Chapter 129
After three long days of nonstop sorting, Sisala finally collapsed onto her bed.
“Ugh... I’m gonna fucking die at this rate.”
Even after earning her Green Rank title, her workload hadn’t decreased one bit. In fact, it had somehow increased. The higher she climbed, the more responsibilities piled onto her plate. If she wanted extra research funding, she had to take on every miserable task that nobody else wanted, whether it was late-night documentation, maintenance, or supply orders. Rest wasn’t even a concept anymore.
She rolled over and groaned, staring blankly at the ceiling. “At least I racked up, what, 120 hours this month? That should double my research grant.”
It wasn’t like she was poor. A regular Elthomagia mage’s salary was more than enough to live comfortably. She could’ve easily bought a place outside the Tower and lived like a queen if she wanted. But Sisala wanted more. She wanted to grow, to research and experiment, to push the limits of what a mage could do. That always required more funding.
“Alright... I’ll nap for three hours, then get up and study again.”
She closed her eyes, utterly exhausted. Her eyelids felt hot and heavy, like molten lead pressing down on them. A short nap should at least be enough to fix that.
Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep.
Sisala groaned and pried her eyes open. Normally, getting a comms alert right before falling asleep was a curse straight from hell. This time, however, she didn’t even complain. Do-Jin might’ve come back to retrieve the rare materials and the letter she’d been safekeeping for him. That thought alone jolted her upright faster than caffeine ever could.
However, her hope shattered instantly. The name glowing on the comms crystal hit her like a bucket of cold water. Of all people, it had to be Viego Gardem. Her stomach turned; there wasn’t a single good memory attached to that name. Back when she was still Yellow Rank, struggling like a dog just to prove she had potential, Viego used to look down on her like she was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
Why the hell is he calling me?
The drowsiness evaporated. So did any trace of calm. Her hands trembled slightly as she picked up the signal.
“E-Elthomagia Green Mage Sisala Omen speaking.” The moment the words left her mouth, she winced.
Why did she say “Elthomagia”? She sounded like a rookie. Whatever the reason for this call, she was probably about to get her head bitten off first.
—Hey Sisala, this is Viego. Can you come down to the lobby for a moment?
Her mind immediately went blank. He sounded way too nice. It was pure politeness and none of the usual insults or superiority in his tone. For a second, Sisala wondered if she’d finally lost her mind from sleep deprivation. There was no other explanation for why this pompous asshole was being civil.
“Sisala?” His voice came again, still calm and gentle. That only made it creepier.
Sisala scrambled to respond. “Y-yes, of course! I’ll be right there!”
She leaped off her bed and practically sprinted out the door. She couldn’t think of a single reason Viego would want to see her, much less sound like he’d swallowed a manners manual.
Still, a summons was a summons. If she kept him waiting, she’d never hear the end of it. Half anxious, half baffled, she reached the teleportation circle and input the coordinates for the lobby. After a light flared up, her vision blacked out for a heartbeat before the room came back into focus. The first thing she saw made her brain short-circuit again.
Viego was standing there, bowing like a monk to Do-Jin. He said with absolute humility, “I truly regret my earlier behavior. My conduct was unworthy of my station.”
Meanwhile, Do-Jin looked about as impressed as a cat watching paint dry. “Yeah, yeah, enough already. Didn’t you say you had some academy shit to handle? Go deal with that.”
And off to the side stood Renée, staring into space like a corpse that hadn’t realized it was dead yet.
Sisala just stood there and froze. It was like walking into a fever dream. Do-Jin being here was strange enough. Viego apologizing to someone, anyone, was downright apocalyptic. And Renée looked like her soul had been vacuumed out. She tried to process it all, but it was too much. Her mental gears just gave up halfway through.
Seriously... every damn time I see this guy, reality just breaks a little more.
Exhausted, bewildered, and too tired to even swear properly, she could only stand there, watch the chaos, and accept that her life as an Elthomagia mage was never going to make sense.
