“I think I want to tame this guy.” Owari suddenly said much to everyone’s surprise. “He seems spirited, and sharp. Plus I need a beast to fight with me. I would be a failure as a tamer if I didn’t have at least one combat worthy beast.”

“I do recall you saying something along those lines before.” Noel spoke up as she recalled Owari’s wish for the expedition.

Owari walked over and branded the salamander. It tried to resist for a moment before it seemed to wake up and recall how strong they were. In the end it gave up resisting and accepted the brand. “There, all done, now we have an extra set of eyes.” Owari chuckled.

The salamander seemed to be quite against this whole thing, however after Owari showed it images of him fighting the treants it quieted down. It knew it was no match for those creatures as it was, yet Owari could defeat them on his own. Magical beasts naturally respected strength, so as soon as it learned that he was stronger than it everything was alright.

“It looks kinda cute.” Noel went over and pet it much to its chagrin.

“He doesn’t seem to like being pet.” Owari noted as he felt it’s discomfort over the link.

“That’s too bad, it’s skin is smooth and soft.” Noel spoke as if it truly was a shame.

After that the group quieted down and went about their business. Owari needed to write down the information, and the faster he did it the faster they all got paid. They slowly explored the large cavern but they didn’t find anything as big as the salamander. It seemed to be a unique existence and according to what Owari could find it was quite old. It grew in size due to its desired path of evolution. It seemed it thought bigger was better.

Eventually they finished up here and went back to exploring. It was around the time of them exploring the fifteenth or so branch that something new of note happened. They entered a cavern that was quite warm, which was odd since so far they were always humid and cool. But the more interesting thing was the first magical beast they found which had a fire affinity. It was a spider that cast a web of flame over the group. Lance easily destroyed the net and shocked the spider into unconsciousness.

Owari carefully inspected the unconscious spider and wrote down it’s properties in his notes before moving on. They ran into even more fire affinity magical beasts. Luckily Owari had the ability to detect hostility so the moment they attacked with flames he could warn everybody and keep burns to a minimum. Whenever he wasn’t writing notes or drawing the map he would keep his hand free to quickly respond the moment he gets attacked.

After finishing in this cavern they went down one of the two paths leading out of the cavern. At some point they came out into a similar cavern which had a similar but slightly different ecology. Owari was fascinated by the slight shifts in ecology between the two caverns because it implied at some point these caverns crossbred. It was all very interesting to him and he made sure to note this down.

“You seem excited.” Noel couldn’t help but say.

“Of course. How often will I get to see such diverse species in one place? It’s also possible to get insights into natural evolution through this.” Owari replied with a clear smile.

“As long as you’re happy.” Noel wasn’t as good at this stuff so she didn’t have much more to say.

“I am.” Owari also didn’t forcefully drag out the conversation.

Soon he fell back into his routine and the group continued. This cavern had hit a dead end so they turned back around and went back to the other path. As they were walking down this path they ran into a Y section. The problem arose when they reached this location, coming from another direction was another group of people.

Among these people were five members, all in their late twenties. They seemed to be independent hunters based on their equipment as the typical equipment of members of the Sapphire Agency was blue and white. Even Rebecca wore it in her combat uniform. Among the five members were three guys and two girls. Of the members two of the guys used swords, the other guy used an axe, one woman used a whip and the other used a bow. As they approached Owari could detect some hostility. They were clearly more hostile than someone who met another group while out hunting.

“If it isn’t the group of geniuses.” The axeman who was in the lead spoke first.

“The what?” Owari asked with confusion.

“All of you are quite young, yet you’re given the same treatment as us. Obviously you have to be skilled.” He didn’t seem to believe what he said. Owari could feel the envy radiating from these people.

“Well I can’t say much about that, after all we have no idea what ranks you all are.” Lance smiled naturally, as if he didn’t at all notice their envious stares.

“This path is ours, beat it kids.” The bow woman spoke with a rough tone.

“We found it first, rules are rules.” Rebecca shot back.

“I’ll warn you kid, people go missing on expeditions like this all the time.” The axemen starred at Rebecca hard.

“So then it wouldn’t matter if you went missing? Thanks for the tip.” Lance stepped between the two.

