"Based on what you've told me," I tell Akrazidonn. "A pretty simple gift is all I'll need for the local dragon. I can make him a water iron alloy sculpture just a couple of feet tall. Make it a small fountain with an enchanting network to allow it to recycle the water, and we'll be set. Maybe add in a few water crystals into the base, and a little extra effect to the scales to more closely match a dragon's, and he'll be happy. Shame you don't know his name, so I can't give him a plaque. I could ask a local spirit, though."

"His name is Torventozil," a voice says from close by. "And he absolutely hates you. Whoever that spirit is, he's an utter moron."

We look over to see a spirit forming, this one primarily made up of brownish-grey motes. His body is slender, but defined, his hair a medium-dark brown with a slight curl to it, his eyes a stone grey. Three grey metal bands are around each wrist and ankle, each set with seven brownish-grey earth magic crystals. A halo of the same material floats above his head, but with nine crystals in it – four bluish-green water crystals in addition to the five brownish-grey earth crystals. As with most spirits', this one's halo slowly rotates on the ring, though it seems as if only the crystals are moving.

This spirit wears an amulet, a grey metal necklace with a brownish-grey earth crystal star hanging from it, the star containing nine points radiating out on the same level, a bluish-green water crystal at its center. On each ear is a small metal ear cuff, a tiny pair of jewels set into each; an earth crystal right above a water crystal.

He's sitting cross-legged, his hands resting on his knees, and is floating about a foot above the ground. It's easy to tell he's a powerful earth spirit, though he has some water attributes as well. The gods of earth and water contributed to his ascension to high spirit status, but he aligns most with earth.

I know this area pretty well from before we died, but I don't recognize this spirit. Is he an Elder Spirit who moved here at some point in the last thousand years?

"I am not an idiot!" Akrazidonn exclaims. "You must be mistaken! I've heard many rumors of this dragon, and how he's always talking about the might of these two! Who are you, anyway? You don't seem that old!"

"I'm only a century in age," the spirit informs Akrazidonn. "My name is Kizarvinat, and while Torventozil does talk about the rumored might of the Sage of Fire and Saint of Frost quite often… it is not with praise, you dumbass. He doesn't believe that they were as strong as the rumors claim them to be, and that even a dragon of only two centuries of age, such as himself, could easily squish them."

"I'm not a dumbass!" Akrazidonn huffs. "And don't treat me like one! I'm your elder!"

Kizarvinat rolls his eyes, then looks at me.

"Judging by what I can sense in you," he says. "And what the rumors of your abilities are, you can handle Torventozil. The only reason I even trust that you're really the great hero from a thousand years ago is because of the way the lesser spirits react to you. They're all abuzz with excitement that you're here. The only other time that's happened in my life for someone who was neither a spirit or a god was the Golden Knight."

"The Golden Knight was here?" I ask, and my husband looks just as interested as I am.

"Just a few months ago," Kizarvinat confirms. "Torventozil heard about you slaying an old dragon about two years ago, and has been annoying ever since. I suppose the Golden Knight heard about his fit and decided to come threaten him into being quiet. The dragon's been pissed about that."

"Can you tell us about the Golden Knight?" I ask.

"He wore golden armor and had a sword that seemed quite dangerous," Kizarvinat shrugs. "Felt extremely powerful, was loved by spirits, and never revealed his face. There was some sort of air magic going on to alter his voice as well. I could tell that he was male, mortal, and strong. The ripples I felt from him were young, however, so he's probably not that old. He has awhile yet before the universe comes for him."

We already knew that the status of the Golden Knight must be passed from person to person because of the universe's rule about ripples. Based on what Kizarvinat is saying, the current Golden Knight must be new to the role. However, they are working to uphold the honor of the Sage of Fire and Saint of Frost.

At least, that's what it sounds like.

"How did he threaten the dragon?" I ask.

"I wasn't really watching," Kizarvinat shrugs. "But I do know that he told Torventozil that when at the peak of his power, the Sage of Fire could take on any dragon in the world even if he were butt-naked and no magic items available to him."

