Owlheads Books & Pens Library, First Floor.
Each floor had thousands of books.
If Petra wanted to read through all of them, she would have to spend a week or two just reading.
Petra thought about the little guys back home. The twins would probably be fine, the ant queen was hard at work, and the chrysalis just slept in the mine all day long, but that spider...
Petra was a little worried that it would develop an inferiority complex and do something stupid.
It was worth mentioning that the City of Sevensen was still within the range of the ant map. Even though she didn't have any ants on her, the big guy back home was probably still tracking her. Petra couldn't help but imagine a massive spider squatting at the edge of the stone map all day, just looking at its little master's red stone.
As for the ants…
Petra was still skeptical of the true potential of the ant queen.
If she could, she wanted the ant queen to create some kind of 'Communication Ant', like a cellphone... Petra wasn't sure if that was possible.
Back to the library.
The first thing Petra looked for was any books about poisonous beasts. Petra wanted to find some official knowledge on the five beasts that chose to follow her. Although she knew a lot through the connection, the 'true knowledge' was sometimes different from the 'recorded knowledge'.
Petra spent the whole day flipping through books on the first floor, looking for any historical records or species encyclopedias that could enlighten her.
When she finally found something, she was stunned.
Petra found a copy of an ancient book published by the high elves. This book was very old and was famous for being the first records that humans had found that were written by the high elves.
This was a book called 'Calamity'.
The book was a massive article that had been translated and copied by many bookstores. Although not especially rare, Petra found it very interesting to read.
The book covered many of the predictions made by the High-Elves before they disappeared. The cost of creating this book must have been devastating. Performing so many divinations on such a large scale was impossible today.
Petra read through the 'Nine Calamities', the 'Calamity Species', the 'Apocalyptic Curses', and the 'Heavens Chosen'.
The 'Nine Calamities' spoke of nine calamities that would start from the 'Tomb of the Ancestor', and slowly spread outwards, becoming more and more destructive with each successive calamity.
Each calamity was born by either nature, man or beast.
'Loneliness that seeps from man to earth.'
'Sea of poison and sky of death.'
'Stormy seas cleave the ocean.'
'Love burned by family and left with silence.'
'Frozen time and helpless flesh.'
'The forest walks aside the cursed.'
'Greed born from power but left with wrath.'
'Black devours white, the lightless sky.'
'The Dragon of Destruction awakes.'
Each calamity was brought by man, born from beasts, or fueled by nature. If all nine calamities were to play out, the world would not survive. Only by quelling the previous calamities could their destruction be controlled.
When Petra saw the name 'Dragon of Destruction', she paused.
Something about this name seemed to resonate with her. She wasn't sure if it was deep within her soul, or born from her physique, but the Dragon of Destruction gave her a strange feeling. Although Elena had told her stories about such a terrifying existence, she had never felt this strange resonance.
These nine calamities were probably Elena's mission.
Since she could tell Petra about the Dragon of Destruction, then she should've met it. Since Elena could talk about it openly, it was probably not in her last loop when she met it…
Petra guessed that in Elena's first life, she had lived through all nine calamities, only to fall at the last.
The little girl pursed her lips.
She felt bad for her sister.
Not enough to help her! But she still felt bad!
Petra moved on and looked at the section titled 'Calamity Species'. This was a list of powerful monsters that either had the potential to mutate into one of the nine calamities, or existed as a calamity by itself. The High-Elves called these sub-calamities.
The list of creatures wasn't too long, but it covered many things such as plants, sea creatures, beasts, and natural spirits.
To Petra's surprise, she actually found both the Warlord Forge and the Ethereal Echo Silverwing Butterfly. The Warlord Forge was here because of its potential to infinitely evolve, while learning from its enemies and transforming its armies into whatever it needed. The Ethereal Echo Silverwing was here because, not only was it incredibly difficult to kill, but after it grew to a certain size, each flap of its wings would cause space to become unstable and eventually shatter. On a large scale, given enough time, the Ethereal Echo Silverwing would destroy all time and space.
Petra quietly agreed with these assessments.
Although with those two's intelligence, it was unlikely for either of them to do this, it was still 'possible'.
Petra continued and scanned through the remaining entries, making sure to remember each of them in her head.
One must know that these calamity species could not appear in modern times. The environment they needed to grow simply didn't exist anymore, so unless one was still alive from ancient times, the High-Elves noted that it should be impossible for these things to continue to appear. At least, that was the general opinion.
Petra thought back to that pool of strange liquid at the foot of the Emerald Ghost Tree. She really wanted to know what creature had died there.
Next was the section about 'Apocalyptic Curses'.
These were three special curses that the high elves had created as a last resort. When faced with a calamity that they could not stop, the caster could pay a monumental price to cast one of these curses in desperation.
The reason that these curses were publicised was because the conditions required to cast these three curses weren't much better than the calamities they faced. Unless a massive number of people agreed, then there was no way one of these curses could just randomly appear. The High Elves thought it was better to put them upfront, using them as a way to display the dangers of the upcoming calamities.
'The Curse of Null', one must pay the 'karmic weight' equal to that of the target to lock it into the void. As long as this price exceeded the target's karma, then the target would be forever sealed.
This basically meant that if Mr. Calamity killed 100 people, one man who saved 101 people could burn himself and lock Mr. Calamity away.
The problem was that calculating karma was impossible. You had to massively overpay and hope that it was enough. Even if Mr. Calamity was locked away, its silent influence would still amass karma over time, so the price needed to keep it locked away would increase over time.
The second curse was 'The Curse of the Black Sun'. This curse was a calamity in and of itself. One could bargain with the 'World's Will' to 'blacken' the sun and use those 'exposed as fuel' to launch one powerful attack.
