The afternoon sun was shining above the cloud forest with its majestic rays as a group of young men trekked through its mystical green wonders.
"This way... h-honorable brother." A young white-haired boy said with a light stutter.
"Hey, say it with some passion. I'm the great honorable brother aren't I? Why do you make me sound like the stuttering brother."
*Smack*
"And you Faren, haven't I told you to pick up the pace. We don't have all day here."
"Look at Griss, he is holding much more than both of you combined and his face hasn't flinched a single bit from the weight."
"Sigh. Do we really need to go over our previous lesson again?"
"NO!" "NO!" Karu and Faren yelled.
Penta raised an eyebrow but simply nodded with a smile at seeing their enthusiasm.
Griss walking alongside the two was holding large blood bears had a tiny smug smile at the compliment before the burning pain on his behind reminded him of his humiliation.
"Aha! Here it is little one's. The relay point!" Penta yelled when he noticed a large gathering in the distance.
As he got closer to the relay point, he noticed the different types of people roaming about from mercenary looking types to others that seemed similarly dressed to the trio he was leading.
There were different stalls set up by a variety of different people. From old to young.
He noticed it looked more like a makeshift bazaar than anything else. He didn't mind such an atmosphere as it reminded him of the flea markets back on Earth but obviously, in the woods.
"I wonder what goodies we can get. Come now Karu, lead the way to the place we can sell these. I have a deal with the Tyr Merchants so we head there first." Penta said with a smile.
Meanwhile, those familiar with the trio were shocked to see them and even more shocked to see the huge amount things they were each carrying.
Karu had an entire Ice Hooved Elk on his back while Faren held a few venom snakes completely intact while dragging their bodies on the ground.
Those who saw Griss were surprised that the heads of three blood bear's sticking out of some makeshift sack that looked immense on his small frame.
The scariest of them all was the man leading the trio, he was holding a simple backpack but the energy coming off the bag was permeating the surroundings. It was obvious it held all the beast cores and to the degree that it held quite the amount for their remaining energy to cause a visual effect around the bag.
Some greedy eyes were scanning the man in front but noticing the young Griss Briskflame, they chose to restrain themselves.
Penta walked up to a slightly better looking wooden shop that was settled near the center of the relay point. The name "Tyr Merchant House" engraved on a large wooden plaque.
"Alright, little one's wait for me outside while I go figure sort out some things. Don't go too far with my meat now."
Penta said those words before briskly walking into the merchant house.
On the other hand, the moment Penta had left their sight. The trio had an impromptu meeting immediately.
"Griss, what the hell is wrong with this guy!?" Faren lost it and whispered those words while huddled with the other two.
"I-I don't know. He is much stronger than me but he still doesn't give off the same energy as the First-grade shaman teachers." Griss made an analysis.
"I...I mean why is he so weird? What the hell is with this "honorable brother" business?" Karu added on.
Both Griss and Faren looked and Karu and couldn't help but nod their heads in agreement.
"Karu, this is what they call a delusional person. Remember this well!" Griss said to Karu.
"Delusional is speaking nicely, this man is bat shit crazy! Karu he hit all three of us under the stupidest so-called "righteous" reasoning he had. He is just evil!"
"But I'm surprised Senior Griss, I didn't think you would be able to carry such heavy blood bears all the way here without slowing down at all!" Karu mentioned with slight awe in his voice.
"What!? Look at these freaking venom snakes I'm dragging, they don't even look dead, I was walking with the fear of death right behind me this whole time!" Faren scoffed.
" I'm just glad we all made it here in one piece. This man may be insane but he is one strong guy. If we hadn't been forced to follow him, I don't think I would have seen someone kill the equivalent of a hoard of apprentice level beasts without breaking a sweat." Griss added.
Both Karu and Faren nodded in agreement.
"The ice hooved elk you're carrying is a peak grade beast man! You guys think he is a peak level apprentice?" Faren asked while staring at the large adult-sized elk on Karu's back.
Faren eventually got tired and dropped the six venom snakes onto the floor which made a small cloud of dust rise.
Karu seeing this also dropped the heavy Elk onto the floor causing the ground to shake slightly which annoyed Faren a little as he thought he was carrying more than Karu.
Griss seeing this, grinned a little before dropping his pack.
