Penta had finished all his preparations the next morning and was on his way towards the usual gate with a few items hanging by his waist and his trusted sword.
He had already communicated his plans for the next few days to the girls the night before so there was no issue. The only thing he felt slightly bad about but considered an act of minor revenge was that he simply left early in the morning and didn't even leave through the door.
He simply jumped out the window and dashed away. It was petty as he didn't say bye to anyone but this honorable roach emperor didn't have to answer to no one... or so he believes.
Giving his greetings to the guards on his way out he stretched quickly before bolting at a thunderous speed.
It barely took him any time to reach the Cloud forest and he stopped near the edge of the forest before taking out a map.
The map was given to him by Ther.
It indicated the location of the relay point, the abandoned mine as well as a few other things of note such as the different boundaries of the Cloud forest.
Deeper into the forest were quite a few formidable creatures that stayed within their domain and the map was a generous one having a reasonable level of information on their domains.
He looked at the items that he had to gather during this time as well and it wasn't too complicated as it was two specific herbs that were in high demand at this moment due to someone requesting them in large amounts. This was what he was told but the amounts were never specified meaning the reward depended on his haul.
Penta hardly cared about any of those things as his biggest focus was going to be training these next few days.
With that in mind, he shot towards the closest abandoned mine of Spectum.
It took him another few hours to find the mine which was located near a small mountain and he was very glad that he left early as considering anyone else but him, this sort of trip would not have been possible with a three-day limit.
As he saw the mine, he could see old tracks that were used to transport the ores as well as the entrance that was barred closed with some wooden planks. He never imagined in his life that he would do something like exploring an abandoned mine, he was getting excited at the prospect of discovering something amazing.
He was catering to the fantasy as he had a certain set of skills with his roachy-ness and was definitely going to put it to full use.
Without much hesitation, he removed one of the planks near the entrance and crawled in.
"Hahahaha! This emperor is going to get him some loot!"
As he poured some of his internal energy into his eyes he noticed quite the difference from when he started his journey on Agara. He had been practicing quite diligently with his energy which led to his night vision having grown.
He walked through the tunnel while remaining vigilant as he's read enough isekai stories to know there were usually, well always, something crawling about abandoned mines.
Heading deeper and deeper, to his surprise, he finally arrived at a dead-end in one of the furthest parts of the underground tunnel without meeting a single thing.
"Not even a bloody skeleton...sigh"
He figured this is around the level where the mining had ended and sat down for a few moments.
"Aish, I really didn't want to return to this life so soon or ever...but for now I got to. Sigh."
With some newfound conviction, he meditated on returning his body to its original appearance of a roach emperor.
The process didn't take very long but neither could it be considered short. Slightly less painful at least.
"I really got to force Claud into cooking a huge meal after this..."
Without waiting any longer, his multiple limbs started shredding into the ground. He started digging once again, in the darkness, alone, and again with a purpose.
However, he was much more motivated compared to the uncertain feelings he had as he traveled to the continent of Valor.
As he continued deeper, he kept his awareness on his surrounding while trying to find energetic hotspots as those usually meant there was something of a special nature available. Every time he found those large ore deposits, he always felt a surplus of energy in his surroundings and it was something he noticed easily with those months of digging.
Using the same skills he learned, he continued deeper into the mountain.
He didn't believe that the Spectum ore was completely mined out in the mountain but that, probably, the easily accessible veins were mined out while the one's that cost more to mine than to profit were abandoned.
Returning to his "feast" of eating dirt and minerals, he continued his quest.
-Mirage Feast-
"Celia! Have you seen Penta?" Little Kaya came downstairs with her sister after having woken up and washed up.
She had tried looking for him in his room, but no one was present. Little Sana was also looking around as they made their way downstairs.
"BWUTHA!?" Little Sana hollered as she went down the steps.
"Penta? Isn't he in his room? I have been up all morning and haven't seen him come down." Celia replied while trying to remember her morning. She usually wakes up very early and the man always slept in.
"Father, have you seen him by any chance?" Celia asked Claud as she popped her head into the kitchen to which she just got a simple head shake indicating he didn't.
