Should I do a few more pulls while this momentum is going?

I know I should know when to start and stop, but somehow I feel like now is GO! The rates seem oddly good too, and regardless of ratings, I could meet so many more handsome, pretty, and cool Dryads if I pull more.

Blinded by desire, I was turning my head to estimate the quantity when suddenly my head spun and my vision dropped sharply as if I’d gotten anemia. As my body tottered, Mesquite caught me.

Being cradled in Mesquite’s arm felt like a warrior and a princess, but with my mind spinning, I couldn’t fully enjoy the situation.

“You’ve reached your soul’s limit.”

“…What’s that?”

Mesquite looked down at me with a worried expression. Her amber eyes, like the desert sun, sank gloomily.

“Jae, my master is so fragile. Even more so than a young human child….”

Being treated like a kid was a bit much, but still, having the cool Mesquite worry about me made me purely happy. When Elder pressed a hand to my forehead, white light seeped out and flowed into me.

“My skills are specialized for Dryads, but they’ll have an effect on you humans too. Feeling better?”

“Oh… as expected of a healer.”

“The cost is 100 diamonds.”

“Crazy….”

Your master is dying and you’re going on about diamonds?! I was cursing him out with my eyes when he made an awkward expression, saying it was a joke.

“I explained that I am connected to the druid and the dryads by soul, right? That’s because the druid must become a small world tree and share power with them. That power is the power of the soul. The druid’s training is still lacking, so there’s a limit to how many dryads can be accommodated at once. Moreover, the higher the grade of the dryad, the more soul power is required. If you obtain more dryads here, your body likely won’t be able to hold out.”

“That can’t be…”

I inherently despise random draw games, but what I hate even more, with a plus, is Japan’s card game method, the ‘COST system.’

Even if you have plenty of character slots available, you have to work within the COST. So if my max COST is 30 and each character’s COST is 15, 13, or 12, I can only bring up to two as long as it doesn’t exceed 30.

Ah, hate it. I need to fill my terrarium artifact with splendid and beautiful dryads. Hey there, guide sir, isn’t there a way?!

“You can strengthen your soul power by spending time with the dryads. The fastest way is through battle. If you want to command many dryads quickly, just engage in lots of battles with them.”

In short, you’re telling me to level up. Is this the sorrow of being a low level? How frustrating. I have this many diamonds, yet I’m forced to stop pulling. I want to spend my own money!

Well, still, I got special and unique grades, so it’s fine. Others jump for joy just getting a rare, and here I am talking about happiness. Since it’s all over, I should go see Daisy.

My condition improved, so I refused Mesquite’s support. I was happy, but my heart couldn’t take any more. For a moment, I looked at Elder and imagined being cradled in his handsome arms just the same.

He seemed about to say something that would ruin the mood, like demanding 100 diamonds per second, so I dropped it. I wasn’t thrilled at all.

“Ah!”

A thought suddenly struck me. I lifted the terrarium artifact and showed it to the two of them.

“I want to see you two inside here!”

My room! My room! Welcome to my room! If you go in, will you turn 2D like in other games?

At my earnest request, Mesquite picked up the lance that had fallen to the ground.

“If my master, Jae, wishes it, anytime.”

Mesquite’s body was instantly enveloped in white light. Then, turning into a wisp of light, it went ‘poof’ into the glass dome.

Inside my small glass dome, Mesquite, now tiny as an ant, was moving around. The inside of the terrarium artifact was much more shrunk than I thought. Would moving cause an earthquake inside?

I moved my hand a little, but Mesquite seemed peaceful. Good thing; I was worried I’d have to keep my arm still so the terrarium artifact wouldn’t shake.

However, unlike Mesquite, Elder would never comply at once. With a displeased expression, he bent down to look at my terrarium artifact.

“What’s this? It’s so barren. There’s nothing here? You have plenty of diamonds, so why didn’t you put anything inside?”

“Where do I buy them?”

Do you think I didn’t buy it because I had no money? It hasn’t even been an hour since I got it. If I knew how to decorate it, I would have emptied everything to make it look nice.

“You can buy them at the workshop. And I don’t want cheap stuff—something luxurious and flashy!”

“Can’t you just go in nicely first? I’m curious about what happens when I, a dryad, go inside.”

As if I’d do anything less—I’ll prepare only the best for my dryads. Seeing you now, I might hesitate a bit for your sake, but for the sake of magnificent Mesquite, I’d buy only the most expensive and finest things there.

“Why do you treat me differently from Mesquite? Be a little nicer to me too.”

“When your mouth becomes nicer, I’ll think about it.”

That was a sulking expression. A look that would make someone else seem immature and childish, but when the beautiful Elder made it, it was just pretty. His face was everything. Elder was clearly both a divinely gifted mouth and a divinely gifted face.

