The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage
Chapter 19: Rewards (2)

Otto read through his class traits next.

[Ethereal Network]

Magical network can transform mana into all elements. Element restriction nullified.

[Magical Prodigy]

All spells level 3x faster. Grants experimental casting space. Mental spell simulations count towards leveling.

[Perception-Reaction Link]

Attribute: Speed is replaced with Attribute: Agility.

[Magical Equivalence]

Draw mana from the surrounding air in meditation to permanently increase your Mana Pool.

Study spell formulas and magic arrays to permanently increase your Intuition.

Condense your mana repeatedly to permanently increase your Magic Power.

Cycle your mana repeatedly to permanently increase your Regeneration.

[Walking Generator]

Base mana regeneration is multiplied by 60 and measured in seconds.

[Pure Magic]

Mana pool and magic power are doubled.

[Tower Pioneer (locked)]

Gain one additional [Qualification] to see description. Unlocked with two additional [Qualifications].

The good news just kept on coming.

Otto laughed and laughed some more after he finished reading. He couldn't help it.

Even he, with what he thought was iron clad willpower, was unable to control his happiness after confirming the effects of his traits.

Most classes Otto knew had between 15 and 30 initial class traits. The better the class, the more initial traits were given.

That girl with the silver grade class had 36 traits in total, a list he had envied.

These traits were made to deal with all kinds of situations and scenarios.

They could often help the challenger win, survive or escape in various conditions.

But his class had only seven initial class traits. Furthermore, one was a trait given to all pure casters, and another was still locked.

In the end, he was left with 'only' five.

So why wasn't Otto disappointed?

Wasn't it obvious?

These traits were incredible! He could reliably declare that they pushed the boundaries of 'Overpowered.'

Perhaps when challengers in the tower world thought about 'someone powerful' in the future, Otto's name would be at the forefront of their minds.

First, [Ethereal Network]. Otto felt the change in his magic network and smiled with satisfaction.

This was the only class he had ever heard of that allowed someone to cast spells of every element.

He knew a guy with a Bronze Class in his previous life that allowed him to use spells of two elements, water and earth.

The problem was that the method his class used was to add an additional sub-magic network into his body.

This resolution had serious detriments.

His mana flow wasn't as smooth and his cast times and cooldowns were longer as his mana had to flow through two networks to cast a single spell.

Whereas Otto's method had no drawbacks.

He would be a wind mage, water mage, fire mage, earth mage, light mage, dark mage, and space mage all in one.

There weren't any restrictions for him!

It was already incredible for a mage to be able to heal a little, (i.e. what he had previously planned after receiving the two spells and trait from the Temple in the [Tutorial]) but now he could heal, attack, defend, buff, debuff, and teleport.

A true all in one! A jack of all trades!

Second, [Magical Prodigy]. The 3x leveling speed was already amazing.

Otto's mana bolt spell was already Level 3 after merely 6 days of use in the tutorial.

If his leveling speed was sped up by 3 times, it might be at Level 5 or 6 already.

But the real advantage with this trait was the spell simulator.

Otto immediately understood how to use this trait.

Basically, he could enter a space in his mind to practice casting his spells.

This in itself was amazing and practical, but there were items in the tower world that could do similar things, like virtual simulators.

Of course, his was free, came with a time differential, and he could enter and exit at will.

But the truly game breaking part was that this practice would count towards leveling his spells!

In other words, Otto didn't have to actually waste his mana and wait for it to regenerate to level up his spells.

He could simulate them in his head!

With endless uninterrupted practice, his leveling speed would shoot through the roof!

If a normal mage could cast 1,000 mana bolts every day with no cooldown, using no mana, it would naturally not take more than a month or two to break through to Level 10.

Otto painted himself a beautiful picture of a bright future in his mind, feeling a little giddy at the image in his imagination.

Third was the most inconspicuous trait. It was called [Perception-Reaction Link].

But this trait definitely didn't lose out to the others.

Speed as an attribute governed mostly, as was obvious, speed. On the side, it helped to slightly improve reaction time, flexibility, and acceleration.

Otto suspected it was mostly created to balance out one's heavier body when one's 'Sturdiness' was high. That way, one could be both fast and have high vitality and resistance to attacks.

But Agility was totally different.

As far as Otto knew, Agility was actually a hidden physical attribute primarily desired by rogues and other speed-based professions.

It still governed speed as a rule, but its main focus was actually placed on body control.

With high 'Speed,' one would be fast moving and quick reacting.

With high 'Agility,' one would be fast moving, quick reacting, super flexible, incredibly coordinated, acutely perceptive, acrobatic, and balanced in movements.

Otto had previously mentioned that with high enough 'Speed,' a challenger's base perception of time would slow down, allowing the challenger to react quicker and perceive things they normally couldn't.

But this effect on a challenger's perception of time was actually part of Agility's basic effect.

