The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage
chapter-11

The sun was high in the sky at the permanent military camp.

Various sounds of battle could be heard. They came from outside of the walls.

It seemed the war with the monsters was already starting to ramp up.

Otto and Jeremy stood in front of a very large man.

He wasn't large in the sense of 'fat,' though.

It was closer to 'extremely tall and incredibly burly.'

The man was currently sitting at his desk, yet he remained at eye level with a standing Otto.

He had no hair on his head, a blond mustache reminiscent of an old German general, and firm brown eyes that spoke of experience and wisdom.

But when he smiled, which he did often, his face lightened up considerably.

In fact, if Otto was permitted to think very rude thoughts about bald folks, it could be said that he looked more like a giant merry version of humpty-dumpty.

But what surprised Otto more than his large size was his attitude.

The man was in charge of an entire military regiment. He had directly been charged by the royal family to protect Bront City from any and all outside threats.

By all rights, Otto thought a stern man should be the commander, but Zeller was much more easygoing than Otto had expected.

He sized Otto up once before speaking, with a unique accent that Otto, who wasn't actually familiar with the language spoken, couldn't place.

"Well, my boy, if you want ta be valued 'round these parts, it'd do ya good to show off yer' strength a bit here 'n there.

I'm assumin' you'd a be reasonably strong, ta' be askin' ta take on so many o' those nasty buggers."

Otto found his straightforward words refreshing, having long been mired in politics and diplomacy, where schemes and conspiracies were abundant.

"Since you're so direct, Commander Zeller, forgive me for replying in kind.

The reason I'm here is to earn as many merits from the military as needed to choose one item from your military storage.

Would you be so kind as to tell me how many monsters I'd need to kill in order to do that?"

The Commander smiled, and there was a gleam in his eyes.

'Military storage? What the ruddy hell's in there that this lad wants? Ain't nothin' that valuable, though's for sure. Well, if he can help, it's no skin off my back.'

The Commander was well-liked among his men precisely because of his easy going, straightforward nature.

Unfortunately, it was also this nature that had seen him relegated to protecting Bront City.

Compared to the capital of the kingdom, this place was little better than the boonies.

Well, it suited him just fine. He was a military man, not a politician, in any case.

"That depends on jus' how strong y'are, my dear lad. Care to have a little duel?"

Otto simply nodded indifferently.

He doubted there was anyone other than the Commander himself who was able to threaten him here.

"Great! Time to stretch these muscles a bit!"

But it seemed...the commander was prepared to face him directly!

Jeremy shot him a look before he whispered cheekily,

"Hehe, don't die before you help me with my monsters!"

He promptly earned himself -3 Health and pain in the back of his head.

Hearing a yelp, the commander looked at Jeremy and showed surprise,

"Why, hello little lad, I didn't notice ya there!"

Otto was speechless. Jeremy's complete lack of presence was indeed mighty.

Jeremy just rolled his eyes. Apparently he was used to this statement.

Commander Zeller stretched his whole body as the three of them walked out to the dueling platform under the gaze of dozens of soldiers.

Otto also managed to spot quite a few challengers in the mix. But he didn't receive many curious gazes in return.

It was evident they thought he was a normal denizen.

Otto smirked.

He couldn't wait to see their expressions when he shot out a 'Mana Bolt.'

Perhaps his 'Mana Shield' may also get some use?

Though his face remained expressionless, Otto actually felt pretty excited.

He may actually have a chance to fight a real, thrilling battle!

Since the commander was one of the strongest people in the city, he shouldn't be too weak, right?

Otto actually loved to fight.

The problem was that he wasn't stupid. Thus, he would very rarely fight for no reason.

As caution was the better part of valor, Otto's usual style relegated direct battle to a last resort, leading to few opportunities so far in the [Tutorial].

Otto preferred floors where it felt like him against the world, or ones where only monsters existed. All he had to do was fight!

Well, he was sure he'd have quite a few fights, too, in the floors ahead.

The two men soon stood opposite each other on a large raised platform.

"Yer muscles don't look like too much, lad, so I'm guessin' you'd be a mage, huh?"

Otto confirmed with a nod.

"Okay, so first we need ta' set the rules for this one."

"First, no killin'."

"Second, duel ends when one is unconscious, off the platform, or admits defeat. If ya fall, we got some cushions to catch ya, so don't worry about that."

"Third, no permanent injuries. If it can't be healed with this little thing, ya can't do it."

He took out a vial of pink liquid that Otto correctly identified as a healing potion.

"And that's all. Ya ready to start?"

Otto smiled and let out his killing intent. Commander Zeller was so surprised he took a step back, muttering to himself,

'Yer aura's so violent, ya might even be a match fer me!'

"Start!"

Zeller charged as soon as the temporary referee let out the shout, trying to catch Otto off guard with surprising speed for such a big body.

And Otto was indeed surprised.

He narrowed his eyes and swiftly dodged the charge without fighting back.

Otto wasn't idle.

