Owari jumped down from straight above while using a full power moth wing strike, leaving his limited mana reserves untouched for now. He swung his blade down as the bear swung its claws up at the sound of a roar. Owari threw his weight to the side using his swing to aid him causing the bear’s arm to miss. Then he swung his blade and slashed the bear's arm leaving a massive gash and causing it to roar in pain.

The bear wildly swung its other arm which Owari jumped onto and used as a springboard to jump back into the canopy. The bear opened its mouth to charge another ball of wind when Owari suddenly shot down at the ground and towards the bear. Before it could stop it’s charging and respond to his attack, Owari had already reached it. He swung his sword using the moth wing strike to slice open the bear's leg as he snuck through the massive gap between its tree trunk-like legs. Then he jumped and used a tree to jump further up and back into the canopy.

The bear was thoroughly enraged at this point. It had been a long time since it faced an enemy in its territory that could harm it. The bear started to swing it’s arms wildly, managing to cut away all the branches and canopy above it and leaving Owari no room to hide. Then it cut down the trees near it turning the area into a semi clearing. Owari smiled as he saw its cleverness. He almost wanted to tame it if not for the fact that keeping it obedient would be annoying and if not for the value of its hide and the boost to Fang’s progress towards evolution he would get from eating its meat.

Owari jumped down from a tree on the edge of the clearing and considered his options. He thought for a bit and decided a head-on confrontation was inevitable. The bear could enhance itself with wind to increase its speed and had a few long-range attacks. That meant running was viable but difficult. Since he couldn’t fight it in an advantageous terrain he would fight on his terms.

Owari leaned forward and pushed off the ground with the full force of his legs causing him to rush over the ground. In a few bounds he was already in front of the shocked bear. It appeared it had never fought an enemy with such speed. However it was an experienced and cunning combatant. As soon as Owari was close it shook its fur and as it shook numerous small wind blades flew off. Owari was surprised it could use its fur as a catalyst for creating wind blades.

Unfortunately for Owari he was going too fast to stop. Instead he used the moth wing strike to tear apart a hole in the net of blades to dodge. However this slowed him down considerably due to the inertia of the blades. The bear raised its paw and swooped it down towards Owari. In the life or death moment Owari’s brain went into overdrive and came up with a solution. He infused his body with mud affinity mana by twisting to intercept the attack from the bear.

His blade clashed with the bear’s tough paw because he wasn’t enhancing it and had little time to use a technique it only cut a sliver of the way in. It did however also kill some momentum, even if only a little, from the bear’s attack. Then his body flashed dark brown and he was struck by a massive force and sent flying through the air as he felt the entire left half of his body being crushed. However it passed after a second and he was able to tell that while his arm was probably broken, he would mostly only be bruised by this. Luckily he used half his mana with that enhancement.

Owari slammed into the ground and before he could bounce back up and continue skipping across the ground like a stone, he flipped his body and placed his feet and swords firmly in the ground. He dug out three lines in the ground as his momentum finally slowed to a stop. He used his sword as a cane for a moment before pulling it out and reentering a combat stance. That had been a casual strike, there was no mana and he had been hit by the paw and not the claws. This was likely a peak silver level threat, maybe even gold.

Owari wasn’t really qualified to fight this opponent as he is. However if that was the case then he just needed to get better. He smiled as viciously and excitedly as he always did when he met a strong opponent whom he could rise against. The feeling of growth and thrill of combat were some of Owari’s favorite things. There was nothing more enjoyable. Well maybe it’s equal with hanging out with his new friends, but that was a thought for later.

Owari stared the bear down and suddenly used his phantom step to approach it. He was so much faster than before that the bear had no time to react as Owari swung his sword and used the moth wing strike to cut the bear’s leg. The bear turned around and swung its claws sending five wind blades at Owari. However he jumped to the side and dodged them. Then he rushed forward once again.

This time he jumped as he approached and spun mid-air to pick up momentum before transferring all of his momentum into the bear's chest in the form of a moth wing strike. Due to the wave of wind following the sword there was now a massive bloody gash across its chest. Owari then used the bears now bloody chest as a foothold to jump off of and did a flip to reorient himself before landing just in front of the bear.

He put his sword into a sword draw position and swung it up from below while using screeching wing. The silver wind slashed straight up and into the bear's chest while arcing up and hitting it in the face. Over all the blade of silver wind cut it all the way from its hip to its face leaving a shallow but long cut across it. After that he used phantom step to jump back as the bear swung its paw down and smashed the ground where Owari was kicking up debris.

After stepping back Owari stood there for a moment taking deep but steady breaths. He had used a lot of mana and he wasn’t used to it. He changed his breathing method to one that helped him recover stamina fast and was pleasantly surprised to find it marginally increased mana recovery speed too as he breathed in mana and consumed it making it his own. It was a new but welcome discovery.

