Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 10

“……Wow.”

It was a short, three-second video, but the content was anything but ordinary. The sight of a blue lightning bolt tearing through the dry sky and scorching the ground was not something one could easily witness. Jenny, who had been replaying the video in speechless awe, let out a hollow laugh and said, “So, this is what that guy did earlier?”

“Didn’t he say he was a lightning-type mage? It’s almost certain.”

Even if one couldn’t actually wield magic, having knowledge about it was common in this world. Both of them knew very well how difficult it was to summon lightning from a clear sky. Unique elemental magic was known for its considerable difficulty, as it involved manipulating pure thought and magic power without using a specific medium. It was closer to the traditional magic used long ago than modern magic, which had been improved for user convenience, so it took a very long time to become practical. It took a long time to manifest a specific element around oneself, so how much time and talent would it take to deploy magic power and draw in will to manifest a phenomenon in the empty air?

Jenny kept replaying the video and muttered, “Even if I lowball it, it looks like he’s at least level 4.”

Level 4 position mage. It referred to mages who had gone beyond the level of learning and using magic, reaching a level of mastery through complete understanding. Mages of this rank were capable of holding their own in modern firepower battles and were recognized as researchers, going beyond the stage of being a mage who could simply do their part. It was the minimum rank that allowed them to research and develop their own magic system. Mages of level 4 or higher under the management of the Vulcan City Hall could receive a city pension at any time if they wished, and receive performance bonuses just by submitting their research results.

“He might be level 5 or higher.”

“No way. Why would such a genius try to earn a bounty here? If he just showed his magic anywhere, they’d give him a position right away.”

Jordan shook his head at Jenny’s words. “I don’t know about other types, but I have a guess among the lightning-type schools.”

“…You’re saying that nerdy guy belongs to the ‘Thorburn’ school?” Even as she denied it, she recalled Lenok’s casual mutterings. He had clearly said that he hadn’t been in the city for long.

“Maybe. But if he really is a member of those war merchants… he could be a very good partner.”

Jordan said that as he put Taylor Evans’s corpse back into the sack and slung it over his shoulder. His eyes were faintly glowing as he headed to the incinerator in the basement.

#

Lenok immediately left Jenny’s bar and headed to the orchard she had told him about. In the process, there were parts of the story she told that piqued Lenok’s interest. The mega-city Vulcan had dozens of areas, but as the city expanded, the atmosphere varied greatly depending on the order in which the districts were created. Districts 0-9, where the administrative district responsible for the city’s core operations and economy was located. District 10, a forest of buildings with structures of various businesses, including dinosaur corporations. District 20, where most of the downtown area where Vulcan citizens work and live was located. District 30, where the city’s facilities that required large areas, such as amusement parks and ports, were gathered. District 40, where unapproved organizations had settled in the chaotic gaps created by new development, and District 50, filled with undeveloped areas where vagrants and all sorts of criminals roamed. Among them, the orchard Jenny mentioned was located in District 31. The Plumber’s Botanical Garden, the largest of its kind in Vulcan. Areas with lower numbers in District 30 were home to facilities that families often visited, and the botanical garden was one of the facilities located in District 31 in that way.

Lenok bought a ticket at the ticket office of the huge stadium-like botanical garden and went inside. 10,000 cell [currency] was deducted for the ticket, but he wasn’t burdened since his pockets were full from the bounty he had just received. As he entered the botanical garden, a huge jungle made up only of plants was formed under the artificial sun. Plants with huge peaks that could easily cover four or five people, and flowers with hundreds of colors at the same time, were so unique and beautiful that Lenok stopped for a moment to admire them. Trees that walked across the field like living animals, and umbrella-like flower seeds that floated in the air with thin membranes, also caught his eye. But Lenok quickly regained his senses and began walking in the direction Jenny had told him.

