Owari managed to finish his research in a few days and he went to meet up with Noel as soon as he was done. The two immediately went about their work after Owari gave Morgana the directions. As masterfully as ever she only needed to hear it once before she was able to memorize them. Owari and Noel got in the back and enjoyed the drive as they approached their destination.

“This place is quite nice.” Noel noted after getting out of the vehicle.

“I suppose it is.” Owari decided to take in the sight. They were in a valley flanked by a few hills on each side. The valley itself also had some smaller hill like protrusions. The entire valley was a few times the size of Leviathan city which was big enough to be considered at least two cities in one.

“The grass is quite green here. I can also see a lot of magical beasts even from here.” Noel looked out across the valley trying to find a strong opponent to fight.

“Might as well get going.” The two of them made their way away from the highway shortly after.

Of course Owari had his salamander with him, he had paid for a location for it to stay while in the city and after realizing he’d be going with Noel he bought a transport cage for him. He still needed a name but Owari was still thinking about it. He had been busy these past few days so he hadn’t focused on this relatively unimportant thing. He would take his time to get a good name like he did with Mirra.

As the three of them made their way through the plains Owari would stop on occasion and take soil samples. Eventually Noel couldn’t help it and asked. “What are you doing that for?”

“Determining the soil composition in the area. That way I’ll have an idea if the aquifers around here are potable.” Owari answered back concisely as he looked at the soil. “I wish I had tools for looking deeper in. It’s a pain trying to guess at the soil composition deeper down based on surface samples.” Suddenly he had a thought and looked over at the salamander.

“What is it?” Noel noticed Owari’s sudden change.

“I have an idea.” Owari gave the salamander directions and after some confused back and forth it seemed to understand what he wanted. Its claws flashed brown as it clawed at the ground turning it into a muddy putty and allowing it to dig faster.

“Well that’s convenient.” Noel couldn’t help but look at the salamander oddly. She would have never thought of such an out of the box answer to her problem. Perhaps she was too narrow-minded.

“Sure is.” Owari nodded as the salamander dug down and came back up. Owari went down into the tunnel and checked the soil deeper down before coming back up and having the salamander refill the hole with the mud it took out.

“You can even refill it so fast.” Noel went over and pet the salamander who unwillingly allowed it. “Good boy. What’s his name?”

“Haven’t thought of one yet.” Owari admitted as he considered things based on the soil he saw.

“How about I think of a name? It isn’t as though I am busy while we walk around here.” Noel didn’t have much to do until they ran into an enemy.

“Sure.” Owari wasn’t sure how her naming sense was, but he decided to give her a shot.

Soon the two went back to their walk as Owari used the salamander's digging ability to check the soil. Eventually they ran into their first enemy. It was a stag with large antlers. It was twice the size of a normal deer with green-tinted fur. It looked at them as though it was unsure of if it should run or fight.

“It looks like a tempest stag. They have a wind affinity and are fans of cloaking themselves in swirling wind as they charge. They’re about mid silver at least. This one looks quite smart so it’s likely more high silver ranking. What do you think?” Owari asked Noel since she was the one who was here to fight.

“I don’t want to kill random beasts. I’d rather fight one’s who attack first otherwise it wouldn’t be hunting.” There was no reason to go around killing everything in their path even if she did want a fight.

“Well it looks like it’s going to attack. It seems to think because we’re so small that we must be weak. Go wild.” Owari stepped back.

Noel’s body started to let out a light hum as the deer’s eyes sharpened. It immediately charged after making its decision. It’s body slowly cloaked itself in rotating winds that grew stronger the further it went. Noel waited for it to get close before using a shockwave to dodge the charge before releasing another one to close back in on it. Then she punched out and a boom occurred as her power exploded out. A tearing sound occurred as she ripped the winds around it apart and then a thud sounded out as the deer was slammed in the side by the remaining energy.

The deer stumbled a bit but retained its footing. It turned around and as it did its antlers flashed green and it swung its head sending out a number of swirling green wind blades. Noel stood in place and punched each in turn as they came tearing them apart with raw strength. Then she rushed forward at high speeds and punched at the deer’s head. The deer swung it’s head again as the antlers glowed green and it intercepted her fist. A boom and a whooshing noise sounded as wind kicked up around them. The deer’s antler snapped clean off, but Noel was sent flying back.

