The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

A/N: Read the author's note at the end, an edit has been made to the !

When Otto explained the job to Ramesthes, his expression turned weird.

"You want me…to train some kids?"

Otto nodded solemnly.

"Yes. I'll pay you 10 Smekkers a month, so please train them with all your might. They have the attributes, they just need the experience.

Which is why I came to you."

Otto hesitated for a second before his voice softened and firmed,

"They're good kids."

Ramesthes looked at him askew for a second. Then, he snorted.

"So you're not an ice block, huh.

Well, it's fine. No matter what you wanted me to do, I'd still do it for 10 Smekkers a month.

Training some kids…heh. I'll get them into shape."

He took a deep breath,

"However, be forewarned, I'm a military man. Or,"

He laughed wryly,

"Former military. Once they start, quitting isn't an option."

Otto grinned darkly,

"They wouldn't dare."

Otto thought for a moment before explaining,

"In terms of timeline, assume we'll climb the floors at the fastest possible pace, one per month."

"For the first four floors, you'll be in charge of making sure they pass the highest possible difficulty they can challenge."

"After the [Constant Competition] ends, I'll join them on the 5th floor."

Ramesthes looked at him incredulously.

"What do you mean 'we'll' climb the floors? How many more floors could you possibly need to climb?"

His expression exposed his doubt.

This was normal.

Otto was too strong.

Ramesthes had expected him to be some mage with an amazing class that had cleared the ninth floor.

It seemed Ramesthes had still underestimated him.

Otto revealed a small smirk.

"Haven't I just passed the [Tutorial], too? I just got a little lucky is all."

Ramesthes suddenly felt like hitting him.

'Lucky my ass! Since when can a person gain 100 AP from being lucky?!'

Then, he properly processed Otto's following words.

Ramesthes's eyes turned sharp.

He questioned seriously,

"Have you thought it through? The faster they clear floors, the less time they get to acclimatize to their power."

Otto closed his eyes and stared at Ramesthes.

His tone was also serious, with a hint of barely detectable bitterness.

"Indeed. But there isn't another choice. We will need to have cleared the 8th floor in 8 months."

While Otto wasn't in a hurry to leave the Area due to the collapse in 8 months, it didn't mean he wouldn't prepare.

And one of the best, and fastest, ways to get stronger was to climb floors.

Had he not needed to prepare for the event in eight months, Otto would leisurely take his time, building his strength to the absolute limit before only clearing floors when he could improve no further.

But that would not make him, or his future companions, into the monster-like existences he hoped they'd be by then.

Otto looked at Ramesthes, and felt he was rather lucky that he had successfully captured this new sla- ahem, diligent trainer.

He was also aware of Ramesthes's top secret background.

Actually, Ramesthes wasn't a human from Earth, though he was a human being.

In fact, this was normal.

Otto couldn't even think of a single Federation higher official who was from Earth, let alone an old 'retired' general like Ramesthes.

There were a few reasons for this.

First, humans from Earth simply weren't numerous enough.

The Federation recorded Earth's population as approximately 300 million. It sounded like quite a lot.

Yet compared to the total number of 2 million billion challengers in Area 1, this couldn't even make up 0.0001% of the Federation's total population.

Second, humans as a species were exceedingly numerous.

Humans had evolved in various separate worlds connected to the [Tower], and many had been summoned by the [Tower] since.

It was estimated that around 56% of the entire Area population consisted of humans, and another 34% or so consisted of humanoid species.

Thus, the Federation would never pay special attention to Earthlings, who in their mind, were simply another group of humans.

Otto's 'Racial Firsts' referred to humans from Earth in specific, not humans in general.

Otherwise, his chances to gain achievements would accordingly be much slimmer.

Ramesthes was one of these humans who wasn't from Earth.

He had previously lived as a soldier in Area 1, vigorously fighting against the Kinetice for the Federation, while slowly clearing floors and building his strength.

He was soon recognized for his powerful prowess and exceptional fighting sense and had been promoted again and again until he became an officer.

