The silence in the arena was broken by a low, mechanical whirring. Panels in the floor slid open, and a series of metallic arms emerged, efficiently dismantling the defeated golem and dragging its inert form back into the tunnel from which it had come. Within a minute, the arena was as empty and pristine as it had been before the fight, the only evidence of our battle being the deep crater left by the golem's hammer.
It was over. I had passed.
My legs felt like jelly, and my mana reserves were so low I was practically running on fumes, but a triumphant grin was plastered across my face. I had done it. My way.
We were back in Chief Gideon's office. He sat behind his desk, holding a blank, bronze-colored card. He placed it into a slot on a complex-looking device made of crystal and brass.
"Designation: Kael. Faction: Builder," he intoned, his deep voice echoing slightly in the quiet room. He tapped a series of runes on the device's console. "Combat Assessment Results: Offensive Output, high. Tactical Acumen, moderate. Defensive Capability, low but adaptable. Mana Control, efficient." He paused, looking at the glowing display. "Final Assessment: Rank determined."
He removed the card from the device. It was no longer a dull bronze. It now shone with the soft, brilliant luster of polished gold, the intricate silver lines on its surface glowing with a faint inner light. He slid it across the vast expanse of his desk. It came to a stop directly in front of me.
"Gold Rank," Gideon stated, his tone flat but carrying a hint of something that might have been approval. "A respectable result for a newcomer. Your performance against the Golem-7's adaptive combat protocols was… adequate."
Coming from him, "adequate" felt like the highest praise in the world. I picked up the card, the cool metal a solid, reassuring weight in my hand. My name, Kael, was etched below a beautifully rendered crest of a hammer and gear—the Builder Faction's symbol. This was it. Proof. I wasn't just a glitch anymore. I was an official, Gold-ranked resident of Out of Boundary City.
"Thank you, Chief Gideon," I said, my voice filled with a genuine gratitude that seemed to surprise even myself.
"I was merely following procedure," he replied, already turning his attention to a fresh stack of parchment. "Do not lose it. The fee for a replacement is exorbitant." We were dismissed.
As we walked out of the intimidating spire and back into the vibrant sunlight of the central plaza, I felt lighter than I had since arriving in this world. I kept pulling the card out of my pocket, just to look at it, to feel the smooth, solid reality of it.
"A Gold rank on your first try?" Erina said, nudging me with her shoulder. She had a proud, impressed smile on her face. "Not bad, Kael. Most Adventurers start at Bronze and have to grind for months to get to Silver. You're going to make some people jealous."
"I'll try to be humble about it," I said, though the wide grin on my face completely betrayed my words.
Miyuri chuckled beside her. "Your strategy was highly illogical but surprisingly effective. You bypassed the golem's primary defenses by creating a structural failure in its immediate environment. It was… creative."
"I learned from the best," I said, thinking of the Builder.
As we reached the edge of the plaza, where the path split toward the Adventurer's district, Erina stopped. "Well, this is where I leave you. Vulcan's probably going to have my hide for skipping that patrol." She gave me a playful wink. "Don't let your new fancy rank go to your head before our date, alright?"
"I'll do my best," I laughed. "Thanks for… well, for getting dragged into all this."
"Anytime," she said, before turning and jogging off, a flash of orange and scarlet that was quickly swallowed by the crowds.
The walk back to the Builder's headquarters was a triumphant one. I felt a new sense of belonging. I wasn't an outsider anymore; I had the card to prove it.
That evening, the mood at the dinner table was as quiet and companionable as it had become over the last week. The five summons were all present, eating with their usual focused silence after a long day's work. The Builder, as expected, was absent.
I waited for the perfect moment, until there was a lull in the quiet clatter of utensils. I cleared my throat, a little more loudly than necessary, drawing their attention.
"So," I began, a self-satisfied grin spreading across my face. I casually pulled out my new ID card and placed it on the table with a theatrical thwack. The gold surface gleamed under the warm light of the dining hall. "Guess who's an officially registered, Gold-ranked resident of Out of Boundary City? Not bad for a bricklayer, huh?"
