A dryad who didn’t hesitate at all to attack a small world tree druid. That applied to the white dryad as well. The dagger, raised as if to show off to Daisy, came targeting my chest. In that moment, my life flashed before my eyes.

But if I die inside the game… what happens to me?

Thinking I was about to be stabbed like this, I reflexively closed my eyes, but I felt no pain. A familiar floral scent wafted right in front of me.

A small, red crown of hair was visible just below my chin. Daisy stood in the place where I should have been struck by the blade. What just happened?

Daisy, gripping the blade that had lodged into her neck with both hands, trembling violently… Daisy, who took the attack meant for me with her own body. Just like that day.

A transparent, blue liquid was soaking the floor. The amount was overwhelming. A faint white light was rising from Daisy’s body like an aura. This light wasn’t due to the power of the gem.

No, the nightmare of that day overlapped once again. I couldn’t lose Daisy like this again. My mind went completely blank.

“Too bad. This is too fatal to use as fertilizer. She’ll go to the world tree. Do you think she can hold on? Her neck is already pierced.”

“The one caught… isn’t just me…”

Daisy barely managed to speak with a voice like air escaping. At the same time, with a horrible tearing sound, the white dryad staggered.

“You….”

Just as he had done when attacking Daisy, the dagger tied to her vine struck him in the back. I could see a transparent blue liquid bursting from him. Daisy used the strength in her back to push me away forcefully.

As I was pushed back and hit the wall, Daisy stopped gripping the blade piercing her neck and powerfully hugged the white dryad. At the same time, the vines Daisy had shot bound him tightly together with herself.

Crunch. A crushing and tearing sound came, and a pained groan burst from the white dryad.

“You, you…!”

Daisy said nothing more. She only put all her strength into embracing him, and a terrible cracking sound continued unabated.

The white dryad, writhing in pain, barely regained his senses and cut off Daisy’s vines. Then he grabbed Daisy by the collar and lifted her up effortlessly. As if she had exhausted all her strength, Daisy was helplessly dragged up and soon thrown far away like a piece of luggage.

“Daisy!”

Seeing Daisy lying motionless, I couldn’t breathe. As I tried to run to her, I was kicked with a thud by the white bastard.

My vision flashed like a flashbang had gone off. I felt as if I had been hit head-on by a car. This was my first time being directly struck by the strength of a dryad who could lift massive debris with one hand, and it came with unimaginable pain.

A sour taste rose in my throat. Unlike Daisy, who had faced him and gotten up again and again like a roly-poly toy, I lay sprawled on the ground and couldn’t get up at all. The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even scream.

I thought that if I hadn’t been wearing my gear, I would have died instantly on the spot. At the very least, my ribs must have been shattered.

“Hah… a mere improved breed…!”

Shaking, I barely lifted my head to look at the white bastard. He pulled out what was stuck in his back with force and threw it far away as if touching something dirty. With a clatter, Daisy’s dagger rolled across the floor like its owner.

If I… if I had strength like a witherling… I could have cut that dryad’s throat. I could have helped our Daisy and done anything…

From the fallen Daisy, an even more dazzling white light was bursting forth than before. Like when a child dies and returns to a fruit. No way.

Daisy’s faint floral scent, which had once reassured me, was gradually fading away. Like darkness eating away at light, the unpleasant floral scent of the white dryad encroached on the entire space, marking its territory.

The white dryad approached Daisy, roughly retrieved his sword, and pointed it at me. Transparent liquid dripped from the blade. He walked toward me with very slow, staggering steps.

“Other people’s druids are useless… can’t even be used as fertilizer.”

He made loud footsteps, as if he was deliberately trying to make me die slowly from fear.

“Why the hell is a druid even here in the first place? Druids don’t run performance tests, do they? Huh?”

“You son of a bitch…”

The white daisy dryad was smiling brightly again. What was so good that it was laughing and carrying on while bleeding profusely behind its back?

A shadow fell over my head, and I couldn’t move as if my entire body was paralyzed.

“Looking again, they’re not from the Alchemy Tower. An intruder? If so, it doesn’t matter if I kill them.”

Saying that, he raised his dagger high, as if to pierce through my head in one go.

Strangely… unlike before, I didn’t feel like I would die here right away. The tension and fear hadn’t disappeared. It was a desperate crisis with no dryad to protect me. Even as my head was in chaos from the pain, that intuition struck me strongly.

And as if answering that intuition, a dazzling golden light burst from beyond the white dryad. The daisy, who was clearly dying, was floating in the air, her gear tattered but without a single wound.

Silently leaping up, she gripped the dagger with both hands, raised it high, and aimed at the white dryad’s head. In Daisy’s brown eyes, always warm, was a chilling killing intent. For a moment, I thought I saw a blue glint.

He sensed something was wrong and froze like a statue before he could even turn around.

With a cracking sound, a hot liquid with no smell splattered onto my face. It was an unreal temperature.

