After the group decided it was time to call it a night Rebecca suddenly spoke about the coming excursion. “It should be taking place on the 26th. Or more specifically you have to arrive at the location by the 26th. You should be getting letters about it tomorrow but I just wanted to let you know. You have to find your own transportation, though the agency is using a transport car so you can pay to ride along.”
“I have my own vehicle. The agency loaned me a vehicle for personal use as long as I act as the representative.” He seemed quite proud of this fact.
“I have something similar.” Noel wasn’t as proud of her transportation method though it was probably more impressive. “If you need a ride you can always ride with me again.” She spoke to Owari.
“Sure, it’ll save me the hassle of having to be around a bunch of strangers.” Owari easily agreed.
“Well I guess that settles that.” Rebecca said with relief.
“Seems like it.” Owari closed out the conversation as he looked at the darkening sky.
“See you all later.” Lance waved as he left.
“Have fun with your final days of rest.” Rebecca left with a joke. Of course everyone else was excited for the excursion.
“We should head off too.” Noel commented to Owari as the other two left.
“Sure.” The two lived in the same general direction from here so they ended up walking together.
They walked back in silence without saying much. Noel was satisfied with the day of talking amongst friends so she was able to keep quiet and enjoy the silence. Back home she didn’t have friends so she wasn’t used to the feeling of being satisfied with talking. It was a new feeling but she didn’t hate it. Owari was tempted to speak up since he usually disliked such still silence, but a lot like when he is with his mother such silence was quite nice.
After the two split up Owari went home to sleep. When he woke up the next morning he went to check and he had already received the letter. The Sapphire Agency was always punctual when informing their hirees. After reading the letter he found out the location of the excursion. Based on his knowledge of the geography of the area he knew it was probably a three-day drive from here. They didn’t give their people a lot of time to prepare did they? Though one could argue they’ve had time to do so ever since the announcement was made.
Seeing as how it could take three days to get there he made his way to Noel’s for the third day in a row to check and see when they would be leaving. After arriving he found there was already a car waiting with Noel standing nearby. When she saw him she couldn’t help but smirk. “I knew you’d come as soon as you figured out how long it would take. Morgana advises us to leave early in case something happens along the way.”
“Sounds good to me. We should stop by my place so I can grab the rest of my stuff though.” Owari wished he’d brought it along from the start but he had no way of knowing this would happen.
“No problem.” Noel knocked on the drivers window and informed Morgana of what to do. After that the two got into the car sitting next to one another.
“I wonder what kinds of magical beasts we’ll run into.” Owari thought out loud.
“Who knows? I hope we find something I can tame though.” Noel responded as she casually leaned against Owari.
“Oh yeah, you don’t have a tamed beast.” Owari didn’t say anything about her actions.
“That’s right. I was hoping to find something with an earth affinity. After all, adding some earth to my punches will give them a lot of weight. Unfortunately while I’m quite strong because of my mana reserves, my weight is still too little to really punch hard. I have to rely on my kinetic affinity to put in more force.” She seemed quite dissatisfied by this.
“I want to find something to fight with me, both my current beasts are support types. Luckily my contract states that I can tame up to three beasts from the caverns. I’m glad I negotiated for it just in case.” Owari was different from Noel who got special privileges thanks to her status, he had to fight to get certain rights.
“Sounds like a hassle.” Noel yawned, she had only just woken up and was quite comfortable. She was feeling quite lazy.
Owari shook his head seeing her like that. “Luckily because of my mapping skills they still paid me quite well. Enough for quite the extended stay at the hotel.” It wasn’t too bad of a pay all things considered. A lot of it had to do with how generous Tristain had been in describing his skills. He really was worth the price with how methodical he was.
“I hope they would. Cartography is a difficult skill, especially if you want to be really good.” Noel had looked into a bit after Owari described his mapping process and found that he was quite methodical. He would make multiple maps of the same place detailing different things from ecology to meteorology and hunting trails and grazing spots for different magical beasts and even animals.
“Not that I would know. I just did what the books told me. It isn’t hard to learn a skill if you meet all the prerequisite skills. I grew up drawing all kinds of things so switching to maps was easy once I got the hang of how it’s done.” Owari explained.
“You used to draw?” Noel was a bit surprised.
“It’s a good way to train precision and hand-eye coordination. Not to mention it’s a fun way to kill time when you’re bored. There are only so many books in a small town.” Owari chuckled.
“That makes sense.” As Noel finished her sentence they arrived and Owaari got out to go get his stuff.
When he came back Noel went right back to her previous position without skipping a beat and the two started making aimless conversation. Luckily Noel was chatter bug so they never ran out of topics. Most people would expend all the subjects to talk about eventually. But Noel was endlessly curious and would talk about whatever came to mind. Sometimes she would even tell stories that her father and grandfather once told her. Though she didn’t know it a lot of these stories caused Owari to flinch. They were mostly stories about how absurdly strong the two of them were. For instance her father can kill a dragon all on his own. He had to be a mid to high platinum level to be that strong. As for her grandfather he didn’t even try to calculate it.
