The Challenger’s Return: Rebirth Of The - Chapter 40

 

The bead turned to dust in Otto’s hand.

The world stilled.

Otto’s heart beat once in the interval.

Then, with no warning, a ripping pain shot through his forehead.

A pain so great that no amount of pain tolerance could help him withstand it.

A guttural roar tore out from his throat.

It felt like his brain was being shredded apart, kneaded into dough, and then reformed anew.

Which, in this case, wasn’t all too different from the reality.

Otto’s eyes were red.

The pain wasn’t only sharp, like touching a hand directly onto the grates of a hot oven.

It was sharp and lasting, as if he kept his hand on the grates.

Except ten times as painful.

His knees dug deep divots into the ground as he knelt.

The slight pain from the rough, uneven soil cutting his knees lent him a second of clarity.

Veins popped on his forehead.

Two streams of bright red blood fell from his nose and dripped slowly onto the ground.

Otto’s fingernails clawed into the flesh of his thighs.

He wanted to give himself a bearable pain to focus on.

The pain only began to subside when Otto’s nails had each carved out almost an inch of flesh each.

Like the receding of the tide, it brought with it a fresh wave of relief.

Otto sat on the ground and started to breathe roughly, completely ignoring the blood from his legs.

His body was covered with sweat.

He quickly cast <Lesser Heal> on himself to cure his self-inflicted damage.

Then, he stripped, revealing smooth skin, and conjured a water ball to quickly wash himself without even bothering to heat it up.

A minute later, his movements grew more hurried.

He felt a little anxious.

Otto first checked his innate trait, though he didn’t harbor any doubts.

The <Tower> never lied.

Indeed, on his status screen, it read:

<Innate Trait>

Multitask Level 4

Otto didn’t need long to get used to the feeling of his trait leveling up.

After all, this trait had been at an even higher level in the past.

In addition to allowing him to dual cast two completely different spells at exactly the same time, his innate trait generally improved his brain function.

Otto had constantly felt like he’d been forgetting something when he carried out his massacre.

It was only now that he finally recalled what it was.

His whole body tensed in alarm.

Otto quickly shot off like a rocket towards his stone house.

He made use of <Wind Jump> to the fullest to avoid stepping into the noxious swamp.

His anxiety was almost palpable.

Otto kept looking at the sky, then at the ground.

He knew it wouldn’t be long, now, if it hadn’t begun already.

Otto entered his abode in a whirlwind of activity.

His voice was filled with tension,

“We need to go, now.”

Jackal was deeply alarmed by the urgency in Otto’s voice.

He almost started shouting then and there, but barely contained himself at the reminder of Otto’s most recent massacre.

But his eyes turned red, face white as a sheet.

He hurriedly started packing the few things he had brought.

Only, his panic made him slightly uncoordinated, and he tripped four times before getting a grip on himself.

But his fists were still clenched so tightly that small drops of blood began to coalesce on the stone.

Otto had just massacred 40,000 enemies.

What could be strong enough to force someone even as strong as him to look so anxious?

Otto didn’t explain.

“Don’t bother packing anything. We need to leave. Immediately.”

Otto really wanted to hit himself for forgetting such a crucial detail.

The forest ring at night was an entirely different animal than the forest ring during the day.

It wasn’t that the game show introduced anything like monsters or creatures that would attack contestants.

This was only the preliminary round, after all.

They couldn’t directly kill off all their contestants.

What the game show wanted to do instead was to force all the contestants into a smaller area.

More people packed into a smaller area meant more fights would break out.

More fights meant more excitement!

Since it was a survival game, after all, the game masters wouldn’t gently guide the contestants to designated zones.

The method they chose was extremely insidious.

It couldn’t be blocked or withstood.

Contestants could only choose to escape.

Each night, after a certain time, large swaths of the forest would start to fill up with poison.

It was colorless and transparent, essentially undetectable by night.

The poison was also similar to Otto’s own poison in that it didn’t kill immediately.

But this poison didn’t cause pain, either, as it didn’t attack the nerves.

Actually, if breathed in, there would be seemingly no sign whatsoever.

It even carried a slight numbing sensation: often, contestants wouldn’t realize they had been poisoned at all until they were half dead.

