Owari and Noel made their way to the Orion Tradecenter and were able to meet with Tristain within half an hour. “Sorry for the wait.” He said as they entered the room.

“It’s no problem. We did come unannounced after all.” Noel replied.

“Let’s get down to business. What are your terms now?” Tristan was sure they would have gotten a chance to renegotiate with some of their other potential buyers. He wasn’t green enough to believe none had offered more than he had.

“Around 25% for me and 17% for her.” Owari gave a higher price than he actually felt was fair to leave room for negotiation.

“Would 21% for you and 15% for her not work?” Tristan considered for a bit before offering this.

“How about 24% for me and 16% for her?” Owari offered.

“Would it be possible to cut your shares to 23%?” Tristan sighed.

“Of course not. This is a fair 60-40 split she and I agreed on.” Owari had already been willing to compromise on this slightly for the sake of ease, but not for him to negotiate himself into a better position.

“Fine, we can do it that way.” Tristan sighed. He himself would get 20% shares for sealing the deal so he wanted to ensure its success.

“Alright. That beats out all the competition so it looks like you get the rights to the land.” Owari pulled out a contract.

Tristan grabbed it and copied some of it onto his own paper while making amendments. Eventually the three were happy. All three signed three copies for each to keep. By this point it was starting to get late and the two of them had missed lunch.

“Let’s visit that one restaurant.” Noel said as they walked the streets. She of course meant their typical lunch spot from their previous dates.

“Alright, I’m curious what it’s like at dinner time.” Owari turned and the two meandered their way towards the restaurant.

Eventually the two entered the restaurant and sat at their usual table. It was far more occupied this time, and surprisingly it was mostly older couples. Obviously the two of them attracted attention but they were used to it so they showed no signs of being uncomfortable. They made their orders and chatted about nothing in particular as they ate. As if they hadn’t just closed a massive trade deal.

They separated soon after finishing their meal and made their way home. Owari slept quite uncomfortably that night. After sleeping with Noel a few times it felt oddly empty to sleep alone. He decided to meditate instead of sleep from now on when he wasn’t sleeping with Noel. Though it completely went over his head that he assumed such a scenario was a forgone conclusion or the implications of such an assumption.

Owari got up early and made his way to the Amber Agency where he hung out outside by leaning against a wall. Soon enough Lance showed up and was surprised to see Owari waiting. “We never set a time to meet.” Owari laughed when he saw Lance’s surprise.

“Oh yeah.” Lance also laughed.

“I was in too much of a rush to think about it. So when are we leaving?” Owari was somewhat embarrassed, but nobody was perfect.

“We can leave at about noon. Until then I have some paperwork to do so I can take the time off.” Lance sighed.

“Every time you sigh you let out a little happiness. You sigh too much.” Owari laughed at Lance’s expense.

“I’m just busy a lot and stressed.” Lance sighed again.

“Get a girlfriend. That’ll help.” Owari suggested with a smirk.

“Not everyone can meet their soulmate by chance so young like some people.” Lance glared at him.

“Soulmate? An interesting wording for it. I won’t deny that we are very compatible. But back to you, if you can’t get a girlfriend then get a hobby.” Owari suggested this a bit more seriously.

“Like what?” Lance was too busy to pick up a hobby, even when he was younger he spent a lot of time training so he wasn’t really sure what to spend his free time on except for resting and training.

“Write a book, pick up an instrument, learn to paint, there’s any number of things to enjoy.” Owari felt a bit sorry for Lance who was always stressed.

“Maybe I should pick up an instrument. I do like music.” Lance made his decision before he even spoke.

“Good for you. Music is a good way to express yourself.” Owari patted Lance’s shoulder. “I’ll go kill some time until noon. Don’t work yourself to death.” Owari turned and left with a wave.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll do my best.” Lance grumbled.

The day passed uneventfully for Owari, he did visit Rebecca shortly. He made plans to hang out with her once he got back, and talked to Erica for a bit to give her tips. It had been a while since they talked. They were quite understanding of the fact that Owari wanted to spend some time with a guy after staying with Noel for over a month by this point. Eventually after finishing that up and going home to read some random novels to kill time he went to meet up with Lance.

Sitting out in front of the agency was what Owari assumed was the company care Lance had been loaned. It was actually a truck, and on the back was a tank with his cloudfish in it. He was probably given a truck for things like this where he needed to transport magical beasts.

“Nice truck.” Owari said as he walked over to Lance. It was a red truck that was pretty big. It looked like a pretty new model as well. Not that Owari knew much about cars. He noted that he should look into it for when he started driving.

“Thanks. Let’s head out. It’ll take a day and a half to drive there by myself and it’s another half a day's hike from the highway.” Lance got into the driver's side and Owari got into the other side.