This wasn’t enough to help with this fight though so he put it to the back of his mind. Instead he focused on the bear in front of him. After recovering a bit the bear was already infuriated and was quickly being drained of energy as it bled out. Thus it swung both arms sending out ten wind blades trying to shred Owari and enclose him. However as Owari already learned, every net has holes. He calmly stepped forward while ducking and tilting his body to make the two wind blades in his path fly by.

The bear grew angrier and more desperate so it shook the fur on its arm releasing dozens of smaller blades at him instead. Just like with the bigger ones though Owari continued to walk forward tilting, ducking, and sidestepping to smoothly dodge all of the attacks. It seemed like his actions would be too slow given that he was walking, but even a step for him could be done in a second at most.

By this point he was pretty close to the bear who was seriously considering fleeing. However Owari gave it no chance. He lifted his sword above his head and breath deeply. He unleashed his most powerful screeching wing so far since the technique was made by using the last of his mana. The silver wind blasted out at high speeds and collided with the bear and arcing and clashing it open from its right shoulder to left hip. It was a deeper wound and this was the final straw. The bear collapsed and slowly bled to death as Owari regained his breathing.

In the end it had only been a top-class high silver rank beast. It was a tough opponent for Owari and it forced him to learn how to integrate his techniques into his fighting style. While it might seem like he hadn’t gained anything in terms of increasing his skill, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Before he was separating his mystic arts from his martial arts and didn’t really use them together as well as he could have. But today he learned about this weakness and fixed it. Next time he would transition between the two more seamlessly.

Owari cut up the bear and fed most of its meat to Fang. As for the hide and bear claws, he kept them since they were worth a lot. After that he checked his wounds and found he was already starting to bruise. His cuts had mostly healed, though he’d have to fix his haori again. As for his bones they all seemed to be okay, maybe bruised or cracked but not broken.

That being the case Owari went back to work. In the end he found another two similar strength enemies to practice his newly consolidated skills against. They were a wolf and a giant queen bee that was about to set up a nest. Both would have been quite the nightmare to deal with if given the chance to grow. Wolves are pack hunters and would gather a force of silver ranked beasts. Meanwhile the bee was a hive mind type and could birth simulacrums like the one in the train tunnel.

After dealing with them Owari didn’t find anything else so he finished his work in peace and went back to get his pay. As he was going back he suddenly felt a flash of hostility come from the woods near the edge of the forest. He rolled to the side on instinct and saw an arrow pierce the ground he had been standing at. It had been totally quiet, no noise at all. Owari faced the forest and had Fang dig into the ground.

Another arrow came after the first but now that he was facing the forest he was able to see it in time to parry it by knocking it aside with his sword. After that three arrows were shot in quick succession. As before Owari knocked one aside with a swing. Then he used the blade to parry another. And for the final one he sidestepped it. Then five arrows came one after another. Owari just jumped to the side dodging all of them. A moment went by before Owari heard a roar that he was familiar with. Wind was being forcefully dragged along.

Owari entered a sword draw stance and swung his sword out while using screeching wing just in time to clash with an arrow flying at him at rapid speeds. It was so fast Owari barely had time to move his blade to directly hit the arrowhead. The silver wind collided with the stream of green wind surrounding the arrow.

The outcome was obvious, Owari could pump as much mana as he wanted into his attack and was able to not only knock it away but send his attack flying at the location his enemy had been at. Before checking to see if it hit he used phantom step to reenter the forest and jump into the trees where he started to bob and weave his way through the trees to reach the enemy who was currently trying to escape. They were fast, but with phantom step and his skill at using the trees to his advantage he was able to reach them.

In front of him was a bulky woman who was looking behind her in a panic. Owari ignored that however and used the screeching wing. She didn’t seem to expect that as it cleanly flew at her and she barely sidestepped in time to only lose her right arm. Before she could scream in pain Owari had arrived in front of her and sliced his sword through her throat cleanly decapitating her. As a bow user she was weak in close combat.

Owari stopped and walked over to the corpse and inspected it. There was a badge on her chest that answered the question of why. On it was the design of a wolf howling at the moon. As for what was on her, she had nothing. That meant there were more people around ready to pick her up. Owari smiled cruelly and jumped into a tree while having Fang bring the cart away.

Soon enough as he expected there was a group of three people who came to get her. Two were definitely mid silver rank as Owari didn’t feel much danger from them and he trusted his instincts. The last was different, he was closer to high silver. Owari wasted no time, as soon as he confirmed the enemy was indeed Howling Wulf, he jumped down and used phantom step to come from behind them. The high silver rank suddenly turned around as if he noticed something, but it was too late. He should have been more decisive and moved first before confirming the threat.

