As soon as Rhys stepped into the Tiger Guild headquarters, someone crashed into him before he could even take another step.“Rhys!”Emma wrapped both arms around him in a tight hug and buried her face against his chest.Rhys froze for a moment.He hadn’t expected anyone to be here.Most of the Ascenders were still celebrating at Ground Zero, and the guild headquarters had officially been closed for the day. He had assumed the building would be completely empty.What confused him even more was that Emma had run straight to him instead of Ren or Daren.He gently returned the hug, but he couldn’t understand why she was so emotional.Then he heard it.Sob.Sob.Emma’s shoulders began trembling.Without saying a single word, she cried into his shirt until it was soaked with tears.Rhys didn’t interrupt her.He simply rested a hand on her head and gently stroked her hair while waiting for her to calm down.A few metres away, Daren suddenly found the ceiling incredibly interesting.Ren wasn’t

After finalising the rescue plan for Violet and agreeing on the next steps, Rhys left the Tiger Guild headquarters and headed back toward the Tower of Ascension.His destination was the University for Nourishment of Young Talents.Although the war had only just ended, he wanted to return as quickly as possible.The Association had already arranged several interviews and public appearances for him, hoping to celebrate the hero who had saved Earth.Rhys declined every single one.He met Riley privately and asked for one favour instead.“I need to return to the university immediately.”Riley sighed.He clearly wasn’t happy with the request.In his opinion, Rhys deserved to stand before the entire world and receive the recognition he had earned.After everything Rhys had done, the least humanity could offer was a proper celebration.But Rhys remained firm.He insisted that returning to the university couldn’t wait.In the end, Riley gave in.He quietly arranged a secure convoy that escorte

The cart was filled with jackets in bright colours. Red, blue, green and yellow. Each colour represented one of the teams that would be fighting in the exercise.Although it was not truly one person against everyone else, it was the closest thing the students had experienced to a large-scale battle. After spending six months doing nothing but one-on-one sparring or practising against lifeless training dummies, everyone was eager for something different. The excitement spread quickly through the arena as students chatted among themselves, looking forward to a more chaotic and unpredictable fight.Without wasting time, everyone stepped forward to pick a jacket. Friends naturally chose the same colour so they could fight together, while rivals deliberately picked different colours so they could settle their scores on opposite sides.To keep the teams balanced, Professor Thelia occasionally stepped in and reassigned a few students to different colours. She carefully spread the stronger fig

Rhys calmly observed the battlefield as the first wave of students closed in on him.Red, blue, green and yellow jackets rushed towards him from every direction. Although they all shared the same goal of taking him down first, there was no teamwork between them. Every student was charging in on their own, hoping to be the one to land the first hit.To Rhys, it was a complete mess.He had already decided the order in which he would eliminate them. Now all that remained was to carry out the sequence he had planned.“COCKY BASTARD! YOU’RE MINE!”A Bull Beastman wearing a red jacket charged straight at him.The Beastman sprinted at full speed with his sword moving naturally alongside his body. Rhys could tell from his posture that there was only one attack he could perform without slowing down.A thrust.If he wanted to slash instead, he would first need to adjust his footing and reduce his speed. Judging by the way he was charging, that was never going to happen.Rhys had already seen thr

While Rhys’s unbelievable feat of defeating the entire swordsmanship class on his first day back quickly became the biggest topic across the academy, it also drew attention away from the outstanding performances of Kael and Varyn during the midterms.Even so, anyone who looked beyond the headlines could see that both of them had made extraordinary progress while Rhys was away. Their growth over the past six months was impossible to ignore.Kael’s improvement was especially remarkable. As a support and curse mage, he had developed at an astonishing pace and was already showing the qualities of a once-in-a-generation talent.At the beginning of the semester, he chose to specialise in Support Magic and Curses and Runic Inscriptions. Six months later, he had risen to become the highest-ranked student in both subjects.His journey in Support Magic did not begin in spectacular fashion. During the first few weeks, Kael was simply another capable student. He performed well enough but never sto