Little Kaya went over to Sasha and asked her but Sasha also hadn't seen him.
"Bwutha?" Sana looked at Kaya with a questioning gaze.
"I don't know Sana, nobody has seen him..." Kaya softly replied while feeling a little worried.
They had grown to like their honorable brother a lot since he showed up, they hadn't been separated even once since so it felt weird to them.
"Well, he did say he was going on a little trip, but I didn't think he would have left without having had breakfast or saying bye. Maybe we should wait a bit more and he might come back for a meal before leaving." Celia comforted them even though she found it odd he just disappeared.
-Spectum mine-
"I HATE DIRT! DIE DIE DIE"
A furious Echo reverberated throughout the tunnels while coming from its deepest parts.
Penta had been digging for an hour and hadn't found any sort of Spectum ore vein or even just a nugget of the damn thing. He was furious. However, he didn't believe they could have so thoroughly gotten every ounce of it and as such, he continued.
"Sigh"
"I'm going to have to speed up, otherwise i'm going to miss out on my other tasks..." Penta thought before getting his multilimbed emperor self to start crushing through the rocks and dirt with much more force.
He started covering much more ground with his added effort.
He had the brilliant idea of spiraling downwards as such he could make sure to catch any of the ores that may have remained near the surface but it was fruitless.
Another hour passed and Penta had made some headway as he dug deeper into the mountain.
"I FINALLY F*CKING FOUND YOU~!" His joy was palpable at this point.
He had finally noticed a slight convergence of metallic energy through his affinity with it.
It was faint but it rewarded him as the closer he got, the more he knew he found something worthwhile. After having passed a few hours digging and eating "Shitty dirt" as he called, he found the energies were much more pronounced in one corner. As such he dug towards it at his fastest speed.
Finally, in front of him was a large amount of metallic energy that was being radiated from a huge chunk of silver ore.
He wasn't sure if this was the Spectum but he didn't care at this point as any ores that radiated this type of feeling to him, were guaranteed to produce some effect on his body. Just like the past when his muscles, skin, and blood felt changed from those Agaran ores.
"Bon appetit!" Penta thought to himself before he started munching directly on the ore.
As he was devouring the ore, he told himself that he would just start buying special ores in the future to satisfy this easy method of training himself. After all, to him, these ores were just like the special herbs that benefited those on Valor, blacksmiths were sure to have special materials that he could buy off them.
After having eaten several mouthfuls with his pearly white, monstrously potent, teeth. He finally started feeling some changes.
He closed his eyes to get a feeling of what this ore was doing as his stomach was digesting it. He noticed the digested parts started aggregating towards his joints.
Once again though, pain arrived, it felt as though tyrannical ants had snuck into his joints all over his body and were biting every membrane and cartilage that was present in his joints.
"I HAVE TO STOP EATING CRAP FROM THE GROUND!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.
He knew the process all too well and simply willed himself through it while focusing on the reason he was suffering.
The image of his discussion with a certain impotent voice in the cosmos kept him going as he, through the pain, continued eating piece after piece.
-Back at the Mirage Feast-
The customers were leaving after having had their breakfast but in a certain corner of the dining area, a small girl was crying while what looked to be her sister was comforting her with wet eyes.
This led to everyone eating to finish quickly and leave just as quickly which ruined the beloved Inn's atmosphere.
Some regulars even noticed the discrepancy and started bad-mouthing the famous Penta for having abandoned his sisters or at least they assumed as such. Worsening the mood even further for the poor little girls.
Celia was looking over while shaking her head.
"That idiot! How could he leave them without even saying bye. I swear when he comes back, he's getting a thorough beating." She said as she clenched her fist with a dark look in her eyes. The tribal patterns on her arms glowed ever so slightly.
"I'll back you up on that one dear!" Claud said while next to her, he was having the same thoughts as he looked over at the two girls while holding two plates of deserts in his hands.
"Let me get in on this too," Sasha chimed in while holding a fork with a dangerous air around her.
Penta had for his so-called "minor act of revenge" created a much worse enemy for himself.
The entire staff of the famous Mirage Feast.