Genius Warlock

Exactly one hour ago, at 4 p.m.

At the end of his conversation with Kevin, Oliver had an early dinner at a restaurant near the tower.

As a steak specialty restaurant, it was expensive, but the taste was excellent.

After the meal, Oliver arrived at Kevin's mansion, located in the upscale residential area, District I.

He immediately conducted a light test in the training ground prepared in the basement.

It was to check whether Kevin had any talent for black magic.

Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, Kevin didn't have any particular talent for black magic.

It wasn't particularly strange. After all, Merlin had once said that magic and black magic were completely different.

-Magic is like mathematics. It applies formulas according to certain rules to exert the desired power. Of course, an experienced wizard changes the form of the formula to suit his own convenience, but the basic rules are the same. It doesn't break the laws. I am no exception… Black magic is closer to art than mathematics. It has a shorter history than magic, and perhaps because there has been no systematic research, an experienced warlock often creates his own unique black magic. There are many things that break the rules.

Two disciplines, similar yet different.

Naturally, the talents required were different, and Kevin, who had a talent for magic, inevitably had no talent for black magic.

Therefore, no matter how much he concentrated on his eyes, he couldn't see emotions.

"Something's weird, I could clearly see the emotions when you helped me last time, right?"

"You can't see emotions until they're extracted. They only become visible after extraction, just like mana."

"But the emotion you're holding now is extracted, isn't it?"

"I've manipulated the emotion to be visible only through a warlock's sight, just like before it was extracted. The moment it goes through processing, it immediately reveals its form, which is not very useful in combat, but it's okay for testing purposes."

Oliver answered, remembering when he first met Joseph, who conducted a test in front of everyone using a square chocolate.

After repeatedly making the manipulated emotion visible and then invisible in front of Kevin's eyes, Oliver proved again that Kevin did not have a talent for black magic.

Kevin's expression was not good. But he discovered an interesting fact.

Apart from not being able to see it, when the emotion was handed to him, he could lightly handle the emotion.

Thanks to the method Oliver had taught him in the past, indirectly helping him get a feel, Kevin was able to control the emotion even though he couldn't see it. In other words, he skipped the basic principle of black magic, ‘Opening the Eyes (開眼)', and used ‘Handle' first.

It was a quite a haphazard sequence.

However, thanks to that, Oliver was able to figure out what to do next.

So now he was forcibly stuffing a small amount of extracted emotion into Kevin's eyes.

To open the eyes of a warlock.

"Arghhhhhhhhhh…!"

It was a method first used on James, a subordinate of Pharmacist, and later used several times on some of the Fighter Crew members.

James and the members of the Fighter Crew all flailed and cursed in extreme pain, but Kevin, a former war wizard until recently, gritted his teeth and endured the intense pain assaulting his eyes.

The evidence of his strong desire for power.

For such Kevin, Oliver focused intensely on his eyes, and quickly but carefully continued to stuff emotions into Kevin's eyes.

"You've worked hard, Professor."

Oliver said, pulling his hands away from Kevin's eyes.

As soon as Oliver's words fell, Kevin covered his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Haah… That really hurt."

"Yes, it seems so."

Oliver replied. He had only tried it, he didn't know how painful it was because he had never been on the receiving end.

"Do your eyes still hurt?"

At Oliver's question, Kevin nodded and slowly, very slowly, opened his eyes.

"Do you know what this is?"

Oliver asked, holding up his index finger in front of Kevin's eyes.

Kevin, whose focus slowly adjusted, answered.

"…A circle?"

"Yes, correct."

Oliver, satisfied with the fact that he had succeeded, put the emotion he held back into the test tube.

Kevin, who saw the emotion for the first time, gazed into the air for a moment, as if savoring the unfamiliar sight, then opened his mouth.

"…It's amazing."

He was sincere. Kevin was quite amazed and admired.

"What do you mean?"

"What you've done… I've read the black magic books, records, diaries I acquired during my time as a war wizard, but I've never seen anything like this… What is the name of this? Forcing emotions into the eyes?"

"Um… There is none."

"None?"

"Yes. I once tried it temporarily to teach someone black magic, so I didn't really give it a name."

"….You mean you created it?"

"Yes… It's closer to saying I tried it on a whim than to saying I created something grand."

His words were true.

The method of opening eyes (開眼) to those without talent in black magic could be revolutionary, but for Oliver, it was just a method he had tried on a whim.

"Um… I'll think about the name later. ‘Placing emotions in the eyes', how about that?"

Astonishing naming sense. There didn't seem to be any consideration.

However, apart from that, Kevin was surprised by another fact.

"….Just out of curiosity, how many times have you tried this?"

"About ten times? Including you, professor."

"You used an untested spell on me?"

"Yes, I didn't need to use it often."

Oliver answered honestly out of respect for Kevin, but Kevin stared at Oliver with wide eyes.

It makes sense, the eye is the most important sensory organ of humans. It wasn't strange to be angry because he performed a dangerous, unverified procedure on such a part.

If something had gone wrong with Kevin's eyes, what would he have done? But Kevin didn't argue.

He had an idea what the warlock in front of him might say.

He didn't know if he would punch him if he really heard it.

He couldn't afford to waste precious training time like that. After all, he was the one who wanted this power.

"Are you okay? Professor. Any problem?"

"Ha… I'm fine. So try again."

Oliver immediately extracted the emotions from the test tube and shaped them on the spot.

Kevin opened the eyes of the warlock, which he was not yet familiar with. It was blurry, as if wearing the wrong glasses, but he could still see something.

"…A circle."

