Slimes begin to aggregate in the area, forming and clustering from the cracks between the vine walls. They, including some mushroom monsters, crowd around Tatsuo and Victor, bringing them their garments and belongings.

Tatsuo: Ah! That looks like the same mushroom I ate last night!

Mr. Springbottom: What?! You ate one of them?!

Mr. Springbottom slumps down to the ground.

Tatsuo: Hm? What’s wrong with you?

Mr. Springbottom: O-oh!...Nothing…! I-it’s just that…I think of these guys as my buddies you see so…

Victor: Man…That must be rough…You ate one of his friends.

Tatsuo: Don’t worry, I won’t do it again. - he says in an attempt to comfort Mr. Springbottom.

Tatsuo: Although the one I ate didn’t have a flower on top of its head like some of the ones here do.

Tatsuo turns to Mr. Springbottom: You also have one too.

Mr. Springbottom: Ah…this? - He gestures at his head.

Mr. Springbottom: I’m not sure why, but this flower appeared on top of my head just one day. Well, it’s not like it hurts me or anything.

Mr. Springbottom: Anyways, if you boys are done here, you can now fess up the money.

Tatsuo and Victor: Hm?

Mr. Springbottom: For the hot spring service.

Victor: We have to pay?!

Mr. Springbottom: Of course! I did say my business is open, yes? I may be hospitable, but that doesn’t mean service is free!

Victor: I mean, we can’t even pay you even if we wanted to. We don’t have any sort of cash on us. We unknowingly fell into this hole of yours!

Mr. Springbottom: Hmph! Well, you two need to compensate me somehow! I even allowed you to heal you!

Victor: Your slime friends are what made me injured!!

Mr.Springbottom: Then…The two of you can work for me to pay off your debt.

Victor: Huh??!!

Tatsuo: No thanks. I’ve got a person I need to find.

Mr. Springbottom: But you guys have already found me?

Tatsuo: Not you.

Mr. Springbottom: Hmph! Well aren’t you two just rude customers! Even the adventurers before paid me in gratitude!

Tatsuo: Fine then. We’ll work for you. But I’ll have you know, I get hungry fast so I eat a lot. I guess that just means I’ll be eating more of your friends to satisfy myself.

Mr. Springbottom: Nevermind, I’ll let you boys off the hook this time.

Mr. Springbottom: But before you two go, could you at least do something for me…?

Mr. Springbottom leads the boys to a wooden billboard.

Mr. Springbottom: Could you leave a review of this place?

Victor: Why do you even have that?!

Victor: I’m sorry, but who’s going to even see all of this?!

Mr. Springbottom: Oh, come on…! Just write something. It can be anything.

Victor and Tatsuo take a look at the meager reviews left on the billboard. One of them reads out:

I am Georgie, the Iron Talon!

If you're in need of an adventurer’s help,

feel free to hire me at the adventurer’s association!

Please support me!

Victor: Most of these aren’t even reviews about the hot spring! This one is literally a hiring slogan!

Tatsuo posts up a sign that reads:

8.8/10

Too much water

Tatsuo: There.

Victor: What’s with that review…? It’s literally a hot spring. What do you mean: too much water???

Afterwards, Mr. Springbottom leads them to one of the passageways, telling them that they may find an exit to the surface if they take the path. The boys proceed into the path, departing from Mr. Springbottom.

As the two venture deeper through the dim passage, they contemplate on whether they should tell the wife about the husband.

After a period of time has passed, Victor turns around to follow up on Tatsuo:

Victor: Hey, you’ve been pretty quiet–

Victor looks behind to see that Tatsuo is no longer there. He becomes dumbfounded on where Tatsuo went.

He feels a tickling sensation writhing around his leg. Victor yanks his leg away from getting spooked. He looks ahead to vaguely see shining beady eyes gleaming from a shadowy figure, staring right back at him.

Victor (thinking): It’s hard for me to make out since it’s so dark…But what…is that?

The vague shape begins to charge at him. In turn, Victor begins to flee from it. He then spots a mushroom with a flower on its head.

Victor (thinking): Isn’t that…?

Victor recalls some of the mushrooms bringing his and Tatsuo’s clothes.

Victor (thinking): It’s one of the monsters that helps Mr. Springbottom! It must be friendly then! Maybe it could help me! At least to distract whatever is chasing after me!

