As everyone left the restaurant they started to split up and say their goodbyes. Each seemed to be heading in slightly different directions, Rebecca lived in the residential district while Lance stayed close to the business district which put him closer to the market district and his office. Meanwhile Noel lived in the inner tourist district and Owari lived in the outer tourist district which was set up for independent hunters or visitors. Because of this Noel and Owari ended up going in a similar direction, however they probably would have left together anyways. Rebecca left a final joke about how it was like they were being set up together before rushing off so Noel couldn't try to turn it back on her. Lance just shook his head with a laugh and went his own way.

After that it was just Noel, Owari, and Morgana who walked down the road towards the tourist district which gave them a bit of time before they had to separate. Noel had her parasol folded and was holding it by her side as the sun had set. She seemed quite happy to be out at night where she didn't have to hide. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as they walked, catching Owari's attention. When he looked at her he realized how he didn't really know much about her condition, as he had never asked due to the sensitive nature of such things.

Noel seemed to sense his gaze and opened her eyes to look at him with her eyebrow raised. "What is it?"

"I was wondering if you were still hungry. I didn't eat enough today so I was thinking of stopping by that noodle place and having a bowl. I was wondering if you wanted to join me?" He decided to wait to ask about that stuff for when they were alone and she could be at ease to talk how she wanted instead of worrying about the eyes on her. "I'd also pay for your share." He threw this in just before she answered him.

"Hm? Why?" She was a bit surprised by his offer to pay, so far they made a point of paying for their own things so she was wondering what changed this time.

"You can think of it as my way of thanking you for today. Not only did I have fun spending the day with you, it also helped me feel a lot better." He would have probably spent days trying to get over his lethargic mood if not for his day with her and the diner with Lance and Rebecca.

"So it's repayment?" She looked at him with the same curious gaze as before.

"In the form of a date." Owari laughed as he noticed the hint of surprise in her eyes.

"I'd love to join you for a bowl then. Lead the way." She gave a blooming smile as she stepped closer to him so their arms were almost touching. Clearly she intended to take him up on his offer for a date in every meaning of the way.

Owari just smiled and didn't show any signs of resistance as he took the lead. The two made their way to the ramen stand and ordered a bowl each. They didn't say much and just sat down next to each other in comfortable silence. They both knew that calling this a date was mostly just to show it was meant to be special and they didn't take it too seriously. There was a difference between going on a date and dating.

Although their resistance towards taking that final step might seem odd, they both had to consider many things. For one Owari was well aware his life was on the line every time he went to do any work, on top of that he was still not fully over his past yet. Today he had taken a big step to finally giving up on all that and moving forward, but it wasn't time yet. As for Noel her circumstances were a bit more complicated, she knew Owari was her first crush and was aware that such a thing could blind her to the truth so she had to control herself and be careful until she learned more about him. Not to mention her family, while it was true she was free to choose her own partner, she knew that by making things official Owari would enter her family's eyes and he would be under their intense scrutiny.

Although it may still happen with how they acted, at least this way she could hold it off as long as possible and give Owari a chance to adjust to his new life and grow stronger. The two not only considered their own feelings when maintaining their distance, but one anothers. Instead of worrying about it though they just enjoyed the meal together silently and when they finished they lingered shortly before separating with only their farewells. It was a fitting end to the day they had spent together which was mostly filled with quiet and relaxation.

Owari made his way home and rested, he was feeling better than before but he still needed rest for his wounds to recover. Even with his quick healing speed due to his natural resilience and breathing methods he would need another couple of days to be back up to maximum capability. He had quite a nice dream that night, he ended up reliving his final meal with his mother. When he woke up his mind and body were refreshed and although he was still injured he felt better than he had in months, even before when he lived back home he hadn't felt so good. Ever since he had his falling out with his old friends it had weighed on him and slowed him, only now when the burden had disappeared did he realize how sluggish he had been before.

Feeling refreshed he jumped straight into meditating and simulating things in his head. He wanted to use the inspiration he had gained before to develop a new technique. Over the morning he would occasionally move his mind away from that to read some of the mystic arts manuals he had. So far he had three main ideas for how to utilize that inspiration, but he needed to actually practice to see if they would work. Before he could move onto studying the mystic arts in greater detail he heard a knocking on his door. He hadn't expected visitors, but he walked over and checked to see who it was. From the peephole in his door he saw Rebecca in front of the door with an impatient expression on her face, though it was more of a rushed impatience than an annoyed one.

