Chapter 64

[Black Suit Ver.2]

With Oliver’s chant, the emotions and Life-force contained in each test tube were extracted like strands and began to be entangled into one thick thread.

Emotions and Life-force bound together.

Oliver has thought about it a few times, but this was the first time he actually made it, and the backlash from combining emotions and Life-force was less than he thought.

It rather mixed well when it was combined into one.

Maybe it was normal.

According to what Oliver saw in the book, Life-force and emotions were, after all, something derived from the soul.

Surprisingly, no one paid any attention to this fact, and the same was true for Oliver until now.

Oliver felt something more than pleasure.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Oliver learned something new from this situation.

For some reason, Oliver thought it was a good choice to become a Solver.

And for that, he felt grateful to paladin Joanna’s advice.

He was able to come out to the world and meet someone like Kent thanks to her advice. 

He somehow felt happy.

Oliver surrounded his entire body with a combination of emotions and Life-force.

They covered his body like wearing clothes or a coat.

An intricate entanglement of emotions and Life-force protected not only Oliver’s whole body but also his quarterstaff. 

Oliver threw the empty test tube on the road and then took out a new one from his pocket.

Oliver tried to work as a Solver while using as minimum emotions as possible. 

But now, he decided to put aside that thought aside for a while as he wanted to test a new black magic.

He wanted to know how far will this new black magic will work on a warlock like Knuckle Joe.

Knuckle Joe seemed like a disease-based warlock similar to the Dominic family, but the application of power was different, so Oliver wanted to check it out.

Oliver opened the lid of the test tube.

And then he casted black magic on him… no, he casted black magic on the black suit.

[Burning Life], which strengthens the whole body by burning Life-force, [Muscle-up], which uses Life-force to increase muscle strength, and [Endurance Skin], which uses the emotion of patience to make the skin tough and firm.

Three magic spells.

It felt different from when he used it himself.

Oliver, who lacks expressiveness, felt something that he felt difficult to explain, there was a difference between touching the skin directly and touching it through the clothes.

From Oliver’s point of view, this was much better.

It felt a little awkward and compared to when he casted the spells on his body, there were no side effects.

Oliver learned new facts and felt a little bit of joy and satisfaction from the fact that he created a new black magic.

“He’s here! Motherfu*ker is there!”

“Everyone this way!”

With an urgent cry, many gangsters came rushing in the direction where Oliver was.

Oliver suppressed the satisfaction he had felt before and decided to focus this time.

Oliver knew luck won’t come in succession.

Oliver focused his powers on his eyes and looked at the gangsters that came running toward him. 

Among the gangsters, he spotted Knuckle Joe, who approached while mixing with the crowd, and beyond the crowd, he also saw Bigjaw and Nico coming toward him.

“Um, first…”

Oliver kept the warlock’s vision and casted a targeting spell on the gangsters and Knuckle Joe coming in front.

It was much easier to cast with the Warlock’s vision since his eyesight doesn’t get limited by obstacles such as walls. 

Oliver threw black darts into the air according to the number of people.

Black blades scattered in the air like petals.

Then, as if attracted to a magnet, they flew towards their target, and not long after, screams could be heard all over the place.

A few quick-witted gangsters caught up with Oliver and fired, but after a few shots, they were struck by the dart thrown by Oliver and died.

“Fu*k!”

“Shoot, shoot that goddamn motherfu*ker!”

“It hurts…! What is the fu*k is this-!”

Gangsters kept falling one after another.

The flames from the muzzle fired from their guns lit up the surroundings, revealing the surroundings like an afterimage.

Then Oliver looked.

While hiding in the dark with the gangsters and looking for an opportunity, Knuckle Joe quickly narrowed the distance.

He hid behind the gangsters and hid his presence, while smashing the flying black darts, and then using his leg, which was strengthened using black magic, he narrowed the distance at a single leap.

Everything happened in a split second, but in the eyes of Oliver, which could see the emotions, everything was clearly visible. 

“You should have run away when you had the chance.”

