6 Techniques

Penta was quickly calculating the information he just received from the old Shaman Ban. A few things caught his attention but he also felt a sense of urgency to carry out this already ongoing conversation.

'I'm an idiot. If I only figured out how to activate the damn orb I could have asked more questions!! Shit!' Penta's mind raced at this conclusion as he saw the misty room get less and less visible. He knew it was his living Emperor roach body digesting the god damn thing.

"I'll take on your request, but what's in it for me!?" Benefits were the only thing he could try and squeeze out of the old man before his time in this world ended permanently. Penta was frustrated as he wanted to know more than anything what shamans were and what they could do.

"I did agree that if you do this for me, I would help you as well. Considering the route back, I'm sure you're either as powerful as me, or you were brought alongside such a person. I don't know what may be of interest to you but I may consider your request." Shaman Ban spoke.

"Everything about shamans that you possess, knowledge, or techniques." Penta immediately replied. as though possessed.

"Oh, odd request, considering I thought you knew but I can comply, were you born from settlers in these lands?" Ban said and then looked around and sighed.

"I do apologize young one, but the time I have remaining is quickly fading. At best I can pass you some knowledge on how to become a shaman but there are so many techniques..." Before he could finish Penta immediately fired back.

"I want the technique to become a shaman and grow as one! The best one you know of, not necessarily yours." Penta shouted almost.

"Oh, smart lad. I see you can weigh your benefits accordingly to my request. My tribe's technique cannot be passed as a soul contract was made in its secrecy that even this whisp of me cannot disregard but I did encounter a rather powerful technique that made even me envious of its effects. However, it's only a portion from a relic I had found a long time ago. It contains enough knowledge to get to my level." The shaman Ban had again been interrupted.

"Completely fine. Please do hurry or I will not answer your request and also while you give me this information, do tell me the name and place of your tribe and whoever I can contact on your behalf." Penta considered his words carefully as he finally made a deal with the dying Ban.

The last words had made the shaman Ban smile as even he was an old crafty fox and if such things were never said, he would rather give Penta a sham technique that could kill him than train him for the revenge of having wasted his time to give his parting words to his tribe.

The whole situation felt a little forced as Penta never considered his luck to be anything great but he would take what he got and maybe this was the universe giving him a way out considering he had been treated rather unfairly in his opinion and even forced to eat dirt as a cockroach in unknown lands.

Penta continued listening to the Shaman Ban as he explained the location, name, and his children's names to him.

"They are located there and should you ask for my daughter's time at the very least they will allow you to speak to her when my name is used. Sigh, hopefully, shes fine. Finally for the message and your compensation. I'm going to use the last of my energy to pass those onto you." Old ban spoke slowly and finally with a smile that seemed unresigned, he split into motes of lights that entered Penta's consciousness.

Penta awoke in the same stone chamber as he felt a throbbing pain in his mind.

"Seems the old man has his way to store a message for himself. Guess he left enough for that but at least I got access to this technique." Penta mumbled while reorganizing his thoughts on the whole encounter.

As Penta started combing into his consciousness to figure out what he had gotten, he suddenly felt a strange presence within his mind that felt foreign. He considered it as the technique in whatever form the Shaman Ban had transmitted over to him and seriously, after all the craziness that has happened since his new life was birthed, he wasn't surprised at such mystical moves.

"Nature's Evolution"

Penta was ecstatic as even the name sounded amazing. He started learning the technique considering he had just eaten and was in no rush to go anywhere. His curiosity on the Shaman's was reaching its peak and the already depressing feeling of having lost a third-tier Shaman's knowledge was pissing him off.

"Nature's Evolution is a simple yet effective method of capitalizing the energy that is ever-present in worlds. One's limit is one's capacity. This allows one to break such limits.

One is to absorb the universal energy of existence at a higher rate than expected. Talent may be one thing but this method is to find a source for this energy.

Gather the universe's mythical creation energy and grow.

I wrote this method for one simple purpose, to find oneself's power from the energy of the world around him and beyond. - Archos"

"The universe only cares about novelty..." Penta was lost in thought as he grew his consciousness from the teaching of nature's evolution.

