The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

The news of four new challengers clearing an [Extreme] difficulty mission was impossible to suppress.

Even more sensationally, the news of three challengers all under the thumb of an unknown 'handler' was bound to spread widely in the environment of the pantheon.

Here, information was king.

All successful businesspeople knew.

That real-time information paved the way for outstanding profits.

Staying one step ahead of one's competitors was the name of the game.

But this time, Drennel was one step behind Clatenis in trying to win over the three new, exceptional challengers.

She had not been fortunate enough to personally attend the [Area 1 Exit Pavilion].

Thus, she did not make contact with the challengers.

She thought the opportunity slipped her by after Clatenis had tried to win them over himself.

But to her great surprise, Clatenis had made a huge mistake!!

He had not bothered trying to win over Toto, the challengers' handler, and was attempting to use a standard oppression tactic to force him over instead.

At first, she was so surprised by this mistake that she thought it was a trap.

Clatenis was no fool.

If he flubbed, he should have known she would try to undermine his efforts in a heartbeat.

Perhaps he and Toto were even working together.

But the more she investigated, the more she denied that theory.

And the more surprised she became.

Toto's assistant, an Aurelion named Aeselvell, had been attacked while crossing over towards the pantheon.

Moreover, all of Aeselvell's recent purchases had been put on hold after an investigation by one specific Federation branch.

An investigation team which carried ties to one of Shumba's rotten allies.

In other words, it was one of Shumba's allies that had directly attacked Toto!

In the eyes of others, this was no different from declaring war on Toto.

Perhaps, in normal times, taking care of one Toto would be no problem.

But Toto was also the 'handler' of three exceptional rising stars.

The same rising stars that Clatenis, head of Shumba, wanted to win over.

In Drennel's mind, Clatenis must have had no other option except to switch his tactics to oppression.

After all, even Clatenis knew when to cut his losses: was it better to offend Toto, the handler of three extraordinary challengers, or an entire allied faction?

Moreover, even if Clatenis DID offend Toto, there was a chance he could have his cake and eat it, too.

If Toto cared more about the well-being of his assistant (who had been locked up by Clatenis's allies) than his own anger and pride, he might try to persuade the three challengers to join Shumba.

Allowing Shumba to gain three exceptionally talented challengers AND keep their strong ally.

It wasn't as if those three would be mistreated in Shumba, so Toto couldn't even be considered to be betraying them, in any case.

Plus, Clatenis also threatened Toto with the same fate as Aeselvell…

Perhaps his plan would have worked, too, if she hadn't gotten wind of it.

Drennel smirked slightly as she sat in her office.

Using her own outstanding business intuition, Drennel had decided to adopt soft tactics instead, coaxing Toto and the kids by preemptively getting her own Federation contacts to release Toto's assistant.

And weren't the results right here in front of her?

She'd see how that old bastard could compete with her when these kids matured...

Otto stared shiftily at the contract in front of him, especially 'wary' of any tricks or traps Drennel may have prepared.

Inwardly, though, Otto couldn't help but laugh.

Drennel's initial intuition wasn't wrong.

It was a trap all along.

He and Clatenis had never fallen out in the first place.

It was an act on a stage with an audience of one Drennel.

A bait prepared entirely for her.

Otto thought back to the details of his and Clatenis's cooperation, after the very first meal at Dille's Garden.

After Otto sent the three kids back to their room, the two had moved their conversation to a private location, and Clatenis had dropped a bombshell.

"Both us and our enemies are preparing for an upcoming faction war."

"I'm afraid that, even if you wanted to stay out, you no longer have that opportunity."

Otto looked at him calmly.

"Why is that?"

This was the first time he was hearing about any such 'faction war.'

Clatenis smiled slyly.

"It was bad enough that all four of you were seen together after leaving the exit pavilion."

"But now that you have been seen with me, a representative for the pro-Federation faction, you are seated firmly in the center of the storm."

Otto's brain whirred to life as various scenarios ran through his mind, tossed and discarded, one by one.

Until a terrifying thought entered his mind.

'Could this faction war be the prelude to the fall of the safety zone? Or…could one faction have engineered the safety zone's fall?'

'Does that mysterious golden club have anything to do with this?'

Otto suddenly had the urge to immediately beat Clatenis up for dragging both him and the kids into his schemes.

But even as he grumbled, he was aware.

That there was a good chance that purely by being outstanding, they'd be smack in the middle of the storm.

...It wasn't wrong for Clatenis to be proactive in securing the things he needed.

