The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

Otto quickly entered his virtual pod, then retreated into his mental space.

He was actually becoming increasingly thankful for this space.

A wave of calm washed over him as his vision filled with the green and white mountains in front of him.

A small cottage standing directly on a precipice overlooking the entire mountain range appeared before his eyes.

His mental home for the next few years.

Otto rolled up his metaphorical sleeves.

The first thing he would always do before any extended length training session was to make a plan.

What did he want to improve?

What were his weaknesses? What about his strengths?

Otto sat down in his little cottage, directly in front of the roaring fire.

He began to come up with a list of exactly what he needed to get done.

First and foremost for Otto was increasing his attributes.

Since they had already fallen once, and would fall another 10% when he did decide to split his soul once more.

It was a tough decision for him to make on whether or not to split his soul into the new team member, Mirabelle.

The decision rested on whether or not he would be able to find a way to cure her or even just improve her lifespan significantly over the next ten years.

The problem was…in the end, Otto was not very confident.

If the [Tower] wrote directly on her status that she, as a race, was not able to live more than ten years, Otto knew that it would be a hard problem to solve.

It wasn't that it was absolutely impossible.

Since all kinds of items existed in the tower.

The problem was that it might take more than ten years to obtain!

Moreover, while he was confident in himself and his own performance on each floor, it was impossible for Otto to be confident in something he had no control over.

Who knew if this item even existed?

If it did, could it be obtained?

Otto couldn't answer these questions for now.

Given that, he decided it was better to lose a portion of his attributes than to risk a portion of his soul.

His attributes could definitely be recovered.

Especially with his 'special' class.

His soul...Otto was less certain about.

Still, just because he'd decided didn't mean he didn't have a headache over it, though…perhaps if he could find some kind of container that would hold his soul, he could split it off now while his attributes were still low?

Otto sighed.

Clatenis was already on the lookout for such an item, but Otto had low expectations.

Once again, Otto was prepared to pay quite the price for it...

Besides his attributes, Otto's list of improvements to make on himself steadily grew.

He wasn't targeting anything major such as a qualification this time around.

No, this time the devil was in the details.

The first and most important area Otto desperately needed to improve upon was his attributes.

He even wrote it down twice for emphasis.

Now that they had declined significantly, Otto was in no position to be entering the [Titled I] difficulty on his next floor.

At the very least, they should make it to the point where they were before the split.

Raising his magical attributes was what Otto planned to spend the majority of his time doing.

The second thing was improving his non-unlimited spells to Level 10, and upgrading some of his older spells to unlimited.

He would also need to learn by 'rote' all of the spells that Clatenis was currently procuring for him.

Of course, as per their earlier deal, Otto still needed to pay for them.

But when Otto imagined dozens of [Unlimited] tags on his spells, it was undeniably worthwhile.

The third thing was to further reduce his cast times.

Yes, technically, all of Otto's cast times were 'instant.'

However, theoretically 'instant' didn't equal practically 'instant.'

In reality, Otto's spells still cost him a fraction of a second to cast.

He wanted to bring that down to as little time as possible.

It was something that required practice.

To pursue perfection in magic casting in its truest form.

The fourth thing was to further experiment with casting to see if he could make any breakthroughs.

Over his last training session, Otto had also made an effort to push his non-unlimited spells into the moors beyond Level 10.

Every time he did so, however, it was as if something was chaining the spells down.

He needed to loosen that chain to break through.

Otto also intended to experiment in another direction: that of spell fusion.

Frankly, Otto wasn't fully convinced this was possible.

But it certainly wouldn't stop him from experimenting as best he could!

Fifth was to supervise the training of the kids and begin to introduce his own might into their formations.

He would also need to make sure their teamwork was just short of seamless to prepare for the fifth floor.

He pondered for a second.

Would he have time to improve and practice his professions?

He shook his head.

He had to wait until Clatenis as well as the man he'd met at the Golden Club sent him the first batch of potion and pill ingredients, plus the array materials.

For now, this improvement was put on hold.

