Chapter 13: Wager
Tulland woke up to more plants. Most of the trees had failed, but one was beginning to grow, specifically the one he had planted in the pulp of the briar fruits. The rest of them appeared to have failed, and he confirmed that by trying to pump a charge of Quickgrow into them. It failed. They were good and dead. He put another round of Quickgrow into the successful seed, then started making his rounds on his briars.
Today was the day he cleaned some of them out. The old-style Hades Briars were of little use to him now. He kept some of the very best plants for club-making, but even those might not be needed once he had the chance to try a used-up Lunger Briar for the job.
The trees would be days, maybe even weeks, before they were large enough to matter much. But Tulland’s last dream had reminded him of something. He was the kind of guy who thought most hard problems just needed a hero as their solutions. And some problems really were that way. But more often than not, Tulland had found that his tutor was right, especially as he got old enough to know the difference between fantasy and reality.
Boring is powerful. If I had to sum that old man in one sentence, it would be that.
And right in that moment, Tulland started to get confirmation that the old man was right.
| Remote Victory! You have killed an enemy you can’t see, hear, smell, or otherwise sense. A significant portion of experience has been awarded for this achievement.
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