Chapter 87 - 85: Farmer’s Domain
Tulland didn't really need to ask the System about this option to know what it thought. It would, as it had always done, take the risky option. What mattered now was what kind of risk Tulland was willing to take. All in all, the combination token didn't seem to be that big of a risk to him, but that made him worry. The Infinite had dedicated a large amount of text to warning him of risk, and that almost couldn't be for no reason.
He decided to think about it in a different way.
If this made Broadcast work a third as well, would it be worth it?
The answer to that question was surprisingly hard to generate. On the one hand, Broadcast made all his farming go faster. It was the primary reason he could grow a plot of land to something significant and worthwhile within the temporal confines of a particular level.
But on Tulland's literal other hand was a Clubber Vine, something that was only possible because his Farmer's Intuition had helped him push through several variations of briars before his splicer finished the job for him. And that splicer, near as he could tell, wasn't actively nullifying his Farmer's Intuition. The skill simply wasn't strong enough to figure out what was going on in the machine, and thus didn't try very hard. But if it was a higher level, that might change.
There were a lot of perfectly logical considerations on both sides of the problem, each stacked up so high Tulland couldn't assess which one won out. In the end, the decision came down to something so simple it was almost petty.
I hate how messy my status screen is. I can hardly keep track of all the skills.
Tulland watched the token glow and dissipate in his hand as he activated it, then felt a prompt in his mind as The Infinite asked what passives it had permission to push together.
Let's go for broke. All of them.
Tulland had expected to feel a sense of loss as the skills flowed out of him, but what he had not expected was for it to hurt. It was excruciating in a bone-deep, nauseating way that went beyond the mere sensation of pain. It was like someone was stealing his eyes, for a moment. Like he was being injured in a previously unknown vital area that every one of his instincts was making a panicked attempt to protect. But there was no resisting the pull now. The Infinite was moving, and it was too little, too late.
After a few seconds, he felt the last of the skills tear away, leaving a gaping wound on his soul, like some emptiness had gnawed out a hollow in his spirit and took up residence there like a rat. And, then, just as quickly, he felt something thump into that hole, sealing the gap and adhering to the sides until it was like nothing had ever happened at all. His notifications confirmed that wasn't quite the case.
| Skills Combined! Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire New Passive Skill Created: Farmer's Domain You have fed your Botanical Engineer, Broadcast, Farmer's Intuition, Fruits of the Field, and Strong Back skills to a combination token and received a new combination skill called Farmer's Domain. Farmer's Domain is centered around your Broadcast skill, which previously allowed you to both draw energy from your farm and to distribute energy to your farm en masse. In this sense, it retains all of its function, if at a somewhat lower experience level. But every other passive skill you possess now networks with that connection to your farm, greatly enhancing their efficacy in relation to your staked territory. The smallest change in skill function is your Fruits of the Field passive, which now slightly buffs equipment made with your own plants relative to how many of those plants you have grown. This means that armor made from a new plant will get slightly better as your experience growing the material it's made out of increases. The next change has to do with your Botanical Engineer skill, which now increases in efficacy relative to your farm's overall quality. As your farm's quality increases, so to will your chance of making new variant plants that increase its quality further, creating a limited feedback loop with a nonetheless high potential benefit. Your Strong Back skill has undergone a fairly large change. Its power is now indexed to your farm quality, and possesses a much more variable performance depending on your situation. In the worst-case scenario, a complete lack of access to any farm quality power will leave you without any of the benefits of a regeneration skill. But in the best case, it now can use your farm as a battery, siphoning the power of the plants there to heal you at a much-increased rate. In addition, a small proportion of any damage taken will now be drawn off by your farm, allowing you to move forward as if that damage had never occurred at all. The proportion of damage mitigated to the farm will increase as this skill levels. Note that this is a double-edged sword, as every bit of healing you do will now diminish your combat capabilities somewhat.
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