Owari woke up feeling quite refreshed, after the day before he felt oddly high spirited so he wasn't too surprised. Lately he had been quite down and had suffered from it quite badly. Not only had he lost his only friends, he had left his home and mother behind, then his train was attacked and countless people killed. This series of events would obviously be quite upsetting, but most people wouldn't notice how it affected Owari since he didn't display it so openly. He just continued his training as usual, over time he would have been able to shake it off on his own anyway. However after taking a day off to just relax he was feeling infinitely better then if he just waited for things to blow over.

He decided to keep this in mind going forward, it was important not to neglect your mental health and happiness. However for now he had work to do so he left all that stuff in the back of his mind. He intended to go out of town and begin working, he couldn't lock himself away forever and he had finally finished healing and got everything in town sorted. As for going to see Lance, Rebecca, and the other few people who wanted to meet with him, he planned to do it when he got back. He was starting to feel antsy just sitting around, after the train car fight he found himself looking forward to fighting again and recapturing that feeling he had that day.

He left a message with the reception desk, which was being looked after by an older lady who Owari now knew was the owner. Places like this existed all over the city, being owned by families over generations with kids one day taking over. Kids born in the city rarely had any dreams of becoming a hunter, they saw better than most kids how hard it was and how many people lost their lives doing it. Of course some still did it, especially those with talents, but that was on the rarer side. Owari thought it was quite nice that so many shops were owned and run by families. It definitely gave the city a much closer feeling then if every shop was owned by some businessman only interested in numbers.

After making sure they knew he'd be gone for the next three days, Owari was able to leave in peace. This way if someone stopped by they would be able to know when he would be back. Of course that was assuming he didn't get killed but there was little point in worrying about that, at least for Owari. He had already taken off his training weights, had bought a travel pack about half the size of his body for storing magical beast materials on the return trip, and had filled the side packs of said pack with rations for up to a week in case of emergency. He also had a medical kit with some basic supplies, he had learned that it was a good idea to keep some stuff on you just in case.

As soon as he exited the city proper he started to run alongside the road towards his destination. As he traveled he started to practice meditating while moving, only diverting enough thought towards ensuring he didn't slip up and to keep in contact with the ghost eye moth. Over the week he had come to realize the ghost eye moth had no sense of self whatsoever, and would never initiate any information transfer on its own. So in order to use it's aura and mana reading ability for anything he had to purposefully maintain mental contact with it.

However as he spent longer periods of time mentally connected to it he had started to realize it was becoming more and more natural to do so. By this point it even felt like the moth was simply an extension of his body, like a limb more than a separate entity he commanded. While he was slightly surprised, Owari easily came to the conclusion that this was probably similar to how hive minds felt about their simulacrums. Insects notoriously have a weak sense of self, they had a nickname of being the machines of mother nature as they only followed preprogrammed instincts instead of thinking or acting on their own. Owari didn't feel one way or the other about it, but he did know it made it much easier to get used to the beast taming art.

Owari also used this time to carefully get a feeling for how the ghost eye moth sensed auras and mana. Humans were one of the most adaptable magical beasts, and they were very good at mimicking and adapting the abilities of other creatures for themselves. That was why so many martial and mystical arts were inspired by magical beast's movements and magical abilities. It was easier to adapt then it was to innovate. Owari felt that with time he could copy the ability of the ghost eye moth, at least at a weaker level. The reason he was doing this was because it would allow him to enhance his sensory abilities as a whole. Your ability to detect and react to danger was very important, and every hunter would develop some unique technique to do it. Owari didn't intend to just train this method either, he would learn and compile many sensory techniques together in the future.

That was one of the reasons he chose the hunting location he had this time. His destination was a large forest about half a day's travel for him from the city. It was a forest home mostly to plant type magical beasts born from mana saturated plants. They are some of the hardest to detect and it would be a good training ground for his observation and sensory skills. The upside is that most plant type magical beasts are actually not very aggressive since they can live off of soil nutrients and sunlight. It was only carnivorous or territorial plant types that would attack people or animals.

