The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage
chapter-13

After 24 full hours, it was afternoon once again as Otto made his way over to the military camp with a still-unconscious Jeremy on his shoulders.

As he re-entered, loud shouts and boisterous laughter entered his ears.

The military camp was even rowdier than Otto remembered.

He soon laid his eyes on the new batch of 'recruits.' And chuckled heartily.

Otto could understand why the soldiers were so rambunctious.

After all, a bunch of nobles had come to fight the monsters with them!

Even better, they all had expressions like they were chewing shit.

Clearly, they didn't come voluntarily.

The soldiers were definitely making the most of this opportunity, though.

As these same nobles had bullied them throughout the streets of the city, the soldiers were merely returning it in kind.

Since they had heard that no matter what, the nobles weren't allowed to leave- on pain of death.

In other words, so long as they didn't kill or seriously injure these nobles, the new 'recruits' were fair game.

And of course, the soldiers knew how to hit them where it hurt.

Their pride.

Which is why Otto walked into a scene of nobles dressed in brightly colored robes and expensive looking battle gear shoveling the military camp's feces outside of the walls.

But he didn't make any move to laugh at them.

Otto felt they were miserable enough without ill-intentioned bystanders gawking at their humiliation.

Unfortunately, this didn't always mean that no one would find trouble with him.

His figure was quite eye catching.

First of all, his face was extraordinary all on its own.

Otto was quite used to drawing glances and goodwill from females (and even a few *cough* open-minded males).

His face also tended to draw dislike (read: envy) from similarly-aged men.

Plus, he wasn't dressed in the grey uniform of the soldiers, nor the colorful robes of the nobles.

And he happened to be carrying someone on his shoulders.

One noble's eyes bulged as he saw Otto glance at him while shoveling poop, then glance away.

This noble instantly felt disregarded. He wasn't even worth a glance!?

Normally, he would never have been so upset from a single look.

Unfortunately, the rage that had long been boiling in his chest found an opportunity to erupt.

His expression contorted in anger.

'A mere commoner dares to look at me like that? To witness my worst moment, my eternal humiliation?! He doesn't seem like he's with the military…should be safe to teach him a lesson.'

The man's smile was sinister.

Needless to say, had Otto heard his thoughts, he would have diagnosed the poor noble with a very serious disease.

Chuunibyou.

This noble wasn't planning on letting Otto go at all.

Suddenly, his shovel 'accidentally' flew out and flung its contents directly towards Otto.

The man wanted to see Otto covered in shit.

Sadly for him, Otto was not a person who often dropped his guard.

Let alone when he was awake, even when asleep, his breathing was light, his body subconsciously alert for danger.

Otto instantly dodged to the right.

But not before flinging a weak mana bolt at the offender.

The man got hit in the stomach and doubled over in pain before he tumbled backward from the residual force.

Otto smiled gently at the man and raised his hand to his mouth in an expression of 'shock.' His tone was sincere.

"Ah, I'm so sorry my magic hit you! I was just sooo startled when the shovel flew towards me that I subconsciously reacted.

Are you okay?"

His words were nice, but his eyes were deeply mocking.

Otto stepped over to help the man up before 'accidentally' recoiling.

"Oops, I apologize. I was going to help you up, but…"

Otto's voice lowered, and he mumbled just loud enough for the onlookers to hear,

"It's too disgusting."

The man was about to flip out at Otto when an eruption of muffled laughter from his surroundings prompted him to look down to where he fell.

Of course, it was directly into a large pile of poop.

He, a noble, was covered in shit.

The rubbernecking soldiers could practically see an enormous cloud of steam coming out of his ears. The man was even prepared to die together with Otto, but…

The stimulation seemed to be altogether too much for the man; he directly fainted.

Yet no one, not even his friends and retainers went over to pick him up…no one wanted to be covered in shit…

Otto let out a faint chuckle. He looked around at the other nobles.

They unilaterally avoided meeting his eyes.

Who wanted to offend a powerful mage, status or not?

Otto ignored them and made his way with the lump of Jeremy into Commander Zeller's office.

He was not too surprised to find two very familiar individuals inside.

The two stood awkwardly opposite Zeller. They were making a poor attempt at being 'polite.'

It was just that the arrogance written deep in their bones was hard to ignore.

Zeller was currently speaking,

"I won't make ya do anythin' but fight the monsters, anyway, but I can't guarantee the same for me soldiers, ya know.

They suffered a lot under you nobles 'round here. Well, they all know their limits."

