"So you're interested in magical beasts then?" Owari asked, causing the girl to nod her head. "Does that mean you want to be a tamer?" Another nod followed his question. "Then I take it that you know that in order to be a good tamer you also have to be a good hunter?" When he asked this however the girl paused. "Did you think magical beasts would just roll over for you to turn into some pet? In order to get a magical beast to accept you as it's master you have to prove yourself to it. Otherwise..." As Owari trailed off at the end the moth shook itself and fluttered its wings suddenly which startled the girl and caused her to flinch back. Then it flew up in the air and rushed back into Owari's haori. "Otherwise you will be nothing but prey in their eyes." Owari smiled as he watched the girl look at the place his moth disappeared into with disappointment.

"So if I'm strong they won't ignore me?" She asked plainly without showing how she felt on the matter. She seemed to have trouble showing her feelings.

"If you're strong they'll have no choice but to pay attention to you. Unlike people, beasts are much simpler. When they see something stronger they either fear or respect them, usually both, and when they see something weaker than them they expect the same treatment. So by being the stronger one they will naturally fall into their place, even if they dislike it once you tame them you can work on befriending them and all of that will go away. However if you're weaker, even if you force them to let you be their tamer with the help of others, they will never truly connect with you." Owari slowly and patiently explained this as the girl looked up at him and listened just as carefully.

"I understand." She nodded as soon as he finished explaining.

"As long as you understand then it's fine." Owari nodded back and looked over to see Rebecca looking at him strangely. "What?"

"I didn't think you'd be good with kids." She wasn't sure if these were exactly the right words, but she couldn't think of a clearer way to voice her thoughts.

"I'm not, I'm actually not good with most kids." Owari shrugged when he heard her, he treated them too plainly and so most kids would end up being confused when they interacted with him. "However she isn't like most kids, since she is a lot like me it was easy."

"Well even if you tell her she needs to be strong, nobody is willing to teach her because she is too quiet and doesn't respond well." Rebecca was grateful for the help, but it didn't actually change much.

"Just because someone doesn't talk doesn't mean they aren't listening. Sometimes it even means they are paying closer attention than most. She may be different, but that doesn't mean she deserves to be abandoned or ignored. What about her parents?" Owari recalled that Rebecca had mentioned most of the kids taken in to train were the kids of agency members.

"She's an orphan. Her parents were hunters and they died on an expedition. It's the same for a lot of the kids, even I was the same. I lost my parents before I was even able to talk. In a way I was raised by the agency and she should be similar." Rebecca talked about it like it was normal, and Owari could tell she really felt this way. He had lost his father and unlike what most people think, he had come to terms with it and it no longer bothered him. It was simply another part of the life he had lived. It would be even more pronounced in someone like Rebecca who lost her parents when she was so much younger.

"I see, so nobody is willing to connect with and understand her so they just let her do her own thing huh?" Owari recalled his own childhood where he was mostly left to his own devices, however he at least had his mother who was there for him. This girl likely doesn't feel like she had anybody which would explain why she is even more quiet and antisocial than even he is.

"It's not that bad." Rebecca felt like he was being a bit harsh, but she also couldn't totally refute him. She could only really put up a token effort in the end.

"Do you have some paper and a pencil?" Owari asked suddenly seemingly out of nowhere.

"I do, why?" Although she asked for the reason she was already rummaging in one of the table drawers and pulled out a small stack of papers and a pencil.

"I'm going to write down some instructions for her." He answered as he took the paper and pencil and began to write.

"Instructions for what?" Rebecca grew curious as she watched him start to write out a bunch of things quite quickly, he was a very fast writer and his writing was very neat.

"Since you said nobody was willing to teach her, then she has to learn on her own. I figured I'd give her some help to make up for lost time." What he was writing was some basic information on breathing methods and meditation. It didn't include anything too advanced and only included things like how to keep the lungs clean and how to more quickly restore stamina while resting.

"Even if you give her some pointers, how far can she really go on her own?" Rebecca was skeptical.

"I don't know, but everything I know was self-taught so she should be fine if all you want is for her to be as good as me." Owari dropped a bomb as he was about halfway through finishing the notes.

