Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 217

[So, after half a day, you’ve roughly figured out how to move your body, is that it?]

“Th-that’s right.”

Lenox replied, stiffly pouring water into a cup with robotic movements.

Even though his eyes were open and he was alive and moving, each movement was incredibly linear and slow. It was as if he were calculating every angle and force needed to move his arm, resulting in bizarre motions… but Lenox was indeed moving his body through a similar process.

“Completely different senses… moving, but… there’s a pattern…”

[Once you memorize the mismatched parts of your senses, you can consciously move your body, is that what you mean?]

Davi sighed.

[That’s probably not what the Medicine Sage intended.]

“…”

The Medicine Sage probably wanted Lenox to lie still for three days while taking the medicine, but Lenox was up and moving, despite his scrambled senses.

It was like playing a game with the controller buttons randomly swapped.

Pressing the attack button makes you jump, and moving the console to the left opens the item window.

Lenox had memorized his senses, which were tangled in a way that was dozens of times more complex than that, and then consciously calculated his body’s movements to get up.

“This… helps.”

[Of course, Master wouldn’t do something like this on purpose otherwise.]

Davi was right.

On the surface, it was a side effect of artificially stimulating the nerves with a drug made from a narcotic plant, causing the sensory control range to be misaligned. But Lenox was discovering another possibility there.

An alien sensation that went beyond the separation of body and mind, where he thoroughly calculated and manipulated his body.

This unfamiliar sensation, which Lenox had never experienced before, was giving him fresh inspiration.

“Soon… magic, too.”

[Yes, yes, go ahead. It would be great if you could use magic before your body returns to normal.]

Davi turned her head away and curled up as if she regretted worrying, but Lenox ignored her and focused on moving his body.

‘Moving the left shin muscle requires the right trapezius. To rotate the right ankle, lift the left ring finger…’

Of course, Lenox didn’t know the exact location of the muscles in the human body, but it wasn’t difficult for him to divide and classify his body according to his own standards.

The important thing was to memorize the sensation once experienced and not confuse it with other sensations.

‘If I know that most of the left and right directions are reversed, it’s possible to guess which sensation is needed. If I get used to manipulating my body while paying attention to that…’

It would be possible to manipulate magic even with twisted senses.

The ability to manipulate magic depends not only on willpower and mental strength but also on basic physical senses, so it was essential.

For the first hour, he could barely pour water with one hand, but after two hours, he could stand up and balance himself.

After three hours, he could walk around on his own.

It wasn’t Lenox’s athletic ability, which had long been deemed useless, but the movement of his body, created by thoroughly calculating his senses from the bottom up, that sparked new possibilities in Lenox’s mind.

After half a day.

Fzzzzzz…!!

Lenox succeeded in manifesting magic again before 12 hours had passed, with his senses completely reversed.

Davi, who had been watching him quietly from below, asked.

[I don’t know how humans feel their bodies, but… that’s amazing, right?]

“…”

What would be the point of explaining to her what Lenox had just done?

Instead of answering, Lenox silently leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

His consciousness, which had instantly begun to focus on the magic flowing within him, sank deeply.

And soon, he reached the source of the magic flowing from within his body.

“Hooo…”

He could feel it.

The effects of the elixir that had spread throughout Lenox’s body were subtly stimulating his muscles, gradually changing the tolerance of his senses.

It was a process of stretching the very nature of Lenox’s muscle cells, which were congenitally unable to accept magic.

Lenox, who had finally regained control of his magic, was able to observe the process as if it were from another person’s point of view.

Now he understood a little why the Medicine Sage had recommended this method of treatment.

She had predicted that if Lenox had the potential and talent, he would achieve this kind of result, regardless of the side effects of the medicine.

The talent to find a faint inspiration even in the side effects of having all the senses in his body misaligned.

That was the kind of quality Lenox possessed.

‘I’m so glad I could entrust her with my treatment…’

If she could have guessed Lenox’s talent to this extent just by taking his pulse once.

What would other magicians think of Lenox?

The talent he possessed was too powerful, sensitive, and dangerous.

That was why Lenox had to keep moving forward without stopping for a single moment.

Now, with his body and mind exhausted from the side effects of the medicine.

Lenox was absurdly feeling more uplifted than ever before.

