Noel punched one of the ethereals and launched a shockwave sending it scattering into small embers. However those embers reassembled and attacked again. Noel didn’t give it the chance and used her shockwave to jump back while simultaneously attacking it again. Then she spun around and punched another one smashing it into embers. Then she spun around and sent a second shockwave at it with a kick causing the embers to scatter further. The embers rejoined into two separate ethereals of high silver ranking.

When everyone saw that they knew how to beat the enemy. Lin was using an earth mystic art with a quarterstaff to block the ethereals while her sister shredded them with a thunder based whip technique that created shockwaves similar to Noel’s on a smaller scale. Max used a fire sword mystic art to directly burn the ethereals and Lance hacked them to pieces with his lightning-fast spear. The battle was going relatively well considering the relative strength of each side.

Owari looked around carefully in case someone made a mistake. Overall they were struggling but still managing. He could see them slowly improving as the fight went on, however he suddenly looked up. There were about 10 more ethereals flying down to meet them. Nine were only silver rank but the last was low gold rank. This would definitely tip the scales. Owari thought about it and decided to deal with them before they caused the battle to go south.

Owari jumped using his dark speed step to arrive below them a bit. As he flashed back into sight he used silver wave as he pulled his sword out sending a silver blast of energy out and shredding the nine silver ranks into nothing and scattering the gold rank into bits which reformed into a low silver ranked ethereal. It even looked like it was about to fade away. Owari used his air step to rush it and tried out something.

Owari was curious if he really couldn’t cut it without a mystic art. He swung his sword using his full power moth wing strike and managed to use the blade to cut it in half while the wind rushing behind his sword pulled the ethereal along and tearing pieces off of it. As this occurred the ethereal lost its shape and began fading. As this happened Owari felt his ghost eye moth stir and rush out of his coat. It quickly dove into the ethereal and seemed to absorb it. It was then that Owari realized what was familiar with these things, it was that they had the phantom affinity.

Owari’s eyes flashed as he fell to the ground while staring at his moth who flew back into his coat. It showed signs of evolving its phantom affinity. It was a rapid growth unlike any before. Owari decided to use this chance to cultivate his moth’s affinity. As he fell to the ground he used his phantom affinity to lighten his body and land softly on the ground.

It was at this point everyone realized what Owari meant when he said he could destroy a building. If he hit a building with that silver wave of energy he could easily pierce a hole straight through it. Out of everyone here the most the others could do with one attack would be to smash down a wall, whereas that attack could easily collapse a building.

Everyone felt much more safe having Owari on their side. Well most of them, Lin was quite frightened. She had no idea the person she insulted way back then would grow so strong. She felt regretful of her own stupidity. But it was already too late. She could only stick to her guns, or so she thought.

The fight went smoothly after that. Owari no longer interfered and soon everyone had taken care of their respective groups. Owari’s moth flew around fluttering along and absorbing the remnants of the ethereals. Owari took a deep breath as he felt his phantom affinity growing. He would slowly acclimate to this increase in affinity which would enhance his body based on said affinity.

“That was good work.” Dustin said as he watched everyone recover from their fights. “Owari, why did you stay back?” He asked with curiosity and clear disapproval.

“Two reasons, one was to watch everyone’s backs and respond to any unforeseen danger. The second is because if I had joined they would have no chance to gain experience.” Owari answered, unbothered by Dustin’s tone.

“I see.” Was all he said in return.

The group made their way back and rested for half an hour before being sent back out. They were to face another group of gold ranks, but this time it was an even stronger group. Seeing as how they had handled the previous group so well it was determined that they could handle a stronger group of adversaries. The group sighed but none complained. It was part of the job after all.

This time they went to an area near the craftsmen district and found their targets. A group of six with three low golds, two mid golds, and a high gold rank ethereal. Noel jumped forward to fight the high gold rank, while Lance and Max took on the two mid golds. Lee and Lin obviously took the final three low gold ranks. It was a relatively even match like the last one, but the enemies were individually more powerful making them more dangerous.

Noel ran into some trouble, as she was smashing her enemy into pieces using her shockwave techniques the embers suddenly spread out around her and coalesced from multiple directions with her in the center. She used an earth body reinforcement technique but the grey embers passed straight through. Before they could infuse themselves into her body however, Owari appeared. He flashed there in an instant and masterfully used his jetstream technique to slash through each of the embers save for the ones that passed her defense.

The few embers that did make it were ground to bits by her earth reinforcement. “That was close. It would have been annoying having another being inside my body.” Noel sighed in relief.

“Agreed.” Owari nodded. Shortly after their exchange the battle ended.

