Half a year later, Petra stood in the center of a huge stone circle. The stone pattern engraved on the huge map depicted a complex, detailed, and accurate map that spanned the entire Cross Continent.
The overall theme of the 'Tower Mansion' was nature, rustic, and fantasy. It stood on a stone foundation with mostly wooden walls. The dark wooden beams and pillars mixed with white colored walls, giving a bright and vibrant feel. The house was decorated with green and white banners, tree-shaped decorations, and complex engravings that may or may not do anything.
In front of the little green haired girl were two massive wooden doors, standing almost triple her height. OK, so the doors were just normal sized doors, but they were still very big compared to Petra.
These doors led into a massive tower that reached into the sky. If it were not for the even more towering tree that stood directly behind it, one would exclaim at the sheer size of this tower. The tower had two wings, each stretching around the circumference of the massive tree. These two-story tall halls each had a large variety of unique rooms, some were workshops, and others were used for storage, but together they covered almost everything one could think of. From Alchemy to Painting, there wasn't a lot that wasn't planned for. For those more unique rooms, one could just use an empty room and convert it into whatever was needed.
The backside of the large tree was a massive garden containing an enormous number of poisonous and deadly plants. Surrounding the entire house was a ring-shaped stone walkway that branched out in the four directions. Surrounding the building were miles of terrace farms, and past the farmland was an enormous lake that circled the entire area. Smaller stone pathways and small bridges intertwined with off-stream channels that ran through the farmland, making it look more artistic than focused on efficiency.
The tower, unlike the two side wings, was a five-floor structure. Each floor was unique, differing in height, especially the top three floors. The third floor was the tallest, having only two windows, and took up almost half of the tower's height. The fourth floor was of normal height, with absolutely no windows, but it protruded slightly, making it pop compared to the rest of the tower. The fifth floor was the top of the tower, and it had the most windows, with nearly a complete ring of transparent glass surrounding the outer walls. On top of the fifth floor was a large circular roof with a little green flag on top.
Petra walked through the front doors and into the foyer. Here, two doors led down the side halls on the left and the right.
Ahead and to the side were two sets of stairs that led upwards to the second floor. Directly forward was an even larger door that led into the grand hall. This was the largest area in the mansion tower, mainly used for large gatherings or special events. The grand hall could also be used for low level training. To each side of the grand hall were four rooms, each significantly smaller, but still existing for the purpose of business (if she ever needed it).
Going up the main stairs, Petra climbed to the second floor of the tower. Here, Petra appeared in a small waiting room. Through the only door forward, you would find yourself standing in a large open room. In this room was the main dining table and lots of open space. This room branched out and led to dozens of smaller living quarters for the current and future staff of the tower.
At the end of the open room was another door that led to a set of stairs that took you to the third floor.
The third floor was the library.
It was a large circular room. The surrounding walls were made of simple wood, but the carvings were mystical and beautifully etched into the design of each pillar. The circular walls seemed to extend upwards indefinitely, but the few floors you could see were ring like balconies with the center cut out, leaving an unimpeded view up through the center. In truth, this was a simple illusion, there were only three layers of the library, each a circular balcony that was accessed through simple stairs.
There were two windows, one on each side of the room. These windows were not wide, but they ran the height of the floor.
The center of the library was filled with comfortable furniture, and most of the magic junk Petra had bought back in Sevensen.
Petra's favourite furnishing was a large circular couch placed directly in the center of the room. The seats were facing outwards, and the inside circle was turned into a massive and fluffy cushion. This massive cushion was just right to jump into and look up into the artificial sky.
Winding around the sides of the library were two thick sets of stairs mimicking a helix. These stairs led upwards to the fourth floor.
The Fourth floor was Petra's personal laboratory, containing many miniaturized versions of the facilities scattered around the tower mansion.
The fifth and final floor was Petra's personal living quarters.
This was a massive cylindrical room with glass windows on each wall. For those familiar, it looked a little bit like the top floor of a lighthouse. Huge dark green curtains were tied to the sides of each window, in case Petra ever wanted to close the windows.
In the center of the room was an enormous bed that would make every princess jealous. It was large, circular, and had countless pillows, all of which were different sizes and shapes. The whole thing had a white and green motif, looking comfortable and refreshing.
