The woman looks groggily around, seeming to be in a stupor.

Physically, she should be fine. But I bet it’s pretty disorienting to be carried around and waking up to all that jostling.

“Where… where am I?”

Gong, still moving fast, seems to swallow a bit, trying to come up with words to say.

While she does that, the woman looks down at her arm, flailing beside her. Scars where her arm was torn off from. Her eyes begin to glaze a bit, as she is clearly hyperventilating. It appears she might be thinking about she had gone through, earlier.

We need to stop her from thinking about it.

Luckily, Gong reacts in time and gets her attention.

“Jenn? It’s Gong. I have you with me now. We’re taking you back to my area to treat you a bit more. You were in an accident with an outside cultivator.”

The woman, Jenn, still seems to work to gain her bearings. Her eyes clear a little and she focuses back to the voice. To Gong’s face.

She doesn’t seem to recognize her for a second, before a flash seemingly goes through hers.

“G… Gong? I thought, I thought you…”

Gong’s lips tremble for a second. Before she forces out some words, with clear difficulty.

“No, I’m sorry. This is all me. I should have brought you closer earlier…”

With these mysterious, but meaningful words, the pair fall silent.

If Gong having me rush out here to save her wasn’t enough of an indicator that something is between these two, this would show that the situation is far more than it seems.

This might be a classic case of, ‘I can’t let anyone know who is close to me, or they’ll be used against me’ type of situation.

I’m sure I’ll find out, eventually.

… Actually, why am I automatically assuming that it’s any of my business?

I’m not entitled to know her life story or any of those things. All this is is just helping a friend to save one of her other friends.

Quickly, we approach one cavern leading into Gong’s tunnel system.

We had already passed over one wall sectioning off her area from the outside.

It still shocks me how big her ‘area’ is, now that we’ve come from a different section of the city.

Within a few moments, we finally entered the tunnel system. As always, I actually do not know where this one is located, in relation to the main area, without using my scan to assist. It’s going to take a while until I become used to these tunnels, to the point where I won’t need to use it. Even then, I might still use it just to be sure.

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Carefully lowering both me and Jen down, she turns to a slowly.

“Since things will probably be a little hectic for a while, would it be OK if you stayed with me?”

Strangely, it appears that this woman, Jenn, is a bit hesitant. Maybe even reluctant. However, she ultimately agrees with a nod.

With her agreement, we silently head throughout the tunnels, per the normal process. Like Ai, Lin, and I were, when we first entered these tunnels, she too seems to be amazed by the system that Gong has created to protect and secure this area.

Her eyes widen as the spiders layer the ground with traps. She gasps as she feels the strength of the web beneath her feet, seemingly holding her weight, like a regular floor, despite the sizeable gaps and traps that are beneath them.

Instead of heading to the main area, as I expected, we seem to head to another area that’s very similar. With another larger central area and adjacent rooms, it seems to be a much larger version of what we have in the main area.

I remember she mentioned that originally the plan was for many more demi humans to come down into the tunnels at some point. Maybe this was the area that was actually expected to house them?

Already I can see many spiders running back and forth, setting up one of the rooms to be habitable. It will probably be her room.

She turns to me as Jenn heads off into the room, clearly understanding that this is to be where she will live from now on.

Whispering softly, she speaks into my ear, “Over the next couple of weeks, I’m planning on bringing some select Demi humans down into this area. These will be people that I actually trust. People I truly believe you could actually heal, in the same way that you healed me, and not reveal anything.”

Her voice gets even lower as she speaks and the sound of the spiders gets louder, with Gong clearly directing them to drown out me and her talking. Which makes sense, since many demi human seem to have superior hearing. I’m unsure about lizard demi humans like Jenn, though.

Unexpectedly, she moves behind me, and places her lips right up to my ear. Sending a slight shiver down my back, as she whispers.

“These will be people who you can rely on to defend you and help you if they’ve been helped, like you helped me. Quite a few who would be of great use to you.”

She says all this, with her hand now on my shoulder, inching down to my chest a little, enticingly.

Why do I feel like she’s trying to seduce me into making this OK?

I mean, it is OK. I trust her. The way she’s doing this seems a little suspicious, though.

It actually reminds me of the warning she gave me earlier, of what she would do if she was focused on the plight of her fellow demi humans…

Honestly though, I can’t really blame her. If it was me, I’d want others to join me. As long as they were people I could trust.

I should make clear my position, nonetheless.

“Gong? You really don’t have to worry about me. I trust you. I believe that if you think these people are trustworthy, that you wouldn’t do anything that could harm me.

“If you say they are worth bringing into the group, I’ll typically always believe you.”

Stating an expression of trust is a powerful way to build even further trust. I want to show her she doesn’t need to resort to things like this. That our bond is deeper than something like that.

… I do kind of like it, though.

True to my thoughts, I can hear Gong gulp as she steps back away from me. A look back at her, reveals that she has a slightly reddened face and is biting her lip. Her hand is laying on her cheek, in an enticing way. She turns away from me slightly, so I can’t see her face clearly.

…But something seems a bit different from the norm.

Her lips are moving and it is only with my scan that I am able to see what she is almost inaudibly whispering.

Ohmyohmyohmyohmyohmyohmy

For the briefest moment, I experience a tiny flash of fear. The look on her face seems to be one of pure bliss and want, and brings images of her previous words of self-indulgence.

Keeping me all to herself.

Entrapment. Never leaving.

I just saw something that I really don’t think I was supposed to.

Luckily, that look soon goes away, as behind her Jenn calls out and begins asking Gong some questions. She seems to automatically switch gears and turn to help her. I use this opportunity to make up an excuse to head back to the main area.

Gong guiltily looks at me before saying her goodbyes and that we’ll catch up later.

I use my scan to quickly get on the path back to the main area, where we live normally. Along the way, I can feel a slight shudder. I brush it off. However, before I get there, Gong runs behind me. I can feel myself tense up, slightly expecting that previous look on her face again.

Betraying my expec… thoughts, she actually yells out, “James! The cultivators are back and are blowing up the Demi human areas!”

Ah shit.