Former Ranker's Newbie Life

Chapter 127

As Do-Jin began to consider Theresa as a member of the permanent team, there was one thing that bothered him. It was not her class but her position. She was a melee damage dealer who had sacrificed both mobility and durability for the sake of delivering a single devastating blow. From Do-Jin’s perspective, she could only be described as one thing.

She’s a hammer-wielding mage.

It was fine when she chose hunting grounds that allowed her to make full use of her strengths. However, in a boss fight where powerful attacks rained down constantly from all sides, her position would be more of a burden than an advantage.

If she got caught in an unavoidable area attack and ended up rolling on the ground bleeding, it would drag down the morale of the entire party. Even putting that aside, there was barely any need for a melee physical dealer when he already had Anemone. For Do-Jin, the most useful position she could fill was clear. What suited her best was becoming a tank.

It’s not too late for her. Even if she was raised as a damage dealer, she’s still around Level 100. It would take some time, but switching to a tank build is completely possible.

As long as she had the determination to do it, Do-Jin had both the information and the skill to raise her into a ranker-level tank. Whether she decided to take that opportunity or not should be her choice.

He must have been lost in thought longer than he realized because by the time he looked up, the mood in the area had changed. The raid was winding down, and people were already preparing to leave.

“Hey, Theresa,” Do-Jin called out to her as she gathered her belongings to head out.

“Yes?” Her expression was stiff and uncertain, and her eyes shifted slightly as if the change in how he addressed her caught her off guard.

Do-Jin did not pay much attention to it and continued speaking, “It isn’t something I need right now, but I think a time will come soon when I will need a tank. Have you ever thought about switching to that role?”

For a brief moment, Theresa blinked several times, almost as if she was replaying what she had just heard. Then she nodded quickly and smiled.

“I will do it.”

The response came so fast and so confidently that it left Do-Jin stunned for a moment. “Wait, you are deciding that quickly? Are you sure?”

“Well, you wouldn’t have asked me if you did not think I could do it, right? So I will do it.”

Do-Jin didn’t respond immediately. He simply studied her for a moment, realizing how sincere she sounded. Theresa was not agreeing out of recklessness or impulse. She was saying yes because she genuinely trusted him.

There were plenty of tanks out there, so Theresa wondered why he had asked her specifically. It had to be a scout offer. That was the only thing that made sense. Even if he only called on her occasionally, each time would be a jackpot. Just staying in his party would be worth it.

Her faith in him bordered on devotion. She truly believed that simply being near him would bring her success. Opportunities like that didn’t come around often. When they did, it was better to grab them and never let go. Her round eyes gleamed with conviction.

When Do-Jin saw that expression, he could not help but think that she might be a better recruit than he expected. In his mind, someone who followed directions without hesitation, without doubting or second-guessing, was the ideal kind of party member he could ever ask for.

***

To seize the opportunity that had finally come her way, Theresa didn’t hesitate for even a second. The first thing she did was sell every single piece of gear she owned. She had stacked up on gear that maximized attack power, but it was all useless now that she was switching to a tank build.

Because she sold everything in a rush, she didn’t even get a fair price for most of her items. The numbers that showed up in the trade window almost made her sick, but she didn’t stop. She pressed the confirm button again and again until it was all gone.

It’s an investment. It’s an investment. It’s an investment...

The words sounded hollow even to her, and her hands were trembling so badly she almost dropped her mouse. Every sale felt like cutting off a piece of herself. But she still did it, because there was no other choice if she wanted to move forward.

Once she was done gutting her entire setup, she started buying tank gear. She searched for Level 80 to 90 items, mostly C and B-rank pieces with defensive stats from top to bottom. Every piece of armor she bought looked bulky and heavy, but it was what she needed.

She completely tore down her old setup and rebuilt her entire loadout from the ground up. The little money she had left from downgrading her equipment went straight into buying spellbooks. Then came the final step, which was redistributing her bonus points.

Good thing I saved these up, she thought with a grim smile.

Ever since that miserable boss fight under the lake with Do-Jin, she had been saving her points little by little. That fight had been humiliating. She had been nothing but a useless liability, running around like a scared idiot while everyone else did the work.

The experience had drilled into her head just how much survivability mattered, so much so that Theresa had dumped every last point she had into Vitality and Agility.