Owari opened the door, but before he could speak he noticed Rebecca had a tag along. Erica was standing off to the side clutching the notes he had left her. Rebecca took his momentary distraction as a chance to speak up. "She keeps asking me to bring her over so she can ask you about a bunch of stuff. I'm glad she is talking to me but it's only been about coming to see you. Anyway I hope I'm not interrupting you."

"It's fine, I told her she can come over whenever she has questions after all." Owari shrugged, he didn't mind it since he had been the one to promise.

"I don't really have much time though, so I was wondering if you could watch her for the afternoon. She seems to have a lot of questions, plus since she only opens up to you I was hoping you could help me bring her out of her shell." Rebecca seemed to be in need of many favors it seemed, however before Owari said anything she seemed to read his face and responded. "I'm not asking you to just take over my job for nothing. I know you like to read so I was going to offer these to you in exchange for your help." She lifted up a couple of bags she had been carrying at her side. "They range from all kinds of topics from magical beasts to mystic arts studies and even some affinity stuff. Noel and Lance seem to see you as some kind of hermit scholar and based on your room I guess I can see it. What do you say? Fairt rade?"

Owari squinted his eyes at the bags and after noticing something he smiled. "Next time you want to make a trade for books, at least get used ones or buy them and flip through them a bit. They still smell new. I'll do it though. It was smart of you to try and trade in books instead of paying me, but it still feels a bit like paying me if you just bought the books." Owari mercilessly cut through Rebecca's seemingly cunning plan. He may not be very good at reading people, but he knew a bit about her real personality and combining that with his own personality he could easily deduce her intentions. If she had been a stranger he would not have seen through it though.

"Well even if you refused I'd have handed the books over anyway. I just figured you'd accept them more easily if I also asked you to do something for me. Think of it as a combo, we both get something out of it." Rebecca didn't mind being figured out, she had no real reason to hide much in front of Owari. Though she did remember his advice just in case it proved useful one day.

"Why would you want to give me books?" Owari reached out and grabbed the bags, being careful not to aggravate his injuries as he did so.

"It's partially an apology gift for me and Noel fighting yesterday. We were being inconsiderate of your feelings. But really I just felt like it honestly. Not everything needs some big reason." Rebecca laughed, when he asked for her motive it reminded her of all those people who she works with every day who think there is a reason behind everything. "You shouldn't act like everyone is like you. Not everyone calculates their every move. If they did the world might be a utopia, but it would also be very boring."

"That's fair." Owari didn't ask anymore, he knew she was right; he just had trouble accepting other people's goodwill so easily as he had rarely received any through his life. He glanced over at Erica. "So you have some questions?" She nodded in response and held up the notes. "Alright, I'll be watching you for the afternoon so you'll have all the chances in the world to ask away. When should I bring her back home?" Owari asked the last question to Rebecca.

"About seven should be in time for dinner." Rebecca answered back hastily. "I have to get back to work now since my break will be over soon. I'll see you later then." After waving goodbye she rushed off without listening to Owari and Erica, who didn't actually say anything and only waved.

After Rebecca was gone Owari looked down at Erica. "Let's go in, no use standing around here." After that he led her inside and closed the door. "Sit wherever looks to have some space." After he said that he sat in his previous spot and started inspecting the books Rebecca brought as Erica sat in a similar position as him not far away. "If you have questions start asking, I can't answer questions that aren't asked." Owari chuckled as he realized she had little intention of speaking up.

"I was able to learn all of the information, but I don't know what to do next. I can do the breathing but I can't keep doing it. I get distracted." She talked slowly but her words were very even and clear.

"You just need to restart every time you get distracted, eventually your body will learn and make the method you are practicing into your natural breathing pattern. The main point you need to remember isn't to not get distracted, getting distracted is fine and natural even, you just need to notice when your breathing is disrupted and fix it as soon as possible." Owari knew more about this subject than probably anyone in this entire region, and he learned it all first hand through trial and error. So when he explained things it was much easier to pick up than just reading some notes.

Erica nodded seriously before she considered a few things and spoke up again. "What does it mean by changing the breathing pattern to match me over time?" She held out the notes and pointed to a line on one of the last few pages.

"Your body type is different from mine. I tried to stay general when I explained it so you could naturally adapt it, however there are still some parts that might make the techniques in there not as effective for you. What it means is that even if you learn all of what I wrote down in there perfectly it won't be enough. You need to understand it, not just memorize it, then you need to change the breathing methods to match you. Otherwise they will never reach their full potential and neither will you." Owari explained it as clearly as possible, but it was difficult to describe the subject since it relied on understanding your own body.

