Chapter 458: Ghost Stories

“Are you Master Puppet’s disciple?”

When Oliver asked, the female corpse puppet reacted with shock, surprise, and a hint of realization.

At the same time, Oliver sensed a specific flow of magic nearby, so he raised his Quarterstaff to block a magic bullet that was flying toward him.

Bang!

Oliver looked in the direction where the bullet came from and spotted a small golem hiding in a pile of trash.

It was military equipment capable of searching, attacking, and more through mechanical devices. It wasn’t just expensive but also required exceptional skill to use.

As proof, Oliver had rarely seen it himself. Only retired soldiers or professionals like the Pinkman used it.

[Hate Bullet]

Oliver immediately fired a Hate Bullet at the small golem that had tried to hide in the trash pile.

The impact shattered the small golem, sending metal fragments flying into the air along with the trash.

Clank!

A mechanical sound came from the front. When Oliver looked ahead, he saw the female corpse puppet reaching out toward him.

Her hand disassembled according to the bone structure, revealing a hidden gun barrel inside.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

The moment the barrel emerged, it began firing. Oliver moved instinctively, dodging the bullets while closing the distance between them.

Crash!

As soon as he closed the gap, Oliver gripped the Quarterstaff as long as he could and swung it, destroying the gun barrel completely.

Metal shards scattered in the air. Oliver and the female corpse puppet locked eyes.

“I’m impressed; your Death Magic is one thing, but your physical abilities…! Are you surprised?”

“I’m a little surprised myself.”

As he answered, just when he was about to launch another attack, two small golems containing magic bombs shot out from the female corpse puppet’s body.

A typical trick attack for a corpse puppet, and not a bad one.

Oliver had often used this technique when he controlled the corpse puppet-rag doll.

A surprise attack using knives, needles, bullets, poison, and razors.

Recently, with improved quality of materials, he hadn’t needed to use it much, but he was well-acquainted with it.

He had studied and researched it, so countering it wasn’t difficult.

“Minion.”

Just before the small golems were about to explode from the resonance of magic, Oliver spoke. Two of his Minions, which had been hidden on his body, responded and quickly shot out Hate Bullets.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The Minions targeted the small golems precisely according to their structure, disabling them just before they could explode.

But it wasn’t over yet.

As he neutralized the surprise attack and swung the Quarterstaff immediately, the female corpse puppet suddenly opened her mouth and spewed black smoke toward Oliver.

It was a complex poison gas, processed using Disease-Weakness Death Magic. Oliver recognized the ingredients and the magic used to process it the moment he smelled the gas.

‘Stalker Scorpion, Greenfang Viper, and Clown Spider venom, mixed using Death Magic Complications?’

The ingredients were expensive, but the processing was relatively simple. Not bad.

If your wallet could handle it, this combination offered a high return for the production difficulty.

If Oliver’s guess was correct, just one breath would disturb the nerves, paralyze the body, and cause you to bleed from every orifice until you died.

However, two things didn’t make sense.

One, how did he know this, and the other, why wasn’t he affected?

Crash!

Even though he was hit head-on by the poison gas, Oliver took no significant damage and continued to swing his Quarterstaff, splitting the female corpse puppet’s upper and lower body.

At most, it was only slightly stingy.

The female corpse puppet seemed equally surprised and even marveled.

“Wow… I didn’t expect things to unfold like this.”

“Neither did I.”

Oliver responded while holding the female corpse puppet, staring directly into her eyes.

Even after answering, Oliver didn’t look away and continued to focus on the female corpse puppet’s eyes.

In that state, he concentrated on his vision, and as his focus increased, the surroundings darkened, making the Warlock’s vision clearer.

At that moment, Oliver could see it. A man controlling the female corpse puppet from a distance.

A face he had seen before. A young necromancer who had appeared at the port accompanied by five female corpse puppets.

The one who had been among the crowd while Oliver was stopping the self-destructing corpse puppet.

As the necromancer, belatedly realizing what Oliver was doing, tried to sever the link with the female corpse puppet, Oliver didn’t care.

He already knew where the man was, after all.

Oliver took out a piece of paper from his chest, sent it flying into the distance, then lifted the female corpse puppet onto his shoulder and tossed another piece of paper directly in front of him.

The paper in front of him activated a stored spell and opened a purple portal, and without any hesitation, Oliver stepped through it.

As soon as he entered the portal, Oliver emerged in the sky above a section of the Dump.

From above, Oliver activated his Warlock’s Vision, scanning the area below, and soon he found it.

The emotion he’d sensed through the female corpse puppet.

That emotion was accompanied by five female corpse puppets, just like at the port.

[Black Suit]

[Targeting]

As soon as he confirmed the target, Oliver wrapped himself in the Black Suit, then set the targeting to his body and a spot directly in front of the target, increasing gravity.

Boom!

Rushing downward, Oliver broke through the ceiling and landed right in front of the target.

As he raised his head, Oliver saw the man he had seen at the port.

“…Are you Claude?”

“Yes, major shareholder of Prometheus Corp and the great Warlock Puppet’s disciple… You must be Dave after all.”

Inside the empty building, Claude stood up from his chair, surrounded by five female corpse puppets, and answered.

Oliver also lowered the female corpse puppet he had shouldered and stood up.

“Do you know me?”

“It would be stranger not to.”

Oliver thought for a moment and then nodded silently.

