Owari finished testing his new technique and decided to give it a new name since it was technically a new technique. He decided to call it screeching wing for the simple reason that it sounded like screeching metal and could fly as well as being made from the moth wing strike. After naming it Owari felt much better. He then went on to test his next technique idea.

Owari took a deep breath and made a few test strikes of the blade swarm stream. Much to his delight his mana and mud affinity reacted. His mud affinity didn’t react to the movement of his sword, and instead it reacted to his body. He was using a large amount of the muscles in his body when he used this technique so it was no wonder an affinity deeply related to the body and muscular strength would react. Technically his metal affinity did react to the sword strikes, but not enough to actually turn it into a workable technique.

As he was swinging his sword he allowed his mud affinity to enhance him. The mana infused with mud affinity flowed through his body reinforcing and revitalizing his body. As this happened he sped up his attacks while being less considerate for his body. As his body strained under the increasing pressure he was able to find a balancing point between how fast he recovered and how strong his body was compared to how fast he struck. In the end he doubled his speed of attacking. However this wasn’t really a new technique. More like an upgrade to a previous technique so he didn’t name it.

After that he had one more affinity to try out. As he stood in the field he lightly pushed off the ground moving sideways. As he did the mana in his body responded, as did his phantom affinity. He tested some more movements to see what worked and what didn’t. He found that movement in general stimulated the phantom affinity. It was like if you used the mana, every movement would be infused with the phantom affinity.

He decided to test it and made the same move as he began with, a side jump, while stimulating his mana and affinity. As he did his body grew incredibly light, as he moved through the air it was like he was gliding. The air didn’t impede him at all and felt like it was flowing through him even though he could feel it on his skin. He jumped nearly three times as far as before. He probably couldn’t use this while doing his normal dodging, it was too floaty. But when he needed to move fast it was perfect. As a test he charged forward by kicking off the ground while activating his technique. He flew forward much faster than normal and without air slowing him he flew much further than he normally would.

He landed on the ground much closer to the highway than he had been before. It seemed Fang had lost track of him for a moment because he was going too fast. Speed was always one of Owari’s most pronounced features in a fight and now it was even greater. He decided to call this technique the phantom step since he only intended to use it for singular movements and not as a continuous skill. It was still a good trump card to use in case he needed to dodge unexpectedly.

After that all of his testing was done for now in regards to his mystic arts training. In order to do martial arts training he would need a target to test against which wasn’t happening unless he wanted to get into a fight. Even then he would prefer a boulder or something which he is familiar with attacking. In the end he gave up on the idea and made camp before heading home the next day.

He didn’t actually stay in town long. He spent the first two days back studying, and then spent the entire last day with Noel. He planned to be gone for nearly a week this time. Two days to get there, two days doing some surveying, and two days to get back. Plus the chance for complications. Since that was the case he decided to enjoy some downtime with Noel before going out, and of course to tell her he was going out. However something only slightly surprising happened.

“If you don’t mind I’d like to come with you.” Noel asked as the night was winding to an end.

“I don’t mind, but we aren’t taking the car.” Owari chuckled.

“Why not?” Noel was surprised.

“Because if you always use a car to get around you’ll get spoiled. Plus it’s way more fun to camp out, it gets you ready for the real work as your tension rises.” Owari gave out a reasonable explanation.

“Alright, we can go by foot.” Noel relented, she figured he was right. She needed some actual experience traveling by foot.

“Good, be careful how much you pack. I tend to travel light with just my pack. Now that I have Fang he can carry anything too heavy for me but he still has a limit. Luckily he evolved these past few days and has much stronger muscles.” Owari was happy that Fang was finally physically stronger. It had been his biggest weakness before. Now his attacks will have some heft to them even if they can’t break skin.

“Scythe hasn’t evolved yet.” Noel said with some disappointment as she looked at the weasel lazing on the ground nearby. She had named it Scythe because of the blades it used, though Owari didn’t get the connection.

“He looks like a normal housepet when he just lays there like that. I wonder if anyone would even know he was supposed to be a high silver rank beast.” Owari knew weasels were quite vicious creatures, so it was weird seeing it being so docile.

“He’s very lazy, he won’t do anything but sleep and eat unless I order him to.” Noel seemed displeased.

