Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 336

Lenok sped through the rain-soaked streets.

Despite the heavy downpour, the bike Lenok was riding didn’t hesitate for a moment, tearing down the empty road.

Woo-oong!

The engine roared clearly even through the sound of the rain.

As he moved out of the city’s outer limits and the noise diminished, the sound grew louder.

Flash!

A flash of lightning cut through the dark clouds, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.

It had been a while since he had witnessed such natural phenomena, rather than creating lightning himself.

Thinking this, Lenok sharply twisted the bike’s throttle.

The dark silhouette of the bike left the road and sped through the empty construction site.

He passed through a forest of skeletal steel frames and concrete.

Each time lightning flashed in the darkness, more eyes appeared on the steel frames, watching Lenok.

[Master.]

“I know.”

[……]

Superhumans with sharp visors, unfazed by the rain.

The magical energy emanating from their bodies, each with a different colored glint in their eyes as they looked down at Lenok, was intensely sharp.

Their magic was so sharp it seemed as if they would attack Lenok at any moment. Yet, they didn’t move, watching as Lenok left the construction site.

David, after searching the database to confirm their identities, murmured.

[They are members of Aegis, the special task force directly under the city government. I thought they weren’t participating in this operation, what’s going on?]

“It’s unlikely we’d meet in a place like this by chance… They probably came to see me.”

[You, Master?]

“They must know that the Restriction Edict [a formal order or decree] will be lifted soon. Maybe they came to say hello before that?”

[…They don’t seem like the type to be so friendly.]

Lenok chuckled at David’s lukewarm comment.

“That’s just a figure of speech. They probably wanted to make an impression since we might be seeing each other often.”

[……]

“There must be some organizations that resent the privileges of the Agents.”

If they were part of a special task force, they would already know the details of this incident and the information about Lenok, who was at the center of it.

Once the Restriction Edict was lifted, the conflict between the light and the dark was not the only thing to worry about.

Even among the powerful figures in the light, who had been content to bare their teeth at each other while bound by the leash of privilege, there was enough tension to cause internal strife.

The power that had been accumulating for decades was on the verge of overflowing. It was not strange for the lost blades to point anywhere.

Lenok didn’t want to watch where that chaos would start and end, but…

“I have more urgent matters to attend to right now. I’ll have to leave it to Jenny.”

Clunk!

He stored the bike and instantly changed his clothes and face to those of Evan.

At the same time, with David’s help, he completely scrambled the nearby CCTV and personal information, twisting Lenok’s whereabouts, and even reached into the city government network to change his traces and schedule.

He left the outer limits and headed straight out of the undeveloped area.

A vast plateau, completely in the opposite direction from the desert area where the mobile fortress had collapsed.

Whoosh!

The rain stopped, and the stars in the night sky began to shine brightly. Lenok, standing at the foot of the plateau, muttered to himself.

“It’s just as Lapis said. I didn’t expect the rain to stop at such a precise time…”

[She is a lighthouse keeper who looks at the sea beyond the sky. Predicting the movement of stars or the weather shouldn’t be difficult for her.]

The weather in the megacity was unpredictable due to the influence of the magnetic storms that passed by every moment.

Even David said that creating a weather prediction algorithm was meaningless.

Yet, Lapis had accurately predicted the time the rain would stop and informed Lenok. How far her eyes could reach was something Lenok couldn’t know.

“Let’s start right away. I’ll draw the circle, so please review the location.”

Click!

Lenok bit his thumb without hesitation, drawing blood, and began to draw a magic circle on the open space near the plateau.

The distance from here to the Northern Continent was easily thousands of kilometers. It was not a distance that could be traveled on foot.

Yet, despite this, Lapis had issued a summons to Lenok.

Naturally, a means of transportation suitable for that was also prepared.

A select few who had accepted the name of Watcher in Lapis’s name. A call for support that transcended time and space, created by the power of the lighthouse keeper.