Obviously Rebecca had not known he was self-taught before this, it was something he had only mentioned to Noel who hadn't thought much of it because she herself was mostly self-taught. However Rebecca was different, like most she had received constant tips and advice to make sure she didn't make mistakes while learning. But Owari relied on his own talent and intuition to avoid the common pitfalls while also creating an entirely new fighting style. Although his fighting style had been very crude and had a few weaknesses to it, he had used actual combat to forcefully improve himself by using the pressure of life and death combat as a motivator. He wasn’t foolish enough to think his self-made style could be on par with martial arts formed over generations. However he found a way to make it so it had the potential to reach that point, and that was the important part.

"If that's the case then I guess I don't need to worry." Rebecca decided to just let him do what he wanted. After all if she couldn't get him to join the agency it wouldn't be half bad to have someone who had learned from him.

Owari finished writing at about this time and walked over to the girl. He held out the pages in front of her causing her to look up at the stack of pages. She seemed slightly confused for a moment but then she grew curious and grabbed them before she started to read. The more she read the more confused she seemed to become though. "So you can't understand it?" Owari asked as he watched this. She looked up at him and shook her head lightly. "Then I'll teach you a bit."

Owari sat next to her and started to explain a bit about this or that to help her get a basic idea of things. Once she started to understand some of the more complicated bits he started to demonstrate some of the breathing exercises. Then when she would try it he would point out any mistakes she made and help her fix them. Rebecca watched from the side with some relief but also a bit of disappointment. Originally he had come over to chat with her, but now she was suddenly left to the sidelines. Owari lectured her for the next 20 or so minutes before he stopped.

"Now you just need to read the notes and perfect everything in there. Once you do that you can start working on your own to develop the best style for yourself. If you ever have any questions though you can ask me and I'll do my best to answer them."

The girl nodded, but then seemed to decide on something. "Yes teacher." She bowed her head as she said this, it was at that point that Owari recalled something.

"What's your name?" He had yet to ask for her name even after all this time.

"Erica." Was all she said.

"Alright, my name is Owari." He also introduced himself just in case.

"So you're done ignoring me?" Rebecca said from the side with a hint of bitterness.

"I wasn't ignoring you. I just figured this was more important than having a chat with a friend. After all this concerns a child's entire future." Owari chuckled as he noticed Rebecca's poor mood, she wasn't exactly trying to hide it.

"When you put it like that..." She sighed and let it go, after all if she still argued after that then she would just feel guilty.

"We can always talk again in the future. I'll be heading off on another light excursion for the next three days. When I get back I'll stop by." Owari did feel a little bad since every time they tried to talk other stuff had gotten in the way, but he couldn't really help it. When he realized what was going on with the girl he had wanted to help her, not just because they were alike, but because he didn't like the idea that just because she wasn't like others she would be abandoned to her fate which didn't look good.

"I'll hold you to it." Rebecca decided to accept his offer, it was already a bit on the late side. Although she might have joked a bit and led others to believe she was some flirty air-headed girl, she was actually very strict on herself. She wouldn't allow a boy to stay here late into the night even if she knew he was uninterested in her.

"Okay, until next time then." Owari stood up, as he did so he ruffled Erica's hair. She didn't react at all which caused him to chuckle. After that he left without another word and made his way home to get some early rest.

As for the other kids, they had been doing their own thing the entire time he was there. The bigger boy seemed to have used the various board games to make some arbitrary game which the three kids managed to distract themselves with during his visit. He was glad for that since he had no idea how to deal with kids if they had decided to try and bother him. Thinking that far he suddenly had an idea and looked around a few bookstores and libraries that were still open and bought a few childcare books. Not only would it help him with dealing with those kids if he saw them again, it might help him with teaching and dealing with Erica. On top of that, who knows if one day in the future he would have some kids? It would be better to be prepared just in case instead of waiting until the last moment. It simply wasn't his style to wait to deal with problems he could deal with now, not to mention the sooner he started the more he could learn.

