Everyone was shocked.
It's said that it's much easier to extract the emotions stored in the flask than to extract them directly from a person, but to extract that much at once, no one had words to express their shock
It was hard to even for low-level formal disciples, and not an easy task for intermediate formal disciples.
Above all, Oliver didn't even break a sweat doing it.
The higher the quality of the emotion, the higher the volume, and the higher the burden that the Warlock should feel, but Oliver showed no signs of it.
Rather, he looked like a child playing with a toy.
“U………gh”
“……………..ugh..”
“Ah……………”
While everyone was surprised and dumbstruck, Oliver felt something strange and asked in his peculiar dull manner.
"… Did I do something wrong?”-
"No, it's great. Right?"
Joseph asked Andrew, who was watching from the back, and Andrew nodded slowly.
"Yeah, yes, that's pretty good. Really."
The chaotic atmosphere regained stability, and Joseph continued his lesson.
"Now, what you just did is extraction. It's the first step in black magic. There are a total of two ways to extract emotions. Anyone?”
Marie raised her hand again.
She seemed very agitated.
"Uh, the first is to extract emotions stored in the test tube, and the second is to extract emotions directly from people."
"What are the similarities and differences between the two?"
"The common thing is that they both are emotions from real people. The difference is that one is pre-picked and stored, while the other one is extracted on-site."
"What's harder?"
"The second one is harder. Pre-picked emotions are easy to extract, but when emotions are extracted on-site, there are chances where the target might resist, if you try to extract during combat, it might become fatal."
Joseph nodded and praised Marie with a satisfactory response.
But for Oliver, it was a bit of a mystery.
Although he had only one experience, it didn’t feel like it was very difficult to extract emotions directly from people.
No, it was rather fun….at least for him.
Joseph opened his mouth again.
"As Marie said, it's harder to extract emotions from people. Even ordinary people resist instinctively. If you do it wrong, you may fail to extract it or you may get hit. So Warlocks always store a certain amount of emotion. However, a true warlock should not rely solely on pre-picked emotions. This is because skills are also skills and emotions extracted from people are of better quality. Do you understand?"
“Yes, Master.”
"So, don't be satisfied with your current level, and do your best to be more proficient, and those who fail should train more and more. Remember, time will never wait for you."
Then the children who failed to extract emotions bowed their heads.
Inside their head, there were signs of nervousness, fear, jealousy, and resentment.
"Well, let's get back to class. All the children who were able to extract emotions, follow me."
Joseph gathered the black light in his fingertips and made a circle as he did when he first met Oliver.
It wasn’t that long, but it was no longer fascinating for Oliver.
Soon everyone started gathering and tried to imitate the shape that Joseph showed.
“Ugh..”
“Awwww”
“Whoa…”
Most of the imitations were more like a dented thing rather than a circle.
It was only the supervisors like Tom and Marie who made the circle properly.
And there was one more.
It was Oliver.
Oliver compressed the extracted black light into a circle the same size as Joseph.
A perfect circle with little sway and no dents.
Joseph manipulated the black light again and changed the circle into a square.
Tom and Marie changed it relatively easily, but others couldn't change it easily and the shape collapsed in the middle.
Joseph changed the square into a triangle.
After the triangle, it was changed to a cone, a star, a donut, and a Mobius band, and at this point, only the three supervisors and Oliver were able to follow.
"All right, you've followed me well. This is the last. Make the most difficult model you can make. The bigger, the more complex, the better."
It was time to show off their individual abilities.
Everyone bit their teeth tightly because they wanted to leave a good impression here.
The first one to show off was Tom, who will soon be becoming a formal disciple.
He created the most difficult model he could present to solidify his position.
After making the black light into a cylindrical shape, it was drawn long and twisted like a spring to make it a twisted column.
Every one admired it as they looked at it.
Marie next to him was conscious of him, so she tried to imitate the same shape, but she couldn't maintain the shape in the middle and it collapsed.
"Ah…"
Marie's wistful exclamation and Tom's smirking laugh were heard.
"Don't you want to do it?"
Joseph asked, looking at Oliver standing quietly in the back.
Oliver looked at Joseph and asked as if he had made a decision after some thought.
"…. Can I make it as big and as sophisticated as possible?"
"Yes."
Hearing Joseph's short reply, Oliver wrapped his hands with black light, which was different from others.
Everyone was curious about what he was doing, but on the inside, they thought Oliver would fail.
No, they were hoping for Oliver to fail.
The black light in Oliver's hands fluctuated. It was like an egg on the verge of hatching, and then it became a perfect sphere, firmly stabilizing again.
“It's just a ball?"
It was then.
The black light, which regained stability, quickly shrank and became as small as beads, and soon expanded again to cover the whole classroom.
Everyone was stunned because they couldn't grasp the situation, but along with him, an unbelievable scene unfolded in front of them.
A black ivy vine structure covered the entire classroom.
It was so elaborate as if it was a real ivy vine, and no one could open their mouth while looking at it.
Everyone just looked at Oliver with their eyes open wide.
Oliver looked around at the ivy vine and said softly.
"Oh, it works."
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
The next morning.
Oliver felt something changed.