"Correct. I'll change it once."

"Circle again, cylinder, square, spider web, drop shape."

Kevin managed to identify all the blurry emotional forms he could see. Oliver complimented him for being great, and Kevin massaged between his eyes.

Forcing his eyes open, the warlock's sight was more tiring than he thought.

It was admirable how Oliver naturally opened and closed the warlock's eye as if breathing.

However, Oliver moved on to the next step unaware of such Kevin's feelings.

"Do you see over there?"

Oliver pointed beyond the basement passage door.

"No… what did you do?"

"Nothing much, I just floated the emotions beyond the door through the shadow. Can you see it?"

As if to prove his words, Oliver pointed to his own elongated shadow.

The shadow that drew a long line along the floor stretched out under the door gap.

"I can't see anything."

As soon as Oliver heard Kevin's answer, his shadow shrank like a snake and returned to its original state.

And Oliver went behind Kevin and created an emotional form.

"Can you see the emotions without turning back?"

"No. My eyes are only fixed in the front… Can you see even if someone's behind?"

"If you focus on the eyes, not only behind, but also up, down, etc. You can see in all directions."

Oliver recalled the sensation of observing the world deeply through the warlock's vision as he answered.

The ordinary field of view was gradually consumed by darkness, and what was left were just intangible energies like emotions, mana, life force, etc. When this state was intensified, he could see and feel everything, front and back, left and right, up and down.

"It seems more useful than I thought."

"I think so, too. In my master's notes, he said the real charm of black magic is not its powerful firepower, but the penetrating eyes that see emotions and the meticulous technique of using those eyes."

"Your master is your teacher?"

"Yes."

"He must have been quite skilled to have taught you… what's he doing now?"

"He has passed away."

"How come?"

"I killed him."

"……."

"He was trying to kill me, so I believe he'll understand."

It was a dizzying story, but Kevin understood.

He had seen warlocks several times during his time as a war wizard. They considered power and knowledge as the highest values, and for these, there were numerous cases of disciples killing their masters, and masters killing their disciples.

Wizards, too, saw power and knowledge as the ultimate values, but as they operated in the open, they observed some degree of decency, at least pretended to. In contrast, warlocks who operated in the shadows did not observe such norms.

Kevin gathered his thoughts and focused again on the lesson.

"Having such a wide field of view isn't common. How much practice is required to achieve that?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't really know either. I just kept using it and ended up this way… The books say it's best to use it often like a muscle. For now, would you use it for about two weeks and then tell me about it?"

"Okay, I will."

Kevin answered without hesitation. Regardless of his personal feelings, he trusted Oliver's skills.

Upon hearing Kevin's response, Oliver immediately took out a notebook and pen from his bag and systematically recorded the education content and results.

Kevin silently watched him.

He had felt this way before, but while Oliver seemed very awkward and stifled, he was astonishingly quick at adapting and applying certain things.

Almost to a terrifying extent.

"? …Ah, don't worry, I won't be writing down your name, professor. Or, is the recording itself the problem?"

"No, it's fine. I don't plan to interfere in such things while learning… Besides, it seems like we're making decent progress with the opening of the eyes, the next step is handling, right?"

Handling, it refers to the stage of manipulating emotions with hands. Extracting, controlling the extracted emotions with hands.

"Fortunately, I've already learned that."

That was true. Oliver had taught him in the past.

Nevertheless, Oliver confirmed by handing a test tube filled with emotion to Kevin.

"For now, could you extract the emotion?"

Kevin immediately started. He opened the cap of the test tube and extracted the emotion.

Even though the flow of the emotion was weak, like a small stream.

Kevin was slightly taken aback by the less refreshing extraction process than he expected, but calmly gathered the emotion in his hand without rushing, and Oliver also waited for him.

There was no rush.

"I'm done… the extraction is a bit slow."

"That's okay. Then, can you shape the emotion into a circle?"

At Oliver's request, Kevin made a circle.

Since Oliver had personally taught him this part in the past, he was more proficient than with opening his eyes and extracting.

Oliver then sequentially mentioned other shapes like squares and triangles, and Kevin adeptly controlled the emotions and created the shapes.

Having confirmed, Oliver took the emotion Kevin held, put it back into the test tube, and asked him to extract it again.

Just like before, Kevin slowly extracted the emotions, and Oliver put a finger on his hand to help him get the feel.

Swooosh-

The extraction was faster and more abundant than before. Oliver removed his hand just at the point where it was slightly disappointing.

"Do you roughly get how it's done?"

"…Yes."

Kevin answered while looking at his hand. It wasn't just a casual reply, he really felt like he had grasped the trick. With a little more practice, he seemed to be able to master it completely.

"I'm glad. Then, I ask you to practice that part on your own as well. Until you're familiar with it. Well… Once you've mastered the technique of extracting from a test tube to some extent, you'll need to practice extracting emotions directly from people…, but that's a bit tricky."

"Why is it tricky?"

"Because we don't have someone suitable to practice with."

Oliver pointed to the only two people in the training field, himself and Kevin.

"…Can't I extract your emotions?"

"Ah, that would be difficult. Because I don't have many emotions, usually, you won't be able to extract them."

That seemed plausible. Although Kevin's eyes might be still weak, even through those eyes, he couldn't see Oliver's emotions.

But usually?

"You can extract your own emotions, but you also need to practice extracting others', well… If it's okay with you, could we go somewhere together? I think we might get some help."

"It doesn't matter since I'm learning right now, but help, from whom?"

"There are some people I'm helping a bit, I'll ask them if we can extract some emotions."

(To be Continued)