After walking for a while, a deep sense of fatigue was already weighing heavily on his body. A souvenir shop located on the way out after going around the huge botanical garden. A huge shop selling dolls, keychains, and glass crystals preserving petals that symbolized good luck for children. Behind the display case with all sorts of plant models, he opened a small side door that said ‘No Entry for Unauthorized Personnel’ and went down the long stairs to the lower floor, where a pungent smell different from the fragrance of the shop began to sting his nose. When he went all the way down the stairs and turned his head, he saw a faint purple smoke filling the area. Instead of pushing through the smoke and walking beyond it, Lenok stood right in front of the stairs and opened his mouth. “I came with Jenny’s introduction.”

“Jenny?” A reply came, and the smoke quickly cleared, revealing what was beyond. A wooden drawer that filled one wall of a large room. The number of drawers seemed to be well over thousands. An old man with a pipe in his mouth was staring at him, with the huge drawer behind him. “Are you talking about the girl who runs a bar in District 49?” When Lenok nodded, the old man frowned. “I don’t remember giving that young one the right to recommend customers.”

“…….”

While Lenok hesitated at the reaction that was hard to respond to, the old man smiled and shook his head. “Well, it’s okay. I’m not rich enough to be picky about customers. I just have to get money from the guys who want things. So, what are you looking for in my orchard?”

For a moment, Lenok wondered whether he should use honorifics or not, but decided to go ahead as he was. “…Why is there an orchard inside a botanical garden?” The things they sold were close to all kinds of narcotics, but the name of the shop was an orchard, and it was even inside the city’s largest botanical garden, which was ironic. At Lenok’s words, the old man smiled, revealing his yellow teeth. “The fruits that are produced by cooking those plants are right here. The fruits that will send us to heaven.”

It was an irrelevant question and an appropriate answer. Lenok immediately took out all the remaining tobacco from his pocket and placed it in front of the old man. “I’m looking for things that have a similar effect to this. Can I get them here?”

“Let’s see…” “I’d like it to have fewer side effects, even if it’s a bit more expensive.”

The old man rummaged around for his magnifying glasses and began to examine the tobacco Lenok had presented. “It’s a method of inhaling smoke. It’s faster than taking it in pill form, and the effect is slower than injecting it. But it’s the most common, and it has a taste that makes it hard to quit.” He muttered to himself, then took out a knife and cut the tobacco lengthwise. The packaging was peeled off, and the contents inside were revealed. The old man picked up a pair of tweezers and checked it with his naked eye, nodding. “Hmm… I don’t know who made it, but it’s a completely trashy product.”

“……”

“From the ingredients inside to the refining, drying, and packaging, there’s nothing I like. Why the hell were you smoking this stuff?” Lenok, who had heard the same thing from Jenny and the old man, replied gloomily. “…I had no choice.”

“It’s a defective product that deliberately mixes impurities and only increases addiction to lower the price. The anti-psychotic effect is still useful, but that’s just to give you the illusion that the drug is working well. It’s definitely not a product that I would recommend in the long term.” The old man said that and immediately threw the finely dissected tobacco into the trash can next to him. “You said you wanted something with fewer side effects, even if it costs a bit more. How much are you willing to spend?”

Lenok pondered for a moment. The drug he was buying now was like a minimum investment for his future plans. In order to move his weak body like a normal person, he needed a drug that would reliably make him forget the pain and fatigue, at least while he was working. However, reducing the side effects while using such a product was very important to Lenok. If severe side effects accompanied each use of the drug, his body would never last long. It wasn’t the time to save money.

“…2 million cell.”

2.7 million cell he received as a bounty. He would invest all of it here, leaving only the amount he would use for living expenses. “Hmm.”

The old man nodded and got up from his seat, starting to rummage through the shelves behind him. After a long time, he came back with several sealed packs in his hands, and when he opened the packs, something long and thin poured out. It was in the form of a tobacco, a little thicker and longer than the one Lenok had been smoking. He weighed them one by one on a scale and said, “If you just wanted drugs, that kind of petty cash wouldn’t be enough.”

“……”

“But it seems like what you want is something that has been pumped with medicine rather than drugs. If it’s something like that, you can find it just inside the category of a luxury item.” The old man took about thirty of the tobacco sticks he had placed on the scale and placed them in front of Lenok. “Cashburn-C107. 6 hours of strong pain relief, doping, and awakening effects. A slight mental boost. Pain paralysis and dizziness immediately after taking it. After the effects wear off, headaches, convulsions, vomiting. A low probability of hemoptysis [coughing up blood]. It’s a very clean product.”