Owari read a little before going to sleep, he decided to get some early rest. When he woke up the next morning he felt refreshed and ready to face the coming work. He left a message with the reception and left as easily as always. During his trip to the forest he mostly just thought of ways to improve his swordsmanship, and by the time he arrived he had not really made much progress. If it really was as easy as just thinking about it then everyone would be a master, however every little bit of progress no matter how small would help. Owari explored the forest for the rest of the day, on occasion he would find something that would try to attack him and he would take care of it. Since he was still on the edges of the forest he didn't really expect to find anything really.

The first day went by as boring as the last trip and he felt it was going to be another menial mapping excursion. Despite this he didn't mind, the small fry that came to attack would give him a chance to test his second technique which was still in the works. He also just enjoyed the atmosphere and he was someone who didn't mind repetition so long as it led to progress. On the second day he was slowly making his way around the forest, it was a little after noon and the sun was high in the sky. Suddenly the ghost eye moth indicated a faint trace of hostility from underneath him. It was very sudden but Owari was on high alert as always, although he didn't know what it was he knew it was heading his way fast. He jumped to the side and removed the pack from his back and tossed it away so it wouldn't get damaged in any ensuing battle while he had the moth fly off into the air. Since the enemy came from below he figured the sky was the safest place for now.

From the location he was just at a spike shot from the ground. Owari thought it was another earth spear and wondered if that bear from before had some relatives around here. However after a closer look he noticed that even though it was colored a yellowish-brown, it was clearly not made of dirt and stone. Before he could inspect it closer however, it suddenly retreated back into the ground leaving a small hole. With this he confirmed it was likely a part of a living organism. As soon as his foot touched the ground and before he could get himself a firm foothold he sensed another trace of hostility below him. Having connected to the ghost eye moth so closely and studying its sensory abilities he had gained a weaker version of its aura reading ability. The important thing however was that it was still enough to detect what he needed to in this case. Luckily Owari's footwork technique didn't require a solid foothold as he used the front of his foot to push off the ground while throwing his weight backward with his upper body allowing him to move backward suddenly. As he did so he placed his hand on his sword as he spun backward in a backflip from the sudden shift in his center of balance. Then the strange spike shot out from the ground and speared towards him, seeming to shift direction and curling his way. Unfortunately for it Owari was ready and used a sword draw to both unsheathe his blade and cut the spike at the same time. He hit it straight in the tip causing it to split open and freeze suddenly seemingly from shock. As the blade passed through two things stood out to Owari, the spike was as hard as stone, and from the gash he left clear liquid was sent into the air and started to leak out.

A moment after he had cut the spike the new gash in it seemed to be pressed together giving it back its shape and stopping the leak. However it didn't continue to attack and instead retreated back into the ground. Owari landed on the ground and took a few steps back to give himself a solid footing as he carefully observed the trees around him. After feeling how his blade passed through the spike and seeing the clear liquid he had an idea of what the enemy was. It was likely a type of plant type magical beast called a treant. They were trees that came to life under very specific circumstances, and it was because of this that despite how dangerous his situation was Owari was actually excited. In order for a treant to be born the ground needs to have an abundance of mana, the light from the sun has to be filtered through a heavy cloud of mana, and the water flowing through the area has to flow from a very mana heavy location. Only when all three of these things are true will a treant be born.

What this meant was that if a treant was able to be born, then it meant the area around it was very likely hiding some good discoveries just waiting to be found. Of course treants will tend to lean towards one of the three affinities previously mentioned depending on which of the sources of their birth is more mana plentiful. Since this one seemed to be leaning more towards earth, it meant Owari's initial hope of finding a mine filled with mana rich ore was even more likely. However he didn't get his hopes up too quickly, if it was just a lone treant then it only meant there was a chance, but if there were more in the area then the chances would rise. At the same time though the danger of the mission would increase, he had not expected to find treants here, they are quite dangerous magical beasts of about the mid to late copper ranking each. If they grouped up they would be even more difficult to deal with, not to mention they have good shapeshifting skills.

