As we exited the passage, a very spacious area appeared. Before I was thrown to the ground, Daisy skillfully protected me and we landed.

Being held in the arms of Daisy, who was smaller than me, felt undignified, but I stayed still knowing this embrace was safer than anywhere else. Only after a long while, realizing there was no threat to me, did I carefully step out of Daisy’s arms.

“Druid, are you hurt anywhere?”

I was a bit dizzy from being dragged so roughly through the passage, but it was bearable.

“I’m fine thanks to our Daisy protecting me. Luckily, you shielded me in time!”

As expected of our Daisy! Patting her head proudly, I found the eerie silence around us unsettling and turned to look. Strangely, no other dryads besides Daisy were visible. Not even Mesquite, who always stood guard steadfastly by my side, nor Elder or Wolfsbane. What kind of shitty situation is this…?

When I was grabbed by the vines and pulled up, I definitely felt all my dryads and Earning’s dryads bursting out of the artifact. In an instant, as we entered the narrow passage, the small-bodied Daisy quickly grabbed me, so we came together…

No way… Are they all still in the same spot where I was before being dragged here? Geez, then what happens to my dryads?

I tried to check the artifact, but it was impossible due to the strange energy pervading this place. It felt like my concentration was scattered, as if my terrarium artifact were everywhere around me.

It was a different feeling from when the artifact was covered in ash at the Viburnum grove, making communion impossible. Back then, the path of communion was blocked, but now my focus was blurred, making it utterly impossible to grasp anything.

This feeling… yeah, it felt like I had become a dryad and was inside someone else’s artifact.

Fortunately, contrary to my expectation that enemies would be stationed where I was dragged, there was nothing. Even if only Daisy was by my side, it wasn’t a situation anxiety-inducing enough to make my heart tremble.

This place, as Earning said, seemed like a space meant to trap us. A wide area enclosed on all sides. No windows, no doors, and no structures to hide behind.

It was a very unpleasant place, with a damp humidity felt from water droplets dripping from the ceiling or flowing down the walls. The lighting was dimmer than outside, where I had wandered with Earning, creating an uneasy atmosphere.

Was I going to be stuck here helpless, then fall into the hands of the enemy?

That was when it happened. Along with a faint floral scent, the dim lighting began to brighten. Grass sprouted from the ground, and small, white, cute flowers resembling fried eggs bloomed densely. Then, in the distance, white petals gathered into a whirlwind, its momentum subsiding and gradually taking on a human form.

Suddenly, a male-type dryad appeared in mid-air, smiling cheerfully.

The dryad had hair just covering its nape, white like Elder’s, and flowers similar to those blooming on the ground were lavishly tucked into its head. Just like our Daisy.

With a deep green short coat spreading in graceful curves, a single cape decorated with multiple chains and flashy pendants, and wings adorned with white flowers clustering together and emitting bright light, looking like angel feathers. It felt as if our Daisy, if she grew up and became the Forest King, would look exactly like that.

He was a dryad who bore such a strong resemblance to Daisy.

A cheerful voice rang out.

“It’s my turn after a long time. Have the trees that will become my forest’s honorable constituent logs arrived? Or have the fertilizers come?”

At his words, Daisy drew two daggers and stood in front of me to block him.

The white dryad merely rolled his eyes, casually glancing around, then looked at Daisy with a deeply disappointed expression. But soon, his face broke into a smile again.

“Not a Daisy of our kind… but a lowly mongrel Daisy? And just one at that. It’s not worth this body’s gracious visit. Being assigned just because of a shared name is truly an insult to my pride.”

What? A mongrel Daisy? Is he talking about our Daisy? The white dryad kept his grinning face but stared coldly at our Daisy with green-tinged yellow eyes.

“Master Druid, he’s the same Daisy species as me.”

Having entered battle mode, Daisy spoke to me in an utterly serious voice.

“You should speak correctly, sapling. I’m not a modified mongrel lacking a mother myth like you, but a pure dominant Daisy breed.”

That bastard doesn’t hold back one bit talking about our kid. Even if that dryad weren’t an enemy, I felt like I’d have to land a solid hit on him to cool off.

But sadly, I didn’t have the strength for that. Unlike me, who fell for that provocation and clenched my fists in seething anger, Daisy was watching the dryad without a hint of disturbance.

“It doesn’t matter that the Red Daisy species has a short history and no mother myth. I’ll just become the myth myself. Because I, as Master Jae’s dryad, am special.”

At Daisy’s resolute words, I felt a rush of warmth spread through my whole body. What did our kid just say? My pride meter was maxed out, and I almost hugged them despite the situation.

Is this really the same kid who was so small and pitiful when we first met? You’ve grown so well, our Daisy.

It was the first time I learned that Red Daisy has no mother myth, but what does it matter? Even without the inherited power of a myth like Dandelion, the king of dandelions, our kid can grow strong enough. I couldn’t help but puff up my shoulders with a sense of pride.

“How dare you…! Fine, I’m already furious about being lumped together just because of the same name. Let me clearly show you the difference between a pure breed and a mongrel.”

He drew two daggers from the scabbard on his waist. They were more ornate than Daisy’s daggers, wreathed in a dazzling white aura, as if they were heavily enhanced or extremely high-grade weapons.

He kept rattling on about pure breeds and mongrels, but the fact that he resembled Daisy and used two daggers as weapons just like her was laughable. Despite being the same race with the same hair color, he looked more like Daisy’s sibling than Daisy2, who used boomerangs.

Suddenly, I recalled Daisy 2 saying that the Red Daisies were just differently colored versions of the other Daisies, and that flowers of the same kind all look similar to each other.