Before the deer could celebrate however she kicked the air creating a boom and jumped at the deer from mid-air. It wasn’t as fast as when she kicked off the ground but it was still quite fast as she punched once again. The deer was caught off guard and had no time to respond as she punched its head with a boom cracking its skull and sending its head to the side so fast it broke its neck and died.

“It put up more of a fight than the bugs.” Noel spoke as she lightly landed on the ground. The deer collapsed with a thud at the same time.

“Looks like I was wrong, it was only mid silver.” Owari said with disappointment.

“Seems like it.” Noel was also a bit disappointed, but she still felt good after finally getting a chance to stretch her muscles.

Owari went over and started to cut up the deer immediately after. He also took the antlers which were a little big and stuffed them into his pack. After getting a bunch of meat and the pelt which he folded up and also tossed in his pack, he left the rest of the meat to the salamander.

“That should help it grow.” Noel didn’t bother fighting over the resources. After all she can’t dismantle it anyway.

“I have enough meat for a stew tonight. Half each. This should help with wind affinity.” Owari wrapped the meat up and put it away.

“Isn’t that inefficient?” She asked curiously.

“Even a small amount will make changes to the body. A lot of my durability comes from my earth affinity. In fact if I double my current affinity I could even use it for mystic arts.” Owari had eaten a lot of earth affinity meat after all.

“Sounds good then.” Noel didn’t refuse, it was better than rations after all.

The two continued on their way like this. They ran into a few other magical beasts and even some normal animals. The magical beasts were mostly low to mid silver; it wasn’t until they had walked for about six hours that they found something stronger. It was a large cat-sized weasel. It might seem like a weasel wouldn’t be too dangerous, especially one that small, but Owari could sense its mana which was more than any of the things they had run into before.

“Well it’s at least high silver rank.” Owari said with a smile. “It’s a burrow weasel, it has the earth affinity. Do you want it?”

“It looks cute, I think I’ll try to ‘convince’ the little guy to follow me.” Noel said while cracking her knuckles.

Owari chuckled. “Watch out, it likes to summon blades of stone which are shockingly sharp for stone.”

“Got it.” Noel nodded as she grew serious.

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The weasel obviously noticed them as well, especially after they started talking. It reacted quickly, weasels have always been vicious creatures so as soon as it saw them it attacked. It flashed brown and suddenly the ground in front of it rapidly formed into circular blades of stone that shot at Noel, Owari, and the salamander. Noel jumped forward and punched causing a shockwave that knocked the blades off course. She was the weasel’s opponent and she wanted it to know that.

The weasel seemed to get the message as it flashed brown again. It leaned forward and jumped, the ground under it swelled and pushed the weasel even faster. Noel crossed her gloves creating a droning noise that caused the weasel to lose its balance. However it was able to control itself before it reached her and it’s claws flashed as it prepared to swipe her. She stopped doing the drone and ducked under the weasel causing it to fly over her head.

She turned to face it just in time for it to rush her again. She swung her hand as if slapping the air sending a wave of energy at the weasel and knocking it back. The weasel seemed completely unharmed as it rolled over onto its feet and jumped at her again. Obviously it knew that she couldn’t win if she just kept using the same technique over again. Noel also realized this as she sidestepped the weasel.

After that it devolved into the weasel jumping at her and trying to slash her while she kept trying new methods to hurt it. First she punched and created a sonic boom, and while it got dizzy it wasn’t enough to injure it. Next she tried to stab it by making a spear out of her hand, but the weasel just clashed with it using its claws and got knocked back instead of stabbed. The third thing she tried was to kick it using her legs superior strength to deal damage. But again it clashed with it and was merely sent skittering across the ground. As an earth-type magical beast it was sturdy, far sturdier than expected from its size.

“This thing sure is strong. I can’t wait to tame it.” Noel wasn’t at all discouraged by the strength of the weasel, obviously the stronger the beast the more it was worth taming.

The weasel seemed to be the first one to get desperate in the fight. It was frustrated by its inability to hurt Noel. Because of that it started to flash brown over and over as blades of stone shot from the ground around it. Noel didn’t back down as she started to punch the air over and over sending the blades flying or destroying them completely. After figuring out this wasn’t working either the weasel crouched down once again.

Instead of leaping however it ran at her at full speed which was much faster than it was when it leaped. It arrived in front of her in a mere moment. It leaped at her from close range, Noel crossed her arms in front of her causing them to hum. The weasel slashed at her arms causing a loud but low humming sound to sound out. The weasel was sent flying back while Noel stumbled barely maintaining her balance. She didn’t seem injured, but the weasel easily regained balance mid-air and landed on the ground before charging once again.

