BAM-BAM-BAM.
Oliver used the quarterstaff to knock out the enemies and headed towards the Wizard's workshop, where Assistant Professor Herbert was.
It wasn't too far away, and along the way, he could see the traces of the gangsters who were knocked down by black darts or who managed to escape with their lives.
Perhaps because of that, when he focused the energy on his eyes, he could no longer see any gangsters.
In addition to those who were spying on him, the number of people wandering around has decreased sharply.
He could see a mixture of emotions such as curiosity, interest, and a little bit of fear from one or two people, but he decided not to care about it.
There were a lot of people in District X who used to spy on others like this.
Kent said there was no end to people who spy on each other, so he told Oliver not to worry about them unless it affects his safety.
On the contrary, Kent said that it might help to increase his fame depending on how he used the situation.
Oliver touched his face, just in case. To be more precise, the black magic item [Mask] that he wore over his face.
Fortunately, there were no torn or broken places.
After checking, Oliver left the spies and went forward.
As long as he walk around with this face, he thought there was a hole through which he can escape even in case he messes up things, so Oliver decided to gain as much experience as possible.
While thinking so, Oliver arrived at the wizard’s abode.
"Um………"
Oliver looked around the four buildings that were used as workshops.
There were eight, eight, six, and nine people in each building, and all of them were not in a rational state because they exuded emotions such as extreme fear, and confusion.
The most noticeable of them were those in the largest workshop, where there were a total of nine people, one of them seems to be in a different emotional state than the others.
As with everyone else, that person also seem to be confused by the sudden situation, but that didn't mean that person was in a panic.
He had the courage, as he rolled his head while hoping to somehow get out of the current situation.
Oliver also saw a glimmer of blue light within him, and that blue light was neither emotion nor Life-force.
It was similar to those two and also different, and Oliver felt that he had seen that light somewhere.
‘When was that… Ah! Lightning Wizard.’
Oliver immediately recognized that the light was magic.
“Then is that person a Wizard?”
Oliver went straight inside as soon as he saw the target.
He went straight into the workshop at once because he did not see any hostile person.
As soon as he entered, he could smell the dry dust and sour alcohol at the same time.
In addition, there were complex pipes connected along the ceiling, multi-purpose water tanks, and distillers could also be seen.
Potatoes and corn were piled up on one side of the wall, and the undiluted liquid potions were filled in a box.
While observing the surroundings slowly, Oliver found two people, one hiding under a desk and the other behind equipment.
“I know you are there. Come out.”
Silence returned as the answer. Silence and fear, to be precise.
“I won’t hurt you, so please come out.”
This time, perhaps persuaded, one person slowly came out with both hands raised.
He wore a dirty work uniform and a hat, and he seemed to be a normal worker because he had no will to fight.
"Uhh… I, please…don’t kill me"
"You may go."
Oliver said politely while pointing towards the door.
Instead of feeling relieved, he felt confused and ran out like being chased by a monster.
"Ah….!!??"
"… How about you?"
Then the other worker, who was watching the situation, slowly came out and looked at him before running away while screaming just like the first person who had left.
Oliver couldn't figure out why, but he somehow was able to sort out his plans.
Oliver looked around and headed deep inside the workshop where the wizard was.
He arrived at a narrow and messy office after passing through boxes containing distillation liquids, various machines, and red fluorescent liquor that were piled up on one side of the wall.
Oliver reflexively looked around the empty office.
From the opened huge window the cold outside air came in, and the wind cluttered the books and documents on top of the desk.
Not only that but the safe inside the office was left half open with a little bit of cash.
If any normal person had seen this place, they would have thought that someone had stolen the money and run away.
But, Oliver wasn't that stupid.
Given the circumstances, that was a reasonable inference.
Perhaps, if Oliver hadn't had the warlock's vision, his thoughts would have steered that way too.
‘That's interesting.'
