Chapter 52

While binding our party so tightly, the other side had yet to reveal itself. I changed the main healer to Elder to help him endure longer. When I suggested he enter the artifact, he refused.

If he returned to the artifact now, it would reduce the degree of his life force being drained, and with the power of the World Tree, he might recover over time. However, during that time, our party would be without a healer, making it more dangerous.

He insisted on fulfilling his duties, even as he was dying.

Are you crazy? Not even potions would work. Wait. Potions?

Shaking out my bag, a bottle containing the Panacea given by Dandelion and a piece of her staff, which I had momentarily forgotten, popped out.

Sure enough, the king's foresight! When he gave this, he said it could cure almost any illness! Could he have anticipated this moment…?

“Drink this quickly!”

I even opened the cap for him and handed it over. But Elder refused.

Damn, why are you refusing this? Whether it will work or not, you won’t know until you try it! If you hoard it, it will go to waste! My precious Dryad is about to retire, and you’re worrying about a universal cure…?

“I can still endure.”

“Why are you enduring, you idiot?”

In response to my question, Elder sighed softly.

“I’m gauging my strength. I’m waiting for the right moment. To see how long I can endure with my healing power. So far, my healing power is dominant. I need to know when the poison’s strength surpasses mine. We need to strategize for Mesquite and Daisy to be prepared for the poison.”

He then pushed the bottle towards me and put it to my lips.

“And I don’t need to drink it. You can drink it. If you wait and drink it at the last moment, when Mesquite and Daisy are also affected by the poison, it will be more effective. Don’t you understand the connection of souls? You are our little World Tree. The power of the medicine flowing through your soul will also flow to us.”

I was momentarily speechless at Elder’s words, realizing the deep connection between me and my Dryads, and the changing demeanor of Elder over time.

A strange and awkward feeling, something I couldn’t quite grasp, suddenly rose within me, making my whole body tingle. It was as if I had been hit on the head, leaving me momentarily speechless. What is this?

But the urgent reality quickly made me forget this feeling.

I closed the cap of the Panacea bottle and clutched it tightly. At the last moment! I will drink it! Whether it will work or not, we now had a glimmer of hope.

The irregular black liquid spewing from the front was easily blocked by Mesquite. We needed to reduce any debuffs as much as possible right now.

“Daisy, hit the spot where that strange attack is coming from!”

The enemy, in a very foolish and honest manner, was attacking from a fixed position, clearly indicating to us where it was.

If our party had only been capable of close-range attacks, this would have been impossible. Fortunately, Daisy, having become the Forest King and absorbed another Daisy’s abilities, could now perform long-range attacks, albeit in a single burst.

At my command, Daisy connected two daggers. Taking advantage of Mesquite slightly moving her shield, she threw the boomerang. It flew towards the target, surrounded by a sparkling transparent light, at high speed.

A strange scream, “Guaaak,” echoed, and the attack aimed at us stopped.

Is that a human voice? A young boy’s voice came from the other side. Daisy, holding the recovered boomerang, and Mesquite, who had been staring at the spot from beginning to end, both had peculiar expressions.

Mesquite’s expression gradually twisted into anger, her eyes becoming fierce as if she could spew fire.

“How dare you….”

Her anger was like that of someone who had committed an unforgivable act.

“Mesquite…?”

It was even more intense than the anger towards fire.

“Did you think… it’s a Dryad! I thought it was impossible, but it is.”

“Wow! A Dryad? Could it be a wild Dryad?”

“There’s no Druid aura here, so it must be a wild one. But the important thing is that it attacked Jay, who is like a small World Tree! How dare it…!”

I recalled Dandelion, who, despite being a first-time encounter, treated me with utmost respect.

All Druids in the world consider Dryads as the hope and small gods of the forest. Even though she held a high position as a queen, she treated me with humility.

She was a wild, naturally occurring Dryad, acting as if she had been trained to do so from birth.

Based on the experiences with Dandelion and Mesquite’s anger… if a wild Dryad had revealed itself, it should have stopped attacking upon recognizing me as a Druid.

“Was it because of the fires that approached earlier?”

“At that distance, it would have instinctively recognized Jay’s presence. Your soul is no longer small. You emit a strong aura that a Dryad could recognize from afar.”

“A Dryad without a master would never attack a Druid on its own!”

Daisy nodded at Mesquite’s words, gripping the boomerang tightly and preparing to attack again, clearly intending to strike again.

Then a sniffing sound was heard. Is someone crying? Who? Not our party. Could it be… the Dryad hiding there…?

Just as the boomerang was about to leave Daisy’s hand, the attacks that had stopped resumed, pouring from the front.

A swarm of moth-like light entities surged like a tidal wave. Despite not being real insects, the sound of flapping wings was so loud it seemed like an auditory hallucination due to their sheer number.

Mesquite shouted to stop, and using the moment when a sand wall rose, she thrust her lance. The force of her attack, focused on shifting from defense to offense, blew away all the light entities with the wind pressure alone.

However, despite her strength, Mesquite, being a close-range fighter, couldn’t directly harm the enemy. Even if Mesquite tried to use her special abilities, it was impossible with the enemy so far away. It was a frustrating limitation.

Is that kid intentionally not coming out?

There’s a Druid here! You bastard!

As with Dandelion, I’m still not used to the excessive treatment I receive from Dryads just because I’m a Druid, but now I need to assert myself.

“Do you know the World Tree? I’m that Druid! Touching a small World Tree means certain death!”

I shouted at the top of my lungs, but the attacks only intensified. No, the more we counter-attacked, the more frenzied the attacks became. There’s no solution? It’s like stepping on a worm, and it writhes around!

Suddenly, Daisy looked at Elder for a while and then at me.

“Since it’s still possible… We can’t advance, and the enemy doesn’t show itself, so we’re at a disadvantage! I’ll draw it out!”

Her eyes were filled with confidence, and I nodded without realizing it.

Oh no! That look is the same as when she pulls out a giant bug and runs off alone, doing something dangerous.

Before I could stop her, Daisy quickly shot out a vine from her arm. The vine wrapped around a dead tree branch that was lying on the ground, forming an arch.

Holding the vine, Daisy rose into the air. The ground was too dangerous for Mesquite to move, so she was trying to move through the air.

“Even if your life force is high, a direct hit will…!”

Elder urgently extended her staff towards Daisy. The vine, which was swinging Daisy in a parabolic arc like a pendulum, was hit by a luck buff. Daisy nimbly dodged the black liquid pouring down and quickly moved away from us.

When she reached a height close to the ceiling, she took advantage of a brief pause in the enemy’s movement and shot another vine with her other hand. Another scream, “Guaaak,” echoed from a distance.

The speed of her descent from the highest point was as fierce as her ascent. When she turned around and shot another vine, it pulled back a trophy, which was then violently slammed into the swamp floor.

The blue light entities in the air eventually harmed Daisy. Weakened by the attacks, she lost her grip on the vine. Mesquite quickly caught her falling.

“Daisy!”

Daisy, like Elder, had a faint purple tinge around her eyes, possibly from the poison. Elder urgently tried to replenish Daisy’s waning life force.

However, due to the increasing debuff from her own poisoning, it seemed she was struggling to care for both. The light of her healing was gradually fading.

“Is this the moment you mentioned?”

I didn’t need to hear Elder’s answer. I opened the cap of the Panacea bottle and drank it. The grassy scent I had smelled in the dandelion field, along with a bitter taste, rushed into my mouth. As the liquid in the bottle decreased, my head cleared, and a warm sensation spread through my body.

When I had drunk about half, I stopped, sensing