The hallways of the Gold-Rank Spire were never truly dark. Mana-crystals embedded in the vaulted ceilings emitted a faint, pulsing azure glow, designed to soothe the "high-class" temperaments of the noble students. But to Nikolas, the light felt like an interrogation lamp. It exposed every movement, every breath, and every shadow.
[SYSTEM STATUS: STEALTH MODE ACTIVE]
[DETECTION RADIUS: 15 METERS]
[TARGET: SHADOW SCION - SECTOR 3]
Nikolas moved with a fluid, haunting grace that no ten-year-old should possess. He wasn't wearing his heavy Academy boots; he was barefoot, his calloused soles gripping the cold stone floor. Thanks to his [Sleeper Muscles], his body felt light, almost weightless, yet every fiber was wound tight like a ballista string.
He reached the spiral staircase that led down toward the communal levels. He didn't take the stairs. Instead, he vaulted over the railing, dropping twenty feet in total silence. He landed in a crouch, his knees absorbing the impact without a single grunt of effort.
Why does the air feel so cold? he wondered, shivering.
He didn't know much about the "Shadow Plague" yet. To him, it was just the thing that lived in the dark—the thing that turned Leo into a monster. But as he approached the heavy oak doors of the kitchens, the "cold" wasn't just in the air; it was in his bones.
[WARNING: PROXIMITY TO ABYSSAL ENERGY DETECTED]
[NEW PASSIVE TRIGGERED: SHADOW TRACKING]
A faint, flickering trail of grey smoke—invisible to anyone else—was snaking along the floorboards. It led directly under the kitchen doors.
Nikolas pressed his ear to the wood. Usually, the kitchens were alive with the sound of automated copper pots scrubbing themselves or the low hum of the refrigeration runes. Tonight, there was only a wet, rhythmic slurp. It sounded like someone dragging a heavy, soaked rug across a floor.
He slowly pushed the door open.
The kitchen was massive, designed to feed five hundred students. Long silver tables glinted in the moonlight filtering through the high narrow windows. In the center of the room, hunched over a carcass of hanging beef, was the Scion.
It was a twisted, pathetic thing. It looked like a hairless dog that had been stretched out and drowned in ink. Its skin was translucent and oily, and where its eyes should have been, there were only two weeping pits of black smoke. It was small—barely the size of a wolf pup—but the malice radiating from it made Nikolas's stomach turn.
The Scion froze. It didn't have ears, but it felt the vibration of Nikolas's heart. It turned its eyeless head, its jaw unhinging to reveal rows of needle-like teeth coated in black ichor.
"You shouldn't be here," Nikolas whispered, his voice trembling. He wasn't talking to the monster; he was talking to the memory of Leo.
The Scion lurched. It didn't run; it blurred.
[COMBAT INITIALIZED]
[TARGET LEVEL: 3]
[NOTICE]: Do not allow the Scion to screech. High-Class Alphas will detect the frequency.
Nikolas didn't transform. If he shifted here, the scent of a Salvatore wolf would linger in the flour and the spices for weeks. He had to do this as a human.
He lunged. The Scion was fast, but Nikolas was Level 10. His reaction speed, boosted by the System, made the monster's movements look sluggish. He reached out, grabbing the Scion by its oily throat.
It was like grabbing a handful of freezing mud. The cold bit into his palm, turning his skin blue instantly. The Scion lashed out with a claw, tearing a red line across Nikolas's chest.
"Niko?"
The voice came from the doorway, sharp and terrified.
Nikolas froze. His grip on the Scion's throat loosened for a split second. The monster seized the opportunity, twisting mid-air and biting down hard on Nikolas's forearm.
"Get back!" Nikolas hissed, not looking toward the door.
Standing in the entrance, a lantern trembling in his hand, was Kael. The silver-haired boy's eyes were wide, the light of his lantern reflecting off the black, oily skin of the monster.
"What... what is that thing?" Kael stammered. "Niko, your arm! It's—"
"Go away, Kael! Run!"