The thing about this poison was that the longer it was breathed in, the greater the damage it did.

In gaming terms, the poison would ‘stack’ exponentially over time.

For example, if Otto breathed it in for a minute, then stopped breathing it in at all, the poison would essentially be harmless, only continuing to deal a tiny amount of damage per minute until its effects dissipated.

But the longer he breathed it in, the more powerful the poison became.

As far as Otto remembered from this floor in his past life, any contestant who breathed it in for more than 48 hours was guaranteed to die.

Even inhaling the poison for more than eight hours would seriously weaken a contestant.

But the last time he cleared this floor, he had done so on medium difficulty.

On medium difficulty, the poison was already scary enough.

Otto did not want to find out how terrifying this poison would become on <Titled I> difficulty.

He quickly checked his ‘temporary’ status that included the points which strengthened his body.

And his heart sank.

<Toto>

Floor Cleared: Tutorial

Class: Rainbow Caster

Profession 1: Alchemist

Profession 2: Magic Arrayist

Profession 3: None

<1st Floor Temporary Physical Status>

Health: 3,284/3,340 (22.50/minute)

Debuff: Poisoned (-25.5449 health/minute)

Stamina: 3,275/3,290 (220.00/minute)

<Temporary Attributes>

Strength 159

Agility 104

Stamina 160

Sturdiness 163

Perhaps normal contestants would never figure out if they were poisoned, but challengers were different.

A simple check of their status screens would reveal the hidden problem.

As stated, the <Tower> never lied.

Otto felt a shiver roll down his spine.

He had already lost almost 60 full points of health from this poison and he hadn’t even known that he was breathing it in.

If he hadn’t remembered that there was poison from his past life, he might have let it go on for another half hour before he realized something amiss.

Which was exactly why it was so scary.

Before thinking of anything else, Otto wanted to get out of this area.

His anxiety was hindering him from properly analyzing the situation!

The problem was that Otto didn’t know which direction he needed to travel in.

It was possible that randomly choosing a direction would only lead him farther into the poison.

Otto inexplicably felt a hint of panic at the notion.

He thought for a second before he slapped another winged escape array on his back.

Otto blinked out of the stone house and started flying high up into the air.

Soon, he reached the canopy and shot a quick fireball at the branches above.

An odd, wet sizzling sound was produced when Otto burned the tree, along with an indistinct smoke.

It didn’t sound like a tree getting caught on fire.

Otto gritted his teeth.

‘It’s the poison.’

It was news to him that the poison could also permeate so high in the air.

After escaping the canopy, Otto flew high above the forest.

High to the point where even the oxygen in the area started to thin slightly.

He surveyed the forest below.

The moonlight shone on the tops of the trees, dimly illuminating the branches and leaves.

Under its light, the canopy below him appeared in a brilliant, almost fluorescent, blue.

It would normally be a beautiful sight.

Yet it only reminded Otto of the poison that was still inside his system.

Otto cast a fireball in front of him then threw it into the air.

His face darkened even further when he heard the same sizzling noise that indicated the poison was burning.

Would it also be around even where oxygen didn’t exist?

Flying above the poison didn’t seem to be an option.

Otto used his astonishing perception to hone in on the details of the forest, alternately zooming out and in to try to detect details indicating that one area contained poison but another did not.

Unfortunately, even his high perception couldn’t detect a lick of difference.

It could be that the entire area for many hundreds of kilometers was wreathed in this poison.

But more likely, Otto simply couldn’t distinguish it.

It wasn’t weird.

The poison was purposely created to be completely undetectable.

Otto took a deep breath, suppressing the burgeoning panic that came roiling from his chest unannounced, and forcibly calmed himself down.

Yes, he was in a rush.

But acting without thinking would only bring harm.

Since he couldn’t tell where the poison was, even with his exceptional sensitivity, he and Jackal just needed to pick a direction and get out as fast as possible.

After all, the forest was in a ring shape.

It wasn’t a traditional ring shape, either.

Otto didn’t know how the game makers had done it, but the ring was enchanted to feel never ending.

As in, if Otto continued moving in a single direction for enough time he’d eventually find himself right back at this stone house.

Theoretically, at least.

With the skeleton of a plan, Otto’s breathing slowed.

