Owari and Noel started by taking out what little map information there was on the uninhabited region. There was a bunch of map information on the first few kilometers. But past that the amount died off. After those first few kilometers the strength of the beasts shot up. This was because mountain-based beasts tended to be stronger and harder to deal with due to the location being more perilous. After all not everyone had methods to stay airborne like Owari. Even Noel was only able to stay airborne for short periods.
Owari and Noel made their plans after some deliberation. Owari would go out with Draco and scout the area and draw up a general map first. The group would all move out together to study the local flora and fauna. After getting an idea of what and how strong the beasts in the area were, they would study the geology and hydrology of the area. After that they would move on. When they found valuable resources they would mark it down and send the information back to the Silverblood family who would sell it to the government.
This was the plan and it was time to enact it. Owari went out on Draco and began to write up the maps. After nearly a month of back and forth he finally was satisfied with his mapping work and the group made their way out. The area he had mapped was mostly cliff faces and forests on the side of the mountains. They decided to check out the forests first since they were more familiar with forest based combat.
As they walked among the pine trees Owari couldn’t help but frown. The branches weren’t ideal for his usual style of forest based combat. Plus the smell of the trees was overpowering the smell of beasts. This was both good and bad. It meant their scent would be harder to track, but also the opposite was true. As they were going around Owari let Noel do the looking out while he observed the flora and fauna.
Among the various things they found within the forest there were a lot of low ranking beasts. Mostly copper and silver ranks. Of course the silver ranks would need to be cleared out if people wanted to live here, but it wasn’t too bad. Things didn’t change until they got deeper into the forest and closer to the mountain top. Suddenly the strength of the beasts spiked from low to mid copper at most, to at least high silver. There were a number of gold rank beasts. This likely had to do with the altitude.
Owari and Noel didn’t clear out the enemies just yet. They weren’t sure if this area would be developed. From what Owari could tell, the geology wasn’t right for mining, and the hydrology wasn’t right for a spring. There also wasn’t much merit to farming here due to the abundance of trees and lack of defining minerals. In the end the land was just too mediocre. They needed something better so they moved onto the cliffs.
As they hiked around the cliffs they noticed that most of the enemies were silver and gold rank. Much different from the copper and silver ranks of the forest not too far away. They marked this down and Owari started to check the geology of the cliffs. Luckily this was easier due to most of the rock being exposed. As they made their way around nothing in particular happened. In the end they went back to base after nearly a month of searching with nothing happening.
Owari laid on the grass relaxing. He sighed comfortably. “Did you get a letter yet?” He asked Noel.
“Yes actually. Just yesterday. Here.” She handed it over for him to read. She had already read it.
Owari started reading the letter and was surprised to see what was inside. He had half expected things to end rather quickly either through diplomacy or force. But things were sort of at a standstill. Neither side wanted to make the first move to attack. Since each side wasn’t sure who was stronger among the highest-ranking members of each faction neither side wanted to initiate anything.
Owari sighed as he read on. The only good news is that no innocent civilians have been harmed so far. Of course some government employees died in the takeover due to trying to resist or threatening the various families and agencies. It was tragic but it was unavoidable. In the end the only thing that could be done was to wait. All Owari and Noel could do was their job. They just hoped their enemies wouldn’t resort to underhanded tactics.
They continued their work once again after that. Owari went out to scout further among the cliffs. He wanted to check and see if there were any passages through the mountains to the other side so they could explore deeper into the mountains without having to climb the mountain itself. Eventually he did actually find one and after going past it he found another pair of three mountains which he quickly flew around mapping out.
When he was done another half a month had passed and he quickly led everyone through the passage and out to the other mountains. There was a complicated system of passages between the mountains which were carved in a few different ways. Some were carved out through intense battles while others through natural processes. It was quite fascinating but not the focus of the expedition so Owari capped his curiosity for now.
It took another half a month of studying to find anything of interest. They finally ran into their first platinum rank. However it was only low platinum. “We should take care of it.” Owari stated.
“Who gets this one?” Noel asked.
“You can beat it up. It’ll be good catharsis after being so bored these past few months.” Owari let her have it.
She approached the giant four-meter tall humanoid. It was an ogre type. The magical beasts in this area seemed to mostly be giant humanoid types. It was odd for sure but very interesting. Owari was keeping a close eye on this as he wrote down the data. He paid close attention to every action these humanoid types took. It was rare to find so many in abundance and he was curious about them. They were considered some of humanity’s closest relatives after all and he was curious what made humans different.
