Ironclad Legion, located in the very heart of Rafa City, occupied an imposing, grand building.
This was the Rafa City branch of Ironclad Legion.
From its location alone, one could tell just how extraordinary it was.
At the reception desk stood a stern-looking middle-aged man.
Dressed in Ironclad Legion's uniform, his cold gaze swept across everyone present.
"Take a good look," he said. "All of these missions are your entrance assessments for joining the Legion."
"The higher the difficulty you choose, the better the benefits you'll receive after joining. But let me give you a word of advice—know your limits."
"Because some of these missions will cost you your life."
No one among the awakeners present dared to treat his words lightly.
The man's eyes moved across the crowd as he continued explaining Ironclad Legion's rules and regulations.
At this moment, most of the people standing before him had already passed the Legion's preliminary screening.
Of course, a small number were here holding [Ironclad Legion Application Cards], participating directly in this trial.
No one raised any objections.
Instead, everyone eagerly turned their attention to the massive screen displaying the mission list.
And in truth, the missions released by Ironclad Legion far exceeded their expectations.
The number of pages alone had reached an astonishing "999+"!
Each mission was clearly marked with a difficulty level:
Common, Hard, Nightmare, Hell, and Endless Despair.
"Look at this—there's even a mission to hunt a level-300 boss! Is that something we can actually complete?"
"And that's only Hell difficulty. I even saw missions involving racial battlefields—that's truly nine chances of death out of ten!"
"Endless Despair missions… no newcomer could possibly complete those alone, right?"
"Still, we should push ourselves as much as possible. Opportunities like this don't come often. I'm planning to challenge a Hard-difficulty mission."
…
Everyone present was fairly strong.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have passed Ironclad Legion's preliminary screening.
But aside from the Common missions, almost every other task on the screen carried a real risk of death—the only difference was how dangerous it was.
On one side stood their future.
On the other, their lives.
How should they choose?
For a moment, most people fell into hesitation.
That was when Caelan suddenly stepped forward.
Right before everyone's eyes, he accepted the only Endless Despair-level mission—
[Ironblood Northern Frontier]
[Mission]: Travel to the Northern Frontier. Resist the invasion of the blood mist at all costs.
[Difficulty]: Endless Despair
[Special Warning]: This mission is extremely dangerous, with a very high probability of failure and death. Please consider carefully.
For ordinary people, an Endless Despair-level mission was essentially impossible.
Accepting it was nothing more than throwing one's life away.
In an instant, all eyes in the hall focused on Caelan.
Anyone who had made it this far was no fool.
So the looks directed at him contained no mockery—only deep admiration.
Caelan himself, however, remained calm.
It was just blood mist.
It wasn't like he'd never seen it before.
After a brief moment of shock, the Legion officer looked at Caelan with a complicated expression.
Then he took out a badge symbolizing Legion membership and personally handed it to him.
"Kid, I hope you come back alive. This is a temporary Legion badge. You can use it to access the teleportation gate to the Northern Frontier."
"As for follow-up tasks, there will be dedicated personnel over there to coordinate with you."
Caelan nodded and walked toward the teleportation array.
Originally, his plan had been to develop quietly.
But after everything he'd experienced, he'd come to understand one thing—
Being low-key was safe, but it shackled growth and made progress painfully slow.
Instead of that, he might as well step onto the stage boldly.
After all, it wasn't like he lacked the strength!
And once he caught Ironclad Legion's attention, his future growth potential would only expand.
That was precisely why Caelan had chosen an Endless Despair-level mission.
Ironclad Legion – Internal Teleportation Hall
Staring at the deep-blue portal glowing before him, Caelan couldn't help but twitch his lips.
As expected of one of the top Legions—truly obscenely wealthy!
Constructing a teleportation array required tens of billions of gold coins.
In the entire Mylanne City, aside from the city lord and the church, Ironclad Legion seemed to be the only organization with that kind of financial power.
Caelan quietly followed the line.
A few minutes later, he handed his temporary badge to the administrator.
"Excuse me, do I need to pay a fee?"
The administrator glanced at the badge and smiled warmly.
"No need. Please wait a moment. The teleportation array will activate in two minutes."
Caelan nodded, while his mind began searching for information related to the Northern Frontier.
The Northern Frontier lay at the very northern edge of human territory, blanketed by ice and snow all year round.
It was humanity's front line, having fought countless brutal wars against the titan race.
In recent years, however, as wild monsters grew increasingly numerous, humans and titans had signed a ceasefire agreement.
Even so, small-scale conflicts still occurred from time to time.
But Caelan's mission this time wasn't about the titans.
It was about the blood mist.
According to the mission intel, the blood mist had brought with it large numbers of previously unseen flesh abominations.
These creatures were not only difficult to kill, but also possessed corrosive abilities—hence the urgent call for reinforcements from headquarters.
Flesh abominations already granted several times more experience than ordinary monsters.
And in the Northern Frontier, their levels started at over 100.
So Caelan's objective was simple—
Seize this opportunity and raise his level as quickly as possible.
Complete the trial mission while pushing toward three-star class mutation.
…
Frostguard City
One of the largest city-states in the entire Northern Frontier, with a population exceeding five million.
A massive defensive barrier enveloped the city, standing out starkly amid the sea of blood mist.
From above, one could see countless flesh abominations relentlessly attacking the barrier.
Though these assaults couldn't yet cause serious damage, everyone knew—
The barrier's energy would eventually run out.
When that happened, Frostguard City would become a city of death.
Outside the city walls,
Large numbers of awakeners were locked in fierce combat with flesh abominations.
As Caelan stepped out of the teleportation array, he saw many others gathered there as well.
"Ironclad Legion members—assemble here!"