Kyron laughs as I groan.

"What?" Kizarvinat asks. "Is that wrong?"

"No," I mutter. "I tried to see if there were rumors of that fight, and there weren't. Apparently, the Golden Knight knows about it, though. They must be passing stories of us from Golden Knight to Golden Knight."

"What fight?" Both spirits ask at once.

"Caleb fought and killed a thousand-year-old dragon while butt-naked once," Kyron says.

"IT ATTACKED US WHILE WE WERE SWIMMING!"

I wasn't wearing my spatial ring at the time, either, because I usually take it off when soaking or swimming. Even if it gets stolen, I can just track it down and take it back.

That's if it gets stolen.

"Anyway," I decide to change topics. "If Akrazidonn was wrong about the dragon's view of us, then he might be wrong about its might."

"It has 50 Constitution, by my estimates," Kizarvinat informs me. "Roughly the same in Magic and Strength. Might be just-under that. I take it that means you won't be able to handle it while butt-naked?"

A dragon's Strength, Constitution, and Magic all tend to be around the same value. While some deviate from that and have one higher than the others, or one lower than the others, that's fairly uncommon.

"I could," I stand and stretch. "But I'll just do it without my robe. That way, if an attack does make it through, the robe's not damaged. I don't have any replacement clothes."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to protect your pants, then?" Kizarvinat asks. "Since you can go around bare-chested, but you'd be without pants?"

"The attacks are more likely to strike my torso," I tell him. "Than my waist or below."

"What if you get knocked into the water?" Kizarvinat asks. "Or hit by blasts of water? Won't that then soak through your clothes and require them to be dried?"

"That's unlikely to happen," I tell him. "And even if it does, I can just manipulate the air to heat it up and use that to quickly dry things."

"There's also dragon's fire to factor in," Kizarvinat adds. "That burns pretty much everything."

"Dragon's fire hasn't been a threat to me since I gained a Class and could start using Mana."

"How is that even possible?" I ask. "Kyron, why are you trying not to laugh?"

"Probably because Kizarvinat is trying to figure out a way to get to watch you fight the dragon naked," Akrazidonn says. "But doesn't know your abilities well enough to effectively argue it, and your husband no doubt knows that it will pretty much be impossible to come up with an argument for battling the dragon in the nude that doesn't just outright make it obvious it's to get you naked and for no other reason."

"You'll probably be disappointed," I tell Kizarvinat. "While I might only be around the same Might as the dragon, I won't move around too much. He's young enough that his movements are all easily-predictable and counter-able. A dragon his age isn't really able to make me move from my spot.

"On top of that," I continue. "The Experience awarded for killing a dragon is equal to one percent per year of its life, static. That means that there's no reason to give myself limitations that make the battle more difficult."

Limitations such as having someone who would actually suffer against the monster's attacks nearby, or trying to avoid too much damage to the terrain, or to keep the battle from moving too much in order to avoid it reaching a settlement or structure. The System doesn't count those as artificial increases to the difficulty, so it actually works to help make things tougher and earn more Experience.

However, the trick is knowing what will count for that specific battle and what won't.

Since difficulty doesn't matter in a dragon battle, anyway, it doesn't even matter.

"Dragons give set Experience?" Kizarvinat asks in surprise. "I thought all kills gave it based on the difficulty of the battle?"

"Most," I shake my head. "The thing about dragons isn't too well known, since not many people have ever actually killed one. What's more, each person who contributed to the kill receives that amount, too, so there's no splitting of the reward. Because it's set, using magic items also doesn't affect the reward."

However, there does seem to be a threshold for using magic items to kill dragons. If the attacks used through magic items are too much more powerful than the dragon, then no Experience is awarded. That's the only case I know of where the Experience awards from a dragon isn't based on the dragon's age.

"Also," Kyron adds. "It's one percent per year of the dragon's life for someone who's Mythical-Tier. At Master-Tier, it's two percent, at Major-Tier, it's three percent, at Moderate-Tier, it's four percent, and at Minor-Tier, it's five percent."

