The next day a representative from the Sapphire Agency stopped by around noon. He was a well-dressed man in a suit with a fedora on. He held the fedora in his hand as he waited for Owari to answer the door. Owari opened the door and looked at the man. He was pretty average looking but he had a lot of mana and Owari felt he was dangerous. “The agency must be serious about getting me to do this if they sent someone like you.” Owari openly declared.

“I heard you were very direct. Indeed they really want you to do the work.” He nodded. “My name is Marcus, you would be Owari correct?” He introduced himself with a slight bow before putting his hat back on.

“That’s me. Is the reason they want me to do it because they trust my work or because they think I’ll be cheaper? Either way I’ll still be willing to make the deal. I’m just curious.” This was true, he didn’t care if they wanted to hire him because it was cheaper.

“A bit of both. They do trust your skill, but they also hope to hire you for cheaper. In exchange we will openly start sharing your skill among our peers to help you find employment in the future with less hassle.” Like the businessman he was he didn’t give Owari an inch of leverage and took some for himself. Owari just smiled and walked out from his room giving the man a brief glance at the room with stacks of books reaching three-fourths of the way to the ceiling.

“Let’s go then. We have terms to discuss, and my room isn’t nearly presentable enough for someone of your status.” Owari chuckled.

“We already have a place picked out.” He nodded and the two made their way to the same restaurant as Lance’s party was at and got a room. “We like to use this place because it’s run by an old member of the agency and because the rooms are soundproof.” The man explained casually as they approached their room.

“I figured as much.” Owari nodded, he knew both of those things already.

“Have you been here before?” The man was curious.

“Hm? Oh yeah, with some friends for a celebration.” Owari was slightly surprised that Rebecca hadn’t mentioned that he had already been here before to the people who were setting up the deal.

“I see. It’s a good place.” The man chuckled, unbothered by Owari’s casual tone.

As soon as they got inside and ordered Owari got to the point. “How big is the cavern compared to the part I mapped already?” He asked seriously, his previous casualness gone, surprising the man.

“About ten times. We’re willing to offer 3000 credits for the work.” He immediately gave a price.

“I got 1200 to do it before, and this is ten times as big. Plus I won’t have a team. 7000 sounds more appropriate given that you should have maps for most of those regions.” Owari immediately began haggling back.

“We can give you a team, or even a gold rank to ensure your safety. 4500 is a better price.” He fired back.

“I’m not quick to trust strangers so I’d need incentive to go with someone or a group stronger than me, 6000 credits would do.” Owari cut down again.

“6000 eh?” The man thought for a bit. “That should be reasonable. I can tell by your face you’d refuse any less.” He chuckled.

“Sounds good to me. Do you have a contract on you?” Owari was willing to sign right away if all was well.

“I do.” He nodded and pulled out a tube with a rolled-up contract in it. The two of them carefully went over the contract just in case and signed it with their seals. Each of them got a copy and they ate while idly chatting before splitting up as easy as that. Both of them were satisfied with the deal and all was well.

A few days and a few purchases after that it was time for Owari and Noel to go back out to the field. The parts required for the drill were plentiful and Owari had to buy a cart for them to be carried in when they arrived. He ended up having the salamander, who he needed a name, drag it along behind them. Owari was having it steer its evolution towards getting denser muscles. It had been so focused on growing big that it neglected having stronger muscles and thus was light and weak despite its size.

“Did you ever think of a name for the salamander?” Owari asked, Noel had said she couldn’t figure one out before and had swore she would by the time they came back.

“I have a few ideas. How about Muddy?” She seemed quite serious.

“Pass.” Owari hoped her others were better.

“Too bad, I liked that one. How about Fang? He has some sharp teeth after all.” Noel made a point to look at the razor-sharp fangs the salamander had.

“I like it.” Owari nodded. He decided to name it Fang.

“I liked that one too.” Noel was glad he chose that, the other names she had sucked. Not that she would ever admit it.

“Then that’s his name.” Owari pet Fang’s head and confirmed that it liked the name after learning what it meant. Fang quite loved power, so being named after his most powerful weapon sounded fitting.

