Natalie wouldn't say she'd been lulled into a false sense of security, but after making it halfway through the vine-covered hallway, she jumped when the grouh her feet stirred and came to life. She froze in pce, half because the footing was suddenly perilous, threatening to trip her if she kept walking, and half from surprise.

  A green rope emerged from the b and started to slither up her leg. It ed around her left ankle in a single loop before venturing higher up. She pulled, an instinctive rea to beirained, and to her surprise, the viopped. Moreover, there was only a slight resistao its grip on her ankle; despite seg her firmly, the vine didn't seem to be trying to hold her in pce.

  That put her at ease somewhat. When she went still again, the vine responded by tinuing, as if accepting her silent permission. The dungeon, and the City, did seem to work that way. Maybe that was because it catered to their desires, and while being taken against a person's will was something some people were into—at least as a fantasy—that wasn't Natalie's preference, even in py-ag. So all of her enters iy and the duook sent in mind.

  That said, there would certainly be drawbacks to refusing to e was almost guarahat there would be a fight if she didn't indulge the vines. But maybe she had some say in how it happened? Especially because the enter was unavoidable.

  Swallowing, she rested Valentine face-first on the mass of green as the vine slithered up her left leg. Another joined on the right, ing arouher ahough they weren't applying much forow, Natalie couldn't help but wonder how much they would be capable of should they actually try to restraihey had great positioning, now, with both aied up; it would be hard to fight back if they had any level of strength. And the green ropes were quickly advang to further loop around her.

  Holding her breath, and her heart rate rapidly increasing, she waited to see what would happen. She wasn't sure how far she would let this go. Back at the start of Te, during her first dungeon run, she'd been—well, rather fih letting vines pleasure her how they wanted. But it felt much lewder knowing Vaa would be standing there watg; she could hardly enjoy herself in the same way as when she was alone. Or even with Camille, who had been equally enthusiastic to the idea.

  Even she could admit that letting vines ravage her was definitely a rather … perverted … activity, and so with Vaa watg, she was much more embarrassed. Regardless of their circumstahat they khey would be getting into this sort of degeneracy wheuring into the Basement.

  The vines climbed from her ao her calves then onto her thighs, their slimy tou her skin drawing a shiver from her. The ropes were slightly wet—lubricated ily the way a ight be during and after the act. A parison Natalie doubted she made only because of the situation she was in; whatever the secretions were, she bet they were simir in purpose.

  On reag her upper thighs, both vines looped around the skin just beh her bottom armor, seg her thighs in the same way her ankles had been. She gave a test pull of her leg and found she could still move despite the vines c her, but their grip had grown stronger.

  Was it smart to let this tihe vines, at least, aowledged her resistand stopped moving. Other vines were approag, three more that had slithered up from the ground to not secure her legs but instead other pces. The ones around her legs had stopped moving, besides how they squirmed and gyrated i least they weren't trying to strip off her lower armor like she had half expected them to. Though maybe that would be ing.

  The first of the newers ed around her waist. Another secured her left arm, high on her bicep. The third, most adventurous o for her breasts. It seemed agitated when it couldn't immediately find access to what was underh. She wasn't sure how she could read that emotion so clearly, but the way it nudged against the underside of the metal pting with increasing speed didn't leave much up to interpretation.

  "Want to touch?" Natalie murmured, shifting slightly i the many cold, slimy touches across her body. "If it's just toug, there's no problem." That was the least of what she'd expected.

  The vines didn't seem to be going for her lower armor, only her top—was that all they wanted? At least they weren't intelligent enough to know how to strip her themselves. Or maybe it wasn't intelligeo undo the strings keeping her armor on, they would need dexterity the thick green ropes simply didn't have.

  So, doing them a favor, she took her top off.

  Her exposed tits were, indeed, what the frustrated vine had wanted. Immediately, it circled around her left and squeezed with enough forake her take a breath in surprise. Another vine appeared from o grab her other; in moments she was being groped excitedly by two vines.

  Maybe the whole mass was a hive-mind, because the ones arouomad thighs seemed to grow equally excited for having access to her body. They squirmed and writhed between her legs with increasing joy as the ones groping her breasts squeezed and rubbed against her.

  The brushing of her nipples was admittedly pleasurable. Their slippery secretions covered her, lubrig essentially every inch of her exposed skin and giving her an oiled-up, shiny look. Each toud squeeze made her breath catch. Her whole body felt hot.

  After a while of standing there and taking it, Natalie murmured, "Alright, alright. Could I … pass through, if I wanted?"

  If their goal was just to grope her for a bit, she'd sider themselves lucky; that was nothing for a Pace Basement enter. It was kind of nice, even—though gng toward Vaa made her feel pretty embarrassed by her situation. The irl was watg, daggers in hand, with a face redder than Natalie's own.

  She wao see how they'd react to being denied, because while she might be fih most anything the vines were willing to throw at her, Vaa wasn't. And gauging hoting they were of being denied would be important, since Vaa would have to pass through after—and if they were too eager and aggressive, trying to take things Vaa wasn't willing to give, it would turn into a fight.

  So, she grabbed at the vines groping her and tried to pull them away.

  They were initially accepting, freezing up in the way they had before. When she really tried to start extrag herself from their—now very secure—grip, they grew visibly agitated. Which wasn't promising.

  She mao remove herself and take a few steps forward—with the vitached ts dragging along with her, the hardest to get rid of—before they seemed to grow truly aheir grip grew stronger on her ahough not so much that Natalie didn't think she could pull herself out and—what then? Fight whatever enter this became?

  She stopped resisting, and the vines returo their pcidity, engulfing her in their slimy grip once more aurning to groping her breasts. A new one nuzzled against her lower piece of armor, hinting that it wanted access.

  Natalie sidered her options. Fighting was always a possibility, and maybe these vines would be satisfied with just her sating them, letting Vaa pass unimpeded afterward. She had no idea whether that would be the case, but again—it was either fight, or hope for the best. Since Vaa didn't seem to want to 'give her first time' to vines, and the City mostly catered to their desires, Natalie thought there were good odds it would work that way; that they wouldn't do more than Vaa wanted.

  So. She rexed and waited to see how far this would go.