Later, his strategic mind was displayed in full force, showing that Ramesthes had the makings of both an excellent soldier and an excellent strategist.

The higher ups were thrilled, and felt they had found a treasure.

Following promotion after promotion, Ramesthes found himself in a fairly high position in the army, as the 4-star commanding general of an entire region containing a few solar systems.

But it was at this moment that the young Ramesthes had made a crucial mistake.

At the time, Ramesthes had valiantly led his troops and killed a particularly fierce group of Kinetice.

It was unknown whether it was on purpose or by accident, but Ramesthes later realized the group he had killed contained a future Kinetice leader.

The Kinetice leaders generally wouldn't be touched by the Federation even with a ten foot pole, for fear of their vigorous retaliation.

Well, to be precise, it wasn't exactly fear.

It was closer to unwillingness to sustain any big casualties or losses.

And indeed, almost instantly, due to the [Connected Thoughts] of the Kinetice, the furious attacks of the Kinetice race landed on Ramesthes's division.

The retaliation was huge in scale and extremely intense.

Even after reinforcements had come from the Federation, his division still quickly collapsed.

Ramesthes himself fought madly for half a day against the Kinetice attackers.

By the time his stamina ran out, though all the members of his former squad, those life and death brothers and sisters of his had all been permanently slain.

It was because when they revived, they would immediately come back to join the fight, only to get killed again.

Ramesthes almost went mad at that instant.

It took quite a bit of effort from his remaining friends and allies not to directly throw away his life.

With red eyes, he bluntly submitted his resignation from the military, vowing that very instant never to lay his hands on the Kinetice race ever again.

It was his mistake of killing that Kinetice leader that led to their deaths.

He hid himself after that on various remote planets, unwilling to climb the [Tower] or take action against the [Tower's] enemies.

Ramesthes slowly became a broken and broke man spending his life drowning his sorrows with various legal and illegal substances.

He regretted that attack until his intestines turned green, but regret was simply something that couldn't be solved, and Ramesthes himself felt he could only atone.

Otto met him in the past by coincidence after the safe zones were annulled.

He was on Erkolls-13 to try Earth's specialty 'alcohol' when the sanctuaries fell.

After the Kinetice race invaded, Ramesthes had hardened his heart once again to take up arms against them.

Otto once worked with him in the defense of New Buffalo.

At the time, Ramesthes was very strong, one of the strongest people Otto had ever met.

When Otto climbed the tower, he got stronger. The distance between the two of them became closer, too.

Otto even used his silver tongue to convince the man to continue challenging floors to move on to Area 2.

There was something else Ramesthes cared about almost as much as the lives of the comrades he had lost.

Something of which he had only learned the value after mixing around in Area 1 for two straight decades after retiring from his post as general.

Money!

And now, Otto had used this resource as well as a show of force to prematurely buy this guy over to his camp.

Otto felt rather pleased with himself.

After all, no matter what, it couldn't be denied that Ramesthes was still powerful.

Ramesthes had already passed the 9th floor and served for ten years as a general.

He boasted attributes, skills, and experience near the top of the heap.

It was a blessing for him to remain on Otto's team, if only for now as a trainer.

Otto and Ramesthes made their way back to District 4, where Otto also bought the man a hotel room.

Tomorrow, they could start their training.

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

Jeremy, Elliott, and Julia woke up at dawn and were given a huge shock.

A bucket of ice water was directly poured over their heads by an ugly looking middle-aged man who had somehow found and used the key to their hotel rooms.

Julia immediately screamed and subconsciously wanted to beat the man up before remembering they were still inside a safe zone.

She could only run out of the room in fright.

Unfortunately, while the safe zones could prevent one from receiving damage from any sort of attack, something like **** was still possible, if rare.

After all, the act of penetration wouldn't inherently do damage (except for in special cases).

Julia yelled loudly and banged on Otto's door.

There was no response.

Her heart sank.

Suddenly, she was joined by two more boys with wet hair.

The three of them stood there shivering in the corridor.

Uncharacteristically, even Jeremy was silent, probably still recovering from the haze of sleep.

