Noel and Owari decided to go out the next day. They spent four days riding in a car to arrive at their destination, it was a mountain range filled with dormant volcanoes, snowy peaks, forested hills, and a few swamps. It was a partially artificial range of mountains that became how it was because of the presence of dragons. This was the dragon mountain range. It was here that the territory got its name from.

Noel and Owari made their way around the mountain range, planning to spend about four days here. When they got back they’d head straight home since they didn’t want to cut it too close. During their time in the mountains, for the first two days they found only low and mid gold beasts. What was weird were the numbers. With as many of them as there were it made no sense that there were no high gold ranks.

“One would have surely evolved by now in this environment.” Noel couldn’t help but feel it was odd.

“Agreed. We should be careful.” Owari nodded.

The two proceeded carefully until the next day when they came upon an interesting scene. In a relatively big flat area of the mountainside there were two magical beasts squaring up against one another. By Owari’s estimation they were both platinum ranks. One was a mountain goat looking beast, and the other was a grey scaled drake. The two were circling one another, the goat had it’s head lowered ready to charge, while the drake was extending its wings and walking on its back legs trying to make itself look bigger.

“I think we have found the reason for the lack of high golds.” Noel said quietly.

“Seems like it. They have probably been waiting for the beasts in the area to evolve and then consume them after they reach that level. Which one do you want to take on?” Owari seemed interested in these two.

“Is that really a good idea?” She couldn’t help but hesitate. However seeing as Owari wasn’t answering she took a deep breath. “Of course it’s alright. No need for hesitation right? This is how we grow.”

“So which one?” Owari smiled when she showed her heroic spirit. It wasn’t easy to fight above your means. Especially since Owari would be fighting his own enemy and wouldn’t be able to help her without risking himself.

“I’ll take the goat. You’re better at aerial fights.” Noel stood up and prepared to walk out.

“Alright, I’ll take the drake.” Owari also stood up and the two stopped hiding their auras as they walked out openly.

When the two appeared the two beasts showed some apprehension. Nobody wanted to make any sudden moves, after all nobody knew where each of the other’s allegiances lie. Especially the beasts who noticed Noel and Owari came out together. Although Noel was weaker than them based on the feeling she gave off, but if one of the other beasts teamed up with them even temporarily it would spell doom for the other.

Luckily for the two beasts the two moved to attack each of them. The goat was especially happy as it saw Noel approach. Owari used dark speed step, meanwhile Noel used her own movement technique which allowed her to reach her max speed instantly, she moved as fast as the wind as she approached. Not nearly as fast as Owari, but then again speed was always Owari’s thing. Noel was more of a brawler than anything.

As he approached Owari considered what he knew about grey dragonoids. Some people might incorrectly assume they were degenerate dragons because of their dull scale color and lack of a breath attack. However Owari knew better. Grey dragonoids have the force affinity and the strongest physical bodies of all dragonoids. This allows them to fight on equal terms with any other dragonoids even without a breath attack.

Owari approached the drake's face and used his earth breaker to smash the side of its head. However despite the raw force behind this attack it only caused the drake to take a few steps back. It seemed to grin at Owari before spinning and trying to use its tail to swat him out of the air. Owari obviously didn’t allow this and used wind step to jump above the attack. The tail kicked up a massive wind and even caused Owari to be swept to the side a bit despite having cleared the tail by a decent margin.

Owari used the force of the wind to spin and kick off the air towards the rake. Since raw strength wouldn’t work he could only rely on skill. He swung his sword using dark steel fang managing to slice into its back, however it was far from satisfying. Grey dragonoids have the toughest scales of all dragonoids. As he cut into it the drake counterattacked by swinging its wing and striking Owari with the wide fan-like appendage and sending him flying of the cliff face and towards the air.

Once Owari was in the air the drake flapped its wings with such force that it created a massive airwave to blast behind it. Meanwhile it kicked the ground so hard that the stone under its feet cracked and broke. Obviously this gave it immense speed, reaching Owari in only an instant. It opened its maw and attempted to bit down on Owari. Owari smiled and used dark steel bite to create numerous razor-sharp black lines in the air which dug into the drake’s weaker mouth.

The drake sensed the danger and tried to stop kicking up a wind which sent Owari flying. Meanwhile the drake still ran into the black lines and had its face cut up a bit. It growled at Owari who spun mid-air to reorient himself and used wind walk to slow down to a stop. The two used their movement technique to approach one another. Owari was much much fast, by the time the drake had finished initiating its technique Owari had already arrived.