***
Finally free of Viego, Do-Jin let out a long, weary sigh. “God, that guy’s fucking exhausting.”
Sisala, who had been practically vibrating with curiosity, leaned closer with wide eyes. “What happened? Seriously, what did you do to make Viego apologize and then hand over his lab like it’s yours?”
Do-Jin pointed upward with one finger. “What do you think? The black cat dropped by. He was ready to bite my head off until she showed up, and then suddenly he turned into a polite little bitch.”
Sisala went silent; she needed no further explanation. If Sion Grace had been involved, then it all made sense. Viego’s panicked groveling, Renée’s zombie-eyed face, the general aura of terror that still lingered in the air. If those two had been in the same room with this man and that woman, there was no other possible outcome but utter chaos.
***
“This way,” Sisala said, opening the door to her quarters.
Before heading to Viego’s lab, she had stopped by to grab the batch of magic dye she’d prepared earlier.
Do-Jin stepped inside and looked around. His brow furrowed immediately, and he couldn’t help but ask, “Don’t tell me this is an actual living space for a human...”
There wasn’t a single trace of life anywhere. The place didn’t even smell lived-in; it was sterile, as if it had been scrubbed clean of all impurities. All Do-Jin could see that belonged in a bedroom was a bed and a few sets of clothes. That was it. Everything else was buried under books, tools, and magical instruments. It felt less like a living space and more like a storage room attached to a laboratory.
However, Sisala didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. “I sleep here, study here, work here, and do my experiments here. It’s fine.”
As she spoke, she opened a drawer and carefully pulled out several glass bottles filled with glowing magical dye. She held them like they were priceless treasures. “Take a look.”
Do-Jin held one up to the light and tilted it slowly. The liquid caught the glow perfectly, clear and pure. “Looks clean to me.”
The blue dye shimmered clearly, with no sign of impurity. Even when he checked it through Silent Night, it was perfect.
“Thank goodness. I was worried I might’ve wasted such rare ingredients.” Sisala let out a shaky breath, her shoulders finally relaxing. She had clearly been nervous the whole time, gauging his reaction every now and then.
“You really don’t give yourself enough credit. This is damn near flawless.”
“Of course I worried. I used Blue Stargrass for this. Do you have any idea how terrified I was grinding that stuff into powder? My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.”
“It must’ve been a hell of an experience,” Do-Jin said, impressed.
She hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah... it was.”
For Sisala Omen, the essence of her magical growth lay in creation. Making things, testing theories, building with her own hands were her steps forward as a mage. And working with a top-tier material like Blue Stargrass was a chance she would’ve never gotten otherwise.
“Thanks,” she said sincerely. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d never have gotten to handle something that valuable.”
“I’m the one who should thank you. You did all the work.”
They exchanged small but genuine smiles. Then, Sisala activated the Magic Circle to head to Viego’s laboratory.
“Ah, you’ve arrived.” A mage was already waiting for them when they materialized, bowing slightly. He was Viego’s assistant, clearly nervous and eager to stay out of trouble. “Lord Viego instructed me to escort you to his private lab. He also said you’re free to use any of the materials inside as you wish.”
Then, without another word, he bowed again and practically fled. Even among mages, stepping into someone else’s personal lab without permission was taboo. And when the person in question was tied to Sion Grace, that taboo became a death wish. Viego must’ve scared the living shit out of him before sending him here, because the guy disappeared faster than a rat into a crack.
“Alright,” Sisala said once they were alone. “You said you wanted to make an engraving, right?”
She moved quickly, searching the shelves and drawers with practiced precision. This used to be her workspace, though not officially. Back when she was Yellow Rank, she’d been assigned here all the time to handle prep work, clean equipment, and basically play “lab slave.”
“The scale’s still the same... bowls are right where they were...”
She laughed quietly to herself, shaking her head. “Finally, I get to actually use this place. Last time I was here, all I did was scrub tables and fetch reagents like some kind of indentured servant.”
“I guess you and Viego weren’t exactly on great terms, huh?” Do-Jin said.