I leaned back, expecting surprise, maybe some praise, or at the very least, a few questions.
Instead, I was met with a series of underwhelming reactions. Fen grunted, not even looking up from his plate of meat. Valerius picked up my card, examined it with the dispassionate curiosity of a jeweler inspecting a common stone, and placed it back down without a word. Elara offered a faint, polite smile.
Only Silas, the scout, showed any real interest. He leaned forward, a smirk playing on his lips. "Gold, huh?" he said, his sharp eyes glinting with amusement. "Cute. It's a nice color."
My pride deflated a little. "Cute? It's a high rank! Erina said most people have to grind for months just to get Silver!"
"She's not wrong," Silas conceded, still smirking. He then reached into his own pocket and casually tossed a card onto the table next to mine. It wasn't gold. It was a stark, brilliant white, identical to the one Chief Gideon had shown me.
My jaw went slack. "Wait… what?"
Before I could process it, Valerius produced his own card and placed it on the table. White. Fen grunted again, this time placing his card down with a heavy thud. White. Elara, with a graceful movement, slid hers forward. White. Finally, Lyra, who had been standing by to refill the water pitchers, placed her own card on the table with a soft, delicate touch. It was also, impossibly, white.
Five identical, high-ranking, White ID cards formed a perfect, mocking circle around my single, suddenly very unimpressive Gold one.
My brain stalled, buffering, trying to process the scene. "You… you all have ID cards?" I stammered, pointing a trembling finger at the collection. "Summons can get ID cards?"
"Of course," Elara said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We are official residents and key personnel in the city's maintenance. It is a procedural necessity."
My shock quickly curdled into a hot, boiling wave of indignant fury. I looked around the table, at their calm, impassive faces. They had known. All of them. They had known about the cards, the ranks, the entire insane bureaucratic system, and not a single one of them had thought to mention it.
"You knew!" I exclaimed, my voice rising. "I've been here for over a week! I walked around this city like an idiot, a complete non-entity! I had to get dragged into a fight with a giant killer robot just to get a card, and none of you said a single word about it!"
I turned on Lyra, who was the very picture of serene innocence. "You! You see me every day! You couldn't have said, 'Oh, by the way, Kael-sama, you need a government-issued ID to not be a walking administrative anomaly'?"
Lyra blinked her amber eyes, a faint look of genuine confusion on her perfect features. "Why would I mention it, Kael-sama?" she asked, her logic as infuriating as it was flawless. "Possession of a City Identification Card is a baseline requirement for residency. It would be like reminding someone to breathe. I simply assumed you had one."
"You assumed?!" I cried, throwing my hands up in exasperation. "I could have been arrested! I could have been deported… to… wherever they deport glitched data!"
"Unlikely," Valerius stated calmly. "As a member of this faction under the Master's protection, your unregistered status was a low-priority clerical error, not a criminal offense."
"It's not about the offense, it's about the principle!" I shot back, though the argument was already losing steam, replaced by the sheer absurdity of it all.
Silas chuckled, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You have to admit, it was a little funny watching you walk around, completely oblivious."
I glared at him, then at the rest of them. They were all looking at me, and for the first time, I saw the faintest hints of amusement on their faces. A slight twitch at the corner of Fen's mouth. A soft glimmer in Elara's violet eyes. They were teasing me. This was their strange, dysfunctional, summon-family way of hazing the new guy.
My anger, hot and fierce just a moment ago, suddenly evaporated, leaving behind a fond, weary exasperation. I looked at my Gold card, then at their circle of White ones. I sank back into my chair, the fight going out of me.
A slow smile spread across my face.
"You guys are the worst," I said, but there was no heat in my words.
I was outranked, outmaneuvered, and thoroughly humbled. And for the first time since I'd arrived, I felt completely and utterly at home.