District V, 42nd Street.
As Forrest said, it was an abandoned place.
Crude brick houses and shacks were densely built around, similar to a hill, and there was also a garbage dump that was irregularly located like pimples in the middle.
If looked at its appearance from the middle of the street, it would be similar to District X and District W.
Nevertheless, the difference was that there were far fewer people who lived in hiding and exuded craftiness.
Rather, there were more people who were anxious and afraid.
If the people in District W & X were like predators, the people in District V were like prey?
"Are you from Magic Lab Mattel?"
Oliver approached a man sitting at the entrance of District V and asked.
Although he was dressed in a relatively ordinary dress, he looked very different from the people who belonged to this place.
His clothes were clean, his posture was also not bent down, and the most strange thing was his emotional state.
Oliver didn't know if it was because of the chimera, but the people living here had some fear, while this man only had relaxed emotions like annoyance and irritability.
He acted like a stranger who doesn't empathize with the worries of the neighborhood. And Oliver’s prediction was right on the mark.
"Who….?"
“My name is Dave. Mr. Forrest has sent me.”
The man and those around him nodded their head as soon as they heard Forrest’s name.
They seemed to be the officials hired by Mattel Research Lab, and Forrest told Oliver to go to them as soon as he arrived.
Forrest told Oliver to first officially announce that Oliver had come to work, and the second was to get the necessary supplies.
“Can I get a sample?”
Sample.
At that word, the man took something out of the barrel.
It was a hair.
“Giving to people like you is of no use. There are already people like you who chased after that beast with this hair, but they either lost it or died.”
"Okay."
Oliver answered with a short answer.
It was because Kent deliberately told him to keep his answers short.
He said that the longer one talks, the longer he reveals himself.
At a glance, the job of a Solver may seem like one where one has to develop trust with the client, but in reality, it was the other way around.
The thing they should develop was not trust but fear, which grows when one doesn’t know the other side’s true intentions.
But the person in front of Oliver had either of those towards him.
This was because he did not show any emotional fluctuations even though the chimera was not caught.
Oliver thought of what Forrest said about things getting difficult for the client if they didn't catch the chimera quickly.
Oliver thought whether the emotional state of the person in front of him was like that because he was hired, and has nothing to do with the Lab.
"What's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing."
“… Now, take this.”
The Lab employee handed him a stick that looked like a fountain pen, with a bright red button on top.
"If you caught it successfully don't bring it back, just press this button. Then, we'll come to collect it."
"Okay."
Oliver responded obediently and picked it up, but as Oliver was about to leave, the Lab employee called Oliver once again and said.
“I’m just asking this because I’m worried that you are new to this field. Will you be okay? Most people have already given up on this job, while you are going in alone.”
“… Um, yes, It’s all right. Thank you for your concern.”
Oliver answered politely and went on his way.
The man just looked at Oliver without saying anything.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Not long after entering the neighborhood, an uphill road came.
The road was quite unfriendly, and it was rough because there were many damaged places.
However, the biggest problem was that there were too many side roads through buildings beside the main road.
It was kind of like a maze, and a first-timer like Oliver was destined to lose his way.
It seemed like what Kent said was right.
Power was essential to become a Solver, but power alone was not enough.
At least to achieve his goals, Oliver needed to develop a variety of other talents.
“Um… Practice…”
Oliver murmured as he pulled out the sample he had just received.
Chimera's fur.
No matter how complicated the road was, he would be able to reach the target with just this.
If he were to cast [Sensitive nose] then he would be able to find traces of the chimera among the many branches of scents.
However, what he was hesitant about was, using black magic directly.
When he was looking for Harmonica in the past, he realized that the disease-based black magic takes a toll on his body.
It was not a very pleasant experience for Oliver.
Smelling so many smells at the same time was more tiring than he thought, and he didn't know that it would restrict his actions because of its side effects like headaches.
So Oliver decided to try another method.
"Minion."
After making a minion naturally as if breathing, Oliver casted [Sensitive nose] with the opposite hand and applied it on the minion.
Then, the minion, who looked like a meatball, suddenly had a human nose, through which it started to wiggle and sniff.
“Please find this smell.”
Oliver took out the fur of the chimera and asked.
The minion sniffed the chimera's fur and looked around for a moment before suddenly moving in one direction.
Oliver followed the minion while extracting emotions from the test tube.
TAP TAP
As Oliver walked, he realized that there were hardly any people around, he wondered whether it was because it was a slum but when he focused his powers on his eyes, he realized that it wasn't the case.
The people inside the building and the surrounding streets were deliberately avoiding Oliver. Like people who don't want to be swept away by dangerous things, they looked at Oliver with fear and annoyance.
And that wasn't the only strange thing.
The minion who was enchanted by [Sensitive nose] chased after the smell as Oliver asked, but it could not find the chimera, the only thing it found was its feces and hair.
And while repeating the same process, Oliver had entered the slum so deeply that he did not know where he was, and he had reached the deepest part of the slum.
At that moment a thought occurred to him.
"… Am I being lured?"
If it were a normal person, they would have denied this.
Although the chimera was highly intelligent and cunning, it was still a beast.
How can a beast lure a man?
Beyond simple logic, there was also a problem with self-esteem, and Oliver, who was not too concerned with self-esteem, immediately took this fact seriously.
Even after chasing the smell, the bait continued to come out, and the body of the creature was nowhere to be seen.
Oliver stopped the minion as he fell into deep thought.
