Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 144

Lenok’s taunts no longer had any effect on them.

Their gazes, completely devoid of composure, were fixed on Lenok as they prepared for battle. There was no room for further negotiation.

Some of the exploration team members had moved out of the immediate line of engagement, creating distance as they glared at Lenok, catching their breath.

A tense silence settled.

The moment the members, having fully charged their magical power, rushed in unison.

“Dabi.”

[Understood.]

The streetlights around the road went dark simultaneously, plunging the area into darkness.

“……!!”

“How can he control the power in this area…!!”

The shocked members looked around for Lenok, but even a single moment of distraction was a luxury they couldn’t afford.

Swoosh!!

A shadow, emerging from a blind spot beyond the reach of the members’ keen senses, easily pierced their vital points.

In this moment when everything was shrouded in darkness, the boundaries of shadows blurred, and the power of the spell was maximized.

The casting time for the spell had already been sufficiently secured during the previous confrontation.

From the start, the exploration team members had no chance of winning.

“Agh!!”

“C-Commander…!!”

The continuous activation of spells that struck unexpectedly further depleted their already exhausted mental state.

There were no members who could withstand Lenok’s spells, which pierced their defenses three times in a row.

Among the members who fell, scattering blood, there were not even three who were breathing properly.

“T-This can’t be…. This wasn’t supposed to….”

Brook’s expression crumbled miserably as he belatedly assessed the situation around him.

The battle was decided before he could even swing the weapon in his hand.

It must have been hard to bear the powerlessness of having everything end before they could even properly fight.

But if he truly didn’t know that this was a mage’s way of fighting, then he had made a mistake in his plan from the start.

No, he should have admitted defeat from the point when his plan went awry, even after using the Archangel’s Compassion as bait to target the Medicine Master’s charm.

In his haste, he had acted without properly assessing his opponent, and by rashly stalling for time, he had given Lenok ample opportunity.

From the moment Lenok set the stage, the advantage in the battle was already decided.

Click!

Lenok, having pulled a revolver from his waist, loaded the bullets and walked slowly.

Brook, kneeling and collapsed, looked up at him with a hollow gaze.

Lenok, pressing the cold muzzle against Brook’s forehead, asked,

“It would have been impossible to manipulate the auction house with just this many people. Who is your collaborator? How much of the exploration team’s power remains?”

“You fool. Do you think I would tell you that?”

“……Well, I have an idea. The old man who was arguing with us on the third floor. He’s probably the one who collaborated in your childish charade.”

Considering who ultimately won the bid for the Archangel’s Compassion, the answer was simple.

In the end, this entire commotion could be smoothed over if the old man who won the auction agreed.

The exploration team had been meticulously planning from the start, trying to devise a plan to find the Medicine Master’s charm within the limits of what they could perfectly handle.

“If I dig into the old man’s background, I might find out where Irina Phesfield is.”

“You bastard…!!”

Flames sparked in Brook’s eyes, which had seemed to have lost all motivation.

With Lenok’s ability to quickly arrive at the correct answer, the sense of crisis that the exploration team’s leader might be in danger began to move his body.

“If you lay a hand on Irina…!”

Before he could finish his sentence, a blade was swung at close range.

A heavy greatsword was instantly grasped in Brook’s hand, then rose in a low trajectory, aimed at Lenok’s heart.

Swoosh!!

A natural yet swift sword strike, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

The reflection of the blade, which was shot like flowing water, accurately reflected in Lenok’s eyes.

It stopped as if by a lie, right in front of Lenok’s nose.

“……..”

Brook’s blade, unable to even touch the shield that was always around his body, stood still in the air.

More than a dozen strands of magical power were densely wrapped around the sharp blade.

After awakening the magnetic field, Lenok’s spatial awareness, which had greatly increased his understanding of space, was also reflected in his ability to manipulate magical power.

Even though he hadn’t put much effort into developing manipulation-type magic, the hundreds of threads moving between his fingers were fearlessly piercing the gaps in the battle.

From the start, there was no way for Brook to turn the tables.

He had only succeeded in confirming the power of the magical power that Lenok had newly drawn out.

With a flick of his finger, the fragments of the blade shattered and fell.

Lenok, watching the flames slowly die down in Brook’s hollow eyes, raised the revolver again.

There was no need for further words.

Bang!

The moment he pulled the trigger, Brook fell, scattering blood.

The bullet, imbued with fire-type magic, activated and began to burn his corpse completely.

Whirr!

Lenok, after disposing of the other dead exploration team members in the same way, immediately began to search through the traces they had left behind.

As always, items that maintained their original form even in such damaged corpses were likely to be unusual.

Moreover, these were members of an exploration team that had built their reputation by rummaging through ancient ruins.

It wouldn’t be strange if there were additional useful relics or artifacts.

As if that expectation was correct, Lenok soon discovered an unknown faint glow from Brook’s corpse and his eyes lit up.

“…….Hmm?”

He had only seen it once with his naked eye, but he could not easily forget that brilliant glow.

The relic that had proudly displayed its form in front of everyone’s eyes at the peak of the heat of the Teina auction house.

The very same rainbow-colored gem that had been attached to the Archangel’s Compassion was in Lenok’s hand.

Medicine Master (1)

“………”

He never imagined that they would not keep such a relic in its complete form, but would carry it around in this separated way.

Or perhaps there was a different way of storing top-tier relics than what Lenok knew.