Owari focused as he took in his surroundings, the last thing he needed was for the treant to sneak up and attack him with it's main body while he was distracted by the roots. As Owari was looking around he tucked and rolled forward as one of the roots shot out at his back. Unfortunately he had been too focused on finding the main body and had responded too late allowing it to redirect itself towards his right flank nearby. Luckily Owari reacted fast and sucked in his gut so the root only managed to tear open his haori and shirt and leave a small cut on his side from grazing him, but he had to be more careful in the future. As he was rolling he swung his sword to counter-attack and managed to cut halfway through the root causing it to leak more clear liquid which was the water that held the nutrients of the treant. It could be seen as blood of sorts though it was less important and more easily recovered.

Because treants are just trees with the ability to move, they have massive life forces and are very difficult to kill. They have no vital points to kill them quickly, you could in theory cut off all their roots to starve them, though they can still recover if they are healthy enough as they regenerate fast, or you could cut off all their branches and leaves to do something similar. However even if you manage either of those or even both, a treant can still go into hibernation to slowly recover while in a very weak state so if they aren't finished off, then they will still recover. They are understandably difficult to kill and mostly you just had to keep hacking at them until they ran out of nutrients and energy to sustain themselves. You basically had to force them to starve themselves from overexertion.

Doing things the way he was and cutting at the roots would probably never be enough even if he did it for hours. Instead he was hoping to either scare it off or draw out its main body. As he rolled forward he wasn't given a chance to breathe as another root tried to intercept and spear him along his path. He grabbed the ground with his free hand and stopped himself. As the spike came out of the ground and tried to turn towards him since it was still quite close he did a half spin and swung his sword taking off a large chunk of the root and making it heavily leak out water. Unlike his previous cuts which could be sealed with some pressure, this one had taken out a whole slice which was too big to just force closed.

Instead he watched as the surrounding material tried to shrink and fill in the damaged chunk as the root retreated into the ground. Treants have a lot of control over their shape and so they can easily manage to seal a wound like that. However the energy required to do it and nutrients lost from the wound before it was healed can't be recovered so easily. Another tree root tried to shoot up from directly below him, but Owari just back stepped and swung his blade diagonally from above and took off not only the tip but also some of the area behind it leaving a massive hole at the end of its root. Since he had discovered a more efficient way of injuring it, Owari intended to use that method to the fullest.

However he suddenly noticed a flash of hostility within the moth's range but out of his own. He had been having the moth fly around the area trying to find the source of the roots, and it seemed to have located it. The aura was weak as the treant was weak-willed, but it existed. Owari glanced over and saw what looked like an ordinary tree less then 15 meters away which was the source of the attacks. The moth only had a range of about 10 meters so it had been out of range, if it had attacked with a long-range technique then it might have actually caught him off guard since he only detected its roots due to them actually being a part of the treant's body. He decided to look into ways to make up for this glaring weakness in the future, after all he didn't want to be snipped from range when he wasn't expecting it.

However now wasn't the time to be distracted as two roots shot out at either side of him. The treant seemed to realize attacking one at a time wasn't working and had devised a new but equally simple strategy. Owari shifted his ankle and body weight and jumped lightly while spinning his body. He didn't actually jump high and instead only jumped just in the reach of the roots which was less than a meter off the ground, and as expected they tried to turn and shoot at his new location. As they changed direction Owari grabbed his sword with both hands and sliced it down towards the roots cutting both of them diagonally, cutting the entire tip off one and a small chunk of the tip off the other. They obviously reacted immediately by retreating back into the ground, since the tip was sliced off they lost a lot of their deadliness so there was little point in risking keeping them above ground. Owari reoriented himself and easily landed on his feet as lightly as a leaf in the wind.

As he landed he glanced at the treant who suddenly flared with hostility, and saw it shaking one of its branches. A few leaves separated from it and spun through the air at him like little throwing stars while enveloped in brownish yellow light indicating the earth affinity. Owari didn't risk taking the attack head-on and jumped backward as the three leaves reached his location within a second of him seeing them take off, if he hadn't reacted as fast as he had he would have been forced to take them head-on. The three leaves hit the ground and as if hit by a hammer dirt and debris was thrown out of the ground and spread out as if it had exploded.