Not only the fellow workers who despised and ignored him until yesterday, but even the supervisor was somewhat cautious.
On the outside, they pretended not to show it, but the light from their bodies told the truth.
They were afraid and jealous of Oliver at the same time, and a few had an admiring glow.
Oliver didn't understand the change.
At some point in the orphanage and mine, the way people treated him had changed, but this was the first time it had changed in such a short period of time, so Oliver had no clue of why this was happening.
However, his worries prevailed only for a while, soon he stopped thinking about it and started his daily routine, cleaning the factory, and began his daily life as usual.
Making friends or feeling superior to them was never an option.
Now Oliver's only interest was learning black magic.
Perhaps because of the day off due to the class, the piled-up meat was more than twice the usual amount.
Oliver carried the lump of meat and brought it near the grinder.
The meat was large and heavy, and most of them smelled bad, but the work was comfortable for Oliver compared to the work he did at the mine.
Above all, he liked it because it was simple labor, where there was no need for him to use his head, so he could work mechanically and think about other things.
For example, reflecting on the class he learned yesterday.
At the same time as Oliver kept reflecting on yesterday's lessons, he kept asking questions and finding breakthroughs.
For example, why is it more difficult to extract emotions directly from a person?
What is the most efficient way to store emotions?
Why are they putting it in a test tube?
Like a three-year-old child, he constantly asked himself why and searched for answers on his own.
There were times when he stumbled upon the satisfactory answers and sometimes he couldn't, but the latter was the most, so he felt frustrated and uncomfortable because he couldn't scratch the surface of the answer.
He wanted to hold onto someone and ask questions.
"Excuse me… Aren't you tired? Can I help you if you don't mind?"
Oliver looked up at the sudden voice.
There was a worker there.
He repeated his words thinking Oliver didn’t listen to his words.
"It must be hard to move the meat alone, can I help you?"
“Why…?"
Oliver asked the worker.
Oliver was not being sarcastic, he was just curious.
“Oh… Because it's hard to do it alone? It's less tiring if we do it together and… We’re colleagues. Yes! Colleagues…"
Oliver knew he wasn't very smart, but he noticed something didn't make sense.
Suddenly, he questioned whether the worker was a person who would help because he was his colleague.
Above all, he was worried about the light circling around the worker.
He was smiling, but the light around him was twisted and sly like a snake.
It was a shape he had seen more than once before.
Yes, it was the light emitted by the director of the orphanage, the mining supervisor, and the inn owner.
But he didn’t understand what the worker was trying to achieve by showing such an attitude toward him.
"Is that him?
"Yes, that's him. It's only been a week, but in yesterday's class…"
“Really?"
Oliver turned his head and saw Andrew at a distance, from whom he felt a mosquito-like annoyance, alertness, and hostile light.
There were people he saw for the first time, standing at a distance looking at Oliver while emitting a wary light.
Oliver felt like a stray dog that's invaded the territory of another stray dog.
He just wanted to learn black magic by doing the quiet work, but all of a sudden troublesome people suddenly started swirling around him.
Then, a person came into Oliver's view.
It was Marie.
Oliver approached her just in case thinking she might help, but she frowned looking at the approaching Oliver.
It wasn't just her facial expression.
Many negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, and anxiety could be seen in the light around her, and Oliver had no choice but to stop approaching her without realizing it when he saw the light.
He didn't know how to respond to the sudden change, and at that moment Andrew called Oliver.
"Oliver?"
"…Yes?"
“Master is calling. Follow me."
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Oliver followed Andrew to the Master's room.
Like the classroom, it was in the basement of the factory, and the splendor of the room can’t be compared with the classroom.
A neatly finished walls and ceilings, huge beds, the smell of tangerines floating in the air, furniture he has never seen before… Yes, it was similar to the luxurious office of the Director of the Mine that Oliver happened to see once.
Fortunately, Oliver was not very interested in this, so he did not show any interest.
The only thing that interested him was Joseph had called him.
“I greet the Master, "
Oliver greeted Joseph with a sense of recognition.
Joseph answered, pouring whiskey into a fancy crystal glass.
"Yes, come on in. How are you?"
Oliver tilted his head at the strange question.
He didn't understand what the words meant.
“Uh, yes. I'm good. "
“Good? Really?”
“Yeah… However, I would like to take classes more often.”
Joseph, who frowned at the words, burst into laughter.
Following Joseph, Andrew burst into laughter.
"Yeah, well, that’s more like you. Is there anything else? Is there anything uncomfortable with people around you, like eating or sleeping?”
A lot of things came to Oliver’s mind.
A fellow worker who used to pick fights with him, the same bread and soup every day, and a damp, moldy mattress.
"No, I don't. Thank you very much for your kindness, Master.”
He mimicked the children's words that they used while flattering the supervisors.
Everyone liked it even though they knew it was a lie, but fortunately, Joseph also seemed to like it.
"It's a good attitude, no, I don't know if it's a good attitude, but I like it. Excellent… A good boy needs to be given a prize, right? I have good news for you."
“Will you teach me black magic again, Master?”
“No, I'll give you a chance instead. A chance to become a formal disciple."
