”

“Not much. Just a feeling,” Tulland said.

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“That something bad is going to happen?”

“Not exactly. I think it’s probably nothing anyway.” Tulland sighed and leaned back against the wall. “It feels like something big is about to change. That we won’t be in this tower much longer.”

“Ah.” Necia leaned in harder. “And there are not a lot of options besides that.”

“Right.”

“I’ll tell you what. If it’s something that could get you, the man with a thousand weird tricks, it will get me too. And you won’t leave without me.” Necia got quiet. “So wherever you go, I’m sure I’ll tag along.”

They sat in the silence there until they fell asleep.

—

“I can’t believe it’s already here.” Tulland and Necia had barely put on their things and had breakfast before they were in the new place. “What happened?”

“Someone got impatient,” Necia said. “Several someones. The mood was odd last night. Not sad, not despairing, just odd.”

“Even so, it’s never been nearly this fast before.”

“We lost people during the last fight.” Potter walked up with a small wave. “And most of those we lost were lighter builds. They tend to be cautious types. Losing those means there’s been a change in balance.”

“I see.”

“You got your armor done. It looks… well, frankly, it looks rough. Do looks deceive?”

“They do. I’m a good deal better protected than before.”

Potter tapped the armor with his hands, then lifted Tulland’s arms slightly from underneath his elbows.

“But not quite as fast.”

“No. But I think the protection will outweigh that. Brist taught me extra caution makes me slower than armor could, and I’ve been cautious lately.”

“He’s correct, as you’d expect. And with that, I think we should all read our notifications. I suspect that The Infinite might not be entirely done with its rebalance. If so, we’d do well to be ready for it.”

Tulland and Necia both sat down to read. The notifications had been longer and longer recently, and details had never mattered more.

Guerilla Warfare

You have operated on an open battlefield and in siege of a castle. Now you will operate as a team bent on harrying enemy forces, damaging enemy installments, and overall reducing their ability to do war.

After a predetermined period has lapsed, lessened by every ounce of damage you deal to enemy forces, you will be transported out of the level, your total time spent in the level counting against your rewards.

This level is designed to test your combat abilities, your versatility in combat as a team, the efficiency and accuracy of your scouting, and your overall judgment. Some targets will be far too large and well-guarded to effectively attack. Others will be softer and less defended, but with much less value to the enemy. Carefully balancing danger and damage dealt is key to success on this floor.

With dozens of targets available, you will have your pick of whatever opportunity looks best to you at any time. Be forewarned, however, that one especially elite enemy team will be moving between enemy-owned resources, strong enough to put you in danger but small enough to hide in any target on the field.

It is this force that tests perhaps the most important skill your team can possess on this battlefield: the ability to retreat.

“I wonder how serious it is about that.” Necia bit her lip. “The needing to retreat. We’ve done pretty well on anything it sent at us so far.”

“I wouldn’t test it.” Potter waved away his window and frowned. “It wasn’t trying to lie those other times. Remember that Tulland has outperformed what should have been possible at every turn. In direct combat with troops that are prepared for his bombs, he won’t contribute as much. Sorry, Tulland.”

“No offense taken. Still, I hope I hold my own,” Tulland said.

“I’m sure you will.”

If he was going to keep up, and he hoped he would, Tulland at least wouldn’t be doing it any time soon. Potter, White, and Licht had never stopped being the de facto leadership of the group, and they had taken the instructions for scouting The Infinite had given them to heart. Licht had led a team of what remained of their faster, more perceptive fighters out to take a look at the closest installations they would find.

“We aren’t losing too much time?” Tulland asked after a couple of minutes of just standing around with the other non-nimble fighters.

“This is a long one, Potter thinks. After all the short floors we’ve had, it was coming, according to him. I think I agree.”

“How long is long?”

“Weeks. Enough for the prep work to matter.” Brist picked a piece of meat out of his pouch and put it in his mouth. It looked like he still had a few pounds of meat left in his supply and he was done sharing. Tulland’s mouth watered at the sight of it, but he knew better than to truly envy it. Brist had paid more than he would have been willing to pay to get it. “Just be patient. Get that farm of yours going. You still using that hollow?”

The hollow that Brist was talking about was something the scouts had found within a mile, a place where the trees grew thick all around but suddenly gave away to just enough space for Tulland to put down a farm. The fact that they’d be moving on soon combined with how much cover it had made it almost sure that no enemy forces would find it, which meant Tulland’s powers should be safe, provided nobody found them before it had grown up.

“I am. The soil is pretty good in this zone, too. If we have a couple of days worth of pail-dirt to put on it, it should be a solid farm.”

“But not done before we have to leave.” Necia frowned. “I don’t like that, Tulland. There’s no way around it?”

“No. It would be weeks before it was fully grown, with the new trees. I just need to give it the best start I can. I’m pouring all my magic today into the Dark Steel tree seeds. They’ve been soaking it up. As long as those get a good start, the rest of it will catch up on its own.”

“What if someone burns it down?”

“Honestly? A weaker person wandering into my farm isn’t the threat, they’re the victim. If that elite team finds it, there’s nothing I can do. But I’d imagine almost anyone else would see it was a danger and stay away. Unless someone on the team has it out for me, which I doubt, or if The Infinite cheats, which I doubt more.”

“Cheating? How?”

“If it told the enemies where my farm was, or gave them especially powerful skills to find it. I can’t put it past The Infinite because I don’t know its rules. But it usually isn’t that way.”

“Fine. Then get to it.” Necia patted his shoulder. “I’ll go see what I can see in the surrounding area.”