Not to mention the massive damage this would cause, both before and after the curse was cast, but some people even claimed that this was the start of the 'Black devours white, the lightless sky' Calamity.
The final of the three Curses was the 'Curse of the River of Time'. This curse needed the combined 'time' equal to that or above the targets to be sacrificed. If enough 'time' was sacrificed, you could cause the target to instantly age, reach the end of its lifespan, and die.
The problem with this curse was that some creatures had seemingly endless lifespans, while other monsters would die only to be resurrected on the spot. This was also ignoring the possibility of directly pushing a monster from its adolescence into its adulthood.
On top of that, the items needed to link the curse to the target were a piece of its body. If you wanted to use it on the Dragon of Destruction, even if you could amass enough 'time', how would you get a piece of its body for the ritual?
Petra suddenly had a thought...
'And even if you did, who's to say that the outer shell of the Dragon of Destruction was really its true body?'
She didn't know why she thought of this, but it just popped into her head.
Her eyebrows furrowed.
'I mean, if its shell wasn't part of its body, then what else could it be?'
The little lolita shook her head.
Petra continued reading.
This time, she looked at the section titled 'Heavens Chosen'.
First, one must know that it never stated that there was only a single Hero. Because of this, many scholars predicted that a number of heavens chosen would appear when the world was in need.
Petra knew that Elena was one of them.
She didn't know if there were others, but in all of Elena's nighttime stories, there was only ever her.
Should she feel bad?
Petra wasn't sure, she just didn't want to be a hero of justice.
In the storybooks back on earth, the Heavens Chosen were fueled by the hope of 'returning home'. For Petra, this was actually a bad thing. Even if the world was going to be destroyed, she still had a long time before it ended. Why would she want to return to the life of being chased? Wouldn't it be better to just stay home and sleep until the end?
In the book of Calamity, it recorded a few 'Heroes' who had appeared throughout history from time to time.
Although these people never really did much, they were all incredible geniuses who changed the era either socially or through technology. Instead of calling them the true Heavens Chosen, it was better to think about them as people who prepared the world for the dark future.
As for whether they were still alive or not, Petra had no idea.
Petra read down the list of names, uninterested.
They were mostly your classic tropes.
After Petra finished reading, she moved on to the next book.
Petra read through books on famous genealogies and uncommon species. She looked through records of all of the powerful races, and even found some notes about some unconfirmed ones.
Petra looked through the entries on the few races that the waitress had mentioned back in the Inn.
The 'Forest Born' were a race of humanoids with green hair and white or black eyes. They were mostly like humans, only with elvish temperaments and overly peaceful lifestyles.
The 'Kiwi' were also green haired humanoids, but they had small wings on their butts.
As for the Dragon Race...
Petra first looked at 'Green Dragons'. These were naturally evil creatures who generally just like to mess with people. They didn't do it out of necessity or enjoyment, they just didn't like people. They were naturally very 'large', and were mostly manipulative creatures without a lot of friends.
Petra immediately scratched this out.
She was neither 'big' nor a cruel person. Although she was mischievous, this did not extend to the territory of hurting people just for enjoyment. At least, innocent people…
Although Petra didn't know if her other bloodline was suppressing her cruel nature, her instincts told her that it was not.
Petra moved onto the 'Emerald Dragon'. Emerald Dragons were known for being much smaller than Green Dragons. Compared to the Green Dragons manipulative and cruel nature, Emerald Dragons were inquisitive and playful. They liked to collect knowledge and explore the unknown.
When Petra read 'playful' and 'small', she almost wanted to cry. She knew what she was, her body told her so in her heart…
She just didn't want to admit it.
Her tearful eyes were stuck on 'childish bodies' and 'slow ageing'. She felt like she would be stuck like this forever! When would she no longer need a stool to reach the kitchen counter!
Petra continued to investigate information about the Emerald Dragons.
These creatures were very proficient with nature magic and earth magic. Their small bodies gave up strength for improved speed. There was even a very unique mutation called the 'Emerald Sea Dragon'. This was an Emerald Dragon who had inherited the 'Nine Poisons Beast King Physique' from their ancestor.
Because Dragons were all insanely resistant to poison, the harmfulness of poison was usually ignored by these playful creatures. The name Emerald Sea Dragon came from the sea of colorful poisons that would be displayed through its body when an Emerald Dragon was in its Dragon Form.
As for that bit about 'Dragon Ancestor', Petra chose to ignore the extremely risky 'lore dump'.
Petra felt that if she ever wanted to discover her 'non-dragon' bloodline, she would have to go find her dragon mommy…
But such a thing was too risky for the current her...
She didn't want to get pulled into something troublesome.
Petra looked at the Nine Poisons Beast King Physique.
She finally got an explanation.
The Nine Poisons Beast King Physique was a unique physique created by the Dragon Ancestor that allowed the inheritor to contract with up to nine poisonous Beast Kings. Each link would create a larger reservoir in the physique holder's body, allowing them to resist and store more and more poisons. In addition to the ability to absorb and expel poisons at will, when the physique holder contracts all nine beasts and reaches the upper limit of what their body can store, the contracted beasts will also be able to absorb and expel poisons, just like the physique holder. Not only that, but the nine contracted beasts can then form their own contract chain, contracting up to nine subordinates. This chain continued infinitely.
When Petra read this, she was delighted.
This meant that she had a lot of room to grow!
Petra spent the next seven days reading all the books on the first floor. In the morning, she would take the centipede and the frog out of the city to eat, and at night, she would explore the city, looking for many of the things she needed to prepare to buy.
After Petra finished reading all the books on the first floor, she moved up to the second floor.