"The god-farmer." The woman laughed. "Isn't that funny? Me. Do I look like a god-farmer?"
Tulland tossed around a few replies to that in his mind before considering that the woman probably couldn't hurt him, even if she wanted to. The same went for refusing to help him.
"You don't look like it, no. You kind of seem like it, though. Hasn't anyone ever explained to you that you are kind of scary?"
"Yes, but I never understood it." The woman waved her hand dismissively, setting off Tulland's danger sense. He just barely resisted wincing back in terror from it. "At any rate, my child, I can see you are hardly at a lower level than me. Why don't you look at that plant I was working on, and tell me what you see?"
"Sure."
Tulland couldn't very well stall the learning to learn more about the woman, at least if what The Infinite said about the space was true. He bent down and took a look at the bush, which at first blush was very conventional compared to most plants he saw in the dungeon. When his Farmer's Intuition got to it, the immediate message it sent back was that this was the wrong conclusion to arrive at. There was something else going on there, even if his senses couldn't pick it up.
"My initial thought is that this isn't very special. My skill is telling me there's something to do, it's just…"
"Don't use the skill. What do you see? What can you learn with your eyes and mind?"
Tulland looked harder at the bush, trying to find anything unusual about it. There wasn't. Each leaf was perfectly uniform, each branch was placidly growing in an organic, normal direction, and not a single mark, blemish, or scar to be seen.
"There's nothing wrong. Wait." Tulland brought out one of his pieces of produce, something that still had a clump of leaves on it and had been sitting protected in his dimensional storage since being picked. "I gave this one every bit of help I could, and there's still lighter spots on the leaves in some places. Why doesn't the bush have any?"
"That's the question, isn't it? I was a full thirty levels above any of the farmers in my world, and the reason why was that I was able to consistently answer just that question." The woman brushed the leaves of the bush affectionately and chuckled to herself. "That and the fact that I made over a thousand different hybrid plants my world had never seen before. Now, how long did you say you've been farming?"
"A few months, I guess? My uncle had a garden he used to grow root vegetables in our front yard. Sometimes I'd help him weed it," Tulland said.
"I'd like to believe that, child, but your levels tell a different story. You should just tell me what you can, as honestly as you can. It's not like I can use it against you."
"No, really." Tulland frowned. "That's part of why I need you. I didn't know anything more about farming than seeds go in the ground and make plants until I got this class, and that was really just a few months ago."
The old woman gazed deeply into Tulland's eyes for a few moments.
"I suppose you'll have to tell me everything." She bent back down over a new bush and started working on it. "And I do mean everything."
"You don't think The Infinite will kick me out for not trying to learn?" Tulland asked.
"Young man, telling your teacher what they need to know to work is trying to learn. It might kick you out for not doing it, as far as I'm concerned," the old woman said.
Tulland watched the woman work a mysterious magic on the bush she was handling while he went through every single thing that had happened to him since the first time the system had contacted him on Ouros. He told her about arriving and being assigned a farmer class he had never planned on or asked for. He told her about his first accidental successes growing plants in a dungeon. He told her about his hybrid vines, the way his class got power from his farm, and what he had been doing to maximize that power.
Along the way, he got the feeling she gathered some things he wasn't quite intending to tell her. She seemed to approve of the little she heard of Necia and seemed very much to have encountered people like Halter and Ley before, It wasn't long before she held up a hand and forced Tulland to stop talking, apparently having heard enough to get by with.
"Can I see a few of your plants? Your better plants, I mean. I'd like to see those Acheflowers, if I could, and your Chimera Sleeves."
Tulland obeyed, pulling out one of each for the woman's inspection. She laughed in surprise as the Chimera Sleeve sprang from Tulland's arm to hers, then inspected the plants silently for a few minutes.
"Well, it's clear you don't have the soul of a farmer. Don't look at me like that's a surprise. You never once considered being a farmer back home, did you?"
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"I didn't." Tulland smiled, guiltily. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It wasn't your choice. You've done well with what you had available to you, despite being forced into it. Now, tell me. Did your world ever have competitions for farmers? In my world, we called them growing fairs."
"Not that I know of?" Tulland shook his head. "I grew up on an island. A relatively small one."
"Well, sit and I'll tell you about them. First, the point of those kinds of fairs was never to compete for who could plow the best, or who was the fastest with a shovel. Sometimes they'd have those things, you understand, but they were never the draw. The big draw was the crops," the woman said.
"Who could grow the most grain?"
"Heavens, no. It was who could grow the very best grain. The finest, biggest vegetables. The sturdiest squash. And do you know why?"
"Bragging rights?"
