The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

"You're saying it was the Nosk family? How confident are you?"

Glen was confident in his analysis despite his current nerves.

"Yes, sir. They clearly tried to destroy the array right before we arrived, but we were still able to catch its magical signature despite their attempts to hide it.

The mana signature belongs to the Nosk family, sir, I am almost 100% confident in this conclusion."

Hearing this, Darius's smile became sinister.

"Very well, Nosk family, huh. I left you alone for so long and you want to dethrone the king, hmm?

We'll see if you can even withstand my attack."

Darius knew the Nosk family had long been hiding their ambition behind kind smiles and conciliatory words, but he never imagined that they would dare to directly attack his own mansion.

Actually, it wasn't really his fault that he was so confident it was the Nosk family. First, the two families had bad blood for a long time prior to this.

Second, members of the Nosk family had been continuously provoking his own clan for the past two days, and the struggles were getting ever fiercer. Two members had even died already.

Third, as far as anyone knew, it simply wasn't possible to hide one's mana signature.

There was no doubt in his mind that the Nosk family was behind this.

And they attacked in such an ingenious manner, too…Glen had mentioned that he wasn't fully able to parse the parts of the magic array that were left behind.

Which meant that they secretly advanced their technology while Darius was trying to advance his own strength.

'Troubling. But will their arrays help them in the face of my absolute strength?'

He scoffed and sent out an order.

"Assemble all fighters level four and up. We'll directly head to the Nosk family."

However, Darius remained cautious. He wouldn't easily let others take advantage of this fight between two behemoths.

Should a hyena attempt to take advantage and attack the base, their ending would befit their crimes.

"Leave Lauren, Gren, Aman, Helga, and Zachary to guard our base."

The 'base' Darius was speaking of wasn't the mansion at all. Its location was an open secret to most of the powerful forces in the city, but it was extremely heavily guarded.

Of course, no one dared attack it due to the Brenner family's might. Had the meteor fragments struck the base, it was unknown if the base would even receive a dent...

It contained the most important legacy of the Brenner Family. Controlling the base meant controlling the Brenner's lifeline.

There was no way Darius would make such a novice mistake.

The five fighters Darius had left to guard were all powerful Level 10 fighters. They would be hard to find anywhere in the city.

Actually, the native inhabitants in the worlds occupied by the [Tower] all had their own way of measuring strength.

In this world, it was relatively simple.

Fighters and Mages were classified from Level 1 to Level 10 according to their power.

After they reached above level 10, they would be classified as 'Great' Fighters or 'High' Mages, and would once again work their way up from Level 1 to Level 10.

As for above this level, it simply wasn't known in Bront City.

The most powerful man in the city, said to be Darius Brenner himself, was commonly thought to be a Level 4 Great Fighter.

He was a full two levels stronger than the next most powerful person, Rosella Nosk, the matriarch of the Nosk family and a Level 2 High Mage.

Attributes wise, most fighters were ranked based on 'Strength' while mages focused on 'Mana Pool.'

When one reached a '4' in strength, they would officially be a level 1 fighter. Each level after that required an additional point.

To become a Great Fighter, one needed two additional points for a total of 15 points in strength.

If Darius Brenner was a Level 4 Great Fighter, it meant he had the equivalent of 18 points in strength. In other words, he was quite strong.

Certainly not something that new summoned with a measly five initial attribute points could compare to, even should all their AP be put in strength.

Becoming a mage was, on the contrary, much harder, as one had to have the ability to sense mana in order to properly manipulate it.

To become a mage, one needed '10' total mana. A mage broke through her current level at each 10 additional mana, as well.

To become a High Mage, said mage needed to double their mana to be on par with a Great Fighter.

Compared to the new summoned, these inhabitants were powerful foes.

But compared to real tower challengers, they were exceptionally weak.

Fighters here didn't have or know how to use anything like energy, so they fought with their physical bodies alone.

For mages, there was no such thing as spell inheritances.

At most, they could barely manipulate surrounding elements to attack, perhaps shooting the occasional fireball or wind bullet at extraordinary mana cost.

Other than that, mages could usually shoot a ball of mana similar to mana bolt and manipulate mana directly to perform feats similar to telekinesis.

Since this was the [Tutorial], it wasn't possible for the inhabitants of this world to be too strong.

Otto watched the scene of Darius Brenner leaving to attack the Nosk family from afar.

He stood on a nearby rooftop, and he seemed to be pondering something.

With his newfound strength, Otto had officially become a powerhouse in this world.

The plan he had previously made was an excellent plan for when he was weak.

