The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage
Chapter 66: The Pantheon (1)

Otto had no words to say.

Though he was used to seeing his status screen by now, looking at the numbers laid bare before him gave him a chance to reflect.

On how far he'd come.

In only two floors.

These were numbers far beyond where he should be at this moment.

Far beyond Area 1, even.

It wouldn't be rare to see these types of numbers in Area 3.

He even idly asked himself if the [Tower] could truly pose a challenge to him like this.

Of course, he knew that it wasn't possible for the [Tower] to let him walk all over it so easily.

But Otto did feel proud of himself for gaining so much...

The last reward was something that had nothing to do with his actual performance on the 1st floor.

In fact, as long as he'd passed the first floor at all, he was entitled to this reward.

As it was something he'd received in the [Tutorial].

He took a look around the gray room, and his eyes fell on the equipment.

It lay on the grey floor in a heap.

Maybe it was his imagination, but Otto felt it looked a little sullen.

Of course, Otto hadn't forgotten about his boots.

Truthfully, they weren't much use to him after Otto learned both of the spells that were embedded into the equipment, other than their attribute bonuses.

But he also didn't lose hope that after he passed the first floor, their evolution would make them, and by extension him, stronger.

He pulled them out of the heap.

Otto checked the second seal just in case.

Intricate lines of mana weaved and snaked their way through the boots like fine, strong, miniature strands of hair.

The knot they created hummed over every part of the boot.

When Otto pressed slightly with his own mana, the intricate lines pressed back to expel Otto's consciousness.

To tell him that it wasn't time- that he wasn't ready.

It was a knot that, for now and likely the near future, would be impossible to unravel.

Instead, Otto analyzed the boots to determine how much they had grown.

[Great Mage Ofrand's Boots]

Four-Digit #9443

Sealed (1/3)

[Attributes (Floor 1)]

Agility +15

Mana Pool +10

Intuition +10

Magic Power +10

Regeneration +10

[Spells (Floor 1)]

Minor Teleport

Winged Run

[Minor Teleport]

Space Element

Teleport to a previously 'marked' location on the same planet. Mark up to 5 spots.

Load Time: 1 minute (standing still), 25 minutes (moving)

Uses: 1

Cooldown: 72 hours

[Winged Run]

Wind Element

Boots grow aerodynamic wings allowing the caster to fly in the air with extreme mobility.

Uses: 5

Duration: 60 seconds per use

Cooldown: 24 hours

Five basic magical attributes and five additional agility points, as well.

A wide smile flashed across Otto's face.

It was an excellent all around upgrade.

Heck, for only having a single seal removed, Otto could honestly proclaim that these boots were growing quite fast!

Moreover, the two new spells were impossible for Otto to disdain.

Even if he could only teleport once every three days, and it took a minute to load, this could save him quite a lot of travel time…some planets were massive by nature.

Should he find himself in a pinch and need to get away immediately, he could just bluff for a minute until he was whisked away.

The other spell also promised 'extreme mobility.'

Otto didn't know exactly how 'extreme' that was, but he couldn't help but imagine himself as something akin to Hermes, flying through the air at lightning speed using the two small wings on his feet…

He decisively shook those thoughts away and prepared to return to Area 1, rewards in tow.

Taking stock of his gains revealed just how valuable the first floor had been for Otto.

230 AP.

A new trait that allowed him to split his soul into parts both to watch over the kids, and hopefully also strengthen himself in the future.

Another trait that immunized both himself and his allies against damage from his own spells.

A third that prevented his spells from being interrupted or otherwise blocked against his will.

Huge gains in his health, health regeneration, stamina, stamina regeneration, defense, and resistance, to the point where Otto felt he would be an excellent 'tank' in the future.

A fruit that stemmed the outbound flow of attributes.

A tool that could kill anyone in merely two hits.

Two new spells from his boots.

Collecting his material gains and storing them into his spatial ring, Otto knew it was time to head back to Area 1.

Otto mentally instructed the [Tower] to convert his currency down before he disappeared from the [Neutral Zone].

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Golden light flashed before Otto's eyes as he opened them.

Only to realize he was standing in the midst of a golden glow.

It formed a halo around him.

He saw other challengers spread out around him.

New people were appearing at every second.

They stared at him with wide eyes.

Why hadn't they appeared with a beautiful golden glow surrounding their bodies?

A few lady challengers who stared at Otto for slightly too long felt their panties involuntarily moisten slightly. They reddened and turned their faces away.

It was an angel that had descended from above!

A few [Leeches] also mixed in to the throng of typical climbers. It wasn't their first time entering this pavilion.

Yet even for them, it was the first time they had seen or heard of such a halo appearing.

Otto's eyes sparkled after he cast a quick [Analyze] on quite a few of the challengers around him.

He seemed to have realized something.

In a voice low enough to be covered by his surroundings, he muttered,

"So it was like this, hmm?"

Otto looked past his fellow challengers to take a glimpse towards the room's exit.

