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Royal Road

SomethingOtherThanRain

Infinite Farmer: A Plants vs Dungeon Progression LitRPG by R.C. Joshua

Chapter 16: Ironbranch Sapling

A note from R.C. Joshua

IMPORTANT EDIT NOTE: Chapters 16 - 21 have been rewritten, the comments predating this announcement are no longer accurate. (Date: 27 Nov 2024)

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This is the second chapter of the day!

Chapter 2 / 2

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The only thing standing between Tulland and getting speared on a half dozen antler-points was his fragile, mindlessly loyal vines. They weren't very strong. Even though one member of the briar corps had killed dozens of Razored Lungers, that only meant Tulland had a slightly less mooky mook fighting on his side. He had only created a weapon that could consistently take out the lowest-level threat living in the first floor of a supposedly infinite tower.

The Forest Duke was probably the weakest boss the tower had to offer. Compared to the Cannian Knight that Tulland would find on the fifth floor, it was like fighting a down-stuffed pillow. But the big deer-like thing was still a boss, and an optional challenge boss on top of that. It was strong enough to effortlessly break even the strongest of Tulland's briar army. It charged past the first one, then past the second, and then the third. As they grasped on, it slowed only slightly and only took the shallowest of scratches from the thorns.

And not that it was a good bet, not that it was how Tulland wanted to find out exactly how far the whole biome density concept could go, but there were a few things the elk hadn't thought about while it accurately assessed that each individual briar wasn't a threat. The first was pain.

Stings, huh? Tulland grinned through the bloody teeth he had gained from getting smacked around by the elk, not pitying it one bit. One characteristic of the briars was that they hurt like hell, something that probably didn't add much to their general lethality but was, in Tulland's direct and personal experience, distracting as hell. Annoyed and slightly agonized by the newfound pain, the Forest Duke stopped to retaliate against a few of the briars, trumpeting and snorting as it did.

That was a mistake. The elk hadn't considered that Tulland kept hundreds of briars in the deep hallway he had built around his exit. While both the Forest Duke and Tulland fully agreed that it could take on as many individual briars as it wanted, this wasn't a one-on-one duel.

Tulland had been paranoid that some smart monster would sneak in during the night, and his solution had been to overpopulate his home camp to an extent that it would kill a Razored Lunger a hundred times over. The math didn't necessarily make sense when comparing one very large, very strong enemy against what amounted to a bunch of very sharp badgers, but it was still a lot of briars, much more than he suspected the boss had any kind of experience with.

When the Forest Duke moved to retaliate, a dozen more briars found themselves in position to strike. When the monster broke away from those too, it got into range of a dozen more briars, all ready to spend out their life force trying to take him down. The monster wasn't stopped, exactly. It was making slow, steady progress towards Tulland. But it had slowed down to a crawl as it fought with thorn briar after thorn briar in an endless hallway of annoyance and pain.

Tulland decided to make it worse for the elk. Struggling back to his feet, he rushed around the complex cutting down his oldest and toughest Hades Lunger Briars, dropping his tool after each cut to use his good hand to pick up the harvest and chuck it either at the Forest Duke or in the way of its advance. As he did, he felt Strong Back very slowly working to reorient his bones and get him back in shape for what the skill likely thought of as a hard day's work on a normal, completely conventional farm.

After the first fifteen chucked vines, something shifted hard in Tulland's shoulder. The bone clicked back into place, almost knocking him out with pain but also bringing his left arm back to some semblance of function. He roared, letting the agony drive his adrenaline as he cut and chucked as many briars as he could get his hands on.

The mere fact that the briars were now flying from a higher angle made the pain worth it. The Forest Duke had to worry about its neck and eyes, which meant that those briars were getting most of its attention. It was surprisingly flexible and good at sussing out the right angle to twist its head against each new grasping projectile, but it was still slowing down that much more.

And yet, it wouldn't be enough. Tulland could see that. He was shit at fighting. The briars could do their absolute best and it still wouldn't be enough to take down the Forest Duke. It was going to take forever, but the monster was eventually going to get through the briar hallway, and then Tulland would have nowhere to go.

He might have even tried to fight it too, if he had only kept his club. Now he had nothing to work with but his Farmer's Tool, which wouldn't do much. And he had briar vines, which weren't long enough to be used as a whip and might have done something beyond a distraction if Tulland had a way to mount them on a chassis that would let him attack in any way besides chucking them in the enemy's direction. There was no way he could do that.

But is that true? I do have at least one stick.

Every day, religiously, Tulland had pumped multiple charges of Quickgrow into his tree seed. It had sprouted and put the magical power to use, albeit slowly. It was never going to be a full tree while Tulland was here. He had long since accepted that he'd either move on or die before the plant got big enough to look like anything besides a very young sapling.

