Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 351

“I owed the Agent a favor two years ago,” Jaun said.

His gaze wasn’t on Lenok, but on Ivelin standing next to him.

From the start, Jaun had been aware of Ivelin’s presence and had revealed himself to her first.

With a slight smile, Jaun raised both hands. His pale hands were stained with the blood of the person he had just killed.

“I didn’t expect someone as clean as you to covet the relics of a Transcendent [a being of immense power]. Is the city government that strapped for cash these days?”

There was no reply.

Ivelin, who had been staring at Jaun with a displeased expression, vanished from her spot.

Chiiik!!

A sound of extremely compressed movement. Her figure moved faster than the brief sound.

She covered a distance of over ten meters in a single breath, twisting her mana. She thrust her hand blade into the empty chest of the robe.

Immediately, a unique sound like glass breaking echoed, and a multicolored light flashed inside the dark chamber.

Wha-shatter!!

A jewel that Jaun had thrown up at some point accurately intercepted Ivelin’s preemptive strike, shattering into pieces from the impact.

Cha-ra-ra-ra-rak!!

The fragments of the jewel scattered in the air, sparkling from all directions, creating a fine rain of light.

The moment Lenok confirmed Ivelin’s swift reaction, he moved immediately.

‘Jaun doesn’t know my identity. I have to refrain from using lightning magic for now.’

Whirr-whirr-whirr…!!

What he pulled up from his palm wasn’t a sharp vortex of lightning, but a blazing ball of fire hot enough to melt flesh.

He reshaped the flow of fire dripping between his five fingers and completed the incantation in an instant.

[Exploding Fireball]

[Ninefold Deployment Composite Fusion]

Nine fireballs that had bloomed in the air around Jaun’s robe spun and melted like snow.

They surrounded Jaun, forming a giant full moon.

[Crimson Moon]

Kwaaaaaaaaah!!!

A technique that forcibly draws out destructive power by fusing the mana structure at the same time as deploying the fireballs.

The rotating moon of fire, occupying all eight directions including above, illuminated the labyrinth chamber and writhed to burn everything alive.

“Ugh…!!”

Even Ivelin slightly stepped back from the intense heat. At that moment,

Crack-crack-crack-crack!!

With a bizarre phenomenon as if space was being torn apart, [Crimson Moon] split, and Jaun sprang forward from within.

An extremely agile speed. His target wasn’t Ivelin, but Lenok.

Lenok wasn’t surprised either and adjusted his stance.

In his memory, Jaun Audiss was not only an excellent jewel mage but also a skilled martial artist.

He knew from the start that it was unlikely that Jaun, who had reached an excellent level in both techniques and martial arts back then, would give up close-quarters combat now.

“That works out better for me.”

Adding the fusion property change, which he had recently become proficient in, to fire-based magic.

It was an advanced technique that required accurately grasping the structure of the magic he used and the judgment and understanding to break down the work he had built up in an instant.

He had understood how to use it long ago, but had no way to use it for a while, and it didn’t seem like a bad idea to use it against Jaun in this place.

In the dark labyrinth intersection, the two closed the distance in an instant and faced each other.

Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-chaeng!!

As Lenok folded and unfolded his fingers, swinging his arm, the scattered flames bloomed into different forms of flowers,

And the jewels that Jaun threw up exploded, blocking the countless deployments of fire from all directions.

Jewel fragments scattered incessantly. It was concerning that they might cause problems if they entered the respiratory system.

The moment he was impressed by the sheer amount of jewels, rather than the exchange of blows that were momentarily equal to his own,

Crack-crack-crack-crack…!!

The cracks in the scenery, splitting and shattering as if they were made of glass, began to engulf Lenok.

“……!!”

Lenok’s expression frowned as he realized that the unknown phenomenon was not simply a coincidence, but a clear spatial separation caused by Jaun.

Jaun, with a look of assured victory, extended his pale left hand towards Lenok’s neck.

The moment a sharp jewel inserted between his index and middle fingers shone and glowed, Lenok also reached into his chest and activated the Archangel’s Compassion [a powerful artifact or ability].

He immediately transferred the jewel fragments flashing from all directions to Jaun’s back.

Whoooong!!

The moment Jaun writhed at the spatial separation that began to vanish like smoke, a jet-black flash flew from the side and pierced his left shoulder.

“Ugh…!!”

The first groan that escaped him.

Unable to withstand the force, Jaun’s figure flew backward and crashed into the wall.

Kwaaaang!!

“That’s absurd. You didn’t think I’d just stand by and watch, did you?”

Ivelin, who had walked out next to Lenok, turning her shoulder, stated coldly.

The arrow shaft that Ivelin had shot was still spinning, embedded in Jaun’s shoulder.

It was hard to believe that it was a feat of archery shot with bare hands without any special equipment.

“Instead of running away, you tried to attack us… Did you really think things would go that easily?”

She had successfully landed a preemptive strike, and she had no intention of letting it go. If he were to deploy a domain, he would become a troublesome opponent.

The moment Ivelin was about to move to cut off Jaun’s breath,

Lenok grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

“Wait a moment.”

“Evan?”

Lenok, who was staring at the fallen Jaun with sharp eyes, reached out to the air.

The jewel fragments were falling slowly from all directions, in a strange way.

Lenok, holding a sparkling fragment between his gloves, observed it with interest and said.

“Gem minerals are quite strong.”

“……”

“There are many cases where minerals have a regular structure and pattern, but isn’t it strange that they are split so thinly, regardless of the type of jewel?”

“You mean…”

“He probably took measures in advance in preparation for this kind of battle.”

Lenok said, shaking off the jewel dust with his gloved hand.

