Owari spent the next few days studying while he recovered from his injuries. Four days of rest allowed him to heal up from the injuries he received and his lungs no longer had any discomfort. Since that was the case it was about time for him to make his way back out into the forest. He planned to do one more small-scale excursion before starting his larger-scale expedition. The target this time was deeper in the space he found the treant from before. He wanted to confirm if more of them were in the area, after all he wasn't even sure if that was really where that treant had originated or if it had been driven there over time. On top of that unless there was more he might be better off setting off in another area.

His main goal this time was to look for ore deposits, and so it was better to focus on that specific goal than anything. He just hoped he would find more treants to make things easier though. When he went to leave a message with the reception desk he also paid for another month's stay. He quite liked the place so far and he was 25 days into the 30 days he had paid. He wasn't one to leave things to the last moment so he took care of the extension early. Also in case something occurred while he was gone and he came back late he wouldn't have to worry about finding a new place to stay and losing a bunch of his stuff.

He left as quickly and easily as usual and made his way to the forest. He meditated on his way and before he knew it he had reached his destination by a little after noon. He spent the rest of the day until night came around slowly making his way to the deeper part of the forest to begin his larger-scale search. Unlike the past few times he would be intruding into the forest proper instead of skirting on the edge so he was being extra careful. He made sure to carefully check over the area he had already inspected to make sure nothing new moved in after he killed the treant and to check the density of earth affinity plant types. By the time night was rolling around he was at the edge of his destination and he slept up in a tree as usual. He woke up as the sun came up and got straight to work.

He didn't miss a single detail and paid full attention in case a treant tried to sneak attack him like yesterday. As the day dragged on and he found the strength of the magical beasts growing as he explored deeper in he wondered if the treant had really just moved here later or if it was just a loner. However he got a definitive answer about an hour or so before noon when he was reaching the peak of his exploration period. From underneath he sensed an aura shooting towards him and he jumped back as he watched the familiar root of a treant shoot out at him. It was slightly bigger than the last treant and a deeper brown but it was still recognizable.

This confirmed his theory that the last one was just a straggler who was likely newly born. When treants start to be born en masse in an area they don't actually slow down in the rate of birth and instead increase. This is because treants actively terraform the area to make it more conducive to their own kind. Because of this if there were even two or three treants it was likely there were more. However Owari had killed the last one since he didn't want to be responsible for leaving it alive and facilitating the birth of a forest of living trees that prey on humans.

Now that he confirmed there was a treant in the area he had his moth fly up in the air and confirm its location. After that he skirted around its area of influence. Even though he wanted to get rid of it to keep it from killing anyone, he had other stuff to do. It would be better to get an idea of the forces they had. If he felt it was out of his hands he'd report it to someone back in town and let them deal with it. Luckily treants were very passive and stuck to their forest homes so even if there were a lot he could handle it, otherwise he would risk having to give up such a valuable piece of intel for the sake of the city's safety. After finding the first some more obviously followed after. By the end of the day Owari had confirmed over two dozen and the deeper he went the more powerful they became. The last few he ran into had such fast reactions to him entering their territory and such strong control that he barely noticed in time to dodge.

Although it had been a bit startling, Owari was actually excited about it since he would be able to use these ones as practice for training his reaction time and sensory abilities which are difficult to actually train. One thing he did notice about the distribution of the treants is that they were located in one stretch of the forest and didn't go off to either side too far. After checking the mental maps he had for a reason as to why, he was able to figure it out. There were a number of caverns in this area and in some he had seen some underground rivers. Based on the flow they would all pass under this stretch of land. Obviously the further up the river the treant was the more mana and nutrients it would have hence why they got stronger the deeper he went.

After confirming they were stuck to this track of land for now Owari was relieved. Given a few years time they could terraform the area around to raise more, and they likely have done this up until now. Since he had a decent time frame before they became a major problem he was willing to keep this to himself for now. Of course when he got back he intended to make a note of this and leave it so that if he died this information wouldn't be lost. After all if given the chance these treants could become quite the trap, and even to this day there were a few tracks of forest and jungle that were the property of swaths of treants. Luckily there is a limit to how many treants can sustain themselves in a given track of land otherwise they would have long conquered this continent. Like any living thing they have weaknesses, and it was thanks to these weaknesses that they are only a large danger and not an extinction-level threat.

