After explaining that Owari went on to explain a few other things to note including not giving up on martial and mystic arts. It was important to maintain one’s foundation or the whole thing would collapse. Once he was sure everyone had it down he dismissed them. “That was an eventful few months.” Noel stated.
“Right? But now the real fun begins. I was able to confirm the presence of at least two mid-platinums in the area.” Owari smiled.
“Good. Let’s go hunt.” Noel also smiled.
The two of them immediately made their way out into the mountains to face off against their enemies. Overall it took them a week and a half to arrive at the location Owari had sensed one of the mid-platinums at. “This one is a drake. Seems to be of the wind element. Me or you?” Owari looked at Noel.
“I took the serpent back at the lake way back when. You get this one. You’re better in the air anyway.” Noel gave it to him.
“Alright.” Owari released his aura to provoke it and it took the bait.
The drake flew out from a nearby cliff and landed on a cliff above to look down and found Owari standing there in a provoking manner. The drake was covered in green scales and had a wicked set of fangs and jade green eyes. Owari stared it down fearlessly. It flapped its wings to fly at him, however he used dark speed step to approach it. When he got in range his used dark steel fang and split its scales easily. The drake had dodged in time not to receive a deep wound, but its pride had been damaged causing it to be enraged.
The winds in the area stirred and suddenly blades started slicing at Owari from multiple directions. Owari spun in mid-air using rampaging winds to throw off the blades before using jet stream to split them as the drake tried to redirect them.
Seeing as that wasn’t working, the drake shook its wing sending bullets of wind at Owari. However he used jet stream to tear them apart. The drake infused its claws with wind mana and flew at Owari. However he used wind walk and dark speed step in conjunction to dodge to the side and rush into its flank. He used dark steel bite to tear into its side before coalescing the blades and swinging it at the drake. The drake dodged by tilting its wings allowing it to spin and causing the blade to pass by harmlessly.
After it dodged, Owari didn’t give up and swung the large blade again, however once again it deftly dodged the attack. This happened once more before the mana fueling his attack ran out much to Owari’s annoyance. Once it was drained up Owari didn’t let the enemy take the initiative and he immediately flashed towards it and swung his sword with jet stream trying to hit the drake only for it to dodge. However he followed it up with another slash, then another, and another.
His speed increased and the size of his wind blade grew, The drake ducked and spun and rose above each attack trying to keep itself from being hit. It was quite mobile as expected of a wind affinity drake, however Owari was growing to be too much to handle. It suddenly did a spin and tried to roundhouse kick Owari with a wind infused claw. Its claw and Owari’s sword collided. Wind was whipped up as the drake was sent flying back while Owari stayed in position. The drake had cuts all over its leg while Owari swung his sword to remove the stiffness in his shoulder.
The drake seemed to realize it was outmatched and planned to run, however would Owari give it that chance? He charged up a silver wave and swung it using his new force affinity to enhance the speed it was thrown out. In an instant the blast of silver energy reached the drake and blew a hole in its defenseless back causing blood to scatter into the wind. Owari then used dark speed step to arrive behind it and stabbed directly into the area where its heart would be.
After that the drake unceremoniously began falling to the ground. When it struck the ground Owari floated down and landed gently. He immediately got to work on removing the scales and separating the meat. Noel and Owari ate well that night and buried the scales nearby to pick up on the way back. This time it was Noel’s turn to face a mid platinum rank.
When they found her enemy it was slightly surprising, it was a troll. Trolls were known for their powerful bodies and hyper regeneration. Not only that, they had the earth affinity. However this one seemed to be a mutant based on the crystalline skin that glittered under the sun. Unfortunately its regeneration comes from biological processes so it can’t be eaten to gain an affinity for it.
“Based on the color of its skin I’d say it has an agate affinity. It's a step below diamond affinity in terms of offense and defense, but a level above earth affinity. Looks like you found a good punching bag. Have fun.” Owari chuckled.
“I will. I need some catharsis after not being able to fight seriously for a while.” Noel cracked her knuckles and shot towards the troll without a second thought.
As she flew towards it the troll swung its fist in an attempt to smash her, however she met its large fist with her own. The troll was easily three meters tall with fists as big as a bowling ball, but when the hands collided a large crack rang out as the troll's bones snapped. It had even used its agate affinity to enhance its durability, but it had still taken that much damage. Owari couldn’t help but wonder how strong someone would have to be to crack agate.
