A/N: Read the author's note at the end, an edit has been made to the !
When Otto explained the job to Rasthes, his expression turned weird.
"You want …to train so kids?"
Otto nodded solemnly.
"Yes. I'll pay you 10 Skkers a month, so please train them with all your might. They have the attributes, they just need the experience.
Which is why I ca to you."
Otto hesitated for a second before his voice softened and fird,
"They're good kids."
Rasthes looked at him askew for a second. Then, he snorted.
"So you're not an ice block, huh.
Well, it's fine. No matter what you wanted to do, I'd still do it for 10 Skkers a month.
Training so kids…heh. I'll get them into shape."
He took a deep breath,
"However, be forewarned, I'm a military man. Or,"
He laughed wryly,
"Forr military. Once they start, quitting isn't an option."
Otto grinned darkly,
"They wouldn't dare."
Otto thought for a mont before explaining,
"In terms of tiline, assu we'll climb the floors at the fastest possible pace, one per month."
"For the first four floors, you'll be in charge of making sure they pass the highest possible difficulty they can challenge."
"After the [Constant Competition] ends, I'll join them on the 5th floor."
Rasthes looked at him incredulously.
"What do you an 'we'll' climb the floors? How many more floors could you possibly need to climb?"
His expression exposed his doubt.
This was normal.
Otto was too strong.
Rasthes had expected him to be so mage with an amazing class that had cleared the ninth floor.
It seed Rasthes had still underestimated him.
Otto revealed a small smirk.
"Haven't I just passed the [Tutorial], too? I just got a little lucky is all."
Rasthes suddenly felt like hitting him.
'Lucky my ass! Since when can a person gain 100 AP from being lucky?!'
Then, he properly processed Otto's following words.
Rasthes's eyes turned sharp.
He questioned seriously,
"Have you thought it through? The faster they clear floors, the less ti they get to acclimatize to their power."
Otto closed his eyes and stared at Rasthes.
His tone was also serious, with a hint of barely detectable bitterness.
"Indeed. But there isn't another choice. We will need to have cleared the 8th floor in 8 months."
While Otto wasn't in a hurry to leave the Area due to the collapse in 8 months, it didn't an he wouldn't prepare.
And one of the best, and fastest, ways to get stronger was to climb floors.
Had he not needed to prepare for the event in eight months, Otto would leisurely take his ti, building his strength to the absolute limit before only clearing floors when he could improve no further.
But that would not make him, or his future companions, into the monster-like existences he hoped they'd be by then.
Otto looked at Rasthes, and felt he was rather lucky that he had successfully captured this new sla- ahem, diligent trainer.
He was also aware of Rasthes's top secret background.
Actually, Rasthes wasn't a human from Earth, though he was a human being.
In fact, this was normal.
Otto couldn't even think of a single Federation higher official who was from Earth, let alone an old 'retired' general like Rasthes.
There were a few reasons for this.
First, humans from Earth simply weren't nurous enough.
The Federation recorded Earth's population as approximately 300 million. It sounded like quite a lot.
Yet compared to the total number of 2 million billion challengers in Area 1, this couldn't even make up 0.0001% of the Federation's total population.
Second, humans as a species were exceedingly nurous.
Humans had evolved in various separate worlds connected to the [Tower], and many had been summoned by the [Tower] since.
It was estimated that around 56% of the entire Area population consisted of humans, and another 34% or so consisted of humanoid species.
Thus, the Federation would never pay special attention to Earthlings, who in their mind, were simply another group of humans.
Otto's 'Racial Firsts' referred to humans from Earth in specific, not humans in general.
Otherwise, his chances to gain achievents would accordingly be much slimr.
Rasthes was one of these humans who wasn't from Earth.
He had previously lived as a soldier in Area 1, vigorously fighting against the Kinetice for the Federation, while slowly clearing floors and building his strength.
He was soon recognized for his powerful prowess and exceptional fighting sense and had been promoted again and again until he beca an officer.
Later, his strategic mind was displayed in full force, showing that Rasthes had the makings of both an excellent soldier and an excellent strategist.
