Allen picked up the four silver badges from the desk, each one etched with a sequence of numbers that would define their lives moving forward.

He handed the first one to Elise.

"Your badge," he said. "Do not lose it. Replacing a Ranker badge requires a massive fee and a mountain of paperwork."

Elise took it with both hands, staring at the number ’14,820’ engraved across the front. Her thumb brushed over the digits lightly, a soft, accomplished smile breaking across her face. "Thank you, Guildmaster."

He handed the next one to Sable, who took it with a quick, decisive nod, her eyes lingering on the ’9,210’ for just a second before she slipped it into the pouch on her belt.

Juna didn’t even reach out for hers. She just crossed her arms and looked at the badge like it was completely useless. Hajin grabbed it for her, tossing the ’1,450’ badge into his bag alongside his own, which read ’1,210’.

"The guild network will finalize your registrations overnight," Allen said, sitting back in his chair and lacing his fingers together.

"You can start using your Ranker benefits as soon as tomorrow morning. That includes access to the upper-tier request boards, the private training grounds, and the discounted merchant network."

He looked at Hajin specifically, his eyes narrowing just a fraction. "Try not to break anything else while you’re at it."

"I’ll do my best," Hajin replied, offering a brief, respectful nod. He knew better than to push his luck with the man who had just let him off the hook for a broken dragon core. "Thank you for the exam, Guildmaster."

He turned and pushed the office doors open, stepping out into the hallway. Juna followed right behind him, her tail giving a lazy flick as she walked. Elise and Sable exchanged a quick glance before offering Allen a polite bow and hurrying out after them.

The sun was already starting to set by the time they stepped out of the guild hall and onto the main street.

The district was busy, full of merchants packing up their stalls and adventurers heading toward the taverns to drink away their daily earnings.

Hajin shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking toward the inn, letting the cool evening breeze wash away the lingering heat from the dragon core.

"Hey, wait up!"

He stopped and looked over his shoulder. Elise and Sable were jogging to catch up, dodging a passing carriage before stopping a few feet away.

Sable was the first to speak, her usual sharp edge completely missing from her voice. "We didn’t get a chance to say this inside, but... thank you. For what you did back there in the arena."

"Yeah," Elise added, stepping up beside her with a genuine, warm smile. "If you hadn’t stepped in and taken control of the synchronization, both of us would have completely failed. Or worse, the feedback loop would have killed us."

"Don’t worry about it," he said flatly, turning back around to keep walking. "I needed three people to crack the core anyway. It was just a mutual transaction."

He didn’t want to drag this out into a whole emotional speech. He was tired, his new ring spirit was currently dead silent, and he just wanted to get back to his room and figure out what exactly ’Assimilation’ meant.

But Elise and Sable didn’t let him leave. They fell into step right beside him, walking down the busy street like they were already a coordinated unit.

"Actually," Elise started, glancing nervously at Sable before looking back at him. "We were talking about it while the Guildmaster was doing the paperwork, and... we want to join your group."

He stopped walking, turned his head and looked at her, his brow pulling together in pure confusion. "My what?"

"Your party," Sable clarified, crossing her arms. "We want to work together. We’re all new Rankers, we already know we can synchronize our mana perfectly, and we clearly fight well as a team. It just makes sense to form an official party."

"No," he said immediately.

Both of them blinked, the rejection hitting so fast and so bluntly that it physically shocked them.

"What do you mean, no?" Sable asked, her face flushing with sudden indignation. "We didn’t even try to negotiate! We just broke a ten-shard core together!"

"And having a group is annoying," he replied, giving a dismissive shrug. "Parties mean splitting loot, arguing over which requests to take, and having to worry about someone else dying every time we step into a gate. I don’t want to deal with that. I work better on my own."

Elise frowned, looking completely confused as she pointed at Juna, who was standing quietly right next to him. "But... isn’t she part of your group? You aren’t working on your own."

"Juna is different," he stated, not bothering to explain the intricate mechanics of his summoning system or the fact that she literally couldn’t leave him even if she wanted to. "She’s my partner. That’s all I need."

Juna’s ears perked up, her chest puffing out just a fraction while she shot a smug, superior look at the other two girls.

Sable caught the look and her eye twitched. "Oh, come on! We’re not dead weight! We just got ranked in the top fifteen thousand! Most parties would kill to have either of us!"

"Then go join one of them," he said, turning back toward the street.

"No!" Elise stepped right in front of him, blocking his path. She didn’t look nervous anymore, she just looked incredibly stubborn. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"I don’t want to join another party. You showed me what real mana control actually feels like. If I join some random group, I’m just going to fall right back into my old habits. I want to learn from you."

"Same here," Sable added, stepping up right next to Elise. "I hate admitting it, but my control is garbage compared to yours. You fixed it in five minutes. If we’re in your party, we can get stronger."

He stared at the two of them, letting out a long, heavy sigh.

He could see the determination in their eyes. They weren’t going to let this go. If he just walked away now, they would probably follow him all the way back to the inn and keep bothering him until he finally caved.

He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about the looming threat of the Flint family and the overall massive headache that his life had become over the last few days.

’Having two actual Rankers as a meat shield wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,’ he thought pragmatically. ’If they actually get their output under control, they could deal with the annoying mob enemies while Juna and I focus on the bosses.’

"Fine," he finally said, his voice dropping into a flat, serious tone.

Elise’s face instantly lit up, and Sable let out a triumphant breath, but Hajin held up a finger before either of them could celebrate.

"But I have a condition," he continued, looking right at them. "I’m not going to babysit you in a gate. If you want to join me, you need to actually pull your own weight without me constantly fixing your pathways."

He tapped his own chest. "You both felt the control I showed you during the synchronization. The way the mana moved without leaking, without wasting a single drop. If you want to be in my party, you have to master that control on your own."

Sable’s smile faltered slightly. "Master it? But you said it took you—"

"I don’t care how long it takes you," he cut her off, his green eyes narrowing. "Figure it out. When you can circulate your mana perfectly without spilling it all over the room, come find me. Until then, you’re not in the group."

He didn’t wait for them to agree. He just stepped around Elise and kept walking down the street, leaving the two girls standing there in the middle of the crowd.

Juna followed him, but she looked back over her shoulder one last time, giving them a small, challenging smirk before turning away.

"Well," Sable muttered, staring at his retreating back while her hand dropped to her sword hilt. "He certainly doesn’t make things easy, does he?"

Elise took a deep breath, her hands clenching into fists at her sides as she looked at her own palm, remembering the warm, stable feeling of the golden mana.

"No," she said, a new fire lighting up in her eyes. "But he’s right. If we want to stand next to him, we need to be better."