Yet now that he wasn't, couldn't he just go over and directly steal the [Rainbow Corinth] from the Brenner base instead of hiding in the dark like a viper?

He thought about his current situation.

Otto truthfully HAD expected to gain a few 'extraordinary achievements' in the tutorial as soon as he'd decided to bring out his alchemy and magic arrayist skills.

He had thought the additional AP would make him more likely to escape in case of tricky situations.

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What he couldn't have anticipated was the appearance and magnitude of the 'Tower First' achievement which directly catapulted him into power prematurely.

His eyes narrowed.

No.

There wasn't any such thing as 'too much caution.' Yes, he could definitely directly steal the [Rainbow Corinth] right now.

There was a 90% chance he'd get away with no trouble considering his current power, too.

He'd even completed the promises he'd made with the church and helped them set up a favorable battlefield to coerce the nobles into actually fighting the monsters.

But wisdom was the mother of caution. This was no time to be careless.

The [Tower] worlds were, for all intents and purposes, real worlds.

These people were 'reset' after every completion of the [Tutorial], but they acted like real people during every iteration.

Things like hidden forces, or secluded powerhouses were not out of the question.

Otto had too much experience with the [Tower] to think otherwise.

While the [Tower] may have given him a boost in the form of a 'Tower First' achievement, there was still close to 0 chance he'd be able to get away with the jewel by blatantly robbing it so easily.

Even his initial assessment of a 90% chance would have to be downgraded based on his vast experience.

The [Tutorial] did not only test challengers' strength. It tested cooperation, cunning, survival skills, observational skills, willpower, and likely much more.

Otto decided to stick to his original goal.

Before he followed the Brenner forces, though, he intended to get some interest. He quietly snuck into the now almost completely unguarded mansion.

While their real valuable objects weren't located here, one thing the Brenner family did not lack was ordinary money, like gold, silver and jewels.

That ordinary money was exactly Otto's current goal.

No one saw him as he snuck into the mansion.

It wasn't like he possessed a 'stealth' skill or anything like that.

Otto merely utilized the blind spots in the mansion 'guards,' his long experience hunting in the wild and his extraordinary reaction times allowing him to easily slip past them.

After looting a few rooms dry, Otto could once again be considered at least reasonably wealthy in Bront City.

He quickly slipped back out to follow the Brenner forces.

But before he slipped out of the mansion, a shadow shifted in the corner of his vision.

Otto raised his guard silently. He pretended he hadn't noticed until he got within a foot of the 'shadow.'

Without knowing if the presence was hostile, Otto generally wouldn't go for the kill immediately. Disabling, though, was not out of the question.

Instead, he used his speed advantage and rapidly struck out with his fist. It immediately connected as Otto heard a muffled 'Oomph!'

The figure in the shadow was revealed.

Otto immediately determined it was a challenger, not a denizen of the tutorial, and dropped his guard slightly.

The teenager in the shadow backed up with his hands in the air, eyes wide as he personally felt the power of that punch.

Not to mention, his health dropped five points from that casual attack alone! The boy in front of him was not someone he could go against.

'A resident?'

He shook his head. How could a resident be that powerful at such a young age? But if he was a summoned like them, how could he become so strong in a few days?

Little did he know that Otto was a mage. Perhaps he would directly shit his pants and wonder what he had been doing this whole time…

Otto glanced at the teenager and his eyes lit up. This fellow was pretty good!

His face was not ugly, but could not be considered handsome, either. His demeanor was very forgettable, and his clothes befit a typical commoner in Bront City.

Had he been a Tower resident, Otto would not have been impressed in the slightest. It was the fact that he was a new challenger that amazed him.

This guy was pretty clever! He probably chose the path of a 'Rogue' or the path of an 'Assassin' when the [Tower] asked him to choose a class type.

Moreover, his presence was naturally small and forgettable, and he had blended in well with clothes that would definitely not draw attention.

Otto himself was also wearing such clothes, but he had 40+ years of experience.

What was the best quality of a true rogue?

Speed? No!

Strength? No!

Dexterous hands for pickpocketing? Useful, but no!

It was stealth! And this teenager in front of him seemed to have a naturally inconspicuous demeanor.

When he was in stealth, even Otto would not have detected him from afar had the boy not accidentally given himself away by slightly moving.

These thoughts flashed in Otto's mind for an instant as he stared at the boy, who looked a little uncomfortable.

This kid could be trained. A rare talent!

"Erm, sorry, mister, but I don't bat for your team…"

"..."

Otto glanced at him coldly, unwilling to entertain such narcissism.