"Oh okay." She seemed to understand a bit and she started reading the notes again.

Owari waited and noticed she had no other questions so he started to read some of the new books he got to understand them a bit more. He set aside the books on mystic arts when he was done and started to read more deeply into them. They didn't actually have any specific mystic arts, and instead they went into a detailed explanation about the subject of mystic arts as a whole. It was more about what mystic arts were, what they represented, and what their purpose was instead of being about specific styles, techniques, or requirements. It was quite enlightening, after all sometimes knowing the esoteric aspects of a subject can open up your eyes to things you had not thought of.

Owari read carefully about the history of mystic arts and how humans developed and changed them over time, one thing he picked up on was that the books seemed to treat mystic arts not with the reverence that many hunters did. Instead these books all worded information about mystic arts in such a way as to imply it was merely a stepping stone or a bridge in the path to strength. For instance when referring to mystic arts when they were first developed and their first time being discovered it would say "At the time it was believed this would be the salvation to humanity who was at the bottom of the food chain." On its own this could be seen as the author trying to sound fancy. But then other statements such as "Mystic arts were humanities first steps to their rise." or "Training with mystic arts can cause changes within the body, and it is these changes that many study even to this day."

When adding some of the other suspicious comments together, Owari realized mystic arts were likely not the final step to power. It was merely a way of training yourself for real power. However the books never went into that next step and as someone who hadn't even used mystic arts how could he begin to understand what the step beyond it would be? However while most people would panic and think his slow and methodical mastery of martial arts to be even bigger of a waste of time when they realize how high the top really is, Owari grew even more certain of his path. If the step after mystic arts were not the final step, what would he do if his foundation was not strong enough to handle that third step? And further still what if there was a fourth? He wasn't going to spend his life building a foundation, but he would never stop reinforcing it and training the basics.

He spent the entire afternoon enriching himself on these newfound truths, he absorbed the knowledge like a sponge. He had always been like this, if not how could he have learned as much as he has all on his own? He always took from what was around him and constructed something of his own out of it, it was the only way he could progress after all. During the afternoon Erica would occasionally ask him questions and he would do his best to answer them. Otherwise they sat in silence as if they didn't really notice one another and did their own things. Soon enough it began to get late so Owari stood up and walked over to her.

"It's time to bring you home, come on." He held out his hand which Erica looked at in confusion for a moment before she took it. He helped her up and checked to make sure she had proper balance and posture. After sitting in that position for so long unless she had practice she might lose her balance so he wanted to be careful. Once he was sure she was okay he had her walk beside him as he brought her back to Rebecca's house. It was a pretty uneventful trip to be honest, they were both quiet people and so they never talked. When they got there the one who opened the door was the blonde boy from before. Owari didn't bother sticking around after confirming Rebecca was there and he left Erica after tussling her hair a bit. After that he went home and meditated through the night instead of sleeping, since he had nothing in particular to do the next day he also decided to meditate through the day.

Meditation is a very important process and although he always centered his mind and entered a type of pseudo meditation pretty much all the time, it was different from the real deal. In order to get the full benefits he would need to meditate without letting his mind wander. As he meditated he carefully observed the mana both around him and within him. Mana is a very hard to describe thing, it seems to exist pretty much everywhere but it can't be seen or felt without special means. Mana that comes from a living creature is also different from the mana that saturates the air. Every living creature whether human, animal, or plant produces mana. This mana is not always high in quantity or quality, for instance Owari's mana when he was younger was faded and faint being about average in quality, but as he meditated and trained his body his mana slowly thickened and grew more plentiful.

But the mana outside the body seems to replenish similar to how it does in living creatures and no matter how much is taken away from it the mana will always return eventually. The difference between internal and external mana is how pure and plentiful external mana is, and when you meditate you open yourself up and allow that dense and pure mana into you. Then your own mana consumes the new mana and grows, though how it does so is still unknown, after all nobody knows the mechanism for which mana replenishes itself. Owari spent the entire day carefully observing the process of meditation, he didn't learn much but he did make sure to remember it all.

When night came around Owari decided to sleep, even though he didn't need it because of the meditation he was feeling a bit lazy. Life wasn't always about training and improving, sometimes it should be okay to just be lazy. When he woke up he took his bandages off and checked on his condition. His wounds were pretty much healed and by the next day he would be back to perfect condition. He got dressed and grabbed a book on affinities which he read as he made his way to Noel's. He planned on leaving the next day and he still recalled his promise to tell her when he was going to be gone for a long time.