Once he confirmed the danger level of this track of land Owari made his way back to the edge of the forest. He planned to use the next day before he went back training his second technique a bit. That night he made himself a stew using the meat he got from all the magical beasts he had killed along the way. He was quite full and he even felt a hint of the earth affinity which had been building up in him due to all this meat. In the end though he wasn't too hopeful about the whole thing. The earth affinity was a heavy and blunt attribute, and it didn't fit the nimble and flimsier katana that he used. Although he could definitely make use of the heft and force of the earth affinity if he wanted, it didn't really fit the style he wanted to go for. However it would still reinforce his body and that would help him quite a bit.

The next day came and as he was making his way around to a space that would allow him to train in relative peace he heard a buzzing noise and he quickly hid behind a tree and looked around warily. It might seem like an overreaction to a mere buzz in the air, however you can never be too careful when you're alone and your life is on the line. Soon enough the source entered Owari's vision range and he was glad he hid. In the air patrolling the forest skies was a swarm of knifehead beetles. They are a swarm type magical beast who gather in groups and attack as one unit. In a way they are similar to hive minds, except that unlike how hive minds are one being controlling many fake secondary bodies, swarms are many individuals that work together for one goal. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, but really it came down to the species in question more than anything.

As for knife head beetles, as the name implies their heads have a knife-like protrusion pointing out in front of them. They fly around in swarms and shred everything in their path by charging through them. Then they simply fly about eating the mist and paste leftover after their charge. Because they are of the metal element and enhance their charge with mana they tend to be very hard to block and if the swarm is large enough they are even harder to dodge. They use the power of numbers to make up for their individual weakness.

Owari wondered if he should challenge them, after all a swarm like that was dangerous to other hunters who weren't as sharp or quick to act as he was. Not to mention the danger they posed to others if they made this their hunting grounds in the near future he might face them when he came back. Not to mention they would make good practice for perfecting his new technique. However he was also sure he would get hurt if he fought them, after all there were too many to reasonably kill if they charged him even if he was going all out. He would definitely be injured and there was a real possibility he could die. However after reaching that thought he threw away all hesitation.

There were too many things that indicated it was better to challenge them now then later. If he was likely to run into them during his longer expedition it was best to fight them now when he was about to go home. Plus the best way to improve was to risk it and the closer your life hung on the line the quicker you were forced to improve. Even if he did his best to maximize his safety, that was just so he could risk his life on his own terms and not because he was afraid of dying. Since he came to a decision he stopped hiding his presence and openly stepped out into sight of the swarm that looked like a cloud. His posture and presence indicated that he was openly challenging them and this obviously caught their attention. A swarm like this that looked to have over a hundred fist-sized knifehead beetles was used to being feared and so his attitude threw them into a frenzy immediately.

Owari drew his sword preemptively and prepared to react at a moment's notice. As soon as the swarm launched itself his way he started to swing his sword to build up some speed. In a few moments after he had managed to swing his sword half a dozen times they arrived. In front of him stretching to either side he only saw dozens of tightly packed beetles with sharp silvery knives pointing at him as their wings buzzed kicking up a noticeable wind. Owari tucked his body in as much as possible to shrink the space they could hit with their charge and before they could reach him he threw himself forward and swung his sword in a wide arc.

His sword caught half a dozen in its path and cut them cleanly in half, before they made it even a few centimeters further he turned his blade back around and it was already cutting through an entirely different path and bisected half a dozen more. After that he managed to get two more similar swings in and killed two dozen total beetles. However the first wave hit him at this moment and he steadied his foot on the ground enough to turn his body along with his next swing to cause the five or so beetles left to only catch him with a few surface wounds. One managed to hit his cheek and if not for his maneuver at the last moment would have pierced his eye.

He wasn't out of the woods yet as a second wave was right behind the first forcing him to continue attacking. He swung his blade rapidly taking out more beetles and shifting his body with his swings to dodge the beetles who made it through by a hair's breadth. On top of that after the fourth wave the beetles that had survived the initial charge had looped around At this point they had worked out a frontal attack would cause too many losses so they split and came from three directions. They were clearly smarter than the previous few enemies he faced which adapted to his actions slowly, this put more pressure on him which caused him to have to change his tactics to survive.

As he swung his blade forward he stepped forward and tucked in his body before launching himself forward at full speed. As he flew through the swarm he tucked into a ball and did his best to swing his sword to intercept the beetles that tried to attack him. This allowed him push past the waves of beetles who were rushing him from the front at the cost of taking an increased number of wounds. As he exited the swarm and rolled across the ground before coming to a stop his clothing was torn in numerous places and he had cuts on every limb. However he broke the encirclement and with a change in breathing methods his bleeding slowed and blood production ramped up at the cost of some endurance. He would never outlast this enemy so he needed to go for an aggressive approach anyway so stamina conservation was a waste now.

