Genius Warlock - Chapter 115

Magic.

It was a discipline that could only be used by God’s chosen few.

Some say it’s arrogance, and the wizards are no more than human beings, but no one dared to deny the achievements the wizards made.

This included politicians, businessmen, royalty, and aristocrats, and now they didn’t even know why.

Even if the Gods came and said that their status had been pushed back by magic, it would not come as a surprise to anyone.

Therefore, the wizards had tremendous pride in the fact that they were Wizards.

Everyone, even great Archmages who could be counted on one hand to wizards who could barely do basic magic, felt that pride.

However, in exchange for that pride, magic demanded tremendous talent.

First of all, they need a certain amount of Mana, which can be regarded as the root of magic, in order to be able to perform magic.

To perform magic, they need the ability to control the mana, and also the magic affinity of the body to endure the effects of the use of mana, and finally they must have the intelligence to understand, analyze, and build complex magic spells.

It went without saying that even if one lacked in some areas, the ability to grow or become a wizard was limited, and there were more people like this than one can imagine.

Duncan, for example, was one such person.

He was born into a pretty good family and was blessed with good opportunities to prosper as a wizard.

He, however, wasn’t able to become a wizard because he had a lot of mana in his body.

As ironic as it may seem, it was true.

Having excess Mana required a higher level of control, while Duncan had average control capabilities.

He had a problem with controlling his excessive Mana, and every time he tried to cast magic, he would always fail because of an overload of Mana.

Due to this, he was forced to give up magic, which resulted in him being subjected to a lot of scorn and contempt from everyone around him.

In the end, Duncan left his home and went out into the cold streets.

Even though he was not a wizard, he was as proud as a wizard, and he tried to seize power in different ways to avenge those who ignored him.

In this way, he became a Pink Man, and after he had gained the knowledge and the know-how, he set up his own office and started to stand on his own two feet.

However, the challenge failed due to his lack of business skills, resulting in him becoming Edith’s slave.

Even so, Duncan was gambling again without giving up his dream.

To fulfill his dream, to take revenge, and above all else to become the main character of his life.

However, due to a mere Warlock, he was feeling sadness that he had never experienced before.

“YOUUUUUU…..Stop pulling it out!!!”

In an apparent attempt to cut off Oliver’s extraction, Duncan swung his tonfa as if screaming.

Oliver, not concerned about Duncan, collected the extracted emotions and Life-force, put it in a test tube and looked at the mana in his hand.

His eyes shone like the ones of a child who found a pretty rock on the side of the road, as he didn’t think he would ever be able to extract Mana.

In spite of his best efforts, he did not expect to extract mana in addition to emotions and Life-force.

Astonishing, in this case, was the fact that he did something he had never learned, heard of, or seen before.

‘Is it like this?’

Oliver squeezed some of the mana out of his hand and tried to manipulate it using the other hand.

The process was akin to manipulating emotions, but a little easier.

As the emotion became stronger, the greater the resistance would be, whereas the mana only fluctuated.

PACHIK!

A moment later, the mana, which had been fluctuating in his hand, turned into blue electricity.

“…!! WHAT–!”

“Um… It’s working.”

Oliver and Duncan reacted differently to the scene that unfolded.

Oliver roughly imitated the wizard who he had fought with in the past and he was also surprised at the result.

It was magic. Because he was told it was different from black magic, and everyone’s perception and treatment for it was high, he wanted to know how great it was.

However, Oliver felt nothing different from black magic at the moment.

The basic mechanisms were the same.

It was just a matter of controlling the energy source, grasping its flow and structure, projecting it onto an image in his head, and slightly changing the shape and nature of the energy source.

That way, the images and concepts drawn in his head turned into reality.

Rather than the joy or mystery of using magic, Oliver felt that he had learned the extension of black magic.

Regardless of what it was, it was interesting.

PUTZZZZZ———!!!

Oliver converted the Mana into electricity and scattered it slightly on the floor.

