"Woof. It''s very in in here." A tiny, very muscr woman with pink hair nced around the room with disdain. "We couldn''t do any better than this?"
"Agreed. Are we on a budget, all of a sudden?" A surprisingly skinny, underfed man d in fur clothing was rubbing the wall with his fingers, as if he could wipe away the monochrome white to reveal a more interesting color. "This is pretty drab."
"The rooms choose the people. You know that." An older, darker, and more serious-looking woman dismissed theints with a wave. "Now shush."
"The Infinite?" Tund was standing now, with his hand on his new spear weapon. "If so, tell me."
"Oh, calm down." The woman waved again, and Tund found himself empty-handed. "We aren''t here to hurt you, but you wouldn''t want to see what happens if you actually attacked us. Yes, we are The Infinite. For what it''s worth, we are sorry to intrude."
"I''m not." The pink haired woman plopped down on the couch. "That''s just her. You brought this on yourself."
"With the treasure box?"
"With the treasure box, he says." The fur-d manughed in a single, barking sound. "Yes, Tund. With the box. Also because you initiated aggression against a fourth-floor returner almost at the experience cap, and then somehow managed to more-or-less win the fight."
"Less, I''d say," the pink haired woman said. "He didn''t get much of what he wanted. But yes, that''s generally right. It was quite the floor, Tund. And we''ve since learned our lesson about your ss. Those treasure boxes are serious business. We are here to guide it, more or less. To prevent troubles for either you or us down the line. And to make sure you don''t get Advanced Hoework or something else like that."
Tund nced at the old woman, who was now leafing through some papers, then at the other two. He decided to just let them talk for a while. If he were needed, they would let him know. Otherwise, he got the feeling him talking would hold things up.
"Agreed. I think we basically understand what happened here. Now the question is, what do we do about it? Because farmers do not generally find treasure boxes. Even if they did, the boxes would usually just give them some sort of generic skill increase. That doesn''t seem fair for someone who looks, well," the businesswoman waved generally at Tund''s entire existence, "like this."
"I don''t see why. He''s a crafter. Getting crafter rewards isn''t something we haven''t thought about. We designed an entire track for it, in fact…"
"We designed it thinking they''d be entering as parts of an eventual team. Multiple people from one world entering at once and meeting up at the safe zone. That''s not his situation, and he had no way of choosing his ss or any experience with it." The fur-d man made some lightning-quick stabbing motions, as with a spear. "Like it or not, he''s a crafter being forced intobat situations. And that won''t stop."
"That''s the point, yes." The old woman rubbed her forehead. "And we''ve confirmed that his System gave him the ss as a hostile action, not as a best-chance-of-survival decision at all. That''s not in the spirit of what The Infinite is, or what it should do."
Tund watched as the group continued to bicker on what sounded a lot like the philosophy of his own situation. He let them go on for a while before finally deciding to interrupt when it seemed like they had stopped being productive.
"This is all very nice. I mean that. It''s nice to know you are thinking of me." Tund kept his bravery up as the group turned to look at him. "But how does this actually affect me? What''s going on?"
"Oh. Sorry." The fur-d man walked a few steps closer to the couch and looked down on Tund. "What we are proposing to do is to change your reward from that box. Not much. But at least enough to acknowledge your situation. That was supposed to be a pretty big reward for that rogue, something that would have been a cornerstone in his development. Not that he won''t seed anyway. There''s more than one way to win in The Infinite. But it would be a shame to let it go to waste. So long as you allow it, we can get you a bit more than you''d otherwise receive."
"Oh." Tund grinned. "Yes, please. Could I change sses, actually? I think I''d like that."
"Unfortunately, nothing that drastic. Your ss is more or less something you are stuck with, at least in the broad strokes. We''ve already made an adjudication on the previous levels, something that we don''t do very often. In the process, we pulled your power back in a couple different ways without giving you quite as much as you deserved in return. I think so, anyway."
The older businesswoman sat between Tund and the pink-haired tinydy.
"This should hopefully rectify that. It''s more of a rebnce, a way to spread the rewards from the treasure box around your ss and ensure it viably scales. But you are a farmer, Tund. Too much of that has sunk into you now to ever change that. It''s who you are."
"Ah. But I''d be more powerful?"
"That all depends on how you use it." The pink-haired woman leaned around her other incarnation. "Right now, you''d just get minor tweaks to give you minor things mostbat sses have, in a weakened sense. Your regeneration would be a little stronger, and you''d gain some small skill with weapons. Later, as you grew… well, the sky is the limit, kind of."
"That''s true of every ss. They can all develop endlessly." The businesswoman looked suddenly serious. "There are downsides, of course. You''ll have to adjust a bit to how things work after this. Not much, but some."
