The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

A/N: Forewarning, this chapter has a LOT of description, and his composed heavily of Jason's five potential classes. If you don't like it, skipping this chapter is FINE for the plot. You'll just miss some info, some backstory, and class flavor.

Jason stood forward and looked in wonder around the gray room in which he stood.

"So this is the [Neutral Zone], huh?"

His fatigue seemed to melt off his body, and he suddenly felt much more at ease.

Jason looked around the room again.

He suddenly wondered how his own performance stacked up against his brother's.

Well, it also seemed like he was about to find out.

As Jason went into a momentary daze, notifications from the [Tower] scrolled in front of him.

[Please select a class.]

Under the notification were five selections.

Each gave the title and grade of the class as well as a basic description of what it entailed.

Jason read through them carefully, not daring to miss a single word.

His brother had absolutely ensured that Jason knew the importance of this decision.

It would lay the groundwork of his future.

Jason thought back to the conversation. Otto's voice had been deadly serious.

"Jay, choosing your class is the most important decision you will be able to make in the [Tower]."

"The first thing you need to do is look at the grade of the class. You should be presented with between 3 and 5 choices."

"The grades go from Common Grade, White Grade, Bronze Grade, Silver Grade, Gold Grade, and then any class with numbers, which us challengers usually call [Digit Grade]."

"With any luck, you may be able to snag one, too!"

"Ok, you listening?"

"First step. Look at the highest grade class you are offered. Then take out any class that is two grades below that. So if you are offered a Gold Grade class, ignore any class listed as Bronze Grade and below."

"After that, don't look at the grade so much. Note the important points of the class, and make sure it suits YOUR talents, and style of fighting."

Otto stared at Jason until Jason started to squirm.

"If you are offered a Digit Grade magic swordsman type class, will you take it?"

Jason had badly wanted to shout,

"Yes!"

But after seeing the dead serious expression on his brother's face, he couldn't bring himself to agree.

He had already reconciled himself with becoming a summoner, in any case.

"I understand. Look at summoner-type classes, and also look at classes that focus on space element magic."

"If you get none of those, take the next best option."

Otto nodded,

"Good and…"

Jason kept Otto's advice in mind as he read through the five classes he was offered.

[Selection 1]

[Spirit Summoner]

Pure Magical Class

Gold Grade

Description: The Spirit Summoner is a hidden-type summoner class that focuses entirely on the fundamentals of summoning, with a specialty towards non-material entities.

The Spirit Summoner will be able to summon all types of elemental and magical beings. Spirit Summoner is one of the top offensive summoner classes, and boasts high mobility and strong attacks against most physical beings.

Strengths

Summoner may utilize many elements through the spirits

Spirits boast powerful, versatile inherent magic

Spirits are not restricted by surfaces. They make for excellent scouts and are tough to hit and pin down

Mana Pool and Magic Power receive bonuses

Spirits are very rarely restrained by enemies

Medium-strong staying power in a fight

Summoner can call beings other than spirits with fewer bonuses

Weaknesses

Spirits are poor at defense, and provide little protection

Summoner is restricted to summoning spells, and needs time to prepare these

Summoner's other summons are comparatively much weaker

Enemies adept against the immaterial will somewhat restrain the spirit summoner

[Selection 2]

[Space Weaver]

Pure Magical Class

Silver Grade

Description: The Space Weaver is a space element caster with a focus on mobility and attack type space element spells. Space Weaver is a strong offensive caster class with powerful spells that allow the caster to move quickly and take out enemies.

The Space Weaver is capable of casting all types of space element spells, specializing in higher order space element spells as the Space Weaver clears higher and higher floors.

Strengths

Space Weaver's mobility make him tough to pin down and hit

Space element spells are high quality

Boasts strong attack at late stages

Mobility is almost peerless given similar attributes, especially after Area 8

Intuition receives a large bonus

Weaknesses

Requires great investment to reach great heights

Space element is weak in beginning stages

Penalty to defensive space element spells

Spells require heavy mental power and concentration

Weak in long, drawn-out battles

[Selection 3]

[Dimensional Amalgam]

Pure Magical Class

Gold Grade

Description: The Dimensional Amalgam is a space element/summoner hybrid that boasts strong, attack, defense, mobility, and support. Summons of all types can be summoned and combined with space element spells to allow for a true, rounded dimensional caster.

A jack of all trades, the Dimensional Amalgam has his hands in many fields and benefits from it. Space element provides mobility, and different summons can provide various benefits to the summoner in return.

Strengths

Strong staying power

Strong against a large number of enemies

Huge versatility; summons can be switched to fit the situation

All magical attributes receive a slight bonus

Regeneration receives another bonus

A wide selection of potential spells

Weaknesses

None of attack, defense, and mobility are particularly strong

Weak against powerful enemies

Still requires initial set up time

Requires planning and strategy before a battle

Small penalty to weakening spells and supporting buffs

[Selection 4]

[Prurian Beast Summoner]

Pure Magical Class

Four Digit #9633 | Unique Class

Description: The Prurian Beast Summoner is a unique pure magical class that allows the summoner to summon beasts for long-term combat. Beasts summoned via this class are summoned once, then stay with and can grow with the user.

