Interested in the blue pond, Petra took a closer look.
This was a viscous substance that had accumulated at the base of the tree over many years. Petra looked up and found a 'wound' on the massive tree about halfway up. Something similar to a transparent sap had leaked out a very long time ago, mixing with the skeleton of something that lay at the bottom of the pond.
Her eyes moved from 'wound' to 'pond' and back. In her mind, this seemed to be a wound left behind from a battle with a large and powerful beast.
The beast had died here a long time ago. Its body was decomposed by the 'blood' of the tree and mixed together to create this strange pond. This pond formed after countless years and remained untouched at the foot of this tree.
Petra stood at the edge of this pond, lost in thought.
She wasn't sure what would happen if one was exposed to the pond.
Before she could think too much, the four insects, excluding the frog, flew into the pond and submerged themselves.
The frog looked like it wanted to do the same, but it waited for permission from Petra.
Petra found this funny.
If the spider was a suck up, then the caterpillar was lazy, the ant was gluttonous, and the centipede was playful, only the frog was clear-headed. These five beasts were surprisingly diverse for 'Kings' of their respective species.
Judging from the greed shown by these five little guys, jumping into the pond was probably not a bad thing. This liquid probably had a certain level of evolutionary ability.
Thinking about the unreasonable size of this tree, Petra sighed before running a quick lap and going to sleep. Petra spent a few minutes running around the tree trunk and inspected it for any more anomalies that they might have missed.
After finding nothing, she returned to the pond and set up her tent.
The day had been long, and it was time to sleep.
Under the blue and green tree, beneath thousands of firefly-like butterflies, Petra fell asleep, awaiting the surprise in the morning…
-
The next morning, Petra woke to a cool and comfortable breeze.
The green tide was still in full swing, but the environment under the Emerald Ghost Tree was like a cool spring environment. Petra almost felt as if she was sitting at home back on earth, watching a rainstorm through the window.
She really wanted a cup of hot chocolate right now.
Shaking away that rare sense of melancholy, Petra got up. She once heard a saying back home, 'the best way to wake up is to surprise your blanket'. Unfortunately, Petra currently didn't have a blanket, so she could only mention it inwardly and act cool.
After getting up, she pulled out a loaf of bread and began munching on it like a hamster.
Her little eyes looked from beyond the horizon of bread and towards the strange pond.
After confirming that the five little guys didn't dissolve instantly last night, she went to sleep because of the overly exhausting day.
Now, she wanted to look into what exactly the pond was doing to them, and how it would affect them.
She looked around only to discover that the spider was missing.
The other four little guys were drifting in the pond like dead fish, but the spider seemed to have disappeared.
Confused, Petra looked around.
Soon, she discovered an anomaly...
A large pile of trees had been stacked horizontally, not too far from her. Petra tilted her head.
Did her little spider turn into wood?
'Mmmm, that doesn't seem right...'
She continued to nibble on the bread while looking around.
Soon, she discovered a very interesting sight.
Not too far past the forest border, Petra found the sight of her 'little' friend working diligently by bashing down trees, then carrying them back.
Yes, you read that right.
The 'little' spider from last night had not only turned into a 5-meter-tall behemoth, but its strength was so great that it could smash against a tree and then carry it back.
Petra initially thought that she was seeing things.
Where did this monster come from?
Why did it look like an upscaled version of her little friend?
And most importantly, why did it seem like a better lumberjack than her??
Confused, Petra wondered if she was still dreaming.
Her little eyes sparkled as they turned towards the strange pond.
Could this thing really be so magical? Even if it was, wasn't this a bit too ridiculous? Was she in a comedy novel? Did this pond create kaijus?
Her gaze shifted to the other four lazy little brats.
'If these guys grow that big as well, how am I going to feed them..?'
After a moment of questioning her life, Petra lamented the fairness of it all.
She touched her chest and wondered, if she joined them for a dip, would she grow just like them? If it wasn't for her natural instincts telling her that it was suicidal, she probably would have done it.
What Petra didn't know was that the 'potential' and 'intelligence' of these five beasts weren't the effect of the blue pond, instead, these five king-level beasts were innately geniuses.
If an Insect breeder knew that these five little guys had approached her on their own accord, they would probably go mad. He would cry something like 'why couldn't it be him'. Well, that was before he had a heart attack and died of fear.
Looking towards the pile of lumber, Petra felt that this spider was a real team player.
Building the mansion she imagined was a big job, so Petra wanted to start with a small cottage where she could stay temporarily.
After thinking about it, she began building it.
Because she didn't have any nails or special tools, she had to build the entire thing out of wood, just like a wooden cabin.
She used the crude knife and axe she had bought before leaving town to refine and shape the logs that the big spider brought over. This tedious act was going to be a long job, so she might as well get used to it.
