Owari quickly made his way out of the hole as he had the ghost wing moth confirm the bear's aura had disappeared. He had sent it off when the fight began and directed it to stay away from the dangerous spots so it wouldn't get killed and so it could warn him if anything tried to sneak up on him during the fight. Once he confirmed the bear was dead he put his sword away and went over to grab the pack he dropped when the fight began. Inside was a knife which he used to awkwardly dress the bear's corpse, he knew all the steps and had seen some diagrams, but he had never done it himself so it was a bit amateurish. However it was much better then if he had just tried it without any foreknowledge.

After taking the bear apart he folded up its hide and tossed it in the bag, since it was infused with mana it would be fine for a few days without being properly treated. It was in pretty good condition as well with only a small nick in it by the shoulder as he had used the cut in its neck as the starting point to skin it. As for the rest of the bear he left the organs in a pile and let his moth eat them. As a magical beast it would grow stronger by consuming other magical beasts, and the parts left to it were the parts Owari couldn't safely eat anyway. As for the rest of the meat, Owari bagged it up and set it in the pack to eat for dinner. Even though there was a lot he had a big appetite and had exerted himself a lot today. He would be able to eat most of it and what was left would go to the moth anyway, luckily it had kept its appetite from its caterpillar days and could eat pretty much an infinite amount of food if it wanted. Owari also cleaned its bones and claws, he would be eating the marrow of the bones, but the bones could be used to make some sturdy armor by the right people so it would sell well. As for the claws, they could be used to make some weapons.

After finishing up all that it was getting close to night time so Owari set up camp nearby. Although it may seem dangerous to camp near the site of a battle due to scavengers, there wouldn't be any scavengers in the area who were brave enough to so quickly approach the remains of a battle this intense until the next morning. Plus Owari wasn't camping on the ground, he would jump up into one of the sturdier remaining trees and lean against the tree trunk as he relaxed and fell asleep just like that. He didn't move in his sleep so he didn't have to worry about falling out, and the ghost eye moth was still awake and his mind was subconsciously connected to it by this point. If it felt danger he would automatically wake up and would be able to handle things from there. He had trained his ability to respond when being woken up suddenly so he was at least somewhat confident he wouldn't be caught in a dangerous situation.

After finding a suitable tree he used a few methods to cook the bear meat for the sake of determining the best cooking method to get the most out of the bear. After all people would often argue the most suitable method of how to cook magical beast meat to improve your affinity, so he decided to test for himself. He boiled some in a stew, sliced up some for sandwich meat, fried some over a fire, and a few other methods. By the time the moon was a fourth of the way through the sky he had finished eating and discovered the stew was the best way to increase his affinity. It was a bit hard to determine as he had to eat a bit of each and let it digest a bit before he could judge. Not to mention he wasn't all that experienced at detecting affinities only having ever felt one in his life. The changes were also very very slight which didn't help. However Owari was very aware of the state of his mind and body, so even the slightest change was something he would notice if he was focused on detecting such changes.

After he ate Owari went straight to sleep. As he had thought nothing came to bother him in the night so he was able to start his next day in relative safety. His goal was to travel the mile-long stretch out to the edge of the forest he had seen from outside. His goal in these initial investigations was to determine where the highest concentration of earth affinity plant type magical beasts were and then make that the area of focus when he started his longer-term expedition. While a mile was quite short, he intended to very carefully inspect everything he could. On top of that he had to be mindful of safety and had to leave some time for any unexpected occurrences such as the fight from yesterday which had actually taken a lot of his time. If he hadn't planned for such things then he would be behind right now which would have made him need to stay out longer then he had intended. He thought of such things as he walked through the forest marking down the various magical beasts he saw and figuring out the hot spots for earth affinity plant types.

Over the day he ran into a few hostile magical beasts, but none were as dangerous as the bear. One of interest was a vine snake which is a plant type magical beast that mimics snakes, this one was of the poison affinity. Of course it tried to sneak attack him and he cut it's head off with a single swing of his sword. While this didn't kill it as it was a plant and not an animal and didn't need the head, it did remove the threat as it lost its fangs which allowed Owari to more easily finish it off. By raising poison affinity you can increase your resistance to poison, like how you can build up immunity to poisons over time. Doing so is dangerous though if you don't know which parts of the magical beast are safe to eat. Of course Owari was very well versed in the anatomy of many magical beasts, especially plant types as he had researched them a bit more when he had decided to come to this forest.