His actions were similar to when he played with emotions in the Joseph family in the past.

The electricity got divided into several branches with a ringing sound in the ears, creating black soot on the floor.

Oliver tried to control the electricity.

In the blink of an eye, the electricity that had been randomly divided into eight was combined into one, two, and three, and before he knew it, it had been reduced to fit into the number of fingers.

Oliver clenched his fist slightly and turned it into a thick, condensed stream of electricity.

“Um…”

As Oliver made such a noise, he strengthened the control of electricity, making it form a fist, which he then compressed further to form a small sphere.

In a way, it seemed like a blue bead, but if you look closely, you can see a small membrane fluctuating like a storm caused by lightning.

SPLASH!

Oliver clenched his fist.

In Oliver’s fist, the mana that had been converted to electricity had been turned back into mana again.

As Duncan’s eyes widened again when he saw it, Oliver’s focus never shifted from the mana in front of him.

In the same way as electricity, he tried to turn mana into fire, and manipulated the molecular structure to create explosions, or conversely, to make ice crystals by lowering the temperature.

He even created a small whirlwind in my hand.

It wasn’t as much when he used to play with emotions, but magic was certainly fun.

“……what are you?”

“Pardon?”

“A Warlock who can extract mana… Are you a Rare-case?”

“Um, I just found out for the first time, too. What exactly is that Rare-case specifically?”

Duncan did not answer Oliver’s question but instead asked.

“Then, how do you know how to control mana? There are many different elements.”

“I’m just mimicking people I’ve seen in the past.”

“…….”

“Lighting, explosions, mana bullets, and…, Oh! Space magic. That’s a little difficult.”

Oliver said, unable to create purple space magic.

It disappeared before a small door was formed, but it was a natural result considering that the difficulty of Space magic was one of the most difficult among all magic.

In Oliver’s case, it was regrettable that he was not aware of this information.

However, it was overall a good day, he almost died a few times due to Duncan, but he was able to play with magic a few times as well.

As he looked forward to expressing his gratitude, he noticed something strange.

Injustice, anger, hatred, jealousy, resentment, and so much more… A number of negative emotions fluctuated and flowed out from Duncan.

“Are you okay, Mr. Duncan?”

Oliver asked anxiously. 

It was not wrong to say that his emotions are eating his reasoning, and Oliver had never seen anyone whose emotions fluctuated at that level.

In fact, Duncan’s eyes turned like a beast.

“How come…you sh*t……. Why the fu*k…. you….!!!! A lowly son of a bi*ch Warlock like you!!!!!”

He shouted loudly in a voice filled with mana as he rushed in.

Oliver was conscious of Holy magic items and attacked him by using mana.

‘Explosion magic and Lightning magic…’.’

He combined the two magic he believed to be the most effective among those he had previously encountered.

After dividing the mana into two properties and converting them into two properties, he clenched his fist and gathered them into his hand, and held them together.

He then pushed his fist forward.

[Chain Explosion Bolt]

An improvised magic spell caused a series of electric explosions to strike Duncan as he came running.

The left and right side of the narrow alley was completely filled up, so it was impossible to escape except above, and Oliver prepared for this with magic.

[Holly Light!]]

In the presence of a brilliant light, the chain of electrical explosions weakened significantly.

Duncan shouted, piercing the magic attack from the front.

“The great power of God can weaken not only black magic but even magic-!!!”

Oliver learned new information once again.

His curiosity was piqued, but he didn’t seem to be scared. 

It was strange because it was a situation where he could be killed by Duncan if he made a small mistake.

Oliver instinctively saw the magic in his hands, the Life-force and emotions in the test tube.

It suddenly reminded him of the artificial soul that Puppet made.

It was just a combination of emotion, Life-force, and magic, but the texture was completely different.

Oliver thought of it and put the three together.

“Ugh…!”

The reaction was worse than he thought.

Now he understood why Puppet used so much equipment.

