Oliver was led to the gym's basement by Joe.
In the absence of light, everything was black, and the air was squishy.
When Joe turned on the light, the ceiling lamp lit up.
"Ho…."
Astonished by what he was seeing, Oliver exclaimed.
The basement was as big as the ground, but there was much less metal exercise equipment.
Rather, it was full of bloodstained sandbags, mitts, gloves, chains, and blackjacks.
"What is this place for?”
"It’s a training ground for mixed martial arts fighters belonging to this gym. I'm a former fighter, but I still use it.”
"Former fighter?”
"…I was an illegal arena fighter before I joined the Fighter Crew. Almost all of the guys who work out here are like that. Most of them are gangsters, thieves, pimps, illegal martial artists, etc. who live on violence."
Oliver looked up the stairs from where he came down.
Curiosity poured in again.
Districts J and X are far apart, but they are still in the same city, so he wondered how people living in the same city could be so different.
"Hey."
"What?"
Joe called Oliver, who was lost in thought.
He hesitated for a moment, as if in agony, and then cautiously opened his mouth.
"First of all, it’s you who said it was fine if I talked comfortably… no honorifics… just casual. There's really no problem, right?”
"Yes, of course. Rather, I would appreciate it if you continued this way."
Oliver answered, recalling the countless people he trained, including Marie and Peter.
Every time he taught them, their skills increased, and along with that their dependency on Oliver also increased, the pretty light that they originally had started fading.
He found it very sad.
"……OK, then, teach me here. I told everyone in advance, so no one will be here for a while. What are you going to teach me first?”
When asked by Joe, Oliver took a test tube out from his pocket, a test tube that was filled with emotions.
"I'm not very talented in teaching, so I'd like to check your skills first. If you don't mind, can you extract the emotions from here?"
At Oliver's words, Joe took the test tube and extracted the emotions.
"Wait"
"What?"
"Why are you doing it slowly?”
Oliver looked at Joe's extraction process and asked.
He was not kidding. Joe was really slow, on par with a temporary disciple in the Joseph family.
Oliver did not expect he would be this bad when he fought with him.
"…If it's not processed emotions, it's normally this speed."
"Processed emotions?”
Joe pondered for a moment, then took a test tube out from his pocket and held it out.
Oliver checked the test tube.
What was inside were emotions. However, it was not the normal emotions that Oliver uses.
As Joe said, it was a processed emotion that was easy to use.
In other words, it was like a fish, a fish with its blood and scales removed.
It was easy to use, but it was less powerful.
"Where did you get this?”
"You can get it if you go to the Fighter Crew base. They don't just give it to you, but you can get it without any shortage."
"Then, have you been using this all along?"
"Yes… is there a problem?”
"Problem? Yes, there is. Don't use this anymore."
"Why?"
"Thanks to the processing of emotions, the original power of emotions has been lost, and if you continue using this, it will have a negative effect on your growth, and, you can't use the black suit with this.”
"I don't really understand….. How come?”
Oliver was lost in thought. He wondered how to explain it.
"Um, wait a minute."
Oliver extended his hand into the air and with those words, he extracted the emotions from the test tube he handed to Joe.
He held the emotions in one hand and said.
"You said you wanted to learn black suit, right?"
"Yes, disease-based black magic has a risk to the body if you use it too much."
He was right.
At first glance, disease-based black magic might seem to be an effective and powerful technique to strengthen the body, but it forcibly draws the power of the body and Life-force.
It can be managed if it did not exceed the level, but it could be dangerous if it was frequently used or exceeded a certain limit.
That was why Oliver developed the black suit.
"Do you know how to make a black suit?"
"Recipe? I don't know."
"Recipe?"
"We call the process of using a black magic spell a recipe."
Suddenly, something struck Oliver.
Black magic was said to have taken root in several places at the same time in one era, so he thought maybe the terms and methods were different.
Recipe, Cooking, Processing, Magic. There may be several ways to call them.
"….Yes. Anyway, here's the recipe for making the black suit."
Oliver showed slowly, pulling out the lumpy emotions like a thread.
In fact, Oliver was in control of everything, so it didn't fray weakly, and it came together like a ball of thread in the air.
Joe stared at the scene silently.
His emotions were full of admiration.
At that moment, Oliver said after making all the threads.
"This is the first step to making a black suit. No, exactly half a step."
“Half?"
"Yes, you have to do it like this, too.”
Oliver immediately took out a test tube with Life-force, extracted it, and made it into a thread just like the emotions.
Joe looked at it again silently.
The light of admiration, instead of diminishing, grew stronger.
"Completing these two you can say it's the first step."
"….And then?"
Instead of answering, Oliver manipulated the emotions and Life-force that turned into a thread.
The threads divided into dozens began to move brilliantly like the threads that entered the loom and got tangled with each other.
Oliver made it slow so Joe could see it, but Joe's eyes were busy moving around, unable to capture it.
