Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse

Chapter 4356: The Farmer’s Greeting I

The First Farmer had flown high as in the end, his wings had gotten clipped!

Which meant...

Noah shook his head.

’I have to think of many more possibilities. Have to account for fact that anyone powerful enough to matter has probably already been neutralized. Have to assume that resistance to The Fallout won’t come from ancient beings revealing themselves at critical moment...’

Schrodinger and any others were not something to be counted on!

HUUM!

Noah’s eyes flashed with brilliance.

’It all comes back to me. My Principles. My Civilization. My...Way’

WAA!

As always.

The coughing fit continued for several more seconds before finally subsiding, The First Farmer’s breathing gradually returning to something approaching normal...though normal for him meant labored and weak rather than healthy.

Elyndra looked apologetically toward Noah, her expression carrying embarrassment mixed with concern.

”I apologize,” she said, her voice quieter now. ”Father’s episodes are... frequent these days. The damage runs deep, and time only makes it worse rather than better.”

She sighed, then gestured toward distant field visible from their seated position.

The field blazed with golden light even more intense than the radiance surrounding their current location. At its center stood a vibrant tree that appeared to be simultaneously sapling and ancient growth, its branches reaching in impossible directions while its trunk pulsed with authority.

”Please,” Elyndra said, her tone carrying genuine request, ”give us a moment to stabilize. In the meantime, you’re welcome to examine that cultivation plot. It represents a grand Principle being nurtured...one of Father’s most successful projects, though significantly less advanced than what Perpetual Harvest became for you.”

She smiled slightly.

”Perhaps you’ll find insights there that could benefit your own understanding. Knowledge should never be hoarded when sharing could elevate multiple parties.”

Noah nodded, accepting the suggestion because it aligned with his own desires anyway.

He had much to think about...the implications of THE Creature’s words, the systematic elimination of potential resistance forces by THE Living Existences, the grim reality that help wouldn’t come from external sources.

And examining a nurtured Principle, seeing firsthand how The First Farmer’s cultivation techniques manifested, could provide valuable data that RUINEDEN could analyze and potentially integrate into the Cheat Code Repository.

He rose from the mat with fluid grace, his form lifting slightly off the ground as he prepared to float toward the distant golden field.

Behind him, the First Farmer continued his recovery, Elyndra helping him stabilize with hands that trembled with suppressed desire to do more than she was allowed.

Noah moved toward the radiant tree.

But as he departed, as his attention shifted away from the two beings behind him...

The First Farmer couldn’t help but look at him intently.

And soon after...

Time seemingly stopped for The First Farmer and Elyndra.

Not literally...existence still flowed, reality still processed, moments still accumulated into continuity.

But for them, in that instant, communication began through a Principle as this instant could be a day’s worth of communication.

They possessed connection that ran deeper than words...father and daughter bound not just by familial relationship but by shared Principle!

And in that space where their consciousnesses touched, where communication happened at speeds that made normal dialogue seem glacial by comparison, The First Farmer spoke.

His mental voice carried none of the weakness his physical form exhibited. Here, in this space of pure consciousness, he remained what he’d been before THE Living Emotive had shattered him...powerful, decisive, calculating with precision that had once brought him to cusp of THE.

”What do you think?” his voice resonated through their connection, heavy and weighted with implications.

”Will you be able to handle him? Fighting will not work. Things have to be done another way.”

BOOM!

Elyndra’s consciousness flickered with indecision, her mental presence wrestling with something that caused her genuine conflict.

She had always obeyed her father. Always trusted his wisdom. Always accepted that his cultivation experience exceeded hers by eons, that his understanding of existence’s nature transcended her own despite her impressive power.

But this...

Finally, hesitantly, she responded through their connection.

”I... yes, Father. I believe I can handle him. But are we certain this is necessary? This path feels...”

She didn’t finish the thought, her consciousness carrying emotions too complex to reduce to simple statements.

The First Farmer’s mental voice continued, carrying patience mixed with urgency.

”Get close to him,” he instructed, each word deliberate. ”As close as possible. Form bonds that transcend simple alliance. Make yourself valuable to his Way, integrate into his Civilization, become someone he trusts implicitly.”

He paused, then delivered the critical instruction.

”Once you have integrated into his Way, once he trusts you completely, once guards are lowered and defenses are relaxed... connect with him on existential level. Use what lies dormant in your existence- the 9 Principles I cultivated within you...to pull Perpetual Harvest out.”

HUUM!

The magnitude of what he was suggesting was heavy!

Far too heavy!

”Its Seed alone was the Seed of a Civilization,” the First Farmer continued, ”I gave it away when I shouldn’t have, when I was still naive enough to believe that failure had no value. But now I understand...when it is too late.”

His presence intensified in their shared space.

”And now that it has bloomed, now that someone has refined it into full Principle, now that it exists in matured state rather than potential... I need it. If I am to get back to my old self, if I am to restore what THE Living Emotive destroyed, if I am to have any chance of surviving until The Fallout and beyond... I will need the full Principle of Perpetual Harvest. Not just understanding of it. Not just observation of its mechanics. The actual, complete Principle itself, integrated into my existence. I have tried again and again to recultivate it. I have cultivated hundreds of Seed of Principles since then...but I cannot replicate Perpetual Harvest. It was singular, and remains singular. The Key...to a Civilization. And I just gave it away.”

...!

Elyndra’s consciousness flickered with conflict of genuine internal struggle!

Her mental voice emerged hesitantly.

”Is there really no other way?” she asked, and her presence carried pleading words.

”We can talk with him. We can discuss everything. We can explain your situation, offer alliance, propose collaboration.”

Her consciousness pulsed with conviction.

