Evaluation Room 3 was bigger than he expected.
Shinra stepped inside and took in the space with a quick glance. The floor was padded, the walls reinforced. In the center stood a thick, pillar-like device with a faintly glowing core, cables running from its base into the floor and ceiling. A few terminals were set up along one side where technicians monitored readings.
A man in his thirties wearing a Sanctum jacket looked up from a screen as Shinra entered. His hair was a little messy, his eyes tired but clear.
"You the new guy?" he asked.
"Yes," Shinra said.
"Name?"
"Shinra."
The man typed it in, then gestured toward the central pillar. "All right, Shinra. Standard procedure. You put your hand on the focus pad, push a bit of power into it, and the system reads your output and capacity. Try not to obliterate it; we're on our last good core this month."
"I'll be careful," Shinra replied mildly.
[Master.] Arios' voice brushed his thoughts.
[Aura compression is stable. You are at the lowest safe level. In theory, your measurement should not exceed their upper threshold.]
Shinra walked toward the device.
"In theory," he echoed silently.
He stopped in front of the pillar.
Up close, the core hummed faintly, reacting to him even before he touched it. Its light flickered, as if trying to decide how bright it needed to be.
The technician called out, "When you're ready, just make contact. Don't force your power. Let it flow naturally, slowly."
"Understood."
Shinra raised his right hand and placed his palm flat on the cool surface.
For a moment, he did nothing.
He let his power sit inside him like a coiled beast behind a door. Then, with deliberate care, he cracked the door open barely a sliver.
The pillar reacted instantly.
The hum became a low, vibrating thrum. The core's faint glow surged, light rushing up the central channel like water forced through a pipe.
The technician's eyes widened.
"O-Okay," he muttered. "Good response. We'll steady it and—whoa, slow down—"
Numbers climbed across the closest screen.
Tier 5 benchmark.
Tier 4.
Tier 3.
The core strained, pushing harder as if it had been grabbed and dragged upward.
"Hey, hey, hey—" another technician scrambled over, staring at the readings. "Is the limiter even on?"
"It should be, I—check it!"
The scale ticked past Tier 2.
The hum turned into a sharp, high-pitched whine.
Shinra frowned faintly.
[…Master, this is the minimum output.] Arios said, sounding almost apologetic.
[I am unable to compress it further without risking rebound.]
"It's fine," Shinra answered inwardly. "Too late to worry."
The core's light flared one last time, then snapped to a solid band, the entire column filled.
The Tier 1 mark glowed.
Then it held there, stabilized, as if the machine had finally reached the edge of what it knew how to measure.
The technicians stared.
One of them let out a low whistle. "…No way."
The main operator swallowed, stared at his screen, then looked at Shinra with a different expression than before.
"Tier… 1," he said slowly. "Highest rank. On first evaluation."
The room went quiet.
Shinra removed his hand from the pillar and let it drop to his side.
"So it worked," he said.
The man's lips twitched. "That's one way to describe it."
He tapped frantically at the panel, verifying the data. "Limiter's functioning. No errors. Readings are… consistent." He muttered the words out loud, as if he didn't quite believe them.
Another technician leaned closer. "And he has no Authority file?"
"None," the operator said. "Completely fresh registry."
"Could he be a transfer from an off-city branch?"
"Authority tagging doesn't vanish for transfers."
"…Then what is he?"
Shinra watched them without irritation. This kind of reaction was normal. In his era, it had been worse. At least no one had tried to kneel yet.
The operator straightened suddenly.
"I need to report this," he said. "Please wait here, Shinra. Don't leave the room yet."
"I won't," Shinra said.
The man hurried out, nearly clipping his shoulder on the doorway.
The remaining techs tried to look busy but kept glancing at Shinra and at the pillar, as if expecting either to change their mind.
[I apologize, Great Master.] Arios said quietly.
[It seems even this compressed level exceeds their expectation.]
Shinra shifted his weight slightly. "It's within what we predicted," he replied. "They think their sky is high. It isn't."
[Still, this will draw attention.]
"It was always going to," Shinra said. "At least this way, it's contained in one building."
He waited.
The low murmur of the technicians continued in the background. One of them stole another glance at the data.
"A Tier 1 joining Sanctum…" he muttered. "If this gets out, the other guilds are going to lose their minds."
"As long as he doesn't leave right away," another said. "If he walks in and walks out? We're done."
"Do you think he's a plant? From Authority? Or a big-name guild?"
"He doesn't look like one…"
Shinra listened without reacting. The words slid around him like water.
Footsteps approached outside—more measured this time. Confident.
The operator reappeared at the door, standing a bit straighter than before.