Unlike Daisy, who was tense as could be, the other side looked incredibly relaxed.

“It seems you’ve had some experience fighting mere fire, but don’t tell me you’re lumping me in with them? Look up to me. This is the majesty of the king of the purebloods.”

In an instant, his blade was at her fingertips, and the tips of Daisy’s red hair were sliced off. I had always thought our Daisy was the most agile and fastest among the dryads, but this white one was beyond imagination. I couldn’t even see his movements.

If it were me, I’d have realized I’d been cut long after the fact. But even if just by a hair’s breadth, Daisy managed to dodge the attack.

I hurriedly retreated to the wall’s edge, afraid of interfering with the battle. In place of the absent Mesquite, I hastily switched the team’s main to Daisy to boost her attack power. That was all I could do for her right then.

Through our tightly bound soul connection, I could feel that Daisy was extremely tense.

Suddenly, I thought that even when she first fought against fire, she hadn’t been this tense. Back then, there was a solid shield to hold out even if pushed back, or a healer to mend wounds. But this time, Daisy had to face the battle entirely alone. And not against simple attacking fire, but against an intelligent dryad.

Worse still, her opponent, judging by his wings, was the king of the Forest. And with me as a burden, Daisy looked at an immense disadvantage.

Without any flashy or special techniques, the two Daisy dryads continued the fight using only daggers and swift movements.

Even with his wings, which seemed cumbersome, the White Daisy dryad moved with incredible agility. Daisy somehow managed to track movements that even my eyes couldn’t follow, fighting back. Faint, transparent traces of white light, like comet tails, trailed along her path.

The ring of the Immortal Diamond on Daisy’s finger was flickering wildly, like a warning light. It seemed the jewel’s power was barely bridging the gap in their skills.

Still, it was close to a one-sided beating for Daisy. Countless metallic clangs rang out, and for every strike she blocked, many more attacks left scars all over her gear.

Lights flashing like camera bursts went off frequently, and each time, I could tell Daisy was narrowly escaping countless critical situations.

If fire’s attacks were gear-melting, the blade’s strikes were sharp and lethal. As her thick gear was torn open and deep wounds appeared, Daisy—who had never once cried out in pain during battle—finally began to let out groans of agony. Watching her, my heart felt like it was being ripped apart too.

“Though unpleasant, the hybrid’s things shall willingly serve as fertilizer for my components. Consider it an honor.”

Even when she managed to block an attack, the difference in strength could not be ignored. Daisy, sent flying far away, wrapped her vine around the enemy’s wing—a blind spot—just before hitting the wall, anchoring herself and halting. That act incurred the white dryad’s wrath.

“Wings are the king’s majesty, not handholds!”

His face, which had maintained a smile throughout the battle, twisted. Our kid had her gear entirely shredded, yet he carried on like this over a mere touch to his wing.

I wanted to give Daisy a potion now that she was close from being pushed back, but the opponent allowed not even a moment’s respite. He lunged at her like a bolt and swung his dagger again. Daisy gave up blocking and leaped high to evade the attack.

With Daisy determined to dodge, she took fewer wounds, but that didn’t mean she could land an effective blow. She had put away her dagger and focused entirely on using the vines extending from her wrists to spring and evade him left and right.

Perhaps rather irritated, he threw his dagger like a dart as Daisy jumped into the air. The dagger, flying at bullet-like speed, grazed Daisy’s neck, leaving a deep wound.

From her neck, a bluish, transparent liquid like water gushed out like blood. It was the same liquid I saw when I bit and shattered the diamond.

This was the first time I saw the dryad’s blood piercing through skin. Not long after I came here, Mesquite and Elder had taken care of the dryad group that tried to harm Daisy, but back then, it was mixed with human red blood, so I didn’t know. That dryad blood is a blue translucent liquid.

And I never wanted to learn such a fact through our kid. It felt like my heart had stopped.

“Daisy!”

The dagger aimed at the center of her neck was barely deflected by Daisy, striking her askew. Before she could grasp her neck and assume a defensive stance, her side was slashed open in succession.

The white dryad grabbed the flying dagger with a vine, retrieved it, and used it like a whip to wound Daisy. Since attacks with the dagger in hand were all dodged by Daisy, he changed tactics to make his path unreadable. Daisy fell to the ground with a loud crash but did not give up and stumbled back up.

“Protecting the Bark with power beyond your means…”

He spoke, looking at Daisy’s finger wearing the ring.

“But it’s just an unripe sapling, so its protection amounts to nothing.”

“I’m not a sapling.”

Through the hand clutching her wounded neck, a strange, mysteriously glowing liquid seeped and flowed out. It was like watching ice melt into flowing water.

The wound on her side was gushing so much blood that it thoroughly soaked Daisy’s clothes. Despite that, she showed no signs of fear as she glared at the white dryad. Her voice was completely steady.

But unfortunately, it was a hopeless fight by anyone’s standards due to the difference in power.

Daisy, severely wounded, had slowed down. She flew as far away from him as possible to dodge his thrown daggers, but the limited space made it little more than a desperate struggle.

“You’re just like an annoying fly!”

When he showed signs of throwing another dagger, Daisy extended a vine and wrapped it around his wings. She yanked hard, twisting his body so he couldn’t throw the dagger along his intended trajectory.

His fury-filled eyes glared at me for a moment. Daisy’s weakness—something that could bind the fast-moving Daisy.

Before I, flustered, could even pull out a gun and aim, an unwelcome floral scent approached thickly.

“If this dies, you’ll be helpless too.”