“I bet once you reach gold level he won’t be able to ignore you anymore. He probably sees you as an equal and not a superior.” Owari informed her. Most magical beasts on par with their tamers don’t actually see their tamer as a master and instead only see them as their equal.

“Is that so?” Noel hadn’t been aware that could happen. After all this was her first magical beast. She just thought she was doing something wrong.

“It’s especially common in inexperienced tamers, that’s why everyone recommends the first beast to be below you in rank.” Owari explained.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Noel nodded, she just needed to become stronger than it. That should be easy with how lazy it is.

“I need to update my hunter rank tomorrow.” Owari sighed, he had put it off long enough.

“Good luck with that. It should be easy.” Noel didn’t see it as a big deal.

“I basically just need to go in and tell them who I am. The Orion Tradecenter and Sapphire Agency have sent in reports of my current level so it’s going to be easy. I just don’t want to do it because I don’t care about it.” Owari couldn’t care less what a piece of plastic says about him. But other people did care so he had to care. It was annoying. It was a lot like money, he was told it was valuable and important, yet nobody could tell him why other than that you can buy stuff with it.

“You’re way too wild.” Noel chuckled when Owari explained his thoughts. He was just like some nomad or wild savage who disliked society and tried to separate themselves from it.

“I take that as a compliment.” Owari held his head up proudly.

“Only you would be flattered to be called a savage.” Noel smiled, he really was quite unique. She felt quite proud of herself for choosing him. She felt like she had good intuition back then.

The two chatted a little more before Owari went back home. The next day came quickly and Owari went to the hunter association outpost first thing in the morning. It really was easy to update his rank, however there was one problem. In the spot where there should be two stars denoting him as being mid silver rank, there were three indicating he was a high silver rank.

“Can you explain this?” he asked the girl behind the counter.

“It said high silver, let me check the details.” She was quite professional as she didn’t get angry with him. After some looking she answered. “According to the Sapphire Agency you managed to kill a high silver rank magical beast.” She answered dutifully.

“Oh yeah, that did happen.” Owari only won because of luck so he never considered it his win. In the end he just shrugged. “Thank you for the help.” Then he left, he didn’t want the hassle of sorting it out.

He met up with Noel not too long after that and the two started their two-day hike to his location of choice. Half of one of those days was spent hiking away from the highway through magic beast infested woods. Eventually though they reached their destination. It was a decent-sized valet that dipped down in the ground, it was a U shaped glacial valley. Actually it was very big and went most of the way to the coast. However the closer to the coast you went the less information there was because there were powerful magical beasts hiding in the depths of the forest. In fact even in this area there were some high silver magical beasts making it relatively unexplored. After all not every hunter was a skilled surveyor like Owari, most weren’t actually.

Owari and Noel quietly made their way down into the valley and started to do the investigating. It was slow but meaningful work. Over the course of the day they saw a few mid silver ranks, but they ignored them. That night however while they were camping out and while Owari was on watch duty, they were attacked. It was the first time Owari had been attacked at night, but as soon as the ghost eye moth detected hostility he moved out of the way as a flash of white occurred. A small bullet of white light shot through the ground leaving a hole as wide as a thumb.

Owari rolled over and shook Noel who got up slightly groggily. Before she could understand the situation though Owari had already picked her up and dodged another bullet coming from another direction. Some might think there were multiple enemies, but Owari could sense it was just one fast enemy.

“What’s going on?” Noel couldn’t help but be confused.

“We’re under attack. The enemy is using fast but deadly attacks.” Owari summarized as he dodged again. “I don’t think you can dodge them, the attacks have no substance and are just light. Your detection is useless.” If they could be detected she would have woken up after all. As for Fang, he had retreated underground as soon as the enemy appeared.

“Oh.” Noel’s brain finally caught up a bit. Owari dodged another attack at this time and she realized she had no way of fighting in these conditions. She was literally a hindrance.

“Time for you to go.” Before she could say anything Owari dropped her inside the hole that Fang had made and she slipped down the muddy path and landed at a corner it had made as it moved through the ground. “Stay down there for now, it should be safe.” Owari called down to her. He already had Fang confirm that the depth the light bullets dug was quite small.

