Spoilers for Kim Dokja’s backstory!
Kim Dokja is the average 28-year-old salaryman. He does his job, gets paid almost nothing for it, and barely survives off convenience store products. Except, that would be the case if he were in an ordinary world.
Kim Dokja lives in a world filled to the brim with magic. His mother and father were both middle-tier mages born with high amounts of mana but not a lot of power. Their child, Kim Dokja, was assumed to be a high-tier mage from the amount of mana he possessed.
Except, Dokja can't use magic.
Well... That's a lie. He can use magic, it just hurts him. A lot.
You see, Dokja has a condition. Nearly all the people of this world are born with magic resistance. Dokja does not have this resistance. At a young age, he was constantly getting sick from magic overdoses, which is common for Rankers that fight often.
But Dokja is a child.
It took a long while... 13 years to be exact, to figure out just what was wrong with him.
In that time, Dokja was mercilessly bullied by his peers. His father abused him and his mother for being useless. His father died. His mother was put in prison.
Dokja was diagnosed in the hospital.
“It seems you have a major case of what we call Intramana Acirculation. Which is a fancy way of saying that your body can't handle the amount of mana it produces.”
They prescribed him a series of pills that would hopefully block off the organs that produced mana.
This, however, landed him in the hospital again. This time, because his body was deteriorating. His skin was quite literally decomposing right off his body.
He was taken off the meds.
At the age of 16, Dokja finally was able to make his own solution. He used his own mana to block off the production of mana.
He got the idea while reading a novel. A novel that has now saved his life twice. Probably countless more times.
The main character needed to use their power to seal away their demonic heart, but the heart kept leaking demonic aura, so they set up a healing barrier to purify the aura before it could harm himself.
Of course, Dokja is not a main character, so it didn't work as well for him.
It took a lot of effort to keep the barrier up and it was a constant mental drain. It took a lot of time and effort, but somehow Dokja managed to turn the active skill into a passive one.
With that change, came another.
It helped Dokja regulate his emotions... To an extent.
....
Now 28, Dokja needs to go to the Ranker Testing Center, known as a RTC, to offload his excess mana.
As he grew, so did his mana supply. Dokja can't let this amount of mana leak around him, otherwise it might hurt people. So he has to conceal it within himself. It hurts. A lot. But Dokja’s Fourth Wall keeps the mana regulating rather than sitting in one spot till it explodes.
Going to the RTC costs a lot of money, so Dokja only goes when his body starts to decompose on itself. Usually it's just a toe or two that get miscolored, but sometimes it's a finger. Those are the times when he has to rush to make an appointment.
Thankfully, this time is like the other ones. While it hurts to walk, Dokja can handle the pain.
What he can't handle, is the fact that a bunch of newbie Rankers are here and have been able to skip all reservations to get into the Training Facility first.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem. Normally they would at least allow one or two people who reserved a time slot into the room as well.
But apparently some large guild bought out all the time slots and the RTC overbooked.
And Guilds get priority.
So Dokja is left to sit out in the waiting room’s couch as he waits for the Guild training to get done.
Dokja mindlessly reads over a chapter. He has been reading the same paragraph for too long. His brain is too muddled to think.
All he can feel is the slow pulsing of his foot.
“Hello!” a pleasant voice says. Dokja looks up to see a tall woman waving at him from a short distance away. “I'm Uriel, part of the Olympus Guild.”
“Kim Dokja,” he answers robotically.
“I heard about the overbooking.”
Dokja nods, not really one for conversation as of now.
“Well we have a slot in a room open. You'd have to share, but we figured you wouldn't mind.”
Dokja resists the urge to sigh. As a large Guild, they think their mere presence is a blessing upon people. To them, Dokja is just some guy. He isn't a Ranker, nor is he a registered Awakened. Therefore, the only reason he could be here is to take the Awakened Exam.
All Dokja needed to do was drop all his stored mana into a container and leave.
At least it wouldn’t take too long.
