Jack suddenly woke up. Though while he tried to force himself up, the vines binding him in place stopped that. After a while, he calmed down, but hummed to himself with a smile.
"Business... Dad must've told me to go out because he wanted me to help with his business!"
Jack then furrowed his brows and put a finger on his chin.
"But what is Dad's business?"
He scratched the side of his head in confusion.
"I need to practice so I can do the business properly, but what am I supposed to practice?"
While he was contemplating things, one of Seedy's awake heads licked the side of Jack's face, making him giggle.
"Seedy! That tickles!"
Seedy looked rather excited, but still slowly set Jack down and released its vines. Soon after, the other head woke up, and quickly shared the same excitement, staring at Jack with a tongue that hung out.
He stretched when a small groan. After he did so, someone gasped.
"Ah, you're awake?"
Mia turned on the lantern and held it up. The tent that had been set up was already packed up. Jessica was next to her, eating a few pieces of jerky. Jack looked around with a smile.
"I have woken up! Where are we going today?"
Mia scratched the side of her head.
"All of us already have the card we need for a promotion. We could just go back right now. But then again, it might be better to keep going to get a few more cards to give us a better chance at it."
Jessica gave a small nod and tucked away her food.
"The last promotion mission was merciful if the person you were with was cooperative. However, if they weren't, then it heavily depended on how many cards you had. If we want to make sure we have a good chance, then we need more cards. And it also looks like Seedy has grown so much already. It might be possible for him to grow even further."
Jack giggled and gave an exaggerated thumbs up.
"Alright! I like that!"
Though right after saying that, he looked around like he was trying to spot someone.
"Hm? Who was that?"
Without explaining any further, Jack suddenly began running in a direction, leaving the rest of the group to chase after him. Although Seedy still wasn't very fast, he was now able to keep up with walking speed despite being bigger.
Jessica was quite concerned.
"Jack! Don't leave like that!"
Mia also chased after him with furrowed brows, holding onto the lantern. They chased for a few minutes, getting more concerned by the second. After all, it was too easy to lose someone in such a dark cavern. However, as it would turn out, Jack who sprinted off into the distance stopped. Jessica was the first one to catch up, and grabbed onto his arm.
"What are you doing running like that? What if there was a monster?"
But it looked like Jack didn't even hear her. He was looking around still, trying to find something.
"Hm? Can't you speak a little louder?"
When Mia caught up, she took a few deep breaths and put a hand on her knee.
"What the heck are you doing? It could've been dangerous!"
Jack mumbled to himself with his eyes glazed over.
"You really know?"
Mia furrowed her brows before walking up to Jack and shaking him rather violently.
"Hey! Did you get possessed or something? What are you mumbling about?"
Jack blinked a few times and jolted slightly, seemingly snapping out of it. He put a finger on his chin.
"There was someone telling me to help them."
Mia's eyelid twitched. She crouched down in front of him.
"Something like that is obviously a trap."
Jack scratched the side of his head.
"They said they were trapped and needed help, so I went to go help them."
Jessica put a hand on her cheek before letting out a sigh.
"Helping people is the right thing to do... but you should first understand the situation. Do you even know where they're trapped?"
Jack let out a soft hum.
"No, but they said to go this way. They even told me that they know my Dad's business! I want to find out what that is."
Jessica furrowed her brows.
"Your father's business? I think something's trying to hypnotize you, like a lamia or something. They appear to be luring you with fake promises, and are taking advantage of your young mind."
Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Ah! Really?"
Mia gave a small nod and hugged herself.
"That does make sense. I haven't seen any kind of hypnosis yet, but it sounds quite frightening. How do we know we aren't in a trance right now?"
"Blood..."
In the distance, a faint childish voice came from the distance. Jack was already looking that way and tilted his head to the side.
"Is that the lamia you were talking about?"
Mia furrowed her brows before taking a few steps forward, holding out the lantern far in front of her. When she did get closer, she saw what appeared to be a small boy, with an age similar to Anna's crawling towards them on all fours.
"What the..."