Realizing she was going to be put on the defensive Noel thought of how to fight back. They clashed two more times like this before she was able to get the timing of its charge down. As soon as it rushed her this time she didn’t cross her arms. Instead she swung her arm with her hand in a chopping position. The weasel was unable to stop once it reached full speed and by the time it realized something was wrong it was too late. Noel had forgone all defense and resolved herself to be injured or even killed to attack.

Her hand swung and the weasel did all it could to swing its claws to clash with her chop. Unfortunately for the weasel the power of her slash was too strong and it was not only sent flying, but blood sprayed from it as her hand sliced into it. He weasel landed on the ground with a thud and struggled to get up. It had lost an arm and was bleeding heavily. Noel who saw this rushed over as quickly as possible and began branding it. Her brand was shaped like a ripple and she seemed to communicate with the weasel for a moment before it accepted the brand.

After that she pulled out a vial of medicine and poured some on the weasels wound before gently picking it up and walking over to Owari. “Looks like I did it.” She said with a wide smile that clearly displayed her happiness.

“At the cost of its arm.” Owari noted.

“I have some money floating around. I’ll pay to have it treated.” Noel didn’t seem bothered at all as she pet the weasel’s head with her finger. It’s bleeding had already stopped, though it still seemed a bit faint.

“As long as you’re happy with it. How good is it’s earth affinity?” Owari was curious.

“It’s pretty strong. Not any weaker than my natural affinities. Like this I can take a step forward in my mystic arts. Though not before I brush up on the basics.” Noel didn’t let her new affinity blind her to the need for mastering the basics.

“Well congratulations on your first tamed beast.” Owari smiled as he pet the salamander. It was nice having a companion after all. So far he had always gone out alone, but now that someone would have his back he was more at ease.

“How come he lets you pet him and hates it when I do it?” Noel seemed to be pouting.

“I am his tamer after all. I bet that weasel would hate it if I pet it too. They are technically still wild beasts. It’s just that they have been cowed by our strength.” Owari smiled. “We should get back to work. It’s too bad your weasel is injured or we could go even faster with its earth affinity.”

“Yeah, it’s also out of mana, that’s why it started to get desperate at the end and resorted to such a risky tactic. This little guy is actually quite clever.” Noel gently pet its head.

Owari just laughed as they started to get back to work. He slowly observed the various soil samples. Since he couldn’t dig down too deeply he would have to look for a natural well, unfortunately he was having trouble doing so. He would have to get a proper set of tools to do so. He decided to note down on a map where there were likely aquifers and decided to buy proper equipment later. Eventually night rolled around and it was time for some sleep. Owari decided to take the first shift since he hadn’t fought much over the day. He had left that to Noel who was excited to fight a bit after having been pent up so long.

Owari had the salamander lay down next to him and he leaned against it and relaxed. It was quite soft and smooth, and not at all as slippery as one would expect. As he lay against the salamander he allowed the moth to fly around him and had it do various dances in the air to kill time. The salamander laid there indifferently, but Owari had a lot of fun until before he knew it the time for his shift to be over came. He went to sleep right there with his back against the salamander as comfortably as his bed back at the hotel.

The next morning came fast since he was tired and hadn’t dreamt. He stood up and stretched as dawn came around and looked over to see Noel who was still doing her job dutifully. He walked over and sat down next to her. “So how are you enjoying the outing?” He asked curiously.

“It’s boring most of the time, but the fighting is fun when it happens. Unlike you I have no interest in geology, or hydrology, or ecology, or cartography, or… How many skills do you have?” Noel suddenly realized just how much more skilled at his job he was than she was.

“Just the ones important for doing my job. I’ve wanted to be a hunter since I could think about what I wanted to do in the future. When I was little my father had started teaching me the skills I would need and over time I slowly perfected those skills through reading. It’s why I have so many books in my room.” Owari had always been studious, just not in the ways most people were. He wasn’t a genius geologist or ecologist, but he knew enough to do surveys for the real masters to do their work easier. He was a surveyor not a scientist.

“Why be a hunter if you could have gone into so many different fields?” Noel couldn’t help but ask. Even if he wasn’t a master of any of these skills he could have certainly pursued a career in any of them.

“My personality and skillset is perfect for being a hunter. Someone needs to find the places for geologists to study, someone needs to find the places of interest for ecologists to study new species, and someone needs to find the places where the various industries can set up shop. However it’s dangerous to do so, which means the people who know how to do those things can’t do them. So what if the hunter knows what they are looking for?” Owari smiled as he explained.