Julia felt something amiss.

Ramesthes appeared in front of them and spoke with a sinister smile, which only looked scarier on his already rather frightening features,

"Don't try and run to Otto. He was the one who hired me, after all. Welcome…to hell."

All three of them gazed at him with animosity.

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

The training resource Otto had directed Ramesthes to use was something that the [Tower] had brought to the Areas.

It was called the Virtual Combat Arena, or just the Virtual Arena for short.

Challengers could buy a membership. There, they would enter the virtual world through some sort of magical pods and use the arena to simulate combat and train.

There were other uses of the pods, too: virtual games, virtual travel, virtual eating and drinking, and many more.

Only, it wasn't to the point of becoming a 'second world' for challengers. It wasn't even very widely used.

Perhaps it was on purpose, perhaps not, but other than for combat, the virtual world did not add much of an experience for challengers.

Moreover, other than using the combat arena, the cost was expensive and the sensations one received subpar.

Many experts in the past speculated that the [Tower] wanted to guard against the virtual world for fear of challengers refusing to climb the [Tower] itself after experiencing the luxuries of the virtual world.

There were seven different levels of membership to the virtual arena.

Otto went with Ramesthes to directly buy the highest level for all five of them.

The highest level membership provided excellent service, including but not limited to:

-x20 Time Dilation (with no side effects of mental strain)

-Full combat analyses after battle and during training

-Guided simulator able to analyze and predict one's own and enemy reactions

-Training area where one could fully simulate skills and spells without wasting energy or mana (geared toward practicing their use in battle, this wouldn't help them level)

-Unlimited practice time

-Virtual pods equipped with top grade magical nerve stimulators (these helped transmit the experience in the virtual world to one's muscles, helping build muscle memory and train the body's reactions)

-Up to 24 free 'training' potions that would double the speed of instinctual learning for an hour

-Top grade nutritional solution periodically injected that would even slowly boost one's physical attributes.

-Random or targeted match-ups where challengers could fight against past and present actual challengers.

And many more perks and benefits.

Of course, this service cost a whopping one-time fee of 12 Small Brocks per person, and then 3 Smekkers per week for each of them as upkeep.

Otto instead directly bought a lifetime membership for each of his team members.

It cost a total of 4 G4 Coins and 25 Brocks.

The enormity of his spending left each of their jaws agape, even Jeremy who was more inexperienced with money.

After all, if a Dolera was considered approximately $1 US Dollar on Erkolls-13, one G4 Coin would be worth $10 billion.

Even Ramesthes's own salary was on the level of $1 million dollars a month, from which it could be shown just how much he was valued by Otto.

To Otto, this expense was worth it.

The 20x time dilation was especially invaluable, no matter which Area he was in.

Furthermore, something like this could help prevent any sort of traitorous thoughts from rising up…since he bought the membership, he could also cancel it at any time!

From now until the time Otto had to head to the 1st floor, he planned to spend a good portion in the Virtual Combat Arena.

Of course, he didn't plan to fight for most of that time.

Otto had his own training to do.

Meanwhile, inside a football-field sized combat arena, Ramesthes began to create the necessary arena following the training plan he had made for the kids.

He spent some time to modify the arena following his requirements before he carefully scrutinized it for any mistakes or problems.

Ramesthes had never been able to use such a luxury environment for training when he trained recruits.

He even felt a little jealous of these kids Otto was training up.

'I'll just make them work that much harder.'

In front of Ramesthes lay three groups of upright logs of varying height, numbered 1-1,000. They were all very wide, enough for a single person to comfortably stand on.

They lay in haphazard rows.

This was actually the first [Tower] approved training course for gaining attributes.

It worked even in the virtual arena, as the feedback in the highest subscription level would be successfully delivered to the challenger's body.

Ramesthes wanted to begin by focusing on speed.

In his view, speed was the foundation of combat, as it was the foundation for movement.

However, speed wasn't the only goal of this course.