“So we’re camping out tonight? If that’s the case I can take the night shift. I can meditate through the night to alleviate the need for sleep. My moth’s sensory abilities should do well enough for detecting any approaching enemies.” Owari’s moth had evolved quite a bit by this point, not only could it sense things from further away, nearly 20 meters, but just recently it finished an evolution that allows him to more accurately judge how much hostility someone has for him.

“Sure I’ll leave it to you. So you aren’t bringing your salamander? I could always pick it up if you have a trailer.” Lance asked curiously, Owari hadn’t mentioned picking it up.

“This would probably be a good one for him since he will have a chance to swim. Sure why not. I don’t plan on having him fight too much since I plan to tame a beast. His name is Fang by the way.” Owari hadn’t intended to bring Fang at first but the salamander could use a chance to stretch his legs.

“Cool name.” Lance nodded, he had named his tamed beasts as well.

“What’s your cloudfish’s name?” Owari realized he had never asked about it before

“Tempest. My thunderbird is Valkyrie.” Lance was quite proud of those names.

“I like them. Noel named Fang, but I named my treant. Its name is Mirra.” Owari thought Lance’s names were pretty cool.

“Is it because it’s shiny?” Lance hadn’t seen Mirra, but if its apples had any indication it was probably metallic.

“It’s very silver. You can even somewhat see reflections off of it.” Owari hadn’t seen Mirra as much as of late. But he had always been sending it all kinds of new sights and teaching it new things over their link. The treant was very content to laze around for now.

“That’s pretty neat.” Lance nodded. “By the way, guess what I read earlier.”

“What is it?” Owari wasn’t going to be able to guess with so little information.

“The newspaper, there was something interesting in it. A new invention is being revealed. It’s been in the works for a while but only recently was it brought to a workable level.” Lance seemed pretty excited about this.

“What kind of invention.” Owari was curious. It was rare for innovation to occur recently as technology had stagnated.

“It’s a device that allows music to be stored and played back later.” Lance had always liked music, however it was hard to listen to music at home without using wind up music boxes.

“What makes it different from a music box?” Owari was confused.

“The device itself can be used to play multiple types of music. It’s quite interesting actually. You know how the bank cards store our account information as numbers and letters and the machine’s read it to confirm?” Lance suddenly went off-topic, though Owari had a guess where he was going with it.

“Yeah, so do they store music on the cards?” Owari thought that would be quite impressive.

“Sort of. Instead of cards they are shaped like disks and rotate inside a special machine that reads the letters and numbers inside the disk and plays music based on that. Apparently when they first started it was all distorted and the quality was terrible. But now it’s at a similar level as a music box. The best part is that you can not only keep the disk looping to listen to the same song over without winding it up, but you can take the disk out and put an entirely different one in.” Lance seemed quite passionate about all this.

“Sounds like quite the invention. Who knows what else could come from this.” Owari was more of a forward thinker. As soon as he heard this he planned on investing in it right away. If it could store sounds, then what’s to say it can’t be used to send personal messages instead of using mail? There were also probably other ways it could be used, but he wasn’t an inventor so he would leave that to the innovators.

“Right? I thought it was quite very impressive myself.” Lance on the other hand did what most people would do and took the invention at face value.

The two continued to chat as they made their way to the lake. After spending the night outside and driving for another half a day they made it to the last stretch of highway they could use. Now they needed to hike for the next half a day. The cloud fish was tossed into a river nearby that flowed out from the lake. Swimming upriver for a high silver ranked fish was a joke.

The two eventually reached the lake which was surprisingly blue. “This is a very blue lake.” Owari stated the obvious as soon as he saw it.

“The water here is very mana rich and the sky is cloudless. What did you expect?” Lance chuckled. “Where should we hunt first?”

“Where do you think is a good place? You’ve been here before.” Owari threw responsibility to him.

“I’ve only been over there by the cloudfish’s territory. This lake is huge you know?” He was right, the lake was the size of an entire district of the city. It was mostly the territory of the Sapphire Agency, but they allowed hunters with close ties to them hunt here too, like Owari and Lance for instance. After all it wasn’t like they could hunt the entire lake to extinction even if they tried.

“What spots do you know of?” Owari hadn’t researched the lake since there wasn’t a lot of information on it publicly available.

“How about we start over here where the magical beasts are weak? It’s hard to fight underwater so I want to practice.” Lance approached the water’s edge and grabbed hold of his spear tightly. “One thing to keep in mind is to never let go of your weapon or it’ll sink.” Lance warned.

“I’ll be dead before I let go of my sword.” Owari seemed utterly serious.

“Good attitude. Let’s go then, be carefully of bleeding or you’ll attract everything in this region of the lake.” Lance waded into the lake before diving in.

“That’s definitely gonna happen now.” Owari smiled as he recalled Noel telling him not to jinx them on the train ride. He didn’t wade out and instead directly used the phantom step to fly across the water and dive near where Lance entered.

