The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

In the hours before Otto and company left to enter a new floor, Clatenis finally delivered the special combat suits Otto had ordered.

There was one for himself, and one for Jason.

Mirabelle would be getting one eventually as well, but hers wasn't nearly as urgent.

Otto opened the box to find two form fitting black one piece combat suits.

The suits looked a little different from those owned by Elliott, Julia, and Jeremy.

Otto's version came with off white runic-shaped accents, while Jason's had two muted brown stripes running down its sides and legs.

Both were lighter in weight, as well.

As Otto felt it with his fingers, it was cool to the touch and resembled an extremely light polyester.

But Otto wasn't planning to look down on this 'light polyester' suit.

He took a gander with [Analyze].

Honestly, because he couldn't share with Clatenis the details of most of his powers, Otto hadn't expected much real customization.

He figured Clatenis had just done the best he could.

[Powered Energy Nanite-Injector Suit]

Silver Grade

Mana +10%

Magic Power +10%

Intuition +20

Special Passive

[Storage]

Suit can 'store' up to 100,000 mana points indefinitely.

0/100,000

[Mana Conversion]

Suit can convert mana to health, stamina, or energy at 20% efficiency.

50 points of mana = 1 point health

20 points of mana = 1 point stamina

5 points of mana = 1 point energy

[Fully Charged: Magic Fluorescence]

When fully charged, casting spells in this suit costs 10% less mana.

[Fully Charged: Stamina Saver II]

When fully charged, moving in this suit costs 20% less stamina.

Special Active

[Body Surge]

Instantly refills health, stamina, or mana to full. Costs no energy.

Cooldown: 36 hours

Otto could only think of a single word after browsing through the information.

"Nice."

A separate note came with the box.

It explained how the suit worked.

Otto read that magical nanites inside this suit were how it functioned as a converter, trading mana in for health, stamina, or energy alternately.

Like the other kids' suits, this suit also came with potion injectors and a pill dispenser for his own convenience.

Otto didn't think this would be particularly useful on the 2nd floor, but after that?

He imagined he would need this feature quite a lot.

He'd specifically asked Clatenis for a few of these additions to his suit, but by and large the end result was still slightly better than expected.

Otto was especially pleased that instead of raising the levels of some of his spells, Clatenis opted to increase Otto's attributes instead.

Actually, had the suit opted to add a level to one of his spells, there was a good chance it wouldn't work at all.

It definitely wouldn't be able to take his non-unlimited spells to Level 11, and it might not even be able to add a level to his unlimited spell, either.

Otto also cast a quick [Analyze] at the black and brown suit that was made for Jason.

[Dimensional Interfacing Combat/Kinetic Suit]

Silver Grade

Mana +10%

Magic Power +10%

Special Passive

[Mana Absorption]

Passively absorbs mana from the environment, +50% to mana regeneration.

[Aided Cast]

Cast times of all 1st circle spells decreased by 1.5 seconds.

[Mana Cooling]

Cooldowns of all 1st circle spells reduced by 33%.

[Dimensional Window]

1st circle spells that connect across dimensions cost 25% less mana.

Special Active

[Rapid Fire Mana Cooling]

Resets the cooldown of one 1st circle spell.

Uses: 5

Cooldown: 24 hours

Otto smirked and called Jason over.

His expression was slightly nervous when he arrived.

Otto's eyebrow rose as Jason quickly spoke,

"Hey, Otto, I've been working really hard, haven't you seen? There's no need for any drastic measures!"

Otto kept a straight face.

He nodded solemnly.

"Don't worry, Jay. You're out of the doghouse for now."

Jason's eyes widened as a grin emerged, unbidden.

Of course, Otto didn't let him celebrate for long.

"In a couple of hours, you'll be entering the [Tutorial]."

"Al-already!?"

Ramesthes and the others had all told Jason about their experiences in the [Tutorial].

None sounded easy in the slightest.

To be frank, he felt a little scared.

Still, his eyes firmed.

"Don't worry, big bro. I'll pass with flying colors."

He patted his chest in reassurance.

Otto stared at him for a second before nodding slowly.

Then, he handed Jason the combat suit.

"Please wear this in the [Tutorial]. It might save your life at a critical moment."

Suddenly, Otto took out a small golden brooch.

It was inlaid with the insignia of a beautiful black crow, with clear eyes that sparkled in the dim evening light.

At first glance, and second for that matter, it looked extremely precious.

Otto carefully pinned it on Jason's new uniform.

"I'll be pissed if you end up needing this."

Then, he placed his hand on Jason's shoulder.