Noel cared little for these things. Instead she rushed in head first to attack her prey. She pounced at the ogre with a powerful boom and arrived in a split second. She raised her arm and the air warped from the sheer force of her punch as it slammed into the ogre’s chest sending it skittering across the ground and slamming into the cliff wall. However that wasn’t the end, instead Noel rushed at it and punched it once again slamming it into the cliff wall.
The poor ogre was then subject to hit after hit, unable to resist save for placing one arm in front of its head, and the other over its chest. It was beaten to a bloody pulp like this and the cliff wall was practically crumbling behind it. Owari couldn’t help but look at the sheer strength of Noel and chuckle. To think he was married to someone who can do that with her bare fists.
“What are you laughing about?” Noel asked as she came back.
“I love you.” Owari didn’t answer.
“I love you too. But that doesn’t answer my question.” Noel looked at Owari curiously waiting for the answer. But it never came, Owari immediately got back to work.
As they got deeper into the mountains they found more and more high gold and platinum ranks. Owari and Noel ignored them for the most part, instead looking for the optimal places for their allies to take advantage of. It was the day before their birthday when they found something of interest. It was a large valley hidden behind a few mountains. It took some traveling between the crevices to find, but it wouldn’t be too bad of a trip by train. It would be maybe a week by express train from the nearby town. That meant it wasn’t too bad a location.
Owari and Noel began exploring this valley over the course of the day. However when their birthday came they decided to take the day off. “It would be a bit much to keep working through such an important day.” Noel said.
“Not that we put too much importance to such a day. You just want a break.” Owari called her out.
“True. I’d like to relax after months of trudging around mountains.” She admitted.
“I thought so.” Owari nodded in understanding. Even he wouldn’t mind a break.
“Morgana.” Noel called. “I’d like for you to scout the area for the next few hours and keep magical beasts away. Owari and I are in need of some alone time.”
“As the young miss wishes.” Morgana bowed and disappeared.
“She’s fast.” Owari noted.
“As fast as you?” Noel asked curiously.
“No. She didn’t move at light speed.” Owari shook his head.
“Alright. Now hold me.” Noel lifted and spread her arms.
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“Very well.” Owari copied her way of talking as he pulled on her hand and embraced her.
“How much longer do you think we need to be out here?” Noel asked curiously. She had begun to miss home for some time.
“Probably a few more months. Once we find a few things of note we can turn in the info and take a break.” Owari also couldn’t wait to go home.
“Alright.” Noel sighed.
The two treated the surrounding space as their own slice of the world without a care. They completely ignored the fact that they were in the middle of one of the most unexplored regions of the world as they relaxed and enjoyed their break. Soon though it was time to get back to work. Owari and Noel both sighed and went to fetch Morgana so they could go work again.
Two weeks after that break was when they found their first potential resource. Owari found a vein of quartz, however what really got his attention was the presence of wolframite. It’s a type of tungsten ore. Tungsten on its own was very precious already, but the presence of a large amount of mana in the area also made Owari hopeful towards finding adamantite. Admanatite was a near-indestructible type of metal that was used to reinforce the fronts of trains to limit the damage to them when hitting magical beasts stupid enough to climb on the tracks.
There are also a number of other uses for it, but Owari didn’t care about that. What mattered is that it was a valuable resource. He took a look around the area he found the vein at to determine whether it was suitable for habitation. The vein was located near the edge of the valley, it was fairly shallow into a cliff wall that seemed to have been shaved flat during a rough battle. The area around the cave it was located in was mostly flat and wouldn’t take much effort to build around. It was well suited for a mining town.
The next problem was magical beasts. Owari looked at his ecological data and frowned. The area was filled with gold and platinum rank beasts. The group would need to do some clearing out. Owari and Noel sent out their beasts to deal with some of the enemies while the three split up to take care of some of the others. Owari for his part was left with finding the best potential location for the rail tracks to come through to the mine.
Other than the rail track there would need to be an intermediary town somewhere where the trains could stop to repair, refuel, and resupply. It was a little under a month from the nearest town, and a month and a half from the nearest city. Owari was in charge of looking over the maps and clearing out potential places to settle.