The kid narrowed his eyes upon seeing the light, covering it with a hand dyed in bright red blood.
"Ah... don't like... want to go to good smell... smell of blood..."
Mia clicked her tongue and stamped her foot.
"Get away! We aren't giving you any blood. Stop trying to hypnotize people."
The boy blinked while frowning.
"Hypnotize?..."
Jessica walked up next to her and put a hand on Mia's shoulder. She had a concerned expression.
"It looks like this boy is in trouble. We should help him, not scold him."
Mia looked at Jessica, feeling quite aggrieved, as most people would be in this position.
"But he tried to kill Jack by luring him here and eating him, you know?"
Jessica had an eerily serene face as she stared back at Mia.
"But he hasn't hurt any of us yet."
While the two of them argued, the boy continued to crawl closer to them. Jack simply stared at him with a curious expression. And it was at that moment that the boy's body suddenly began transforming.
Two stick-like black limbs with hairs on them appeared out of the middle of his torso, propping him up. He lifted up his face, revealing his bloody mouth. However, his mouth suddenly transformed into a long pointed black stinger, while his eyes bulged out unnaturally, becoming bright red.
That wasn't it either, as two thin bug wings appeared from his back. It made him look awfully similar to a mosquito
Neither Jessica nor Mia even realized when the boy suddenly lunged forth, speaking in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. However, while its eyes were originally on Jack, they quickly shifted to something behind them.
"Red!... Red!..."
Seedy appeared, having to work hard on his cardio to get here. And the moment he did, the bug boy shot towards the red petals like a moth to a flame. Seedy appeared to be confused, but opened up his mouths anyway, not rejecting a free meal.
At the last moment, the bug boy suddenly retracted. Hesitating for a second before flying away.
"Danger!..."
Seedy's many vines shot out, each like lunging snakes. However, it seemed the boy inherited the deftness of a mosquito, able to dodge most of them. But unfortunately for the boy, there were simply too many vines. One of them snagged at his mosquito leg and pulled and another caught onto his wing.
However, the boy didn't give up, still pulling away until both his leg and wing were directly ripped off, causing black blood to spill out. The boy's flight pattern immediately became rather erratic, as it became quite clear it was difficult to stay afloat with only one wing. Seedy didn't want to let him go, but his vines were no longer in range at this point, and Seedy himself wasn't that fast.
Jessica let out a sigh, putting a hand on her forehead.
"We've hurt the boy even further when we should've been helping him."
This prompted Mia to look at her as though she was insane. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, still trying to overcome her initial shock of witnessing a little boy morph into a bug. Then, she grabbed onto Jessica's collar.
"What are you talking about, hurt the boy further? That was more of a monster than anything, and it even tried to attack us! Are you really going to go so far to help other people that you'd let me die? Let Jack die?"
Jessica blinked a few times as the hand on her forehead tightened.
"Ah... that's... that's right."
But as soon as she came to that realization, her knees buckled and she fell to the floor. Her eyes widened considerably and she began hyperventilating rather violently. She covered her head with both arms, like she was trying to hide herself.
"It... It makes sense... My... My fault. It was my fault."
At the same time, Jack simply kept looking in the direction the boy left, and began mumbling to himself again, as though he was talking to someone. At the same time, Seedy directly ate both the wing and leg with a crunch, one for each head. After the first bite, Seedy got really into it, finishing the rest in a flash.
Then, one of the heads lay down and began sleeping. Red veins appeared across the vines just like the last time it ate a huge meal. Though it was a tad bit strange, considering how little it realistically ate.
That left only Mia to calm Jessica down. Mia panicked seeing how Jessica reacted and hurriedly crouched down to hug her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't say that again. Nothing is your fault, don't worry about it."
Jessica was still trembling rather violently.
"But it was my fault. I just stood by when he... when he..."
Mia cleared her throat rather violently.
"Nevermind that! More importantly, we need to talk about... how that boy became a monster. That's more urgent!"
Jessica was on the verge of tears, but the next moment she calmed down completely.
"Ah, of course."