Noel and Erica contentedly held their stuffed animals. Noel chuckled as she thought of something. “Scythe would be furious if he saw me carrying this.”

“Why’s that?” Owari asked curiously.

“He gets jealous easily.” She answered.

”He never bothers me though.” Owari smiled, the little bastard never comes out whenever he is around.

“That’s because you terrify him.” Noel chuckled. Scythe always hid whenever Owari was over at her place.

“I’m not sure why he doesn’t like me.” Owari had an idea but he wasn’t going to say it.

“Who knows?” Noel also played dumb.

“What’s up with you two? Is there some kind of secret here?” Rebecca asked curiously. Owari and Noel both just smiled but didn’t say anything.

“You two keep your secrets.” Lance had a feeling he didn’t want to know.

“We will.” Owari laughed.

The group of five made their way through the streets looking at all the various sights. As they walked around they considered where to sit when the fireworks went off during the eclipse. Owari was probably the most interested in this part since unlike the other four he came from out in the country and had never seen fireworks. However he didn’t show his interest on his face. Of course Noel easily caught this.

“Are you excited?” She asked.

“What makes you ask that?” Owari smiled calmly.

“You just looked antsy, you’ve been glancing at the sky a lot.” Noel noted.

“Sure, I’ve never seen fireworks after all.” Owari decided not to hide it. That wasn’t his style anyway.

“That’s right. This is your first time in a city during the celebration.” Lance was the one who responded to his comment.

“Pretty much. I heard fireworks light up the sky like stars. It’s hard to see the stars at night here in the city. Back home the stars were always out at night.” Owari looked at the sky with interest.

“Did you like looking at the stars?” Noel asked curiously.

“It wasn’t something I made a point of doing. But they were quite pretty.” Owari chuckled. It wasn’t his style to go stargazing.

“Makes sense. I’ve seen some stars from a small town and they were quite the sight.” Rebecca cut in.

“I don’t really miss it though. I’m more curious than anything.” Owari said as he took his sight off of the sky.

“I like fireworks.” Erica suddenly spoke up surprising everyone. “They’re very pretty.”

“I agree.” Noel smiled as she patted Erica’s head. Erica made a pouting face but didn’t stop her.

“Let’s hurry and find a spot.” Rebecca said with a renewed passion.

The group made their way around the city but it was difficult to find a good spot. Suddenly Owari had an idea. “Follow me everyone.” They all showed surprise and curiosity and did as he asked. He brought them to his treant’s home.

“Aren’t the walls too high?” Rebecca asked confused.

“Just wait.” Owari said as the treant started to shift. A root lifted out of the ground and was held horizontally. “Step on.” Owari stood easily on the thick root. It was easily a meter thick so it wasn’t too hard. Everyone stepped on and the treant carefully raised them up. As it did so it folded its branches together to create a solid platform. “Well let’s get off.” Owari stepped down onto the branch platform which easily held his weight.

Seeing this everyone else hesitantly joined him. They found the platform to be quite sturdy, yet it was soft like leaves. “I figured with metallic leaves like this it would be as hard as steel.” Lance said with surprise.

“Only when it infuses metal mana into them. Otherwise they’re fairly ordinary leaves. If they really were as tough as steel then they wouldn’t be able to rot away in the winter.” Owari explained.

“That makes sense.” Lance said and everyone else nodded.

“Now then, we should be high enough.” They were currently level with the enclosure walls giving them a wide view of the sky.

“They should be extra good from up here.” Rebecca said.

“Should be soon too.” Owari checked the sun and moon. They were closing in on one another.

“That’s right. Why don’t we rest here and talk until the event.” Noel suggested and everyone agreed.

They all chatted for a bit as they waited for noontime to come. Eventually the eclipse started and the moon slowly blocked out the sun. Noel seemed especially happy about this. Owari noticed that she was internally very happy to see the sun blocked out. He wondered if this was her favorite holiday, he decided to keep a mental note to do something special for her next year.

The group watched as the sun was blotted out until eventually darkness reigned. Then the sky was lit up by explosions of various colors. Some of the fireworks even had shapes. Some of them were big and others small. Some took the form of beasts like dragons and griffons. Others were more humble such as a lion or wolf. They all popped and left a deep impression on Owari.

He had heard that the material used to create fireworks was called flash powder. It was a type of explosive material that was supposedly quite powerful. However it was useless in weapons since they were wildly inaccurate and were useless against most higher level beasts. Not to mention mystic arts don’t work well for them. Of course they make for decent anti-personnel weapons, and have been worked to be more accurate in short range to be used as weapons by law enforcement. Though a strong enough hunter can easily dodge, deflect, or otherwise remove the threat a bullet poses.