If you were to analyze the principle, it was closer to summoning than spatial transfer.

For a few superhumans who met specific conditions, they could temporarily be by the lighthouse keeper’s side upon her call.

If you excluded the fact that preparation was needed on this side to use the technique, it was undoubtedly a summoning technique with tremendous efficiency.

“It would have been difficult if I hadn’t researched summoning magic with Aris… Can even this be considered a condition?”

Lenok muttered as he continued to create the summoning circle with his blood.

A spatial transfer that spanned thousands of kilometers. A technique that went beyond blinking and teleportation, one that could be called a warp.

The problem was that to use such a technique, even the summoner being called needed to have some knowledge of summoning magic.

Whether Lapis knew this fact or if it was just a coincidence was something he couldn’t know right now.

[Wouldn’t there be a simpler reason than that child knowing Master’s achievements?]

“What do you mean?”

[If the summoner could check the conditions needed for the call in advance, then something like this would be possible.]

Lenok, who immediately understood David’s words, nodded.

“You’re saying that she checked if I met the conditions before issuing the summons. That makes sense.”

[It makes sense if that’s the reason why she summoned the archer who didn’t meet the conditions in advance.]

“Archer, you say…”

Lenok chuckled at the unfamiliar term.

It was strange that David, with her intelligence, couldn’t remember other people’s names, yet she insisted on calling other humans by their physical characteristics.

“It’s mostly done. I’ll preheat the necessary magic, so please take care of the summoning circle.”

Lenok left the details to David and sat down near the open space, closing his eyes and concentrating his mind.

After David awakened her spirit domain and grew, Lenok had been trying to force David to take on some of the work he used to do.

It was the time when she had just bloomed her own inner world and concretized her domain.

Lenok was vaguely aware that it was desirable to give David as much experience as possible through various tasks and attempts.

While David wagged her three tails and refined the details of the summoning circle, Lenok drew magic from deep within his body.

It wasn’t to consume magic during the summoning process.

Rather, instead of extending the magic he had drawn out, Lenok focused on wrapping it around his skin, forming a thick barrier.

It was a journey that crossed an immeasurable distance that humans could not perceive.

There wouldn’t be any problems with the summoning process itself, which was done with the lighthouse keeper’s power, but there was a possibility that his body might not be able to adapt to the different environment and pressure at the destination.

He had a fragile body that showed symptoms even at slightly higher altitudes. He needed to prepare for any possible situation in advance.

[It’s done.]

While Lenok sat in the center of the summoning circle, calmly gathering his thoughts, David also climbed onto Lenok’s head and looked up at the sky.

[There’s still some time before the constellations align. We’ll have to wait a bit.]

“It’s my first time using a technique based on stellar alignment, so I’m looking forward to it… I wish it would start soon.”

[Didn’t the mercenary captain tell you not to be impatient?]

David asked. Lenok nodded.

“That’s right. But… after hearing Antares’s story, I remembered.”

Lenok replied, looking up at the star-filled night sky.

“I don’t have time to spare either.”

[……]

The penalty he had chosen as the price for possessing the talent to reach the end of the sky.

Among them, the [Talent Fades Quickly] that gnawed at Lenok’s lifespan was a powerful constraint, stronger than any other shackle or restriction.

It was the most fatal wedge that made it impossible to estimate how much time he had left.

Until now, he had tried to focus on the problems at hand, dismissing it as an unsolvable problem, but now that he had reached the level of a star and grasped the clues of the extreme, it was something he could no longer ignore.

“I didn’t tell Antares, but maybe I’ll fade away even faster than him.”

[Master……]

“That’s why I have to get the answer when the opportunity comes. In the Northern Continent we’re heading to now.”

Lenok’s eyes, looking at the endless horizon of the plateau, quietly sank.

Antares had only told Lenok a part of the truth, but with just those few words, Lenok could guess what was happening in the Northern Continent.

