The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

Otto's entourage was composed of five guards and Otto following behind as they entered the base.

None of the guards dared to take a look behind them.

The group took a long and winding route down to the bottom floor of the basement.

'Sure enough, its structure is primarily located underground.'

Otto inwardly breathed a slight sigh of relief that he didn't try to directly break in.

The base's layout was as complicated as a maze. It would have taken him at least an hour or two to explore it completely and locate his prize.

Worse, the base was absolutely littered with guards stationed at every curve and bend.

Otto had counted over a hundred of them so far other than those stationed outside, and even fighting one of them would instantly alert the rest, who would quickly swarm him.

Though he would probably be able to handle an all-out brawl, Otto didn't intend to get into a dog fight with 100 guards.

This method, pretending to be some random noble hired by Darius, was comparatively much better, and cleaner, too.

It drew attention to his attitude, behavior, and power, keeping it away from the suspicious nature of his entrance in the first place.

The guards wouldn't even dare to ask why they hadn't heard about him in their fear of immediate reprisal.

It was just, openly flaunting a noble's characteristic arrogance made a small part of him scream with shame on the inside.

Overall, it was a plus. Otto never really enjoyed killing innocents.

He would still do it, but it wouldn't really be a good experience, no matter how he looked at it.

Since Otto was being escorted by the leader of the guards himself, he faced zero trouble along the way.

The guards all let the group through with a nod from the leader himself.

Well, other than Otto occasionally having to teach some of the guards who looked at him oddly a harsh lesson, including a vicious glare, releasing a sliver of killing intent, and a weak warning mana bolt in the stomach.

Otto would never admit he derived satisfaction from the guards' crumpled and distorted faces.

Yes, he definitely did it to maintain his image as someone who was bad-tempered and shouldn't be offended.

After almost fifteen full minutes of walking, the guard leader finally directed Otto to a sealed room. It was blocked by a brown earthen door covered in ornate carvings.

Otto got the impression that this door was many times tougher than it looked.

They were on the bottom floor of the base, inside a small corridor that could barely fit two guards side to side. There were only three doors here.

One was the door he was to guard, while the other two were across the corridor, leading to unknown destinations.

The guard leader brought Otto in front of the earthen door.

"Please stand guard directly in front of this door, your excellency…"

"My surname is Gracelock. You may refer to me as Sir Gracelock."

"Yes Sir Gracelock. The heirloom is behind this door, and it is imperative to kill any and all who arrive to this point."

The guard leader still didn't dare to look at Otto. But his words were unusually solemn.

It was his ass on the line if Otto couldn't properly guard the door. He also assumed that Otto would guard with utmost sincerity.

Since, if Darius had indeed hired Otto, it would be Otto's ass on the line as well.

Otto naturally wouldn't enlighten him.

He rolled his eyes before saying pointedly,

"You may leave."

"This…"

He sighed audibly before saying arrogantly,

"You think someone can get through ME? What, you wish to give it a try?"

Otto started to conjure mana at the tip of his finger. It was a blatant threat. But one that the guards had absolutely no way of countering.

The guard leader shivered before frantically shaking his head.

"No! No! I'm leaving, Sir!"

He scrambled out of the room with his four subordinates like his butt was on fire, leaving Otto feeling relatively pleased with the success of his plan.

Otto examined the earthen door carefully.

But he soon felt something slightly out of place.

Why was there no mana signature coming from behind this door? Was the [Rainbow Corinth] not actually a mana tool, like he had previously guessed?

Was it literally just a precious jewel? Otto scratched his head.

If so, why was it considered the Brenner Family 'heirloom'? Would a noble family like the Brenner Family regard a mere expensive jewel as an heirloom?

Otto was doubtful.

He spread out his senses to the whole of the small basement floor. But it didn't take two seconds before he had the urge to roll his eyes.

'Is there a need for all of this trickery? If someone gets here, it's probably a lost cause already, right?'

