Over the next month, a lot of things happened.
Petra finished her exploration of the ruins, or to be exact, Petra explored for another day, got bored, and then gave up. After that, the girls walked around the frozen forest for a few more days before beginning their journey back.
On the way back, Petra spent each day training her mental strength, making it more flexible and complex. When she was bored, Petra would have the wolf stand guard while she read through her Inner Library.
After a long adventure, Petra eventually returned home.
This adventure had brought her a lot of things. In addition to the many artifacts and lost knowledge that she had 'taken' from the underground ruins, she also came home with two new maids. Bell was an expelled earth mage from the Sky Tower, so, having nowhere to go, she easily stayed, and Soryn was a gold class adventurer from the south. Surprisingly, Soryn and Wind actually knew each other. When Soryn met Wind, they acted like long lost sisters, causing the young woman to stay and work as a maid. When Petra asked about their history, she received a duet of arrogant snorts.
Aside from Petra's personal matters, a lot of things around the mansion had changed as well. Mell had finished engraving all the heating runes, Lilly had filled a new wardrobe for Petra, Luna had expanded the daily menu, and the ant queen had created various new ants that were specifically bred for cold environments.
Next on the list of big changes was the increasingly terrible weather in the northern region.
Petra didn't know if the changes affected the entire continent, but for the northern region, the snow became heavier by the day. The freezing rain and chilling winds were like icy blades that cut deep into the flesh. Worst of all, the temperature had lowered to a terrifying degree. Petra was even worried that there might not be any wildlife left after the Curse of Winter subsided.
Despite this, with the birth of new cold resistant ants, Petra was finally able to get the newspaper again, albeit one day late…
Around the continent, many things had happened.
The most notable event was the 'awakening' of the ice castle in the southern region. The ice castle had transformed into a living fortress. It had created an outer shell that took the form of a massive bear-like beast. It stood 2000 metres tall, and each step transformed the landscape into an ice filled hell. It was surrounded by an army of ice elementals, each releasing a cloud of icy fog. Snow filled the sky, and all life came to a halt under its silent domain. When attacked, its durability was like an impenetrable mage tower, and when damaged, its regeneration was near instant.
With each passing moment, the ice 'castle' slowly approached the royal capital of Llynun.
Petra could practically feel the tension through the pages.
Next, we look to the west.
Although the western region was mostly unaffected by the curse of winter, this only lasted for a short while. It didn't take long for the western region to be embroiled in a snowfall far greater than the other four regions.
Unlike the northern region, which was a mixture of rain, wind, and snow, the western region received a pure snowfall. Unlike the other regions, the snow that fell from the sky was many times heavier. Entire villages were buried under the snowfall, turning the blackened swampland into an endless white plane.
Next, we look towards the east. Unlike the western region, which was getting worse by the day, the eastern region used a large-scale magic spell to combat the curse of winter. The Tower Lord of the Sea Tower cast a massive spell that covered half the region. By pulling the eastern region into a massive storm, the surrounding snow was forcefully repelled. This isolated the eastern region from the rest of the continent, but it saved countless lives in the process. As for how long this storm would last? It could last for years.
The final piece of news was about the Sky Tower.
First, the Sky Towers recent expedition into the northern forest resulted in a devastating failure, losing many tower apprentices, three tower mages, and two tower teachers. This was a disaster that had not happened in a very long time. If it wasn't for the second piece of news, then perhaps this news would have rivaled the appearance of the first calamity.
The Second piece of news…
A little over a month ago, one of the Tower Pillars, Celeste the Star Weever, failed an experiment and released an unknown poison into the tower.
This poison was unknown and unbelievably aggressive, seeming to devour everything it could find and transforming itself through the use of those materials. If it wasn't for the quick reaction of the other twelve tower pillars, then perhaps the Sky Tower would have disappeared that day.
This poison, of course, was the poison that Petra flicked through the divination vector that appeared shortly after Owen's death. Petra actually couldn't do this, but whatever the King's Hand had done to her body temporarily allowed her to. With that said, Petra wasn't sure if it was her or the King's Hand that had actually made a move. In the end, a drop of a less potent version of the King's Hand was delivered directly to the Sky Tower and the master behind Owen. (This was not the King's Hand, instead, it was a distant prototype that Petra had stocked in her spare time.)
How did they solve it, you ask?
Well, they couldn't. The Tower Master had to personally intervene. He first sealed the tower floor, realised that it wasn't enough, locked the floor in a pocket dimension, realised that it still wasn't enough, and then expelled the entire floor to another space.
Did this have anything to do with Petra?
She didn't even know about it. After all, the newspaper said that it was 'dealt with' and 'an accident by the tower'.
* * *
The next morning, Bell wanted to cook.
Petra was sitting at the dining table, looking down at the piece of charcoal that was allegedly her morning eggs.
She looked down in confusion, wondering if this was a joke.
She turned her head to Bell, her big black eyes looking very aggrieved.
