This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The last of the overall Top 5 training drills had finally wrapped. Jade, Theo, and Reed filtered out slowly, some grumbling, others silent. Kain remained on the edge of the elevated ring, towel draped around his neck, eyes drifting over the schedule of auction events projected from his tablet.

Serena dropped down beside him, tossing her towel over one shoulder.

“You good?” she asked, wiping sweat from her brow. “You were zoning out hard during cooldown.”

“Thinking,” he said, not looking up. “About the auction.”

“Of course you are.” She leaned in, and a warm floral scent wrapped around him—soft, clean, and just a little too distracting. “So, what’s the plan? Going to blow all your savings on a single sword?”

Kain didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he flicked through a few more preview listings before exhaling. “I was planning to outfit myself fully with the best 5-star gear available. Six-sigil sets, enchanted accessories, all that. Stuff in the 50 to 100 million CD range per piece. Maybe 200 for a really top-tier utility tool.”

Serena whistled. “Sounds expensive.”

“It is. That’s why I originally planned to bring about 300 million CD.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Originally?”

Kain smirked and lowered his tablet, turning to meet her gaze. “How much do you think I’m bringing?”

“I don’t know. Five hundred million?” she guessed, amused.

“Try twelve billion.”

Serena blinked.

Then she stared at him.

Then she opened her mouth, closed it again, and finally leaned back on her hands. “You’re serious?”

“Very.”

“…That’s enough to start your own small city.”

Kain raised an eyebrow. “Tempting.”

She stared at him a moment longer, then gave a small, incredulous laugh. “I was going to suggest you skip the enchanted jewelry section, which typically costs the most, but with that kind of budget, you might actually be able to fight over some of the heavier listings.”

“Not all of them,” he muttered. “There’s one in particular I’m eyeing—but you’d probably know better if it’s even real.”

“Oh?”

Kain turned his screen toward her, a preview listing open. “There’s a rumoured item—people say it might be appearing for the first time from the royal family’s vaults. Supposedly, it can refine a dragon’s bloodline permanently and continuously. It’s perfect for Vauleth. His line has always had… gaps.”

Unlike most spiritual creatures that evolve into entirely new species, as signified by the light of evolution, true dragons were an exception. A newborn red dragon and a 9-star red dragon were both still red dragons—but their power and quality were worlds apart. That was because dragons didn’t evolve by changing species.

They evolved and increased their quality by refining their blood.

With every breakthrough, their bloodline inched closer to its ancestral peak—toward the source of all coloured dragons: the evil dragon goddess of greed, Tiamat. The closer their blood came to hers, the greater their strength, longevity, and potential. This refinement wasn’t about visible change—it was about density, purity, and inherited memory.

True evolution for dragons wasn’t a transformation.

It was ascension through blood.

Something that Vauleth was helplessly incapable of doing due to him not being a ‘true dragon’ in the purest sense still. He is more accurately described as a virus wearing the skin of a red dragon.

Serena frowned, her expression shifting into something more serious. “A congenital deficiency?”

Kain nodded. “He’s powerful, but he doesn’t have that self-refining ability most true dragons possess. Unlike most red dragons that could realistically all reach 9-stars with enough talent, determination and luck, he hit a ceiling way earlier than expected. If he had this item—”

Serena cut him off gently. “I’ve heard of it. It’s not confirmed, but there’s strong chatter. If it really is appearing… it’ll go for tens of billions. Maybe more. It’s a rare item even within the royal family, and something that will likely not flow out of the royal family vaults again. You will have a lot of competitors for it. It’d be hard for you to purchase it.”

Kain’s expression soured. “Even if I gave up buying gear for myself?”

“Still likely not enough. And it’ll be targeted by nobles. Top clan heirs. People who’ve been waiting for a chance to buy something like this from the royal family for years.” She paused, then added, “Even if you can afford to bid, you likely will not be able to win.”

He exhaled, frustration flickering in his eyes. “So close.”

She tilted her head, watching him for a beat. “You know… you still have one edge, none of them do.”

He looked up. “What’s that?”

“Real estate,” she said dryly.

Kain blinked.

Then his eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re talking about Pangea.”

She gave a slow nod. “Back in the relic, you used it to heal me so it suffered some damage, but you said that it’s long healed, right? I saw that you were able to pull food from it. You even showed me the entire planet once, remember?”

“I remember,” he said cautiously. “Why?”

“Are there metals or rare plants there?”

“…Probably. I haven’t exactly set up a mining operation, but there are crystal veins, deposits in the mountains, natural spiritual ore formations. It’s rich, but I’ve never had it appraised professionally.”

Serena stood, brushing off her training pants. “Then let’s get you an appraisal.”

Kain stared up at her. “You know someone?”

“I might. Or at least someone who knows someone. If those deposits are even half what you suspect, we might be able to liquidate a few tons discreetly and funnel it as pre-auction capital. Although how much you can get will depend on the quality and quantity of the metals you can bring.”

Kain blinked in shock and also was internally kicking himself, why had he neglected this source of income?

‘It’s true that comfort breeds laziness.’ After having no need for money in his daily life, Kain had let this opportunity slip through the cracks for far too long.

This training session was the last one before a short leave due to the auction. As Serena hypothesized, due to the high number of professors and students within the top 5 attending, they had just cancelled training for 2 days. Unfortunately, though, they only let them have one day off before the auction and were expected to be back to train the morning right after. Meaning that Kain and Serena didn’t have as much time to get Kain’s metals appraised and sold as they would have liked.

Already packed up before the training, with everything they needed in their space rings, they immediately just headed to the College’s teleportation array without even bothering to wash up.

Light surged around them.

And then they vanished.

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