Otto had found a reasonably powerful mana signature. Only, it was not behind the earthen door.

Instead, an entrance was hidden in the adjacent wall.

And while the earthen door was blocked by an 'alert' magic array that would sound the alarm should anyone dare to barge in, the wall was bare.

It could be deduced that the mastermind hadn't wanted anyone to figure out that the wall was an entrance at all.

Otto had to admit, if it were not for his terrifying mana senses that could even penetrate items that contained no mana, he would also have been fooled.

But he wasted no time. Otto carefully sensed for a second time. He dare not let down his guard for something so important.

He found that indeed, there were no traps on the wall.

Otto carefully began to push the wall inwards. Nothing happened. No alarms were activated, nor were there any secret traps hidden amid his surroundings.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

But his relief quickly turned into slight consternation.

The wall didn't give even after Otto used half of his strength.

He switched to a full-force push. No reaction.

'This wall was probably the only unguarded entrance made for the strength focused Darius Brenner.'

Otto used all his knowledge on force to make the most efficient use of his strength.

Rather than a steady push, it took a short burst of might followed by a continuous steady application of force to push the door in.

Suddenly, Otto heard a commotion coming from upstairs.

He froze.

Was he caught? How come he hadn't detected a single hint of magic?

But then he quickly realized that this was not the case, as there was no sign of a guard coming to disturb him.

The commotion sounded more like screams…of pain?

Otto's hair stood on end as he realized what had happened.

'The Wolf King.'

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

Options blazed through Otto's mind at lightning speed.

'I really didn't expect him to catch me in the act. He came too quickly, I haven't even had any time to make my preparations…'

He thought of the terrain in the underground basement.

Looking at the strength of the wall he had pushed open, he remembered that this base was sturdier than it looked.

Even the Wolf King couldn't directly crush it in a single blow.

Perhaps he could make use of the terrain to fight the Wolf King…here?

Yes.

Otto had no illusions that the guards outside or the guards upstairs would prove to be enough to stop the Wolf King.

To be frank, he was now hoping those guards could stall it until he could set up a few traps and grab the [Rainbow Corinth].

It was both his mission requirement and his safety amulet, after all.

As the clamor outside slowly intensified, Otto finally entered the room.

There, standing on a pedestal was a small shining jewel.

Otto quickly understood why it was called the 'Rainbow' Corinth.

The glow emitted from the jewel was a result of mana, and it looked like it was changing colors each second.

First, it was red, then cycled through the colors of the rainbow almost as fast as Otto could blink.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, then a beautiful luminous black.

The jewel itself seemed to be transparent. At least, Otto couldn't tell what color it was.

All he knew was that it was beautiful. Even enticing.

Worthy of being an heirloom of the 'most powerful' family in the city.

An enormous amount of mana was emitted from this jewel, filling the entire room with abundant magic power.

Otto felt the regeneration rate of his own mana multiply as his magic network greedily sucked it in to restore the mana he'd used to kill those [Leeches].

'What an excellent meditation spot.'

Well, it was an excellent meditation spot for others. For challengers, who couldn't raise their attributes with such methods, meditation was a mostly pointless endeavor.

Even those who had the 'Meditation' skill would only use it to recover mana slightly faster.

Instead, it would be better to climb floors.

Otto snatched the jewel off of its pedestal, and quickly pocketed it.

Nothing happened. The commotion upstairs continued without abating.

Otto breathed a slight sigh of relief as he looked around the room.

To his surprise, he found three tunnels within, all of which seemed to lead back to the previous corridor.

'Were each of those three doors guarding a tunnel?'

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Couldn't he have randomly chosen to enter one of the rooms and gotten here via a tunnel?

'Isn't that just leading enemies to find the jewel?'

But Otto took in a sharp breath when he examined the tunnels in earnest.

He figured out exactly why this jewel was considered the Bront Family's heirloom.