I shook my phone, took out some diamonds, and gently coaxed her, and she soon softened and slipped inside the glass dome. What exactly does she plan to use diamonds for, being so obsessed with them?

I placed my hand on the terrarium artifact. Concentrating my mind, the magnified image of the inside of the glass dome appeared in my head.

Mesquite and Elder were looking around at the desolate landscape. Then, as if they had made a decision, they walked in opposite directions.

Upon reaching certain spots, Mesquite tapped the ground with the tip of her lance, and Elder with the tip of his staff. I wondered what they were doing, when suddenly Mesquite looked toward me.

“My master, Jae. We’re decorating our home. Since me and that Elder brat come from completely opposite natural habitats, we have no choice but to stay far apart.”

“Stop calling me a brat. Is being old something to brag about?”

“I can remember when you were a sapling. Back then, I diligently brought you water and even selected the soil for you.”

It was as if Mesquite was saying, ‘When you were little, I changed your diapers and fed you milk.’ Imagining Mesquite feeding a baby bottle to infant Elder was so hilarious I thought I’d go crazy.

“Don’t imagine weird things! Dryads grow differently from humans!”

What, how did she know what I was imagining?

“My master, Jae, the thoughts you have while looking into this terrarium flow directly into us. You’re having such adorable imaginings. Of course, I did raise Elder like that, carrying him around.”

“I don’t remember that!”

“That was when you, little Elder, were still fresh and green, before you even bloomed.”

Mesquite said with a laugh. Even from afar, their voices could still reach each other.

The two finished what they were doing. Light shot out from the tip of the lance and the end of the staff, seeping into the ground beneath their feet.

In that moment, the ground where Mesquite stood began to fill with sand grains that sparkled like jewels.

The endlessly spreading sandy floor stopped expanding at a certain point. It looked just like a small desert.

Come to think of it, Mesquite’s natural habitat was the Desert Field, a desert. From the ground touched by the tip of Mesquite’s lance, a small sprout emerged.

It grew rapidly, becoming large and thick enough to tower over Mesquite about four times over. Sharp, slender leaves sprouted, and long flower stalks, clustered with small yellow blooms, poked their heads out.

I thought I knew what that was. It was Mesquite’s original plant—the ‘Velvet Mesquite Tree.’

Could it be that collecting dryads in a terrarium artifact lets you decorate it with their original plants?

“My master, Jae. That’s right. Isn’t my tree beautiful and grand? I’m a resilient plant that can root down nine meters underground. In the desert, where I am is where the groundwater is. That’s why I became the guardian spirit of the desert.”

Really impressive. Just like the upright and sturdy Mesquite dryad herself, the original plant was incredibly cool too.

“Look here too! My flowers are so beautiful!”

Where Elder was, a beautiful tree, like clusters of fluffy white snowballs, stood tall in the meadow.

So that’s the ‘Elder Flower,’ the original plant of Elder. It was a tree that truly lived up to Elder’s face. It was really pretty and lovely. It even seemed to give off a nice scent.

As I showered him with compliments, Elder’s face swelled with pride. He kept his ears open as if urging me to say more, so I continued to praise him. Easy to handle.

After that, the two seemed busy decorating their home.

I felt like a chimney puffing with the urge to show off my pretty and cool dryads to everyone in the world, but they were both so much bigger than me that it seemed difficult to take them through the crowded market streets.

And Elder’s clothes were so long and flowing. Wouldn’t Mesquite’s lance be a deadly weapon just by holding it?

I decided to leave them in the terrarium artifact for a while and set out to find Daisy.

When I stepped outside, the number of people had noticeably decreased.

It seemed I had spent quite a bit of time inside the greenhouse.

There must have been other greenhouses besides the one I was in, as there were quite a few people already accompanied by bloomed dryads.

The other dryads also had quite flashy appearances. But my dryad was cooler. I felt that even if all the dryads here gathered together, Elder could overwhelm them just by showing his face once.

When I came out of the greenhouse, a few people looked my way. Probably curious about the dryad I had pulled.

But since no one was beside me, they whispered, apparently interpreting things as they wished. Sure, I had drawn four duds, but after that came a Special and a Unique! No matter what anyone says, as long as my heart is content, it’s fine. My dryads are busy decorating their nest, so I have to be considerate.

The attendant, who followed shortly after, escorted me to the exit. Having spent a ton of diamonds made me feel like a VVIP at a department store.

Before parting ways, he expressed a lot of gratitude to me, saying that thanks to me, his performance had increased more than tenfold compared to others. He kept bowing his waist.

In the real world, I was only at best a road shop VIP, but here, I felt as enviable as a celebrity swiping a black card.

Thrilling!