Infinite Farmer-Chapter 172: Rebel Grass

The last bit of charge Tulland had sent towards the encased seeds had been phrased as something like Please penetrate through the hardest shell, and had failed miserably to do that. But for a moment, just for the tiniest fragment of a second, the larger amount of energy he had spent in frustration seemed to open some kind of gap in his perception. He got a sense of plants and green for just a blink before it closed.

Gathering more power, Tulland sent a steady stream of energy at the can with the same intent, surprised to find the potion was allowing him to have that level of control. As the can remained visible intact, the veil that blocked his senses was slightly parted, revealing the same feeling of life that the last charge had. This time it was much, much stronger.

His Farmer’s Intuition fawned over what it saw, claiming that every bit of it was the most valuable plant-related stuff it could imagine, even if it couldn’t give more details than that. His normal sense of magic told him it was strong, much stronger than the brightest-shining attack anyone had ever launched in his presence.

Tulland was surprised but not shocked when the roiling bit of energy prompted its own system description, and spared the smallest proportion of his attention to reading it as he could.

Fundamental Energy Observed: The Chaos of Growth

The System of Aghli informs you that the message to follow is not something it generated itself. It is a relayed message as received from The Infinite, and is presented verbatim. Any differences in tone or deviation from allowable communication styles are attributable to that fact, and should not be blamed on Aghli’s System.

The message is as follows:

Tulland, what you are seeing is one of a handful of energies that drive the creation and continued existence of the universe itself. They are, as a rule, off-limits to the observation and understanding of humans. That’s why it’s sealed in a supposedly impenetrable jar. It was supposed to keep you from mischief. I blame myself for once again underestimating you.

Your absurdly high level and unrivaled ability to communicate with plants have allowed you to poke a hole in the containment around this energy, opening it up to your observation and manipulation. Let it be known that what you are doing is incredibly dangerous. The chaotic nature of the energy in front of you allows it to absorb free magic in the environment.

It’s already received the bulk of the over-powered blast of growth you sent at it, and in some miracle has not destabilized as a result. Any more energy fed to it would have chaotic results that even I would have trouble predicting, although I would try to guide them in such a way as to not result in a planet-wide catastrophe. Your own safety would be impossible to worry about in such a situation, and I advise you don’t poke this particular beast anymore, lest you bring your adventures on this world to an early end.

With that said, just seeing something like this comes with some absurd rewards, none of which will make perfect sense to you or your captive System. First, you will no longer be able to see any level information related to your Farmer’s Intuition. It is subtly changed from this experience in a way that makes it closer resemble the kind of power you’d have if you had reached a similar level of power as your class provides without utilizing the system at all. Your own insights are enhanced a small amount, but more importantly are your own in a way that previously would not have been possible.

Second, your interactions with your splicing container and the power within are now decoupled from your raw stats and coupled to your Farmer’s Intuition as powered by your stats. This influence on the process is frozen at your current base power, and cannot be affected by further stat growth, stat enhancing potions, or other temporary enhancements to the efficacy of your skills. Some old restrictions on how all your stats work have been lessened or removed entirely. Quite a bit has changed.

Don’t worry. You’ve gained a lot more than you lost in this very narrow scenario of use. And since you shouldn’t be poking around inside the splicing container anymore, it shouldn’t matter anyway.

Now sit and wait for your splicing container to open. With the kind of power you’ve just pumped into it, it shouldn’t be very long.

Oh boy. He isn’t wrong that I wouldn’t be able to make sense of what he just said. None of that is in the typical information a System uses or has access to.

What does that mean for me?

You are in uncharted territory. What you are doing might have been done before somewhere, but it certainly never occurred on your home world. Believe me, I would have known and remembered something like this.

I don’t feel much different.

You wouldn’t. I would be cautious about assuming that doesn’t matter, however. It is almost certainly a big deal that you’ve been granted even a limited ability to paint outside the normal lines of what’s possible, here.

I assume the same is true for the danger it mentioned? Messing with this could kill me?

Well, yes. But frankly, most of the things you do could. In a way, I’m guessing The Infinite is hoping you won’t mess around with it for its own sake. It seems to me that you’d be creating a lot of work for it, whether you failed or succeeded.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

So I should mess with it?

I didn’t say that. I’m just saying you shouldn’t make decisions on what’s in your interest in any moment based only on what The Infinite said here. At any rate, we have problems and things to think about that are closer at hand. If I don’t miss my guess, that splicer will be open soon. I’d get ready to see what it has made.

It took ten long minutes to open, but that was hours and hours before even the shortest schedule Tulland had ever seen. He opened the splicer, spilling out two seeds into his palm. As if proud of itself, the seed Tulland was a bit less interested in asserted itself first.