He appeared in front of the drake’s chest and swung his sword in a 180-degree arc and caused the wind to kick up as he used vortex shield. The wind kicked up by the drake’s movement technique was sucked in and empowered it. The drake ran straight into the swirling vortex and felt as if it has run into a storm of blades. Its chest had numerous cuts and it was forced to a stop only a few meters after having launched itself. Owari was sent flying back from the force of his enemies charge, but other than some soreness he was fine. He had used his earth affinity to reinforce his body.

After coming to a stop Owari charged up some metal energy on his sword and swung it using silver wave launching a wave of silver energy at the drake. The drake did its best to dodge but its flank was still sliced open pretty deeply. The drake was enraged and charged Owari again. As it approached it activated some kind of ability and the air around it warped. It created a space twice as large as its body and charged Owari. Owari flashed out of the way, however the drake rapidly accelerated and hit Owari with the edge of the sphere causing him to ricochet off of it and get sent flying high into the sky.

Owari had barely reinforced his body with earth mana before being hit. He flew way up into the air with his body throbbing in pain. He probably cracked a few bones. Getting hit by a sphere of raw force tends to do that to the body. He quickly reoriented himself and slowed his ascent. After that he kicked off the air and rushed straight down at the drake. It spun in mid-air as Owari swung his sword using earth breaker. His swing collided with the drakes tail and he was sent flying back. The drake was thrown off balance as its tail suddenly stopped from the force of Owari’s blow.

The drake turned and swung its wing sending out a ball of force at Owari who flashed to the side to dodge. However the drake continued to fire off these balls. Owari didn’t continue to dodge as that would take too much mana. Instead he used jet stream to slice through each of the balls of force as he approached the drake. As he approached the wind blade surrounding his sword grew more and more getting sharper and sharper.

While this happened Owari fell into a trance attempting to blend this technique into his natural instinct and evolve it into a spirit art. When he was almost at the drake he felt the snap and his eyes shined as he regained full control of his body. He didn’t immediately use the new spirit art and instead prepared to swing his massive wind blade at the drake. However it dodged the first swing.

Despite the first miss Owari instantly changed directly and swung his sword horizontally to the side. The drake ducked under the attack, as it did Owari spun mid-air and swung diagonally. The drake used its force affinity through its wing to suddenly dodge. Owari continued to spin mid-air to try and slash the drake, but everytime it would dodge. That was until it was overwhelmed by the massive blade of wind surrounding Owari’s sword.

The wind blade was so powerful by this point that it had started to cut into Owari’s hand and the amount of strength he had to use to swing it had reached his limit. The drake spun around and the wind blade collided with the drake’s tail which was covered in warped air.

The collision of the two attacks whipped a massive wind as the wind from Owari’s attack scattered and the drake’s warped air shattered. They merged together to create bullets of wind which shot out in all directions. Luckily both combatants were able to dodge the bullets leaving them back to square one. Both sides had stopped completely from the force of the collision. Owari used force redirection to cancel the rebound, meanwhile the force affinity of the drake canceled its own rebound.

The two then moved away from one another and carefully watched the other. They had found they were about equal in ability and were currently in a deadlock. Neither of them wanted to make the first move, however Owari was in the worse position, after all he was burning mana as he stood in the air. Luckily it was a very mana efficient technique. Because he was the one with the least favorable position he inevitably moved first.

He flashed towards the drake and when he appeared in front of it his body was suddenly shrouded in winds which started to slice into the drake. The drake responded by backing off and kicking at Owari. Owari Reinforced his body with earth mana and was sent flying back as the raging winds absorbed most of the impact.

Suddenly as he was flying back Owari felt another snap in his mind much to his surprise. It seemed mid-battle he had acclimated to his phantom affinity and it evolved into a spirit art. As he awakened his ability he activated it immediately. It was a flat upgrade to how he currently was. As he activated the spirit art transparent grey energy seeped out of his body and surrounded him, enveloping his body along with his sword and clothing.

This spirit art envelops his body in phantom mana which enhances his body and every attack he makes. It takes a portion of mana and is entirely self-contained. As long as he doesn’t use the mana to enhance his attacks he gets a flat boost to all of his physical attributes. This only increased Owari’s interest in this affinity. Even without being used up the mana can enhance him. Not to mention it can remain cohesive even after leaving the body.