The group made their way around the various areas. This time they would be out much longer since Owari needed to set up and take down the well driller. Overall it took two days to go the same distance as it took to go in half a day before. In the end it was a bust though. After coming back and taking another two days they didn’t find a proper aquifer. They definitely found a couple, but neither of them were big enough.

In the end they went back taking five days to get very little. Owari gave the money from the materials to Noel since she did all the killing. She wanted to refuse but he said if she didn’t take them he’d withdraw them and throw them in a garbage bin somewhere. So in the end she accepted to pay albeit reluctantly. She did however force him to let her treat him to dinner at the noodle stand.

After that Owari went back home and started to prepare for his mapping trip. He wasn’t sure how long it would take so he brought a number of rations and other supplies. After that he brushed up on his various subjects for the next three days, and soon it was time to make his way to the caverns. The group he was set with was four high silver ranks. Three men and a woman, all-around their early twenties. When they saw Owari half of them scoffed and the other half were impressed. It was a very split opinion on him, not that he cared.

“So you’re the mapper?” One of the favorable people asked. It was a guy with a big hammer on his back. He was quite large and tall.

“That would be the case.” Owari nodded.

“I heard you were pretty strong, but you look like some sickly kid.” This time it was the woman who spoke, she was one of the less favorable people. She was rather pretty with blonde hair and had a longsword on her hip. “I’m not interested in protecting some weakling, just count yourself lucky that the agency is paying us well to do this.” She said arrogantly.

“Okay, how about you don’t talk like a snotty bitch to the guy who will know our way out of the caverns.” The other guy who was favorable to Owari spoke up. He was a handsome guy with a pair of shortswords.

“I agree. Even if you don’t like him there is no need to antagonize him.” This time it was surprisingly the other less favorable guy who spoke up. He was a thin man with a bow.

“Honestly I couldn’t care less how she treats me. After all, my job is to write the maps, not to argue with someone who can’t do their job.” Owari noted to tell the agency about her attitude.

“I can do my job, just do yours brat.” When he heard this Owari just smiled, for some reason it gave the woman a bad premonition but she ignored it.

Soon the group made their way into the vehicle for transport, Owari immediately ignored them and went into a state of half meditation. He was aware enough to react to any of them taking hostile action, but he was also focusing on resting his body so he wouldn’t need sleep. He had reached a point where he could replace sleep with 16 hours of meditation like this. He still meditated the entire three days there. They gave up on talking to him pretty quickly when he refused to speak. This gave them all a bad impression of him.

When they got to the caverns they began work immediately. It was easy work honestly. There weren't any real threats, Owari didn’t even bother warning the group about hostiles. It was their job to protect him while he worked. If they really were high silver they should have their own detection methods. Noel for instance sent out sound waves giving her a map of the area using echolocation. This let her notice movement within a set space near instantly.

In the end they did their job for the first four days of work. They were about three-fourths of the way done by this point when something went wrong. They were in an unexplored part of the caverns when they ran into a group of lizards who were as big as wolves. There were six of them and they were all of the high silver ranking. The area they found them in was a massive stretch of six caverns all near one another and all connected. There was a surprising amount of life here, all of decent levels. If Owari’s group had found this place then Noel wouldn’t have been so dissatisfied.

The group of four all took out their weapons and grouped up back to back leaving Owari completely unprotected. It seemed they had resolved to let him die since they were in a disadvantageous position. He was almost done mapping the place out anyway. They figured they’d get a bonus for leaving him to die since it meant the agency wouldn’t have to pay him. Not for a second did they think he and his salamander could fight off any of these lizards.

Owari looked at all this and smiled. He had the salamander dig underground while he stepped back into the cave leading to another cavern. It was just narrow enough to make it comfortable for one lizard to fight in, but two would make them cramped. Luckily they realized this as only one lizard split off to fight him. Owari chuckled, he needed an enemy to practice against anyway.

The lizard rushed him with a flash of white light, similar to the color of its scales. Owari jumped straight up and flipped mid-air landing with his feet on the ceiling. The lizard showed up where he was a moment ago and slash empty air with a confused look on its face. It usually killed or at least injured its enemies with that opener. However Owari was quite fast and reacted instantly when he saw it get ready to rush him.

