Infinite Farmer

On the walk back, the notification finally flashed and made their victory certain.

"Any idea what this does?" Tulland let the token fall into his hand, a plain brass coin that sat heavily in his palm once it settled. "Did you read about this in your books?"

"This? No. This is new," Necia said as she peered into her own coin. "There's not much information past this point, at least that our System ever smuggled out and back to us. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Oh. Well, then. No time like the present, I guess."

Tulland looked at the coin and willed it into action. The coin shone for a moment, then sunk into his hand. Necia's did the same, and they stood there for a moment waiting for something to happen before Tulland's vision suddenly cut out, replaced by a blinding white light.

For a while, the only thing Tulland could see was un-bunched level up and skill level up notifications streamed in.

Spend the points. I can see the end of this process, but it's a way off. You must make good use of your time.

Tulland found himself too frozen to nod, but recognized the wisdom of becoming as strong as he could before the system yanked him forward towards some new danger. He started allocating points, shoring up old weaknesses and then pushing his own primary stats to new heights. By the time the levels finally stopped streaming in, he had spent every last point. As his vision cleared, he used the last few moments of forced change to take a closer look at what he had done.

"That shouldn't be possible." Necia was looking down at her own screen, shocked. "That's a huge power jump, Tulland. I made it all the way to level seventy. My skills all grew. Some of them by a lot."

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"I don't know either." Tulland shook his head. "I'm seventy as well. Same thing on my skills."@@novelbin@@

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but ask your System." Necia nodded towards the farm. "And harvest your stuff. We can't have much time left."

Tulland fell on his own plot of land like a fury, ripping seeds from plants and storing anything he could in preparation for the travel. He didn't have to ask the System to talk. It was willing to do that all by itself.

I'm not sure what that pack did. I've never seen it before.

That's bad, System.

No. It's good. No warrior of mine ever got this far. Plus, if I knew for certain, I likely couldn't tell you about it. And I have guesses. Very good ones.

Tulland sucked a previously unheard of amount of Clubber Vines into his dimensional storage, testing the limits of his improved Market Wagon and finding them to be much, much more than they were before. He was still stuck at four total types of plants, but the amounts that he could bring with him were beyond what he would have believed.

Tell me, then. And hurry. There's probably not much time.

It was an equalization pack. Equalization, as a word, has meaning to a System. The main way we interact with it is with System threats. Traps, monsters, terrain difficulties. These are all equalized to an expected adventurer level.

Which is equalized as well?

Not that I've ever seen or heard of myself. But in this case, it appears so. Your levels have all been rounded up to what looks like a high standard, somewhere near what a top-tier adventurer on a world would have. A legend, or someone about to become one, would have stats and skill levels like those.

But why?

My best guess? I'd expect that The Infinite finds more interest in how you use your class from here on out than how fortunate any particular individual has been in getting to this point. It likely wants to level the playing field so it can better judge the performance of the delvers against each other. Or something of that nature.

Tulland nodded, then turned his attentions to the farm as he ripped, cut, and tore out any resources he felt he might need for the next level. There were a few plants that had yet to bear seeds, but his improved Farmer's Intuition accurately identified the bits he'd need to grow new versions of almost all of them. The few that didn't have the time needed to bear seeds were, luckily enough, mostly plants he didn't care about. His farm quality would take a slight hit moving forward, but not much. Most of his strength would be preserved.

"Well?" Necia tapped her foot. "What did it say?"

"It thinks The Infinite is trying to equalize the strength of everyone who makes it to the next floors." Tulland patted his full pack, then tossed Necia a few choice fruits to eat while they waited. "A blank slate."

"Like we had at the entry gate? Before the motes?"

"Something like that. It isn't sure, but that's its best guess."

"Does it think that's… good?" Necia's face was conflicted. "What if we were ahead of the average?"

It's possible you've taken a loss. But the chances of you being ahead of everyone are so low that the elimination of the risk of being overpowered by some particularly lucky delver is worth it. That's my belief.

"It says it's probably worth it," Tulland summarized.

"Well, tell it to do better than probably. We need to…"

Necia was cut off as the Dungeon System finally decided they had enough time. A blink later, Tulland was in his white room, waiting for his usual meeting with The Infinite. This time, it didn't come. For once, there apparently was not enough new in Tulland's build for the Dunegon System to feel he had earned a whole conversation to explain it.

The quiet is nice. The lack of terror is nicer.

"Which is weird, you know. Is it really that scary? The Infinite, I mean. In whatever form. It has always been nice enough to me."

It is… a greater force. A higher form of whatever I was, back on your world. The System paused for a moment, searching for words. Not quite a predator. But my reaction is much like a herd animal's might be when faced with wolves. Involuntary.

"Ah. So what now?"

Enjoy your rest. I will be silent. Get what you can from this time.

Tulland did. His pack was as sorted as he needed it to be, and shoving a few Steel Stars into his weapon to bring it back to tip-top form only took a moment. After that, he soaked up the silence, allowing his muscles to loosen as much as they could in anticipation of the next challenge. He thought he had a pretty good idea of what that would be.

As the room finally dissolved away twenty or thirty minutes later, he found he was right. With his pitchfork in front of him, Tulland thrust it forward towards a threat he felt rather than knew would be there.

"Oh, wow. Looks like someone is prepared." Halter grinned terribly at Tulland as he hopped back from the pitchfork. "I thought you might make this easy."

Tulland willed Clubber Vines onto both his arms and shoulders as he geared up for the fight. There had always been the chance that Halter would follow them into the tenth floor, and their own slow progress against the sphinxes meant there was little chance the rogue would finish after Tulland and Necia did. Any thought of him not making it through had never been a consideration. Tulland just wasn't that lucky.

"How did you find the chimera?" Tulland poked the pitchfork forward as Halter attempted to strafe to the side. "Hard enough?"

Necia materialized then, a few steps away. She was not as ready as Tulland had been, but her reflexes still turned her towards the threat quickly. Unobstructed, Tulland was sure she could have got a shield bash off, maybe stunning the rogue long enough to get the upper hand. But a clang on her shield confirmed she was occupied by another force Tulland was not at all surprised to see.

"Not that hard with old Ley here. Say hi, Ley," Halter taunted.

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He's trying to get your emotions riled. Do not allow him to be successful.

Tulland looked towards Ley. It hadn't been much of a mystery who had let the rogue into their base, but any doubts were cleared away now. The guilt on the man's face was strong enough to leave no question as to who had betrayed them.

"It turns out old Ley isn't much for heroism and bravery." Halter's voice carried a laugh with it. "He didn't take much convincing before he let me into your little farm."

"I see." Tulland poked forward with his pitchfork, just to remind the rogue it was there. For Halter's part, he seemed content enough to work the psychological side of the fight for the moment. "Ley, any explanation?"

"None you'd like." Ley danced back from a shield bash from Necia. "None that would make everything okay."

"I figured."

"You know the best part?" Halter stepped back and pointed his dagger at Ley. "He knew every little thing about your class. Every. Single. Thing. Anything I'd want to know, all packed up with a bow on it. And now that our levels are even… let's just say there's not much in there that could threaten me. Especially with your little farm all burned up."

"You think?"

"I do. Now, enough of this. Ley, do you have the tank under control?"

"Of course. I'm her counter." Ley grimaced. "She can't hit me."

"I thought not. And you." Halter twirled the point of his dagger towards Tulland. "I think we've put this off long enough."