The troll seemed undaunted by its injury, trolls couldn’t feel pain after all. Then it tried to punch her with its other fist. As she landed on the ground she took up a solid stance and met its fist again, however being on solid ground with a more solid stance to take advantage of allowed her to knock its hand away while sounding out a bigger crack.
Knowing a troll would heal from mere broken bones in a dozen minutes meant she couldn’t rely on breaking all its bones. She would have to hit its organs and damage them until they couldn’t be healed anymore. With that in mind she rushed towards its gut while it was off balance and punched at it with a haymaker. She seemed to be using the same technique she used which can bypass external defenses and pass into the insides. As she did she seemed to have the epiphany that comes with unlocking a spirit art.
When her fist collided with the troll nothing seemed to happen. Seeing as how it couldn’t feel pain it also didn’t respond to the damage within its body. However Noel didn’t stop with one punch. Instead she struck it two more times before jumping back as it tried to elbow her. Then it rushed at her with blood foaming out of its mouth from its internal injuries. This still wouldn’t be enough to kill a troll.
Noel stood her ground and used the same technique she made after Owari showed off his own force affinity technique. A wave of warped air rushed forward and smashed the troll in the head causing its head to snap back as it fell backward as if it had been close lined. Noel jumped up and landed on it before punching its gut over and over. The troll reached out to grab her with both hands but she jumped up creating a sonic boom that injured it further.
The troll stood up unsteadily, blood was pouring from its mouth and nose by this point. Noel landed on the ground and rushed at the troll. When she got in front of it she placed both hands on its gut. A mere moment later the troll shuddered, then a large amount of blood spewed from its mouth as it collapsed onto the ground. Noel looked at her clothes which were soaked in troll blood with pity. She wondered if it was possible to clean them.
“So I take it that last move was the spirit art you learned just now?” Owari asked curiously.
“Yes, it lets me use infrasonic waves to shake an object I touch. It can shatter boulders let alone liquefy the insides of a mere troll. Even one that was enhancing itself with agate affinity.” The troll had indeed been enhancing its body practically the whole fight. If it hadn’t it would have been killed much sooner. “I can see why it would be platinum rank though. With skin as hard as it has and that level of regeneration it would take a powerful individual to kill it. I was well suited for this one though.”
“Right. Let me take care of skinning it. Are you interested in troll meat?” He asked with a smile.
“Pass, I heard it’s disgusting.” Noel scrunched her nose.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Alright. Go find a river, your hair will stain if you leave it like that. I prefer white over pink.” Owari chuckled and got to work cutting up the troll. He was of course going to eat it himself even if Noel wouldn’t. They still had some drake meat for her.
After Noel got washed up the two made their way back to the drake scales. They used the troll hide to carry the drake scales like a massive sack and made their way to their vehicle which Morgana guarded as always. They loaded up the materials and made their way back. After killing the troll they had spent about three days getting back to the car. After the four day trip back to the city it was close to the end of the month.
They got their hunter licenses updated much to the shock of the receptionist. In fact unlike usual where they would remain quiet under any circumstance she couldn’t help but call out. Although Noel and Owari didn’t care, the association did. Luckily Owari and Noel smoothed it over and the receptionist would receive a strike and have to go through some more training. They understood it really was shocking to reach this rank by this point.
After that ordeal Noel and Owari made their way home. By the time they arrived they had only a month until the wedding. However neither was willing to sit around doing nothing during this time. Unfortunately Noel had a lot of work to catch up on, meanwhile Owari went to check on his silk business. It was doing well still. They had even started to ship to other cities in the Leviathan territory. They could do so now that the spiders were basically fully grown and could make much more silk.
They had also begun plans for breeding them to increase the number of spiders. Owari allowed this, he had already passed the technique to override brands to Ethel so she could handle the new employees they might receive. After all their current employees weren’t hunters so it took pretty much everything they had to keep these ones tamed. Even if they were only high silver rank it was a lot for an ordinary person.
Because they had expanded the business a little the profits also increased a bit. Not that Owari noticed since all his monthly profit went to paying off his loan. He had also earned about 10,000 credits from the drake scales and hide. As always dragonoid materials sold for a lot. Because of this he was even closer to paying off his loan. Noel also added the 8,000 she got from the troll to pay it off. After all it was a loan for their house.