Owari’s blade cleanly cut through the man’s neck. Then he turned to another of the people and used phantom step again allowing him to pass by and cleanly cut off his head as well. He used phantom step one more time to approach the last guy who pulled up his sword as it flashed white as if he was about to release a technique. However Owari used screeching wing to tear through the not fully formed technique before slicing through his sword and then neck and even into the tree behind him.

Owari then checked the corpses and found nothing of note on them save for the keys to a car. He walked out to the road and found the car the keys went to. He opened the trunk of the car and found some suitcases which he proceeded to ransack and found some things of note within. One was some paperwork. After looking through said paperwork his eyes shinned. It was a list of underground contacts that the Howling Wulf Agency worked with. It was only incriminating enough to get some of their higher-ups in trouble, nothing substantial, but it was enough for Owari to use to stir up trouble for them after trying to kill him.

Other than the paperwork there wasn’t much of note. Just some clothing and toiletries. They were clearly travelling to somewhere and this was just a stop-off point. Owari then checked inside the car and found nothing. He then put everything back as neatly as he could and packed up the paperwork and made his way back home. This only took about half a day and by nightfall he was in bed sleeping.

The morning came and Owari went and traded all his materials in for a decent amount of money before going up to meet Tristain. “So you’ve finished?” he asked as soon as Owari came in.

“Seems like it.” Owari brought out the massive pack full of maps and data.

“That's perfect. We have been worried about going deeper into the forest due to the unknown threats. The ore vein actually stretches back a bit so we needed that data a lot.” Tristan explained.

“Good to know.” Owari nodded, he was joint owner after all so these were important to him too. “If I had been told that you could have used it to try and incentivize me to work for cheaper.” Owari noted casually.

“I decided not to because I figured you wouldn’t have cared.” Tristan chuckled.

“I probably wouldn’t but I’d feel obligated to help out my own business.” Owari wasn’t one to ignore the upkeep of something that was his. “If anything goes wrong with the place in the future you can tell me. I also want it to succeed after all.”

“True enough. I’ll keep you informed if anything goes wrong.” Tristan understood what Owari was getting at. He would loan out his abilities to protect the mine if it ran into trouble. It was reassuring to have someone with Owari’s potential to make such a promise.

“I take it my pay will be deposited into my account?” Owari asked for formalities sake.

“Of course.” Tristain nodded. “Is there something else?” He noticed Owari hadn’t left quite yet.

“This next thing is a bit sensitive so it’s best I ask first. I have some incriminating information on an organization. One that I am at odds with. Obviously I can’t just take it to the police since they would know I did it. I’m willing to owe a favor to your tradecenter for you to help me anonymously turn in this information and spread it among various people.” Owari took out the stack of papers and placed them on the table carefully.

“Which organization?” He didn’t promise right away. They had some contacts among various Agencies and Families after all. They wouldn’t burn bridges for Owari.

“Howling Wulf.” Owari answered.

“Phew, I can do it.” Tristan was relieved. The Orion Tradecenter was too reputable to have any serious dealings with Howling Wulf.

“Good to hear. I wonder how they’ll react.” Owari chuckled.

“Probably poorly, it’s good you came to me first. I’ll make sure everyone across the country will hear about this in at most two weeks.” He seemed to dislike the Howling Wulf agency quite a lot.

“That should be all for me, unless you want to cash in that favor right away.” Owari smiled.

“No, we’ll save it for a rainy day.” Tristan laughed lightly seeing Owari try to get out of this deal.

“Fine fine, see you later then.” Owari got up and left.

He spent the rest of the day lazing around thinking about his new technique. He had decided he would visit Noel the next day since he didn’t know if she was home. He ended up falling asleep without realizing it and woke up as usual the next day. He immediately went over to Noel’s place. Luckily she soon made her way out of her house, it seemed she wasn’t out for work.

“So you’re back.” She smiled.

“I am. It was a very fruitful outing too. I got paid, helped my business spread out more, and screwed over the only real enemy I have made since becoming a hunter.” Owari had a smile on his face.

“Enemy? Who?” Noel was surprised. How had he made an enemy already?

“Someone from the Howling Wulf Agency tried to kill me a while back so I killed him. They know I did it but can’t prove it so they’ve resorted to assassination while I’m out of the city.” Owari realized he never explained this.

“How come you never said anything?” Noel was surprised, normally he didn’t hide stuff from her as far as she knew.

“It didn’t seem important enough to mention I guess? It’s not like it came up in conversation. I usually don’t think about it honestly so I forgot until just today.” Owari explained.