Victor runs towards the direction of the mushroom. The mushroom leaps out and tackles Victor against his abdomen, knocking his breath out of him. His body tumbles over the ground. He begins coughing, rolling his body with his arms wrapping around his stomach.

Victor (thinking): What?! Why did it do that…?

As Victor tries to get himself up he feels himself getting weary, his eyelids start to become heavy.

Victor (thinking): Huh…? Why am I…Suddenly starting to get sleepy…?

Victor (thinking): Isn’t this…The same thing that happened to me back at the inn…? It can’t be…The mushroom…?

While trying to stay awake, the shadowy clump lashes out at Victor. A slime leaps to push Victor out of the way, saving him. He falls, grunting in pain. The slime lands atop of Victor’s chest and begins to shove part of itself down Victor’s mouth. He flails about as he gags.

The slime removes itself from Victor’s mouth and his body springs itself forward.

Victor: What the hell are you trying to do to me??!! – He shouts reprimanding for the slime’s uncalled action.

The shadowy clump jumps at Victor again. Victor retaliates by punching the mysterious creature with his gauntlet arm. It immediately breaks apart into small black dusty clumps, the remains fall piling up at the ground. Victor takes a pinch of it to inspect what it is.

Victor (thinking): Hm? What is this…? …Mold?

The mushroom attacks him from behind, but Victor manages to react in time and land a deadly blow against it. The mushroom plops to the ground, defeated.

Victor: Phew–!! That was close…! But why did it suddenly attacked me?

Victor: Hm? Hold on a minute…

Victor: Thinking about it now…I don’t really feel tired anymore! I wonder what that was all about…

Victor’s pause in victory gets cut short when more of the beady eyed monsters appear, along with some mushrooms with flowers on their head.

Startled, Victor immediately begins to run. He quickly finds himself stuck at a dead end.

Victor: What the–?? How is there a wall here?! I literally just ran the opposite direction from where I came from…!

The monsters begin clustering towards Victor leaving him cornered.

Victor (thinking): Crap! Looks like I’ve got no choice…!

Victor begins fighting against the horde of monsters. As the fight prolongs, he gradually feels more drowsy.

Victor (thinking): Damn it…! I don’t know if it’s some freaky coincidence, but I think something about these monsters are making me feel tired…!

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Victor (thinking): It’s probably coming from the mushrooms…! Tatsuo mentioned he passed out after eating one of them…And I grew really drowsy after getting hit by that one earlier…!

The monsters slowly overwhelm Victor as his movement becomes more sluggish.

From the cracks of the walls, slimes begin to squeeze out into the area. They launch themselves in Victor’s direction, catching him off guard.

Victor: Shit!

Without enough time to properly react or think, Victory hastily brings up his arms to brace himself.

The slimes whizz past Victor attacking the monsters nearby him instead, latching themselves onto them.

Victor slowly brings his arms down, perplexed.

Victor (thinking): Huh? They’re attacking the monsters instead…? Are they helping me?

A slime appears suddenly on Victor’s shoulder, startling him. It proceeds to forcefully feed parts of itself to Victor. Victor abruptly grabs hold of the slime and moves it away from his face.

Victor: What the hell, stop doing that to me!!!

Victor: Huh?

Victor: My sleepiness is gone again…

He stares at the slime he’s holding onto: could it be…?

The slime jumps out of Victor’s hold and joins its companions in fighting against the monsters. .

Victor (thinking): I guess they really are here to help me. But then why are the slimes helping me and the mushrooms attacking me?

Victor mildly shows visible frustration for a short while but quickly goes back to struggling against fighting off the swarming monsters.

*Meanwhile in another location.

Tatsuo finds himself lost in an alternate tunnel. Behind him is a trail of monster remains scattered on the tunnel’s floor. He murmurs to himself trying to find the right way back to Victor.

Tatsuo: You might be right Henteko, the place keeps changing.

Multiple mushrooms leap out at Tatsuo but they quickly get decimated.

Tatsuo: The green monsters stopped attacking me, but these guys are still going after me. Seems like they’re trying to stop me by making me sleep again. It’s obvious now that there’s more of them. Maybe I should just burn the place up?

Tatsuo: Ah, but wait. It wouldn’t be good if Victor gets caught up in it…

Tatsuo’s ears pick up the sound of vines moving behind him. He quickly turns around and a wall of thick vines begins enclosing onto him. For a split second, Tatsuo contemplates on whether he should break through the vines or simply run from it. He opts to run away instead, aware that he may be running into a trap.