My Strength is still way too high, but whatever. From now on, everything goes into not dying. I can deal with that.

When everything was ready, Theresa turned on her stream and marched toward the hunting grounds without looking back.

As viewers began tuning in, curiosity rose when they read her stream title, “Shield Mastery? I’ll level it up.” Someone in her chat had asked what she was planning to do that day.

Theresa gave the camera a tired smirk and said in a flat voice, “Today? I’m gonna let monsters beat the life out of me.”

That was how her brutal grind began, and it was nothing short of torture on day one.

***

Do-Jin had spent a full week doing absolutely nothing but resting. He had promised himself it would only be a short break, but by the end of it he was ready to crawl out of his own skin from boredom. The moment that feeling hit, he logged into LOST without hesitation.

The first thing he needed to take care of was obvious. Let’s hit up Elthomagia first.

He needed to pick up the item he had left with Sisala. Naturally, his feet started carrying him toward the same shabby little building beside the Imperial Magic Tower in Zeron, the place he had always used before. However, he suddenly stopped mid-stride.

Wait a minute. I can go inside the tower now, can’t I?

Do-Jin realized there was no reason to sneak around anymore. Normally, anyone without official entry clearance couldn’t even approach the barrier surrounding Elthomagia. Now that he had the token from Sion Grace, he could walk straight in.

He turned and headed straight for the tower, but after walking for a while, the distance didn’t seem to shrink. Still, he kept going.

So I’m inside the barrier now.

At one point, he felt a strange shift, like his body had passed through a wall of mana. That was when the scenery had changed. He was standing inside Elthomagia’s grand, glittering lobby.

The Orange Mage guarding the area, Renée Dacia, immediately fixed him with a suspicious glare. Anyone registered in the tower’s system should have their information displayed the instant they touched the barrier.

No color... he must be an outsider. Then why isn’t anything showing up? she thought.

In Elthomagia, every mage was marked by color according to rank, and that color would appear whether they liked it or not. Even if someone walked in naked, the tower itself would force the mark to appear. For outsiders, the system normally displayed the name of the mage who had issued their temporary entry pass.

Yet this man had nothing. He didn’t have a registration or an identifier. That could only mean someone had issued him a pass without logging it into the tower’s database, something that was supposed to be impossible. There was no way a random stranger could just stroll through Elthomagia’s barrier like it was nothing.

“You’re not affiliated with Elthomagia,” Renée said sharply. “Please state your reason for visiting so I can direct you to the appropriate personnel.”

She kept her tone polite, but there was a hard edge beneath it. In a place as strict and insular as Elthomagia, issuing a guest pass without authorization was a massive violation. In the first place, only high-ranking mages had the authority to invite outsiders, which made the situation even stranger.

“I’m here to see Sisala Omen,” Do-Jin said plainly.

“Sisala Omen?” Renée repeated.

Her voice tightened immediately. She knew exactly who this half-assed mage was, a talentless parasite that clung to the tower and dragged down the prestige of Elthomagia with her presence alone.

“You mean Green Mage Sisala Omen?” Renée asked, failing to keep the disdain out of her voice.

Even if she didn’t want to show it, her expression said it all. It was natural for her to think that way. Someone like Sisala, who got into the Green Rank through sheer luck instead of skill, dared to bring an outsider into the sacred halls of Elthomagia?

Technically, Yellow Mages and above could create one-time entry tokens using their emblems. But that feature existed only for emergencies, nothing more. In reality, only those of Blue Rank or higher were tacitly permitted to invite outsiders into the tower. And on top of that, Sisala hadn’t even registered the pass.

Figures. Anyone associated with a fool like Sisala Omen probably isn’t worth much either,Renée thought bitterly.

Her expression grew colder by the second, and Do-Jin caught on right away. “Is there some kind of problem?”

“There is indeed a problem. When an outsider is issued a pass, the issuing mage is required to register the authorization in the Elthomagia database. It appears that Sisala Omen neglected that obligation.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t use any pass,” Do-Jin said. “I came in with my own token.”

He was telling the truth, but Renée didn’t believe a single word of it. At this point, she openly glared at Do-Jin like he was some kind of lying thief.

“All tokens are automatically registered upon creation. The fact that you entered and nothing is showing on the terminal proves you’re lying. It looks like Sisala Omen is trying to cover her mistake by making you lie for her. If that’s the case, this situation is far more serious than you seem to realize.”

