Chapter 61 – Floor 9. Ruler of Flowers

The slimy ground had become familiar by now.

As she had wanted, the Suspicious Merchant naturally departed from the party to search for Hairyson, stuffing grass into its throat, while Blue Tongue and I wandered around the 9th floor looking for Alraune, cutting the occasional enemies in half.

Slice, hit, strike.

Mechanically cutting down enemies, picking up items that dropped on the ground, using antidote potions after triggering poison traps, and discarding unnecessary items after discovering objects.

After all that rampaging, there was still no trace of Alraune, causing me to heave a deep sigh.

‘That goblin bastard and now this… why is everything so good at hiding here? Aren’t they supposed to wait in one place?’

Other mini-bosses would wait obediently in their spots or come directly to the player, but this jungle seemed to be fostering a rebellious spirit, as nothing worked properly.

“Hmm, human.”

“What.”

Flick- As if she had smelled something, Blue Tongue’s gaze fixed in one direction.

“I smell water.”

“So what? Water is overflowing on the ground. I’d prefer if there wasn’t any.”

With the entire 9th floor being water, what could be special about the smell of water? I looked at Blue Tongue with a dull expression, unable to understand her behavior.

Despite my disapproving glance, Blue Tongue started walking heavily in the direction she had been looking.

With her acting on her own, I had no choice but to follow.

“What kind of water smell…”

“The Flower Queen won’t come just because you grumble, human.”

“…”

Since it was absolutely true, I had to close my mouth despite wanting to retort.

Rustle- Rustle-

Cutting through the bushes, we came to a small pond. Or rather, a hollow that had once been a pond.

There was still some clean water remaining at the bottom, as if to indicate that water had been there.

“Oh.”

And I couldn’t hide my surprise at seeing it.

It wasn’t the dried-up pond in this water-filled place that was surprising. My eyes were fixed not on the damp bottom but on the decorations surrounding the pond.

Hands reaching toward the sky as if trying to catch something.

It was the Healing Spring I had been searching for since the underground sewers.

“Why on earth is it dried up?”

“Do you know what this spring is, human? A strange water smell comes from this pond. And also the smell of another human.”

The dried-up Healing Spring.

Blue Tongue flicked her tongue, smelling the air around it, and looked around.

“Another human’s smell?”

“It’s similar to that one-armed human’s smell. Blood scent, thick sweat smell, the scent of iron armor.”

Blue Tongue was quite accurately picking up on the circumstances, able to smell all of that.

Footprints left in the nearly vanished mud, dark red dried blood on trees as if from a blood-stained palm print, and traces of blood droplets splattered on the stone blocking the spring.

Finally, a tiny broken chain fragment.

Traces of the one-armed human.

This meant these were traces of Albert, who had fled down here after being wounded by the Orc warrior chief.

‘Did he use the Healing Spring to recover? That’s some good luck.’

To think that the first Healing Spring I’d seen since coming down to the 9th floor had already been used.

I was confused whether I was the unlucky one or Albert was exceptionally fortunate.

“The traces aren’t that old. He must have passed through here recently.”

“He probably… went down below to escape this jungle.”

Blue Tongue nodded at my statement as if agreeing. After all, the highest probability for a wounded human to survive would be to leave this jungle.

‘The portal… wouldn’t be open yet.’

Unlike the underground sewers, the portal to the tropical forest region on the 10th floor doesn’t activate unless the boss is defeated.

I don’t know why he’s following me, but anyway, if I were to guess Albert’s plan, he wouldn’t just be trying to get outside the Labyrinth of Osiris.

He’s probably looking for the portal’s location.

‘But no matter what, it would be impossible for that guy to kill the headless ogre.’

I scraped up and drank the small amount of water remaining at the bottom of the Healing Spring.

Although the Healing Spring was originally one-time use, I thought drinking the remaining water might heal my wounds a little.

Gulp-

A refreshing and clean water taste.

It was delicious water that would be highly praised by so-called water sommeliers, but it didn’t seem to cause any noticeable changes to my body.

‘I guess it doesn’t work.’

After tapping my hands, I looked at Blue Tongue to move on, but she was cautiously backing away with her spear in hand, her sharp eyes on alert.

Had she sensed something else?

Trusting her intuition, which had been 100% accurate so far, I silently drew my greatsword to prepare for battle.

Silence. Only the trickling sound of water and the rustling of leaves in the wind created white noise.

“Where…”

“It’s coming!”

THUMP- THUMP- THUMP─ THUMP─ THUMP── THUMP──!!

Rapidly approaching booming sounds!

『Slash』A combat technique contained in the White-Winged Bird Greatsword.

A great storm envelops that white blade, lashing out intensely as if to erode the sword.

WHOOSH─!

BOOM──!

A massive body appeared, shattering the trees that blocked the path. The mace-like vines of the green plant ruler didn’t stop at destroying trees but flew straight ahead.

Confirming this, the greatsword was swung widely across.

My arms and shoulders had to bear such pressure to withstand the weight and centrifugal force of the greatsword.

SWOOSH!

Muscles screamed as they tore from movement beyond the body’s limits. But not disappointing that sacrifice, the storm wrapping the blade filled the sword’s trajectory.

Along with the sharp sound of wind cutting through space─

SLASH─

The thick incoming vine became like a rag, detaching from the main body and flying through the air.

[You have dealt 22 damage to Alraune.]

It was the arrival of Alraune, the mini-boss of the 9th floor that I had been targeting.

