“So what’s your name?” Owari asked as he led the young man away causing the people to grow disappointed and leave, meanwhile the older gentleman was furious but knew better than to cause trouble in the city.
“I’m Kent.” The young man said.
“Well met Kent, I’m Owari. And this” Owari gestured at Noel who they had just reached. “is my partner Noel.”
“Partner?” Kent asked dubiously.
“Girlfriend, fiancee, wife to be. Whatever floats your boat. I like partner best.” Owari laughed.
“Indeed, it does feel more authentic and signifies our relationship very well.” Noel went back to her usual elegant speaking when she encountered a stranger.
“I’m Kent.” He said a bit nervously, he had never met someone like Noel before. Her parasol was especially eye-catching.
“I heard. So what made you interested in this one?” She looked at Owari curiously.
“Well besides the fact that I have problems with the Howling Wulf agency, he seems to have met an old acquaintance of mine. Or more specifically he’s been screwed over by them.” Owari explained.
“So what do you intend to do?” Noel wondered what his intentions were.
“Not really sure, didn’t think that far ahead really.” Owari chuckled.
“Um, I’m right here.” Kent interjected.
“Oh right. Morgana.” Owari called and Morgana stepped forward, finally gaining Kent's attention. “This is Morgana, our maid.” Owari shamelessly referred to her as ‘our’ maid.
“You have a maid?” Kent was taken off guard, not many people have maids that follow them around.
“Sort of.” Owari shrugged. “I just felt like introducing you so you weren’t surprised if she popped up later.”
“Alright.” Kent nodded, he wasn’t sure how to take this.
“Let’s walk and talk like I said. So what exactly happened between you and Lucas?” Owari asked curiously as the four of them started to walk.
“My girlfriend was taken away by him. She and I had been together since we were little, but then we moved here and after a month she had already joined up with him and left me.” He said bitterly, his anger now replaced with defeat.
“It sounds like she was quite ungrateful.” Noel replied.
“Call it what you want, I don’t even care anymore.” He waved his hand, not even bothering to argue one way or the other.
“I think I get it.” Owari nodded. “So why didn’t you confront Lucas?”
“I’m too weak. He’s a low gold rank and I’m only low silver. And just barely at that.” He sighed.
“So why confront that guy?” Owari was confused.
“The power and age gap is big, if I did that to Lucas he would just treat me like a joke.” Kent felt truly defeated.
“What do you think Noel? We had a lot of fun last time so how about we take a break this time?” Owari looked over at her.
“What did you have in mind?” She smiled as she had an idea.
“Let’s take Kent here into the wilds and train him.” Owari said as if it was a forgone conclusion.
“Train me? We aren’t too far off in age. Unless…” He peaked at Morgana. “Are you guys like Lucas?”
Owari and Noel pulled out their hunter's licenses and showed him. “Better.” Owari smiled as he saw Kent’s shock.
“You’re a platinum rank at your age? But isn’t that impossible?” Kent was absolutely shocked. He had never heard of it happening before.
“It’s not too shocking when you consider my training method. A method we plan to teach you if you want.” Owari offered.
“I want to say yes, but I don’t know. Is it really alright to teach me?” Considering the maid he felt this could be some family secret.
“Sure, it’s not some big secret. Anyone can figure it out.” Owari said with a smile.
“Alright, I’ll give it a try.” Kent said with some hesitation in his voice.
The next day Noel and Owari met up with Kent and brought him out of the city. They paid the train fees and made their way to a place a few hours away. Much to Kent’s dismay the two paid for him given his financial situation. He was honestly almost broke. He had only recently become silver rank and it was hard to make a living at copper rank. It would be better from now on but he was still new.
They eventually reached their destination, it was a forest. It was different from the earth affinity forest near Leviathan city. Instead it was more diverse and filled with beasts more than plants. Owari and Noel took the lead and went into the forest while Morgana waited outside.
“Is it really okay to leave a maid out here?” Kent couldn’t help but ask.
“Oh yeah, she’s also Noel’s bodyguard. She’s higher rank than me.” Owari laughed as Kent made a weird face. He could only think ‘a maid as a bodyguard?’
The group of three pierced their way into the forest and went a bit deep. Soon enough they were in the silver rank territories. Kent showed visible signs of nervousness as he kept looking here and there. “Alright.” Owari clapped, scaring Kent. “Stop being so on edge. What mystic art do you practice?”
“It’s called wind fangs.” He pulled out a pair of daggers.
“Never heard of it. Show me some moves.” Owari and Noel knew little of conventional techniques.
Kent nodded despite being a little hesitant due to only having just met them. He held his daggers in a normal grip and swung them in an X causing an X shaped blade of wind to fire off and split a tree. Then he reversed the grip on his right hand and swung it at another tree causing another blade to fly out. Then he stepped lightly and flew at another tree which he split with wind infused strikes.