Owari managed to run all the way to the forest without much problem. Although there were plenty of people going in and out of the city at any time he had left most of the people he left with behind. He wasn't interested in delaying so he had run at full speed from the start. Using his special breathing methods and meditation allowed him to restore stamina almost as fast as he lost it allowing him to run continuously. After arriving at the forest Owari took some time to relax his muscles and let them rest a bit as he steadied his breathing. As he did so he observed the forest, it was quite large, he couldn't see the end of it, and off to one side it went on for at least a few miles, while on the other it was only about a mile to the edge. The forest was out of the way of the road over some hills so looking back he couldn't even see the road. If not for his good sense of direction and his good memory when it comes to maps Owari would probably have to fear getting lost in there. Another reason he had chosen this forest had somewhat to do with this. More for his mapping ability than the fear of getting lost. Independent hunters don't just get paid for magical beast materials, they also can get money from mapping out locations and finding places of interest.

One thing that caught Owari's attention was the presence of plant type magical beasts with the earth affinity in this forest. Plant type magical beasts are most affected by their surroundings, like moth's and other mimicry based magical beasts, but a whole level above. The presence of earth affinity plant types meant the nutrients in the ground here were quite mana rich. If that was the case then Owari might be able to find a mana rich ore vein in this forest somewhere. With any luck it would be a good one and he could sell the location. Most independent hunters were the type to hope on their luck to find such locations, and curse said luck when others found them. However what those types didn't know was that the people who found such locations were mostly like Owari who would do research and apply the information they had to maximize their chances.

Owari wrapped up his thoughts and entered the forest, he only had a limited time here after all. Once noon hit the day after tomorrow he would wrap up his initial investigation and head back to the city. Over time he planned to come back and do a few of such initial investigations before planning a bigger expedition. This was the safest and smartest option, and Owari was far from being stupid and reckless so he didn't do what many new hunters did and throw himself into uncharted territory as if he had a death wish. The forest itself seemed quite peaceful and relaxed, there were insects chirping and the wind swayed the trees and spread the scent of nature as it blew. It was summertime right now so all the plants had already come back to life in the spring and were in full health.

Owari didn't let this peace fool him though, things can change in a moment with little warning. He no longer dared to meditate and fully focused on taking in his surroundings. As he walked further and further into the forest he had begun to notice, mostly with his moth's help, some of the plant type magical beasts in the area. A lot of them were only small flowers or vines, and were quite weak. Owari carefully studied them and made a number of mental notes on them. As an avid studier of magical beasts he was fascinated by these low-level plant type magical beasts and how they had grown and evolved. He decided to write down any findings he made while in the field when he returned to look up later. Since this was a relatively newly settled location even a forest like this that was so close to the city wasn't actually too greatly explored. It was quite dangerous after all, and it was mostly independent hunters who would do the job. A lot of people had to lose their lives just to map the outskirts of this place. The depths of this forest were actually still uncharted even after over a hundred years of mapping efforts.

As he was making his way to the forest depths Owari was suddenly alerted to something by his connection to the moth. Following the traces he was able to make out the source of a rather sizable hostility through the trees. A few dozen meters away was a rather large bear. Of course since this was a forest it would have some animals, even if it was mostly plant type magical beasts that could be found here. Owari was able to identify the bear pretty easily, it was about three meters tall, sandy brown hair, large knife-like brown claws, and tree trunk-like limbs. It was a copper level magical beast evolved from the brown bear. It should have an earth affinity so Owari would have to be careful of where he stood if he fought it. The bear had been exploring the edges of the forest looking for an easy meal when it came upon Owari.

Normally such magical beasts wouldn't be on the edge of a forest out of fear of the hunters, but it had grown used to newbies entering the area and had started to assume all humans were easy pickings. After all magical beasts may usually be slightly more intelligent than ordinary animals but they were still only so smart. When it saw Owari it felt some resistance to attacking him, all magical beasts tended to have good instincts, let alone one that could survive in a location with hidden dangers like this. However one problem that arose with an increased intelligence was that you would be inclined to listen to reason over instincts. The bear had decided that Owari was food like every other human it had ever seen and it started to prepare to attack.