As the course got harder, one's balance, flexibility, agility, motion perception, dodging ability, coordination, depth perception, and instantaneous judgments would all be trained by this seemingly simple course.

This was only the first level.

Each course of logs was tailored according to the attributes of each person.

Jeremy's course was by far the hardest.

It contained quite a few large jumps in height and would certainly push him to his limits.

Elliott and Julia's course was relatively easier, though the jumps it contained would still be quite challenging for them.

If this course was completed in a certain amount of time, each person would be awarded a single attribute in 'speed.'

Ramesthes announced,

"Hello to all of you. My name is Ramesthes.

I am an ex-Federation military member, and Otto has hired me for a substantial sum of money to train each of you into combat machines for, at the very least, the next eight months.

Since we'll be working together in the future, please start by introducing yourselves."

Though they still felt annoyed at how they were woken up, the kids' anger had mostly faded, left by eagerness and anticipation of training.

Plus, if that guy was ex-military, he was probably super strong!

Julia introduced herself first with a polite smile,

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Ramesthes. My name is Julia Nilsen, from Sector 79. I'm 18 years old and prefer to fight with monsters head-on. My weapons are a hammer and a shield."

Ramesthes nodded, and turned to Elliott, who smiled.

"Hello, my name is Elliott Lastermann. I'm 16 years old, and I'm a mage who can cast wind spells and water spells."

He looked rather proud of the fact, and Ramesthes nodded in appreciation, secretly wondering where Otto had found such a talent.

The ability to cast two elements was not at all common.

Ramesthes was subconsciously about to introduce the training course, when he realized he was missing a third person.

He scratched his head in embarrassment and took a second before finding Jeremy and gesturing for him to go ahead.

'Why did I forget the kid with the obnoxious scream?'

Jeremy nodded and loudly declared,

"Hello, I'm Jeremy Smalls, I'm 14 years old, and I'm going to be an assassin in the future! I already have two daggers I got as a reward."

Then he proudly took out his two daggers for them all to see, secretly glancing at the others to see if they would praise him.

Ramesthes's face didn't change a single iota, though his heart jumped.

'Bronze equipment? After leaving the tutorial, too? Indeed impressive.'

He didn't comment on it, though, but instead introduced the course with a serious gaze,

"Today we'll be focusing on reactions and speed training. You will each be completing this obstacle course.

The rule is that you must land on the logs in the order they are numbered with at least a full foot of contact.

If you fall, you will start over.

If you give up or try to take a break, you will be hit with severe virtual pain until you continue to try.

Don't worry,"

His grin turned darker,

"In this virtual world, there's no such thing as stamina. You can continue until it is completed, and will not feel fatigued.

I will first show you an example."

Ramesthes promptly got up from where he had been modifying the arena's settings and jumped on to the first log in Jeremy's course.

He then deftly proceeded to jump on the logs one at a time.

His demonstration was very quick, but still just slow enough for the three to get a decent feel for how it was done.

Then, he declared,

"The first to complete the course in 10 minutes will earn a 10 minute virtual break and a slice of delicious puera."

As the three kids looked at him in confusion, Ramesthes smiled and a beautiful sweet looking brown and red colored pastry appeared in his hand.

The smell alone was heavenly. Of course, it wasn't real. But their taste buds hadn't been limited using the top-tier virtual subscription.

Julia looked at Jeremy and Elliott with a glare of warning.

That pastry was hers!

Elliott looked away shyly, while Jeremy simply shot her a smug look and got in ready position.

"Start!"

The three fired off like a rocket.

Jeremy landed on the first log and started running through as fast as he could.

Only, he soon discovered that it was not as easy as he thought.

On the tenth log, he missed the jump slightly, and slid to the ground with a small 'thump.'

"Ow!"

Unwilling to be behind the other two, Jeremy quickly ran back to the start.

Only to fall again, this time on the 18th log.

He ran back again.

The other two were steadier, but slower.

Julia, in particular was having a tough time.

Her body was slightly heavier due to her high 'Sturdiness,' dragging down her speed a bit in comparison to Elliott.

But Julia was nothing if not persistent.