“Now bad.” Owari nodded. That was about low silver rank.
“It could be better.” Noel said critically. “Although the attacks are fast and come one after the other he seems to be running low on mana. On top of that they lack the power needed to cut higher level beasts hides.”
“True. Do you meditate?” Owari asked suddenly.
“No why?” He wondered what Owari meant by meditate.
“If you focus and drown out your surroundings while reaching your mind out you will feel the mana in the air. By doing so it will increase your mana capacity slowly.” Owari explained.
“How quick is it?” Kent asked hopefully.
“Slow as molasses. It would take years for the current you to reach a workable level and to double your current mana levels.” Owari chuckled as Kent’s face turned ugly. “Luckily it also expands your mana capacity when you use up all your mana. So use up all your mana.” Owari looked at Kent, but seeing him not doing anything he spoke up again. “Go ahead.”
“I’m out of mana.” Kent complained.
“No you aren’t. I can sense mana, you’ve only used half.” Owari smiled.
“If I use anymore I’ll pass out.” Kent was shocked, Owari wanted him to use his mana until he lost consciousness?
“The more of your mana you drain the more you gain. This is a rare opportunity for you. After all how often will you have a platinum and gold rank hunter to protect you?” Owari chuckled.
“Fine.” Kent said through gritted teeth. He used the same group of moves one more time. For a moment it looked like he was fine, but then he started to pant before passing out.
“Isn’t it dangerous to overdo it like that?” Noel finally said.
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“Yes. You need a certain amount of mana to survive after all. However did you notice? Despite the pain that it would cause to pull on that mana he still went through with it all the way. He has good pain tolerance and drive. I like him.” Owari walked over to Kent and pulled out a vial that he poured into Kent’s mouth. Kent choked a bit but ultimately drank the liquid.
“Isn’t that blood production medicine?” Noel asked curiously.
“Yes. One problem with overusing you mana is that it damages your blood which holds your vital essence. This medicine also heals damaged blood. This will help him make it through the dangerous phase. When he wakes up I’ll explain it to him.” Owari looked over Kent to make sure he was doing well. His mana was slowly restoring itself.
Eventually the kid woke up and Owari explained everything. This caused Kent to understandably freak out. Owari explained to him that he was in no real danger about a dozen times before he agreed to do it again. There were two reasons why he agreed to do it. One was because it had already happened once and he was fine. The other was because he could already feel a noticeable change to his body.
A person’s maximum mana capacity will affect their body in positive ways. This is because the mana inside you passively increases a person’s ability. The more mana you have the more mana will enhance you. His mana had already restored itself beyond his previous capacity and was rising still. It was far more than if he just used up his normal amount of mana. Exponentially more in fact. Just like with combat you get more the more danger you’re in.
“Is this the method you were talking about?” Kent asked with some awe in his voice. He only had average mana originally, now he had at least a fifth more.
“No. This is just to help you catch up a bit. You’ll be needing all this mana. Plus you can only do this a certain amount of times before it becomes too risky. Medicine only helps for so long. After we’re done you’ll need a night’s rest. Then the real training begins.” Owari felt it wasn’t bad to be teaching more directly like this. It was different from how he taught Erica.
“I feel like you fit the role of teacher quite well.” Noel smiled as she dangled from a tree nearby out of boredom.
“I already have some experience after all.” Owari pulled out a bottle. “Use up all your mana now. And drink this.” Owari ordered.
Kent grit his teeth and did as he was told, passing out once again. Eventually he woke up and did it again. Then again. He did this half a dozen times in total and had almost tripled his mana capacity. He was shocked beyond belief when he discovered this. It was crazy to suddenly jump up so much.
“Once you get to a higher level the effect dies down and becomes less noticeable compared to high-level meditation. That’s why you’ll be practicing your meditation for the rest of the day. If you lose focus I’ll whack you with a stick so do your best.” Owari picked up a random stick and had Kent sit down and try to meditate.
Whenever he would open his eyes or seemed to be daydreaming Owari would whack his head with a stick. He actually did it quite lightly, more a reminder than a painful hit. Owari was using the stick to make him focus, whenever his mind would wander he would remember the stick and refocus. Everytime he failed to do so the stick would tap his head enough to be annoying but not enough to hurt much. This gave him something to focus on that was simple. Eventually he slipped into a trance and began feeling the mana in the air.
“Easy right?” Owari leaned against the tree that Noel was currently sitting in the branches of.
“Only you would think teaching someone to enter a trance state in a few hours is easy.” Noel chuckled, she didn’t think it was a bad thing.
“You know if you’re bored you can go hunting.” Owari suggested. She had been jumping around from tree to tree trying to alleviate her boredom for the past few hours.
