When Petra opened her eyes, she was overwhelmed by a sudden, intense pain that pierced through her entire body. Her small face scrunched into a grimace as she spasmed on the blood-stained bed.
Wincing in pain, Petra tried to sit up.
To her surprise, her body was overwhelmed by an intense wave of exhaustion. Her strength gave out, and she collapsed back on the bed with a small 'poof'.
She fell back like a pool of jelly. Petra could feel her body repairing itself, so she just lay down on the bed and tried to think about what had happened.
When she scanned her surroundings… she froze—
Only now did she notice that she was laying in a pool of black blood. It soaked through the white sheets, staining them blacker than the blackest ink. Not only that, but she also discovered that the surrounding books had turned to dust.
Fortunately, this destruction was somehow contained to a five-meter radius around her.
Her eyes trembled.
She realized that… she may have been a tiny bit reckless this time…
-
Ten minutes later—
Surrounding Petra on the bed were eight small figures…
They hopped around like cute little dolls, each semi-ethereal, transparent, and shaped loosely like mini versions of her eight contracted beasts, only less detailed and cuter! Their eyes were big and black, filling their chibi faces, and looking at her with a deep worry.
Petra sighed softly.
Of course, they felt it, how could they not…
Even if the aura didn't leak out… everything she did inside the dantian, every fluctuation of her soul, each tremor of her emotions, it should have all shook their 'contract'.
Even deaths encroach—
They must've been terrified!
One of the dolls, a cute little spider with eight dazzling eyes, sat down on her chest, shaking its butt around in a hesitant display of congratulations.
Petra could feel that it was trying to change the mood.
What a good child!
It was about the size of a head, small enough to bring around, and big enough to hug. It leaned over her, staring down with its exaggerated eyes. So, why did the Tower Spider, which was the size of a literal tower, suddenly look like a cute and huggable doll?
Well—! That was Levy's fault!
Around a month ago, Levy had taught the contracted beasts a 'special technique'. They learned how to 'project' themselves through the contract and leech a tiny, harmless, itsy-bitsy bit, of Petra's mental energy to create chibi versions of themselves that could appear around her whenever they wanted.
This way, no matter the distance, they could always be with her wherever she went.
This was especially important for two of them… who were way too big for their own good and would definitely not fit in her room at night.
Mm, also! Being the embodiment of a floating pillow was just a bonus!
-
After a few minutes of resting, Petra finally felt strong enough to sit. She placed a shaky hand on her chest and tried to feel her own condition…
She quickly realized that she was overflowing with strength!
Her strength had increased so much that she couldn't even imagine the gap between her old self and her new self. She hadn't thought that the change from a single rank up would be this great!
Petra sat up and looked at the bed beneath her.
- Black blood, and a lot of it…
No, not just that. It was a bloody mess that couldn't be described with words. If she had stumbled upon this sight, perhaps she would assume that someone was violently tortured here, before being replaced, and continuing until whoever was responsible ran out of bodies.
It was really bad…
Petra felt even worse for whoever had to clean this up…
She thought about destroying the blankets to 'hide the evidence', but she liked this blanket. Mm, as she was thinking whether being selfish was acceptable here, a sudden jolt ran down her spine!
"Eek!" Petra yipped, her small body jumping up as her head snapped around towards her butt!
When she looked, her eyes widened in shock.
The Calamity Wolf, well, its chibi version, was biting down on something that definitely hadn't been there before! It was—
A tail…
A tail?
A tail—!
What the hell!
The fluffy little wolf dangled down, its cute teeth locking in place as it kicked its legs happily in its own little version of tug-of-war. It looked naive and cute, but some might also call it courting death, and it didn't even seem to realize…
Petra froze.
For a moment, her mind went blank.
Then—
'Ka-yap!—Woosh! Bang!'
Her eyes flashed with annoyance, and she flicked her butt sharply. The cute little ball of energy went carving through the air and across the room, landing with a bang, then rolling like a kicked plush toy until it came to a very miserable stop near the wall.
Her tail twitched behind her, only a few centimeters long, but undeniably there!
It was sensitive and useless—
But it was there!
She had started to grow!
Petra laughed out loud, her delight overflowing!
* * *
After Petra adjusted herself and shook off the lingering numbness, she decided she should at least go check on a few things. She reached over to the bedside table, intending to grab the artifact that restricted her mental energy, but froze.
It had shattered.
Not cracked, shattered.
Shattered completely into dust, scattered across the wooden table like powdered sand.
Petra blinked.
Her brows furrowed as she tried to think.
Why…?
Did she break it during her breakthrough?
Did her mental energy overload it?
Did it just… give up?
Probably not…
After a moment of thought, she still couldn't figure it out. She realized that she was completely unaware of the outside world during her breakthrough.
"Hmph!"
She shook her head and decided she'd just make another one later… or maybe just force Levy to help her make something stronger… yeah, that one!
Petra hopped off the bed, wobbling only a little, and made her way towards the door.
Before she reached it, she looked down at herself and frowned.
Although she didn't have any injuries left on her body, she was still in a lot of pain.
Not to mention she was very dirty…
A mixture of dried black blood and expelled impurities clung to her skin like oily soot. The amount of impurities expelled… it was almost as much as her first cultivation session, which was very strange.