Petra stood at the window, overlooking the hard work that had been done throughout the last six months.
The landscape was beautiful. The flat grassy plane was changed into complex and wavy terrace farms. The outer river branched off and intertwined with the stone pathways, sometimes needing bridges, sometimes just blocking a path, and leaving the overall image as a mixture between nature and production.
Petra looked around.
Her room also had many bookshelves, but most of them were empty, just like the library. The few books she did have were her favorite stories that she had bought while traveling.
Petra had an eidetic memory, so when she had time, she planned to make copies of all the books she had read. She just had to find enough paper first...
-
When talking about the changes over the past half a year, we first have to look at the Ant Queen. The Ant Queen had transformed the majority of the underground spirit vein into its own underground fortress. The countless tunnels branched out into an organized structure that didn't harm the tree or cause any underground instability. The army of ants had silently grown to a terrifying number, but they remained mostly unseen, because they were usually underground or outside doing work.
Even Petra didn't know the full scale of the underground world.
There were many new species of ants as well.
Although Petra had not been able to make her 'communication ants', she did manage to get a 'delivery ant'.
A special breed of ant that was ridiculously fast in one direction. It could make the one-month trip to Sevensen in half a day. This way, Petra could get the local newspaper on the day of release.
The man who sold the newspaper would just see a human-head-sized insect fly down, drop a golden coin, snatch a newspaper, and zip off into the horizon.
Curious as to why Petra didn't just leave an ant in Sevensen and have it transmit information back through the network like some crazy form of instantaneous communication?
Well, that was because Petra's thoughts were crazy and chaotic, and she thought that reading an actual newspaper was a lot cooler.
Just imagine that one sage who lives deep in the forest, a lone mailbox that guards no house. Each day, an elderly scholar appeared from nowhere and retrieved his paper.
Petra was kinda like that... just more insecty.
Next was the spider and the centipede. The spider had gone from 5m tall to 6m tall. The centipede, however, had gone from 10m to 12m, almost double the growth.
The frog was mostly unchanged, but his appetite seemed to have increased.
The snake was the luckiest. After soaking in the mysterious blue pond beside the Emerald Ghost Tree, it awakened its innate ability to crystallize its body. It didn't change in size, still only a meter, but its durability became a lot more terrifying.
As for this snake's personality…
Petra had discovered that this little snake was incredibly vengeful.
There was one time when it disappeared for an entire day, just to backtrack and beat up a beast that had spooked Petra the day before.
Finally, there was the Ethereal Echo Silverwing Butterfly.
The butterfly had finally hatched. With the combined efforts of the blue pool and the spirit stone mine, the world's first Ethereal Echo Silverwing had been born after thousands of years.
Like the legends, this palm sized little black butterfly would destroy anything it flew past. Funnily enough, this seemingly harmless beast was actually Petra's most destructive beast. As for the 'palm sized', after it had hatched from the 'head sized' chrysalis, the little guy shrank. Petra suspected that it was compressing the space around it, just to adjust its size.
Petra let it land on the side of her head, sitting there like a hair accessory. It had the ability to create illusions and bend space, so it was actually a very powerful beast to keep around.
Unfortunately, the range of its current ability was very small, only reaching a few centimeters.
-
After the house was complete, the six maids all fell in love with it.
Over the past half a year, the girls had all gotten a lot closer, almost like a family.
Lilly and Luna were in charge of the kitchen. After many months of experimenting and the occasional tip from Petra, the two girls had actually gotten pretty good at cooking. When they were not in the kitchen, Lilly worked as a tailor, and Luna went around to clean. The two girls felt at home working for Petra. If it weren't for Luna's voice still not having recovered, the two twins would have been convinced they were trapped in a dream.
Mell came from a small village. After her tragic backstory, she lost her family and a foot. Despite missing a foot, the simple and rustic girl still tried her best, working in the forge and making simple household objects that were needed around the house. The reason that her missing foot affected her work was because she could throw a lot less strength into her swing. When she did, she would feel a sharp pain.
