The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

Bront City, Main Temple of Life Goddess Noira

Otto sat on a bench inside a small room. The room was austere in decoration.

It contained only a statue of a beautiful woman looking benevolently down at her followers.

Otto gazed at the statue silently. His demeanor was stern, but his expression was serene. His eyes were also still.

The room was the private temple of the head priest of the church, where only she was allowed to worship.

As one would expect, it wasn't easy to get inside. Otto also hadn't wanted to fight the temple, either, so he had been forced to use up most of his remaining money and head in the old-fashioned way: by greasing some palms.

Of course, he had politely called them 'donations,' and the amount left the practitioners unable to refuse him entry in the end.

Still, the newly impoverished Otto would now only have a single chance to complete his plan. He'd have to get it right the first time.

Soon, a woman came in with her head covered, dressed in long white robes. The thin white veil that covered her face indicated a life lived mostly inside of a temple.

Her footsteps were light but powerful. In the austere chamber, they created an echo that reverberated throughout the room.

Otto looked up as the woman came in, and his face broke out into a slight smile as he looked at the veiled woman.

She slightly nodded at him indifferently and immediately knelt in front of the bench to pray to the Goddess's statue.

Otto knew that this was his cue to speak. His voice was deep and sure despite his young age.

"Lady Noira was a kind and benevolent goddess. She fed, clothed, and cared for the masses- a true paragon of virtue in her era."

The woman did not move, nor did she speak, merely continuing to kneel before the statue, making no move to acknowledge Otto's words.

Otto had expected this. His voice was sonorous and powerful as he continued,

"But even her benevolence was not blind."

"True kindness is not ubiquitous. Even charity requires enforcement."

The woman's body slightly shook. It seemed she understood Otto's hidden meaning.

"Did you think you and your temple alone was enough to fight off the entire horde?" Otto scoffed.

After the meteor fragments finished falling on the sixth night, all of Bront City would need to put their all into the city's defense to stave off the invading monsters.

Even with that, it was unclear whether they would win, saying much about the strength of the invaders.

And Bront City was currently not united.

Noira's temple was unwilling or unable to enforce the all out defense of the city, leaving key powerhouses to escape with their wealth by the end.

But thinking the temple alone was enough to fight off all the monsters was pure arrogance. In the [Tutorial], the price the temple paid was typically its own destruction.

But he intended to slightly change the course.

"Kind acts may beget evil. Likewise, evil acts may beget kindness. I believe you are aware of what I am referring to."

This time, the woman's eyes opened wide in shock. Who was this man…no, this boy?

Is it possible that…no! There was no way this person knew of the plan they'd laid out with utmost secrecy.

Slight killing intent sprang out spontaneously as the veiled woman thought of the consequences of someone leaking this secret. But as soon as it erupted, it withered.

Who was she?

Eleina, the head priest of the temple of Noira! This kind of thing, killing to silence someone, would run deeply counter to her morals, everything that she stood for, and all that her goddess had taught.

Worse, was that she wasn't completely confident the boy would die even if she made a move.

His presence felt weak to her, but there was a hidden strength to even his movements that screamed of experience, something she couldn't ignore. Plus, his mana pool was exceedingly large for his age.

Otto glanced at her with slight disdain as if he could read her thoughts before declaring,

"You are on the right path, but your investment is lacking. I will help."

"However, it will not be for free."

There was no question in his words, only resolution. It was apparent to Eleina that he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

It seemed she'd have to take this seriously.

Eleina finally got up from her kneeling posture of prayer as Otto passed her a sheet of paper.

Warily, Eleina scanned its contents.

Almost immediately, her eyebrows jumped up and her mouth dropped open in shock.

"How could you know…no. More importantly, how are you able to do this!?"

"I swear on Noira's name that the words written are completely true."

Otto unhesitatingly used a powerful oath to bind himself. Eleina's bright blue eyes opened even wider.

Somehow, Otto found her expression of speechlessness to be extremely cute, though his expression didn't change for an instant.

Eleina, for her part, closed her eyes and thought in silence for a full five minutes.

When she spoke, her tone was resigned. But she couldn't hide the small trace of expectation that colored her tone.

"You…haaa, okay. I understand. We will cooperate, this time."

She thought to herself,

'Perhaps, my lady, the goal we work for...does it really justify even this?'

But thinking about all the lives that would otherwise be lost in this city helped her harden her heart.

She then looked at the boy, who from her perspective came completely out of nowhere, in suspicion.

"Then, what do you want in return?"

Otto smirked. Now they were talking.

************************************************************

It was an hour before the meteor fragments would hit the city, and Otto knew exactly where they would be striking.