Otto rose with a yawn from his comfortable seat in the mountain cottage and warmed himself up with a quick jog up the mountain.

He stretched.

Time to get to work!

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

Jeremy's eyes darted around the arena.

Pillars cast shadows all around him in the golden light of the afternoon sun.

He knew what was hiding behind the pillars, and felt the familiar dread.

Jeremy did his best to ignore it, and narrowed his concentration.

His entire being was laser-focused on three moves.

Thrust, slash, stab.

Suddenly, a human jumped out from behind one of the pillars facing Jeremy's back.

The man rushed at him.

He was also using a dagger, though his moves were precise and clean.

The dagger he held stabbed directly toward the nape of Jeremy's neck.

There was no wasted movement.

At that moment, a prickly feeling assaulted Jeremy from behind.

'Danger!'

He didn't panic in the slightest, and merely tilted his upper body a few centimeters to the right, causing the dagger to miss.

Then, Jeremy counterattacked.

His dagger swung to where the man was overextended and aimed for his weak point: his wrist.

The action was quicker than the eye could follow.

Jeremy's pupils constricted. His vision narrowed on that particular point.

Before his stab reached, the wrist turned slightly.

But the man was also no slouch.

He smoothly turned his 'overreach' into a swing.

A dagger slashed at Jeremy from a tricky angle, as if it was planned.

Daggers clashed quietly over multiple seconds as the two exchanged moves.

Then, the two of them stepped back and started breathing roughly.

Jeremy was in the second week of his four months of solo training.

Ramesthes had given each kid an individualized plan to help them improve comprehensively in all aspects.

Jeremy's major task was to improve his skill with his daggers.

The man in front of him suddenly lunged to the side.

Jeremy was excited.

'An opportunity!'

Jeremy's dagger swept towards the man's back, but in his haste, he overextended himself.

By the time he realized the man's lunge was actually a feint, the man's dagger was already lodged between his eyes, directly into his brain.

Jeremy woke up in the lobby of the virtual space, eyes wide and breathing roughly.

He threw his daggers onto the floor.

"Damn it!"

A deep crease was carved in his brow.

His eyes were red, frustration practically radiating from his gaze.

His fists clenched.

It was not the first time Jeremy had fought this particular opponent.

In fact, he'd long lost count of exactly how many times he'd died to that exact dagger.

If this was an opponent who was much stronger than he was, Jeremy wouldn't be feeling so upset.

The problem was that this guy was supposedly weaker than him!

Yet despite his attribute advantage, Jeremy could barely land a hit on the man.

His skill was too high!

Every movement he made was precisely calculated, every thrust with his dagger carried no wasted movement, and every killing blow was sure to hit.

Even his inertia was tightly controlled.

As far as Jeremy knew, this opponent was a specter of a past challenger who was now either dead or on a very high floor of the [Tower].

Jeremy couldn't figure out how to beat him at all.

The man was too perfect! It was like fighting Otto, if Otto had weaker attributes, only with daggers instead of spells.

Jeremy breathed deeply and did his best to calm down.

He tried to focus on his bond with Otto.

But his frustration only mounted.

He wanted to help!

He wanted to get stronger!

He wanted to make his teammates proud!

Jeremy knew Otto would be able to overcome this obstacle, so why couldn't he?

He ... was useless.

Jeremy could barely figure out what he was supposed to be learning through these challenges.

He sat sullenly on the ground for five straight minutes, mulling over his failure this time.

Suddenly, he felt a sense of reassurance through his bond.

Was Otto…comforting him?

At the thought of the super stoic boy reaching out and patting his head, Jeremy involuntarily burst into laughter.

Then, his eyes began to shine with fighting spirit.

Grow through battle! Wasn't that what he'd always done?

He could just die 50, 100, even 1,000, 10,000 times before he got the hang of it.

No matter what, he wasn't a quitter! He, Jeremy Smalls, would always keep fighting!

Jeremy re-entered the arena once more.

He would beat this irritating fellow no matter what!