This isn't because of each Tier up needing more Experience, as the formula is definitely different than just increasing it by the base value each Tier. In fact, I think we actually end up receiving more Experience Points at higher Tiers than lower ones.

For someone who can actually kill dragons, this is a decent way to gain Levels – but one needs to avoid overdoing it. Killing dragons creates ripples. Even my dad wouldn't just kill a dragon on a whim, there was usually a pretty strong reason for it.

Honestly, the reason my dad settled down may have been because he knew that few even made it to three hundred, and he probably wanted to make sure he experienced a family before his time came.

"As old as I am," Akrazidonn says. "Even I didn't know that, and I spent a lot of time talking with dragon slayers."

"As we said," I say. "It's not very well-known. Those of us who know it don't usually mention it to others – not even spirits – because it reduces the amount of stupid that happens."

The more people who know that dragons award Experience like that, the more people who will try to pick fights with dragons because they're at a Level and/or Tier that makes it more difficult to gain Experience. That will result in those people dying, but also in dragons getting pissed off.

Killing a dragon usually requires being at least 25 Might higher than them. The only reason I can handle them at the same Might Level – or even a lower one – is because of something I know that it's unlikely any other mortal has ever learned.

The very same trick I modified to use against people, which the gods have asked me to not use against people.

"Yeah," Kyron says. "And if we tell spirits it, then chances are at some point, it will get back to mortals, whether from that spirit or another they told."

"And you guys trust us with it?" Kizarvinat asks. "To not tell others?"

"No," I answer. "It just slipped out, and we didn't see any point in not explaining the full thing."

Akrazidonn starts laughing while saying that that's exactly like me, while Kizarvinat just snorts. Deciding to ignore them, I start to wrap [Flight Wind]s around me, Akrazidonn jumping up onto my shoulder before they're full manifested.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Caleb," Kyron says as we all begin to lift into the air, Kizarvinat flying on his own. "Do you intend on killing Torventozil?"

"Only if necessary," I answer. "The fight is more to humble him and reduce his draconic arrogance. Let him know his place. It doesn't sound like he's an actual problem. Am I right about that, Kizarvinat?"

"Yeah," the spirit's still in his seated position, though he's now holding his ankles while leaning back some. "He's a pretty decent lord in terms of dragons, he's just a bit on the arrogant side, and believes dragons are the peak beneath the gods."

Dragons don't view spirits on being the same level of existence, but not inferior. Dragons and spirits usually ignore each other unless they cause problems for the others. That, or they're friends, like Akrazidonn and some of the dragons back in the area I grew up were.

Well, I say that like there were many, but that's not quite the case. There were fewer dragons there, and their territories were much bigger. The town I grew up in had only three dragon territories within a few hundred miles of it, though Akrazdionn was friends with all three of them.

Rezovekk was part of one of the territories, but it wasn't his territory. Him slaying a bunch of dragons upon arriving here and establishing a massive territory wasn't just a show of power on his part.

No, it was him establishing a territory that's half the size of the one he'd left behind. Unlike back there, however, Rezovekk didn't need to share it with other dragons here. In fact, dragons here don't really share territories or do the subordinate thing that's done on the eastern continents.

He was pleased about that.

"So Torventozil is a typical inexperienced dragon, then," I shrug. "He's never had to quarrel with beings as strong as or stronger than him, nor any who could actually challenge his abilities even if not. He's probably never had to deal with anything that actually was a challenge, and each success over inferior beings only reinforces that."

Torventozil must not have been raised with his siblings. That, or he didn't have any. I'm guessing he just took an unoccupied territory that suited his dragon type (a cave behind a waterfall that cascades down into a decent-sized lake) and established dominance over the lesser creatures. Even if there were people around, he'd have easily made sure they knew he was the peak.

Only to find out that there are humans who hunt dragons, and the locals would have petitioned for a party to come out and help them with the dragon's arrogance. That usually knocks the dragons like this one down a few pegs.