The stubborn, unpleasant floral scent that filled the room began to fade. And like the sun rising at dawn and clearing the dusk, the scent that nearly disappeared grew stronger, bringing me relief.

“How…”

It was amazing that he could still speak with Daisy’s dagger embedded in the center of his head. Was that why he was the king for nothing?

It wasn’t just stuck in there. She had planted both feet on his shoulders and driven it in with all her might. The sight was so gruesome it was hard to keep my eyes open.

Through my lowered gaze, I saw the feet of the white dryad, staggering like a child just learning to walk.

“You were definitely dead…”

A special power inscribed in the soul as Red Daisy became an improved breed. A power that gave a chance to bloom once more without returning to the embrace of the World Tree. It was the manifestation of ‘Resurrection.’ Though already used once, an additional chance was gained by recruiting Daisy 2 into the Forest.

Apart from the connection of our souls, there was no other difference from before regarding her coming back to life without returning to a fruit state. If she had returned to a fruit and I had to sprout her again, it would have been me, not the white one, with a dagger in the head.

There were also cases in games where a retired character revived with a special skill and rejoined the battle. Even though I was tearfully glad to see the revived Daisy, it was hard to stay sane. After all, it meant Daisy had died again.

But ironically, it was because of this special power of resurrection that Daisy was able to deliver a decisive blow to him, who had let his guard down.

“You’ll have to be the fertilizer.”

Daisy, who always used polite language, spoke to him in a blunt and cold voice. Startled by her unusual tone, I lifted my head.

“How dare….”

With a severe injury on his back and a fatal blow to his head, he seemed unable to move as he wished. Even when that child, two heads shorter than him, grabbed his throat like a raptor’s talons snatching prey, he could only tremble like a tree struck by lightning.

Around Daisy, a vision appeared of fiery red blossoms blooming like flames. Then, a web of intricately tangled golden roots rushed toward the white Daisy Dryad.

It was as swift and violent as a spider snatching its prey caught in a web. Engulfed by the roots, he was wrapped in a halo of light as white as his own petals. Then, he began to shrink in size. Like a melting candy, he vanished, and with a hollow thud, the dagger that had been lodged in his head fell to the ground.

Everything happened in an instant.

Only the dagger, lying forlorn in a puddle, bore witness to the white Daisy Dryad’s existence. It seemed Daisy had indeed used the white dryad as fertilizer, just as she had declared.

It was the first time I’d seen one dryad use another as fertilizer. It felt almost like devouring.

Daisy was enveloped in a radiant golden light. For a moment, I worried she might have gotten sick from consuming the unhealthy one, but that wasn’t the case. Unlike the white dryad, who vanished like a snowman melting in the sun, Daisy grew larger, like a plant stretching in spring.

Her height, always shorter than mine, increased, and her limbs grew longer. Her face, once childlike with chubby cheeks like baby fat, became refined and elegant.

Her gear also changed noticeably. The dark green jacket that once reached her waist lengthened like the white dryad’s, becoming thicker in texture, and a short, unbalanced cape settled on one shoulder. Her neck, once exposed as a fatal weakness, was now covered up to her chin by a jacket collar with a buckle.

Except for her calm, short red hair and her warm, chestnut-brown eyes, it was hard to find traces of the childlike Daisy.

Only after defeating the white Daisy Dryad did Daisy truly grow. She, who had always been mistaken for a sapling, now stood as a full-fledged tree.

“Jae.”

Daisy no longer called me ‘Master Druid.’ She called my name in an affectionate voice, ran over in one swift motion, and hugged me. Her demeanor was so composed it was hard to believe she had just come back from the dead.

I, who had been unable to muster the courage to get up the entire time, was held tightly in Daisy’s arms, supported by her. I wanted to jump for joy and celebrate her growth, but I could barely manage, struggling with pain in my abdomen that clenched with every breath.

“I’m so glad you’re safe. I’m sorry I couldn’t finish it faster.”

“How… could that be your fault. It’s my fault for not helping at all. Don’t do that again… don’t die in my place. Seeing it twice is too hard for me.”

Just a moment ago, my heart nearly stopped several times. I felt like I’d gone back and forth between heaven and hell countless times. My mind is completely shattered.

“Yes! Since I’ve used up all my chances now, I’ll try not to die!”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“But even if I had no chances left, in a situation like that one, I would’ve done the same without hesitation!”

Daisy said that and held me even tighter. As if I’d fall apart if she let go.

With a sigh, I buried my face in Daisy’s now quite broad shoulder. And, mustering all my strength, I said as brightly as I could, “Congratulations on growing.” Then Daisy happily replied, “This is my true form!”

Fully grown Daisy is so cool. It’s hard to believe that such a beautiful flower once had the form of a child.

While I was briefly enjoying the afterglow of our combat victory with Daisy, the room we were in suddenly shook with an earthquake-like sound.