However, contrary to the typical behavior of a person wishing to escape the disaster, Otto was rushing straight towards the at-risk district.

It was time to put his second profession as a magic arrayist to good use here.

All the groundwork for his plan had already been completed, whether by himself or by the new summoned who had become his minions in return for some money.

Otto slipped through the city streets as he looked happily at the three new books in his hand.

These three books should be considered the second of three things Otto must obtain in the [Tutorial].

Two of them were the only spell books available in the tutorial. Learning them would teach him the spells 'Lesser Heal' and 'Lesser Rejuvenate.'

Both were first circle spells of the Light Element, and would generally only be learned by mages with a healing class geared towards that element.

They were considered hidden rewards of the [Tutorial], usually earned if a challenger eschewed the fighting and killing and performed great services in helping commoners eat, drink, heal, and/or escape from the city.

Then, the followers of Noira would award the challenger with one, both, or all three of these books depending on the magnitude of the challenger's benevolence.

These books weren't like the [Talent Enhancement Potion] which disappeared forever after being used.

They would be reset along with the world after the tutorial ended each time.

No, Otto found them so critical for a different reason, as he fully understood their value.

Pure casters, called Mages in the [Tower], were not like other classes, be they combination classes or pure physical classes that could use energy.

Unlike other classes which had less intense restrictions on 'energy' use, Mages could only control a single element with their 'mana' after selecting an official class after completing the [Tutorial].

Common elements included water, fire, earth, and wind, and rare elements comprised light, dark, and space.

Other than a mage's element, every mage could also learn the [Null] spells that weren't affiliated with the elements at all.

In truth, though this restriction limited a mage's versatility, most mages were still much more powerful than ordinary classes.

Higher tier water magic generally formed ice, higher tier fire magic turned into 'hell flames' or 'spiritual flames,' higher tier earth magic became metallic, wind magic had lightning, and higher tier light and dark magic was astonishing enough without needing to change its form.

Space was rare enough that a higher tier of space magic was not yet known.

All of this was to say that after a mage picked their element via their selected class, it was almost impossible to learn spells of a different element, greatly limiting a mage's combat potential, despite their sheer power.

However, if the spell was learned in the tutorial, not only would it not be erased after a class was chosen, there was even a small possibility Otto could be granted dual elements in his class selections depending on his [Tutorial] performance.

Dual elements was a huge boon for a mage.

Otto immediately decided to learn the two spells. Fortunately, there were no hefty [Intuition] requirements to learn them while he was still in the tutorial. After all, they were supposed to be rewards for others…

[Toto]

New Summoned

Class: None

Profession 1: Alchemist

Profession 2: None

Profession 3: None

Health: 30 (0.03/minute)

Stamina: 30 (0.3/minute)

Mana: 400 (0.1/minute)

[Attributes]

Strength 1

Speed 5

Stamina 3

Sturdiness 3

Mana Pool 19

Intuition 1

Magic Power 5

Regeneration 1

AP: 0

[Spells]

First Circle

Mana Bolt 2

Mana Shield 1

Lesser Heal 1

Lesser Rejuvenate 1

[Mana Bolt]

Level 2

Shoot a mana bolt at an enemy for 55% magic damage.

Mana Cost: 1

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

Mana Bolt had risen in level following his performance in beating up and booting those would-be robbers from the tutorial. Its damage had been elevated by 5%.

[Mana Shield]

Level 1

Create a shield around caster to block a single attack equal or under 100% magic damage.

Mana Cost: 2

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

[Lesser Heal]

Light Element

Level 1

Instantly heal one target for health equal to 200 + (1% magic power).

Mana Cost: 5

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

[Lesser Rejuvenate]

Light Element

Level 1

Enhance health and stamina recovery speed of a single target by a factor of 10.

Duration: 10 minutes

Cast Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 10

No Cooldown

Otto was thrilled at the new spells, especially now that his talent finally had some use.

Lesser Heal and Lesser Rejuvenate were both 1st circle spells, meaning even a 'beginner' like him could cast them. However, these were some of the more difficult spells of the 1st circle.

Normally, they would take five to ten seconds to cast with the [Tower's] help. Perhaps even longer if one's talent was no good.

Furthermore, Otto knew for a fact that [Lesser Heal] was supposed to have a 5 minute cooldown, and [Lesser Rejuvenate] was supposed to have a 45 minute cooldown.

Hehe. For Otto, it just went to show how powerful his new top-tier talent really was!

Actually, what Otto didn't know was that even a top-tier talent wouldn't be able to fully eliminate the cooldown of a spell like [Lesser Rejuvenate] with a long duration.

Talent was powerful, but not generally this powerful.