"Shinra," he said. "Guild Leader and Vice Leader would like to speak with you."
Shinra inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment. "Lead the way."
"Actually…" The operator stepped aside, giving space. "They came here."
Two figures entered the room.
The first was a man in his late twenties or early thirties, with dark hair tied loosely at the back. His build was lean, his posture relaxed, but his presence steady like a rooted tree. He wore a long coat over his guild uniform, an emblem at his chest identical to the one over the door outside.
Beside him walked a woman with sharp eyes and a neat bob of black hair. Her uniform was clean and precise, her steps quiet. If his aura was like a mountain, hers was like a drawn blade—narrow, focused, always aware of where to cut.
Both of them carried power.
Tier 1, Shinra noted.
Not overwhelming. Not threatening. But solid—earned, not given.
"Is that him?" the man asked the operator.
"Yes, Guild Leader," the tech said quickly. "First evaluation. No Authority record. Tier 1 reading."
The man's gaze settled on Shinra.
"So," he said, voice even, "you're the ghost Tier 1 who just broke our morning schedule."
Shinra met his eyes calmly. "If I disrupted your routine, I apologize," he said. "I was told this was standard registration."
The man laughed once under his breath. "Standard on our side. Less standard on yours."
He stepped forward and extended a hand.
"I'm Kaizen," he said. "Guild Leader of Sanctum."
Shinra looked at the offered hand for a heartbeat, then took it.
"Shinra," he replied. "New applicant."
Kaizen's grip was firm but not aggressive. He didn't try to crush Shinra's hand to test him—a small detail, but Shinra noticed.
The woman moved closer, tablet in hand.
"Mizuki," she said. "Vice Leader. I handle internal structure and administration."
Her gaze flicked briefly to the pillar, then to the still-glowing Tier 1 mark on the monitor, then back to Shinra.
"You registered without an Authority ID," she said. "Which means the city has no record of your rank, your origin, or your activity until today."
"Correct," Shinra said.
"Are you hiding from something?" she asked, tone neutral.
"If I were," he replied, "this would be a strange way to do it."
One of the technicians coughed, trying not to smile.
Mizuki's lips twitched—but only slightly. "Fair," she said.
Kaizen leaned back against the side of the pillar, folding his arms. "Normally," he said, "someone with your reading either already belongs to a major guild or gets picked up by Authority early. You show up out of nowhere, no file, no background, and rank as Tier 1 on your first measurement."
He tilted his head.
"If I were a more suspicious man," he added, "I'd say you're either lying or trouble."
"And you aren't?" Shinra asked.
"Suspicious? A little," Kaizen said. "Afraid? Not yet."
[He's oddly relaxed for a leader, Great Master.] Arios noted.
[But he is not careless. He is probing while staying polite.]
I see that, Shinra replied.
Mizuki scrolled through the data on her tablet.
"The measurement is clean," she said. "No trace of tampering. Limiter's functioning. Power output was steady, not spiked. This isn't a glitch."
She lowered the device, meeting Shinra's gaze.
"Can I ask something bluntly?" she said.
"You can try," he answered.
"Did you hold back?" she asked.
He didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
The room went completely quiet.
The technicians froze. Kaizen blinked. Mizuki's fingers stilled over the tablet.
"You…" She frowned. "You're just going to say that."
"It would be strange to lie when the reading is already higher than you expected," Shinra said calmly. "If I say 'no' and you don't believe me, you gain nothing. If I say 'yes,' it changes nothing but your perception."
Kaizen laughed fully this time. "I like him," he said.
Mizuki sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose briefly. "You're not helping," she told him, then looked at Shinra again.
"With your level," she said, "you understand that joining a small guild like Sanctum isn't the fastest path to influence or comfort."
"I don't need either," Shinra said.
"Then what do you need?" Kaizen asked.
Shinra thought for a moment, then gave the simplest truth that fit.
"A starting point," he said. "A place to stand while I figure out how this era works."
Mizuki's eyes narrowed slightly, not in suspicion, but thought. "That sounds like someone planning something," she said.
"I am," Shinra replied.
"And we're supposed to be all right with that?" one of the technicians muttered under his breath.
Kaizen glanced at him, then back at Shinra.
"You know what kind of guild we are, right?" the leader asked.
"I know what Arios told me," Shinra said inwardly, then out loud, "You protect people most others ignore."
Kaizen raised an eyebrow. "Arios?"
"My internal support," Shinra said simply. "You can think of it as a system. It calls me 'Master' and nags when it thinks I'm being inefficient."
[I do not "nag", Great Master.] Arios said primly.
You do, Shinra thought.