The Scion let out a low, vibrating hiss. It wasn't a screech yet, but it was getting close. It sensed Kael's fear—the delicious, high-pitched energy of a terrified Silver-rank. It dropped from Nikolas's arm and began to scuttle toward Kael, its limbs clicking like an insect's.
No.
Nikolas felt a surge of heat in his chest—a violent, red pulse that started in the Potara Earring and flooded his veins. He didn't think about his "Level 5" mask. He didn't think about the Academy rules. He only thought about Leo dying because he hadn't been fast enough.
He blurred.
Kael didn't even see Nikolas move. One moment, the monster was ten feet away; the next, Nikolas was standing over it, his hand buried in the creature's chest.
Nikolas had used a [Partial Shift]. Only his right hand had changed—the fingers growing into thick, obsidian talons, the skin turning a bruised purple. He squeezed.
The Scion didn't even have time to scream. With a sickening squelch, its core—a small, pulsing marble of darkness—shattered in Nikolas's grip. The creature's body instantly dissolved into a foul-smelling black mist, evaporating before it could even hit the floor.
Silence returned to the kitchen.
Nikolas stood there, his chest heaving, his right hand slowly shrinking back into its human form. The black ichor on his skin hissed as his [Rapid Cellular Repair] fought off the lingering cold.
He turned slowly to face Kael.
Kael was backed against the doorframe, his lantern flickering as his hand shook. He looked at Nikolas—really looked at him—for the first time. He looked at the torn tunic, the blood on Nikolas's arm that was already drying, and the way Nikolas's eyes were still glowing with a faint, receding crimson.
"You... you just killed it," Kael whispered. "With your bare hand. Niko, that wasn't... Alphas can't do that. Not at ten years old. And your hand... I saw it."
Nikolas walked toward his friend, his footsteps heavy. He felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. Using the System's power while trying to suppress his aura was like trying to hold back a flood with a wooden board.
"Kael, listen to me," Nikolas said, reaching out to steady the other boy's lantern. "You can't tell anyone. Not Jax, not Mina. Especially not the instructors."
"But that thing was a Shadow!" Kael's voice rose in panic. "There are Shadows inside the Academy, Niko! We have to tell the Knights! We have to—"
"The Knights will ask how I killed it," Nikolas interrupted, his voice as hard as stone. "They'll ask why a 'Level 5 Runt' has claws that can shatter a Scion core. They'll take me away, Kael. They'll put me in a cage and study me until there's nothing left. Do you want that?"
Kael looked at Nikolas's face. He saw the desperation there, the raw fear of a boy who was being hunted by his own bloodline as much as by the monsters. Kael swallowed hard, his breathing slowly leveling out.
"No," Kael said softly. "I don't want that."
"It's the Salvatore blood," Nikolas lied, the words feeling like ash in his mouth. "It... it reacts weirdly to the Shadows. It's a secret my mom told me. If the Alphas find out, they'll think I'm a weapon. I just want to be Niko."
Kael looked at the spot where the monster had vanished. "That thing... it felt like death. Is that what took Leo?"
Nikolas nodded, his throat tight. "Yeah. And there are more of them. The System... I mean, my instinct... tells me they're starting to wake up."
Kael stepped forward, placing a hand on Nikolas's uninjured shoulder. "I won't tell. I promise. But Niko... you can't do this alone. If you're out here hunting these things in the middle of the night, you're going to get caught. Or worse."
"I'm not hunting them," Nikolas said, though the red screen in his vision was already scanning for the next trail. "I'm just trying to keep them away from you guys."
"Then let us help," Kael insisted. "I'm a Silver-rank. I can scout. Jax can build things. We don't have to know your 'family secrets' to watch your back."
Nikolas looked at his friend and felt a rare flicker of warmth. He wanted to tell Kael everything—about the Crimson Den, about the Levels, about the Shadow Demon King. But the System's warning was still flashing in the corner of his eye.
[WARNING: PACK INTEGRITY AT RISK]
[ADVICE]: Information is a liability. Protect the host.
"Not yet, Kael," Nikolas said. "Just... keep your lantern low. We need to get back to the Spire before the Night-Patrol hits the communal floor."