At the same time, mushroom monsters begin to pour out from the walls on the side in an attempt to overwhelm Tatsuo. Without losing speed, the mushrooms fail to deter Tatsuo in any way.

Finally Tatsuo runs through the end of the passageway which leads into an empty room. The enclosing wall of vines from behind catches up, shutting Tatsuo in the room with no exit. Tatsuo inspects the room to look for any openings.

At the top of the room, the vines from the ceiling begin twitching. They mold together forming a giant clump at the center which continues to grow in size and take shape until finally it falls, landing in front of Tatsuo.

As the dust clears before him, a giant monster made up of moss and stone strung together with vines forming a grotesque humanoid form imposes itself intimidatingly, as if about to swallow Tatsuo whole.

Tatuo casually looks up at the monster with its shadow looming over his body.

The monster lets out a sharp screech and attacks Tatsuo, swinging its giant forearm made out of thick vines towards him from the sides. Tatsuo simply stops the arm in its tracks. His lack of effort leaves the monster stunned. Tatsuo then tightly grips the arm and tears it off from the monster’s mossy torso.

The monster back pedals in shock. Tatsuo holds up the monster’s arm to look at it.

Tatsuo: What the heck are you supposed to be?

The sheared shoulder of the monster begins wiggling. Vines burst, sprouting out and connecting itself to the vines on the ground. It detaches itself from the ground, and the monster’s arm has completely recovered with a freshly built arm.

Tatsuo: Oh…Wow…You can do that…That’s no fair. I can’t do something like that.

Tatsuo: So I take it that you must be one that’s controlling this place? If that’s the case, do you think you can take me back to my friend?

The monster shrieks at Tatsuo. It thrusts both its arms into the ground and begins manipulating it. The ground begins to wriggle about erratically, throwing Tatsuo’s balance off. Taking advantage of an opening, the monster launches itself towards Tatsuo. The monster tackles Tatsuo, enveloping him in a sea of moss and vines.

The stone-face of the monster swerves, riding along the sea of vines and it clamps its jaw onto Tatuo’s body. Much to the monster’s surprise, it finds that its mouth is unable to penetrate through Tatsuo’s skin. The monster catches Tatsuo looking at him. The monster’s face turns to that of someone being embarrassed caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

*Return to the hot springs area.

Mr. Springbottom is doing maintenance on the hot spring, calmly singing softly to himself. The walls suddenly burst open, alerting Mr. Springbottom.

Mr. Spingbottom: W-What…?! What’s happening??!!

Tatsuo along with the monster come shooting out from the crumbling wall. Tatsuo’s body tumbles across to the other side of the room.

Mr. Springbottom: You…?!

Mr. Springbottom rushes towards Tatsuo.

Mr. Springbottom: Hey…! Are you okay…?

Tatsuo: Huh…? Hot spring dude…?

Tatsuo quickly takes a look at his surroundings.

Tatsuo: Am I back here at the hot springs?

Mr. Springbottom: Boy! What the heck is going on…? You just flew right back here! Are you okay…?

Vines shoot out from the cloud of dust. They bounce off of Tatsuo’s body upon impact and he catches one aimed at Mr. Springbottom.

As the cloud dust clears out, the monster’s figure slowly becomes visible until it reveals itself to Mr. Springbottom. The monster lets out an ear-deafening shriek.

Mr. Springbottom: My word…! What is that…?!

Tatsuo: Hm? You don’t know about this?

Mr. Springbottom: No! I don’t…! I didn’t know that thing existed…!

The monster extends its tendrils at the two, attacking with a whip-like fashion. Tatsuo effectively blocks the vines from making contact with Mr. Spingbottom.

Mr.Springbottom: W-Whoa…! You seem pretty good yourself kid…!

Tatsuo: I think you should get outta here. It’s pretty dangerous for you.

Mr. Springbottom: What?! For me?! It’s dangerous for both of us! And besides! That thing’s got us pinned down! So where would I even escape to…?! Moreover, what about my hot spring?!

Tatsuo (thinking): I can’t really do much with it attacking us like this at a distance. In that case…!

Tatsuo catches all the incoming vines with his hands and holds onto them tightly.

Tatsuo (thinking): I’ll just make it bring the fight to me!

Tatsuo pulls onto the vines, but his plan backfires as the vines he caught ends up snapping instead.

Tatsuo (clumsily): Ah…!

