Chapter 85 - Mech God's Message Delivered

Oliver groaned in pain once more.

"Man, what did I do to deserve this," he muttered under his breath as the healing magic started to make its way through his broken body. In hindsight, he could've just fallen asleep once more while the staff did the treatment. However, what stopped him from doing so was the devil that was dwelling within him.

He thought back to the times when he needed power. How he so easily clung to whatever or whoever that offered. Maybe if he had time to think things through, he wouldn't have ended up like this.

'Well, there's no use in blaming things now,' Oliver thought as he bore the pain from the medical procedure. Over time, the pain slowly subsided. Apart from the ghost pains that he felt, physically, Oliver was as good as new.

As he got up from the bed, Oliver felt like he deserved a break.

He could definitely use one considering all the things that he's been through. But, there were a lot of different things that took priority over what he wanted to do. Practically, the only thing that kept him going was his pursuit of vengeance.

To get to that, though, Oliver had to get considerably stronger. He could barely fend for himself and, if he didn't accept the devil's power, he would've been dead. That much, he knew.

With that in mind, Oliver knew what he had to do next.

Getting off the bed and standing on his own two feet, Oliver headed out of the medical ward. Despite the medical staff's wishes, Oliver's determination of getting stronger overwhelmed his need to rest. At this point, perhaps stubbornness might be a more accurate word.

Regardless, he went on and climbed up on one of the unattended floating platforms. Oliver set the destination and the floating platform whirred to life.

The journey was swift and quiet.

Soon, he approached the Library and opened the doors. Oliver walked in and saw Margareth who was diligently studying a book of sorts. He wasn't really interested in what she was doing. However, Oliver was polite enough to knock on the wooden table that she was using.

"Whatever it is you need, please make it quick," Margareth spoke without looking up from what she was reading.

Oliver chuckled at the sight then replied, "I need a better assignment. Something that would actually make me stronger, preferably on my own."

The elf recognized the voice and looked up. Oliver has managed to catch her attention just by speaking.

"Ah, you're awake. I'll inform the Lord right away," Margareth suddenly stood up from her chair.

Before she could do anything, though, Oliver interrupted. "No need to go out of your way to do something. I was about to head there after this, anyway. Just, please think about what I just my request. I'd really appreciate it."

Saying that he'll come back later, Oliver stepped out of the room and climbed up on the platform once more. This time, around, he set the penthouse as his destination.

Another quiet transition from one place to another transpired.

Oliver soon saw the opening up ahead and alighted as soon as the floating platform stopped. He looked around to find Rynold with his suspicions directing him to the building that was belching out smoke.

He slowly approached the building and stopped before the door. Just as he was about to open the door, an explosion could be heard from inside. It wasn't an explosion big enough to notify the proper authorities, but whoever was caught in the blast should be relatively injured.

Without hesitation, Oliver opened the door to a wide-eyed and confused Rynold.

"Wh-," followed by several inconceivable syllables and words, Rynold was honestly dumbfounded.

How could something that he was working on exploded? It was the question that was currently boggling Rynold's mind as his wide-eyed gaze and unblinking eyes were staring off into space.

It was genuinely confusing even to the experienced eye. Since Rynold wasn't experimenting with any sort of explosive material, the true cause could only be something Mana-related.

In actuality, Rynold was experimenting with a design that could overload the item with one's Mana. Too bad, though, overloading a material that could barely sustain Mana would only lead to an explosion. Call it an experiment with energy gone amazingly wrong.

"You alright, man?" Oliver asked the still unblinking Rynold.

Rynold finally snapped out of his confused state as soon as he heard Oliver's voice. Turning around, he was happy to see his old friend being fine.

"I should be the one asking you that question, heh. But, yeah, I'm fine. Just was a little accident is all," Rynold casually leaned back on the table as he crossed his arms.

Oliver scoffed and let out a smile. "Speaking of, we've gotta talk about things."

Rynold wasn't surprised and simply nodded. Gesturing Oliver to come on in, Rynold grabbed nearby stools and sat down on one of them.

Both of them didn't decide what to say first, making the atmosphere relatively tense and silent. Not that it was awkward to bring something up; they just had a hard time communicating because there were a lot of important things to talk about.

"Why didn't you tell me about the whole devil thing?" Rynold first spoke, but before giving Oliver time to respond, he continued. "Look, man. I'm not gonna force you to say anything you don't want to. You know that. But... I just don't get it. You have more sense than that. I fucking know you do."

Oliver sighed from the bottom of his heart.

He then proceeded to explain what happened, without missing any details. At the end of it all, Oliver's expression turned into what seemed to be defeat. It was as if he knew he messed up. Rynold's words certainly didn't help him feel at ease with the decisions he's made so far.

This time, Rynold was the one who sighed. At the end of Oliver's explanation, Rynold could tell that Oliver's decisions were all the right ones, but he accepted them at a cost that was too high for him to pay.

"You did the best you could," Rynold said, leaning forward on his stool. "Circumstances pushed you to make decisions that normally aren't there. We can't just magically make all our problems go away either, heh. That would be great, though, if we could."

Oliver scoffed and let out a slight smirk. "Yeah, it would be pretty useful."

"What's your plan now?" Rynold continued after a brief moment of silence, "You and I both know that I could never make you sit still in one place when you've set your mind on something."

"Pretty sure you know exactly what I'm going to be doing," Oliver smirked ever so slightly, "Don't worry, I won't be doing anything stupid that would jeopardize my safety."

Rynold scoffed.

"Oh, please. That's exactly what you're going to be doing. Don't forget, man. There is a very thin line that separates stupidity from bravery. And, somehow, you always manage to get to the stupid side."

Oliver responded to the remark by clicking his tongue and laughing. It was clear to Rynold that his mood has been uplifted from the earlier tension.

"Speaking of," Rynold pulled something from his inventory. "I want you to have this. I can't really find any use for it and I doubt you will too. But, if it has to go to someone, it would be best if it went to you. Well, it's more a trinket than anything useful anyway."

He tossed the [Simple Steel Dagger] to Oliver. Rynold didn't really expect Oliver to get any use out of it, but it was better off with Oliver than with him.

Oliver nodded and gave a simple thanks before putting it away.

The two friends continued to chatter until late at night. Catching up and talking about random things was a way to relieve their stress. Some points of the conversation went to different topics.

There were the occasional topics of where they were headed from this point on and talking about what Rynold had experienced when Oliver was asleep. All in all, it was a good and relaxing time to have after an arduous battle that could've ended poorly.

"The Mech God did leave me with one thing, though," Rynold pursued a point of interest that the Mech God had tasked him to do. He paused for a second before continuing, "Devil, I know you're listening."

"Oho, an interesting Human has taken note of my presence," a voice rang out from Oliver's head.

"The Mech God wanted to say hi," Rynold casually remarked.

Meanwhile, Oliver was surprised to find that the devil inside him was constantly listening. He thought that the devil was actually sleeping when he was awake, but, boy, was he wrong.

"Mech God...?" the voice in Oliver's head reacted. "Can't believe that bastard actually managed to do it... Truly interesting..."