There, throngs of people stood, numbering in the dozens of thousands, waiting patiently for the challengers to emerge.

Most were craning their necks to peer into the room. They wanted to catch the exact moment of the challengers' arrival.

These spectators came from all walks of life, and were members of many different races, species, and cultures.

At a glance, Otto could see species of every skin, scale, skeleton, hair, fur, and feather color of the rainbow, though shades of brown were especially prominent.

There were species that walked on a single limb, two limbs, three limbs, all the way up to one large insect-like species that boasted sixty-six legs in total.

Even the predominant species, humans differed greatly in appearance, showcasing that cultures maturing in isolation from each other often lent themselves to unique looks.

One woman sported no hair anywhere on her body.

Even her eyebrows had been shaved off, but dark green tattoos covered her neck and chest, obscuring her entire body from view, though she wore no visible clothing.

Garments that looked to be made entirely out of some sort of shining jewel, rather than any fabric, covered another man's body. Metal beads ran down both sides of his face, revealing a haughty, almost diminutive expression.

Otto instantly understood their motive.

As it wasn't his first time here.

Fuzzy memories began to flash through his brain.

In his past life, this was when he was first taken in by the magic school he had gone on to attend for quite a few years.

As he was fondly reminiscing, still wreathed in golden light, one person in the crowd had an abnormal reaction to Otto's arrival.

A short man standing near the front of the spectating crowd caught a glimpse of the golden light that accompanied Otto and his brows rose. Then, he jumped straight up in shock and fright.

He was lucky that his height was small, so the minor disturbance wasn't noticed.

The short man calmed himself as a glint passed through his gaze.

He did his best to memorize Otto's appearance from far away. Even near the front, the crowd was too large, making this quite the task.

Luckily for him, Otto's appearance was rather distinctive.

Almost immediately, as the golden glow around Otto began to fade, the man pulled out a hidden communicator and slipped away from the crowd.

He had seen all he needed.

The communication was picked up after barely a fraction of a second.

"What is it?"

A woman's voice answered the communication, tone indifferent.

"I've found one."

A pause on the other end as the woman struggled to calm her breath.

"Understood."

The line went dead as quickly as it was picked up.

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The method of re-entering Area 1 was very different from the low key departure for the 1st floor.

After clearing the [Tutorial], challengers were segregated based on their wealth and dropped into districts which matched the amount of money they carried.

Typically, they were also given 'guides' that helped them adapt to the strange, new planets in Area 1.

But after the first floor, things were different.

Challengers were not returned to the planet from which they had departed.

No, this would be Otto's first official visit in this life to the central hub of Area 1.

He arrived at a very special place. A place which all challengers who wished to climb past the 1st floor would eventually have to discover.

[The Challengers' Pantheon]

It was located on a planet called [Satslik], which apparently meant 'center of activity' in some unknown or forgotten language.

Satslik was among the most bustling planets throughout the entire Area.

Most of it was due precisely to [The Challengers' Pantheon].

Normally, when one thought of a 'pantheon' there was an inevitable mental connection with a god, or gods.

[The Challengers' Pantheon], on the other hand, was dedicated to 'remembering' powerful challengers of the past.

The building itself was enormous, spanning an area the size of a small province in China alone.

There were too many halls and rooms to count.

Each served their own purpose.

The pantheon was the seat of the highest government in Area 1, the foundation of the strongest merchant groups, political groups, factions, guilds, and much more.

If an organization spanned the entirety of Area 1, there was a good chance its headquarters were located somewhere inside [The Challengers' Pantheon].

The pantheon's biggest nods to its original purpose of remembering challengers of old were situated inside its many winding halls.

Intricately carved statues of yesteryear's strongest challengers stood solemnly inside the building, numbering in the dozens of millions.

It was rumored throughout the tower that any challenger who reached the 90th floor would be able to earn a place here in the Pantheon.

Spaced evenly throughout the halls were teleportation circles that allowed even the slowest challengers to traverse their way through the building with relative ease.

But the entire pantheon nevertheless had one single, central focus.

A tower was situated directly in the middle of the structure.

It held nine landings, each the size of three football stadiums put together.

One for each floor of the tower.

The first eight landings together formed an octagonal shape inside the tower that sloped upwards, while the ninth landing stood alone in the center of the other eight.

It was called the [Area 1 Exit Pavilion], where challengers arrived after successfully clearing Floors 1-9.

Each landing was also further split into six rooms containing three statues of previous challengers that stood stoically to 'watch' the challengers arrive at Area 1.

While the landings represented floors, the six rooms were segregated based on difficulty level.

There was a room for challengers who had cleared the [Basic] difficulty, a room for challengers who had completed the [Low] difficulty, and so on, all the way up to [Extreme].

The throng of spectators outside each room watched the challengers trickle in.

Some rooms were more crowded while others only saw a few people carefully monitoring the exits.

The vast majority of these spectators worked for various powerful factions of Area 1.

They came with a single goal in mind.

Recruitment.