After getting this boost Owari flashed forward using some of his phantom affinity to enhance the technique out of curiosity. He was even faster than before which was insane considering he was already almost as fast as light. As he appeared Owari used dark steel fang with phantom mana slashing almost twice as deep as before and causing blood to spew from the drakes chest.

The drake reacted instantly by backing off and snapping its tail like a whip towards Owari. Owari dodged to the side. Then he rushed towards the drake. The drake swung its wing at Owari who ducked under it. The drake kicked with its clawed foot which Owari intercepted with an earth breaker. The two attacks rebounded off one another but the rebound was canceled out by each of them.

The two flew away from one another and once again attacked each other. They again collided their attacks to no avail. This continued over and over as each of them tried to get the upper hand. Sometimes Owari would alternate attacks, using dark steel bite to try and hit it from afar, only to have the drake protect itself with an orb of force. The razor-sharp dark blade split into the orb but didn’t cut all the way through. Other than that the drake might fire off force bullets only to have Owari dodge.

Eventually the two started to run out of mana and relied on brute force. Owari would use his steel fang to leave small cuts on the drake just deep enough to cause bleeding, while the drake kept trying to smash Owari with its tail or knock him with its wing. Owari started to run out of mana to keep upwind walk so he fell down onto the large clearing from before. Owari noted that Noel was done with her fight and was sitting on the corpse of the goat casually. He didn’t have time to check more on this and refocused.

The drake landed shortly after, its wings had grown tired so it decided to fight on Owari’s turf hoping that it would be able to rely on its powerful body. The drake swung its tail and Owari rolled to the side as it smashed the ground into debris. Then it spun and bit forward towards him. Owari jumped up as the drakes' jaws snapped shut under him. He spun mid-air and swung his sword using steel fang cutting out two of its teeth.

The drake roared and kicked at him. Owari deftly spun in the air and dodged. Then he landed and jumped back as another foot slammed into his previous spot. The two stopped and looked at one another. Owari was starting to feel his lungs burning from overusing his breathing techniques too much. He had been swapping between them aggressively. Meanwhile the drake was not only limping, but its tail was drooping. It had been swinging its tail a lot and had collided with a lot of Owari’s attacks.

The two still had plenty of fight left in them though as Owari jumped up and dodged a fast swipe of the drake’s tail. Then he slashed the drake’s head and kicked back off of it to fly into the air. The drake swung its wing and fired a small ball of force. Owari dodged mid-air and landed on the ground. Then he backed off as the drake chased him and bit down on him three times. Then Owari ducked and rushed forward slicing the drakes chest three times and rolling behind it to slice its tail. Then Owari stuck out his hand and placed it against the drakes tail using the beast taming brand.

The drake shuddered and tried to swat Owari with its tail. He dodged to the side and placed another brand on it. The brand snapped again and the drake stomped at him. Owari then jumped forward and placed the brand on the back of its leg. After going back and forth for a period of time as Owari was running low on reserves and was about to burn his vital mana the drake finally stopped breaking the link immediately.

The two restarted their staredown as the two communicated. Owari used his memory sharing to show it all of his fights and how fast he grew in a short period. Dragonoids were well known to love growing stronger more than any other magical beast. By doing this he was enticing it to join him. He even showed it his other beasts and how fast they grew. The drake seemed to be quite torn about it, eventually though it submitted. It had noticed Noel off to the side and if she and Owari teamed up it was unlikely the drake would win.

“So did you finish up?” Noel asked as she got down from the goat.

“Sure did. How’d things go for you?” Owari asked curiously.

“I got a few spirit arts. Now I can smash somethings innards from range which is cool. I blew up the goat’s heart when it let its guard down. It was quite easy.” Noel boasted.

“It probably underestimated you. Now all you have to do is practice. Now that you know the trick you just need to work with all of your techniques to evolve them.” Owari was quite proud of her. She wasn’t even injured.

“Of course. I’ll practice once we get home. But I was thinking, what are you gonna do with him? I bet your storage bill is racking up.” Noel noted.

“That’s true, but I make enough off my silk business to alleviate the costs and still profit.” Owari replied.

“Must be nice to be rich.” Noel chuckled.

“Sure is, makes things much easier. But I was also thinking, it probably wouldn’t do to keep them cramped up like that. I was thinking of purchasing some land and clearing it out for them.” Owari had been considering this problem for a while.

“Where would you buy from?” Noel was curious.

“How about near the forest where that mining village is? There’s plenty of free space.” Owari had figured this would be a good spot. It might not be as good for the drake, but the others would love it. He could even make an artificial river and pond for Fang.