As for Owari he thought for a bit and decided to deal with the bear, leaving such a dangerous magical beast around the edges of the forest would lead to many deaths. Not to mention since it was an earth affinity magical beast, it's hide would be quite tough and would probably sell well. There was also the benefit of eating it's meat so Owari could raise his earth affinity a bit, although he wasn't sure which affinity he would settle on the more you have the better. After all just having an affinity would enhance certain aspects of the body like how the hide of this bear would be sturdier due to its earth affinity. Humans were no different.

The bear was annoyed it had been noticed so easily, it had even tried to hide a bit due to its nerves which were warning it. However once it was discovered it grew more annoyed at itself, feeling it was being too cautious it decided to abandon stealth and openly challenge Owari. It reared up on its back legs and stared Owari down, as if daring him to try and fight. Owari didn't immediately attack, instead he pulled out his sword and thought about how to go about this. Against earth-type magical beasts the entire ground became an enemy, and Owari wanted to use this as a chance to train. It would likely be a while before he got a chance to face such a strong opponent again since he had no plans of delving deeply into the forest yet.

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Technically this magical beast was much stronger than Owari as he was closer to the high iron level while it was in the mid copper level, and Owari knew this. As he was he might not even be able to kill it, but when he had first woke up on the train after the crash he was only mid-iron level. He grew in the heat of battle, and this time would be no different. The reason the bear was rated so highly had to do with its defenses, which meant against someone like Owari who was good at overcoming strong defenses it was at a disadvantage. This was a good matchup for him, otherwise he would have decided to escape, and with his speed it would have been easy.

The bear seemed to grow impatient as Owari refused to step forward first. It dropped back onto all fours and reared up before charging straight at him. It was a very simple attack, and showed that it didn't take Owari seriously at all. Owari thought about how to respond as the bear closed in rapidly, it's powerful muscles allowing it to rocket forward faster then one might expect for something of that size and weight. Owari decided not to take the attack too seriously just like how the bear treated him, so he simply jumped to the side and behind a tree. The forest was fairly dense, with trees being a few meters apart from each other. They were mostly thinner trees and were likely quite young. Seeing him disappear behind one of the trees annoyed the bear. Owari was very agile and had managed to move over a meter with a light jump in less than a second pulling him out of the bear's path of attack. The bear turned towards the tree and continued its charge, losing a bit of speed but still going quite fast.

It tucked it's head to the side and smashed it's shoulder into the tree snapping it near the base as it barreled through without slowing down. It was surprising when it didn't see Owari on the other side. Owari was currently on the tree with his sword stuck in the side as it fell over after being snapped. Now would be a good time to attack as the bear was unaware of him, however he wasn't fully sure he would be able to get past the bear's sturdy hide so he avoided attacking yet. He would have to attack from above because of his current location and he wanted to avoid getting caught in the air where he had no footholds.

Instead he hopped off to the side to avoid the crash as it slammed heavily into another tree before dropping to the ground. The bear stopped and turned around looking straight at Owari as he lightly landed on the ground. It seemed to strongly dislike how Owari had escaped its charge, and it glared daggers at him as it considered how to attack next. Owari also considered how to go about attacking the bear. The bear seemed to decide first as it reached over and swatted the tree that it had just snapped. The tree was sent flying towards Owari, however he showed no sign of dodging. The tree slammed into a few of the trees in the area as it spun through the air. Obviously there wasn't enough room for a spinning log to fly through the air very far.

The bear did not seem too happy that it's 'clever' attack did nothing. It instantly grew enraged and charged at Owari again. However this wasn't a simpleminded charge like before, before Owari had the chance to jump to the side two walls appeared on either side of him blocking his path. They had suddenly shot out of the ground below, and while they weren't exactly sturdy they would get in the way. Owari didn't panic though, if he couldn't go left or right, and back or forward wouldn't help much, then he just had to go up. He jumped to one of the walls and proceeded to use it as a foothold to jump over the other wall. As he got over the wall he grabbed the edge and redirected his momentum to be pulled towards the ground. He didn't want to be caught in the air. By the time he had landed on the ground the bear had run through the two earth walls, Owari had timed his dodge to avoid allowing the bear to catch him as he landed.