"If you're not planning on killing him," Kyron says. "Just humbling him, then you could do it in the style of a battle vizinia. Not a full one, of course, but butt-naked without any gear, not even your ring. I'm sure that would be a much more humbling experience to the dragon than if you had anything that could even hint at a magic item assisting you in the fight."

"You just want to ogle me, too," I say, and my husband smiles at me. "But you do have a point, it would definitely be a much more humbling experience for him to find a person of roughly equal Might besting him, especially when it's one of the very same couple that he's been claiming are inferior to him. I'll strip once we land."

The flight to the lake doesn't take very long, even going at a more leisurely pace. While the forest goes right up to the lake's shore, there's also a cliff lining most of one part of the lake. A waterfall fifty feet wide and about forty high stretches across it, and I can sort-of make out the cave behind, though the waterfall is thick enough that it's not all that visible.

As for the lake itself, its widest point is about two thousand feet, while its narrowest is about five hundred. There's an island about three hundred feet wide and a hundred and fifty long not far from the waterfall. In fact, its positioning of only about two hundred feet from the waterfall suggests that it may have been artificially-created.

Considering how natural the island looks and how it doesn't just drop into the water but fades down into it like some of the lake's shores do, however, I'd say its creator was either a very experienced individual or group of earth mages, or it was a spirit with an earth affinity. The surface of the island is covered in grass, up to the shore, which is made up of rocks.

Well, centuries of erosion could also probably cause that, but I doubt that's why it slopes into the water.

I doubt it was Torventozil who requested or authorized the island's creation, which means it was probably from a water dragon who lived here a long time ago. Even before Kyron and I were born, since the island was here last time.

Though we can see the bottom of the lake, I doubt it's only a few feet deep. When we were here before, the waters were up to twenty feet at their deepest, and the lake doesn't look any shallower to me. It might have been a thousand years of actual time passed, but it's only been about a year and a half for us.

There wasn't a dragon living here back then, either.

"Nice island," Akrazidonn says hops off my shoulder and stretches as we land. "I wonder who made it."

"It's not natural?" Kizarvinat asks.

"No," the three of us respond at once.

"Someone made this island as a meeting space," Kyron tells him. "Probably for a dragon who either died or moved on long before Caleb and I were born. You can tell because of its positioning and size, even if it does seem natural. Its maker was skilled."

"Ah," Kizarvinat says. "Learn something new every now and then. He's in the cave right now, but how do you plan on getting his attention? Even from here, the waterfall is pretty loud. I'm fairly certain even a dragon's ears can't hear us talking. Want me to let him know you're here?"

"No," I start undressing. "I have a way to get his attention. You'll see it once I'm ready."

"Okay," he's making no effort to hide that he's examining me as I remove my robe. "You're not built like a mage. They're slender, not lean."

"Caleb moves around a lot while fighting," Kyron informs him. "And I've had him practice using weapons and martial arts, too. You won't get to see his full fighting style as I'm sure he's just going to stay standing in one place as much as he can, but he has a tendency to do flips and jumps, using air magic to help boost him or to bounce off of or land on. He's got a hard time sitting still, like most true mages, but has an even more difficult time of it than others, especially when he's doing something that consumes a lot of energy and effort – like fighting."

"I see," Kizarvinat says.

Now standing nude with only my Mana to keep me warm, I hand Kyron my ring, which I've put all my stuff into.

"Come on," Kyron says. "Let's back off a bit, so that we don't affect the fight."

Akrazidonn hops up onto Kyron's right shoulder, then my husband flies back. Kizarvinat looks confused, but flies with them. Once they're about two hundred feet behind the island, they stop flying and start hovering. That will let them watch the fight, and while they won't be seeing us from as close as they probably want, it should put them far enough away to avoid the fight's effects.

Even if Torventozil flies past the island during the fight, he'll likely ignore them.

I inhale deeply, then call out, my voice shaking the air itself due to my use of an advanced air spell.

[Sound Amplification] learned!

"HEY, VOLCANO-BRAIN! WHY DON'T YOU COME OUT AND TELL ME TO MY FACE THAT YOU'RE SUPERIOR TO ME, YOU OVERGROWN, WINGED, FIRE-LICKING LIZARD!"