The unnatural spatial separation that had occurred during the battle. He had already guessed the principle to some extent while exchanging blows with Jaun.

“A processed mana reflection using jewel fragments… He’s forcibly peeling off and collapsing the nearby space using its side effects.”

Lenok shook his head at the sight of Jaun slowly raising his head.

“It’s a very high-level and complex method. The specific principle itself is hard for me to understand easily. It would be virtually impossible unless you arbitrarily fit a random pattern of mana light reflection into this environment.”

After scattering the fragments of the jewels he had shattered during the battle throughout the chamber, he emitted mana light through them, forcibly peeling off the nearby space.

The phenomenon of the mana, which had been reflected hundreds of times in a fleeting moment through the fragments scattered throughout the chamber, exceeding its limit and distorting, eating away at the space itself.

The phenomenon itself is not related to the direct manipulation of space, but it is clear that Jaun is aware of how to handle space as a result of the technique.

The rumor that Jaun Audiss was the closest to level 8 among the mages in the Western Continent was not false.

“But it seems clear that he intentionally manifested it… The fact that he went through countless trials and errors doesn’t change. No matter how I think about it, it’s quite far from the recent trends in academia.”

“……”

“The rumors I heard about that side, it seems they weren’t all nonsense after all.”

Only then did Jaun turn to look at Lenok and chuckled as he rose from his spot.

“Evan, was it? The fire mage who took down the drug lord… You seem to be skilled enough to move with Ivelin.”

Jaun pulled out the arrow shaft that had pierced his shoulder and stopped spinning, then stood up.

He swung his left arm around as if he hadn’t been injured, and took a step forward with a smile.

“I think we’ve confirmed each other’s skills enough, so can I talk about my business now?”

“……”

“To be honest, I don’t have any bad feelings towards the Agent. As a result, I was able to safely escape using that black mage as bait thanks to the fact that the Hyungung [a powerful organization] didn’t show up at the scene. If it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t exist now.”

The reason Ivelin couldn’t go to the scene to subdue the black mage at that time was to capture and detain Councilman Reisen, who was behind the incident, but there was no need to tell Jaun that fact here.

Ivelin also noticed the changing atmosphere from Jaun’s words and stepped forward.

She realized that the reason Jaun took off his robe and revealed his identity was, in fact, because of her.

“What are you doing here?”

Ivelin asked, her expression turning somewhat cold.

As an agent, she knew all the details of Jaun’s attempt to cause chaos in the megacity by directing the terrorist organization Falchion and colluding with the black mage Craig Tillion.

Of course, she would also know that Jaun had gone to the Western Continent, created a criminal organization called Elderbane, and was active as a level 7 Saint-level jewel mage.

“I thought you wouldn’t return to Balkan after failing the Descent of Annihilation.”

“That’s right. This isn’t Balkan. I have no intention of returning to that unnecessarily large city either.”

Jaun shrugged his shoulders lightly, answering indifferently.

“Well, do I have to explain my situation in detail now? I’m not the only one who thought of making a fortune by plundering the relics of the Transcendent.”

“……”

“I was just punishing these idiots who were greedy and didn’t know their place in the process.”

Jaun said, kicking the head of the corpse that had rolled to his feet.

Thud!

The head, hit by his instep, rolled and hit the wall of the chamber.

Ivelin, with a disgusted expression, frowned in annoyance.

“I don’t care who you kill. What I want to say is… why did you crawl out in front of us instead of shutting up and running away?”

With those words, a jet-black arrow popped out of Ivelin’s hand.

Ivelin, holding the sharp arrowhead in reverse, took a step forward in front of Lenok and said.

“The fact that you showed your face here means you want to settle things before entering the labyrinth, right?”

The sharp aura emanating from her whole body instantly filled the inside of the labyrinth chamber.

A strange sensation as if all the mana in the space was instantly rearranged to target Jaun.

“That’s fine. I don’t know what tricks you used, but I’ll kill you here before you spread in a stranger direction.”

Even after seeing Ivelin’s face, who was muttering eerie words with a blank expression, Jaun calmly shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but it’s completely the opposite. My plan went wrong before I even entered the labyrinth because of the avalanche you guys caused.”

“What?”

He was completely different from his old self, who used to avoid confrontations with high-level experts like Ivelin.

Jaun smiled faintly and answered with his arms crossed.

“My subordinates are scattered before they even entered the labyrinth, and I don’t even know their locations. That’s why I’m saying this… Why don’t we join hands?”

“……”

“There’s no need to talk about Hyungung’s skills, and I have some information about the labyrinth that others don’t know. If we cooperate, it won’t be difficult to conquer the labyrinth itself.”

With those words, Jaun took out a jewel the size of a finger from his chest.

“As a jewel mage, I can handle various techniques regardless of hierarchy or attribute. At least, I think I’ll be as helpful as that mage next to you. What do you say?”

Silence fell.

Neither Lenok nor Ivelin had expected Jaun to propose a long-term deal at this point.

Moreover, to start negotiations with Ivelin while excluding Lenok right next to him, it was an impossible feat without the confidence that he was superior as a mage.

“That’s quite a confidence.”

Ivelin chuckled, as if she had noticed the nuance.

“Is that really the guy who tucked his tail and ran away from Gyeonroe?”

The moment she directly mentioned Ban’s name, Jaun’s lips twitched faintly.

“……I’ve heard about that guy too. I heard that he killed the cartel’s board of directors and rose to the Saint-level not long after that.”

“You know it well?”

Jaun forced a smile at Ivelin’s teasing words.

“I lost to someone worthy, and I accepted the result. And… I’m stronger now. You know that too, right?”

“Well. I don’t know.”

Ivelin replied and turned her head towards Lenok.

“Evan, what do you think?”

“……”