The bears skidded to a stop rapidly and turned towards Owari once again. Its muzzle was pulled back in a snarl, and as Owari landed he saw the dirt starting to get sucked into a point under him. After seeing the walls raise up he had a hunch of what was about to happen, so he lightly moved his foot causing his body to move to the side as a spike of dirt and stone shot through where his leg had been a moment ago. After that Owari didn't have much time to celebrate as dirt spikes started to shoot out from under him one after the other. Clearly the bear was angry as it had no intention of sparring any mana to kill Owari. However despite having the ground itself turn into his enemy, Owari was actually quite happy. He had wanted to take the time to learn some footwork techniques, so he used these spikes shooting up under his feet to practice his footwork.

Every Time he saw the earth indent under his feet he would use one of a number of methods to move his body trying to find the most optimal way of moving his feet and legs to dodge. Sometimes he would twist his ankle one way to rotate his body and dodge by a hair, other times he would use his leg as a fulcrum to maneuver his body. Even though he was improving rapidly he was also in quite a bit of danger, after dodging the third spike he attempted dodge only by throwing his torso to the side as a spike tried to pierce his chest. At the same time though another spike came out from beside him and he barely rotated his body in time as it tore through his haori and even his shirt. It didn't actually cut him but it was very close. It had been aimed at his gut so he wouldn't have even been able to rely on his bones to delay the attack. However this just caused Owari to grow more excited as the pressure he felt grew and the realization that he could die allowed him to grow and improve more rapidly.

As the bear watched Owari dodge and weave between its attacks it grew steadily angrier. It looked more like he was playing around than attempting to fight in a life or death battle. The bear spared no expense as it increased the intensity of its attacks. Sometimes it only attacked with one spike, while other times it tried to catch Owari off guard with three or more from different directions. Once and a while it would even purposefully feint with a slower attack trying to make Owari think it was growing weak, but it wasn't skilled enough to fool Owari so he was able to maintain his calm and continue his dodging. After the surroundings had turned into a weird piece of contemporary art with spikes sticking up in various states of falling apart as they ran out of mana, the bear stopped its attacks.

It still had mana left, but clearly this wasn't working. After the attacks stopped Owari also placed his feet on the ground with a steadiness that he hadn't felt in what seemed like ages. The entire time he was dodging the spikes he hadn't let his full weight press into the ground. He applied his knowledge from creating the moth wing strike into his footwork and was able to figure out how to maintain a light step that made it feel like he was floating. As soon as his foot touched the ground he could send all his weight and strength through that spot and move in any direction he pleased. Since the legs are much stronger than the arms he was able to more freely apply force through them as they wouldn't snap under the pressure. It was a welcome surprise and meant he didn't even need to use his breathing methods to maintain the footwork technique he was developing. He would be able to use it as is without too big a drain on his stamina.

The two of them starred the other down as they considered their options. Even though his dodging ability had vastly improved, Owari still wasn't sure if he could actually cut the bear. He decided to stop hesitating though, he couldn't give his enemy the initiative all the time after all. Plus with his new ability to dodge he was more confident in retreating in the worst-case scenario now. Owari held his sword out to the side as he pushed off the ground and glided across the ground like a leaf caught in the breeze. The bear was surprised by Owari's sudden aggressiveness and shot a few spikes up along Owari's path to slow him as it considered its options. However Owari merely tilted his body or twisted his torso lightly as he smoothly dodged the spikes. Seeing this the bear decided to stop trying to outsmart Owari and simply lifted one of its massive paws in the air before swinging it with shocking speed towards Owari when he got into range.

Owari tucked his body in as he spun in place with his back to the incoming attack. Then he pushed his leg out to kick the ground, lifting his body over the bear's arm and going up towards its head. Owari spun his body while staying tucked in to lower the air resistance on his body as he rapidly approached the bear. The bear didn't have much time to react as Owari swung his sword transferring all the rotation and weight of his body into the attack to behead the bear in one swing. Suddenly the bear's fur flashed with brown light in the area around its neck as it felt danger. Owari noticed this and threw his weight downwards as he changed the direction of his blade and sliced through the bear's shoulder and torso leaving a massive gash as Owari used the resistance of the bear's hide to throw himself over its shoulder and past the bear.