“I already told you I don’t need to. I can entertain myself.” As she said so she stood up and started using the branch as a balance beam trying to reach as far out on it as possible.
“You know if you were wearing a dress instead of combat gear you would be quite cute walking like that.” Owari said as he observed her with amusement.
“And you look quite handsome when you have such a serious face when you focus. Like when you’re training him over there.” Noel fired back.
“Is that why you’ve been hanging around here?” Owari’s amusement rose further.
“If I said no would you believe me?” She said with a smile as she jumped down.
“Probably not. Let’s stop flirting, he should be waking up by now.” Owari spoke and a moment later his eyes opened.
“I could hear the end of that.” He smiled wryly.
“I’m not sorry.” Noel said proudly.
“Me either, but we probably should have been more considerate.” Owari chuckled. “Let’s go back.”
The three made their way back to town. Then the next day they came all the way back out. When they did they didn’t spend time expanding his maximum mana or teaching him to meditate. Instead they all made their way through the forest looking for sparring partners for Kent as Owari called them. He had no idea what that meant nor what it had to do with him growing stronger.
Eventually they found a sparring partner. It was a wolf with a blue coat and a missing eye. It was the size of a normal wolf but Owari spoke up dashing any hope Kent could have that it was a simple beast. “Silver fang wolf. Minimum high copper. You can tell strength by the length of the fangs. This one is low silver. How lucky. Get to fighting.” Owari patted Kents back and both him and Noel deftly jumped into the trees leaving him alone all of the sudden with a growling and very pissed silver rank beast.
“I may have made a mistake. I only barely killed a silver rank beast before.” He smiled awkwardly.
This however wasn’t something he had time to do, the wolf rushed him in a flash of blue and silver. He reacted without thinking using his wind movement technique to quickly jump to the side. The wolf flashed past him and appeared behind him in a moment. It faced him once again and repeated the process. A small game occurred following this in which Kent dodged and the wolf attacked.
Realizing he was really stuck in this fight Kent pulled out his daggers. He swung his daggers in an X straight towards the wolf on its next rush but the wolf smashed through it with brute force. Kent barely jumped to the side to get out of the way, however he was now on the ground. The wolf noticed this and jumped into the air and tried to pounce on him, however he rolled over and dodged.
As he did so he used his wind movement to reorient himself and stand up. When he saw the wolf standing there he suddenly had an impulse and he swung his dagger with a reverse grip causing a blade of wind to strike the wolf leaving a cut along its flank. Then the wolf looked at him and he jumped back as he saw the rage in its remaining eye.
The wolf flashed towards him, but this time Kent dodged backward and as the wolf approached him he only dodged slightly to the side. The wolf landed next to him and he swung his dagger at it in a reverse grip as the wolf stopped. This time he enhanced it with wind and dug it straight into the wolf’s flank. Then he spun the other dagger in his hand and stabbed it straight into the wolf’s chest.
The wolf shuddered for a moment before collapsing dead. “Good job.” Owari’s voice came from directly above startling Kent.
“I give him 88 out of 100.” Noel chimed in.
“88?” Kent felt like he failed a test.
“That’s pretty good for the first time.” Owari dropped down nearby.
“Could have been worse.” Noel agreed.
“How did I only get an 88? I won.” Kent felt like it wasn’t fair.
“Simple, you had a few chances to kill it with your current skill set but failed to do so.” Owari explained.
“How was I supposed to know how to kill it?” Kent couldn’t help but continue complaining.
“You’ll get better.” Noel patted him on the back causing him to stumble.
“How strong are you?” He was shocked.
“Strong enough to shatter a boulder with a punch.” Owari chuckled.
“Please don’t pat my back again.” Kent forced a smile. He fully believed she could do it. Owari seemed pretty serious.
“Fine fine.” Noel agreed much to her disappointment. After all it was always fun to knock things around.
“You should feel lucky she touched you at all.” Owari laughed.
“Why’s that? Do you worship your girlfriend or something?” Kent hoped Owari wasn’t one of those types.
“No, I just meant she has trouble coming into contact with others due to her condition. It makes her sensitive.” Owari laughed even harder.
“Oh.” Kent felt somewhat embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it.” Noel also laughed.
The three continued on their excursion. Owari managed to find two more sparring partners for Kent. One was a panther and the other a turtle. He killed the panther easily enough, but the turtle was harder. It resisted his ability to cut it so he had to keep hacking away at the neck trying to cut it off. It took three strikes. The main problem was how it kept trying to retract its head. After he killed the three beasts Owari went about teaching him proper dismantling techniques since he was mostly self-taught he wasn’t too great at it.
“So why exactly are you helping me?” Kent couldn’t help but ask.
“Why not?” Owari answered back simply.