Sisala shrugged, setting a flask on the counter. “I mean, we weren’t exactly on bad terms. More like... I was just a pebble in his path. I was too small for him to even bother kicking. He never harassed me or anything. He just... never saw me at all.”
She paused, then smiled faintly. “I volunteered for the grunt work anyway. Back then, I thought maybe if I worked my ass off, someone would finally notice.”
The bitterness in her tone faded, replaced by quiet pride. “But thanks to you, I got past that slump. I’ve finally found my path. So yeah, it’s all in the past now.”
Do-Jin gave her a rare, approving smile. For once, the chaos around them had settled, and in the middle of that calm, Sisala looked like someone who’d finally started believing she could be more than just another forgotten mage buried under the Tower’s hierarchy.
“Well, now that Viego’s decided to start kissing your ass, you might as well milk him for everything he’s worth,” Do-Jin said flatly.
Sisala winced. “That sounds terrifying when you say it like that.”
While they talked, the preparations for the engraving finally wrapped up. The entire lab glowed faintly with the sheer amount of mana in the air.
“Damn, Elthomagia’s loaded,” Do-Jin muttered. “Look at this. They’ve got mana stones stacked like fucking mountains.”
He crouched beside a pile of boxes and started hauling out handfuls of glowing crystals without hesitation. Since none of it was his, he saw no reason to be stingy.
“Alright,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s get this started.”
“Mind if I watch?”
“I brought you here to watch,” he replied without looking up.
“I just asked out of courtesy. You know, mage to mage.”
He snorted. “Yeah, courtesy. Sure.”
He pulled a bundle of thin, shimmering pages from his inventory, the separated engraving sheets he’d taken from Silvermoon’s spellbook. Each one was a blueprint, filled with tightly woven runes and geometric channels.
He laid one flat on the workbench and began sketching a new Magic Circle around it. His movements were smooth, almost mechanical, as if he’d done this a hundred times before. At every key point of the circle, he placed a mana stone.
The moment the final stone was set, the circle flared to life. Threads of mana pulsed outward, siphoning energy from the stones and feeding it into the parchment. The whole thing began to hum, faint vibrations running through the floor.
As each mana stone burned out, he replaced it with a new one, pushing the energy input right up to the limit. When that part was done, he ground the spent stones into fine dust, then mixed the powder with various prepared metals. Finally, he added the magic dye Sisala had made, the one infused with Blue Stargrass.
The result was a heavy, liquid-black mixture that shimmered like mercury, but darker, like something that swallowed light instead of reflecting it.
Do-Jin exhaled sharply. “Whew.”
Sisala snapped out of her intense focus and stepped forward to dab away the sweat forming on his forehead.
Without reacting, Do-Jin moved on to the next step. He poured the ink across the rune-inscribed page. The liquid didn’t spill or smear but rather moved on its own, rolling like tiny black beads before soaking perfectly into the lines of the blueprint.
The symbols began to glow faintly as the circuit took form. The light was strange, neither gold nor white, but a deep, resonant hue that pulsed like a heartbeat. Then, a system message appeared before his eyes.
[Engraving Psychokinetic Enhancement Formula has been activated.]
Without hesitating, Do-Jin lifted the page and pressed it flat against the back of his right hand.
“Kh—!”
He clenched his jaw. The burn went deep, past his skin and straight into the bone. Even knowing it was virtual, the pain was brutal. Every nerve fired a screaming signal to his brain, and each second dragged like an eternity. The thought of having to repeat this process if he failed made him want to smash his head into the wall.
[Engraving Psychokinetic Enhancement Formula successfully etched onto right hand.]
Do-Jin let out a shaky breath and stared at his hand. The pain was already fading, replaced by a faint warmth.
“Hah... At least I don’t have to redo that shit again,” he muttered.
The rune sheet in his hand disintegrated into fine ash, proof of a one-time success. He brushed the soot off the table, the faint ghost of a grin crossing his face. For once, things had gone exactly the way he wanted.
