"The hell happened to you two?" Penta asked as he walked over to them and started inspecting their wounds.
He noticed they weren't that bad but it seems to just have a lingering effect. Penta's eyes shined a little at the thought of getting another pawn. Seeing this Griss suddenly felt better. Some other fool was going to become a lackey.
"This was from an accident that happened at the gardens when we got caught in the arrays explosion. Cough..." Karu explained as he started coughing.
"Yeah, it was a pretty bad one. Tsk where the hell was the guy who maintains these things doing?" Faren said while wincing in pain.
Penta's eyes calmed down and a soft "tsk" left from Griss.
Kaya & Sana looked over worriedly and Kaya sincerely wished she knew more about healing. Seeing them wounded she realized how bad it can get even by accident and a glint appeared in her eyes whereas nobody really noticed.
"You're telling me that you two got caught in a random explosion on the way?" Penta asked again but a questioning tone descended while his eyes grew suspicious.
"Uh..y-yeah?" Karu folded with his sorry excuse of a reply. Faren "tsked" as well under his breath.
"Were you two trying to get out of this?" Griss asked while thinking how smart that was before he shook his head. 'Absolutely not, hurting myself in the process? These masochistic idiots.'
Seeing all this play out Penta simply shook his head.
"Let's get going. You better heal up quick or I'm tying you while we move." Penta simply stated but the response was favorable.
They took out a potion each with a sigh and downed it as they started walking.
"Oh, what is that?" Kaya asked as she got closer to Faren.
"It's a basic weakening brew, slows down vitality signals, and leaves a lingering weakening feeling." He explained as he also noticed the big book she carried.
"You guys visited the sanctuary? What happened." Karu asked as he noticed it too.
"Hehe, the girls got some useful things and I got this little crystal," Penta replied cheerfully as he was excited to read some more later.
"A knowledge crystal, hmm seems to be a skill series one. Which did you pick?" Griss asked he looked over the crystal.
"Oh, wise one are we? Why don't you guess?" Penta sniggered.
The question piqued the trio's curiosity but Sana was tugging on Penta's sleeve as she had a look that said "Brag about me or else".
Penta chuckled at this before pausing the group.
"Forget about this tiny little skill. Witness greatness before your eyes!" Penta shouted as he lifted up little Sana as though it was Simba from a certain lion movie. He even added some gentle elemental energies to make her glow. This caused the surroundings to brighten and Kaya to look amazed at the effects as well.
"Behold you unworthy scoundrels and witness the greatness that is the chosen future core disciple to the Great Lady Vendra!" Penta hollered again prompting the glow to brighten.
Sana was giggling away in delight with a huge grin.
"wow," The trio had to give it to him. The theatrics are there alright. 'Wait chosen?' The synced minds reconnected and shared another thought.
Seeing their look change Penta smirked. It was a smirk that made them like they were beneath a cockroach. It was infuriating as their visage turned into discontent.
'I will punch you in the face one day.' The trio re-affirmed to themselves.
"Hehe, she is going to surpass you soon," Penta said as he returned on track.
"Waah! That was amazing you gotta do that for me!" Kaya ran next to him with a glow and asked.
"Hehehe, jealous?" Little Sana asked while giggling.
"You little show off," Kaya said as she jokingly poked her head.
As they continued their way, they finally reached a more populated place near the gates. There were many stalls with different apprentices gathered, bartering, and making fun. It was lively, to say the least.
Walking by Penta noticed an apprentice running a pretty big operation. He had the space of three stalls to himself.
Smiling, he moved forward to meet the apprentice running this spot.
"What's gotten your interest customer?" The greeting was polite and welcoming. This man is a merchant alright.
"I need some supplies for a few weeks." Penta was concise.
"That I can do, you have come to the right place. I am Beran, a high-grade apprentice at your service." He seemingly became more enthusiastic as the conversation continued.
"What kind of missing are you supplying for if I may ask?" Beran continued all professional as his eyes were well hidden of any intention but to make a profit.
"Sleeping supplies, basic needs for travelling and something to carry it all in," Penta asked and he noticed a glint sweep through Baren's eyes.
"Ah, your request though simple may actually require quite some funds specifically for that last part. As you know storage devices and items are rather hard to come by at the lower rungs." Baren explained.
"What do you have then that we can afford?" Penta asked seemingly not minding the issue. He knew it wasn't going to be cheap whatever it was he was getting considering they were newbies without clout.
"Ah well, we do have a few items that we offer that could maybe help." Baren considered a little before opening up a catalog that had quite the sizeable list. He offered it already turned to the page for mission travels.
Seeing the combo packages and the discounted ratings showing all the marketing stunts that went into this book. Penta couldn't help but double-take this apprentice and wonder if he knew the era of internet marketing of Earth.
'I should look into this guy at some point. I feel like it's a menu from a 5-star restaurant.' Penta thought before returning to the book and scanning everything.
This is incredible. The selection was so varied and Penta took a good couple of minutes getting through just the supplies. The prices weren't mentioned anywhere but a rating was given to each item.
Iron, black, purple. Just like the currency.
Penta unfortunately, felt slightly ashamed as he started heading to the iron category as he saw the contribution points required for the Iron items.
