Chapter 200: unranked runners ?

The drainage pipe didn’t lead back to the floating market docks. It spit them out onto a low, narrow shelf of gray shale three miles north of the main slipway, right where the island’s volcanic cliffs crumbled down into the salt mudflats.

The rain had stopped, but the wind coming off the open sea was bitter, driving long lines of dirty white foam against the black stones. The air smelled of old iron rust, kelp, and the cold, flat scent of deep water that hadn’t seen a refinery filter in years.

Jun-ho sat on a low, square block of basalt rock that had fallen from the cliff face. His large rubber boots were gray with dried salt crust, his ankles thick and steady against the loose shingle. He had The Ash Remnant balanced across his knees. The new hemp wrap on the handle was damp from his palm, the rough cord biting slightly into his skin, while the thick crossguard of raw black basin slag kept the weight perfectly centered.

Every ten seconds, the heavy canvas duffel bag resting between his shins gave a dull, leather clink as the brass lock of The Monarch’s Ledger knocked against his metal water flask.

Right at the corner of his eye, the solid black numbers were waiting, perfectly silent.

[Level: 20]

[Unassigned Attribute Points: 20]

[Mana: 1400/3000]

[Class Option: Ash Monarch - Phase 3 Logic Unlocked.]

He didn’t look at his hands. He kept his eyes on the grey mist rolling over the water, his breath forming slow, even clouds of white vapor that didn’t rise, hanging low over the wet stones like smoke.

With his level sitting at twenty, his physical density felt immense, his bones feeling thick and heavy, as if his boots were anchored straight into the volcanic foundation of the island.

Eun-bi sat on a flat timber tie three paces away, her canvas bag resting between her boots. She had unzipped her yellow rain jacket, letting the fabric hang loosely from her shoulders while she used a piece of dry gauze to wipe the salt muck off her green field radio. Her sharp face was bright red from the salt wind, her dark hair sticking to her cheeks in thin, messy strands that she didn’t bother to brush away.

"The shortwave line from the Sun King went completely silent ten minutes ago," she said, her voice dropping into a quiet, raspy murmur that barely carried over the roar of the surf. She didn’t look up from her tools, her fingers tightening a loose screw on the radio’s plastic housing with the flat edge of her shears. "The main office in the central district hasn’t logged the failure yet. They think the flagship is still tracking the transponder loop near the upper reef. They don’t know three of their Tier 5 Commanders are currently sitting in the mud at the bottom of an unregistered shaft."

"They’ll know when the evening shift logs off," Jun-ho said. His voice was quiet, completely flat in the open air.

"They’ll know the second the regional director checks the internal ledger sync," she muttered, dropping her scissors back into her apron pocket with a sharp click against her thumb ring. She stood up, her sneakers crunching loud on the loose shale as she walked over to his block of stone, her knee brushing against the side of his heavy rubber boot as she leaned over his shoulder to look down at the black sword. "But that’s not our biggest problem. Look at the ledger under your shirt line. The text has been blinking since we cleared the vault."

Jun-ho unzipped the top three inches of his duffel bag with his left hand, his bare fingers catching the cold brass lock of The Monarch’s Ledger. He didn’t pull the heavy leather book out into the salt wind, but the moment his skin touched the casing, the system prompts etched themselves across his vision in clean, unhurried characters.

[The Monarch’s Ledger Status: Active.]

[Local Area Network: Ministry Maritime Archive (Sector 0-North) detected within 800 meters.]

[System Note: Allocating your 20 unassigned points to the Phase 3 framework will allow you to bypass the archive’s internal electronic shield without triggering the regional alarm grid.]

Jun-ho focused his mind on the floating numbers. He didn’t need to ask her advice, and he didn’t need to run a calculation on his fingers. If the Sun God Guild sent their main line reinforcement ships down the siding next week, he couldn’t stay hidden in a limestone barn. He needed the raw data—the true core logs of the hidden zero gates that the government had been looting in secret for ten years.

"Put 10 points into Strength," Jun-ho whispered into his own jacket lining. "Put 10 points into Mana."

[Attribute Allocation Detected: 10 Points to Strength, 10 Points to Mana.]

[Applying 100x Multiplier to Resource Logic...]

[Strength increased by 1,000.]

[Mana increased by 1,000. Current Mana: 2400/4000.]

The reaction inside his chest was completely silent. There was no burning heat, and there was no sudden explosion of wind. His left arm simply grew dense, the skin turning slightly pale as the raw physical density of his frame multiplied a thousand times over. The air right around his rubber boots grew thin, the loose grey salt crust beneath his soles rippling in small, rapid circles as the Ashen Domain - Phase 3 locked its new boundary line thirty meters out into the ink-black water.

He stood up from the basalt block, slinging the swollen canvas duffel bag over his right shoulder. The weight of the ledger and the black sword didn’t even register against his new strength; his frame stayed perfectly rigid, his center of gravity solid against the wet shingle.

"The archive sits behind the old charcoal refinery on the north cliff," Jun-ho said, looking up at the dark stone path that led into the rock fissures. "The Ministry keeps three senior clerks there to manage the manual paper logs."

Eun-bi grabbed her canvas bag, her yellow rain jacket rustling loudly against her arms as she stepped up right next to his shoulder. Her thigh pressed firmly against his side for stability on the sloped gravel, her sharp face set in that hard, practical clarity that had nothing to do with fear.

"The clerks use an old shortwave key to report the daily metrics to the central harbor," she said, her voice returning to that flat, public-sector drawl as she looked up the dark path.

"If we take the papers before the midday transmission, we can map out every unranked gate from here to the southern ports. But we’re going to need a place to store the crates, Jun-ho. You can’t carry three thousand pages of raw database paper in a canvas duffel bag."

"The shanties near the lower siding are empty," Jun-ho said, his boots making a steady, firm crunch against the wet stones as he headed toward the cliff path. "Gyeong-su’s old contacts run the coal handcarts down there. We can recruit five unranked runners to handle the boxes before the first patrol boat turns the bend."

Eun-bi let out a short, sharp chuckle through her teeth, her fingers slowly releasing the grip she had kept on his sleeve as she walked right next to his stride. "Unranked runners... you’re starting to talk like a guild master, idiot. Let’s get up the hill before the salt on these jeans turns into a permanent crust."

"The hill is short," Jun-ho said quietly.

They walked up into the narrow rock path together, the solid black blade of The Ash Remnant resting loose against his hip as they headed toward the north cliff, leaving the broken flagship and the remnants of the Sun God main detail completely behind them in the dark gray mist of the open sea.