Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 133: Deadly Flora.

Unaware that Raven had killed Brud back with the group, Ozul woke up next when he felt something tugging along his prosthetic arms.

*Yawn*

He opened his eyes and looked at his arms in wonder. He noticed that the vines of the tree were actually bound to his arms!

Not only that, but the vines were still pulling his arms, trying to get him down the tree as if they were alive! When Ozul tried to sense what was wrong, he noticed that this was one of the trees that felt different from others!

When he moved his arms, the vines tightened their grip and stayed still as a snake does to their prey after coiling around them.

Having no other choice, he made a blade with Ball of Purity and cut away those vines. After freeing his hands, he jumped down the tree to look at his surroundings.

From its outer appearance, the tree looked just like a usual tree with a thick canopy in the jungle. However, when Ozul tried to sense it from his ability, the tree felt different from the ones in the surroundings. It felt more alive?

.....

Ozul then looked at the vines that he had just cut off earlier and saw that they laid their lifeless, not moving anymore.

He neared the tree and touched it to see if there was any reaction. He waited for a couple of seconds, but there was nothing.

“Hm. It obviously wanted to take me away, so why is it not moving now?” Ozul wondered out loud.

He also noticed that Jinx was sleeping on the same branch that he had been on. For a more precise understanding, Ozul tried to sense anything else that also gave the same feeling as that of these strange trees.

Although seeing was difficult due to the fog, feeling things wasn’t. So as he felt everything around him, Ozul couldn’t find anything until he started observing even the small plants.

In this jungle, the trees mostly had thick trunks, and their roots were all entangled above the ground, so it camouflaged the plants.

It was only when he observed those almost hidden plants did Ozul noticed something out of the ordinary. Some of the plants, just like the strange tree with alive vines, felt more alive than others!

He went near one such plant and observed it from up close. There were only some flat leaves with a bunch of flower buds here and there.

Only around the leaves, he saw that there were thorns. And not just any thorns, but they were oozing out a white liquid as well!

“No wonder...” Ozul said in an understanding tone. It all suddenly clicked in his mind now.

And it all made even more sense when he realized that these strange plants surrounded all the strange trees!

“These plants are hidden to the point where even professionals wouldn’t notice anything after a casual look at them.” Ozul tried to look at his surroundings like someone obvious to all of it would.

Ozul thought the most likely scenario was that people walked in this foggy part of the forest, unaware of these plants, and brushed past them like nothing. In the process, the thorns would prick them to poison them.

The white liquid was probably a lethal poison that rendered people useless. The victim would most likely fall unconscious or dead around the tree in the middle. The tree’s vines would then wrap him after confirming that it was not moving.

That was Ozul’s conclusion after taking note of everything. It made sense if he took into account that the vines stopped after he had started to move.

But the question still remained that why were the vines wrapping around him just now? He had been sleeping here for some hours already.

At this moment, Jinx woke up, stretching her legs for a long while before she sat there looking at Ozul.

“Hmm? Did you move here in the middle of the night?” Ozul asked while looking straight into her eyes.

“. . .”

“That could probably be the reason then...” Ozul muttered after seemingly getting his answer from Jinx’s silent stare.

He figured that the tree probably sensed that something was moving around it, so the vines did not start to do their work. Only when it was morning, and it had been a while for Jinx to stop moving, did the vines begin to wrap themselves around him, thinking that everyone was unconscious or dead.

“And then there is this fog to cover it all up,” Ozul said after taking another look around him.

The reason that he had not been a victim already was probably that he had been unconsciously avoiding these plants. But he wasn’t sure if he would be affected if stung because he had learned that poison travels through the blood, and well... he has none of that.

Would his body even allow such chemicals to enter his body? Ozul wasn’t sure and he wouldn’t try anything like this on himself either.

Although there was now light due to it being daytime, Ozul felt that it was better at night since he could actually see more in darkness than in light.

“Well, depending on the situation, this could be interesting...” he muttered with the prosthetic hand on his chin.

“Whatever,” Ozul said before jumping back on the tree’s branch.

Although Ozul had figured out most of what was happening in this foggy area of this jungle, he had yet to find out what those vines did next after wrapping the victim.

He had already tried to look around and see if he could find any place where the bodies went, but there was nothing!

And unless the trees ate everything they captured, there had to be someplace where the tree vines took the bodies to. Ozul suspected it to be the latter since although the strange trees were all a few distances apart, their vines were interconnected!

In this big jumbled mess of vines, Ozul could not guess where the vines actually brought the dead or unconscious bodies to. He would have tested it by killing some animal, but there was nothing around him that was alive apart from the flora!

It was apparent that whichever animal stumbled upon this area of the jungle, would not leave alive from here. The animals were either all dead or they avoided this area beforehand.

Either way, it was a sign that this place had been set up like this for a long time. So it was difficult for him to understand if it happened naturally or someone had a hand in this. Though the latter was most unlikely.

As much of a thinker he was, there weren’t many clues that would lead him further, so Ozul decided the only approach that came into his mind-using himself as bait!

He laid down on the branch like he had been a few minutes ago and closed his eyes to sleep. He didn’t have to act like he was unconscious when he could sleep at the same time. It was like killing two birds with one stone!

Ozul only hoped that Jinx would not move much in the meantime since that could possibly prevent the strange trees from doing their thing.

He wasn’t aware if his hypothesis was even true, but this was all he had now. He created the hat on his head again and crossed his prosthetic arms before losing himself in the sleep.

After he closed his eyes, Jinx stood up and came near him before snuggling on his lap and curling herself to sleep as well. It didn’t even take seconds for both of them to sleep. It felt as if there was no one that could beat these two in the competition of sleeping!

Time passed and a few hours flew away without any notice.

Ozul opened his eyes when he felt himself getting dragged. He did not try to make any extra movements since that could potentially cause the vines to stop again. This situation was exactly as he wanted!

He just needed to sit still now and the vines would take him to the place where he could actually find some real clues about all of this. Ozul was aware that curiosity was a bad habit, but he had been putting off his for a long time already!

When he looked around him, he couldn’t see much since the vines were also wrapped around his face. Through some space, he understood that he was still in the forest and was being dragged on the ground since he could hear the sound of dry leaves getting crushed under him.

‘Oh? Where is Jinx?’ Ozul wondered after he sensed that she was not together with him.

‘She probably didn’t want to get dragged like this...’ In the end, Ozul just shrugged and closed his eyes again!

Just sitting there awake and conscious of getting dragged for such a long distance wasn’t exactly much adventurous for Ozul. Moreover, it wasn’t hard for him to sleep in this condition either.

If anyone else were to see him right now, they would think that he had probably lost his mind! But they weren’t aware that Ozul was confident enough of his strength to face off against a Rank-9 Mage, how could he be wary of some plants?

‘hmm. If only Raven or Blaze were with me, I could’ve asked them to wake me up when we are there...’ Ozul thought in his mind while clicking his tongue.

Just as he was about to lose himself in the land of dreams though, Ozul suddenly sensed something near him...