As he walked and read his book he debated about his future mystic art which he planned on creating. The more he learned the more foolish he felt it was to choose only one or two affinities to focus on. It was far too limiting and would keep him from being as adaptable as he would like. The best thing to do would be to find a few affinities that could make up for each other's weaknesses, however there were two things he needed to make note of. The first was that even if he wanted to use many affinities he would still need to have one main affinity to focus on to keep his mystic art from becoming too convoluted. He had a few ideas for what this affinity would be, currently he was leaning towards the metal affinity.

Metal is considered a rather ordinary and bland affinity since it doesn't really have many special traits, however it also tends to be easier to learn and it is very compatible with cutting weapons. The other thing he needed to keep note of was that if he wanted to use many affinities he would need many tamed beasts or to consume a lot of magical beast meat to develop affinities. For now though he only needed to gain a metal affinity or something similar that he could use as the anchor. The knifehead beetles would have been quite good actually, however he had killed them all so that was out of the question. He would just have to hope he could find something with a strong enough affinity for him to use during his expedition.

He didn't take long to arrive at Noel's house, he had gotten quite used to the route after all. He sat out in front and read his book as he considered various things. Eventually he heard the familiar sound of her footsteps approaching him from behind. "Do you purposefully try to appear so aloof or is this how you normally are?" Her voice carried a trace of amusement as she spoke up.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Owari didn't really get the joke.

"The way you were sitting there it made it look as though the whole world doesn't enter your sight. I never really thought about it but you always seem to be in your own little world, as if the things happening around you don't matter." Noel had only intended it as a joke, but she realized just now how oddly detached Owari seemed at times.

"They say an observer can understand the situation better than a participant. I make it a habit to be an observer, so it's not that i'm not paying attention. I'm just not actively participating." Owari thought of this as very normal, ever since he was young he was typically excluded from things so he was used to watching things from the side and learning from it.

"Doesn't that get very lonely?" She couldn't help but wonder.

"Only if I always observe. In the end I still interact with some people so obviously I'm not entirely separated from the world." Owari might be detached to some extent but he certainly wasn't some monk who let go of all worldly desires. He still went out and did things and enjoyed time with friends on occasion even if it was rare.

"I suppose that makes sense." Noel chuckled. "So why did you come here? Not that I would complain about the chance to see you."

"Tomorrow I plan to go out on my expedition and I'll be gone for a while. I figured I should let you know, after all I did promise I would." Owari didn't want to take up too much of her time so he got to the point.

"I see, are you really healed already?" Noel was a bit skeptical, after all it had only been three or so days. Even light cuts require some time to seal up fully.

"I'll be back in top shape tomorrow morning. I only need to let my wounds finish settling." Owari just shrugged at her skepticism, his breathing methods and meditation sped up his healing quite a bit. One of the benefits of having such a well-trained body was how quickly he could recover, not to mention the positive effects mana has on the body.

"If that's the case then I wish you luck in your exploration." Noel decided to take his word for it, after all he had no reason to lie.

"Thanks, I still have some stuff to do today and you're probably busy as well so I'll be heading out." Owari stood up and stretched a bit as he prepared to leave.

"Then I shall see you when you return." She was a bit disappointed but she knew it would be irresponsible to keep him here.

Owari nodded and left with a light wave, which she returned. After that he immediately set out to buy everything he would need for his trip. The first place he stopped by was a cart shop which sold wagons and such things for carrying large amounts of luggage. He bought a three-meter wide by four-meter long cart which was designed to be pulled by animals. Of course he couldn't afford to buy and care for an animal nor watch it during his trip so he intended to just pull it himself. He left it there to pick up tomorrow before he left on his trip as he had nowhere to store it for the night and then left for his next destination. He spent the morning gathering equipment for gathering soil samples and digging since his main goal was to look for ore deposits, other than that he bought a month's worth of emergency rations.

After that he went home and brushed up on his studies of magical beasts and magical metals and how they form before getting a good rest. Time flew by as he made his final preparations and when he woke up he packed up his extra practice swords in a shoulder sling and went to get his new cart to haul it off to the wilds along with his other preparatory equipment. He took this entire endeavor very seriously and he didn't underestimate the danger he would face one bit. He would be delving deep into a forest and even into unexplored territory so he couldn't afford to be careless.