The sheer brilliance of this technique brought about great joy in his soul as though he was enlightened from just reading the technique.

"The old Ban wasn't stingy... sigh gotta make sure I'll return him the favor. Oh well, at least now there is a direction and hope. Hehe, mystical bastard, It seems even the universe is helping me." Penta laughed insidiously as flickering thoughts of what to do to him when he found Nite.

'Oh, there was a rankings list as well as a description of each tier...oh, wow it goes until third only. Hmm.' Penta pondered the choice to train in this considering the remaining parts weren't there but considering his situation, this may give him more opportunities to maybe solve that in the future.

Without any more hesitation, he started training in it while lying straight on his roach body.

"First is to center one's mind and spread out there awareness over time and enter a relaxed state. Then to sense the creative energy that is readily available."

As he mumbled these words, Penta started taking deeper and deeper breaths. Some reaching lengths of time an incense burned. With slow and steady breathing, Penta started entering a deep meditation with the steps provided by Nature's evolution.

He eventually started feeling as though he was weightless as though he slipped under the physical layer of reality.

A new wondrous feeling emerged as though he felt like he was his soul again, made entirely of energy. The experience with Old Ban and Nite had tempered him slightly better to this energetic world.

'This must be the creative energy' Penta experienced joy at understanding that the energy is abundant, he took it into his hands and tried playing with it and it brought about many changes. Waving around, sometimes solidifying, and returning into a wave.

Following the steps he imagined himself becoming an attractive place as he willed it to follow and tried commanding them to enter his body.

The energy was already originally slowly coming towards him while the particles further away barely reacted. With his will, a large surface area started reacting to the call. 'They feel like harmless little lives playing around and coming together. This feels surreal.' The experience of being able to do something that felt so mystical was a truly complex feeling to Penta.

He was also slightly teary in his soul, the feeling was apparent as he felt happier at these little creative energy particles coming toward him.

They seemed to feel the purer intention as they sped up and this brought about a small change to the speed at which they gathered towards him.

Hours passed as Penta did nothing but continue to bring together all this energy. He was surprised that he didn't feel full, simply rejuvenated. "It might be the roach body, I feel this energy everywhere soul and body." Penta mused as he continued to retain a steady mind of accumulation.

After an entire night and day, Penta finally broke out of the concentration while shocked to see the cave around him seemingly having been rotted.

"Did I do that..?" Penta was surprised as it seems he affected the material plane too with what he did.

There wasn't a lot of rot as the room still kept together but there were crumblings and even the Steele was worse off.

Without thinking twice, he made a little coffin on the side with dirt and buried Old Ban, He started heading for the surface for the first time in a long time.

His mind was wandering as he had different thoughts coming and going, his vengeance, the contents of that hard drive, this new technique, and that bastard's voice. Finally, it seemed he noticed something different.

"Am I faster? Oho, it seems it works like that. Kinda feels like cultivating hehe." Penta's geek thoughts took over as he reminisced of the different ascended, battles, Shinra Tensei and so much more. His vast repertoire of online info and anime habits.

He started testing the limits of what he could do considering he has been munching on some pretty strange things.

"Let's try and see my roach-y speed!" With that screech, he started flexing all his legs and a strange greenish-purple glow appeared and he shot through the soil. The sheer speed was leaving slight scorch marks on the upwards tunnel he was digging. He had decided not to eat and just get to the top and to his surprise his whole body was a bloody bullet. He felt nothing of the friction nor of the powerful force he was exerting. He wasn't sure how strong his limbs were at this stage.

Within a few minutes, he shot through from the ground and rose beside a mid-size dying tree.

Squinting, he raised a roach leg to shelter his eyes, as he reached the highest point before his drop, before him, stood a vast plain with a dark shade sweeping across its fields with the light from day fading. Scarce trees and a dirt-like color all around.

"I guess with such a view it can still be considered a unique place," Penta mumbled before he was scared of dropping from over forty meters in the air. He was never a fan of heights.