Owari made his way backward as he attempted to locate a good place to settle a town. What was important was for the location to have fertile land of some sort so that farms could be placed there for the growing of food which would be important to the nearby mining town. Owari continued on his way easily killing any gold or low platinum ranks he ran into along the way. His spirit blade was a powerful weapon and could easily split through a defensive type low platinum rank with ease.
Other than that he had also managed to acclimate to his force and dark affinities and evolved them into spirit arts. His force affinity spirit art allowed him to amplify the force of his attacks. The more mana he used the greater the amplification. His dark affinity spirit art was even more powerful in his opinion. He decided to call it warp, because that was what it did. It allows him to move between two points at the speed of light without the need to physically travel there or move his body. He just instantly appears there. It kind of makes his dark speed step redundant, but they each had their own uses. Warp lets him travel through objects while dark speed step cost less mana.
With the evolution of these two affinities the points on his spirit blade increased. Now he had a grey point, a black point, and a transparent point. He found that with the formation of each point the appropriate affinity would be amplified when used with his spirit blade manifested. For instance when he uses dark steel fang with his spirit blade it would be faster and sharper than normal with the same amount of mana. The same was true when using force affinity with his sword out.
The amount of amplification he was capable of now with all of his techniques was quite frightening. It seemed his spirit arts were evolving towards raw power and destructive potential. His phantom cloak amplified his physical attributes, his force affinity amplified his strength, and his sword amplified his mystic and spirit arts. By combining these he was capable of a terrifying degree of damage. Owari even felt he could probably fight a high platinum rank at this point.
As he was moving around thinking about his spirit arts he found his first mid platinum rank in a while. He stopped in place and looked at the five-meter tall giant. It was sitting on the ground poking at the dirt with a small tree it likely tore out of the ground. Owari approached it curiously wondering what it was poking around in the dirt for. It was just squiggling doodles, however as soon as it noticed him it threw down the tree and roared before standing up. Owari sighed as it charged at him. A moment ago it seemed so innocent.
He summoned out his spirit blade and covered it with phantom mana, then he took a sword draw stance before swinging out with his new force affinity amplification. He chose silver wave because it was his most destructive technique and he wanted to see his most powerful output. As the sword swung the air it passed through wavered. The silver energy built up on his sword was enough to terrify the giant who turned to run. As he swung the sword the ground around Owari in the path of his blade was torn up and thrown away from him.
When the attack finally fired off it instantly arrived at the giant and blasted a hole through its tough skin like it was paper and water from a hose. The line of silver energy wasn’t as simple as it looked. The sheer force behind it had torn up the ground below where it passed without even touching it. Looking at the damage Owari did some calculating and figured it could probably damage a high platinum rank. Though it did cost a fifth of his mana, it was much more efficient than using his mystic arts to accomplish the same thing.
Owari didn’t stick around long and made his way to look for more places with the potential for a town to be placed. After about a week of looking around he found a good place. It was about halfway between the Nix border and the mine. That made it a two week trip from the nix border. Owari did some serious checking of the land and found it was abundant with various minerals conducive to farming. On top of that it was rather mana saturated as well-meaning the food that was grown here would be healthier. As expected of an untouched land.
When he was done looking around Owari looked back in the direction he came from. Tomorrow would be the day of black sun. They had agreed to return before then. If he traveled back normally he would never reach the mine in time. But Owari just smiled and activated dark speed step, running at about half speed along his predetermined route. As he ran he was able to intuitively dodge any obstacles that appeared and arrived back before anyone else at about mid-day.
All of the beasts slowly started funneling in before Noel and Morgana eventually showed up. The last one to arrive was Garm who had taken care of the most enemies by far after Owari as the two had the fastest running speeds and covered the most ground. When they were all gathered up Noel cooked dinner for everyone as always and they enjoyed a nice meal together. The beasts were especially happy with their meals, though Hebi’s heads fought one another over who had the right to eat as always.
“So did you find anything interesting?” Noel asked Owari as she ate her stew.
“Yeah, a few things. Firstly I found a good place for a farming town which is good. I also set a good route for us to clear out for the tracks to be built at. On top of all of that I’m pretty sure I’m a high platinum rank now.” Owari said casually.
“You too?” Noel said back equally as casually. The two of them looked at one another and laughed together.
“I should have expected you to grow so quickly.” Owari shook his head.
