The Family
The Family
Humans are the creatures in the world who love dividing things into ranks the most.
From ancient times to the modern day. Humans have never lived a single day without classifying others by rank.
And the magical society was no different. For these arrogant, hot-tempered beings, rank was an indispensable part of their society—one of the most important things.
Before the ranking system was established, countless mages died.
Because a mage who overestimated his own strength would pick a fight with someone far stronger, unable to recognize the gap.
How fittingly mage-like, one could say.
At any rate, as the years passed, the survival rate of mages plummeted. And an organization that felt its very existence threatened by this crisis was what we now call the Magic Tower.
Unlike today, the Magic Tower back then was merely a gathering place for eccentrics who holed up in their studies and enjoyed research. Naturally, "eccentric" here referred to geniuses beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. And these extraordinary geniuses felt a sense of crisis—that if things continued this way, mages would either go extinct or magical society itself would collapse.
So they began to divide mages into three categories.
To those who had realized magic, they gave the Copper Thread.
To those who could handle it skillfully, they gave the Silver Thread.
To those capable of causing natural disasters, they gave the Gold Thread—and made them wear it on their chests.
And from the very next day after implementing this system, the death rate among mages began to plummet.
This meant that more mages died from picking the wrong fight with another mage than from being killed by anomalies, ghosts, or monsters.
At any rate, thanks to the increased survival rate of mages after that incident, magical society walked the path of prosperity rather than decline.
This played a decisive role in elevating the Magic Tower's status. The fact that it eventually became the representative organization for all mages was entirely thanks to that event.
Since they were the ones who classified mages by rank, they had inadvertently gained immense power.
However, this early classification system didn't last long.
After this primitive ranking system was introduced, mages discovered two main advantages.
The first was that they could identify mages stronger than themselves.
The second was that they could find mages weaker than themselves.
That's right. While the death rate of mages decreased, their viciousness didn't diminish—it only increased. Mages could now pick fights with those weaker than themselves without any risk.
The Gold Threads would seek out Silver Threads and force them to their knees, and the Silver Threads, knowing the Gold Threads were stronger, would obediently bow their heads to preserve their lives. Then those Silver Threads would find Copper Threads inferior to themselves and beat them mercilessly to vent their frustration.
A wonderful win-win structure where the strong enjoyed risk-free pleasure and the weak preserved their lives! Magical society began to thrive under this innovative change.
Countless mages trained to survive and grow stronger, and the average skill level began to skyrocket. Then, at some point, a mage capable of unfolding a Domain appeared.
And magical society faced another transformation.
Even the existing Gold Thread mages couldn't stand against those who used Domains, so a reclassification occurred.
The three-tier system was subdivided into nine ranks.
The ranks were no longer determined by the Magic Tower. Instead, they began to be decided by a phenomenon that suddenly appeared worldwide—the mage community.
The Gold Thread, which had been at the top of the previous classification, was replaced by the 6th Class. Those who had awakened Domains began to rise to the ranks above.
And as time passed, mages who reached the next realms continued to appear, and pioneers who carved out new ranks emerged.
7th Class.
8th Class.
9th Class.
No one knew the exact criteria for these ranks. Nor did they particularly want to know. It was enough to confirm that they were strong.
But the 10th Class was different.
It was a hierarchy that had never appeared before.
No one had ever thought it could exist.
Everyone feared what kind of mystery it might be able to wield.
That was precisely why Si-woo's post had garnered such immense attention.
Comments [489]
"What incredible firepower."
It hadn't even been a minute since he posted, and this many comments had already rolled in. Perhaps because it was his second appearance, the reaction seemed much hotter than before.
[MAKKIIIIIAAAAAA!!]
[What business do you have...?]
[Gu family, emergency!!]
[Stupid bastards. Should've watched your step.]
[A whole family is about to disappear.]
[What stocks should I sell? Which business sector were they in?]
But strangely, among all those comments, no one provided the information he wanted.
A sigh escaped him involuntarily. This clearly pointed to one possibility.
"Is it hidden somewhere so secret that outsiders can't know about it?"
Or perhaps it was in a place that couldn't be reached at all. Like the Management Bureau's building—designed so that only a special entrance could grant access.
"What a headache."
He scratched his head and was about to turn off his phone. But just then, a notification rang.
[You have a private message request!]
He was sure he'd turned off the function to receive private messages, yet someone had sent him a request.
"Who is it?"
Curious, he tapped the notification to check who had sent the message.
[Jijon - 9th Class]
"9th Class?"
Startled, he looked at the letters on the phone screen again. He blinked to make sure he hadn't misread. The letters remained the same.