"Yes, broadly, but it was more than that, too. When one farmer pulled out all the stops to grow one carrot as big and beautifully as they could, they often learned things. They'd usually teach those things to others, and the whole field would move forward. Although in your case, the learning part is all we need."
"I don't understand."
"These plants are powerful, Tulland. I've never seen anything like them. I grew beautiful things, but none of them could get up and walk around, let alone hunt and kill. But they are not good, in the sense that they could have won a growing fair. And that will hold you back far more than you'd imagine. Happy plants do their best, Tulland. You've been getting by with plants that are merely surviving."
"Are they that bad?" Tulland called back his Chimera Sleeve and looked at it more closely. "I thought they were fine."
"They are the greatest of wonders, Tulland. Fantastic things I would have never imagined. And, yes, they are that bad. Now come sit by me as I work on this bush. I'll show you some things."
—
A couple hours later, Tulland was learning that there was more to farming than he ever imagined.
"Do you see this node?" The old woman grabbed Tulland's hand and guided it to a small bump on the central stalk of the bush. "That will be a branch. Or, if you choose for it not to be, you could apply the tip of a knife like this, and it will never grow again."
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"Why would I? The more branches the better, right?" Tulland asked.
"It depends on what the plant is, young man. What it's for. You want a plant to have the branches it needs to have."
"But how do I know?"
"By considering what the plant is for." The woman put her hand to her forehead. "Goodness. You weren't much of a student, were you?"
"How can you tell?"
"Because if you were any more frustrated with thinking, steam would come out of your ears. You need to take a break."
"I can't. I'll get kicked out."
"I've been thinking about that too. Hello? Whoever is causing me to be alive in this place? I can't teach this boy effectively if he can't rest. Give me some kind of confirmation that I'll be allowed to let him, or I'm afraid I'll have to complain quite loudly."
"Will that work?"
"Oh, yes, it should. If this System knows me, at least. I can complain very loudly if I'm forced to." The woman's eyes panned down to focus on nothing that Tulland could see. Somehow, it was interesting to him that she was complete enough to have system screens of her own. "There it is. We should be fine, now."
The temporary being known as Kelsa The Soil Deity has requested increased power to administrate the training offered on this floor. Her request has been considered. Due to the unusual circumstances of Tulland Lowstreet's training levels, a modified version of her request has been granted.
While residing in the training floor, Tulland's progress will now be considered on a per-rest-period basis. If his learning rate drops below a certain minimum as judged across that entire period, he will be ejected back to the tenth floor safe zone and The Infinite-synced time.
Kelsa's decisions regarding rest periods will be carefully monitored. If any deception is detected on her part, the training session will be terminated.
"It acts like I could really disobey it." Kelsa smiled. "Good to know I might be able to. Sit, Tulland. Rest."
"Thank you for that. Really." Tulland flopped onto his back and groaned. "I have a headache. I was never good at long-haul learning sessions. My tutor hated me for it."
"Right. But this will be better. I'll have you nap, then we will try again. We'll repeat until we are done."
"Which is?"
"I suspect when you start to understand what makes a plant better than other plants."
Learning was always a tiring thing. Tulland slipped off to sleep easily, even with the old woman humming and working in the background.
—
"Odd," the woman talked to herself as she worked. "Very odd, really. Being alive again."
The plants couldn't answer. None of them ever had. Talking to them made her feel better though, and it was a good way to let whoever might be listening in on her doings know her feelings on various matters. She didn't like to be too aggressive when a soft approach would do, especially at her advanced age.
"I suppose it's a kind of flattery when it comes down to it. That I was considered for this. But I suspect that whoever put this scenario together wouldn't have chosen me if they had any other alternatives. Considering the kinds of trouble I got up to during my own time. I drove my world's poor System to hysterics." Stay updated through Freewebnovel
The woman's hand suddenly lit up with a soft, green glow. She hadn't shown this to Tulland. It would likely just muddy the waters if she did. Pressing it to the center of the tree, she undid the work at several points where Tulland's hands had been less than delicate with her precious plant and redid it herself, in her own way.
"I think we both know those Chimera Sleeves are a bit of a problem. Me and The Infinite, I mean. If it happens to be watching. I'm surprised he was ever allowed to see them, let alone given time to contemplate what they might do. I understand it, of course. I noticed the problem with the first glance. I don't suppose I'll be allowed to tell him directly, but don't think I won't be trying to find out ways to lead him there anyway. I never did like System interference much."
Despite Kelsa's distaste for various System like things, there was one nearby who was, secretly, her ally in her goals. It was as quiet as it could be as it listened in, hoping that for once it might be forgotten.