***

An aberration mimicking the form of a seductive woman standing on an abnormally large flower in place of a pistil.

This aberration, carrying the scent of sweet honey, showed a seemingly gentle and loving smile toward its prey.

It was more like camouflage to devour prey that had let down their guard.

The human and lizard who had come to hunt this area’s boss were not naive enough to fall for such a shallow trick.

One had swung a greatsword to shoot strange wind, and the other had thrown a sharp spear to wound the petals.

“Still physically weak as ever. Unnecessarily strong attack power, though.”

“Are you confident, human?”

“I have too little confidence, that’s the problem.”

And then these hunters chatting happily right in front of it.

The aberration couldn’t help but be wary of these hunters showing a reaction it had never seen in its prey before. They were strong. Even a brief exchange revealed that.

So it would hunt with all its might and absorb them.

Such opponents must surely be nutritious.

“If you think you can win!”

But contrary to those thoughts, the first to move was the human clad in gleaming steel.

A paper in his hand tore, and the human’s figure disappeared from sight.

It was different from how insects or animals blend with the surrounding colors to hide. He truly vanished from sight!

Despite facing a spell it had never seen before, the aberration didn’t panic and spread its pollen.

It was poisonous powder that rapidly paralyzed the prey’s body, so no matter how well hidden they were, there would be no way out. There was a reason it had become the boss of this area.

The entire flower calyx shook, and yellow powder spread rapidly around.

The lizard, who had already thrown her spear and had nothing in hand, quickly covered her nose and mouth and began to jump toward a space that the pollen hadn’t yet conquered.

Vines thrown toward that obvious path.

The aberration imagined the next scene. Vines striking the lizard’s side, and the lizard sprawled on the ground, spitting blood.

And then the easy-to-imagine conversion to nutrients.

Squelch─!

“..!”

However, breaking expectations, a hateful competitor appeared on that path.

The vine that struck down on that dazzlingly soft, squishy body sank into it without any impact sound and was caught.

Why? Hadn’t it disappeared?

Every time it tried to expand its activity area, this competitor would somehow find out and interfere like a ghost, but since it hadn’t been seen, it had ended its long hibernation and started to act!

Bubble..! POP!

The competitor’s yellow body swelled greatly with bubbling foam.

It grew bigger and bigger. Its body, inflated to about a dozen times its original size, split on the surface like a bursting balloon, exploding the air inside into the surroundings.

The suddenly released air pushed away the air that originally occupied that space and intimidated it as if claiming it as its own territory.

Naturally, the pollen carried in the air was pushed away by this outrageous act, wobbling away and disappearing.

“Hehe…”

Squelch!

The aberration let out an irritated laugh at the competitor who had taken a proud stance.

***

‘So that’s how it works.’

It removes the pollen spread in the field by inflating like a balloon and then bursting itself to push the air away.

At first, I wondered what kind of magic “Self-Destruct” was, but it turned out to be quite useful against Alraune.

If it can just take care of the pollen like that, it can be said to have cut Alraune’s power in half.

‘Was it created to counter Alraune?’

Given that someone bothered to teach the summoning method to the Lizard village and even left all the mediums, it might be so.

‘Whoever you are, Wizard… I’ll make good use of your daughter!’

Alraune, having given up on finding me after I used the transparency scroll to become invisible, continued her attack by wildly swinging vines at the slime.

Unfortunately, the slime’s offensive ability seemed quite low, only able to withstand Alraune’s fierce attacks. Yet it was still doing enough.

『Half-Moon Slash』-『Full Moon Slash』

The trajectories of two beautifully shot circles tear Alraune’s petals.

“AAAAAH!!!”

POOF─!!

Once again, a dense blue pollen fog erupted. Kali, who had been close to Alraune, was completely covered by the pollen and became difficult to see properly.

“Slime!”

Bubble!!

At my command, the slime began to inflate its body instantly, filling itself with air in preparation to burst.

『aaaa’s Onahole: The Wanderer, Kali』Level: 10☆ [Status: Subjugated, Sleep]

Health: 144/168 ■■■■■■■■■□

Fuel: 13/15 ■■■■■■■■□□

‘Sleep pollen? Of all things, it had to affect Kali.’

I held my breath, recalled Kali, and waited for the slime to push away the pollen.

BOOOM─!!

With a sound like a bomb exploding and wind blowing, the thick mass of pollen disappeared.

Blue Tongue, who had somehow retrieved her spear, ran forward and thrust it toward the giant flower. The spear flew like a snake, as if bending, and stabbed deeply twice.

“AAAAAH-!!!”

As if feeling pain, Alraune swung her vines widely to attack Blue Tongue, backing away.

“I guess I don’t even need to bring out Severa.”

I ran forward and raised the White-Winged Bird Greatsword high toward Alraune, who was screaming and cowering.

And as I was about to bring it down─ a handful of pink pollen was shot at my face as if it had been waiting for this moment.

[You have entered a Charmed state.]

‘Oh, shit.’

With a feeling of my mind floating dreamily, my hand released the heavy greatsword, and I slowly walked toward Alraune like a zombie.

Alraune wrapped me up with her vines as if to embrace me, spreading her arms.

Lifted onto the flower, where a sweet flower honey scent that made my head dizzy brushed my nose, I could only watch as the thick, large petals closed.

“Human! Come to your senses!”

My body left my will.

My will left my body.

There was only the beautiful flower gently embracing me.