His prescient anxiety began to ease.

For now, he could handle healing both himself and Jackal, again and again.

He also planned to test out a light-element spell he as of yet hadn’t gotten a chance to properly use.

<Purify: Unlimited>

Light Element

Level 13

Purifies all minor to moderate negative status effects.

Mana Cost: 400

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

As far as Otto knew, this spell should be able to cure poison.

He breathed out, feeling inexplicably irritated, if relieved.

Then, he suddenly stilled.

Now that Otto thought about it again, he realized something off.

Why had he suddenly felt so anxious about this poison?

Otto considered himself a rather calm person normally.

His first reaction upon facing danger was typically to calm down and think it through before acting.

If it was an immediate danger, he would simply think faster.

Otto rarely acted without thinking.

But just now, his immediate instinct was to panic and escape at top speed, without making any additional considerations.

Moreover, all of his negative emotions seemed to have been heightened in the past half hour.

He understood the problem. His expression darkened again.

This poisonmight be worse than he thought.

To even be able to affect his mental state without him noticing.

His eyes revealed a slight lingering fear.

The poison on this Titled difficulty missionwas utterly terrifying.

Otto dared to bet that there weren’t more than ten other people in the entirety of Area 1 who would survive this difficulty.

Instead of descending from the sky right away, Otto decided to first test <Purify> on himself.

Now that he was aware that his mental state was off, he needed to deal with it immediately.

For him, his mind was the basis of everything he had.

He would NEVER accept it being altered against his will.

Otto’s status screen hovered in front of him in the air.

He began to cast <Purify> on himself.

As a test, he started by using 100 mana.

A dim white light glowed, surrounding his body.

His poisoned status remained unchanged.

Purify was an ‘all or nothing’ kind of spell.

There was no such thing as purifying the poison in increments.

It was either strong enough to render the poison inert in one go, or it wouldn’t have any effect at all.

He used 200 mana.

No change.

300 mana, 400 mana, 500 mana, 600 mana.

Still, nothing changed.

Fortunately, <Purify> was an unlimited spell, so he could freely adjust its power.

And ‘Poisoned’ was a ‘Moderate’ negative status, so it fell under <Purify’s> range.

It was just that this particular ‘poisoned’ debuff was very strong, and would require a lot of mana to overcome.

Impatience bubbled up in Otto. He felt an impulse to use up all his mana to get rid of this damned mental effect instantly!

But Otto ruthlessly squashed it with his iron-clad will.

Now that he was aware of his own peculiarity, he was at least able to suppress it.

Otherwise, his decades of experience would all be in vain.

Otto spent another minute testing the spell.

It wasn’t until a whopping 1,300 mana was spent that Otto felt something inside his body ease.

The poison was now inert.

Although he was still breathing it in from the air, it would take a bit of time to re-activate in his body.

Most importantly, his mind felt unprecedentedly clear.

Gone was the increasing irritation, frustration, anxiety, and vague sense of panic that had troubled him.

It was as if a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders.

Honestly, Otto hadn’t fully realized how much his emotions were affecting his decision making until they were gone.

Otto swooped back down from the sky.

There was nothing to be gained by staying up here.

And he’d be breathing in the poison either way.

He flew back down to the stone house where he put away his wings.

As soon as he entered, he heard a loud wail emerge.

“Otto, help me! Help me! I thought you weren’t coming back, that I had to escape alone! Please take me out of here! You promised, you PROMISED you’d protect… we have to leave, we have to leave now let’s go okay, let’s go!”

Tears and snot covered Jackal’s face.

His eyes were thoroughly red, his words bordering on incoherent.

Otto didn’t feel the least bit startled.

It was, unfortunately, exactly as he’d expected.

Jackal’s mental power wasn’t as strong as Otto’s.

Normally, mental power was relatively stable in healthy people and had few fluctuations.

It was like a pool of water- occasionally a wind would enter and stir up some emotional ripples, but it was usually not to the point of creating huge waves.

Otto’s mental power was even more stable, like the glassy surface of a large, still lake.

Small winds wouldn’t cause much, if any, impact on him at all.

But the poison contained a neurotoxin specifically intended to agitate a contestant’s emotions.

It was as if a constant storm sat right on top of the water, slowly but steadily growing in scale and ferocity.

