The transformation felt like being unmade and stitched back together with wire.
Cian stood in the center of the Ravager's carcass, his lungs pulling in the sulfurous air with a depth he had never known. The "Null" fatigue—that heavy, soul-deep lethargy he had carried since birth—was gone. In its place was a buzzing, electric tension. His vision, once dim in the sunless cavern, was now preternaturally sharp; he could see the individual serrations on the Ravager's plates and the faint, shimmering trails of mana leaking from the gate Kael had locked.
He looked at his status window, the red text pulsing like a heartbeat.
[Strength: 18 (C+ Grade)]
[Agility: 22 (B- Grade)]
[Constitution: 25 (B Grade)]
He let out a jagged laugh. These were the stats of a seasoned knight, an aristocrat who had spent a decade consuming mana-crystals. He had gained it all in five seconds of slaughter.
"Fifty percent," he whispered, his voice echoing off the obsidian walls. "I took half its life for my own."
His gaze shifted to his Composite Sword. The blade was jammed into the beast's neck, the internal gears clogged with black ichor. He reached down and gripped the hilt. Previously, the weapon felt like a burden, a clumsy hunk of steel he had to fight against. Now, as he pulled the trigger to retract the segments, the tension in the springs felt like an extension of his own tendons.
Clack-clack-clack.
The blade segments hissed back into place, forming the solid, heavy cleaver shape. He wiped the gore onto the Ravager's fur and sheathed it. He couldn't stay here. The mana-gate would only hold for so long, and the "True Hunters" would eventually have to explain why they lost a Carrier.
But there was a problem.
The System's red interface flickered again.
[Warning: Your Power Level exceeds the 'Null' designation by 4,500%.]
[The Ledger's Detection Pulse is imminent.]
[Recommendation: Use 'Avarice Masking' to hide current stats.]
"Hide it," Cian commanded.
The red windows vanished, and a dull, grey film seemed to settle over his skin. To any external observer or magical scan, he would still look like a scrawny, stat-less peasant. Only the coldness in his eyes remained.
Cian moved toward the mana-gate. Usually, he would have had to wait for a high-level mage to open it. Now, he saw the flaw in the crystal's structure. He didn't use magic; he used his new Strength. He slammed his fist into a specific stress point on the iron frame.
The metal groaned. The mana-seal flickered and shattered like glass.
On the surface, the air was cold and smelled of rain—a sharp contrast to the Pits.
Cian emerged from the service elevator of the dungeon hub, keeping his head low. He needed to reach the slums before Kael's party reported his death. If he was "alive," they would frame him for the loss of their equipment to cover their cowardice.
He slipped through the shadows of the lower district, but as he turned into a narrow alleyway leading to his shanty, the air suddenly turned heavy. It felt like a mountain was being pressed against his shoulders.
A white light, pure and blinding, illuminated the cobblestones.
Cian froze. His hand moved toward the hilt of the Composite Sword, but he forced it to stay still. Act like a Null. Act like a victim.
"You," a voice commanded.
It wasn't a shout. It was a soft, melodic tone that carried the weight of an executioner's axe.
Cian looked up. Standing at the end of the alley was a woman who looked like she had stepped out of a cathedral's stained-glass window. Her armor was silver, etched with runes that hummed with a low, divine frequency. A white cape fluttered behind her despite the lack of wind.
Lady Seraphina. The Silver Valkyrie. The woman who kept the world's "Ledger" in balance.
"I am Commander Seraphina of the High Watch," she said, her sapphire eyes narrowing as she stepped closer. "A moment ago, the mana-sensors in the Grey Pits recorded a Grade-3 kill and a massive spike in unauthorized energy. You are the only person who has exited that sector in the last ten minutes."
Cian dropped to his knees, hunching his shoulders to hide the new breadth of his frame. He let his breath become shallow and shaky. "M-my Lady... please. The Hunters... they left me. I don't know what happened. A monster... it started screaming, and then it died. I just ran. I just wanted to live."
Seraphina stopped three paces from him. She unsheathed a slender, glowing rapier and placed the tip under Cian's chin, forcing him to look up at her.
Cian's heart hammered—not with fear, but with the Avarice System's instinct. His mind was unconsciously calculating the distance between his hand and her throat. He saw the gap in her gorget. He saw the three-second window it would take to deploy his blade.
No, he told himself. Not her. Not yet.
Seraphina stared into his eyes. She was looking for the tell-tale glow of a thief, the frantic mana of a criminal. Instead, she saw a boy with dirt-streaked cheeks and a rusted sword.
"A Null," she whispered, her brow furrowing. She pulled a small crystal from her belt—a Stat-Gauge. She pressed it against his forehead.
The crystal remained dull grey.
[Current Detected Level: 0]
[Current Detected Stats: 1]
Seraphina sighed, the tension leaving her shoulders, though she didn't withdraw the sword. "A scavenger with a broken toy. I am wasting my time."
"I... I can go, My Lady?" Cian stammered, his voice cracking perfectly.
"Wait." Seraphina's eyes flickered to the Composite Sword at his hip. "That weapon. It's a mechanic's piece. Why do you carry it? It has no mana-conduction."
"It's all I have," Cian said truthfully. "It doesn't need mana to cut."
Seraphina looked at him for a long beat. There was a flicker of something in her gaze—pity, perhaps, or a memory of a time before she was a living weapon of the State. She sheathed her rapier.
"The beast you mentioned. If it truly died of 'screaming,' then there is a predator down there far more dangerous than a Ravager," she said, her voice turning cold again. "Go home, scavenger. If I find you near a dungeon again tonight, I will treat you as a collaborator to the anomaly."
Cian bowed his head low until his forehead touched the cold stone. "Thank you, My Lady. Thank you."
He waited until the sound of her armored boots faded into the distance. When he finally looked up, his expression was no longer that of a trembling boy. It was a mask of cold, sharp iron.
He had felt her mana. It was vast—a sea compared to his current pond. But he had also felt something else. The System had hummed when she touched him.
[Target Identified: Seraphina van Astra]
[Estimated Harvest Value: ERROR - Too High to Calculate.]
[Warning: The Predator must grow before it can hunt the Sun.]
Cian stood up and wiped the dust from his knees. He had survived the first encounter. But more importantly, he had tasted the aura of the strongest woman in the kingdom.
He didn't want to just hide anymore. He wanted that power.