For a moment, the monster and Tatsuo just stare at each other awkwardly from Tatsuo’s embarrassing miscalculation.

Tatsuo: …

Tatsuo: Shut up Henteko!

Mr. Springbottom: Hen…What?

The monster snorts its nostril, deciding its next course of action. It looks to the side at the lodging construct Mr. Springbottom made. The monster leaps next to the building and begins to mold its arm into it.

Mr. Springbottom: No!

Mr. Springbottom desperately runs forward.

Mr. Springbottom: Stop that!

Tatsuo: Ah…! Wait, hold on–!

The monster uproots the building and swings it towards Mr. Springbottom.

Tatsuo jumps in time to cover Mr. Springbottom before the attack hits him. The building smashes into them, breaking into bits and the impact sends the two over the hot spring. Their bodies descend down the waterfall into a bottomless pit.

Some of the debris of the crumbled building lands in the hot spring. Bits of the hot spring liquid splashes all the way to the monster. The areas where the hot spring water touched the monster begins to slowly rot away. The monster immediately severs itself. Its body parts crumble away into soot dissolving into the air upon touching the ground.

The monster warily looks over at the hot springs before it trods away from the area.

Deep below where the waterfall ends, a river streams into a narrow cavern. Inside the cavern, water pours inside forming another hidden hot spring room. Tatsuo rescues Mr. Springbottom out of the water, bringing his body to rest on the rim of the hot spring. The two gasps for air, their bodies heaving from exhaustion.

Tatsuo: Are you okay…?

Tatsuo waits for Mr. Springbottom to recover until he finally musters enough energy to respond.

Mr. Springbottom: N…No….

Mr. Springbottom: M…M-my…My inn… – He whimpers.

Tatsuo (sarcastically): Ah, yeah. What a terrible thing…Oh no…

Tatsuo: …I guess you’re fine then.

Mr. Springbottom: But just what was that thing…?

Tatsuo: No clue. I’m surprised you don’t know yourself.

Mr. Springbottom: Me too…I’ve never encountered anything like that my entire time here.

Mr. Springbottom finally brings himself to sit up straight. He takes the time to look around at his surroundings.

Mr. Springbottom: Well I’ll be…! It’s another hot spring!

Mr. Springbottom: So there’s more to it than just the first place I found huh…That’d explain why the both of us are still alive.

Mr. Springbottom: This is fantastic! Now the business can expand!

Tatsuo: We’ll need to first get out of here.

The two crawl out of the crevice from where the stream is pouring from above. They begin to walk along the gushing river, backtracking to where they initially fell at the waterfall.

*Returning back to Victor’s location.

Victor continues to desperately fight his way out of the tunnel through the swarm of monsters with the aid of the slimes. Sweat runs down throughout his entire body, frantically swinging his arms to deter himself from incoming monsters.

Victor (thinking): Dammit! There’s no end to them! How is it that I’m still alive?!

Victor (thinking): It’s surprising I’ve survived for as long as I did, but I think this may be the end!

Victor (thinking): If this is the end, is there really any point in trying to fight…?

Victor (thinking): …

Victor (thinking): No…! I’ll keep fighting till the end at least…!

From the direction where Victor is running towards, a large group of monsters begins to surge onto him.

Victor (thinking): Holy Shit!

Victor immediately begins to backtrack the opposite direction.

Victor (thinking): No thanks!!!

Unfortunately, Victor is unable to escape far, for the numbers eventually overwhelms Victor.

Victor glimpse back at the approaching wall of monsters and he braces himself for his demise.

The ceiling above begins to crack. Suddenly, a massive blue slime descends in front of Victor, crushing the monsters before him altogether. The slime splashes on the ground, the force of the impact causes the massive liquid body to reverberate with bounciness. Victor’s dumbfounded gaze fixates on the giant slime.

This pause creates an opening for the remaining monsters behind him to attack, but the smaller slimes come to aid Victor, stopping them in their tracks.

Victor: God dang…! I never knew slimes could get to this size…

Victor: Is it ok though? This tunnel seems too narrow for it…Looks really uncomfortable with you all squished up like that. Can’t really tell it’s a slime anymore.

The giant slime squirms and swims towards Victor, gently bumping him up into the air landing onto itself.

Victor rests his lower back against the pool of jelly, his body lightly sinks in. He relaxes himself whilst the slime travels through the tunnel trotting.

Victor: Woah-Ho! Ho! This is great! – He yells with joy.