“That would probably work out.” Noel nodded.

“I was also thinking of having a house built there instead of buying one in the city.” Owari had also been considering this as well.

“Why’s that?” Noel didn’t show a reaction one way or the other.

“It would be just as expensive as any house that meets our requirements in the city would be. Well actually it would be much more expensive but it would be more customized to our needs. Plus I don’t really like the city so much and it’s not like it’s very far from there.” Owari gave his reason though it was a bit flimsy.

“And the other reason?” Noel asked with a smirk.

“The ground around there is filled with earth, water, and light affinity. It’s perfect for raising herbs and plant type magical beasts. Plus it’s better for Mirra. On top of that there is a perfect lumber provider nearby which cuts down on expenses.” Owari gave his more solid reasoning.

“I don’t mind. With our strength it would keep anything with half a brain away. Plus it’s much more private.” Noel felt it was a good idea. Though it really would be expensive.

“This is going to take a lot of effort to get done. I wonder if we’ll be able to get enough money.” Owari was quite curious. He could always get a few loans. The bank does give out loans, but there were a few others as well such as the Orion Tradecenter.

“We’ll figure it out.” Noel chuckled and the two started making their way back to leave. Owari was injured and tired so it was best to call it here.

When they got back they made the four-day trip back to the city. They didn’t stay in the city for long and made their way to the train station the next day to leave the city and go home. It was quite expensive to temporarily house a drake. So Owari wanted to go home and purchase a real lot for him for now. When Owari and Noel got back they split up to deal with some things. Owari went to the bank and collected his annual salary from the Orion Tradecenter and the music disk company. He also picked up his monthly income from the silk production business. As the spiders grew the silk only got tougher and the amount they could produce higher.

Overall he collected close to 200,000 credits. It was a lot more than he expected, but thinking about it this made sense. Split up then he would make only half again as much as he does from his silk production business. Considering how big all of the operations he was involved in this was actually not much. When you thought about it this came from his metal mine, gem mine, marble mine, and the music disk company. That meant he made only a fourth of a twelfth of that number per month from each business. That was only about 4000 per job per month.

Owari just laughed when he saw the number. What else was he supposed to do? Not even a year and a half ago he was some random kid in the countryside. Now he was basically rich. He made 26000 credits a month doing next to nothing, meanwhile if he goes out and hunts seriously he can make even more than that in a month. He was surprised that credits even had any value due to how easy it was to get them. But then again doing what he did to get them wasn’t easy, it was filled with luck and a lot of effort. Especially the business deals which were very draining for Owari.

When the night came around Owari made his way to Noel’s. He had already picked up all his mail and he planned on sleeping at her place that night. They had already planned this so they could talk about everything that happened after getting back. When they were in her livingroom Owari told her how much money he had.

“Well that certainly is…” She couldn’t really finish her sentence. She herself only made about 4000 credits a month. It was certainly a lot for someone her age where the average was closer to 1000 a month, but it wasn’t nearly Owari’s. “And yet you still live in an inn.”

“It’s cozy.” Owari chuckled. “Though I’m out of room. I need a study to put books in.”

“Just build yourself a library with your money.” Noel smacked his arm in fake annoyance.

“Well considering I can still take a loan that doesn’t sound half bad.” He smirked.

“Having a massive library attached to your house? Only you would do something like that.” Noel shook her head.

“Three floors, hundreds of bookshelves. I’d lose my mind.” Owari laughed.

“What would you even put on all those shelves?” Noel couldn’t imagine it.

“Whatever I want obviously.” Owari chuckled and leaned back to relax. “It’s weird having a lot of money.”

“Weird how?” Noel was curious.

“It just feels convenient. If I want something, chances are I can get it.” Owari shrugged. It just made life easy.

“So money really can buy happiness.” Noel laughed.

“Nah, just convenience. It’s not the same. After all any happiness I could buy would be cheap compared to some time with you.” Owari smiled as he grabbed Noel’s hand and pulled her close.

“You’re still good at talking as always.” Noel didn’t shy away from him.

“And you’re getting better at holding back your embarrassment.” Owari kissed her head.

“That’s not it, I’m just better at handling these things in private.” Noel grabbed his face and kissed him. “There’s no need to be conservative here after all.”

“Well I suppose that’s true.” Owari chuckled. Then he bent over and kissed her again. Like this the two passed the time as they discussed the plans for their future home.