“I wouldn't mind,” he finally answers. Uriel nods and turns away to lead him to the room. Dokja takes this time to gingerly stand up. He tests his weight on his foot. It hurts like a bitch, but at least he hasn't collapsed.
He follows her without complaint.
They finally get to the room. It's a lot farther than the usual rooms Dokja has used. He hopes the crystal this room has is strong enough. He doesn't want another incident of breaking one.
Uriel gives him a strange look when she sees his partial limp. Shit. He hadn't meant for her to see it.
“Rock in my shoe.”
Uriel doesn't seem to believe him, but also doesn't make a comment.
“Uh, well... This is the room. The other man in here, Yoo Joonghyuk doesn't have the best behavior but he also won't comment on anything. He isn't one to start rumors.”
Okay..?
Dokja couldn't hide the sudden confusion on his face. “What?”
“You're here to take the exam, right?”
“Uh... No.”
There are a few moments of silence.
“Oh dear, I may have misunderstood.”
“It's fine, as long as this crystal can hold and consume mana.”
Uriel lightens up, “Yes! This crystal can handle that. Then will you be alright?”
Dokja nods, desperate to just leave. This was his day off and he already spent a few hours in here.
Uriel leaves and Dokja is finally able to enter the room.
The first thing he notices is just how dim it is in the room. The only light source is the light bleeding in from the hallway and the massive mana crystal in the middle of the room.
It's one of the biggest crystals he has ever seen. It takes a lot of mana to make one light up as bright as this one is.
In the soft haze of gold, Dokja can barely make out a figure sitting crossed-legged in front of the crystal.
The light from the crystal suddenly cuts off and the room is left in complete darkness. Golden eyes turn to Dokja and send a chill down his spine.
All he can think is how they look like a predator. Like a tiger’s eyes in the light of the moon.
Dokja’s fear is quickly replaced with annoyance. This man could never hurt him in a way that matters. Because Dokja has already done it all.
“Why the fuck do you have the lights off like a gremlin?” Dokja doesn't let the door close behind him. With this lightning angle, the man wouldn't be able to see his face. The playing grounds are even.
“This is a private room,” the man *growls* as if he is some sort of dog.
“That I was led to,” Dokja says as he finally lets the door shut, enclosing them in complete darkness. “Now move, the faster I get this done, the faster I can leave and you can get back to whatever cultist shit you were doing.”
“You can't-”
Dokja doesn't bother to listen to whatever he says. Dokja’s foot is *throbbing* after standing for so long and he needs to sit down before his knees buckle. He walked right next to those golden eyes and sat down a ways away from the other man.
Dokja hit the floor a little too harshly, but he pays no mind to it. His eyes have adjusted to the point where he can see basic shapes so he can see the man’s head follow his movements.
“What-” the man starts but Dokja shushes him.
Dokja finally is able to finally release all the stored mana and he is not about to let this man distract him for any longer. He places his hands against the warm crystal. Huh. This man’s magic was warm. Dokja relishes the gentle warmth against his freezing hands for a moment. It helps him organize his thoughts to clearly focus on his task.
Slowly, he parts a hole in Fourth Wall’s barrier. Without the block, his mana freely starts to flow out of his body and down his arms in a controlled stream. Even with this small part of Fourth Wall gone, the mana has started to rebel against him. His skin crawls as excited sparks of mana race across his skin in small bursts of light.
Like the flow of electricity, the stray mana follows the current into the crystal with minimal detours across his skin.
Dokja can see the clearness of the crystal starting to disappear, filled with clouds of inky black and blue that are quickly expanding to encase the entirety of the crystal. Dokja closes his eyes and focuses on just ridding his body of the polluted mana rather than looking at it.
Dokja can feel the other man’s burning stare on him. Judging his disgusting mana. It's like an oil spill in the clear ocean. Polluted. Dangerous. Dokja wouldn't be surprised if the man got up and left, leaving him alone in the darkness, surrounded by his vile mana.