“That sounds like you.” She nodded. But she was still mad. “Anyway, I got a response from my family.” She didn’t show it at the moment though.

“What did they say?” Owari was curious.

“My grandfather was quite angry that we went behind his back without even trying to negotiate. However because I explained the circumstances he was able to understand. I mostly just told him that you were technically giving our family the spring they have as a gift. I also explained that it was rather insulting to have offered so little. It was so insulting that even I was offended. I am joint owner after all. He was quite embarrassed about the whole thing and wanted me to apologize for him.” Noel said all of this calmly.

“Well as long as he knows he was in the wrong and is willing to go so far as to apologize, then I obviously accept. If you want you can let him know this won’t affect any dealings I may have with them in the future.” Although Owari was still irritated, it was Noel’s family so he gave them another chance.

“They certainly are lucky that they’re my family.” Noel could guess why Owari was being so soft on them and she was very grateful. Just like that she forgot how just a bit ago she had been mad at him.

“That’s true.” Owari agreed with her. Otherwise he would have also found a way to get this information out there. It certainly would stain their reputation if people knew they tried to screw over an independent hunter.

“You said you planned to be in town for only a week right?” Noel changed the subject.

“That’s the plan.” Owari didn’t mind the change.

“What about appreciation day at the end of the month?” She asked.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. It should be a little under two weeks from now.” Owari thought about it. Appreciation day was a day at the very end of the year where you give gifts to your friends and family. This was mostly because it was about the time people got their taxes back from the government and had some extra money around. It was a commercial holiday more than a cultural one, but it was still a favorite among people for obvious reasons.

“So what do you plan to do? Miss it?” She was quite curious.

“When you say it like that it would make me feel bad to just ignore everyone.” Owari shook his head with a smile. “Maybe I should visit my mother.” he suddenly said catching Noel off guard.

“Why’s that?” She asked curiously.

“It’s been a while since I saw her. Before I came here we would talk every day and suddenly we haven’t spoken outside of letters in months.” Owari wasn’t homesick, but he certainly wouldn’t mind visiting his mother.

“So you won’t be in town?” Noel wondered if he really would go back home.

“I’ll still get stuff for everyone.” Owari knew it would be rude to ignore his new friends and associates. It was standard to gift friends and close business partners with something. Not that he thought so deeply about it.

“Hm… I’d like to go with you.” Noel also surprised Owari.

“Why?” He asked skeptically.

“I’m curious what kind of town you come from. I’m also curious about this mother of yours who you seem to care about a lot.” Noel smiled widely. She didn’t look like she would take no for an answer.

“I don’t mind. Though if you meet my mother be prepared for a number of questions to be asked.” Owari already knew how his mother would react but he didn’t give her too deep of a warning.

“I’m fine with questions.” Noel said naively. Even Morgana wasn’t sure what to do. She was torn between informing her master and allowing her to learn the lesson on her own. In the end she didn’t speak up. It would be rude to ruin Owari’s intentions. Morgana had long since started treating Owari on a similar level as she did Noel.

“I guess we will see. Though I have to warn you the only place to stay in town is an old inn. Nobody visits outside of friends and family so it isn’t exactly a profitable business.” Owari informed her.

“How bad is it?” Noel couldn’t help but ask.

“Board stiff beds and a small room.” Owari chuckled.

“Maybe I’ll just have us take the car and I can sleep in there.” Noel didn’t seem keen on spending her vacation days on a stiff bed.

“I suppose it depends on if we go by train or car.” Owari shrugged.

“The car is mostly for business purposes so it would be a bit much to use it for personal reasons.” Noel was conflicted.

“You can always borrow my bed, we have a couch after all.” Owari shrugged.

“Wouldn’t that be a bit weird?” Noel was surprised.

“Weird how?” Owari wondered what she meant.

“Sleeping in your bed. Wouldn’t your mom get the wrong idea?” Noel suddenly became paranoid.

“Wrong idea about what? You need a place to stay and we have one. My mother would probably recommend the couch if she knew, but this way you get an actual bed.” Owari knew his mother wouldn’t make someone sleep in that inn if she could help it. “I’m mostly worried about Morgana, will you be getting vacation days?”

“I wasn’t planning on it, though it sounds like a perfect time to do so. This way things are more convenient for the young miss and young sir.” Morgana smiled warmly at the two. They reminded her of what it was like to be young.

“Perfect. That settles that.” Owari made the decision on the spot.

“What about what I want?” Noel grumbled.

“So you want to sleep on a stiff bed instead of a comfortable one?” Owari asked curiously.

“I didn’t say that. I shall gladly accept your offer of a place to rest.” Noel turned 180 degrees when she was reminded of the alternative. After that the two soon devolved into aimless but still enjoyable small talk.