A 9th-level Ascendant [a being who has transcended mortal limitations]. Among them, one of the hermits who had not moved for a long time had risen.

If such a big figure had moved, it was understandable why Evelyn, who felt such a great sense of responsibility for the order of this city, had left her post.

If a transcendent who had cut off all interest in the mortal world and was challenging ascension had moved, there must be a reason.

“There’s a question I can’t answer without meeting an Ascendant directly. It’s something I had to try someday.”

There were still many things Lenok didn’t know.

The meaning of the dying words left by Cheon-gyeon back when he hadn’t even properly adapted to this city.

What the word ‘Alkaid’ referred to. What the meaning of ascension that the Ascendants desired was.

He had an opportunity in front of him that might provide answers to all those questions.

Even if it wasn’t for the Blue Eye’s summons, it was an opportunity he had to seize, even if he had to ignore the chaos that would unfold in the megacity.

David, who had been gently stroking Lenok’s head with her tail, suddenly raised her head.

[Master, it’s time…]

“…Okay. Let’s start.”

Lenok, having confirmed that the position of the constellations had reached their normal orbit as Lapis had announced in advance, immediately began to activate the summoning circle.

A large-scale summoning magic that was cast with himself as the target.

However, the direction it was heading was not the snowy fields of the Northern Continent thousands of kilometers away, where even the location could not be estimated.

Rather, the thought that was shot straight up above his head without any error was heading towards the constellations pouring down from the night sky.

At the same time that the light of the summoning circle shot hundreds of meters into the air scattered and disappeared, the constellations in the night sky suddenly began to accelerate.

Woo-oong!

The starlight that had remained as dots quickly rotated along the celestial sphere, leaving long streaks of light.

The thousands of starlight that covered the night sky drew long curves, shining their light back down to the ground.

Whoosh!

The ground where Lenok was sitting shook violently, and the speed at which the starlight rotated became faster and faster.

It rotated so fast that the entire sky flipped, alternating between day and night, the stars rising and setting, and the sun rising again.

The scenery, except for the ground inside the summoning circle, was also passing by so quickly that it was impossible to see with the naked eye, rushing in all directions without rest.

Kugugugugu!

Antares’s passing remark that the constellations would move was not wrong.

The Watcher’s summons, made possible by the lighthouse keeper’s power.

The principle of the technique was a summoning magic that transcended space by fixing the position of the constellations and the ground, then flipping the entire night sky.

A privilege only granted to the lighthouse keeper, who constantly looked up at the sky, gauging the position of the stars and monitoring the scenery of the outer sea.

A star magic that utilized stellar mechanics to the extreme, synchronizing the position of the celestial sphere with a part of the ground, then transferring the position of the ground by flipping the virtual celestial sphere.

It had complex conditions, such as the need to precisely adjust the position of the constellations, time, and place, and that the person being summoned had to have knowledge of the summoning circle.

However, if those conditions were met, it was possible to summon the other party to the lighthouse keeper’s side, no matter how far away they were.

Whoosh…!

Even though he had wrapped his entire body in magic in advance, his ears felt muffled, and he could feel the surrounding air growing cold.

The altitude was changing, the temperature was dropping, and the entire environment was undergoing a drastic change.

A truly transcendent power that went beyond manipulating terrain, adjusting the position of the constellations in the sky and the celestial sphere.

A miracle that made him fully realize the fragments of magic and techniques that humans in this world had built up, and their long history.

Lenok desperately focused his mind to not forget a single one of the senses and perspectives he was feeling and accepting.

The power that had been passed down through generations by the successive lighthouse keepers, starting with the Ascendant Cheon-gyeon.

If he could understand, analyze, and quantify it, it wouldn’t be impossible to follow and grasp even a part of it.

And finally, the moment he confirmed that the summoning circle had stopped working, Lenok slowly opened his eyes-

Kwaaaang!!!

He blocked the explosion that was falling in front of him with a shield.