A heavy silence hung over the conference room inside the Climber Association headquarters.Gathered around the large circular table were the strongest people Earth had to offer.Guild masters.Veteran Ascenders.Military commanders.Representatives of the world’s major factions.Normally, having so many powerful figures in one place would create an overwhelming sense of confidence.Today, it was the exact opposite.Everyone looked tense.Some quietly tapped their fingers against the table.Others sat with their hands clasped so tightly that their knuckles had turned white.At the head of the table sat Sir Cody.Pope Cole occupied the seat to his left, while Ren sat on his right.Neatwit stood silently behind Ren, and the remaining guild masters filled the rest of the room.Nobody spoke until Guildmaster Andy of the Scarlet Fire Guild finally broke the silence.He looked directly at Neatwit.“Are you absolutely certain?”His voice was steady, but the concern behind it was obvious.“The

Vren moved quietly along the riverbank, scanning every student he came across.His mission was simple.Find Rhys.Find out who he had been meeting.Then drag him somewhere private and force the answers out of him.For nearly an hour, he found nothing.Most of the students were strangers.Then someone familiar caught his eye.Isn’t that Maeve?He slowed his pace and watched from a distance.If Maeve was here, then Rhys couldn’t be far away.Leaving the river, Vren slipped silently into the forest.His eyes moved from one student to another.That’s the blond human.A green-skinned orc… that should be Buhara.His confidence steadily grew.He was getting close.As the afternoon gave way to evening, he finally spotted the person he had been searching for.A young swordsman was moving through the forest, cutting down packs of silver foxes with effortless precision.Vren recognized him immediately.Rhys Reynolds… Champion of Sol.A trace of contempt flashed across his face.What a ridiculous

As Rhys stepped out of the principal’s office, he spotted a familiar middle-aged man waiting in the hallway.His eyes lit up immediately.“Pope Vincent!”A wide smile spread across his face as he hurried over to greet him.Maeve walked out a few steps behind, her eyes still red from crying. She paused when she saw Rhys’s reaction. It wasn’t often she saw him look so genuinely excited, and her curiosity got the better of her as she quietly watched from a distance.The moment Pope Vincent saw Rhys, his eyes widened.“Oh, praise Lord Sol…”He covered his mouth in disbelief before walking forward.“Look at you.”“You’ve become so strong.”“It’s only been a few months, but you’ve changed so much.”His voice began to tremble.Then, just as Rhys remembered, tears started streaming down the Pope’s face.Rhys had grown far taller than the last time they met. His shoulders were broader, his build much sturdier, and even the way he carried himself had changed.Still…Seeing the Pope cry so openly

The Ascenders Association announced the coming monster raid without ever directly saying how close it was.Instead, they uploaded a photo of Rhys sitting with the guild masters inside the war strategy room.The timing wasn’t accidental.Neither was the caption.A New Member in This Year’s Monster Raid Planning.The post focused entirely on Rhys joining the war council.It never mentioned that the Association had only discovered the true timeline of the invasion a day earlier.It certainly didn’t mention that humanity had less than a week to prepare.The message they wanted the public to see was simple.Everything was under control.The strategy worked perfectly.Within minutes, the post spread across every major social media platform.News of Rhys’s return exploded across the internet, and before long, both his name and the upcoming monster raid dominated the trending lists.The Association quietly watched the public reaction with relief.People weren’t panicking.Instead, they believe

One day before the monster wave, the first warning signs finally appeared.A freezing wind poured out from the Tower of Ascension, spreading across the battlefield and reaching the soldiers stationed on the front lines. The temperature dropped so sharply that a bucket of room-temperature water could freeze solid within five to ten minutes. Men who had spent hours standing guard quickly wrapped themselves in thick blankets and heavy jackets, doing everything they could to fight off the bitter cold.“The chill of the dead… There is definitely an undead army on the other side.”The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances as they spoke among themselves. Around them, members of the Ascenders Association hurried to light dozens of bonfires along the defensive positions, giving the frontline troops somewhere to warm themselves while they waited.Even so, not a single monster had appeared yet.The battlefield remained eerily quiet, but nobody relaxed. Every soldier, mage, and Ascender stood ready to