Chapter 119

Five days passed since the conversation Oliver had with Edith Rock.

Oliver spent the remaining days of the contract period guarding Jane at the complex cultural facility [Sapphire].

In fact, it was just in name, but actually, he was just resting.

After the conversation with Edith Rock, Jane locked herself in the room and did not come out of the room, meanwhile, the Pink Man from the Pinkman office took care of Jane’s security.

Soon, Edith Rock also disappeared without a word, and there was nothing left for Oliver to do.

So Oliver just read a book or a newspaper or practiced his black magic.

While spending time like that, on the last day of the two-week contract, Edith Rock, accompanied by a lawyer, came to Jane and presented a document that formally transferred a part of his property.

It was the only moment when Oliver stood next to Jane.

She signed in a very cold manner, which brought Oliver’s job to an end.

He almost died twice on the job, but it didn’t mean that he was dissatisfied.

He was rather happy. 

He felt bored, but it also felt good to finish things peacefully.

Thanks to that, Oliver came home safely and was able to practice black magic.

PACHIK—!!!

“—Kuh.”

Oliver waved his hand in pain.

A sensation of pain rushed through his body.

He was currently practicing mixing emotions, Life-force, and mana, and right now he was going through a really rough patch.

Mixing emotions and Life-force was a little annoying but not that difficult, however, adding mana to it was a completely different realm.

The reason he thought it wasn’t mixed properly previously was due to the battle urgency, but when he tried it again, he realized that it was not the case.

Emotions, mana, Life-force. It was extremely difficult to mix these three.

At best, he was able to mix a small amount and was able to compress it forcibly.

Oliver felt a fresh delight at the first hardship he was experiencing.

It may sound strange, but he did not hate it when things didn’t go as he thought. On the contrary, he felt it was enjoyable, the pleasure of meeting something unfamiliar and strange

He couldn’t imagine what joy would come if he overcame this hardship.

Maybe that was what he felt when he first met Joseph and learned how to deal with emotions.

“…I now understand why Mr. Puppet hid it so tightly and used so many instruments……. I shouldn’t have broken it.”

Oliver spoke from the bottom of his heart.

Although it was an urgent situation, he felt that he should not have broken that artificial soul.

“Maybe I should apologize later?”

Saying so, Oliver took an empty notebook from the shelf and began to draw something.

It was none other than the instruments and devices to make the artificial soul that he saw that day.

He did not remember completely, but he came up with a rough structure and form.

There were a few of them that Oliver knew.

This was not something that would cost a penny or two, it would easily exceed billions.

It was not the kind of equipment that Oliver can afford right now. Nevertheless, he drew everything as he remembered, just in case.

“Creeeeee…”

By the time the drawing was almost finished, a strange sound came from one corner of the lab.

The origin of the cry that was neither human nor beast was a test tube on a table in the corner of the lab. 

To be exact, it was the [Child], which was recuperating inside.

As soon as Oliver heard the noise, he approached it and looked at the state of Child.

“Is there a problem?”

When asked by Oliver, [Child] squeaked and said it was hungry.

Oliver immediately extracted Life-force and emotions from the test tube and then took out a jug.

It was a jug similar to a milk carton. There was transparent liquefied fuel in it instead of white milk.

The official name was [Magicstone liquefied fuel], which was shortened to [MLF] or [LF].

It was a newly developed process that enhances the convenience and versatility of Magic stone by liquefying it rather than cutting it.

Oliver stretched his hand against the liquid.

He then focused the energy on his eyes.

Shhhhhhhhh!

With the sound of extraction, transparent mana gathered in Oliver’s hand.

It was an amazing thing when he first used it while fighting Duncan, but now he got quite used to it.

Oliver mixed emotions, Life-force, and mana as he did earlier.

PIK! PICHIK! PIK

The reaction caused pain, but Oliver still mixed it up, and [Child] began to squeak as it got excited.

[Child] enjoyed everything about emotion, Life-force, and magic, but it liked the artificial soul that mixed the three best.

