Opening the door, the woman had Shiro sit down on a chair in the centre.

  "So do you want to learn about the history or do you want to get rid of the corruption sapling first?" She asked with a smile.

  "I’ll go for the latter." Shiro forced a smile since she didn’t even notice the corruption sapling in her body.

  "Good choice." The woman nodded her head.

  Snapping her fingers, golden chains appeared around the room and lashed towards Shiro’s limbs.

  Wrapping around the ankle and the wrist, Shiro furrowed her brows.

  Suddenly, butterflies started to appear around the room before landing on her arm.

  "Ssss!" Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro watched as the butterflies started to suck something out of her arm.

  Their golden wings had tiny spots of purple which slowly increased in size.

  "I’m surprised. Normally people will cry out in pain when this happens. Since you’re not going to scream, let’s do the history lesson now. I’ll tell you about the Ancient Terror and that corrupted Sapling that’s been implanted into you." The woman smiled as Shiro nodded her head with a forced smile.

  "Good. The Ancient Terror is something akin to humanities corruption. He’s the amalgamation of the sins performed by humans in ancient times. I do not know for what reason the forgotten realms were created but I do know that at the beginning, the Ancient Terror was supposed to be a failsafe. Something to protect us from harm rather than commit it.

  "After hundreds of years, the Ancient Terror was slowly being corrupted by the sins. It wanted to escape from this realm. To run away from his responsibilities. And it was almost successful. Almost.

  "The gods intervened and isolated this realm. Humans were granted powers in the form of Divinities but back then they were more powerful than the current generation.

  "Due to the Ancient Terror being at the height of his power, the corruption in the surroundings constantly tempered the body of humans, allowing them to take on stronger divinities and more power from the gods.

  "They had six slots for divinities much like how you are right now." The woman smiled as Shiro felt exposed.

  "Ah but don’t worry. I am a guardian of sorts. Along with my sisters, we guard the libraries, show people to their desired books and oversee the world. We don’t see things like how normal people do. We see things from a different perspective hence why I can tell that you have six slots like those that come before us. Normally I would have been able to see you just fine but the moment you entered the forest, the vision was cut short which was very strange but I didn’t expect you to run into a piece of the Ancient Terror. This is also why I know that you were looking for the Minotaur inside the Section of Life despite the bounty saying it was a ’mysterious monster’ haha." The woman laughed

  "After the gods intervened with the help of people, they were able to split the Ancient Terror into separate pieces and locked them away. The one you ran into was most likely the core of his being. Usually, the core would be transported around the land thanks to its prison which keeps him in a state of constant slumber. But due to some external interferences, it seems like it woke him up much earlier than planned." She sighed.

  "So as I was saying, me and my sisters are guardians but we cannot fight. The most I can do is provide knowledge and point you in the right direction while keeping an eye on the world. If things had gone as planned, the Ancient Terror would have awoken in a few years after we picked out some heroes from the people of the world. We have repeated this process a few times now so we know what to do. But there are people moving in the shadows.

  "A while ago, there had been a case of someone planting one of the Corruption Saplings in a village. Now that the sapling has bloomed into a pool of corruption, monsters will soon appear from the pool and spread the corruption. The more the corruption is spread, the weaker the influence from the towers are.

  "In the Section of Life, the restriction on murder would cease to exist and the forest wouldn’t be able to protect the people anymore.

  "Surprising isn’t it? One would think that Gaia’s protection would be for the land and plants but no, it was for humans. The protection stopped the monsters from killing them since doing so would turn the entire forest against them. However, if the corruption was to keep spreading, there will no longer be any protection for us humans. This is the same in other sections. The section of night has powerful guardian monsters that will turn against corruption the moment they see it rather than humans. The section of time tends to rewind time so that the monsters can be surrounded with ease. The section of sky provides quick escape in the form of air tunnels along with islands that can act as strategic points. Of course, the monsters here are focusing on humans right now but once the corruption appears, they’ll turn their focus immediately. This is the same with the other sections. For the entire world to turn against them, you can see how much this corruption is despised can’t you?" The woman chuckled as Shiro nodded while sweat filled her head.

  The feeling of getting the corruption drained from her was rather painful but due to her tolerance, she was able to endure it.

  "There isn’t any secure way to get rid of the corruption. It’s either split it apart and forced into a sealed slumber or transfer it to a new host. Me and my sisters have been trying out best to search for a way but so far there hasn’t been any significant improvements." The woman sighed.

  However, during this, there was something odd with the butterflies.

  As the purple spots started to expand, a sliver of red was seen in the centre.

  Twitching a moment, the butterfly started to flicker as the woman widened her eyes in confusion.

  "What is this?" She muttered.

  Before she could take a closer look, the red light expanded into circuits and devoured the butterfly in an instant.

  Seeing this, Shiro immediately recognised it to be the Error element that she had obtained.

  Glancing at her arm, she could see a black metal like substance spread up from her fingertips and cover her arms.

  Flinching slightly, Shiro glared at the circuit who seemed to snicker at her before retracting.

  "Huh??? How…… I don’t sense the corruption anymore. It was…… devoured?" The woman looked at her in confusion.

  "This thing is basically a stronger version of the corruption." Shiro forced a smile as she didn’t expect Error 403 to have followed her here.

  Glancing at her system, she saw the simple description of the element.

  [???]

  It enhances your weapons and unarmed strikes.

  If someone who knew of her skill saw this, they would flip a table and shout out lies!

  However, it was no time to wonder about what her skill did as the butterflies had completely disappeared.

  "Hmm…… this is out of my expectations. I’ll need to talk with my sisters since this could be something to help us get rid of the corruption." The woman frowned.

  "But wouldn’t a new one appear? It is an amalgamation of sins no? I doubt humans would stop sinning. If they did, they wouldn’t be humans anymore." Shiro asked.

  "Yes but the time it takes for a new one to appear is much longer than how long it takes for him to awaken from a sealed slumber." The woman replied while making a few butterflies.

  Watching them fly through the walls, she sighed before turning to Shiro.

  "You are so full of surprises. When I first saw you, I was shocked to see that a person in this era had 6 slots. Now that I see you again, you’ve obtained a tier 2 divinity, met the Ancient Terror and apparently you own something that is more powerful than the corruption which couldn’t be detected by me. Who are you?" She asked with a soft smile.

  "First name Shiro, surname Asakura. Forever 18, a professional logic breaker and piercer of asses. Pleased to meet you."

  "Pardon?" The woman blinked her eyes in confusion.

  "It’s a new introduction I’ve been working on haha. Something I think I should use when I meet someone remotely interesting I guess. Either that or I stick to my usual ’sup’ introduction. What about your name?" Shiro shrugged since she hadn’t learned her name yet. Plus, they’ll most likely be interacting with each other more from now on so she might as well get it out of the way.

  "My name is Quella. I’m the watcher of this library and the guide for Heroes."