‘What should I do?’
He immediately decided to activate his Warlock eyes and made a wide-range search.
The emotions of humans and beasts were different, so Oliver thought it would definitely help with the search.
However, at the same time, he started to hesitate.
Kent advised Oliver to develop various talents if possible.
Oliver also thought that it was right, so he thought about whether it was right to use a convenient method immediately or to develop his experience by using a different search method, and at that moment he heard the sound of a creature.
CAKIIIIIINNNNNN!
Oliver ran straight in the direction where the sound of the beast was heard.
In the place he reached, there was a skinny dog that was stabbed to death by an unknown thorn.
The surrounding was filled with blood.
It was as if the beast had killed the dog just to lure Oliver here, and it wasn't just a wild guess.
GURRRRRRRR!
There was a strange cry and a whimper that was not too distinct from Oliver.
Oliver turned his head to look at it.
It was the monstrous beast Chimera that he saw in the black and white photo.
It was much bigger than it looked in the picture, with tiny chicken wings on its back and menacing thorns on its sides.
It was a brief moment, but Oliver could see the veins sprouting from its side as if it was trying to shoot thorns.
It was very interesting.
Oliver wondered how can a beast lure a person and try a surprise attack.
He wondered if it was the power of magic.
"Wuuuuuuuuuuu…"
"Um?"
A strange thing happened.
The fierce beast, who was about to attack right away, was strangely scared when its eyes met Oliver’s.
The beast’s eyes widened, it began to sweat and its tail curled up, and it began to run away desperately before getting into battle.
TAK
Oliver reflexively pounded his quarterstaff on the floor and used [Vine Shadow], since he thought it would be hard to catch the Chimera if he missed it.
Surprisingly, however, the Chimera had a much better sense than other beasts, and as soon as the shadow tentacles came out, it ran away with an agility that was not suitable for its size.
Oliver didn't know why, but the Chimera seemed to hate Oliver quite a bit.
Fortunately, this worked to Oliver’s advantage.
TAK
[Black Cube.]
Oliver made six black curtains.
As an image was drawn on his head, the black curtains got connected to each other without any distortion, making it a huge hexagonal prison.
WURRRRR…!
The Chimera felt flustered, and it resisted by attacking the curtain with the raptor's claws, teeth, and even thorns on the side. The chimera looked extremely ferocious.
Oliver brought the Black Cube in front of him and looked at the Chimera.
WUUUUUU
WUUUUUU
WUUUUUU.
The Chimera’s state of emotion was not normal, it was as if it had faced a natural disaster.
Oliver thought that at this rate it would end up running again, so he took action right away.
[Deep Sleep]
Oliver extracted the emotions and applied a small portion of them on the end of the quarterstaff given by Kent, then he tapped on the Chimera.
They told Oliver not to harm the beast, so he thought that this much would be fine.
Contrary to his expectations, the Chimera did not fall asleep immediately, it resisted a lot before falling asleep.
After making sure that the Chimera was asleep more than three times, Oliver took out the fountain pen-like device he had received and pressed the red button.
If what the man he met at the entrance said was right, someone will come soon.
Now, all that Oliver had to do was to wait for the people to come.
"… Um."
Oliver took a step back and looked at the sleeping Chimera.
It wasn't too difficult to catch, but apart from that, this creature in front of him was really an interesting creature.
This creature was created by stitching several animals together.
The crude wings on its back seemed to be the sign of a failure, but in Oliver's eyes, it still had plenty of potential.
But the most impressive thing was its ability to lure people and attack them by surprise.
Oliver wondered if he could make something similar to that with black magic, and at that moment he saw something which made Oliver's eyes shine.
Oliver wasn't sure because it was very faint.
"This….?"
Oliver reached out his hands towards the Chimera's body.
“What are you doing?”
Oliver turned his head in the direction of the sound and there he saw the person he had met before.
Even though he was covering his face, Oliver could identify him through his emotions.
He showed a vigilant look at Oliver who was about to touch the Chimera, Oliver immediately took his hand off and apologized.
"I'm sorry… I just wanted to check if there was a wound here."
The man silently looked at Oliver, and Oliver did not avert his eyes.
This, too, was one of Kent's teachings.
Act as if you trust them, but never back away.
Fortunately, the advice worked, and the man spoke first avoiding Oliver's gaze.
"What wound were you talking about?"
"Here…."
“Um…ah, this is fine.”
"That's fortunate."
The man looked up at Oliver again and beckoned his colleagues who followed him.
At his command, they took out a huge bag and put the Chimera inside, and Oliver could see the magic flowing through the bag.
"What's wrong?"
"Is this the end?"
"Yeah, it's our job from here on… Was it Mr. Forrest who sent you?
"Yes."
The man nodded as he took out his notebook, and wrote it down.
“Hmm… well, we’ll get in touch, and we’ll try to give you the reward as soon as possible. You can receive it through the broker.”
"Thank you."
“You are better than other people. The other Solvers ran away or got carried away… Thanks to that I had been on standby for two weeks."
“I was just lucky.”
“Ah…you were lucky?”
"Yes."
Oliver responded moderately.
Even though the person in front of him didn’t have any malice, he was still calculating something on the inside.
“…if it's okay, can I go now?"
“Oh, of course.”
As soon as he gave the answer, Oliver bowed his head and turned.
Then, the man spoke to Oliver once again.
"Good job, Dave. See you later if we had a chance."
(To be Continued)