"But if you do find yourself in dire circumstances, and there is absolutely NO other way out, please press this, Jason."

Otto added in a lower voice,

"I'll never forgive you if you die."

Jason couldn't rip his eyes away from the brooch.

He hurriedly wore the combat suit, feeling the contradictory soft but sturdy nature of whatever fabric it was made out of.

He pumped his fist into the air, then smiled to hide his unease.

"Yes! It'll be great!"

Otto took one last [Analyze] at his brother.

[Jason]

New Summoned

Race: Enhanced Human II

Health: 638/638 (1.02/minute)

Stamina: 408/408 (4.25/minute)

Mana: 370/370 (1.98/minute)

Energy: 10/10 (0.05/minute)

[Attributes]

Strength 7 —] 17

Speed 12 —] 22

Stamina 7 —] 17

Sturdiness 7 —] 17

Mana Pool 37

Intuition 29

Magic Power 31

M. Regeneration 99

Energy Pool 1

Comprehension 1

Energy Compression 1

E. Regeneration 1

AP: 0

[Innate Trait]

??

[Racial Trait]

[Stronger Together]

For every ally beside you, all basic attributes increase by 0.1%. Bonus up to 20%.

It was an excellent status screen.

He had received quite a good racial trait from the evolution bead, too, that allowed him to strengthen himself when around a team.

It wasn't useful for the [Tutorial] in specific, but afterwards, Otto knew Jason would get a lot of mileage out of it.

Plus, he would receive another 5 AP and a second boost after he chose his class type before the [Tutorial].

Otto patted Jason's shoulder before shrugging and deciding to hug, just in case.

But he wasn't all that worried.

He had confidence Jason would clear the [Tutorial].

Otto thought for a second before deciding to check his own status screen one last time before he left for the second floor.

Actually, Otto nearly wanted to avoid using his AP for as long as possible.

To mitigate the loss for when he would inevitably have to split his soul for the fifth time.

He reconsidered his decision not to use the fifth soul split on Mirabelle for the thousandth time.

And came to the same conclusion.

'It's better to be safe.'

Still, Otto realized that in any floor, it was almost impossible for things NOT to go wrong.

He could save plenty of AP for a 'rainy day' in case they were needed, and he did.

But to save them all was sheer foolhardiness when measured against the unpredictability of upcoming floors.

He checked his status screen.

[Toto]

Floor Cleared: 1st Floor

Class: Rainbow Caster

Race: Enhanced Human II

Profession 1: Alchemist

Profession 2: Magic Arrayist

Profession 3: None

Profession 4: None

Health 1,450 —] 6,500/6,500 (2.4 —] 12.00/minute)

Stamina 880 —] 1,680/1,680 (9.25 —] 18.75/minute)

Mana: 15,420 —] 48,060/48,060 (22.16 —] 46.50/second)

[Attributes]

Strength 36 —] 60

Agility 46 —] 100

Stamina 37 —] 75

Sturdiness 40 —] 100

Mana Pool 114 —] 200

Intuition 90 —] 174

Magic Power 101 —] 169

Regeneration 142 —] 235

AP: 296

This was his status screen without any of his equipment on.

He had spent only 180 AP, and he spent it wisely.

60 to Sturdiness to add additional health for more security. The last thing he wanted was to die immediately to some dumb attack.

24 to Strength, the bare minimum to make sure he could carry the new increased weight of his body with relative ease over long periods of time.

38 to Stamina to increase the length of time he could fight and move as fast as he wanted.

54 to Agility to reach 100, doubling his speed, perception, flexibility, balance, and allowing him to stay light on his feet no matter how heavy.

Finally, 4 more to his Mana Pool in order to hit 200 and double it once more.

As for his gains over the 14 or so years of training he'd completed, Otto was overall quite pleased.

He was particularly proud of his intuition.

This magical attribute was, in Otto's opinion, the hardest to raise.

It required the most time AND the most intense effort.

Thankfully, this time, this was also the attribute he'd spent the most time in raising.

In the end, his intuition increased by 84 points in total, which was quite a lot, especially now that it was much higher to begin with than in his previous session.

At this point, all of Otto's magical attributes did surpass his previous attributes from before he split his soul.

It was a fact that Otto was quite proud of, since he'd spent so much time on them over this round of training.

And because he expected to attempt [Titled I] difficulty once again on the second floor.

He'd also managed to learn most of the [Unlimited] versions of the spells that Clatenis had sent over.

Otto had even paid some attention to leveling up his innate trait, [Multitask], though it was still just on the verge of increasing to Level 5…

In other words, those 14+ years spent in his mental space were exceptionally fruitful.