As per usual, Oliver took a taxi to visit District X.
This was his sixth visit and, although he still felt the presence of watchful eyes, he was becoming more accustomed to it.
He pondered the idea of visiting his master after completing his pressing work, as it had been quite some time since his last visit.
After disembarking from the taxi, Oliver headed straight inside and made his way to the gym, where he was scheduled to meet Joe.
After a brief walk, he arrived at the gym, which was located deeper inside the area.
The man standing outside the gym greeted Oliver as he approached.
"Hey."
It was none other than Joe.
"Hello, were you waiting for me?" Oliver asked.
"Yes, I've been waiting for our meeting today," Joe replied.
"By the way, can I have the money first?"
"Oh, yes,"
Oliver said as he took out a glutton bag from his pocket.
The bag had half of the money he received from Forrest, which amounted to 324 million, excluding commission.
"Here it is. You can check it out."
Joe received the glutton bag and gave it a few rubs before shaking his head.
"I'll check it out later," he said.
"Yes, at your convenience," Oliver replied.
He then took out three bottles of potion from his pockets.
"What's this?" Joe asked.
"Potion. I received it as support when I agreed to participate in the big job. Did you get any potion?"
Oliver asked and Joe shook his head.
He had tried using his shallow connections in the black market to inquire about potions in gray and black markets, but it was not easy to find the right product.
Good things are usually taken first by the more powerful and wealthy individuals.
In that sense, Joe was quite grateful for the potion Oliver had given him.
"Thank you… money?"
"Um… I got it from the city anyway, so I don't think I need it."
Joe appreciated Oliver's rare attitude, which was not only in District X but also in their profession.
He nodded, knowing that if it was someone else, he would have had doubts, but with Oliver, he was convinced of anything he did.
Oliver was unusual and overwhelming, something that even ordinary people could sense.
"Well, shall we go in? We don't have time," Oliver said.
Joe nodded and led Oliver inside the gym.
Like the last time he visited, the gym was filled with people exercising in a wide space, with their tops off.
Some were hitting sandbags with loud bangs, while others were lifting and dropping metal weights with a squeaking noise.
Everyone seemed to be enthusiastic about their workout.
"Oh, you came again," a chunky bald man said as he emerged from among the muscular giants.
He was shorter than the others, but his arms, chest, and legs were heavily muscled, giving off a strong impression like gravel.
He was not intimidated by the overflow of people who were twice as tall as him, but rather he seemed confident.
The man was Dean Cleary, the director of the gym, whom Oliver had met when he came to see Joe last time.
"Nice to meet you, sir," Oliver said.
"Oh. You guys come when you have something to do, huh? You're… Dave, aren't you?" Dean said.
"Yes, it's been a while. Mr. Dean," Oliver replied.
"What do you mean Mr. Just call me Instructor. I heard that you want to register in our gym," Dean said.
"Yes, I can't right now because I have some work, but I want to learn some exercises when I have time," Oliver said.
"I don't know what you're thinking, but it's reckless. We don't work out lightly, we only work out to be a real man, and if you're not prepared to be a real man, You'd better find a gym. It's good for each other," Dean said.
"Um, then I will find ano…" Oliver started to say.
"But since you want to learn here so much, I'll teach you myself. Come and see me when you’re ready in earnest," Dean said, cutting him off.
Oliver tilted his head at the incongruous conversation.
Joe gave him advice.
"Even if he says it like that, new members are always welcome, so don't worry about it. More than that, Instructor, can I borrow the basement?" Joe asked Dean.
"All right, but only for two hours. And don't forget the promise. Even if I don’t have hair in my head, my memory is sharp," Dean replied.
Joe nodded and led Oliver down to the basement training room.
The training room was full of quirky equipment, such as huge rings, sandbags, mitts, and gloves, just as Oliver had seen last time.
The only difference was that the traces of blood on the floor were a little thicker.
"What's the promise?" Oliver asked, taking off his coat.
"Oh? ….It's not a big deal. He asked me to join a gambling martial arts competition. It's one of the ways to earn a few big bucks in District X, and it's one of the few conditions to use the gym here. I've decided to participate," Joe explained.
"Um, I see. Ah, you said that you were a martial arts fighter in the past, right?" Oliver asked.
"Yes, and I'm going to participate again,"
Joe replied with a touch of bitterness in his voice.
Oliver wanted to ask him for more details, but Joe spoke first.
"Then, can we start the class right away? We don't have time,”
Oliver nodded and took out a test tube filled with emotions and held it out to Joe.
Unlike last time, Joe extracted the emotions quite skillfully.
Oliver wondered if he had a talent for it.
"Keep the emotions in your hands as much as you can," Oliver instructed.
Joe didn't say a word and obeyed.
Even after a minute, the emotions remained stable in Joe's hands.
"Then, would you like to make it as thin as possible this time?" Oliver asked.
Joe immediately transformed the form of the emotion.
Although not as thin as a thread, it was about the size of a finger joint.
"Ughhhhhh",
Joe frowned and concentrated as much as he could.
Oliver looked at the figure and placed his finger on the back of Joe's hand.