By the time Jeremy had fallen down six times, and finally learned his lesson not to immediately try to run through the course, she was already at the 100th log.

Ramesthes spoke,

"For the first time, I advise just trying to finish. After you get a feel for it, you can try for more speed."

The words were obviously pointed at Jeremy who, surprisingly, didn't get angry, and instead heeded the old man's advice.

They all did their best to hop, skip, and jump all the way to the finish line.

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

Otto had not yet entered the virtual arena.

It was because he first had to finish a task before he could focus on training.

He still had to make potions for Garrote!

Otto thought for a moment and was torn.

The old man had given him the materials to make around 1,000 potions for his Death Ring.

Perhaps he didn't dare to give more than that, or perhaps that was all he had.

But Otto was trying to decide whether to simply keep the materials and buy the potions outright to save time, or to painstakingly create the potions himself to practice his alchemy skills.

To him right now, time was money that could otherwise be used to train and get stronger in various ways.

A part of him thought it'd be a waste to use it on alchemy that wouldn't immediately be necessary.

Soon, Otto's eyes lit up and he had an idea.

He held an herb in his hand and entered the casting space he'd gotten from the class trait [Magical Prodigy].

Otto opened his eyes in a vast white expanse that reminded him of the neutral zone where he usually received his rewards.

But he soon discovered that this space was only blank because he hadn't created anything!

After all, this was a space inside his mind, and would naturally be subject to his thoughts.

Soon, the white in front of him bled with color, a sky appeared above him, and the ground below split into grains.

An ocean stretched out far into the horizon. Seagulls flapped their wings and called out in the air as various critters could be seen traversing the warm white sand under his feet.

Otto suddenly felt peaceful. It was a beach from Earth in his memory.

But he hadn't forgotten his mission.

He looked at the herb that was still in his hand, and suddenly felt elated.

'I can bring things into this space!'

Which meant he could do alchemy in here!

This space also had a natural time dilation factor of 10, which meant he wouldn't be losing out too much if he did alchemy here in comparison to the virtual space.

Otto then started his next experiment.

He set the small green herb on the sand, commanded the space to turn bare and white once again, and exited back into the real world.

Otto keenly felt a minuscule drain on his mental energy, and his eyes widened uncontrollably.

The herb was being kept in his space!!

Wasn't this effect…too strong!???

He hurriedly experimented with another few herbs and some monster materials.

It took him around an hour of testing and going back and forth to gain conclusive results.

Otto could bring any amount of things inside the space with him.

In fact, he had already brought his spatial ring in the first time.

He just hadn't realized it.

When he was present, bringing things in and out cost him no mental energy whatsoever.

Otto could also leave things inside his mental space.

However, the greater the volume of the things he stored, the larger the drain on his mental energy.

He had expected the spatial ring to be rather cheap based on this rule, since its actual size was quite small.

But his space wasn't THAT much of a cheat.

It cost quite a large amount of mental energy to hold just one spatial ring inside.

Fortunately, his mental power recovery was very fast.

If he only had this one spatial ring, it would drain his mental power at almost exactly the same rate as he recovered it.

None of these were the biggest point for Otto, though.

What he was truly excited about was being able to concoct potions and pills in the virtual world.

Normally, in the virtual world, real world items could not be brought in.

Thus, while it was possible to merely practice alchemy in the arena with virtual materials, his skills wouldn't go up until he returned to the real world, and no actual products would be created.

However, with his space, he could theoretically carry his mind into the virtual arena (actually, Otto himself wasn't sure how the technology worked, as it was directly created and bestowed by the [Tower]), take advantage of the time dilation, then enter his mind and practice alchemy with the real world materials he had already stored.

Even better, the time dilation might actually stack! Which meant he would effectively be operating under 200x time dilation while he was both inside the virtual arena and inside his mind.

Otto could barely contain his excitement.

He wanted to test it as soon as possible!

This would potentially be a massive advantage for him, and could even transform his current training plan!

Otto hurriedly sat himself into the pod and waited for it to start up…