In an instant, Knuckle Joe grabbed Oliver and said.

Then, he swung his fist with great force toward Oliver.

BANG!!!

Along with the loud noise, a heavy silence filled the space, just like the artificial silence that comes after a person dies.

After a few eternity-like seconds, Knuckle Joe said in a low voice.

“Who the hell are you?”

His voice was small, but he was agitated.

His fist, strengthened with black magic was blocked by a weak-looking warlock.

And it was not stopped by black magic like Black Shield, but with an old quarterstaff.

“No…do you know how to use disease-based black magic?”

“Yes.”

Oliver pushed away Joe’s arm with an answer and wielded the quarterstaff as he learned from Cant.

Joe raised his defense with black magic and blocked Oliver’s attack head-on.

Rather than trying to avoid it, it seemed like he was trying to confirm something.

TING! Tak——! Bang!!

There was the sound of iron and iron clashing.

It was a hard blow, but Joe blocked Oliver’s quarterstaff perfectly.

Although, he could not withstand the shock and flew far back.

“……!!!”

Joe, who was blown away and fell, got up immediately and looked at Oliver.

He felt emotions of embarrassment and confusion, which eventually burned as firewood of intense emotions such as anger and hostility.

“You…!”

“…It’s Dave.”

“…….?What?”

“Dave. Didn’t you ask before, who I was?”

It was the time when he was surprised that his attack was blocked, and Joe made an absurd expression on his face. As if, this was the first time someone has mocked him like this in his life.

“…are you kidding me now?”

“Ah… did I say something wrong? I’m sorry. I just thought it would be good to answer your question since I had some questions for you.”

“Questions….?”

“Yes, I wanted to know… Ah…”

Before asking the question, Oliver turned his head toward the nearby wall and took a defensive stance.

Then the wall broke and someone jumped out.

It was Bigjaw and Nico, who was on top of Bigjaw.

“You barely woke up with an awake spell…! Bigjaw! Tear down that sh*t!!”

“Wooooooooooooooo—!”

Bang! Bang!

Bigjaw pushed Oliver with a stronger force than before.

Bigjaw grabbed both shoulders of Oliver and pushed him against the wall, his strength was so powerful that he smashed two walls.

If Oliver hadn’t wrapped his body in a black suit reinforced with [Endurance skin], his bones would have been shattered.

Standing on the back of Bigjaw, Nico was surprised to see Oliver in good shape.

“What the fu*k is this bastard…why is he fine after taking that!”

A cry filled with questions.

Joe shouted and answered.

“He can even use disease-based black magic! More powerful! Way better than me!”

“What?!”

Nico looked at Oliver with his eyes wide open, genuinely surprised.

Oliver was still caught in the hands of Bigjaw.

Even though Oliver indirectly strengthened his strength through [Muscle-up], the difference in basic strength was so great that he could not get out.

‘I’m running out of Life-force…. How many more minutes?’

Oliver had to end the battle quickly.

“Damn….Bigjaw! Bite and chew that bastard’s head!”

While shouting at Bigjaw, Nico extracted the emotions and casted black magic on Bigjaw.

After receiving the instructions and black magic, Bigjaw opened his mouth wide. Enough to swallow Oliver’s whole head in one bite.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Just as Bigjaw was about to bite Oliver, Oliver desperately resisted and thrust his arm into the jaw of Bigjaw.

At the unexpected resistance, Bigjaw groaned!

“That fu*king bastard resisted… Bigjaw! Chew that little arm first!”

At the instructions of the warlock on his back, Bigjaw bit Oliver’s arm.

It wasn’t cut right away because the whole body was covered with a black suit but Oliver could feel the durability gradually dropping.

Perhaps, if he stayed still like this, his arm would be cut off. 

If he stayed still.

[Las Bomb]

Oliver exploded the emotions in his hands.

With that, the head of Bigjaw exploded, and the body that had pushed Oliver lost its strength in an instant and collapsed.

“……!”

“……!!”

Joe and Nico were surprised again.

