Chapter 8

I Became a Newbie Favored by the Transcendents Chapter 8

‘Golden mana?!’

The moment Junbeom wrapped mana around his right hand.

Director Kim Hyeonuk reacted as though his eyes were about to pop out.

And it wasn’t just the director.

Head Lee Useok and Assistant Manager Jeong Yewon, who were also present, both trembled.

‘Mana with a golden hue... astonishing.’

During all his years as director, he had met truly countless Players.

Among them, there had been some who handled mana in colors other than the universal blue.

Players who wielded holy power used white mana, while Players who awakened as Warriors or Berserkers wielded red mana, and so on.

Surprisingly, there were quite a variety of mana colors in the world.

But gold?

He had never seen it even once.

There probably wasn’t even an overseas case.

‘What’s different about golden mana?’

Does it amplify physical abilities?

Or can it manipulate some new attribute that has yet to be discovered?

There was no way to know right now.

And there was no chance Player Park Junbeom would answer even if asked.

It didn’t matter.

At this moment, there was only one thing Kim Hyeonuk truly wanted to know.

‘So what’s the grade?!’

Junbeom’s right hand, wrapped in golden mana, reached toward the crystal sphere.

Perhaps because it was such a tense moment, even that action, lasting barely a second, seemed to play in slow motion to Kim Hyeonuk.

‘I might get to see a red crystal sphere again after all this time...!’

If the crystal sphere turned red, that would mean the Republic of Korea had produced an S-rank Player for the first time in three years.

He was nervous, but at the same time, Director Kim Hyeonuk was nearly 90% certain that Junbeom would be S-rank.

After all, Junbeom was number one in the tutorial rankings!

‘How could a Player who surpassed Quentin De Niro possibly have anything less than S-rank mana?’

While Kim Hyeonuk was getting himself worked up all on his own.

Tap.

At last, Junbeom’s hand touched the crystal sphere.

And...

Flaaash―!!

“Mm!”

“Oh!”

Kim Hyeonuk and Lee Useok exclaimed when they saw the crystal sphere’s changed color.

Even Assistant Manager Jeong Yewon, who had been tense the entire time, gave a faint smile as she looked down at the crystal sphere.

Red!

S-rank confirmed!

Kim Hyeonuk clapped loudly and burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahahaha! Congratula...!”

At that moment.

Swoooosh...

The red suddenly began to fade.

“Huh?”

A hook seemed to appear inside Kim Hyeonuk’s brain, which had just been flooded with dopamine.

As the red drained away, it changed to orange.

Meaning A-rank.

“A-A-rank...”

Kim Hyeonuk, who almost unconsciously showed his disappointment, hurriedly controlled his expression.

You spoiled bastard, what’s wrong with A-rank?

S-rank was merely a realm beyond realms. A-rank was still more than enough to be a core asset worthy of full national support.

And even among A-ranks, there were an extremely small number of exceptional A-ranks whose actual abilities rivaled S-ranks.

Park Junbeom must be one of those cases!

Kim Hyeonuk calmly closed his eyes and nodded.

“As expected, I was certain you would be at least A-rank...”

“Director?”

Then he heard Lee Useok’s bewildered voice and opened his eyes again.

Seeing that the crystal sphere had changed color once more, Kim Hyeonuk looked at Lee Useok with a dazed expression.

“Why is it yellow?”

“I’m not sure either...”

B-rank?

No, B-rank wasn’t a grade anyone could look down on either, but still.

The mana purity, density, volume, and firepower of the number one Player in the tutorial rankings were only B-rank?

Something didn’t add up―.

“This time it’s green, Director.”

“...”

“Green, uh, blue... indigo...”

It didn’t end there.

The grade kept dropping.

Down and down.

Like Bitcoin.

Could it really keep dropping all the way to violet, F-rank?

‘Not F!’

It wasn’t because he looked down on F-rank.

As director, Kim Hyeonuk respected and admired every Player in the world regardless of grade.

The reason things would become extremely troublesome if Park Junbeom were F-rank was.

Because the support measures the management bureau could provide to an F-rank Player would be drastically reduced.

‘There are items that cannot be used if a Player’s innate mana grade is too low, even if their level, class, and stats all meet the requirements.’

Even if they wanted to shower him with support because he was number one in the tutorial.