“What about you? You’ve grown quickly yourself.” Noel tried to deny it.
“I hunt more than you.” Owari argued back.
“That’s true. But recently I’ve been doing more of the hunting.” Noel was right, she pretty much hunted everything while Owari filled out his maps.
“Fair enough, you win. I think once you reach the level we’re at the most important thing is how you develop your abilities in the future. Like how I focus on amplification.” Owari was quite curious about this subject.
“What do you mean by that?” Noel was more curious about what Owari meant and less about the implications of said information.
“Well most of my spirit arts amplify my baseline abilities. There isn’t much new to them. This matches my style a lot as it's direct and uses my best asset, my strong body.” Owari explained.
“True, you do have a very powerful physical constitution.” Noel stared at Owari with a glint in her eye.
“And your abilities seem to be developing in a similar pattern. Your spirit arts are basically upgrades to preexisting abilities you have. They are straight upgrades that are either more powerful versions or easier to use. This fits your style of focusing on raw power.” Owari continued, ignoring her hungry stare.
“So basically we’re very similar. But doesn’t that mean other people are the same?” Noel pouted but didn’t stop the discussion.
“If you recall Max when he activated his first spirit art it had a different function. The original technique was a piercing technique that used the heat of his flames to burn through flesh and bone. But the spirit art version was better at melting through defences and exposing the tissue beneath.” Owari smiled as he pretended not to notice Noel’s expression.
“So basically spirit arts aren’t just straight up upgrades. Instead they are based on the individual?” Noel asked to be sure.
“Right. For instance Kent’s spirit art version of his charge attack. Instead of being a stronger charge it creates a whirlwind of wind blades around him acting as a defence.” Owari answered.
“Ah, I didn’t notice.” Noel hadn’t paid much attention to which mystic art evolved into which spirit art.
“I was being careful to observe and study, otherwise you would have missed it.” Owari comforted her.
“It’s fine. I wasn’t interested anyway. So what does all this mean?” Noel moved back to the point.
“It means everyone has a unique path to becoming an electrum rank. Some might be like ours and be similar, but each person develops in their own way.” Owari summoned his spirit blade. “This is my strongest spirit art. I’d say this is my path. I have to gain as many affinities as possible and evolve them to enhance this sword”
“I think I get it. Then my path would be this.” Noel punched her fists together and caused the air to shake around her. “It’s my kinetic affinity evolution. It allows me to completely control the kinetic energy within a certain radius around me by expending mana.”
“That’s like the perfect offence and defence all in one.” Owari chuckled.
“It does cost a lot of mana. Luckily I’m albino. With that mana breathing technique you taught me my mana is even more terrifying.” Noel chuckled.
“Good thing I taught it to you then.” Owari smirked. “Now that we know our paths we should do our best to properly develop our abilities.”
“You two seem to be filled with countless surprises.” Morgana spoke up which was unusual for her. Seeing their looks of surprise she continued. “To think you already not only found the secret to reaching the electrum rank, but have already taken steps to reaching it.”
“Did you expect anything less from us?” Noel said proudly.
“Of course not.” Morgana merely smiled.
“Now that we know our paths we should do our best to follow them. But don’t get tunnel vision. There could be more paths to discover.” Owari warned.
“Of course.” Noel nodded seriously.
After that the two of them began practicing their individual techniques to get a better feeling of their paths. Owari was mostly focused on turning his new sapphire defense into a spirit art. When he finally managed it the spirit art was the same as his earth one and would automatically respond to any attacks he perceives to block it unless he purposefully stops it from doing so.
Noel on the other hand practiced her kinetic domain as she called it. She would mostly practice by punching and redirecting the kinetic energy to strike from an entirely different direction. With this it didn’t matter how she attacked, it would be difficult to discern where the strike would come from. She could also redirect force around her allowing her to diminish the power of attacks directed at her.
The two of them continued this practice for a few days to get used to everything they had and reestablish their foundations. Owari especially practiced his martial arts using his new spirit blade. This allowed him to grow used to how his spirit blade functioned and what he could do to maximize the power it gave him. He found that the amplification of force affinity through the sword was absurdly powerful. Each attack would warp the air around the blade and caused crackling as the force was so strong the friction produced static around the blade. Overall their practice was quite fruitful and by the end they had firmly cemented themselves as high platinum ranks.