In fact, he was doing something thought only to be possible on the upper floors.

He spread out his mana and used it to lightly invade Zeller's body.

His cells, muscles, nerves, tendons; all became transparent to Otto.

This move didn't register as an attack because Otto didn't intend it as such. Rather, Otto pieced together a picture of Zeller's attributes in his mind after a scant few seconds.

A notification arrived, though Otto didn't have time to look at it, but then a [Tower] panel of Zeller's attributes was displayed before him.

[Commander Zeller]

Tutorial Denizen

Health: 710/710 (0.52/minute)

Stamina: 374/400 (2.1/minute)

[Attributes]

Strength 38

Speed 14

Stamina 20

Sturdiness 51

Otto's eyes widened as he checked the attributes. These were insane for a [Tutorial] inhabitant!

He had been wondering why the Commander was as fast as him, but now he clearly understood.

Actually, in the [Tower], different attributes would affect one's body in different ways.

Attributes were not an absolute metric, though they were close. Nor were they linear.

Strength would make your muscles bigger and more powerful.

Speed would make them tighter and give them additional flexibility and explosive might.

Stamina would supercharge your cardiovascular system.

Sturdiness made your body heavier, denser, more resistant and resilient to attacks and granted faster recovery speed.

Commander Zeller had quite a bit of strength and sturdiness, so his body was rather heavy. Thus, his '14' in Speed actually gave him approximately the same real speed as Otto's '10' in Speed.

But Otto was more surprised by his huge number of attributes. He seemed to be way, way stronger than Darius, the Patriarch.

It was a wonder he hadn't taken over the city already! Perhaps this, too, was a testament to Commander Zeller's laidback attitude.

But while he was thinking, Otto did not let his guard down. After so many years of battle, this was a rookie mistake Otto simply wouldn't make.

Seeing Zeller's health value was so high, Otto knew the man could take a few serious hits.

He started fighting in earnest.

Soon, bolt after bolt of mana shot to Zeller's chest. These mana bolts were faster than Otto himself could move, and it was likewise out of Zeller's ability to dodge them as well.

The jaws of many onlookers dropped in unison, but not all of the onlookers reacted this way.

Because the most surprised were, of course, the [Challengers]!

Didn't they all arrive a few days ago? What in the world did this kid eat??!

This didn't affect Otto in the slightest.

Otto had just discovered that Zeller could certainly take some hits!

Two of his normal mana bolts could barely phase the man at all. They merely left two small scorch marks where they exploded.

His clothes were hurt, but his chest was completely fine!

Otto's eyes glowed as he dodged Zeller's fist by an inch and squirmed away. He could definitely use more power!

He spoke while he exchanged moves with Zeller,

"I hope there's something in this camp that can recover my mana, because I might be using quite a bit!"

Zeller was unfazed by the statement and merely nodded at Otto as he continued to charge at him.

Zeller knew he couldn't let Otto keep his distance.

Despite his body being fine, even those seemingly weak mana bolts were painful, and even he didn't dare take anything more powerful than THAT head on.

But this slippery little brat was too hard to catch!

Zeller only needed one, maybe two good punches to put Otto out of commission.

Yet this seemingly easy feat became impossible when applied to Otto's flexibility in battle and extraordinary experience.

Zeller even felt a little stifled; like his moves were being read ahead of time, then dodged before he could even execute them.

So he changed it up a little.

It wasn't that Zeller was dumb because he was easygoing.

He just preferred a straightforward battle style that very simply matched power with power to determine who came out on top.

But this style was extremely tough to implement on Otto, who excelled in long range and evasion.

So Zeller started to use feints.

The sudden change quickly caught Otto off guard.

Zeller feinted a punch to Otto's right. As Otto prepared to dodge down and to the left, a second punch hidden just out of Otto's view neared his stomach.

Zeller timed it perfectly such that from afar, it looked like Otto was actually leaning in to Zeller's fist!

Otto's instincts screamed a warning, and he reacted with incredible speed. He was determined not to take the hit head on.

But it was already too late to dodge, as he couldn't reverse his momentum so easily.

Otto used a spell he hadn't yet needed.

'Mana Shield!'

The shield was completed an instant before Zeller's fist hit his stomach.

A bright blue glow surrounded Otto, then Zeller's attack arrived.

WHOOSH

The glow dissipated on the shield as Otto withstood the attack.

But Mana Shield was merely a low level spell.

Otto felt a slight pain in his stomach and quickly checked his status screen.

Health: 98/105 (0.08/minute)

His health had decreased by seven points, meaning even his normal mana shield wasn't able to completely block the attack.

If he'd supercharged it a little, Otto wouldn't have taken any damage.

But even for Otto, supercharging still required more time than a normal cast, even if the difference was measured in tenths of a second.

Moreover, while the mana shield resisted most of the damage, it was completely unable to block the force of the fist.

Otto was instantly pushed back near the edge of the ring.

At this moment, the soldiers and the challengers below were all holding their breath.