Seeing the swarms alter their direction and prepare to attack from two separate directions he didn't give them the chance. Instead he shot forward after redirecting his technique and changing attack patterns to rush forward towards the swarm that decided to charge him from close to the ground. A wave of beetles rushed him like a tsunami, but instead of retreating he used his swings to increase his speed as he approached them even faster than they approached him. It took less than three seconds for him to go from stopping his roll to entering the swarm again for round two, except this time he was the attacker. As he reached them he swung in tighter circles to preserve his speed and cut down on unnecessary kills. Instead he cut in he tucked the blade into his side at the last moment and spun the hilt with his offhand to create a tighter killzone in front of him than the wider arcs that stretched from one side of his arm span to the other. Now only the area just in front of his chest and legs was being cut. Because of this he was able to cut more beetles that were a direct danger to him. However even still he had to overcome over half a dozen waves and after killing about thirty beetles he had still received half a dozen cuts from beetles swerving in to attack as they passed by.

When he passed through the other side of the swarm and exited it he was still moving forward quite fast, so he landed on one foot and spun to kill his momentum. As he did so he swung his blade out as an extra measure and when he did he noticed that there was a noticeable draft that came off and kicked up a few leaves from the ground. Seeing this he had a flash of inspiration, however it wasn't any help now so he kept it at the back of his mind for later. Right now he had too much to worry about to focus on the future. The second swarm he had dodged had looped around and came to attack him from the side, however he pivoted his body and shot forward straight towards them.

To him direction was relative and the more he fought the better he got at maintaining his balance and orientation as he moved around violently so as long as he was given a moment any direction could become his front or back as he liked. As he approached this swarm he spread his killzone a bit wider, learning from his previous two experiences and increasing the efficiency and speed of his movements and the accuracy of his swings. Knowing that if he kept taking wounds on like he was that he would bleed out was helpful in this regard. This time when he exited the other side he had less than a handful of new wounds and each was much more shallow than any before it.

By this point the swarm had been cut down by two-thirds, it hadn't seemed like they were losing much at the time but after taking stock of the situation the truth was revealed. The swarm seemed quite angry about this and having lost a portion of their reasoning ability as many of their individual members were dead they rushed forward blindly at Owari who was calmer than ever before. As they passed by him he swung his sword rapidly in succession and cut them down as they passed, with their diminished numbers not a single one managed to get past his killzone and injure him. When the swarm finished their next flyby not a single remained alive, meanwhile Owari stood victorious.

His body was covered in wounds and blood, and his clothes were torn, but he was satisfied with the results. Without wasting a single moment he went and cleaned his wounds before bandaging them up to keep them from opening up again. Then he went around and removed the knife-like horns from each of the beetles and stripped them of their meat. Their horns were as durable as steel and could be worked into some very good throwing knives. It was a positive that they had very similar weights and good balance so they would sell for a good amount of money. After collecting his spoils as quickly as possible Owari made his way away from the scene of the battle and settled down to stew himself a meal out of the meat leftover. Since there were so many he would be able to build up a decent amount of natural metal affinity which was one of the ones he was interested in.

By lunchtime his meal was done and he had eaten his fill. One good thing about stew was that if he kept the lid closed and only opened it to eat he would be able to escape quickly before anything got curious enough to inspect the area. After all they could smell the familiar scent of a dangerous predator in the beetles and once they realized that was the meal, most magical beasts would avoid the area in fear of whatever was eating such a fearsome predator. After he managed to eat his fill, Owari immediately packed up and rushed back to the city. Staying any longer was a bigger risk than he could afford. His wounds had settled enough that his speed wasn't too hampered but if he had to fight he would quickly reopen them and risk bleeding out. He had already lost a lot and had only managed to restore enough not to hamper him and he was nowhere near being in peak shape.

As he expected he was a little later than he would have liked returning to the city. He was too tired to bother with anything else and he immediately collapsed in bed and slept until late the next day. When he woke up he was relieved to find he had made it home safely. In order to keep himself going he had been on autopilot of sorts and had spent most of the trip back half-conscious. Despite the wounds and near-death experience he was actually in a great mood after everything. He really enjoyed this risky lifestyle, it was much more interesting than working behind a counter his whole life or picking up the needle and taking over his mother's business. Perhaps a life in a smithery working on all manner of metal might be more bearable but it would never live up to this thrill he felt and the joy of breaking past your barriers and growing in skill.

