Infinite Farmer: A Plants vs Dungeon
Chapter 194: Tree of Cycles

Tree of Cycles Every plant takes what it needs to survive. Some plants take more, growing great and strong. This tree takes everything it can, pulling in magic from almost any source and converting it into a pure, elemental force. Did you know there’s magic in sunlight? There is, in a way, almost always inaccessible to humans. To plants, it is no less natural to use that energy then it would be for a human to make the most of water and a wholesome meal. Plants take something from the wind, the soil, and even other organisms as they grow. Life can feed them, and they can make good even from death. These plants take much more of that wealth of energy than others, much more than they can use for their own advancement. This is not as a result of greed. They enrich the energy they get, turning it into forms usable by all living things and injecting it back into the soil, feeding the world. That’s all I know. Tulland Lowstreet, the plant you have created is simply impossible. In this world, you have no match. That could be as easily true of every world, though I cannot verify it. What these trees become and what they can do is a mystery to me beyond what I’ve said. Could they save the world? They might. I only know that The Infinite chose to send you here, to this place and time, to do something only you could do. No other farmer could dream of making these seeds grow. You can. Show every living thing on Aghli why. Good luck.

Tulland’s skin was flaking as the blight burned it, rashing up everywhere as it slowly broke down under the torment of the concentrated power of the alien force that had sought to consume the world. By the time he laid down the last seed, he knew there would be no retreat. He would either end it here, or be ended by it.

He raised his hand up and focused. This all came down to one buff, held by a healer who had not dreamed it could ever be used this way.

Chain Spell You have been buffed by chain spell, a healing oriented buff that allows for magical power to be laid down on multiple targets before or during a conflict. When activated, that magic will activate in each target at once. When in reasonable proximity to each other, the targets will share and amplify the beneficial effect, vastly increasing the power of a spell or buff. This spell cannot be used for offensive purposes.

Tulland felt the seeds vibrate against the power of the blight as the charge of Primal Growth slowly worked on them. He poured every bit of power he could into it, and felt each point of the star he had drawn around the blight shivering with it.

He worried it wouldn’t be enough right up until the first seed cracked. He worried it wouldn’t work right up to the moment the blight, for the first time, showed real fear. The whirlwind shuddered, reoriented, and shot a massive blast of power towards Tulland in retaliation for his growing efforts. It was the act of a desperate, aggressive animal, and Tulland had no chance at all of dodging it. His magic was done for the day, having been overdrawn twice by two huge casts for his plants. He couldn’t enhance his vines, which meant he was slow now. Almost normal. Almost as weak as The Infinite had once preferred he’d be.

Tulland watched as the blast came closer and closer, growing bigger and bigger until it was as huge as a house in front of him.

Then the sapling at his feet ate it. The blast turned, funneling downward into the tree. Chain spell took it and shared it with the other saplings, who each shot up a foot in an instance, sprouting leaves and branches as green and alive as anything Tulland had ever seen. Then they got down to sucking in energy in earnest.

The blight in the air streaked towards them, only to encourage more growth and push the trees even higher. The cycle of consumption, purification, and growth continued for only seconds before the trees were taller than Tulland were. The blight was thinner in the air now. There was still plenty of it, but Tulland felt his healing kick in, overtaking the pain of the blight again for the first time since it had noticed him.

The tornado started to oscillate more wildly. Tulland braced himself for a new trick, then realized it was not a voluntary response. The blight was getting pulled in. The trees were stronger now. They had cleared the soil around them and were looking for their next meal, and there was big, hearty one nearby.

It can’t.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

It could. It will if nothing changes. Tulland, I think you’ve won this.

With something like a scream, the blight fought back, correcting the wobble. It was immediately destabilized again, then again, and again. Finally, a small tendril of the blight was pulled away from it, settling in the air inches from the tree nearest to Tulland.

Come on. Touch it. Touch the tree.

Yes. If that happens…

It wasn’t meant to be. The blight wrenched its power back. In that moment, it wasn’t just the power the trees had pulled away that it wrenched on. It was all the blight left in the air. It was its power in the buildings around Tulland, and every bit of what it had left in the soil. He could actually see it moving, rushing back to the tornado like a sick thing.

What came near the trees, they took, growing even larger in the process. They got precious little of it, though. As the blight came back, it condensed, forming fortified rivers of power the trees could barely get a grip on. Over the next few minutes, Tulland watched helplessly as those rivers grew as black and solid as the spinning orb of blight had been.

What will it do? Explode everything?