He ran into a few other magical beasts, but they leaned more towards the earth affinity. This was fine by him since it meant he could build up his earth affinity. The tougher his body became the more he could push his body before it would break. That would mean he didn't need to burn through his stamina to enhance his arm when he used the moth wing strike. Of course building up affinities was very slow using this method otherwise everyone would do it. But since he had free reign to all the meat he killed and Owari believed that every bit of help could make a difference, he continued to eat as he moved. By the time he finished for the day he had covered an entire square mile of space and had figured out which spots had the highest concentrations of earth affinity magical beasts.

He found that the deeper he went into the forest the more he would find and the higher their affinity. However even after setting up camp for the night he hadn't found anything too dangerous. This was the edge of the forest after all, and while he had a few close moments when he ran into especially sneaky or surprisingly tough enemies, none had impressed him. Owari slept comfortably that night as he enjoyed the familiar feeling of having worked his body and the weak ache in his muscles as they repaired themselves and grew stronger.

He woke up the next day feeling relaxed and renewed. Owari jumped out from the tree and made his way to a specific location with purpose. Since he had finished his actual work early and hadn't run into too many issues he could get to work on something he had wanted to do for a while now. He entered a small clearing in the forest after a short walk, inside of the clearing were half a dozen rocks sticking out of the ground ranging from dog-sized to bear-sized. Owari had found this place along with a few other suitable places for training at while he was investigating the forest. In the city if he wanted to practice with his sword he'd have to find a licensed location and rent out a space for annoyingly high fees.

Instead he decided to just wait and do it when he went out on his hunts. He had about six or so hours to practice before he would start making his way back to town. Although it might seem too short to make progress, this wasn't the case for Owari. He had spent an entire week sorting out the things he learned before, and all he needed now was the time to apply and test those things. Once he had that chance he would likely be able to take a step forward in his swordsmanship. As he thought about the various things he learned and what he needed to test, Owari pulled out his practice sword and placed the edge against one of the boulders.

Obviously this didn't do anything seeing as how the sword was standard in every way including the edge. As he applied various levels of force into the blade, Owari noted the reactions he got from both the sword and the boulder. During this time he also contemplated how to fix the problem his current moth wing strike had. The problem was the strain it put on both the sword and his arm, the arm thing was only a matter of training, but he couldn't train a sword. So he considered how to lessen the strain on the sword, and his first thoughts obviously went towards how when you strike an object the blade will naturally feel resistance which is what causes the rebound that induces strain in the blade. If not for that rebound from connecting the attack then there would be no rebound.

Obviously you can't just ignore rebound, but what Owari was considering was if there were any methods he could use to dampen the resistance he felt when he struck something, and thus lessen the rebounding force. After testing the amount of resistance the boulder offered as he pressed his blade against it he shook his head. He quickly began swinging his sword through the air as he contemplated how the air dragged against his blade. He fell into a meditative trance as he allowed his intuition and subconscious to guide him while he consciously inspected and critiqued his actions. The sword made audible noise as it split the air as he swung it at varying speeds and with varying levels of force.

After nearly two hours straight of swinging his sword he stopped suddenly. Then he casually swung his sword and despite the speed it moved at there was no audible noise that came from the blade and he smiled with satisfaction. He had found the secret, by using the knowledge he gained about redirecting force he was able to come up with a decent method. As the sword passed through the air and the drag tried to slow it down, Owari would induce shivering in his muscles by altering his breathing a bit. By mixing the shivering which would cause the blade to vibrate slightly, with certain basic skills such as cutting at an angle and spreading the force of the blade over a longer period of time, he could minimize drag and allow for a smoother cut. After practicing this technique for a bit, Owari aimed his sword at the boulder and swung. When he did there was no sound and after his sword stopped a clear scar was cut into the stone as if it had always been there.

