The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

The room rearranged itself for at least the twentieth time that evening in preparation for the final event.

Four walls sprung up around Otto, completely isolating him from every other attendee.

It was because this particular event required a certain level of anonymity.

A woman's voice entered his ears,

"This event is one of the most important events for our Golden Club."

"The information exchange."

"Here, attendees may buy and sell pieces of information. All exchanges will be anonymous."

"Please open your club screen."

Otto did so.

"All pieces of information with a green mark are considered valid, verified information by the Golden Club.

"Information with a green and gold mark is sold by the Golden Club itself."

"Information with a grey mark is considered unverifiable, so buy at your own risk, while all known false information will be immediately taken down."

"Information can cover items on floors of all difficulty levels, experiences or information regarding certain organizations or individuals in Area 1, or even personal narrations and understandings of allies and enemies found throughout the floors."

"Please browse through the list at your leisure. This event will last for three hours."

Thousands of pieces of information on various topics were laid out on Otto's screen.

Details about the Tutorial, 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor, all the way up to the 9th floor.

It covered most difficulties.

There were even a few rare pieces of information on [Extreme] starting with the 1st floor, though Otto still didn't see anything beginning with [Titled] in front of it.

As far as Otto could tell, the attendees here were definitely among the uppermost echelon of Area 1.

However, having a [Qualification] did not mean they had cleared the [Titled] difficulty.

It was Glanes who shed some light on it for Otto.

In fact, many of the Golden Club members hadn't received their qualifications until after they'd gone through and cleared 9 floors.

Some were unwilling to ascend to Area 2, preferring the peaceful life of Area 1, even if it became more expensive in terms of merit to remain idle each year.

Others were still clearing floors maybe once every decade.

By now, they had spent such a long time improving themselves here in Area 1 that they eventually stumbled upon a qualification.

But most of these folks were unwilling to attempt to clear a difficulty above their normal missions.

Just because there was a higher risk, higher reward option available didn't mean they had to take it, right?

After spending so long in the peaceful environment of Area 1, they had long gotten used to the non-combative struggles that revolved around schemes, money, and status, rather than physical might.

Plus, even those who had been used to clearing floors on [Extreme] difficulty struggled so much to do so that even moving up one additional level was unthinkable.

This phenomenon was even more exaggerated as those few who had attempted to clear [Titled I] had unanimously come back in failure.

Most had never attempted it again.

Well, it didn't mean that no one had ever cleared a [Titled I] difficulty mission.

It was just that perhaps those challengers kept their experience secret, or perhaps they were recruited directly into Eternal itself.

So while some of these attendees were perhaps as strong as Otto, maybe even slightly stronger than Otto after clearing floors on [Extreme] difficulty seven or eight times, he had found no one other than Verasha who, so far, completely outclassed him.

Glanes also didn't know much more than that about exactly how a 'qualification' was achieved.

He mentioned that his own 'qualification' was after he had repeated an action so many times that he had received a skill for it without the [Tower's] help.

Otto took another glance at the information offered by the Golden Club.

Nothing caught his eye other than a single document pinned at the top of the screen.

It asked for an astronomical price: 10 G1 coins and one piece of valuable information in return.

The title of the information was this:

[Qualifications- Part 1]

Nothing else was offered.

But Otto felt his eyes drawn to the title. It was marked with green and gold, meaning it was sold by the Golden Club (or likely Eternal) itself.

He wondered if it contained some secrets about qualifications.

Perhaps if he knew more about them, it would be easier for him to gain the next one…

For Otto, the problem was not the money, but the 'valuable' information to provide.

He couldn't let such a big organization know that he knew the future. Though they said these transactions were anonymous, he doubted they were actually anonymous to the organization itself.

Moreover, Verasha could figure out that he had some knowledge of things he 'shouldn't' know about.

Perhaps she would even put the pieces together and figure out that he had travelled from the future, giving her a better understanding of his achievements up to now.