It was a very young, very green, and very healthy-looking stick with precious few branches coming off of it, but it was a stick. Tulland threw the last few briars he had cut and rushed over to it, giving it a quick inspect to see what he was dealing with.

Ironbranch Sapling (Semi-Cultivated)

You have not cultivated this plant from a seed, but your involvement in its growth grants you access to some enhanced knowledge about it.

The Ironbranch Tree reproduces by means of large herbivorous animals which feed off its bark. As they do, they carry indigestible seeds with them, eventually depositing them in some other location with a generously provided dollop of fertilizer to go with it.

It uses this initial burst of energy to throw a deep root structure through the soil, gathering some small amount of organic material and a great deal of inorganic material into itself. The resulting wood is irregular and tough in a way that makes it unsuitable for most forms of refined woodworking. It is, however, exceptionally hard and heavy.

Your involvement in the growth of this plant grants you slightly increased influence over it, augmenting the ease with which you can harvest from it.

Tulland prayed that "ease with which you can harvest from it" stretched so far as to encompass "cutting down the entire plant," and was pleased when his very best scythe swing managed to put a half-inch notch in the tree. He didn't wait to see if he could slice the same spot again, and instead just threw all his weight into his good shoulder as he more or less tackled the tree. Tulland heard a satisfying crack as it cleaved mostly at the point he had pre-cut into it, leaving him with a mostly uncracked, only slightly pointed stick about as thick as his wrist.

He looked over at the Forest Duke, which was now steadily pushing through the last quarter or so of his briars. There wasn't any time to mess with the stick any further. It would either be enough of his creation to do decent damage to system-things at his current level of skill, or it wouldn't.

Tulland ran as fast as he could to where the Forest Duke was restrained, planted his lead foot heavily in the dirt in front of it, and swung at the elk's head with every last bit of his strength he could muster. He missed, then almost fell on his own backside as the monster snapped out its teeth at him, ignoring the briars for a moment to attack the bigger, softer target.

Tulland reset and swung just as heavily again, then again. He missed each time, as he might have expected when fighting a much superior opponent.

And then, just for a moment, the sheer pain of the thorns got to the monster. It reared it's head up to scream in frustration and rage, terrifying Tulland despite his knowledge that it couldn't get to him at the moment. But, amidst all the noise, it also made a mistake. For just a moment, it closed its eyes.

Tulland heaved the stick forward with all the power he could. He was hoping to knock it out, although he suspected that was a pipe dream. What he did not expect was to get enormously lucky and connect the swing almost entirely with the Forest Duke's closed right eye, which popped like a grape as the stick slammed into it.

The Forest Duke trumpeted in panic and thrashed its head around, which turned out to be an error in and of itself, as one of the few briars that still had its roots in place shot up and wrapped around its bloody snout.

Is it... drinking the blood? Tulland had pulled the club back to smack the Forest Duke again and again, but couldn't get a clean shot on it as the animal thrashed through the briars. As a notification popped up, he spared the bare minimum amount of time to see the headline and figure out if it was anything at all that could help him. He hated the fact that The Infinite's Dungeon System didn't seem to come with his System's instant communication feature.

Crop Milestone Reached!

One of your cultivated plants has reached level ten. For this first-time milestone, a significant amount of experience is granted.

Level Ten? That's massive. Tulland's plants had been doing better and better as they brought in more prey and he gave them better starts with his skills and fertilizer, but he was pretty sure the highest level plant he had seen was level six. This one was either doing better than he thought or had just gained several levels from plugging into the nutrition of the floor boss' blood.

It wasn't something Tulland needed to think a lot about, but as he continued to ineffectually swing his club at the Forest Duke with his stick, he was considering the fact that everything he could do for a plant tended to build on everything else.

Enrich Seed seemed to work better on plants that were put down with fertilizer to burn for energy, at least here in this forest where the soil was about the worst he had ever seen. And enriching a seed would lead to a plant that dealt better with Quickgrow. Those enhanced plants would then capture and convert more monsters to fertilizer and increase their growth. Now, Tulland was trying to find the next step for his plants to give it that extra edge.

The Forest Duke reared its head and pulled the ambitious level ten briar out from the ground, but with so much force that the plant was still clinging to most of the soil it had grown in. It might, just might, be enough to make what Tulland was about to try work, if it would work at all.

Tulland held the stick out in a warding motion as he switched to a one-handed grip, then pointed his finger at the spot he wanted to focus on. It was where the blood was hitting the lucky Lunger Briar at the highest concentration, and something in his farmer's intuition told him this was where the plant was getting the most benefit.

Of course, it probably doesn't matter, as long as I hit the plant at all. It's sort of a by-the-unit deal.

Taking a deep breath, Tulland focused as much of his attention as he could muster and activated his only farming skill that could be applied multiple times on the same plant.