Other than a very light ringing coming from his blade there was nothing to signify this scar had just been cut a moment ago. Although it was true that this was a powerful technique, even more than the moth wing strike, Owari had a dissatisfied look on his face. The energy expended by shivering his muscles so much, along with the focus required to control so many minute processes drained him rapidly. On top of that the muscles that were used to cause the shivering grew sore as they were relatively unused and weak. He would need to train them more in the future, but Owari realized it would be impossible to use this technique in actual combat. If he tried he would be too focused on using the attack then the fight which would be too dangerous.

However it wasn't all bad, he could still apply a lot of what he learned from this technique. In fact although the technique was very strong it wasn't cost-effective. He could achieve the same result with the moth wing strike after all and that didn't cause him any mental exhaustion or soreness in his arm. It just used up a bit of his large stamina reserves. After learning the method of lowering rebound, Owari started to practice incorporating it into the moth wing strike until he was satisfied with a good balance. He did this using his stronger sword so he wouldn't risk breaking it. He decided to order a few spare standard swords so he could risk breaking them when he got back. After spending nearly an hour working on finding a balance of the various factors for his technique he was satisfied.

He pulled out the relatively ordinary-looking katana by his hip and used the moth wing strike, managing to cut cleanly into the boulder even deeper than when he used the pure resistance diminishing attack and with much less expenditure from his body and mind. The sword was completely fine without any sign of breaking, though it might be a bit duller. As for the boulder it was filled with slash marks and scars from his numerous tests and looked to be on the verge of falling into pieces. Owari didn't pay it any mind and sheathed his sword in satisfaction as he judged the time. He still had two hours before he planned on starting his return trip, so he decided to work on his next technique. Since his moth wing strike was as good as it would get with his current ability, it was natural to start working on the next technique.

Although his initial technique was a bit flawed, if he took the framework for it and expanded it in a different direction Owari might be able to create a sword technique that could have its own uses. Since the moth wing strike was basically just a powerful singular attack, that meant Owari lacked methods of dealing with numerous smaller enemies. Since it was too mentally and physically taxing to use the full-strength version of the attack, he could just lower the effects to a workable point and design a technique from that. Owari began working on it by swinging his sword to get an idea of what was too much and what was too little to fit the idea he had in mind.

It took him about 20 minutes to get that done, after which he didn't rest and immediately started work on the next thing. What he had in mind was a technique that allowed him to continuously attack without stopping, he wanted to be able to cut down multiple enemies in sequence. The next part of the technique he worked on was how to redirect the force of his swings and which types of attacks would flow most smoothly together to allow a continuous flow of attacks. It took him the rest of the time he had before he had to leave to figure this out and combine these two aspects of the technique together. However it was far from being a usable technique.

Not only did he need to test more angles of attack and what the best combinations of attacks were and add them into the various movements, he needed to work on changing between sequences of attacks smoothly so he didn't get forced into one sequence of attacks which would risk him becoming predictable. On top of all that he still needed to do some finer work on integrating the balance of the two major aspects of the technique together as it was still a bit awkward to use them in conjunction. He also felt there were other areas that could be improved but for now he didn't have time to do any practice. Instead he had to go back to thinking and theory crafting as he ran back to the city.

Although his arms were very sore and he was quite tired, Owari had made many gains these few days. He would likely make more gains in the coming days so long as he continued. Of course he also knew that once he got past these initial gains he would start to stagnate at some point. He only hoped that point came after he had started his bigger expedition as his hope was to use that to test himself and to stimulate his growth once again through life and death combat with the denizens of the deeper forest who would be more like that bear then they would be like the vine snake. Owari thought about many things as he made his way home, this time he didn't fall into meditation as he ran and he instead gave himself time to think.

When he got back he showed his identification and entered the city smoothly. Although his pack was filled with materials to sell he went straight to his room and crashed on the bed. He was uncharacteristically exhausted since he expended a lot of energy training his swordsmanship that day. Not to mention he didn't get home until it was already dark out, so he didn't even bother to check if he had received visitors while he was gone. Those were problems for him in the morning.