Owari didn’t think about all that though and simply enjoyed the show. After about half an hour the show had died down and finished. However there was still a good hour before the eclipse ended. Owari looked up at the sky and for a short period after the fireworks ended and before the lights came back on around town, the stars were out.

“It’s a shame they turn the lights on.” Rebecca noticed Owari looking up and copied him, seeing the stars.

“It’s a public safety thing.” Lance sighed.

“It kinda defeats the purpose of an eclipse though.” Owari chuckled.

“I agree, it does make the whole event seem kind of pointless.” Noel also gave her opinion.

“I don’t like the lights.” Even Erica spoke up.

“Well it’s not like it’s our choice. Let's go get some food.” Owari stood up and stretched.

“That sounds like a great idea.” Noel agreed.

All of them stood up and made their way back down and out. Owari left Mirra with some of the images he had seen of the fireworks which fascinated the treant. Then they all went about looking over the stalls. Out of the group Noel and Owari ate the most. They were stuffing their faces practically every moment. They tried pretty much everything; kebabs, sushi, a sandwich, they even sat down and ate some soup. It made everyone else wonder where they put it all. Especially Noel.

Even after the eclipse ended the group continued to hang around town talking and enjoying the day. Noel somehow convinced Erica to get her face painted much to her embarrassment. Rebecca at some point started to tease Lance by grabbing his arm and dragging him around everywhere. Eventually though the group all went their own ways, of course even Owari and Noel decided to separate and go to their own places.

The next day came quickly since Owari decided to go to sleep early. When he woke up he considered what to do. He had at least a week before he got a response. Luckily the Silverblood family used a fast bird to deliver mail between members, but it still took time due to distance. For now Owari considered a few ideas before settling on one.

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He left his home and went to collect his tamed beasts. He even got Mirra to take reptile form and walk with him. He attracted quite a bit of attention. It was one thing to have one big beast, but Owari had four and each was of high quality. Among them were the gold-ranked Hebi, Garm, and recently evolved Fang as well as the silver ranked Mirra. Owari ignored all of their stares and made his way out of the city.

Once out of the city he brought them away from the walls and decided to do a little surveying and training. First he took a look at Fang’s progress in evolving. There are two main ways that magical beasts evolve. The first was the less common and more difficult method that Fang had used. This involves slowly changing the body over a length of time by processing magical energy and using it to fuel your transformation. This method is slow and the changes appear over long periods of time.

The other method was the one Hebi used which involved stimulating the blood inheritance within your genetics to change into an ancestral magical beast. It was this method that was easiest, however it requires a period of sleep to allow the transformation to take place. This was quicker but more dangerous as it left you vulnerable. However it was also the more sure path as you’d be following the path already laid out for you.

Owari looked over his beasts. Mid gold-ranked Hebi, Low gold-ranked Garm, Low gold-ranked Fang, and high silver ranked Mira. There was also his moth which he always kept with him, but it was far from a fighter. It was entirely a sensory type and because he hadn’t bothered evolving its intelligence it was still as mindless as before. Insect type typically don’t have sentience even at higher levels. There usually isn’t a point, after all developing intelligence requires a lot of evolution potential. This was especially true for the already lacking insects.

After looking over his beasts he started to take care of them. He brought Fang to a nearby river and allowed him to submerge himself. Meanwhile he brushed Garm who was slightly matted up from his time with his previous master as well as just normal knots over time. He brought out a few different kinds of brushes and got to work. By the time he was done Garm’s black fur was turned from a dull black mess to a glossy black coat.

After that he brought out some other types of brushes and started to rinse down and clean out Hebi’s scales which were slowly wearing down from the grit that built up on them. Hebi seemed to be happy to be clean again as it felt it was meant to be clean as that was more dignified. Owari also fed it and the other beasts.

After doing that he left them to play. It was rare they got to let loose and mess around. Not to mention they rarely see one another these days. Hebi was standoffish and didn’t play around much, preferring to laze around. However Fang and Garm were different. Fang started to spit water up at Garm who would dodge it. Fang also shot a few mud balls into the air which Garm would jump up and smash to bits with a flick of his tail.

“I just cleaned your fur too.” Owari sighed as he laid in the grass with his back to Mirra. “You not interested in getting up and playing?” Owari asked the treant. It sent him a message of contentment. It seemed to just be happy to get a chance to stretch its roots. “I get it.”

Like this Owari passed some time while inspecting the information on his tamed beasts. Fang was coming along nicely. He had grown a bit since his time in the cavern and was much more powerfully built as it had evolved some more muscular and bone structure instead of just relying on size. It had mostly been weak and fragile before.

