Infinite Farmer

In his enclosure, Tulland was already working on his next project. He had spent the better part of a few hours the day before building the pit trap, but that was a necessary risk. It took time to dig a hole, and more time to plant a cultivated briar seed at the bottom, juice it with magic, cover the whole thing with enough briar thorns to look like semi-solid ground, and leave a single cultivated fruit as bait.

The investment was worth it. He had picked up two levels worth of experience just today, setting and resetting the trap with his excess of cultivated fruit and the briar branches. He had worried that the monster corpses left in the pit would warn the others off, until he had gone out to clean it out for the first time and found it clean except for an exceptionally vibrant, healthy looking briar.

"Even if I could, I won't ask any questions about what happened there," Tulland said to the briar. It might have been his imagination but the briar seemed to twitch at those words.

Now, Tulland was busy clipping off several feet of his briar tangle and wrapping it around the strongest branch he had been able to safely find in the forest. His best idea for a weapon so far was to make a briar-wrapped club and see how that did on the local wildlife.

"Hey System. You around?" Tulland asked after turning off the communication barrier.

You know I am. Where would I go?

"Good point. I have a question for you."

One I would answer for what reason?

"Because you have nothing better to do."

The System went quiet, but Tulland wasn't fooled. It had been lying to him for months, but some things were harder to fake. It could tolerate endless periods of nothing happening, but it was vulnerable to the kind of boredom where something demanded attention then didn't justify the need. It hated services from the Church, not just because they came from his enemies but because they droned on. It couldn't stand Tulland's sessions with his tutor either.

And most of all, it hated waiting for a response. It couldn't tolerate being ignored.

Tulland sat placidly, working thorns into the wood of the stick while trying to make his makeshift spiked club. He knew it was only a matter of time.

What is your question?

"I thought you didn't want to answer."

I am generous. Ask.

Tulland kept his face straight as he waited a moment, then let the System know what he had on his mind.

"The beasts here. Are they especially resistant to the attacks of people without a class? If a very strong man came here with a knife, but no class, would they be more difficult for him to kill than they should?"

An interesting question.

"I thought so. Do you know the answer?"

I do. And it's yes, in some ways. It would matter who made…

The System went quiet.

"Keep going. I'm listening."

No. I've wasted my own time here. I'm done.

"Oh, come on. Don't be like that."

The System wouldn't speak again, no matter how Tulland asked or cajoled. But Tulland thought he might have an answer anyway. He was fairly sure that the unfinished thought the System decided not to share was that it would matter who made the knife. Tulland's farming tool was not powered by his own class, at least in its function as a weapon. And it wasn't made by someone with a class, despite being a System-built item.

But if a blacksmith with a smithing class made a knife, it would carry a might of its own. As a product of some system or another, it would be made to interact with other things created by and for the class and leveling system. A very strong man wielding one of those knives could kill one of these monsters. Tulland was almost sure of it.

Tulland didn't know how to work metal and didn't have any skills for making bows. But he did have plants grown by a true Farmer class, using system-granted skills. He wouldn't have believed there was any chance that things would work this way if he hadn't already had some confirmation, courtesy of several dead monsters who had failed to make it out of his pit trap.

And even if The Infinite doesn't think this monster-fertilized vine is different enough to give it a new description, it sure seems like it's gonna work at least a little bit better.

Before Tulland tried it out, he made sure he had contingencies. He set up his collapsible rope thorn trap again and dug a few pit traps that he covered in a way that was obvious to him but hopefully less so for the monsters. Once that was in place, he stepped out, stood at the entrance of his compound, and waited.

He didn't have to wait long. It was less than five minutes before one of the walking balls of territorial rage spotted him and made a beeline for what looked like easy prey.

But in many ways, Tulland wasn't as soft as he was when he had first arrived in this forest.