Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse novel Chapter 4354

Chapter 4354: The First Farmer! II

It was answer that provided information while revealing nothing, the verbal equivalent of showing someone a closed door and describing its surface without opening it.

Elyndra stared at him for a long moment, her expression suggesting she was deciding whether to push for more details or accept the deflection gracefully.

Finally, she laughed with genuine amusement.

"You’re infuriating to interrogate," she observed, "Every answer creates more questions. I can see why Father wanted to meet you personally."

They descended together, approaching the figure at the center of the golden-radiant field.

Noah’s analytical capabilities were already activating, his enhanced perception beginning to break down and catalog what he was about to encounter.

The First Farmer.

The entity who had gazed upon THE Living Spirit...and likely other THE Living Existences!

The being who had created sanctuary in the Wandering Territories when nowhere else would accept Fold Dwellers.

The cultivator who had planted Seeds of Civilization and nurtured concepts into Principles.

Noah had high expectations!

This being was potentially one of the solutions to The Fallout...a force that could stand against The Dead, a mind that understood existence’s architecture at levels that current-era beings had forgotten, a power that had survived when so many others had collapsed.

He had been active in the same time as Khor in the Earliest Folds.

He had met THE Living Existences personally.

Surely, such a being would radiate authority that made normal measurement meaningless. Surely, his power would exceed simple quantification. Surely...

Noah’s eyes began to glow with blue light as his analytical capabilities fully engaged, breaking down the figure before him with precision that could measure power down to individual units of Complexity and Purity.

Beside him, Elyndra’s voice rang out with genuine respect and affection.

"Father," she called out warmly. "I’ve brought the guest you’ve been expecting."

The figure turned.

And Noah’s eyes widened as his analytical vision completed its assessment.

"What the fuck?"

The curse escaped before he could stop it, shock overriding his normal composure.

Because the figure who turned to face them was...

The First Farmer.

Noah recognized the features from their brief meeting in the Earliest Folds...the same bone structure, the same general appearance, the same fundamental presence that suggested agricultural authority refined through impossible time.

But everything else was wrong.

The being who stood before them now was old.

Not elderly. Not aged with dignity.

Old in ways that suggested imminent collapse.

His skin hung loose on bones that seemed too fragile to support even his minimal weight. His hair, which had been vibrant in the Earliest Folds, now appeared thin and colorless, each strand looking ready to fall out from sheer exhaustion.

His eyes, which had held depths of wisdom and determination, now carried shadows that spoke of pain and weariness that transcended normal suffering.

He was adorned in a green-gold robe that looked too heavy for his frame, the fabric somehow emphasizing his frailty rather than concealing it.

And worst of all, he leaned heavily on a walking stick...not as affectation or symbol, but as genuine necessity.

His hands trembled where they gripped the wood, his entire posture suggesting that without that support, he would simply collapse.

Noah’s analytical vision completed its assessment, and text appeared above the First Farmer’s head with information that made his expression sour dramatically.

|Viltharion, The First Farmer|

|The One Who Gazed Upon THE Living Existences|

|The Cultivator of Sanctuary|

|Complexity: 0.000001 Quintillion|

|Purity: 0.000001 Quintillion|

Quintillion.

The measurement was technically correct...he was following a Way that operated on that Scale of Existence.

But those decimals...

0.000001 Quintillion was... 1 Trillion.

One trillion in both Complexity and Purity.

That was a tenth the power of a measly Duke!

That was less than many Living Existences possessed. That was... pathetic, for someone who should have been a cornerstone of resistance against The Fallout!

Noah’s expression rapidly soured, his mind racing through implications.

|The First Farmer may have been on someone’s radar.|

Her voice took on darker tones.

|We came here hoping for solutions, for powerful allies, for knowledge that could help prevent The Fallout. Instead, we’re finding evidence that those who might have helped were systematically eliminated long before the current crisis began.|

...!

Noah’s eyes pulsed as it felt like existence was getting tighter!

Like a huge net was closing in!

There would be no grand help from the First Farmer. No cavalry arriving to save the day. No ancient power revealing itself at the critical moment to shift the balance.

As always, he would have to come up with solutions alone.

"..."

But this trip shouldn’t be for naught. He could at least gather information, understand how things had deteriorated to this point, learn what had happened to bring a being of such magnitude down to pathetic weakness. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Noah sighed, the sound carrying weight of disappointment mingled with resignation.

Finally, he nodded, raising his hand in gesture that felt both casual and ceremonial.

And from his palm, light began to emerge.

Not just any light...this was the pristine radiance of Perpetual Harvest itself, green-gold brilliance that sang of continuous growth and exponential accumulation, of effort compounding into power that could reshape existence through sheer persistence.

It blazed between them like proof of impossible achievement, like vindication of potential that others had dismissed as failure.

The First Farmer trembled at its sight.

His entire frail form shook with emotion, his eyes widening with wonder mixed with something that might have been joy or might have been grief or might have been both simultaneously!

He looked like a man dying of thirst who had just been shown water...someone who had wanted to see this one thing more than anything else in existence, and now, finally, impossibly, he was witnessing it.

"It’s real," he whispered, his voice breaking with emotion. "It actually bloomed. My greatest failure... became someone else’s success. The Seed I discarded... found soil that could nourish it."

...!

Oh!

His legs gave out.

Elyndra moved immediately, her grace transforming into urgency as she caught her father before he could collapse entirely.