There could be situations where he simply could not receive it because of systemic limitations.

Mana grade was like a fingerprint.

No matter who helped or how hard the person themselves worked, it would never change.

‘Ha, what do I do about this...’

Ever since the emergency notice appeared before the entire nation, the country had been in an uproar.

The citizens were filled with national pride all the way to the tops of their heads,

and even the Blue House was pressuring them to secure the number one ranker no matter what.

And in that atmosphere, if they announced, ‘We measured him and he was F-rank!’?

...Just thinking about how to deal with the aftermath sent a chill down his spine.

Wooooong-.

While he was lost in thought, the crystal sphere turned violet with a weak sound.

F-rank confirmed.

“Y-you may let go now, Player. You’ve worked har―.”

That was when it happened.

Flashflashflashflash!!

“...?!”

The violet crystal sphere suddenly began flashing through multiple colors like mad.

“Uh, uh?”

Rainbow colors swirled wildly without any order.

Kim Hyeonuk and Lee Useok froze, unable to understand what they were seeing.

Jeong Yewon, who was holding the crystal sphere, also broke into a cold sweat, not knowing what to do.

And when the unexplained flashing reached its peak.

Crackle―!!

“Ah!”

The crystal sphere erupted with violent sparks, and Jeong Yewon yelped in surprise and dropped it.

“...”

“...”

Silence.

Junbeom glanced at his slightly raised right hand with wide eyes.

It wasn’t that he had removed his hand from the crystal sphere.

More precisely, the crystal sphere had repelled his hand with a burst of sparks.

Kim Hyeonuk remained speechless for a while before asking in a trembling voice.

“H-Head Lee... is it broken?”

“Uh, hmm... It’s an item the system provided to each nation on the first day of the Great Cataclysm. Not only should it be impossible for it to break, there has never been a single precedent.”

“Assistant Manager Jeong Yewon. You try it.”

“Yes.”

Jeong Yewon was a B-rank Player.

After picking up the crystal sphere and raising her mana, it turned yellow.

Meaning it was functioning normally.

Kim Hyeonuk’s lips went dry.

“...Player, could you touch it one more time?”

“Should I?”

Crackle!!

...The moment Junbeom touched it, the crystal sphere once again spat out sparks without fail.

Looking at it again now, somehow.

“It seems like it hates me.”

“...”

Like a cat extending its claws.

It looked as though the crystal sphere itself was refusing to measure him.

_____________

“What the hell is going on.”

A little later.

I quietly returned home in the car driven by Head Lee Useok.

So what’s my grade?

...I don’t know either.

-“This is the first time we’ve ever encountered a case like this... I think we need to hold an internal meeting. I’m sorry, but for today, please return home, and we’ll contact you again soon. You came all this way, and I’m truly ashamed, Player.”-

Director Kim Hyeonuk bowed his head to me over and over, apologizing repeatedly.

In the end, I had basically wasted my time, so I wasn’t exactly happy about it either, but what could I do?

The measuring device wouldn’t measure me!

‘It has to be because this isn’t mana, but Divine Power. There’s no other possible cause.’

The measuring device overloaded because it couldn’t handle my existence?

As if.

Reality isn’t a web novel.

If it couldn’t handle me, it would have simply displayed S-rank cleanly, or exploded spectacularly.

But it didn’t.

It outright pushed me away.

This had to just be an error.

‘If you shove a third kind of energy called Divine Power into an item made only to measure mana, of course it would react adversely.’

What a headache.

What happens now?

Would they even allow an awakened person whose grade couldn’t be measured to operate as a Player?

‘At least I registered my identity...’

Anyway, since they confirmed that I was awakened, I registered my ID with the management bureau.

I still hadn’t received a license, so I couldn’t enter Gates or Towers yet.

But oddly enough, I did receive equipment from the management bureau’s Player Shop.

-“Why give me equipment when I can’t even enter Gates...”-

-“Regardless of whether you possess a license, equipment is provided for the Player’s personal protection. It is also a token of apology for making you come all this way for nothing.”-

Remembering Director Kim Hyeonuk, who kept bowing apologetically until the very moment I left the examination room.

I turned my gaze toward the cube-shaped hard case I had received from the Player Shop.

When I pressed the button in the center of the case,

Pssshhh―

The cube disassembled while releasing smoke like dry ice, revealing its contents.

