Penta was suffering some heavy damages from the pain.
He had spent nearly six hours curled in a fetal position. His body was suffering immensely from the newly found ore.
The pain was so thorough, he felt as though he shed a layer of his skin from the excessive sweat.
It was a nightmare, one only those who have experienced it could ever share in.
Unfortunately for Penta, no one would share his sorrows with him and especially so his choice of willingly suffering such an atrocious pain.
The only benefit from this whole ordeal was not even made clear to his, finally, pain relieved self after the intense pain receded.
He simply passed out from exhaustion.
Having woken up a couple of hours later. He couldn't wait but to get out of the hellhole he had, personally, created for himself.
"WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS WOULD DO THIS! WHY DID I DO THIS!? WHY!? YOU BASTARD THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Penta cursed with an intensity that would put sailors to shame and pirates to block their ears.
While he was in pain, the only thought that kept his consciousness from fading into nothingness, away from it all, was the memory of his encounter with Nite who he now proclaims"the impotent wannabe".
The memory replayed itself in loops over and over and over again. Like a nightmare that could fuel an entire city with lights had it been converted into energy.
"Screw this dirt!
He shot out the earth with an unprecedented speed that couldn't compare to his previous self.
He didn't even notice as the darkness that kept him unaware of everything, made sure he remained in its presence but his will and whatever newfound changes that had occurred propelled him at a speed he could only dream of in his past life.
Within seconds, the hours of being surrounded by earthly smells and rocks disappeared.
"ARRGHGHHHHHH!"
A shout that echoed across the mountain and forest with anger that could only originate from the deepest root of hatred sounded.
"Siiiiigh, Finally out of that pit." Penta let out a turbid breath of air before calming down while reminding himself once again to find a way to earn some money and just buy the materials he needs. He doesn't want to go through this torture again.
Following his escape from the hellhole he created, he started inspecting the changes on his body. He noticed he felt more flexible in a sense but it also felt like he was getting closer to the very edge of the realm he was currently in.
This only meant one thing. He was nearing the point where one would start considering crossing the threshold of an apprentice to a fully fledge First Grade Shaman practitioner.
"Hehe, Storm tribe just wait. A new emperor is emerging." *Maniacal laughter ensues.*
"Now for the less pressing matters. Let's go test out these changes while I head for the gathering point...hmmm, I need Yew root and Sage grass. Minor healing and calming effect? Huh." Penta started pondering why the need for these two herbs but he guessed they needed it for a large expedition where minor healing and calming effects were needed.
Penta was a man who was in a rush again, he knew that what he needed most was to gain accustomed to the added ability he recently obtained as well as gather as many beast cores and herbs so that he may have some capital for when he finally enters the Storm tribe and starts learning their techniques. His sisters expenses must also be covered by him.
The area that showed the location of the herbs, as well as the beasts that roamed the road to the relay point, common at best. That was his assessment.
Penta realized that nothing above apprentice grade was to be in his path so he simply decided to set off to kill anything and collect the cores. It was a waste of material but the other beasts in the forest would appreciate the free meals and the cycle would repeat.
-Mirage Feast-
"Kaya, Sana, follow me." Celia grabbed the girls and brought them along with her.
"Where are we going, big sister?" Kaya asked while carrying the sleeping little Sana who had cried her heart out.
"I'm going to be teaching you a few things with Sasha about how women should act in order to not get bullied," Celia mentioned as a slight vein emerged when the image of Penta appeared in her mind.
"O-Okay!" Resolve could be seen in Kaya's eyes as she also wanted to know this. She knew they lived in a scary world and whatever Celia knew, would be useful to her and her sister so she readily agreed.
Claud who was seeing this knew at this very moment that Penta had seriously F***** up. He gave a small prayer to the poor little barbarian.
-Cloud Forest-
"Achoo!" "Sniff"
"What the hell? Is someone cursing me?" Penta was shocked as this was probably the first time he sneezed in a very long time. He actually doesn't remember sneezing since his birth which he only now discovered.
"Whatever, here we go."
*STAB*
"That makes this the 16th little beasty that this roach emperor has slain," Penta mumbled as he dug out a bright red core that he threw into a pouch he had tied to his back.
On the way to the relay point, he managed to defeat several different beasts while they were mostly the ones he had eaten before, he did meat a few extra-large snakes here and there that added some diversity to his pouch of Cores.
He also felt slightly regretful at leaving the corpses so he always took a big chunk of meat off them and roasted them while running through the forest. He figured he would eat and hunt to save time, which to anyone else just looked ridiculous but Penta knew he was regaining energy every time he did this and as such considered it pragmatically sound.
The herbs were also picked from different areas but as they required a bit more care to carry, he had to be careful when fighting the different beasts.
Luckily for Penta, his latest physical improvements had made his body so flexible, that he was able to pull off seemingly impossible movements that allowed the herbs and cores he carried to stay safe at all times and with a stab to the head, he usually ended all the advanced apprentice beasts within two to three moves.
Even the Peak grade Snake beast he encountered was slain rather easily as his movement speed and astonishing flexibility simply left the beast in his dust.
Having decided this was for training, Penta made the choice to power through the night as well and try and get his whole trip done before the third day finished. He was also very curious as to how the relay point looked like and with a large number of herbs and cores, he wanted to see if there was anything special he could buy there.
Places like those relay points tend to have hawkers who sell whatever special things they find in the forest and he may just get lucky.
"An emperor like myself should have decent luck so maybe I can buy a technique or something for my sword skills. It's getting dull just slashing and stabbing." Penta complained as he knew his biggest weakness was his lack of skills. He has been using his overpowered base stats to overwhelm beasts so far.
He knew, however, that the ingenuity of humans was their key strength to ruling Earth and as one from there himself, he knew he couldn't afford to slip up.
"Arrays, runes, alchemy, martial arts, science, whatever may be available, I will learn it to its fullest," Penta mumbled as he was very curious to the level of knowledge the Shaman's had and by comparison with the novels and anime's he has read. He wanted to know just what level of information he was working with.
Knowledge will forever hold power to those who seek to improve.