The higher ups were thrilled, and felt they had found a treasure.
Following promotion after promotion, Rasthes found himself in a fairly high position in the army, as the 4-star commanding general of an entire region containing a few solar systems.
But it was at this mont that the young Rasthes had made a crucial mistake.
At the ti, Rasthes had valiantly led his troops and killed a particularly fierce group of Kinetice.
It was unknown whether it was on purpose or by accident, but Rasthes later realized the group he had killed contained a future Kinetice leader.
The Kinetice leaders generally wouldn't be touched by the Federation even with a ten foot pole, for fear of their vigorous retaliation.
Well, to be precise, it wasn't exactly fear.
It was closer to unwillingness to sustain any big casualties or losses.
And indeed, almost instantly, due to the [Connected Thoughts] of the Kinetice, the furious attacks of the Kinetice race landed on Rasthes's division.
The retaliation was huge in scale and extrely intense.
Even after reinforcents had co from the Federation, his division still quickly collapsed.
Rasthes himself fought madly for half a day against the Kinetice attackers.
By the ti his stamina ran out, though all the mbers of his forr squad, those life and death brothers and sisters of his had all been permanently slain.
It was because when they revived, they would imdiately co back to join the fight, only to get killed again.
Rasthes almost went mad at that instant.
It took quite a bit of effort from his remaining friends and allies not to directly throw away his life.
With red eyes, he bluntly submitted his resignation from the military, vowing that very instant never to lay his hands on the Kinetice race ever again.
It was his mistake of killing that Kinetice leader that led to their deaths.
He hid himself after that on various remote planets, unwilling to climb the [Tower] or take action against the [Tower's] enemies.
Rasthes slowly beca a broken and broke man spending his life drowning his sorrows with various legal and illegal substances.
He regretted that attack until his intestines turned green, but regret was simply sothing that couldn't be solved, and Rasthes himself felt he could only atone.
Otto t him in the past by coincidence after the safe zones were annulled.
He was on Erkolls-13 to try Earth's specialty 'alcohol' when the sanctuaries fell.
After the Kinetice race invaded, Rasthes had hardened his heart once again to take up arms against them.
Otto once worked with him in the defense of New Buffalo.
At the ti, Rasthes was very strong, one of the strongest people Otto had ever t.
When Otto climbed the tower, he got stronger. The distance between the two of them beca closer, too.
Otto even used his silver tongue to convince the man to continue challenging floors to move on to Area 2.
There was sothing else Rasthes cared about almost as much as the lives of the comrades he had lost.
Sothing of which he had only learned the value after mixing around in Area 1 for two straight decades after retiring from his post as general.
Money!
And now, Otto had used this resource as well as a show of force to prematurely buy this guy over to his camp.
Otto felt rather pleased with himself.
After all, no matter what, it couldn't be denied that Rasthes was still powerful.
Rasthes had already passed the 9th floor and served for ten years as a general.
He boasted attributes, skills, and experience near the top of the heap.
It was a blessing for him to remain on Otto's team, if only for now as a trainer.
Otto and Rasthes made their way back to District 4, where Otto also bought the man a hotel room.
Tomorrow, they could start their training.
***************************************************************
Jeremy, Elliott, and Julia woke up at dawn and were given a huge shock.
A bucket of ice water was directly poured over their heads by an ugly looking middle-aged man who had sohow found and used the key to their hotel rooms.
Julia imdiately scread and subconsciously wanted to beat the man up before rembering they were still inside a safe zone.
She could only run out of the room in fright.
Unfortunately, while the safe zones could prevent one from receiving damage from any sort of attack, sothing like **** was still possible, if rare.
After all, the act of penetration wouldn't inherently do damage (except for in special cases).
Julia yelled loudly and banged on Otto's door.
There was no response.
Her heart sank.
Suddenly, she was joined by two more boys with wet hair.
The three of them stood there shivering in the corridor.
Uncharacteristically, even Jeremy was silent, probably still recovering from the haze of sleep.
Julia felt sothing amiss.
