Chapter 62 – Floor 9. Plants versus Hunters

Slurp-

A sweet-tasting liquid with a sweet scent invades between my lips.

Alraune’s tongue, soaked with transparent honey, sweeps through every corner of my mouth as if tasting me.

A triumphant expression as if saying she knows I can’t resist.

It was quite an infuriating face, but I truly couldn’t move my body by my own will.

Charm is a behavior-forcing status effect that makes it impossible to oppose the caster. Being hit by the charm pollen, I couldn’t be hostile toward Alraune.

‘So this is how it works…’

Unlike what its name “Charm” might suggest, surprisingly, my mind remained clear, and I could think normally. Contrary to common perception, it seemed to interfere with the body rather than the mind.

Throb- However, perhaps due to components that cause arousal, my lower body swelled as if it might burst.

My lower region, prevented from expanding further by the armor, started to ache, but the honey that was sweet enough to cause a headache alleviated that pain.

‘I made a mistake here.’

The types of pollen Alraune possessed were paralysis pollen, sleep pollen, and finally, the charm pollen that hit me.

In the case of paralysis and sleep, there were warning signs, and the distance was sufficient to respond, but it was difficult to notice the charm pollen shot at close range without preparation.

This difficulty in avoiding such status effects was why melee weapon users had a hard time dealing with Alraune.

Moreover, if you get afflicted with even one status effect, you get captured like this.

‘At least fortunately, the duration is short.’

Considering that the area of effect was wide and difficult to avoid, Alraune’s status effects were powerful, but compared to those inflicted by other enemies or traps, their duration was very short.

Not even a quarter of a quarter compared to average enemies.

That’s why I could wait for the timing without panicking.

『Alraune』Level: 15☆

Health: 166/276 ■■■■■■□□□□

【The queen of plants born from the concentration of unusually pervasive magic in this tropical rainforest. Normally, it doesn’t move much from where it has rooted.】

Additionally, Alraune’s health was gradually decreasing, perhaps due to continuous attacks from outside.

In her current state with the flower bud closed, her defense was high, making the reduction slower, but still, the accumulation of damage to Alraune, who had no means of health recovery, was encouraging.

‘When the charm wears off, I can either attack from inside to escape, or wait a bit longer until her health decreases more and turn her into an onahole.’

Either way, it didn’t matter to me.

Suck- Slurp-

But Alraune’s behavior, keeping me trapped in her flower bud while giving me an intense kiss sweet enough to make my head ache, was inevitably a bit disconcerting.

Could she be that confident in her charm?

In D.D., players caught in flower buds while under status effects were either spat out with greatly reduced Health and Magic values or died and were ejected to Floor 1.

Of course, there was never any detailed depiction of what happened inside, so I couldn’t help but wonder if this was normal.

Slip- Alraune’s tentacles wrapped around my thighs and penetrated between the gaps in my armor. As if trying to prevent me from escaping even after waking up.

‘Is she going to drain me to death?’

Just as I was thinking that, the vines that had invaded my armor lifted my body.

It was more like making me stand on tiptoe rather than truly lifting me.

Smooch. Mmm─ Drip-

Alraune, looking up at me, finished her kiss and removed her lips, causing the honey mixed with saliva that hadn’t been swallowed to fall, forming a long thread due to gravity.

She opened her mouth to catch it again.

Like a seedling trying to drink every drop of rain, Alraune swallowed the saliva.

Alraune, gulping down the mixed saliva as if it were delicious, even licked what had fallen on her hand, as if not willing to waste a single drop.

That seductive appearance caused a pain in my lower body that I had forgotten about.

That organ, having fallen out of brain control, was trying to pierce through the armor that was firmly blocking it, as if to assert its presence and declare it was its turn now.

‘Wait, she’s doing this even though there’s someone attacking from outside? Not just when I’m alone?’

If that’s how she hunts, well, I could understand it because that’s her ecology, but what kind of courage does she have, considering I’m not alone?

Even now, she must have taken 10-20 damage.

Regardless, Alraune, having swallowed all my saliva, removed the leaves that wrapped around her body like an evening dress.

Even so, they only covered up to her thighs and chest area, not covering any of the important parts that humans would try to hide, making it meaningless, but as if the act itself was important, Alraune became naked.

“Ah-”

Approaching abruptly, her green breasts were flattened against my armor.

Though Alraune was mumbling as if wanting to convey something, without properly formed sentences, there was no way I could understand her exact meaning.

I could only roughly guess what she meant as I felt the vines that had invaded my armor gaps awkwardly squirming.

‘The duration is about to end.’

If she doesn’t spray more pollen inside here, I can easily escape using the items remaining in my holster, even without weapons.

‘What should I do?’

Escaping would be the obvious choice for safely dealing with Alraune.

Twitch-

As my floating consciousness merged with my hazy body, my fingertips moved reflexively. A precursory signal that the charm was wearing off.