As expected he woke up feeling refreshed but dreading the things to come. Owari got out of bed and cleaned himself up in the shower for the first time in days before changing into fresh clothes. He decided not to use his weight training gear today since he was still recovering from the past few days. He still put on his Haori and swords though as he walked out of his room and towards the reception desk. He was glad to see the owner was there as he had been afraid nobody would be working this early in the morning as the sun had only just risen half an hour ago.

"So you're back. Congratulations on surviving." The woman seemed only slightly surprised seeing Owari come back alive. Though she couldn't help but joke about it, it was basically a necessity to have a dark sense of humor in her line of work.

"Thanks. Did anyone stop by for me while I was gone?" Owari didn't seem to pick up on the joke and responded as plainly as usual.

"Let me check." The lady seemed amused by his lack of humor, but she did her job well and started checking some notes behind the counter. "It seems you had one person stop by. A guy not too much older then you named Lance. He said to tell you that you can come see him whenever, but he has an expedition to attend in a few days so if you're gonna do it to do it fast. His words." She pulled a single note from between a few dividers that seemed to be reserved for Owari's notes. It was very professional to separate notes based on the individual instead of keeping a stack for every tenant like some places did.

"Thanks." Owari nodded and then left just like that.

Since Lance would be leaving in a few days Owari decided to go see him today, When Owari had talked with Noel about visiting people she had given him times that they should have free to see him. Of course it wasn't a guarantee but it was better than nothing. As for Lance, it was apparently fine to come see him during his office work time which was between three and nine in the afternoon. He apparently just sat around the office in case someone needed to see him or as a representative for the agency where he would step in occasionally if nobody else was free. Since it was still early Owari had no reason to rush over at the moment and instead he carried his bag as he made his way to an exchange center.

Specifically he was going to one that was named as the Orion Tradecenter, and the reason he was going there was because the man who had lent him some clothes worked as a manager there and had wanted to meet with him. Since he had stuff to exchange anyway and their services were supposedly quite decent he decided it was worth the time to visit. When he arrived he saw that it was a five-story building painted dark blue, and there were many people coming in and out with packs like Owari's. He entered as relaxed as ever and looked around to figure out where to go, there were three counters, one had a sign indicating it was for trading, another was for information trading which was mostly about current going rates for different materials and what was in demand, and the final was labeled as being for appointments. Owari walked over to that one as he had been told to do so. He decided to do the meeting first since depending on how it went he might not feel like trading with this exchange center. He wasn't a child who didn't know how greedy or outright terrible people could be, even if the man had seemed nice before he was essentially relying on Owari to survive so he took it with a grain of salt.

The person behind the counter had just denied someone trying to get an appointment as Owari approached. She was a very pretty young lady in the prime of her life, something that this shop seemed to pride themselves on as the same was true for the other two counters. When she saw Owari she gave a very sweet smile, showing that she had received good training as Owari didn't really give off the impression of someone who belonged here. As he walked up he showed no particular reaction to her appearance, nor when she spoke to him with her very pleasant voice. "May I help you with something?" She opened the book in front of her as she spoke. "Do you have an appointment or are you here to schedule one?"

"I have an unscheduled appointment, my name is Owari and the one receiving me should be named Tristain Hilton." Owari cut straight to the chase, he wasn't the type to make small talk.

Hearing one of the manager's names caused the woman to be surprised, but she didn't dare comment about it until she checked. Sure enough Owari was signed off as a high priority guest in the manager's notes, and after looking it over the woman was relieved to see he wasn't in any meetings nor did he have any scheduled today. The last thing she wanted was to be the one to tell someone rated as high priority bad news. "Very well, however as it is an unscheduled appointment I'll have to send someone to see if he can meet with you. I hope you can be patient while we do so." She called someone over who nodded and hurried to check. Within five minutes they had arrived back and told the woman behind the counter something. "It seems he is indeed free. Follow this person and they will lead you to the meeting room." She opened a door in the counter and motioned Owari through.

He made his way past and followed the guide up the various steps all the way to the third floor and down the hall to one of the many doors. The guide opened the door and motioned for Owari to enter. When he did so he was greeted by a red velvet room that caused him to shake his head unconsciously. He disliked such obvious shows of wealth and indulgence. However he understood why these types of places existed, so he simply entered the room without comment.