Whoooosh!!!

The body and mind are inseparable.

No matter how strong the mind is, it cannot escape its innate weakness.

No matter how strong the body is, it cannot fully realize its intentions under a weak heart.

Governing the laws is merely a byproduct of the two pillars harmonizing perfectly within oneself.

But at this moment, Lenox realized that he could control his body entirely with his mind alone.

The very moment when one overwhelmingly powerful pillar replaced the other.

Lenox’s mind, which had moved away from the shackles of the body, flew to the distant heights that words could not reach, towards the other side of consciousness.

Thump thump thump thump thump!!!

The formless shockwave that erupted from Lenox’s body began to pound against the walls and floor of the lab like crazy.

To prepare for such moments, the lab room was reinforced with solid steel plates and security magic, and even noise-canceling magic was cast, but regardless of all that, Lenox’s body began to float in place.

Whooong!!

[…]

While Davi watched the process with a slightly wary look, Lenox, who had sunk deep within himself, looked back at the path he had taken.

The intense exhilaration and the incredibly sensitive consciousness that came from it,

It was the first time since the moment of awakening he had experienced while facing Eden.

At that time, Lenox had fallen into a powerful state of awakening due to the shock of witnessing and interpreting a proper unique magic for the first time.

In that state, he not only broke through level 5 but also copied all of Eden’s unique magic and even touched the level 7 [Thunder Seal].

Lenox’s mind had often risen beyond the limits of concentration to a place beyond simply gathering consciousness, but he had never experienced the same state of awakening as that time.

The chance encounter he had thought of as a brief stroke of luck was coming back to him at an unexpected moment.

“Ugh, ugh…!!”

He couldn’t control the storm of thoughts and inspiration swirling in his head and trembled slightly.

It felt like he could tackle anything he thought was impossible in normal times.

It would be possible to revisit the powerful level 7 magic, including the [Thunder Seal], which he had not been able to use because his level was not high enough, even after mastering the senses.

But Lenox shook off those temptations and firmly turned his gaze back to his inner self.

There was no guarantee that such a state of awakening would ever come again.

Looking back on his past experiences, Lenox’s exhilaration seemed to be triggered by some specific experience he had never had before.

If so, he had to do what Lenox needed most before this opportunity that had come by chance disappeared.

That was to decide on the image to engrave in his self-resonance domain [a personal mental space where a sorcerer can enhance their magic].

He could tell.

He could see through the ability of the self-resonance domain, which had been nothing more than a vague landscape in his mind, and combine it in the most effective way for himself.

He closed his eyes, reflecting on the two lives that had passed through his heart.

It didn’t matter if it wasn’t a memory in his mind.

The important thing was to find the mental scenery that would be most efficient and helpful to Lenox.

At this moment, Lenox was swimming through the vast sea of memories in his mind, assembling the scenery he needed.

While other sorcerers would only be able to draw the image that remained in their minds,

Lenox alone was assembling and creating the necessary image himself.

That was proof that Lenox had already completed himself as a sorcerer.

From the moment he was born into this world, he had already existed completely as himself.

He would kill his weaknesses, maximize his strengths, and move forward, enduring and accepting the necessary costs.

The answer was not far away.

Faaaaaaaah!!!!

At that moment, a clear magical light appeared behind Lenox, who was floating in the air with his eyes closed.

The intense light, enough to turn the inside of the dark lab white, slowly rotated behind Lenox.

The magical light, which had erupted from an immeasurable source, formed a huge concentric circle, with its head chasing its tail, without any misalignment.

[This is…]

At the same time as Davi, who had been crouching and wagging her tail, jumped up, the concentric circle disappeared as if it were a lie.

Along with that, Lenox, who had been floating in the air, slowly landed on the floor.

Davi waited quietly without moving for Lenox to open his eyes.

“…”

[…]

“…”

[…Did you fall asleep?]

* * *

In the office of a bar, late at night.

Jenny had dismissed the others and was alone in the dark room, tapping away at her laptop.

While Lenox was managing the overall conflict with the cartel, it was her job to develop and expand the business internally.

Moreover, whether Lenox knew it or not, there were quite a few people who had become cooperative with her side as he was destroying the cartel’s partner businesses, which was a good thing.

