"Change of plans. The research outpost went dark 30 minutes ago. And the mountain king is showing signs of awakening." The headmaster informed the people before him of the unfortunate news.
Oliver sat with Achara, curiously looking at the headmaster. Only the three of them were in the room, and the headmaster talked. Oliver understood the seriousness of the matter from his tone.
'But what does this have to do with me? Don't tell me!' Oliver was thinking when he heard his name being called.
"Oliver."
"Yes," He snapped out and replied.
"We need your help."
"Huh…" He sighed.
Oliver knew what they were getting at.
"You need me to sniff out demons, right?" He asked.
"That's right," The headmaster spoke clearly.
"You believe something is going on in the outpost?"
"Almost sure."
"It looks like I have no choice." Oliver probed.
"You do have a choice. I don't force people to work for me. But I would prefer it if you take on this mission." The headmaster said politely.
His tone of voice was calm and serious at the same time. He didn't use his age, authority or strength to coerce him into taking action.
Oliver paused for a few seconds, weighing the pros and cons.
'If the headmaster needs my help, it's likely a challenging mission. However, he's not one to send people to their doom. While there's potential risk, I doubt it's life-threatening. Accepting would also put me in his good graces, which is a significant advantage.'
"Okay, Let's do this. You owe me one."
Oliver decided to help.
Although he disliked being used as a pawn, he knew all relationships start with giving and taking.
This time, he was giving, hoping for a future where he could take back something in return.
"Then, let me explain the details." The headmaster shared the intel he had.
The research outpost was located 20 km north of the base camp. They were researching monsters and mana beasts to find healing accelerants. The outpost was a medical research collaboration between the army and a large pharmaceutical company called Instaheal.
The research had been conducted for years now and was about to yield. But suddenly, in the last few days, they stopped sending video logs from the research outpost.
Other communications happened normally. So, no one detected the abnormality until the team sent by the headmaster to collect tissue samples from the people there suddenly disappeared.
Building on Oliver's theory about detecting demons, they developed a diagnostic test using general tissue samples. Currently, they were conducting tests across the camp.
However, it was conducted in the name of routine checkup, rather than outright telling everyone about the purpose. And yet, the team sent to the research outpost disappeared.
It was extremely concerning.
And just a couple of minutes ago, the entire outpost went dark.
Something must have happened. And it most likely had something to do with demons.
The headmaster was supposed to investigate the situation personally. But the mountain king, a serpentine S rank mana beast near the base camp, was showing signs of awakening from slumber. So, he was needed in the city and couldn't leave.
When S rank mana beast takes action, every mana beast in the entire region would panic. This could cause mass hysteria among the mana beasts, leading them to attack anything in sight.
As such, leaving the city was impossible for the headmaster. As an S ranker, he had the duty to protect the gate and city.
That was why he was asking for Oliver's help. He wished for Oliver to identify the demons, if any and eliminate them with the help of Achara.
"You don't have to worry about anything. Achara is an A-ranker. She will take care of your safety." The headmaster said when he saw Oliver sitting silently.
But his words that were spoken to relieve the tension did the exact opposite.
'Achara is an A ranker. A young talented A-ranker that I didn't know off.' Oliver said in his mind.
A-rankers were few in the entire country. If Achara was one, he should have known about her in his past life.
The fact that he didn't know about her meant that she either died young or became disabled.
Neither was confidence inspiring.
"Sigh!" Oliver sighed again.
Nonetheless, he had already taken the job, he can't just give up now.
'I currently have about 300L of blood inside me. It was less than half of what I could have stored inside. I should prepare more blood before leaving.' Oliver spoke to himself.
All his abilities were dependent on the blood he had. For example, the hardening of blood was simply impossible with the amount of blood he had.
The logic behind it was that the amount of pressure he could induce on the blood was directly proportional to the total weight of the blood inside the blood sac.
To understand it, imagine a person standing on the ground. The force the person feels is equal to mass times gravitational acceleration. So, for the person to remain standing, he would have to provide an equal force in the opposite direction of the acceleration, i.e., up.
Similarly, Oliver's maximum force is equal to the mass of blood inside his body times the acceleration due to gravity.
The total amount of blood he has is 640L, which is almost equal to 640kg in mass. Therefore, the force he can exert is 6400 Newton. The value for gravitational acceleration was the same as that of Earth, so it would be the same on Earth and second Earth.
In this case, the force he could exert was just not enough to squeeze the blood to harden and solidify.
Similarly, the superhuman healing ability of his would also need some conditions to be fulfilled. For example, to heal a kilogram of tissue, he would need approximately more than 100L of blood.
And lastly, the revive ability was just out of question. Revival was a form of healing. His total body mass is 75kg. To revive, he would need 750L of blood. That was above the current maximum of his ability.
Oliver was expecting to gain the revive ability before this week ends. But all that plan was destroyed by an unexpected situation.
Still, he was confident enough to ensure his survival.
Oliver spoke with Achara and the headmaster and left to the mana beast processing plant to fill up his blood sac. Soon, he would leave with a small team to find what was happening inside the research outpost.