Chapter 10: Swords and Hoes
As Tulland hefted his pack full of fruits, he was glad that he had put points into strength. A couple days worth of applications of Quickgrow added to the already aggressive growth rate of the vines meant lots and lots of fruits, and he had some experimentation to do.
He brought the pack over to the new, much bigger area he had cleared in the briars. After dropping them on the ground for later, Tulland commanded his Farmer’s Tool to transform into a hoe and got to work loosening the soil.
What Tulland had in mind would require a lot of work, as judged in the conventional way. He would need yard after yard of tilled rows, all carved out of hard, clay-heavy soil. All of that work might amount to nothing, but Tulland was stubborn that way. Even if there was a tiny chance of success, he was willing to swing his hoe and shed his sweat.
Stats hurried the tilling along just fine, and the speed and power he moved with now was a bit intoxicating all by itself, in a way that made him want to work a bit faster and push a bit harder.
Within another hour, he had plenty of soil prepared, with each area he planned to plant marked with a cut to separate it from the others. The first section got one briar seed, all by itself. Tulland’s Enrich Seed skill was higher level than it had been at the beginning. Along with the extra magic power he had to dedicate to the process, he was eager to see what differences he could now make.
The next briar seed was planted in a bundle of the fruits themselves, de-seeded and pulped so that their nutrients would only benefit that single seed. Tulland’s thought was that even with magical power, conventional farming rules probably still applied here. The soil that the briars had been growing in was clearly enough to sustain them to some extent, but it was also flat-out the worst soil Tulland had ever seen. It was hard, angry stuff that was so devoid of nutrients that it looked bleached.
Just looking at it grosses me out, and I couldn’t say why.
“Hey, System?” Tulland said out loud as he eased the communication restrictions.
Yes?