The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

The night passed.

One man attempted to save half of his water to drink tomorrow morning. He clutched it tightly in his hands and didn't dare to fall asleep for fear it would be stolen.

And indeed, as soon he dozed off for a single minute, he awoke to find a woman lapping at the water in his glass directly with her tongue.

He instinctively reached out a hand to hit her.

A resounding punch landed on her jaw.

CRACK

Her jaw broke.

The man was no weakling.

But barely a second later, a dim red light flashed in the sky.

A small hole was drilled into his head. It looked as if his brain was impaled with a laser.

His body slumped to the ground.

Despite her broken jaw, the woman's first reaction was to catch the water before it fell.

Then she poured it into her mouth and barely managed to swallow it before promptly falling asleep in the heat, hoping her minor burns would heal slightly in the darkness.

A pair of eyes watched the scene, unnoticed in the darkness.

Otto stealthily walked back to the mansion after grabbing another spider corpse.

He glanced around the luxurious room on the top floor before narrowing his eyes.

[Ofrand's Boots] emitted a tiny beep as a teleportation point was set inside the mansion.

Then, he entered his mental space, and furiously began concocting based on the materials stored in his spatial ring.

The night was the only time he had enough water to use for alchemy.

It wasn't long before four potions, two dark red, one pale pink, one bright pink, stood in front of him.

They were all of [Highest Quality].

Yet Otto wasn't convinced they would work.

His understanding of these monsters was still somewhat limited.

Plus, every morning, his 'potions' became 'powders.'

According to the [Tower], they didn't lose effectiveness.

But the method of delivery would need to change…

Otto had also learned a new trick for one of his spells while he was out.

It was a trick borne of necessity.

But it was often said that necessity was the mother of invention.

And Otto was rather proud of this particular invention.

While fiddling with the temperature aspect of [Heat Wave: Unlimited] he had noticed something odd.

Under a certain amount of heat, the mana cost for the spell didn't decrease at all.

Otto was puzzled by this, as the spell was 'unlimited,' and should theoretically have no lower or upper limits for its mana cost.

It was only following wave after wave of trial and error did Otto figure out that the spell allowed him to both add heat into the air, and even pull a very small amount of heat FROM the air to inject into the surroundings further away.

He discovered his own light air conditioner!

Well, it was heavy on mana and only worked up to 20 or so degrees in total.

But an achievement was an achievement!

Finding new innovative ways to use his established spells, for Otto, would never not be exciting.

Morning rose on the third day, bringing with it yet another wave of heat.

Frankly, the temperature of the third day wasn't much hotter than the second day.

If Otto truly wanted to raise it further, it would require him to inject more mana than he was willing to spend.

But this was enough.

The faces of the Throskarts were already gaunt and deeply sunken with dehydration.

Otto estimated that most of them would last another day at most.

Even their combat power had already started to fall, so Otto specially emerged from the mansion early in the morning to hand out another glass of water for each person.

He couldn't have these Throskarts grow too weak, after all. Particularly right before he needed their 'labor.'

At this point, let alone the folks who slept outside, even the Throskarts who tried to save their merits by choosing tents were beginning to suffer.

Greer, the greasy seeming man who had gathered the initial 30 members of Otto's 'posse' was the first to complain.

He first came directly to Otto to ask for water.

"Mr. Benson, some of us are getting…antsy in this heat. Maybe we won't survive another day, even."

He also said things like,

"You know… some people won't support you if you don't help them out of this…didn't you give water to all the others last night? Why don't you spare a little love for us, too…?"

When he was categorically rejected, he started to spread whispered rumors about Otto to the others.

"Maybe we shouldn't stick with this guy. Can't you tell he doesn't care about us at all?"

"Haven't we voted with him this whole time?"

Greer conveniently neglected to mention that even their votes were in exchange for condensed water…

A few people nodded in response to Greer's words.

But most weren't stupid.

They chose to cling onto Otto for as long as they could.

Otto simply ignored it all.

The morning slowly dragged on.

The lanes showed up again.

This time, all of the Throskarts had wised up.

Otto had been followed around by the entire crowd no matter where he went for the entirety of the past hour.

Since they knew they needed to be next to him if they wanted to be in the best lanes!

Because he was followed so tightly, chaos immediately erupted as soon as the partitions rose out of the sand.

A mad tussle ensued.

Everyone scrambled to get the best possible lanes.

Otto purposely stood 15 meters away from the location of the partitions.

Obtaining the best lane would have to be up to everyone's reaction speed…

But even amongst the commotion, Otto barely spared any of it a glance before surpassing them all to reach the lane positioned dead center.

Four different powders appeared in his hand.

Today, his biggest goal was to test his creations on the spider monsters.

A second later, Otto habitually blocked the remaining Throskarts from entering his lane.

The first spider monster appeared.

Once again, it was both stronger and faster than the spiders from yesterday.

Otto took out the first, dark red powder and dumped it on his hand as he casually shifted to avoid the spider's furious string of attacks.