As he fell from the ceiling towards the confused and unaware lizard he swung using his full power mothwing strike. But that wasn’t enough for this enemy so he stimulated his mana and metal affinity and swung his sword allowing it to do whatever it wanted. This was his first step to developing his mystic art.

The metal affinity mana didn’t just reinforce his sword much to his surprise. It also flowed out and enhanced the wave of air he was dragging along creating a strange silver glow to envelope his sword and the air around it. As he swung his sword it left behind a trail of metallic silver air. The lizard looked up on instinct just in time for Owari to swing his sword into its face.

As the attack hit it easily sliced through the lizard like a hot knife through butter. After it cut into the lizard the wave of silver energy didn’t stop and shot into the ground and even slashed along following the path of his blade leaving a large gash in the floor. It was not only good in short-range, it was also a ranged attack! This was something Owari had needed quite a lot up to this point.

The lizard wailed in pain as it backed off, a large gash in its face. Its jaw was completely split and hung by one half, and the top half of its head was split as well. Unfortunately Owari missed the brain because it moved, otherwise it would be dead. The lizard opened it’s lulling mouth as best it could. Suddenly light twisted and dimmed around it as it coalesced in its mouth. Just as it went to shoot the ball of light it suddenly collapsed as the ground under it gave way causing it to fire into the ceiling. There was a loud sizzling sound that came from the ceiling as it melted leaving small streams of lava falling down.

Unfortunately for the Lizard, Fang had dug out the ground under it and caused it to collapse. Even more unfortunately for it was the fact that it had fired into the ceiling above itself. Thus a bunch of lava streams started to fall on it as it wailed in pain before dying after the lava melted its brain. Owari gave the area a once over confirming that Fang was safe. After that he looked at the other battlefield.

The four of them were fighting quite valiantly. Owari killed his easily because it had underestimated him and because he had help. That light attack it was using would have probably killed him if it hit him. Owari sat off to the side as he watched the people fight. The dual shortsword guy was suing wind, creating blades of wind and firing them from his two swords rapidly. This forced two of the lizards back as if they got too close a blade would be fired at them.

Other than him each of the others had one enemy. The woman with the long sword was using the metal element to enhance the sharpness of her blade. As the lizard closed in its claw flashed white as it tried to cut her, but she intercepted it with a swing and cut its claws clean off. The next moment she spun around and swung her sword from below with all the speed creating an arc of silver that went from below and straight into the ceiling splitting the lizard in two.

The guy with the hammer was using the water element to Owari’s surprise. He swung his massive hammer causing a blast of water to send the giant lizard flying. After that he slammed his hammer into the ground summoning a wave of water to push it further back. He clearly lacked killing power but he could hold the enemy back.

The last guy had a rapier and he was using the lightning element. He was rapidly stabbing and dodging the lizard’s swipes using the lightning to enhance the speed of his body and sharpness of his sword tip. Lightning was well known for having good piercing power.

Soon though they all learned keeping the lizards at a distance was a bad idea as the three started to coalesce light into a ball. The woman turned and helped take out the one that the rapier guy was dealing with. At this point the enemy was done chagrin up their attacks which they fired off at the group. The short sword guy swung his baldes down together and created a massive blade of wind in front of him that split one light ball in half. The longsword wielding woman spun and used the same attack she used to finish off the other lizard to split the other one in half. Finally the last attack was blocked by the hammer man who swung his hammer and released a ball of water that slammed into the ball of light and diminished it while also knocking it off course.

Then the shortsword wielding guy and longsword woman rushed the tow on their side while the rapier guy rushed the other. They were able to quickly mop up the stragglers. When they were done and taking a breather Owari started to sarcastically clap. “Good show.” He chuckled.

“You’re alive?” The woman was shocked.

“Duh, I’m mid silver rank with a low silver magical beast.” Owari chuckled.

“But you look so…” The hammer man seemed to have also believed Owari was weak.

“Sickly? I got bad genes is all. I may look weak but I’m not actually weak.” He smiled.

“So what now?” The shortsword guy asked vaguely.

“We get back to work?” Owari was confused.

“We just left you to die.” The rapier wielding guy’s eyes sharpened as his hostility grew.