The days passed quickly, and because he was talking more Owari couldn’t completely supplement his sleep with meditation so he had to sleep. In the end Noel still passed out mid-conversation as usual. This time when she threw herself across the seat Owari didn’t dodge her. Instead he slept where he was, luckily she had fixed her snoring problem which made it easier. Because he was entirely still while asleep he didn’t need to worry about falling over or anything. The two didn’t say anything about the situation and eventually they reached their destination.
When they exited the car they were greeted by a number of tents all set up in the area. They were currently at the foot of a large hill in a very hilly region with many high cliffs. They were quite close to a mountain range that bordered the Leviathan Territory and the Sky Serpent Territory which is located in the soutwestern badlands. It was quite far from the city hence why it took so long to get there.
All the tents were centered around a single cavern entrance and most of the tents were of differing qualities. Some were brand new large tents, and others were well worn single person tents. No matter what kind of tent it was Owari shook his head at them. Staying in a tent was a liability in the wilderness regardless of location. There are only one or two entrances or exits at best and the space is cramped. It was like asking to be eaten by something.
“Why even bother with a tent?” Owari couldn’t help but voice his confusion.
“It’s about comfort.” Morgana answered as she approached the two.
“I’ll take living over comfort any day.” He responded with a shrug. Morgana merely smiled hearing this.
“I agree, it does seem ill-advised.” Noel couldn’t help but agree. Of course her family would teach her about wilderness safety.
“Young miss, I have your pack here.” Morgana grabbed a bag from the bag that was very similar to Owari’s own.
“Thank you Morgana.” Noel took it over and put it on. It was smaller than Owari’s so it would fit on her back,
“It’s no problem at all young miss.” Morgana smiled.
“So what to do now.” Owari looked around curiously. Obviously they had attracted attention with the fancy car so many people were staring back, but neither Owari nor Noel cared. Instead they simply considered what to do next.
It was at this time that Rebecca walked over from behind one of the bigger tents. “Well you’re here early.” She wasn’t at all surprised given their personalities.
“Better early than late.” Owari replied.
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“That’s true.” She felt the same.
“I agree. Where is Lance, has he arrived yet?” Noel was curious as she didn’t see him nearby.
“He’s here, he is just talking with the representative of the Sapphire Agency to discuss some things.” Of course he would get here early. As someone who represented an agency it was important to show his sincerity.
“Well since that’s the case there shouldn’t be any worries.” Noel seemed relieved that everyone had arrived on time.
“Someone’s coming.” Owari looked over and saw another person coming from the same place Rebecca has a moment ago.
“How do you know they’re coming here?” Rebecca was surprised.
“Because I can feel his attention is focused on us.” This came from his ability to read auras through the ghost eye moth.
“That’s quite the perception.” The man said as he approached. He was a man in his late twenties with dark hair and a sturdy but not overly large frame. He was also taller than average so he towered over everyone present. Even Owari who had started to hit his growth spurt.
“I have my methods.” Owari smiled.
“This is Ryan, he is one of the experts of the Sapphire Agency. He’s a mid gold rank.” Rebecca introduced him.
“My name is Owari.” Owari answered simply.
“And I am Noel.” Noel nodded her head lightly in greetings.
“I’ve heard a bit about the two of you.” Ryan smiled. “Nothing bad though.” He added on.
“It’s good that nobody has been bad talking us. Though I worry about the fact that other people know who I am before I meet them.” Owari sighed.
“It shouldn’t worry you. As long as it’s good things then it can only be helpful. For instance getting deals with trade centers and agencies is easier with a reputation.” Ryan laughed lightheartedly.
“Ryan!” Suddenly a woman’s voice came from the large tent causing Ryan to flinch. “Where did you run off to?!”
Ryan looked around for a moment before nodding. “You guys never saw me.” Immediately after he started to walk away as if he had never met them before. Soon a woman came out from the tent and after spotting Ryan she chased after him yelling at him.
“Sigh.” Rebecca both sighed and even said the word as she did so. “That was Ryan. An expert of our agency, a notoriously lazy one who always tries to weasel his way out of work.”
“Well at least we didn’t have to tell her where he went.” Owari would have definitely told the truth.
“True, after all I can’t afford to lie to the representative. She is my boss.” Rebecca chuckled.
“I would have no reason to lie either.” If Ryan were to hear all of them mercilessly agreeing they would sell him out he would probably get mad, but luckily he wasn’t here.
The three of them laughed and as they did so another person came from the tent and approached them. “What are you all laughing at?” Lance asked curiously.