Oliver thought to himself and then blinked to change from his normal vision to the warlock's vision to take a look at Assistant Professor Herbert, who was hiding in a corner of the office while holding his breath.
He could not be seen in the normal human’s vision, but he could be seen in the warlock's vision.
Perhaps because he casted a magic that hides one’s presence like the [Shade cloak], and the performance itself seemed much better.
Shade Cloak needed absolute darkness to work, whereas the magic that Assistant Professor Herbert used didn’t seem to have such restrictions.
But, it was not perfect either.
His emotions and Life-force, along with his magical powers, were noticeably diminishing in real-time.
Probably, it was to maintain the invisibility magic.
Whether it was because of his lack of magical power, or whether his magic spell consumed a lot of magic, it seemed as if he would soon lose his magic powers and lose his invisibility.
So as time passes Assistant professor's tension and fear grew, and Oliver walked towards the safe after thinking for a while.
TAK TAK TAK.
Every time the quarterstaff touched the ground, a sound rang out.
Oliver crouched down and looked at the money in the safe.
There was quite a bit of cash in it, and to be honest, it wasn't like Oliver wasn't interested in it.
Even though he didn't know exactly how much money was there, Oliver will be needing a lot of cash in the future, so he thought the more money, the better.
However, what Oliver found more interesting than the money was the reaction of Professor Herbert, who watched the situation behind his back.
There was also a way to put him in deep sleep with quarterstaff, but Oliver was looking at him for a reason that even he could not explain himself.
As if he was expecting something.
Oliver asked himself.
Was it because he was the first wizard he had met since the Lightning Wizard?
Or was it might be because he expected that he would show the beautiful light that the Lightning Wizard had shown him?
Oliver observed the Assistant professor with expectations that he himself could not explain.
As if to answer Oliver’s curiosity, Assistant Professor Herbert showed many emotions that changed from greed to fear, fear to courage, wisdom, and anger as soon he came to a decision.
He was a professor, so he didn't seem to have any experience in fighting.
Herbert moved carefully, but the sound of footsteps could not be hidden at all.
Oliver wondered whether there was no spell in magic to cancel the sound of footsteps like the one he was using now.
As he was thinking about it, Assistant Professor Herbert came all the way behind Oliver.
Oliver waited nervously expecting what kind of attack the Assistant professor would make, a person who was said to be from the Magic tower, and after a while, an unbelievable sound was heard.
TRRR
-BAM!
As soon as Oliver heard the sound of a gun being loaded, he turned around and knocked Assistant Professor Herbert with the quarterstaff he was holding.
He didn't hit too hard, but the deep sleep spell he had cast on the quarterstaff made him instantly knockdown, and Oliver's interest quickly cooled down the moment he saw him.
It wasn't what he expected… He expected something different from him because he was from the Magic Tower.
Oliver thought he would put up a good show.
Oliver went back to work soon, after making sure that the target was not hit too hard.
First, he used the gluttonous bag to collect all the money stored in the safe, then he packed the documents and scattered books that looked important, although it was not ordered by anyone.
Then, Oliver took the undiluted potion he had seen on the way. The potion was filled in a round pot and had a red seal stamped on it.
“Uh… are there no gluttonous bag?”
Oliver muttered as he put two or three potions into his arms as if he had no choice.
He wanted to take more, but it was cumbersome and difficult to bring back, and while he was looking to see if there was anything more he could bring, a signal came from the minions scattered around the place in advance.
Oliver closed one eye and shared the field of view with his minion.
Some people showed up, and it felt like they were warlocks.
It seemed like there was not any particular hostility, but he decided that there would be nothing good about staying here any longer than this, so he decided to move.
Oliver approached the fallen Assistant Professor Herbert and immediately cast [Obedience], a black magic that governs and controls the minds of zombies, animals, or living beings that were brought back to life. He picked up the hat that had fallen on the floor, put it on him, and left Wizard's workshop.
Then, he walked in the opposite direction of the strangers.