Soon the two were decently far out. “You need to remember to not overstep your boundaries. Don’t go too deep or fight for too long. You’ll need to come back up for air.” Lance warned before diving.

Owari nodded seriously. His strongest weapon which was his breathing techniques were useless underwater. He dived along with Lance after filling his lungs with air. Luckily he had a massive lung capacity and his body was able to efficiently use his air giving him a longer time frame underwater. As for Lance, he could use his water affinity to reach the surface fast if necessary.

Owari and lance found themselves in a clear blue lake, surrounded by fish. Some were magical beasts, but they sensed the danger that Owari and Lance gave off. Soon they were joined by a third guest as Fang finally got the go-ahead from Owari. Since Fang had reached the high silver rank and had a lot of battle skills Owari planned to leave him here to play with the cloudfish while he and Lance hunted.

As they floated there Owari lifted his sword in front of him and suddenly felt a force push him back. Of course the force was dissipated easily after slicing through it. But it did separate him from Lance. After that he heard the sound of rapid currents around him. Looking around he was able to make out a small fish with silver scales. It was about the size of his fist and it was rapidly swimming around him trying to confuse him.

Owari took up a stance underwater and swung his sword using the moth wing strike at full power. He didn’t attack the fish directly and instead just twisted his body to kick up a current. One moment the waters were relatively calm and then suddenly a vortex appeared as Owari swung his sword. The fish was sent flying underwater before being sucked back in. Owari grabbed the fish from the whirlpool and inspected it closely. It was a mid silver ranked magical beast with the metal and water elements. He tossed it and it swam away from him in terror.

Owari and Lance surfaced shortly after that. “You almost hit me.” Lance laughed carefreely.

“You’ll probably hit me when you start firing off electricity.” Owari fired back.

“I plan on using my water techniques to practice. You’re quite suited for underwater combat.” Lance nodded, he figured as much. Owari was an adaptable person who changed according to the situation.

“Let’s go back under for a bit.” Owari dived as soon as he finished talking. He still had plenty of breath left even when he came up before so he mostly surfaced to talk with Lance.

The two found themselves floating once again. This time the enemy targeted Lance. Owari floated off to the side away from the ensuing battle. The enemy was a flying fish looking magical beast. It zipped through the water and seemed to have the wind affinity. Lance held his spear straight out and then it suddenly shot forward creating a ripple in the water.However the sound of rushing water followed it and a concentrated blast of water shot through the fish knocking it far away. Lance had purposefully kept his attack from killing it.

That fish was also mid silver. Now that they were used to the feeling of being underwater the two made their way to a different region with stronger magical beasts. “This is the territory of the serpents.” Lance noted, it was one of the few he knew about.

“Serpents huh? I could get on board with a snake magical beast.” Owari didn’t dislike snakes.

“I’m not a fan. But I can’t always fight on my own terms all the time.” Lance chuckled before jumping in.

Owari followed after him and the two found themselves floating around the water. Owari dropped down lower in the water and looked at the bottom. There were numerous snakes all slithering across the mud and sand, as well as some swinging around above them. It would look like a city filled with traffic if not for the numerous disputes occurring where the loser was torn apart and eaten.

As he looked at them, the snakes looked back. Eventually one grew brave enough and shot towards him. Owari knew he couldn’t use his most powerful technique without burning through his oxygen reserves like he had with his previous moth wing strike. So he just needed new techniques. He entered a sword draw stance and recalled the time he had practiced how to reduce the resistance his blade felt. Back then he couldn’t use it at the maximum potential because he didn’t have the muscle strength or focus to do so.

Now was different though. After so many battles where his life was on the line his focus was like the edge of a razor. As for his muscle strength, because of the use of his moth wing strike he was able to train the muscles needed for that technique all this time. As the serpent flew towards him Owari showed no fear and merely slashed out with his sword. As silently as an owl swooping on its prey the sword not only bisected the snake, but it displaced none of the water. It was so smooth that even underwater the swing was as fast as any strike Owari used above water.

After successfully using the technique and getting a feel for it Owari felt it had potential even if it was still a bit draining. The best part was that it relied less on his breathing methods than his other techniques. He decided to name the technique ‘steel fang’ mostly because he liked the name. But it also was a nod to Fang who had razor-sharp fangs that were able to cut through a surprising range of materials.

The serpent who was of the high silver rank died before it even reached him to sink its poisonous fangs into him. Soon the serpents below were whipped into a frenzy as they smelt blood. Owari backed off and watched a ball of serpents tearing into one another over a single small meal. It was rather intriguing. However eventually they all calmed down and went back to normal.

Owari and Lance continued to hunt and look for magical beasts with the potential to tame. Owari found a few that looked good, but they would either get eaten shortly after or he would lose sight of them. It was hard to pick out singular serpents in that pile of them. Eventually the two came back up onto the shore and relaxed by a fire as night fell. They needed to dry off and warm up after a day in the cold water.