It was the appearance of someone who could fight against the captain!

Astounding news!

Was the boy about to fall here? Murmurs spread through the crowd,

'He's already at the edge of the ring…'

'Idiot, maybe he did it on purpose! Didn't you see that glow? He can make a comeback!'

To Zeller's surprise, Otto didn't choose to quickly move forward out of fear he'd get knocked out of the ring.

Rather, Otto perfectly took advantage of the opportunity where the two were separated because of Zeller's attack.

Zeller wouldn't be able to catch him so quickly.

Otto's eyes glowed blue as he charged up a mana bolt.

Before Zeller could even react, a condensed ethereal blue bolt exploded on his chest.

Its speed was faster than a bullet, considerably faster than a normal mana bolt, and the resulting impact force was mighty, not to mention the resulting explosion.

Obviously, Otto had used his considerable mental power to speed it up.

This was something most mages were simply unable to do. Even for Otto, speeding it up to that extent was a considerable exertion.

Well, he could repeat the feat around a hundred times more if needed, but that would be his limit.

Zeller laid on the ground for a second and groaned.

Otto checked Zeller's status with his mana tendrils and discovered that the man had lost just over 300 health from that last hit.

It was because Otto had infused six points of mana in that condensed mana bolt, making for a very powerful attack.

Otto's eyes lit up as he thought to himself,

'Investing in magic power was definitely a good move. If I put 10 points of mana into that thing, just how destructive would it be?'

Unfortunately, for the first circle spell 'mana bolt,' 10 points of mana was the absolute limit of the spell.

Moreover, its explosion wouldn't be able to exceed 1,000 points of damage, no matter how strong its magic power.

This was the limit of a first-circle spell.

Any more than ten mana, and it would destabilize immediately and wind up exploding in the caster's face.

But for a mage with strong enough magic power, using ten points of mana to do hundreds of points of damage was considered extremely efficient!

As Zeller was still on the ground after a few seconds, Otto did not hesitate to remark,

"I win, Commander."

Zeller sighed.

"Yeahp, 'ats right. Okay, boy. I admit defeat."

Zeller knew Otto could have thoroughly killed him had he merely charged a few more of those mana bolts and sent them while he was groaning and lying on the ground.

Zeller felt a little annoyed at himself for lying there for so long.

As he got older and stronger, his battles had gotten commensurately easier as well. Thus, Zeller was no longer used to the kind of pain he just felt.

He even felt a little lucky that this lesson was learned now, with a party that wouldn't try to kill him, rather than a monstrous enemy that would take advantage and go for his throat.

Zeller stood up weakly, walked over to Otto, and shook his hand.

A huge cheer rose up from the ground surrounding the platform. The watching soldiers were excited. Someone finally beat the commander!

Despite their love for the commander, he was still their superior. Thus, these soldiers would never turn down a good opportunity to put him in his place!

The cheering lasted for almost a full minute before they quieted down, as Zeller waved at them to disperse and go about their business.

"I'm watching all o' yer, if ya get any funny ideas, maybe I'll just send this young'un after ya instead o' myself. And he ain't as nice as I'd be."

The soldiers didn't dare to stay for a second longer, and scrambled away as fast as they could.

Jeremy laughed as they resembled mice running from a cat. Only the challengers remained near the platform.

They looked at Otto with wide, awe-filled and fearful eyes. Otto could read their thoughts with merely a glance.

'How did he get that strong?!'

'How many attributes did he get?'

'Is he cheating? Should I report it to someone?'

'Whoa, I bet if I captured him with my beauty, he could definitely take care of me!'

All sorts of ideas were brewing in these challengers' minds. Otto silenced them with a cold glance in their direction.

"Hm? Do you also wish to challenge me?"

Despite his gorgeous looks, the slight smile he sent them inexplicably made him look like the devil himself.

'Doesn't he just want some punching bags?'

They scurried away too.

"My boy, yer stronger than ya look. Ya can definitely help us kill some o' those buggers.

Ya say ya want access to the storage shed, hm? How about this? If ya kill 1,000 monsters for the crew, or 100 real strong 'uns, I'll let ya take yer pick of anything in there.

Whaddya say, young mage?"

Otto just smiled at Zeller. This was a real sly move coming from such a straightforward commander.

1,000 monsters was most likely a front- Zeller had tasked him to deal with so many mostly in order to keep Otto there.

This would also ensure that a powerhouse would be around to protect the army in case the monster siege rapidly intensified.

With an additional Otto, the soldiers' safety would be relatively more secure.

Of course, Zeller wasn't a bad person.

He also wasn't the type to renege on a promise he had made. Nor was he planning on cheating Otto.

It was too bad…Otto couldn't follow along with his plans.

How could he fight off the monsters during the only perfect opportunity he had to steal the [Rainbow Corinth]?

Plus, with the beast lure potion, those monsters could easily be cleared out in at most a few days. And if he could maintain a speed of one monster per second…?

Otto plotted in his heart. Those boots would be his before two days were up!