Kaizen chuckled. "Well, whatever its personality, it's not wrong," he said. "We're not like the big-name guilds. We take in low-tier Ascendants. We give work to Mundanes. We clean up Breaches in areas most guilds don't care about."
He glanced around the room.
"You probably noticed on your way in," he said. "Some of the staff here don't have any aura at all."
"I did," Shinra said.
"In most places," Kaizen continued, "that would mean they'd never get near a guild except to mop the floor after hours. Here, they manage logistics, support, comms. They aren't 'less' just because they can't throw fireballs."
"Yes," Mizuki said. "Which makes us very popular… among those who don't matter to anyone else."
"And less popular among those who think rank is everything," Kaizen finished casually. "The world out there," he jerked his chin toward the city, "likes clear lines. Tier 1 at the top, Mundanes at the bottom, everyone else somewhere in the mud between."
Shinra watched him.
"This is the era where power decides worth," he said softly.
Mizuki's gaze sharpened. "You say that like it's familiar."
"It is," Shinra answered. "Just… louder here. More organized in its cruelty."
The technicians shifted uncomfortably.
Kaizen studied him for a long moment.
"You don't talk like someone who just awakened last week," the leader said.
"I didn't," Shinra replied.
Mizuki exchanged a brief, unreadable look with Kaizen, then closed her tablet with a crisp motion.
"Here's the situation, Shinra," she said. "You're strong—obviously. Too strong to treat like a random recruit. Too unknown to treat like a trusted ally."
Kaizen nodded. "If we accept you, there are risks," he said. "Authority might take an interest. Other guilds might try to poach you—or pressure us. Internal balance might shift. People get weird when there's someone at the top of the ladder they never saw climbing."
"And if you don't accept me?" Shinra asked.
Kaizen smiled.
"Then someone else will," he said. "Probably someone worse."
A pause.
Then the Guild Leader extended his hand again—not like before, when it was just greeting. This time, it was an offer.
"Sanctum doesn't exist to worship power," Kaizen said. "We exist to use it properly. If you're going to stand somewhere in this era while you figure it out… I'd rather you stand with us."
Mizuki added quietly, "We'll flag your record as 'under review' before sending it to Authority. That will slow down some of the attention. Not all of it."
Shinra looked at the hand.
On one side: anonymity shattered, but in a controlled environment.
On the other: wandering alone, no cover, noticed eventually anyway—but then as a threat, not a registrant.
[They are not lying, Great Master.] Arios said.
[Their internal structure matches their reputation. They treat low-ranked Ascendants and Mundanes with more respect than most.]
"I know," Shinra replied inwardly.
He raised his gaze to meet Kaizen's and took his hand.
"All right," he said. "I'll stand here, for now."
Kaizen's smile widened. "Good," he said. "Then from this point on, as long as you're under our roof, you're part of Sanctum."
Mizuki nodded once. "We'll arrange a room for you," she said. "And decide your squad assignment after reviewing your behavioral profile."
"Don't put that in writing," Kaizen told her. "It makes him sound like a dangerous artifact."
"He might be," she replied.
Shinra let their banter pass without comment.
Kaizen pushed off from the pillar and walked toward the door. "Come on," he said, motioning for Shinra to follow. "We'll talk somewhere less… equipment-heavy."
Mizuki fell into step beside them, tablet under one arm.
As they left the room, Shinra glanced back briefly at the evaluation pillar, at the frozen Tier 1 mark on the screen.
The technicians were already whispering again.
"A Tier 1…"
"In Sanctum…"
"Where did he come from?"
He turned away.
[You have attached yourself to a new structure, Great Master.] Arios said softly as they walked down the hall.
[For now, this will help you move without being treated only as an anomaly.]
"For now," Shinra agreed.
At the end of the hallway, they turned into a broader corridor.
Shinra passed an open training room where low-tier Ascendants practiced clumsy abilities under the guidance of an instructor who didn't yell—even when one of them misfired and toppled a dummy.
He passed a small office where a Mundane woman sat at a desk piled with mission forms, calmly giving orders to a Tier 4 who seemed to be listening without complaint.
He passed a pair of juniors in mismatched gear arguing about which district's soup was better, their guild bands identical despite the obvious gap in their power.
It was not a perfect place.
But in a world where power decided worth, this was one of the few corners where that rule bent.
Kaizen stopped in front of a door with a simple plaque: GUILD LEADER.
He opened it and stepped aside.
"Shinra," he said, "let's talk about what you're going to be in this world."
Shinra crossed the threshold.
Behind him, unseen, the scale of the era recalibrated itself around a man it had rated as Tier 1—
without realizing that was only the smallest fraction of what he really was.