Infinite Farmer: A Plants vs Dungeon

Chapter 41: Botanica

Foolish. You have no idea what his scouting range is.“Probably pretty far. But what does it matter? He can’t hurt me.”

you can run back to your farm first. If nothing wrong happens. The Infinite is a complex place, Tulland. And if he’s shown every card in his hand. Everyone holds a little information back. He has capabilities you have yet to learn.

“I bet. But this is a good enough wager for me.” Tulland leaned a bit further from the thin upper trunk of the tree he was hiding in. From here, he could get a better look at the rogue’s camp. “And it’s worth making bets like this from time to time.”

At least one thing he said was true, though. He is looking for something.

The rogue had so far shown a habit of taking walks that lasted no more than a few hours, coming home and dumping what few animal materials he seemed to harvest in a pit of sorts before covering it with a rock, perhaps eating, and then moving out again.

Following him was not an option, or at least not a safe one. Tulland eventually confirmed that the rogue couldn’t see him from a distance, so long as he was holding still. He was reluctant to test the limits of that, and mostly let the man go on his walks unmonitored.

When Tulland did learn more about what he was up to, it was on accident. Tulland was sticking tight to trees on his way to the man’s camp when the System had suddenly cut into his thoughts.

Be still, Tulland. As still as the grave. It’s a wonder he hasn’t seen you yet.

Tulland agreed, especially when he heard the man moving by. The rogue was several yards away, on a game path of sorts that gave him a less than clear view of Tulland’s position. He should have seen Tulland but he wasn’t paying attention. He was as highly distracted as Tulland could imagine someone being, talking to himself in a not-so-quiet voice.

“Not his farm tunnel. He dug that himself. Not the tunnel to the east. No caves to the west and north. So it has to be that first one again. I missed it. I must have,” the rogue mumbled.

Tulland had been keeping the System connection on for company. He needed that after losing his only friend in The Infinite. He even went so far as to re-enable the System to listen to his selective thoughts. It was yet another benefit from The Infinite’s Dungeon System, making it possible to communicate without having to speak out loud.

It’s hard to say. But the fact that he’s looking for something does resolve a bit of confusion.

Farming every bit of experience out of every floor is usually a fool’s errand. You do it because it takes so little time for you. The armored warrior you’ve befriended seems to have her own reasons and goals. But for someone like this rogue to return is… odd. Unusual. Unless there’s a treasure. Then it all comes together.

There are ways. The most likely is that he won a treasure map of sorts, and had to go

It was no wonder the man had been able to get the drop on Necia. He didn’t look dangerous until he was. He was the type to leap out of the dark to kill people rather than fight them face to face. Maybe he would even befriend his targets, getting them to drop their guard with accursed words until he saw an opportunity to kill. Necia was a lot of things, but overly wary wasn’t one of them. This was a man who could have tracked her down and ambushed her.

Being here is foolish. You should have left.

I do. I see it well.

I don’t see how. Between when you sent me away and now, did you gain another class? Weapons you did not possess before? Talents you learned in my absence? If not, staying here is death.

The murderer didn’t just go into the tunnel. He threw a few rocks down to test, listened for the sounds, and then sneered. He circled around to the other side and found the other opening of the tunnel. After waiting a few more seconds and tossing a few more rocks in, he finally grunted in frustration and entered the tunnel, disappearing from Tulland’s sight as he ducked underground. Tulland waited in his tree until he felt a subtle calling from below the soil from one of his briars, asking a sort of permission to strike. It was something he had become accustomed to during his time with Necia, and an action he had taken so many times it felt like reflex now.

“Go.”

Tulland said that not to the vines but to every single Acheflower. Right now, there were ten or twelve of them going off in a confined space with a confirmed target within a couple of feet. Tulland didn’t know how classes worked, really, but he knew those flowers were at least supposed to be an inconvenience for adventurers, or else The Infinite probably wouldn’t bother with them.

Tulland gave the flowers just a second to work before he finally let his vines go. After that, there was nothing to feel or know without going to check himself. Gripping his spear in one hand and his farming tool in the other, Tulland went.