As for Mirra, it was still having trouble shrinking to the appropriate size. Owari was thinking of ditching the idea, but he decided to wait and see. Other than that it was able to produce fruit more often and ripen them at quicker speeds. Then there was Hebi who was a bit off from its next evolution having just evolved recently. Finally there was Garm who was a big question mark to Owari.

Owari had researched a bit but so far he came up empty on the type of beast Garm was. So it was either a newly undiscovered species or a mutant of a preexisting one. Owari was fairly sure it was a mutant of one of the dark affinity wolves. There were a decent amount of them due to dark affinities stealthy nature working well with wolves pack hunting.

Owari considered a few things regarding his beasts as he lazed around when suddenly he felt some people entering the periphery of his senses. He had managed to reach a similar level of aura and mana perception as his moth by this point so he didn’t even need to wait for the feedback to realize some people had showed up. His range was also quite large so when he looked over they were barely in sight. He had purposefully chosen a spot around the edge of the forest that was a bit out of the way.

It was a pair of two people. One was a boy and the other a girl. Both of them seemed young, only slightly older than Owari. When they saw Owari they froze up, as did the panther and wolf following them. Owari looked at them with amusement for a moment. “So are you just going to stand there?” He asked curiously.

“Sorry, we just weren’t sure what to do. My wolf is warning me not to act rashly.” The boy spoke first.

“Yuna is also warning me.” The girl spoke next.

“They have good instincts. So are you going to sit down and chat or are you going to continue your work?” Owari replied with some amusement.

“Chat?” The boy was confused.

“Sure, why not?” Owari chuckled. “It’s better than fighting after all. But if you’re busy you should get to work.”

“We’re not busy.” The girl spoke up.

“That so?” Owari noticed the boy show some surprise at her words.

“Seems like it.” The boy smiled calmly.

“Take a seat then if you want. My name is Owari.” He introduced himself.

“My name is Merrily Luna.” The girl introduced herself.

“I’m Zacharias Vermillion.” The boy introduced himself.

Owari recognized both of their last names. He had already met Max who was a member of the illustrious Vermillion family. As for the Luna household, they were a local family to the Leviathan territory. They weren’t too special outside of the territory, but inside of it they were quite influential. “So you’re from the Vermillion and Luna families.” Owari gained some more interest in these strangers.

“So who are you to use my family’s name so casually?” Zacharias asked, his tone was somewhat off but he didn’t seem to mean to be rude.

“Nobody you know.” Owari answered lazily.

“Actually I do know you.” Merrily said to Owari’s surprise.

“How’s that?” Owari was curious.

“You’re the one with stakes in some of the most profitable business ventures in the Leviathan territory. Of course my family would keep an eye on you. Though I wasn’t sure it was you until you said your name.” She said honestly.

“I appreciate the honesty.” Owari chuckled.

“I figured you might. I’ve heard a little about you. What brings you out here?” She tried to make small talk.

“Is he really a big deal?” Zacharias asked Merrily seriously.

“Yes, rumor says he is in a relationship with a Silverblood. Now stay quiet, you always get us in trouble when you open your mouth too much.” She seemed to find Zacharias’ antics exhausting as she sighed in exasperation.

“Right, my bad.” He nodded seriously.

“As for why I’m out here,” Owari took the conversation back. “I’m here for them.” He gestured to his tamed beasts.

“Letting them play?” Merrily was amused. She hadn’t expected one of the most impressive up and coming hunters to be out in the field letting his beasts play. She figured he would be training or working.

“Gotta take a break sometimes.” Owari shrugged.

“I suppose that makes sense.” Merrily didn’t really have the right to question Owari’s habits in the first place so she stopped prying.

“That’s right. So what do you want? I don’t like beating around the bush, and someone like you probably wouldn’t stop your own business for an idle chat.” Owari got straight to the point.

“Right.” Merrily was surprised that Owari read her intentions so easily. She was quite proud of her poker face.

“So what is it?” Owari wanted to get this out of the way so he could relax, but he made sure not to let his impatience show in his tone.

“I just wanted a chance to get to know you and let you get to know me.” She replied.

“So just to build connections? Alright. I don’t mind chatting then.” Owari would have turned her down regardless of her offer if she had asked for something right away.

“Then let’s have a chat. I’m quite curious but are you really an independent hunter?” She knew he was contracted to the Orion Tradecenter of course. Neither one of them hid this fact.

“All contracts I am currently under are temporary and can be negotiated at any time.” Owari figured what she was talking about was his current contract.

“I see, how impressive to make so many connections at such a young age without any previous contacts.” Merrily seemed quite impressed.