Kizarvinat must be really in-tune with his domain, as I can feel his shock and horror from here. I ignore it, though, as I know Torventozil will come out. The force of the air magic even shook his waterfall, which tells me that my voice reached him.

Mere moments after my words fade from the air, water bursts out from the waterfall as the bluish-green form of a water dragon about two hundred years of age soars out of it, roaring in outrage.

"WHO DARES TO INSULT ME SO?" He demands. "WHO DARES COMPARE ME TO THOSE FIRE-BREATHING BRATS?"

The dragon draws extremely close to me, so close that his face is less than a foot in front of mine.

"A mere human child, and one without any clothes or gear," he scoffs. "You're powerful, but you're nothing little human!"

"Wow," I pinch my nose with my left forefinger and thumb while waving my right hand in front of my face as if to dispel a bad scent. "Your breath really does smell like a volcano. How often are you licking fire crystals, lizard?"

The dragon roars in my face, though the use of air magic protects me from any damage that would ordinarily be caused by that. Kizarvinat's horror only grows, which kind of amuses me. Kyron is probably talking to him at the moment to let him know that I have things under control and am probably just a little annoyed by the dragon's claims.

"You know," I tell him. "We've got some mint saplings, if you want us to plant them here. That could really help with your breath problem. I've also got plenty of fire crystals you can have, too. Oh, and even some lava crystals, courtesy of a Dungeon in the domain of a lava spirit named Volzaminat. He's pretty friendly. A fire-loving dragon like yourself must know him, right?"

Torventozil performs a spin, his tail slamming into an [Air Barrier] right beside me. While the force of his attack cracks the barrier, my spell holds.

"Whoa," I say. "Be careful there, big guy. You could kill someone with a tail whip like that."

The dragon snarls, then attempts to claw at me. His attack meets another [Air Barrier], and though he attempts to force his way through it by continuously pushing, my casting skills are enough that I can repair the barrier just as fast as he's breaking it.

No matter how much he claws, bites, tail-whips, body-slams, or pushes on my [Air Barrier]s, I maintain them with only a little effort. I keep my gaze fixed on the dragon, meeting his challenge. When he attempts to use his water breath attack, I conjure a thick [Fire Barrier] to evaporate it, fueling the barrier until the final bit of his breath has evaporated.

Though the water breath meeting the [Fire Barrier] resulted in a fog cloud around us, my visibility isn't too hampered. Sure, it's covered the entire island in a fog, but I start using [Water Scan], the water version of [Air Scan], to detect movement.

Not that I need it – the fog isn't thick enough I can't see the dragon's form when he's within a hundred feet of me.

The dragon grows more and more outraged as I continue to stop his attacks, the fog growing thicker with every watery breath he breathes out at me.

Normally, a dragon has far, far more Mana than a person could ever hope to attain. Even a dragon only a century in age has more than 15,000 Mana, while a person can only attain up to 12,525 at Level 500 while Mythical-Tier.

We must take advantage of tricks, team sizes, magic items, and making sure not to waste a single point of Mana.

I'm going all-out in this fight, just in a different way from when I fight other things. What I'm doing here is one of the reasons I know I likely won't live to a century. I might not even make it to thirty years of age.

The trick I'm using to contest a dragon that has more than fifteen times my Mana is something which causes immense ripples.

I'm pulling in Mana from my surroundings to fuel my spells. Even the Mana that's released into the air from the dragon's own breath attack once it's over is used as fuel for my magics. Kyron hates when I use this because he knows it means I'll die sooner… but he's also accepted that my ripples are already great enough I have a slim chance of making it to fifty.

This isn't something I'll use against anything but a spirit or a dragon. If I wanted to kill Torventozil, he'd be dead already, but I want to humble him. Because of that, I need an immense amount of Mana, enough to counter his attacks.

As I feel him reaching about half his capacity, the dragon's aggravation grows enough that he uses his dragon's fire breath. The fog burns away all around the dragon's fire, clearing a space fifty feet around it.