Agility also improved the range and sensitivity of a challenger's five senses, and even had a powerful enhancement effect on the elusive sixth sense.

And most importantly, Agility would allow a challenger to have the ultimate awareness of one's body and the space the body inhabited.

It was kind of like a domain.

Anything that twitched or moved near a challenger would be easily perceived if the challenger's agility attribute was high.

The benefits this would bring were mostly intangible.

However, Otto, who could barely be considered in the high echelon of challengers in the past, was aware.

This typically hidden attribute could easily make the difference between becoming a mediocre fighter with powerful abilities and a killing machine who steamrolled any resistance.

Mages mostly didn't consider this type of thing too important: they, all too often, stood in the back and rained spells on their enemies.

Something like body control was not within their consideration.

But as mages—and their enemies—grew stronger, only then would they come to understand the true value of powerful agility.

Unlike his talent as a mage, Otto knew his talent as a fighter was merely mediocre.

His natural agility attribute was probably somewhere between 3 and 7, and this was only because of his previous life's experience.

If Otto had 10 points of agility in his previous battle with the Wolf King, he wouldn't have needed to run out of mental power to briefly trap the monster in the array.

He would have been able to prepare a fraction of a second faster as he figured out where the Wolf King was headed and activated the array that tiny bit quicker.

Furthermore, he might never have gotten hit in the first place: one of the specialties of Agility was innate control over the body's movement and momentum.

Fourth was something Otto had never seen or heard of before.

The growth of attributes was universally known to be something entirely controlled by the [Tower].

The only known ways to raise one's attributes were gaining AP through methods that were directly approved by the [Tower] itself.

A challenger could climb up the floors, complete small training missions in the tower world, drink certain potions, or enter the [Constant Competition].

Other than that, there were no methods.

But suddenly, this rule that was universally known to be on the level of a heavenly law in the tower world, would be broken by Otto.

His class allowed him to manually gain magical attributes by training and performing rote tasks for a mage.

Otto had heard of meditation in his past life.

Meditation was a channeled spell that boosted a mage's mana recovery rate when out of combat.

One had to be sitting, concentrated and motionless for it to work.

Even then, he had only thought the effects were rather useful, if not terribly shocking.

But there was definitely nothing about it being able to permanently increase the amount of mana he had!

To Otto, this was the most shocking trait he had ever seen.

If this was a personal trait, it was undoubtedly only available for selection above the 80th or 90th floor. That was how valuable this thing was.

Actually, even if this was the only trait his class had given him, Otto would not have been disappointed.

How could he be, when he now had the opportunity for what essentially looked like endless magical growth, as long as he was given enough time?

Even better, it was growth that was controlled by himself!

What more could be said?

Fifth, [Walking Generator] was obvious in importance.

One of the main things Otto had always been worried about in the [Tutorial] was using too much mana.

The reason was simple: his regeneration was way, way too slow.

Most mages shared this problem: they could do maybe a single major, tough battle each day and would then be out for the count.

Energy, on the other hand, the resource used by physical classes, tended to regenerate much quicker, typically falling just under the regeneration rate for stamina.

As the [Tower] was generally fair, mages also boasted much more power than classes that used energy.

But not being able to 'last' was still a major problem for the mages.

Actually, in Otto's opinion, even after it was multiplied by 60, his regeneration would still be too slow!

Nonetheless, at least now he could mostly expect his mana to regenerate after a solid nights' sleep.

The [Pure Magic] could be skipped over- he had been using this trait temporarily during the tutorial, and it was a universal trait of pure magical classes.

Finally, the last trait: [Tower Pioneer].

Otto remembered he had gotten his first 'Qualification' when he had inadvertently created a pseudo-spell to analyze Commander Zeller in their duel.

He still didn't know exactly what it meant.

But the fact that even his 'Tower First' achievement hadn't given him one was telling of its difficulty of attainment.

Otto doubted that he could just create another pseudo-spell to get another one so easily, too.

He idly wondered what having this qualification actually meant? Qualification to do what?

To reach the end of the [Tower]?

If that was so, he hoped to gain more of these.

Otto had never forgotten his end goal. Whatever his path in the future ended up being, his goal would never change.

He wanted to reach the end. The end of magic. The end of the [Tower]!

Hehe.

No matter how amazing his class, Otto still understood how far away he stood right now.

If reaching the end was climbing a mountain, Otto stood at the very bottom.

Equipped with some killer gear now, but nevertheless still at the bottom.

Even his ultra powerful class couldn't instantly make him an omnipotent mage.

As he thought about it like this, his excitement inadvertently cooled.

Otto realized how much work he still had to do.

But then, he smiled again, softly.

He didn't dread hard work.

He dreaded not seeing a single way up.

Most of all, he wouldn't be able to bear a dead end.

His fists clenched slightly, but Otto quickly relaxed them.

Right.

This life was already different.

This time, Otto would make sure he could go all the way.

Finished reading through his class, Otto mentally nudged the [Tower] to continue with its task.