At least, it had shown how powerful and ruthless the magician Ban was, so it had become difficult for those who had been neutral to coldly reject Jenny’s business partnership.

Of course, a normal business wouldn’t be swayed by fear or street reputation, but… Jenny understood the essence of this world better than anyone else.

In the end, what mattered was gaining an advantage in the power struggle. And to exert that influence without hesitation.

Controlling the distribution of goods in the underworld was even more so because the scavengers had been in control of the existing distribution network.

If the atmosphere that it was difficult for the Three Heads [the leaders of the cartel] to protect them spread among those sewer rats, Jenny’s business would become even easier.

‘Besides, Drey is being strangely cooperative… Maybe I can bring their manpower into this business. It’s not difficult to provide capital, so if I can increase the number of reliable employees…’

As her thoughts sped up, so did her typing speed.

Since the installation of the city government’s direct network that spanned the entire Balkan, it had become surprisingly easy to access the dark side of the megacity.

Those who had attached themselves to the city government’s network, which took up an absurdly large capacity, had naturally created a nest where they could gather.

While the underworld was growing through sites that bypassed the unofficial network called the Deep Web, the city government had taken no action.

Others simply thought that it was because it was directly linked to the city government’s interests, but Jenny knew.

She knew how much the old men who were still sitting in key positions in the city council were clinging to their remaining lives.

The reason why they were leaving the underworld networks, including the Deep Web, alone, and why they were not actively interfering in the underworld, was also part of that.

The Black Consumer Project.

The last masterpiece of the megacity, created to resist the predetermined time and struggle.

They were waiting for the last piece of that project, which had now completely collapsed and disappeared, to appear.

Tap!!

Jenny stopped typing on her laptop, tilted her head back, and ran her hand over her face.

Her black hair flowed down long with the movement.

“It’s absurd…”

Even this city, which was steeped in endless corruption and entertainment, had a time when it dreamed.

That time when they believed that they could break free from the shackles of time and the predetermined fate with the great civilization made of magical engineering.

Who could have imagined that all those dreams and hopes would collapse with just one failure?

But the old monsters of the city council had definitely changed through that failure.

She didn’t know what they had confirmed through the project, but she knew that they were still gathering the remnants.

That was why Jenny didn’t want to drag this out for too long.

If, by any chance, the chairman of the cartel, who had been in hiding for decades, started to move…

Monsters who had lived in the same era as her would start to appear one by one.

And that meant that the situation in the Balkans, which had been silent until now, would change more violently than ever before.

She stared blankly at the ceiling before adjusting her posture again.

While Ban was away for personal reasons, she had to finish as much as she could.

If she expanded her business while fighting with the cartel, there would be more room for her side to be exposed to attacks, but she had no choice but to endure it, even with the cooperation of the Dyke Corporation.

If she missed the opportunity to enter, she would only have her pie taken away by others.

She knew that it was better to secure a stake now and maintain her position, even if she suffered losses.

‘I’ve finished talking with Panoa. The only thing left is how cooperative they will be…’

The Dyke Corporation, which had entered the underworld arms business a year ago with Ban’s help, had a considerable amount of capital and manpower.

She had heard that they had bought a large amount of abandoned factory sites in the 50s district and were running the factories like crazy, so they would be a great help in terms of manpower.

In return, she had no choice but to give up some of the shares in this business to Panoa, but it was enough if they cooperated.

‘The cartel must be quite flustered too.’

It didn’t end with Lenox destroying the partner businesses.

As Jenny was rapidly growing by recovering all the businesses that Lenox had destroyed from behind and taking away their pie, the cartel had begun to refrain from making any rash responses.

It was not just Jenny who was moving, but Dyke was also keeping them in check, so they must be quite flustered.

As Lenox had said, it would not be easy to resolve this chaos quickly, and as many people would realize that the cartel was faltering.

If people knew that one of the three heads of the underworld was shaking and vulnerable, would they still be able to comply with the order created by the cartel?

As Jenny was thinking that and typing busily, the office door opened.

“Hey, aren’t you asleep yet?”

“…What’s the matter? I don’t remember calling you.”

The one who opened the door and appeared was none other than a large woman.

A freelancer with a robotic head instead of a human one on her shoulders. Mad Manson was standing there.