Petra sighed, then trotted over to the wardrobe and yanked it open. She plunged her head down, sticking the front half of her body in, and flailed her legs around as she searched. Soon, she threw on one of the old black robes, because the current white nightgown was soaked and a bit transparent. Once she was covered, she took a breath and stretched her arms.
Before leaving, she 'picked up' the eight little cuties.
Some floated behind her like tiny ghosts, orbiting, while others clung to her shoulders, arms, and even the back of her head like fluffy ornaments. One wrapped around her ankle, while another sat proudly on top of her head. Petra was fully packed and prepared!
It was actually a pretty good system…
Mm, no, it wasn't…
"…At least you're cute," she muttered under her breath, and opened the door to stagger outside.
Soon, she disappeared in a flicker of black light.
* * *
Ten minutes later, Petra was floating spread-eagled in a warm bath.
Steam curled lazily around the room, and the water shimmered faintly as the leftover impurities were purified and dissolved into harmless dust under Luna's custom cleansing spell.
Luna stood to the side, arms crossed.
Her expression was dark.
In the span of these ten minutes, she had found the disaster Petra left in her room, panicked, ran around searching for her little master, and eventually found Petra struggling to draw a bath while still half-covered in dried blood, looking like a fool.
Luna's eyes had immediately darkened with emotion.
She didn't say anything, you know—as a mute and all, but the message was clear, 'how reckless can you be!?' She didn't need to know what Petra was doing to understand that it was extremely dangerous.
Before Petra could even explain, Luna had shoved her out of the way and angrily taken over, twisting the valves with aggressive movements, dumping in a bucket of 'light element herbs', and adjusted the temperature to the max.
This was a punishment!
Unfortunately, Petra's new physique made her very durable.
When the bath was finally ready, Petra lowered her head awkwardly, her cheeks red.
Luna huffed silently and pointed her finger.
Petra awkwardly nodded.
She slipped into the water with a soft splash, sighing as the boiling warmth wrapped around her sore muscles. Dried impurities dissolved instantly, turning the water a faint shade of gray before the cleansing runes purified it again, cleaning it to clear.
Luna watched her with a stare far too intense for a maid. It was a bit scary. After a while, she began casting her own purification spells, frustrated that Petra looked too relaxed!
The water started to sizzle, but Petra almost purred, even feeling a bit sleepy from the cleanse...
Luna: "!!"
Petra shrank a little, sinking deeper as the thought, 'When did this girl's gaze get so piercing?'
Luna didn't budge, no, if anything, her eyes narrowed even more.
Petra trembled slightly.
She had really messed up this time!
She hadn't seen this little girl so grumpy before. Not only was she worried, but she was also furious, and, although Petra didn't notice, a tiny bit relieved.
To distract herself from the oppressive gaze, Petra grabbed one of the nearby 'bath toys'. And by 'bath toys', she naturally meant the eight little puffballs pretending to be rubber ducks. Soon she had all eight of them bobbing up and down and all around her like a little parade, splashing water with their tiny legs.
It had devolved into a splashing fit…
After a while, Petra finished washing.
She rose out of the bath, water streaming down her hair and arms, then walked over to the mirror.
Luna swiftly approached with a towel, her movements clean and precise, clearly prepared.
Petra stood naked in front of the mirror.
Her reflection was like a porcelain doll. Smooth, pale skin lacking a single flaw, small delicate limbs, round cheeks that glowed faintly pink from the heat of the bath. Her damp emerald hair clung to her shoulders like silk, giving her an almost ethereal, fairy-like face, despite her childish size.
Luna stood behind her, drying Petra's hair with a towel.
She was clearly upset, judging from the unnecessary force applied through the towel.
From time to time, Luna's eyes drifted down, more specifically, towards Petra's butt, where the tiny tail had finally started to sprout.
She looked away awkwardly, and Petra pretended not to notice.
As Luna dried her down, Petra rotated her body this way and that, examining the changes from the breakthrough. Her voice was quiet and cute, "The advancement to the Golden Core realm seemed to have changed my body a bit…"
Her 'draconic features', what little there were, had become slightly more pronounced.
She didn't have horns, but the tiny tail had indeed started to sprout, twitching with every sway of the hips. When she leaned closer to the mirror, she noticed something else, on her flanks, the faintest trace of green scales shimmered under the light. They were so faint that they could be ignored, and they were closer to calluses than anything else, but they had started to appear!
Petra nodded to herself, satisfied.
Smack!
A hand landed on her head.
Luna's expression read, 'Hold still!'
Petra trembled and shrank her neck.
Once her hair was fully cleaned and her skin completely dried, Luna helped her get dressed.
Although Luna didn't know exactly what had happened during Petra's cultivation session, one thing was obvious, and that was that the black blood-like substance covering Petra earlier was not normal. It clung to her skin and hair like sticky oil, refusing to wash off with normal methods. It was many times worse than normal impurities.
Even now, a faint smell of blood clung to the discarded towel, corrupting it.
After Petra was dressed, she let out a small huff in satisfaction.
She was refreshed!
She followed Luna out of the bathroom, her tail swaying faintly behind her with each step.