“It’s complicated. How did your talks go?” Rebecca shifted the conversation since it would take too long to explain.
“Well enough. It was mostly a formality.” Lance shrugged.
“Aren’t most things when it comes to politics?” Owari half-joked.
“You got me there.” Lance laughed.
After that the four of them spent some more time hanging out and talking before they all went their separate ways to find places to rest. As they did so Owari considered something before speaking up to Noel. “We should practice taking shifts.”
“Huh?” Noel was surprised by his sudden recommendation.
“Since it would be dangerous to just sleep with so many strangers not to mention wildlife, it would be a good idea to sleep in shifts. It can also work as practice for when we start going out into the caverns.” Owari had always been alone before so he would sleep in trees for safety. But there were no trees out here.
“That’s a good idea. Who takes first shift?” Noel got right down to business once she caught up to his reasoning.
“I can do that, I have the better sensory abilities and first shift is when most people will be drifting between sleep and wakefulness.” Of course second shift was dangerous as well, but he could still detect hostility when he is asleep and it would wake him up right away.
“Alright.” Noel didn’t argue, it was technically true that Owari was more experienced with expeditions than she was.
With that sorted the two spent the rest of the day making idle talk until the sun started to dip and Noel started to get tired. In the end she pulled out a sleeping bag and laid down on top of it using it as a makeshift bed as she went to sleep. Nothing of note happened during Owari’s shift. About halfway through the night Owari woke up Noel and the two changed out. Instead of sleeping on a sleeping bag, Owari directly slept on the ground.
The next day came quickly after sleep and Owari woke up as soon as the sun came up. After waking up it was still a while before the expedition properly started. Everyone would file in one group at a time since there was only one entrance. There were dozens of branches over time however and each group would be given one branch. There were about two dozen groups so there was still a lot of ground to cover for each team depending on how deep their branch went.
About an hour before noon Owari’s group entered the cavern and took one of the more central paths. As they walked along Owari silently drew out a map using a canvas, he had a lot of similar canvases in his pack in case they got a large path. He used pencils which could easily be erased without leaving a trace in case of mistakes. Unlike his forest excursion where he did the mapwork either at the end of the day or after the excursion was over, he had to make sure they had a map back in case they got lost. He sometimes had to make them stop so he could finish up some detail work to make sure they had points of reference. He also kept notes on the geology and ecology of the area, though he didn’t write it on the maps yet. He would make copies at the end and write it out then.
Time passed slowly as they carefully made their way through the tunnels. Lance and Noel were out front with Rebecca in the middle and Owari at the back watching their flank. As the cartographer he was also the most important member since he was the best at reading the map to get back. Occasionally they would run into some small lizards or insect type magic beasts, but they were weak enough to ignore.
“We have to kill as little as possible and take out as little as possible.” Owari noted after Lance had to kill a large cat-sized lizard that could sharpen its claws with metal affinity mana.
“Why?” Lance was a bit taken off guard by Owari’s demand.
“The ecology of caverns is delicate. Unless necessary it’s important we don’t needlessly remove nutrients from the system or accidentally kill off a less populous species. Once the Sapphire Agency moves in they’ll take measures to combat this problem before opening it up as a hunting ground, but for now there are no protections in place.” Owari warned.
“He’s the expert.” Rebecca noted.
“I can try to knock them out with electricity.” Lance grumbled.
“I can knock some stuff unconscious with a good sonic burst.” Noel was less grumbly.
“If your life is at risk go wild. Just don’t kill small stuff when you don’t need to.” Like that the final bit of conversation died off and they got back to work.
The group went down seven dead-end branches, slowly mapping them out. Unlike some people might think there was actually plenty of life around here. Some lizards here, insects there. There were also occasional streams of water coming through the rocks and some were even just big enough to have the occasional fish. Owari noted all of these spots down and what could be found there. It was important to be thorough.
Eventually though they managed to find a larger cavern. It was about the size of a football field. It was spherical in that the floor sloped downwards gently and sloped back up on each side forming a weird lumpy bowl. There was much more life in this part of the cave. There was some water leaking down from the ceiling in pales, soon to be drunk by the life in the cave. Owari carefully inspected the various features of this cavern. There were a number of fungi growing in here, molds, mushrooms, and even some tubers.
There were also some smaller but still powerful magical beasts in here. As Owari was noting down the properties of a mushroom the size of his torso he sensed a large amount of hostility spike from nearby and jump at him. On instinct he dropped his pencil and pulled his sword out and swung it at the attacker. He heard a clang as he felt rebound hit his arm which he calmly dissipated. He finally looked over to see a snake being knocked away unharmed.
The snake got back up and came for another attack, however this time Owari was prepared. He stood up and as soon as the snake jumped at him he smacked it with his blade making sure not to injure it. “Hey Noel, I think I found something for you.” Owari called out to Noel who was glancing around the cave nearby with interest.