"Quickgrow. Enjoy it, buddy. And good luck."

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It seemed to. Tulland's farmer sense started tingling in the back part of his head, telling him the plant was changing. It got greener, and while it didn't get thicker, it did seem denser somehow, like it was growing in weight instead of in length or width. The strength of the vine was radiating off of it, and it felt entirely unlike any plant Tulland had ever dealt with before. It was filling up his farmer sense, the least defined of his ways of observing the world. And it was doing it so powerfully he could barely breathe in its presence.

He wasn't the only one who noticed the change. The Forest Duke bellowed as its head was suddenly jerked downward, then managed to force it back up to glare at Tulland through it's one good eye. As terrifying as that was, there was something different about the encounter now. The Forest Duke was strong, but the vine was at least as powerful, at least from its superior positioning on the duke's body. Even when the elk finally lowered its head to take a bite, it couldn't get through the vine in one go or even make much progress at all.

Tulland started clubbing as hard as he could with the Ironbranch club, now able to land any of his shots at will. Individually, none of them were much, maybe making the duke care about half as much as a boxer getting hit with a jab would.

But hits like that add up. I have to make them count.

As the Forest Duke continued to try and dislodge the overpowered vine, Tulland readied himself and gave all of his strength to his next strike.

As the stick swished through the air, Tulland felt almost out of control of his weapon, like he had put so much weight into the hit that he was going to tumble over after it once it landed. High vitality or not, the Forest Duke was going to feel this one. And then, like it had been waiting for this level of danger the entire time, the Forest Duke exploded with light.

What is that? Tulland activated his connection to the System as fast as he could, so quickly that the stick was still in motion as he did. His blow impacted before the System could answer. But it was almost like he hit the light instead of the animal. The stick slid off to the side as Tulland really did stumble after it. The Forest Duke swung it's head to the side, pulling the ultra-briar as it clipped Tulland's side and sent him tumbling into his own briar wall, which luckily was thick enough with his own creations that it didn't hurt him much.

An overdrive skill, or something like it. He's stronger now. A skill like that is meant to even the playing field, but it doesn't last forever. Survive long enough, and the day is yours.

Every vine on the wall jumped out at the Forest Duke as it followed after Tulland, making the animal hesitate just long enough for Tulland to stuff the end of the sapling into its face. The combined delay of both was enough for him to skirt around back towards the entrance of the enclosure. The duke followed, now encumbered with another five or six vines that had got a good enough grip to be dragged along for the ride.

They made much less of a difference now. The mega-briar was still doing good work, but it was far from the near-even match it had enjoyed before. The addition of the new vines tipped the scales only slightly back in the right direction. Tulland hugged the wall as he backed up, watching a few remnant vines find purchase on the animal as he did, but there was almost no marginal effect per plant. He wasn't going to get through this with just vines. They weren't enough, and the elk was moving too fast.

Forget caution, I guess. I just have to last a little, right?

Tulland decided to go crazy. He jumped in with the sapling, cracking the Forest Duke across the forehead with it and taking a deep stab in his arm from one of the antler-points as he did. It hurt deep, not just in his muscles and bone but throughout his entire body. Five minutes ago, the pain alone would have set him running for his life. He couldn't afford that now. More importantly, he was going to see this through to the end, no matter what.

The Forest Duke was able to move its head fast enough that Tulland couldn't dodge its antlers when it struck, but it was slowed just enough that each hit wasn't quite fatal. At the same time, the Forest Duke couldn't move out of the way of any particular strike from Tulland's Ironbranch club. It was a battle of attrition now, something that was barely sustainable on either of their ends.

The Forest Duke had enough of the tit-for-tat after a few seconds, and glowed even brighter, swinging its head in an uppercut motion at Tulland. There was no mystery what would happen if that strike connected, given how very bright the antlers was were. He jumped backwards with all his might, bringing the club down as hard as he could as he did. If he wasn't going to be quite fast enough with his stat-based movement, he could at least make it more complex for his enemy.

The elk somehow managed to speed up even more, tilting its head to put the longest of its antler-points on a collision course with Tulland's neck. Before it could actually finish the hit, the stick struck just above its ruined eye. Tulland was shocked he made contact, but even more shocked when the contact actually did something. The animal's head was stopped flat, then even pushed downward a bit. It was impossible, given Tulland's strength. He would have loved to have thought he had done it himself, but he just wasn't strong enough.

It's the briar. It's still helping.

The ultra-powered briar was still working in the background. Between that and the hit from the stick, it seemed just enough to nullify the elk's big strike. And that was when the corner was turned. That one ultra-bright strike seemed to be almost the last of the power the Forest Duke was getting from its berserk skill, and the antlers dimmed almost immediately. The briar, ragged and ripped, was still hanging on and squeezed. The Forest Duke whined, as if it couldn't believe that its opponent would still be standing after all that.