In the meantime, a huge cloth closely intertwined with emotions and Life-force was completed.
"This is how you’ve to make a black suit. Thinning the emotions and Life-force like a thread, weave it like a cloth, and wrap it around your body. In order to do these three steps, you need to have a little bit of control."
A little bit of control….. It was a statement that most of the Warlocks would disagree with.
Emotions were a powerful energy like mana, but they were difficult to handle due to the strong resistance between each emotion.
In a sense, Black magic could be said to be a lot more difficult than using magic, and that was the reason why there were only a few of them who had great skills.
Joe, who was aware of this fact, said.
"It's impossible."
"What?"
"Making the emotions and Life-force into a thread like that and weaving it… Impossible. Each one is difficult in its own way and it takes a lot of time. It will take days just to make it. Speed makes a huge difference in a fight, and I don’t think I can use all this in real battle."
"You can if you practice it."
"Man, it's not a realm that can be attained by practice.”
"Um…"
Oliver was in agony.
It was a strange sight, but Joe was nervous at the sight.
Like a student who was being scolded by a teacher.
He had felt this sensation only once – when he met Cook, the captain of the Fighter Crew.
It was an overwhelming feeling of being in front of an unrivaled strong man.
Now Joe was feeling that sensation again from Oliver.
Oliver suddenly opened his mouth.
"Have you tried it?"
"What?"
"Practice. Have you tried it?”
"……"
"As I said earlier, I have no talent for teaching. It's just that constantly trying to learn helps you get the hang of it. And I have done it all this time in this way. I once helped someone who couldn't handle the emotions properly become a pretty good Warlock."
"……."
"If you really think it's too much, don't do it….. But I can't help you anymore. I won't come here anymore. But…."
Oliver stretched the end of his words while looking at Joe.
"…If you want to challenge something that you think is impossible, I'll come and help you regularly. What would you want to do?"
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Fortunately, Joe was a challenger, not a quitter.
Instead of giving up, he said he would give it a try.
It was a great thing. But apart from that, it was true that there was a long way to go. So Oliver calculated Joe's ability and divided the steps into small pieces and gave him homework.
The first homework was to practice extracting emotions that were not processed.
It was to do the extraction perfectly from beginning to end.
Shortening the extraction time and keeping the emotions in his hands was another story.
Even that seemed difficult for Joe, but he somehow seemed to have learned the trick when he practiced together and got the hang of it as Oliver explained it indirectly by placing his hand under Joe’s hand.
It seemed like if he did not neglect his practice, he might be able to extract it properly the next time he meets with Oliver.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
"Wow… mate. I really didn't expect that you would learn all the basics and interpretation of coding."
Said an old man in the gray market that was hidden inside a normal market.
In front of him was Oliver and the old man was the one who runs a used bookstore in the gray market.
The old man drank the alcohol that Oliver bought, with an expression of wonder, and wrote a new code word on the paper.
It was an esoteric language located halfway between letters and pictures
"Can you read this, too, mate?"
Oliver looked at the sentence on the paper.
One and a half lines.
It was long for basic code.
"…I think it says that the Elder likes expensive alcohol."
"Exactly, mate. Bring more expensive liquor next time."
"Um, yes."
Oliver nodded. In reality, he was troubled, because he had bought the expensive alcohol at the Forrest restaurant, and he did not know where to find more expensive alcohol.
"What do they call it, mate? Yeah, yeah… Magic wine… I heard Magic wine is so popular these days, mate."
"Magic wine?"
"Yes, magic wine, mate… I heard that they have several boxes of that illegal wine in popular restaurants, so can you buy one next time, mate?"
"Um…"
"I thought you could buy it, mate. You said you get a lot of tips at the restaurant, don’t you, mate?"
"Maybe I can get it."
"I'm glad to hear that, mate. By the way, the taste of the side dish is okay."
The used bookstore old man said, picking up the wrapped grilled meat with his finger.
It was also a snack that was bought at Forrest Restaurant.
"That's a relief. Then do I understand the code words correctly, Elder?"
The used bookstore old man nodded, licking the sauce on his finger.
"Yes, mate. It's a great feat. Usually, in this first stage, a lot of challengers collapse on their own despite taking good classes from the best teachers. But I can't believe you learned it on your own with just one book, mate… I'm getting suspicious if you’re really a waiter.”
At the words that were spoken with deep meaning, Oliver concentrated his energy on his eyes.
"Um… that… ah?”
As Oliver tried to answer, he suddenly stuttered, rubbing his eyes.
"What's wrong, mate?"
"Nothing… my eyes suddenly became blurry."
"It usually happens when one is so tired. Speaking of which, how long have you been sleeping lately? You look a little tired."
The old man's words were quite spot-on.
After finishing Jane's security job, Oliver drastically reduced his amount of sleep.
In particular, he hadn't slept for the past few days.
There was no particular reason.