This class provides a plethora of excellent supportive spells, temporary summons, and a rare bonus to the physical body to support summons on the front line. Prurian Summoners combine a summoner, tamer, caster, and a melee fighter into one. Summons can also directly support the summoner as they grow stronger.

Strengths

Top tier combat power after bond grows

Versatile fighting style: summoner can use spells, fight in melee, or allow the summon to fight alone

Wide range of spells

Spells are simple and require little mental power and concentration

Allows growth of summons over time

No limit to the number of summons

Bonuses to magical and physical combat

Bond between summons and summoner provides benefits to the summoner.

Weaknesses

Summoning is limited to beast-types

Spell selection is relatively limited

Death of a summon will hurt the summoner to various degrees

Requires heavy monetary and magical investment into long-term summons

Injured summons can become liabilities in combat

For optimum power, summoner must generally fight in some manner

[Selection 5]

[Argas Beast Summoner]

Pure Magical Class

Four Digit #8758 | Unique Class

Description: The Argas Beast Summoner is an excellent summoning class that provides the widest range of top-class Argas beasts to summon. Argas beasts are pulled from a single dimension; beasts summoned with this class tend to start with top tier attributes and need little direction to fight.

This class provides a wide range of beasts for various purposes that are then added to the summoner's template, and can be chosen specifically with the addition of mental power. This class also provides a small selection of protective and supportive spells for the summoner himself.

Strengths

Beasts are pulled from a single dimension; only one summoning spell is necessary

Argas beasts are among the most powerful summons

No matter how strong the summoner, there will always be beasts strong enough to match

Limit to summons only determined by summoner's mana pool

Class provides extreme bonuses to summons

Summons generally have ample combat experience

Optimal summons for war against many or few targets

Summoner can protect himself while summoning, and doesn't need to fight

Weaknesses

Summoning is limited to beast-types

Summoner has few means of attack other than via Argas beasts

Summoner mobility is limited

Spell selection is narrower

Summons have high requirements for magic power and mana pool

Strong mental power also required for true combat versatility

Jason stared, wide-eyed at the five classes he was offered.

The first thing he did was to take Otto's advice.

"Ok, so I got offered a digit class, so I should get rid of the silver grade class."

In a flash, the [Space Weaver] class was removed from Jason's screen.

He hadn't liked it much anyway though, because of one of its weaknesses.

'Spells require heavy mental power and strong concentration.'

No, thank you.

Jason was not someone who preferred to sit in the back just studying spells and casting them.

Whether in training or in real combat, he preferred to be a little more active, whatever that might mean.

He carefully scrutinized the other three classes, reading through them each for a second time.

Jason thought back to his training and his experience in the [Tutorial].

As a spirit summoner, he would have easily been able to deal with the wolf pack, leaving him to focus on the wolf king alone.

These spirits were also highly suitable for espionage operations, a fact which sent a subtle thrill through Jason's veins.

Espionage was so cool!

The Dimensional Amalgam, on the other hand, would allow a lot of versatility in his combat style.

He could move quickly, summon creatures to help his future team, and cast spatial spells to rapidly traverse even large battlefields.

It was an excellent all-round choice, as it stated in the description.

But Jason's eyes were uncontrollably drawn to the final two.

The Prurian Beast Summoner and the Argas Beast Summoner.

Not only were they both digit grade classes, meaning they were unique AND stronger than the gold grade ones, but they both focused on beasts!

Jason loved animals.

Even his innate talent had something to do with animals.

Back on Earth, Otto had never let him bring home any pets, but Jason still found his legs walking him to animal shelters almost every day after school.

One of his favorite memories was of a time when he'd found a small, malnourished puppy in an alley on the route back home.

Alarmed, he'd immediately brought her to an animal shelter.

But he couldn't erase his worry, so he came and visited her every day, where he stayed for hours at a time, petting her, reading to her, feeding her, cuddling with her, nursing her back to health.

It got to the point where she would only wag her tail whenever he came to visit her.

Jason found her dependence incredibly endearing.

He wondered how she was doing, now that he was gone…

The thought of her sitting alone in her cage, wagging her tail hopefully, waiting for the day when he returned...nearly broke his heart.

But Jason took a deep breath.

He grumbled and shook himself out of his thoughts after hearing Otto's stern voice in his head telling him to choose his class carefully and wisely.

Between the Prurian summoner and the Argas summoner, both were extremely good classes, in Jason's mind.

The Prurian summoner allowed him to build a bond with a beast, nurturing it over time to become his strongest ally.

The downside was that it required a huge amount of time and investment to raise even a single beast.

He didn't know the exact details, but it would basically be like having an additional asset, or perhaps occasionally, a liability in a fight.

Moreover, if, god forbid, something were to happen and the beast died, Jason didn't know if he'd ever be able to recover.

The Argas summoner class, on the other hand, was slightly higher ranked than the Prurian summoner.

It seemed to call super combat beasts from a single dimension, the Argas dimension, to fight for him.

With this class, Jason wouldn't even have to fight at all, as long as he called a strong beast to help!

This method of fighting also held a strange appeal to Jason, as he wouldn't get nearly as attached to any of the animals, nor would he be at any tremendous risk of dying as long as he had enough mana…

Minutes passed as Jason agonized over the decision.

Finally, he closed his eyes.

His breath evened out.

Jason made his decision.

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