"And you''ll lose an advantage. Do you recall at the beginning of your journey, when your System lobbied for you to proceed at a slower pace? We were already considering putting you at the same pace almost everyone else enjoys. If you let us so much as touch that treasure box and your level rewards today, that will happen now."
Tund considered that. He had never really been pushed by The Infinite to move on before he had decided to himself. Each level had given him about the best farm he could get before he left it, and had let him get to his already limited monster-kill-cap every single time. He might have to hurry now, but it didn''t seem impossible to still get the most out of each level, so long as nothing less changed.
"You wouldn''t change the mix of how I get experience? It would still be abination of farming, killing, and achievements? I don''t want the rug pulled out from under me in a way that gets me killed."
"Nothing like that." The man shook his head. "If anything, we are just trying to make your ss make sense. It will get stronger because your performance on thest level and the treasure box assure that. But the other changes are things that should make doing your job easier, not harder."
The muscr woman picked up the conversation. "From our perspective, it''s worth it to have this conversation simply to get your assent. Without it, you will get what you get. And that might cause… I suppose the word for it would be incremental progress. If we can help it, Tund, we never want to significantly alter your course again. And that desire is only stronger when ites to rolling back progress you''ve already made."
The business woman nced down at a tiny clock she appeared to have strapped to her wrist and winced. "There''s only a bit of time left to consider this, Tund. We''ve told you everything you are allowed to know, at this point in time. You need to choose."
Tund wanted to take his time making the decision, but any hopes of having an hour-long think were quickly dashed as the woman tapped her wrist-clock.
"And if I don''t?" Tund asked.
"Then things continue unguided. This is meant to be a reward, something thatpensates you. It still will be, even if it is somewhat less of apensation than it could have been. Choose."
Tund looked at the woman, thought it over for a split second, then nodded. The moment his head came up from the downward-motion part of the nod, they were gone.
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<strong>ss Evolution!</strong>
Your farming ss has been altered, and the functions of several of your skills have shifted. In recognition of your past deeds, your new ss is now called "Chaos Farmer."
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<strong>Skill Created! (Produce Armament)</strong>
You now have proficiency wearing armor crafted using both your own hand-grown nts and Fruits of the Field''s crafting capabilities. Rather than being tied to a particr stat like strength or dexterity, your armor''s ability to defend your body will scale both from the quality of the armor and your overall stats when created.
Your ability to create weapons is now tied to your Farmer''s Tool. By introducing sufficient suitable matter, you can rece both the handle and the business end of the tool with materials of your own creation. They will retain the shape of the original tool, while allowing you to increase its quality over time.
Any recement of tool material (including recing both the handle and weapon-side at once) prompts a two-day cooldown on your ability to rece them again.
Breaking either the handle or the head of the tool will result in a loss of material, with a corresponding loss of efficacy. If the tool is repaired with an identical material, the cooldown drops from two days to a mere out-ofbat requirement.
<em>Your ability to control and do damage with this weapon scales from both the quality of materials used in its construction and the overall strength of your farm. You are now system-restricted from using any other weapons besides your Farmer''s Tool.</em>
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<strong>Skill Created from Combination! (Primal Growth)</strong>
Your Enhance nt skill has consumed with the Command nt and Enrich Seed skills, altering its own function. It is now called Primal Growth.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om
Primal Growth now has two general uses. The first is to alter the general course of a nt''s growth, either by enriching a nt''s seed to give it the best possible start, by speeding its growth, or by infusing it with your will and a certain element of chaotic change.
In this function, you will see very little change. You gain little that each of the skills could not do on their own. The greatest benefit to your farming ability will be simplicity - a simple activation of a simple skill will allow you to ess a variety of functions, driven entirely by what you are trying to aplish.
The changes to yourbat ability are more drastic. You may now designate two nt types as primarybat tools, a designation that can be changed once a day when you are within the bounds of your own farm. nts designated in this way will gain much more from Primal Growth when used inbat, and will also demand much more power when enhanced in this way.
With the defensive capabilities of your nts now assigned to armor pieces created by your Produce Armament skill, your six-nt carry limit has been revoked and reassigned to your Market Wagon skill.
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<strong>Skill Created! (Market Wagon)</strong>
As a crafterbat ss, you gain early ess to a dimensional storage skill. You may now carry a substantial amount of mundane produce with you by storing it in this space. Produce stored in this way is rendered useless for all purposes but eating.
The Market Wagon skilles with a predetermined set of seeds.
<em>In addition, you may carry a number of nts designated as primarybat tools as concerns your Primal Growth skill. The total number of nts you can carry in this way will vary with nt size, weight, and strength.</em>
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"Oh, hell yes. Are you seeing this, System?"
I am not. You did not show me. Please let me return to hiding. The Infinite might return at any…
The System had no chance to finish, at least in that ce. The room chose that moment to disappear.