“You brat, think you can beat us? Even if you’re skilled for your age, experience beats talent.” The axeman spoke arrogantly.

“We found this place first. Beat it.” Owari said firmly as he casually set down his pack.

“Who are you to tell us to beat it? We want this path so it’s you who should respect your senior's wishes and leave.” One of the swordsmen spoke up.

"Let’s just leave it to them. It’s one path after all, we have more.” Rebecca said timidly.

“No.” Owari refused to back down.

“Then I guess it’s time to show you we mean busin-” As he went to pull out his axe Owari acted.

Owari kicked off the ground and instantly arrived in front of the shocked axeman as he pulled out his sword and slit the man’s throat. His words stopped as a gurgling sound took over. The other four all prepared to pull out their weapons as Owari kept up his attack by rushing at the bow woman who in a panic placed her bow between them. Owari used the weaker version of moth wing strike and split the bow as he cleaved up through her chest leaving her to bleed out.

“What’s with this kid?!” The swordsman who had yet to talk was terrified. He was shocked by how bloodthirsty Owari was.

Owari looked his way with a smile. He had just marked himself as the next victim. Not willing to die just like that he placed his sword in a low position and swung it up with a flash of brown. Along the path of his blade a number of earth spikes shot up and tried to pierce Owari. He easily sidestepped each spike as it rose from the ground. Like a ghost he seemed to ignore every spike as he rushed closer to the man. In a panic the man stabbed his sword into the ground causing a wall of earth to sprout between them.

As this happened the salamander who had been sitting by the sidelines shot a ball of mud towards the man surprising him. The ball struck him and knocked him to the side out of the protection of his barrier. At that moment Owari jumped and pushed off one of the spikes shattering it as he flew at the swordsman. Before he reached though he suddenly shifted his weight and spun mid-air barely dodging a white streak. As he landed a flash of white light occurred and an arc of pure white light shot at him. Owari didn’t panic, instead he turned his sword and unleashed the full power moth wing strike to intercept the arc of light.

With a loud groan and a light hum the two attacks connected and to everyone’s shock the light arc shattered and scattered around Owari harmlessly. In the next moment he spun in place and rushed the earth swordsmen once again. As a whip crack came to strike him he bent low to the ground and dodged finally arriving at the man. By this point the swordsmen was bolstered by his companion's intervention and he held his sword above his head swinging it down with all his strength as it glowed brown and suddenly turned into a large blade of stone.

Owari ignored the blade of stone and swung his sword. The two blades connected and Owari cleanly split the earth blade sending it flying and skittering across the ground as a normal steel blade as it reverted back to normal. Then Owari pulled his sword back and stabbed it straight through the man’s head. The next moment he swung his sword and maneuvered his body to place the man in the path of a lightning infused whip strike. Before the electricity could travel through his sword he yanked it out as the man's body was fried and lashed nearly in half.

It was at this point that Owari’s companions finally reacted. They had been shocked to see how fast Owari resorted to violence, however they recalled that Owari could sense hostility so obviously he knew the enemy was about to do the same to them. He wasn’t one to give the initiative to the enemy so he acted.

Thinking this far, Lance grabbed his spear and stabbed forward sending a crackling bolt at the light swordsmen. The man’s body flashed white as the lightning struck him sending him tumbling across the ground, however he quickly got back on his feet. Noel also reacted by rushing forward with a sonic boom reaching her target only a few steps slower than the bolt. As the man got up he was greeted by Noel’s fist which popped his head like a balloon. At the same time an arrow was shot and struck the ground around the whip woman’s feet and flash froze her. After a few moments the sheer cold ended up killing.

Like this they cleaned up the enemy in only a few moments. As they did though both Noel and Rebecca showed quite negative reactions. Noel directly vomited at the sight she had caused, meanwhile Rebecca just stared blankly at the woman. It was obviously the first time they had killed people. Noel quickly reigned herself in, but Rebecca seemed to still be processing things. Lance shot Owari a glance that seemed to ask ‘what now?’.

Owari sighed and walked over to Noel. He might not have been affected by killing people, but that doesn’t mean he was unaware of how it affects others. He knew he had a strange way of viewing death and the survival of the fittest. It was different from others. As Owari approached Noel, Lance also sighed and went over to Rebecca. He hadn’t directly killed anyone so he was comparatively fine.