“I suppose that makes sense. But it makes me feel depressed. I didn’t learn any of those skills.” Noel couldn’t help but feel inferior in this regard.

“It isn’t your job to scout locations. As a member of the Silverblood family you’ll be doing the work they give you. From what I know most people in your position act as guards for high priority people as they travel or you would go out to deal with powerful magical beasts causing problems. The skillsets we need are entirely different.” Owari wasn’t just comforting her, he was just telling the truth. Though comforting her was one of the reasons he did it.

“Well, thanks for the encouragement. So how much more research do you need to do?” Noel asked, they had walked quite far from the highway and they had even started to see gold-ranked beasts. Together they could take on a low gold rank beast, but any higher would mean retreating or dying.

“Now we move to the side and I’ll do my research as we loop back. Then we can come back with proper equipment next time and start actually trying to find a source. So far I have a few good ideas.” Owari was lucky that the salamander could dig down since it allowed him to check the water content in the soil and make more accurate guesses.

“Alright. Let's go then. I wish to heal my new companion as quickly as possible. He is quite depressed having lost his arm.” She looked down at the listless weasel sitting beside her.

“Who wouldn’t be?” Owari stood up and helped Noel to her feet before the two got back to work.

Eventually they reached the car once again. Morgana had patiently been camping nearby watching the car and waiting for their return. She was quite dutiful, to the point that Owari wondered when she got time to train. He knew she had been doing so since she had more mana now than she had when he first met her. In the end he shrugged it off though. She was quite impressive, and he even respected her, but that didn’t mean he needed to do anything about it. It wasn’t like she was his maid.

The car ride back was comfortable and enjoyable but otherwise uneventful. After getting back Owari took the salamander back to his rented space which was about as big as a small house. Then he went and visited Mirra who had finally had all of its fruit ripened. It had about a dozen more. Of which Owari ate a few right away leaving nine. They were quite tasty so he went overboard.

The rest he packed up back at home and intended to share with people or to eat later. He could sell them, but that would give away that he had an apple treant. It would be bothersome if that news got out so he decided to just keep the apples for himself. It wouldn’t hurt to keep a few in reserve for himself and friends. After all, they were very good for you.

As Owari was considering how to go about training his swordsmanship he heard a knock on the door. When he went to check he found Rebecca standing outside with Erica. After he opened the door Rebecca gave an apologetic smile. “She wanted to ask you some stuff.”

“That’s fine. What did you need?” Owari looked over at Erica who was looking through the notes.

“I can’t figure out these parts.” She pointed to some notes on how to move the body and how to change breathing methods quickly.

“A lot of it is practice. But if you’re having problems with the movements maybe you’re not flexible enough. Have you been doing the exercises I wrote down?” He asked seriously.

She hid her face behind her hair and squeaked out a “No” with embarrassment.

“You need to do those to get your body used to moving in different ways. Otherwise the movements will either be jerky or even impossible. As for the breathing thing, you just need to find the trick, it isn’t something I can teach and is all up to your intuition and talent.” Owari didn’t get angry that she skipped the exercises. He explained patiently.

“Yes teacher. I’ll practice from now on.” She nodded seriously and prepared to leave.

“That’s it?” Rebecca was shocked that the visit was over so fast. “Well I guess that’s that.” Rebecca grabbed Erica who was walking away. “I had a reason to come here too you know?”

“Oh yeah.” Erica seemed to just remember.

“Well anyway. The Sapphire Agency has finished transferring the money to your account. Because of how much better the quality was than the other’s they also expressed an interest in hiring you to map out the other tunnels as well.” Rebecca asked with little hope of the answer being yes.

“When do they want me to do it?” Owari didn’t refuse right away, shocking Rebecca.

“They hoped you could do it as soon as possible.” She didn’t get an exact time frame.

“Depending on the pay I could consider it. But it would have to wait until I’m done with my current work which could take a week or two.” Owari wasn’t against it mostly because the inhabitants of the caverns were so weak and it was easy pay.

“I’ll tell them then. They’ll send over a representative tomorrow or whatever other day you tell me you are free. They’ll take you to the restaurant that Lance brought us to for his celebration to talk terms.” Rebecca was relieved that Owari said he would think about it. Whether the talks worked out or fell through was now their problem, either way she would be one step up in the agency.