“Reign in that hostility. You were just protecting yourselves. I don’t blame you, it was the right decision. Because you did that I was actually able to be in a safer position so everybody won.” Owari chuckled as he stood up.

“So what? You aren’t going to sell us out to the agency?” The man asked back seriously. His hostility had not gone down.

“Are you gonna kill me?” Owari asked equally as seriously as he grabbed his pack and pulled out the maps and a lighter. “Let’s see who’s faster.”

“Woah, everyone calm down.” The shortsword guy suddenly stepped in.

“I can sense his hostility through my magical beast. He wants to kill me. Tell him to calm down or he’ll get all of you killed.” Owari threw the blame at the other man.

“Calm down.” The shortsword guy said seriously. It seemed to work as his hostility diminished. “So?” He asked Owari.

“He’s calm. Let’s be reasonable people. You did what it took to survive. As did I. What do you think will happen if you leave without me? You’ll end up getting as screwed over as if I told them you left me to die. In fact it would be worse. Think of that before you kill me.” Owari put the maps away. “We should leave. Those don’t seem to be the strongest enemies here.”

Everyone nodded as they realized what Owari said was reasonable. Then they all agreed to leave this place unexplored. They all left and carefully explored the rest of the caverns which took a full day. After that they left the caverns and awkwardly left the place together. Not once had Owari spoken to them again after they left him to die. He would just listen but never respond. It was quite eerie actually, but they were all secretly afraid of him. After all they had no idea how he beat his lizard and he hadn’t seemed at all tired by it. That meant in a one-on-one fight he might be as strong or stronger than any of them.

Overall the whole thing took 11 days. Owari went straight home after dropping off Fang and crashed. He was exhausted after spending so many days with strangers, unsure what would happen. He hadn’t even slept the final day just in case. Overall the entire thing sucked. He wondered if he should cut ties with the agency forever.

In the end he went to sleep not quite sure what to do and woke up early the next morning. He considered what to do before heading straight to Noel’s place. He was completely willing to admit he missed her and wanted to see her, especially after such a stressful week and a half. When he got there he sighed and went inside.

“Hello sir, may I help you?” The man behind the counter was the same as usual so he recognized Owari instantly. However he was surprised as Owari never came in on his own before.

“Is Noel currently here?” Owari asked calmly.

“I believe so.” He nodded.

“Can you let her know I am here to see her?” He asked.

“Very well.” He clicked a button under the counter and typed out something on a typewriter. This was a special contraption that could send letters over short distances. It would print the message off in another room. He waited a moment before receiving a reply. “She said to come on up. Her words.” He smiled professionally as Owari nodded and left with a wave.

Owari quickly arrived by her door where Morgana was waiting. “This is unusual for you.” She noted with some curiosity.

“So is you showing such open interest.” Owari chuckled. “I had a terrible week and a half. I need some positivity in my life so here I am.”

“The young miss will be delighted to hear you enjoy her company so much.” Morgana gave a knowing smile. Clearly she knew more about their relationship than she let on.

“I’m sure she will.” Owari didn’t mind that Morgana knew. As long as there was no problems it didn’t matter to him.

Morgana knocked on the door and Noel opened it a few moments later. She was wearing her sundress. “Hello Owari, it’s quite unusual for you to come visit me directly.” She smiled happily.

“I needed some happiness after the last week and a half so I came over here. I was too impatient to wait.” Owari chuckled.

“I see.” Noel’s smile got noticeably happier, though she also blushed slightly. “So I take it you aren’t just visiting?”

“That depends on how busy you are.” Owari didn’t mind if she was too busy, he was just relieved to see her.

“I’m not particularly busy today, right Morgana?” Noel smiled as she looked at her maid.

“There seems to be nothing important that deserves your attention today.” Morgana replied with a smile.

“Good. So do you want to go for a walk or spend the day inside?” Noel gave him the option to choose.

“I feel lazy but it also feels like a shame to waste such a nice cloudy day inside. How about we spend the morning walking around town and come back after lunch to laze around?” Owari wanted to just relax, and either were good methods. Just different forms of relaxation.

“That sounds fine to me.” Noel grabbed her parasol and the two walked down the stairs and out the door.