But Alraune, perhaps not noticing, was grunting and trying to tear off my armor by force.

Naturally, the firmly tied and secured armor wouldn’t come off easily unless torn with enough force to break my body.

‘She doesn’t intend to kill me?’

Honestly, if killing was the goal, she could have just strangled me with vines once I was trapped in this flower bud, and I would have died.

However, Alraune appeared to be controlling her strength to avoid injuring me while trying to remove the armor, which she saw as an interfering shell.

Having finally failed to understand the structure of the armor and remove it, Alraune, whose face had been smiling leisurely, was nowhere to be seen as she punched my breastplate with a bang! as if very upset.

“Ugh..!”

“Huh?”

A shock that felt like my solar plexus might burst.

Indeed, just because she looked like a delicate woman didn’t mean her mini-boss specs disappeared.

Tap-

Enduring the pain in my numbed solar plexus, I grabbed Alraune’s chin.

The skin color impossible for humans, pale flowers growing on her head, thin vines wrapped around her body, and transparent liquid flowing from her breasts.

Alraune’s face showed confusion, as if asking how I could move.

“I don’t know if you’re struggling because you can’t unwrap a candy or if you can’t undo a bra because you don’t know its structure… but I’ll let you have your way.”

“Uh?”

Click- Clank-

As she wished, I undid the knots of my armor and removed them one by one, becoming unarmed.

She waited for me to remove my armor, forgetting her wariness.

After throwing off all the heavy armor, with only my shirt and pants from home, which had no defensive value whatsoever, I grabbed Alraune’s honey-flowing breasts.

As I squeezed them softly, they changed shape, and the honey inside flowed more abundantly.

The structure was indeed different from humans; when I lightly pulled the protruding parts that looked like nipples with two fingers, the milk ducts releasing honey opened.

“But if you can’t kill me, you’ll be mine.”

My lower body, now freed from the blocking armor, touched Alraune’s closed petals.

***

“Hmm… this is troublesome.”

Bubble!

As if agreeing with the experienced hunter’s words, the magical creature that had protected the village inflated its body, making a noise.

A massive flower bud.

Although the Flower Queen’s movements decreased and her aggressiveness greatly reduced after she hid her body, the hunter couldn’t help but furrow her brow.

It had been over a minute since the human hunting the Flower Queen with her had been caught in a surprise attack and trapped inside.

But it wasn’t as if the hunter had done nothing and let time pass. The numerous holes in the flower stem supporting the Flower Queen showed that.

“She’s become strangely tough since taking that form. My attacks aren’t effective. If we had time, we could tear it apart, but I don’t know how long the human can hold out…”

The hunter irritably struck the ground with her tail.

The slimy ground sank in the shape of the tail with a thud! sound.

But since she couldn’t just stand idle, the hunter raised her spear again.

『Snake Fang』

An ultra-high-speed double thrust.

It tears apart the thick, tough leaves and leaves marks as if the flesh had been bitten by a snake, from where it went in deep and came out.

Yet the Flower Queen remained quiet.

Bubble!

Slap-! Slap-! The golden slime tentacles were striking the flower bud hard, but as if it had no intention of opening, it only gathered its petals more firmly.

There was some damage, but it looked like hammering a rock with a one-handed hammer.

“Ugh… I have no choice but to hope he makes an effort from inside.”

The hunter had never heard of prey escaping on its own after being caught like that, but she had no choice but to believe.

All she could do was avoid the vines that occasionally flew toward her as if annoyed or stab the flower stem.

Woong─!

The hunter avoided the vine swung with a dull sound by lowering her body greatly and crawling, then shot forward using the elasticity of her powerful forelimbs to embed her claws.

Though it couldn’t be as deep as the spear, it was an action based on the judgment that widening the injured area would be better.

The claw that advanced with force tore deeply into the petals, wounding them.

But only juice flowed a little from the wound, still failing to create a hole through which what was inside could escape.

“Hmm… since even the Guardian has stopped, I have no choice.”

After some time had passed, the Guardian returned to a small slime mass form with a pop! sound.

Thanks to that, it was only the hunter facing the Flower Queen alone.

No matter how strong a warrior she was among her race, dealing with the Flower Queen, the ruler of the region, alone was an overwhelmingly difficult task.

If the queen hadn’t been spraying pollen or in her flower bud form, the hunter would have already collapsed and been offered as a handful of nutrients to the Flower Queen.

“I should retreat…”

Just as the hunter was about to give up the hunt.

Rumble─

The flower bud wrapping the Flower Queen and the human shook greatly, and the petals slowly began to open.

Though it didn’t reach full bloom, it was a definite change, with the upper part where the petals gathered opening slightly.

Flick-

The sensitive olfactory organ detected the human’s scent, which she had smelled all night, from between the opening flower bud.