Do-Jin could feel his patience slipping. His jaw tightened as he reached into his inventory to pull out the token. But before he could show it to her, a sharp voice cut through the air. “What is going on here?”

One of the teleport Magic Circles on the lobby floor flared with light, and a man stepped out.

The moment Renée saw him, she stiffened in panic and adjusted her robes before speaking. “Lord Viego! What brings you here?”

“I have business with the Academy,” he replied in a cold voice. “But what is this commotion? If an outsider has entered, you should have summoned the one who invited him or escorted him to the guest floor. Why are you making a spectacle out of it?”

The rebuke made Renée bow her head instantly. “Forgive me, my lord.” However, the corners of her lips twitched upward in a faint, poisonous smile.

Lord Viego, at a time like this? This is too perfect, Renée thought as she suppressed a grin.

Just like Renée, Viego couldn’t stand Sisala. Her background alone, a commoner, was enough for him to see her as a stain on Elthomagia’s name. He didn’t see a fellow mage when he looked at her. He saw a bug crawling around the tower, smearing its walls with dirt she didn’t deserve to touch.

That was why Renée didn’t waste a second before tattling, her voice sharp but self-assured. “We were checking the records because no entry information appeared for this individual. It seems that Green Mage Sisala Omen personally issued a pass to an outsider and failed to log it into the tower database—”

“What?” Viego cut her off before she could even finish the sentence. His glare immediately turned on Do-Jin, eyes burning with hostility.

By now, Do-Jin’s irritation had crossed the line.

Let’s see how far these assholes take this, he thought with a blank expression.

He almost let loose a snicker at the absurdity of the situation. All he had done was walk in to pick up something his friend had been keeping for him. Although it was well within his rights to do so, everything had somehow gone sideways.

Hah... This is LOST, all right. If anything ever went smoothly, I wouldn’t even recognize the game.

Then, Viego barked, “Summon her.”

“Pardon me?” Renée blinked.

“I said summon Sisala Omen.”

“Y-yes, my lord! I’ll summon her right away!” Renée hurried to comply.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he wasn’t calling Sisala for a friendly chat. Judging by that old bastard’s face, he was getting ready to rip her apart.

Do-Jin sighed and decided to put an end to this circus before it went any further. He pulled out his token. “I told you already. I entered with my own token. Here, take a good look.”

He held out the Elthomagia emblem he carried. The reaction it drew from Viego was immediate and far from reasonable.

“Well, this is unbelievable,” Viego said coldly. “I was going to let this slide with a simple warning, but you have crossed the line far beyond that.”

What the hell is he even talking about now? Do-Jin thought.

“If it were a one-time pass, I could be generous and assume the issuer forgot to log it,” Viego continued, his voice rising. “But there is absolutely no way an external token would go unregistered. Which means you are holding out a forgery in front of me to cover your own ass. This is why commoners will never be accepted in Elthomagia.”

There it was, that old, festering arrogance. Viego’s deep-seated disgust for anyone born without noble blood rotted what remained of his reason and fueled his twisted sense of superiority.

“I can’t believe you would shove such a cheap imitation in my face. Look closely. This is what separates mine from yours. This is a true emblem of Elthomagia.”

He raised his own emblem and infused it with mana. The token flared to life, glowing blue, and the same-colored mana particles scattered through the air, forming his name and Elthomagia’s crest above it.

“Behold,” he said proudly. “This is a genuine Elthomagia token. Now, it is time for you to pay the price for your foolishness. You’ve turned a minor infraction into a serious offense. Both you, for forging a token and impersonating a mage, and Sisala Omen, who enabled this disgrace—”

He was still rambling, drunk on the sight of his own name floating in the air, completely absorbed in his self-importance. While he was basking in his own arrogance, Do-Jin quietly channeled mana into his own token.

Even if she didn’t bother with the registration, she must’ve encoded something into it... Do-Jin exhaled, long and slow. This is why I can’t fucking stand mages.

For all her brilliance, the so-called Archmage still acted like a lazy bureaucrat. Though he had no choice, Do-Jin suspected that dragging Sion’s name into this would only make things worse. Even so, he kept pouring mana into the token. It drank it in like a void swallowing light, turning a shade so deep it was nearly abyssal.