Bush of Value

This bush is a lot like other bushes, at least on superficial examination. It has branches. It has leaves. It has a root structure capable of holding it in the ground, and even produces berries of reasonable quality, although not ever as many of them as you might like.

The real differences between this and other more mundane shrubs becomes apparent when you look closer. You might say, “Aren’t those branches just a little finer than you’d expect?” You’d be right. The leaves a bit lusher. The roots are a bit more resilient and organized.

In function, it’s still just a bush. But it’s a bush that’s worth a bit more than others, and it asserts this fact so strongly that even your class function takes notice.

A bush of value’s worth to your farm is equal to that of your otherwise highest-valued plant, and declines in value at a rate independent to that plant. In effect, the bush of value usually doubles the contribution of your most valuable plant, less the value of the plants you had to displace off the farm to plant it.

It was confusing, but Tulland thought that sounded like a very good deal. His most valuable plants at the moment were fully grown darkwood trees, and they took up a lot of real estate. He’d imagine the bushes would take up much less, which meant he was about to get a big bump to his overall strength.

He’d usually be elated by this. He still was, at least a little. But with the other seed shining all silvery in his hand, he just didn’t have the time to be as impressed as he would have normally.

Rebel Grass

Born of a briar that knew nothing but aggression and a grass that knew nothing but survival, this new variety of grass fights by surviving, propagating, and generally outlasting even the most devastating of threats.

Each blade of this grass grows on the bare minimum amount of energy available to it, and can metabolize even small amounts of blight power. Once it has reached full size, it locks in a small amount of territory around it, territory that merges with any nearby territory held by its brothers.

The territory claimed by the grass does its best to expel any outside influence, including both the weak power the blight exerts on typical soil and your own commands to grow and strengthen itself. This mindless disobedience even to beneficial guidance leaves plenty of room for them to pursue their one true goal: growing.

Previously, your plants were banned from propagating on their own without direct involvement from some human cultivator, even if it was as small as simply planting a fruit by hand. The System of Aghli petitioned The Infinite to relax this restriction for this particular plant, as a counterbalance to the fact that your powers can’t influence it to grow faster or stronger than it otherwise would.

As such, seeds of this grass will spread at a rate similar to other fast-growing grasses. In addition, the seeds themselves are easily separated from the plant and grow in almost any situation where they have access to dirt and a few hours of sun a day.

Tulland. This seems very good. I can’t even begin to tell you how good.

It seems like it will allow the soil to begin to recover, right?

Not only that. A territory, Tulland, is a special thing. It’s something that has to be contested by other similar types of energy for those energies to pass.

I know the other System said the blight’s influence was weak, but how could that be? It seems like it would bash through. It did with my other plants.

A predator can be weak, Tulland, if its prey have no defenses against it. I have seen sea creatures no bigger than your thumb kill predatory fish three times your size over time, simply because the fish had no means to remove them.

And you are saying something like this grass has a defense?

Yes. And although each individual piece of grass might be weak individually, imagine what a thousand or a thousand-thousand blades of it might do. Each domain feeds into the next, making a wall.

What does that mean?

It means you need to call a meeting, Tulland. You’ll need more hands.

—

As the meeting began, Tulland was worried that he’d have a hard time convincing everyone that the best use of their time was to rove the still relatively dangerous countryside scattering seeds. Somehow, nobody had a problem with it.

“Oh. Yes, we’ll all do that.” Amrand looked out over the assembled townspeople. “Right?”

Tulland was flabbergasted as every single person in the town nodded along as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Really? Just like that?”

“Tulland, what else do you think they are up to? Until a few weeks ago they were all starving and staying on the move from dungeons. Now they are rested up. I was trying to figure out a solution for the pent up energy anyway.”

“They can’t just… I don’t know. Walk? Hunt?”

“No, Tulland. Nobody goes on walks for fun over the evil dirt.” Necia chimed in. “And only the strong ones can deal with a dungeon popping up under their feet.

“It’s not just that. Tulland, have you ever had someone you really hated? Someone who would do anything to hurt you, and who you’d do anything to resist, even if it was futile?”

Should I answer this honestly?

You can. The nature of our relationship changed. I don’t deny the history of it.

“Yes.”

“Even if this was just an inconvenience for the blight, we’d want to do it. It would be worth it for the satisfaction of just making sure it knew we were putting up a fight for the first time.”

“There is one problem.” Tulland held out his hand. “I only have this one seed. And I can’t speed up how fast it grows, outside of giving it good soil.”

“Then give it that soil. We can wait. In the meantime, stay close to town. That’s valuable treasure you have. We can’t let anything happen to it.”