Oh, Tulland. No. Don’t worry.

How can I not?

Because this isn’t an attack. You can’t imagine how much power is in those rivers right now. It’s not trying to fight you anymore. This is a retreat.

It took a half hour for the System to be proven right. The blight sucked in all the energy it could, but it never again tried to use it to hurt anything. Instead, the energy slowly condensed around it, building a dome of power over the blight that grew more solid and impenetrable with every passing moment.

The power eventually ran out, and just like that it was all done.

Necia says good job.

Does she understand what happened here?

Not entirely. But she sees parts you don’t. I can see the same thing, through her eyes.

Under the trees, Tulland sat down and sighed. The soil felt good, and his farmers sense informed him it would be incredible for growing berries on.

Then could you explain it to me?

No. Not my job.

Then whose job is it, you absolute….

Tulland never got around to actually cussing. The Aghli System cut him off.

World Champion Tulland Lowstreet, farmer. Tulland Lowstreet, escapee from The Infinite Dungeon. Tulland Lowstreet, beloved of Necia. You have many names by right. Now add one more. You are the savior of Aghli. In a last-ditch effort to save itself, the blight drew in every bit of energy available to it to create a small zone of control far outside the power of your trees, unscathable and unshiftable by even your own plant’s massive power. The dome it created likely cannot be defeated by any human force. It also cannot move. It is a permanent structure, one that can no longer attack or allow the passage of attacks. It is not a weapon. It is a dome of safety for the blight, yes, but it is also a prison. The cost of building that prison? Every drop of blight energy on the planet. Every. Last. Drop. Rise, savior of Aghli. You have done the impossible. You have saved a world. You have granted its people hope and a path to recovery in one fell swoop. You have won. Thank you, Tulland.

See?

The System rarely sounded truly smug. Today, it didn’t even try to hide it.

I told you. He does a much better job with that kind of thing.

—

“There he is. Pay up.”

“I can’t pay up. I told you. There’s nothing to bet.”

“Well, pay me something sometime. Because I told you.” Necia trotted from Yuri to Tulland and wrapped him up in her arms. “I told you he’d still look worried when he got here.”

“I look worried?” Tulland hadn’t been aware of it, but he could imagine a situation where Necia was just telling him he did to mess with him. He looked to Yuri for confirmation, since she seemed to have bet on the other side of the how concerned will Tulland look wager. “Really?”

“You do.” Yuri sighed. “And I don’t know how. You would have seen whatever you did, and you would have seen what it did in the soil and the complete and total absence of blight beasts. You would have got the All Hail The Champion of Rebirth notification, or something even clearer. How can you think you did anything but win?”

“It’s his way.” Necia grinned and pressed her chin into Tulland’s shoulder. She was completely out of battle-mode, and her shield and club were sitting some distance away on a rock. Those three things taken together finally started to do what nothing else had been able to, and he felt his muscles relax the slightest bit. “Although he’s starting to loosen up now.”

“Good.” Amrand appeared at her side. He was casual and happy, which clashed very hard with the fact that he was missing an entire arm on his right side. “You deserve it.”

“Amrand! Your arm!” Tulland ducked down to where Amrand’s arm ended in a stump several inches above where his elbow had been. “How did this happen?”

“A very lucky bear. Necia got the grabbers off me after that, but it had a clear shot to my arm and took it. The shot, I mean. And I suppose the arm as well. Don’t worry, it’s all healed up.”

“How can I not worry? This is my fault. I took so long scattering the seeds, and…”

Yuri and Necia both hit him at once. Once went high and the other went low, and Tulland ended up bowled over in the dirt.

“Thanks for the assist, Yuri.” Necia nodded with new respect at her friend. “You idiot. Do you think he cares about the arm? Someone will grow it back for him. And you’re talking about the time you took saved the entire world.”

“Still…”

“No, you can’t say that.” Amrand knelt by Tulland. “Whatever you did destroyed the entire blight everywhere in the world, from what we can tell. We have high-speed scouts out looking, and there’s no blight beasts anywhere. They’ve seen no pop-up dungeons at all. How did you even deal with all that energy? We expected it to explode any minute.”

“About that.” Tulland looked over his shoulder. “Part of why I’m worried is the blight is alive and well. It turtled up to keep the trees from hurting it, and the System says it will probably stay that way for a long time. But it isn’t dead. It’s stuck, but it’s safe.”

“Ah.” The revelation took a little bit of the wind out of Amrand’s sails, finally. “Still, though. You can plant more trees. Overpower it.”

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