In each of the three spots that got hit were large gouges dug into the ground as big as Owari's torso. They clearly had both a lot of weight and a lot of force behind them. Owari would have to be careful not to underestimate them if he had to take them head-on, not to mention he didn't know if that was a full-power attack. Before he had the chance to land on the ground a root shot out trying to catch him in the air. Since he had dodged suddenly he hadn't watched his height properly and jumped over a meter high and hadn't had the chance to come back down. One downside of his powerful muscles and how light his body felt to him was how he underestimated how high he would go if he used too much strength. This was a matter of experience so he could only do his best to survive until he had the chance to learn it properly.

The root shot out towards him, aiming for his leg which was closest. Owari threw his weight to one side with his arms and chest to spin mid air, meanwhile he tucked his leg in and pulled it out of the path of the root's attack. He managed to completely circumvent the treant's clever ambush, and as he spun mid-air he managed to counterattack and chop over 50 centimeters off the tip of the root. He ended up landing on his back because of the sudden change in orientation, but he threw his weight to the side and turned it into a roll and got back on his feet easily. The treant seemed to be getting very angry by this point and he looked over to see it had opened its 'eyes'. A pair of cracked bark separated to show a pair of twisted knots. These knots could see, though not exceptionally well. It was enough to find prey, however it would also give away it's position.

These knots could be created and destroyed as they liked so you can't even use them to tell them apart unless it was dumb enough to keep them around all the time. The fact that it had attacked him with its leaves before showed it gave up on hiding and had decided to kill him. One thing a lot of magical beasts had, especially in less explored regions, was massive pride. They may give up on attacking you if you run away after showing you're hard to kill, but if you react like Owari and show your desire to fight and to kill then they will take it as a challenge and unless they feel totally unconfident they won't easily try to run. In areas humans have been around in for generations upon generations most magical beasts have learned to be more cautious, but here in this region humans were a relatively newer occupant. Of course humans lived here before, but they were just random clans and tribes and not from a unified continent-spanning country.

The two had a stare down for a moment, however it took only a moment for the treant to confirm that Owari not only did not fear it, but that he also saw it as prey. Owari had a savage smile on his face as he felt the pressure increase due to the danger. He quite enjoyed the rush of combat, and the stronger the enemy the more excited he would grow. The treant shook one of it's branches and sent three more leaves flying at Owari. This time he didn't carelessly jump and instead he sidestepped the attack, gliding low to the ground so he could easily respond to an attack. As expected an attack came from the side and seemed to try and intercept him along his path. Owari placed his foot on the ground and used a V maneuver to sidestep the attack, however it didn't try to redirect and hit him and retreated right away seeming to have learned its lesson.

However Owari noticed another attack coming from behind him, and as he prepared to respond he also felt an attack just below him. Owari twisted his body and strafed away from the roots which shot out towards him. As he went to cut them another root closed in behind him, if he swung he would have no time to dodge. Dodging to the side wouldn't leave enough time to ensure he could dodge all the attacks. So Owari looked up and confirmed something and kicked off the ground sending himself flying up and out of range of all the grounded roots. Owari rapidly flew into the air over four meters up and after reorienting himself he landed gently on a tree branch.

The treant seemed annoyed by this and immediately threw out half a dozen leaves towards him. They were just spread out enough that if he tried to dodge them he would have difficulty getting entirely out of the way. So instead Owari shoved off the branch and shot straight at the path of the attack. He struck one of the leaves with his sword and stopped mid-air as they canceled out one another's momentum. He was careful to strike the leaf in a way that limited the stress on his sword, after the two had collided he swung his sword and used the weight of the leaf that was still left over to push back away from the treant while sending the leaf spinning through the air.

Owari landed on the ground and immediately sidestepped as another root tried to spear him. He then spun in place cutting off the top of the root and forcing it to retreat. Going on like this would probably not get Owari anywhere anytime soon, he was going to have to change his approach or it was only a matter of time before it managed to figure out his patterns and plan out an effective ambush. Since that was the case he just decided to go on the offensive, although this wasn't the best enemy to test his new technique against he figured it was better than nothing. He stood straight up and held his sword in both hands while pointing it forward. He took a deep breath to center himself as he waited for the moment to strike. Once he started he would have to take a risk to stop the attack so it was best to ensure he was in the best position possible before he started.