He didn't expect that the boy wouldn't be afraid of him at all! The boy continued speaking

"Ehem, if you don't mind, I still have something to do here…"

His footsteps drew backward as he stealthily tried to slip away.

Otto raised an eyebrow at this. He conjured a mana bolt with only a tenth of a point of mana and shot it at the boy's feet.

The ground right in front of the boy sizzled as the bolt exploded.

The boy's eyes widened and he dared not take another step. He changed his tune.

"Hello, I'm Jeremy. It's nice to meet ya! Ah…haha, that…what do you want with me?"

Jeremy dared not speak too loudly in fear of the guards in front of the mansion.

While Otto definitely considered them small fry, to most newly summoned, they would be considered a tough fight.

Jeremy had risked a lot to enter this mansion and was not so stupid as to immediately sell himself out.

But the person in front of him was too scary! His voice couldn't help but rise in the end.

Jeremy covered his mouth with his hands while glancing apologetically at Otto, who smiled faintly.

"What's your full name and purpose here?" The name Jeremy reminded him of someone...

Jeremy's eyes shifted but quickly realized there was no way out. He told the truth.

"Jeremy Smalls is my full name."

Otto's eyebrows imperceptibly rose before smoothing out quickly.

��What a great catch.'

Jeremy Smalls was a rather famous rogue in his past life. He was not famous for his strength, but rather for his incredible information network, unparalleled stealth, insane disguises, and worst of all, his infuriating personality.

Otto deeply remembered him because once in his past life he had been targeted by the guy and pickpocketed three times in the course of a single hour.

Worse was that he hadn't even noticed until after it happened!

Each time, Jeremy had stolen only a single gold coin from all the treasures and equipment in his backpack, but he had also left a note with only a wink on it to make sure Otto knew what he'd done.

It was more playful than ill-intentioned.

Unfortunately, Otto was quite a tight-ass in those days, and really couldn't forgive himself for letting his guard down.

He had bought a piece of spatial equipment with half of his fortune the very next day.

Otto was broken out of his reverie by Jeremy's voice.

"Eh, so you might not believe me but I actually came here because I wanted to challenge myself to try and sneak in…"

His voice got smaller as he flushed a bit,

"And to see if I can steal any money to get some good daggers. After all, what great thief doesn't have daggers!"

Otto felt like laughing as he watched the young Jeremy who was a little different from his previous impression.

He could just make out a few hints of the narcissism that would surely only grow as the boy got older and stronger.

Sadly, Otto was in a bit of a hurry right now, so he couldn't indulge the youth for too long.

"Don't worry. If you wanted to raise your mission rating by sneaking in, by getting past the guards in front, you have already succeeded. I am not part of the task."

Otto pondered for a second before sighing,

"Okay, I'll help you. Here is some money."

Otto handed over a few gold coins casually. Suddenly, Jeremy's stomach rumbled. He flushed, embarrassed.

"Go buy yourself some decent quality inconspicuous daggers, get some food, and then meet me at Gretta's Lodge just east of here in six hours or so."

Jeremy's eyes were wide.

As much as he pretended to be an asshole who was full of himself, it was mostly a defense mechanism; adapting to this kind of world was by no means easy.

Though it had only been two days since the [Tutorial] begun, Jeremy had already almost been killed multiple times.

Most of them were by humans.

It couldn't be helped.

All kinds of people were summoned and entered the [Tutorial] and there would always be a few who chose missions like 'Kill 5 Challengers.'

They were easy and relatively lower in risk.

Some would even pretend to be teammates only to backstab you.

Jeremy's trust was truly at an all time low. He took the coins, but hesitated to respond, worried that Otto had an ulterior motive.

Yet Otto ran away before he could even give a response. Faced with this unspeakable level of trust, Jeremy's eyes involuntarily teared up.

He was only 14 years old. He was tired of being on guard.

Jeremy glanced around nervously after quickly wiping them with his sleeve.

'Phew. No one saw that.'

How could Jeremy know that Otto genuinely didn't care much about this small amount of money? He was merely making an investment in Jeremy!

That wasn't the only reason Otto gave him some money. First, he reminded Otto of himself all those years ago. Clever, smart, talented, and unwilling to reveal his hardships to others.

Plus, Jeremy had always fought for humans, no matter how badly they had behaved toward him.

Otto admired him a little. A bit of help to someone like this could go a long way.

Right now, Otto ran at his fastest speed to catch up to the Brenner family cohort going to find trouble with the Nosk family who had 'ambushed' them with the meteor fragments.