Since [Child] had a hard time this time, Oliver mixed them one by one at the risk of trouble.

Due to its great appetite, it took more time and effort to feed [Child], but Oliver didn’t think it was a loss because it recovered quickly and grew faster.

He also thought of it as practice.

‘Still, my skills are not improving.’

Oliver thought as he saw the mixture of mana, Life-force, and emotion that was still mixing.

Even though he practiced dozens of times, his skills did not change much from the first time.

It was slow compared to emotions and Life-force, which he got used to after getting the feel of doing it once or twice.

What was more difficult than that was that he did not know the cause.

But Oliver was not disappointed.

There was still so much to do to be disappointed with this.

[Child] almost recovered by feeding, but Corpse dolls have not. Most of them were severely damaged.

In particular, [Swordsman] who had been placed at the forefront was at a point where it would be better to discard.

‘Um, it’s not a big deal.’

Oliver thought so because he had a better ingredient. 

It was the corpse of Duncan.

It was currently being stored inside Big Mouth, and Oliver thought that it could make a better Corpse doll instead of [Swordsman].

The problem was that Oliver had never made a Corpse doll from scratch.

He was a little nervous, but it wasn’t a big deal either. He knew the basic method through Glyph’s diary and Puppet’s book.

There was a problem that the material cost needed to make the Corpse doll was a little expensive, but even that was not a problem because it was something that would be solved when the reward for the job comes.

The real problem was the manpower.

It may be contradictory, Oliver wanted to do his research alone and yet he wanted help at the same time.

He wanted an existence who would clean up small things and play an assistant role in making the Corpse doll.

In fact, Glyph’s diary and Puppet’s book said that it was better to have two or three assistive personnel because making Corpse dolls causes considerable physical fatigue.

Of course, it would be, since it was something that involves working on a complete human body.

However, Oliver had no intention of taking any disciples, so he thought of solving it with a Corpse doll.

A Corpse doll to act as an assistant.

Fortunately, there was a way.

Since the corpse dolls can basically use the specialized skills of the owner of the body, if there was a corpse of a Warlock specialized in manipulation type or a corpse with knowledge in surgery, he could get high-performance assistance at once.

He also heard that such bodies could be obtained through the black market.

“They say there is nothing they don’t have….. Should I make another [Child]?”

At that time, First Child, who finished its meal, bumped inside the test tube to catch Oliver’s attention.

Then it squeaked and said something.

It was as if it was saying that it wanted to help Oliver.

Suddenly, Oliver thought it was a bad idea.

Because of the appetite of [Child], the cost of their maintenance was quite high. 

From an economic perspective, increasing without thinking felt counterproductive.

“Let’s think about it.”

Oliver said, rubbing the test tube slightly, and First Child rubbed himself equally and trembled with a beam of joy.

The Second, Third, and Fourth Child, who saw the scene, cried discontentedly.

At the sudden noise, Oliver put his finger on his mouth and told everyone to calm down.

Then he organized his mind.

‘What else should I do? I have to meet Ms. Joanna and ask her some questions, and since I finished reading the book on codes I bought at the bookstore, I should go to buy the next book…. Oh! And I have to check if Marie and the others are doing fine.’

In fact, it felt weird to inquire about them after leaving on his own, but still, Oliver wanted to know how everyone was doing. Looking at the situation, it seemed like everyone had come to their senses and returned to their original state.

There was a strange sense of pleasure as he thought about it.

If he could afford it, he wanted to go and see how everyone was doing.

He wondered if he could feel the same thing he felt when he met Kent again.

Besides that, he also had to read the book about Demons he will be receiving from Edith Rock.

It felt like he had a lot of work to do, and the problem was that most of them could only be done if they were paid.

Just when he thought it was time for the paycheck to come out, he heard a ringing sound.

Beep beep beep beep beep!

It was the communication device given by Forrest. 

Oliver took it right away.

“Hello. Yes, Mr. Forrest…. Yes, then, I’ll come.”

Oliver turned off the communication device and wiped his body with a towel.

Then he changed and went straight to Forrest Restaurant.