Tulland lunged forward. He kept piling on the strikes, shocked he could still move as the blood from his wounds soaked his clothes.

Even more shocking, the hits seemed to be doing something. Tulland was absolutely sure that his Farmer's Tool wouldn't be doing anything at all here. But the stick and the briars were different. They were suffused with his class, and Tulland got the impression that Dungeon Systems like The Infinite's had nothing better than a fuzzy idea of what to do with things like a farmer's class grown products. Luckily, it seemed to err on a sort of well-why-not liberalism that made everything possible.

All of which was great and gave Tulland an advantage he was very happy to live with, right up until it didn't. Snorting in rage and rolling its single angry eye around, the Forest Duke suddenly strained upwards with its neck so hard that Tulland thought it would pull something. It did, although not in a way he wanted. The strong briar was wrapped so tight into its flesh by then that there just wasn't enough slack for it to keep up, and the sound of overstretching in its fibers lasted just a moment before it snapped entirely.

Oh, no. Tulland immediately leveled the stick, aiming the pointy, jagged part almost perfectly forward. I better make this shot count. I don't think I'm getting any more.

Tulland dumped whatever tiny amount of magic he had regenerated into another enhancement of the briars, stepped forward hard, and lunged out with his makeshift spear as hard and fast as he could. He was aiming at the Forest Duke's throat, which was still exposed as its head remained high with the momentum released from the snapping vine. It would take the monster a moment to lower its head again, which was hopefully all Tulland needed to land one good shot.

The spear cooperated perfectly, flowing forward straight and true towards the elk's larynx. Tulland put every ounce of weight he had into the blow, knowing that if he missed, he would end up topping forward into the Forest Duke's horns.

But he didn't miss. With a squelch, the spear made contact.

The elk lowered its head and regarded Tulland with a cool rage, then shook its head slightly as it usually did before it huffed. This time nothing came out. The Forest Duke glanced down and widened its eyes as Tulland looked forward and saw that the impossible had happened. The stick was a good two inches into the monster's throat, which was now pouring out blood like a bucket with a hole in it.

Tulland knew a chance when he saw one. He pressed forward hard on the stick, following the monster as it tried to back up off of it. The combination of Tulland's forward motion and the briar shackles hobbling the Forest Duke's movement speed was just enough for the stick to stay in place, And, as it turned out, a stick through one's throat was a very effective way to be forced to go where the stick-holder wanted. As Tulland backed the monster up, he cranked the stick hard to his own right, which forced the Forest Duke to turn away from its straight, safe path back to safety. Instead, it ran right into the thick briar wall to the side of the farm's entrance hallway.

Mostly, the wall was just conventional briars. There were a few by-blow children of his cultivated vines mixed in there, but only weak ones which didn't stand much of a chance of holding the Forest Duke for long. It didn't matter much. Even brittle, weak briars had thorns and were able to tangle up living things. The briar patch was more than happy to crack, break, and rebound around the floor's boss as it retreated step by step.

With the elk sinking deeper in to the briars, Tulland began to crank on the stick higher, using it as a lever of sorts, one that used the monster's pain as a fulcrum. It had to sink lower. There was just no way for it to keep from more serious damage except moving in the direction Tulland commanded. Soon, it was on its knees. Tulland was about to press his advantage when the stick finally broke off inside its neck.

But it was enough.

The Forest Duke was now having incredible trouble just getting up. Tulland's briars were working on it hard, and the passive, uncultivated briars all around it were offering them cover. Tulland took a few moments to go get the broken but still active Lunger Briar vines from the hallway, ones the Forest Duke had evaded or partially broken but hadn't quite killed. He picked them up barehanded and chucked them near the monster, where they happily completed the last few inches of travel and added to the bindings.

And then it was over. With a final enraged huff, the forest duke lost the last bits of glow from its emergency power skill, and collapsed.

Tulland was a mess, still bleeding from twenty gashes he hadn't noticed much during the fight, and still operating on barely patched bones that creaked and jolted him with pain every time he moved. The forest duke was slowly being consumed by the briars, which were more than happy to dig their thorns deeper and deeper into its flesh.

Tulland limped over and looked down at the animal in pity. It really was a beautiful thing, outside of the part where it wanted him dead. Tulland grabbed one of its hooves and hauled it away from the briar wall, getting it to a neutral part of his farm before separating it from the few briars that still had enough life left in them to move. He would use the monster corpse later, if he could.

I'll also review all these notifications I'm getting. Sometime. Right now, I'm pretty tired.

Tulland managed to get a drink of water from his makeshift well that was really just a deep pit in the ground before his eyes started to droop. A few seconds later, he was asleep.

And then he was somewhere else.

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