After all, he had gained quite a reputation in Randa… However, the next thing Claude said was something he hadn’t expected at all.

“It would be more surprising if I didn’t know the man who took down the Flesh Cook.”

“…”

Oliver was more surprised than usual.

How did he know? … Did he perhaps witness it? Oliver looked at Claude, but it wasn’t just a lucky guess. Claude knew for sure.

“…It was just luck.”

“If taking down the Flesh Cook was just luck, then I’d say that luck is also a kind of skill.”

“May I ask how you know? Were you perhaps there?”

Oliver asked just in case. Claude shook his head.

“No, with both the Archive and you there, how could I have been? I merely heard it from the master.”

By ‘master,’ he meant Puppet… Oliver wondered if he had felt Puppet’s presence at the time.

No, he hadn’t. He was too preoccupied trying not to die fighting against the Flesh Cook.

“At first, I didn’t believe it, even coming from the master, but it seems it was true. To think that poison gas processed with Disease-Weakness Death Magic wouldn’t work on you… The processing technique may be simple, but the ingredients are top-tier, not something to be trifled with… Amazing. Truly.”

As the conversation reminded him of the Flesh Cook, Oliver naturally tried to steer the conversation in a different direction.

“Is that why you called me here?”

“Well, that’s one reason. But personally, I’m curious about why you came to the New Continent.”

“…Am I not allowed to be here?”

“Of course, there’s no rule against it. I’m just curious about the reason. It’s all about the timing.”

Timing… Oliver’s curiosity deepened as Claude’s words made less and less sense.

He wanted to ask in detail what Claude meant, but given Claude’s emotional state, it didn’t seem like he would easily answer.

That alone was proof that something serious was at play.

Oliver felt his curiosity growing. Depending on the situation, it could even interfere with meeting Joanna.

However, Oliver hadn’t forgotten that he came here for work.

“If it’s alright with you, could you answer the question regarding the proposal from Bryan and Edith?”

“Hmm… I’ve heard that you ask a lot of questions, but that’s not the kind of question I expected. Does someone like you really care about that?”

“Yes, because it’s business… And, I think you’ve already made up your mind.”

Oliver replied, seeing through Claude’s emotions. There was no sign of hesitation or doubt in Claude.

Which meant he’d already decided where to vote.

‘The problem is that it doesn’t seem to be in our favor…’

Oliver speculated, and his guess wasn’t wrong.

“I’m planning to vote for the Nobles’ Group, just as you expected.”

“Did you read my mind?”

“No. My skills are too lacking to read your mind or even your emotions, Dave. Your emotions are too faint… However, I have a good sense of intuition. I can roughly guess what someone’s thinking just by the way they converse. There’s a certain flow.”

Claude made a wave-like motion in the air with his hand.

“Impressive… Did you decide where to vote before you even came here?”

“Yes, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have come.”

“So there’s no point in me using any conditions or negotiation techniques?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I have enough money that I don’t need to beg from anyone.”

“Impressive.”

Oliver was impressed. In this day and age, having enough money that you didn’t need to ask anyone for help meant you were truly wealthy.

You could tell just by the fact that he had become a major shareholder of Prometheus Corp at such a young age.

“May I ask why you’re voting for the Nobles’ Group?”

Oliver asked, recalling what Edith had mentioned. She told him to at least find out the reason if he got rejected.

‘The important thing isn’t winning the small fight in front of you, but achieving the ultimate goal.’

Oliver remembered what Edith had said. Claude admired the question.

“That’s an excellent question, hitting the core. Very sharp.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“But because it’s so sharp, it’s difficult to answer. It’s beyond the level where I could provide an answer.”

Oliver’s ears perked up. ‘Beyond his level to answer’… That meant while Claude was voting, the decision was made by someone higher.

And the only one above Claude was Puppet.

Oliver felt a sense of unease. He didn’t know Puppet well, but if Puppet was getting involved, it wasn’t something trivial.

After all, Puppet was a being—the kind that…

“… Is this perhaps related to a demon?”

Oliver asked, suddenly enlightened. Puppet’s goal was to resurrect humans and create souls.

While the reason was unknown, it was clearly something incredibly important to Puppet. After all, he had researched it for hundreds of years.

But on the flip side, even after so many years of desperate effort, Puppet had yet to succeed.

Hundreds of years of research without results? Then the only option left was to seek help.

From a being whose knowledge far surpassed human understanding.

It started as a simple hunch, but the more Oliver thought about it, the more confident he became.

Even Oliver had considered asking for a demon’s help if he couldn’t find the answer to beautiful emotions.

‘We’re all similar in the end.’

Claude spoke up, his eyes shining with even more interest and curiosity than before.

“That’s also a question I can’t answer. But I’m intrigued… Would you like to make a wager with me?”

“A wager?”

“Yes, a wager… Originally, I planned to part ways at this point, but you’re more interesting than I thought. I want to test you. Could you incapacitate me without killing me? If you can, I’ll give you some interesting information. Your employer won’t dislike it either. If they’re smart, that is.”

With sincerity, Oliver opened his mouth.

“Yes, I understand.”

As soon as he answered, Oliver pushed off the ground and approached Claude.

He planned to quickly incapacitate him with a single strike. Just as things were about to go as planned, two dolls quickly wedged themselves between Oliver and Claude.

It was the female corpse puppets that were guarding Claude, each radiating high-density magic and the power of nature, ready for defense.

They were both magic users and Druids.