At full power, the ruins didn’t look the same anymore.

The fog that had around him all day burned away the instant it touched his aura, leaving a clear circle around him as he ran. The 8-Star energy made him so fast that one step covered as much ground as three normal ones, and the 1,000x multiplier fed everything he processed back into his movement in real time.

Everything around him became a blur as he ran.

The Lotus pulse was consistent, pulling northeast like a compass that only he could feel.

He had been moving for about four minutes when the wolves hit him.

________________________________________

They came out of a side corridor all at once, five of them, and they had clearly been crouched and waiting for something to run past.

Ashen Wolves were smarter than Crawlers. They set ambushes. They used the fog as cover and the ruins’ acoustics to track prey.

Against a normal student, this ambush would have worked extremely well.

WHOOSH.

Holden didn’t slow down at all.

He cut left through the gap between the first and second wolf, the Star-Forged sword moving in one continuous arc that caught the first wolf’s throat and then hit the second one so fast that they both dropped at the same time.

Crack. Crack.

The third and fourth came from his flanks simultaneously. He dropped his shoulder, letting them over-extend their jump, and then stepped right into the gap between them as they missed their mark.

Crack. Crack.

The fifth wolf stopped.

For about half a second, it reconsidered its decision to pick this fight.

Crack.

Holden was already past it and running before the dark energy faded from its joints.

He hadn’t slowed down once.

The System pinged in the back of his vision.

[Ashen Wolves Defeated: Pack of Five.]

[Base KP Reward: 250.]

[2x KP Booster Applied.]

[Total KP Earned: +500.]

[Current Kill Points: 1,610.]

He let the numbers finish counting up.

He had earned a total of Sixteen hundred and ten Kill points. He was closing in on the next milestone fast. Faster than he had expected, with the booster multiplying everything he earned.

He kept running.

________________________________________

Three minutes passed before he heard the noise: a soft footstep on the stone, cut short the moment it happened. For a fraction of a second, he heard something that didn’t fit with the environment. It was the sound of someone moving.

Normal ears wouldn’t have caught it.

He didn’t stop. He didn’t look back.

He just started listening.

He felt the air move about three meters behind him to the left. The sound happened every four to six steps he took.

He also noticed a faint shimmer on his energy map. It wasn’t completely invisible, but it was doing its best to stay hidden from anyone who wasn’t actively searching for it.

it was a stealth cloak. Most people in the ruins wouldn’t have picked it up even standing next to it.

Holden counted the steps between them.

Three meters. A pacing distance. Someone who knew how to trail a target without crowding them. Waiting for the right moment.

He made a decision.

He adjusted his route.

Whoosh.

He started heading east instead of going straight to the Lotus. He was going toward a part of the ruins that his energy map had flagged as heavy concentration territory. The kind of place any student with good instincts would have avoided.

Behind him, the shimmer adjusted.

It followed.

________________________________________

A voice reached him. Barely above a whisper. The owner clearly thought whispering in a fog-filled ruin was the same as not speaking at all.

With a 1,000x multiplier, it was not.

"That’s it," a voice whispered, sounding very happy with itself. "Just keep jogging, genius. He has no idea what’s about to happen. He really thinks he can do this all by himself. I respect the guts it takes to try that, even if it’s a huge mistake. I thought a kid from the slums would be better at avoiding danger, but I guess trash is always just trash."

There was a short pause. Then, more footsteps started.

"Lord Draven told me to bring back proof, but he didn’t say what kind. I’ll just take of his cheap jacket. This is easy money. Fifty thousand credits for a kid who thinks he’s smart. Honestly, this is the easiest job I’ve had all year. The kid can’t even see me. I could dance right behind him and he wouldn’t even jump. That’s the difference between expensive equipment and just being lucky on the street."

Holden kept running.

The voice continued, narrating its own mission briefing to nobody.

"Deep zone fog, no cameras, no witnesses. The noble knows how to set a job up properly, I’ll give him that. And this one just keeps going deeper, like he’s looking for something. Which is good, because the deeper we go, the less chance anyone hears anything. Just you, me, and a sharp knife, Voss. You’re gonna make me a very rich man."

Holden turned right.

The ruins opened up into a long stretch of broken stone flooring, flanked by collapsed walls. The ground sloped downward, leading into a patch of fog that was thicker than anything he had encountered so far.

The Lotus pulse was strong now.

Behind him, the shimmer followed without hesitation, closing the distance slightly. The voice had gone quiet.

Holden let him close.

He kept his pace steady, keeping his posture relaxed. To the spy watching him through the stealth cloak, he looked like an oblivious student who had accidentally strayed into dangerous territory.

Holden knew exactly how he appeared to anyone watching. At the same time, he was focused on the massive cave mouth in the rock face ahead. It was hidden behind a thick wall of fog, but a dim white light was pulsing from somewhere deep within.

He walked toward it.

Behind him, three meters back, the shimmer stopped breathing.

Getting ready.

Holden stepped through the fog curtain and into the cave.