After settling that stuff Owari took the chance to take his beasts out for some training and playing. First he brushed and played with Garm. The wolf acted more like a dog than one might expect. However hellhounds that had been tamed were known to be very doglike and loyal. He especially liked playing in the mud and water. Because of this the wolf got along with Fang who enjoyed going around turning the ground into a swamp of mud.
Hebi felt it was above such trivial forms of entertainment and so Owari could only clean its scales and allow it to casually swim through the water or slither across the ground trying to show off its ‘regal’ aura. Owari just shook his head at the serpent and went about cleaning Mirra who he had also taken out. He had already harvested and consumed the apples it produced as always. He felt his affinity growing towards the breaking point. All he needed now was a little time to acclimate and he would unlock his next spirit art.
He also brought out his drake which he named Draco because he was bad at naming things. He cleaned its scales and took it into the sky to play by using wind walk and wind step. He would dodge as the drake tried to swoop down and catch him. This also allowed the drake to practice hitting moving targets. Unfortunately for it Owari was too agile for it to hit him if he focused only on dodging. Eventually they also stopped playing and Owari was able to finish up playing with his beasts.
After playing with the various beasts he had he decided to bring them out one at a time to play and train. He decided on Garm first since he wanted to play around with his loyal wolf. The wolf was quite big and since he didn’t have a car yet Owari just rode on its back as it rushed across the ground at speeds that even the fastest car couldn’t keep up with. On top of that with its endurance Garm could easily run for hours without being tired. Because of this they reached the forest in less than an hour. This was definitely a form of transportation worth considering.
Owari and Garm made their way through the forest looking for gold-ranked beasts. Owari wanted to see what it was like to fight alongside his beast for once. After all he was training them for a reason other than to bring them out to play. He decided in the fight he would only use martial arts and not any mystic or spirit arts. As he was looking around he found no gold rank beats for a while. It took four days of running to find any and they were mostly low or mid ranks. It wasn’t for another day that they found their first prey. It was a tiger sitting in a clearing unbothered by the forest around it. This tiger had a golden pelt with stripes of crimson red. Owari looked at it for a bit before determining it was a golden flame lion. They have a mutated flame affinity which is golden in color and burns hotter and brighter than ordinary flames.
Owari wondered if there were more in the area he could hunt for meat, but he decided not to think about it. Instead he focused on the enemy and ordered Garm to approach it from one side while he lowered his own aura to be low gold and approached from the other side. The tiger sensed both of them and grew wary. But it was the king of this place so it showed no signs of weakness or uncertainty as it watched them.
It immediately attacked as soon as the ‘weaker’ Owari entered its range. It built up golden flames in its mouth and breathed a hose of flames at him. Owari took a deep breath and spun in place. He used his full power moth wing strike to kick up winds. His enhanced body from all his affinities lent him a hand and allowed him to drag much more wind and use more force than he ever had when he had relied on such a move. As he spun he swung his sword at various angles, slicing through the flames and sending them scattering faster than they reached him.
Meanwhile Garm didn’t sit still and flashed towards the tiger similar to how Owari used dark speed step. It reached in a moment and swung its claws. The tiger stopped breathing fire and shot golden flames from its feet easily dodging the claws. This caused it to take its eyes off Owari who took advantage of this by rushing it with a kick off the ground. He approached rapidly, going nearly the speed of sound through raw strength and agility. He was always fast, his affinities just allowed him to become faster. He felt the air drag against him as little cracks sounded around him, though not a full-blown sonic boom.
His speed was unexpected for both him and the tiger. He had forgotten how durable his body was and how much force he could exert. He had long learned how much force he could direct through his body before it broke allowing him to push his muscles past a normal person’s limit. Couple that with his force and metal affinities which focus on power as well as his dark affinity which enhances muscles relating to speed and you would obviously be very fast. If one looked at the ground where he kicked off they would see a dent in the ground where the force of his kick had condensed a large amount of dirt.
When he arrived Owari didn’t allow his surprise to show. He had long grown used to adapting to the situation. The tiger heard the crackling coming off from Owari and turned to face him. It swung its gold flame covered claws at Owari Owari transferred the force of his charge through his sword and used moth wing strike at full power, dragging the wind his body had dragged along into it and enhancing the attack.