Roughly designed armor and a helmet, along with a sword and shield added at my request.

Basic equipment provided for free to awakened people by the management bureau as part of its Player welfare policy.

The performance?

Now that ownership belonged to me, I could check the system information.

‘You get what you pay for.’

The performance was exactly what you’d expect from something free.

The armor and helmet had no special functions, merely providing decent defense and increasing stats by 1 each.

The sword and shield were also only made well enough to let someone fight monsters at the bare minimum.

Honestly, I couldn’t even tell what made them different from the disposable sword I had been given during the tutorial.

‘Still, I guess it’s better than having nothing.’

What use was it for someone like me, who still couldn’t even enter Gates, to have this stuff?

Still, since I had received it anyway, should I at least try putting it on once?

“Hmm.”

A little later.

Beyond the mirror stood me, wearing armor that awkwardly mixed tactical modern styling with classic medieval styling.

It really had the kind of design you’d expect from something free, with absolutely zero sense of unity.

Ruuumble!!

Thinking I might as well keep enjoying the mood, I even raised my Divine Power.

...Crack!

“?”

The helmet split in half.

More precisely, it nearly split in half.

Startled, I hurriedly withdrew my Divine Power, and the reason became clear.

[Your Divine Power stat is too high compared to the performance of your currently equipped gear.]

[The durability of all equipped gear decreases by 52%.]

[Equip items with a required level of 30 or higher, or items of Legendary grade or above.]

‘What... did that say?’

A despair-inducing system message that made me doubt my eyes.

I had only raised my Divine Power for a single second, yet not only the helmet but even the armor was damaged.

Just as the unnecessarily helpful system explained, the durability of the equipment had been unable to withstand my Divine Power.

‘Wait, the sword I used in the Tutorial Battlefield was perfectly fine, wasn’t it?’

Ah, maybe my Divine Power stat had still been low enough back then.

‘To withstand my current Divine Power, it either needs a required level of 30 or higher, or Legendary-grade equipment or above... Fuck off, seriously.’

The former was impossible because my level wasn’t even 30 yet, and the latter was even more impossible.

Legendary was the rank immediately below ‘Unique,’ the highest item grade, wasn’t it?

Naturally, there were hardly any in circulation, and even if one existed, my current bank balance wouldn’t even let me smell it.

‘Are you kidding me?!’

I had never heard of equipment breaking just because an awakened person with a high mana stat equipped low-level gear.

But Divine Power was an unknown force that even I still didn’t fully understand.

Between the measuring device incident and now this, unexpected disasters kept happening.

The world is screwing me over!

‘...This is bad.’

At this rate, even if my license gets issued without trouble.

Unless I obtain Legendary-grade equipment, I’ll have to operate as a Player with no gear at all.

That’s way too dangerous.

‘If I ask the director, would he give me something? Does the management bureau even possess Legendary-grade equipment? Does Legendary-grade equipment even exist among items for my level range?’

As my thoughts grew complicated, all sorts of possibilities came to mind.

As long as Divine Power rather than mana flowed through my body, incidents like this were going to keep happening.

What should I do?

“...”

After a short period of thought, I reached a conclusion.

The Pantheon Gallery.

A place filled with Transcendents who had surpassed the limits of humanity.

So if I asked the gallery, maybe I could find some kind of solution.

I had nothing to lose anyway.

I immediately accessed the gallery and made a post.

=====

[Title: Newbie is fucked in real time...jpg]

Author: Anon (111.111)

An acquaintance gave me a helmet and armor as a gift so I happily put them on right away

(Picture proving the helmet and armor are just about to split in half)

Is this right?

I released a little power and this happened;

Any equipment experts in the gallery?

=====

-This shit splitting exactly in half like it was measured is fucking hilarious lol

-Are you stupid? Just repair it

└Author) Even if I repair it the same thing will just happen again

-HolyQueen) Just throw it away

└Author) No; circumstances are circumstances so it’s kinda hard to throw it away...

-NinthCircleArchmage) Hmm... From what I can see, I think your acquaintance gave you trash rather than a gift!

└Brutal truth lol

-CyberpunkMetalPoisoningPatient) Did you go somewhere and get smacked once by a barbarian?