Rasthes appeared in front of them and spoke with a sinister smile, which only looked scarier on his already rather frightening features,
"Don't try and run to Otto. He was the one who hired , after all. Welco…to hell."
All three of them gazed at him with animosity.
***************************************************************
The training resource Otto had directed Rasthes to use was sothing that the [Tower] had brought to the Areas.
It was called the Virtual Combat Arena, or just the Virtual Arena for short.
Challengers could buy a mbership. There, they would enter the virtual world through so sort of magical pods and use the arena to simulate combat and train.
There were other uses of the pods, too: virtual gas, virtual travel, virtual eating and drinking, and many more.
Only, it wasn't to the point of becoming a 'second world' for challengers. It wasn't even very widely used.
Perhaps it was on purpose, perhaps not, but other than for combat, the virtual world did not add much of an experience for challengers.
Moreover, other than using the combat arena, the cost was expensive and the sensations one received subpar.
Many experts in the past speculated that the [Tower] wanted to guard against the virtual world for fear of challengers refusing to climb the [Tower] itself after experiencing the luxuries of the virtual world.
There were seven different levels of mbership to the virtual arena.
Otto went with Rasthes to directly buy the highest level for all five of them.
The highest level mbership provided excellent service, including but not limited to:
-x20 Ti Dilation (with no side effects of ntal strain)
-Full combat analyses after battle and during training
-Guided simulator able to analyze and predict one's own and enemy reactions
-Training area where one could fully simulate skills and spells without wasting energy or mana (geared toward practicing their use in battle, this wouldn't help them level)
-Unlimited practice ti
-Virtual pods equipped with top grade magical nerve stimulators (these helped transmit the experience in the virtual world to one's muscles, helping build muscle mory and train the body's reactions)
-Up to 24 free 'training' potions that would double the speed of instinctual learning for an hour
-Top grade nutritional solution periodically injected that would even slowly boost one's physical attributes.
-Random or targeted match-ups where challengers could fight against past and present actual challengers.
And many more perks and benefits.
Of course, this service cost a whopping one-ti fee of 12 Small Brocks per person, and then 3 Skkers per week for each of them as upkeep.
Otto instead directly bought a lifeti mbership for each of his team mbers.
It cost a total of 4 G4 Coins and 25 Brocks.
The enormity of his spending left each of their jaws agape, even Jeremy who was more inexperienced with money.
After all, if a Dolera was considered approximately $1 US Dollar on Erkolls-13, one G4 Coin would be worth $10 billion.
Even Rasthes's own salary was on the level of $1 million dollars a month, from which it could be shown just how much he was valued by Otto.
To Otto, this expense was worth it.
The 20x ti dilation was especially invaluable, no matter which Area he was in.
Furthermore, sothing like this could help prevent any sort of traitorous thoughts from rising up…since he bought the mbership, he could also cancel it at any ti!
From now until the ti Otto had to head to the 1st floor, he planned to spend a good portion in the Virtual Combat Arena.
Of course, he didn't plan to fight for most of that ti.
Otto had his own training to do.
anwhile, inside a football-field sized combat arena, Rasthes began to create the necessary arena following the training plan he had made for the kids.
He spent so ti to modify the arena following his requirents before he carefully scrutinized it for any mistakes or problems.
Rasthes had never been able to use such a luxury environnt for training when he trained recruits.
He even felt a little jealous of these kids Otto was training up.
'I'll just make them work that much harder.'
In front of Rasthes lay three groups of upright logs of varying height, numbered 1-1,000. They were all very wide, enough for a single person to comfortably stand on.
They lay in haphazard rows.
This was actually the first [Tower] approved training course for gaining attributes.
It worked even in the virtual arena, as the feedback in the highest subscription level would be successfully delivered to the challenger's body.
Rasthes wanted to begin by focusing on speed.
In his view, speed was the foundation of combat, as it was the foundation for movent.
However, speed wasn't the only goal of this course.
As the course got harder, one's balance, flexibility, agility, motion perception, dodging ability, coordination, depth perception, and instantaneous judgnts would all be trained by this seemingly simple course.