Wind and flame collided and mixed. Owari was spared the heat of the flames as it scattered to the wind. As for the force of the tiger's claws, Owari didn’t quite match it and was sent stumbling back. He had expected this. His body was only low gold in raw force without reinforcements from mana infused attacks. With one screeching wing he would have rivaled such an attack and surpassed it, but he wasn’t using mystic arts now.
As he stumbled the tiger planned to take advantage of his lack of balance. However what it actually got was a slash across the flank as it barely dodged a fatal attack from Garm who flashed up to it at the speed of light. The tiger gathered flames in its mouth and fired them at Garm who sidestepped. The tiger dragged its flaming geyser towards Garm who outpaced the speed the tiger could change the trajectory of its attack and circled around it. As he came from behind the tiger spun around and a dark and flame infused set of claws collided. After that the two bit into the other’s shoulder. However the tiger suddenly felt something was off.
Before it got the chance to figure out this feeling Owari who had jumped up spun mid-air and slashed the tigers back with steel fang splitting it open. The tiger released its mouth from Garm’s shoulder and yowled in pain. Garm threw the tiger to the side and rushed it to finish it off when Owari called it back. The wolf seemed confused but it listened to its master and returned.
Owari went over and left a temporary brand on the tiger who seemed too weak to fight back. It was bleeding a bit badly. After setting the temporary brand, Owari communicated with it. After confirming it had not ever attacked humans he spoke with it a bit through memory fragments and left it alone. He had confirmed it had no intention of harming humans. He normally wouldn’t bother with such a thing. He was a hunter after all. But he was no slaughterer. He was here to train with his wolf, not kill every high ranking beast in the area. He needed to leave some to grow for him and others to hunt later. If every platinum rank went around killing gold ranks there would be none left for others. It was bad manners.
The next find was an ape with a metallic horn on its head. It had the metal affinity and was named exactly as one would expect, metal horned ape. Owari rushed it and Garm circled around it. The ape grew enraged and swung its arm down towards Owari. Owari used all of the force he could muster and struck the falling arm, the ground under him sunk as he collapsed to one knee from the force of the collision. However he had managed to stop the apes arm in its tracks.
The ape felt its arm shudder and vibrate from the recoil, as it stood there dumbly Garm reached it and gripped its neck from behind while digging its claws into the ape’s shoulders and kicking its back with one leg to cut it up. The ape reached around and grabbed the wolf as it reinforced its body with metal affinity mana. As it grabbed Garm it picked him up like a sack over its head and threw him. Garm deftly spun mid air and landed on its feet.
While it was distracted throwing Garm, Owari recovered and rushed past its legs using steel fang to split both legs with one swing before rolling out of the way as the ape roared in pain and stomped the ground heavily like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Owari easily escaped the debris it kicked up. Garm on the other hand ignored the debris and rushed the ape, biting it in the shoulder and gripping with its claws. It infused its body with dark mana to enhance its attacks ever so slightly.
The ape prepared to reach up and grab Garm when Owari jumped up and did a spin mid-air. As he passed by the ape’s arm it fell off as he split it off perfectly from the elbow where it was thinnest. The ape tried to reach and grab its amputated limb but was pushed onto its back by Garm. Owari did the same act as before to see if it had harmed people. It seemed to harbor a grudge against them and kept forcing Owari out. Since it wasn’t open to negotiation he split its neck open and decapitated it. Owari cleaned the corpse and gathered the material and made his way back to town. He still had a wedding to plan with Noel.
When he arrived back he met Noel at her place and the two greeted one another as normal. “Our house should be finished by tomorrow.” Owari suddenly said.
“Oh? So we shall be moving in soon?” She seemed excited.
“Should be. We need to look for furniture. Let’s do that while we plan the wedding.” Owari suggested and the two began their trip around town looking for good places to buy furniture. Morganna ever the professional had already had some people look into it and guided them to the most reputable and budget places.
Owari and Noel looked around and talked about their plans for the wedding. It was mostly Noel doing the planning with Owari telling her whether it was possible or too much. She was the dreamer and he was the realist. They decided to have Noel take a small loan out to fund it since they didn’t have the money on hand. It should be fine though, Noel could just set it up to take longer to pay off so it wouldn't cut into their other debt too much. It didn’t take long for the two to find everything they wanted. Owari hired some people using what money he had along with buying the furniture so that it would be done in a week.