His rewards weren't over yet!

The expected notification quickly arrived.

[Congratulations on completing your mission.]

[Mission Difficulty: Extreme]

[You have received 20 AP.]

[Your class has responded.]

[+5 to Basic Attributes]

[+5 to Magical Attributes]

[You have received a spell book.]

[You have received a spell book.]

[You have received a spell book.]

[…+13 more. Expand/Contract]

[Analyzing Mission…]

[Congratulations. You have made an exceptional achievement.]

[Achievement Type: Monster Hunting]

Description: Killed a BOSS-type monster in the Tutorial.

AP +10

[Congratulations. You have made an exceptional achievement.]

[Achievement Type: Mission]

Description: Cleared 3 Extreme Difficulty missions in the Tutorial.

Mission: Rescue the City

Mission: Kill the Wolf King

Mission: Steal the [Rainbow Corinth]

Reward: Overall Mission Rating +0.5

[Mission Analyzed. Gathering Data…]

[Data Gathered.]

[Mission Rating: 4.8]

[Congratulations. You have made an exceptional achievement.]

[Achievement Type: Racial First]

Description: First of your race to pass Extreme difficulty with rating ]= 4.5.

AP +15

[Mission Rewards]

1. Bronze Grade Mage Equipment Set

2. Cormac Fruit

3. VIP Entrant Card to the [Constant Competition]

4. Bronze Grade Spatial Storage Ring

5. 8.65 G1 Coins

Otto looked at all of his rewards with nonchalance.

His excitement wasn't as big as it would have been, mostly because his class was so much greater than anything else he could receive.

Well, he wouldn't deny that they were extremely handy!

Otto spoke aloud to the [Tower].

"Retrieve the Bronze Grade Spatial Storage Ring."

An intricately carved white colored ring appeared in his hands.

Otto bound it with his mana and inspected the size of the space inside.

It was neither too large nor too small, around two cubic meters of space.

The only flaw in the ring was its brilliant white color which practically screamed 'I am a spatial storage ring and you can rob me if you defeat my owner.'

This piece of equipment was expensive in Area 1!

Only skilled enchanters were able to make these, and the materials were also considered rare, so they commanded high labor and material costs.

In his past life, it took almost half of his accumulated money for four years to buy this thing.

But now, he received it right off the bat…

"Collect the spell books."

Sixteen ancient looking books appeared in his hands.

Their colors reflected their element:

Red for fire, dark yellow for earth, light green for wind, blue for water, white for light, black for dark, violet for space, and grey for null.

There were two of each.

Otto put them in the storage ring and decided to check them out later when he got the chance.

"Collect the equipment set."

A robe, a tunic, a pair of pants, a neck chain, an earring, a bracelet, a belt, and a stave appeared in Otto's hands.

They were uniformly navy blue, almost black, in color but not too conspicuous.

An attractive set of asymmetric golden runes ran down the sides, making the set as a whole look low-key but luxurious.

Otto rather liked their appearance. A surprising result for someone who was used to being pretty picky with his clothes.

Did the [Tower] read his mind?

Ehh, it didn't matter.

Otto didn't bother to check their attributes before stuffing them directly into the storage ring.

Could they be better than the boots he already had?

Hmph.

"Collect the Cormac Fruit and the VIP Entrant Card."

Those went into the storage ring as well.

Luckily, the storage ring could also store food. Said food would also not go bad.

Well, it was unlikely the Cormac Fruit would go bad so easily in any case.

Finally,

"Convert the money into local currency of all denominations according to the Area Federation according to the following…."

[Your money has been converted into from highest to lowest denomination:

8,000 G4 Coins

50,000 Brock Coins

145,000 Small Brock Coins

400,000 Smekker Coins

950,000 Small Smekker Coins

4,000,000 Wasnacht Coin

10,000,000 Small Wasnacht Coins]

[Do you wish to convert into the local currency of destination planet?]

Otto sighed. He hated carrying around the stupid low-exchange rate planetary currency.

Couldn't everyone just switch to the Area Federation currency for ease of use?

He sighed again. It was true that for most poor folks, the Federation currency was too expensive to use on a normal basis.

Otto supposed it was also true that local currency was occasionally convenient.

"Convert 1,000,000 Small Ws into the local planetary currency of all denominations."

[Your account contains 9,000,000 Small Wasnacht Coins, 5,000,000 Dolera, and 50,000,000 Pencet.]

This was the first time Otto had an account, and he found it was truly rather convenient.

It was only granted by the [Tower] to challengers with balances exceeding 100 crystals.

In Area 1, this was an amount likely only gathered by the top echelon of the government or the government itself.

Money could be deposited or withdrawn with a thought, and as it was run directly by the [Tower], it was more secure than any bank could possibly be.

Well, interest wouldn't accrue, but there was also no fee to use it.

Otto was finally finished with his rewards. His body started to fade into light particles.

'Tower world, here I come!'