This was only the first level.
Each course of logs was tailored according to the attributes of each person.
Jeremy's course was by far the hardest.
It contained quite a few large jumps in height and would certainly push him to his limits.
Elliott and Julia's course was relatively easier, though the jumps it contained would still be quite challenging for them.
If this course was completed in a certain amount of ti, each person would be awarded a single attribute in 'speed.'
Rasthes announced,
"Hello to all of you. My na is Rasthes.
I am an ex-Federation military mber, and Otto has hired for a substantial sum of money to train each of you into combat machines for, at the very least, the next eight months.
Since we'll be working together in the future, please start by introducing yourselves."
Though they still felt annoyed at how they were woken up, the kids' anger had mostly faded, left by eagerness and anticipation of training.
Plus, if that guy was ex-military, he was probably super strong!
Julia introduced herself first with a polite smile,
"It's nice to et you Mr. Rasthes. My na is Julia Nilsen, from Sector 79. I'm 18 years old and prefer to fight with monsters head-on. My weapons are a hamr and a shield."
Rasthes nodded, and turned to Elliott, who smiled.
"Hello, my na is Elliott Lastermann. I'm 16 years old, and I'm a mage who can cast wind spells and water spells."
He looked rather proud of the fact, and Rasthes nodded in appreciation, secretly wondering where Otto had found such a talent.
The ability to cast two elents was not at all common.
Rasthes was subconsciously about to introduce the training course, when he realized he was missing a third person.
He scratched his head in embarrassnt and took a second before finding Jeremy and gesturing for him to go ahead.
'Why did I forget the kid with the obnoxious scream?'
Jeremy nodded and loudly declared,
"Hello, I'm Jeremy Smalls, I'm 14 years old, and I'm going to be an assassin in the future! I already have two daggers I got as a reward."
Then he proudly took out his two daggers for them all to see, secretly glancing at the others to see if they would praise him.
Rasthes's face didn't change a single iota, though his heart jumped.
'Bronze equipnt? After leaving the tutorial, too? Indeed impressive.'
He didn't comnt on it, though, but instead introduced the course with a serious gaze,
"Today we'll be focusing on reactions and speed training. You will each be completing this obstacle course.
The rule is that you must land on the logs in the order they are numbered with at least a full foot of contact.
If you fall, you will start over.
If you give up or try to take a break, you will be hit with severe virtual pain until you continue to try.
Don't worry,"
His grin turned darker,
"In this virtual world, there's no such thing as stamina. You can continue until it is completed, and will not feel fatigued.
I will first show you an example."
Rasthes promptly got up from where he had been modifying the arena's settings and jumped on to the first log in Jeremy's course.
He then deftly proceeded to jump on the logs one at a ti.
His demonstration was very quick, but still just slow enough for the three to get a decent feel for how it was done.
Then, he declared,
"The first to complete the course in 10 minutes will earn a 10 minute virtual break and a slice of delicious puera."
As the three kids looked at him in confusion, Rasthes smiled and a beautiful sweet looking brown and red colored pastry appeared in his hand.
The sll alone was heavenly. Of course, it wasn't real. But their taste buds hadn't been limited using the top-tier virtual subscription.
Julia looked at Jeremy and Elliott with a glare of warning.
That pastry was hers!
Elliott looked away shyly, while Jeremy simply shot her a smug look and got in ready position.
"Start!"
The three fired off like a rocket.
Jeremy landed on the first log and started running through as fast as he could.
Only, he soon discovered that it was not as easy as he thought.
On the tenth log, he missed the jump slightly, and slid to the ground with a small 'thump.'
"Ow!"
Unwilling to be behind the other two, Jeremy quickly ran back to the start.
Only to fall again, this ti on the 18th log.
He ran back again.
The other two were steadier, but slower.
Julia, in particular was having a tough ti.
Her body was slightly heavier due to her high 'Sturdiness,' dragging down her speed a bit in comparison to Elliott.
But Julia was nothing if not persistent.
