"Try it."

Evren’s calm voice cut through the wind.

Prescott’s face twisted into an ugly scowl. An F-Rank delivery rider with a fake guild badge dared to look down on him in front of fifty guild raiders?

"Kill him!" Prescott roared, pointing his gauntleted hand forward. "Make it look like he attacked a guild barricade! Break his limbs and throw his corpse into the snow!"

Ten heavily armored raiders in Prescott Guild colors surged forward at once. Four vanguard raiders lowered their thick steel tower shields, while the six behind them thrust heavy steel-tipped spears straight toward Evren’s chest and throat!

To an ordinary Awakener, ten heavy raiders charging in formation was a death sentence.

But to Evren’s S-Rank hyper-perception, their coordinated charge looked as sluggish as wading through thick mud.

He didn’t draw the Glacial Trench Blade strapped to his back; he didn’t even take a defensive stance.

He stepped forward.

BOOM!

The snow beneath Evren’s boots exploded in a circle of shockwaves as he vanished from sight.

"Where did he..." the lead shield-bearer gasped.

Before the raider could finish his sentence, Evren reappeared directly in front of him. Evren’s right hand shot forward with his palm flat, slamming into the center of the heavy steel tower shield.

CRACK!

A loud crunch echoed across the valley as the steel shield caved in like wet cardboard. The force sent the two-hundred-pound raider flying twenty feet backward into a snowdrift.

The remaining raiders gasped in horror, but Evren was already moving like a phantom.

SWOOSH!

Evren sidestepped two lunging steel spears, caught both shafts under his left arm, and twisted with terrifying strength.

SNAP!

The reinforced wooden shafts snapped like dry twigs. Evren spun around, sweeping his right leg in a low arc.

THUD! THUD!

Four raiders were swept off their feet, crashing hard on the frozen ground. Evren stepped over the broken barricade, delivering two swift, bare-handed palm strikes that sent the final four raiders tumbling across the snowbank as their weapons scattered everywhere.

The entire clash had taken less than ten seconds.

Silence fell over Sector 4.

The dozens of independent Awakeners standing outside the perimeter stared with dropped jaws.

The remaining forty Prescott Guild raiders froze in place, their weapons trembling as cold sweat drenched their backs.

Evren casually brushed a speck of snow from his fur-lined coat. He walked past the groaning raiders on the ground, stopping three paces in front of Prescott.

Prescott’s face had completely drained of color. His knees shook violently inside his dragon-scale plate armor.

With trembling hands, Prescott drew his glowing A-Rank broadsword, raising the blade defensively between them.

"Y-You..." Prescott stammered in terror. "What... what kind of monster are you?!"

Evren looked down at him coldly.

"You said your men would chop me into meat," he said calmly. "Are you going to try it yourself?"

Prescott swallowed hard. His broadsword shook so violently the tip wobbled in the air. He wanted to swing, but the suffocating aura rolling off Evren pinned him to the spot like a mountain pressing on his chest.

Prescott knew with certainty that if he swung that sword, Evren would snap his neck before the blade moved an inch.

So he took a panicked step backward, lowering his sword to the snow.

Evren scoffed softly, not bothering to waste another second on him.

He turned his back on Prescott, walking calmly toward the swirling dimensional breach.

Under the stunned gazes of dozens of independent Awakeners and forty paralyzed guild raiders, Evren stepped into the swirling blue vortex of the B-Rank Frost Rift.

WHIRR.

Spatial mana rippled around Evren as his vision blurred for a fraction of a second.

The next moment, a blast of sub-zero wind slammed against his face.

Evren stepped out to a wide, empty plain of pale blue ice and jagged glaciers. The temperature here was freezing... at least minus fifty degrees Celsius. Above him, dark turquoise clouds swirled, while sharp snowflakes flew around the air like daggers.

His insulated S-Rank combat suit hummed softly, neutralizing the bone-chilling cold and keeping his core temperature perfectly warm.

A translucent golden system screen flared in his vision:

[DING! Successfully Entered B-Rank Frost Rift (Sector 4)!]

[System Location Radar Active!]

[Target Lock: Glacial Lotus Essence Located 5.2 Miles Ahead — Top of Glacial Peak!]

[Warning: Hostile Mana Signals Detected Nearby!]

SCREECH!

A chorus of high-pitched shrieks suddenly echoed from an icy ravine fifty yards to his left.

From behind the jagged ice pillars, fifteen blue-skinned creatures scrambled into view. They stood barely four feet tall, with hunched backs, sharp pointed ears, and glowing crimson eyes. They held crude bone clubs, rusted iron cleavers, and jagged icicle daggers.

[Monster Identified: Level 18 Frost Goblin Scout]

[Monster Identified: Level 20 Frost Goblin Warrior (x14)]

The Frost Goblins bared their yellow fangs, sniffing the air. When they spotted a lone human standing on the open ice without a raid party, their red eyes flared with savage hunger.

KIKIKI

The lead scout shrieked an attack command.

All fifteen Frost Goblins lunged forward across the frozen ground, brandishing their weapons as they swarmed toward Evren from all sides!

Evren reached over his right shoulder and gripped the hilt of his Glacial Trench Blade.

SHING!

He drew the heavy three-foot blade in one smooth motion. The dark steel hummed as golden mana from his S-Rank core surged along the edge, giving off a shimmering glow.

"Let’s see what this body can do," Evren murmured.

The three fastest Frost Goblins leaped into the air, aiming their bone clubs and icicle daggers straight at Evren’s head!

Evren stood his ground and stepped forward with incredible speed.

SLASH!

A golden arc of blade-light sliced through the freezing air.

In a single horizontal sweep, Evren’s trench blade cleaved through the three airborne goblins and their crude weapons at the same time. The severed monsters vanished into puffs of blue mana mist, dropping three glowing, fist-sized mana stones onto the ice.

The remaining twelve goblins screeched in alarm, trying to halt their charge. But Evren was already in their midst.

SWOOSH! SLASH! CRACK!

Evren moved smoothly and quickly. His S-Rank reflexes and basic swordsmanship mastery turned the fight into a one-sided slaughter.

He ducked under a rusted cleaver, spun behind a goblin warrior, and severed its core with a clean backhand thrust. He kicked another goblin ten yards into an ice pillar, shattering the ice on impact, while his blade danced in fluid golden arcs, eliminating two or three monsters with every swing.

In less than a minute, the entire pack of fifteen Frost Goblins lay dead.

Silence returned to the icy plain, except for the sound of the howling wind.

Evren flicked the Glacial Trench Blade, clearing a few drops of blue beast blood from the steel before sliding it smoothly back into the scabbard on his back.

On the snow around him lay fifteen sparkling, pale-blue mana crystals.

Evren walked forward, picked them up, and stored them into his Spatial Storage Ring.

Fifteen E-Rank Frost Crystals acquired.

Evren looked up across the endless frozen wasteland toward the distant mountain peak that rose hight into the turquoise clouds. The System radar pulsed faintly, showing the Glacial Lotus waiting at the summit.

AWOOOOOOO!

Suddenly, a deep howl echoed from the frozen forest ahead, shaking loose powder from the glaciers.

Evren smiled faintly, his golden eyes glowing with anticipation.

"Warmup’s over."

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