Owari dodged another light bullet and pulled out one of his average swords which were on his hip. A moment later another light bullet fired at him, instead of dodging however he swung his sword while enhancing it with a small amount of mana and parried the bullet. Like he thought the attacks were weak but fast. He cut down another one as he did his best to sense the movements of the enemy.

After five more bullets were dodged or blocked Owari suddenly swung his sword and created a wave of screeching metallic wind which went off outwards one of the trees. A howl erupted a moment later, it sounded like a monkey. Owari rushed in that direction and found a pure white monkey gripping its stump of an arm as it howled in pain. Its arm lay on the forest floor.

Owari didn’t give it time to rest, he swung his sword once again. The monkey knew better than to underestimate that attack and it dodged to the side. Its feet flashed white as it did and suddenly it was on another branch. As Owari observed this monkey he was confused. He recognized it as a lightspeed monkey, but they aren’t indigenous to this area. Either there was a pocket of them here somehow which was unlikely, or this monkey once belonged to a tamer, or it does currently.

These thoughts didn’t slow Owari down. As the monkey moved he jumped up into the trees as well. He jumped between them using them as springboards and the tree branches as footholds to reset his balance. The monkey was shocked, he was even more agile in the trees than the monkey was. However the monkey had the advantage of speed, it flashed white and seemed to teleport over a short distance. This was one of the key abilities of this magical beast and why it was considered high silver ranking. It was also where it got its name from.

Owari dodged to the side as a light bullet was shot out of the monkey’s tail. He dodged a few more and even parried one. The monkey was slowly opening the distance when Owari’s legs flashed grey, suddenly his speed spiked as he shot forwards at a speed many times faster than a moment ago. The monkey panicked and fired off multiple bullets at him. However he shifted his position mid-air and dodged them all.

When he reached the monkey he swung his sword using the screeching wing and just as he almost hit the monkey it flashed and teleported. Despite this when it reappeared there was a massive gash in its chest. It hadn’t been fast enough to dodge completely. Owari shot towards it again and reached his hand out and struck it with his palm as he used the beast taming art. The monkey was sent flying back and smacked into a tree and fell to the ground.

When the connection was established Owari felt an overwhelming sensation of hate towards humans coming from the monkey. Owari frowned and used the screeching wing technique to fire off a streak of metallic wind cutting the monkey who was stunned from the bond clean in half. As it was dying Owari felt it trying to establish the connection, hoping to grasp any straw it could to survive. However Owari pulled his brand away and cut the connection. He was disappointed with the monkey, it couldn’t even die with its ideals intact.

Owari dropped down and walked over to the hole in the ground as he put his sword away. “You can come out now.” He called into the hole. A few moments later Noel’s head popped out before her upper body. Owari reached down and helped her up.

“I need a new detection method for light type beasts.” Noel sighed. She would be dead if she had been alone. “Yours is unfair though, being able to detect hostility. Doesn’t that mean you’ll always be able to tell who is friendly and who is an enemy?”

“Yes. It’s why I trust you so much.” Owari chuckled.

“What do I look like from that perspective?” Noel was curious, after all not everyone knows what they think or feel.

“You don’t have a single bit of hostility.” Owari answered without hesitation.

“Good to know.” She replied with a smile. “So what was the enemy?”

“A lightspeed monkey. They normally live up north. This one seemed to hate humanity a lot so I had to kill it. It was probably abandoned by its tamer.” Owari wondered who would abandon such a good magical beast.

“Maybe they got something with a better light affinity.” Noel seemed to read Owari’s thoughts.

“Yeah probably. Or they died and it didn’t know. Still it’s a shame.” Owari would have loved obtaining a new affinity.

“Well you should get some sleep since you put in so much effort while you were tired. Hopefully we don’t get another light affinity ambush.” She patted Owari’s shoulder as she made her way over to a tree and placed her back to it so she wouldn’t get flanked.

Owari did exactly that and got some sleep. The next morning came after a dreamless night and the two got back to work. Owari was starting to think he was destined to never find a spring. He knew that water was quite an important resource so he had gone searching for it, but maybe his methods were wrong. As he was thinking so the two of them came upon something surprising as they reached one of the sides of the valley Owari and Noel heard the sound of gurgling. This much was normal as there was plenty of streams around the valley, but they decided to check it out as usual.

