Tested

Once the flower appeared out of Jack's head, everyone had varying reactions.

Kenji sucked in a cold breath before firmly shutting his eyes.

Jessica's legs directly gave out, prompting her to collapse onto the floor.

Mia let out a grimace, holding onto the side of her head, her breathing destabilized. She appeared to resist the charm, but not without a debilitating headache.

As for the trunk, it stopped moving altogether, remaining in place as though it really were a tree trunk.

However, the talking flower appeared almost unaffected. It appeared interested in the flower that came out of Jack's head, perhaps because of their resemblance. After extending out and taking a close look, it let out a small gasp.

"Ah! So you were one of us after all! I'm not sure how I missed such a fact. Since you don't know the password, you must be one of the new initiates."

Jack blinked a few times, clearly not following. Still, gathering that it was a positive response he pushed his luck.

"Does that mean we can play here?"

The flower let out a hum before holding out its petals.

"It's not part of the rules... but rules can be a bit flexible if it is for one of our own. Ah, well for starters, why don't all of you try the test? If it is passed, then there is no need for restrictions. I know I said that I would make the test harder upon retrying, but that's only a condition for the sake of stubborn people. Even if you all fail the test, I won't increase the difficulty."

Jack retracted the flower, looking slightly fatigued. Though his eyes shone brightly.

"Ok!"

The flower looked at his other party members, all of whom were in varying degrees of shock.

"After your friends have recovered, we can start."

After a few moments, Mia recovered, though still out of breath. Kenji similarly did soon after. His expression was neutral, but his eyes appeared to have many questions behind them. As for Jessica, she hadn't taken much longer to recover, but was still in a daze, as though she were still in a dream.

"What just happened?"

Jack put his hands behind his back and cocked his head to the side.

"Are you ok?"

Jessica's eyelids fluttered as she bolted up like a spring.

"Of course!"

He smiled brightly.

"Then we can take the test together!"

The flower seemed to take that as confirmation and held up one of its leafy hands.

"Since it seems everyone is ready, I will begin the test now."

Before anybody could object, a wave of pressure fell down upon them. Both Kenji and Jack didn't appear affected at all, though both Jessica and Mia were caught off guard.

Though while they stumbled, both of them remained up.

Mia had caught herself with her mind, using her telekinetic hands as though someone it was actually someone else who caught her.

As for Jessica, despite being caught off guard, her knees instinctively buckled at an angle while her feet slid into a stable position that counteracted the force.

The start wasn't the best, but all four of them were still standing.

After a minute passed, a cracking sound came from Jack's knees. While he wasn't actually the weakest of the group, he was relying on sheer willpower to withstand the force bearing down on him.

Despite the lack of force behind them, Mia could tell where and how to push to efficiently keep herself upright.

As for Jessica, instead of solely relying on her muscles, she shifted in a way to let the pressure mostly be put onto the bones directly.

On the other hand, Kenji was using his brute force to remain upright.

The force slowly continued to increase, and soon enough five minutes had passed. Everyone was still standing, though everyone other than Kenji appeared worse for wear.

It was at this point that the force suddenly twisted.

This time, everyone almost lost their footing but each of them was able to recover one way or another. However, that wouldn't be the end, as the force exerted on them continued to exert in different directions, becoming quite unpredictable. It lost most of its power, though it proved to be more difficult.

In the end, Kenji was the one who was directly swept off of his feet first.

Though his expression didn't even show the tiniest hint of anxiety as he slipped. As though he had suddenly become a statue, he didn't even try to stop himself from falling and plopped down on the floor.

It almost seemed like he hadn't truly been trying.

At the seven-minute mark, Mia was the next to fall, with a rather pained expression on her face. As time passed, the pushing force increased in intensity. Paired with the changing directions, she wasn't able to figure out the most optimal way to hold herself up fast enough and ended up on the ground.

At the eight-minute mark, Jack's Joker flew out of the deck, turning into a mask and covering his face. Thin lines tore apart across his knees as he forced his joints to work harder than they should, causing a small amount of blood to run down them.

At the nine-minute mark, Jessica caught sight of the blood on Jack, and becoming overly concerned she forgot what she was doing, falling onto the ground in a heap.

"A-Are you ok, Jack?"

He responded through gritted teeth.

"...Yeah!"

Then, once ten minutes passed, the flower clapped lightly with its leaves.

"As expected of one of the Sylvanians! You were able to pass the test on the first try. Good job, good job."

Although his wounds weren't minor, Jack healed fast enough to be left with only shallow cuts and light bruises. He tugged at the mask on his face, trying to take it off, though it remained on quite persistently.

After letting out a disgruntled hum, he pulled harder, directly ripping it off, but also taking his skin off with it, suddenly turning into a bleeding fleshy muscle face that was reminiscent of horror movies.

Jack blinked a few times before slowly putting the mask back on, which surprisingly stuck rather easily.

"Um, can my friends still come with me? They didn't pass the test."

The flower didn't respond immediately, rubbing a leafy hand against its petals in thought for a while.

"How about this, I can let you and your friends through, but the rest of your friends can not be allowed to go to certain restricted areas. They also cannot participate in any of the games. If they ever go close to a restricted area, I will just give them a light push backward to notify them. Also, the game can only be entered by one player for each entrance, so that shouldn't be a big deal either."

Jack cheered up immediately, raising both hands up high.

"Yay!"

The flower gestured towards the field behind him.

"The majority of this place will be free to access, but the restricted areas will be near the very outskirts. So long as you don't wander too far, there shouldn't be any problems."

Jack summoned Seedy, who appeared with a loud roar. It looked around before quickly taking an interest in the flower. Two of its heads came quite close, inspecting it rather curiously.

As for the flower, its petals appeared to be jolted with surprise.

"Ah, so it is the Seven-headed Blossom Hydra. A mutated variant no less. Of course, of course! It makes sense for a Sylvanian to have a Sylvanian companion!"

Seedy seemed to share its enthusiasm, rubbing the side of its head gently against the petals. The flower let out a laugh, patting it with its tiny leafy hand. Another head was looking at the trunk, who somehow started smiling, bouncing up and down rather happily.

"fRiENd! fRiENd!"

Mia couldn't help her curiosity and posed a question.

"What is a Seven-headed uh, Blossom Hydra? And what are Sylvanians?"

The flower explained while being showered with affection.

"Sylvanians are a sentient plant race, along with other intelligent beings in a symbiotic relationship with certain plants, though not all sentient plants are Sylvanians. As for the Blossom Hydra, it is one of the sentient plants that grows seven heads upon full maturity, like this one here."

It was a rather basic explanation, but Mia nodded, satisfied with it.

Seedy's third head was focused on Jack, who raised his hands up, prompting Seedy to lift him. Jack then pointed to the sky.

"Come on, everyone! It's time to go exploring!"

Before Jessica, Mia, or Kenji could say anything, Seedy picked all of them up before setting them all down on a surface of entwined vines that acted like a floor. The two heads looked at both the flower and trunk rather excitedly, though the flower shook its head.

"Sorry, we cannot come along with you. There is business we still must attend to."

The trunk let out a whimper.

"sOrrY..."

Though reluctant, Seedy then marched on ahead, taking the four of them deeper into the level.