“Well you don’t really know me. What if I just go teach other people how to do this kind of training? Or what if I misuse the strength you help me gain?” He was confused why they would help what amounted to a stranger.
“Well I don’t care if you tell people. After all doing it like this could get you killed easily so only the lucky or truly skilled will survive to obtain strength. As for what you do with this strength, I don’t care how you use it.” Owari smiled calmly.
“I would like to bet that it isn’t nearly that simple.” Noel chuckled. “I think it is because you two had similar experiences.”
“Huh?” Kent was surprised. What did she mean by similar?
“Both of you had a childhood crush stolen by the same person. You’re also both independent hunters.” Noel seemed to find the situation amusing.
“Wait really? The same person? But you don’t live here, how could he do that?” Kent knew they were only on vacation.
“He was my best friend growing up. Or more specifically the only guy friend I had. He was garbage back then too but I didn’t have anyone else. He ended up with our other childhood friend who he should have brought with him.” Owari wondered what happened to Milly if Lucas was still up to his old hijinks.
“I don’t know which one you mean. He has a bunch of girls around him. He’s considered quite important to the Howling Wulf Agency so he gets a lot of attention from girls. Everyone knows that agency is filled with his type who are willing to hand out their salaries to you if you please them enough. Basically they’re whoring themselves out to him in the hope that he gives them a piece of his pie.” Kent felt the whole act was disgusting.
“So the Howling Wulf Agency has a lot of sway in this territory I guess.” Owari chuckled. “I bet if they knew I was here they would lose their minds and scramble a mini army.”
“An army? Isn’t that a bit of an overexaderation?” Kent felt he was joking but he had learned most of Owari’s jokes had some level of seriousness to them.
“Last time they sent three gold rank hunters with three gold rank beasts.” Owari would have loved to see the looks on their faces when they realized their people were dead.
“Oh.” He didn’t even bother thinking about how Owari even survived. He just decided to accept it and move on.
“How boring.” Noel said with dissatisfaction.
“It can’t be helped. You can only mess with someone so much before they become numb to it.” Owari laughed. “It’s been quite amusing having you around though.”
“I’m glad my plight could entertain you.” Kent still hadn’t forgotten about his real problem.
“Just keep growing stronger until she regrets ever having done what she did. And more importantly overtake him.” Noel reassured him.
“Like Owari did?” He asked curiously.
“Well I had Noel, so it’ll be even harder for you.” Owari said humbly.
“I didn’t help you grow stronger.” She denied it.
“Yeah but it was easier to do knowing I could always come back to you to de-stress myself.” Owari leaned over and kissed her head.
“I suppose that’s true. Maybe we should aid him out in that regard too.” Noel smiled at the show of affection but didn’t say anything.
“Help how? Find me a new girlfriend?” Kent scoffed. “I’m not ready for that.”
“That’s fair. Just focus on your growth, find some friends, and grow.” Owari patted his shoulder.
“I don’t even know where to begin making friends.” Kent sighed.
“Why did you choose this city? Same reason as me I assume?” Owari chuckled.
“Why did you choose your city?” Kent asked curiously.
“I was poor. I was only a copper rank when I left home.” Owari admitted.
“Really? How did you reach platinum rank in a year?” He was even more shocked by this.
“By doing what I’m teaching you now. Push your limits, find stronger opponents to face, and most importantly win.” Owari answered.
“It must have been dangerous.” Kent looked at Noel. “How do you handle him always putting his life at risk like this?” He couldn’t help but ask.
“Same way he handles it when I do it. We accept one another so we knew going in how it would be. We can’t stop one another so we can only support the other.” Noel answered.
“You two sure are strange.” Kent sighed.
“Back to the original topic.” Owari jumped in. “About why you’re here. Do you have family nearby?”
“Oh yeah. I do, but they’re far away. I had to borrow money to come this far.” He sighed. This was usually how it went for people moving to the city. It wasn’t easy to raise that much money on your own.
“Did you pay it back yet?” Owari asked curiously.
“Not yet.” He admitted.
“Then you’ll have it paid off by the time Noel and I leave. After all, you’ll be hunting a lot in this time.” Owari 'reassured’ him.
“Oh joy, more deadly combat.” Normally you were supposed to hunt the rank below you and only occasionally some of the same level, and especially not a level above you like Owari does.
“Don’t worry, we will do our best to make sure you don’t die. Though you may get brutally mutilated. Don’t think we will step in to save you. I’m sure you’ve noticed we have no intentions of doing so.” Owari informed him.
“Alright. I’ll do my best not to let you guys down. I do want to get stronger after all and I can already feel the gains from these two days.” Kent was really grateful despite his complaints.
“You’ll do fine.” Owari chuckled. It was going to be a long week for Kent.