For some reason, Dokja’s precise grip of Fourth Wall slips. It only takes a split second for the wall to crash and shatter against the pressure of his mana pool. Like a dam breaking, surges of uncontrolled mana bursts from Dokja’s body and towards the crystal with angry sparks of white. Crackles and hisses of mana fills his ears and a trickle of liquid down his arms catches his attention.
Even with his eyes closed, Dokja’s vision is darkening further. He shudders out a pained breath. The air in his lungs are more eager to leave than usual, and he needs to take a few calculated breaths to properly fill his lungs.
The crushing weight of his mana is slowly leaving him, allowing him to finally breathe easily after a month of struggling against the weight of his own power. The emptiness leaves him hollow and cold. He has never lost control of Fourth Wall like this and he would never like to repeat this experience.
His breaths feel like too much. The chilling air sends racking shivers through his body. His only solace is the warm liquid dripping down his arms.
Wait.
The smell of copper invades his senses. There is also a warmth around both of his wrists. It's different than that of the blood. It's a solid presence. Like someone is gently holding his wrists and is helping guide the mana safely.
Dokja doesn't notice that his mana has stopped sparking, nor does he remember the seemingly stone-cold man that was sitting next to him.
What he does notice, is that his mana is draining at an alarming rate. The burn of his mana moving inside him is replaced with chilling emptiness.
As the last drops drain into the crystal, Dokja can't keep himself awake any longer. He slumps forward, unconscious before he can register the pain of hitting anything.
...
Joonghyuk steadies the irritating man before he can slam head-first into the mana crystal. He can't help but stare at the unconscious, maybe dead, man.
To say he is confused is the understatement of the century. Was this the true part of the training session? A “What would you do if a random man walked into your room and passed out next to you?” type scenario.
Because how could this not be staged? Joonghyuk swears he saw Uriel leave the man there, which had to mean that this was staged.
This was staged. Right?
Joonghyuk can't help but stare into the massive crystal. The color has completely changed in a way that he has never seen nor read about. It's color was a deep black with hints of blue and purple. Not only that, but constant sparks of mana made white bursts of light in the ocean of black. Each burst flickered for a few moments before being recycled back into the evershifting tides of color.
It was as if someone had bottled up a piece of the night sky and left it to sit in this room. It was... Joonghyuk didn't want to say beautiful, but it was definitely stunning.
As if the different colors weren't strange enough, the mana in the crystal was staying live. It acted as its own shifting ecosystem of producing and taking power.
Mana, akin to electricity, is powerful. But that power requires a power source to drain from. A person acts as the outlet for mana, without someone actively pushing their own power to control the mana, it will turn off as quickly as someone pulling the plug to an electrical device.
Mana was supposed to be put out like a match drenched with water when someone wasn't dutifully controlling it. To be unconscious and still have the mana linger... Joonghyuk looks at the petite man in his arms. How could someone like this be so powerful?
This man looked half-dead. Like he hasn't eaten a proper meal in weeks and hasn't been outside for more than 30 minutes in his lifetime.
Joonghyuk grimaced.
He dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed Uriel’s number. It rang only once before she picked up.
“He passed out,” he says before Uriel could even greet him with her overly sweet tone.
“Pardon?”
“The man you brought in.”
There's a series of frantic sounds in the background, “He *what*?”
“Passed out.”
“Oh my god, Yoo Joonghyuk you can't just overload people with your mana when you want to be left alone. Hold on, I'm on my way.” There is more sounds and a shout of: “He did *what* to a civilian!?” from someone that sounded suspiciously like Jung Heewon.
Joonghyuk felt the need to defend himself, “I didn't-” he starts.
“Hush, you can explain when I'm not on the line for paramedics.”
Joonghyuk huffed, but otherwise held his tongue. He was here to show that Guilds could in fact collaborate with each other despite this proving that they shouldn't try to collaborate for anything other than brand deals.
The only reason he hasn't left is because if got into any more trouble his master would have his head. Joonghyuk still had Mia to look after, so he couldn't die just yet.
And besides, Joonghyuk’s gaze wandered back up to the crystal containing the night sky, his curiosity has been peaked.