Baren noticing this didn't flinch but some of his friendly hospitality retracted. It was a subtle shift but one that happened nonetheless. Penta ignored this and scanned through it until he got to one package that was affordable and available.
"I'll take this." Penta pointed to a deluxe traveling deal with a fancy tent and enough supplies to last a week where it even came with a pouch of strength.
"Oh, understood. That will be 25 contribution points." Baren requested as he held his hand out.
Penta sent some energy and the tribal tattoo of his glowed and so did Baren's and he noticed he only had half of what he was given. This upset him but he had no choice.
However, this wasn't without gain. He would get more once the mission is done and this pouch of strength was very interesting as it was the only storage item that didn't cost a fortune.
"What's the issue with the pouch though?" Penta asked as he returned the book.
"It's a half baked product. Nobody seemed to want it and I figured getting rid of it with a deal wasn't a waste. It has the normal ability to store items but for some reason, this one had the issue that whatever weight was added. The user would be required to support it. Many people who challenged themselves to it eventually came back and traded it with another pouch even when I added a restocking fee. Sigh." Baren said as he explained. He was just amusing himself with this bag since every who tried it regretted it.
"Oh, how interesting. Does it have a limit?" Penta asked.
"Not that big I would assume but nobody really tried it since they would still have to take most of it out later. Pointless no?" Baren said giving an odd look.
"Haha, you are probably right. Well, might as well try it before we go through with it then?" Penta requested.
"Sure thing. Hold on a minute while I prepare it." Baren said as he turned around and walked to the back of his three-stall complex.
As Penta was waiting around. The girls and the trio found him again as they had gone their own way looking around at things.
"What you getting brother?" Kaya asked as they neared.
"Some supplies for the trip. What did you guys do?"
"Just look around, we never seen most of these things and they were useful at explaining." She replied pointing to the trio.
"Of course, we are your seniors here," Faren said nonchalantly.
"And I, your honorable brother," Penta said while grinning which ticked off Faren a little as they were forced to adopt that title even though they are his juniors.
"Ah sir, here are the items you requested but see I cannot hold all this so could you assist with the bag," Baren said.
Seeing this Penta walked over and grabbed the purple pouch. He was weirded out by the pouch for some reason but it seemed pretty cool nonetheless. As he grabbed it. He felt a prick on his skin and a glow of purple come from the pouch.
"What did it just do?" Penta asked curious to which Baren calmly replied. "The pouch needs to be connected to your energy and I just unsealed our anti compromise array. Think of it as a lock to which you now have the key to."
"How fascinating. Thanks for this Baren, I will definitely come back when we return with our spoils. I need to see that book again haha!" Penta smiled as he held out the pouch with one arm so Baren can fill it.
Baren smiled but didn't take it seriously. This was just a newbie just a barely broke one compared to a broke one. Baren secretly snickered as he knows the weight was going to be applied very differently than he thinks.
Baren took items out of his own pouch which showed that he was someone of influence and money around these parts. Slowly a giant tent and its supplies with crates of food were unloaded one at a time. Penta instinctively just needed to request the pouch to absorb and it took care of the rest.
Soon as the weight of the package started piling up. Baren was getting confused as he noticed no reaction from Penta as he just stood there watching every item with interest.
'What the hell, not a pip out of him? Newbies usually faltered from two hundred pounds and this was a deluxe set with a large tent with enough supplies for a week. Che, here try this.' Baren suddenly spoke up.
"It seems you are very strong for a fresh apprentice. How about I gift you with some supplies as a gesture of goodwill?" Baren smiled as he waited for the response and as he expected Penta readily agreed as he went on about how Baren was such a great merchant.
'Seriously another week's worth of crates and supplies, I even threw in the heavy fruits and he still smiles as though nothing happened? Wait isn't this the freak I heard about going against Elder Briskflame?' Understanding dawned upon Baren as he stopped feeding the pouch more items.
"It seems I underestimated you, sir. Please do come to see me again when you have anything to buy or sell. I can definitely assist!" Baren said seemingly changing his countenance again upon a flick of a switch.
Penta just nodded while smiling at the pouch in his hands.
He wasn't as quick as usual but the strain this bag was putting on him felt... not bad or so he thought.
"How did you afford such a pouch?" Griss and Faren asked.
"What? No, this one is a broken one apparently so it was on sale." Penta said but he still smiled at his pouch.
"Off we go!" He said that but his footsteps sounded like clapping thunder all of sudden.
"Brother!" The girls cried out seeing him almost leave footprints into the ground.
"This oh... I might need to work on this." Penta said as he noticed the biggest issue wasn't carrying it but the sound of his steps was resonating.
He tried thinking about what to do and could only come up with shifting his energy towards his legs and maintaining his center of balance.
As he started taking more steps, the ground wasn't shaking nor did the footsteps thunder the streets.
"Still need some getting used to it seems," Penta mumbled as they started moving away from the scene. The strange glances weren't helping him in the slightest when it came to how weird it looked.
Baren seeing these couldn't help but stare. 'The guy is quite strong, should be careful around him.' Anybody could tell he wasn't someone you messed with lightly at the apprentice stage. Probably only higher grade shamans could make him keel.