This time, however, he was only here to watch and make sure the church properly did their job…

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

Nosk Family Compound

"OI OI OI!! Open up, you Nosk maggots! Your betters have come to punish you!!"

Loud banging which no one could possibly mistake for knocking resounded through the mansion. A lone man banged on the Nosk family's front door.

The rest of the Brenner army was a hundred meters behind.

Otto was in admiration at Darius's methods.

Truly a godly method of pulling aggro.

Even worse, it hadn't even been the patriarch himself who had shouted that line.

It was merely one of the hundreds of faceless guards tasked with low-level jobs.

Sure enough, the method quickly bore fruit.

Hundreds of red-faced men and women stormed out of the mansion, bowling down the man who had banged on the door. They shouted furiously at the intruders.

"How dare you!"

"Who the hell do you think you are to speak to the prestigious Nosk family like this?"

"We'll see if your bitch-ass can take a beating or if you'll go crying to your momm…"

Their words quickly stuck in their throat as they saw the almost one thousand high level fighters and mages of the Brenner family.

A few quickly ran back into the mansion to sound the alarm.

The scene became chaotic...

"What trash Brenner family? Do you want to start a war with us?"

As more and more Nosk family members came out, loud voices were heard.

The members of the Nosk family tried to agitate the Brenner family into charging at them.

But Darius Brenner was wary.

If the Nosk family had provoked them like this, it meant they were prepared.

Darius's eyes shone as he saw the numerous arrays littered about the courtyard.

'Thankfully, I only sent a single person within 100 meters of that house.'

Otherwise, who knew how many of his men would have been directly blown apart by those arrays.

He couldn't read the mana contained in them, but he got an eerie feeling that the arrays were a good bit stronger than they looked.

The Nosk's provocations were not completely useless.

A few particularly arrogant or impulsive men charged over to challenge these people with red eyes.

Their speed was fast.

Darius shouted loudly and ordered them to pull back, but it was to no effect; these men were too angry.

They roared at those Nosk scum and swung their swords and spears to teach these assholes a lesson they'd never forget!

Spears and swords clashed on the grass in front of the mansion. Sensing malice, a few arrays lit up brightly.

Before Darius could order his men to fall back once more, a bright red light came out of a few arrays.

The red light was very powerful. As soon as it struck the men, it directly pulverized all fifteen people who had recklessly charged.

The arrays dimmed slightly as some of their power was used.

The Brenner family was alarmed. They became even more cautious.

Older members continuously scolded the younger members to make sure they wouldn't charge out recklessly.

Darius's back was covered in sweat as he sensed the power of that light, thanking his lucky stars for his natural caution.

It would barely even scratch him, but it certainly had enough power to kill quite a few of his family members and guards.

Fortunately, after seeing this, none dared to recklessly charge in again.

Just as the Nosks were disappointed they weren't able to reduce the size of the army any further, a middle-aged woman appeared from their mansion.

She let out a single, resounding order,

"Stand down, my clan."

Her voice was sensual; her appearance beautiful despite, or perhaps because of, her age.

Though she was clearly over forty years old, even Otto wasn't able to discern exactly how old she was.

Darius's face grew serious after seeing this woman.

'Matriarch Renora.'

After the death of Renora's brother long ago, the Nosk family line had fallen to her to be the head.

From one of the dozen or so strong noble houses, she had invested in all kinds of research, and single-handedly forged the Nosk family into the second overlord of the city it was today.

It was likely that her own mansion was better protected than even the Brenner mansion due to her wisdom and willingness to invest in magic arrays and the arrayists who drew them.

She was also fairly strong herself, and was widely known as a Level 2 High Mage.

As she slowly walked towards the Brenner family, she gave a series of orders that Otto wasn't able to hear.

Very quickly, her momentum grew as hundreds of the Nosk family elites started pouring out the mansion to support her.

Her countenance was unruffled. She and her entourage walked over to the Brenner family unhurriedly.

Their united steps thudded against the ground in unison, and produced a strong deterring effect.

Otto had to admit, this woman was excellent at psychological games.

"Darius, why have you come here?"

Her face was expressionless, but it seemed she had already guessed the reason.

Darius just smirked at her. He raised his hand and rallied the Brenner family's troops.

The Nosk family had just stepped out of the range of their magic arrays.

Honestly, even if the Nosk family had more tricks up their sleeves, Darius wouldn't be afraid. For attacking his mansion, they would have to pay the price.

Today, he would drag this family down off their pedestal no matter what.

"To fight!"

He lowered his hand and the Brenner family ROARED in synchronicity, resembling a lion finally released from its cage.

"Attack!"