”As Farmers, we know that collaboration is better than anything else. That wonders can be cultivated in grander ways together than alone. Perpetual Harvest in his hands has already achieved what you couldn’t...imagine what it could become if we worked together rather than against each other!”

The argument was logical, compassionate, rooted in principles that agricultural cultivation had taught her over eons.

But the First Farmer’s response carried finality that allowed no further debate.

”Child,” his mental voice said gently but firmly, ”you are no longer naive. You’ve lived long enough, observed enough, understood enough to recognize truth when you encounter it.”

His presence grew heavier in their shared space.

”I have looked at all possibilities,” he continued, each word weighted with certainty born from exhaustive calculation. ”I have examined this entity from every angle my diminished perception still allows. And what I see is...”

He paused, choosing words carefully.

”Boundless tyranny. Boundless potential. An existence that accumulates power at rates that defy reasonable progression, that possesses Principles that shouldn’t coexist in single being, that operates according to rules that make no sense. Such a being is primed for The Way. For leading a Civilization. I know him because I know myself. He and I...are the same type of existence. Boundless. Relentless.”

His mental voice took on darker tones.

”He will not give anything away. Not Perpetual Harvest, not knowledge, not advantage. Everything must be taken from him, because sharing requires vulnerability he will never allow himself to experience.”

The assessment was delivered with clinical precision, without malice but without hope either.

”I have seen it,” the First Farmer said. ”And having met him, having observed how he carries himself...”

The First Farmer shook his head.

”If I do not get back the full Principle of Perpetual Harvest,” The First Farmer continued, his mental voice growing more urgent, ”if I cannot restore what THE Living Emotive destroyed by integrating that Principle into my shattered foundation... I will not even live to The Fallout, my daughter.”

WAA!

The words carried weight of absolute truth.

”I am deteriorating,” he said, allowing her to feel the full extent of his suffering through their connection. ”Each day, I grow weaker. Each cycle, more of what I was slips away into nothingness. The poison THE Living Emotive left in my existence is consuming me from inside, and I have no defense against it because my own being treats healing as contamination.”

His presence pulsed with desperation!

”Save this poor father of yours,” he pleaded.

”I cultivated you. I raised you for many purposes...to tend the Sanctuary, to protect the Fold Dwellers who found refuge here, to nurture Principles and advance understanding of growth itself.”

He paused, then delivered the critical question.

”But this will be a particularly critical purpose,” he said. ”Can I trust you with it? Can I rely on you to do what necessity demands, even if compassion argues against it? Can you save your father by taking what must be taken?”

...!

Elyndra’s consciousness trembled with conflict.

Everything she’d been taught about cultivation argued against this approach. Farmers didn’t steal crops from other Farmers. Growth came through nurturing, not theft. Collaboration produced better results than competition.

But her father was dying. Slowly, painfully, inevitably dying unless something changed dramatically.

And if taking Perpetual Harvest from Osmont could restore him, could bring back the powerful being who had created sanctuary and protected so many...

Could she refuse?

Should she refuse?

Did she have the right to prioritize stranger’s well-being over her father’s survival?

The conflict raged through her consciousness for what felt like eons compressed into single instant.

Then, finally, carrying sadness that weighed heavier than any Complexity or Purity measurement could quantify, she responded.

”Yes, Father.”

The words were simple, but they carried commitment!

”I will do it. I will get close to him. I will integrate into his Way. I will earn his trust. And when the moment comes... I will take Perpetual Harvest for you.”

BOOM!

Even as she said it, even as she committed to the course, part of her consciousness wept at what she was agreeing to become.

Betrayer. Thief. Manipulator using cultivated intimacy as weapon rather than genuine connection.

Everything she’d been raised to oppose.

But for her father’s survival...

She would become it anyway.

The First Farmer’s mental voice carried relief mixed with satisfaction.

”Good,” he said. ”Go to him now. Show him our boons, demonstrate value of alliance, show your Principles to him- they are meant to draw in any existence who knows anything to do with growth and harvest, much less one with Perpetual Harvest. Form a connection that will allow deeper integration later. Be patient...this cannot be rushed. Trust takes time to cultivate, and harvesting before proper ripeness yields inferior results.”

His presence pulsed with strategic certainty.

”Let us get ready to embark on our Civilization,” he said, the words carrying weight of plans extending far beyond simple recovery. ”With Perpetual Harvest restored to me, with my foundation rebuilt, with power accumulated through proper agricultural methods... we will survive The Fallout. We will thrive in whatever comes after. We will show THE Living Existences that they were wrong to dismiss the Farmer who once stood at threshold of THE.”

Elyndra nodded through their connection, accepting the mandate even as part of her soul protested.

Then their communion ended, time resuming its normal flow as if the extended mental conversation had occurred in single heartbeat.

Elyndra rose from her mat with fluid grace that concealed inner turmoil, her expression settling into calm confidence that suggested nothing significant had just transpired.

She began walking toward Noah, her vibrant and powerful figure moving through the golden radiance with practiced ease.

But in that moment, despite her impressive power, despite her nine Principles operating in perfect harmony, despite her cultivation achievements that would make current-era beings weep with inadequacy...

Her grand figure seemed...extremely alone!

A daughter walking toward betrayal she didn’t want to commit, bound by duty to father who was dying, caught between compassion that argued for honesty and necessity that demanded deception.

And ahead of her, unaware of conspiracy just formed in consciousness-space, Noah examined the vibrant tree that represented nurtured Principle, his power already breaking down its structure and cataloging insights that would feed into his ever-expanding understanding of existence’s architecture.

A trap was set.

The pieces were moving.

And The First Farmer watched with eyes that held calculation refined through eons of agricultural patience...knowing that harvests, when done properly, required time, care, and willingness to do whatever cultivation demanded.

Even if what it demanded was his own Daughter he had given his very blood to nurture!