In Otto’s case, even a strong storm would at most cause some ripples in his lake that would eventually dissipate.

Even as the poison had invaded unaware, Otto hadn’t yet made any truly rash decisions.

But in Jackal’s case, the storm had a huge effect, since he didn’t possess enough mental power to secure his mental and emotional stability.

If this went on for another hour, and Jackal continued to breathe in poison, Otto thought it was possible he would become permanently insane.

He sighed.

Just another testament to the power of this poison.

Instead of responding verbally to Jackal, Otto simply cast <Purify> on him, followed by a quick <Lesser Heal>.

The redness in his eyes slowly receded.

He blinked at Otto and looked at him with confusion and mild embarrassment.

“Ah! I’m sorry! I’m sorry Otto, I got really carried away.”

Seeing that Otto didn’t look angry, Jackal inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Then he asked,

“Oh, and why do we need to leave?”

Without the poison’s effect, Jackal was reassured by Otto’s calm demeanor.

Otto briefly explained the effects of the poison as well as the duo’s current dilemma.

“Ideally, we would leave and head in a straight line to get out of the poison’s area of effect in the shortest time possible.”

“But the poison is invisible and practically impossible to detect. Even I have no means of doing so.”

Otto idly scratched his nose. It wasn’t often he came across a predicament he had few to no ways of solving.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

“Let’s check the points store!”

Subconsciously, Otto was extremely unwilling to use his points.

Since it affected his mission, it was better not to use them unless it was a last resort.

Using his points was still better than blindly picking a direction.

Otto cast another low-powered <Purify> on himself and Jackal before taking a minute to browse through the magical selection.

He saw four usable items of different prices.

[Lucky Arrow]

12 points

Uses the magic of luck to point you in a certain direction.

Results may vary.

Otto didn’t know what the magic of luck was, but seeing its low relative price, he knew it definitely wasn’t too reliable.

[Long-Range Teleporter]

196,500 points

Teleports up to ten people to a random safe spot in the forest ring.

One use only.

Otto was not surprised that this world boasted such impressive magic technology.

While Throskart spells were comparatively lackluster as they were unable to make use of the elements, their technology was cutting-edge.

It was close to being on the level of Area 1.

But as for buying the teleporter, while it was the safest option, it was way too expensive!

It would completely undo the effects of the massacre Otto had just created.

[Perfect Air Purifier]

12,205 points

Perfectly purifies the air around your head.

Lasts 24 hours. One use only.

[Lackluster Air Purifier]

100 points

Filters the air around your head.

Lasts 24 hours. One use only.

Most Throskarts would probably rely on the second option if they had the points for it.

Perhaps the audience would gift it, perhaps they would buy it themselves, or perhaps their faction would equip them.

But Otto had a feeling the poison would seep in regardless.

Still, it was the best option for now. He didn’t intend to spend 12,000+ points on filtering the air perfectly since he could still periodically purify himself and Jackal.

“It looks like we can only leave it to chance and take out best guess as to the direction and keep moving with this air purifier.”

“It’ll be tough until we leave the poison’s effect, but I should be able to purify and heal both of us periodically for at least a while.”

There was something Otto didn’t mention to Jackal.

If they were dealing with a typical poison, there was nothing wrong with this course of action.

But this poison, by design, was anything but typical.

And <Purify>, even <Purify: Unlimited>, was only a first-circle spell.

There were some limitations to it.

While it could and did cure the two’s ‘poisoned’ status, rendering the poison in their bodies inert, it didn’t actually ‘destroy’ the poison.

As long as they continued to breathe it in, the ‘activated’ poison they breathed from the air would enter their bodies and slowly re-activate the inert poison already stored there.

In other words, the poisoning would only continue to get faster as they spent additional time breathing it in.

It would eventually become so fast that even Otto’s <Purify> would have trouble keeping up.

This wasn’t a huge problem for Otto.

His body was extremely strong from all the points he had absorbed, not even mentioning his mind.

It would take quite a long time for the poison to get this far.

Especially with the addition of even limited air purification.

Otto didn’t know how long Jackal would last against such progressive damage.

But right before Otto was about to buy it, Jackal spoke.

“Wait. We might have another option.”