It was just that he had so much work to do that he tried to deal with it all at once.
Thanks to this, he completely finished the scriptures Joanna gave him, and the first processing of Duncan's body, including Pinkman's body, was completed.
It's only the first page, but he finally started reading the book about demons that Edith Rock gave him.
He was a little tired, but he was fine.
However, the old man's thoughts seemed different.
"You should sleep well, mate. Every word an old man utters are wise words, so take it seriously, mate.”
"Is that so?"
"It's not clear why one should sleep, but I know what happens if you don't sleep well."
"What will happen?”
"It’s said that the cognitive ability decreases, there will be hallucinations, schizophrenia, short-term memory loss, motor loss, speech loss, thinning of the body and eventually death… Once upon a time, someone experimented this."
Oliver showed interest.
He wondered whether something like that will happen when one doesn't sleep. It was something he never thought of.
"That's an interesting experiment… Who did that experiment?”
"Well, I don't remember that, mate. It was something from a long time ago."
The old man replied with a slight smile.
Unlike the appearance of a smile, a faint sense of guilt shone. Like before his eyes became blurry once again, Oliver couldn't get a glimpse of the old man’s emotions.
"…but since you've finished reading this book, are you here to buy a new one, mate?"
"What? Um, yes. Do you happen to have the next part?”
The old man drank alcohol and went into the narrow bookstore.
Then he brought the book right away. It was not just one book, but five.
BANG
A small book tower appeared on the table.
"Is this…?"
"Code language basic (Part 1), Code language basic (Part 2), and code language basic (Part 3), code language Advanced (part 1) (part 2). There are five books in total. You learned the introduction with a book yourself, so I think you’ll be able to read this in a while, mate.”
All five books were thick.
Oliver became greedy.
"How much is it altogether?”
"Let's see. Part 1 of the beginners' book is 300,000, parts 2 & 3 are 600,000, the advanced level book is a bit rare, so you have to pay 1.5 million each, and since it's a used book, there's graffiti here and there….. Please give me 4 million in total.”
"Um…Isn’t the price gone up, Elder? Isn't it 3.9 million in total?”
"It's a used book, and it's a rare book, so I should get 5 million won as it is. Don't tell me, you are going to starve a weak old man, mate? Then there's nothing we can do. I'll take just 3.9 million. I can't give up anymore."
Something seemed to be wrong, but Oliver had no choice but to nod because his negotiating skills were not so good.
"…Um, I'm afraid I can't buy it."
"Don't try to bargain, mate. No discount."
"No. I don't have money right now, so 3.9 million won at once is a little too much."
In fact, it’s not that Oliver did not have 3.9 million, since the cash he had was greatly reduced, Oliver decided to save some for a while.
The used bookstore old man stared at Oliver.
"…don't play tricks on me, mate."
"It's true."
"Oh, that’s bad. This wasn't part of the plan, then…, I'll loan it to you, mate."
"loan?"
"That's right. You seem to like books, so I’ll give them out of a great heart. By no means, it's not because there's no place to put the books."
The last words bothered Oliver, but he didn't refuse the kindness.
Oliver liked the fact that he would be able to have the books.
"Um, thank you for your kindness."
"Oi, mate… why are you getting up?!”
The old man was furious.
"You took off your butt as soon as your business was over. Is that how young people these days treat older people, mate?"
"Um, then?"
"Put your butt back on the chair and speak with me until I finish my drink. Did you think I gave the books on loan for nothing? Youngsters are all the same."
Oliver exclaimed and sat back in his seat.
Nevertheless, the old man's anger did not seem to be resolved.
"I'm upset. Go ahead and try to please me… tell me something funny."
"Funny…? Three men played poker in a bar. One from the Northland, one from the Kingdom, and the last from Landa. These three…"
"….No, I didn’t ask you to make me angry, mate, FUNNY… something funny."
"…Um, then, how about a restaurant joke?"
"Oh, God. Haa…. If you don't mind, may I ask how old you are?"
"Why are you asking that, Elder?"
"I'm just asking because it's so boring. A restaurant joke, really… C’mon, mate”
"Is it weird?"
"Of course it's weird. Guys of your age should talk about women, mate? What’s your game with women, mate?"
"Um… I’ve made an appointment to meet with a woman after this."
The used bookstore old man was surprised, his eyes wide open in disbelief
"Really?"
"Yes."
Oliver nodded.
As a result of his regular visits to the cathedral, he finally met Joanna and managed to make an appointment.
The old man was suddenly excited.
"Yes, this is it! …It's suddenly getting funny. Is she a beautiful woman?"
"Yes."
"Damn! Where are you meeting?"
"Cathedral."
"… What a jerk! I can't believe you've arranged a meeting with a woman in a church, mate. Take your pen now! Write down what I’m going to say and get ready for it! Right now!"
Oliver panicked and grabbed the pen as he was told.
(To be Continued)
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