-(Emoticon of a green ghoul with its head split in half)

└lol

└lol

└Ghoul emotes seriously have everything;

“What the hell did I expect from these bastards?”

I’m dying of seriousness here, and these guys are busy laughing without knowing how I feel.

Just as anger surged and my fists began trembling.

Another comment appeared.

-Go to the Blacksmith Minor Gallery

└Author) What’s the Blacksmith Minor Gallery. Weed Gallery?

└The Blacksmith Minor Gallery, sir...

“Blacksmith Minor Gallery...?”

Minor Gallery. I had heard of it.

Simply put, it was a small-scale gallery operated by ordinary users acting as administrators rather than by the site’s official staff.

You could think of it as a kind of autonomous district.

‘But there are Minor Galleries here too?’

Looking around the gallery window, I found a separate tab that really did gather only ‘Minor Galleries.’

There were even countless types.

Blacksmith Minor Gallery, Cold Weapons Minor Gallery, Magical Studies Minor Gallery, Machine God Race Minor Gallery, Demi-Human Minor Gallery, Hair Loss Gallery...

It was pretty interesting, but I could browse later.

‘Since it’s a gallery full of blacksmiths, there should be at least one guy there who can help me, right?’

I immediately entered the Blacksmith Minor Gallery and posted.

=====

[Title: I heard there are a lot of equipment experts here]

Author: Anon (111.111)

(Picture proving the broken helmet and armor)

As you can see, I released a little mana and my helmet broke, my armor broke, and my mental state broke too...

This is the only equipment I can use right now. Is there any way to fix this, brothers? T_T

=====

For me, this place was my last lifeline, so I made my tone as polite and desperate as possible.

...Hmm, was that the wrong decision?

Because this place was a den of lunatics where honorifics were considered rude while casual speech and swearing were regarded as virtues.

Sure enough, even after waiting a long time, no comments appeared.

Just as I belatedly changed my mind and was about to select the edit-post button.

-What the fuck is this guy? lol

-???

-Fuck, what the hell is this seriously

-IMadeExcalibur) Isn’t this made from a Mana Crystal?

└Yeah. One hundred percent

└Judging by the material and the luster, definitely Mana Crystal

-How does someone in Pantheon have Mana Crystal equipment? Damn

-No seriously, this makes no sense; was there some realm in Pantheon where Mana Crystals grow?

└No

└Mana Crystals are crystallized life energy in the first place, so how could they grow in Pantheon

“...?”

The reactions that followed were somehow unusual.

Just as the comments said, the basic equipment provided by the management bureau was made by processing Mana Crystals mined from Gates or Towers.

But was that really so surprising?

As I stared blankly at the gallery window in confusion.

[‘Anon (681.247)’ requests a trade!]

[‘AnvilMutt’ requests a trade!]

[‘Anon (145.135)’ requests a trade!]

[‘IMadeExcalibur’ requests a trade!]

[‘ChiefBlacksmith’ requests a trade...]

...

...

Trade requests suddenly began pouring in.

_______________

At that moment.

The office of the Director of the Player Management Bureau.

Kim Hyeonuk was having a private meeting with a woman wearing glasses seated across from him.

The woman’s name was Gye Sohui.

She looked to have just passed her mid-thirties.

Compared to Kim Hyeonuk, who was approaching sixty, she was much younger, but the gap in experience one felt between the two was by no means small.

That was because Gye Sohui was the foremost authority in ‘Mana Engineering,’ not only domestically but across the entire world.

A short while earlier, Kim Hyeonuk had shown her a video on his laptop.

It was CCTV footage recording the incident that had occurred in the examination room that afternoon.

The very incident where the measuring device refused to perform a measurement.

Kim Hyeonuk judged that if anyone could analyze the cause, it would be Gye Sohui, the leading expert in mana engineering.

Of course, Junbeom’s face had been mosaicked for security.

“Hmm...”

For a long while, Gye Sohui watched the footage again and again, even rewinding it as she sank into thought.

About ten minutes passed like that.

At last, Gye Sohui spoke.

“I see.”

“D-did you figure something out?”

“Yes. There is only one hypothesis that comes to mind.”

Kim Hyeonuk swallowed and waited for her next words.

“There is a high probability that the man in the video possesses a ‘Dragon Heart.’”

Gye Sohui pushed up her glasses with a confident expression.