Having reached home and rested through the night he replaced his bandaging and made sure it was well done. Since he had been exhausted and injured he had done a messy job before so he needed to reclean the wounds and rebandage them. When he was done he counted dozens of cuts all over his body, whether it be the front or back he had some kind of wound. Even his face had three cuts, one on the left cheek, one on the right jaw towards his ear, and one above his right eye. However there were no serious injuries, this was because of his incredible dodging skills which only continued to get more efficient as he went through such situations. Once all that was confirmed he placed the bandages which caused him to look even more mummy-like than last time. Because he had been cut basically everywhere he had to warp his whole body in bandaging. The only safe places were his hands, though they were covered in calluses from his years of training anyway.

After making sure the bandages set right he put on some rather loose pants to keep them from shaking the bandages loose. He avoided wearing a shirt for now as he entered meditation and attempted to speed up his recovery. He didn't exit this meditation until the sun rose the next morning. At this point he was finally recovered from the initial dangers of the previous battle. Honestly it had been quite reckless of him, and even though he did finish the fight quite quickly it was still dangerous nonetheless. Actually most fights at this level boiled down to who can kill the other quicker more than anything. It isn't until the higher ranks when each side can take some serious punishment that fights become more drawn out and strategic.

For now since he was back to working order and he had a lot of time to spare, Owari decided to head out to the reception and check if anyone came to see him while he was gone. It turns out that Lance had come back from his hunt and had left him a message asking him to come by when he had some free time, preferably soon. Since he now had a few days off and only studying and recovering to do he figured he should just stop by today. Of course he still had the whole day before Lance would be available so he had to find other stuff to do for now.

First of all he went and sold his materials for a decent price, the knifehead beetle blades earned him a few months' rent on it's own. He had underestimated how valuable perfectly balanced blades in such large amounts could be worth. Not that he would complain about earning more, looking at his total money he had half a years rent in savings. It was a bit sad to think years of work was less valuable then a few excursions into some woods, but a lot of that had to do with his skill level and the fact that the work was dangerous and thus high pay was needed to motivate most people to do it. Either way it was a good thing for Owari and he went about doing the rest of his tasks for the day like restoking his food at home and fixing his haori with some of the leftover grey cloth he had.

Eventually after running out of stuff to do and beginning to read the mystic art manuals out of boredom, it was about time that Owari could go meet with Lance. He got dressed in some baggy clothes to keep them from irritating his bandages and wounds before grabbing his haori and swords as usual. Then he made his way off to the Amber agency building which didn't take very long. When he got there it looked exactly the same as he remembered and he walked in as casually as ever. Inside behind the counter was the same girl as last time, but her attitude and bearing were so different it was like she was a different person. She had a calm but polite smile and she greeted and dealt with the people who were lined up fairly.

Owari was quite impressed by the Amber agency, to be able to get someone who acted how she had before to act so professionally in such a short period was definitely worth praising. Especially since this was a relatively minor branch of the agency since this wasn't one of their focal cities. He wondered if there were some senior secretaries on staff, but the thought left soon after. He didn't care too much for that kind of complicated thought. He just calmly walked over and waited in line for his turn. After a few minutes his turn came around and he approached the desk calmly. The girl however was far less calm when she saw him.

"Are you here to meet the boss sir?" She asked nervously, doing her best to be polite but having trouble staying still.

"Yeah, can you check and see if he is available?" He didn't mince words and just asked plainly.

"Right away sir." Her nervousness didn't dissipate at his calm tone or plain words, she reached over and pressed a button and soon enough a young lady came down the stairs. "Go check if the boss is available, tell him Sir Owari is here." Hearing his name the girl immediately nodded and rushed up the stairs. "Please just wait a moment sir."

"Sure." Owari didn't really mind their overly serious reactions. Honestly he didn't like the spotlight or pretending he was important, but it was better than being dismissed or ignored.

"The boss says to bring you right up. Please come with me sir." The young lady barely got in sight before she hurriedly started to talk.