The next six months were a blur of hidden bruises and silent victories.
While the rest of the Academy was focused on the upcoming Mid-Term Exams, Nikolas was living a double life. By day, he was the "Stagnant Runt." He sat in the back of the classrooms, failing his mana-sensitivity tests and letting the other students push him around in the sparring pits.
He allowed himself to be thrown, to be bruised, and to be mocked. He watched as Remus and the other Alphas reached Level 10, Level 11, and Level 12. Their wolf forms grew bulky and aggressive, their fur shaggy and unkempt. They looked like monsters.
Nikolas, meanwhile, stayed exactly the same height.
[LEVEL UP: 12 -> 13]
[BONE DENSITY: +10%]
[MUSCLE COMPRESSION: MAX]
[NOTICE]: Your human vessel is now 400% more durable than a standard Level 13 Wolf.
Every night, he would slip into the [Crimson Den]. It was his only relief. In the red-lit forest, he didn't have to pretend to be weak. He would shift into his Feral Runt form and sprint for hours, his lungs burning with the rich, mana-heavy air. He practiced his [Shadow Tracking], learning how to move without making a sound, how to kill without leaving a scent.
He began to realize that the System wasn't just making him stronger—it was making him different.
One night, while standing over the carcass of a Great Stag he had hunted in the Den, Nikolas noticed something strange. His fur wasn't just silver-black anymore. Under the crimson moon, he could see faint, glowing lines of deep red etched into his skin, hidden beneath the hair.
"What is this?" he whispered, his wolf-voice a low, gravelly rumble.
[ANALYZING...]
[REWARD STATUS: BLOODLINE PURITY 15%]
[EVOLUTIONARY PATH]: Locked.
[NOTICE]: You are not becoming a 'High-Class' wolf. You are returning to the 'Origin'.
"Origin?" Nikolas muttered, his claws digging into the moss. "What does that mean? Am I still a Salvatore?"
The System provided no answer. It only offered more stats, more density, and more power.
Back in the real world, the "Runt Squad" was becoming a legend in its own right—though for very different reasons.
Because they were "Gold-Rank" by association with Nikolas, they had access to the best training equipment. Jax had used his "Spatial Analysis" to find a hidden crawlspace behind the Academy's main forge. They called it the Sunken Den—a dry, dusty basement filled with discarded scrap metal and old training dummies.
It wasn't the Crimson Den, but for the squad, it was heaven.
"Alright, watch this," Jax said, wiping grease from his forehead. He held up a small, circular device made of copper wire and a cracked mana-crystal. "I call it the 'Shadow-Pulse'. It mimics the frequency of a Scion screech. If we're ever cornered, we set this off, and every Knight in a five-mile radius will come running."
"And what if the Shadow-Scion is already on top of us?" Mina asked, stretching her iron-scaled arms.
"Then we do what Niko taught us," Kael said, glancing at Nikolas. Kael had become the squad's "watcher." He never spoke about the night in the kitchens, but he was always the first to notice when Nikolas came back to the dorms with a new scar or smelling of damp earth. "We hit fast, we hit hard, and we don't wait for permission."
Nikolas sat in the corner of the Sunken Den, watching his friends. They were growing. Mina was reaching Level 8; Kael was at Level 9. They were becoming strong in their own right, fueled by a desire to protect the "runt" who had saved them.
They're getting too close to the danger, Nikolas thought, a pang of guilt hitting him. If they keep following me, the Shadows will find them. My family will find them.
"Niko?" Sora asked, walking over to him. She was the most sensitive of the group, her "Witch-Sight" allowing her to see things others missed. She looked at his hand—the one that had held the Scion core. "You've been quiet today. Even for you."
"Just thinking about the Mid-Terms," Nikolas said, forcing a small smile. "If I fail the physical again, they might send a tutor from the main estate. My father mentioned sending Marcus back to 'check' on my progress."
The room went cold at the mention of Marcus.
"He won't come back," Mina said, her scales shimmering. "Not if he thinks you're still a Level 5 loser. We'll make sure your reports look as pathetic as possible, Niko. Jax can even hack the Resonance Stone's logs."