As he spun through the air, Owari reoriented himself and landed on his feet taking a few steps back to lose the last of his speed softly. The bear roared loudly as it finally seemed to realize it was injured. The ground even shook slightly under its mana infused roars of rage. It turned towards Owari with rage-filled eyes as blood slowly died it's fur red. Owari was then able to inspect the damage his attack had done, he had only managed to leave a cut about 30 centimeters long on it, but the wound was deep and he could see bone as blood poured out. The bear's left arm was slightly limp showing that it had lost a lot of strength on that side of its body. If Owari had left a slightly longer cut he might have even hit it in the heart which would have been fatal for sure.

Despite the blood and severe injury the bear seemed to be fully capable of moving and acting as if it wasn't fazed by the wound at all. Magical beasts had far more vitality then normal animals and a wound of this level while dangerous was not outright lethal. Bears were especially known for their sturdy bodies and high vitality, let alone an earth affinity one. Not willing to suffer such humiliation lying down, the Bear reached its paw down and scooped up some dirt which flashed brown before it swiped it's paw sending a clump of mana infused dirt and stone at Owari.

The clump stayed completely solid and resembled a boulder more than a clump of packed dirt. Owari didn't dare take it head-on as the half meter-sized rock flew at him as fast as a train. He pushed off the ground and dodged to side as the dirt clump smashed through two or three trees snapping them like twigs only a moment later. Before Owari had time to react he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw the bear had already prepared another attack. He landed and didn't even give himself time to think as he threw himself to the side again to dodge the next attack. The bear didn't stand around and scooped another clump of dirt, continuing its barrage of attacks. Owari was glad he took the time earlier to solidify his footwork as he barely dodged stone after stone.

After a dozen throws the trees behind Owari had all mostly been broken and collapsed as the bear finally stopped its attacks. It grew increasingly frustrated by Owari who seemed able to dodge everything it threw at him. He was like a leaf in the wind, anytime you tried to hit him he would just glide past the attack. However the focus required to maintain this level of skill was quite considerable and if not for how much time Owari spent meditating and training his mental strength he would have long ago slipped up and died. He had also slowly created a breathing technique suitable for this style of footwork to allow him to maximize its potential, which kept him from burning out too fast. Owari was quite talented and well suited for this kind of lifestyle, and his adaptability was very good which meant that unless you went all out and killed him right away he would only grow to be able to counter you. The bear had already lost as soon as it looked down on him and refused to go all out to kill him.

Now that Owari had come this far he had a good idea of what this bear was capable of, not to mention it was starting to heave lightly showing it was both physically exhausted and that it had used up too much mana. This wasn't too surprising, although magical beasts have a lot more mana than humans, it had gone around using it without any thoughts of conservation. As for its physical exhaustion it was obviously because it had kept exerting itself with such a massive wound. It had already lost most of the blood in its body and was getting dizzy. Owari didn't underestimate his enemy though even in this state, he himself had experienced the feeling of risking everything regardless of if he would live and had managed to survive because of it. He would never believe his enemies wouldn't be able to do the same.

Owari ran forwards towards the bear as he carefully watched it for any sudden movements. As he got closer and closer the bear still didn't seem to react until he was only about two meters away from it. When he got to this point its eyes suddenly grew clear as it threw itself forward to bite Owari in half with its giant jaws. Luckily Owari hadn't underestimated it otherwise if he had just tried to come over and finish it off he would have been put in a dangerous spot. Unfortunately for the bear Owari was no fool and as it rapidly closed in on him he turned so that his back was facing the ground as he slipped under the bear's head. Before he had the chance to hit the ground and lose all speed he used a full strength moth wing strike to slice the bears throat wide open and cut about halfway through its neck nearly beheading it. This time it didn't have enough mana or mental focus to use that defensive barrier it had before so Owari could finish his swing this time. As he fell back towards the ground he skidded only a short moment before he fell into the hole created by the bears digging. As he dropped he did a backflip to reorient himself and landed on his feet. Meanwhile the bear finally seemed to have lost the last vestiges of life within it as it collapsed to the ground with a thump.