The heat scorches the air and the ground, and only my use of my Mana to protect against heat shields me from it.

Then the dragon's fire reaches me… and vanishes three feet away, as if stopped by some sort of invisible barrier, in a slightly-domed shape. When the immense amount of flames finally ends (Torventozil has a breath length of about a minute), the dragon stares at me in shock.

"H…how are you still standing?" The dragon actually lands from his shock, tentatively approaching me. As if unable to believe what he's seeing, he even gently lifts up his right foreleg and hesitantly reaches forward, touching my chest, jumping back the moment a claw touches me. "Dragon's fire burns all."

"More specifically," I say. "Dragon's fire is created within a dragon, and then consumes the Mana in the air it blazes through and the objects it contacts. Without that Mana, it cannot continue and immediately ends. How far it goes is limited only by the breath force of the one exhaling. For you, that's about fifteen feet.

"Did you not notice something off with my own Mana capacity?" I ask. "I seemed to be using Mana without it reducing very much. I was utilizing a similar property as dragon's fire – I was pulling Mana from the air and the ground to fuel my spells."

Though I won't admit that I could only maintain that trick for another minute before my casting skill would be strained too much and I'd need to stop.l

"I used that exact same trick to counter your dragon's fire," I inform him. "I simply removed all of the Mana from a thin layer around me, in a space slightly-bigger around than your dragon's fire breath would be upon reaching that spot. Without any Mana there for it to burn, it then immediately expired."

"H-how?" He steps forward a little, staring at me in shock. "You're a human! Even spirits can't do that sort of thing!"

"Just because I'm a person," I say. "That doesn't mean I'm incapable. Allow me to properly introduce myself, Torventozil. I am Caleb, known by many titles, including the titles the Sage of Fire and the Saint of Magic. In the future, if you are going to make claims about being superior to someone, please be able to back it up."

The dragon just stares in shock and disbelief.

"Someone resurrected my husband and me," I shrug. "We don't know who or why, but they did, and they even restored our original bodies, though we did suffer a reset. If we were still at Level 500, I'd have actually not even needed to pull Mana from the air to sustain my spells. My own spells would have been powerful enough on their own that I wouldn't need to spend extra Mana. Plus, if we didn't go through the reset because we died, then my Skills for all of the spells would have been high enough that the Mana costs would've been trivial. I actually had [Fire Barrier] at Level 137. Don't ask why."

"Why?"

"I just said don't ask that!" I exclaim, and a large rock falls on his head. "Jeez!"

"Did you just conjure a rock above my head and drop it?"

"I did."

"You-"

"Do you really want to go another round with me?"

"You couldn't have maintained that trick for too long," his gaze narrows at me. "I could feel your Mana reducing and your spells growing sloppier. Humans have an issue with strain with prolonged casting, especially when they're doing something far beyond what they should be able to. You only had a few more minutes left, and this brief rest wouldn't have helped you."

"You're right," I tell him. "I couldn't maintain that much longer. However, with our first round, I was only trying to prove to you that you are not, in fact, capable of taking on the Sage of Fire, and I was butt-naked and without any items helping me."

The dragon seems to only realize that.

"You just got your ass whupped by a butt-naked person," I tell him. "One who wasn't even using any items. One whose only goal was to frustrate you enough that you'd eventually resort to using your dragon's fire breath, just so that he could establish that he was, in fact, superior."

"You-"

"Were not fighting to kill," I tell him. "I was only fighting to show you that one of the people you were claiming you were superior to was, in fact, superior to you. Now, I'm wondering if you've learned this lesson. See, if you have, then it means you aren't likely to go picking fights with people and causing problems for them. Problems that would result in them calling dragon-hunters for help.

"If you haven't, though," I shrug. "Then there's no point in letting you build up the wrong part of your ego to the point you eventually seek out humans to dominate. That's not really allowed, you know. So if that's going to happen, it would be better to just kill you here and now."

I flash him a friendly smile.

"Do you want to see my fighting style when I'm aiming to kill a dragon?"