By indirectly controlling the emotion, it became a quarter of its original size.
It should have been thinner, but Oliver did not want to overdo it and proceeded slowly, step by step, as learning should come first.
Joe, on the other hand, seemed to have a different idea.
"Hey, Dave,"
"What, Joe?"
"Can't you make a black suit like this? I don't mean to get the hang of it. However, I want to find a way to use it somehow until next time," Joe asked.
It wasn't a lie. But still, Oliver shook his head.
"It's hard,"
"Really?"
"Yes, if it's too thick, it won't be flexible enough to cover the entire body, and your defense will decrease a lot due to more gaps," Oliver explained.
"What if it's used for attack, not for defense?” Joe asked.
"…What?" Oliver replied, surprised.
"What if, for example, the emotion and Life-force of this thickness are woven like making armor, not cloth, and put only on one arm?" Joe suggested.
Oliver thought it over.
Wearing it only on one arm, not the whole body, and a black suit for attack, not defense.
It seemed different from Oliver's idea of a black suit, but it didn't seem impossible.
"Wait a minute," Oliver said.
Oliver took two test tubes out of his pocket, one filled with emotion and one filled with Life-force, extracted both at the same time, transformed them into thicknesses similar to those of Joe, and wrapped them around his right hand, arm, and shoulder.
It felt almost like reinforced steel and had better attack power.
"That's incredible. I didn't think of it this way. I think it's quite possible," Oliver said.
"Really?" Joe asked.
"Yes, I think it would be better to use it this way. Let’s name it… Black Armor," Oliver suggested.
Joe's expression crumbled at the lame naming sense, but he did not argue.
"Then, can you teach me this one?" Joe asked.
Oliver nodded and rolled up his sleeves as he had a goal to reach faster.
In order to wear a black suit, one had to put in the control ability to pull out emotions like a thread, but the black armor he just made could immediately move on to the application stage.
"Um, I'll teach you as soon as I can, and I also have some other work to do," Oliver said.
"Huh? What is it?" Joe asked.
"It's nothing big. There's something I want to try," Oliver replied.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Oliver returned to his work immediately after that day.
Although the time was limited, he taught Joe step by step how to wear black armor on his arms.
He even wrote on paper how to extract emotions and Life-force from the size of rebars and then weave them according to the area.
The application was quite difficult for Joe, but Oliver helped him practice repeatedly one-on-one, so he could apply it on his arms and legs by himself, although it may be slow.
The problem was that it took more than two or three hours at the longest, or an hour at the shortest.
Still, it was important that he could do it, so Oliver returned home after helping him.
He was able to devote his time to self-study faster than he thought due to the unexpected good idea.
The thing Oliver wanted to try was none other than magic, to combine the magic of the Spatial School with Merlin's technique.
In the empty basement of his warehouse, Oliver extracted mana with a depressive voice and demonstrated magic on both hands.
The colorless, transparent mana gathered in Oliver's hands and gradually took shape.
The mana grew purple with time. After a while, the purple mana condensed in Oliver's hands.
WRRRRRR!
The condensed purple mana was compressed like a dot in the air and soon formed a small portal like an explosion, with the other paired portal open in Oliver's opposite hand.
"Ha…” Oliver sighed with relief.
After realizing that he could extract mana, Oliver practiced using Spatial school magic.
It wasn't for combat, but it was more convenient for other uses.
However, Oliver couldn't learn it on his own, as it was one of the most difficult to learn.
The preparation stage was possible somehow, but when he tried to open the portal, it would break down.
In this regard, he decided that professional education was necessary, but he couldn't give up, so Oliver tried to find his own solution.
The way to do that was to create two portals at the same time, not just one.
Instead of opening one portal to make a path somewhere else, it was to make two at the same time and connect them.
Surprisingly, when this method was used, the two portals were connected and activated.
The location of movement was limited, and the size was only about the size of a fist, but Oliver saw great potential.
This alone was not of great value, and it was sufficiently usable when combined with other things.
So, Oliver moved on to the next phase.
First, Oliver closed his eyes and released the portal, converted it into mana, and then created the portal again.
There was little waste of mana.
As he repeatedly worked like that, he could feel the form and flow of mana inherent in magic along his fingertips.
Create a portal, transform it into mana, create a portal, transform it into mana…
The composition of the portal, which was created by relying on senses, gradually took a concrete form in his head.
This gave him a different pleasure than when he succeeded in using magic.
CHURIK
When Oliver clenched his fist, the portal crumbled like powder and turned into mana.
Oliver put his hands together in that state, combined the mana, and poured it into a prepared ink bottle.
The condensed mana turned into HLF (Hartstone Liquefied Fuel) and permeated the ink.
The book Merlin used was incomparable, but Oliver studied his own way, mixed the magic and ink completely, and then put it on the paper.
He started to draw the space magic that took form in his head earlier.
Based on this, Oliver changed Duncan into a corpse doll and applied the Oliver-style spatial school magic with black magic.
Forest contacted him when he secured such a new means of attack.
"I got a call from Arthur. They've secured Willes' location."
(To be Continued)
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