Inside the room the man who was apparently called Tristain was sitting calmly as he sipped tea. He was in a brand new suit and he was much less frazzled looking, but Owari easily recognized him. Owari walked over and sat down across from the man as he sat his full travel pack to the side. The man glanced over and smiled approvingly seeing the full pack, whether it was approval at Owari for coming to the meeting before selling his stuff or approval for how much he gathered, only the man would know. Seeing Owari sit down with a hint of discomfort due to the overly plushy feeling of the velvet chair he couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"Not used to such extravagance huh?" He asked with amusement.

"I'm not a fan of indulgence." Owari answered honestly, since the man asked he would obviously share.

"I hear a lot of the greatest hunters aren't. Though that is only in regards to the Silverblood's and their ilk. Interesting that you would befriend someone from a family so similar in views to yourself." The man spoke with a very refined tone and his movements showed experience as he poured some more tea in his cup.

Owari shrugged. "I'm not complaining."

"I'd expect not. I've already been told a bit about your way of doing things so I won't dodge around the point. I'd like to sign an exclusive contract with you for your materials. In exchange for only trading materials with the Orion Tradecenter I can offer a higher price than most independent hunters would be paid." True to his word he immediately got to the point.

"I'm not someone impressive enough to deserve such special treatment. But I'm not interested in being someone's employee. If you want such a contract then it will have to be for a temporary period of time. I don't want to sign a permanent contract after only having just arrived here." Owari was simple but he wasn't stupid, he wouldn't let himself be roped into permanent commitments easily.

"You've got a good head on your shoulders. Actually I was going to recommend a temporary contract myself. The initial plan was to offer a three-month contract. After all we have to make sure you have the skill to be given such an offer. You've already proven yourself a bit, but there are still steps to take. After the three month period we would negotiate once again, depending on how much profit we can make from the deal we will change how much of a bonus we can offer. For now I was able to negotiate a 10% increase in payment to incentivize the deal, if you bring in enough materials of good enough quality this can go up or down by the time that three-month period has ended. If you are unsatisfied at that point you can simply refuse to re-enter a contract." He carefully explained the deal as he pulled out a stack of papers that he passed to Owari.

Owari listened to the man and read the details carefully as he considered things. 10% was a decent bonus to offer to try and convince Owari to become an exclusive supplier, and it doesn't go against his desire to be free. After all he can just withhold materials until the end of the contract period and trade elsewhere if he is dissatisfied. Since there were no underlying problems with the contract itself and no loopholes for them to abuse he decided to agree. "I'll accept. After all this is highly favorable to me. It seems you feel I am quite a valuable person to bring to your side. I'll try not to disappoint." Owari signed the papers right away.

"Perfect, we can start with the materials in your pack. I'm actually an appraiser myself and I'm curious to see how right or wrong I may be about you. Of course you can choose to take them downstairs instead, either way I'll find out what they are. But this feels more in line with your preference of not complicating things needlessly." He had clearly already seen through Owari's personality, as a high-ranking manager he was obviously skilled at reading people.

"Sure, all the stuff in the main compartment are what I was planning on trading." Owari passed the pack over and Tristain immediately opened it up and started to inspect the contents.

Upon seeing the pelt and bones of the earth affinity bear he couldn't help but pull them out to inspect first. Although it was certainly surprising that Owari could take something so strong down, what really impressed him was how good of shape the materials were, dismantling skills aside. He slowly went through all the materials Owari brought in and gave him a price. With everything he had brought Owari would make about 400 credits. While this was enough for another month's stay at his current place, this just went to show how difficult it was to really make it as an independent hunter. Even after risking his life and killing such a strong beast he only managed to extend his livelihood for one month, and that was with him killing something in the copper ranking.

It could be seen how hard iron ranked people would have it if they didn't go beyond their means and only stuck to killing iron ranked beasts. Owari didn't think about that stuff though, after all he intended to go back as soon as he sorted some stuff out and took a day off in town anyway. If he got this kind of haul every time it would be a net gain for him so of course he didn't feel pressured. His only fear was that he wouldn't find strong enough opponents to challenge him so he could grow and improve.