“How are you holding up?” Owari asked as he approached Noel.

“Still processing everything.” She said as she cleaned her face up.

“I see. If you need anything I’m right here.” Owari didn’t say anything else. Nothing he said would help.

Noel nodded before walking over to him and hugging him. He smiled a bit oddly for a second before he hugged her back. He didn’t say anything about the light crying he heard coming from her as he carefully patted her back. Rebecca was much worse off, she was naturally weak-willed with these things to begin with so she began sobbing. In the end it took half an hour before they were calm enough to become functional again. They still refused to look at the bodies though.

Owari was the opposite as he directly went over and started searching their packs. He found their maps which were quite crude, but still passable. As he went through their things Lance came over and spoke to him. “I’m not really sure how you can be so calm about this. Even I’m unable to stay calm and I didn’t even kill anyone.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been in this situation. It was me or them and it happened to be me who survived. Nothing more and nothing less. Out here it’s the law of the jungle. You are either the prey or the predator.” Owari explained how he thought, it was the closest he could get to explaining.

“It’s one thing to say that and another to do it.” Lance sighed.

“I say what I mean and mean what I say. If I couldn’t do it I wouldn’t say it.” Owari chuckled as he found a few mystic arts manuals. “Perfect. More study material. I’ll assume none of you are interested in taking the stuff of dead people.”

“I’ll pass.” Lance had a strange expression as he watched Owari so casually loot from the dead.

Soon enough the group got back to work, they couldn’t sulk forever. Owari carefully mapped out the caves and everyone else kept an eye out for attacks. The next cavern they entered was even hotter than the ones before it. Unlike the places so far this place could be described as being hot and not just warm. It was also quite humid. Looking around the cavern was even bigger than the one where they found the salamander.

As they looked around Owari found something quite interesting. There was a type of mushroom that lived in this cavern that was technically a magical beast. It was able to respond to his presence by shooting out some kind of red spore. When the spores hit the ground they ignited and heated up the floor. Owari noted this down as a hazard and moved on. It was worth studying, unfortunately that wasn’t his job.

As they moved deeper in and approached the exit on the other side it became hotter and hotter. When they reached the halfway point they were so hot that they were tempted to risk the loss of defense by removing their equipment. Noel had her combat gear on, meanwhile Lance had a chest piece and greaves made of steel, and Rebecca had a chest plate and thick leather gloves and boots. Only Owari was lightly armored as he didn’t have any defensive equipment.

In the end they trudged on regardless of comfort. When they reached the other side of the cavern and looked into the cave that led off of it they were able to find the source of the heat. In a cavern separated by a meter thick wall was a small pool of magma slowly flowing out of the cavern and through a few holes in the wall. Meanwhile the magma bubbled as if it were being pushed up from below.

“I say we retreat.” Owari said wisely. Everyone else nodded, magma wasn’t something they could risk approaching. It was clear they were standing overtop of a magma pocket.

The group made their way back as Owari wrote his notes and drew out the cavern. They continued their exploration this way for three more days, it was somewhat eventful. Owari went about training his salamander to up its power. He found it had been using its mud shot wrong. It would clump the mud together with magic and fired it off as a glob. However if it condensed it and shot it off it would have more weight behind it and would be more aerodynamic. It would also disperse later. He also helped teach it how to be more accurate.

In the end the group was able to slowly put the events from before out of their mind and go back to normal. Eventually they managed to map out their entire section of the cavern and they began making their way out. Overall it took four days to get everything done, but it was quite fruitful. Owari was satisfied with the salamander, with some beast meat and a few evolutions it would be quite formidable as long as it was guided in the right direction.

“Well that was boring.” Noel was disappointed. She had been hoping to fight something tough.

“It wasn’t like we expected to find some massive beast in there. Caves are small. However there are plenty of high copper to low silver rank beasts. It would be a good hunting ground for the average hunter.” Owari replied as he did some final checks on the maps.

“I suppose that’s true. But I’m going out somewhere as soon as I get back. No way can I let this be my only outing, I don’t think I could take more meetings right now.” Noel was itching to hit something hard.

“You can come with me when I go out. Since I’m not injured I can go out whenever, I already have a few places in mind.” Owari recommended.