He guffawed loudly after he finished speaking.

Renora gnashed her teeth as she stared coldly at Zeller.

Ever since she had signed that contract, it felt like the whole world was mocking her.

Her patience was long exhausted, and her fury was on a hair-trigger. It was actually Renora's servants who suffered the most.

They had now officially been replaced six times in the past few days. All of them had died from unfortunate 'accidents.'

Darius also wasn't much better, so mocking Renora had become one of his favorite pastimes.

In the process of discussion, they had both finally learned that someone had led their two families directly into a trap.

Only, there was no evidence. Moreover, there wasn't anything they could do about it.

They could only vow to wipe out the front line offender, the Temple, as soon as they got the chance.

Otto didn't bother about Darius and Renora, and directly entered the room. Jeremy still inert on his shoulders.

He nonchalantly threw Zeller the enchanted bracelet.

Then, his eyes swept indifferently over Darius and Renora. He smirked a little, then let out a barely audible scoff.

Afterwards, he turned his attention back to Zeller, and proceeded to ignore them completely.

If there was one thing in which Otto possessed truly godly talent, it was at angering others, especially if they thought they were better than you.

Basically, it worked for those with high 'status,' no matter what floor or world they were in.

Both Renora and Darius's face darkened almost simultaneously looking at Otto, noticing the clothes of a commoner.

Renora prepared to burn him viciously with magical fire and Darius's muscles tensed to beat him to a pulp.

It hadn't taken much to arouse their rage.

But before they could move, Otto spoke loudly to Commander Zeller.

"Commander, now that I've completed the task, would I be considered part of the military?"

Zeller's eyes shone. He felt that a treasure one could only find but never seek just came and plopped itself into his hand nonchalantly.

He was straightforward, but he wasn't dumb. He understood what Otto wanted.

He cleared his throat.

"Yes, my boy. You can be considered temporarily directly under me. All in service to me must also follow your orders."

As Zeller made his declaration, he glanced conspicuously at the two of them. Both Renora and Darius soon felt an eerie force wrap around their hearts.

It seemed the contract had noticed their intention to breach it.

As was increasingly common in the past few days, the two felt extremely angry with nowhere to vent it.

Otto just smirked a little as he looked at them, and purposely stated with indifference,

"You may leave."

Treating them as subordinates?

How badly Darius and Renora wanted to sock this kid a new one was exactly how badly it felt to be completely unable to retaliate.

Yet neither were willing to risk their lives over some humiliation.

Otto decided he was doing them a favor in kindly teaching them how to withstand humiliation without breaking.

Perhaps they would be more well-rounded as leaders after this incident. Well, that was if they could survive.

The two of them ultimately decided to carve this kid's face deep into their bones and add him to the blacklist.

A gentleman can wait years for a proper revenge. With hateful parting glares at Otto, they finally left.

Now that they were gone, Zeller took the chance to properly look at the bracelet.

When he did, his eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"I think that should be enough to do me that little favor, no?"

Otto implied that he didn't actually want to be part of the military. He just wanted to humiliate those two nobles.

But Zeller's eyes were wide and slightly unfocused. He couldn't take his attention off of the number on the screen.

"Is this… real?"

His hands trembled a little.

Otto's tone contained no inflection,

"You doubt my strength?"

"No, no lad. It's just…hard ta believe. I suppose, with magic, it may be possible…"

He peeked at Otto, only to see him standing there like killing 27,643 monsters was no big deal.

Zeller quietly estimated that Otto and Jeremy alone had killed approximately one tenth of the entire monster horde.

This would deal a not insignificant blow to the monsters' strength.

In 24 hours, that was an average of 19 monsters per minute.

The biggest reason Otto was able to maintain such a quick killing speed was because of the mana potions.

He had continuously fired out mana bolts, each filled with a tenth of a point of mana.

It took between one and four of these small bolts to kill each invading monster.

On a few rare occasions, a tough one had entered, too, where Otto was forced to fire a normal mana bolt instead.

Each hour, he drank a cheap 'mana recovery' potion, and when his mana was close to empty, an expensive 'mana' potion, which refilled his mana immediately.

Luckily, these potions didn't have cooldowns, and they could work with each other, though their effects wouldn't stack, allowing him to continually kill monsters

Then, he kept killing the monsters. All in all, he now only had five potions left.

"I believe I have the right to enter the army vault now, correct? You wouldn't renege on your promise now, Commander?"

"Ah! No, boy, ya gone far above 'n beyond what I was hopin'. You should take three items from the storage as a reward for yer hard work.