To Lenok, the side effects didn’t look clean at all, but the old man didn’t stop explaining. “It’s not very toxic, but it’s not very addictive, and the amount that accumulates in the body over the long term is not large. It’s possible because it’s a product that has been modified from medicine to a reasonable extent.”

“Is that a small side effect?”

“It’s the minimum side effect you can buy with the money you have.” The old man asserted. “Every time you reduce the reaction of the drug, the price skyrockets. If you want to get something better than this, you won’t be able to buy even twenty of them with that money, and one thing you need to know is that I never sell less than 10.”

In other words, there were things that cost hundreds of thousands to millions per stick. Lenok shook his head with a complicated feeling and picked up the tobacco called Cashburn that he had handed over. By simple calculation, it was a little less than 70,000 cell per stick. Even in terms of price alone, this was not cheap. For Lenok, who had never bought a pack of cigarettes himself on Earth, the price was clearly making his hands tremble. But there was no choice. This was, after all, an investment that he would have to make in order to earn money in the future. In the end, Lenok paid the money and took the tobacco that the old man had handed over.

“Come again. All the guys who use my orchard end up like that.” The old man, sitting crookedly and nodding his head, was quickly enveloped in smoke and disappeared. Lenok immediately left the botanical garden and headed to the hotel where he was staying. Thirty sticks of tobacco he had obtained for 2 million cell. He couldn’t use it in a real battle without testing the effects directly.

Rest

“Hmm…..” Lenok, who had returned to the hotel, sat in the middle of the bed and focused on smoking the tobacco without saying a word. As the old man had said, the method of inhaling smoke was naturally less effective than injection. There was no more efficient way than injecting drugs directly into the blood vessels. However, it was difficult to carry disposable syringes every time he went to work, and tobacco was not very noticeable even if he held it in his mouth. Besides, the feeling of inhaling smoke was not so bad.

“It’s definitely… a little different.” If the existing tobacco he had stolen from the factory had been a way of awakening his body by dully pounding the back of his head, the new product he had purchased had a strong effect of energizing his whole body without fatigue. It was a much more necessary effect for Lenok, who needed to relieve the fatigue of his weak body rather than mental pleasure. His body was much more energetic and powerful than before. It was only a forced boost of his body rather than actually gaining strength, but at this level, it seemed that there would be no major problems in moving while the drug was working. Lenok already knew that he had reached the level of a pretty good mage, but fighting directly in real combat was a completely different matter. He had to make sure that his weak body and stamina would not hold him back when he suddenly faced gunfire, like when he caught Taylor Evans.

Lenok, who was somewhat satisfied with the effects of the drug, lay down on the bed and began to think about what he had to do in the future while exhaling smoke. ‘Come to think of it, I need to replenish my bullets.’ He still had no complaints about the gun he had stolen from the supervisor, but he only had four bullets left. Since awakening his magic, Lenok had never doubted his own magical abilities, but apart from that, he thought that he should not neglect his physical armament. Unlike his powerful talent, his body was so weak and fragile that it would break if he was hit. It was inevitable that he had started working in District 49 to earn money, but it was natural to prepare for all kinds of dangers that could come. ‘Once I earn some money, I should think about making a fake ID. I can’t just live as a nameless wild man…’

Lenok, who was staring at the tobacco in his hand with lingering eyes, struggled to put it out in the ashtray. 70,000 cell per stick. In terms of price alone, one of these tobacco sticks was more expensive than the hotel room he was staying in. He wanted to chew and swallow even the filter, but he had to get some sleep for now. Lenok, with a familiar hand movement, poured the sleeping pills at the head of the bed and lay down. Come to think of it, he had been taking sleeping pills for a week while researching public magic, so his stock was also running out. It seemed that it was already decided where he should spend the remaining 700,000 cell. Not long after, Lenok fell into a deep sleep.