Just in case, he searched the places where the other exploration team members’ corpses had been, but apart from broken cell phones and wallets, he couldn’t find any other significant gains.

Woo-oong…!!

He tried pouring magic power into the rainbow-colored gem, but it only vibrated violently in his hand, and nothing else happened.

Was it a type of item that had a special usage method or a separate activation language?

He decided to look into the details after the matter was over.

Instead of agonizing over it, Lenok immediately took the spoils and turned his back.

Jenny was saying something in the car, but he couldn’t hear it.

Only after he released the security magic and shield magic that had been plastered all over the sports car did she burst out of the car, opening the door.

“No way…. Even if you’re a mage, is this even possible?”

She looked at the scene Lenok had created with a dumbfounded expression, then shook her head.

“To single-handedly annihilate the exploration team’s pursuit squad, this isn’t just a matter of level or skill difference. It’s beyond what an individual can do in the first place.”

“………”

The individual Jenny was talking about probably meant magic users who had not transcended humanity.

To be precise, the overall level of the freelancers she worked with.

It wasn’t strange that she had given up on the fight and immediately called for backup.

It was just that Lenok’s combat abilities were gradually turning into something inhuman.

More than the fact that he freely handled various types of magic, it was his combat sense that accurately pierced the opponent’s blind spots.

The way he set the stage and freely suppressed the opponent’s five senses, then inflicted fatal wounds in the gaps of their senses, was now as natural to Lenok as breathing.

The senses and insights he had built up by crossing the line of death several times in the face of powerful enemies had now become part of Lenok’s talent.

Jenny, looking around at the corpses that had turned to ashes with a grimace, said,

“…..Calling for backup has become meaningless.”

“Well…..you never know what might happen. It wasn’t a useless effort.”

When Lenok smiled with a puff of smoke, Jenny sighed deeply.

“No, I think I didn’t trust you enough. I’m sorry.”

She said that and started moving her fingers quickly on her phone.

It seemed she was canceling all the backup she had called here since the matter was resolved.

“………”

Come to think of it, it was the first time Jenny had seen Lenok working on the field, so it was understandable.

The difference between confirming Lenok’s performance through videos or records and witnessing it with one’s own eyes was significant.

It was a completely different story to receive the pressure that was extended to dominate the battlefield on the spot, and to watch it from beyond the video.

From her point of view, it wasn’t strange to secure safety rather than blindly trusting Lenok’s combat power.

Lenok had experienced too much to not understand such a thing.

“I’m used to handling things alone. I just did what I had to do as always. Anyway, it wasn’t a complete waste of time.”

Lenok said that and briefly told her the facts he had learned through his conversation with Brook.

The fact that they had staged a charade using the Archangel’s Compassion, and in the process, they were trying to silence the two people who were targeting the Medicine Master’s charm.

That the gem attached to the Archangel’s Compassion had come into his hands in the process.

And that he guessed the remaining staff part was still in the hands of that old gentleman.

“I see.”

Jenny looked down at the gem with a complicated expression and sighed.

“They probably deliberately separated the relics to weaken their energy and reduce the possibility of being tracked.”

“………”

“Having such an item will only lead to unnecessary disputes, but….”

Her eyes, which had opened again, were shining coldly.

“I have no intention of giving away an item that has already come into my hands for free. The exploration team will have to pay a very high price for what happened today.”

It was a natural response. From the start, Lenok had also kept that in mind when he questioned Brook about the existence of a collaborator.

It would be stranger if Irina Phesfield hadn’t planned this commotion today.

“Is there anything I need to do?”

“No. It’s enough that you annihilated the exploration team here today. I’ll look into how closely that old man from the auction house is related to the exploration team separately. For now, it’s better to find the Medicine Master before any more interference comes in.”

There might be other people looking for the Medicine Master besides these guys.

At Jenny’s firm words, Lenok stared blankly at the Medicine Master’s charm in his hand.

A high-ranking life alchemist who had already retired from the front lines.

Could the doctor who could even raise the collapsed human body really solve the penalty engraved on Lenok’s body?

He knew he shouldn’t have high expectations.

But unlike his cold reason, his heart was pounding little by little, and he couldn’t help it.

#

Medicine Master Anushika Greenway.

A pharmacist who had reached level 7. A divine being who, with her miraculous diagnostic and manufacturing abilities, gave patients the most suitable treatments.

In her prime, half of the district was paralyzed by patients who wanted to receive her medicine, so you could guess her status.

But now, she had given up all that glory and fallen, waiting for the day she would die, out of sight of everyone else.

Lenok took difficult steps to meet that very person.

Whirr!

“Hoo….. This way.”

Lenok, letting the cold wind that brushed his cheek pass by, looked down at the charm in his hand.

At first glance, it was a messy charm with no special features, with only strange characters scribbled here and there.

But Lenok could now see through even the truth hidden in such trivial objects.

It wasn’t difficult to notice the true meaning of any technique if it was a skill that used magic power.

The magic power contained in this charm was clearly an arrangement left by the Medicine Master to meet an old acquaintance.

It was made so that anyone who was qualified could find the way.

After flowing magic power along the flow of the character string, if you put the charm on the palm of your hand and project magic power, a map showing the location of a small island would appear.

A mountainous area located in District 55.

An undeveloped area untouched by human hands, with lush forests and vegetation.