"What does he want to talk about?"
His curiosity grew.
Even if he himself was a 10th Class, that was only a makeshift assessment. In contrast, the other party was a genuine 9th Class mage.
[Accept]
So he decided to have a conversation.
The chat he sent appeared on the screen.
"Hmm..."
He pondered for a moment how to respond.
It didn't take long.
He decided to come on strong.
In anonymous community conversations like this, momentum was everything.
So this was why he'd sent a private message.
Looking at the phone screen, Si-woo nodded to himself. Like everyone else, Jijon seemed to have misunderstood his inquiry about the Gu family's location as an intention to attack.
He had contacted him to prevent a fight.
Of course, Si-woo had neither the intention nor the power to do such a thing, so it was a pointless worry.
"It's nothing after all."
Having confirmed the other party's purpose, he lost interest.
Just as he was about to leave the chat room.
Jijon: If you're getting involved because of a personal grudge, I apologize. But this is truly important.
Jijon: [Item Received]
Jijon: This is the most precious thing I possess. Could you perhaps let this slide with this?
Jijon: I'm begging you, just this once.
"Item Received? What's this?"
Large letters appeared on the smartphone screen. So big that he couldn't ignore them without pressing.
Driven by curiosity, he brought his finger to the screen.
Ding—!
The moment his finger touched the screen, a bright light burst forth. It wasn't blinding, though.
Thump—
A palm-sized box popped out of the screen. A wooden chest with ornate patterns and an antique design. He wasn't particularly surprised. A snake had popped out last time, so a mere box appearing wasn't going to rattle him.
But when he opened the lid and checked the contents, his indifferent eyes widened.
"This is...?"
Inside the small wooden chest was a tiny horn, about the length of a finger.
"Incredible...!"
His knowledge wasn't extensive enough to immediately identify what the horn was.
But he could see an immense energy gathered around that horn. It was clearly an important item.
"A Divine Beast's Horn!"
He'd obtained an incredible item.
And for free, at that!
Having received such a gift, he couldn't help but express his gratitude.
Tap tap tap.
"Th...ank...you...so, wait. I can't type it like this."
He deleted the gratitude he was about to write and began typing a message more fitting to the situation.
For seamless immersion, he kept repeating to himself.
I am an arrogant 10th Class mage. It's not me who should be grateful, but the other party.
Ah, he'd gotten so carried away with joy that he'd even copied the other person's speech pattern.
Jijon didn't seem to mind and repeatedly expressed his gratitude for Si-woo's words.
On top of that, he'd now secured a debt from a 9th Class mage.
"Lucky."
Although he hadn't obtained the information he wanted from the gallery, an unexpected treasure had come his way instead.
"Hmm hmm~."
Humming a cheerful tune, he carefully placed the small wooden chest in a drawer.
He planned to grind it up later and feed it to his sister.
Ding—
Just then, the phone he'd left on the table rang.
Was someone else sending him a private message?
Hoping he might get something else like a Divine Beast's Horn, he quickly picked up the phone. But it wasn't a community private message notification.
It was a vibration from a regular messenger app. The sender was the broker, Kim Yu-jin.
Kim Yu-jin: I'm contacting you because of an urgent matter!
Kim Yu-jin: [Attachment]
Kim Yu-jin: These are the designated requests pouring in for you right now, Si-woo-nim!
Kim Yu-jin: Please look them over at your convenience and let me know!
Kim Yu-jin: Of course, it's fine if you reject them all!
He downloaded the attachment Yu-jin had sent and saved it, then checked how many requests had come in to warrant such a fuss.
"That's quite a lot."
It was indeed an amount worth fussing over. How long had it been since he completed a request? And this many had already come in?
He quickly scrolled down, skimming through the requests.
A few with good conditions caught his eye, but he was indifferent. He was busy figuring out how to participate in the Magic Performance Festival. And he wasn't in urgent need of money right now.
"Huh?"
But then, one request caught his attention.
[Gumiho Rescue]
Skimming through it, it seemed to be a trivial request to retrieve a kidnapped pet. What was surprising was that the requester was quite famous.
Requester: Go Yu-jeong.
Go Yu-jeong. A famous idol whose stock was skyrocketing these days. The group itself wasn't very famous, but it had a peculiar structure where one member supported the entire group, which made it memorable.
But that wasn't the reason he focused on this request.
Kidnapper: Gu Hyeong-seop
Special Notes: Member of the Gu family's Iron Machine Room.
It was because of the kidnapper's identity.
Upon accepting the request, all information necessary for completing the request will be provided.
"...I'm really lucky."
Things were working out well today.