Otto couldn't fight Eternal at the moment. He also didn't intend to put himself into a position where he would be forced to.

Ideally, Eternal would become an ally.

But it was also possible that they would become his worst enemy.

So the information Otto provided had to be from either the [Tutorial] or the [First Floor].

Otto would never tell them about the evolution bead. For that matter, he also couldn't talk about the [Rainbow Corinth].

His hand rubbed his chin as Otto thought about it.

Suddenly a lightbulb lit up in his head.

What about the details of the wolf king?

It would expose that he had completed the [Extreme] difficulty of the [Tutorial], yes.

But Otto didn't need to think too hard to understand that if they realized he'd already completed the [Titled I] difficulty on the [First Floor], it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine him clearing [Extreme] difficulty in the [Tutorial].

He could also discuss the wolf king's strength without giving away too much information on his own capabilities: namely, how he used arrays to kill it.

As soon as he had this thought, Otto dictated the relevant information to the club screen and paid the requisite fee.

Ten minutes passed as Otto waited silently.

Finally, his screen came back with a notice.

[Information Accepted]

Otto smirked.

He opened the document.

[Qualifications- Part 1]

A qualification from the [Tower] is indicative of an exceptional performance in some specific aspect.

The exact purpose of the qualifications remains unknown, but it can be inferred that the [Tower] encourages their development from their unique ability to unlock certain 'doors' within the tower.

The maximum known number of qualifications held by a single challenger is three, though the possibility to gather more is postulated.

There are quite a few known ways to gain a qualification, though some remain unverified, based on hearsay.

1) Learn an official spell without assistance from the [Tower]

2) Learn an official skill without assistance from the [Tower]

These two methods tend to require extreme levels of perfect repetition of specific actions in extreme accordance with the [Tower's] own method.

Difficulty: 3/10

Time Required: 6/10

NOTE: A difficulty of '3/10' is compared to various other methods of gaining qualifications. In reality, even a '3/10' would be impossible for 99.999999% of challengers.

3) Earning an 'unadulterated' 5.0 mission rating on 3 consecutive floors.

An unadulterated 5.0 is almost impossible to achieve on any floor, though at least two challengers are known to have gained this qualification.

It requires one to complete a floor mission to the [Tower's] own perfect standards.

Thought to be impossible for any mission above low difficulty.

Unadulterated, meaning that to achieve this qualification, one must not choose a 'mission rating enhancement' as a reward for an achievement.

Difficulty: 4/10

Time Required: 1/10

4) Create an entirely new system within one's chosen profession without assistance from the [Tower].

Said system must be in better in at least one aspect than the traditional system used. It must also be complete, fully functional, and have the capacity for variation.

In alchemy, for example, using a different method of concoction for pills to slightly increase yield without the help of a book or any alchemy related skills.

In enchanting, creating an entirely new set of runes that raises the speed at which an enchanter can work.

Difficulty: 4/10

Time Required: 4/10

"…"

The document went on and on, elaborating on two other methods to gain qualifications .

One was to break past 1000 in every basic attributes.

The other was to earn 5 [Tower First] achievements.

The list was also certainly not comprehensive. It instead compiled the most commonly known methods of obtaining a qualification, analyzing and elaborating on each of them.

A little note at the bottom read

"Join the Syndicate for the second and third parts of the document."

Otto had to admit that this was a big temptation for him…

But he shook his head soon after.

He had faith in himself most of all.

While this document could indeed save him some time to help him and guide him through the process, teaching him where to focus his efforts, it alone was not worth joining an organization, possibly for life, just to get his hands on it.

Otto smirked slightly.

The method he'd used to gain his qualification was not listed on this document.

Meaning that he'd really gotten his money's worth…

Seeing there was no other information he wanted to buy, Otto quietly entered his mental space and trained his spells while he waited for the event to end.

A couple hours later, the four walls surrounding him rose.

Otto's body began to vanish as the gold card lit up...