“What do you think? Find anything?” Lance saw Owari brooding and decided to mess with him.

“They all kept dying or disappearing. How does anyone catch snakes here?” Owari was annoyed. He had seen one rare snake that had a dual water and fire affinity be torn apart and eaten like common bait.

“It’s too bad. Even I saw a few of interest. There was one wind affinity one that would have been good for enhancing my movement technique.” Lance sighed in disappointment.

The two went to took turns looking out and soon the next day came. The morning was spent the same as the day before trying to catch some snakes and failing. They ended up giving up and going over to another location that had more semi aquatics like amphibians. It was as they were traveling that Owari suddenly stopped and looked behind them. There was a river where he was looking and he seemed to be focusing.

“Something there?” Lance asked, his sensory technique relied on electrical pulse location which didn’t work well changing between water in air. If he was submerged in water it worked fine. It was once it changed mediums that it distorted.

“Yeah, seems to be some kind of magical beast. It wants to attack us but is hesitant. Let’s pretend not to notice and bait it out.” Owari shrugged and turned around as if it was all his imagination. Lance did the same.

As they walked nearly an hour passed by before the other party seemed to get impatient. Suddenly Owari ducked down and saw a water bullet shoot above his head. Then he rolled forward and reoriented himself to turn around before pulling out his sword. Slithering across the ground was a snake that looked like two had been fused together. They had two heads and two tails but their centers were connected. They were also as big as a dog, and they had fangs more like a lizard than a snake.

“I call this one!” Owari said as soon as he saw it.

“It’s all yours.” Lance was a little creeped out by it so he hopped back and let it focus its attention on Owari.

Owari starred the serpent down and suddenly used the phantom step to rapidly approach. As he did one head opened its mouth and shot out a bullet of water which Owari tilted his body to dodge. The other head breathed out some kind of black smoky substance which it blasted out creating a cloud. Owari was unable to see, but he could sense it’s location. He kicked to his right striking one of its heads and sending it rolling across the ground.

Owari exited the cloud only a moment later and pierced his sword towards the snake and speared straight through the smoky breath serpents neck and into the central part that connects the two. Then he reached out and clamped the other’s mouth shut with his powerful grip. After that he started to brand it with his mark, however it immediately snapped it off. It was too proud to be his pet.

The water bullet shooting head suddenly shot a few bullets into its own mouth breaking its teeth and tearing its mouth open to start hitting Owari’s hand. However Owari pulled away after he noticed what it was doing. After getting his hand off it, the water bullet head headbutted his sword and chopped the smoky head half off while slithering back to remove the sword from its body.

At a pace visible to the naked eye the wound on its back sealed up and its smoky head was slowly reorienting itself and healing. It was like a troll with the level of regeneration. Before it could fully heal however Owari rushed forward and used his new technique steel fang to slice open the neck of the water bullet head and then used his off hand to punch it causing it to almost tear off but not quite. Then he placed his hand on the now incapacitated serpent's body and branded it again.

This time he showed it images of his fight with Mirra and how easily he chopped through those thick roots. The snake shivered before accepting his brand. Almost all things strove to live and survive. Pride was nothing in the face of death, even for a powerful beast such as this. After taming it successfully Owari breathed a sigh of relief.

“So why did you want this ugly thing?” Lance asked curiously, he knew Owari wasn’t usually one to get excited.

“It’s a degenerate hydra.” Owari chuckled.

“Hydra? But it’s so small. Besides why bother with a degenerate version?” Lance was confused.

“Hydras evolve differently from normal magical beasts. As they evolve they grow more heads and tails and gain new affinities for each head all the way up to nine heads and nine affinities. Once they reach that point they would be considered a beast on par with adult dragons or fully grown thunderbirds.” Owari explained as he watched the snake regenerate. “Besides once it reaches six heads it becomes impossible to kill it unless you remove every head within a one-minute time frame. As for which affinities it will get, it’s hardwired into its genes. It depends on its ancestry. So far this one has water and darkness.”

“That sounds unfair.” Lance was shocked such a thing was wandering around a random lake.

“Most of the currently known hydras are born from degenerates like this who grow powerful by consuming everything within their territory. If this lake hadn’t been discovered within the next hundred years there is a good chance this guy would have become another massive threat to humanity.” Owari didn’t mention that the chance was massively low. “Besides a lot of the serpents here probably have hydra blood in them. This one just had a stronger strain. Based on the signs on its body it was born as a single-headed snake.” Owari was just glad that even with two heads it still only had one consciousness.

“You’ve got an impressive catch now then.” lance laughed, he didn’t feel envious at all. After all he had a powerful beast of his own. The two felt much better after this catch and soon went back to work hunting.