'Darius was nurturing a group of powerful mages.'

The patriarch had funneled the mana emitted from the jewel into each of these tunnels to create three incredible meditation spots.

'It would definitely allow those mages to advance quickly.'

It was a pity they were probably out there with the rest of the family. Even his trump card had been forced to fight monsters.

Otto continued to scrutinize the tunnel.

He found some powerful arrays at the end of the tunnels, added for additional security.

Otto could tell that if any mage got any greedy ideas, they would be instantly blasted to mincemeat by the power of the arrays that filled the tunnel.

Like the Temple's two 'heritage' arrays, the Suppressive Array and the Killing Array that hadn't been used, Darius must have invited a genuine arrayist from somewhere in the kingdom to create these tunnels.

Otto thought darkly,

'The arrayist must also have been immediately killed afterward to protect the secret.'

Otto was thrilled to find these killing arrays, and right then and there decided to kill the Wolf King in this very room.

He set to work on modifying the magic arrays in the tunnels.

Modifying someone else's array could be easier or harder than making your own. It completely depended on the array you were modifying.

If the array was more complex and harder to unravel than an array you made yourself, the modification would be much harder than simply making one up on the spot.

Ditto if the level of the arrayist exceeded your own level.

But if the array was simple, commonly used, or the level of the arrayist was low, modifying the arrays of others became much easier, as at least the foundation of the array was already present.

At higher levels, arrayists tended to keep their own arrays under magical lock and key.

They would definitely not allow other arrayists to even view their work for an extended period, let alone parse it or copy it with a formula.

This was also why Otto's arrays generally leaned more towards obscure chaos and beauty rather than being more ordered and regimented in nature.

For Otto, modifying an array of this level was no trouble at all.

He set to work altering the structures and runes present, ultimately turning the array into a multipurpose array that would likely be unrecognizable to the arrayist who originally created it.

But he wasn't done.

Otto decided to add an additional 'circle' to each of the three arrays in the three tunnels.

Now that he had access to slightly more mana, he could also make the arrays a bit stronger than simply sending meteor fragments off course.

He made them with three uses in mind.

First, they could be activated remotely by his own mana.

Second, they had to use the mana gathered already in the tunnel.

Luckily, the mana already gathered here was an enormous amount.

Third, they would attack with the most powerful force they could muster with the mana in the tunnels.

Because they had now become second grade arrays, their power was much stronger.

Otto conservatively estimated the attack to be around ten times stronger than one of his full force super charged mana bolts.

This kind of might was not something to look down on! Even on the first or second floors of the tower, a second grade array held a considerable amount of power.

It would be even stronger if Otto used his own mana to power it, but alas, at the moment, he still didn't have that capability.

Otto then used an advanced technique to change the elemental structure of each array until they would each use what all wolves tended to be most afraid of: fire.

He knew the Wolf King wouldn't be as affected by fire as a normal wolf, but instincts were typically difficult to get rid of, even for the sovereign of a group of monsters.

Fire was ultimately the best option in this case.

Otto took around a half hour to finish modifying each array.

The screams and growls started to draw closer to the basement level.

'Those guards at the front must be dead...'

At this point, Otto was increasingly sure that the entire siege of the city was all to prepare to grab the [Rainbow Corinth] hidden in the basement of the base.

Because the Wolf King faced more resistance than expected due to the simultaneous intervention of the most powerful forces Bront City could muster, he must have decided to sneak in by himself and secretly steal the gem.

Otto mentally cursed the [Tower] for making his mission so difficult.

Still, his actions weren't idle.

In the little remaining time that he had, Otto drew simple Grade 1 control-type arrays that spit out effects like 'paralyze' 'stun' and 'slow' to fill in the lack.

After another eight or so minutes, he heard loud heavy footsteps outside the door.

Otto's eyes twinkled with excitement and his mouth broke into an uncontrollable grin.

The Wolf King had finally arrived!