Wind grew up in an aristocratic family. She was born with many responsibilities, and would eventually end up like every aristocratic daughter, sold off in a marriage alliance and forced to bear several children. Although her path was a bit rocky, she somehow ended up with the life she had always dreamed of, no stress, no responsibilities, just some daily cleaning and quietly awaiting the 'paperwork' that Petra was convinced would one day come.
Rose was the most grumpy. Maybe it had something to do with her being stuck in a girl's body all day long, or maybe it had something to do with the custom made skirts that were significantly shorter than the others, but Rose felt like she was slowly starting to fall to the effects of Stockholm Syndrome. She spent the days gorging herself like a beast and doing heavy lifting around the house.
Nebula brought the biggest surprise to Petra. The silent and inconspicuous girl actually knew how to make books. Everything from creating paper to binding and then fitting the covers. This skill alone was enough to make Petra beg the old man to sell her his daughter. What Petra didn't know was that a certain green haired little interstellar devil from the future was still snickering at the foolish old man who had sold his daughter to become her bookmaker.
-
The last thing to note was the large changes in the outside world.
Only half a year had passed, but the changes that happened to the Cross Continent were explosive.
The first big change was a continental initiative to relocate the majority of underpopulated or remote villages to larger more protected areas.
Although this was a big job, it came as a command from the four towers, so nobody objected.
The second big change was around the Royal City of Llynun. Because of its extreme proximity to the mysterious Ice Castle, most of the city's population had been evacuated and moved to a slightly smaller city named Skysena to the east.
The surrounding defenses and war preparations were all underway, but it wasn't only the South that had been preparing for war.
Many cities around the continent had begun organizing free classes to teach the common people about elementals and elemental combat, focusing on the Ice element. They covered fighting styles, survival, and emergency medical treatment.
The final big change happened around Elena and the north.
Elena finally walked into the public eye, confirming the suspicion that the central region did, in fact, have a hidden 'Hero'.
Although not that simple, Elena chose to appear and represent the central region.
Her appearance also marked the beginning of the speculation around the missing Hero in the north.
It was unknown how it started, but news about Elena's little sister, a young little orphan girl from Evergreen Town, began to slowly spread. It could have just been the whispers of a few townsfolk during some small talk, but Elena felt like it was something else, some kind of hidden hand, trying to push Petra into the open.
Anyways, after a few weeks of inaccurate and unfounded rumors, the sudden explanation of Petra's origin by 'that one matchmaking auntie from Evergreen Town' somehow immediately confirmed that Petra was the fifth chosen hero. No one cared about the missing twins, nor did they look at the strange silver haired elf that would appear from time to time, they just all jumped onto the Petra bandwagon.
When Petra read the news, she almost felt like she was reading the script for a horror movie. The skips in logic and random untraceable snippets of information were clearly problematic to anyone with a brain.
Unfortunately for the world, despite the countless voices all demanding that Petra show herself, she never appeared. As for the many search parties that intruded into the northern forest, Petra could not be bothered.
It was like she didn't exist.
Even divination didn't work.
The last time she had been seen was shortly before the massacre at the high elven ruins.
Nobody even knew if she was still alive.
The thing hidden behind the scenes seemed to be very displeased with this, so he continued to spread rumors, completely ignoring Petra's opinion and trying his best to pull the little girl out of hiding.
Some put bounties on her whereabouts, others searched desperately, there were stories of sad parents missing their daughter and injured villagers praying to see their favourite little girl one last time. None of this worked.
One day, some idiot claimed to have seen the missing child, only to post about it in the newspaper, directly smacking it on the front page.
'Discovered the missing Hero in the Northern Region, Requesting Help!' This was followed by a picture of a small girl with bright black eyes and messy black hair!
Petra clicked her tongue.
They still thought she had black hair!
'Was my hair really that dirty?' Petra couldn't help but look at her bright and vibrant emerald waterfall. 'How could this be mistaken for black?'
What Petra didn't know was that the description came from her fellow townsmen, genuinely wanting to rescue her.
After the 'fact' that the fifth heaven's chosen had 'black hair' and 'black eyes' was put into the newspaper, it nearly drove the thing behind the scenes insane. He tried to fix the description to green hair, but the direct testimony and absolute confidants of a certain 'matchmaking auntie from Evergreen Town' could not be questioned!