“Thank you for visiting, Dave.”

The restaurant door opened with a dangling sound, and Al welcomed Oliver as always.

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you. Mr. Al. I got a call from Mr. Forrest.”

“Yes, I know. He’s with Ms. Coco right now, and I’ll show you right away.”

“Thank you.”

Oliver was glad.

Since in the past he had to wait for a few days before getting paid, he was happy that he would now be able to get paid immediately for this job.

As Oliver passed through the restaurant, he felt several gazes directed at him. 

When he turned his eyes reflexively, he saw a muscular man, a woman with a strong build, and a middle-aged man in a suit smoking with his head down.

As Oliver went back on his way, he heard a small conversation over the back of his head.

“Is that guy? Contamination zone?”

“Oh, I heard he survived after fighting Puppet.”

“Look at how skinny he is, I don’t think it’s possible. It must be a fake Puppet?”

“I don’t think so. One of the survivors is my brother-in-law, I heard that the zombie army swept that place, and they all moved systematically.”

“I heard that he also got rid of the Northland looter Barron and Hilton of the Hoffman family. He also uses Corpse dolls.”

“Corpse dolls? Then, the rumors…”

“….Oh, watch your mouth. It’s not like you can use it only if you’re related to him.”

Oliver felt an itch behind him. It was his first time feeling it.

Honestly, it did not feel very good.

“What’s wrong, Dave.”

Oliver said, stopping on his way.

“Um, I think everyone is saying something about me.”

“It’s because what happened in the contamination zone is spreading.”

Oliver had heard that even if the city tried to keep it a secret, it would eventually spread, but he didn’t think it would spread this much. 

He wondered if that really was the reason why he was feeling such stinging gazes.

“But it’s a little strange. The contamination zone incident… hasn’t it been a long time since it happened?”

“It seems to have been re-surfaced recently because of the rumor that Dave had killed Duncan.”

“Is it great that I killed Mr. Duncan?”

With doubt in his voice, Oliver asked.

Duncan was strong, but he wondered why someone who worked for Edith Rock was so famous.

As if reading Oliver’s mind, Al answered.

” He retired as a Solver more than 20 years ago, so young people may not know him, but he’s pretty famous among those who have worked in this field for a long time. He was also a prominent Pink Man.. Everyone seems surprised that such a person lost to a Solver who debuted less than a year ago. Because of this, even incidents that happened during the contamination zone are getting re-visited.”

“Um… I see.”

Oliver, who had nothing to say, just replied nodding his head.

Then he smoothed Pilgaret he had in his pocket.

It was a Pilgaret made from Duncan’s emotions. 

He made the Pilgaret first as soon as he finished the job.

The amount this time was quite large, so he was able to make it into two Pilgarets.

In light of the fact that Duncan radiated a beautiful light as bright as Joseph’s, it was not surprising that he was famous.

Soon, Oliver wondered whether this reputation was good for him.

Of course, it was necessary to raise his reputation as a Solver, but people’s interests in him were another concern.

In the midst of Oliver’s thoughts, Al handed Oliver a notebook.

“Um… What’s this?”

“It’s a notebook with my work as an employee, my daily life here, interesting aneces, store slang, and jokes. You asked me to teach you about the job of a waiter a long time ago, don’t you remember?”

“Ah…”

Oliver remembered the past that he had forgotten.

He once lied to the bookstore old man that he was a restaurant waiter, and to make up for the lie, he asked Al to teach him about the work of the waiter.

The problem was he did not come after to learn about it from Al.

Oliver apologized.

“Um, Mr. Al… I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m just grateful that Dave worked hard as a Solver. Thanks to you, Boss is regaining his past reputation.”

“Past reputation?”

“Oh… please forget about that. It’s not something I should talk about. Anyway, thanks to Dave’s hard work, we’re also making a big profit, so I wanted to give it to you as a form of gratitude. You don’t have to be thankful or sorry.”

Al said so, but nevertheless, Oliver was sorry and grateful.

“……thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Well, shall we keep moving?”