“Huh? What did you find here?” She was momentarily confused before she saw a flash as Owari knocked something her way.
“It’s an earth type snake. Should be low to mid silver with scales that tough.” Owari carefully appraised the snake as it continued to attack him, ignoring Noel completely.
“I don’t really have an interest in snakes. Plus it seems way too aggressive.” Noel wasn’t interested.
“Alright. Owari knocked it all the way across the cavern so far that it lost trace of him.
“How can you so casually bat aside a mid silver rank beast?” Rebecca was skeptical.
“It’s mid silver because of its defence not its speed or attack. It can handle attacks of mid silver rank otherwise I would have split it in half with most of those attacks.” Owari hadn’t held back much against it, he only needed to not use the moth wing strike and he could swing with mid silver rank force if he wanted.
“Impressive, not even using a mystic art and still so strong.” Of course Lance could tell the power behind those strikes, he could tell by the loudness of the strikes and the whistle his sword made as it passed through the air.
“It’s honestly scary.” Rebecca commented from the side.
“It’s just because I nailed down the basics. This is pretty much my limit without gaining affinities to boost my body to new levels.” Owari knew his limits well, he was at a roadblock. He could in theory reach high silver rank like this, but it would take a lot of time and effort. It was easier to build on what he knew and start practicing mystic arts. He could always practice his martial arts later.
“Are you almost done with this place? We have a lot more ground to cover based on those dozen other branches we’ve seen, plus this one keeps going.” Lance pointed at an opening on the sidewall of the cavern.
“I just need to mark down the poisonous properties of this mushroom and I’ll be done.” Owari wrote down about the paralyzing effect of the mushroom from it’s spores before the group made its way further in.
Slowly but surely they marked off all the dead ends before they eventually had to call it a day. They decided to sleep in shifts with Lance and Rebecca taking first shift and Owari and Noel taking second. The night passed uneventfully and soon they were back on their adventure. This time they ran into something much more interesting. A massive cavern the size of a dozen football fields. It had numerous pillars connecting the ceiling and floor to support it. There was a river slowly meandering through the cavern with some branches going off into different gaps in the wall. There was much more wildlife in here than anywhere else.
There were many reptiles such as lizards and snakes around the river, with fish flowing through on occasion. There were some insects buzzing and crawling around, and numerous glowing molds and mushrooms. Some of the fauna in here was shockingly big. Most cave life was smaller for efficiency. There was even crayfish climbing in and out of the river. As they were looking around and as Owari was writing in his notes he felt another spike in hostility.
“Everyone look out above and behind!” He warned as he turned and saw a massive salamander. It was the size of a cow and had five claws on its oddly long limbs. Its eyes were slits that seemed to look around sizing up the group. It had razor-sharp teeth peeking out from it’s jaws.
“Is it going to attack?” Rebecca asked uncertainly. It seemed to just be watching them so far.
“Definitely, it’s just seeing who is the weakest link.” Owari could feel its blood lust. He set his pack down slowly so as to not stimulate it before placing his map and note supplies inside haphazardly.
“What do we do?” Rebecca wasn’t sure if she should preemptively attack to get an advantage.
“Prepare for a fight.” Owari answered simply.
At this point it seemed to determine Noel was the weakest link as she was the smallest. It opened its mouth and suddenly shot out a mud ball. Noel easily punched the mud ball and smashed it to bits. Seeing its attack was ineffective the salamander was shocked. It suddenly shot three more at the group one for each of the remaining members. Lance slashed his in half with his sharp spear. Rebecca shot her’s and froze it causing it to fall and shatter against the ground. Owari pulled out his sword and used the moth wing strike to kick up wind, as his sword slashed through the mud, the wind grabbed it and sent it spraying to the side.
Seeing Owari’s technique for the first time the rest were quite shocked. The sound it made was like a beast roaring as it attacked, and the effect was seemingly impossible without a wind type mystical art. They almost didn’t believe he was really not using a mystic art. As for the salamander, it was looking at them all in with trepidation. Suddenly it’s tail flashed brown as it smacked it’s long tail against the wall and flew at Rebecca at high speeds. It noticed her attack was long ranged and assumed she had bad short-ranged ability. It was quite clever.
Rebecca pulled her bowstring back, but to everyone’s shock the tail spewed out mud and caused the salamander to increase a level in speed. As it shot at her faster then she could pull her bowstring back, everyone reacted differently. Lance spun his spear to fire off a quick lightning net to shock the salamander causing it to freeze up. Noel crossed her gloves together and created a drone causing the salamander to lose balance and start to teeter mid air. Then Owari used his fast speed to turn and rush Rebecca, grabbing her and getting out of the way as the salamander slammed heavily into the ground and rolled towards the group. It was out cold from the impact and everyone was left wondering what to do with it.