I betcha it weren't too easy ta do all o' that in a day. Congratulations!"

Otto smiled slightly.

'As I thought, this is a genuine guy.'

"It was no problem. Also, I have some information for you."

After some thought, Otto decided to share what he knew to the Commander about the monster's siege.

He didn't know too much, but he knew the smattering of monsters the soldiers were facing now were the smallest of small fry.

The main force would only attempt to break in after the meteor fragments had hit.

Frankly, with Otto's usual attitude, even if the city fell, it had nothing to do with him.

Otto purely wanted to help the Commander out a little by letting him know. After all, this man was only trying to do good and protect the city.

After hearing the information, Zeller looked at him suspiciously, wondering how exactly he knew all of this.

But Otto's mouth could not be pried open. He was forced to let the matter go.

After putting Jeremy down in an inn and leaving him a note for when he woke up, Otto and Commander Zeller walked over to the military's storage area.

Part of the reason Zeller was so surprised that Otto wanted to come here was that the military storage area was not really a treasure room.

This was a military regiment, not even a noble house. One should not expect anything like treasure here.

Originally, the storage area was meant for extra armor, weapons, and things that were rusted to be broken down and re-forged into new weapons and gear for the soldiers.

However, Commander Zeller had really been here for too long. He and his regiment had accumulated too many weird, obscure, and occasionally expensive things.

There were even a few treasures that were treated carefully by the soldiers to be saved and sold in times of great need, or a huge war.

Otto walked in with measured footsteps, holding back his eagerness. His eyes roamed around the shelves that were stocked with various ores and trinkets.

A jewel glittered brilliantly in the dim room. An ore seemed to suck in light. A saber emitted a faint sense of bloodlust.

Otto instantly identified these items, but had no interest.

After making two full rounds, Otto hadn't found the boots he was looking for.

'Could they be in the barracks, or are they being used by a soldier? But the man clearly mentioned they were in the 'Storage Facility' when they were sold…'

In the meantime, Otto picked up a White leather armor vest for Jeremy, and even found a rare Bronze-Grade staff for himself.

He checked its details:

[Magical Staff of Fire]

Bronze Grade

Regeneration +2

+10% Power to First Circle Fire Spells

It was simple, but still a little useful for its regeneration attribute.

Suddenly, Otto's mana fluctuated faintly.

At first, he was puzzled. What could resonate with his mana in here?

Then, his eyes lit up.

The offender lay in between two shelves, impossible to spot with the naked eye.

Even after knowing something was there, Otto took a few minutes to find it, baffling Zeller when he laid on the ground and reached between the shelves.

'What is he looking for?'

After a minute, Otto was successful.

It was a pair of boots.

A thick layer of dust lay on top of them. They were a weathered brown, made of a hefty-looking unknown type of cloth.

Their length was medium, with no sign of straps or buckles used to wear and adjust them.

Quite frankly, they looked like they didn't belong here.

Zeller coughed in embarrassment and reached for the boots,

"Err, sometimes things like this get stuck in 'ere too."

But Otto held them away, and immediately declared,

"This is my third item."

Zeller was curious once again. Then, thinking of all the other oddities surrounding this boy, he let it go.

"If that's yer choice, it's good wit' me. Ya better get back to that kid, tho. He looked tired as 'ell."

Otto nodded, thanked Zeller and quickly left the military compound.

His grin was wide as he made his way to the inn he left Jeremy in.

Why?

Of course because he found [Great Mage Ofrand's Boots]!

He examined them closely with the [Tower]'s inherent identification skill, but found nothing wrong.

[Ofrand's Boots]

Common Grade

That was all they showed.

He also tried to use his new spell, 'Analyze,' on them.

[Great Mage Ofrand's Boots]

Common Grade: Sealed

Otto could just barely feel the mana hidden within, a seething, roiling mass of heavily concentrated magic power.

Moreover, he felt the seal.

These boots used a magic-sealing technique that was fairly common on higher floors.

But the execution was unlike anything Otto had seen or heard of.

It was both complex, and Otto reluctantly admitted, absolutely ingenious.

Not something even the him of the past at the peak of power could touch.

Even with Otto's substantial magical knowledge and mana control, it would take him many hours to unravel this seal.

And this was only the first seal.

He didn't know if it was even within his capacity to unravel the second.

Yet this only served to make him more excited.

As it just meant that these boots were even more excellent than he had thought.

But for now, he was tired. He would first eat and sleep.

The seal could wait until tomorrow morning.