Otto would just have to do the same.

"I see. I assume you have a proposal for me."

"Indeed."

Clatenis took out four identical magic tools.

Otto quickly [Analyzed] them.

[Oathbreaker]

Silver Grade Consumable

Allows one to break a single contract without suffering a penalty.

Restriction: Maximum Use 2 per person within Area 1

He waited for Otto to finish reading its description before stating,

"I will support you with the entire might of Shumba."

"Go to our enemy factions, preferably Moxal, Siberius, Allena, or Drennel's factions and play the role of a spy."

"..."

They'd then spent a few hours hashing out the details of the plan, most of which Otto had provided on the spot.

But the execution was smoother than they had anticipated.

When Aeselvell called Otto, she was still inside a spaceship, outside of the safe zone.

The attack was real. Her life had indeed been at risk.

It was actually because of one Anna, the young challenger lady Otto had lightly snubbed in the exit pavilion.

Her family was both powerful and nominally allied with Shumba. And she was pissed at Otto's snub.

Obviously, she was out for revenge.

Anna decided to find trouble with Aeselvell completely on her own initiative, unintentionally playing directly into Otto's hand.

It was her actions that served as the push for Otto and Clatenis to have a 'falling out.'

Since her family and Clatenis's Shumba Faction were still 'allies,' after all. Clatenis was left with 'no choice' but to push Otto out.

Allowing Drennel to directly make contact.

The contract now in front of the four of them was a rather standard high-end recruitment contract.

The three challengers would be given resources to climb as high as they could, getting as strong as they could for a period of seven months, until the time came when they had to render service to the faction.

But alarm bells were ringing loudly in Otto's mind.

Not because there were any traps in the contract.

No, it was the time period that bothered him.

Otto stared at Drennel through half-lidded eyes.

Why did she set a period of seven months exactly?

The time period would typically be two to four years for this type of contract, and occasionally longer if a challenger was in no hurry.

It was clear that Drennel knew something.

About the fall of the safe zones.

Otto directly asked,

"Seven months?"

"Aren't you pushing them too hard?"

He still needed to play the role of a concerned handler.

Most importantly, he couldn't let on that he himself was exceptional.

Drennel outwardly smiled slightly, revealing no flaws.

"Indeed, we are pushing them hard. However, if you take a look at Section 7, you can see that they are duly compensated for their tremendous efforts."

It was true. The resources provided to Julia, Elliott, and Jeremy were significantly higher than the norm.

They also covered practically everything Otto could think of.

Equipment, clothes, the highest grade nutritional supplements, potions, pills, even the rarest of the rare alchemical creations that could add attributes would all be given to them for no cost.

Honestly, Otto would prefer that they give him the materials for some of these potions so he could make them himself.

These materials were too far above the grade of things Aeselvell could get her hands on, otherwise he'd have already made them for the three.

In comparison, his own contract was rather lackluster.

Drennel had clearly provided it only to appease Otto.

The main difference between her and Clatenis, in her mind, was that she would allow Julia, Jeremy and Elliott to stay with Otto for seven months while Clatenis wanted to take the kids away directly.

Her eyes sparkled at the thought that she was getting a real bargain, three challengers who had cleared an [Extreme] mission!!

After seven months, who knew how strong they'd be…

Only then would she get her money's worth.

She calmly answered and fielded Otto's questions as necessary.

Otto ignored the uneasiness of the three kids behind him. After an hour of back and forth and a few modifications, all four signed the contract.

Each felt a kind of restricting power enter their bodies, making them feel a little uncomfortable.

After a minute, a familiar woman with five bright green dots on her forehead walked out from the room behind.

Drennel smiled and said,

"As a show of trust, I used some of my capital to spring your assistant out."

Otto did his best to make his smile more sincere as he shook her hand.

Each party walked away feeling they got a bargain….

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

That night, at a rented place Aeselvell had found after Drennel provided a large sum as payment.

Otto had carefully checked the new house multiple times to ensure there were no opportunities to spy on them.

He only felt secure after he had disabled a total of seven spying magic tools, only two of which were out in the open.

Otto passed out three magical tools and saved a single one for himself.

"Use these immediately."

The three of them immediately used inspect and discovered that this item would break their end of a contract.

All three used them without hesitation.

Even Jeremy knew this wasn't the moment to ask questions.

Plus, Ramesthes would also be arriving tomorrow to begin their training.

Otto began to speak.

"There are a few things I'd like to talk about with all of you."