The group continued like this through the day, going in and killing ethereals mindlessly. They did this for another day after that. It wasn’t until the day after that that things changed. In the city the ethereals started to clump together and grow stronger. Seemingly sensing the crisis they were fusing together to grow stronger. Technically this had already been happening before, but it wasn’t noticed until a platinum rank appeared. The difference between gold and platinum rank was that platinum ranks had an extra set of wings.

Owari’s group was currently facing one such ethereal themselves. Owari was the one who would be fighting it while the rest of the group held off the lower-ranked ethereals. Owari pulled out his sword and prepared for the fight. He had observed the lower-ranked ethereals techniques and fighting methods. He just hoped they translated to the stronger ones.

Owari used dark speed step to appear in front of the ethereal in an instant. He swung using screeching wing only to find it had already folded its four wings in front of it. His attack clashed with the four wings. His silver wind scattered around the ethereal, meanwhile the ethereal’s wings scattered into the air around him. Before it could sink them into his body he disappeared in a flash and appeared about a meter back.

The ethereal reabsorbed the ghostly embers and stared at Owari with its burning red eyes. Owari was unafraid of this ghostly being and flashed forward again. This time he swung with the dark steel fang. The ethereal blocked once again, however it also backed off. When Owari’s attack hit the wings it was only slowed for an instant before it sliced through all four wings. However it was unable to reach the main body.

The ethereal spun and flew forward using one of its wings as a weapon it swung at Owari. Owari used the dark steel fang to react to the attack allowing him to clash with the attack. This time his attack only went halfway into its wing. Owari had already known it could change the solidity of its body, but this was on another level.

The two pushed against one another’s attacks and were sent flying backward. Owari used his sword to slow down, while the ethereal flapped its wings. Owari didn’t flash forward and instead kicked off the ground with his normal speed. However underestimating this speed would be a mistake. He would only take a few moments to reach the ethereal.

The ethereal folded its wings in front of it slightly apart leaving a gap. In this gap a small ball of energy formed rapidly and was shot at Owari. He didn’t dare dodge because his allies were behind him. Depending on the attacks range it could hit them. Owari used silver wave to intercept the attack before it reached him.

The two attacks clashed mid-air and the ball of energy exploded before mixing with the silver energy before being torn apart. The silver wave then continued and sliced the ethereal in half. Metal was a destructive affinity, unlike the light phantom affinity. Even if it condensed it.

Having blocked the attack Owari flashed forward taking advantage of the enemy’s wounds. He swung using earth breaker to increase the weight of his blade and swung it through the ethereal from top to bottom. The weight of the blade tore the ethereal’s body to pieces. However it rapidly coalesced and reformed shocking Owari. They always have a delay before reformation.

The ethereal then stabbed forward with all of its four wings. Owari flashed back, however the wings had been fast and he had a few superficial wounds on his shoulder, chest, and gut. He had managed to dodge one luckily. The ethereal was the one to go on the offensive this time. It flew forward rapidly and reached Owari in nearly an instant. It turned and swung two of its wings at Owari who used dark steel fang to intercept the attack. Undeterred, the ethereal turned again and stabbed with its other two wings. Owari sidestepped these attacks easily. However the ethereal didn’t slow down one bit and slashed with one of its clawed hands.

Owari intercepted the attack with dark steel fang. Unwilling to let it get the upper hand, Owari pushed back with all of his strength while reinforcing his body with water affinity. This allowed him to force his body to exert more of his strength which would usually injure him. This allowed him to send the ethereal rearing backward a bit.

Owari immediately went on the offensive using jet stream to swing at the ethereal over and over. It ducked and dodged and sometimes blocked, but it was clearly overwhelmed by the increasingly fast attacks that grew sharped and larger as time went on. It tried to fly back only to find Owari hot on its tail. It even tried dodging to the side clearly assuming Owari was only able to move forward only to find him easily changing directions.

The ethereal decided to take drastic action and flew straight up. As it did, Owari obviously followed using wind step to treat the air as if it was solid ground. The ethereal shrunk into a small ball which Owari struck, slowing his momentum greatly as it felt like he hit a chunk of adamantium. The ball went flying into the air and unfurled back into the ethereal which was smiling with its black maw.

It folded its wings in front of its body and placed its hands in the gap it left. It soon started using the same ball attack as before. However its wings rapidly disappeared showing it was using more mana this time. On top of that some ethereals from the sky rapidly descended and were absorbed into the attack as well.