Owari nodded and followed her up the stairs and to the same place he had talked with Lance at before. The girl knocked on the door and Lance's voice came out telling them to come in. The girl opened the door and motioned Owari in and so he did just that. The room was the same as last time, however on the table was a fish tank the size of a bathtub filled with water with a fish swimming inside it in figure eights. The fish was a cloudy white color with grey splotches and golden streaks across its scales. It looked somewhat like a koi mixed with an eel since it was a bit long and its mouth had sharper teeth in them. It was clearly a predator, and with its size being about a half the length of the tank and about half as wide it was definitely worthy of being called as such. Owari could sense a hint of danger radiating from it, indicating that it was definitely strong enough to be a threat to him. As for the cramped nature of its confines, it seemed totally unbothered and merely worked itself into shapes seemingly playing around like a cat as Lance chuckled and tossed in bits of meat when it made an interesting shape.

"I take it this isn't it's normal tank?" Owari asked as he sat down across from Lance and looked over the fish.

"Of course not, it doesn't mind the cramped space in short bursts but I have a larger tank in my actual office with decorations in it for it to play and hide." Lance seemed happy to talk about his newly tamed beast, as most people would be.

"So I take it this is the mutant one after all? Normal cloud fish don't have golden streaks." Owari observed as he gazed at the cloud fish. Sensing his gaze it looked over at him and stared him down. After a moment of eye contact it backed off and went back to playing indicating that it recognized his strength.

"That's right, it was strong but I was able to cancel out its attacks with some effort. It wasn't too difficult to work with. This guy is actually quite docile and enjoys human contact so long as you are nice to it. I'm a bit surprised though, it seems to recognize you as being of similar strength as itself. Did you make a lot of progress since the train crash or something?" Lance was quite curious as, if he recalled correctly. the Owari from back then would have died easily against this cloud fish.

"I've learned a few things, and though I would still probably lose to that guy in the water at least in this environment I would not lose." Owari knew a lot of why he was recognized was because the environment was unfavorable for the fish. "So did you want me to stop by so you could show off? If so then I'd say it was worth it to come by. I'm quite fascinated by magical beasts, especially mutants and highly evolved ones." Owari tried not to be rude to the cloud fish by inspecting it constantly and he instead would glance it over and note down its characteristics in his mind.

"I had heard you were knowledgeable about magical beasts so I thought you'd be interested. But actually the reason I asked you to come by as soon as possible was to invite you to a celebration party for my success." Lance brought up the main point right away since he knew Owari didn't like dodging the subject.

"A party? I'm not really a crowd person." Owari didn't immediately reject, but he also didn't agree.

"I figured as much." Lance laughed openly at that. "I planned to only invite a few close friends, but the only friends I have here in Leviathan city are you, Rebecca, and Noel. Other than that I don't really know anyone well enough to be comfortable around them. I tried to get to know that swordsman from before who was about my age but he practically radiated envy and it made it difficult to befriend him." Lance sighed dejectedly when he mentioned this failure. It seemed he was used to this kind of thing based on his tone.

"Well it's not like you know me too well either." Owari pointed this out, they had only met once really and although they hit it off a bit they were still mostly strangers.

"Even still I feel like we're quite alike and you don't seem to dislike me, I'd say that even if we aren't friends yet there is definitely potential. Plus I really need you to come, I'd even beg if I had to." At the beginning he spoke with confidence, but his final bit was spoken with a hint of desperation.

"What's with that?" Owari asked with slight curiosity and slight confusion.

"Although it doesn't matter so much to me what kinds of friends someone has, I have to maintain a certain public image. If I was seen going into a restaurant alone with two girls a lot of rumors would start. Personally I don't care about what others think of me, but right now I'm the Amber agencies representative and I need to maintain a certain public image otherwise I'd ruin public opinion of the agency in this city and probably get demoted. Basically a bunch of stuff neither of us care about that relates to my job. The important takeaway is gossipers are annoying and see everything in the most negative way possible and having you around will help make my life easier." Lance didn't really seem to like those gossipers much, he felt they were too judgemental and didn't respect people's freedom enough. However he still had to accept them because of his position and had to be careful.

"Well I don't really care about all that stuff. It's why I didn't get involved in agencies in the first place. I'll help you out though, after all I also wouldn't mind making a friend and I do owe you for helping me out with Noel." A reason he didn't say out loud was that he was thankful to Lance for not trying to manipulate him. Lance was definitely a skilled enough socializer to know that if he had mentioned how Noel's reputation would be damaged he could more easily get Owari to help him. However instead he avoided mentioning it in his initial request at least which meant he didn't want to force Owari. Owari wasn't fully aware of the implications because of his lacking experience, but he was getting better at reading others intentions towards him, so he at least caught some of it.