By the ti Jeremy had fallen down six tis, and finally learned his lesson not to imdiately try to run through the course, she was already at the 100th log.
Rasthes spoke,
"For the first ti, I advise just trying to finish. After you get a feel for it, you can try for more speed."
The words were obviously pointed at Jeremy who, surprisingly, didn't get angry, and instead heeded the old man's advice.
They all did their best to hop, skip, and jump all the way to the finish line.
***************************************************************
Otto had not yet entered the virtual arena.
It was because he first had to finish a task before he could focus on training.
He still had to make potions for Garrote!
Otto thought for a mont and was torn.
The old man had given him the materials to make around 1,000 potions for his Death Ring.
Perhaps he didn't dare to give more than that, or perhaps that was all he had.
But Otto was trying to decide whether to simply keep the materials and buy the potions outright to save ti, or to painstakingly create the potions himself to practice his alchemy skills.
To him right now, ti was money that could otherwise be used to train and get stronger in various ways.
A part of him thought it'd be a waste to use it on alchemy that wouldn't imdiately be necessary.
Soon, Otto's eyes lit up and he had an idea.
He held an herb in his hand and entered the casting space he'd gotten from the class trait [Magical Prodigy].
Otto opened his eyes in a vast white expanse that reminded him of the neutral zone where he usually received his rewards.
But he soon discovered that this space was only blank because he hadn't created anything!
After all, this was a space inside his mind, and would naturally be subject to his thoughts.
Soon, the white in front of him bled with color, a sky appeared above him, and the ground below split into grains.
An ocean stretched out far into the horizon. Seagulls flapped their wings and called out in the air as various critters could be seen traversing the warm white sand under his feet.
Otto suddenly felt peaceful. It was a beach from Earth in his mory.
But he hadn't forgotten his mission.
He looked at the herb that was still in his hand, and suddenly felt elated.
'I can bring things into this space!'
Which ant he could do alchemy in here!
This space also had a natural ti dilation factor of 10, which ant he wouldn't be losing out too much if he did alchemy here in comparison to the virtual space.
Otto then started his next experint.
He set the small green herb on the sand, commanded the space to turn bare and white once again, and exited back into the real world.
Otto keenly felt a minuscule drain on his ntal energy, and his eyes widened uncontrollably.
The herb was being kept in his space!!
Wasn't this effect…too strong!???
He hurriedly experinted with another few herbs and so monster materials.
It took him around an hour of testing and going back and forth to gain conclusive results.
Otto could bring any amount of things inside the space with him.
In fact, he had already brought his spatial ring in the first ti.
He just hadn't realized it.
When he was present, bringing things in and out cost him no ntal energy whatsoever.
Otto could also leave things inside his ntal space.
However, the greater the volu of the things he stored, the larger the drain on his ntal energy.
He had expected the spatial ring to be rather cheap based on this rule, since its actual size was quite small.
But his space wasn't THAT much of a cheat.
It cost quite a large amount of ntal energy to hold just one spatial ring inside.
Fortunately, his ntal power recovery was very fast.
If he only had this one spatial ring, it would drain his ntal power at almost exactly the sa rate as he recovered it.
None of these were the biggest point for Otto, though.
What he was truly excited about was being able to concoct potions and pills in the virtual world.
Normally, in the virtual world, real world items could not be brought in.
Thus, while it was possible to rely practice alchemy in the arena with virtual materials, his skills wouldn't go up until he returned to the real world, and no actual products would be created.
However, with his space, he could theoretically carry his mind into the virtual arena (actually, Otto himself wasn't sure how the technology worked, as it was directly created and bestowed by the [Tower]), take advantage of the ti dilation, then enter his mind and practice alchemy with the real world materials he had already stored.
Even better, the ti dilation might actually stack! Which ant he would effectively be operating under 200x ti dilation while he was both inside the virtual arena and inside his mind.
Otto could barely contain his excitent.
He wanted to test it as soon as possible!
This would potentially be a massive advantage for him, and could even transform his current training plan!
Otto hurriedly sat himself into the pod and waited for it to start up…
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