He took a deep breath and blew hard on the powder.

It swirled around the spider's head.

Otto dodged. His body moved, almost subconsciously, to evade flurry after flurry of strikes.

He waited five minutes.

The spider showed not the slightest change.

Otto sighed and beheaded it with a [Wind Blade].

The next spider emerged from the black maw at the end of the lane.

This time, he tested the second dark red powder.

Five minutes later, no effect.

Otto's brow slightly creased.

The spider was beheaded.

Both the pale pink powder, then the bright pink powder were used in succession on the following spiders.

Then, for good measure, Otto tried each of them alone once again before mixing them together in various ratios and combinations.

But even after almost 100 spiders were killed, there was still no sign of success!

Worse, there was nothing to suggest that his powders had any effect at all.

The crease in Otto's brow deepened.

Otto [Analyzed] the spider monster once again.

Its official name was [Terrentia Malerachnis].

It was classified as an 'Elite Monster' that was currently still [Weakened].

But Otto couldn't figure out why none of his powders seemed to be working.

Every potion was formulated specifically for spider type monsters.

The goal was to briefly control their minds.

He intended to use one of his bodyguards to check whether killing someone using this spider mind control method would be considered 'direct harm' to another contestant.

For now, this was only a back-up plan.

A sort-of 'in case something goes wrong, or the higher-ups in the game succeed in their obstruction, it'd be best to have a few large spider monsters to command.'

Otto's vast knowledge of common alchemical solutions also allowed him to take four different approaches to the problem using the enormous collection of herbs gathered in his spatial storage ring.

But if nothing was working properly…

Otto's expression firmed before he let out a light sigh.

It seemed like establishing the teleportation point back to the mansion had indeed been a wise decision.

Since more drastic measures might be necessary.

He glanced at the black maw.

Otto had to get to the bottom of this.

He couldn't only have one solution to this 'game'...

Otto resumed his previous pace of killing the spiders. One cast, one kill.

Despite their heightened strength and speed, they still weren't strong enough to touch a hair on Otto's head.

Heck, they still weren't fast enough to approach within 10 meters of Otto.

It wasn't odd that the spider monsters in the game weren't all boss monsters.

The true threat of the second floor wasn't supposed to come from them in the first place.

They were mere vehicles forcing the contestants to exert themselves.

The real threat was the lack of water.

And the other contestants.

Otto decided on the spot to wait a day or two to make his next move.

Leaving now would arouse suspicions; Otto didn't know who was hiding in the crowd, a tiger pretending to be a sheep.

No. It was better to wait for the proper timing.

The maw disappeared barely a second after the final spider had emerged.

Otto narrowed his eyes and calculated the time.

'0.93 seconds.'

Finally, 200 merits richer, Otto left his lane.

Because he'd taken so much time to test his potions on the spiders, he was no longer the first to return.

Otto's gaze landed on the surrounding Throskarts.

Surprisingly, chaos still reigned outside the lanes under the setting sun.

Throskarts were banging on the lanes, begging, cajoling, and threatening the folks inside to let them in.

Not a single plea was heeded.

Otto found to his chagrin that most of the folks stuck outside were members of his own 'posse.'

Of course, he ignored them.

Greer approached him once more.

The greasy man's voice trembled as he spoke this time, taking on a decidedly disgusting wheedle,

"Mr. Benson, hehe, it's good that you're out. See, me and some of the others need some merits. Could you spare a few?"

Seeing that Otto's expression hadn't moved at all, Greer immediately grew a little anxious.

He quickly added,

"Err, for…old time's sake? We helped you out in the voting the past few days, didn't we?"

Otto slowly nodded.

"I suppose you did."

Greer brightened. He lowered his voice to a whisper,

"Yes, just a few merits! Just a few for me, to keep me out of the bottom 10 today."

He laughed nervously.

But Otto shook his head.

"I'm afraid I no longer have much need of any of you, unfortunately…"

He snapped his fingers, summoning Roran and the other three bodyguards to instantly surround him.

Roran glared at Greer, his expression somewhat smug.

Luckily, they had been specifically instructed to use their fastest speed to procure a lane today.

None of them were short of merit at the moment.

Moreover, their complexions were much better than that of the others, in no small part thanks to the unlimited supply of water and food at the mansion every night.

"Hasn't Mr. Benson given you enough help already?"

"Now it's time to survive on your own…Mr. Benson doesn't like folks who can't pull their weight…"

Suddenly, Greer's sunken eyes glinted and seemed to sink even further into their sockets.

His expression steadied in a matter of moments, his eyes exuding a confidence that seemed alien on his shrewd face.

He glanced cryptically at Otto with a raised eyebrow,

"Indeed, Mr. Benson has helped me quite a lot."

Then, his typical greasy expression returned as if the change had only been a lie.

Greer slipped back into the crowd and effortlessly entered a different lane.

Otto merely gazed at his receding figure dispassionately, his eyes hooded, his thoughts unknown…