Bell shrank her neck. She felt like she was going to be banned from the kitchen. Next to her, Lilly and Luna were standing there, heads down. This clumsy girl was actually worse than Luna during their first time in the kitchen.
Petra's eyes began to tear up.
Bell felt her lip quiver. She had never felt so bad in her life.
She wanted to jump over and take the plate away, but the silly sister tripped on nothing, did a flip, then smashed her skull into the table, passing out cold.
Petra looked down, then at Lilly.
"Is, uh... Is she going to be ok?"
There was silence...
-
Later that day, Petra was walking through the halls.
Because she was slightly cold, she dragged down a large sheet and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Like a cape, the poor sheet was dragged along the ground, as Petra looked for Wind and Soryn. Her little legs kicked, walking in a somewhat childish march.
Fine minutes later, the silent sheet found the two white haired girls.
Wind was teaching Soryn about the best places to slack off and hide from work. Wind didn't see the disapproving little sheet behind her.
As it turned out, Wind was a very lazy person. Petra had placed her in charge of all of the nonexistent paperwork, but this girl still secretly made plans to escape work.
Petra looked past Wind's back, meeting eyes with Soryn.
Soryn couldn't help but chuckle.
Petra just shook her head and left.
-
Fifth Floor, Night.
Petra sat alone in her room.
She let out a long breath.
She had just finished condensing her mana core, officially entering the first level as an apprentice mage. She could feel the spiritual energy from the surroundings pass through her mana channels and into her heart, like a second form of breathing. Unlike the meridians, mana channels could only go one way at a time.
A colourful storm of energy surrounded her.
Over the past month, Petra had realised that she was too weak. She was too weak to avoid Owen's Prison Stone, too weak to control the King's Hand, too weak to understand what had happened to the Demon Hunter, and too weak to defeat the Black Shadow alone. If it wasn't for her cheat like mental strength that could instantly flip the table, then Petra would have had a hard time dealing with most of these threats.
The King's Hand was something that she never wanted to use. Having been forced to use it, Petra felt frustrated.
So, she turned back to her 'get stronger' plan.
Now that she was done with the mage pathway, it was time for cultivation.
The path of 'Cultivation' utilized 'The Natural Energy of Heaven and Earth' to strengthen the body, firm the will, expand the mind, extend the lifespan, and sharpen the senses. This was a slow process that took many years.
There were nine major realms, and nine smaller steps in each realm.
The first realm of cultivation was called 'Qi Refinement'. This is where you absorb natural energy through the body and store it in the dantian as a gas. This usually lasts 1 - 10 years, depending on talent.
The second realm of cultivation was called 'Foundation Establishment'. This is where you continue to absorb natural energy and compress it into a liquid. This usually lasts 2 - 20 years, depending on talent.
The third realm of cultivation was called 'Golden Core'. This is where you condense all the liquid energy inside your dantian into a solid state, turning it into a golden core. This usually lasts 8 - 80 years, depending on talent.
What Petra needed to do first was determine the initial state of her constitution.
The meridians, dantian, and spirit root were like mussels. The more you used them, the stronger they were. Petra had tested the initial state of her meridians and dantian, and they were both excellent.
All that was left was her Spirit Root.
Petra held a clear stone in her hand and channeled her Will. The spirit testing stone was the standard way to test your spirit root.
Petra had waited until now because she had only received one recently, courtesy of the Bell.
After a brief pause, the spirit stone started to light up.
What the spirit testing stone displayed was the elemental affinity for an individual, along with the talent one had in those elements. Each light represents an element, red was fire, blue was water, green was wind, etc...
The spirit testing stone suddenly shone with a black light.
Petra sighed.
She had a feeling that this would happen.
The black light represented the Darkness Element. Petra had an affinity with the darkness element, and only the darkness element.
The darkness element was something like a 'taboo' element. Many cultivation sects did not like it because it was often associated with evil. The dark element covered things like death, curses, demons, and corruption. Regarding this, Petra could only shake her head. The darkness element also covered shadows, stealth, the moon, and Yin, giving Petra a wide range of things to explore.
Despite finding the taboo element, the spirit testing stone couldn't display the talent of a dark element affinity. This was probably the most frustrating thing for Petra.
Petra spent the night without sleep.
She focused solely on absorbing natural energy from the spirit stones, purifying it, condensing it, and refining it into the purest gas possible, before storing it in her dantian.
After the light of day slowly rose, Petra had succeeded.
Petra looked back at her body.
Emerald Sea Dragon, Witch Bloodline.
Nine Poisons Beast King Physique (7 Beasts).
[Cultivation: First Realm (Qi Condensation) - Stage 2]
[Mage: First Realm (Apprentice Mage) - Stage 3]
[Controller / Witch: [?] (Inner Library) - Stage [?]]
She grinned in satisfaction.
Petra felt like this night of hard work had brought her great results.
There was only one thing left.
Petra looked down at her hardened black carapace. These were the impurities expelled after her first cultivation session.
Petra teleported to the newly built bathhouse.
This was a new day.