“These connections were gained due to a bloody conflict and a lot of deaths. After all if my train hadn’t been attacked I would have never had the opportunities I do.” Of course this was only half true. It certainly made it easier, but he would have inevitably made a deal with someone over the mines.

“I see.” Merrily wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “So you have three tamed beasts?” She decided to change the subject.

“Five.” Owari pointed to the tree behind him and had his moth fly out and land on his head.

“Really? The tree?” Zacharias couldn’t help but voice.

“It’s a treant.” Owari shrugged and had Mirra extend one of its roots from the ground next to him, the root had undergone a transformation since it had fought Owari and was now a metallic brown color. “Otherwise why would it be this color and so shiny?”

Merrily looked at the tree closer and realized it was indeed a shiny metallic color. She had missed this before due to focusing on Owari. “Right, I didn’t notice. What types are they? My panther is just a dark foot panther.” Owari looked through his memory and recalled the dark foot panther was a silver ranked beast with good potential with a dark affinity.

“Which ones are you curious about?” Owari nodded. The panther she had was clearly high silver based on its powerful muscles and the mana it radiated.

“I’m curious about all of them really. But the snake is the most interesting.” She looked at Hebi with a lot of curiosity.

“Hebi is a snake with the blood of a hydra.” Owari shrugged. No use keeping it a secret, he had the power to stop anyone interested in a four-headed hydra.

“Interesting. It should have four affinities then.” She seemed to be a bit knowledgeable about magical beasts as well.

“That’s right.” Owari nodded. He pointed at Garm next. “That’s Garm, he’s a mutated dark affinity wolf. I’m not sure which kind since he matches a few so he may be mix blood.” Owari introduced Garm before pointing to Fang. “And that’s Fang, he’s just a salamander who evolved a lot.”

“A salamander who was able to evolve so much? It must have incredible potential.” Merrily’s eyes shined as she looked at the salamander with curiosity.

“He does, but he also had a special environment where the rest of the beasts were weak so once he got to a certain point it was impossible for him to be contested.” Owari dampened her expectations a bit.

“It’s still somewhat impressive to evolve so fast in an environment with weaker magical beasts.” She still didn’t let up on her curiosity though.

“Then there’s Mirra.” Owari decided to distract her. “That’s the treant. It’s a metal affinity treant that evolved from an earth affinity one.”

“It’s quite rare isn’t it? Aren’t you afraid someone will try and take it from you?” Merrily thought it was a bit foolish to bring such a valuable magical beast out. She could even see the buds of apples on it’s branches.

“They can try.” Owari said simply. When he did both the panther and wolf shivered. They, like most magical beasts, had a strong sixth sense and they could sense the threat in his words, even if they didn’t understand them fully.

“I see.” Merrily smiled calmly, not at all detecting Owari’s spike in hostility. In truth he was also testing these two and found they had no reaction. Considering his freakish level of strength for his age there was no way they were strong enough to shrug off his threatening aura if they sensed it.

“Well that’s enough about them. Anymore would be revealing too much.” Owari chuckled as he realized how unskilled these two were compared to those geniuses at the gathering.

“Right.” Merrily nodded. No use trying to pry secrets from him. She was trying to leave a good impression after all. The two talked a bit more before she and Zacharias left. They were in the middle of something and couldn’t stay long. She did make sure to let Owari know he could get a hold of her by visiting her family’s local estate which wasn’t too big but did take up a decent-sized chunk of the city. It was one of the reasons the city was so big.

Owari finished talking to them and suddenly stood up. That was enough socializing, it was time for him to do something he found relaxing to relieve his stress. The thing he wanted to do was develop his martial arts skills which he hadn’t got the chance to focus on in a while. He had a few new ideas he wanted to try out after all.

Owari first started by moving his body using various practice strikes. As he did his various affinities started to stir as did his mana. The ones that reacted most strongly were earth, water, and metal. Of course there was phantom but he already knew what that did. His other affinities did react too but it was weaker.

Owari activated his earth affinity first and let the earth mana flow through his whole body enhancing it. His body became more sturdy and was covered in a layer of shimmering brown energy. He then stood still and shifted his body lightly keeping the technique active. After a few moments he deactivated it.

He repeated this process with water and found he had more energy and that his soreness from sitting against a metal tree was gone. He clearly had enhanced vitality like this. He slowly maintained the enhancement the same way he did with the earth affinity before deactivating it.

After that he tried to combine them. He stimulated both his earth and water affinity and allowed them to flow through his body. They tried to clash, but with some mental prodding and adding some mud affinity to the mix he was able to create an enhanced version of his mud affinity with the full power of the earth and water affinities within it. His body was tougher and had more vitality to it. However it also took much more mana than both combined. It was exponential and not multiplicative. After finishing that, next was his sword training.