Infinite Farmer

Necia turned out to be pretty good company, as company went. She was very fast at digging up soil, especially with Tulland's new overpowered shovel. Once a day or so had passed without the giants wrecking their garden, Tulland gained a level on his Primal Growth, the soil thrived beyond even what he thought it would, and he stared at a couple of very healthy, very wide Ironbranch trees.

"So is today the day?" Necia asked. "It seems like your farm is pretty much as good as you can get it."

"Yes, if only because this moss looks just about done. A couple more Primal Growths should do it, if my intuition is right."

"Do what? You still haven't told me why the moss is important."

"That's because it's a surprise. Just drink your juice and give me a minute."

Necia pouted but did what he asked. Eventually, the moss did turn, a big mass of it morphing into a hard, beautiful crystal all at once. Tulland figured it had to be more than the Farmer's Tool needed, and he was right. The tool took all the crystal it could, then reduced the rest of what he had offered to dust. He summoned the pitchfork back into being, gratified to see the tines now gleamed with a new jeweled deadliness that he frankly just loved. It was a real weapon. It even felt like a real weapon in his hands, and almost like he knew how to use it. Giving it a thrust, he found it jutted out with a steady stability he just hadn't had before.

"Oooh. Pretty. That is a good surprise," Necia said as she watched Tulland smile at his strike.

"Actually, not the surprise. But yes, it's great." Tulland ran back to one of his trees, where a carefully hollowed out section of branch held just a little more moss, carefully shaped by the hole in the wood. Taking his knife, he carefully prided it out, and then just as carefully tied it in a bit of Wolfwood fur he had dried, cut into cords, and twisted together to make some rough string. "Here. For you."

Necia took the string doubtfully, eyed the rock, then swung it a few times like a flail.

Shoot. She thinks it's a weapon.

"No, no. I mean… hold on." Tulland grabbed the cord and stepped to the side, reaching the cord around Necia's neck. She was short enough at the moment that this wasn't hard. "It just needs a bit of a tie, and then… there. It looks good."

Necia's mouth dropped open as she raised her hand to the little amber jewel, looked closely at it glinting in the sun, and then looked back to Tulland. Her cheeks reddened.

"Are you sure you haven't done this whole dating thing before, Tulland?"

"No." Tulland smiled nervously. "Why?"

"Because." Necia stepped closer and slipped her arms under his. "You aren't half-bad at it."

The day's schedule went by the wayside for a little bit after that. When they finally went out giant-hunting, hours had passed.

—

"I've got him, Tulland! Let's see if this works!" Necia yelled.

According to Necia, the giants didn't have much in the way of weaknesses. They were big and strong, probably strong enough to turn Tulland into jelly with one good hit. But the lack of weaknesses had some upside in the fact that there really wasn't a bad place to hit them. You just had to swing enough times while tanking enough damage to not die.

Necia could do that by herself, she just didn't like to. She claimed it was as not-fun as a hunting activity could be. She also, without a moment's hesitation, stated that trying to do the same thing would be suicide for Tulland. He had opted out of that outcome for something better. He had been building landmines.

"Just keep coming. Keep ahead, too! I need a second to activate them once you are through," Tulland yelled back.

Necia nodded and ran as fast as she could, which was still not all that fast. It was just enough to keep ahead of a giant as it swept its long ape-arms down at her from the sky. Luckily, the lead held up as she passed one of Tulland's auxiliary briar gardens, the ones he had built entirely for the purpose of acting as a kind of botanical landmine.

Thank the gods these things are nearsighted. No way this would work otherwise. But it had worked, twice now. Necia would kite a giant, sometimes for miles. And Tulland would spring a distracting wad of briars around their foot, which they would then stop to take care of. Between those briars and Tulland and Necia working to cut off the other foot, the giants went down pretty quickly, their overall health sapped by the general assault on their feet.

This time he was trying something even worse, a mean-spirited trick he didn't think would work until the giant's foot came down on a sharpened Ironbranch Sapling that was still growing in the ground and it punched through the entire extremity like a nail. And the giant wasn't just distracted by it. As the Lunger Briars ripped out of the ground and further injured its foot, it fell over, allowing Tulland and Necia free rein to go after its back. It took a minute to kill that one, tops.