In particular, Nico, who was riding on the top of Bigjaw, seemed to have received a stronger shock, so he panicked and widened the distance, but Oliver did not allow it as he immediately narrowed the distance.

“How…!?”

“I strengthened with Burning Life.”

Oliver swung the quarterstaff with those words.

As soon as he was about to slap Nico’s body, Joe intervened in the middle.

He became a shield and protected Nico.

“NICO, Keep your distance and support me!”

With those words, Joe engaged in close combat with Oliver.

Perhaps he judged that a fight with firepower would not be in his favor, so while maintaining a distance favorable to him as much as possible, he swung his knuckled fists and attacked Oliver.

At the anomalous and fierce attack, Oliver was unable to block everything and allowed most attacks.

After all, in simple melee combat, Joe was better than Oliver.

Every time the attack touched Oliver’s body, a squeaky sound echoed through the air.

Even though he didn’t take any damage from the hits because of the black suit, Oliver could sense through the impact he felt that a single punch would break all his bones.

Black suit’s defense was not infinite, so Oliver hurriedly swung his quarterstaff to counterattack.

“You’re good at black magic, but you’re a beginner at close combat, aren’t you?”

Joe lightly dodged Oliver’s attack and then fired the counter.

BANG!

Oliver didn’t fall, but the shock made him stagger.

At that moment, Joe grabbed Oliver’s collar again, as if he wasn’t going to let go this time.

“Nico!”

“Okay! Muscle Up!”

Nico supported Joe with black magic.

Joe concentrated his energy on his fist, which made his fist glow in dark red.

“If you do that, your fist might break, right?”

“Shut up… Did you think that I came to this field without such determination?”

“Um……..”

“This is the end of the road for you.”

With those words, Joe swung his fists as hard as he could.

There must have been a huge sound that shattered everything, but that didn’t happen.

“WHAT?”

Joe screamed in confusion.

It was a natural reaction when suddenly something pulled one backward.

He didn’t know what was happening, so he looked behind his back, there he saw Nico flying backward, just like him.

To be exact, he wasn’t exactly flying, he was being pulled by something.

“…Dartboard?”

Jo said while looking at the black dartboard on Nico’s body.

“Yes, it’s called [Targeting], to be precise. Mixing emotions of obsessions and make them attract each other.”

While hearing Oliver’s answer, Joe and Nico collided in the air.

Oliver, who followed them closely, swung the quarterstaff as hard as he could at them, who were defenseless.

“I don’t think this is the end of my road.”

Oliver said while gathering the energy of the black suit to the quarterstaff.

Quarterstaff wielded by Oliver smashed Joe and Nico.

Both of them couldn’t withstand the shock, flew to one wall, and crashed straight into it. 

A huge crack appeared on the wall as if to represent the shock.

Joe managed to strengthen his body with black magic, but Nico’s body broke like a doll.

All of the fighter crew members were down.

Oliver, who was the only one standing approached Joe, who asked the same question he asked before.

“Ughhhh… Ugh… Who the hell.. are you…”

Joe asked, breathing heavily. His eyes were unfocused.

“… Dave.”

“Ah……Kill me.”

Joe said with determination.

“Um…”

Oliver contemplated whether to kill him or not.

He recalled Kent’s advice of asking him not to kill anyone without thinking twice. 

Kent also advised him to kill the strong enemy without sympathy, saying clumsy sympathy and carelessness might result in death. 

When Oliver thought about it, some of Kent’s teachings were very contradictory.

In the end, the decision was entirely up to Oliver.

After thinking for a while, Oliver extracted the emotions and enchanted his quarterstaff with black magic.

Then he brought the quarterstaff to Joe.

[Deep Sleep]

Knuckle Joe fell asleep as if fainting.

Oliver thought, maybe if he ran out of energy, he might not be able to get up forever, but if he had the will and stamina, he would survive.

Thanks to the Fighter crew, he did a good experiment, and there was a small question he wanted to ask, but he thought this was enough for today.

After making up his mind, Oliver started moving again. 

Towards the target, Assistant Professor Herbert.