"No," Nikolas said. "Don't risk that. The Masters are Mages; they'll see the mana-tampering. I'll handle the instructors. I'm good at being pathetic."
It was the truth. He was the best in the world at being invisible.
But as the months turned into a year, the "invisibility" was becoming a weight of its own. He was twelve years old now, though he still had the height of a ten-year-old. His "stunted growth" was the joke of the World Academy.
Even the human servants looked at him with pity. "Poor little Salvatore," they would whisper. "All that Gold-Rank food, and he's still just a mouse."
Nikolas ignored it all. He had to.
He was waiting for the 2-Year Tournament. It was the only way out. If he could reach Rank 1, he could get the Traveler Status. He could leave this mountain, find his mom, and finally figure out what the "Origin" was.
But as the end of the first year approached, a new problem emerged—one that the System hadn't warned him about.
The Shadow Plague was no longer just a "bump in the night."
It started with the livestock. The Academy's cattle began to die, their bodies found hollowed out and smelling of black ozone. Then, a student went missing—a Bronze-rank human from the engineering wing. The Knights searched the volcano for weeks, but they found nothing but a single, charred shoe.
The Academy went into lockdown.
"They're moving the 'Power-Check' up," Kael whispered to Nikolas one evening as they sat in the Spire. "The instructors are panicked. They think the 'weak' students are being targeted by the plague. They want to purge the Low-ranks and send them home for 'safety'."
Nikolas felt a cold spike of dread. If they send the Low-ranks home, the squad will be broken up. Jax and Toby will be sent back to the slums. Mina will be sent back to the pits.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[NEW QUEST: THE PURGE DEFENSE]
[OBJECTIVE]: Ensure all 5 members of the 'Runt Squad' reach Level 10 benchmarks.
[REWARD]: Group Immunity Status.
[PENALTY]: Disbanding of the Pack.
Nikolas looked at his friends. They weren't Level 10. They weren't even close. And he couldn't just give them his XP.
"We have three months," Nikolas said, his voice dropping into that low, dangerous tone that only Kael recognized. "Three months to make sure every single one of you looks like a Mid-Class prodigy."
"Niko, that's impossible," Jax said, his eyes wide. "I'm barely a Level 6. My core isn't designed for fast growth."
"The core doesn't matter," Nikolas said, standing up. He walked to the center of the room and, for the first time, he didn't look at the door to see if it was locked. He looked at his friends with an intensity that made Sora gasp. "I've been holding back. I've been trying to keep you safe by keeping you weak. But the world is getting darker."
He reached into the air, and with a ripple of red light, he opened the [Lunar Cache].
The friends stared. To them, it looked like a tear in reality—a pocket of swirling black and crimson. Nikolas reached inside and pulled out five glowing, violet crystals. They were Shadow Essences, purified by the Crimson Den's mana.
"What are those?" Mina whispered, her dragon-instincts screaming at the power vibrating from the stones.
"These are your tickets to staying in this Academy," Nikolas said. "They're dangerous. They're illegal. And if we get caught with them, we'll be executed."
He looked at each of them. "But if you take them, and if you follow me into the woods tonight... I'll show you how a 'runt' actually trains."
Kael was the first to step forward. He took a crystal, his hand steady. "We've been waiting for you to stop faking, Niko. Let's go."
One by one, the others followed.
That night, for the first time, Nikolas didn't go to the Crimson Den alone. He led his friends deep into the forbidden "Dead Zones" of the volcano, past the Knight patrols and the mana-sensors.
He didn't show them the System. He didn't tell them he was Level 13. But as he stood in the moonlight, his [Sleeper Muscles] finally relaxing, he let out a fraction of his true pressure.
The trees around them groaned. The air became heavy, thick with the scent of an apex predator.
"For the next three months," Nikolas said, his eyes glowing a fierce, terrifying red. "You aren't Copper-ranks. You aren't Silvers. You are the pack of the Silent Salvatore. And we aren't losing anyone else to the dark."