“Sure, sounds like fun.” Noel easily agreed, they had already said she would go out hunting with him sometime.

“Though I’ll warn you that I probably won’t be doing a full expedition right away. Gotta do that scouting work after all.” Owari warned her seriously.

“Hopefully we find an outlier to fight with.” Noel really hoped they would find something on the first outing.

The group quickly split up after this. Noel went to speak with Morgana who had been patiently waiting for them to finish, as well as to sort out transportation for Owari's new tamed beast. Rebecca went off to settle her own transportation. Meanwhile both Lance and Owari made their way to the main tent. Lance needed to go as the Amber Agency’s representative, and Owari needed to turn in his maps.

After entering the tent Lance was the first to speak to the woman whom Owari recognized from the meeting to discuss his pay. “Nice to see you Missus Portman.” Lance greeted her with a smile.

“Lance, there’s no need for such formality. We’re equals after all.” She smiled.

“I’m just a side branch manager, while you’re a main branch manager. How could we be equals?” Lance chuckled as he sat down.

“I suppose you make a good point, but our agencies are friends so there is no need to see me as a stranger now that we’ve met so many times.” She laughed lightly as she saw Lance being so serious.

“I’ll try my best not to be too formal then.” Lance tried to speak more at ease.

“So what is it you needed Owari?” She looked over at him, surprising him that she remembered his name.

“I’m here to turn in the maps and data.” Owari grabbed his pack and started to unload map after map along with half a dozen notepads onto the desk. “This should be everything.”

Missus Portman couldn’t help but be surprised by his thoroughness. She looked over a few of the maps and was shocked by the quality. He had made copies for navigation, ecological data, geological data, as well as ones that detailed the temperature and humidity of each cavern. On top of that just a cursory glance through his notes allowed her to see that he had cataloged dozens of different magical beasts and even assigned rankings to some as well as detailing recommended methods of dealing with their defense mechanisms and skills.

“Impressive. You’re more than worth the pay we gave you if this is all correct.” She chuckled, she certainly got a deal there.

“Then next time I’ll ask for more pay.” Owari joked.

“Maybe I’ll consider it. Was that all?”

“Sure was, I’ll be leaving you two to your thing now.” Owari escaped as soon as he got the chance and made his way over to Noel.

“I see you dealt with that quickly.” Noel laughed as she saw Owari coming over already.

“I’m not a fan of stretching things out for no reason.” He replied with a smile.

“I am well aware of that.” Noel chuckled, of course she knew that much about him. “So where is it you planned to go for your next expedition?” She asked curiously.

“That depends on how long you plan to accompany me and if we are using your transportation.” Owari answered back.

“What did you have in mind?” She was curious.

“Well I have an idea about a place that’s about a five-hour journey by car from the city. It’s a place with a few natural springs. I was hoping to locate an aquifer there that could work as a water extraction point.” Owari explained.

“I didn’t understand much of that but I do understand having transportation to help make it easier.” Noel wasn’t as well versed in these topics as Owari who had been studying since he was little for these things.

“Basically I want to find a place suitable for an industrial well.” Owari did his best to simplify it.

“What would that accomplish?” Noel had an idea but she wanted to confirm.

“If I’m successful a local water production facility can be opened and a new source of fresh water will be injected into the world. After all, most of the water we use comes from such sources.” Owari had some more research to do before he could be sure it was a good location though.

“I see.” Noel wasn’t sure how big a deal that was. Depending on the size of the aquifer it could be a major deal.

The two of them waited for Lance and Rebecca to finish their things while chatting idly. Eventually the two finished and Noel and Owari were able to say their goodbyes and left. The next three days were mostly more of the same as getting there. Noel and Owari chatted and enjoyed one another's company the same as usual. Of course Owari noticed Noel was even closer to him than before. He figured it was because of what happened a few days back with those hunters they killed so he didn’t say anything about it.

When the two got back Owari went off to study some stuff while Noel went to set things up so she would be able to spend time away from work without issue. It wasn’t too hard for her, originally she was sent here to train so it would be a bit weird if she had a lot of responsibilities. She only had a lot of work in the beginning to set up her stay here to make things easier in the future. Overall the two did their work to set things up to make the most out of this little adventure of theirs.