Under the protection of the Emerald Ghost Tree, Petra methodically carved tree after tree into the building blocks of a simple wood cottage.
After three days, the centipede woke up.
Like the spider, its size had exploded. It reached 10 meters long and its exoskeleton was ridiculously tough. Its intelligence was like that of the spider's, similar to a young child.
After the duo continuously picked away at the forest, Petra realised something that could either be bad or good.
The forest, which should have been balding after so many trees were cut down, had regrown at an alarming rate. The speed that the trees were growing was very unusual.
This discovery made Petra realise something that she had overlooked. Turning her head to the massive tree behind her, she wondered where this thing got the energy to grow so large.
Squinting her childish eyes, she looked towards the ground.
There was probably a very powerful treasure underneath her feet.
Looking at the towering pile of lumber that had begun to get out of hand, she asked the centipede to dig around instead of continuing to compete with the spider for 'most helpful'.
Just like that, Petra continued her somewhat boring days.
A day later, the frog woke up.
Unlike the spider and centipede, the frog had only grown to about the size of a human head. After playing around with a few things, Petra tasked the frog with catching food.
Like that, the mundane life of carving wood continued.
This day, Petra was awoken in the middle of the night by the violent and overwhelming sound of thunder.
The sky boomed and lightning cracked.
One would almost wonder if the world was breaking apart.
Although Petra was unaware, there was a devastating battle going on somewhere else in the forest. Fortunately, this was not her problem. As a member of the 'I don't want to be the protagonist' fan club, Petra would have really regretted following the crowd to the ruins.
The green tide became thicker, and the storm intensified.
For the inhabitants of the forest, there was not a single one who would not be jealous of Petra's leisurely life underneath the Emerald Ghost Tree.
As time went on, Petra realised that the evolution of the last two insects would take a much longer time. Although she wasn't sure why, these two seemed to be special. Petra guessed that it probably had something to do with the origin of the thing that made the pond.
Today, Petra began her work constructing the house.
Because all the pieces were cut to near perfection, assembling the wooden cottage was no different from connecting Lago, only with a little more heavy lifting.
After a few hours of hard work, Petra constructed her very first small home!
"Dun da da! Look at it! Home sweet home!"
Little Petra stood in front of the door to her new home.
It was a small one-story building with five rooms, a lobby, a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a storage room. She didn't have a library or a study, but as a beginner at home construction, this was pretty good.
Behind the house was the silhouette of a towering tree. It was so large that its color began to desaturate as one looked towards its peak.
The spider and the centipede were too large to fit into the house, but the frog happily hopped in.
Following the frog, Petra entered with excitement.
Her little eyes shone with a light few could understand.
A few minutes later, Petra was stripped from head to toe. Her body lay naked under the unbelievably warm water. She let out a long sigh. This bathtub was one of a kind. If Elena saw it, she would cry tears of joy. The water was produced by a simple rune, the heat was provided by another, and the cleansing effect by another. It was the most basic of magical engineering, but it changed lives.
The little girl sank nose deep in the steam-filled bath.
Beside her was a large frog chilling on a big leaf
She blew little bubbles as the stress of the past few years melted away like smoke. This was the first real bath she had had since coming here.
She carefully combed through her messy hair. She used large leaves to wipe her dirt-covered skin.
She spent over an hour immersing herself in the water.
After everything was done, Petra looked silently at the blackened water. She didn't know whether she was embarrassed or resentful. This was three years of accumulated filth.
For some reason, she felt like the frog was silently judging her.
Petra stepped out of the steam-filled bathroom.
A large leaf was wrapped around her body in place of a towel.
After her figure became clear, whether it was the frog from behind, or the two peeping beasts in the window, they were all shocked.
The little beggar had transformed from a dirty and disgusting little dirtball into a dazzling and beautiful little girl.
Petra stood there, her skin was like pearl and her eyes were like stars. The dark green hair that Elena had always felt was rather odd, had now transformed into a shining emerald-like waterfall.
It was difficult to tell that this was the same little girl.
If asked, one might even accuse her of being a forest nymph.
Feeling the confusion, Petra immediately drained the bathroom tub and filled it with fresh water. The face of a flawless young girl with beautiful green hair was reflected in the water.
Even Petra was shocked at the difference.
She was first amazed, then shocked, then shuddered.
When she transmigrated, her hair was already this dirty. If she had taken a bath earlier, if the townsfolk had seen her, who knew what they might have done with a little orphan girl like her.
She felt that she had been lucky until now.
After using the fresh water to wash her old clothes, Petra finally returned new and clean.
Now, all that was left was to take a nice, long nap. After that, her life could really get started!
She hugged the big frog and jumped into her new bed, falling asleep not long after.