Owari used wind walk to stand on the air and put his sword into a sword draw position. He charged up his silver wave with about a third of his mana and swung. Realizing he wasn’t giving it time to charge and feeling the energy within that attack, the ethereal shot out its own attack in a panic. The two attacks clashed mid-air and like before the ball exploded and the silver energy tore through the ghostly embers that remained and turned into a silver line of energy which swallowed up the ethereal shredding it, leaving only a small wispy ember.

Owari chuckled, the enemy thought it had superiority in the air and had gone up to use its fellow ethereals to fuel its attack and take out everyone at once. However in the sky Owari no longer had to hold back in fear of destroying the buildings or injuring his allies. If it had been at full strength or was able to dodge it would have been a problem but it obviously wasn’t, and couldn’t. After finishing that attack Owari allowed his ghost eye moth to go consume the remaining energy as he floated to the ground. He no longer involved himself in the fight. After that he was running low on mana.

When the moth returned it fell into a torpor and began evolving. Owari took a deep breath as his phantom affinity grew rapidly. He had at least five times as much phantom affinity as before. He felt it hitting a wall and knew that once he acclimated to it he would breakthrough and obtain a new spirit art. He wondered what kind of spirit art would come from the phantom affinity. Seeing these ethereals he suddenly realized how strange and esoteric this affinity was.

The group finished up easily after that and made their way back to the tents to report the new finding of platinum ranked ethereals. They had yet to be informed of them as the discovery was made after they left. Soon it was spread around and every group had at least one platinum rank with them. Owari was disappointed to see there were only a dozen platinum ranks. It was to be expected though. Perhaps a few hundred to maybe a few thousand people become hunters every year. Among those half at least die, while a quarter of them remain in the silver rank. The final quarter are split between higher ranks with the percentage downgrading every rank up.

Not only were platinum ranks rare, but most wouldn’t come out to deal with this problem unless they were just or lacking money. Judging by Owari’s funding the latter was unlikely. Not everyone wanted to risk their life, whether it be normal people or high ranking people. Those like Owari were rare and usually got themselves killed. If not they grow to be powerhouses like the top rank of the Silverblood family. He was only in his thirties and was high electrum rank. In a few decades it may be possible for him to reach orichalcum rank, a rank which had only been reached a dozen times in human history. That is if he survives.

When they arrived back at the tents that had been set up they all rested, especially Owari who was almost out of mana. He didn’t like being out of mana as it made him vulnerable. However that was only in regards to platinum ranks and high gold ranks. He could probably easily kill a mid gold rank or lower without mystic arts. In fact he had already done so.

Once the group was rested they went back to work, nothing of note really happened but it did take them a full week overall to clean up the city. Owari’s moth had finished its evolution and he was slowly acclimating to it. He figured it would take somewhere around a month to do so since he had good compatibility with this affinity. His body matched the traits of the phantom affinity. Given all the affinities he now had his appearance had changed a bit from what it was originally.

His water affinity gave him a healthier look, his earth affinity gave him strong features, while the dark affinity gave him more smooth features. As for the phantom affinity, it made his skin lighter and more soft for some reason. However all this added up together and removed a lot of his previous negative traits. He wasn’t handsome by any means, but he was no longer a slim sickly looking kid.

They made the trip back and separated from there. Dustin had to work with Francis to determine what would happen with the city. The original inhabitants were mostly dead, while those who were alive would be given their property back, the rest was now owned by the Silverblood family who purchased it from the government before clearing it out. It was cheap for an entire city, but that was because of the fact it was inhabited by such dangerous beasts.

As for the rest of the group, they had to head home. Lance, Owari, and Noel all stuck together as they went to the train. Owari decided to pay for a first-class ticket since he was feeling indulgent. Noel followed his lead, while Lance stood off to the side feeling awkward. He didn’t get paid nearly enough for that. In fact Noel didn’t either, but she could always borrow money from Owari. Not that she would do so frivolously.

“I can pay for you if you want to join us.” Owari offered. First-class has separate rooms for each passenger. Of course Noel and Owari would sleep in one room together so their tickets were cheaper, though Owari paid for Morgana’s ticket so it balanced out.

“That’s fine, I can just ride lower class.” Lance rejected him.

“It’ll be fun to spend some time together. Just accept it.” Owari bought the ticket and tossed it to Lance giving him no choice. Owari would never refund it.

“Fine.” Lance sighed.

“Now let us board the train.” Noel went first and confidently showed her ticket to the attendant and she along with everyone else was led to their rooms.

“Will that be all?” He asked. First-class was given some privileges over normal people.

“Some food would be nice.” Noel was a bit hungry so she ordered something. Since meals were complimentary to a certain point she decided to do so.