When they arrived they were quite shocked. Inside a large number of alcoves in a rocky part of the hillside they found a number of pools of water. The water started from up high and slowly trickled down across the pools, all of which were connected by natural drainage pipes that flowed between them.

“What do you think? Is it a natural spring?” Noel was curious.

Owari shrugged. “Not just any kind of spring. Get closer to it.”

She was a bit surprised and more than a little curious so she walked closer. As she did she felt the air warm up. “Is this what I think it is?” She sounded excited.

“Probably. Look at the steam, it isn’t even that cold yet.” Owari walked closer and put his hand near the water. “It looks like it’s safe. It smells a little sulfury though.”

“So it really is a hot spring.” Noel walked over with a smile. “Should I slip my hand in to test it?”

“It’s not advisable. Give me a second.” Owari pulled out a small thermos and scooped up a little water carefully. He boiled the water and let all the water turn to steam. At the bottom of the thermos was a small pile of materials. He ran some tests and nodded after he was done. “Seems safe. Let’s look for more, they usually come in groups. I bet the traditional easterners will go crazy for this information.” The eastern part of the continent was filled with hot springs.

“I agree.” Noel nodded. She knew about it as well, they had a number of resorts for hot springs that people from all over the continent would visit. Even if this place was dangerous, selling it to the right people would ensure it gets turned into a resort eventually. After all there was no shortage of experts who would gladly work to get a resort built even if it was just to get free passes to the resort for a while.

“Let’s get to work.” Owari did some looking from up higher. He was looking for signs of steam, but obviously none could be seen. Despite the fact that it was November, this part of the continent got chilly but not cold. At least not until late winter.

The two of them walked along the higher vantage point and found two more smaller pools over the day. They decided to stay a few extra days and by the time the third extra day rolled around they had found a total of six springs. They were a bit spread out but it should be fine. After that they decided to call it quits and head back which took another three days. Overall their trip took nine days.

When they got back the two of them went home before anything else and slept. They had thought about discussing what to do before but they decided to wait until they got proper rest at home before they did any serious talkies. When the next day came they met at Noel’s house and went inside to talk in a secure environment.

“You did most of the work so I feel you deserve the majority of the rights.” Noel started off.

“True, but you did take care of a lot of the pests along the way so you deserve at least some share.” Owari would have been slowed down a lot without Noel and her weasel so it was natural he would offer her to have part ownership.

“How about I take one springs rights and you get the other five?” Noel suggested.

“Before that, your family should have allotted you some funds to purchase things on behalf of the family right?” Owari asked with some thought.

“Yes they did, why?” Noel was curious what he had in mind.

“One of the periphery springs is too small for a resort. How about you buy the land for that one to make a personal spring for your family's use, and then take another spring and we jointly sell them all together.” Owari recommended after some thinking.

“My grandfather does love a good spring, he’s often complained about prices for them though. I’ll have to talk to him before making the decision. I’ll send him a message, it should be a week before I get a response. After I get the response we can reconvene and talk about this again. For now let’s just relax.” She declared so shamelessly before walking over to her room to change before even listening to what he had to say.

Owari shook his head with a smile. She was basically leaving the decision to her grandfather so she wouldn’t have to talk business with him. In the end the talks were delayed a week or so and Owari had nothing to do. He still had enough money to kill the next week in town, but he was basically just going to spend the entire time studying. In the end he did visit Lance and Rebecca again, but mostly he just read his books. It was his studying that helped him locate these valuable resources after all.

Exactly seven days later Noel showed up at his door. “So I take it you got a response?” He asked after opening the door.

“Of course. My grandfather is delighted at the chance to own a personal hot spring. Though unfortunately he wants me to discuss the terms for buying the rest as well from the joint owner. As in you.” Noel smiled apologetically.

“Technically only one of the springs belongs to the Silverblood family. Yours is free to do with what you will. Though I wouldn’t blame you for giving it to your family.” Owari didn’t immediately bring up the business talks.

“It depends on what you choose to do with yours.” Noel gave him the lead on this one since she was asking a lot as they would soon enter negotiations.

“Let’s go then.” Owari sighed as he finally addressed the elephant in the room.

“I brought my car so we can talk there.” Noel said as they walked out of the hotel property.

“Alright.” Owari nodded. The two got into the car and looked at one another and sighed. “Let’s talk business then.”