The ground literally cracked while Karu almost lost balance for a second.
Faren forgot all about Karu and couldn't help but be awed by the strength Griss showed.
"Karu, not bad. I didn't think you were carrying such a heavy Ice hooved Elk. It seems you are surprisingly strong." Griss complimented.
"Yeah, but don't get arrogant now! There is always a mountain above a mountain." Faren agreed in a roundabout way.
Karu couldn't help but think how different their treatment of him was after this whole fiasco.
"Erhum!"
The trio's eyes all shot wide open when they heard the noise.
"Just what do you three idiots think you are doing with the food? You think I like dirt mixed in with my meat!?" Penta noticed the trio but as he was coming closer they started dropping all their meat on the floor which almost made a vein pop on his head.
"A-ahum, it was just an accident h-honorable brother. We were just a little tired from the trip here and these were quite heavy. W-we apologize!" Faren took the hit and made an excuse when they were really just comparing the weight of their packs.
"Hmmmm. Well, I guess you all did a good job so far by carrying this all the way here so fine. Anyways hold out your hands!"
The trio was a little surprised at the sudden request but they still held their hands out.
Faren got a small core dropped into his hand and was surprised to see it was the adult venom snakes core. This was an intermediate beast core.
Karu looked at his hand and noticed a blood-like ruby core and recognized it as the advanced blood bears core. His eyes were wide opened.
Griss noticing this was about to take his hand back but Penta grabbed it and shoved the Peak grade Ice Hooved Elk's core into his.
"You helped me out today so I only figured it was worth rewarding your efforts," Penta said with a slightly nicer smile.
Griss was originally planning on taking his hand back as he knew what kind of cores Penta had hunted and Blood bear cores weren't that interesting to him. However, a fully formed Ice hooved elk's peak grade core was valuable even to him. These types of cores could be used for many things and if not exchanged with ice adept apprentice shaman's that are planning on breaking through to Peak grade apprentice. He couldn't help but look up at the man who had handed him his first spanking and feel weird about it.
"Anyways you little shits. Time to have a feast! Follow me" Penta said with a huge smile while walking ahead.
Griss couldn't help it at this point and wanted to ask something but he was not willing to call this abusive man "Honorable" in any way or form so he poked at Faren.
"Ah!"
Penta looked back.
"Oh, uhm, right! H-honorable b-brother, where are you taking us?" Faren said while still feeling uncomfortable with the name he had to call this insane man.
"Mirage City! Duh, where else would we find a good cook for all these meals?" Penta said with a matter of fact tone.
"MIRAGE CITY!?" The trio all screamed causing a few onlookers to give them odd stares.
"Yeah? What about it?" Penta asked confused.
"H-honorable brother! The city is close to a couple of hundred kilometers from here! We wouldn't make it back until tomorrow night at least and that's not even considering these heavy beasts we are carrying!" Karu pointed out as he wasn't willing to go through such a distance especially with this man.
"Oh... you have a point there little Karu." Penta said while cupping his chin with his hand while seemingly lost in thought.
Griss and Faren breathed a sigh of relief at the crazy man realizing his blunder. Unfortunately, they met a roach emperor. One that has talked back to the very heavens and cursed one of its greatest beings.
"I got just the thing!" Penta declared as he hit his fist onto his open palm.
Before the trio had time to question this idea. Penta rushed off into the Tyr merchant house and came running back with rope. Lots of rope.
As they stood there watching, Penta tied up all the bears, snakes and the elk before staring at the trio with a large smile.
The three had seen this very smile the moment they met him and a shiver ran through their very being but it was too late.
In front of the entire crowd at the relay point consisting of several familiar people that the trio knew, they were tied up alongside the dead beasts while hollering their protest but Penta wasn't one that was easy to reckon with not for them at least.
"Hold on tight my little ones. This might be a little bumpy!" Penta yelled and as the crowd watched he lifted the mountain of beasts that included three poor little apprentices.
In front of the shocked crowd and even more, shocked apprentices tied to the mountain.
Penta shot towards Mirage City at a speed that should have been physically impossible for a human apprentice.
An elder watching started questioning his eyes as though a might Titan race child had appeared.
However, they were all too slow to stop the speeding train that was Penta.
"MIRAGE CITY! IT"S COOKING TIME!~"
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHH" x 3