However, Otto's talent in this body even before drinking the potion approached the upper-tier talents, much stronger than in his past life due to his powerful mental strength that lent him exceptional mana control.

Furthermore, the potion he drank was a one of a kind potion meant to elevate someone with no talent whatsoever on the path of magic into the realms of the top-tier geniuses.

Naturally, someone who had decently strong talent already would only be elevated further. It could even be said that Otto's talent now was the strongest in the entire human race, and perhaps the strongest among all the challengers in the [Tower].

It approached the realm of the divine.

Still, Otto wasn't aware of this.

He dismissed his status and gazed deeply at the third book in his hands. If the two spells were the appetizer, this book would be the main course.

Its title was 'Secrets of the Light' and it had required a lot of bargaining and numerous promises and oaths with Noira as 'witness' on Otto's part before he got Eleina to part with this book.

The [Tower] once again prompted him.

[Would you like to learn this trait?]

Once again, Otto faced no barriers to entry.

He assented to learning these 'secrets.'

This time, a new trait appeared under his list of spells.

[Noira Temple's Inheritor]

All light element spells cast by you are 25% more effective.

Otto smiled again.

He now had three [Traits] in total.

His original innate trait, [Multitask], his temporary class trait [Pure Magic], and his new personal trait, [Noira Temple's Inheritor].

Neither his innate trait nor his new personal trait would provide him much help right now. But in the future, he knew both would become tremendously strong.

Otto looked forward to his own growth!

But remembering his plan, he quickly refocused.

It was time to put his second profession as a magic arrayist into action.

He slowly approached a hidden alley near where the meteor fragments would strike.

Last night, the meteor fragments hit the north district, close to where the new summoned had arrived in the square.

This time, they would hit the northeast, an area composed of wealthier minor nobles who had a few estates around the area. Otto looked up from the alley to get a better estimate for the meteor fragment's trajectory.

He clicked his tongue.

'Tch.'

Even he couldn't predict exactly where the fragments would land.

Creating the magic array targeting them would thus be harder as the area involved was forced to increase.

Luckily, Otto didn't need to target every fragment. He just needed to catch the majority in his array.

For most magic arrayists, this would prove to be an impossible task.

Magic arrays were markedly different from alchemy.

Whereas alchemy relied heavily on the [Tower's] skills to make pills and potions of higher grades and qualities, magic arrays relied heavily on the [Tower's] knowledge.

While creating a pill was still possible with their skills, creating an entirely new magic array was basically out of the question. It was too hard. Too demanding on their analysis and creativity.

For most people, both of them relied heavily on the [Tower] itself, so weren't much different ranking up in practice.

But for Otto who didn't have the required skills, but DID have the requisite knowledge, the two could only be considered worlds apart.

Plus, Otto's attainments in magic arrays had far surpassed his alchemy achievements.

At his peak, Otto was a 1st level Master in Alchemy. This was certainly an exceptional achievement for humans, especially considering Otto focused primarily on combat.

However, he was certainly not the best Alchemist in the human race, let alone in the [Tower] at large.

In contrast, Otto was a 1st level Grandmaster in Magic Arrays, two entire tiers above his Alchemy Profession grade.

He had never met anyone with better attainments as an arrayist who was on or near his floor, from the humans OR other races in the [Tower].

It didn't mean that he was necessarily the best arrayist, but it did mean that he was certainly among the top of the top-tier.

Whereas alchemy required endless experimentation and practicing continuously refined skills to create new ideas for potions and pills, magic arrays were more ephemeral.

They required the sturdiest foundational knowledge, innate creativity, and a talent for reading and controlling mana.

Otto satisfied all of these prerequisites and spent much of his free time on understanding runes, mana lines, curves, and shapes as well as their meanings, usages, and connections in order to draw arrays.

If Alchemy was considered Otto's hobby, then creating and studying magic arrays would be his passion.

His fingers itched to create the array he would need when the meteor fragments fell.

Otto started to create a suitable magic array in his mind. His prerequisites were rather harsh.

The array needed to be able to displace objects in a wide range of itself, and maintain their previous velocity in a different space. It must only catch the meteor fragments, needed to partially self-destruct after it was used, and had to leave a specific wisp of mana signature to be traced.

Furthermore, it must not take more than 100 points of mana to create, while the rest should come from the ambient mana in the surrounding atmosphere.

The various components flashed through Otto's mind like lightning. His mind whirred as he mentally scanned thousands of different arrays to pick and choose the parts that he needed.

His eyes shut and he remained in thought for a full five minutes before opening his eyes once more.

They glowed in an incandescent blue.

There were now only forty-five minutes until the meteor fragments hit.

Otto quickly moved his hands to start working.