He still kept his eyes on them just in case of any possible attack, but luckily they only took the fallen Knuckle Joe.
When he looked at their emotions, rather than feeling anger at the situation, they showed only interest and pleasure in seizing the opportunity.
Oliver continued to observe them as he moved forward, and the next day when the sun came up, he came to the entrance of District X.
Fortunately, the situation he feared did not happen.
BEEP! BEEP!
A loud horn sound was heard.
When Oliver looked in the direction of the sound, the taxi driver who had brought him here yesterday was looking this way with the window down.
He said with an awkward expression on his face, narrowing his brow slightly.
“I came as promised. By the way, it seems like you've had a very busy day?"
It was only then that Oliver realized that he had been covered in dust.
“Ah, yes. I had a bit of a noisy and fun night. Thank you for coming.”
"No, I'm here because you said you'd double the money… Get in the car. Is he your friend?"
Oliver looked at Herbert.
“Ah, yes… that’s right, he is my friend.”
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
“That’s right, it’s Mr. Herbert, Boss.”
Al said after confirming the identity of Herbert, who had been manipulated by Oliver.
Al didn't just stop after checking his face, he also checked his fingerprints, drew blood, and even tried putting the blood in some small device.
"It's an identification method based on blood magic. It's the latest technology. Faces and fingerprints can be changed, but blood can't be changed."
“Blood magic?”
“Yeah, it’s a new school from the School of Life Magic. It’s understandable if you are unfamiliar with it since it’s only recently that the new division was formed. The official birth of this division is about 12 years ago, and it has been only 2 or 3 years since it had made a name for itself."
Forrest was usually kind, but he seems to have become a lot kinder now.
Even before Oliver asked the question, he explained the reason with his own mouth.
"By the way, you’re really great. I thought you were amazing during the chimera job, but I didn't expect you would succeed in this job in a day."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"I'm not praising you, I'm speaking the truth. Oh, don't get me wrong. I never wanted you to fail. It's truly amazing."
"Is that so?"
“Of course, Fighter Crew is a new organization, but it is an organization that has already proved its skills. Not only non-affiliated gangsters, but also some members of the Crime Firm do business with them. You took down three of them, not one. That itself is a great deal."
Oliver nodded silently. He didn't know how strong he was, but he admitted that they were really strong.
Oliver wasn't seriously injured, but it wasn't an overwhelming victory either.
Rather, there was a slight difference.
If they had understood black magic better and hit at the right areas from the beginning, it might have been Oliver who ended up losing.
Kent's words that carelessness leads to death came to his mind again.
“Thanks to you, the client is also very happy. I thought that it would be a risk to entrust the task for the small money, but I never imagined it would be completed so easily.”
“You seem happy.”
"Of course, since you finished the job successfully."
"… If you don't mind, may I ask you a question?"
“Ask for anything. Ah, I also have a gift for you.”
“A gift?”
“Okay, before I tell you about the gift, let me ask you a question. How many emotion test tubes do you have with you? I don’t think there would be many.”
Forrest was half right.
The emotions that he had before leaving the Joseph family were already half exhausted.
He used it sparingly, but it was natural because he kept using it since he had been a beggar, and he used way more emotions than he thought during this job, and he also used the emotions that he took from Puppeteer Gylph, so Oliver had the half the reserves he had when he came out of Wineham.
Oliver answered after a lot of thought. It was the answer Forrest wanted.
“I have about half left of what I had.”
"Then you'll have to make up for it."
“Yes, but I’m a little confused. It was written in the contract not to extract emotions, right?”
"Yeah. To be precise, from the general public. Neither I nor our union can protect you if you do that."
“So I was thinking about extracting the emotions of the enemies during the mission.”
"During a fight…? That's great. But, a small miss, you will either die or get hurt."
“Um… I want to know why you are talking about this.”
“I would like to introduce you to a place.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Gray Market.”
(To be Continued)
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