Duncan swung the tonfa full of mana, broke the electric explosion, recovered with a necklace, and rushed back to Oliver.

He looked exhausted, but it was enough to kill Oliver, who ignored the burn on his hand and somehow tried to combine Life-force, emotion, and Mana.

It was pretty hard.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Eventually, Oliver drastically reduced the amount he was aiming for and combined very little emotion, mana, and Life-force.

As the amount decreased, the repulsive action was forcibly suppressed, and then it was injected into the shadow to invoke [Vine Shadow].

Perhaps because of the different materials, it was faster than the usual Vine Shadow, but what was more surprising was that it moved more skillfully than Oliver’s perception as if it had a will.

As if it knew how to catch Duncan.

As proof, Duncan was caught, who was tired and not able to react properly.

Having been caught by the ankle, Duncan invoked the Holy Magic urgently.

[Holly Light]

As opposed to the effects on black magic and magic so far, the shadow vine created from combining black magic and magic ignored the Holy Light and grabbed Duncan’s shoulders, neck, waist, and knees.

“What, how?!”

While Duncan struggled to resist, the tentacles of the shadows were too strong for him to resist.

After that, Oliver felt as if the shadow was talking to him.

Although it was just a feeling, Oliver reflexively responded by changing the nature of the mana in the shadow.

It was changed to Lightning.

“KUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK-!!!”

The powerful electric shock sent through the shadow vine caused Duncan to make a grotesque sound.

Despite suffering from strange hardening and becoming defenseless, Duncan tried to counteract the damage by pulling out all the mana he had left.

His driving force was an unbreakable will.

Oliver couldn’t help but admire.

“You’re amazing.”

With those words, Oliver raised his hands in the air.

As before, he drew out as much emotion, Life-force, and mana as he could.

BTZZZZZZZZ

“KUGEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK———!!!”

The shock immediately reached Duncan’s brain as the resistance weakened due to the loss of will, Life-force, and mana.

His hands and feet began to tremble, and he began to pee, but as if not enough, his mouth began to fill with white bubbles.

Oliver said sadly.

“No, you can hold out more! Hang in there longer…… Ah.”

Oliver stopped extracting with an exclamation of regret.

It was because he thought that if he did any more, he would die, and when Oliver released Vine Shadow, Duncan collapsed and fell forward.

His body was shaking from time to time and it was unfortunate to see him in such a state.

“Are you okay?”

Oliver came up to him and asked.

He was genuinely concerned. 

It was a lot of work, but because of him, he was able to have a fun experience…. Moreover, he hadn’t heard the important thing back yet.

“…Um, Mr. Duncan, why did you want to gain power? I didn’t hear the answer. Mr. Duncan?”

Oliver politely asked a question, but Duncan, whose consciousness started fading, could not answer.

‘Ha…’ 

At the moment when Oliver felt disappointed, Duncan muttered broken words.

“Ma..gic…Tow..er…Prov..e…… Rev..enge…. I..not.. Defective….”

Oliver listened and remembered the unrelatable words.

And at that moment… Oliver saw something unbelievable in front of him.

It was the first beautiful light he’d seen in a long time.

Oliver instinctively took out an empty test tube and extracted the beautiful light.

Afraid that it would disappear, he squeezed every drop into the test tube.

This allowed him to draw a little more than he had taken from Joseph before.

A couple of seconds later, Oliver rose to his feet, closed the lid of the test tube, and stared at what was inside.

It was no dream, it was reality, and Oliver thanked Duncan by lying him down and tidying up his clothes.

“Thank you, thank you very much, Mr. Duncan.”

After closing Duncan’s eyes and patting his chest twice, Oliver prayed for a moment of peace.

A brief silence ensued in the alley as a result.

“Um… Would you mind coming out now?”

Oliver spoke to the darkness.

Silence returned as the answer, but shortly thereafter a group of men appeared with loud footsteps.

Among them, a man in a pink suit, who appeared to be the leader of the group, took off his hat and said.

“Hello.”