“I’ll order something too.” Owari also made an order. The two ordered their favorite meals and the attendant made his way off to tell the cooks.

“Are you sure you can afford my ticket?” Lance asked as the three sat around the table in Noel and Owari’s room.

“It’s only a few hundred credits. When I get back I have a lot of profit coming in from my new silk business.” Owari hadn’t neglected his business all this time and was carefully watching over the finances. He had made a decent profit due to the strength of the silk. It was very resistant to wear and tear and damage in general.

“How much did you make?” Lance was curious.

“About 40,000 credits? Somewhere around there. Silk is an expensive commodity. Spiders are different from silkworms in that they have more control over the properties and shapes of their silk. They can produce usable sheets of silk that need no treating or work to sell. Of course it’s a pain to teach them, but once they have it down it’s nothing but profit.” Owari explained without being asked. As always he goes into a tirade in regards to stuff like this. Magical beasts are one of his favorite topics after all.

“So you’re rich?” Lance nodded as if he expected it.

“Yeah pretty much. I have so many sources of income that I make a ridiculous amount per year. Though really anyone at my rank should be the same. Didn’t you get a raise for your rank increasing?” Owari asked curiously.

“I’m still only mid gold. Even though it’s impressive for my age I only get paid a bit more than a normal mid gold. It’s definitely enough to sustain me and maybe even buy a nice house or car, but not like you.” Lance sighed.

“Then get involved in business. The Amber Agency should have its toes in various things. I’m sure you could double as a manager and make some extra money. Or you could focus on growing your strength and raise your rank.” Owari suggested.

“I’m not interested in business like you. I have no talent for it, or more likely I have too little interest. Plus I can’t find stuff like you so that’s out of the cards.” Lance refuted him.

“Speaking of which there have been plenty of new discoveries of stuff in the area. It seems after my success story a lot of people started to hire out geologists and stuff like that to come with them and survey the area. I’m basically out of resources to find.” Owari spoke regretfully.

“Don’t act like you missed out. You’ve had plenty of benefits.” Noel chided him.

“Yes of course. Back to the point. Then your only option is rank increasing.” Owari spoke back to Lance.

“I guess so.” Lance replied depressedly. He was still a long way off of high gold rank. Unlike Owari he slowly built up his skill over time instead of forcing himself to grow or die.

“You’ll manage. You don’t have to be rich to be happy.” Owari chuckled.

“But it makes it easier.” Lance joked.

“I guess that’s true.” Owari admitted with a smile.

“You know looking back I never would have expected we’d all end up where we are.” Lance said with some nostalgia.

“You sound like an old man.” Noel teased him.

“I feel like one with all that paperwork I do.” He sighed.

“I suppose that’s true. I feel the same at times.” Noel also sighed.

“I can’t relate.” Owari shook his head.

“Of course you wouldn’t. All you have to worry about is fighting.” Lance replied.

“That’s not true. But it is my main focus.” Owari did at least admit that much.

“What else is there?” Lance asked curiously.

“Dealing with the budget for my new business.” Owari answered.

“Oh right.” Lance forgot about that kind of stuff.

“Speaking of which, how is your relationship with your bosses?” Owari asked curiously.

“What do those two things have in common? Well anyway, it’s fine why?” Lance wondered what Owari was getting at.

“The better your bosses like you the more likely they are not to pass you up for a raise or a better position.” Owari figured it was obvious.

“Right, it’s not like I ignore stuff as simple as that. It’s just hard to get close to them given the people in charge of that don’t live in the city.” Lance sighed.

“Perhaps the next time you get vacation time you should visit the city they are in and take them out to a fancy lunch.” Noel suggested.

“Good idea.” Lance nodded.

“Speaking of vacations, have you found a girlfriend yet?” Owari asked a completely irrelevant question to the current topic.

“You sure have a weird thought process as always. No I haven’t, why do you always ask that?” Lance sighed deeply.

“I want to encourage you to look, after all so far you haven’t mentioned even looking. Plus I’ve seen how jealous you are of Noel and me.” Owari said with a grin.

“Yeah yeah.” Lance waved it off.

“Why don’t you ask Rebecca?” Noel suggested.

“I’m not interested in flirty girls. I’m the jealous type.” Lance admitted with some difficulty.

“Maybe she would be less flirty if guys didn’t always pass her over.” Noel smiled.

“I’m sure she has plenty of offers.” Lance didn’t take it seriously.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.” Noel said ambiguously.

“I’ll think about it.” Lance said with some apprehension. After that the group joked and talked until it was time to sleep at which point Noel kicked out Lance and Owari so she could change into her pajamas.